Chapter 998： Capture the Archbishop of Cologne

The fallen Frankish soldiers were stacked on top of each other, their legs were crushed by their companions, and their arms were stepped on again by their companions. The people who slipped tried to stand up, but they turned into a mess of herring in a pot of stew.

The battlefield on the ice was blood red everywhere, and the Rus-Danish coalition continued to stab and chop the poor people in front of them.

They kept shrinking the encirclement, vowing to slaughter the enemies within.

In fact they do.

Rurik, who killed the red eye, had forgotten that he had to capture the enemy King Ludwig on the battlefield, even if it was to find the body.

Carrying a sword and leading some cronies, he kept stabbing and stabbing the knife among the dead corpses on the ground, and roared and ordered: "No mercy! No prisoners!"

This is because the coalition forces no longer need to capture prisoners of war after the war. First, the Saxons had to retaliate for the murders of the Frankish army half a century ago; secondly, all the Viking troops involved in the war had to sacrifice Odin's blood for revenge; thirdly, the coalition did not have more food to feed many prisoners.

In theory, Rurik could capture a group of prisoners of war and **** them back to the kingdom of Rus, either as mining slaves or lumberjack slaves, all of which could be used as labor until they died.

He was really red-eyed, and was furious at Ludwig's vicious provocation before the war.

"Since you threatened the victory of the French army and crucified us all, I will let all your soldiers be chopped into meat sauce."

The annular encirclement of the coalition forces has been completed. There are countless spearheads, halberds, jabs and stabs. Even if the Frankish soldiers in the circle are protected by armor, they can only move to the center point in vain in the face of blows from all directions.

The coalition soldiers stepped on the corpses of the enemy and continued to kill, shouting and screaming, and the sound of weapons colliding incessantly.

The halberd kept hooking the French Kite Shield and pulling it away, and then several spearheads stabbed directly.

The battlefield seemed to be a repeat of the last stage of the Battle of Canning. There were still thousands of Frankish troops compressed in the encirclement, but the people inside were squeezed so that they didn't even have room to swing their swords. The soldiers even had difficulty breathing, and what was even more terrifying was that once they slipped, they were trampled to death by their companions.

Some soldiers have fainted due to suffocation, and are rapidly sliding towards the end of suffocation.

The spearheads and halberds of the coalition forces continued to kill, and the meat grinder was still operating ruthlessly. Anyone who tried to fight back was killed immediately, and now that the sun was setting, didn't the sinking sun symbolize the end of the Frankish army?

On the other hand, the coalition soldiers participating in the pursuit are creating battle miracles one after another.

Yevlo chased the enemy with a hunting mentality with his almost unscathed Finnish flag team, who replaced them with broad-bladed hunting arrows, many of which had a large number of broad-bladed bone clusters.

To deal with the apparently unarmored peasant soldiers, it is enough to use the arrow clusters of hunting wild deer and wild boars.

These old forest hunters slaughtered ruthlessly, and some soldiers continued to pursue them.

But Yevlo was deeply shocked by the huge object in front of him.

Behold! It was a group of men in black robes gathered in front of a huge cross that looked like it was made of pure gold.

Those in black robes all held crosses of different sizes, and their mouths were babbling, and their black hoods could hardly hide their panic and despair.

Seeing this, the Finnish archers did not hesitate to use their bows and arrows, and the sharp arrows were aimed at them one by one.

"Wait!" Yevro ordered suddenly: "This is a large group of Frankish priests! Kill them ominously. Take down your swords, draw them and capture them!"

Because there is a small monastery in the kingdom of Rus, this is specially approved by Rurik. In principle, the Holy See has an insignificant organizational structure in the territory of Rus, and it is openly marked as the "Diocese of Rus".

In theory, the work of spreading the Gospel is only done by John Ingvar, but is this so-called bishop really religious? On the contrary, this man not only married and even had children under Rurik's behest.

Whether it is to believe in Odin or believe in God, John Ingvar, a slave from Denmark, was caught in the middle. After all, his heart was shaken a lot, and he did some behaviors that violated the commandments. However, things such as "bringing children" are ignored if the Holy See cannot sanction them.

Because it is the dream of the Holy See to spread the Gospel to all the northern worlds, and it is what many missionaries have to do even if they are martyred.

John Ingvar didn't have any idea of ​​spreading his beliefs, and he still couldn't figure out where he stood.

