A pair of vigilant eyes stared at the lonely visitor. Everyone saw that the man was very impressive and showed no signs of timidity in the face of the powerful Ross army.
Ragnar was a ruthless man who was hacked out of a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood. His first murder was to kill the leader of a neighboring tribe. It was a very fair duel, at least that's how the duel was. Both parties offered sacrifices to Odin, and the onlookers would serve as witnesses.
At that time, Ragnar was wearing thick woolen trousers that were resistant to snake bites. His clothes were quite special, as if the woolen trousers had this magical power. A fledgling boy hacked his opponent to death and thus qualified to compete for the Danish Grand Alliance Leader.
But at the last moment, Hafgen thought he would win. He cheated and stopped the duel with his absolute military strength, thus becoming the leader of the Danish alliance and becoming the king.
That was already ten years ago...
Ragnar is not an old man, he is only twenty-six years old now and is in the golden age of Viking warriors. Unfortunately, the limited population of his tribe cannot support the great dream of a young hero. Now it is very difficult to just survive.
Even if he is in trouble, he will not sell some dignity in exchange for the support of others.
Under night, two people holding torches meet.
Yevluo asked with a calm face: "It seems that you have thought about it and want to talk to us."
"Let's talk? Ah, we really need to talk."
If the Rus wanted to launch an attack, they would not delay it until nightfall. Ragnar had never fought against a real Rus in his life, and the bad information he heard made him even more afraid to take the plunge. This time we finally entered Ross’s riverside camp. Even though the light was dim, many wonders came to our mind. He frowned and realized that these guys were indeed difficult to defeat, at least his own tribe would definitely lose in a fight. But wouldn’t those Franks also lose?
Ragnar saw clearly that the Rus people were busy gathering around the campfire to cook a delicious meal. The alluring aroma actually comes from a huge iron container!
The Ross army had an "iron content" beyond his understanding, as if iron tools were commonplace in their community.
The characters who looked like ordinary warriors each carried multiple weapons and were using specialized iron digging tools to level the floor of the shack where they would sleep tonight.
They also have large and small linen sacks with wonderful designs, and the straps are actually used to tie the sacks. This in itself was not surprising, until he noticed someone taking out visible bread from the bag. That's not black bread, but toasted brown wheat bread. This is a high-end food in the territory of the Franks, not to mention this group of Russians further north? !
Some warriors sat down with their swords in their hands. Their eyes were like torches. They stared at Ragnar passing by with provocative eyes. Then they fiddled with the sword body and let the dancing flames illuminate it.
There are also warriors who use tree branches as supports to light up their chainmail as a whole and hang it together with their helmets.
No one would wear heavy chain mail all the time. The chain mail shining brightly in the flames was a silent showoff and mockery to the visitors!
Fear was out of the question. Ragnar just envied them for having so many protective gears. He couldn't help but imagine that once his army had these, it would be capable of fighting the Franks and would not even lose its home in Denmark.
Jevro deliberately took Ragnar for a walk in the camp. This was a heart-breaking move, and it also directly exposed part of the strength of the Ross army. There are risks in doing so, but the Ross army's self-esteem from top to bottom has turned into arrogance, especially when facing a group of Danes, it becomes even more arrogant. The brothers did not take off their pants to laugh and ridicule, they were exercising the utmost restraint.
"Have you seen it? Once the war starts, you will definitely lose." Yevro said arrogantly.
How did Ragnar do this? He knew very well that he did not have the upper hand, at least not in terms of words. He deliberately asked back: "If you take off your armor, aren't you afraid that my people will launch a sudden attack? In a night brawl, you don't have a complete advantage."
"Haha. Do you dare? I still warn you!" Yevluo suddenly turned around, his face still arrogant, and pointed his big hand directly at the parked warship: "Our heavy weapons are always on standby. As long as you dare to attack, many people will Will die on the way to charge. I don’t know what you have encountered. From my judgment, you have a serious shortage of soldiers, and even children and women are forced to take up arms. Stop it! Danes! This river beach has been We, the Russian army, are firmly in control.”
"I want to see your leader immediately." Ragnar suddenly changed the topic.
"You're about to see that."
Soon, Ragnar sat beside the inconspicuous bonfire, and those sitting on his left and right were the elites of the Ross army.
Arik looked provocatively and deliberately clenched the hilt of his sword with his right hand, just to test the so-called Ragnar's reaction.
But he saw Ragnar retaliating with tooth, holding the hilt of the sword tightly but not taking the initiative to attack. Because he saw that the people sitting around the bonfire were all ruthless people. Not only did he have no chance of winning in a real fight, but if he angered the Russian people, his own people would die on a large scale.
After a stalemate for a while, Aric loosened his grip on the hilt of the sword, and the atmosphere relaxed: "Yes, you are a warrior. My brothers and I allowed you to hold the sword to the audience. We thought you would be a coward praying for peace, but you did not lose anything." The courage to break up and give it a try.”
Ragnar held his head high, looking at the scene, he would definitely not be safe, so he wanted to save face for his tribe. He observed the young man who was speaking: "I heard that the leader of your Rus' people is young and promising, so you must be the leader? I can't even figure out how you can go to the territory of the Franks and rob you if you don't attack your old enemy Denmark?"
