Arrows pierced the air, and the sound of whooshing was endless.
The Gotlanders had only two ships, one of which had completely lost its ability to sail under the constant shooting of the Russians.
Seeing this, the boat behind them no longer cared so much. They turned around urgently and tried to escape.
There were thrown arrows falling from the sky, and there were also projectiles fired from the torsion slingshot, causing terrible splashes around the ship.
"They want to escape! Sailor, control the sail, we will catch up with them!" Rurik gave the order while also holding on to the side railings with both hands.
The triangular shape of the Avlora suddenly adjusted its wind-receiving surface. The entire ship turned sideways and suddenly turned at a low radius. Compared with the Gotland's rowing long ship, her turn was more elegant and faster.
The Avora showed her due super maneuverability. With just one exciting turn, she passed by the enemy ship that was dying of being hit, smashed a bunch of wooden oars with its bulbous bow, and rushed to the first place. The sides of the two ships.
The distance between the two sides was less than ten meters. At such a terrifying close range, the Russians did not hesitate to launch a new round of shooting from above.
look! It was a torsion slingshot coming from the side. The mercenary lifted its rear end hard, and the slingshot came with a solid blast!
With two dull sounds, two of the three projectiles successfully hit the longship's inner ribs and penetrated it directly!
Even if the hull is made of oak, its weakest point will always be the sides.
In an instant, two jets of water surged up from the Gotland ship. The strong water pressure was difficult to block, and the ship was leaking rapidly.
However, the Russian attacks continued.
The attack of arrows left the Gotlanders with nowhere to hide. They wanted to fight back, but the tools in their hands were like firewood sticks in autumn, which were useless. They raised their shields to resist in vain, only for their shields to be chipped away by the steel-armed crossbows.
The battle was one-sided. With the continuous firing of torsion slingshots and the support of slingshots from neighboring ships, the last Gotland longship had been riddled with holes and was sinking at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Soon, the ship sank completely, and the dead immediately sank to the bottom to feed the fish. The blood of the injured stained the sea area red. At this moment, there were still more than ten living Gotlanders, scrambling to hold the floating wooden sticks in the sea waves. Up and down, diving from time to time to avoid arrows shot by the Russians.
They became the perfect prey. The Russians on the boat stretched out their fingers and laughed wildly, speaking dirty words on their lips, showing their disdain and contempt vividly.
Is this how the battle ends? ! He leaned over and looked at the handful of living people floating on the sea. Before the battle, Otto knew that he would win, but he never thought that winning would be so simple and easy.
He remained calm and said to Rurik: "That's it. We don't need to worry about them. Let these enemies float on the sea and die naturally."
Admit it, no matter how low the salinity of the Baltic Sea is, it is still salt water. These enemies will soon die of dehydration if they float on the sea.
The Rus could ignore them, or show mercy and kill them now.
Rurik also leaned over and looked at them. Although they were enemies, the eyes of these guys holding the broken trees were begging for mercy.
beg for mercy? joke! Who will forgive the pirates?
Yes, Rurik now defines these people as pirates. When dealing with pirates, Rurik showed no mercy and dealt with them more brutally. Apart from avoiding them, the tribesmen were eager to see the pirates tortured to death.
But these enemies were defeated after all. They must be Gotlanders. So what is the current situation on Gotland?
"I think these people are still useful." Rurik replied solemnly.
"Huh? You...you actually want to be merciful to these filths?!"
"How is that possible! At least after we ask them about their situation, it is not too late to kill them all. We need information about Gotland Island so much."
Otto nodded and motioned for his men to throw down the rope ladder.
The Aurora temporarily furled its sails and lowered the rope ladder. The panicked floaters felt that they had a chance to survive. Even if they were slaves, it would be better than being fish feed!
They climbed up the rope ladder one after another, and in shock boarded the big ship they saw for the first and last time in their lives. It was also the first time they boarded the ship of the hateful and terrible Russians.
As soon as they landed, they were beaten down with a punch by the prepared Ross warriors. Then they were tied up with prepared hemp ropes and thrown into the corner, and were closely guarded by sword and shield men.
Eight people successfully boarded the ship and were successfully captured. The ninth and last person was shot through the neck by a steel-armed crossbow at close range just because the ropes used to bind them were used up. Falling into the sea with a sound...
