The shield walls of the two armies collided fiercely. The warriors roared with their mouths open and slashed wildly with swords and axes. The fighting began immediately.
The soldiers of the Ross Warriors Standard Corps, who were fully clad in chain armor, faced an opponent who was fully clad in leather armor.
The Ross warriors in the first row tried their best to protect their entire torsos with shields, and stabbed wildly with the steel sword held high in their right hand.
The swords of the Russians began to turn blood red, and some warriors were killed by the enemy.
At the moment of the battle, only a few Rus' warriors died quickly. Behind the death of one Rus' warrior, there must be the death of many Gotland warriors.
Just as Rurik predicted in the highlands, only when a real fight breaks out can the Russians truly realize how powerful they are.
The warriors of Gotland have been trying to open a gap. They subconsciously aimed their main attack direction at the center of the Ross army. However, it was like a cheetah rushing into a porcupine.
"Men of Novgorod! Men of White Tree Manor! Show your courage! Assassinate!"
Medveit retreated to the second line, commanding as many as eight hundred spearmen of his Slavic standard.
Most of these farmers and lumberjacks had undergone two months of training by elite Ross warriors. Carriers in training will be beaten with sticks, and those who disobey orders will be killed.
They sweat a lot in training on weekdays, and at the same time they can open their bellies to eat fish. Now they are completely different from other people in their hometown. Everyone has become stronger. They were originally wearing only cloth clothes. The soldiers in the first two rows not only put on the blue and white long robes of the Russian people, but also put on leather underneath. First.
I'm afraid that for the Slavic banners, shields and armor are superfluous.
They were all spearmen, and now the monster composed of eight hundred spears looked like a porcupine, with a large number of dangerous spikes against the cheetah's tusks.
More than 50 very brave Gotlandic warriors who tried to attack the Russian army managed to deflect some spears with their shields, but what awaited them were more black spearheads.
The quenched iron chromium is very hard, and the spearheads are polished to create a sharp spike. But these spearheads are not flat. They are essentially pointed iron pillars, not the broad blades of Gotland's short spears.
This is a design designed to cater to the physical properties of ferrochrome. The military spikes are inserted into extremely long wooden poles, and their tactical function is only to poke. Hundreds of spears are organized to fight, but the effect is outstanding.
The fifty Gotland warriors were stabbed one after another. The Slavic warrior easily pulled out the spearhead, leaving a large hole in the enemy's body that spurted blood. Just one hole can force the enemy to lose the ability to fight. Now, these fifty warriors were stabbed to death one after another.
The subsequent Gotland warriors were still attacking, and by the time they realized something was wrong, it was already too late! They were pushed by the warriors in the rear, and one after another in desperation passively ran into the wall of spears of the Ross army.
A Gotland female warrior screamed and charged, and was mercilessly stabbed to death by the Slavic spearmen in the Russian army. Even for those soldiers who were extremely relieved, when they suddenly discovered the horrific truth of war, it was already too late.
Medvet, who was in command, was shocked: "Ah! My men are killing female Varangians? Are they going to war with both men and women like us?!"
As far as combat is concerned, Slavs do not have any psychological discomfort with female warriors who kill their enemies. On the contrary, the people of Novgorod always believe that if there is a war, the women of the tribes and manors will have to take up arms and fight with the men. In their concept, everyone has the obligation to defend their homeland, even if they are holding a Sticks also have to join the fight.
They killed the opponent's female warrior without mercy, and stabbed the fallen person mercilessly with the spear point. Even if the opponent was dead, the spear point attack did not stop.
The Gotland warriors gradually realized that they were suffering a loss by attacking the center of the Russian army, and after paying a heavy price, they spontaneously moved to the two wings.
The soldiers have strength in numbers. Wouldn't encircling the Russian army from both sides break the deadlock?
The Gotland army began to move abnormally.
Rurik's boys and girls climbed onto the earth wall one after another. They began to load the wooden crossbows in a stepping manner, then installed arrows and fired immediately.
The elite mercenaries, also known as the Duke's Guard, were originally tasked with holding down the formation in case the Slavs could not withstand it. Now it seems that these Slavic warriors are getting braver as they fight!
Rurik changed his mind, and all the elite mercenaries with amazing arm strength stood on the mound and fired the most ferocious crossbow arrows with their steel-armed crossbows.
The Russian crossbowmen continued to fire. In order to avoid harming friendly forces, the targets of their attacks were all changed to the follow-up troops of the Gotland Army.
Rurik himself was helpless in the fighting at the front of the Russian army. He could only pray that his people and the Slavs would become more courageous as they fought without causing many casualties.
For your own melee warriors, the greatest help you can give them is to block the enemy's follow-up reinforcements.
Otto watched the entire battle with horror. He had already gone into battle himself to help his men quickly turn the winch of the torsion slingshot.
The enemy as a whole is making moves that are not conducive to the Russians!
