Rise of Rurik

The kingdom's many defeats in the kingdom of East Anglia, and the hegemony of Mercia has fallen into twilight.

Revolting against Wessex's rule to restore the crown, Wigraf's expansion of land and the population of neighboring countries to revitalize the kingdom has become an urgent task.

Work hard to rectify the internal affairs and then rest with the people to recharge? In the environment where strong enemies are surrounded and the Vikings who cross the sea are harassing, if you do this, you will die faster.

Wigraf had just turned forty, and he was in his prime. He has an army in his hand, and after the previous kings, he continued to mercenary foreigners, and then used a large army to suppress the dissatisfaction of the domestic people, and cooperated deeply with the church to protect his hard-won kingship.

The warm summer winds swept the plains on both sides of the Don, and the Mercia and Northumbrian armies were still facing off in the village of Dole (Sheffield).

It's just that things have changed in the last few days.

It was a bright morning, and in the king's tent, Earl Lindsay (later Lincolnshire) reported to his king with great interest: "Your Majesty, there is excellent news."

"Good news? That Ernred is willing to cede south of Roydis (Leeds) to me? What did your spies find out?"

"That's exactly what I want to say. Your Majesty, we were deceived by them." When he said this, Earl Lindsay was full of smiles.

"We were deceived? Are you happy? Their army is on the other side of the river."

"The army? No." The earl shook his head, "Ernred ran away with the main force, and the enemy's camp was full of old and weak farmers. Those who wandered along the river were just farmers in the clothes of the kingdom's warriors."

"Is this so?" Wigraf was furious, and felt a little bit strange about it.

The earl added: "Your Majesty, this is a good opportunity. In my opinion, Ernred will not give us the territory. His main force is withdrawn for unknown reasons, and the rest are vulnerable. Let us not waste time here. , first take the village on the other side of the river, we will capture their people, and then we will fight for our army."

"Okay! Just do it!" Excited, Wigraf drew out his sword, kissed the hilt, and raised it to the sky, feeling that this was an opportunity bestowed by God.

The Mercia Army's camp suddenly rioted, and they desperately cut wood and assembled rafts to cross the river.

The priests who accompanied the army prayed for the thousand most elite warriors who were in desperate need of a ferocious raid. Each warrior kissed a large gilded cross, and then smeared his face with the holy water of rose oil, as if gaining infinite power.

In response to the change in the Mercia Barracks, the Northumbrian general Vitley, who was ordered to be stationed in the main camp, ordered soldiers to walk around the river armed with flags as usual to show the presence of the army.

Maybe today is a normal day too?

His rhetoric in front of the king was indeed more rhetorical, and now he leads nearly 2,000 troops, and it is nothing more than Chenbing Duole Village. He has self-knowledge, relying on a group of armed farmers to really fight the Mercia army on the other side of the river, and defeat is inevitable. Only by putting on a defensive posture and performing bluffing operations, as long as the time runs out, the crisis will be lifted.

At first, the villagers were afraid that the army was coming, but after so many days, the enemy had no plans to attack at all.

The village name started a normal life, and the Northumbrian warriors with no tasks to do stayed in the camp and slept.

Today is also a peaceful day...

There is a village woman who acts as a mistress for Whitley, and he himself has temporarily lost his fighting spirit.

However, under the cover of the thin morning fog, more than 20 rafts carrying nearly 200 Mercian warriors quietly completed the crossing of the river.

Earl Lindsay personally led the team. The two hundred men were all wearing chain mail, and their shields and swords were brand new. Their clothes are dark green, and they are almost integrated with the world around them.

The Count is not in a hurry to enter the army. Although he has the information of the spies, he does not dare to act rashly because it is too quiet here, so it cannot be a trap, right?

Until one thousand people all crossed the river, at this time there was finally a touch of morning sun in the east.

The Northumbrian warriors lazily got up and went to the toilet, although they saw a large group of warriors gathered by the river bank, and there were also a large number of soldiers standing on the opposite side of the river bank.

Go to the toilet? The soldier took it as a fright, and then shouted.

But it was all too late.

Earl Lindsay didn't bring any archers this time. He was a capable personal retinue, a soldier of the earldom, and an elite soldier loyal to the king. The thousand brave parts rushed to the Northumbrian camp in Dole Village.

