A huge fleet was heading against the south wind. Everyone on board was wearing armor, and its scale was so large that it would destroy the world.
After yesterday's discussion, the only result that the dukes of each tribe came up with was that the offensives in this battle were not prioritized. No one in the mixed fleet is the real pioneer. Based on this situation, King Origen no longer wants to waste words or brains.
At present, the larger the troops, the more difficult it is to coordinate with each other. Fortunately, Origen personally led his troops to take the lead.
The Mälaren Army, which had the largest number of troops and the best equipment, was the complete vanguard. They advanced along the coastline at a speed of about seven knots, and soon after setting off again, they largely left behind the follow-up troops.
"Brothers! Keep paddling! Don't give those cowards a chance, the spoils are all ours!" Karl no longer cared about his status as the crown prince. He pulled away a seemingly lazy oarsman, and he sat down and shouted Slogans rock the oars as hard as they can.
Gradually, Karl and the three longships he led, in a triangular formation, became the real leader like a cluster of arrows.
Olegin stood at the bow of the boat, looking at his son running faster and faster, and couldn't help but grit his teeth.
One of his men worried: "King! If Arik runs too fast, will they encounter the enemy's main attack? It will not be a good thing if they encounter a siege."
"That's what I'm afraid of. Damn it, keep paddling and keep pushing forward."
It can be said that Karl's military adventure forced the entire Malaren Army to follow suit, which caused their speed to remain at a high level.
However, there were six large oarless ships following closely. Whenever he saw the following Rus' army, Origen was envious but also obviously filled with hatred.
Because the Russian ships relied entirely on sails, they were sailing against the wind, and their speed was actually the same as that of the Malaren army, which was a combination of wind and oars!
In this way, during a morning's sailing, the coalition forces were essentially divided into two echelons.
The leader of the Onkras and other large troops had given up. It's all because of my inferior skills, and I can't keep up with the pace of the Melalen and Ross people.
Any smart person knows that the speed of the Melalen people comes at the expense of overdrafting the physical strength of the warriors. However, those Russians, whose ships carry a large amount of supplies and people, can actually advance quickly on the sea. The Ross army did not suffer any physical losses. As long as they were willing to land and fight, they would definitely be extremely effective.
A young girl stood at the bow of the ship with sharp eyes. Carlotta held onto the side of the ship. She looked at the world in the distance, her spirit becoming increasingly vigilant.
Standing beside her were Otto and Rurik.
"Are we almost reaching your hometown now?" Rurik asked cautiously.
"Yes. War may break out at any time."
"That's fine." Rurik nodded and immediately ordered the mercenaries to pull away the oil pull on the torque slingshot.
This move made Otto, who was in a peaceful mood, suddenly cautious: "What? Rurik, did you foresee the danger?"
"Not yet. If there are, those three pretentious ships of the Melalen people will be in danger first." Rurik pointed to the three ships in the distance. They maintained the posture of going deep alone, "We are almost reaching the bay. , we should also prepare. Maybe we will encounter the Gotlander fishing boats first, dad, we should sink them."
"That's true. But, you want to sink them? Is that possible? Just rely on these weapons of yours?"
"Exactly." Rurik was not completely sure of what he said. There are differences between testing and actual combat, and even personnel negligence and nervousness can lead to a weakening of the torque slingshot's effectiveness.
The order to prepare for war was first passed on the Aurora, and then all ships entered a state of combat readiness.
People staying in the cabin were checking their bows and crossbows, and many people had gathered on the deck. Many wooden boxes filled with arrows were moved to the deck, especially the ammunition box for the torsion slingshot. Conical cast iron projectiles were piled randomly in the box, and then mercenaries began to carry wooden barrels filled with sticky seal grease (temperature It is semi-solid when it is lower), generously smearing grease to lubricate the slide of the slingshot, and even oil-soaking the torque hemp rope again to enhance the strength.
Origen often paid attention to the actions of the Russians, and when he saw that they were making extremely active preparations for war, he suddenly became nervous.
"Is it finally starting?"
Indeed, the battle started in an unexpected way.
Carr, who was essentially the vanguard, saw a small boat floating not far away. What is that if it's not a fishing boat? They are fishing boats, Gotland or Danish fishing boats! They are the enemy!
Karl yelled: "Brothers, speed up! Catch up with those enemies and kill them all!"
The warriors were so passionate about fighting that rowing like this was no longer boring. The oarsmen's feeling of exhaustion disappeared, only the desire for killing and the desire for wealth remained.
So, the unknown ship first discovered by the fleet really belonged to the Gotlanders?
