The long boat rode the huge waves to the beach, and what jumped out was a sword and shield wielder with braided hair and tattoos on his bare back.
The huge round shield that can protect the entire torso is engraved with strange patterns. Some warriors wear masks that protect the entire face, which makes them even more fierce.
The Northumbrian soldiers who had just suffered two rounds of long-range attacks had not yet recovered from the sudden attack, and had to face the landing of such a strange and powerful army.
"Follow me to fight! Don't run away! Those who run away will be hanged!" John, the infantry captain, raised his iron sword hopelessly and roared, but he knew that how could he resist this army with his own frightened troops?
Perhaps if the entire army retreated to a better-defended monastery as soon as the enemy fleet was discovered, the situation would not have become worse.
Biyoni, Geiger, and all the Viking warriors who considered themselves brave, without exception, they pressed their shields against their entire torsos and charged forward with swords and axes in their right hands. The sword and shield bearers were all in the front, and hundreds of warriors from the climate were carrying short spears with axes mounted on them to prepare to support the vanguard brothers in the anxious hand-to-hand encounter.
The poor Northumbrian army was not only at an absolute disadvantage in terms of strength, but their tactics were also in a mess.
In the decades of civil war in the kingdom, apart from the decline in people's livelihood, the quality of the army has not improved during the war. They even forgot the knowledge of forming a formation to fight. In previous wars, sergeants rushed forward to fight in chaos. This most primitive "group fight" without any tactical literacy has become the mainstream situation on the battlefield.
As for the Viking army that rushed over, they at least knew how to fit their shields into each other to form a shield wall and press them up.
Only slightly stronger than the Northumbrian infantry, these Viking troops, mainly composed of Balmoks, had an advantage as soon as they landed.
Close combat is inevitable.
More than fifty Kingdom soldiers who have not lost their creed are fighting on the front line of the fierce battle.
Even though they were better equipped, they couldn't bear to be attacked in groups.
They inflicted few casualties on the Viking army before being thinly overturned.
That shield wall seems to be an indestructible stone wall! Only the archers in the barracks tower and their short bows can cause some damage to their opponents. Unfortunately, this damage is only equivalent to mosquito bites.
The more than fifty soldiers quickly died in battle and sacrificed their lives for their country. The battle line collapsed so quickly that John, the infantry captain, had no choice but to flee when he screamed in confusion.
"Brothers! Follow me and retreat to the military camp!"
John wielded the iron sword with all his strength. He was trying hard to restrain his men, and this move also made him a target of public criticism.
No! He was only targeted by a crossbow.
Biyongni took care of the steel-armed crossbow that was being taken care of by his subordinates. He skillfully and calmly aimed at the man in chainmail and orange who looked like a "war chief". He gently pulled the trigger. The man froze back, and the fatal armor-piercing arrow hit him quickly.
The quenched cone-shaped carbon steel arrow clusters were originally used to deal with heavy targets at the level of Eastern Roman armored cavalry, and the chainmail armor must be easily opened.
John suddenly felt weak and fell to the ground. He struggled to get up, and then he suddenly saw something piercing through his heart. His mind went blank, and he suddenly lay down again exhausted, and then didn't get up...
Those confused Northumbrian warriors watched helplessly as their captain fell to the ground!
Falling to the ground means death in battle, their last bit of morale collapsing randomly.
There were only two centurions left with their extremely limited brothers. Some of them rushed to the military camp and tried to continue working in the pit. Others looked at the monastery not far away and threw it away without looking back. Weapons and even helmets, running towards Bamburgh in the south in a shamefully light manner.
Is the battle going to end in such an inglorious way? There is nothing joyful about such a victory.
The attack target of the Viking army, which suffered almost no losses, was directed at the military camp. Even if there were wooden walls and towers for defense, how could the wooden wall be worth the Vikings' Nordic forest axes.
The military camp was surrounded by Vikings, and the archers on the tower were like squirrels surrounded by wolves, helpless and frightened.
The Viking archers continued to fire arrows and soon suppressed the tower archers.
As the closed wooden door was smashed into sawdust by more than a dozen two-handed axes, everything was over!
The army rushed in, but those Kingdom soldiers who had signaled their surrender were still being killed wantonly, and the landing battle seemed to end here.
Geiger of Washobi was panting, his face full of joy of victory.
He found Biyongni with a bloody hand ax and pointed the ax south: "Some cowards have run south. Should we pursue them?"