The battle has basically determined the victory of Mercia from the very beginning! The victory of this Dawn Raid belongs to Wegraf, King of Mercia!

Although the battle itself is the responsibility of Earl Lindsay.

The Northumbrian general Whitley was almost pulled up from the bed, and the village woman who was sleeping for him was driven away.

He was bound with ropes and escorted outdoors. Also captured were nearly a hundred kingdom soldiers in orange clothes, and more than two hundred peasant soldiers.

"Happy! My anger has been blooded for months." Wigraf rode arrogantly around the occupied enemy military camp.

The warriors of Mercia were condoned and plundered, and the warriors eager to win are now no more noble than the true Vikings.

They occupied the barns in Northumbria, sorted the captives into different categories, and many immediately attacked the captured village women, and the situation could only have been more chaotic if the priest had not stopped it in time and threatened excommunication.

Earl Lindsay is more about capturing. A large amount of food and weapons can solve a major problem for the army. As for the next thing, perhaps the captured Northumbrian general can provide useful information.

If this person is a tough guy, the earl will not hesitate to serve him with severe punishment.

Unexpectedly, this man who called himself Whitley did not attack himself! However, what this man said was unbelievable.

"You are a liar. Come on, beat me first!" ordered the Count.

His warriors beat Whitley to the brink of blood, and his men continued to shout, "My king reinforces York! Here come the Vikings! My king is fighting them!"

Earl Lindsay vented and thought that killing him would outweigh the gain.

Wigraf finally came back, and after questioning, the words of the captured general really surprised him.

"I know that the Vikings are a group of unpredictable islands. Don't they only loot along the coast? Should your king bring the main force to fight them decisively? As for it?"

Whateley hesitated, and boldly asked his own end.

"You! Waste my time! You deserve to die!"

Hearing his sentence, Whitley did not ask for mercy, he faced everything calmly, and was finally hanged from a tree.

But Wigraf fully pardoned the other captured Northumbrian warriors, boasted of himself as a benevolent prince, and ordered them to immediately serve Mercia and fight for him.

The soldiers who were rude to the village women in Dole were sentenced to ten strokes of the cane by Wigraf in accordance with the old Roman army's habits, and ordered the villagers to watch.

Wigraf only wanted to rule the land on the other side of the Don River immediately, to immediately collect the three hundred new troops, and even the future taxes of the more than one hundred villagers of men, women and children. He also ordered the burial of the bodies of Northumbrian warriors who had died in battle, each with a final blessing from the priests of Mercia.

Wigraf did a show, he didn't want to be a tyrannical ruler in Northumbria, and it did cause the captives to defect immediately.

As for the fleeing Northumbrian warriors of a thousand men, they threw away their armor and fled back to Roedis soon after.

But when we got here, there were already dejected soldiers everywhere in the city.

The terrible news is that the king was defeated, and the king died in battle! Earl Roydis died, and his young son naturally inherited the title, but how can a ten-year-old child save the local crisis? The countess washed her face in tears, and the entire earldom was in mourning.

Even many people evacuated to the west coast, walked to the Manchester Fortress on the west coast, and even fled the border into the territory of Mercia.

Some people are also heading to the north, because after the death of the king, Osbot of the north can inherit the throne and belong to him, at least he can get shelter.

As the defeated soldiers of Dole Village fled back, the people in the city no longer dared to go to Manchester on the west coast. Who can guarantee that Mercia will not attack in an all-round way? Roydis City is no longer safe!

However, for the young new earl and his entourage, who were unable to control the situation, they were ready to move on the advice of the countess. If the Mercians come and submit to King Wigraf, everyone can still enjoy the glory and wealth!

But the chaos in Roydis lasted less than two days, with a small fleet heading upstream along the River Eyre, which flows through the city.

what ship is that? Why is it so special?

Once, the military and civilians here had extremely limited knowledge of the Vikings, and only a few travelers explained the news about the south to them, claiming that they were the apostles of Satan who had drilled out of the sea.

It was a legend after all, but the Vikings described by the warriors who fled into the city were more terrifying than the legends of the past.

The ship was getting closer and closer, and the soldiers guarding the city wall thought it was a Viking oars boat, but the king's flag was flying on the mast?

