Vikings: Lords of the Ice Sea

Chapter 245 Road Network
After the rebellion was quelled, Vig declared the stripping of Edmund and his family of their rule, and East Anglia was returned to the royal domain as a newly established county.

All the vassals who participated in the rebellion were stripped of their lands, the core members were executed, and the rest were exiled to the Canary Islands.

Looking at the nobles inside the tent, Vig asked in an icy tone, "Do you have any other opinions?"

In the current political climate, the aristocracy is wary of any attempt to strip someone of their title. However, Edmund has openly rebelled, and the great nobles have no reason to plead for him, so they have no choice but to acquiesce.

Secondly, Scunthorpe, due to the meritorious accusations made by Rickard and the four barons, lacked sufficient legitimacy to strip them of their rule. The proposed solution is as follows:
Budden was stripped of his noble status and placed under house arrest for life in a remote temple. His uncle Rickard received the title of Earl, and the territories of the other four barons were doubled, serving as a kind of check and balance.

A directly administered county, 1,400 prisoners, money, weapons, food stored in the cellars of Norwich Castle, and the property of the minor nobles.

The above is the result of Viggo's painstaking waiting for half a year. The returns are good, but far from meeting the expected goals.

"The original plan was to use thousands of prisoners to rebuild the road, but now it seems that we can only spend money to recruit workers, which will be another huge financial expenditure."

After the Roman Empire invaded Britain in 43 AD, it began a systematic road construction project, with a total length of about 4000 kilometers.

Britain's road network radiated outwards from its core at Londineum, extending to towns and frontier fortresses. Main roads were interspersed with post stations at regular intervals, allowing messengers to rest and change horses. Two of the most important main roads were:
The Dover-Londonnewm-Chester route, stretching approximately 400 kilometers from the southeastern port to the Welsh front in the west.

The Londenium-York route, stretching over 300 kilometers from south to north, includes a narrower road north of York leading to Hadrian's Wall, which was responsible for supplying provisions and defending against Picts from the north.

However, after the Roman army withdrew in 410 AD, Britain fell into severe internal strife and technological decline.

The Anglo-Saxon tribes who migrated from continental Europe were unable to maintain this vast and efficient road system, and even misappropriated stone to build city walls, palaces and churches, causing most sections of the road to degenerate into rural dirt roads.

As King of Britain, Vig planned to repair two main roads to facilitate the rapid deployment of troops to quell the rebellion, as well as to promote the flow of goods within the country and boost economic prosperity.

Suddenly, he remembered the Roman Empire's practice of using soldiers to build roads.

The Roman legions were not only combat units but also highly organized and disciplined engineering legions, far more efficient than loosely organized civilians. Furthermore, constructing large-scale public works projects was a crucial means of maintaining discipline within the army during garrisons.

The following day, Vigé mentioned the matter at a cabinet meeting, and afterwards summoned officers of company rank and above. After much discussion, he decided to allocate an infantry regiment to participate in the construction for four months, with three infantry regiments rotating throughout the year.

The kingdom assembled an engineering team of four thousand people, including soldiers, civilian laborers, and prisoners, to prioritize the maintenance of the long-neglected Landneum-York Trail, using plans based on surviving parchment scrolls.

High-difficulty missions were handled by the military, with civilian laborers serving as assistants, and prisoners of war were assigned to quarries or logging camps.

During construction, the soldiers divided the work among themselves. The strongest soldiers were responsible for digging, swinging heavy pickaxes and pounding the ground. The clods of earth cracked and turned up under the powerful blows, and sweat quickly soaked through their rough linen shirts. The pervasive dust clung to their exposed skin, making it feel stuffy and uncomfortable.

Soldiers with less strength used shovels to shovel up loose clods of earth and pile them on both sides of the road. Some soldiers were also mixing mortar nearby, mainly using lime, volcanic ash, and river sand.

Once a certain depth was reached, another group of soldiers brought in gravel and dumped it into the trench.
With the roadbed filled, Industry Minister Rugal urged loudly, "Hurry up, don't dawdle, it's a rare sunny day." The most arduous step began. A dozen men worked together to push and pull huge stone rollers, rolling them back and forth on the paved roadbed, compacting it. The heavy rollers creaked and groaned, again and again, until the roadbed became hard and flat. The supervising engineers occasionally used a plumb line to check if the roadbed was level, ensuring the quality of the project.

To prevent water accumulation, the road is slightly raised above the ground level, and drainage ditches are dug on both sides to guide rainwater to low-lying areas.

After the road surface was paved, soldiers erected heavy granite milestones by the roadside. The inscriptions recorded the location, construction time, and unit number of the construction team, facilitating future accountability.

After getting through the initial adjustment period, the engineering team's road-laying speed stabilized, and Vig turned his attention to Flanders on the south shore of the Channel.

Early in the course of the rebellion, he sent envoys to Flanders, demanding a response from the Counts and merchants of Flanders, but received only a perfunctory reply.

Now that things have come to this, Viggo should make an appropriate response, otherwise the outside world will think he is weak and easily bullied.

At a cabinet meeting, Army Secretary Bavos suggested launching a small-scale war to plunder towns such as Bruges.

"Small-scale?" Goodwin immediately retorted. He wasn't good at battlefield command, but his strategic vision was very clear.

“Once the war begins, who can predict how things will develop? If Charles the Bald and Gunnar get involved, it will inevitably be a decisive battle involving tens of thousands of troops. We lack food and weapons, and the horses in our horse farms have not yet multiplied and grown strong. If we rashly start the Third Viking-West Frankish War, we may very well repeat Ragnar’s defeat.”

In the main seat, Vig remained silent, stroking his chin as he fell into deep thought.

Through numerous wars, West Frankish forces made significant progress in tactics, army size, and defensive infrastructure.

In his first attack, Ragnar's fleet sailed down the Seine River straight to Paris, annihilating the main French force in a single battle. After the war, the French king spent a fortune building the Havre fortress at the mouth of the Seine.

The fortress had two stone walls and could house more than two thousand soldiers, thwarting the Vikings' plans to advance along the Seine.

Besides the Seine estuary, nobles in various regions were also building stone fortresses, while lower-ranking barons and knights were desperately honing their martial skills. Ultimately, they used their sheer size to wear down Ragnar in the Second War.

After a long pause, Vig decided to respond in a different way: "The Prime Minister is right, it is not the right time to send regular troops, but Flanders must pay the price, otherwise no one will be afraid of us in the future."

He drew on a strategy from later generations—issuing letters of marque to encourage privateers to plunder Flanders' merchant ships and coastal areas, letting these foreign merchants taste the iron fist of Britain.

In order to strengthen coastal defenses and prevent the Flanders from plundering the coast, Vig summoned representatives from towns and cities such as Dover and asked them to independently select fishing boats and merchant ships to form coastal patrol teams.

The patrols were responsible for dealing with small groups of enemies, and if they encountered a large enemy force, they were to light the beacon towers to notify Lendneum as quickly as possible.

(End of this chapter)