"Coward? Let them escape. Now that the sky is darkening, we have occupied this camp, which is just a resting place for us. Soon the Russians will land ashore. Before Rurik lands, we will first take advantage of the available resources here. Everything was looted and cleaned."
Geiger was a little confused, and pointed his ax to the east: "That is the monastery. Let's rush over and occupy the monastery while our brothers are happy. We can spend the night holding gold and silver."
When Biyongni thought about this, he quickly climbed up to the wooden wall of the military camp and shouted to the brothers who were searching everywhere: "Brothers! Don't worry about this boring camp, let's attack the altar that refers to the monastery, let's rush Capture it before dark!”
The morale-filled army raised their swords and axes high. At this moment, Biyongni felt that he had indeed become the commander-in-chief of the army, even the king of the Balmok people!
The Viking warriors rushed out of the military camp one after another. At this time, some of them had put on new weapons that they had captured, and even put on leather boots pulled from the corpses of the enemies.
Several soldiers pulled out a few frightened women from a certain wooden shed and asked Biyongni: "Boss, what are these women doing?"
"Them?" Biyongni recognized at a glance that these were soldiers recruited by his family, and immediately understood the identities of these strange women: "These women are slaves raised by those people, keep them and take them all back. How about this, how about you? One of you will defend this camp, and the others will follow us to the monastery to grab the gold!"
As soon as these words came out, those Viking warriors who were still complacent simply raised their swords and followed the large army with howling. At this moment, the Northumbria military camp that had just been occupied was equivalent to being abandoned again.
Now for the Viking army, there is nothing better than catching gold.
Biyongni had no interest in capturing some women, and in the entire occupied military camp, he was only interested in a few captured horses. He simply got on the horse, but unfortunately the situation was too different from his fantasy. These horses that specialize in pulling goods are really docile, but it is difficult to urge them to run wildly.
In the fjords of Bergen, local people have domesticated and bred local horse breeds since ancient times, but the local Vikings have long used them to pull carts and carry loads, and riding on horseback is also a recent thing.
Biyongni knew about riding horses, and the Viking army rushed towards the monastery. Biyongni was the most handsome boy in the army.
"That guy...how did I see Biyongni riding a horse again?!" Rurik on the bow of the ship squinted his eyes and couldn't help but sigh.
And Jevro also shouted at the right time: "Sir, I found that the tide was rising. What happened to us landing..."
"Do it quickly." Rurik turned and urged: "Those people have difficulty breaking through the stone wall of the monastery. Our heavy weapons should be in place as soon as possible."
The packhorse in Avrola's cabin was tied with ropes again, and soldiers and sailors worked together to pull them out of the deck. Such a laborious operation once made everyone think that this move was necessary?
The horses were finally hoisted to the longship, followed by the torsion slingshot and trebuchet.
This is a transportation process that takes time. It stands to reason that the large ship can suspend operations, pull anchor and go straight to the monastery.
However, well-informed sailors realized that the area where the monastery was located was definitely a tidal island, with a large area of tidal flats that might only be knee-deep in water.
Of course, the big ship can rush up, but the result will be a terrible stranding. If the rising tide cannot float the big ship in the end, the result will be fatal.
The Avrora was able to knock down enemy longships one after another, but Rurik did not dare to risk running aground.
Rurik naturally could not provide support to the Balmok Vikings. After all, the siege had begun.
Thousands of warriors walked on the road leading to the monastery, which resembled a breakwater. The people who were in high spirits were fighting against the sunset. They just wanted to get gold and silver, and they never realized that the tide was rising.
Finally, they rushed under the outer stone wall of the monastery.
According to the beliefs of the priests, as they hold holy offices, it is naturally impossible for them to take up arms and fight.
At this moment, all the priests in the monastery finally realized that the legends in the past were definitely not fabricated by their ancestors. Tragic history repeats itself! The sea barbarians are coming again, and their goal must be to sack Lindisfarne Abbey again, and everyone will be killed without exception.
Although the priests cannot fight in person, the warriors fighting on the wall need divine blessing!
The priests held a huge wooden cross on the wall, and the bishop living in the monastery sprinkled holy water on the defenders with cypress branches. He tried his best to suppress his horrified cry: "This is the sanctuary of St. Cuthbert. It cannot be allowed to These barbarians destroy the purity of the sanctuary. God forgives your sins, and God is with you. Fight for your faith..."
