Chapter 966： The Raid of Antwerp and the Wrath of Baudouin

It seemed to them that a horde of wild beasts had rushed into the city, and it seemed to them that it was teeming with wealth.

The city is quite cramped, the roads are narrow and twisty and the ground is black, and the air is still filled with a faint stench.

Although some residents of this city will throw their feces and urine directly on the road, if this is the case, the whole city will soon stink.

Because it is adjacent to the river, more people still throw all kinds of filth into the river.

The odor comes from many large urns, which are not only visible to the naked eye, but also have wooden blocks under the urns.

Obviously, the sudden attack interrupted the work of the locals, and the Rus army who invaded the city saw that Wengli was cooking a lot of wool?

Freshly cut wool has a foul smell, and the annoying smell disappears when it is boiled and degreased.

The soldiers had no time to take care of these Wengzhong wool. They thought that since the local people were doing such work, there must be more wool in the local warehouse.

All the rumors are becoming true, and every soldier can't wait to carry a bag of local processed wool immediately. After all, it is rolled into wool at home and woven into decent sweaters by women at home.

Grund's sword was dripping blood. He had no intention of examining the fallen corpse, but ordered his men to act as quickly as possible.

"Don't let any houses go, search for gold and silver first, and get it done before the Danes."

The Ross Army has completed the perfect hunt, and naturally wants to eat the fattest meat. And the rest of the minced meat is classified as the follow-up Danes to share.

The main force of the Ross Army has completed the landing, and the looting in the city has reached its peak at this moment.

Those who fled still had obvious backs, and Grund was powerless and unwilling to pursue them. He occupied the highest building, which was obviously the residence of the great nobles in the city.

In this wooden double-storey house, he found a lot of metal utensils, but unfortunately, apart from a little gold and silver tableware he found, there were no better utensils.

But he still found a special treasure - the wardrobe.

In the wardrobe of the noble living room, the interior is decorated with rows of woolen fabrics. There are men's robes and women's gowns.

The wardrobe was swept away by the Ross warriors and immediately became the soldier's spare clothing.

Since it is a noble residence, there should be a place like a secret room to hide gold and silver.

One of the maids just hid, only to find that the Normans were everywhere when she finally tried to escape. The maid was insulted immediately after being discovered by the soldiers, and finally she was dragged to Grund like a dead pig as if she had lost her soul.

"This woman was killed by you? A group of young cubs, it's not serious." Of course, Grund didn't mind what his brothers did.

The standing army was full of middle-aged men in their twenties. Someone claimed, "Boss, maybe this woman can tell us the secret she knows."

"Secret? It's enough to tell me where the nobles hide their money."

Grund spent the first half of his life wandering the rivers and lakes, and he knew a little Frankish vocabulary, which came in handy now.

He half-knelt down and patted the half-conscious woman's face vigorously. Seeing her awake, he asked sharply, "Gold! Silver! Tell me where?"

However, the woman begged in a low voice to "kill me quickly".

"We won't kill you. Tell me where the gold is hidden and you can live."

The woman responded immediately, and slowly extended her right hand to point to a line of defense, which immediately made Grund overjoyed.

"Very good! Brothers, take this woman with you. Oh yes, give her respect."

Seeing his subordinates pick up this woman, Grund suddenly remembered something and asked, "Which one of you tossed this woman the most?"

But I saw a group of young people laughing and laughing angrily pointing at a brother.

"Alal, is that you? All right. This woman is your wife and concubine. Take her away."

"Huh? Didn't your Majesty say kill without mercy?" the soldier asked suspiciously.

"Keep it for now. Your Majesty should acquiesce to the truth."

The maid was carried and approached the cellar, and on the ground floor of the residence, Grund found a treasure. He longed to unearth large quantities of gold and silver, even though he knew that King Rurik actually preferred wheat.

I really want what to do, there are indeed some wooden boxes in the cellar.

After the box was pried open, the shiny coins inside also showed their graceful brilliance.

"All settled down." Grund waved his hand, "According to the rules, this is dedicated to the king. You light all the oil lamps, and we will take a good look at what these are."

The light outside was already very dim, and the flames in the cellar showed the real body of the coin.

Grund grabbed a handful with his own hands and took a closer look, and saw that it was full of copper coins. He stomped his feet in anger, and cursed: "Damn! Are the nobles in this place poor ghosts? The so-called treasures are actually copper coins? It has What's the use?"

The number of copper coins was very unexpected. After the count, there were actually twenty boxes, and each box seemed to weigh a hundred pounds.

But the situation is not really shabby. There are still three boxes that have been pried open, and they are all genuine silver coins. There is also a unified head of Charlemagne, and the condition is very good.

So, is the wealthy Antwerp really so poor?

Not so.

