Chapter 994： Two kings confrontation

Horns and drums sounded loudly on the Hamburg side, and the Allied forces made a loud noise in response to the Frankish army in the forest.

Undoubtedly, the advancing Ludwig sensed the roar of the north.

"Finally, you are going to fight!"

He rode a high-headed horse, dressed in armor and wearing a golden crown, wrapped in a brown bear fur, and his saddle was decorated with leopard skins.

He was indescribably precious, and the heavily armored cavalry behind him were majestic.

Thousands of heavily armored infantry guarded around him, but these elite soldiers were not yet armored.

The elite of the Frankish army did not suffer major losses, and the soldiers were still energetic.

As for those peasant soldiers, Cologne militiamen, and even the lowest-ranked Sorbian slave soldiers, their condition became more and more worrying.

The peasant soldiers are responsible for fighting, and now they are mainly responsible for transporting the armor and weapons of the elite soldiers.

And the Sorbian slave soldiers, they dragged sleds and carried more daily necessities.

After the army emerged from the forest, it was a foolish move to launch a reckless charge. Ludwig decided to reach the edge of the battlefield first, temporarily taking the frozen Elbe River as the boundary, and his army set up a camp on the south bank of the river. Explode tomorrow.

He knew that there were risks in doing so. If the enemy took the initiative to attack, he would have to resist with a slightly tired army.

Unless, the Frankish army will show its mighty power when it appears, intimidate the enemy not to act rashly, and try to get rest time as much as possible.

The forest can be broken through not far ahead, and from this position, everyone can hear the rumbling sounds from the north more clearly.

"Is this an armed deterrent against me?"

Thinking that he must not lose his momentum, Ludwig drew his sword and immediately waved the call to the whole army: "Shout! Everyone shout! Go and scare the enemy!"

As a result, the Frankish army began a new round of shouting. The roar of tens of thousands of people shook the forest and snow fell continuously. The sound of drums, horns, or knocking on one's own shield, accompanied by chaotic shouts, really created a huge movement.

Their roar really caused Rurik to feel a little fearful. After all, the forest still covered the enemy's figure. Listening to the current movement, I am afraid that the enemy's strength could be 20,000 or more.

The number of Frankish soldiers does not mean that they are strong. As long as their elites are destroyed, the rest are a group of rabble.

Rurik firmly believed in his own judgment, so only if he also dispatched elites to the main battle would he be able to win the battle.

With allied forces under Rurik's command, he decided to use a tried-and-true tactic - the pincer attack.

In the past few decisive battles of gambling and national fortunes, the Ross army achieved major victories with pincer offensives. Its elite lies in fully mobilizing human resources to completely annihilate the enemy after completing the siege. In this tactic, defeating the enemy is equivalent to failure. Only by gathering and annihilating the enemy can it be considered a success.

When Rurik decided to act with this tactic, all the nobles and generals fully understood their mission.

Destroy the entire Frankish army in one go?

This was something Liudov didn't even dare to think about, but those Rus and Danes were serious, and his Saxon army had no choice but to devote all of it to the grand battle of betting on the fortune of the country.

The tactical principle is like this, and it is correct to use tactics according to local conditions.

The Frankish army has the tactical advantage of focusing on cavalry. The iron hooves of their horses have grooves to increase grip, which proves that they can launch raids on ice, and the thickness of the frozen Elbe ice surface has been further investigated, it can fully carry A group of cavalry charges.

"If I were the French army, I would also send cavalry to charge. As long as these cans of meat are not afraid to smash my formation, I will be defeated! I must stop it! I must fight it with spears."

"Ah! Based on the status quo, I can imitate the Spaniards to form a large square."

In the previous raid against Count Robert's three thousand heavy cavalry, the coalition forces all armed themselves with spears, and faced the realistic dilemma of a last-ditch battle. This was why they used a wall of spears to resist the impact of the Frankish army. To this end, the coalition still paid a lot of casualties, but the myth of the invincibility of the Frankish heavy cavalry has been broken. At least the Saxons here have learned an effective way to deal with the heavy cavalry.

