The Northumbrian cavalry warriors did not think it was honorable to simply suppress the retreating farmers, or even kill the stubborn ones with their swords. They were just executing the king's orders.
They could see that the kingdom's army had encountered a big crisis. The battle had been going on for a while. The army that was supposed to have the advantage in strength seemed to be on the verge of collapse?
The cavalry were regrouped and they gathered around the king.
Eynred quickly pulled out his iron sword and glanced at his brave men with sharp eyes.
"Knights of the Kingdom! When you were young, even your father accompanied me on my expeditions. We defeated many powerful enemies and many rebels! Now the barbarians have destroyed our sacred monasteries and attacked our cities. Now, I We will lead the charge! Regardless of casualties! We rush forward and crush the enemy from the flank. Draw your swords!"
Every cavalryman hopes to take measures to change the tense situation of the war. Now the king decides to take a desperate risk?
No, in their eyes, the King has turned back into the warrior he once was.
They drew their swords one after another, and many held their spears high.
They shouted spontaneously, and their shouts were drowned in the sound of the infantry fighting.
"Bishop!" The king spurred his horse and faced Bishop Edmund, who was trembling with fear after witnessing the bloody battle: "Pray for us and sprinkle holy water on us."
"yes!"
The Bishop of Bamburgh and the accompanying priests hurriedly brought gold and silver instruments and carried crosses to pray.
Even if the battle situation is tense, there are casualties among the kingdom's soldiers every minute.
Prayer before the battle is indispensable. This is not the king's superstition, but his belief. If he does not receive the priest's blessing, then his attack will not receive God's blessing.
After a short congratulation, each cavalryman was sprinkled with holy water mixed with rose essential oil. The floral-scented holy water signifies something sacred, and the cavalry all suggest to themselves that they have been forgiven of original sin.
The king raised his sword for the last time and said: "Come with me now! Go back through the forest in a roundabout way."
The army of the Kingdom of Northumbria finally ended its purely barbaric style of fighting. It was clear that the number of infantry was superior, and the so-called tactics could be called rogue-style mad dog fighting. Cooperation between infantrymen is almost non-existent, and the battle is basically a fight between soldiers alone, or a large-scale group fight with weapons.
Only the cavalry, in times of crisis, the king finally enlightened.
More than one hundred and thirty riders rode through the seaside woodland, silently detouring around the right flank of the Viking army's line.
As soon as the battle began, the cavalry captain Aston determined that this was the barbarian's weakness. The king regretted it but would not show it. Now he has personally implemented this crazy tactic. As for the consequences of the cavalry's serious losses and the heavy damage to the kingdom's military strategy, he can only think of it now. aside.
The huge Kingdom of Northumbria only looked very big, and Aynred's capital was extremely limited. He spent all his national strength to recruit only 10,000 warriors and 20,000 farmers. The army was to be stationed in various strongholds in the kingdom, and in the entire Bamburgh area, all he could recruit was a mere two thousand people.
If he is defeated in this battle, it means that the Bamburgh area and the entire northeastern direction of the kingdom have essentially entered a military vacuum. Then the Picts will definitely take advantage of the situation and it will be troublesome in the future.
A man wearing a gold-plated iron helmet rode his horse out of the woods, followed closely by a cavalryman holding a lance. There are orange ribbons tied under the spearheads, and the cavalry helmets are all decorated with beautiful feathers.
The well-dressed King Eynred appears.
The cavalry suddenly appeared, and they had begun to jog towards the Vikings' right flank.
The enemy actually retains a surprise force? !
Some Vikings who were fighting fiercely noticed this from the corner of their eyes, and felt inexplicable fear in their hearts.
Jevlo, Byony, and even the two teenagers Floki and Esbjorn were standing on the "tactical earth platform" with a height of only one meter, using a winch to wind the steel-arm crossbow. The mercenaries were stringing the crossbow with their bare hands. Their arms were already quite tired. They used a winch to string the crossbow. The firing rate of the crossbow was reduced to the minimum. What's worse, there were not many arrows left.
