Rise of Rurik

The Coblenz garrison soldiers who forcibly surrendered abandoned their helmets and armor and fled. Only their helmets and swords were worn as the last dignity of a soldier.

Ten people fled in disgrace. They knew their humiliation and comforted themselves during the escape.

They first climbed over the mountain behind the fortress, and then went straight to the village behind the mountain. They asked for some food and water and warned the locals: "You run away! The barbarians have captured Coblenz. They kill everyone they see. We are the last ones to escape."

Of course this is not the case, but these fleeing warriors fully believe what they firmly believe. From their perspective, those guys under the banner of Baron Nassau and the Eastern Kingdom are always Normans who do all kinds of evil. Those people are equivalent to the apostles of Satan. Brutal.

By persuading villagers to hurry up and escape, the fleeing warriors were able to comfort themselves.

"At least we can save a lot of innocent people."

There are not many villages near Koblenz, they are more concentrated near the Moselle River.

After all, the Moselle River Basin was the activity center of the old Germanic Alemannic tribe. After it was annexed by the expanding Frankish tribe, it became the core territory of the Franks, and the locals also transformed into authentic Frankish people. The narrow riverside area sandwiched between low mountains is a rare settlement suitable for farming. Most of the area belongs to the parish of Trier, and the three parishes of Trier, Metz and Reims are now under unified management.

The Archbishop of Reims, Hinkmar, controls the divine power of the contiguous area, but behind this appreciation, the huge area is also the fiefdom of Count Metz.

Theocratic power and secular power have always maintained cooperation. Priests from various places are educating the people, and the feudal nobles control the territory by force.

This area is already the core area of ​​the Franks. It is a densely populated area in this era, but for people trapped in the mountains, it is not easy to find a village, even if these ten fleeing soldiers have been along the Moselle River. Run upstream.

They were to withdraw to Trier and inform the standing army stationed there directly under King Lothair of what had happened to them. They even claimed the disaster of the fall of Coblenz to anyone they met along the way, just to arouse vigilance in the villages.

On an ordinary night of escape, ten exhausted soldiers fled to a small village. The villagers did not dare to provoke these ruthless people. The knight lord of the village gave them some black bread out of basic landlord friendship, and more thoughtfully arranged stables for them to live in.

If these people were not wearing the standard iron swords of the standing army, the knight would have regarded them as bandits, and there was nothing wrong with him taking the opportunity to kill them.

The simple villagers did not care at all what happened to Coblenz. They were honest and honest and had only heard of the name of this city. For the Lord Knight, it is not his fiefdom, not to mention that his fiefdom is Count Metz. Now that Count Metz is a firm supporter of King Lothair, it is natural for knights from all over the country to stand on King Lothair's side.

After all, they are standing army soldiers, and their military training is much better than the crooked melons and jujubes under his own command.

This knight only had a small fiefdom and controlled the secular power of three small villages. If Count Metz feels that his current troops are insufficient, he will definitely ask more small vassals to send troops to join the war.

"Those barbaric Norman mercenaries raised by the Eastern Kingdom destroyed Coblenz? This must be part of a huge civil war. It seems that the current situation is very complicated, and my territory is at risk? But you are all deserters, I know The king's attitude towards such people. Even if you escape to Trier, you will probably be imprisoned. When King Lothair learns of your situation, he will probably get angry and hang you all! You should imagine carefully, if you are loyal to me , as my retinue, you will definitely be safe..."

The civil war was an opportunity, and those enterprising knights intended to seize this opportunity. If they could perform meritorious service on the battlefield, they might be able to increase their fiefdom, or even be upgraded to a baron with a large fiefdom overnight.

It's just that as a lower-level noble, the knights can mobilize not only single-digit elite retinues, but also a small group of armed farmers with flails, sickles and other farm tools.

If you have a group of ruthless people under your command, the situation will be completely different.

The knight was very reasonable, and the ten people who escaped had to coo at each other in the stable.

"This kind of little noble is not worthy of everyone's allegiance."

"Otherwise? What else can we do? Flee to Trier, or we will be hanged after giving out information."

"Why hang us? You told the local defenders that we escaped after a long battle. Boss Fred has died in the battle. As long as you talk hard enough, no one will know that we escaped on our own initiative."

"I don't dare to bet. We still have a long way to go in the future. Who knows what the future will bring? It's better to serve as a retinue under this little nobleman now and wait until the situation stabilizes."

"Forget it! Just think that I am dead in the past. Anyway, I don't have a wife, so I just stay in this village. You can leave if you want, I want to stay."

…

They did not reach a synchronicity. The next day, five people insisted on leaving, and the remaining five simply pledged their allegiance to the knight.

Those who insisted on leaving asked the knight for a horse, even if the horse was rather mediocre.

