The Smolensk soldiers who fled into the forest were still in shock. Thanks to the cover of the dense forest, everyone gradually felt at ease after settling down here.

Some soldiers had arrows stuck in their bodies, and they fled temporarily with this awkward and terrifying image.

Almost all wounded soldiers were wounded by arrows, endured the pain and arrived at a place they claimed to be safe, and only treated the wounds with the help of their companions.

There was no disinfectant of any kind, not even a means to suture the wound. The arrows of those Ross gangsters could be pulled out relatively easily, but the wounds left behind were black blood holes, and after barely stopping the bleeding, an accidental squeeze made the blood flow profusely again.

For wounded soldiers, hemostasis is the beginning. They prayed to God that they would not get a fever and that they would escape disaster.

But the corruption of the situation is terrible for all fighters. Some people have to wonder: Is there any point in continuing to fight?

Occupied logging camps, bonfires rekindled. Vadim, who was still in shock, did not feel relieved until his body was warmed by the flames.

He drank kvass with many young talents and promoted them to fight the enemy bravely in battle.

They are still officers, each with a different number of brothers to fight, but they behave in various ways during the chaotic battle during the day.

Some officers fought bravely to be the first to die in battle, and some officers were blocked in the front line and retreated, watching the battle come to a stalemate and had no choice but to retreat.

All the faces were red and hot from the flames, and no one laughed or cried. it is more than words.

Vadim drank half of the leather bag of water, and took a long breath: "Let's talk." Everyone looked at each other, and cautiously did not respond to the leader.

"I have to admit that we have encountered difficulties. Our army is far from the point of failure! You all talk about it, what should we do next?" What should we do?

What else can I do? You are the leader, and everything is up to you. Everyone had such an attitude. It was because Vadim urged so hard that some people had to squeak twice.

"Leader. From my point of view...we still have to attack."

"Ah, yes, yes." Immediately, someone followed up: "Many brothers died, but our army is still strong."

"The Ross gangsters are really brave. After so many people died, they couldn't break their shield wall."

"There is no need to speak for them." Someone corrected: "Our army has to brave sharp arrows to fight them through that bridge. If the battlefield is wider, we will spend the night in their fortress tonight."... Everyone Young people must find reasons for their actual failure to restore their dignity.

Vadim was very happy that the discussion had entered the rhythm he needed, and after listening to

After the "reasonable explanation", he coughed twice to suspend the discussion.

"You are quite right. Our army has lost the essence of its subordinates. After all, I don't expect to defeat the Ross bandits with 4,000 men in the early winter. As long as I can burn this fortress, I will win. Go and tell the brothers, hurry up Time to rest, refrain from discussing defeat and fleeing, anyone who dares to claim that our army will lose, turn people to me, and I will kill him with my own hands!"

"Obey!" Everyone said yes.

"The key is how to pass through the damned ditches, how to pass through the damned wooden walls. The bandits defended very tenaciously. They fought us desperately even though they could escape. That fortress may have a treasure that they must hold on to. What is the treasure?! There must be some gold, silver and precious stones stored there, and if they can hold on, there must be a lot of food. You tell the brothers, after breaking the city, you can loot freely, and everyone can find the spoils according to their ability, gold coins, silver coins and precious stones, and if you find them, it will be yours. Vadim's order really surprised everyone.

Someone asked in amazement: "According to the rules, the leader... shouldn't you take the big leader?"

"That's all! I'm taking you to revenge, not to get rich. Gold and silver are meaningless to me. If it can make you fight the enemy bravely, it's okay to give it all to you." As the leader, is it possible not to have loot?

In this critical time, let's just believe his words. Vadim knew that his army continued to use some means to regain morale.

Pick a few guys who spread the words of failure and execute them. This is suppressed by fear, which can keep the army from disbanding, but it can't really inspire fighting spirit.

It would be great if he could capture a few prisoners of war and execute them in public, but he pessimistically estimated that if he led his troops to fight for a whole day without clearly killing an enemy, his side would suffer serious losses... Now only

"Drawing big cakes" made them believe that there was real money and food in the fortress, and made them believe that after rushing in, everyone would have the opportunity to make a fortune, a sum of money that was enough to make debt slaves clear their debts in an instant and become a small rich man.

Through the officers he appointed, his words basically reached the entire army. It also lies in the fact that his army is not too many in terms of strength, and it is not too many to say that it is too small.

The 4,000 army suffered more than 300 casualties, and being injured basically meant that he lost his combat effectiveness, which meant that his strength had been reduced by 10%.

The reason is that a large number of soldiers discarded their helmets and armors when they fled, and their combat effectiveness further declined due to this. For the time being, the soldiers who lost their spears had no choice but to cut wood into soldiers.

Vadim didn't know about the unexpected situation in the Vitebsk fortress, and he didn't even know the specific name of the fortress, let alone that the defenders had called for reinforcements from two directions as quickly as possible.

