Rise of Rurik

The latest website: The distance between Ghent and Antwerp is not far. Refugees can pour into Ghent in a short time, so it is not difficult for the count to pull an army on the spot and go straight to Antwerp.

The brother-in-law was killed in the battle, the important town was lost, and the area further north was completely lost. A large number of people poured into Ghent, which caused dissatisfaction among the locals.

Of course, Count Baudouin decided to send troops immediately because of his sister's tears and pushback, and secondly, it was also to balance the stability of the various forces in the territory.

First, it will take some time to gather the vassals of the county to organize the army to gather in Ghent.

For example, Lille in the most remote areas of the south, and Bruther in the eastern border area, don't expect noble reinforcements in these areas.

Either recruit troops to fight on the spot, or accept Ghent as a tortoise.

Baudouin still chose to fight.

Because without fighting, there is no survival.

A large number of refugees gathered under the city of Ghent, and Baudouin ordered the gates to be closed, which seemed to mean that the refugees would be turned away.

The priests are trying their best to maintain law and order, and the soldiers in the city are standing on a high place watching the every move of the people outside the city.

Refugees drove a large number of sheep, goats and cattle to come, people to eat food, livestock to eat grass. It was very bad that the people fled so fast that they were unable to take the fodder with them, so that although the cattle and sheep were spared from the Norman plundering without loss, they were very short of material.

A large number of livestock are wandering outside the city, such as goats, which can be said to sin that the grass roots are also eaten away. All the livestock are frantically plundering the yellow meadows outside the city of Ghent, and even the hard dead branches are also eaten by goats and cattle. Go hard to eat.

All the people sowed were spring oats and spring rye, and in autumn and winter the farmland was deliberately abandoned. There is still a huge amount of soothing wild land here, and it is still overgrown with weeds, making it a good food for cattle and sheep, but the livestock from the north have a sharp contradiction with the livestock raised by the people of Ghent.

Flanders' wealth is built on the wool trade, and a large number of cattle and sheep are gathered in Ghent. Is there enough grass to eat? Baudouin didn't want his country to fall into internal conflict, causing internal conflicts among the people.

What's more, a large number of fief knights from the north led all the villagers and gathered outside the city of Ghent with weapons.

Considering his ancestry, Baudouin didn't think he could persuade the "Soldier of the Siege" to remain absolutely responsible.

The country of Flanders, the more Frankish people go to the south, and the more Frisian people go to the north.

The fief knights from Antwerp were all Frisian, and so were the villagers they brought.

Therefore, after consulting with his cronies (internal ministers) and the Bishop of Ghent, the Count Baudouin awakened and gathered the army in the city, and accompanied the bishop to appease the refugees outside the city.

Those who were looking forward to redemption were indeed redeemed, and the bishop poured holy oil on the refugees in the bleak rain to reassure them.

Baudouin appeared on his horse, and immediately met with the knights of the fief, and announced to them his decision.

"You were supposed to guard Antwerp, but you didn't keep your oath. You have a hundred valid reasons, my brother (actually brother-in-law) was killed, a large number of people were killed, and the northern region was in chaos. I don't listen to any excuse, I Just Antwerp!"

Baudouin's attitude was quite decisive. He wanted to gather soldiers from all sides, and even select strong men from refugees, and immediately rushed along the river to Antwerp.

They must gather as many troops as possible at once, and they must pursue the pursuit immediately, otherwise the Normans who come by boat will go away. Baudouin did not wish to lose this opportunity for revenge, and a major conscription began now.

Of course, this is compulsory conscription. All the refugees from the north, including the boy of only fourteen years of age, were immediately distributed with arms and food and included in the army of the country.

Such an almost unlimited levy does not involve villages in the Ghent area, but the village fief knights must serve.

Baudouin patched things together, and forcefully pulled out an army of nearly 3,000 people on the left.

This number is extremely astonishing. If the Frankish King Lothair and King Ludwig knew that the cowardly country of Flanders could summon such a force, then both sides would issue a series of orders to force the country to send a large army to participate. The civil war did not work on its own.

Although Baudouin's family came from the Frankish mainland, his family's interests have been completely tied to the locals.

His family wanted to not offend both sides, not only maintaining good diplomatic relations with the transfer of benefits to both sides, but also actively pretending to be weak.

If it wasn't for the repeated attacks of the Normans, he wouldn't have the heart to assemble a huge army to show off his strength arrogantly.

Of course, it is an unprecedented feat to call such a large number of soldiers, although there are more than 2,000 armed peasants without armor.

Baudouin felt that he had won. No matter how savage the Normans were, could they be against this army? Including the junior nobles and peasant soldiers in the army, they are confident because of their strong military strength, and they are blessed by the bishop personally with holy oil, and the war is directly endowed with sacred meaning.

