The messenger rode towards Wessex, but as he passed through the forest, a large net was thrown out of the bushes and caught the messenger and his horse.
"Wow ah ah~~~." A group of Vikings jumped out from the bushes on the roadside. They stepped forward and pressed the messenger. This group of Vikings was led by the earl and infiltrated throughout Mercia. A small force whose mission is to capture messengers running away from castles and towns.
"Catch him and search him." A Viking leader wearing animal skins and chainmail said to his men.
Soon the Vikings came forward and punched and kicked the messenger. After the messenger became honest, they went forward to search again and found the letter on the parchment.
"This." The Viking warrior handed the letter to the leader, and the leader unfolded the parchment and turned it over. However, he did not understand Latin, but the badge on it showed that this was a very important letter.
"You keep an eye on him, I'll go find Guzlen." The leader knew the importance of the letter, so he immediately put the letter in his arms, got on his horse and headed towards the direction where Guzlen was stationed.
At the same time that the Vikings caught the messenger, a group of merchants drove the carriage towards Wessex. Behind the carriage, Isaac took off his hood, and a smile appeared on the corner of his mouth. A sly smile. Of course he was well aware that the Vikings were trying to cut off communications between Mercia and the outside world, so he deliberately used fake letters to confuse the other party, hid in the caravan with the real letters, and returned to Wessex.
"We may encounter Vikings ahead, but we will give them Danish gold." The leader of the caravan said to Isaac.
"I know that these Vikings will not rob caravans easily." Isaac nodded slightly. In everyone's impression, the Vikings seemed to do all kinds of evil, burning, killing and looting, but the strange thing is that they were very serious about merchants and trade. Preferential treatment, some businessmen even felt that the appearance of the Vikings broke the tax barriers between the British countries, and the trade economy became more active.
The content of Isaac's fake letter unexpectedly boosted Guzlen's determination to attack. This may be something he never expected.
"The Mercians were frightened and rejected the covenant proposed by Wessex." Standing next to Guzlum was a monk, holding a parchment letter and said to Guzlum.
"Is that really the emblem of the King of Mercia?" Guzlen rubbed his hands and asked the monk.
"Yes." The monk nodded quickly. Although he had not actually seen it, he made a rough judgment based on the patterns on it.
"Very good." Guzlen nodded slightly, and a stone fell to the ground in his heart. Of course he was not afraid of the King of Mercia, but if the Mercians interfered with their full attack on Wessex, they would probably attack. own base.
"The soldiers are ready." The soldier accompanying him said to Guzlen.
"Well, very good, you go and see how Lord Ulf is doing." Guzlen was in a good mood. He seemed to have seen Alfred kneeling down and begging for mercy.
"Yes." The accompanying soldier nodded quickly and said.
When he left Guzrun and was about to ride to Ulf's territory, another warrior who accompanied him stopped him. He had blond hair and a beard tied into one.
"Hey, Scarface, where are you going?" The blond soldier grabbed the horse's reins and asked him.
"Guzrun ordered me to go to Ulf's territory to take a look. Let go of Mouse Ears." The personal warrior known as Scarface said impatiently.
"Hmph, I'm getting tired of staying here. Let me go with you." The blond warrior nicknamed Mouse Ears does have a pair of small ears, so he is called Mouse Ears. Of course, this nickname also has other meanings.
"Then stop talking nonsense." Scarface said to him.
Ulf's territory was not far from the castle where Guzrun was stationed. It only took an hour of galloping to reach it. When the two soldiers accompanying Guzrun arrived, they were immediately stunned by the scene in front of them.
"Is this the open space?" Scarface looked there in surprise. Originally, this was an open space with only some ruins. Guzlen usually only used this place as an occasional hunting place, but now it seems to have become a busy place. construction site.
"Hurry up, compact the soil a little more, we need more wood." Vargas' rough voice sounded, and he directed the slaves and the people of the Eagle Group to build another section of the city wall.
