The Smolensk Army collapsed!

A large group of black shadows wriggled violently on the scarlet ice like a colony of ants.

The fleeing soldiers threw away their helmets and armor, and fled frantically towards the village where they came from.

They entered empty villages and had no time to get food in order to escape urgently. They don't know what the future will hold, and now they are only driven by their instinctive desire to survive through the village and head towards the woodland in the northeast direction.

Prior to this, those farmers who fled early had already drilled into the woodland, even if they were digging snow pits, they had to hide in them.

Now the fleeing soldiers followed in their footsteps.

And hundreds of fighters were extremely determined. Under the guidance of their trusted leaders, they simply planned to advance towards the unbroken Vitebsk fortress.

They were none other than the young genius of the village who had shared a strong gas drink with Vadim.

"Vadim has lived up to our expectations. He can't beat the Varyags, let's go while we still have strength!"

"You're right. Hurry to the village to hide! Let those people continue to fight the **** Ross people, let's seize the opportunity and leave."

These people's unified attitude attracted a group of rout soldiers to follow.

Vadim didn't bother to curse now.

He felt a serious betrayal and appealed to his followers: "You have all seen it! It's not that we fought badly, but some people became traitors, which caused our failure."

When he said this, he was also running, walking like flying, leaving many cronies in leather armor behind.

No matter how strong the enemy is! The enemy is fleeing!

Spuute resolutely and decisively ordered an all-out pursuit and marched towards the village at full speed.

At this point, after paying a certain price of soldier casualties, the Ross Allied Forces stepped over the scarlet corpses of both the enemy and us on the ice, and began to enter the largest village of Polotsk.

The largest village is at the T-junction formed by the West Dvina River and the Polota River. Many warriors from Riga know about it. It used to be that this group of farmers paddled canoes and piled rafts on the river, asking merchant ships for passage. travel expenses.

Spueut's understanding of this is limited. Beside him, a group of brothers with steel swords dripping blood have bravely rushed to the village with intricately arranged houses and disorderly streets and alleys.

Soldiers had to stay on guard, they were afraid of a brutal street fight against the enemy, but what they really saw when they rushed into it was an empty village.

Of course there are still enemies, those guys are like rabbits avoiding the attack of wolves, leaving their backs to the marching Ross people, and those who are caught up are killed mercilessly.

And Stekander inadvertently discovered a pile of four extremely abnormal corpses on the frozen river.

Many of the dead gathered together, most of them shirtless, with obvious tattoos on their bodies. The round shields were all shattered, and the male and female warriors were all dead. Their golden hair and braided golden beards swayed slightly with the wind, but they could no longer get up.

Strkander was taken aback: "A Ross?"

"It may be our people." A soldier responded decisively.

"It's actually ours?!"

"He." The soldier approached the pile of corpses and gently touched a dead man with his foot: "Bulard, he said that he went to explore the East, but unexpectedly died here."

"It turned out to be him?!"

"That's him. His broken teeth can't be wrong, even if..." the speaking warrior couldn't help spitting: "Even if the face is beyond recognition."

As the leader of the Danish community in the city of Riga, Stekander certainly knows a group of powerful local fighters. However, the Danish community does not exist permanently. There are Viking settlements farther away. Those people can migrate to Riga and settle down. Naturally, the first choice is to live in the Danish community and become brothers with everyone.

There must be many familiar people lying here, but the corpses were brutally destroyed. If insulting the corpse is not used for sacrificial activities, the only explanation is that the enemy is venting their anger!

he noticed another

At this point, the enemy must have snatched away the weapons of the deceased. Iron swords, hand axes, and daggers were almost gone.

Who is the thief? Apparently some thieves have died here.

"Maybe we came a step late." Another soldier squatted down. He inspected the corpses of the enemy and us that were pressed in the middle, and found that the corpses were still warm. "They should have died today."

"Damn, these Smolensk troops..."

These Danish berserkers who have just fought, their tattoos are stained with the blood of the enemy. All of them were panting from exhaustion, and they agreed that the last pursuit should be done by the fortress defenders and the Ross people. They saw a large number of brothers in the same community killed when they were able to breathe.

"Keep chasing, the enemy must pay the price!" Stekander ordered, and the Danes also entered the village.

But just as he intended to continue chasing and killing the wriggling black figure on the snow field, Spueut personally stopped the impulsive old man.