And the latter's way of calling for reinforcements has reached the limit of what the Ross Kingdom can do in this era. The old man Yellinger Eriksson died in the last battle of his life. The war is still going on. He won a difficult battle with soldiers who were too young. Although he died, the young people got enough experience.

The body was placed in a wooden box in an awkward posture for the time being. Since the temperature was already cold enough, no one was worried about the body's decomposing. As the temperature irreversibly dropped below the freezing point, Jellinger would freeze like a stone.

Everyone thought that with the achievements of this old man, the soul must have gone to Valhalla, and would eventually be transported thousands of miles away to be buried in a cemetery outside the capital.

The young Evinde was elected by his brothers as the new fortress defender, and he continued to stand by the ditches and wooden walls.

The sky began to change dramatically! As early as the **** battle, the sky gradually became gray. On the third day after the war, the north wind howled, and the cold wind swept across the huge forest. The wooden wall of the inner city of Vitebsk Fortress became an excellent windbreak barrier. Soldiers were able to hide from the extreme cold in the thick wood carvings, and even got together to chat.

They all changed into thick fur winter coats and cloth woolen stuffed with wool. In the warm room, the fireplace was burning fiercely, the atmosphere was very warm, and optimism had spread throughout the fortress.

It is all because of the sudden northerly wind. Everyone believes that a snowfall is approaching quietly... It is already the end of October. If there is no snowstorm until now, it means that the probability of a large-scale snowfall process is increasing day by day.

"The wind is howling, and the cold wind can freeze those Smolensk people to death. Haha, on the other hand, we are hiding in the fortress, it is like a groundhog getting in."

"Bah bah, we're not groundhogs. Look at the bear skin you're wearing, we're just bears that burrow into a hole to keep out the cold." That's all, there was a burst of joy in the room.

Ai Wende interrupted everyone's conversation, and couldn't help asking: "You all tell me, once the snow falls, will the West Dvina River be frozen enough to leave in a few days?"

"Impossible." Everyone subconsciously denied, after all, Vitebsk is further south, and the winter here is warmer according to what they have learned.

"What if? We have to think of countermeasures." Ai Wende looked at everyone and added.

"Uncle Yellinger is dead now, you are the commander, and the brothers are all listening to you." Someone seemed to say a nonsense, and the implication was to make Ai Wende responsible for everything in the future, even the possible retreat.

If Vitebsk fell, Ai Wende would be infamous no matter if he died, even if it was not fair.

"What else can I do? I advocate rushing out to fight with them. Once the world freezes, they will attack from all directions. Remember the uncle's last words, we are only a few soldiers, we can withstand one or two attacks, and continue to fight Zhongneng is exhausted. Let's continue to implement Uncle's plan. I am willing to trust him.

"Are you really willing? Brother. You are a brave man." Someone asked doubtfully, with a hint of encouragement in his attitude.

Ai Wende saw the trouble, he was neither angry nor annoyed, just shook his head and tried to stretch his still broken body: "My bones are about to break! I don't have the energy to continue fighting, but I have the strength to give the crossbow Wind up. I advise you not to be brave, I don't have enough physical strength, and neither do you. I would rather pray that Odin freezes those guys to death with the wind and snow... Only a young soldier with a strong blood can grow up if he has a near-death experience.

At this moment, Ai Wende, who was young, was already a full-fledged veteran, and his speech and attitude were inconceivably approaching the dead Jellinger.

In the beginning, there was a bitter cold wind, and the dense pine forest was used as a barrier by the Smolensk army. The big trees shook violently in the strong wind, and the branches kept falling.

they because of

The fighting spirit rekindled by the "freedom to plunder promise" was wiped out by the cold wind and falling branches.

Even for Vadim, he found pessimistically that the main disaster he was facing now was how to deal with the next snowfall reasonably.

After a night of stiffening in the cold wind, many wounded soldiers passed away quietly in the sudden drop in temperature, although they did not suffer from the terrible fever because their bodies were too weak.

It is not surprising that the wounded died later, but some seemingly strong soldiers also froze to death. Vadim wanted to curb his pessimism, but the current situation is that everyone is freezing, morale has dropped to the bottom in the cold wind, and there is a great possibility of mutiny in the entire army.

However, the mutated weather did not give Vadim time to prepare. Standing in a relatively open place in the lumberyard, he saw that a large number of people had already seized the time to cut down trees, gathered large and small branches, and even dug earth pits on the spot to accompany the branches to make semi-crypt shelters.

Vadim has ordered the soldiers to cut down trees, with the intention of peeling off the tough bark and tearing them into strips, and binding the felled tree trunks into wooden bridges for soldiers to pass through trenches, and even making some large wooden shields to avoid arrows.

The strong wind directly broke some trees, and Vadim couldn't care less about being happy, because he already felt the beating of snow on his bearded facethe snowfall process had begun.

In the beginning, it was Endless Xuezi, accompanied by the north wind like endless ice blades, which caused pain in the face. At least the Smolensk army on the expedition was prepared for the snowfall. They put on the thick clothes they had prepared, but is this enough?

