The difficult siege made the Russians full of resentment. Just when they were worried that they could not vent their anger, enemy reinforcements arrived.
The horn transformed from a bull's horn blew a terrifying sound, and the large number of civilized people who came in for reinforcements were encouraged by the sound of the horn.
Now, on the ice not far away, a large group of weirdos gathered there.
Although it is a hazy world, the shapes of the chainmails and metal helmets worn by the Russians are really unique. In addition, they used a large number of round shields. The reinforcements of the Covin people took it for granted that the guys in the distance were the enemies.
The reinforcements got off the sled one after another. They wore special leather boots to allow them to move forward more smoothly on the ice.
Most of them were armed with short spears, the spearheads made of a variety of materials.
A small number of people's spearheads are made of iron or bronze, while the majority are made of obsidian, flint and bone.
They also carried many bows and a batch of arrows.
In addition, only a few personnel were equipped with iron swords purchased from the southern Fens or made by themselves.
Their numbers are overwhelming, but their weapons and equipment are so crude. It is their huge number that supports their strong self-confidence.
Because, for the first time in history, several tribes in the upper reaches of the river organized such a large army.
Of course, the number of enemy troops is a challenge for the Russians and Otto.
Otto, who shouldered the responsibility of a leader and stood in the front row of the battle, calmly warned his young subordinates: "Brothers, we may have a thousand enemies. Don't be afraid. They are very weak."
"They will rush over like crazy! Remember our battle tactics, let them rush, and stab their necks and stomachs! No mercy."
The young warriors listened carefully to the words of the big leader. Most of them were in their early twenties. Because they had witnessed blood in last year's war, they were already arrogant. This time they were fortunate enough to join the big leader in an unprecedented battle for the Ross tribe. This was What an honor.
This is the first time Otto has seen such a formation in his more than fifty years of life.
The Rus are ready here, their large bucklers fitting into each other to form a wall. But he lacks mobility! Otto himself did not make any innovations in the tribe's traditional combat formations. The warriors in the formation lacked further education in formation changes, so the current formation of the Russians lacked mobility.
They seemed to have formed a fortress on the glacier. Otto couldn't wait for the enemy to fight in person, so that the Russians could wait for work and give full play to their advantages.
The situation is of course changing. Otto has not innovated the traditional formation. Rurik has taught his young guys many new tricks.
The so-called top priority among new tricks is complex formation changes.
By shouting different words or waving a few flags, the children can create formations such as square formations, line formations, and hollow formations.
After all, they were children. After Otto saw with his own eyes that those children could make complex formation changes, he was first relieved to see his son's ability. Before encountering a real opponent, Otto could not understand the meaning of those strange formations. superior.
After Otto completed his instructions, the soldiers held their breath. Their shields covered half of the faces of the soldiers in the first row, and pairs of sharp eyes stared at the dark crowd on the ice in the distance.
Otto then ordered Jevro and other mercenaries in front of the formation.
"Yevlo, you just launch once and then get into our formation."
"Big boss, we can launch at least twice." Jevro suggested.
"No! You only have one chance. You are not archers. Remember, in wilderness fighting, only swords and axes can solve the problem."
Otto's words were actually meant for Rurik. He felt that his son had hired crossbows and bows too much, although these two long-range weapons did perform well in siege warfare.
He kept Rurik behind him and mixed with the archers.
The Ross army formed an arc-shaped formation. Otto knew that the two wings of his formation were weak, so during combat, the two wings could shrink inward, and the formation finally turned into a solid ring.
Otto feels that the most difficult time for the team is actually the moment when they are attacked by the enemy. As long as the team is not overwhelmed, the rest is a constant counterattack.
But now the situation has become very delicate.
On the glacier under the haze, the cold wind kept blowing the snow on the ice. The temperature was very low, and the cold air cut the bearded face of the soldier like a knife.
The Russians were fully prepared here. As the Kewen reinforcements saw their opponents clearly, they clearly felt an indescribable sense of fear.
Several leaders of the team felt the danger. After some discussion, they did not rush to attack. Instead, they sent five people who had been to the distant port of Narvik to explore the way first.
When Kewen reinforcements first arrived, the leader tried to negotiate with his opponent. If the negotiation failed, it would not be too late to start a war.
