Rise of Rurik

Aachen is Charlemagne's Aachen. As the heir to the throne, Lothair naturally inherited the imperial capital of his grandfather the Great.

But this city was not built by him. As a brand new "Roman Emperor", it seems natural to choose a new capital for himself.

There were four important cities in the core area of ​​Frankish rule: Aachen, Paris, Mainz and Strasbourg.

There are many emperor's palaces scattered in the empire, and these cities and palaces can be Lothair himself as his permanent residence.

He is now living in Strasbourg, and many members of the royal family from his family branch have temporarily immigrated to this city.

Strasbourg is even more heavily guarded. She has become the de facto new capital of Lothair, and it is also a giant barracks. Guarding this place, the front of the army is directed at Mainz in the north, and it can also forcefully pass through the upper reaches of the Rhine River running north-south here, enter the Württemberg Mountains on the opposite bank, and enter Bavaria in a detour. Of course, the latter move is only a theory. Lothair had thought about the plan to venture into the mountains to launch a surprise attack, but considering the strength and command ability of his own army, let's forget about this kind of thing.

None of Charlemagne's three living grandsons felt that his military talents could surpass or equal his grandfather the Great.

Even for Lothair, the rapid expansion of troops through large-scale conscription is now the only way to dare to launch a decisive battle against his younger brother. He lacked tactical confidence and did not believe that he could take Mainz with a small number of elite soldiers.

Of course, just as he was still busy with recruiting and training the new army, intending to launch a decisive autumn offensive, he had no idea that his rear was being attacked by the Normans.

People poked air everywhere. Unexpectedly, in order to win his younger brother Ludwig made a secret conspiracy with those Norman nobles, a series of behaviors seemed to be making a deal with the devil.

The city of Aachen seems to be independent of the civil war.

Lothar and his wife have seven children.

The two princes and three princesses lived temporarily in the Strasbourg Palace with their father.

The third daughter, Imingard, was sixteen years old, and her natural beauty was kidnapped. It was Gilbert, Earl of Ramongao who kidnapped her, and this kind of thing made Lothair dumbfounded. As the so-called now is a critical period of the civil war, Earl Ramongao's neighbor is the Earl of Flanders, which has repeatedly jumped between rebellion and submission. This earl has actually become a nobleman guarding the northwest frontier of the Middle Kingdom.

Gilbert threatened with this, so until this year, 842, Lothair had to admit the marriage.

There is a canary living in the city of Namur. Sixteen-year-old Immingard doesn't like this man who is five years older than himself, so what can he do? The father has already recognized this marriage, and as a royal princess, she really has no right to choose her own marriage.

Of course, getting the beloved Earl Gilbert would not treat his daughter badly.

But now the earl is facing the most serious crisis in his life-the Norman invasion.

But it is said that the Ross Allied Forces led by Blue Fox burned, killed and looted along the Maas River, and a large number of refugees who fled along the river poured into Ramongao and flocked to the city of Namur.

After the death of his father, Gilbert was only seventeen years old when he was canonized as the new Ramon Gauber by Lothair himself, who was the co-emperor at the time and is now the "only Roman emperor".

....

Lord.

It was that time when he personally knelt down to his monarch in Aachen Palace. Taking this opportunity, he met his future love, Princess Immingard, who was only twelve years old at the time.

He is now young and vigorous. When the kidnapped marriage was recognized by the king, and he heard that Maastricht had serious hostility, he not only defended his fief, but also helped the king solve the crisis. The young earl resolutely decided to recruit troops on a large scale, recruiting all the peasants in the entire fief as much as possible to fight for justice and faith.

And this courage also impressed Princess Immingard.

At least this man is really worthy of a brave man at this moment, and that kind of masculine charm made her admire for the first time.

However, Princess Immingard didn't know the identities of those Normans, and she didn't know what the pirates who went deep into the river were going to do.

The nobles of Ramengau did not expect that Aachen not far away had been targeted by the Normans, and even these pirates who had landed broke into the city without hindrance.

Aachen is not a market place, so the population living in the city has been maintained at around 5,000 for a long time. There are hundreds of thousands of village populations around the city, and most of them are located in the Earl of Lihigau. Every major festival, more than 20,000 villagers often flock to Aachen, making the city blocked in a short period of time.

