Rise of Rurik

The appearance of a group of bandits outside the city would not cause panic in the whole city of Cologne.

Today’s situation is no trivial matter. Those horse bandits are clearly Normans on horseback. They are clearly killing people for the sake of killing people. These Satan’s apostles can still escape the punishment of God.

People in the city can curse them with all kinds of vicious words, how can they curse them to death?

The senior clergy came together to vote, and they finally reached a basic consensus that if the price is acceptable, it is acceptable to pay the price to restore peace.

So, led by the interim acting Archbishop Hildwin, the proposal to spend money on peace was finally voted on.

All that remains is the question of how much money can be spent on barbarians to satisfy their voracious appetites.

"In my opinion, give them fifty pounds of silver and send them off."

"Fifty pounds? Satisfaction for those greedy devils? Don't provoke them about it, and keep us in danger."

"Hey! How come fifty pounds isn't enough? It's a lot of money. You speak for them, what's your position?"

"One hundred pounds. Up to one hundred pounds, and they should be satisfied."

"What if they are not satisfied?!"

"Then give them five hundred pounds."

...

The senior priests are still trying to control their superficial emotions, but the words are getting more and more intense.

Finally, someone couldn't bear it anymore, and suddenly stood up from his seat and criticized the situation: "With all due respect, everyone sitting here is not religious! You are actually bargaining with the devil! In my opinion, stop discussing, and open all our treasuries, Hand over your wealth to them."

These were the words that lifted the table, and for a moment, the other senior priests stunned and glared at the acting Archbishop Hildwin, who had been constipated for ten days.

When everyone saw Hildewin looking speechless, someone suddenly sarcastic at the colleague who had just lost his temper: "You are lofty! You are pious! Why don't you go and talk to the barbarians outside the city in person, maybe you can speak with just words. Those savages, persuade them to lay down their arms and convert to atonement."

As soon as the words fell, several senior priests covered their faces and snickered. After all, these words are too absurd, how can it be possible to negotiate with the devil? Even if negotiated, will those devils accept it?

"Hey! This is one way to do it. Although it is not religious to make a deal with the devil, now we can only do this. Maybe, I can do it. I apologize for the gaffe just now, so I have the confidence to handle this matter myself. If I do, you..." The speaker couldn't help but accentuate, "This is a great credit, will you be elected as the next official archbishop?"

The entire venue was silent, no one reprimanded no one snickered, and everyone remained silent.

After being in the cold for a while, Hildwin said in a low voice: "In that case, Marquez, if you succeed, I will recommend you in the next archbishop election."

"Alright. One hundred pounds, that's our bottom line. I'll try to get them out with one hundred pounds."

With risk comes opportunity, and countless lower priests, local priests, regional archbishops are eager to advance.

I am afraid that Archbishop Hadbold, who followed King Ludwig to crusade the barbarians, will be promoted to cardinal and transferred to Rome because of his merits, and even be promoted to pope.

The senior priests of Cologne believed that the archbishopric of their diocese would quickly become vacant, and all the careerists were suddenly exposed.

Hildwin could be considered to be the acting bishop lying down, but he did not have the confidence to fix the mess in front of him, and he did not have great ambitions to succeed the official archbishop.

The careerist Marquez makes his debut.

To praise this man in good words, Márquez was a warrior with the will of a martyr. From an economic point of view, if you spend a little money to settle the Norman horse bandits, the city will not have to spend a lot of money to recruit guards, which is really a money-saving move.

Therefore, Cologne City is ready with both hands.

According to the results of the meeting, they will implement the plan to recruit three hundred guards. The guardians must be strong and healthy, and the church will give them an iron sword, a pair of armor, and a Frankish-style iron helmet, making the guardians look like regular soldiers.

The three hundred guards have become crusaders in the real sense. Unfortunately, they lack the ability to take the initiative to attack and can only be used to guard the city, but their presence will stabilize the hearts of the people in the city.

On the other hand, the Rus cavalry outside the city raged as before.

The wide Lein River has not been frozen as a whole, but the river near the bank has been frozen on a large scale.

This year is a complete freeze. When the Yin River is in a semi-frozen state, the situation in northern Europe can only be worse.

Indeed, the Gulf of Bothnia and the Gulf of Finland are almost completely frozen, with ice extending as far as the Åland Islands, where Tombstone is located. Lake Mälaren in the core area of ​​Sweden has entered a completely closed state, and some ruthless people who survive in the ice and snow have begun to dig ice and fish...

Even if this year is a cold east, the Nordic world, which is not a major grain-producing area, is generally not very worried. The Eastern European agricultural area of ​​the Rus Kingdom will not be very worried. Although Yinermen Lake is frozen, it is not unusual for it to be frozen as in previous years. Even if the weather is not good, it is possible to postpone the planting season to the beginning of May, but it is only then that spring wheat is planted. Action will be put on hold, and the whole people will plant spring oats with a short growth cycle.