They thought they could survive, but what they waited for was a brutal interrogation by the Russians.
To prevent them from being dishonest, Otto ordered his men to punch and kick them. Although this act was too violent, Rurik stood on the bow deck and watched. Because they were bound to be executed, he should think of a way to execute them, at least not too violent.
The eight captured people were beaten with wooden sticks and whipped with hemp ropes. Their heads were bleeding and their pleas for mercy were hesitant.
Otto was so arrogant that he didn't have the guts to interrogate these guys himself.
Jevlo undertook the interrogation work, and in order to survive, the prisoners scrambled to tell themselves everything they knew.
The information they told had no choice but to make the sitting Rurik stand up and quickly walk to the prisoner.
"What did you say? Your fishing port Visby has already taken action? You have already guessed that we are going to attack you!" In the current context, Rurik was sure that the Gotlanders were worried about the Svealand Alliance launching a large-scale attack on the island. , because of their alliance, the Russians were naturally highly wary of them.
The prisoners were shocked and rushed to claim that what they said was true. They even talked about terms.
Negotiate terms? Are some pirates who are about to be beaten to death willing to negotiate terms?
Otto had already drawn his sword, and in front of Rurik, he assassinated a guy who asked for conditions, so that others did not dare to make any more demands.
An enemy's blood splashed on Rurik's face. He wiped away the blood and asked with wide eyes: "Tell me your strength. How many men have you gathered? What weapons do you have?!"
The frightened people were trembling with color, and they rushed to reveal their secrets, just for the possibility of survival.
Some people suggested that Visby had at least a thousand troops, and one person claimed it was two thousand. They even threatened that if the power of the entire island gathered in Visby, Gotland would be able to organize a "military force" of five thousand men. giant". At least in their perception, an army of 1,000 people is already invincible, and a team of 5,000 people is even more powerful and is an existence that any opponent is afraid of.
Unfortunately, the so-called "five thousand army" was just the fantasy of the Gotlanders. They inadvertently revealed that apart from the huge settlement of Visby on the island, a large number of fishermen lived scattered in various offshore villages. In other words, there were three large settlements on Gotland. The one in the southern bay of the island was destroyed by the Russians, and the remaining two were in the north. They could not be defeated quickly by five hundred elite Russian warriors.
Visby Port, there are probably 2,000 armed men gathered here. If some young people and old people are organized together, or mercenaries are recruited from the surrounding fishing villages, the residents of Visby Port can assemble an army of 3,000 people. Army, Rurik reckons this is feasible.
There are many of them, so the quality must be poor, and the weapons and equipment are also poor.
right! Their weapons must be terrible. Look at what scrap metal these captured Gotlanders are holding. They are helpless against the arrows of the Russian army.
"It looks like the enemy has at least two thousand people." Rurik looked at his father. "When we launch an attack, we have to gather two thousand people. Dad, I don't want to win a battle with less. This time we must gather more."
"Then three thousand people." Otto bared his teeth and stabbed another pirate in public with a bloody sword, which attracted continuous applause from the Ross soldiers present.
Because the situation has become very clear, because these Gotlanders and the Ross fleet are all cargo ships, and they are all easy targets to bully. Just imagine, if the Aurora was indeed a purely defenseless cargo ship, wouldn't these pirates succeed directly, and wouldn't everyone on the ship be killed?
Anyone who dared to plunder should be killed. Otto did not want to show mercy and made great plans to assassinate them one by one.
The enemy's blood stained the deck of the ship red. Rurik felt that something was obviously wrong, so he grabbed his father.
"Huh? How dare you stop me from executing the pirates?"
"No! I have a better way."
"What?!"
"Tell them to go back to the sea and feed the fish!"
Although this is the Baltic Sea, the pirate ethos is not at all as relaxed as that of the Caribbean Sea.
To say that this sea area has never been peaceful, even in this era, when the Hanseatic League competed for maritime power, Denmark, the Netherlands and the Hanseatic League, each other's merchant ships were also warships, and the encounter between the hostile parties was a fierce battle. , pirates of all kinds in the main sea area are frequently active.
