Chapter 1088： Ragnar's Kent War

The county lord of Kent suddenly fell off his horse, and his entourage braved the arrows of the Danes to investigate, and found that the county lord had lost consciousness.

Ragnar completed a beautiful sniping. He did not give the surprised enemy enough time to react, knowing that the best fighter was at the moment, he gave the order.

He punched the enemies outside the city and yelled, "Brothers! Kill them!"

As a result, the blocked doors were opened, which was a waste of time.

The unconscious sheriff was dragged to the Kent formation, and the infantry and cavalry were forced to retreat a stone's throw away. The soldiers all saw the princess fall from the horse, worrying about the fate of the adult and the outcome of the battle.

However, Anteberg, the eldest son of the nervous county lord, put his fingers on his father's neck, and his fingers trembled and shrank back.

"he died."

"Dead?! My lord, what should we do?"

Death came so suddenly, when Antberg looked at the Vikings who were about to go out of the city to counterattack, his confidence shrank back.

fighting? Or retreat? It's a choice.

"Can't retreat!" After some ideological struggle, Antberg resolutely took his father's sword and called to the soldiers around him: "Kent people! Prepare to fight!"

The sudden death of the father in battle is nothing more than a matter of great grief for his son. However, the Lord of Kent is also getting older, and unless he dies, his eldest son can successfully inherit the title.

Antberg understands that he is now automatically inheriting the title, and he is the new Lord of Kent! Although, this kind of inheritance is not what I want at all.

Ordinary warriors don't know what happened, at least they saw Anteberg meeting Baojian in a high-profile manner.

It seems that the adults were only slightly injured.

Kent is the county of Wessex, with the title of Earl of the Lord's Land. Sooner or later, this noble status would fall on Unterberg, and the warriors were delighted that the younger man could lead the populace to rout the invading Vikings.

After all, it is not the first time that the territory of Kent has been attacked by the Vikings. They have suffered a lot, and they have indeed defeated them many times. The warriors were not too scared to walk in the face of the Vikings, but this time the situation was markedly different.

The Kent army was arranged according to the old tradition, with all shield bearers in front. Most of them are the elite of the villages, and they are mixed with the most elite aristocratic guards, and the soldiers have basically popularized the chain armor.

Their square shields are stacked on top of each other to form a shield wall. This trick is learned from the Vikings who harassed the coast in the past, but they don't have the huge round shields of the Vikings. They are more flexible, and the shields they hold are much smaller.

Behind them was a huge number of peasant soldiers in commoner clothes, many of whom didn't even have shoes. Fortunately, this huge piece of Romnezeland will not stump your feet, so barefoot fighting is not a problem.

For Ragnar, he would prefer the enemy to line up the array, because it would take a lot of time.

What the Danish army lacks is time!

Now, while their opponents reorganize their army, many Danish fighters have donned chain mail, iron helmets with huge nose guards, and some even have mail face shields.

The debris blocking the door was removed, and people with large round shields began to leave the city. At the same time, the brothers floating at sea also landed one after another, and the Danish army gathered more and more.

What is learning war in war? !

After going through the Great War of 840, Ragnar is no longer the reckless man he used to be.

Although the first two rows were still armored warriors to form a shield wall, he placed all the archers in the rear. He was trying his best to imitate the tricks of the Rus, and thanks to the cooperation of the Danish lords from Zealand, he started to advance in such an array.

Swords and axes beat the shield, and the Danes advanced one step at a time.

Under the command of Unterberg, the Kents tried their best to maintain their composure, and it was the poet who shuddered involuntarily from this ever-increasing sense of oppression.

Under the helmet, Antberg's face was shaking. He felt that even if he had his limited cavalry charge, it would not be able to shake the Viking's strict shield wall.

Reason told him that this group of enemies was not the same as the Vikings of the past.

"Ah! Could it be those guys from the north?!"

He thought of the so-called Viking York Kingdom, but judging from the round shields of the enemies in front of him, they were completely different from the guys in the north.

look carefully! They also fly a special flag with an abstract bird pattern on a white cloth.

This is Ragnar's king's banner, the Raven Banner.

The presence of the flag means the presence of King Ragnar, the flag advances, and the entire array follows.

Now the Kent army is still waiting for work, and only the Danish army continues to advance with tidy horns. Only in terms of strength, the Danish army at the moment has already been comrades in arms, but the Kent army can only see the enemy in front of them, not that there is something hidden in the depths of the other side.

"Time to shoot! Shoot!"

Ragnar sent a verbal signal to the lord behind him, and the bow-bearers who had been ready began to shoot recklessly into the air.

