Vikings: Lords of the Ice Sea

Chapter 202 The beginning of chaos
In April, Oleg assembled a force of about three thousand men, including one thousand royal guards, one thousand five hundred men cobbled together by the minor nobles of the royal domain, and five hundred civilians who volunteered to fight.

After landing on the west coast of Denmark, he went to his fiefdom of Wajel, where he stored his supplies and gathered civilians to expand his army to 3,500 men.

During this period, Niels sent messengers several times, but Oleg detained them. In late April, with everything prepared, Oleg went directly to Schleswig in the south.

Knowing the enemy's numbers and equipment from the scouts, Niels dared not engage Oleg in direct combat, as Oleg only had three hundred sets of iron armor and was no match for him.

Previously, in order to expand his military strength, Niels had considered many methods, including purchasing pig iron ingots, weapons, and armor from Vig. However, the other party showed no regard for past favors, insisting on a cash-on-delivery policy and refusing to extend credit.

Left with no other choice, Nils borrowed money from his father-in-law. Including his wife's dowry, he scraped together a total of five hundred pounds of silver and ordered one hundred sets of armor and various weapons from Tyneburg. Since Ragnar's death, the shadow of war had loomed over the entire Viking world, and the price of military supplies had skyrocketed. A set of ordinary armor cost more than three pounds of silver and was in short supply.

“The Imperial Guards are all armored, and the minor nobles in the royal territory also have more than four hundred sets of armor. This battle cannot continue.”

In the lord's longhouse, Niels paced back and forth irritably, saying to his newlywed wife, the Sla, "I'm planning to abandon Schleswig. You should pack your things and go back to Pomerania for a while."

Initially, Schleswig was far more prosperous than any other settlement in Denmark. However, four years ago, Niels conquered the town, and his troops plundered it extensively, severely damaging the town. Residents fled, and the population plummeted to less than a thousand. For years, it has been in a state of semi-death, unable to generate much profit, and there is no need to defend it to the death.

Now that the enemy is strong and we are weak, Niels plans to find allies.

First was Uber in northern Denmark, nominally the Duke of Denmark, who ruled over the northern Jutland Peninsula. His drawbacks were his lack of seniority and the Queen Mother's hostility. Unsurprisingly, the Guard's mission also included killing Uber, who had no choice but to accept Nils's invitation to an alliance.

Next was Hafdan, the Duke of Sweden, who resolutely resisted the half-truthful will, ordered craftsmen to make a crown, and recently declared himself king.

"Hafdan lacks prestige and certainly wouldn't want to miss the opportunity to preside over the funeral. How about this, I'll leave the coffin to the Imperial Guard, and when they go to Gothenburg, there will inevitably be a battle between the two sides."

Before the enemy arrived, Nils sent his wife back to her parents' home, took eight hundred soldiers, boarded a ship, and fled. Before leaving, he deliberately opened the warehouse so that the residents could collect the supplies they had not had time to take.

Three days later, Oleg arrived at Schleswig, only to find the town's gates wide open. There were no soldiers stationed on the wooden walls, nor were there any of Nils's feathered banners. Instead, a flock of birds perched on the grass outside the walls, pecking at the scattered oats.

"Is there an ambush?"

Oleg sent scouts into the town, where they learned from the residents that Nils had already fled, taking with him the significant gilded chair.

"I don't care about that broken chair. Where is His Majesty's coffin?"

Oleg rallied the people, and they led them to a low burial mound in the south of the city, where Ragnar's coffin was buried. It was nestled against a hill, facing the sea to the east, surrounded by overgrown weeds and ravens, making it appear particularly desolate and lonely.

Having acquired the gilded chair, Nils had no interest in fussing over the increasingly foul-smelling coffin. He temporarily buried Ragnar according to the standards for an ordinary nobleman, with a rough, uncarved boulder standing in front of the grave, its inscription yet to be carved. "Your Majesty, I am late."

Whether it was genuine emotion or just for show, Oleg suddenly knelt down, embraced the boulder, and wept bitterly. The guards, barons, and knights behind him followed suit, all with sorrowful expressions.

Throughout the Viking world, these barons and knights who were affiliated with the royal family were the most loyal to Ragnar, being his old brothers who had fought alongside him for many years. In contrast, the great nobles like Vig, Orm, Leonard, and Ulf established their own factions and possessed greater independence, which inevitably diminished their loyalty.

After crying for about ten minutes, Oleg stood up, leaning against the stone tablet, and began to think about his next plan.

"Rumors circulate that Hafdan recently declared himself king, which is tantamount to rebellion. If we were to take his coffin to Gothenburg for his funeral, wouldn't we have to fight him again?"

For some time afterward, Oleg was stationed in Schleswig and sent messengers to Gothenburg to gather information.

The worst-case scenario unfolded: Hafdan, as rumored, donned the crown and, facing the messengers, ordered the royal guards to hand over the coffin and swear allegiance to him personally, which clearly exceeded the guards' tolerance.

Then Oleg received more bad news: Uber, fearing assassination by the Imperial Guard, had fled to Oslo, Norway, by ship to seek refuge with his cousin Eric the Younger.

If the Royal Guard were to go to war with Hafdan, Eric the Younger would inevitably aid Hafdan. Asura, lacking evidence, killed Sora, thus pushing the Kingdom of Norway to its opposite side.

"Niels, Hafdan, Uber, and Eric—what are we going to do with all four of them together?"

In June, news from Northern Europe kept pouring into Stirling, but Vig remained unresponsive. During this time, he devoted himself to organizing his notes from previous years, covering military strategy, finance, and geographical information from the places he had visited.

After organizing everything, Vig selectively taught some of the material to Leif and Hosa, the former learning military strategy and the latter business. His two children were still young, so he prioritized completing their junior high school education and mastering North and Anglo-Saxon languages ​​before introducing them to more advanced topics and Latin when they were older.

In addition, Wiegand had Tyneburg organize the archives and select one hundred experienced junior officers or soldiers based on the information, personally teaching them to read and the most basic tactical knowledge.

"The turmoil in Northern Europe is just the prelude; the real war is yet to come. Let them suffer for a while."

After that, Vig stayed at the Northland training camp as a company-level officer, continuing to ignore the letters from Rendynew.

The letters were all similar, simply asking Vig to go to Lundinium to meet the new king and pay some miscellaneous taxes. Vig didn't bother with them and had Herigel, who stayed behind in Tyneburg, write a perfunctory letter.

As time passed, the great nobles of the British Kingdom neither paid homage nor openly rebelled, but instead watched as the Queen Mother ran rampant in Landineum until the kingdom's situation completely collapsed.
(End of this chapter)