Maybe this training really had an effect. The less than a hundred defenders in nervous Northumbria actually burst out with strong morale!
Because this monastery was built by "Saint Cuthbert", who was a preacher in Northumbria. His holy remains are buried in the cemetery of the monastery, and he wrote " The original handwritten parchment of the "Lindisfarne Gospels" is placed in a pure gold "holy cabinet" in the monastery.
This monastery does contain a large amount of gold and silver, but almost all of them are sacred objects. The defenders have realized that the wealth of the monastery is like a big pile of fat, attracting the bite of wild beasts.
The defenders stood on a stone wall of about three and a half meters. The stone wall, which was stacked entirely with granite and reinforced with logs, actually formed a solid defense line.
Biyongni and others were already standing under the stone wall, and a group of warriors were already repeating their old tricks, carrying big axes to break down the door.
There is only one road leading to the mainland from the monastery, and once the tide rises, the road is immediately closed. The defenders only need to hold the front wall and wait for the tide to rise. If the enemy does not withdraw, they will be submerged in the sea to feed the fish!
The centurion, who had been blessed by the holy water, was very aware of his major disadvantages, and immediately ordered his men to work hard to seal the wooden door first, no matter what kind of thing they used. Therefore, a batch of wooden carts and sundries were dragged and piled up at the wooden door by the soldiers.
While the soldiers at the top of the city were firing arrows desperately, they also began to throw stones.
Those who crowded under the city wall were unable to climb the wall with their bare hands, but they were hit on the head with stones.
At first, some Viking warriors had their heads smashed and died violently. Once someone covered his injured arm, he backed away.
The strong men with axes who struggled to break down the door suffered the worst blows, even though they were covered by the shields of their brothers, they were still suffering losses.
Geiger, who was trying to get the first victory and was the first to rush in and plunder Washobi, finally realized that the momentum was wrong.
The big door-breakers inside the door kept shouting: "The door is too strong, we can't break it!"
"How come it can't be smashed! Hold on." Geiger yelled.
"Geiger! Think of a way, they keep throwing stones, the brothers can't stand it anymore!"
Geiger and his work persisted, and his brother Esbjorn also slipped directly into the city gate.
"You kid! Why are you here?!"
"Brother, Byongni and the others are already retreating." Esbjorn roared angrily.
"Damn! That guy will be a coward again."
"No. They found that the sea water was rising. If we don't withdraw, the water will drown us all."
"Damn it! Damn it!" Geiger was so angry that he stamped his feet and beat his chest, and yelled: "Obviously he called for everyone to attack now, but he chose to withdraw. Brother, where are the Russians? What are Rurik doing? Why haven't there been any backups yet? ?”
"The Russians are moving things, they are not participating in the war at all..."
"That's enough." Geiger almost gritted his teeth. He didn't know how the tide was rising, but the light was really getting dimmer. If the battle drags on until night, it will be detrimental to everyone.
Although Biyongni was unwilling to give up and even complained that Rurik's support was not in place, the tide was indeed rising rapidly, and the result of procrastination for some time was very fatal.
He took the lead with his two hundred men, dragging the bodies of the dead and retreating, and the captured horses were also put to use. Using horses to drag corpses is obviously disrespectful to the brothers who died in battle, but it would be the greatest tragedy to let one's brothers fall into the hands of the enemy.
Seeing that Biyongni, who had the most powerful troops, ran away, the other family leaders began to retreat when they saw that the momentum was not right. Now they can follow the retreat openly.
As for the Bergen immigrants in Shetland, they were really shameless. They just followed the army, but when they saw the war situation, they all retreated to the coast. They mingled with Rurik's men, and Rurik himself learned of the situation ahead.
Looking at the people who were retreating one after another, Rurik frowned under the setting sun and couldn't help but underestimate: "It seems that we need to build some ladders to climb the wall and make a battering ram to smash the door."
In the end, it was the one hundred people from Washobi who retreated under the leadership of Geiger. None of them died in the battle, and their bodies were dragged away by their companions.
When they arrived at the passage, they were already facing seawater up to their knees.
Behind them, the Northumbrian defenders shouted Harilia, thanking God for their protection, and some cursed the fleeing Vikings.
Although Geiger couldn't understand those words, he knew he could hear the vicious tone in them.
"Just wait for me. Tomorrow! When we get some rest, we will kill you to pieces..."
