Chapter 935： The Last Battle of Aleb Fortress

For the vast Danish lords of Zealandia, and the larger number of warriors, this was the first time they saw the main force of the Rus army, and even were shocked by their neat lines and gorgeous clothes.

With their lack of rhetoric, they praised "this is the army from Asgard".

The Heavenly Army is really exalted. The soldiers of the New Denmark Kingdom Army, facing the Rus army and the Great King Rus himself, certainly have praise, but also have strong vigilance.

After all, Denmark and Rus have already formed an unofficial alliance. When the Frankish forces in Jutland are expelled and Denmark recaptures it, the two countries can formally form an alliance.

If Ross is the enemy, Denmark must lose.

Thank goodness, Ross's ally.

The main force of the Ross army and the partial divisions who arrived a long time in advance would meet and be stationed. The flag of Ross was flying everywhere in the camp, and the nearby waters were full of Ross fishing boats.

1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, and Sixth Flags, Slavic Flags, Finnish Flags, Växjö-Jönköping Servants, and Standing Armies, non-combat auxiliaries.

The Rus army, assembled under Lindholm and camped under the mound of Aleb Fortress, still has 6,000 combat troops after paying certain casualties in the previous series of wars.

Such a large army dressed in uniform, standing together to show off white robes, is like a large snow field under the scorching sun, but relying on each soldier to stand at attention, it can be a visual magic miracle.

The huge army had to eat, but Rurik's rations had always been abundant.

But any opportunity to supply supplies on the spot should not be missed, so a large number of standard armed cargo ships released spare trawl nets made of intact hemp ropes. In this era of radar sonar, relying on the advantage of the number of ships, the In a linear array, each boat drags a large net, sweeping the sea like a comb.

This fishing tactic immediately showed good results. It was the herring that entered the surface waters in late summer to greedily supplement nutrition and prepare for winter, and were caught by Ross fishing boats.

If fresh fish cannot be eaten quickly, it will stink tomorrow.

If it weren't for food shortages, no one would want to eat stinky fish.

The amount of newly caught fish was so large that the Russ Army itself was not enough to digest it, so Rurik ordered the fish to be distributed to allies, especially Ragnar, for disposal.

Suddenly getting the right to dispose of a large number of fish catches, Ragnar knew that he owed the Ross Army's favor, but with this batch of fish catches, he could immediately stabilize the emotions of the lords.

On the day Rurik arrived, the siege of Aleb's fortress continued. Facing the current anxious situation, he learned that the allied forces in storming the city had paid a heavy price, and facing the construction of the city on the top of the hill, he also felt that the tactics reported by Speuter should continue to be implemented. The so-called continue to delay time, delaying them for a few more days to kill them.

So the next day, the fishing boats caught at night brought back a huge amount of catch, the catch came ashore, and the boats returned to the waters to start searching during the day.

What about King Rurik?

The young king lay comfortably in a tent outside the city. He put his left arm around Noren and his right arm around Beja Hill. His two wives and concubines were both belly-bellied, and he happily talked about the bright future of the children after they were born, and the names to be given to the children.

The son of Rurik's entourage, Reglaf, the real king of the kingdom of Mercia, and his eldest nephew Kuzneslav, and the eldest son of Kawi, the great craftsman, Kelha.

The three boys of about the same age were casually playing in the barracks. They wore the uniforms of the Russian Army, with steel swords hanging from their waists and shields on their backs. They are born to eat and drink, and they are tall enough at a young age.

After joining forces, the Russ army demarcated camps with their respective flag teams, and the soldiers all estimated that they would make the final blow to the enemy's fortress. The Frankish flag hangs on the fortress, and I heard that the previous combat friendly troops suffered heavy casualties, so the final blow must take some time to prepare.

Kavey brought a group of royal craftsmen to refurbish as many as fifty trolleys in the camp to transport torsion slingshots.

There are also twenty bull catapults. They are designed to throw a fist-sized stone to a distance of up to 300 meters. Now they have been modified to throw half a fist of small stones. Set up eight. This trebuchet has been modified to fire shotguns, but the range is greatly reduced, and it has become a special weapon in siege warfare.