"How greedy! You are unwilling to be loyal to me and want to take my horse? Why? Giving you dry food for your escape is already a great kindness on my part. Maybe..."

The five people who were asking for trouble said nothing and hurriedly carried the linen bags and continued their escape.

The fate of the five people left behind has indeed changed. They have no worries in their hometown, and they are all quite young and unmarried. From the perspective of the knight master, he picked up five treasures. With these five young servants from the standing army, the crooked melons and jujubes he had on hand could receive some formal military training, so that his family would get a better future. developed possibilities.

The core area of ​​this knightly territory is in a long bend in the middle and lower reaches of the Moselle River. It is like a peninsula. The largest village has only about 200 men, women and children, relying on the good natural environment here. Living a poor and boring pastoral life. In fact, this knight's territory is vast and sparsely populated. There are only three villages and a small group of scattered people living on the hillside, totaling more than 500 people.

Koblenz is just downstream, and its fall only makes the knight worried about the future.

But after the fugitives left, life here returned to its former tranquility. Except for the addition of a few new retinues by the knight, nothing changed.

In the conquered Coblenz, the local situation changed suddenly. It has been incorporated into the Barony of Nassau, but it has not been recognized by King Ludwig for the time being. And this is one of the things that Blue Fox will do next. Because, an opportunity to expand the results is in front of you. This is like a business opportunity. Once the opportunity is missed, you will never get it again!

The fortress was there, and the conquest was completed by the Ross army under the title of Baron of Nassau. The soldiers from Northern Europe moved the Koblenz Fortress cleanly, and put all the granaries, armories and other goods into everyone's pockets. Those who expected to get rich basically satisfied their thirst. By taking off the enemy's chainmail, many warriors replaced the opponent's armor and increased their armament.

Entering a house made of heavy boulders, what Blue Fox saw were neatly arranged linen sacks. The soldiers were busy carrying it, and Blue Fox temporarily stopped everyone.

"Don't be impatient. Let me see what's here." He stabbed a sack with his sword, and all he saw was dry rye flowing out like gravel.

"Of course this place is a granary." Black Fox complained a little.

"I know. It seems that this is the only place that brothers cannot rob." Lan Hu thought for a while and arranged for his cronies to seal off the place. As for the food that was moved away before, he will not pursue it, but the rest will be the food stored by the army.

In this siege of the city, two unlucky men of the Russian army died after their skulls were smashed by stones. In addition, ten others suffered minor skin injuries.

The fact is that the defenders did not suffer much losses. The battle was a mess. The heavy armored soldiers on both sides were in a group. It would take some time to kill a heavy infantryman in a cramped place.

More than sixty of the defenders died, and more than a hundred were captured as prisoners of all kinds. The prisoners of war were all injured to varying degrees. Since they could not be killed, they had to spend money and resources to temporarily support them.

Including his own people and prisoners of war, Black Fox had to solve the problem of feeding as many as 800 people for a long time.

There is a batch of grain in the fortress, and some oak barrels contain a large amount of drinking water. Obviously, this is the capital of the logistic reserves that the defenders have the courage to hold on to. Blue Fox estimated that if he was unable to capture the fortress for some reason and took advantage of the situation to adopt siege tactics and attrition of the defenders, even if the opponent was destined to be exhausted, it would only be a long time later.

This batch of food solved the military ration problem for a period of time, but it was far from enough.

Koblenz Fortress still flies the cross flag with black lines on a white background, but for the first time it flies a Russian flag.

Blue Fox continued to tell the two priests very thiefly that this was the "St. Andre Flag", which represented that his Norman army "always believes in God."

Are the barbarian nobles in the north more pious than the local Frankish nobles? Father Bachbert brought the small parish of Koblenz with the secular power of the new Baron of Nassau. As far as he can see so far, these troops maintain incredible kindness. .

They did not persecute the prisoners at all, and even provided them with meals after removing all their weapons.

At the beginning of the period, Fred, the flag captain of the garrison, was extremely uncooperative.

If Blue Fox was an old soldier with a hot temper, he would hang up the garrison general and send someone to whip him out of anger. He didn't do this because he knew what he really wanted.

Blue Fox has always taken his younger brother Black Fox with him, and he is seizing every moment to teach his brother how to get greater benefits from prisoners of war.

First of all, it is impossible for the Baron of Nassau to take in these prisoners of war. Trying to keep them will eventually leave a group of scourges behind. Because the Barony of Nassau had actually become an area controlled by the Ross, it would be a great humiliation to try to get a group of Frankish standing troops to lead the Norman Ross. It would be a smart choice to hand them over to Ludwig for money.

It was not suitable for Blue Fox to come forward directly for the time being, so he arranged for two priests, Bachbert and Conrad, to persuade him.