Standing in the east of the village, facing a large area of farmland abandoned in winter, they are covered with snow, and in the distance is the forest.

Here stood Strkander, his helmet slightly off, his beard and hair blowing in the wind.

"Why didn't you pursue it? You Ross people didn't pursue it, so why did you stop me from pursuing it?" he asked.

Earl Spueut poked his sword into the snow: "The battle went well, maybe... it was a conspiracy."

"You think too highly of them! The Smolensk soldiers must have fought by virtue of their superiority in numbers. If we really encountered a strong one, we would only be killed. Now is the time to pursue them. I want to avenge my Danish brothers who were killed. "

"Don't worry. Brother, they fled into the forest. Do you want to dig holes everywhere to find out the hidden enemies like a snow fox? The cold will kill them, so you don't need to do it. Besides, we can't be sure that the enemy is not Reinforcements. Where are the cavalry?"

"Ah?" Strokander was a little dazed.

"Didn't the intelligence say that they still have 500 cavalry? We only have a few brothers, and now some have died. Rather than chasing after us, we should rush to treat the wounded and transport our dead to be cremated for them. Also, try to find prisoners of war and ask They are what they are.

"Prisoners of war..." Stekander still looked fiercely towards the direction of the forest: "I don't expect to have prisoners of war. Anyone who is caught up by my men will be killed. Maybe that Vadim was also killed in the rebellion. "

"If that's the case." Earl Spueut looked at the man again and patted him on the shoulder: "The person who kills Vadim will be rewarded with a sum of money by the king. Of course, I hope that guy will run away."

"absurd."

"No. That Vadim will run away. He'd better run away and be captured alive. It'd be better if the king himself skinned him for a blood eagle."

"That's all." Stekander had no intention of chatting any longer, and he brought the brothers from Riga Bay to set up camp in this village.

As for the Novopolotsk fortress, which has a clear name and is in raging flames, it has no possibility of extinguishing the fire!

The main building within the fort was irreversibly ignited.

Wisunde finally calmed down, his iron body crashed down. He wasn't exhausted, but lying on the snow, he couldn't help curling up and coughing violently, coughing up some blood. Obviously, the hot smoke that was inhaled into the lungs did a lot of damage to the body.

His life is not in danger, it is just that this body will not be able to do strenuous exercise again in the future.

He was lifted up by his subordinates.

"My lord, we won. Look, here is the village."

"I know. I have failed His Excellency the Duke's expectations, you guys go quickly... go to the fortress to put out the fire!"

Such a request was too overwhelming, and the young warriors looked at each other to explain the fact that the fortress could not be saved.

A well-meaning soldier comforted: "It was originally a wooden fort built in the summer assault. We will rebuild it next year without it! At least Polotsk is still in our hands, and everything can be rebuilt in the future."

Wisunde understands the kindness of his subordinates, but he pays attention to the current situation, which is very different from what everyone imagined.

What is Polotsk?

It got its name from what the local villagers called themselves. If the Polotsk people disappeared on a large scale, at most it would be left with a ruined wall and a place name concept.

It wasn't until the battle was over that the soldiers who gradually calmed down could truly understand their situation.

The sky was already dark, and the setting sun turned the frozen river into a magnificent orange red. The corpses lying in disorder on the ice were particularly eye-catching. The blood of the dead had already congealed. All the dead were separated, but had no choice but to dig ice and take them away together.

All the corpses that could be collected were gathered in the village adjacent to the frozen Polota River.

On the other side of this place is the burning Novopolotsk fortress. As night falls, the flames of the fortress have burned the sky red, and the abnormal sky phenomenon can be noticed from a long distance!

For example, the Vitebsk fortress that has never been breached, and the huge Russian army stationed there have all seen the blood-red horizon. What happened there? ! Polotsk! The village and the reservation must have been attacked by the Smolensk.

The whole army spent the night in the empty village. On this night, the people who escaped from the fortress gradually returned to the village with food, bypassing the burning fortress.

Even, there are armed villagers who participated in the attack and collapsed at a touch, and they had nowhere to go but returned to the village to try their luck.

Just as Stekander estimated, the red-eyed army did not capture prisoners of war, and those who survived died soon, and the military could not find out why.

Instead, some people who returned to the village became prisoners of war.

A group of people forced to fight directly contributed to the burning of the fortress, and Visuend wanted to order their execution. After hearing the grievances of these people, Spueut pardoned the guilt, and finally asked for more acquainted information.