It was Rurik who ordered Kawei to debug the heavy equipment in a whole day, and the whole army also used this whole day to recharge.

The Ross Army kept the last battle highly valued, but Speuter, who was quite familiar with the battlefield situation, really felt that the king was too cautious.

Worth mentioning, let the enemy hang on for another day, when the New Denmark-Russ coalition will be full of energy, I am afraid that the enemy will have half a breath left, and victory will be guaranteed.

But the Danish allies, especially Ragnar, really don't want to wait any longer.

In the evening, Ragnar took his entourage out of the occupied outer city and hurried to the Ross military camp, where he was immediately bathed in the aroma of grilled fish and boiled porridge.

When he saw Rurik himself, he saw that the elder brother was busy eating noodles with his two pregnant wives and concubines.

Looking at it this way, he was hungry too.

"You're here, Brother Ragnar...let me think. Are you urging me to fight?!"

"Exactly. Thank you for the catch. Now that everyone's energy has recovered, I'll be waiting for your support."

Rurik shrugged and gestured with his chopsticks, "Sit down too. Let's have a meal first."

"This...I'm in a hurry."

"What's the rush? Or... you want to see what Horrick looks like now."

"That wicked man? Of course it depends. I can't wait to skin him."

"But you can't do that." Rurik shook his head. "I'll give you permission to wash that guy's face with your whole belly, but let's have a meal first. You...don't mind having a drink with me. ?"

In front of Ragnar was a steaming bowl of lo mein, a delicacy drizzled with a salty, oily venison gravy. Ragnar still can't learn how to use chopsticks, but there are wood-cut forks here, so eating noodles is not in the way.

Once indulged in feasting, Ragnar's story about storming the fort was put aside for the time being.

He ate a large bowl of braised noodles and drank a glass of strong wine with Rurik.

Being able to enjoy food on the battlefield is something that Ragnar can hardly imagine. He is now in the camp of the Ross Army, and he sees soldiers eating and drinking everywhere. The Ross Army has no logistical worries at all, which is in stark contrast to his own New Danish Army.

He mentioned the plan for tomorrow's storm, "Tomorrow is the last battle! The enemy will be unable to hold on under our joint siege. With the last blow tomorrow, the Farak forces in Jutland will inevitably collapse. Therefore, we should Have a meeting."

"Meeting? Of course there must be a pre-war meeting. I heard that your subordinates always fought each other in the previous battles, and many people died in vain. This is not good, we are going to hold a meeting to organize tactics, Lest the final battle be another mess."

The Rurik brothers were very ill-spoken, and Ragnar wanted to cry without tears, but fortunately the other party was willing to come to the meeting.

...

That night, a pre-war meeting was held.

Rurik rode across the drawbridge into the inner city.

It is said that this two-walled fortress was built by the Franks and local people in nearly a year. This is really eye-opening. After completing such a large-scale civil project in less than a year, Rurik has become more awe-inspiring and vigilant towards his enemies.

But there is an alarming smell in the air here.

It's a corpse smell!

The smell came from the fortress on the mound.

When the meeting was called, everything was revealed.

Rurik was originally highly vigilant against the enemy, and even if they were besieged, he could persist until now without any intention of surrender, and even abruptly repelled Ragnar's five storms. As a result, the enemy is surrounded by corpses and is self-destructing in the intensifying corpse stench?

The venue was filled with optimism. The lords of Zeeland were respectful and vigilant towards King Rurik. Even though Rurik was only twenty years old, his face was still immature, with no wrinkles. .

Here, Inrurik completely stunned the venue, and there was no quarrel in the venue. Even Ragnar took the initiative to stand up and announced that the command of the storming of the Aleb Fortress would be completely handed over to Rurik.

As a result, Rurik, King of Russ, theoretically, the army under his direct command now has reached the scale of 15,000 people!

This is indeed a challenge for him, and it is also a useful and important experience.

