Rise of Rurik

The long boat was surfing the beach with huge waves, and a sword and shield player with braided hair and tattoos on his red back jumped from the top.

The huge round shield that can protect the entire torso is engraved with strange patterns, and some warriors wear masks that protect their entire faces, showing their fierceness.

The soldiers of the Northumbrian Army who had just endured two rounds of long-range strikes had not recovered from the sudden attack, and had to face the beach landing of such a menacing and strange army.

"Follow me to fight! Don't run away! Those who run away will be hanged!" Infantry captain John hopelessly raised his iron sword and roared, but he knew how to resist this army with only his frightened army?

Perhaps the first time the enemy fleet was discovered, the whole army retreated to a better-defended monastery, and the situation would not get worse.

Biyonni, Geiger, and all the self-proclaimed brave Viking warriors, without exception, put their shields against their entire torso, and charged forward with swords and axes in their right hands. Sword and shield hands are always in front, and hundreds of fighters in the weather are carrying short spears with axes, ready to give support to the brothers in the vanguard in the anxious battle of arms.

The poor Northumbrian army, they are not only at an absolute disadvantage in strength, but also in a mess of tactics.

After decades of civil war in the kingdom, apart from the decline of the people's livelihood, the quality of the army has not improved during the war. They even forgot the knowledge of fighting in formations. In previous wars, the chaotic fights where the sergeants rushed up, the most primitive "group fight" without tactical literacy, became the mainstream situation on the battlefield.

And the Viking army rushing over, they at least know how shields fit into each other to form a shield wall and press it up.

Only a little stronger than the Northumbrian infantry, these Vikings, mainly composed of Balmers, had an advantage as soon as they landed.

Hand-to-hand combat is inevitable.

More than 50 kingdom warriors who have not lost their creed are fighting on the front line of the fierce battle.

Even if their weapons were better, they couldn't bear to be attacked by a group.

They were sparsely overthrown with few Viking casualties.

That shield wall seems to be an indestructible stone wall! Only the archers in the barracks tower, their short bows can cause some damage to the opponent, which is only equivalent to mosquito bites.

The fifty or so fighters quickly died in battle, and the battle lines collapsed so quickly that the infantry captain John had no choice but to flee.

"Brothers! Follow me to the barracks!"

John swung the iron sword with all his might,

He was working hard to restrain his own men, and this move made him the target of public criticism.

Do not! He was only targeted by a crossbow.

The steel-armed crossbow that Biyonni was helping to take care of, skillfully and calmly aimed at the man in chainmail and orange, who looked like a "war chief" in any way, he pulled the trigger lightly, and the entire The man was stunned for a moment, and the fatal armor-piercing arrow slammed into the past.

The quenched conical carbon steel arrow cluster was originally used to deal with the heavy targets of the Eastern Roman armored cavalry level, and the chain armor must be easily opened.

John suddenly felt powerless and fell to the ground. He tried to get up, only to see that something had pierced through his heart. His mind went blank, and suddenly he lay down weakly again, and then he didn't get up...

Those confused Northumbrian warriors watched as their captain fell to the ground!

Falling to the ground means dying, and their last bit of morale crumbles randomly.

There were only two centurions left with their very limited brothers. Some ran to the barracks and tried to continue working on the pit, while others looked at the monastery not far away and threw them away without looking back. Weapons and even helmets, ran off to Bamburg in the south in a shameful light-packed posture.

Is the battle going to end in such a disgraceful way? Such a victory does not make one happy at all.

The attack target of the Viking army, which had almost no losses, was directed at the barracks. Even if there were wooden walls and towers for defense, how could the wooden walls be worth the Nordic forest axes of the Vikings.

The barracks was surrounded by Vikings, and the archers on the tower were like squirrels surrounded by wolves, helpless and fearful.

The Viking archers continued to shoot arrows, and soon suppressed the tower archers.

As the closed wooden door was smashed into sawdust by more than a dozen two-handed axe, everything was over!

The army rushed in, and the soldiers of the kingdom who had signaled their surrender were still slashed and killed, and the landing battle seemed to end there.

Gasherby's Geiger was panting, his face full of triumph.

He found Biyonni with a bloody hand axe, the axe pointed to the south: "Some cowards have run to the south, are we chasing them?"