It is undeniable that the improvised spears are very fragile. When the impact occurs, a large number of spear shafts are broken.

A good spear shaft needs to be treated, it is firm, hard and elastic, and the Russ Army mainly uses dry oak as the material.

Is ordinary pine wood meaningless?

Do not! Just like the Slavs proverb: When a stick is rammed, it cannot be stopped. If it is blocked, the stick will be thicker.

The best way to resist those heavy cavalry charges is to counter it with a thicker spear!

Some of the bowl-mouthed straight Korean pines were felled, stripped of their bark to reveal the moist wooden stalks inside, and then quickly froze in this cold winter. Most of these Korean pines are more than ten meters long, and a section of them is cut out by an axe. There are as many as 500 spear shafts, and together with the light spears of the whole army, they will definitely be able to restrain heavy cavalry.

Whether it is the Russ Army or the Saxon Army, whether it is an elite soldier or an ordinary peasant soldier, now everyone looks at one weapon - the spear.

Thanks to those captured weapons, the coalition now has no shortage of spearheads! Whether it is a serious wide-leaf spear, or a thorn-type spear and halberd of the Rus army, or simply using a short sword as a spearhead to upgrade to Shuo, the coalition now has more than 10,000 spearmen. As long as they are densely assembled, there is a swaying forest under the sun.

The group movement of spearmen is a test of organization and cooperation, which just reflects the advantages of the Rus' flag team system.

The personnel were supplemented, so that some Viking Saxons who had lived in the Danish world also joined them, Ragnar's Danish army had been completely absorbed, and the Blue Fox's Gothenburg-Uncles army had been absorbed. The Rus army had as many as six flag teams. With some non-combatants also crammed in as soldiers, the number of personnel was barely replenished to 4,000. They could speak the Norse language. Among them, 1,000 Slavic flag soldiers became The elite of the elite.

They all carried their own round shields, put on their own chain mail or leather inlaid iron armor, and then put on a white cloth robe on their outer body, and the chest was specially decorated with a blue cloth belt to prove their identity.

They line up on the ice, spears like a forest for a short time. A large number of stout wooden poles were hidden behind their majestic figures.

Torsion slingshots are strapped to the sled, and they will be lined up in front of the sappers, led by Kawhi.

Finnish archers, accompanied by crossbow soldiers of armed sailors, would line up before the spearmen.

All spearmen are not simply faults. The soldiers can throw their spears in an instant, remove their round shields and draw out their steel swords and hand axes to fight. The whole process takes less than five seconds.

In this era of no gunpowder weapons, Rurik replaced the tactical role of muskets and artillery with slingshots and crossbows. These 5,000 people are the soldiers who Rurik can fully command and move without fear of cowardly fleeing. They were either Viking warriors or Viking warriors, and the will to fight was trusted.

But Rurik could not afford to lose.

These 5,000 people have exhausted their human resources. After all, those Saxons are not right partners, but a group of farmers who can only fight against the wind.

The so-called "this is the Principality of Saxony's own war" nonsense, really let Ludov personally lead the battle, and everything is over.

Then let King Rus have the glory of defeating King Frank!

Rurik put on his golden laurel wreath, then put on his eye-framed sunglasses, and quickly appeared in front of the battle in a bearskin coat.

The warriors saw their king appearing and shouting, including Ragnar, who was banging on the shield with enthusiasm.

All preparations have been made, and it seems that a decisive battle will be launched this afternoon.

Compared with the quick action of the Ross-Danish Army, the Saxons' dawdling was within Rurik's expectations.

The former has been assembled, and a batch of heavy weapons have been put in place one after another. Only then did the Saxon army appear one after another carrying spears, and they all stood cautiously behind the former.

Liudov himself has not yet appeared, and he is still reorganizing some of his internal affairs - with the nobles he promoted to pray to God in the humble monastery.