But the scale of that fortress was already very small. If more than 10,000 people were actually dispatched to launch a siege, it would inevitably evolve into a peculiar situation in which 2,000 people were desperately trying to make 8,000 cheerleaders. In the final analysis, the battlefield is too narrow, and this is one of the reasons why Ragnar's five previous storms all ended in failure.

The tactic is to dispatch elite troops to attack.

The rest of the army could not be idle either, the battle had a strong political connotation, seized the fortress and destroyed the Frankish Three Lions flag, and no one wanted to miss this battle, even if the flag was waving on the periphery of the battlefield.

Ragnar and his cronies are the absolute main force, and each Eldar can bring dozens of elites to join the battle.

"Think about it, the real Danish king led the nobles to break through the city successfully, and all your tribes were honored fairly. Our Rus army will provide you with sufficient support."

Everyone is satisfied with this statement. First, it is fair to all the lords. Second, Ragnar can prove that he is a real man by taking the lead. Third, the Rus people's fire support in the rear will not compete with everyone.

At this point of the meeting, all parties began to prepare.

Rurik, who had returned to the camp, immediately called Kawi and Yevlo and assigned them to do purely support work.

As for the Russ army not participating in the storm, but also handing over the glory of victory to its allies, which made the generals generally unhappy.

Rurik reassured everyone with just one word: "What is a small Aleb fortress? Solve the problem here, and there will be no war in Jutland. Next, we will attack the Frankish mainland!"

...

A new day, the day is already July 21st.

Ten days have passed since the main force, partial divisions and allies of the Ross army launched two offensives on the tenth of this month.

On the eleventh day, the battle over the Aleb fortress was bound to be the last battle in Jutland.

Although there are still a large number of Danish villages in the south, or so-called Saxon villages, the locals can no longer assemble military forces, and even the local tribal leaders will change and recognize Ragnar as the king of Denmark. They will surrender far faster than military crusades.

In the final battle, the various armies besieging the Aleb Fortress gathered together!

More than 10,000 soldiers densely gathered in the outer city and surrounded the inner fortress of Aleb.

Even as the atmosphere group, the elites of the Ross Army also lined up in a neat queue outside the fortress according to the flag team.

From one to six, each of the six flag teams lost, and they stood like squares.

The Slavic flag team also formed a square, that is, their spears stitched together to create a forest.

The number of allies of the New Kingdom of Denmark Army was numerous, and they stood in disarray, beating their shields with swords and axes, and making loud noises with their roars.

Of course, the Ross Army was not to be outdone. All the drums of war were brought out to beat wildly, and the horns sounded recklessly.

The army besieging the city is scrambling to make noise by various means, that is, to inform the defenders that the day of the decisive battle is today, and it is also to intimidate them.

So, what's the situation with the defenders?

Liudov stood at the head of the city, with more than 200 elite soldiers beside him.

Although they are elites, most of them are qualified men selected from refugees, and they are given **** horse meat to barely maintain their spirits.

As for the others, either the corpse is stiff and limp, or the weak is half-breathing.

Eskil was still standing at the head of the city wearing a black robe and holding a cross, desperately facing the scene in front of him.

"My lord, we are surrounded. This day is our end. Now kneel down, kneel before this cross, and repent to the Lord..."

Liudov did not comply. "Pada! When is this?! We can still fight."

"Ah..." Esquil shook his head. "The Russ have more troops, and their leader Rurik is among them. Maybe I can make peace with them."

"However, this is a betrayal of faith!"

"But you don't want all the people in the fort to die..." Eskil asked rhetorically.

"No! I'd rather die than surrender. I'm a noble! My ancestor Vidukind surrendered to the Franks and was humiliated. I'm not fighting for the Franks now, but for my Saxons. If I'm going to die! That's it Died in battle."

Liudov had his reasons for such an attitude, but Esquil, who had dealt with the Rus too much, did not want to end his life hastily, even though he was already a little old man.

"Since I'm so determined, I shouldn't have organized me to try to negotiate peace."

"Peace? I won't surrender."