This is not a civil war between nobles, and the peasants are not pulled over to make up the numbers. Everyone is fighting for their beliefs and for their homeland. Of course, they are very nervous. Everyone has a great reason to fight for it. If they die in battle, at the moment of judgment, this feat will be enough to send their souls to heaven.

Baudouin didn't want to wait any longer. He prepared in a hurry and did his best in a short period of time.

All the old weapons were taken out of the warehouse, and the farmer soldiers basically popularized the short spear, and also widely equipped a special weapon based on the short spear modification - the day security stick.

A hard oak stick is the weapon of the Frisian people since ancient times. This stick is inlaid with iron nails and animal teeth, which has the meaning of a mace. And put an iron spear at the front of the stick, so that it can stab and smash.

The army carries a variety of weapons, and they do not have a clear organization. Basically, men from each village follow their lords. The Count Baudouin had the largest army, and his retinue guards belonged to the armored elite.

Even so, there were only less than 300 armored men in the 3,000-strong army. It is also reported that the new Normans are good at using arrows, so they will bring more hunters and archers, but there are few people in Baudouin who are good at archery.

The patchwork army began to move. Their team looked messy, but in fact it was divided into one block after another, and the core of the block was a fief knight.

In this way, Baudouin's army relied on armed units composed of knights, and at least maintained a minimum order in the chaos.

The army rushed to Antwerp as fast as possible, and the Count Baudouin led them to choose a shortcut, and even then they spent two days on the journey.

From the refugees fleeing to the army's counterattack, it would take up to four days at the earliest.

It was precisely because of the rain that Rurik felt that there was only a slight chance that the local nobles would send troops to counterattack. The rain made the Russ army slack. Faced with a large number of materials that needed to be removed, people were all thinking about how to load the spoils onto the ship, but they did not do anything to guard against the enemy's counterattack.

The whole world is wet, and the feeling of cold and damp is extremely disgusting. After all, the war has continued until now. Once the army has settled down for a short time, the war weariness will rise again.

Rurik already lived in the city of Antwerp for the Baron's campaign, and most of the soldiers also lived in the city. As for the dead bodies in the city, they were thrown directly into the bay during the raiding operation of the city. The Rus army completely occupied Antwerp and was determined to transport it into a "rough house". Of course, Rurik also thought about burning it, but it is too humid now. , setting fire is useless.

The army rested temporarily, waiting for Ragnar's Danish troops to return from raids in the nearby countryside.

Rurik was also waiting for the end of this abominable and unavoidable autumn rain. Only such a rather dry north wind could recover, so that the ships with a good harvest could return to sail against the wind.

It would be impossible if Rurik had no inertia.

With more than a thousand elite soldiers in his hand, he was full of contempt for the country of Flanders before he acted. All rumors said that the earl was a coward from ancient times. Rurik remained suspicious at the beginning of the period, but now a series of wars have gone too smoothly, and he really looks down on the enemy.

Everyone was waiting for the rain to stop. At the same time, Henry Nassau, who was with the army, and the servants of the minor nobles who joined the coalition army, they couldn't help but scavenge for property in the city.

The fief knights from the Utrecht region, ignoring their friendship with their southern kin, put in their pockets what they found. No one will denounce this kind of looting, and since there is no sanctions, they will act with confidence and boldness.

The knight took a few squires and grabbed a little wool, and carried some grain as his own ration.

God will punish the thief!

No clergy now criticizes such behavior, and when the first fief knight fattened himself up, the others began to follow suit.

The baron of Groningen, who has no way out, has already backed up his previous monarch Baudouin in various senses. Since he can only go one way to the dark, it is better to bring his own miniature army to join the robbery sequence.

Rurik can of course be seen in the actions of such temporary allies. They were just accompany the army to make up the numbers, which is not suitable for the name certificate. Now they are directly incarnated as robbers and robbery.

He gave orders that all soldiers must acknowledge the wealth looted by allied troops. With this order, Henry Nassau was quite satisfied, and even had a special regret - it's a pity that I don't have enough raiding troops.

However, the army of the Country of Flanders appeared!

A group of soldiers withdrew from the south, ignoring the muddy Danish fighters running with sacks.

When the brothers didn't capture anything, they were naturally willing to fight the enemy. Now everyone has something they must take away. Although they are not war-weary, they must at least put the looted property in Antwerp, the landing point, and then list it again. camp.

Rurik did not send any scouts to guard the distance outside the city, but instead sent soldiers to stand on the partially intact wooden walls of the city to act as naked-eye sentries. Another person controls the small bronze bell of the monastery in the city. According to the plan, this large metal object must be removed, but it is really a good thing for signaling, so let it continue to stand on the only minaret of the monastery.