But he was a useful figure, and it was because of his presence that the Rus and the various Vikings, as well as the Eastern Slavs and the various Finnish tribes, came into contact with serious church Latin.

This is why, as a Finn, Yevlo has some knowledge of the Catholic faith.

Yevluo wanted to call these men in black, but he could only think of one word.

"Pada!"

Hearing this, the despairing Archbishop of Cologne, Hardbold, trembled instantly.

"You?! Are you a lost lamb?"

The words were spoken in Frankish, and Yevro naturally did not understand it at all. But he is not illiterate. His two sons Kelha and Saturli, brothers of different ages, are learning Latin by dabbling. Yevro also learned some of this, especially when he entered the Frankish world to fight, learning Latin became more important. As for why not learn Frankish well? Maybe it doesn't matter.

Latin was a useful tool, allowing armies to plunder monasteries, and even to make priests obediently offer their treasures with just one mouth.

Yevro is about to do just that now.

"Surrender! Monk! Surrender! Avoid death!" he said.

They are all simple words, and they are all Latin words. The Archbishop of Cologne was even more puzzled. How could an odd man with an apparently short stature and a flat face with black hair speak the sacred language?

"Why surrender? We are the servants of God." The archbishop tried his best to brace himself nervously, "It's you! Please stop the killing immediately, stop these injustices."

Negotiate with them? Meaningless.

If it doesn't make sense, just do it.

Yevro shook his head. He noticed that the man who spoke was disproportionately bloated. Obviously, it was not thick clothes, but he was fat.

It's really weird, that guy Esquil is still the archbishop of the north, a thin old man. If he hadn't forced him, this guy would only live on bitter rye bread.

The man in black looks very rich. After all, the small cross in his hand is made of pure gold. Maybe this person is another bishop?

Yevluo, who didn't want to linger any longer, immediately sent people to act. The priests' gold and silver crosses were rudely confiscated, and those who didn't want to cooperate were simply stabbed to death.

The dream of the Archbishop of Cologne was shattered. His students were protecting the "True Cross" with their bodies. Even if it was a fake, it was indeed a holy relic that belonged to the Diocese of Cologne.

Young priests were stabbed to death, they became veritable martyrs, blood smeared on holy objects.

The ruthless soldier pulled the dying priest down and added another sword to his death.

In the face of this horrific act, the Archbishop's eyes widened like copper bells.

"If I surrendered earlier, why would I force me to kill." Yevro glared at the archbishop with a sullen face and said.

"Take all the prisoners away!" He also ordered in the Suomi dialect: "Take away all the gold and silver utensils you find, don't be greedy for ink, these are dedicated to King Rus for our glory!"

Because what the Finns need most is not gold and silverware, these things are good things, and they are not more important than food, cloth and other living materials.

Immediately afterwards, the soldiers were examining the huge golden cross, and they were surprised to find that it was nothing but gilded objects, with a very discordant hole in it, like a cluster of arrows.

Since it is gold-plated, it is not very valuable.

The soldiers were busy cleaning the battlefield on the spot. They collected the swords and axes they saw, and bundled them with hemp ropes and tied them around their waists. Soon, there were soldiers with heavy loot with smiles on their faces. Take a step, tinkle, sway.

Compared with the Finns, those Saxon peasant soldiers with blood feuds chased farther. If it weren't for the light rapidly becoming dim in the sunset, their pursuit could have gone further.

Even so, behind them were already a large number of enemies who were slashed in the back.

Even the humble spikes now burst into a powerful tactical advantage, almost guaranteeing that Saxon soldiers wouldn't slip while chasing. On the other hand, the Frankish peasant soldiers who were fleeing, once slipped and fell, they would try to get up and continue to escape.

During this pursuit, the Saxons also suffered losses due to the beasts' still fighting resistance. Compared with the gains, the losses were insignificant.

Thousands of people who fled were hunted ruthlessly. They tried to escape to the camp where they came, but when they arrived, they found that the wooden door was already open.

Originally, the fugitives of the Frankish army could rely on the wooden fort built in the forest to try to hold on to it, but King Ludwig was so frightened that he took the last hundred cavalry and hurried away along the Roman road. The small group of non-combatants and frostbitten soldiers left behind did not know what happened.

But the king was indeed running, and the screams of killing were still loud in the distance. People saw that the cavalry behind the king did not carry three flags: the three lions of Charlemagne, the blue cross flag, and the blue iris flag.