"Yes! I understand your attitude. But maybe I can persuade Rurik to let his army give you a way out. Besides, when Pope Leo I persuaded the demon Attila to leave Rome, those Normans were It can be traded. I am a northern saint conferred by the current Pope. I am qualified to try to persuade the Normans to retreat. You have no right to stop me. Besides, in the current situation, why should I worry about my own life? "

When Esquil mentioned "the Pope," Ludov's heart softened.

So, just when the siege army was about to launch a strong attack, especially when the Rus army was about to start a large-scale coverage of heavy weapons and arrows, a long and narrow hemp rope was released.

Esquil was still dressed as a priest. He embraced his cane with a silver cross in his arms, slid down the rope, covered his nose in the corpse under the city and moved forward with a heavy heart, leaving the corpse and heading towards the army not far away. .

How is this going? All of a sudden, the army that is eyeing and preparing to attack will not be able to.

Esquil kept shouting in the broken Norse Rus dialect: "I'm Esquil! Rurik! I want to talk to you!"

A priest calling himself "Eskil"?

People were watching the man in black who suddenly climbed out of the wall. They stopped the battle cry and continued to watch the man with only a cane walk towards the army formation.

Rurik rushed to the front when he heard the news, and immediately recognized this pedantic old priest who had been imprisoned twice by himself.

He took off his leather helmet, showing off his flowing golden ponytail.

Rurik showed his real body, and Esquil couldn't help but be overjoyed when he saw it.

"Go and capture this priest!" Rurik ordered his subordinates.

After a short while, Esquil, who was rudely escorted, was kicked in both legs and forced to kneel in front of Rurik.

"Not powerless."

After all, Rurik actually helped the man up himself. He asked cheerfully, "What a miracle, my old friend, why are you here?"

Such an inquiry couldn’t help being too hypocritical, and Esquil was filled with contempt, but now that he was in a desperate situation, he didn’t dare to let go of a chance.

"What is it that makes you mobilize? I don't want to go to war, I just want to spend my life serving God. But your army is killing us. Rurik, I beg you, let us go! We don't want to die."

"You? Are you here to ask for peace?"

Eskil, who was already in a desperate situation, knew that the Aleb Fortress could not stop the attack of the besieging army in any case. He explained to Rurik 1510 the tragedy in the city. Listening to his description, Rurik couldn't help but worry.

What shocked him was that the one who desperately resisted was indeed a Frankish nobleman, but his identity was indeed Saxon.

Most of the people in the fortress were also Saxons. The reason why they resisted desperately was because they had no way to retreat, and because of the fame of the noble Liudov.

"Count of Westphalia? A nobleman of the Saxons since ancient times? In the Frankish civil war, his king sent him to Denmark?" Rurik felt more and more strange, the nobleman named Ludoff must have a great deal of his own Secret, if he died, would it be a great loss to himself?

But the term "Westphalia" was too famous, and for a while he felt that his attack could be slowed down first.

Coincidentally, Ragnar heard that a man in black had descended from the fortress, most likely a suitor, and he heard the news and stood in front of Rurik.

As for the suitor is Esquil, he is really familiar with this man.

"It's you?! Eskil? The man who built the monastery at Hazelby. You've been to Ross. You've been to a lot of places." Ragnar asked, pointing to the man's head.

"you……"

"My father is Sigurd, and I am Ragnar of the Stonewall tribe. But now." Ragnar slapped his chest proudly: "I am the new King of Denmark. I have seen you before, and you tried to ask me Father convert to your gods."

However, upon hearing this name, Esquil, who had been keeping calm, suddenly went mad, and rushed towards Ragnar with his aging body, ramming him to death with a wooden staff.

Of course his rage was easily controlled by Ragnar.

Eskil was easily controlled by the soldiers, and he heard that the old priest could no longer care about the rules and regulations, and directly cursed: "Ragner! It's you who burned St. Peter's Cathedral in Bremen! You have me so miserable! Yes! Murder like hemp! You are the incarnation of Satan on earth! Your soul will suffer forever in hell!"

