Chapter 953： Battle of the South Bank of the Elbe

A large number of Saxon natives, who did not deliver the wheat to Hamburg as a tribute, were now faced with war, and this work had to be postponed.

In the upper Elbe region, a new group of Saxon camps have appeared on its north bank.

These Saxon peoples continued to retain the power of the nobility by the chiefs of the nobility because of their ancestral submission to Charlemagne. They did not receive a Frankish title, but used the Saxon word Graf as their title. Its original meaning is "tribal leader".

The entire village obeyed the leader's arrangement, and out of the consideration of maximizing their own interests, they recognized Ludov's power as a duke and were willing to offer tribute, but it would be too hasty to organize men to fight for it now.

A large number of villages did not even send scouts to inquire about more detailed information, and they waited for the big drama in the Hamburg area to come to an end.

In this way, if Ludov and the Norman army win, they will continue their allegiance and deliver the rest of the food tribute.

If the Frankish army wins, then continue to declare allegiance to the Franks, and give some food, the so-called tribute.

Whoever wins and who helps, in the uncertain situation, the vast majority of Saxons are sitting on the sidelines.

Of course, the Saxons, with a population of half a million people, are greatly diluted by the huge area. Liudorf directly controlled more than 20,000 Saxons in the Hamburg area, not counting the Saxons north of the Schleswig Great Wall.

He was stunned to have assembled an army of 8,000 people. Even with a large number of people who made up the number, the militia gathered together was really intimidating.

He won't let the underdogs go to the other side to form an array, but he picks out a thousand of the best from the army. In the early morning weapons, the soldiers lined up in two columns to pass through the crescent-shaped pontoon bridge, and arrived on the other side nervously. .

At least these people have had breakfast, which is a huge amount of cooked oatmeal that is extravagantly rich in salt.

Cooked oatmeal sprinkled with a pinch of salt, for today's Ross army, it has long been commonplace, and people who are raised with bad tastes are eager to eat something different.

For the Saxon militias, they lived inland, even if they were close to the sea. If the villagers would not leave their farming villages unless necessary, the way to obtain salt was limited to the Franks.

Mixing with Danes and Rus is a good thing. These foreign armies are huge, and they also consume a lot of salt, so they set up a large pot at the mouth of the sea to boil salt.

The extremely low blood sodium and potassium levels have been significantly improved, and a thousand Saxon warriors are full of strength.

They lined up on the other side of the river, barely lined up and then began to chatter uncontrollably.

This group of people dressed casually and had a variety of weapons and equipment. Among them, the most elite four hundred people were dressed like Viking warriors, and the rest were simply farmers. Instead, they unified a special weapon - a sharpened wooden pole.

All the wooden poles are cut from straight, small-sized Korean pine, which is stripped of the bark and then thinned. Such a wooden pole can be equivalent to five meters, and Rurik requires five stikas long, even if it is basically the same length as the lance of the Frankish cavalry.

Each of them handles their own wooden poles, in fact, no education is required at all. On weekdays, the people of Saxony process wood as building materials and tools are familiar, but now they are just making super-long thin wooden poles.

Ludov on horseback trotted in front of his army, stopped their chatter, and kept ordering: "Put all the spears on the ground first! Put them on your right hand! Do as we said before! Don't be afraid, Follow orders!"

The noise of the soldiers was reluctantly terminated, and the things they discussed before were quite simple.

How to fight? It's just a gathering of a large group of brothers, with axes and shields, rushing up and slashing with the enemy, and finally winning in a pool of blood. A smarter way to play is to form a shield wall on the front line, so that at the moment of contact, the brothers use the shield wall to overwhelm the enemy and establish an advantage for the follow-up **** battle.

They had never formed such a formation today, learning that if there was a battle, the brothers would give up their wooden shields and use their spears against the Frankish cavalry.

The Saxon warriors were uneasy, because in their cognition, it was just a "hedgehog formation" in which the infantry group spread out their spears, which was an overly advanced tactic.

But they soon heard songs sung resembling the Pomeranian language.

Everyone looked sideways at the misty river, where the army was walking in neat steps.

Those were not Rus nor Danes, their hair was tan, and they were a little shorter than the taller Rus. But they are indeed a member of the Rus army. It is said that they are the foreign friendly troops that the Rus king recruited in the far east.

This is the Slavic army, a thousand troops. Rurik's brother-in-law Medvedt led this army, almost all from Novgorod, into new wars in the far east. Ashamed to say, even though it was all the way from Scandinavia to the Elbe River, the Slav army did not open the meat well, and the soldiers' halberds lacked the opportunity to drink blood, and the killing result was probably far lower than that of the Finnish army. Six hundred shooters.

This time, I finally have a chance to make a big contribution.

Medved ordered everyone to sing the folk songs of their hometown, and with the drum beat played by the drummer in front of the team, they left the pontoon in an orderly manner and quickly formed on the river beach.