The matter is far from over, the northern sage Esquier will also use the newly picked cypress branches to dip the holy water in the huge silver basin to bless the soldiers, as if he can't fight without doing this ceremony.

Just as they were dawdling in the back, Rurik only waited for a while, and the soldiers didn't stand with their legs stiff. The enemy finally showed his true colors.

At first, it was a group of warriors gleaming in the sun, holding kite shields and long swords aloft.

Later, more armored warriors appeared, like a large group of iron men drilling out of the forest.

Looking at the battle, the comers are indeed the elites of the Franks. They are wearing heavy armor and are they really going to start a decisive battle this afternoon?

There was a burst of boos from the rebel army, mixed with a lot of swearing in Norse. Because the sun is high, Odin is watching the decisive battle.

The strength of the Frankish army is increasing. For them, when they see that a large army has been assembled on the river in the distance, all of them are holding spears high. The enemy's behavior today is so strange that no one dares to challenge it lightly. They stood on the side showing off their power, constantly spewing trash talk to express their dissatisfaction.

At this moment, the same scolding from the coalition forces continued, and no one dared to leave without permission.

With the appearance of Frank's cavalry units, the appearance of the decisive battle became clearer.

From the start of the war to the present, Ludwig did not know his enemy. He was very interested in these special Normans who could make him lose several times in a row, and he was even willing to chat with the barbarian chief Rurik.

Now, he finally saw the true face of the Rus among the Normans.

"What a mighty teacher! I finally saw your entire lineup! Ah! Am I fighting my brother?!"

This is Ludwig's highest evaluation. Facing the enemies who have already assembled, he dare not act rashly.

He ordered the soldiers to assemble immediately, all the flag teams lined up, all the peasant soldiers appeared and lined up, and ordered all the priests to enter the front.

That's all, he hurriedly dismounted, and because of the current tense situation, he immediately hurried all the generals to have a meeting with the summer nobles.

The so-called meeting is the arrangement of the soldiers before the decisive battle.

The king showed a trace of apprehension, and the captains of the flags and nobles were also worried about the current situation. They did not suspect that they would be defeated, but to fight the Norman army decisively.

It is not that they did not deal with the Danes in the past, and everyone has a certain understanding of the Norman power.

Today's situation is unexpected. After all, the army on the other side of the ice-faced river is well-organized. Although the enemy is a barbarian, a large number of neat and uniform flags are flying in the queue, and a large number of ships are frozen on the ice. Arrow Tower. The enemy was well prepared, and if they attacked now, the Franks would be under great pressure.

"There are indications that the Normans are coming prepared! I was going to spend the last night with the riverside to rest and start a final battle with them tomorrow. Now we can't wait! I don't think the enemy will give us time."

"We must form troops immediately! You immediately implement this king's order! As your king, I will personally bring some followers to chat with the enemy. Taking this opportunity, you must hurry up to line up, hurry up and rest, and the soldiers will be ready again. Eat a bite of dry food."

The generals looked at each other, although they felt that it was inappropriate for the king to condescend to negotiate, but they all obeyed.

After a while, Ludwig pulled the Archbishop of Cologne to his side, and said righteously: "This king will have a chat with their leaders."

"A discussion of peace?" the Archbishop asked cautiously.

"It's war."

"Finally... this afternoon is a decisive battle? Too hasty."

"Not necessarily. If the fighting goes on into the night, we will fight in the dark. I will bet on my honor and power, my withdrawal means defeat, and only victory can I continue. If I am destined to die here today, I will It is also obligatory. I am the grandson of Charlemagne, and if he were still alive, he would have commanded the army to attack."

Archbishop Hadbold didn't know whether to inspire him or discourage him, and sighed deeply: "It's your destiny, you can't get rid of it. But... I'm afraid you'll be ambushed by negotiating with them yourself. They're barbaric. Man, and that traitor."