The cavalry who assembled the three flags was undoubtedly the subordinate of the king himself!

The king retreated without a word, thanks to the kindly entourage who kept shouting in Frankish: "The Normans are here! Run quickly!"

Panic detonated with Ludwig's escape, and the small group of people who remained behind the three fortresses were on the run.

For a moment, those Frankish civilians whose families were still under the control of the Normans were forced to flee south, because they and the army that was convinced that the king had conquered and revolted against the north had been defeated.

The three fortresses in the forest were all built on the basis of the original Frankish villages. They were transformed into fortresses to help nearly 20,000 French troops survive the cold, and they are still abandoned today.

So the front line defeated soldiers ran over, and what they saw was an empty city. The wooden door opened, and there was no one in the fortress. As they hurried into the fort, they were caught up by subsequent Saxon pursuers before they could close the wooden door.

The slaughter took place in the fortress, and when night fell, the Saxon chasers had completed their pursuit, save for those fleeing into the snow under the heather forest.

They were humiliated in this decisive battle, directly occupied the barracks of the Frankish army, and seized all the food, cloth, cooking utensils and other materials that Ludwig was unable to take away.

Behold, a bonfire is being lit in the camp. It is the Saxon victor who boiled snow and boiled wheat in the night!

When night falls, it's time for a truce! The enemy who finally escaped into the woods did not have to pursue it with all his might, for no one knew the dangers of this heather forest better than the Saxons. The cold of the night would kill the scrambled and unsupplied soldiers, who were either frozen to death or killed by the Timberwolves.

The decisive battle is over, the stars are shining brightly in the sky, and it is fair to say that the visibility tonight is not bad.

The ice of the Elbe remained the same, and the blood of the dead turned into a large stench of "thick soup", which first made the battlefield steaming, and then began to freeze.

Now, many corpses have been adhered to the ice layer, and cleaning the corpses and cleaning the battlefield is not the first thing to do.

In a decisive battle, the coalition forces can be said to have wiped out the entire East Frankish army of Ludwig. There were silver and white things shining in the moonlight everywhere, the armor and swords of the dead French soldiers.

Weapons were collected as much as possible, and taking off the armor of the deceased was not something that could be done tonight.

In fact, the Saxon army in the coalition suffered a lot of losses, and now they are mostly the pursuers. The entire army has become extremely loose. Even if Ludov wants to gather the army, it is impossible, and everything can only be done during the day.

The losses of the Rus-Danish coalition were much less, or the appropriate tactics naturally greatly reduced the casualties.

Almost all of the casualties came from the initial cavalry charge, followed by the early stages of the subsequent infantry battle.

As the battle turned into a "ruthless meat grinder" with spears and halberds, it became difficult for the Rus-Danish coalition to have any more casualties.

However, after some rough statistics, the casualties of the Rus-Danish coalition were still as many as 400 people. Fortunately, the number of people killed in battle for various reasons was just over a hundred people, and many of them were Danish friendly troops who lacked armor protection.

Almost all of the injured people have cuts to the skin and flesh on the arms and shoulders. After pouring some spirits into boiling water and diluting it into disinfectant, the wounds are cleaned, and then the wounds can be sutured with twine.

Whether the wounded can heal, the rest is left to a miracle.

The majority of the soldiers were very tired, and many of them once lay on the ice to rest, breathing heavily, and then they returned to Hamburg with the loot they found.

There were bonfires visible to the naked eye, and the hamburgers were buzzing after the victory, and tens of thousands of women and children cooked wheat for the victory army to reward the victors.

They won the defensive battle, and although Ludwig's body was still not found, the Saxons knew that the Franks would have to weigh it up again if they wanted to attack the north.

Rurik led some of the soldiers back to the city of Hamburg. He sat on the banks of the ice and snow and was busy eating boiled wheat.

After a while, Liudov, whose face had been bound with white sackcloth and most of his beard had been shaved off, finally found the long-lost King Rurik.

However, there was a kind of Norman ruthless sitting here all of a sudden.

Rurik, King of Rus, Ragnar, King of Denmark, Biyonny, King of Viking York. This is the "Three Barbarian Kings of the North" who put Frank to shame today.

Liudov is not alone here. The Northumbrian king "Broken Arm" Ernred, who is the observer, is by his side. The battle is over. Ernred, who has witnessed the horrific scene, has to talk to Liudov. Talk more.