The huge number of people constituted their self-confidence, and the five envoys shouldered the missions assigned by their respective leaders.
In the final analysis, the leader's request is: put down your weapons and leave our land, otherwise you will all be killed.
There were eight hundred warriors, and the combined strength of all the tribes shocked even the Tavastians. Even though the legendary Varyags are strong men, and no one has ever seen them, their own strength is obviously very large, and the balance of victory is obviously tilted towards the Kovin people.
In response to this mentality, the five envoys, holding short spears (marching staffs), swaggered towards the Russian formation. Suddenly, all the Russian people became nervous.
Especially Jevlo, who was ordered to shoot all enemies who came close to the formation.
Yevluo turned his head hurriedly: "Big leader, they are coming. Do you want to attack?!"
"Attack!" Otto said without hesitation.
Ross did not want any form of negotiation with the other party, and Otto felt that this was not only unnecessary but also ridiculous. These Kevin people have no right to negotiate terms with the Russians.
As for not killing the envoys when the two armies are fighting, this tradition does not exist in the Viking world.
The five people were already close to the effective shooting range of the crossbow. Jevro personally picked up the crossbow and ordered the other mercenaries to be ready.
"Each of us aims at the target!"
"Remember, the aiming mark on the reed is aimed at the enemy's body!"
"emission!"
Those messengers were actually eighty meters away from the crossbow position, and Jevlo was nervous and ordered the launch in advance. Even so, these crossbows fully demonstrated their tactical advantages.
The powerful high-stretch steel arm drove the half-pound heavy arrow to fly out, and the powerful recoil also made the shooter's body jerk back.
Deliberately tilting the glued feathers caused the flying crossbow bolt to spin desperately.
Even though there was a cold wind blowing on the entire river, the rotating heavy crossbow arrow hit the swaggering five people with its strong wind resistance and strong potential energy in just over a second after being launched.
At this distance, the steel-armed crossbow developed by Rurik was still very powerful. Before the five messengers knew what was happening, they saw that their bodies were covered with strange things, and then they collapsed to the ground in great pain. , died after some extraction.
This scene was clearly visible to both warring parties.
Rurik, he never thought that his weapon could still achieve accurate shooting at such a long distance. The reality was so simple. After the enemy fell, he did not get up, and the enemy died.
Soon, Rurik was drowned in the cheers of his tribe. The warriors banged their swords on their shields, and everyone shouted at the top of their lungs.
The Ross people's momentum was so great that in addition to boosting their own fighting spirit, they also angered the Kewen reinforcements.
The courier who knew a lot of the local language of Narvik Port and was expected to contact the strange Varyag people died inexplicably in front of the Varyag people.
The Kewen reinforcements were stunned at first, and then all the leaders raised their iron swords high and gave the order to attack with ferocious faces!
The calm Otto saw this and shouted: "They are coming! Jevlo, pull back!"
"No! Chief, we can continue!"
After that, Jevro ordered his men: "Everyone kneels down and listen to my orders with their crossbows!"
However, it was the Kovin people's bows and arrows that took the lead.
Arrows began to fall on the ice not far from the Yevlo formation. Although he was safe, he would soon be within the enemy's range.
Facing the dark enemy rushing towards him, Yevluo nervously ordered: "Raise up! Launch!"
Therefore, people who know how to use a bow have figured out how to shoot arrows at a 45° angle, which has the greatest range. Everyone knows this experience for both warring parties.
Twenty crossbow arrows rotated in a low and flat parabola and hit the dense formation of Kewen's reinforcements. They fell, quickly inflicting serious injuries on as many as fifteen of the enemy's men. The injured did not know what had happened. The extreme pain forced them to stop charging and huddle on the ground. As a result, many of the injured were trampled to death by their own people.
"Come back quickly!" Otto shouted.
Jevro wanted to string the string again with his bare hands, but the soreness in his arm forced him to pause. The key was that the enemy's arrows had begun to fall in the Russian formation.
Jevro led his men back into formation, and the next step was to hold up his shield, not only to defend his master Rurik, but also to defend himself.
The arrows of the Kovin people began to crackle against Ross's big buckler, and the archers of the servant army also began to suffer casualties.
The archers of the Salmon Lord counterattacked on Otto's orders. They fired arrows into the air at a high angle of elevation in order to use an exaggerated parabola so that they inside the formation could shoot down the enemies in front of the formation.