Many people came from the north, and the Sentinel's slack heart tightened again.

As a result, the bronze bell was knocked indiscriminately, and the soldiers who were still resting became vigilant and walked out of the house sheltering from the rain with their weapons. Including Rurik, who also rushed out of the residence with his personal guards, stood outside and roared loudly: "Who is ringing the bell? Is there an enemy?"

Sentinels immediately reported the fact that they had seen a large number of people moving south.

Soon Ragnar came into town with important news from the south, panting to warn his Rurik brothers: "A large number of armed men are moving towards Antwerp. Either fight! Or withdraw now!"

Lots of gunmen? Rurik asked suspiciously at first: "You brave are being chased by the local army? Are they strong?"

"At least the troops are huge. Of course I can fight them alone, but I shouldn't take the opportunity to gain glory." Ragnar used his words to make up for himself, and his trembling eyes still implied that he was afraid.

Could it be that the Earl of Flanders is acting against the law? Are you going to launch a counterattack in the autumn rain?

"If this army is severely damaged, it will create a good foundation for our future raids. I will use my advantages to kill their living forces as much as possible. It would be great if I could capture their leader and ask for a lot of information. If the earl also In it, be sure to capture him." Rurik was so determined.

Even if it's technically okay to evacuate in light rain, it's against the glory to do so. When he informed his subordinates of Ragnar's war warning, the soldiers of the army instantly became high-spirited.

The coalition forces moved, and suddenly time caught Henry Nassau by surprise. But he didn't have time to complain about the suddenness of things. Since it was a whole army operation, his so-called "Netherlands Army" had to join the fight.

Why fight? Fighting in an outdoor array is undoubtedly the most hearty way of fighting.

Rurik ordered the entire army to withdraw from Antwerp. The bronze bell of the monastery fell to the mud as the minaret was deliberately destroyed.

The soldiers were slightly affected. They used cables to remove the remaining walls of the city as much as possible. Some buildings in the city were also cut down on load-bearing columns, which were then pulled down with ropes. With the continuous rumbling, more than half of the buildings in Antwerp had collapsed overnight.

The coalition soldiers remained at the original landing point, and spent the night in an open-air array.

Rurik waited for work, the broadsides of the battleship were facing due south, and all the ship's torsion slingshots were placed on one side, arranged to prepare for battle at the maximum elevation angle.

Thirty more torsion slingshots were carried ashore and placed on top of trolleys before the battle.

The soldiers of the Rus army all wore chain mail, and more than 100 members of the standing army, including the captain of the guard, Grund, wore heavy scale armor covered with iron pieces. These armors are "decisive battle equipment", and Rurik believes that Ragnar will not exaggerate, and if there is a war, the enemy will be seen today.

Rurik called on the entire army: "We must respect our opponents. The best respect is that our army wears the thickest armor, carries the sharpest sword, and kills them in the simplest and crudest way."

It can be said that, in other words, the so-called coalition forces desire a brutal unilateral killing.

So he added: "Let's use the blood of the enemy, the blood of Odin!"

What is certain is that the country of Flanders does not have any manpower and material resources to form a ferocious army like the Frankish heavy cavalry. If dealing with the infantry-based weaklings, Rurik decided to deal with the enemy with his most traditional, low-risk, and most tactical tactics that could demonstrate Ross's tactical abilities.

At noon on this day, the light rain seemed to stop. Although the world is still cold and damp and people are in a bad mood, with the appearance of some people on horseback in the far south, everyone is cheered up.

People warned each other, calling on everyone to wear armor, prepare their crossbow, and so on.

What they saw was Baudouin himself!

It was the Count of Flanders who led his own cavalry squad of more than thirty cavalry to lead the way in front of the main force. He noticed his own city of Antwerp, but unfortunately the appearance of the city had changed beyond recognition.

He also saw a large number of strange ships moored in the bay, as well as white things that were too obvious in the gray-black world.

Take a closer look ~www.readwn.com~ that's an army!

Is it the Norman army? If it were not for the refugee reporting, Baudouin would have miscalculated.

It is completely different now, those men in white clothes are the most vicious enemies.

He crossed the sword immediately, and immediately pulled the reins back to the army, calling to his dense army: "Don't get tired of your feet! The decisive battle is about to begin! Follow me to attack!"

He kept repeating similar words, so that the entire Flanders country army from top to bottom knew that the decisive battle was about to begin.

nervous? excited? fear? Or confused.

The peasant soldiers, the fief knights, and the capable squires, everyone could not complain or hesitate, and continued to advance towards Antwerp in this dense formation, approaching the Norman army in white.

The decisive battle will start on this bleak October afternoon when the light rain is gradually subsiding, and the winner will inevitably be decided in one afternoon.