The warriors were widely equipped with armor, so-called rivets riveted iron pieces to the deerskin. The driving part of the soldiers is protected, and there is only a layer of deerskin in the rest area as leather armor, which also acts as a protection against the cold. Apparently, it is impossible to tell that they have armor, they are covered with white robes, the belts are fastened firmly, and the chests are stitched with two blue cloth strips staggered.

Soldiers have also popularized iron helmets, which are covered with fox fur, rabbit fur and other leather velvet caps. After all, the weather is getting colder now.

They lined up neatly, and the soldiers clenched the halberds with super-long wooden poles in their hands, as if creating a forest with the river. They were full as well, and now their bodies are full of strength.

"Listen! Halberd! Take it!"

After an order, the woods suddenly disappeared, all the halberds were placed flat on the soldier's right hand, and the soldier was still standing upright.

Since they formed an army, they have used spear formation as their main training item, and their success in many actual combats gave the Slavic army great confidence.

Rurik placed this army in his central army, not because of personal likes and dislikes, not because the commander was his brother-in-law, but because he was going to face the crazy charge of the Frankish cavalry with a high probability. The spear formation of the Rus army was already the last barrier in the final land battle.

In fact, all the coalition infantry crossing the river are divided into two types. One focuses on hand-to-hand combat. The primary weapon is spearheads or halberds made of super-long wooden poles. Putting aside the skill of shield fighting, he armed himself with an extra-long wooden pole, and trapped his meat-cutting dagger at the end of the wooden pole as a spearhead.

Can a mere dagger also be a spearhead? But these meat-cutting daggers are at least longer than the palm of their owner.

Most of the Rus' fighters rowed to the other side, and likewise all the large ships were moored on the southern bank of the Elbe at a distance of almost stranded.

Yevlo led all the pan-Finnish archers in the army, such as Finnish, Kewen, Vips, and Rudi. They stood on the deck of the big ship holding longbows and also took care of manipulating the torsion slingshots on board.

The deck of the ship is high, not only the soldiers have a good vision, but also the firing range of long-range weapons is also very good.

There are as many as 1,000 people who want to operate long-range weapons on the battleship and use projectiles to hit targets at a distance of up to 350 meters away. Such a distance is too crazy, because the distance between the edge of the woodland and the river bank in the dry season is only 500 meters.

In a sense, if the enemy's cavalry has finished lining up and they have just launched an attack, their army can be completely covered by the naval firepower of the Rus army.

And this is just the "floating arrow tower" that the Rus army placed on the Elbe River.

Rurik assembled the crossbowmen of the whole army. After all, each flag team had a centenary carrying a crossbow. Even if the war hit the Rus army, it was still a lot of damage, and Rurik still assembled 1,500 crossbowmen. archer. In other words, he has nearly 1,200 crossbows with wooden arms (pine glue and birch glue are bonded with deer tendons to make the arms more elastic), and nearly 300 crossbows with fierce steel arms.

The trolley-mounted torsion slingshot, which was once used in the decisive battle on Visingosser Island, is even more indispensable. By modifying the small agricultural trolley in Liudov's hands, Rurik has assembled 70 on-board slingshots.

Grain

In such a huge battle, how could there be less cavalry troops?

More than cavalry, Rurik would not be so stupid that he didn't even arrange a tactical reserve.

A fleet of forty longboats was set on the Elbe River, some distance from the main array, and the weapons they carried were swords and shields. They were the Danish army, and King Ragnar was very satisfied with Rurik's tactical arrangements for him. After all, people with high EQ say that everyone likes to fight with swords and shields, while those with low EQ say that they are afraid of the Frankish elite who are all wearing armor. Ragnar would stare at Rurik's flag, and once the enemy's Frankish cavalry was in a state of anxiety, the Danish army would be thrown into the field.

Fisk's cavalry simply stayed in Hamburg, and Ross's cavalry archers should not appear unless necessary. When the time is right, these cavalry quickly enter the war through the pontoon, and it does not take long as a whole.

Rurik's wishful thinking was good. Since the enemy chose war, Ross took the attitude of a national war and put most of his troops into the battlefield on the southern bank of the Elbe.

Of course, he has some reservations. There is still this army stationed in Hamburg, and most of them are the remaining army of the Saxon militia, and the Ankras-Gothenburg army of the Blue Fox.

"What a huge army this is. In my opinion, Ludwig's elites are coming, and we will kill them all!" Ludov was so proud that even his mount was swaying back and forth in excitement.

Rurik was full of confidence: "If they are willing to fight, I will fight with all my strength. I respect that Earl Robert, but unfortunately, he may be killed by us together."

"He asked for it!" Ludov gritted his teeth, and had to sigh again: "Refuse to negotiate and insist on fighting, even if the arm is injured, it is in line with his character."

"Then what about the counties if he dies?" Rurik asked.

"Naturally inherited by his son."

"Oh... So it is. It seems that those nobles have already arranged their future generations. I am so naive, I still hope to talk to him. That is, I don't know if this Robert dares to come."

