Rise of Rurik - Chapter 1383

[Chapter 1,482 The Ross Flag at Battendorf Village and Wade River Pier]

The campfire crackled and the warriors snuggled next to it snored.

The sleeping horses and reindeer occasionally made some noise, covering up the movement of the singing stream not far away.

The autumn wind swept across the mountains, and the pine trees swayed violently. All the movement reflected the tranquility of the night.

The night was uneventful, and the warriors who slept wrapped in thick clothes were calm enough to wait for dawn.

There is nothing wrong with sleeping in the open air. This night, Rick slept deeply. When the noise around him woke him up, the soldier of the same age quickly got up and pushed Beyathil who was sleeping curled up next to him. Get up, face the rising sun and jump for a while to quickly regain your energy.

“Is it morning already? Indeed… the sun is rising.” The woman rubbed her eyes and stood up slowly.

“How did you sleep?”

“It’s okay. It reminds me of those past events in the grassland.”

Rurik thought for a while: “The lower reaches of the Volga River? It is indeed a good place. Perhaps the environment here is a bit similar to that there. It is also a vast wasteland along the river, but the difference is that in front of us is the boundless Hessen Mountains? It’s an experience you can never imagine.”

“Endless mountainous area? I’ve never seen it before. I might as well experience it this time.”

As a woman born in the steppe, the mountains that Bejahir knew were the Caucasus Mountains and the Carpathian Mountains, but they were relatively distant existences to the Pecheneg tribe living in the lower Volga River Valley.

The tribal alliance transformed into a khanate, and warriors on horseback could roam the vast grasslands. The core territory was along the lower reaches of the river because the water and grass were the most abundant there.

She learned that the fat black fox boy and the northern warriors who were willing to go south had created the county of Nassau-Coblenz hidden in the mountains.

“It is impossible for them to settle on the top of the hills and in the woods on the hillsides. They must live in the gaps between the hills. Their living environment must be very cramped. As for whether that Coblenz really commanded a large cavalry force The flat ground where we are stationed, who knows?”

Beyathil’s worries are not unfounded. In addition to being the key wife and concubine of King Rus, she is also a general of this expedition. As the countess of Demyansk, she does have a brave steppe cavalry team, fifty cavalry. All of them have the qualifications to become a cavalry squad leader.

Today is the final sprint, and theoretically there will be no obstacles.

The soldiers all learned the news, and they were busy filling the smoldering campfire with more wood, and were busy eating a delicious meal of boiled oats early in the morning. After eating the delicious meal, they fed their mounts some wheat. Those completely The soldiers who were well prepared were waiting for the king’s order to set off.

Rurik was not too anxious. Based on the intelligence, the whole army could reach the destination quickly and directly along the riverside road. If the cavalry team arrived at the target at noon, it would be no problem if they wanted to take their time and arrive before evening.

He made the soldiers well fed, and then declared in a high-pitched voice: “When we arrived in Koblenz, there was the legendary flat area, and there was also a Frankish military camp occupied by us. Our army was stationed there, and it belonged to us. The march has come to an end.”

As for whether the court earl Herman who lives in Michael Castle comes in person, if he comes, it will be of great help to Ross. Even if he does not come, Ross will have nothing to lose.

The orange color of the morning sun has ended, it is getting brighter and brighter. The golden light penetrates the forest and dispels all the cold morning fog. All the chills in the late autumn sunshine disappear. Even if the wind is still cool, it cannot extinguish the excitement and enthusiasm of the soldiers.

When the soldiers saw their king leaping on his horse, they felt they had received a clear signal. The entire camp began to fall into a strong noise, and the entire army was quickly moving out of camp.

Fisk tightened his grip on the reins and approached his king, glancing at the stone-based wooden castle not far away: “That Herman may have broken his promise, he did not come.”

“Hard to say. That man must be a smart man.”

“Wait for him?”

“You can wait a little longer. After all, going to Nassau with our army may be a severe test for that noble and down-and-out nobleman.”

“Who knows? Only God knows.” Fisk smiled and shrugged: “Maybe he just overslept, haha.”

In a sense, Fiske guessed it right. Hermann’s family was used to getting up late, or in other words, his family began to mess up after they lost the authority to command the Frank’s regular cavalry. In addition, in this era, there were no clocks or human clocks. The concept of time is very weak. If there is no night sentry on duty, no one will tell him to get up early.

But Herman said that he had made an important decision.

He prayed facing the cross in the chapel inside the castle. Even though he had noticed that the Russian army on the other side of the river was really breaking out of camp, he still had to complete the key rituals before leading his entourage to follow.

In the early morning, Michael Castle was in chaos. The villagers who had been sheltered were very grateful to the count for his kindness, but they were all deeply worried about his adventurous actions.

The knights can return to their own villages and bring back all the villagers who fled into the forest. They can also choose to follow the count.