After all, the issue of agricultural production is not something that Fisker and his gang who are fighting abroad ask for consideration.

As horse bandits for the time being, they swept the huge forest outside the city of Cologne. Not only was their childhood not bad, but they could not take away a lot of food because they looted a lot of food, so they simply piled up a batch of food in the camp in the forest. Ability to ensure that captives are not starved to death.

It was also intentional to ensure that the captives were only to the extent that they would not starve to death.

More and more villagers were captured, and the number of innocent villagers in Fisk's hands has now reached 300. The soldiers selected some pretty women, ignoring her wailing, and forcibly had a relationship with her.

According to the Viking practice in the past, if a captured woman had a relationship, the woman was considered a slave of the warrior, and then she could become a wife and concubine, and eventually be absorbed by the tribe as a clan.

Today's operations are extremely special, the cavalry will not carry any prisoners, all prisoners are either released or killed, and now they become a bargaining chip that can threaten wealth. Therefore, Fisk allowed his subordinates to do these things, causing the despairing women to cry out of their hearts and causing the captive priests to fall into despair.

An occupied village became a huge prisoner of war camp, and the Russ cavalry controlled it as they wanted.

The year-long war made Fisk more and more ruthless, and he finally grew into a ruthless man a hundred times stronger than his father who died in the battle twenty years ago. Since some of the prisoners were dishonest, he deliberately instructed his subordinates to execute the villagers in public, thereby deterring all the prisoners of war.

Such deterrence by force alone was not enough, so he ordered the captured priests to announce something like this: "When Cologne pays the ransom, we will be free!"

Fisk's purpose is to get a large amount of ransom, so that the brothers will meet the king with the spoils, and divide the account according to the pirate looting rules set by the king. Brothers can take the opportunity to make a fortune, then every prisoner is money!

At the price of buying slaves in the past, an adult male slave can have a high price of nearly a pound of silver.

The solution of exchanging one pound of silver for one person is theoretically feasible, but Fisker thinks about the wealth Cologne has. How can it be reasonable to not ask for a huge price this time?

Finally, the appointed day.

The five special action teams that were raging in the Ring of Cologne returned to the team one after another. When they returned, they not only brought a lot of grain and a small amount of wool, they even brought fresh meat and even a workhorse rolled by a stone.

The cavalry met at the edge of the forest outside the north gate of Cologne City. They deliberately showed their assembled figures, but they disappeared into the woods like ghosts.

Everyone is willing to share their looting experience with the brothers of the home team, and then show each other who has more loot.

Unexpectedly, they returned to Commander Fisk's forest camp after being ordered to kill Wushe, and saw that there were prisoners everywhere.

The eyes of prisoners of different ages were dull, and there were sporadic cries of children.

The air was filled with the smell of boiled wheat, which made everyone's appetite whetted.

The team leaders then gathered around Fisk for dinner at night, sharing the cold meat they had gotten with each other.

Someone asked Fisk: "Why capture a large number of prisoners? Our brothers, according to your request, slaughtered in the village and put a fire at the end."

Another person was very sober: "You have captured a large number of prisoners, are you going to exchange money with them?"

"It's just money!" Fisker slapped his thigh: "Oh, I didn't think of this until you ran away. But I have four hundred prisoners now, which is enough to ask the Cologne people. I want to charge a strong man for twenty pounds, The others are ten pounds together, what do you think."

So, he opened the chat box, and the team leaders started a heated discussion.

Among the captives, there were more than 100 middle-aged men in exchange for 2,000 pounds of silver coins, and the rest waited for 300 men, or 3,000 pounds of silver coins.

Fisker's proposed asking price of 5,000 pounds is staggering.

The young warriors couldn't help but fantasize, and their discussions became more and more intense. As for whether each cavalryman could share some weight and take all the silver coins, they found that it was indeed possible after some calculations, so they were even more eager.

"Then tell the brothers, we will start the operation tomorrow. You are all ready to fight. Beware that the Cologne people don't appreciate it and send troops to beat us. If this is the case, we will not only kill the prisoners, but also kill the challengers who go out of the city."

Everyone heard about "Ulla".

The next day dawned, and a melodious horn came from the forest.

It seems that the leading warship from the ice sea has reached the city of Cologne upstream again, but in fact it was the Ross cavalry who started the final action.

Apart from the two young men who continued to stay in the forest camp while guarding the spoils, Fisk led a hundred and fifty cavalry and drove as many as four hundred prisoners to the north gate of Cologne.

Now, under the influence of the banknote ability, a brand new team of 300 Slave City Guardians has been formed. They were anointed with holy oil by the priests, and ordinary men instantly gained enormous spiritual power, but they did not dare to go out of the city to fight.

Among these people are a group of craftsmen and free mercenaries, and the rest are all farmers who have taken refuge in the city. Although the commission from the church is not much, the farmer can quickly settle his debts with the money, and even have a considerable surplus. The priests also did not allow everyone to go out to fight in the city. With the protection of the city wall, the money was almost risk-free.