At that moment, Jevro rushed towards Rurik fiercely.
Rurik was still directing the torque slingshot beside him to shoot at the local infantry who were not retreating from the fierce battle. He was directly picked up by Yevlo.
"Hey! What are you doing?!"
"My lord, look at the West (right wing of the Front)."
"Ah! It's the cavalry?! Put me down quickly."
Rurik was taken aback. Although he was prepared for a cavalry attack on the flanks, as the battle continued, he increasingly felt that the enemy did not intend to launch a cavalry group assault. He was obviously wrong.
Put the grand finale at the end?
"Damn it! Biyongni, you go notify Brother Geiger and let his spearmen block the cavalry!" Rurik screamed an order in a panic.
At this time, Esbjorn threw away the half-strung crossbow and rushed to Rurik: "Brother, I will inform my elder brother."
"You? Go quickly! The enemy's cavalry rushes in, and things will be in trouble."
Esbjorn, this young man was ordered to do something in danger, and he scurried like a hare to Geiger's line in Washoby.
Geiger was taking one hundred of his spearmen to help others kill the enemy infantry. Many people had noticed the sudden appearance of cavalry, and when Esbjorn arrived, Geiger had already taken some precautions against the cavalry.
Esbjorn conveyed the order, and Geiger and his men began to carry it out.
At the same time, Rurik immediately made tactical adjustments. For example, when the Shetland fishermen were about to finish shooting their arrows, they were ordered to draw their swords and hold their shields immediately, with the shields facing west.
All the torsion slingshots paused their attacks on the frontal fighting enemies, and adjusted their shooting angles to target the cavalry in the west. The bull trebuchet is also changing the direction of its fire.
It's just that these measures by the Vikings were too late for the final charge of the cavalry.
Aynred, King of Northumbria, kissed the hilt of his sword, raised the iron sword high and roared: "Cavalry! Charge!"
The whole procession of horses broke into a gallop, immediately reaching their maximum speed.
The cavalry struck like chisels into the Viking flanks.
The behemoth rushed towards them. Although Geiger had ordered the spears to move forward in unison, when the collision came, many people simply threw their spears out of fear and instinctively retreated.
Even Geiger himself felt that he could not withstand the torrent, so he simply took his brother Esbjorn and hurriedly found a place to avoid it.
Only less than half of the spearmen were still holding on. When the collision occurred, some horses were stabbed by the spearheads. But how could the powerful impact energy be lost?
With spearheads stuck in their bodies, the horses and cavalry rammed into them, knocking over several Vikings before falling heavily to the ground.
More cavalry directly broke through Geiger's actual spear array. The sudden change shocked Rurik and he had no time to complain.
With a swift and violent attack, the line of Viking spearmen, who had not received any anti-cavalry training, was swept away.
King Aenred was overjoyed. He saw the fluttering white flag with blue stripes on the earthen platform, and subconsciously determined that it was the barbarian command center.
"Follow my sword, warriors! Charge towards that flag."
The iron hoofs of the kingdom's cavalry trampled many enemies to death, and many were knocked aside by the strong chests of the horses. The cavalry's offensive momentum had been weakened a lot due to the collision, but they were still charging forward.
Geiger straightened his leather helmet, pushed his brother aside, followed his instinct, and went to attack the cavalry with his ax with a blank mind.
Those who were hit with stars in their eyes or even with broken bones forgot their pain for a moment and tried to get up to fight with the cavalry.
Rurik saw a man wearing a golden crown commanding the cavalry to charge towards him.
Could that man be the king?
The king himself charged into battle? Is it recklessness? Or brave?
"You reckless fool, don't think you'll win if you break through my line."