Rurik yelled and ran hurriedly on the earth wall. His actions shocked the heavily armored berserker. Now was the chance to go out on his own! The berserker warriors stood up one after another and then sat down helplessly.
The Marksman Flag Team received a new order. The flag team was divided into two, and the targets to be attacked became the enemies on both wings.
The biggest disadvantage of the Russian army is the apparent lack of troops. If it is really surrounded by the enemy on both sides, the subsequent battle will be in big trouble.
"Damn it! It's obviously my turn to surround and annihilate you, why do you want to surround me? You must die according to the script!"
In Rurik's plan, even if the Gotland army was strong, it would still be the target of a unilateral massacre.
They were not fools after all, and they spontaneously realized the benefits of creating an encirclement.
The children began to throw wooden crossbows, and the Corvin archers adjusted the direction of their shots to throw light arrows with great efficiency. What they fired were actually the same style of light arrows. The power of these iron cluster arrows was not great. However, the enemy was a group of commoner, bare-backed warriors, so the light arrows became extremely lethal.
As many as twenty brothers who died in the flags of Arik and Haro Zuosen on the two wings have been pulled to the rear. The vacant positions were filled and the soldiers continued to fight.
Of course, the entire Ross army, which had its back against the earth wall, had advanced a full thirty steps. Behind them and where they stepped, the corpses of the enemy were already lying! The grass that was originally dry and yellow became extremely muddy! The soldiers' boots were stained with red mud, and the air was filled with a frightening smell of rust.
During the melee, no one was afraid. Most of the Russians and Gotlanders were red-eyed, their minds went blank, and their only thought was to kill the opponents in front of them.
Because the Rus were well prepared and the frontline warriors were well armored, their troop losses were much smaller than those of the Gotland army. Trying to break through the Russian army's array head-on was difficult, but the outflanking move was also fraught with dangers.
The Gotlanders who tried to outflank the Russian army were heavily hit by arrows and could hardly stand up once they fell to the ground. Their shields were filled with Russian arrows, and the hands holding the shields were pierced by arrow clusters.
More horrific injuries are coming!
It was the heavy javelin of the torsion slingshot. Its range was only a little over a hundred meters, and it would kill the enemy if it hit it. This heavy weapon was quickly exhausted, and the torsion slingshot began to fire more ferocious "ship-destroying cast iron bullets"!
The cone-shaped cast iron has a micro-spiral groove that rotates rapidly during flight, hitting the enemy extremely stably. Any shield is meaningless. The wooden shield is shattered, and the cast-iron bullet then breaks the enemy's bones. Any strong warrior will kill it with one shot. Only a finger-thick plate armor can stop its collision. It is a collision. The huge force can shock the soldiers to cough up blood on the spot.
Some people with exaggerated tattoos on their upper bodies, even if they have a tattoo of an earthly python, it is meaningless in the face of technological weapons.
They were hit directly through the chest by cone-shaped cast iron bullets, and a piece of iron appeared in the heart!
Crossbows are another kind of terror. The heavy-headed crossbows are not suitable for ejection. However, at special moments, the steel-armed crossbow uses heavy-headed crossbows to strike from the sky.
The Russians launched a de facto barrage attack on the two wings of the Gotland army. After killing and wounding more than 500 people, they directly curbed the Gotland army's outflanking momentum.
However, the arms of the Corvin archers were already very sore from shooting arrows for a long time.
Children like Terravis, who claimed to have shot as many as fifty arrows, were exhausted from continuing to draw the bow.
But Kanuf and Fisk, who were operating the wooden crossbows, saw that the girls from Rurik were struggling to string the crossbows, so they couldn't slack off.
Thirty minutes of fierce fighting have passed since the main forces of the two armies collided and fought!
Based on his own experience, Rurik knew that decisive battles in ancient times could often determine the outcome in half a day. There is a reason for this, because human physical strength cannot support fighting for too long.
In ancient wars, once it entered into a chaos of swords and swords, the one who was as fat as an ox and had the superior force could win by relying on a long period of brute force output. It is said that whoever runs out of energy first will be killed with a sword by the enemy with the last energy.
Do the Ross Army still have enough energy?
Rurik couldn't see clearly from behind. He saw that his crossbowman was already breathing heavily, and the warriors who wanted to fight on the front line were even more exhausted. .
Arik and Haro Zuosen, both of their steel swords were dyed red. Seeing that the enemy suffered a large number of casualties from friendly arrows, they knew that the danger was suddenly lifted. When they admired Rurik's skill, they began to implement it. A planned pincer offensive.
"Brothers! Overtake the Novgorodians, we are in front! Follow me!" Arik's roar was actually drowned in the roar of the crowd. The soldiers followed the raised flag and moved forward. On a macro level, there were two warriors. The two wings of the front that the flag corps was responsible for were slowly shrinking.
Everyone's eyes are fixed on the flag of the flag team. It means that the flag captain Arik is there, and its advancement means that Arik has ordered the attack.