So for some farmers, this crisis is a pie in the sky for their small families. The barbarians were rampant outside the city. As long as they left, the farmer who became the guard could buy some farmland that had lost its owner from the church. The crisis became an opportunity.

But now the alarm bells are ringing across the city.

The guardians gathered in large numbers at the north gate of the city, with bow-wielding men standing high.

Acting Archbishop Hildwin and the priests watched the approaching team vigilantly. They subconsciously thought it was a siege army. As they continued to approach, they realized that apart from the clear Russ cavalry, the rest was actually a group of innocents. aided villagers.

Villagers are easy to identify, especially the village women, who are almost all wearing black one-piece robes and white headscarves that can keep out the cold.

The horses of those cavalrymen were smaller, and they carried many flags, the white ground and the diagonal blue stripes that were the emblem of the Norman Rus. They were obviously not ordinary robbers. The cavalrymen wore the same clothes, and some of them had bright feathers on the top of their hats.

It's fair to say that Hildwin very much hope that these cavalrymen are holding the cross flag. If Cologne has such a gorgeous army, they will not be harassed by the enemy stealing their homes.

The people in the city watched nervously, and the careerist Marquez was even more nervous.

"It seems that they want to negotiate with us?" Hildwin made such a judgment after witnessing that the cavalry and a large number of captured villagers were suddenly set a stone's throw away.

"Maybe I went out of town to negotiate." Marquez said, swallowing hard.

"Okay! Friends, I hope everything goes well."

Marquez nodded: "I'll bring a hundred pounds of silver and a few brave guardians. I'll create a miracle."

"God is with you." In this way, Hildwin and the senior priests watched Marquez walk down the city wall like a martyr.

After a while, the Norman cavalry under the city suddenly spoke up!

I saw a tall and strong man headed off the horse and took off his hat to reveal a big bald head.

This time, Fisk also wore wooden-framed sunglasses, which protected his eyes from the snow in summer and winter. The cavalrymen wore a pair of sunglasses, which made their appearance always look weird.

He took off his sunglasses to reveal his full face, and shouted in Latin in a loud voice: "Let's negotiate! Give me money! We'll release the captives and leave!"

He roared several times in a row, and although the all-Latin shout shocked the priests, they instantly changed their minds and then rejoiced.

Since the savages also intend to ask for a sum of money and then leave, and they need each other, the negotiation can proceed.

Fisk was very happy that the Cologne figure understood his cry, the closed wooden door was opened, and the iron fence that reinforced the door was also raised by the mechanism.

After that, the few rat-like guys who came out quickly ran to the city gate office, released the suspension bridge, and the planks fell heavily on the dry ditch.

Fisk raised his hand to instruct the follow-up brothers not to act rashly, not to rush into the city rashly, and beware of ambushes.

After a short while, there was indeed a priest who carried the cross himself and walked out under the **** of some sword-holders.

"It seems to be their negotiator. Brothers, don't act rashly, it's all up to me."

The Russ cavalry remained on alert, their arrows placed on the hilt of their bows to prevent their opponents from suddenly killing a group of people from the city.

For the negotiator Márquez, the previous ambitions suddenly wilted after he actually witnessed the Russ cavalry raging for months. The other party can speak Latin, which is an unimaginable wonder, and perhaps, they can be converted.

But the moment the two sides met, the scene was once very awkward.

Marquez looked at the giant in front of him, and subconsciously, there were a lot of giants riding behind him.

Take a closer look at the Norman cavalry general in front of you! The man was wearing a white plush leather jacket with buttons fastened on the leather jacket and two interlaced blue cloth strips on his chest. It was obvious that there was a layer of chainmail under the leather coat.

The general has a nice leather belt, and the saber looks like a peculiar rapier (the Ross steel sword is much narrower than the Frankish broadsword), and the hilt is inlaid with gems. Or that the general has a lot of gemstones (actually cheap stained glass blocks), which obviously don't look like they were stolen from various monasteries.

How could such a noble warrior actually kill farmers and burn villages as part of an honorable act and war? Marquez deeply spurned this. Even if the so-called dirty people put on gorgeous clothes~www.readwn.com~, they still couldn't hide the essence of dung maggots.

"Have you seen enough?" Fisk asked suddenly.

"Ah! Yes. Warrior, we are willing to make a deal with you."

"Of course." Fisk was overjoyed. "You guys are very knowledgeable. When you see us coming, you know we want to make a deal first. You see, I have four hundred prisoners in my hands, and some of them are priests. You... know our Means. Don't talk nonsense, talk about your conditions first."

Hearing it, Marquez took a deep breath. He never imagined that the Normans had captured 400 people! Looking at it now, there are indeed faces looking for redemption everywhere, and the eyes of the captives tremble impatiently.

But this has far exceeded his expectations.

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