Longships washed up on the beach one after another, and Mälaren warriors swarmed into Norrkoping, which the Gotlanders established on the ruins of Ostara.
After regaining his strength, Karl obtained this new group of troops, and then took the remaining soldiers with him, together with the hundreds of "black warriors" raised by his father, and began a comprehensive counterattack.
The ensuing battle can be described as elite against elite. Both sides of the war are wearing iron helmets and chainmail. The Malaren army still has an overwhelming advantage in strength. Those "iron guys" have no chance to escape.
The very hard tempered chromium iron axes of the Malaren Army directly broke the enemy's chainmail, but they were also smashed by the wrought iron axes pounded by the enemy. In fact, even extremely hard chromium steel weapons are difficult to demonstrate tactical advantages in the current melee.
In the cramped battlefield in the village, the side with the advantage in number of troops and physical strength of the warriors is using brute force to win.
All the Gotlanders who dared to resist were killed. Some Malaren soldiers dragged wailing women and children from the wooden houses. If they dared to resist, they directly assassinated them. Then they began to loot wealth, looking for silver coins, copper coins and gems. , and even all valuables such as cloth and leather. Especially the Melalen peasant soldiers who mixed in, they were the most greedy, but they were also surprisingly a little "mercy".
For example, Olegin ordered his black army to attack. These guys who usually eat the king's salary can be said to attack indiscriminately, but they are poor peasant soldiers who hope to get rich in a battle. Once they capture a female prisoner, their first priority is to protect them. live. It cannot be said that this was truly merciful, just because they wanted to take the captive back as their wives, nothing more.
They intend to pull these prisoners to the coast. As for whether the king will fulfill his long-cherished wish, it depends on the king's decision.
But in doing so, they completely lost a real feast of looting.
Aren't those enemy "iron guys" suddenly transformed into berserkers?
They themselves are guards raised by a wealthy family. They always wear armor to protect their master's wealth-silver coins and leather.
The so-called big businessmen were essentially instructed by the Danish leader to lead a group of elite warriors to do business in Norrkoping to make profits for the leader "Lion Hafgen", and at the same time symbolize that this place was a Danish-controlled area.
As those warriors from Denmark, who were covered in chainmail, were overrun and killed by the Mälaren army, which had an overwhelming advantage in strength and weaponry. A wooden house area where the big Danish family and Denmark's strength was located had been overrun by Mälaren. Surrounded by legions.
What’s even crazier is that Karl led a group of soldiers and kicked open all the wooden doors without ceremony. This man was violent towards his own women, and naturally showed no mercy to the wives and concubines of his enemies.
Finally, the well-dressed guy who could tell he was rich at first sight was stabbed to death by multiple short spears in the rebel army.
Karl looked at the tragically dead corpse and couldn't help but spat: "Really, so many of my people died when dealing with such a rich man. It's a pity that a good leather coat was ruined by so many."
A little leader wearing ink chainmail with a crazy expression on his face followed Karl closely, "Sir, the king asked us to look for gold and silver. The brothers have gone to catch their sheep, what should we do? Here It looks like..."
"Look for gold! Find it for me! Dig everywhere for me and find the gold they buried!"
Just as Karl was out of breath and issued an order, a soldier hurried over to report the good news, "Sir! We found their silver box. Also, a large number of sheepskins?"
"Really?" The excited Karl grabbed the man's neck directly.
The soldier muttered in great pain: "Yes... yes! It's all a wooden house."
"Let's go! That's all my wealth. Leave my father alone and take me to see it!"
Soon, Karl and his men took control of the main treasure they found, which was two wooden boxes of silver coins. The weight was really gratifying. The bulk of the goods were naturally sheepskins. They were piled on top of each other, almost filling the entire wooden house.
The armored warriors played with the silver coins, and many subconsciously stuffed them into their clothes. They dare not stuff too much, for fear of being blamed by noble people. But after really seeing so much wealth, Karl, who was so enraptured by the wealth, didn’t pursue so much.