There was no arrow falling like rain, and the Danes simply could not achieve the firepower density of the Rus army.

Even so, the more than 300 warriors Ragnar assembled on the expedition with their own bows, they fired more Bone Cluster Arrows, which was enough to open the eyes of the Kent people.

In the past, no Western European powers have used bows on a large scale in war, and even throwing javelins, throwing knives and axes is not as versatile as bows.

The unarmored peasant soldiers were caught off guard. Many of them didn't even have a shield. They only had hunting spears and scythes on hand. Unarmored, they could only instinctively raise their hands to resist and face them with flesh and blood. Arrow lost.

The dropping of inferior arrows will not kill people immediately. The injured person immediately feels the pain of the heart, and instantly loses the ability to fight, so he covers the wound and falls to the ground crying. The Kent army, who had never experienced this before, was in rapid chaos. Even if Antberg wanted to organize a collapse, those peasant soldiers had given up the formation and fled to the rear with the idea of ​​​​running if they could not stop it.

"You all come back! Don't run away." Antberg's cry had long been drowned out by the people's screams.

At the same time, the Danish army was still advancing in the form of Xu Jin barrage along with the arrow lost.

Until, hand in hand.

"Odin!" Ragnar shouted from the depths of his soul with his **** mouth open. The whole army was like a divine help, and the Danish lords with their own thoughts and their own people launched the final battle.

The fight has begun!

Next, the fight turns into a brute force contest.

Tactics are no tactics. The shield and the shield are glued together like glue. Whichever side has the stronger strength and can break through the enemy's front will win.

The Kent Army fought hard for a while, but eventually the front line collapsed due to the inferior strength and poor quality of the soldiers.

Fortunately, Antberg had already realized that he could no longer hold on. He did not order the entire army to retreat, but only thought of escaping by himself.

"Let's go..." His expression suddenly trembled and his lips trembled, warning the cavalry: "Take my father and go! Let's go!"

Then a cavalry squire asked, "Sir, where are we going?"

"To Canterbury! To defend!"

That's all, he really got on his horse and started to flee, abandoning his subordinates in the fierce battle.

Then, when the Kent Army, which was gradually in a desperate situation, found that its commander had run away with the cavalry, their perseverance became a joke, and their morale suddenly collapsed, and they were gradually wiped out by the surrounding Danes. Can chase.

As many as eight hundred Kentish fighters were killed and a small number captured.

The army of Kent County suffered heavy losses in Romney Zeland.

Anteberg, who was riding on a horse, fled wildly all the way, and did not care about the rout soldiers who escaped in advance along the way. He fled from Dover to Canterbury, and ran for fifteen miles on the flat Romney Zeland. He fled back with his father's body, and the whole city shook in an instant.

A group of ferocious devils emerged from the cracks of **** in the sea, and they appeared to kill!

The Bishop of Canterbury felt that the end of the day was nothing more than that, and the next target of those Satan's apostles must be the city of Canterbury! It is only because of the accumulation of the most wealth in Kent.

The escaped Anteberg didn't even bother to settle his father's body, but the people in the city learned at the first time that the princess who led the army had died in battle. The people were in pain and fear, and they needed someone who could turn the tide.

Who is this hero? ! It can only be the eldest son of the county lord, Antberg, who returned from defeat.

No one reprimanded the man to leave the army and escape by himself. He is a great nobleman, a cousin of the king, and a local lord! His command is everything, and all must obey.

He ordered the city gates to be blocked, called on the men in the city to take up arms, and even asked the archbishop to urgently perform a mass and pray to the Lord for protection.

Perhaps only the Almighty Lord can save the innocent lambs at such a critical juncture.

The fiasco of the Battle of Romney Zeland has spread at a faster rate with the fleeing defeated troops. Those villages who have only heard the relevant news, out of fear of the Vikings killing, hurriedly reorganized the whole village and the whole village. Move to Canterbury.

The day after Antberg escaped back, he noticed that many refugees had gathered outside the city.

A large number of refugees arrived at night, and the soldiers guarding the city gates were ordered to die, and they did not dare to risk the risk of hanging to open the door. The guards, who are also frightened birds, can't judge whether the manpower outside the city has the meticulous work of the Vikings. They did not shoot arrows to drive away or open the door.

So the refugees gathered more and more, and it was not until the morning mist of the new day cleared that the guards could really see their faces.

After receiving urgent orders from the new county lord Antberg, Canterbury opened a door.

Now only the stone city walls that have existed since Roman times can give people a sense of security. Therefore, the city built on the military camps of the old Roman times has become a "mega city" with a population of over 10,000 in a short period of time.