At least Flag Captain Fred had respect for Bachbert. Those who came were all priests. They did not care about secular power, and the priests had nothing to do with who was the lord. So when the two of them came to persuade them to surrender for the first time, Fred made some decent threats and invited them all away. Now when he saw the two of them again, he had lost his energy after defeat and his attitude had become very easy-going.

It was this easy-going attitude that made the two priests very happy. After all, the Russians provided them with a way out.

"From now on, Coblenz will be classified as the Barony of Nassau. It will be part of the Eastern Kingdom. Your time of garrison here is over. You were defeated by the Baron of Nassau and defeated by a stronger army. As warriors, you The defeat should be worthwhile. You have proven your loyalty to Lothair, what happens next?" Bachbert said the words, and he was implying a lot.

Fred was still angry when he mentioned his defeat. He suppressed his emotions: "Am I really defeated by the Baron of Nassau? If only that were the case. You are noble priests, lying is blasphemy. They are clearly Normans! My family has always been loyal to the king. , my grandfather and my father were at war with the Normans! I know what the Normans are like."

"Okay." Father Conrad admitted that what he said was a fact, but emphasized that it was not the whole truth. "But you have to understand that those Normans have converted to God. Just imagine if they are really as cruel as Satan's apostles, how can you survive? How can the farmers here survive? Baron Nassau has gone to the West, and he is on his way King Derwig's men were promoted to earls, and their fiefdoms were all in the west. He married his daughter to a young Norman! You must know the noble status of the person who defeated you."

"Me? I am defeated. Do I need to understand it seriously?"

"Of course. I told you last time I came here that they are nobles. I say again, the ones who defeated you were two people, a northern earl and the brand new Baron of Nassau. Although they are Normans, they have all converted, noble The northern saint Eskil baptized these two Norman nobles and became their godfather. Think about it! What is your identity and what is their identity!"

Fred thought about it carefully, and the two priests seemed to imply that he was still glorious despite his defeat.

He asked with a dull face: "So, how will we be treated?"

Father Bachbert continued: "Those who died in the battle will be buried on the spot, and all of you who survived will be sent to Wiesbaden. Go and serve the Eastern Kingdom! King Ludwig will reuse you."

Fred's eyes trembled, thinking that this was indeed an acceptable result.

"Maybe I should talk to them directly about these things. It shouldn't be up to you two noble people to be the lobbyists."

"It doesn't matter, because those two nobles respect you. They have learned about your attitude towards the Normans and are afraid of a dispute if they disagree. Now it seems that you are willing to calm down and have a good chat. A meeting will be arranged for you soon. The two Norman nobles are proficient in Latin but not very proficient in Frankish. I will accompany you as a translator, so please feel at ease." Father Conrad persuaded them earnestly.

If the barbarians can speak sacred Latin, complete the conversion, and ensure the lives of all the captives, are such Normans still considered barbarians?

Fred couldn't help but feel tempted. If the other party was a Frankish noble, he could just swear allegiance on the spot. Anyway, after being defeated, he would have no face to serve as King Lothair's standing army.

Coblenz was originally the fiefdom of Charles the Bald in the Western Kingdom, and King Lothair had the ambition to take it away with arms. Fred, who was ordered to be transferred to garrison here, never felt at ease as an officer. This was the place where the Fourth War was fought, and across the Lying River was the Count of Lyingau in the Eastern Kingdom. In his understanding, Count Ingol was loyal to the Eastern Kingdom just as Earl Metz was loyal to the Middle Kingdom.

Now is the peak period of the all-out civil war. In the nearby area centered on the northern Vosges Mountains, King Lothair and King Ludwig are fighting here. As a standing army, Fred knew something about the situation. The town of Lauten Kaiserslautern was in the middle of a tug-of-war between the two kings. Even Count Metz himself led troops to participate in the battle, and the battlefield was not very far from Coblenz.

Thinking about this carefully, Fred suddenly realized that the northern army's attack on me was part of the civil war and part of the tactics.

As the flag captain of the standing army, he at least knew the stationing situation of the standing army in the earldom of Metz. The garrison at Coblenz was small, but the garrison at Trier and Luxembourg was large. In addition, the defense of this region has become the business of the Earl of Metz, and further south is the Principality of Burgundy and the Principality of Provence.

The main force of the standing army was mainly placed near Aachen and Strasbourg. The former was to guard against the rebellious Earls of Flanders and the local Norman pirates, and the latter was where Lothair personally led the main force against King Ludwig. The army fought for the area north of the Vosges Mountains and south and west of the Rhine River, and tried to directly capture Ludwig alive and force him to become only the Duke of Bavaria.

The big picture is like this, but the details are things Fred doesn't deserve to know.

During the civil war, all nobles had to consider their own positions, and officers of the standing army could also imagine whether they could take the opportunity to become one of the feudal nobles. After all, in today's world, it is less attractive to continue to be a military household for generations than to immediately transform into a noble lord and live a stable and good life.