Because those horses were not excellent Turkic barbarian horses or Arabian horses, the horses stranded by the Romans were not suitable for the task of charging the battle. It is precisely for this reason that the cavalry of the Frankish Kingdom are unwilling to form a wall-mounted charging formation in the current period before they obtain the fine horse breeds from the East. It’s not that it’s impossible, it’s just that the price/performance ratio is terrible.
The crisis situation forced the king to take desperate measures. Aynred's cavalry achieved a staged victory, but the battle situation took a turn for the worse.
As the adjustment of the torsion slingshot is completed, the torsion bow string has the maximum energy. The conical cast iron bullets fired at close range carry strong momentum and potential to deal a major blow to large targets such as the cavalry!
Some horses' heads were smashed directly, and some knights had their chests pierced. There were even projectiles that pierced the horse's neck, ricocheting and breaking another knight's neck.
A volley of torsion slingshots was accompanied by a precise shot from the crossbow.
Jevro was manipulating the crossbow. This was the first time in his life that he had witnessed a cavalry attack on the wall. His hands trembled unnaturally due to fear, and as a result, the fatal arrow flew past Aynred's side.
As the twenty horses leading the charge fell to the ground for various reasons, they became the most serious obstacle on the charge, and the momentum of the cavalry's charge quickly disappeared.
Even though the Vikings paid a high price for this purpose, the opponent's only attempt to break the line has been contained by the brothers.
Shetland's sword and shieldmen grasped the situation accurately and swarmed forward, and the stagnant cavalry was an excellent target. They raised their shields above their heads and chopped off the horses' legs with swords and axes. They even pulled down the cavalry and stabbed them with swords.
More cavalry fell from their horses, and the bloodthirsty Vikings swarmed with axes, like a pack of jackals attacking a wounded buffalo. The axes and swords slashed wildly, and the Vikings' golden hair was dyed smelly red by the enemy's blood, just like the devil from hell.
The cavalry captain Aston knew that the assault was hopeless, and it turned out that the overall assault of the cavalry that he had expected could not achieve very good results.
Now the brothers are dying hopelessly here, and the tactical advantage of the cavalry is gone. The result of staying here is that the king will be buried for the kingdom. This is absolutely unacceptable!
Aston drove his horse towards the king in the chaos and said loudly: "Your Majesty, we must retreat! We have lost this battle."
"Failed! Bah! We can still keep fighting."
Eynred's sword was pressed against Aston's neck, and he was shocked and dumbfounded: "Your Majesty, please retreat quickly. If necessary, I will fight until the last moment. Please look at the current situation, The farmers are already in full flight."
Eynred watched with open eyes. Because they had lost the pressure of the cavalry, the plainly dressed farmers who had been forcibly recruited to fight returned in large numbers along the road carrying the things in their hands.
"Damn it! I hoped they could do some good work, they are all cowards!"
"Your Majesty, we can't count on farmers who only know how to farm. We can no longer win. If we continue to stay here, our entire army will be annihilated, and Bamburgh will have no defense at that time. If the enemy continues to attack Bamburgh, the prince and the future... "
This word awakened Eynred, and he who was once in love with war completely sobered up.
"These barbarians are actually more difficult to deal with than Mercia's warriors! Let's retreat... retreat quickly!"
Eynred has not yet issued an order for a full retreat. He wants himself and the remaining forces of the cavalry to evacuate first.
Little did he know that such a brightly-dressed key target had already been targeted by Rurik. It was only due to the reloading time of the torsion slingshot that the attack was delayed.
"Hurry up! Hurry up. Not yet?"
Someone suddenly shouted: "Sir, we are ready."
"Shoot the one with the gold crown, that's the enemy's king! Shoot him for a pound of silver!" Rurik commanded in a tearful voice.
Under the stimulation of the most money, the operators of the torsion slingshots in all positions worked hard.
An iron bullet hit him. It did not cut off Eynred's head, but hit his left arm holding the reins.