He looked at the dense wooden house and gritted his teeth as he sighed: "You really deserve to die. I lost so many brothers just for this little money?"
"Sir, are we going to move the loot out now?" The soldier, who had secretly taken a lot of silver coins, hurriedly hinted Karl to do more damage.
"Move out now. You carry your things to the beach, and take care of them with your brothers. After that, burn all these houses!"
After receiving the order, the crowd was excited. All the Melalen soldiers present knew that they would definitely get a share of the pie after the battle. There were so many sheepskins here, wouldn't it be easy and reasonable to get one in battle? In this way, those brothers who died in the battle did not die in vain.
No, just as they started to carry away the bundles of sheepskins, there were already soldiers stripping off the dead people's clothes.
What they took off were the chainmails and helmets of those "iron guys", even if they were stained with blood. All the armors were pulled off, revealing twisted and deformed blond heads. The deceased all stared blankly in their eyes, proving that they were killed in battle.
To such a ruthless character, the Melalen warriors had no intention of insulting him. They respected such warriors and collected their bodies spontaneously. As for the Gotlanders who were only wearing civilian clothes, their bodies were still lying on the ground and no one cared about them.
As many as a thousand sheep were severely frightened during the battle. They were completely controlled by the Mellaren invaders, and the owners of the sheep were all killed. In fact, the Gotlanders had more sheep. The shepherds took their sheep to graze. When they saw a lot of smoke coming from the settlement, they felt that something serious had happened and they very wisely chose to hide first.
The sheep were driven by the Mellarens to their landing grounds, and a swarm of white things squirmed on the beach.
Rurik originally just wanted to take a good look at what the Mellaren people would do after the battle was basically over. He raised his head and squinted his eyes, and was surprised to see the sheep.
"Huh? Did they get a surprise?"
This was Carlotta’s hometown. Rurik rudely dragged the mentally ill girl back to the bow deck of the ship.
Carlotta raised her eyes and looked into the distance: "Ah! Those are actually sheep!"
"Yes, the sheep. Carlotta, what do you think?"
"That's our sheep! It must be ours!" Carlotta said anxiously with a cry in her voice.
"Um?"
Carlotta was depressed because of the horrific memories, but now that she saw the sheep, her grief and anger came back to her. Rurik noticed the girl's clenched fists and her desire to get the sheep back.
"Those are our sheep! That must be it. We took nothing with us when we fled, only a few Ostarans escaped. They captured our cattle and sheep, and they are ours. Ah! Now the sheep are being hunted by the Mellarens..."
Carlotta's arbitrary statement is partly true.
When the Danish allied forces arrived here, some Gotlanders took over and built a new town, Norrkoping, on the ruins. The plundered sheep naturally became the means of production for the new settlers. Coupled with the import of a batch of sheep from Gotland, the scale of the local sheep flock has expanded. While meeting the needs of local people, they can also sell surplus wool and leather products. Norrköping has become a A "wool production base".
The anchored Avlora was anchored on the sea, and the distance between the ship and the land was only 200 meters. Carlotta, who seemed to have very good eyesight, could clearly see the Malaren people slaughtering sheep in public, and they were already celebrating. My own victory.
It is the right of the victor to enjoy the spoils of war for the first time. Carlotta felt cruel but could not interfere.
Rurik looked open-minded and patted Carlotta on the back: "Don't worry, after we land, we will go and tell Olegin that we will at least get you some sheep."
Carlotta nodded, her clenched fists relaxed, and she looked at Rurik with tears in her eyes. She didn't know what to say other than thanking her.
The Malaren Army encountered some setbacks in the battle and lost some troops, but in terms of the results, it was a complete victory.
Origen had never experienced a real large-scale battle in his life. Just as Otto said, this old guy's world view was always limited to Lake Malaren and the surrounding areas.
Origen ushered in the biggest victory in his life. He learned from the news obtained by his son that the fiercest resistance was actually the guys in iron armor who launched a counterattack. They were all elite Danish warriors.
