Rise of Rurik

The Erotus Castle in the mist is solid and thick. Under the gray-black stone wall, a yellow-white continent passes majestically.

Baron Herbert finally returned to his castle. Although his friends would no longer gather at his mansion, as the local supreme lord, he still took the time to organize his family members, the guards of the small town and the few people. , and also urgently invited the nearest knight.

A group of soldiers and civilians gathered on both sides of the road, watching calmly as the army passed by "peacefully".

Reglaf ordered the entire army to goose-step, and the leather shoes slapped **** the hard road. The Mercian-Saxon coalition forces made a lot of noise. They marched in order and at almost the same pace. Although they were marching, the sense of oppression created by them was something that all onlookers could not ignore.

A month ago, some local knights observed the movements of these guest troops from a distance, worried that these outsiders would cause trouble in their fiefs and villages. Of course, the knight had to defend his property with his followers to the death, but if the visiting army was just passing by, he would just stay away and watch.

At this time, three knights were invited to "appreciate" the return of Reglaf's army, and they were also told that this yellow-and-white Mercian army was their friendly army.

Fighting together with a powerful army is a beautiful thing, but when he really saw this team advancing on land and water, the knight was so shocked that his chest was tight and painful, and the feeling of oppression that hit his face made everyone almost suffocated.

There was no one to say goodbye. Men, women, old and young just watched with wide eyes. They were all frightened.

Herbert was helpless at the calmness of his men. He rode on horseback to gather as many cavalrymen as possible and stood collectively on the roadside.

Watching the army gradually disappearing into the distance.

After leaving Erotus Castle, the coalition troops marched smoothly for three more days and successfully returned to the old stone bridge that had been fortified.

Seeing the return of the army, the migrant workers who were busy with construction stopped their work and stopped to watch.

In this way, Regraf could further see the details of the camp.

He was in a very good mood: "When our army set out, there were a large number of wooden houses here. There were only a few wooden shacks on the sandbar in the river. Now it is a wooden castle."

"Then you can call it Stone Bridge Castle." Bruno, who was accompanying him, joked.

"Call it Castle (Castoricht). Let me take a good look at whether there are a lot of empty warehouses within the wooden walls."

The original hunting camp had a clear name - Bridge Castle.

Its name is concise and vivid. It is obvious that there may have been settlements in this place hundreds of years ago. The woods and shrubs cover its historical remains. However, what is difficult to change is the open environment here.

Reglaf built a large settlement on the unnamed ruins, and when the Aquitaine army entered the war a few months later, the army must pass through the bridge fortress.

Before that, his own Mercian army first gathered here on a large scale. The open meadow area was perfect for stationing a large army.

All the ships immediately docked, and the stopped army immediately began to unload their cargo. More than a thousand people worked hard to evacuate all the ships before evening, and built a grain farm on the grass.

At the same time, Regraf completed the inspection of all the granaries after entering the wooden wall.

The so-called granaries are wooden houses built from newly felled trees.

Most of the wood that makes up the walls has not had its bark peeled off, entering the empty and dark house. The feet are on the original wooden floor, and the head is a gabled roof made of wood.

The air is filled with the strong smell of rosin, proving that the wood is fresh. Old Eric used his northern experience to choose a large number of red pine and beech for this house. The smell was too strong and the rosin smell was not refreshing. It was too pungent. Such a wooden house was temporarily uninhabitable, but it was particularly beneficial to protecting food.

I'm afraid rats can't stand the pungent smell either.

The twenty wooden houses are very simple, with no other furnishings inside. Each house has a wooden floor supported by a large number of wooden piles. Obviously, all wooden houses can store a large amount of food. Although the wooden house is very crudely built, it is absolutely difficult to protect it from wind and rain for a long time.

Regraf did not require that these wooden houses could safely store food for a year or two. As long as they could store food for half a year, it would be enough to meet the needs of the war.

Of course, better granary facilities will need to be built in the future, and the wooden foundations should be replaced with solid rock.

The ruins of a Roman military camp on the mound to the west of Shannon were a perfect location for building a permanent castle. The hillside structure was good for drainage, and the stone everywhere was good for quickly building a fort.

Regrave imagined a future in which he, as the new Count of Anjou, could build his residence on that mound.

In this way, you can have a bird's-eye view of the villages of Awanee and Shannon from a high place. At the bottom of the mountain are the riverside farmland and its own small pier.

If you look carefully, you can also notice the Conde Abbey in the distance, half-hidden by woods, and the yellow-white sandy beach where the Avina River flows into the Loire River.

"Maybe if the mound is higher, I can directly see the city of Anjou further to the west." He thought.

At night, Qiaobao is bustling with activity.

Before nightfall, a batch of grain had been moved into the empty warehouse. Suddenly, one room after another was filled with large sacks full of oats, arranged so intertwined with each other that it felt like two stone walls.

There was still a large amount of food piled in the wilderness. Considering that the weather would definitely be good in the next few days, Regraf was bold enough to leave the food outdoors.

Because the soldiers were both marching and carrying food, even though they happily carried their own rations, the physical fatigue could not be overcome by the mental joy.

Once they relaxed, the exhausted troops wrapped themselves in blankets around the campfire and fell asleep after dinner.

Even for Reglaf and Bruno, riding horses along the way inevitably made their hips and waists sore. After the joy of monitoring the bridge fort camp dissipated, the two brothers, like their warriors, joined the exhausted army. .

Because of the absolute sense of security, the lax coalition forces were full of flaws. Reglaf did not even leave a night watchman, but only arranged some soldiers to guard the food pile and allowed them to sleep soundly.

Does anyone dare to steal food?

No such person exists at all.

The matter is not that the locals in Shannon have perfect morals, but that these grains are military rations. The army of farmers guards their own grains. When the army goes on an expedition, it is this grain that is used. , so in a certain sense it is public. If some villagers steal out of greed, the interests of all Shannon residents will be harmed.

But the legal ownership of food is the ownership

Lord Regraf. What fool would dare to steal the property of a great noble? If he were caught, I'm afraid the whole family would be hanged!

The residents of Shannon had never seen Regrave kill someone in a powerful manner, and nothing was hung on the gallows at the training ground. The gallows still stands, proving that the Lord retains the power to carry out capital punishment.

At least there was a story in the past where local residents were dissatisfied with the violent tax collection by the Tour garrison in the past and stole food. After being discovered, they were indeed hanged in public, and their bodies were hung on the treetops for a day.

Tonight, Regraf and Bruno didn't want to talk nonsense with anyone. They couldn't stand the rich rosin inside the wooden wall, so they simply camped with their army on the grassland by the river.

At most, two people lived in a small tent set up with linen.

In the dark environment, there were bonfires everywhere on the stone bridge, making the phantom of the longship appear and disappear.

Noticing that the King of Mercia had gone into the small tent, Bekon, who had come to say something, and his friends joined the large group sleeping in the open.

"Hey, does this count as doing as the Romans do? You Normans don't seem to pay much attention to dignity in some aspects." After thinking about his thoughts, Becon muttered to himself, laid out a blanket, lay down on his side near the bonfire, and his horse He was also very smart and lay on his side, and the man and the horse soon fell asleep...

Soon, the whole camp was snoring until the next day, the turtle dove chirped to usher in the bleak dawn of a new day.

The work of carrying food continued, and at the same time a group of small boats began to sail on dry land, pulled by horses and donkeys.

But the most critical thing is to drag the seven empty long ships to the other side of the stone bridge.