Ch 27: Breaching The City

Trapped in a dead end, the remaining guards had not forgotten their oath of allegiance. Time was pressing, and they jointly pushed down the fortifications in the northwest corner, dragging the disheartened Eilaud out of the encirclement. Upon reaching the bottom of the city walls, only three guards remained behind Eilaud.

Besides this, most of the militiamen were blocked in the camp, futilely shrinking into a circular formation to resist the Viking archers’ thrown arrows.

After half an hour of stalemate, the slow-moving siege engines arrived nearby. Vig ordered a stone to be thrown at the shield formation, completely crushing the militiamen’s resistance.

“Surrender,” he looked at a Viking who spoke Anglo-Saxon, “Tell them that Ragnar guarantees the safety of ordinary peasants.”

The situation was over. More than two thousand seven hundred militiamen threw their weapons into the moat and left the encirclement one after another along the narrow passage, their faces sad, like a flock of shivering sheep.

More than two hundred remained in the encirclement, mainly nobles, gentlemen, and their respective retainers. Vig had no interest in wasting words with them and ordered the siege engines and archers to eliminate them.

Thus, the last field army of Northumbria was completely defeated, and the dawn of victory was at hand.

The sky was clear and the sun was shining brightly. Vig looked up at the White Clouds, just about to recite some poetry, when he suddenly saw Eric’s men drawing their swords, intending to kill the unarmed prisoners.

“These men cannot be killed!”

Vig rushed over, parrying someone’s weapon with his Dragon’s Breath Sword, standing alone in front of the prisoners. Seeing his actions, Eric laughed angrily, “Why not? And for these Anglo-Saxon Dwarves, you dare draw your sword at me?”

At this time, Ragnar arrived with his men. He smiled and walked in front of Eric, “Since you agreed to protect them, you should keep your word. If you go back on your word now, what will others think of me? The city is about to fall, should we have internal conflict at this moment?”

“Fine, I can spare the prisoners. How do you plan to deal with them?”

Ragnar laughed carelessly, “Lock them up first, the camp doesn’t lack grain. Let’s talk after we capture York. Maybe we can get a ransom from their families, or simply sell them to slave traders.”

Having won this epic victory, Vig commanded the siege engines to continue bombarding the city walls. Almost every day, residents crossed the Ouse River and fled west. Some Vikings wanted to cross the river to pursue them, but he stopped them.

“The fewer residents in the city, the better. When people have mostly fled, the subsequent general assault will be much easier.”

Encircle three sides, leaving one open; try to let the Anglo-Saxons retreat instead of forcing them to defend York; this was the strategy Vig promoted in the following half a month.

As time went on, the figures on the city walls became increasingly sparse. When the number of garrison troops decreased to a certain critical point, the general assault began.

In the morning, the siege engines threw stones as usual. Unlike before, ten siege towers, about seven meters high, were successively pushed out from the camp and advanced slowly towards York.

Ten minutes later, the siege towers approached the city walls. Under the anxious gaze of the garrison, the ramps in front of the towers fell down, and immediately afterward, countless Vikings in iron armor surged onto the city walls, crushing the Anglo-Saxons’ resistance with their overwhelming numerical superiority.

After three months, this sturdy city built by the Romans finally fell.

Seeing the red and yellow striped flag on the city walls cut down by the Viking warriors, Vig felt a heavy burden lifted and sat down to rest beside the siege engine.

“What are you still doing here? The good things in the city are almost all taken.”

At this moment, Niels, leading the archers, changed into round shields and iron axes, and entered York as the last batch. Finding Vig basking in the sun leaning against the siege engine, he couldn’t help but urge him to leave.

“Phew, I’m tired. You go ahead, let me be alone for a while.”

During this period, Vig was not only responsible for building siege weapons, but also worried about camp defense, logistics distribution, and the settling of prisoners. He was so tired that he experienced shortness of breath and palpitations from time to time. If it had dragged on for a while longer, this eighteen-year-old fellow might have died suddenly.

“It wasn’t easy. It really wasn’t easy.”

Leading an army that was like loose sand to capture York, Vig felt his command ability had greatly improved after this ordeal. Although he was not yet capable of commanding a large army, he was enough to handle an army of two to three thousand people, which was enough for medieval Europe, where the population was sparse.

After a long nap in the sun, Vig yawned and returned to the camp. There were only over a hundred old, weak, sick, and disabled people left, as well as two thousand seven hundred anxious prisoners.

He inspected the storehouse once, asked for a pot of honey wine and a small bag of salt pork, and watched the setting sun, the black ravens circling in the air, and the Ouse River surface reflecting countless bits of sunlight, eating slowly on his own, occasionally uttering words that no one had ever heard before.

After a long time, an archer under Niels hurriedly came to find him, ending this rare moment of rest.

“What happened again?”

“The King of Northumbria broke through with his troops and was caught up by Ivar’s men. Only the prince escaped with a few attendants. After Ivar personally killed the king, he gave the crown to Ragnar, which caused Eric’s men to be very dissatisfied, and they are currently facing off.”

York has fallen, King Eilaud was defeated and killed, and the remaining forces in various places could not cause much trouble. The destruction of Northumbria was a certainty. This huge inheritance was before their eyes, and Ragnar’s forces alone could not swallow it; there would be more disputes to come.

More than ten minutes later, Vig arrived at the open space in the center of York. Almost all the high-ranking officers had gathered there, their expressions ambiguous, the atmosphere solemn, only Ragnar and Eric were missing.

“Where are those two? How long have they been talking?”

Ivar glanced at the York Cathedral on the right, “They have been talking for a while. The old man’s face is very bad, I guess it will be difficult to deal with this time.”

Suddenly, a crisp sound of glass breaking came from the church. A group of people rushed into the gate at the fastest speed, finding that Ragnar and Eric had not started fighting, and immediately breathed a sigh of relief.

“Go down.”

Ragnar asked everyone to leave the church, only Vig remained inside. Ragnar frowned and gestured for him to leave quickly, “This is a conversation between the two of us, you go out first.”

Vig shook his head, “You’ve been talking for a long time, and you even smashed things. What exactly caused you to fail to reach an agreement?”

“What else could it be?” Eric’s eyes were full of mockery, “A month ago, Eilaud sent people to attack our fleet at the Humber Estuary. How did he know the exact location of the fleet? Vig Hakanson, you are a smart man, can you explain this? Is there an insider who deliberately leaked the news?”

Thank you to book friends Dao Wu Huaxia and Guofu Kaigua Wang for their rewards.