Herman gave them the right to choose freely, and currently only the knights of Songxi Village are willing to go with the count.

Because Songxi Village was too close to the Ross Army Camp, nothing happened in the village. The Ross people, who were prone to killing and looting, actually kept their promises. The Songxi Knights couldn’t help but feel good about King Ross.

“Maybe my past knowledge was wrong, and I can definitely be friends with them. Maybe the statements of the two knights at the foot of Taunus Mountain are true.”

As lower-level lords, each knight almost had his or her own opinions. There was no other way for the five knights to still respect Herman as their lord. Everyone’s fiefdom was near the Sig River, and their survival depended on the supplies of the cramped fiefdom.

The Etichenstein Knight and the Bleidenstadt Knight at the foot of the Taunus Mountain joined the Nassau-Koblenz County. It was originally a matter of course, because they were traditional small vassals in the Rheingau region, but they joined the Normans who were obviously After becoming a powerful force, they also gained wealth and honor for their meritorious service in the war. This was an explosive existence for the entire region. It refreshed the outlook of many small nobles, and then everyone began to think about some new possibilities.

Because the Bonn area has relatively vague geographical boundaries, it is common for people of all sizes to relocate in this era.

The villages in this area are all on the left bank of the Rhine and are classified as the Ahrgau region, with Sigegau and Engersgau on the other side of the river.

The Engelsgau region is completely bordered by the Rheingau region. Of course, the Rheingau region can be further subdivided into the Niedersgau, Niedersgau and Taunusgau regions.

The former official title of the Nassau family was Baron of Nassau, and another common name was Baron of Haut-Laungau.

The habitable environment in the southern part of the huge Hessian Mountains is limited to some valley areas. The environment is indeed huge, but in fact the settlements are highly concentrated.

The new county of Nassau-Koblenz has annexed Lower Rheingau and Taunusgau. It has completely replaced the former Count of Rheingau. All the old nobles who have not left must be loyal to this new great lord. .

As a result, there is only a small Engelsgau area between the Siegburg area and Nassau. However, this Engelsgau is not ruled by a military aristocracy. It is managed by lower-level priests sent by the Archbishop of Cologne, and the local area There are only a few riverside villages with monasteries, and the huge forest behind them is an uninhabited land without even passable roads.

Therefore, for the Knight of Songxi, it is not impossible for him to betray Herman and become loyal to the County of Nassau-Coblenz.

Take a look!

Now Hermann himself put aside his noble status and tried his luck with the Russians.

So, Rurik didn’t wait much. A small cavalry team left Michael Castle holding the cross flag high, and they quickly arrived at the Ross military camp.

“It’s too late for you. I thought you had to think about it for a long time.” Rurik asked.

“Sorry, I got up late.” Herman said with a smile on his face, “As you can see, I brought my son and my knight. Friend, please understand that I am a Paladin .”

“How can I ignore it? It’s good that you came, now let’s go.”

It seems that Herman is still holding his own, at least he has arrived.

There is no need for Hermann to lead the way in person for the future journey. A natural road covered with grass along the river leads directly to the upper reaches of the Rhine River, and there is no obstacle ahead.

The Russian army marched forward with a mighty cavalry. On their left were hills and forests, and on their right was the Rhine River in the dry season.

If you look carefully, you can see that some villages and apparently abandoned farmland have appeared on the other side of the river. They constitute the so-called Bonn settlement.

It is reported that the area is completely managed by the priests because it is legally under the direct jurisdiction of the “Roman Emperor” Lothair, but Lothair is now unable to govern it, and the Bonn area has become a de facto undefended zone.

It was on the left bank of the Rhine and was specially marked as “not plunderable” because it was under the jurisdiction of the Diocese of Cologne.

Bonn is a special case. Other than Bonn, the Aergau area can be freely plundered by the Russians and Danes.

Due to reality, it was Nassau-Coblenz County that really adopted the crazy plundering strategy, and their plundering operations went even further.

Engelsgau, which is only separated from Ergau by a river, is a different story. There are only a handful of villages in the local riverside area. The villagers have always lived a peaceful life and accepted the management of the priests. Things outside the territory seem to It has nothing to do with them.

The black fox and his plundering army are too lazy to pay attention to these poor people in the mountains and forests. There are only a few things in the entire Engelsberg area that can attract them. Once he catches his eye on the good things, he must eat them, and now he has indeed eaten them all. That’s enough.

The real Ross Cavalry Corps swaggered through Engelsgau. Apart from some poor houses with thick haystack roofs leaning against the mountains, Rurik could not see anyone or hear the crow of roosters. There were obviously riverside meadows for grazing in the local area, where sheep could be grazed. The shadow of a person is completely absent.

However, some sharp-eyed Pecheneg soldiers discovered the slightly moist sheep excrement eggs in the grass and concluded that all the locals must have fled into the forest for refuge in recent days.