They are all farmers who live in cold regions, and they have followed the principle of reducing activities in winter since ancient times.

Their attire is not as blessed as the down jackets of a thousand years ago. They are all made of fur and linen, and everyone looks quite bloated when they wear them now.

Winter clothes do not insulate the cold, even if you put on thick clothes and stay outdoors overnight, you can freeze to death. As long as the wind keeps blowing, a small amount of heat will continue to be lost. The extremities and the face are the most vulnerable to frostbite, and eventually even wearing thick clothes can be frozen into an ice sculpture.

Xuezi turned into little snow, and edelweiss was flying all over the sky! The dark green earth has completely turned into grayish white, the visibility is extremely low, and the temperature has also dropped.

Light snow began to develop into moderate snow and heavy snow again. Fortunately, the extreme snowstorm did not happen. In a short period of time, the world was covered in silver light, and no one was happy, but regarded it as a silver-white hell.

In the extreme cold, people had to eat more food, and the Smolensk soldiers huddled in the pits they dug, covered with sheds made of pine branches,

The "roofs" gradually piled up with snow, and then took the occupied logging camp as the core, the camp of the Smolensk Army, and the soldiers lived like marmots.

The good news is that the wind is over, and the bad news is that the snowfall does not know when it will end. The worse news is that the war weariness of ordinary soldiers cannot be ignored because they are afraid that it will be difficult to break through the city to obtain supplies when the food is exhausted.

They can fear and loathe war, but they know very well the horrors of winter. It is also dangerous for a small number of people to move in the winter forest in groups. There is no need to consider the attacks of bears and other wild animals. The most important thing to consider is to sleep to death in a snowy night.

It is precisely because they are afraid of freezing to death that the soldiers dare not flee. What's next? Continue to spend in the snow?

The terrifying blizzard did not happen, and the amount of snowfall seemed to have decreased. The world under the snowflakes in the sky was gray, and the snow gradually covered people's ankles.

Those headless corpses who fell on the battlefield were only covered with a thin layer of snow at this moment. The open land near the Vitebsk fortress was always blown by the wind. There was no snow here, and the snowflakes were all blown into the woodland south of the fortress, forming a snow wall in the woods.

Everyone is waiting for Vadim to give a new order. Those young officers have been fighting hard in the snow for four days. Vadim has been slow to make a statement, and soldiers freeze to death every day.

Finally, someone couldn't sit still anymore, and gathered a group of brothers to rush into Vadim's shack, and face the big leader who was also fighting hard.

"You? What are you doing? Want to rebel?!" Vadim subconsciously drew his sword and pointed at the group of young people.

Everyone was unmoved at all. The person who raised his head asked bluntly: "It's been four days, what are we going to do? Continue to freeze to death in the snow? What else are we going to do?"

"So, that's why?"

"That's it."

"Presumptuous! You all step down first! I will take the time to have a good chat with you." Finally, his most loyal subordinate can't sit still anymore?

In the continuous snowfall, the heat of the bonfire evaporated the snow in a space for a short time, and Vadim told his confidants his attitude here.

He really wanted to continue to hold on until the river was frozen enough to allow people to stand, so that the whole army would launch attacks from all sides, forcing the defenders' defense lines to leak everywhere with absolute superiority, and thus complete the victory.

Regardless of whether this persistent tactic is reliable, the fact that everyone can get together clearly means that the soldiers have expressed that they can no longer persist.

They all explained one thing in unison: food is being consumed in large quantities, and soldiers can only avoid freezing to death by eating a large amount. The army may last for another five to eight days. Tianhou went back home.

Indeed, from the expedition to the present, Vadim has been tossing back and forth for two days. Even the Frankish army did not do a good job in logistical support. It is a relatively gentle way to ask the locals to provide supplies in the stationed places.

"Looting in situ". It is rare for the Smolensk people to organize such a large force to launch an expedition. The soldiers almost brought their own food, and the food they could bring for three weeks was already the limit. UU Reading www.uukanshu.com

This is also the result of their unprecedented emphasis on logistics. It is the military miracle of the Smolensk people themselves that they can persist until now.

Not enough food for three weeks? Vadim couldn't imagine that he had spent two weeks and still couldn't take down the fortress of the Ross bandits, and now it was eroded by the wind and snow.

In other words, he claimed that the reason why he still couldn't do it was the **** wind and snow, but he couldn't use this as a reason for dawdling.

"I'm very incompetent." what to do? What else can I do? retreat? ! Vadim stood at the altar at that time, pointing his sword at the sky in front of tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians, and swore to Peron, the **** of fire they believed in, that if he failed, he would die.

He sacrificed with his own blood, and the wound on the palm of his left hand was still not healed. The subordinates want to retreat, but he must not retreat.

What to do? !

"Let's fight! I won't wait, even if we fall into the icy water, we will still fight. As long as we take the fort, all problems will be solved."