Vikings: Lords of the Ice Sea

Chapter 256 The Kings' Choice
Upon hearing this good news, Hosa was overjoyed. "I will buy a boat and hire men right away. I am willing to pay three hundred, no, six hundred pounds after the job is done."

Vig refused the gift, saying, "That would be bad for your reputation. It just so happens that there is a large-scale construction of hospitals in the country. If you donate this money to the hospitals, it will help to cover up the issue and improve your reputation."

According to the plan, each of the twelve directly administered counties must have a hospital in every town. In addition, the earls controlled by nobles must have at least one temple-affiliated hospital to treat diseases and spread correct hygiene practices.

This approach is extremely costly, but necessary, because once an epidemic breaks out, no one, from the poor to the royal family, can escape the calamity.

Vig thought to himself, "Perhaps we should split off the medical school of the University of London and establish a dedicated medical university."

With a pile of junk given to him by Vig, Uber's messenger left Lundinium.

Meanwhile, Uber led his troops to Wajel in central Denmark, but upon learning of the French army's formidable reputation in southern Denmark, his troops were so frightened that they halted their advance.

Fortunately, Sweden and Norway sent reinforcements one after another. Hafdan led 1,500 men to Wael, and Eric the Younger sent 2,000 men. With Uber's 3,000 men, the allied forces expanded to 6,500.

In terms of terrain, Wael is bordered by a river to the south and a bay to the east, allowing reinforcements to arrive by sea.

This place was once Oleg's fiefdom, with wooden stockades and moats. There were many stones piled up to the north of the city, originally intended for the construction of a stone wall, but the construction was indefinitely postponed because Oleg and his successor died in a coup in Lentinium.

"According to the bards, this was the first time the Franks had invaded the Jutland Peninsula."

Standing on the stockade wall, gazing at the endless rows of camps outside the city, Wu Bo repeatedly complained about his bad luck.

(Note: After Charlemagne conquered Saxony, he briefly stopped at the Eder River in southern Denmark, but was ultimately blocked by the Danielvik Line and did not venture into this unfamiliar and dangerous peninsula filled with vast glacial plains and forests.)
After a long wait, a figure emerged from the camp outside the city. It was Edmund, who had gone to gather information. He relayed King Louis's exact words:
“I swear to eradicate all evil from this land. Go back and don’t expect any mercy from me. The moment the flames destroyed the Royal Estate in Kassel, peace between the two sides will never be possible.”

“What does this have to do with me? It’s clearly…” Uber’s gaze fell on his third brother not far away. He stopped complaining helplessly and went over to discuss the battle plan:
"The enemy has 12,000 men, how do we fight them?"

Hafdan exhaled a cloud of white mist, "Drag it out, rely on the stockade walls for defense, until the severe cold reduces the French army's strength and morale."

Uber countered, "How long will it take?"

Hafdan sipped his mead and said in a light tone, “What’s the rush? There are still six months until next spring. We have plenty of time to waste with Louis.”

Uber's expression grew increasingly cold. The villages in central Denmark were in dire straits due to the harassment of tens of thousands of French troops. Louis was still able to send cavalry to harass the northern regions. Even if he managed to drag things out until the end and win, the people would not accept a weak and cowardly king.

That evening, he found Edmund and several other subordinates and ordered them to each lead two or three hundred men to garrison the medium to large settlements in the rear. He did not expect them to resist the main French army, but only to hold off the cavalry units.

With over two thousand men detached, Wael's allied forces were reduced to only four thousand, barely enough to hold out.

In November, with the north wind howling, a messenger brought Vig's reply from Britain, which, in short, indicated that the man was willing to offer all support except for practical action.

Hafdan reacted calmly, "The Serpent of the North has always been driven by self-interest. If he were to personally lead a large army here, it would be a bad thing."

That night, after the banquet ended, the messenger secretly approached Uber and relayed Vig's demands: hand over the defector Edmund and provide him with twenty sets of iron armor. "That's all? That's far too little. No, Edmund ran to Denmark because of trust. If we hand him over to Vig, who will be willing to remain loyal to me?"

Uber, eating his nearly cold smoked pig's trotter, looked at the hesitant messenger and asked, "What else did he say?"

"He abdicated the throne, pledged allegiance, and offered to provide a thousand pounds."

In his eyes, is my crown only worth this much money?

Looking at the long table littered with cups and plates, Uber was briefly taken aback, and an idea popped into his mind—to feign submission, get the money, and then renege on the debt.

But he quickly realized that the thousand pounds did not come without a price; choosing to submit or back out would deplete his already dwindling authority.

Uber pondered for a long time, until the smoked pig's trotter in his hand was completely cold.

"If the price is raised to three thousand pounds, temporary submission is acceptable. However, Vig is cunning by nature and will likely have other demands, such as sending his children as hostages or choosing a port to station his fleet."

Fearing being outmaneuvered, he ignored Vig's suggestion and focused his efforts on confronting the French troops outside the city.

Five days later, Louis launched a fierce attack, targeting the western wall.

Due to time constraints, the French army did not build catapults, so they had their infantry push shield carts forward slowly. Thousands of archers advanced to within fifty meters of the fortified wall and exchanged fire with the defenders under the cover of their shields.

The shrill sound grew louder as thousands of arrows rained down on the stockade wall, splinters of wood flying everywhere, creating a series of dull thuds, occasionally punctuated by a short, agonizing scream.

The defending archers were not to be outdone. They took cover behind rough stacks of wood and returned fire. They outnumbered the attackers by less than a third, but their height advantage allowed them to fire more accurately.

Soon, muffled groans and the sound of falling echoed from the ranks of French archers. Some collapsed, clutching their faces, while others had arrows piercing their arms, their bows and arrows falling to the ground.

In actual combat, Uber found that the hundred heavy crossbowmen sent by Eric the Younger were quite effective. Although they were slow to reload, with only a quarter of the firing rate of archers, the advantage of the heavy crossbows was their penetrating power, which was enough to pierce through the shields of the French army. Once they hit, they would definitely cause casualties.

After a full day of exchange of fire, the French infantry, under the cover of archers, filled in sections of the trenches. The next day, they slowly pushed the heavy, sluggish siege towers toward the walls of Vaillet.

The infantrymen bent low, their left hands holding round shields high, close to their comrades' bodies. Above them, arrows flew back and forth.

Amidst a hail of arrows and the groans of their comrades beneath their feet, the French army steadily advanced towards the silent and perilous wooden fortress. Finally, the lead infantrymen, trudging through mud and blood, reached the shadow of the wall. The wooden planks of the siege tower crashed down, slamming heavily against the arrow-riddled and cracked wooden wall.

The next moment, a large number of soldiers in iron armor rushed to the city wall, and the two sides wore down their forces in a bloody and brutal battle. Until noon, the north wind swept across the battlefield with snowflakes, and the French offensive was forced to stop.

(End of this chapter)