"Elite? What I fight is the elite! The legendary brave Danes are nothing more than that!" He patted his son Karl on the shoulder, quite satisfied with the spoils of the battle.
Look, two boxes of silver coins were placed in front of him. It was said that the money was not much. Considering that this settlement was established by Danish and Gotland invaders, they naturally would not put too much money here.
The flock of sheep and the abundance of hides made Olegin jump with joy. He was the king, and he lost less than ten of his eight hundred elite "black warriors." He can declare that the spoils of war belong to him, or at least he has the right to distribute them. If there is anyone who refuses to follow, eight hundred elite soldiers are here, who dares to say no?
There were already cases where the Melalen people caused fires during the robbery. They pulled women and children out of the wooden houses and did not care about the burning of the houses.
On the beach, a small group of poor women held their children. In fact, many of them had been killed. Those who survived seemed to be the lucky ones. What about reality? What awaits them is separation of flesh and blood and even more cruel torture.
Origen was not a good person. Besides, the Gotlanders destroying the Ostara tribe was tantamount to urinating on his head. For this shame and humiliation, he felt that he had to use the most violent means to vent his anger.
He instructed his son Karl: "The existence of this Norrkoping is an insult to you and me. Take your men, burn all the houses, let the Ostara girl see it, let other people's armies see it, It was us, the Mälaren Army, who defended our dignity."
"Okay!" Karl was planning to indulge the devil in his heart during the arson. He pointed to the trembling captives gathered not far away: "What about those women? Are they slaves?"
"Bah! That's a damn burden. We have to expand the war and let more enemies die. Wouldn't keeping those women distract the soldiers?"
Karl felt that he understood what his father meant, so he drew his sword: "I understand, I will arrange for people to kill them all. Or it is not too late to make the brothers happy first."
After that, Karl was about to take action with his brothers.
"Wait!"
"Huh? Father, are you hesitant?"
"Yes, I changed my mind."
"Why? Aren't they a burden?"
Origen pointed at the Russian sailing ship: "We have an agreement with them, and we owe them a debt."
"That debt? In my opinion, they should respect us. Do you want to give them a batch of property? I don't want to..."
"I don't want to either, but..." Origen sighed deeply, "As a man and as a king, I must have faith. Let's do this. All those captives will be sold to the Rus to pay off our debts."
"What about the price?" Karl asked cautiously.
Origen looked at the sky and thought for a while: "Let's do this! Keeping men is a disaster. The Russians will definitely not want them if they want to come. You kill all the men. One pound of silver coins for a woman and half a pound for girls. That's the arrangement."
Karl nodded and really started to take action.
So Rurik, who was watching not far away, soon saw a thrilling scene. When he and Carlotta saw clearly the terrible things that happened there, even Rurik, who boasted that he was not afraid of bloody battlefields, was frightened. Return to the cabin.
Norrköping, the northernmost stronghold of the Danes, was built on the ruins of old Ostara. Just two years later, it would return to ruins and turn into scorched earth.
A group of desperate women had their hands and feet tied and their mouths stuffed with cloth.
In the Viking world, boys as young as ten were usually treated as warriors. If it were just a tribal war, the losers would naturally be made slaves. However, this time Origen simply responded with tit for tat. He was also approaching his death age, so he felt no guilt or even pressure to use such cruel methods.
Babies were also killed by the Mellaren army, and the surviving women and girls have become a commodity, just waiting to be sold to the Russians. Of course, some Melalen warriors had indulged themselves in the benefit of Karl. They didn't care about the disheveled and miserable women. After tidying up their armors, they went to slaughter the sheep and roast them.
The burning Beiköping ignited fierce smoke, which was the best signal, leading the belated troops of various tribes to approach.
The Onkras Army, the Hjelmalen Army, and even other units arrived belatedly. They complained that the battle was over, and they were busy rushing on their way, and gained nothing new except panting.