It was also a good thing for the Russian army that the locals fled. Without contact, there would be no trouble. Looking at those haystack houses, Rurik could guess what kind of life the locals lived on a daily basis – they were happy if they could make ends meet.

“They are always immersed in the world of faith under the management of priests. The Benedictine monks generally advocate frugality. The priests in Cologne live a luxurious life and are absolutely outliers. The small churches in other areas are probably up and down. They all live by eating black bread and drinking oatmeal, and the villagers also follow the priests and accept poverty, thinking that they will enjoy eternal happiness in heaven after death, completely ignoring that their own life is not much better than that of cattle and sheep in the pen.” Rurik thought silently.

Rurik no longer looked at the poor houses. He imagined what he would see after the entire army arrived at their destination. Black Fox said that the third son of the Gould family lived a luxurious and elegant life, and the land he controlled had to be built to meet his aesthetic needs. .

“At least he should have built a lot of thick wooden houses with floors, because they came from Ross…”

Originally, Rurik felt that he had to reach the place across the river from Coblenz in person before he could truly reach the end of the march. In fact, this was not the case at all.

The Lower Lahngao area was completely annexed by the Black Fox, including the Wallendaal Monastery. The villages in this area were naturally brought under the control of the County of Nassau-Koblenz, and the local area officially had a ruling military noble.

The Black Fox went further in 843, and soon after the beginning of spring the army captured the Wied River area further downstream from Wallendal Abbey.

The Weder River is just one of the thousands of tributaries of the Rhine River. Its special feature is that the area belongs to Engelsgau and is very close to Koblenz.

It is equivalent to saying that the Nassau forces holding high the flag of Ross have encroached on the essence of Engelsgau.

In this era, there was the only village near the confluence of the small Weder River and the Rhine River. It grew up with a monastery as its core. Its original priest was named Bathin, and its village was called Bathindorf (today’s Bendorf). ).

The village of Battendorf is located on a small plain at the foot of the mountain. It is the most suitable area for farming in the Engelsgau region. The expanding Black Fox has decided to cultivate deeply in this area. After conquering it, it made an agreement with the local priest.

“You can continue to maintain your original life and you will not have to pay the tithe to Nassau this year. The only condition is that you must fly our flag in a conspicuous place.”

Hanging a flag is new to the entire Frankish world, not to mention that the Ross flag is simply the “St. Andrew’s Cross” in the eyes of the priests. If life goes on as usual after just hanging the flag, why not?

The villagers thought that there would be no changes in the future. After summer, Nassau began to build a small dock at the mouth of the Wade River. The villagers of Battendorf finally realized that their boring lives began to change, because they could go directly to Nassau. Sao Boguo sold agricultural products to those people at the newly built wharf, and happily exchanged key silver coins.

Because the incident happened in the spring of 843, neither the Blue Fox nor the Black Fox could inform Rurik, who was thousands of miles away, of the new news.

Neither the court earl Hermann nor the Archbishop of Cologne informed Rurik of the matter. They either did not know or thought it was not worth mentioning. When the Russian army passed through the narrow passage formed by the hills and the river, they suddenly faced a huge enemy. After entering the open area, I was surprised to find the settlement in the distance and the striking blue there.

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“Ah? Did I read that correctly? Our flag?” Rurik was shocked.

Fisk was surprised and ecstatic at the same time: “Your Majesty, could this open land be the legendary Koblenz?”

“I don’t see it.” Rurik shook his head: “It’s strange. Koblenz is said to be a large settlement with staggered houses. I saw only a vague small village in the distance, but the riverside area… just A small stronghold.”

After thinking about it, Rurik gradually smiled: “Hey, it must be the trick of the black fox. He built a new settlement. Anyway, I’ll go and take a look.”

The large cavalry team held high their flags, and their appearance immediately attracted the attention of the personnel stationed at the dock.

Things are somewhat different from what Rurik thought. The Wade River dock near the village of Battendorf is indeed a settlement built by Black Fox. Its biggest role is actually a prepared military assembly area. Although the space here is limited, it can be used by two thousand soldiers to set up bonfires. The campsite was completely suitable.

In peacetime, the local dock was used as a relay station. A small group of soldiers were ordered to station here to serve friendly shipping. Secondly, they also monitored the people of Batindorf Village for any unusual movements.

Now, the garrison has learned from the brothers from Duisburg that King Ross has personally arrived with troops, and the news has reached the ears of the Black Fox himself.

The matter was of great importance. Black Fox had already led the main force to the dock facing the Rhine River in Koblenz, and another group of brothers were raided and placed at the dock on the Wade River.

This group of brothers has only one mission, which is to raise the flag of Russia and wait for the triumphant arrival of the king.

A man led this initial contact, and that man was none other than Vardy, the Aubert Lidite, now to be called Baron Limburg-sur-Lahn.

[End of This Chapter.]