"Haha! Arik is taking action!" Rurik jumped for joy. He felt that his cousin and himself had a tacit understanding, and the pincer offensive had begun.
After cheering for a while, Rurik immediately shouted to everyone in the flag-shooting team: "Don't be afraid of getting tired! Now take your bow and arrow and push forward!"
At this moment, Otto hurriedly threw away what he was doing and asked loudly: "You want to go to the front line to fight in person? Are you crazy?"
"No! I want the archer flag team to advance with the main force and continue to support the brothers by throwing arrows! The torsion slingshot is placed here. Soldiers, get out of here!"
Rurik raised his dagger high and ordered the mercenaries guarding the ducal flag to carry the flag and follow him.
At this very critical moment, he finally gave the order to the berserker who had been waiting for a long time and was almost going crazy with itching.
The heavily armored berserkers mixed with the Marksman Flag Team. Under the leadership of Rurik and Otto, they followed the front-line warriors and launched a barrage.
It can be said that the only things left in the Ross camp at this moment are a bunch of reindeer munching fodder and a bunch of unattended luggage.
Although the Gotland army has the superior strength, the battle has reached this point, and their self-proclaimed strength advantage has lost its meaning. Facing an opponent that is highly organized, well-equipped, and highly motivated, having more troops is no longer an advantage.
Haken panicked. He wanted to restrain his soldiers not to panic, but how many people could hear his roar?
The battlefield was full of shouts of killing, and it became impossible to expect a commander to command the army by shouting.
Rurik had realized this a long time ago, so he divided the army into flag troops. After assigning tasks to the flag captains, he felt free to let them lead the army in battle. As for the grassroots soldiers, they only need to look at the movement of the flag and the blue and white cloth strips on the centurion's helmet to act immediately.
Haken hurriedly retreated to the rear, holding a pale sword and ordering the merchants' army who had been standing still until now: "My friends! It's time to act according to our plan!"
However, the war situation has become like this, and many businessmen's hearts have been shaken.
"I'm telling you to move out, hurry up! I am the king, follow my orders!"
"But let us go now, is this reasonable? Farmers and fishermen are retreating!" A businessman was obviously frightened. This emotion made his Danish mercenaries dare not attack rashly, although the mercenaries were willing to fight. of.
Three more businessmen retreated before the battle!
At the critical moment, Harald, who knew how to make a big move, did not hesitate to do anything, and suddenly stabbed and killed a businessman friend with a sword.
The horrific scene shocked other businessmen.
"How long has it been?! Can you still hesitate? Let's join the fight and threaten to kill anyone who escapes."
Unexpectedly, this doubter was so decisive during the decisive battle and actually stabilized the morale of the army.
"Okay! My brother!" Haken consciously saw the hope of counterattack. To be honest, he knew that there were still a large number of soldiers fighting in the Gotland army in his hands. They were suppressed by the enemy's momentum and terrifying weapons and retreated. , but nearly 900 armored Danish mercenaries from the rear intervened on the battlefield. Will the crisis of the Gotland army be reversed?
The merchants' mercenaries were dispatched in full force, and the Danes built a shield wall. The sword and ax were attached to the eaves of the shield, and they were shouting chants and marching forward in a rather orderly pace.
Looking back at the Russians, they are actually like attacking glaciers that can crush all the rocks and forests in front of them.
The thrown arrows continued to cause damage, and the enemies they shot quietly turned into female warriors and young boy warriors. These mobs were holding up shields and being dragged back by everyone. From time to time, someone was hit by an arrow and fell down, and then was trampled by his own people.
A considerable number of young men from Gotland have died in the fighting. Of course, as many as a hundred people from the Russian army were killed here.
The dead of the Russian army were actually mostly poorly equipped Mälaren bannermen and Slavic warriors. The Slavic spear array is indeed powerful, but the defense of individual warriors is extremely weak, and it is inevitable to be killed by the suicidal salted fish thrusts of individual crazy opponents.
More than forty warriors of the Roseburn tribe were killed in the battle. They were all elite men. Arik was saddened by their sacrifices. He wanted to help his fellow tribesmen who were dying of blood, but he knew his responsibility and continued to move forward with grief and indignation.
Finally at a certain moment, Gotland's local warriors finally suffered a terrible collapse! Most of their most powerful male soldiers were dead. Seeing this, the female soldiers and young soldiers retreated with the retreating male soldiers.
They collided with the Danish army and gathered behind this group of mail-clad warriors.
The defeat of the Gotland Army left Haken speechless for a while. He tried to reverse people's cowardice and began to cry out.
Fortunately, the Gotlanders, whose emotions gradually stabilized, began to fight back again. It was not that they heard the king's inspiring persuasion, but that they saw an astonishing number of Danish mercenaries advancing.
The power of example is huge. Well-equipped Danish mercenaries attacked the Ross army, and the morale of Gotland's defeated troops was greatly boosted.