These curses made Ragnar inexplicable, and his face changed immediately: "How can your gods control us warriors blessed by Odin? Stupid people, you stand on the land of Denmark, and now Odin asks us to organize the whole north. Heroes crusade against you! The Frankish forces must get out of Denmark."

Ragnar immediately heard the news of Rurik beside him: "Did he really come for peace talks?"

"It's a peace talk. However, I don't think it makes any sense."

"Have you... promised the enemies in the fortress?"

"I heard that there is a Frankish nobleman inside."

"That's great. I chopped off its head and sacrificed to my dead people."

Rurik shook his head: "You are too arbitrary. At times like this, the living are better than the dead."

"What do you think? Is it possible to capture him alive? Break a hamstring like Horrick? It's interesting."

"Try to capture it alive, and we'll talk about it later. Also, there are many women in the fort who are dying of thirst and starvation. You don't want to get all the corpses after the war. These women can be used as trophies to satisfy your disobedient lords. You can also choose some people to take with you."

"It doesn't work in my opinion. I admire their perseverance. I've beaten this little inner fort five times without success. I'm very angry."

"Then try again. Just grab this Esquil. Have the guts? Let's stand under the city and shout to them?"

"Come along." Ragnar straightened his back.

Under the **** of more than 100 swordsmen and shields, Rurik, Ragnar, and more than a dozen lords and generals escorted Eskil to the city wall.

They soon saw the dense corpses under the wall, and the stench was almost collapse.

At the same time, Liudov and the defenders, who had been living for a long time, and the defenders, faced a group of people who seemed to have no intention to fight approaching Eskil in black. Liudov ordered the soldiers with bows to collect arrows for the time being.

Because Eskil has already received the promise of the two kings of Rurik and Ragnar, that is, after surrendering, he will spare everyone's life, although he must be a slave. The nobles will be given preferential treatment, the lives of the priests will be protected, and these people will be deported back to the Franks in the future. As for the fate of the others, Esquil is not qualified to make irresponsible remarks.

People in this era have strict hierarchies. Counts like Ludoff and the barons under his command do not have to die. The priests were noble, and Rurik didn't want to take a knife on such ascetic monks, considering that things couldn't be done too far.

Eskil shouted in public and told Ludov on the city wall that the lives of nobles and priests could be protected. For the refugees who are dying of thirst and starvation, as long as Kaesong surrenders, the Ross Army and the New Denmark Army will immediately provide food and fresh water.

surrender? ! Do not! Liudov has never been defeated in his life, and he is determined to continue to resist. As for the consequences of defeat... This is not defeated yet.

Through this persuasion, Liudov has another set of understanding - it is very likely that the enemy's great nobles are right in front of him.

He immediately asked the subordinates who received the arrows to raise their bows again: "Shoot at those with shields. Did you see those people in special clothes? Aim for me and shoot immediately!"

More than 30 bow bearers suddenly protruded half of their bodies from the hidden battlements, while the Rus army swords and shields under the city were quick-witted and conditioned to form a shield wall.

The arrow slammed into the shield, Rurik didn't change his face, and Ragnar next to him shouted angrily: "You still expect them to surrender!? I said earlier that they are as hard as a hammer. In my opinion, a strong attack Bar!"

A man fell to the ground holding his legs and wailing He was none other than the unlucky Esquil.

The defenders didn't plan to shoot Esquier, but the old boy was not in a good position, and he was hit by a stray arrow or an unfortunate calf.

He was also lucky, Rurik knew that this person was noble, and after confronting the Franks head-to-head, the Russ Army held the "Saint of the North" in his hands, which was an extra bargaining chip.

The warriors kept retreating with their shields in hand. At the same time, Rurik did not answer all Ragnar's questions, but only proved his attitude with actual actions.

He gestured to the long-range attackers who were ready, and Yevlo and Kawi, who saw the signal, acted immediately, and all arrows were fired at once.

The final battle has begun! The Ross Army sought benevolence, and Liudov chose to die rather than yield, but the intensity of the war far exceeded his knowledge...

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