"No. They dare not. If the traitor Ludov does this, the other Frankish nobles will take their revenge. You bless the soldiers quickly, and sow the elite soldiers to save fuel... well, and those Sorbian slaves."

"The Sorbians. You finally think they're usable soldiers?"

"Yes." Ludwig shrugged. "They will be of great use. Bless them first! I will come when I go."

So, Ludwig took more than a dozen people, riding a tall horse and galloping on the ice.

Seeing this move Rurik verified his judgment - the enemy cavalry can gallop on the ice.

At this moment, Yevlo leaned over his soul and asked, "Your Majesty, are we shooting them?"

"No! Go and order your men to remain calm. This is the enemy's messenger, and we must not kill the messenger."

Liudov had good eyesight. He saw a group of people on horseback moving in the direction of the coalition army from a distance. He looked closely, and who was it if it wasn't King Ludwig?

In a hurry, he hurriedly rode his inferior horse, and led several entourages on horseback to the front of the Ross army in a hurry.

Ludoff hurriedly dismounted to meet the tall and strong King Rus, and said bluntly: "There is a noble man from the Franks, pay attention to the one wearing the golden thing on his head, that is the Great King Ludwig of East Frank."

"It's really him?!" Rurik's eyes narrowed immediately, and he deliberately took off his sunglasses to take a good look. Sure enough, he saw a middle-aged man with a golden crown and a curly brown beard. "Really Ludwig?"

"Exactly."

"Haha. Did this guy come to me for a heads-up?"

"In my opinion, I want to chat with us." Ludov said cautiously.

"What is there to talk about, they have already decided to fight." Rurik said and gave Ludov a look: "Open your eyes and see! Their priests are congratulating the soldiers, I understand your etiquette, You've just been busy doing congratulations in the monastery. Only by doing this can your souls go to your heaven after the war."

"Okay." If it wasn't for Liudov's reminder to notice this, the peace negotiation he hoped for did not exist from the beginning. "That's just fighting."

"So I can arrange my heavy weapon to snipe him, kill Ludwig and solve all problems."

"No! You can't." Liudov's face changed suddenly, and he quickly got off his horse and emphasized it again.

"Of course, I'm just joking. Really kill him, and my plan is over. Since he wants to talk to us, I'll talk. You! Ludov, let's go together."

"me……"

"What? Guilt and you are a betrayal? Don't forget that you are the leader of the Saxons Don't forget the humiliation your family has suffered."

"Let's go then!"

Ludwig had more than a dozen people, led by himself. Rurik regarded him as a pure reckless man, and was he really not afraid of being shot by a slingshot with a javelin?

I saw that Ludwig, who was wearing the crown, suddenly ordered the army to stop, and then cursed a lot of garbage in Frankish language.

As a king, he openly insulted the mother of the Rus and insulted the blood of the Rus.

The warriors, who were already full of violent tempers, knew some Frankish vocabulary, especially swear words. They originally learned these swear words to "greet" the enemy, but unexpectedly they were "kindly greeted" by the enemy's king.

Arik's beard quivered in anger, and the soldiers banged on their shields in anger.

Rurik was also furious, and almost couldn't help ordering the Torsion Slingshot salvo. If the Song Army's bed crossbow sniping was a coincidence, now the Ross Army's fifty torsional slingshot salvos could really kill Ludwig. In the end, reason prevailed.

After all, he is a king, how can he be a king with a strong mouth?

Rurik kept his face sullen, put on his sunglasses, and summoned twenty of his own standing army berserkers.

"Brothers go!" he ordered, "Let's go and see what the king of Frank is. Listen carefully, don't be violent because of your own impulses, you can't attack without my order."

With that being said, Rurik was also worried that the other party would really come to "a cavalry", so he ordered Ludov to go with his cavalry on bad horses, and at the same time, as many as ten of his own berserkers were carrying heavy weights. Steel arm crossbow. The stubby arrow cluster has been wound, and as long as Rurik orders, the sniper kill will be carried out immediately.

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