Pirate culture has existed since ancient times. In this regard, Rurik and Otto called the enemies in front of them dirty pirates. However, Arik of Rus had already relied on pirate plunder to attack Gotland with advanced crossbows. Fishermen, so far the waters to the north of the island have become a restricted area for the Gotlanders.
Since we are dealing with pirates, let’s use a “more ornamental” criminal law to let them feed the fish!
At least Rurik didn't have even the slightest bit of psychological discomfort when dealing with pirates. He just hoped for a bloodless method.
A wooden plank placed inside the cabin to be used to repair damage to the ship was moved to the deck. A section of it extended out of the side railing, and the tied people were forced to walk on the seesaw one by one.
Such a good show was actually done by Rurik? ! The Ross warriors and mercenaries laughed, and even the Covins present were amazed at the weird methods of this group of Varyags.
The prisoners' arms were tied, and they knew that if they jumped they would drown, but there were shining swords threatening them behind them.
A guy who didn't want to die stood nervously at the end of the board, with the sea below him.
Suddenly the ship trembled, and the man fell off and was swallowed by the waves in an instant.
Then, another person was forcefully pulled over and kept being driven and fell into the sea.
The Russians laughed wildly, and the captives' panic before death became the best joke, which also quickly alleviated the hostility of the Russian soldiers.
Otto stretched his neck and saw the last executed person sinking into the sea. He turned around again and punched Rurik lightly in the chest.
"You are a ruthless warrior. I like it very much. If you catch an enemy in the future, you will execute him in this way. By the way, what is this punishment called? Give it a name."
"It's called a Caribbean execution."
"What a strange name, okay..."
Otto was smiling when he spoke, but Rurik couldn't smile at all: "Dad, let's think about practical issues. Those guys have clearly stated the enemy's possible strength, and we must go back as soon as possible to start preparing accordingly."
"Oh, I'm not worried about that at all."
"Huh? Why?"
"Because." Otto smiled again and gave Rurik a light punch: "You are a military commander. How you want to fight depends on your attitude."
"Well, this is my war."
Rurik lowered his head slightly, and at this moment he finally looked happy.
The encounter with the Gotland patrol ship was expected, and a quick victory was even more expected.
The Avora turned its bow and approached the last half-dead longship, lowered the Ross warriors on the rope ladder, and used the dying ones to hit the target, then threw the bodies directly into the sea.
A long ship was accompanied by a small number of axes, swords and other weapons. No one can say that the Russians gained nothing from the fighting south.
The Aurora relied on the cable to pull the loot, and the entire fleet returned to its column. No enemies were seen in the future route, and no other ships were even seen on the sea.
The fleet moved as close to the coastline of Scandinavia as possible. Finally, when they were confused by the long-day sailing, a series of trumpet-shaped harbors finally appeared in the distance, and the water here almost lost the salty taste.
This must be the entrance to Lake Malaren, and the fleet has entered our control area.
Will the fleet enter the Great Lakes?
No! The fleet had no intention of resting. After another night voyage, everyone finally discovered the vagueness of the northern world in the light sea fog in the early morning, and even some strange bright spots.
The sleepy Rurik was woken up by his panicked subordinates, and Otto, who was still asleep, also got up.
"Jevro, can't you be calmer?"
"But your lord, there are flames ahead! It looks like a fishing boat."
"I'm afraid it's an ally's fishing boat. If I give my order, if they don't attack, we won't attack either."
"Duke! I'm afraid that's our ship! We've reached the Tombstone Islands archipelago."
"real?"
No one was sleeping soundly now. Although Rurik felt a bit cold, he climbed onto the bow deck and indeed saw the lights and the lush greenery in the north.
At this moment, the boat was full of people, and they were ready for battle with crossbows in their hands.
"Haha! Don't be nervous anymore." Otto, who was standing high up, raised his arms and shouted, "Brothers, you are in great pain after being on the ship for so many days! We are about to land on Tombstone Island, and we need to have a good rest!"
The soldiers cheered and Otto laughed heartily.
There was no suspense about the next route. The Ross fishermen, who had been fishing all night with oil lamps, had caught many cods and were waiting until daybreak to rush back to Tombstone Island with their catch to supply the huge garrison on the island.
Unexpectedly, a miracle happened! The fishermen never expected that their leader and the huge boat would once again arrive at Tombstone Island.
Fishermen are also fortunate enough to become pilots.