For the first time, the three commanders of the allied forces understood the determination of Vadim - the complete destruction of the Polotsk fortress.

It can be said that this person's proposition was finally realized, but the Smolensk army could not stand alone.

The enemy only had 3,000 soldiers, and they did have cavalry. However, the failed Vitebsk fortified battle almost exhausted the soldiers' physical strength, so Vadim ordered the killing of all the horses and self-destructed the cavalry.

Strkander has no intention of complaining anymore, he knows it's useless to complain. There is another thorny issue for the Danes - a valuable cargo left by armed merchants who died in battle was taken by the people who evacuated the fortress, and the villagers are now required to return the goods.

Those are all vicious Varyags, and now they are fighting side by side because of their common interests. If they don't know these ambers and beeswax, they will probably fight each other with swords.

What Spuute needs to consider is that these villagers with special identities have a marriage relationship with the Ostara people. They have protected the gems of the Danes, and it is not appropriate to take them all away now.

So everyone was happy with the result. For some people who have just experienced hardships, they lost their fortress after a day of magic, and got a batch of precious gems, relying on these stones to make a comeback.

The whole army stayed in the village, and no one found Vadim among the corpses.

Do you want to search again? The fallen enemies were either dressed in rags, or put a piece of leather armor on top of the rags. It is said that Vadim was wearing chain mail and holding a steel sword stolen from Ross, and his outfit was very different from others.

Noble's body was found, and it was believed that the damned Vadim really ran away with oil on his feet.

Some firewood was lit in one of the houses, and Spuyut and Stekander sat cross-legged to warm themselves.

Vesund suffered serious internal injuries, and the fortress defenders had to send a soldier, Bixiaom, to discuss matters with the reinforcements on his behalf.

"Cremate the brothers who died in battle as soon as possible. Only in this way can their souls go to Valhalla smoothly. Stekander, what do you want? And you, Vesund, your dead will also be burned to ashes..."

As the person with the highest status now, Spueut can say what he said. Considering the mutual harmony, he still needs the attitude of the two companions every day.

"Then burn it." Bixiaom's face was calm, and there was a slight hint of seriousness and sadness.

"You Aosta

Pulling people to guard the fort has done its best. Now..." Spueut wanted to say something, but after thinking about it, what he said might be superfluous.

He paused for breath: "I made a simple count, and all the brothers who can fight are less than 500. If the enemy is really defeated by us, and the enemy really only has 3,000 troops, the crisis in Polotsk will be lifted .

"It means we can sit back and relax?" Stekander shook his head. "Damn Vadim ruined everything. My people's plan to go to Rome to do business went bankrupt. I... I'll just say it bluntly!"

Stekander made a bold move. On behalf of the entire Danish community in the Bay of Riga, he wanted to ask the Kingdom of Ross for an explanation.

"King Ross is a great man, following him, we vagrant Danes can get rich! That's why I'm serving King Ross, not the King of Denmark!

However, King Ross must ensure the safety of the line of communication! The Smolensk people were either wiped out or surrendered to King Rus. As for that Vadim, he must die. "

"Are you questioning King Ross?" Spueut showed uneasy eyes for the first time.

"I don't dare. We are about contracts."

"Then, just wait and see."

Spueut didn't want to argue with this guy, and he didn't want to hurt his peace at all times.

So ~www.mtlnovel.com~ the panting soldiers set aside a piece of land by the frozen river, and waited until the next morning when large-scale logging began.

The coalition fighters were fortunate that the fleeing enemy did not loot or destroy the public granary in the village, and everyone could feast on boiled wheat.

There is no need to be stingy at all, the owners of the wheat have disappeared one after another, and the barn full of wheat is the blood reward for the victor.

They must eat extravagantly, or they will freeze to death from weakness in the colder days...

Those who were full cut down some pine trees, and piled up large and small cremation altars with pine branches at the predetermined positions.

A silver coin was placed in place of the right eye of the deceased. Legend has it that Odin sacrificed his right eye to gain wisdom. Such funeral customs are common in the Danish community in Riga.

The Danish armed merchants who died in battle, the Ostarans who guarded the fortress, the identified Polotsk villagers, and the Zhaoan pirates from Saaremaa Island who came from thousands of miles to fight.

At this moment, they have no distinction between you and me, ashes return to ashes in the flames, and their souls follow the soaring smoke and dust, and go to the other side of the dead's belief...