Now, several people got together again, Cong Ke didn't have any embarrassment, some just felt like the nobles were unloading their burdens after victory.

"Ludov! You've changed your face! It looks like you almost died in battle!" Rurik looked up.

"Yes. My face is torn and now stitched up. Maybe you'll give me the nickname Scarface in the future. I hope your antiseptic works, or I'll be knighted before the fever takes my life away. To my son Bruno."

"Why say such depressing words? My potion works well, or you can always trust spirits."

Liudov let out a sigh of relief, feeling that even if he died in battle today, he would have no regrets in this life.

They got together and chatted over the fire, and the discussion was full of fierce battles during the day.

The air soon filled with the aroma of barbecue. It was soldiers who slaughtered the enemy's dead horses. Although the horse meat contained a lot of blood, it made the meat smell very strong. The tired and hungry soldiers just wanted to eat meat and wheat.

After a while, Rurik was already holding his de facto eldest son Regraf in his arms. Although this kid did not make any gains in the first line, he was always advancing on the front line against the army and participated in the follow-up. fight.

When a little wolf tasted blood for the first time, everything changed.

Regraf finally had the eyes of a wolf, and he completed the first zero-distance kill in his life, which was incomparable to the incomparable results of archery kills in the past.

The kingdom of Mercia, which Regraf must inherit in the future, will be the direct neighbor of the Viking York Kingdom. King Biyonni is here. He likes this kid and appreciates that this kid can kill before he reaches the age of twelve. feat of the enemy. This would be a character, and according to Viking tradition, this kid was also his own bloodless nephew.

To discuss where to go in the future, this is a big proposition, and it cannot be discussed clearly by a group of high-level nobles sitting on the frozen riverside in a few words.

The operation of cleaning the battlefield under the night is still carried out on a small scale. The northern saint Esquier and his students have continued to collect corpses for the dead despite the severe cold in the name of the "All Northern Diocese". Eskil felt it was his morality, even if the dead were Frankish warriors from far away Bavaria.

So, the Finnish flag team of Yevlo, who walked with a lot of spoils, was walking with a tinkling tinkling, and with a huge shining cross placed on a wooden cart, when they walked northwardly around the battlefield dead bodies, for Egypt Skile sees.

"Is it still a cross made of gold? Not good! Are they here too?!"

Eskil felt that there was an old man of his own here. Even if they had different understandings of faith, after all, everyone was a servant of God, and they were the same in rank.

"Lord! We are all guilty." He hurriedly crossed his chest, and with a group of priests hurried towards the marching longbowmen, he kept shouting "Count Finland, stay still".

Yevluo really stopped, he could hear that the speaker was the old man in Esquil, and he was so moved that he just took this opportunity to ask him what he had seized.

Esquil nearly slipped many times, and finally stood under the huge gilded cross. He ignored Yevlo's inquiry for the time being, and jumped on the wooden cart to stroke the huge golden object.

"Can't be wrong. It must be the cross in Cologne."

His self-talk was immediately heard by a dejected guy, and someone among the prisoners suddenly spoke up: "Priest? Are you a priest? Who are you?!"

The words were spoken in Latin, and Eskil was smart, standing on the wooden cart and simply exposed the door: "Who are you! Are you a priest from Cologne? I am the Archbishop of the North, Saint Eskil."

"Ah! It's you!"

In an instant, a bound unfortunate couldn't hold back any longer, and he broke free and shouted in grief: "I am Hardbold, Archbishop of Cologne! Are you Esquil?! Thank God! Rescue us in the hands of men!"

The scene was very embarrassing for a time, and Eskill was suddenly speechless and contradictory.

He jumped out of the wooden cart and hurriedly told Yevlo, who was obviously unknown, to explain the big news of the day: "You actually captured the Archbishop of Cologne, this is... a big event."

"A very honorable person? I really did a great job."

"It is indeed very honorable. The Archbishop of Cologne and I are of high rank, and they are even richer. You quickly untie them, these priests, and quickly dedicate them to Rurik, and you must not let them die or hurt."

In fact, Yevlo never felt how noble the old man Eskil was, and he was extremely unfamiliar with the geographical term "Cologne", but "they are very wealthy" Yevlo listened.

Unbinding is impossible, only God knows whether they will run away foolishly, or try to speed up and hand over the honorable captives to Rurik, just to use a group of noble people to get some benefits for the Finnish army.

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