The cramped streets and alleys are full of people, and the places where the feces and urine are thrown are also crowded with refugees. No one pays attention to the cleanup, everyone just wants to survive.

It is the responsibility of the lord to defend the people against the invasion of the Vikings with a fortified city.

Antberg did not relax in the slightest. He noticed that compared to the Vikings' continued attack, the bloated city in front of him was enough to collapse. There are people everywhere, mouths to eat, do you want to use the lord's warehouse to feed them?

He urgently counted his defenders, and was surprised to find that there were only 500 soldiers on hand who could fight.

Not to mention the offensive force, the defense is also quite difficult.

It is very outrageous to encourage women to go to war. Women must wear good clothes, cover their bosses with white headscarves and only show their faces. Besides raising children, they can only do some auxiliary farm work, and they are not even allowed to go to the fields to weed, because it is very indecent to show their faces.

The Kent people are extremely conservative nowadays, and their lives are required by the church to abide by the rules and regulations, unlike the Viking women who can even fight.

For example, in this battle, there were also a small number of female fighters in the Danish army. Almost all of them were from Zeeland. They fought with their tribes and enjoyed exactly the same battlefield power as male fighters.

Some of the defeated soldiers managed to escape, and they provided assistance to Anteberg's overstretched army? In fact, this is a group of big fools who are scared crazy! They fled back just walking defeatist rhetoric, then huddled in a corner and shivered, as if awaiting death.

The only thing that can make Antberg happy is that the carefulness of asking for help has gone directly to the capital city of Winchester with the fast horse. The messengers asking for help did not go all the way, and some went to the nearest city of Rochester, asking the locals to maintain high alert. Some went straight to London, hoping to get the support of the local nobles, and even hope that the real black-haired Roman nobles in "Little London City" could provide a little money to organize a mercenary team to help.

At least Antberg believed he was not alone, and the people of Canterbury hoped that reinforcements would arrive before the Vikings.

However, if the Kingdom of Denmark is a very formal feudal country, King Ragnar of Denmark will naturally be able to quickly assemble a team to expand the victory after completing a war.

However, he is not.

Just like Godfrey, Harald Clark, Hafgen, and Horrick in the past, these great Danish leaders are just allied leaders. Even if Ragnar's throne is recognized by Ross, he is still the de facto leader of the Danish World League.

The army he had at hand was more a pirate than an army.

The ten lords of Zeeland are here to make a fortune, and the irony is that the wealth of Dover alone has satisfied these lords. They went to the nearby villages to loot again, and completed a chase in the Romney Zetian battlefield, and then seized a lot of farm tools.

It's a shame that even the seizure of some axes and sickles has already given a lot of information to ordinary Danish warriors. They swept the villages again, and everyone got very useful supplies.

Gold and silver belong to the nobles, and ordinary warriors are not eligible to share it, but some of the prisoners caught belong to whoever catches it.

The city of Dover suddenly became a barracks for the Danish army, and they were actively digesting the spoils.

On the night after the war, the oil lamps in a sturdy stone room in the city were bright.

"Praise Odin! Cheers!"

Ragnar was in high spirits, and today he decided to take a break.

The lords were all present to share the captured ale with their king.

The horn cup is held high, and people drink happily, even if the ale is a little sour. Only Ragnar, holding his glass mug from King Ross.

Blackened lamb meat was the main course, and the lords tore and gnawed it wantonly, and toasted from time to time.

The victorious Ragnar shouted loudly: "God bless us! It seems that we can continue to make a fortune in Britain! I want to continue to attack their cities, brothers!"

Then there was a blushing lord who slapped the table and shouted: "Okay! I will participate in However, in the laughter and laughter, more lords objected very bluntly.

"Enough, I've made a fortune."

"I also think it's enough. If you continue to attack them, you will leave the ship, and the risk is a little big! And some of my people died in the daytime battle."

"That's right, brothers are here to make a fortune, not to settle here. Could it be that you want to rule here?"

They talk a lot, and there is only one core argument - there is no need to expand the results.

Drunk Ragnar looked at their attitudes, and his confidence quickly waned. Yes, I came here to make a fortune, how would these ruthless people follow me if it wasn't for this purpose?

He simply stopped mentioning it, and made a plan in his heart. The so-called is to count the spoils as much as possible in this city, and then the fleet went away. In the end, it's all about making a fortune! Go to other British coast cities to grab it again next year.

"Come on!" Ragnar swayed and held up his glass: "Let's continue drinking!"