"Cowards? Let them run away. It's getting dark now, and we've occupied this camp, just as our resting place. Soon the Russ will be ashore too, and before Rurik's ashore, we'll make the available ones here. Scraped clean."

Geiger was a little puzzled, and his axe pointed to the east again: "That is the monastery. Now, we are taking advantage of the happiness of our brothers and rushing over to occupy the monastery. We can hold the gold and silver for the night."

Biyonni thought of this as well, so he quickly climbed to the wooden wall of the barracks and shouted at the brothers who were searching everywhere: "Brothers! Forget about this boring camp, let's attack that altar (referring to the monastery), Let's capture it before dark!"

The morale-filled army raised the sword and axe high, and at this moment Biyonni felt that he had indeed become the commander of the army, and even the king of the Balmers!

Viking warriors rushed out of the barracks one after another, and some of them had changed into new captured weapons and even leather boots pulled from enemy corpses.

And a few soldiers pulled out a few frightened women from a wooden shed and questioned Biyongni: "Boss, these women do this?"

"They?" Biyonni recognized at a glance that this was a soldier recruited by his family, and instantly understood the identities of these strange women: "These women are slaves raised by those people, keep them all and bring them back. Just like this, how many of you? One guards this camp, and the others follow us to the monastery to grab the gold!"

As soon as these words came out, those Viking warriors who were still complacent, they simply raised their knives and followed up with the large army. At this moment, the Northumbria military camp that had just been occupied was equivalent to being abandoned again.

Now for the Viking army, there is nothing more wonderful than catching gold.

Biyonni was just not interested in capturing some women, and in the entire occupied barracks, he was only interested in the few horses he captured. He simply rode on the horse, but unfortunately the situation was too different from the fantasy. These full-time hauling horses are really docile, but urging them to gallop is really hard.

In the fjords of Bergen, local people have domesticated and bred local horse breeds since ancient times, but the local Vikings have long let them pull carts and load things, and it is also a recent thing to ride on horseback.

Biyonni knew about riding a horse. The Viking army ran towards the monastery. Biyonni was the most beautiful boy in the army.

"That guy...how did I see Biyonni riding again?!" Rurik at the bow squinted and couldn't help sighing.

And Yevro also shouted at the right time: "My lord, I found that the tide is rising. The matter of our landing..."

"Do it quickly." Rurik turned his head and urged: "It is difficult for those people to break through the stone walls of the monastery, and our heavy weapons will be in place as soon as possible."

The workhorses in Avroola's cabin were tied with ropes and pulled out of the deck by the soldiers and sailors. Such a laborious operation once made everyone feel that this is necessary?

The horses were finally hoisted into the longships, followed by torsion slingshots and trebuchets.

This is a transportation process that takes time. It stands to reason that the large ship can suspend operations and go straight to the monastery after pulling out the anchor.

However, the well-informed sailors noticed that the area where the monastery was located was definitely a tidal island, and there were large areas of tidal flats that might not be knee-deep.

The big ship can naturally rush up, but the result must be terrifying grounding. If the last rising tide cannot lift the big ship, the result will be fatal.

The Avrora could knock down one enemy longship after another, but Rurik was the only one who dared not take the risk of running aground.

Naturally, Rurik could not provide support to those Balmerk Vikings, and after all, the siege had begun.

Thousands of warriors stepped on the road leading to the monastery, which resembled a breakwater. The people on the road were fighting against the sunset. They just wanted to get gold and silver, but they never noticed that the tide was rising.

Finally, they rushed to the outer stone wall of the monastery.

According to the beliefs of the priests, they were priests, and naturally they could not take up arms and fight.

At this moment, all the priests in the monastery finally realized that the legends of the past were definitely not made up by their ancestors. Tragic history repeats itself! The sea barbarians killed again, and the goal must be to sack Lindisfarne Abbey again, and everyone will be killed without exception.

While priests cannot fight in person, warriors fighting on the walls need divine blessings!

The priests climbed to the wall with huge wooden crosses, and the bishop of the monastery poured holy water on the defenders with cypress branches. He tried his best to suppress his panic appeal: "This is the holy place of St. These savages destroy the purity of the sanctuary. God forgive your sins, God is with you, fight for your faith..."