This is Ernred, and because of his cooperative attitude, the armies of Rurik and Magnut have ceased fighting under the newly signed treaty.

Ernred regained control of the more than 100 warriors who stayed outside the city, and he also entered Roedis by Viking longship, where he re-established his power.

Yevro escorted Ernred to arrive with a hundred brothers.

If someone else performed this task, Rurik was really worried. Only Yevluo and the others were calm.

The Viking army that attacked York was as many as 3,000 people. After a melee, only dozens of people were killed and hundreds of people were injured.

York has been firmly held for the new York Kingdom, all the wounded are temporarily here, and a group of sturdy Balmer warriors are stationed. The Ross-Balmerk coalition has gathered an army of 2,000 people, and has been on standby at the mouth of the river along the calmly flowing Ous River.

To conquer a large area, it is inevitable to divide troops to occupy them. This Viking army has been weakened by division, but their enemies have become exhausted from the previous war, and there is no need to worry about it anymore.

Rurik is waiting, waiting for Ernred to reconvene his men, especially recruiting troops in Roedis, the two sides form a coalition and join forces at the mouth of the Ouse River.

This should not be a long process, Rurik believes that Yevlo will complete the mission of sending each other well, and Ernred will not be stupid and rebellious.

But how did things go so well?

Ernred led his warriors off the Viking longship, and soon after, Yevro, who had temporarily put on a layer of Northumbrian orange robes, disembarked and followed closely behind.

To tell the truth, how Ernred hopes that these outsiders will never take off their army clothes, as long as they are willing to allegiance and convert, he would rather canonize a few new earls.

Even if the territory of his own kingdom has shrunk seriously, Northumbria is a kingdom recognized by the Holy See. Of course, his attempt to win over was immediately rejected by Yevro, which was extremely ridiculous. Yevro, who was a slave, took the title "Father of the Count of Finland" very seriously.

Seeing the Kingdom's army, the soldiers and civilians lost their vigilance. When they saw the broken-arm king holding up the king's jeweled sword, they immediately opened the gate.

"Come on, my friends, and I beseech you not to be rough with the people of the city."

The food officer Paul respectfully translated to Yevlo, who also restrained his subordinates.

In fact, Ernred wished to hang this Edinburgh grain officer, but without this traitor, it would be difficult for him to communicate with the Vikings.

Ernred entered the city dignifiedly, and the soldiers of the kingdom who had fled back saw His Majesty, and they all gathered, shouting that they were actually loyal to His Majesty.

There were even more than a dozen soldiers kneeling directly at the king's feet, all pointing to the south. Someone grimaced: "Your Majesty! The Mercia Army attacked our camp! We failed."

They were talking about the same information. Although Ernred was shocked, he thought about it, and now his confrontation with Mercia is meaningless.

Ernred went out of the peace, and he pardoned all those who wanted to desert.

The eyes of the military and civilians quickly settled on the fake Northumbrian warriors.

Yevro and other mercenaries came from different tribes and had complex identities, which was quite different from the Saxons in Northumbria. For example, most of them had beards that were combed into strange braids.

Ernred came with his son Ella, and the widow of Earl Roydis also brought her son to the king.

The young countess knelt at the king's feet, weeping and asking her husband's whereabouts.

Ernred said coldly: "Galfred died in battle. I found his body and it has been properly buried in York."

Hearing such clear news, the woman cried even more fiercely.

However, Ernred has no time to waste time with this woman, and even he has to give this woman a new identity.

"Your husband is a brave man, but... please let me go to the earl's mansion, and soon there will be the new palace, and Roedis will be the new royal city..."

The king came back with a small army, so the victory belongs to Northumbria?

On the same day, the people learned from the mouths of the real kingdom warriors who came back with His Majesty that the king had made peace with the invaders, and those soldiers with strange beards were actually Vikings.

The place where the couch was actually mixed with a savage slayer? There were so many different opinions among the people that there was almost no sleep for the soldiers and civilians of Roydis that night.

Although Ernred was uncomfortable staying in the mansion of Earl Roydis, it was a pity that he had no choice.

York Church was sacked by the Vikings, and the priests were killed. The Bishop of York himself was dead, and together with the relics of Lindisfarne they had long since taken away the treasures of Northumbria.

Days had to go on, and that night Ernred re-established his authority in the humble new palace.