Although the sudden death of the baron caused the city's defenses to collapse, the nobles did not forget to take all the silver coin boxes from the cellar when they fled. The copper coins were indeed worthless, so the squires simply ignored them due to the lack of time, and only carried a dozen boxes of silver coins to the carriage and joined the fleeing team, taking the opportunity to make a fortune.

Only the three silver coin boxes discovered by the Rus army were missed by the conquistadors only because the escaped nobles were missing.

The clouds covered by the sun were only dark red, and the Ross army had already entered the city in large numbers.

However, Antwerp is a small town. Before Rurik attacked, there were barely 800 permanent residents in this city.

The number of residents killed in the city was small, and it was quite unfortunate that the corpses died. After the soldiers went into the city to search, they carried some of the captured pieces out of the city one after another, and set up camp near the pier to guard the ship and set up a bonfire.

But the city's only two warehouses have been firmly under control, and the work of moving grain and wool is already underway.

Soldiers either push their own trolleys, and after they are assembled on the shore, they begin to carry them. The unicycles, which the locals have no time to take away, are put to work like the two-wheeled carts.

Grund offered his gift, and all the money-boxes were placed in front of Rurik, his armour clacked against his chest: "All the boxes are coins, and brothers give them to the king."

Rurik nodded: "Loyalty! Inside, there are silver coins."

"There are only three boxes, the rest are copper coins."

"There are only three boxes? They say that Antwerp is very rich. I did see a lot of wool and grain. Can't silver coins be just that?"

"We dare not be greedy." Grund tapped his chest again.

"Never mind!" Rurik shrugged and immediately ordered an inspection. Seeing that there were three boxes with silver coins, he immediately made an exciting decision-spending money.

A silver coin, in the tribal era of Ross 20 years ago, its purchasing power was extremely amazing. Of course, it was only because the Swedish tribes at that time were strongly opposed by the Danish forces, and they were simply entertaining themselves economically. Silver coins are a precious metal. As a natural hard currency, the amount of circulation is too small.

Things have changed, and Rus has conquered a large area of ​​land, and the currency that once circulated in the entire Baltic trade circle is enriching towards the core settlements of the Rus Kingdom.

These young Rus standing army soldiers, their growth is accompanied by the rise of Ross, and is also accompanied by the enrichment of silver coins.

Even if Rurik ordered the money to be divided, the more than 1,000 brothers would divide it up, and each of them would get quite a limited share.

But this is indeed the king's reward.

Ragnar's Danish army was almost touching the night, aiming at the dense array of bonfires in the distance. The Danish army finally arrived in Antwerp. They missed everything.

The long delay caused the chagrin of all the Danish warriors, and it was impossible for Ragnar to sing about the strength of his Rurik brothers.

Especially when he saw that the Russ actually distributed the spoils on the shore, it caused jealousy.

Ragnar aggressively found Rurik, who was sitting by the campfire busy eating grilled fish, and complained, "Congratulations on your victory. You were too fast to wait for me."

"What? Not happy?"

"You should wait for me." With that, Ragnar sat down, took another grilled fish from Rurik, and calmed down a little.

Rurik sold his favor and publicly blamed himself: "We are eager for quick success. So we originally planned to attack the city tomorrow, but I got the time. Now that Antwerp has been destroyed, the looting has begun. I have grabbed some good things, I can divide you a lot."

"No need." Ragnar waved and shook his head again, "That's not my trophy. I can't bear to accept your gift. Anyway, this battle is over, and we shouldn't have any new battles in the south. End all this quickly, and I have to march along the Rhine, and that is my battle."

"Okay. But... there are many villages nearby. You can go there to loot and take a look, maybe you can take a lot of cattle and sheep. I won't rob you in these actions, whatever you rob is yours. The spoils of war. If you encounter resistance from the local farmers, it is you who will be responsible for the slashing.”

"You have a conscience." Well, Ragnar laughed and nibbled at the grilled cod, even though it wasn't even salted.

The joy of victory was written on everyone's faces, and the warriors of Ross could not sleep, still holding torches in search of treasures in the city.

They still kidnapped a handful of women, and the reason they weren't killed in the first place was simply because they were women.

The soldiers did not fully implement the king's order to kill without mercy. Seeing this situation, it stands to reason that Rurik can turn a blind eye and acquiesce that this is a slave of his subordinates.

But this time, there is no tolerance.

Played by many warriors, a maid with a devout belief has no choice but to die. It is precisely because of her belief that she cannot commit suicide, even if she asks the conqueror to give her death.

Until Rurik ended these farce.

Soldiers let go of their "toys" reluctantly, and these women, who had been tossed to the point of rags and nervous breakdowns, were given a clean death.

That's all, Rurik gathered all the centurions again, clenched the hilt of his sword, and commanded rather rudely: "I told you that the enemy in this battle will not leave men or women. We have no time to capture them. What we want is revenge killing. Tomorrow Just carry all kinds of loot and supplies, no prisoners of war!"