"Since this has become our stronghold, we must build a fortress." Ulf stood in the center of the construction site. He looked around. Fortunately, he had plundered many slaves and the labor force was sufficient, not to mention the Roman Empire here. The ruins left by the times happened to be put to use, saving him the cost of building the city wall.
"Ulf, Guzrun asked us to make siege equipment, are you sure?" When Ange learned that Ulf had boasted to Guzrun that he would make siege equipment for him, he couldn't help but worry about him. , you must know that although the large crossbow can attack the general wooden fortress, it will be very difficult to encounter a slightly stronger castle.
"Don't worry, of course I have a way." Ulf seemed very confident. Anyway, the Vikings in this era had very little knowledge about siege equipment, and the country he came from randomly pulled out a dynasty, and it was all about siege equipment. He is very expert in city repair.
Ulf took out a piece of parchment. These parchments were all looted from the monastery by the Vikings. They didn't take these parchments seriously, but they just thought it was pretty good to start a fire, and Ulf But he hurriedly stopped this behavior of the North soldiers. In Europe, where there is no papermaking technology, the production of parchment is very complicated and rare.
"Look, this is the siege weapon I drew." Ulf pointed to the drawing on the parchment. Ange was curious about what was on it. It was a tall mobile arrow tower and a catapult.
Although Ulf really wanted to draw counterweighted siege weapons such as sniper cannons, on the one hand this required more sophisticated mathematical knowledge, and on the other hand he also had some secret ideas. All those particularly powerful weapons were temporarily excluded. Don't take it out anymore.
"Is this really capable of breaking through the Ansa castle?" Ange reached out and touched the blueprint gently. Sometimes she couldn't figure out why Ulf had so much wonderful knowledge hidden in his head.
"Of course. In fact, I have asked the craftsmen to make it again, so don't worry." Ulf patted Ange on the shoulder and said to her.
At this moment, one of Ulf's warriors ran over and whispered a few words in his ear. Ulf raised his head and saw Guzlen's personal warriors standing in the distance. He narrowed his eyes and couldn't help but murmur in his heart. It seemed that Guzlen still didn't trust him after all.
"Dear Lord Ulf, we have brought greetings from Guzrun." Scarface bowed towards Ulf and said to Ulf.
"Thanks for the greetings from Chief Guzrun, and may Odin protect and pay attention to him." Ulf also said a few polite words, and at this time, another warrior with blond hair, Mouse Ears, was looking around curiously.
"Lord Ulf, your way of building city walls is very different?" Mouse Ear asked curiously.
Most of the castles built by the Vikings were made of sharpened wood, tied together in groups, and then stuck on the ground to form rows of wooden walls. However, Ulf built the walls in a different way. He was obviously The soil was excavated, and then the slaves tamped it with tied stones, and then clamped the rammed earth with wooden boards, forming the rammed earth city building method. The excavated soil could be used, and the ravines left behind became natural protection. City trench.
"When the respected Guzrun handed over this territory to me, I was thinking about how to build a fortress to make this a strong base for us Norse people." Ulf smiled and explained to Mouse Ear.
"I see, so have you finished the siege equipment you made for Leader Guzrun?" Mouse Ear asked Ulf. Scarface glanced at Mouse Ear in surprise, but did not stop him. After all, this was indeed the case. This is the purpose why Guzlen sent them.
"Of course." Ulf nodded slightly. He pointed to an open space in the distance and led them over.
There were many scarecrows standing here, and a group of craftsmen were tying up a pile of materials. When they approached, the craftsmen stood up quickly.
"Assemble it and let them see it." Ulf waved his hand and ordered the craftsmen to continue working, and the craftsmen quickly started busy. They installed a simple catapult.
"What is this?" Scarface couldn't help looking at the catapult curiously and asked Ulf.
"This is a catapult. It can throw stones far away. If the force and aim are accurate, it can even break through the enemy's wall." Ulf explained to the two of them.
"Oh?" The two accompanying soldiers couldn't help but be surprised. You must know that the Vikings have always been helpless against the Angsa city wall.
"Launch." Ulf nodded to the craftsmen.