The archers on both sides relied on the number of archers to carry out probabilistic attacks. However, the long reloading time of the most lethal crossbowmen prevented the Russians from having the opportunity to shoot for a long time, even if Rurik's men still had a thousand on hand. A crossbow arrow.
War is like Otto's and only sword and ax can decide the winner.
Otto shouted calmly: "They are coming! Prepare for impact!"
Those relatively short Kovin warriors wielded short spears and fearlessly charged at the beautifully painted round shields of the Russians. This was the case for a large number of Kovin warriors.
They jumped bravely, and many of them rushed into the Russian camp. As a result, these brave men were stabbed to death by the prepared Ross sword and shield bearers.
The Covins at the front crashed into the Russian shield wall, and those behind them bumped into their companions in front.
The entire formation of the Ross people moved backwards. They still withstood the strong attack of the Covin people. Otto no longer needed to roar and command what happened next.
There was no point in roaring because all the combatants were roaring.
Rurik, who was in the formation, felt that he could not help at all, and the same was true for the servants of the Salmon Lord.
Realizing that the enemy was deliberately attacking both wings, the Russians began to spontaneously shrink their formation. When the formation completely turned into a ring, a large number of corpses were lying under the feet of the Russians.
The shields were stained with blood, the chain mail was stained with blood, and the beards of the first row of warriors also turned a terrifying red.
The steel swords of the Russians were full of lethality. Each sword suddenly struck from the gap in the shield. The extremely sharp sword could easily penetrate the enemy's leather clothing, and an enemy could be killed with a single stab at this point. The splattered blood has bathed the heavy infantrymen in chainmail fighting in the front line in the dripping blood of the brutal killings.
They were covered in the blood of their enemies, and it was like a catalyst for madness.
Sixty elites wearing chainmail had suffered no casualties in the previous battles. Now, with their big mouths and faces covered in blood, they looked like man-eating monsters.
Otto was extremely happy that his people had entered a state of madness.
The large number of Korvins surrounded the circular shield wall of the Rus. According to the idea of the Korvins, as long as they continued to attack fiercely, the strange Varyags would definitely collapse.
As a result, those who were the first to break in were all dead.
As too many people were killed and injured, the following Corvin people finally realized what had happened.
They were holding their own short spears and were stunned.
Taking this opportunity, Jevro urgently ordered: "Crossbowman! Shoot!"
Rurik admired his Jevlo's on-the-spot reaction ability. When he saw Jevro holding the crossbow with both hands, he fired the arrow from the gap in the shield.
[Yuyou Reading] The wind brought by the flying crossbow arrows was also felt by the Russian warriors. Because the arrows flew right past their ears.
While the people of Kewen were stunned, twenty people suddenly fell injured.
From the eyes of his enemies, Otto could clearly see their fear and confusion. It happened that a group of his own warriors had gone berserk. The warriors needed to vent their anger through crazy killings and at the same time prove themselves to the gods. Strong.
Because the eyes of the gods are not blocked by haze.
It can be said that the winner of this battle was decided the moment the Russians withstood the enemy's collision.
Otto gave an order: "The gods have seen your bravery! The children blessed by Odin are by your side! Berserkers! Destroy all enemies!"
After receiving this order, the Ross warriors who were still shield-to-shield suddenly disbanded their solid formation.
The Russians began a full-scale counterattack, even though their troops were still at a disadvantage. Facing a large group of poorly equipped Kovin reinforcements whose morale was shattered, what was left was an unprecedented brutal killing that the Kovin people had encountered. , for the Russians, it was just a carnival of war.
Who doesn't want the honor of "Berserker"? Being called a berserker by the big leader, every young warrior hopes that he can be worthy of this honor, even if no one carries the strange mushroom sauce made by the high priest. Even without the use of a rare maddening potion, the red-eyed Ross now just wants to destroy all the enemies in front of him who are sent to death.
The morale of Kewen people was high just now, but now?
More than a hundred people have been killed in the contact battle, and the casualties of the Russians are only a few servants of the Salmon Lord's archers who were wounded by arrows.
The Russians, who had superior armor, weapons and physique, began a crazy counterattack!
Everyone is willing to believe that the fateful battle of "North Hunt" predicted by the high priest is actually this battle.