All the centurions said yes. There is feeling that the king could inconceivably issue such a cruel order. Obviously, this battle is really of special significance?

On a new day, the sky started to rain lightly.

Could it be that the autumn rainy season has already begun? Rurik had foreseen the rain long ago, and he had taken the risk of the rain to make a surprise attack.

The rain hindered the army's siege, but fortunately Antwerp had been destroyed the day before the rain.

The Russ army took the time to carry the spoils in the rain. The tarpaulins that were originally used to cover the ship's torsion slingshots are now used to cover the trolleys that carry wheat and wool.

Supplies are shipped to small boats at the dock, and then transferred to the anchored ship. The decks of large ships are originally designed with drainage holes. Although the entire cabin has no high-tech design of watertight compartments, it is like a closed oak wine barrel as a whole. The seized materials are stuffed into the cabin to completely isolate the rainwater.

The cold autumn rain undoubtedly greatly interfered with the handling of the spoils, but there were so many spoils. At this point, Antwerp is a real testament to its wealth.

Although it was cold, Rurik deliberately stopped to make good deliveries.

He was already mentally prepared that the so-called war had been fought until now, and the army might not be able to reach the capital Nova Rosberg before the Gulf of Finland freezes. He has designed a plan B, the so-called army can be stationed directly in warm places to spend the winter. Temporary residence in Denmark, as well as on Bornholm, Saaremaa and Tombstone in the Åland Islands is a priority. Sending a small army to spend the winter in Utrecht and sending some troops stationed near Hamburg to continue to support the Duke of Saxony are all options.

Thinking about it from this point of view, the army could not travel thousands of miles back to their hometown.

For Vikings from all walks of life who are good at seafaring, it is regarded as a norm to live in other places and even settle down. This is a life test for the Slav army soldiers under the command of the old peasants. Of course, the Slav army was a minority, and the flag captain was still his brother-in-law. Rurik was sure that he could suppress their dissatisfaction with his majesty. It is enough to promise each of them a large sum of so-called compensation for wheat and wool.

Thinking of all this, Rurik felt that he had a little more time.

Ragnar led his troops to a nearby village. Even though he was acting in the cold rain, the brothers ignored the cold rain when they thought that all the things they grabbed were theirs. They simply ignore the risk of getting sick and just want to rush into the village to find gold.

However, all they found were empty villages. Except for some caged poultry, they found nothing good. And those poultry were clearly run away by fugitives.

But it was said that in the village where the Norman fleet was first discovered, the fief knight resolutely joined the defense of Antwerp with his joking army in line with the obligation of allegiance to the baron.

But when they saw the city from a distance, they found that the Normans had already launched their actions, and the shouts of killing turned into rumblings, and the knights immediately gave up all support plans.

All the villages are on the run, and they are well trained to escape, so that the villages suffer only a few hapless ones who run too fast and get their feet cramped.

Ragnar did not find many valuable treasures, but found a large number of available daily necessities. His subordinates were not picky, they made the found sackcloth into makeshift pockets, threw all pots and pans-level trophies into them, and carried them on their shoulders to "welcome the harvest".

However, the looting of Antwerp was like a stab in the heart for the Earl of Flanders.

A city being robbed is essentially the economic collapse of a large area. A large number of people dragged their families and brought their mouths to the city of Ghent, and the tens of thousands of refugees suddenly caused the more densely populated Ghent area to also panic.

Refugees spontaneously told their terrifying encounters to those they encountered, and many of them added fuel to it out of subjective assumptions, describing the Normans as demons who eat people and don’t spit out bones, and monsters on fire.

When asked if they really saw it, they said it was.

Even if such a description sounds outrageous at first glance, but the first-hand information brought by the refugees directly from the city of Antwerp, all doubts can come to an end.

Because the earl's relative, the Baron of Antwerp, had already been killed in the defensive battle.

The baron's wife and son, the earl's sister and nephew, managed to escape the trap. They fled in the bleak light rain, and faced the mad cry of their sister, like the Count Baudouin who was struck by lightning, completely undecided. All the count could think of was to strengthen the defense of Ghent and gather the men, because Ghent is just upstream of the Scheldt, and the Normans who are good at sailing come from the cold north, they can ignore this cold rain and kill and kill. When brought to Ghent, it is necessary to be prepared immediately.

But his sister had this plea: "Avenge my husband! I must avenge my husband! We are all fathers and cowards, but you are absolutely not! Now you are the earl, the protector of all. Hurry up. Organise the army to avenge my husband."

The count was moved by her sister's tears, and it was her sentence "You are not a coward" that made Baudouin feel that he had to prove himself as a real man.

He was furious: "You are right! This is the second attack on Antwerp! The greed of the Normans will never end. We must fight back and show them how good we are!"