"I... am not Chief Ross."
"You? Not really?"
Arik smiled, with a hint of sadness in his smile. Who doesn't want to be the prince of the entire Rus, but he is not the one chosen by God, and he has no ability to govern a big country. He is just a reckless man.
"The prince of the Principality of Rus is Rurik, and I am the prince's brother. The Prince of Rus has received the blessing and favor of the great god Odin, so our entire Rus tribe, as well as all the tribes that have surrendered to Rus to accept their rule, have benefited."
Ragnar said without changing his expression: "Indeed, the real northern warriors are all blond. There are obviously many black-haired people in your team. The Finns who were supposed to be slaves have become warriors. So there is a legend that the Russians Is it true that he conquered the Eastern Land (Finland)?”
The words were a little aggressive, because he didn't know Yevlo's identity.
In this way, Jevloko had to hold his head high and show off: "You! The Danish Ragnar has no idea of my noble identity."
"You? How noble are you? My friend..."
"You call me friend? Maybe we have a peaceful meeting today and can be friends in the future. I am Count Jevlo of Finland, loyal to the Prince of Rus. My tribe has more than 30,000 people, even if it seems to you that Weak brigade, I can indeed summon 10,000 Finnish warriors. We Finns are not good at fighting, but are best at archery. Joining forces with the Russians, we have become rich and powerful. This time I am following the prince’s order to attack the Franks..."
Jevro showed off well, but Arik started showing off his achievements again. He must point out his own resentment and the fact that at the age of nineteen he led four hundred warriors to avenge an evil enemy and achieve a great victory.
As an absolute strong man, Ross Army is willing to show off his great achievements, firstly for psychological self-satisfaction, and secondly to shock the audience.
Nordic social culture has a tradition in this regard. A warrior should show off his achievements to his guests. Many times, he will give himself various nicknames, which are essentially honorary titles. If he does not give a nickname, it will refer to one achievement. It is okay. We talked for three days and three nights.
Ragnar was quite surprised. In the past, he could only get fragmentary descriptions of the Ross people from a group of losers. This time, he was convinced that he had obtained the most accurate information from the self-narratives of senior members of the Ross army. Co-author: The battles that the Russians experienced in the past are not at all on the same order of magnitude as their own understanding of war? The Russians always try to choose large-scale decisive battles. Once a fight breaks out, the strength of both sides is always close to 10,000. They claim that the Russian army may have killed 50,000 enemy soldiers over the years. Even if this number is accurate, even killing 10,000 people is extremely cruel.
The only decisive battle in his memory was when he, as a member of the Danish Allied Forces, led two hundred of the most elite soldiers to encounter King Olekin of Svealan (Sweden) by chance. After a bloody battle, he chopped off the man's dog head and gained a great deal. achievements.
He originally did not want to mention this matter because he considered that Rose and Svealan had a very close relationship and that speaking out might anger them. But the Russians were already boasting that they had killed the old Danish king Hafgen who led the counterattack against Svealand. Bringing up "Killing Olegin" was actually retaliation.
The strange thing is that the attitude of the Russian people is completely ambiguous.
Look at Arik's expression. He was not angry. Instead, he showed a smile of praise: "Odin doesn't like lying warriors. You can't afford to make this joke. I believe you killed Olegin. Very good! I have seen it a long time ago. That man is so distasteful that I want to kill him with my own hands! Now we have nothing to do with Svealand. They were defeated by you Danes, and now they no longer have the ability to compete with us, the Principality of Rus, for the power of the Northern Baltic Sea. So what about you? ?Your tribe is clearly in exile."
Arik, a native of Russia, was a nobleman of the generation. He only spoke some heart-to-heart words, but from Ragnar's point of view, he couldn't hide it anymore.
Ragnar was so cruel that he simply told the truth, but what he described was something that Arik and the others had never heard of.
It turned out that when Denmark and Frank were fighting near the Great Wall of Schleswig, Ragnar had already taken advantage of the chaos and entered Frank territory to rob. Robbery and making a fortune is one purpose, and strategic revenge by opening up new battlefields is the biggest reason.
However, Horik, the once tough new King of Denmark, suddenly gave up. According to Ragnar's rude and exaggerated description, the situation was like this.
"Horlick was originally a hunting dog raised by a Frankish noble. Later, the dog decided to become a human again, which made the owner dissatisfied. The dog fought back for a while, but finally became a good dog again. I heard that the man took off his shirt and was like The plucked wild boar knelt at the feet of the great Frankish nobles and kissed their toes. He even begged for forgiveness, even if he had to become a eunuch to atone for his sins, as long as he could continue to be a Danish nobleman under the Frankish rule..."
Just hearing Ragnar say that made me feel uncomfortable. The hair on Arik's body stood on end, and then he became furious. The most angry one was undoubtedly Blue Fox, who simply yelled: "Scoundrel! The person who killed me, destroyed our shops, is obviously brave, but he surrendered to Frank in this way!"
