Ch 18: Northumbria

After resting for a night and purchasing enough fresh water and food, Ivar bid farewell to the Northern European immigrants and steered the ship south.

Two days passed, the longship came ashore, and they found that the inland area was covered with swamps. A sailor grabbed a handful of dark brown soil from the bottom of a swamp, observed it for a moment, and then informed everyone.

“This mud can be used as fuel, and it’s widely distributed around here. If I’m not mistaken, this should be the Great Swamp north of York.”

They found a stream to supplement their fresh water, and then they continued along the coastline and arrived at their muster point—the Humber Estuary—on the morning of the third day.

The target of this raid was York in Northumbria. According to the plan before departure, the fleet would sail up the River Humber, relying on their numerical advantage to conquer this royal capital.

Surprisingly, more than sixty longships were moored at the river mouth, only half of the number at departure. The condition of some ships was very poor, and they were dragged ashore for repairs.

“What happened?”

After coming ashore, Vig asked a Viking who was fishing. The man replied lazily, “We encountered a storm on the way, and the whole fleet was scattered. Ragnar ordered us to stay here. Phew, I’ve been waiting for you for five days, I’m about to grow mold!”

At this time, a heated argument came from a distance. Vig recognized the voices of Ulf and Leonard. Approaching the tent, he found five nobles gathered around a crude map on a table, arguing about which settlement to attack.

Ulf: “According to the prisoner’s confession, York is a Roman-era building with a stone wall taller than two men, which is difficult to conquer. I suggest attacking Leeds to the west, then heading west to attack Mancunium（, later Manchester）.”

Leonard, young and impetuous, immediately rejected his old neighbor’s proposal: “Let’s attack York! If you’re worried about danger, why don’t you stay home and farm? What are you doing in Britain, enduring storms?”

Ulf: “The troops haven’t been mustered yet, how can we attack York? Northumbria is not a small fry like Kent or East Anglia. They can easily gather two or three thousand soldiers to fight us. It’s better to start easy and then go for the hard ones. Let’s attack Leeds, a town with only a wooden palisade, weaken their strength, and then try to besiege York.”

As the initiator of this raid, Ragnar wasn’t in a hurry to speak. After the two had finished arguing, he decided to adopt Ulf’s plan.

“The fleet’s food supplies are only one-third left, and the atmosphere in the camp is becoming increasingly restless. Let’s find a settlement with weak defenses to plunder food, so as not to have some raiders unable to suppress themselves and attack on their own.”

Knowing that the high-ranking officers had decided to attack, the sixteen hundred idle Vikings erupted in earth-shattering cheers. The next morning, under Ragnar’s leadership, the raiders rowed their oars towards the depths of the river.

The draft of Viking longships when fully loaded was only a little over a meter, making the Vikings’ tactics flexible and allowing them to maneuver quickly along inland rivers. Sometimes, before the lord could react, they would already have fled with their plundered goods.

Amidst the shocked and panicked looks of the villagers along the shore, the fleet sailed west, arriving near Leeds in the afternoon of the second day.

Because Northumbria did not have a beacon system, even when a large number of longships moored on the south bank, there were still a few residents working in the fields outside the town, and several riders were hunting on the southwest side, looking carefree and at ease.

“Great, they are completely unprepared. Quickly, charge!”

Ivar didn’t want to delay, leading a small group of Vikings to charge towards Leeds, hundreds of meters away, intending to take the town in one go.

At this time, Britain had low productivity. Except for a few cities remaining from the Roman period, most towns only had wooden palisades. Leeds was no exception. Its walls were sandwich-structured, with two layers of wooden stakes inside and out, filled with gravel and mud in the middle, about three meters high overall, and coated with a layer of mud to prevent enemy fire attacks.

Crossing a shallow moat, more than twenty Vikings arrived below the palisade. Ivar had the tallest man, Orm, stand firmly against the palisade. Then, stepping on his shoulders, he leaped up, grasping the battlement edge tightly, like a nimble gibbon, easily climbing over the palisade.

Looking around, the whole town was in chaos, with people fleeing in a hurry everywhere in the streets. The bell of the monastery rang throughout the area, giving it a rather apocalyptic feeling.

“Follow me to seize the city gate!”

Ivar didn’t want to wait, leading Bjorn, Gunnar, and several others towards the city gate.

This was the most crucial part of the entire raid. They had to seize the city gate before the enemy reacted, allowing the main Viking force to flood into the city. Conversely, once the enemy held the city gate and withstood the first wave of attack, they would have enough time to mobilize the townspeople, and it would subsequently turn into a bloody siege warfare.

Soon, Vig climbed onto the palisade and found Ivar and ten Viking warriors fighting desperately behind the city gate. He was about to go to reinforce them when a group of archers suddenly surged onto the palisade, preparing to shoot at the Vikings below.

“What a fast reaction speed. It seems they’ve been attacked quite a bit.”

Vig held up his round shield and charged fiercely. Some were knocked cleanly off the palisade by him, and others tried to resist, but usually couldn’t withstand more than two attacks before being eliminated.

After charging dozens of meters, only one clumsy, green man remained. He was holding a large heavy crossbow, staring outside the city, his legs trembling, wondering which target to choose. After hearing his comrade’s scream, the man subconsciously turned his head and made eye contact with a Viking barbarian more than ten meters away.

Stunned for two seconds, the man roared, lifting the heavy crossbow, “Pagan barbarians!”

Damn it, where did Britain get heavy crossbows?

Looking at the large iron bolt at the front of the heavy crossbow, Vig knew something was wrong. The moment the man pulled the trigger, he instinctively jumped off the palisade. On the verge of landing, he heard a scream from his rear.

Then, a corpse with wide-open eyes fell beside Vig. A long crossbow bolt was stuck in his chest, its sharp arrowhead protruding from his back, still dripping blood.

The deceased was a Viking warrior who had been following him. He wore leather armor inlaid with iron sheets, with much higher defense than ordinary common soldiers, yet he still couldn’t withstand the close-range volley of the heavy crossbow.

“What a dangerous weapon. Fortunately, its loading speed is slow enough, and its prevalence is not high, otherwise this battle would be impossible to fight.”

Vig picked up his round shield and prepared to join Ivar. Before he had taken a step, he felt a piercing pain in his left ankle, almost causing him to fall.

Lifting his trousers, he found a large swelling on his ankle. Vig was speechless. He had imagined the injuries he would suffer in battle, but he never expected it to be a sprained ankle!

In the time that followed, he could only watch helplessly as Ivar cut down the common soldiers blocking the way, opening the city gate amidst cheers. The raid on Leeds was declared ended.