Of course those ships came from Gotland.
Because Russian ships used advanced crossbows to plunder the waters south of the Åland Islands on Tombstone Island, the Gotland fishermen suffered considerable losses that could not be recovered in a short time. A large number of fishing boats were no longer available. Then go to the northern sea area for operations.
Since the Gotland-Danish coalition sacked the Ostara tribe of the Northern Alliance and scared away many tribes, the living space they left behind was of course laughed at by the Gotlanders.
The island of Gotland is only that big, and with a population of 20,000 people crowded on the island, the living space has become increasingly crowded.
In fact, Gotland is also a large island, with a width of 40 kilometers and a length of 140 kilometers. However, due to the current local production model, the land owned by the islanders mostly contains white sea sand. The poor land conditions have made the wheat yield astonishingly low. They rely more on raising sheep and fishing. Nowadays, the scale of pastures is becoming saturated, and fishing grounds have become dangerous battlefields.
If you could move to land, why not do it?
As many as six hundred Gotlanders have established their "Northern Market", namely Norrkoping, in the area of old Ostara.
This north is essentially for the Danes. Norrkoping can be said to be the northernmost geographical stronghold of the Gotlanders. The excellent developed pastures here suddenly became the source of wealth for Gotland immigrants. They raised sheep here, and naturally there were some Danish merchants stationed here, waiting to collect the latest sheared wool.
Having lost their large fishing ground, they discovered the fish resources in the bay. The Gotland immigrants fished in the Buluo Bay enjoyed by Norrköping.
If life is like this, these immigrants will definitely continue to live their lives.
Continue to expand? Unless Norrkoping's resources can accommodate the desire to immigrate, they will naturally continue to move north to seize territory from the Svealans.
Unfortunately, they miscalculated.
They felt that the rapid rout and subsequent destruction of the Ostara people proved that the northern Svealans were a bunch of cowards.
As for the Rus, the Gotlanders have long known the identity of this group of people. The Russians are as tough as the Danes. In the years of fighting, the Gotlanders have always suffered a disadvantage. They simply never regard this group of people as the same as the Svealans.
The Gotlanders misjudged the situation. Two years ago, they organized a massive army to invade Burrow Bay and swept away the locals with a devastating force. Now, the coalition forces from the north are seeking revenge.
Carl quickly caught up with the fishing boat, even as the fishermen struggled to break free.
Can [ ] a seal escape the pursuit of a killer whale?
Karl's boat directly docked with the fishing boat. The long boat was actually much thicker than the small fishing boat. The spear poked from the long boat directly killed the fishermen.
The four Gotlanders who rowed hard to free themselves became the first casualties.
Karl had no intention of paying attention to this boring boat. He was so excited from the initial killing that he stood up, hugged the bow of the longship, raised a throwing spear in his right hand and shouted to his brothers: "We continue to charge, and in the end Land first and kill their men, the women are yours!"
The already crazy people were stimulated by the blood and became even more excited. Now as many as a hundred people have entered a state that resembles berserkers, even if they have not eaten poisonous mushrooms.
Soon, the second fishing boat became the ghost of Carl's axe.
It has to be said that Karl was able to kill his wives and concubines in bed-sharing competitions, and even waved his fists at some of his subordinates. His manic side was easily revealed due to some stimulation. He is brave, fierce and possessive. Perhaps he is not good at strategy, but it is this bravery that makes him very qualified as a berserker.
His spear throwing skills were not low, and he hit three enemies in a short exchange.
His team also has very obvious shortcomings - a small number of long-range weapons and poor quality.
There were six fishing boats operating in Bullough Bay, but they were all destroyed by Carl's troops.
The Gotland fishermen either died on their boats or fell into the sea and sank and disappeared. Empty fishing boats floated on the sea, and subsequent ships had no time to pay attention to these boats.
Because the fleet has begun to turn collectively, heading to the right bay is the real battlefield.
The current situation no longer required Origen to roar at the top of his lungs. All the ships of the Mellaren Army were in full swing. Even though their longships were towing many empty boats (for hauling trophies), their speed became faster.
This is because after entering the bay, the south wind can flow into the bay area, and each ship receives stronger wind blessing.
The entire Malaren army turned around, and the Ross army that followed them just adjusted the position of the sails calmly, and all six ships adjusted their directions accordingly.
But now, even though Rurik was standing on the poop, he could see that the friendly ships behind him had turned into somewhat blurry dots.
Obviously, as the vanguard, everyone has left the second echelon too far.
Some empty fishing boats were floating aimlessly on the sea. Standing on the side of the boats, Rurik saw the dead people inside.