A more prestigious priest was temporarily elected as Bishop of York. This person can only perform his duties, and his identity needs to be affirmed by the Holy See.

The matter of faith was naturally put aside by Ernred. He immediately conferred the earl's widow as the queen, reaffirming that Ella was the crown prince, and the two sons of the earl's widow were canonized as princes.

He even made a Viking barbarian like Yevro a baron if he converted. This kind of thing Yevluo has long said is impossible, and his brothers do not agree at all.

Ernred did not insist, because he was pleasantly surprised to find that when he threw an olive branch, some Viking men's eyes fluttered, it was definitely moved. As long as there is a possibility, how can it be unsuccessful in the future? Winning them with the power of faith and enticing them to defect with high-ranking officials and wealth, Ernred felt that this was a secret weapon, and even if it had an effect, it had to be a matter for the next generation.

Yevlo waited for the Vikings to sleep peacefully in the barn. He was afraid of being attacked, so they slept without removing their armor, and arranged for others to stand guard.

Ernred, who was in the bed of Earl Roydis, ordered the earl's widow, Diane, to sleep in the bed. Although the woman was reluctant, she did so.

The countess became the new queen, and they went through a very simple wedding and were recognized by the priest.

Becoming queen, Diane was not happy, especially after the king's inner words after serving the bed, she knew that the kingdom was defeated, Northumbria must rely on the protection of the Vikings to survive, and even the purpose of the king was to cooperate with her. The Vikings formed a coalition to conquer Mercia. What a humiliation and how strange the latter thing is.

"You just forget about your children, be loyal to me, be my queen, and be Ella's mother." Ernred suppressed Diane, revealing a trace of killing intent in his words.

"Your Majesty, what is the meaning of this..."

"Don't worry. My people are very quick and the children will leave without pain."

"You...you're going to kill my sons? No!"

"Rest assured, my queen, everything will be fine..."

The Countess became queen overnight, Diane struggled with crying, but Ernred vented his suffocation on the new queen.

The next day, bad news came as expected.

Last night, the two children who were suddenly canonized as princes were announced to have died of a sudden illness. Because Earl Roydis became extinct, the territory was immediately cancelled and taken over by the king.

The military and civilians are not fools. They know that this must be the king's secret murder, so why do they care about themselves?

The old officials of the Earl of Roydis, who are aware of the current affairs, all support Ernred to designate this place as the new royal city. They already know what will happen in the future, and there is no need for the king to announce anything.

There is still something to do.

In the city square, Ernred publicly announced the alliance of Northumbria and the Vikings, and claimed that the war some time ago was a misunderstanding and that everything was responsible for the invasion of the kingdom of Mercia.

This clumsy dumping, the trance Queen Diane was really sick, and unconsciously stroked her stomach, feeling that she was pregnant with the king's child. She was not crazy, she knew that she and her family needed the protection of the royal power, and the death of two sons was actually the king who cleaned up potential enemies for the safety of the crown prince.

Diane had nothing to say. She stood beside the king and looked at the soldiers and civilians screaming, feeling that the whole world was weird.

This is really very grotesque. The two waves of people who killed their heads and blood a few days ago actually constitute a coalition to attack others?

And this is already Ernred's only option. He must put all the responsibility on Mercia and call on the remaining people to seize the land of Mercia and continue to develop. It was also necessary to show the Vikings that he was the one who obeyed the treaty.

But when he announced the taxes that the people would pay, the people began to get angry again, but there was nothing they could do. That is the order of the nobles, and everyone must obey.

However, everyone still has an opportunity to loot the Mercians and use the spoils to make up for their losses caused by paying taxes.

The farmer and the kingdom warrior stood together, and Ernred pulled out an army of up to 3,000 people at once!

Compared to the past, the morale of his army has become stronger!

It's not that they became more and more brave because of the battle, but because of poverty and hatred, they became a group of hungry wolves, staring at Mercia...

This really surprised Yevluo, who did not expect them to have such morale? Unfortunately, it is still a group of weak.

Ernred didn't have time to stay at all. After organizing the army, he organized the army to walk along the Eyre River to the mouth of the sea the next day. Finally, on the third day after departure, the army was in the Gulf of Wusi. I saw a large number of Viking ships laying on the sea busy plundering local fishery resources.

The two sides meet!