When they began to wash up the beach, the Mellaren Army had already prepared the first batch of worms with them and set up camp on the beach of the Gotlanders.
At this moment, Otto had already completed the landing with a group of personnel escorting the rations belonging to the Maylaren Army.
The captured local pottery urns began to cook wheat, mutton, and some fresh onions.
As many as three hundred sheep had been slaughtered, the fresh sheepskins gathered up, and all became the king's property.
Otto, Rurik, and even Carlotta landed. There were many short children following Otto. This scene really made Origen feel ridiculous and boring.
In the tent set up by the surprise attack, Olegin only allowed Otto to enter. Because of the victory, he became arrogant.
"You've finally landed, and I've delivered all the food. Well done, Otto."
Since he realized that Origen was also killing prisoners, he didn't expect that this person would do such a stupid thing. Seeing Origen's arrogant face again, Otto felt that this guy had become a loser. Surface work still needs to be done. Otto replied with a sullen face: "We will deliver food to you as agreed."
"Oh? Did you really follow the agreement? I noticed that you were shooting arrows at the enemy. The whirring sound of the arrows revealed your identity. You are not just sitting idly by."
Otto was not panicked, he was just surprised that his worries came true: "But we did not intervene personally. My soldiers did not land to fight."
"That's true. Your arrows are very powerful, but the key to victory is to fight in battle." As he said, Olegin pointed to the outside of the curtain: "More than fifty Danish warriors died on this battlefield. They They were covered in iron armor, but they were all killed by our army, which shows that our Mellaren Army is indeed the mainstay of the coalition."
"Yes, I have always recognized your power." Otto agreed with a dull face.
"There is no one else here now, and all the leaders have not landed yet. There are only you and me here, and I am just about to talk to you about repaying the money."
"Will you share the spoils with me now?"
Otto felt that this matter was a bit strange. After all, he and Rurik calculated that the Malaren Army would actually repay the debt by delivering food during the autumn harvest.
Origen said categorically: "It's now, but it's not silver coins. We have an agreement that I can repay the debt with goods of equal value, so I decided to use slaves."
"Slave? Is he a prisoner of war that you captured?"
"Exactly. I have more than a hundred women and more than fifty girls, and they are worth at least fifteen thousand silver coins. Please be sure to accept these slaves. You must!"
Looking at this guy's arrogance, Otto felt like he was being asked to refuse.
However, suddenly acquiring a group of slaves was not part of his and Rurik's plans.
Otto deliberately asked tentatively: "Why is there no man? Even a boy."
"They dared to resist and were killed by our army."
When Origen spoke, his eyes were full of viciousness, and Otto thought that the matter must not be that simple.
"What if those women...I don't want any of them?"
"You dare!" Olegin, who had been sitting cross-legged, suddenly stuck his head out, then slowly retracted his body and laughed: "They are all enemies anyway. The child Carlotta is also outside the account, I can let her in , I think she will be satisfied with my decision."
"In the end what you want?"
"Since you don't want to, I will instruct my men to kill all those prisoners. Listen, my old friend!" Olegin pointed his dry big hand to the south: "We will continue to go south to attack the real Danish stronghold. We The Mellaren Army is the main force, so it is naturally free of any burdens. These women are burdens, and I advise you to buy them."
"you!"
At this moment, Otto really wanted to yell "I just don't want it". When he thought that the eastern settlement of the Ross tribe would always be very short of population, his heart softened. Besides, if he really sat back and watched Origen continue to kill prisoners, that kid Rurik would definitely be furious.
As the Duke of Ross, Otto certainly has the right to make his own decisions. It's just that he has self-awareness, and even his own wisdom is definitely insufficient.
"Otherwise. Let Rurik come in to discuss. Carlotta also has something to ask of you."
Olegin glanced at Otto: "I didn't expect that Rurik is the real Duke, and you actually want to listen to your son's decision. Unlike me, no matter how wild Karl is, he will always be a docile puppy in front of me. No matter what, I am willing to deal with that kid..."