The projectile directly hit his left elbow. Although his forearm was not torn, his entire left arm was shattered and wasted.
In excruciating pain, he fell from his horse, and it was his fall, because the two subsequent iron bullets killed his horse directly.
Eynred's feet were crushed by the horses, and he held on to his bleeding left arm to endure it. However, it was extremely difficult to escape from the horse's crushing.
He was pulled out by Aston, the cavalry captain who dismounted, and with one strong move, he put the king on the horse and lay him down on the soft saddle.
"Your Majesty, without further ado, let's retreat quickly. The enemies have terrifying weapons, and you will be killed by them."
Having just glanced at Eynred, he was so shocked that he lost his mind. Looking at his shocking left arm, he could only temporarily cover the wound tightly with his right hand to prevent the blood from draining out.
He muttered in great pain: "We are defeated and I want to withdraw. Aston, you saved me. When you return to York, I will make you an earl. No! You also have to lead the palace."
Aston was overjoyed and quickly rose to prominence because of his feat.
"Thank you, Your Majesty. If anything happens, I will take you to evacuate."
"Withdraw to Bamburgh, we must defend."
Suddenly, Aston sprayed a mouthful of blood all over the king, and then he fell down, with the leather saddle hanging from his feet, and the horrible body was dragged by the horse. The extremely tragic aspect of death was clearly seen by Eynred.
Aston's cervical spine was shattered by an iron bullet fired from a torsion slingshot, and he died on the spot.
Fortunately, there were still more than thirty cavalry guards around him. A cavalry soldier noticed that the situation was not good. He cut off the leather saddle with his sword. The dead Aston was no longer a burden on the fleeing horses.
The cavalry warrior took the reins, lowered his body and led the king to escape. "Your Majesty, the captain is dead. I will take you to evacuate."
At this moment, Eynred completely lost his courage. He was speechless in fear.
The king's withdrawal is causing the total collapse of the Northumbrian front, but hundreds of exhausted warriors of the kingdom are still fighting instinctively. The same melee Vikings also entered a state of exhaustion. The exhausted divisions on both sides were still engaged in a melee with swords. The balance of victory had tilted towards the Vikings, but they still maintained their morale despite their exhaustion.
A move is needed to promote the enemy's total collapse!
Now the remaining brothers of Shetland and Geiger were already counterattacking with one pair of legs against the cavalry.
Rurik personally controlled a torsion slingshot, and he personally aimed at the man lying on the horse.
That man is the King of Northumbria, that must be it!
The iron bullet has been installed. Since the enemy ran a little far away, Rurik adjusted the elevation angle, estimated an advance amount, and then pulled out the tenon pin.
The projectiles flew away amidst the vibrations. The cone-shaped cast-iron projectiles in the air spun spontaneously due to the special lines. With a low and flat parabola, they hit the horse's neck without any bias and killed him on the spot.
The horse did a forward somersault, and then pressed Eynred under the horse's corpse, unable to move.
At this moment, Geiger and other hundreds of Vikings with red hair and faces soaked in blood came towards this direction with great momentum.
The king disappeared, the king's flag fell down, the cavalry disappeared into the forest one after another, and the surviving farmers had run away. The Royal Army of Northumbria collapsed! The infantry began to flee in large numbers. They abandoned their helmets and armor, leaving their backs to the Vikings. They faced the so-called tragic fate of being "arbitrarily hacked to death by their pursuers during the rout."
Looking back at the Vikings, the Balmok tribe ushered in their first major victory since they were aware of it. This was a wolf pack facing a flock of sheep. The tired people were suddenly occupied by killing and looting. They frantically exhausted their physical strength. They pursued wildly with various weapons in order to kill the enemy, steal their weapons and key leather boots, and then pursue them into the forest to rob the enemy of the wealth stranded there.
The living people will make a fortune from this battle!
Also, this victory is a glorious achievement that can be boasted to the people in my hometown for a lifetime.