Perhaps this instruction really had an effect. The tense Northumbria's less than 100 defenders burst into strong morale!

Because this monastery was built by "Saint Cuthbert", a preacher of Northumbria, whose remains are buried in the cemetery of the monastery, and the "Saint Cuthbert" he wrote during his lifetime The original handwritten parchment of the Lindisfarne Gospels is placed in a solid gold "holy ark" in the monastery.

This monastery does contain a lot of gold and silver, but they are almost all sacred artifacts. The defending soldiers have realized that the wealth of the monastery is probably like a big push of fat, which has attracted the bite of beasts.

The defenders stood on a stone wall of about three and a half meters. The stone wall stacked with granite and reinforced with logs really constituted a solid line of defense.

Biyongni and the others were already standing under the stone wall, and a group of warriors were already repeating their old tricks, smashing the door with a big axe.

The monastery has only one road to land, and once the tide rises, the road is closed. The defenders only need to hold the front wall and wait for the tide to rise. If the enemy does not withdraw, it will be submerged in the sea to feed the fish!

The centurion who received the blessing of the holy water was very aware of his major disadvantage, and immediately ordered his subordinates, no matter what kind of thing they use, try their best to block the wooden door. Therefore, a group of wooden carts and sundries were pulled by the soldiers desperately to the wooden door and piled up.

The soldiers at the head of the city, while desperately shooting arrows, also began to throw stones.

Those crowded under the city wall, who were unable to climb the wall with their bare hands, were hit on the head by stones.

At first, some Viking warriors were directly smashed to death, and one person stepped back while clutching his injured arm.

The axe-wielding men who slammed into the door were the hardest hit, and even though they were shielded by their brothers' shields, they were still taking losses.

Geiger, who was trying to take the lead and rushed in to loot first, finally realized that the momentum was not right.

The big guy who smashed the door in the door kept shouting: "The door is too strong, we can't smash it!"

"How can it not be smashed! Hold on." Guyger yelled.

"Geiger! Come up with a solution, they keep throwing stones, the brothers can't stand it!"

Guyger and his work persisted, while his younger brother Esbjörn burrowed straight into the city gate.

"You kid! How did you come here?!"

"Big brother, Biyonni and the others are already retreating." Esbjorn roared angrily.

"Damn it! That guy is a coward again."

"No. They found that the water was rising, and if we didn't pull back, the water would drown us all."

"Damn it! Damn it!" Geiger beat his chest in anger and yelled again: "He clearly called everyone to attack now, but he chose to withdraw. Brother, what about the Rus people? What is Rurik doing? Why haven't you supported it yet? ?"

"The Russ are carrying things, they are not in the war at all..."

"Enough is enough." Geiger almost gritted his teeth. He didn't know how the tide was rising, but the light was really getting dimmer. If the battle drags on into the night, it's not good for anyone.

Although Biyonni was unwilling, and even complained that Rurik’s support was not in place, the tide was indeed rising rapidly, and the result of procrastinating for some time was fatal.

He took the lead with his 200 men, dragged the dead bodies and retreated, and the captured horses were also used. It is obviously disrespectful to the brothers who died in battle, but it is the greatest tragedy to let one's brother fall into the hands of the enemy.

Seeing that Biyonni, the most powerful soldier, had run away, the other clan leaders had the intention of retreating when the momentum was not right, and now they can follow suit.

As for the Bergen settlers in Shetland, they really had no shame, they just followed the army, and they all retreated to the coast when they saw the war situation. They mingled with Rurik's men, and Rurik himself learned of the situation ahead.

Looking at the people who were withdrawing one after another, Rurik frowned in the sunset and couldn't help underestimating: "It seems that we need to build some ladders to climb the wall, and make a battering ram to smash the door."

In the end, a hundred people from Gashebi retreated under the leadership of Guyger. No one was killed in the battle, and the corpses were dragged away by their companions.

When they reached the passage, they were already facing knee-high sea water.

Behind them, the Northumbrian defenders shouted Hariri, thanking God for their protection, and someone cursed the fleeing Vikings.

Although Guyger could not understand the words, he knew that he could hear the vicious tone in them.

"Wait for me. Tomorrow! When we rest, we will kill you all to pieces..."