"He will definitely come." A confident smile appeared on Ludov's face.

"Because you know him well?"

"Not only that. If he doesn't come, he's a coward. Besides, if they don't come, aren't we busy with such a big battle?"

Hearing this, Rurik couldn't help laughing wildly, and then he barked his teeth and growled: "Then hurry up, it's better to end the battle before noon."

At the same time, the Frankish army also prepared accordingly.

Because of the previous morale, all the Frankish cavalry believed that the traitor Ludov and the Normans had degenerated into robbers. The attack they launched today was for the sake of the thousands of Frankish people who were killed, as well as the slain northern saint Eski. revenge. The crusade against traitors was originally the task of these elite cavalry, and now there is an additional layer of rage to avenge the dead kin.

They feel that they are doing the most righteous thing, and that even if they die in battle, their souls will be redeemed.

In this era, the Pope of Rome has not yet defined the self-righteous statement of "defending the faith and fighting heresy, so that the soul can be redeemed and go directly to heaven" as truth, and there is no official crusade movement.

However, Charlemagne's great expansion was largely guided by this idea, and found a theoretical basis for his own expansion cause. Then the hereditary elite cavalry trained by him must implement this creed.

"Let's go!" Robert called for the assembled cavalry.

Under the guidance of the bugle of the trumpeter, the soldiers who fed the war horses with good food and a good meal, mounted their war horses, adjusted their weapons and armor, especially clenched the long and narrow lance in their hands, and started. Walk out of the forest in columns along the forest road.

What is arrogance?

Already determined to fight, and boasting that he had passed the report of the Baron of Nassau, Robert felt that the key information of the enemy had been captured, and it didn't matter if there was any left.

He also knew that he had boosted morale through lies, which objectively gave birth to the existence of "nationalism". It is a double-edged sword. If you temporarily avoid it for some reason, you will definitely get the rage of the army. Maybe the three captains of the cavalry flag choose to go alone.

Because the captains of the three flags are the de facto military nobles of the Franks, it is a pity that their special background does not have titles and fiefs. They most needed some victories in exchange for the capital to claim credit in front of Ludwig, thinking that the military exploits should be able to exchange for the status of a baron, so that they can retire and live a stable life as a lord. After all, no one can stay young forever.

Robert was engulfed by the will of all the cavalry. They walked out of the woodland, and as expected, they saw the enemy who had already lined up.

Looking at it, Robert took a deep breath.

The soldiers were frightened by the sight in front of them. The sand and gravel on the river bank was covered with enemies. Behind them was the fleet of the Rus, and a large number of flags flew to cover the sky.

The morning sun barely dissipated the coolness of autumn, and the sun shone on the soldiers' helmets.

The Baron of Nassau came on horseback: "My lord, they are indeed prepared. This is all their strength. We will suffer a big loss by blindly attacking."

Robert gritted his teeth and forced disdain: "So what? Our invincible cavalry charged suddenly, and they could still escape? This time it was not on the Weser River. There were too many of them, so they couldn't escape easily. "

"But we have to watch out for their terrible arrows."

"It doesn't matter. As long as we are fast enough to overwhelm their lines. Then we will kill unilaterally, and the Elbe will help us drown them."

"I hope so. Still, I'd like you to chat with their leader. Even if it's still war..."

"No need." Robert shook his head: "What else can we talk about? Are they willing to surrender? Can we accept the traitor's re-submission? Don't say any more! Henry, bring your soldiers and prepare for the decisive battle. !"

What made him so arrogant that it was unnecessary to negotiate with the other party even in three or two sentences? Even if you lean over to say some trash talk, you can take a good look at the enemy's array from the corner of your eyes, look for flaws and traps in it, and help you in future battles.

Thus, the Frankish cavalry began to line up, and the exaggerated length of the lances formed the forest.

They lined up in a wide array in front of the Ross Army, and their intentions were not expressed.

Rurik had already dismounted from his horse, as if Ludov had withdrawn to the right flank of the formation to command his Saxons.

Arik, Little Konuson, Kanuf, Herrigel, Hellafide, Medved, these generals of the Ross Army were lined up according to their troop numbers. They strictly followed Rurik's arrangement and completely concealed the spears and halberds on the ground. They felt that the Rus army could be flattened by iron cavalry.

Everyone is now acting, including Ludov's Saxon army.

Rurik himself got together with the shooters. There were nearly 1,500 warriors holding various crossbows. They were divided into three rows, one standing, the second half kneeling, and the third lying down. The guys in their hands are already wound, and the looser array allows them to quickly retreat to the rear after firing.

Because the battlefield by the river is too cramped, in principle, some of them are not suitable for cavalry fighting, and even infantry is not suitable.

The Rus's land marksmen had one and only one shot, as did the seventy-seat Torsion Slingshots sandwiched in between.

This is enough. Since the other party has no intention of negotiating at all, then prepare to meet the cavalry attack and let the great Frankish nobles experience the fury of the north!

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