The hard granite slabs are paved into streets and alleys, especially the central square of the city outside the prince and the cathedral. This rather open area gives the Ross warriors who entered the city a strong sense of sight.

The current blue fox doesn't care about looting on the spot at all. The houses on both sides of the road are very regulated. If you look carefully, it

They are still a kind of dwellings. How much money can be robbed by looting houses? If you want to grab gold, you have to go to church.

The offensive of the two elite flag teams of the Ross Army was extremely targeted, and they focused on the palace and church.

Since the army entered the city with almost no resistance, the residents in the city only heard the noise outside the city at first, thinking that because St. They didn't pay attention to those who were about to enter the city, but when they opened the bay window on the second floor, they saw a large number of strange people with round shields running wildly on the street.

At first, the people just watched the excitement, and they didn't feel any fear at all. It wasn't until the arrows that attacked the bay windows began to fly, that the peaceful residents screamed in panic.

too fast! The army that rushed into the city was too fast.

The elite Ross army in blue-striped white robes rushed too fast, thinking that they would definitely not be able to compete with this group of ruthless people. The backward Yotaland nobles brought their fellow villagers into the city and began to plunder.

They broke into various streets and alleys, broke into houses and shops, killed the residents and rummaged through boxes and cabinets. They can capture many people, but these fighters don't bother to do so considering the practical factors.

They gnawed bread, and dipped pieces of bread in jam. Snatch pottery urns containing pickles, and feast on the captured bread with pickled cabbage.

After all, the food they ate when they set off early in the morning has been consumed a lot now, and they urgently need more food to fill up their stomachs.

Aachen is worthy of being the capital of the Franks. Although the city easily surprises everyone, the food here will not lie, and a lot of sweet jams and honey have been seized.

....

There is not a lot of money looted in the houses.

These warriors opened the wardrobes of the dwellings, found all kinds of clothes, and wore long robes to show off to each other.

The bodies of those killed were not spared either, and the shoes were stripped off for the soldiers to keep for themselves, as were some blood-stained clothes.

After all, the northern Jota River Basin is still too cold. Living in that environment, no one feels that they have too many clothes. They looted clothes, shoes, hats and mittens as much as they took gold and silver, and one can now say that they have reaped a good deal.

No, even the coarse cloth curtains that were stained with dust were torn off, and after the dust was shaken off vigorously, they were used to wrap a large number of looted clothes, made into huge cloth bags, tied them with hemp rope, carried them on their backs and continued to participate looting.

"Keep going! Don't worry about the surrounding houses, let the brothers behind grab it! Let's go to the church!" The blue fox shouted a few words while running, and then shut up.

There was really no need for him to mumble any more. The pile of feathers specially inserted on his helmet, accompanied by the flying Ross flag at the head of the team, had already pointed out the way for the army behind.

So, in the central square of the city, the city defenders met the elite Ross army who broke into it.

Seeing all the foreign troops, Captain Sebaster of the Guardian Banner was shocked.

However, he hesitated for a moment, and resolutely pulled out his sword, pointing at the blade: "Soldiers! Kill the intruders!"

After all, he took the lead in charging.

Finally, they met the real urban resisters. The appearance of these Frankish troops just inspired the strong fighting spirit of Ross's elite fighters.

but both sides

The disparity in troop strength was outrageous. A thousand Ross elites faced less than 200 defenders. Under the absolute superiority of troops, the failure of the defenders was inevitable.

The heavy soldiers of Ross's standing army wearing breastplates swarmed forward, forming a shield wall and attacking like a steel steamroller.

The powerful force crushed the defender's line with just one impact. Once the defender was crushed and accidentally fell, the terrifying killing began.

Among the rebellious army, Sebastian, who was extremely brave for his loyalty and honor, was severely hit in the face by a battle axe. After he suddenly fainted, the hammer that fell directly killed him.

A large number of Frankish warriors, their iron swords poking meaninglessly on the breastplate of the Ross army, were instead blocked by the flexible steel swords of the Ross warriors who were proficient in killing. The cloth face armor of the Frankish soldiers riveted with iron sheets has strong defensive power, and the weakness of the neck has been discovered by the Ross army.

The central square, which was originally the center of huge and major festivals, has now become a place of terror. The blood of the dead soldiers began to pool into a stream, which gradually flowed into the urban drainage ditch along the drainage ditch deliberately reserved in the stone slabs of the square, and finally flowed into the nearest river together with the oozing hot spring water.