What the blue fox said immediately attracted Ragna's attention. This trip to Ragnar was a surprise, because in the past peaceful days, the "Stonewall" tribe did buy some high-quality and cheap ironware and a batch of high-quality leather in Hedebe. There are rumors that the owner of the shop is a Russian. No one in the free Hezeby cares about this. The Ragnar tribe who got the good goods pretended to be confused even though they had suspicions. Unexpectedly, the person sitting in front of me is the shop owner! This also solved the real reason why the Ross fleet suddenly entered the Weser River.
Ragnar continued to explain his story. The so-called Horik was forgiven by Frank, and it must have been the sale of certain interests in exchange for peace. The reason for his conclusion was that after the truce, Horik suddenly turned his troops and rushed towards the "Stonewall" tribe. They received weapons support from the Franks, and they had superior strength and weapons and equipment. After crossing the sea, they killed the Stonewall tribe and suffered heavy losses.
Horik is the enemy! Although the survivors still call themselves Danes, in their view Denmark has been essentially occupied by Frank's lackeys. They all saw a deeper contradiction. The so-called biggest enemy of the tribe was Frank! They lost their home and had nowhere to go. In the near future, the cold winter was approaching. The brothers could only take the remaining people and row into the nearby East Frankish territory to rob to survive, but things did not go well at all.
When the words reached this point, Ragna, who was already very excited after speaking, twisted his hands into fists, smashed them to the ground, and said viciously: "We have lost everything, and now we can only be pirates. Many women and children were killed by them. , regardless of the fact that they are also Danes. Many lords have left Denmark, and everyone is unwilling to be loyal to a Frankish dog. Now I still have more than 400 men, and there are only 300 men who can fight. In fact... There are Frankish pursuers behind us. We didn't grab much supplies, because the Frankish farmers transported most of the things to the city of Bremen. With our small number of people, we couldn't capture that city at all. Now we can only Can go hungry.”
Looking at this description, Aric heard the betrayal and suffering they experienced, and he immediately felt empathy and burst into tears.
Blue Fox couldn't do this. With a businessman's thinking, he understood Ragnar's deep begging buried in his language.
As for Yevlo, the most he thought about was actually to win over, and at the worst, these victims could become allies of the Principality of Ross.
"Have you decided where to go in the future?" Arik asked, wiping away tears.
"Maybe Flanders, go there to try your luck. Let's grab a village and live there first."
Jevro took the opportunity to speak: "Russ and you have no reason or need to fight. Horik and the Franks are our common enemies, and we should unite. Why don't you go to Rus!"
Arik slapped his thigh: "That's how it should be. Ragna, bring your people to join us. I admire you as a hero, and heroes should not be in trouble."
In this way, the Blue Fox also followed the words, his mind was more active and his words were very smart: "However, the hero's arrogance cannot be tarnished. This time our Ross fleet is ordered to attack Bremen. Ragnar, what is before you now There are two paths."
"What is it?" Ragna still liked what the businessman Blue Fox said.
"First, if you don't accept us, you will leave on your own tomorrow and we will pretend we don't know you. Finally, we Russians will attack Bremen. Second, we will form a coalition and share the spoils after we capture Bremen (actually by virtue of After that, we will form a fleet and go back to Ross for the winter. I choose you to choose the second route, because the Principality of Ross is at the time of employing people, and I can reveal a major secret to you. The prince of Ross has long been tired of the conflict with Denmark. War. Danes and Danes are different. People like Horik must be crusaded! As for you, when you choose a peaceful attitude, we can be friends. One day Horik will be expelled, and we Plan to do business with friendly Danes, which I think you are.”
"Then unite!"
To everyone's surprise, Ragnar's words were very decisive. Arik was stunned, and when he came back to his senses, he thought about it. Ragnar must have thought about it a long time ago, but he just didn't want to lose face and ask for alliance.
The so-called alliance was by no means something Ross should help, but Ross still provided a day's rations for his army. This is actually not a problem. Due to Rurik's paranoid emphasis on logistics, the Russian army purchased supplies on a large scale before setting sail, so that even if the operation achieved nothing, at least the brothers would not go hungry.
Ragnar's men couldn't afford to pay for a day's worth of rations, but they paid the price anyway. The two teams united to attack Bremen, forming a larger river fleet and sailing against the current to the city of Bremen.
According to the plan, Ragnar's people will serve as the main offensive force, and the Ross army will provide more fire support and use heavy equipment to knock down Bremen's wooden city walls. Ragnar must have suffered huge risks, but they were the first to enter the city after the city was broken, and in theory the best property was snatched by them.
Although Arik felt that this arrangement would benefit these Danish homeless dogs, Blue Fox emphasized the real purpose of this operation: "Why bother with gold and silver? They can't eat it when they are hungry. We need to find the warehouse and rob it. Wool and grain. It is much warmer here than our home in northern Europe. The Franks have just finished their wheat harvest. Ragnar said that farmers took refuge in the city with their wool, so that they could not grab anything, so a large amount of wheat is in the city. We need to What we do is to pull the wheat away as much as possible according to the order!"