"They have achieved results. Rurik, leave these ships alone." Otto said seriously, squeezing his son's neck.
"No! We happen to be using these ships for experiments."
"Sink it?"
"Really!"
Otto became more interested. He held the side of the ship and watched the mercenaries operating the ratchet wrenches. The three torque slingshots on one side made squeaking sounds.
When the bow string catches the tenon, the tapered cast iron projectile is firmly seated in the chute.
These cast iron projectiles have sharp heads and are actually very small overall.
These torsion slingshots developed by Rurik have some of the same mechanical structures as the Roman Scorpion Crossbow, such as its elevation adjustment mechanism.
These torsion slingshots all entered the pitch angle state. Following Rurik's order, under the gaze of dozens of people on the ship, and even most of the entire fleet, three projectiles smashed over.
The distance between the Avora and the enemy ship was only ten meters. At such a close distance, the projectile maintained a large kinetic energy the moment it hit the target.
Although these projectiles cannot cut through solid oak wood at one time, for these fishing boats made of cheap pine boards, three projectiles directly cut three holes.
Soon, the projectiles were loaded again, and another salvo directly penetrated the side of the fishing boat. The power of the projectiles was not reduced much, and it actually penetrated the ribs of the other side of the boat. The ship already had eight obvious holes and water was pouring in at a rapid rate.
In full view of everyone, even Otto witnessed the entire process of the fishing boat sinking.
He had never seen anything like this in his life. No matter how bad the ship was, it sank in front of him after being hit by his own weapons!
Otto had to think more about this situation. If this was the enemy's real warship, how could the Avora's weapon just fire a few rounds of projectiles and turn the entire crew into drowned dogs? Such enemies will either sink directly to the bottom, or cling to floating pieces of wood and linger for a while. Without help from others, they will die in the vast sea.
Even the warriors who controlled the torsion slingshot found this unbelievable, as if they had received a divine power, or had been exposed to the divine power exuded by Rurik.
Actually? This is the power of technology.
It was a lie that Rurik was not excited, he was secretly happy in his heart, and teased his father with a smile: "Dad, what do you think? Are our weapons brave?"
"How brave! You actually succeeded."
"Of course!" Rurik pretended to sigh: "We can definitely make a bigger one, so that one projectile can destroy the enemy's ship. So we don't have to fight with the enemy because our ship is already very tall. , there is no need to fight. Now you have seen that we can sink enemy ships from a long distance, but the enemy is powerless against us."
"Wow! It's true."
Rurik narrowed his eyes and asked curiously: "So you know why I rejected Olegin's desire to buy a ship?"
"You! Oops! So that's it..."
Otto suddenly slapped his helmet, and then looked at the torque slingshot that had returned. He was pleased that the ships and weapons were still monopolized by the Russians. If the Mellaren people get a large ship with a combat capability similar to that of the Avrora, the Russians will suffer a loss.
With abundant ammunition, the Russians simply sank three fishing boats floating on the sea. Rurik estimated that the maximum actual distance of the torsion slingshot is about fifty meters. This distance is about the limit of the conical cast iron bullets that can penetrate the enemy ship's ribs. If the enemy replaces the oak ribs, it will require more power. A bigger torque slingshot enters the fray. Rurik did not quite believe that the fired "cast iron drill" could effectively destroy high-quality oak longships. .
The Russians simply came into contact with the "target ship", and they quickly began to chase the Mellaren fleet.
It is obvious that all the Mellaren forces have entered the fjord, and they are continuing to close in on the fjord, and their fleet is becoming more and more compact.
According to the agreement, the Russians had no reason or need to participate in frontal combat, and even support from afar, even shouting and cheering, were redundant.
Any killings that will occur on the shore have nothing to do with the Ross people for the time being, but according to the agreement, the Melalen people must take out the spoils.
The south wind that poured into the fjord gave Ross's sailing ship extremely fast speed. The Avora had caught up with the tail of the Mellaren Army, and now everyone on the ship saw what was happening in the distance. A group of Merlaren warriors have landed and they have begun fighting.
But the enemy...
Rurik couldn't help but frown: "Did our army attack too fast and the enemy had no time to prepare?"
He saw some dazed people standing on the shore not far away. Those guys seemed unaware of the danger, or were they completely frightened by the sudden army? It seems that some smart people are flying their sails and running towards the upper river of the fjord to escape.
"Look! The Malaren troops are landing." Otto slapped his son with his left hand. He held the patterned steel sword tightly in his right hand and pointed directly at the initial landing site of the Malaren army, which was a landing site where a group of Gotland ships were docked. .