At the same time, those great nobles living in palaces and churches have been completely alarmed.

At this moment, the palace is in chaos!

Lothair could live in the Royal Palace of Aachen, but he has not been doing so due to war factors in the past two years.

The eldest son and the younger son were with them, taking advantage of the opportunity of the civil war to let the young people see the world. Three of the four daughters have married nobles, and only the youngest daughter remains in the royal palace of Aachen.

....

"Your Highness, come out

It's over, let's go. "The steward of the court barged in rudely into the princess' boudoir.

At this moment, the extremely bored Princess Ghisla is doing embroidery games with her maid. She has already had breakfast and is still waiting for the Latin class in the afternoon.

Today should be an ordinary day, and I am doing what I like like in the past.

With curly hair, she lightly brushed her drooping bangs, and slightly turned her head to look surprised at the male butler who suddenly barged in.

"Why?! Why are you here! Get out!"

The steward was a little startled, but he didn't care too much now, so he went further and directly broke in, and grabbed the princess's immature arm, and said: "Please redeem, now I have no choice."

"What are you doing? Let go!"

Unable to resist the princess's protest, the steward dragged the panicked princess out like a lamb. Her maid hurriedly threw away the work at hand. Although she didn't know why, it was the first time she saw the manager so flustered that something must have happened.

In desperation, Princess Jisla opened her small mouth and bit the steward fiercely. Even though she felt pain, the steward remained unmoved.

After being forcibly dragged out of the boudoir, she suddenly saw the nanny waiting here.

"What's going on? Mary, what happened?"

Mary, the wrinkled nanny, was already trembling. She tried to sit still and explained softly: "Assailants! A lot of assailants broke into the city."

"What? Attacker?! This is the royal city!"

"Your Highness!" the steward yelled at the princess, scaring the girl into a daze: "There is no time! If we are one step late, we will not be able to escape.

Lost. "

"Escape? Why do you want to escape? Where is the army?" Princess Jisla tremblingly asked.

"The army has already started fighting." In desperation, the chief had already ignored any etiquette.

He is the head of the palace appointed by the king. This position is only to take care of the daily life of the royal family members who stay in Aachen. removal of objects. This is a very complicated job, and now his greatest duty is to take care of the only fourth princess Jisla who is still in the court.

There was a sudden sense of weightlessness, and the twelve-year-old princess was carried behind her back by the manager. This old man still had a lot of strength.

"Let's go!" The steward shouted to all the people in front of him, and then ran out of the palace with the princess on his back.

"My jewelry! My costume! Alicia, go get my jewelry!"

"yes!"

The maid Alicia turned back again. In a hurry, she picked up the small gold-plated box that the princess usually put gems and jewelry in, ran out with it, and chased after the fugitive with great strength. She even ran away with her shoes. up.

Just catching up with the team, she hurriedly showed the box she got, and the princess finally showed a gratified smile when she saw it, and also noticed that her maid was already barefoot.

The two girls are about the same age. Princess Gisla is the great-granddaughter of Charlemagne and the fourth daughter of Lothair, a top nobleman.

Alicia, the maid, is also of noble origin, but her rank is much lower. This noble girl, who was found by Gisla's mother from Lombardy, arrived at the palace of Aachen.

Aristocratic girls have big bright eyes and darker hair, which proves the nobility of blood.

Indeed, although Alicia is a maid~www.readwn.com~ her ancestors do have Roman blood, which is why she has brown-black curly hair, but it is much darker than her own princess' hair.

She was arranged to take care of the life of the princess and grow up with it. The princess would marry a certain nobleman, and she would arrange to be the abbot of a certain women's monastery, and spend her life guarding purity.

No matter how noble they are, they have never been able to defy their assigned destiny, just like birds born in cages, without feeling the vast sky, it is impossible to talk about losing anything.

However, a strange army invaded Aachen, and the arranged fate finally encountered an unavoidable blow from the extreme north, just like a blizzard from the North Pole, which hit Aachen more violently than the winter cold wave.

Many servants may have no chance to escape, and the court steward does not care about the fate of those inferior people.

He planned to rush directly to the stables and warehouses outside the palace with the princess on his back. The grains and vegetables outside the city needed to be transported here by carriage, so he could use the carriage to escape in an emergency.

However, they are still too late.

reborn carambola