Vikings: Lords of the Ice Sea

Chapter 268 Overwhelming Advantage

Once assembled, the soldier turned the ratchet at the breech of the crossbow, producing a teeth-grinding "click," and slowly pulled back the bowstring connecting the crossbow arm, then picked up a thick arrow and placed it into the groove.

The captain operated the crossbow, aimed at the watchtower on the left side of the gate, and struck the mechanism with a mallet. The arrow hit the watchtower precisely, piercing through the wooden planks and killing the archer behind it.

At the same time, another crossbow was also aimed at the watchtower on the right, which frightened the archers so much that they hurriedly climbed down the long ladder.

Under the cover of crossbows and two hundred crossbowmen, ten soldiers carrying shields rushed towards the gate, hurled oil canisters with full force, and with a crisp sound, the canisters shattered, the viscous oil flowing down the wooden door and staining the nearby ground black.

"Fire arrows!"

Breken ordered his longbowmen to fire a volley of rockets, which ignited the oak doors of the stronghold. Orange-red flames licked at the wooden planks, making crackling sounds. Some people tried to pour water down the wall, but were met with a barrage of arrows from the crossbowmen and were instantly riddled with arrows.

After a long while, the two doors collapsed with a crash. The rebels temporarily parked several handcarts behind the gate, and further behind them was a shield wall formed by hundreds of militiamen.

The next moment, two crossbows fired in succession, and the heavy arrows pierced through the wooden planks of the handcart, their momentum undiminished, and continued to penetrate the bodies of four soldiers.

"Hmm, it seems this thing is used to destroy the infantry's shield wall." Breken stroked his chin, signaling the infantry to stay in place and let the crossbows continue firing.

After being hit by a second volley of fire, the rebel shield wall collapsed completely. Breken waved his arm, ordering the mountain infantry company and spearmen to launch an assault, while the archers and conscripted militia remained in place.

As the company clerk, Frode was not required to participate in the fighting; his task was to assist the accompanying shaman in treating conscripted militiamen who had been shot.

"Hold his hands and feet down, don't let him move around."

The shaman picked up a bag of strong liquor, poured two mouthfuls into the wounded man's mouth, then stuffed a wad of cloth into the man's mouth and used the liquor to clean the wound.

Next, the shaman used a knife to cut open the wounded man's skin, pulled out an animal bone arrowhead, and confirmed that there were no remaining pieces of torn cloth inside the wound. He then washed the wound again with strong liquor and took out a needle and thread to suture it.

"These dirty arrows are the most disgusting. Hopefully, this guy can pull through."

The shaman muttered a complaint, told Frode to record the man's information in the medical record, and then sat there in a daze, waiting for the next wounded soldier to be sent from the battlefield.
Soon, the remaining rebels fled the mountain stronghold. Breken was unwilling to let them go, so he ordered the mountain infantry company to pursue them, while the remaining troops rested and repaired their defensive facilities as a foothold for subsequent operations.

Around noon, Frode washed his hands, took out a hard bread and ate it in small bites. Witnessing the bloody scene, he lost his appetite, ate only half a hard bread, and then sat down with his comrades to rest in the shade.

Suddenly, a faint flute sound came from the mountains to the north, and three plumes of black smoke rose up.

"We've been ambushed, and by forces more than three times our size!"

Recalling what he had learned in class, Frode immediately realized what was happening and quickly straightened his clothes. The next moment, whistles sounded near the mountain stronghold, and Breken hurriedly dispatched two spear companies and one crossbow company to rescue his allies as quickly as possible.

"Damn it, the rebels actually launched an ambush?"

The shaman, cursing and swearing, picked up his shield and short sword and joined the marching column with Frode.

As he ran wildly along the mountain road, Frode's steps grew heavier and heavier. When he finally reached the battlefield, he found that the mountain infantry were not in as much danger as he had imagined.

The mountain infantry company had now deployed into a hollow square, with shield-axe and spearmen forming the defensive line, and more than thirty longbowmen and the wounded inside. Dozens of corpses were scattered around the square, the vast majority of them ragged rebels. Two hundred paces away from the square, more than four hundred rebels sat on the ground resting, their equipment rudimentary yet varied, including shields and axes, wooden spears, slingshots, and bows and arrows.

"charge!"

Fearing the rebels would escape, the battalion commander, without bothering to deploy his troops, immediately blew his whistle and ordered the spearmen to launch bayonet charges in squads.

Upon discovering the arrival of a large number of Vikings, the rebels retreated in disarray. The mountain infantry company disbanded its formation, with the five best-performing squads joining the pursuit, while the rest remained to rest.

"Is there a shaman? Come quickly."

Frode assisted in the rescue work, and the company commander handed him a roster, asking him to register the results of the battle and the information of the dead.

Surprisingly, the rebels deployed three times their strength in an ambush, but not only did they fail to defeat the mountain infantry company, their casualty ratio reached 2.8:1, meaning that neither of the two rebels could take down a single mountain infantryman.

By 3 p.m., the vast majority of the rebels had been routed, and the prisoners were taken back to the stronghold. After interrogation, they revealed that they had initially planned to reinforce the stronghold; however, the Vikings' marching and siege speed exceeded their expectations. The reinforcements then changed their plans, devising an ambush, but ultimately failed due to inferior equipment and tactics.

"With such poor combat strength, they actually managed to force Imon to retreat in defeat. Haha, just how useless are Imon's men?"

Brecken ridiculed Aemon's abilities, then drafted a detailed battle report.
Two days later, Athlone, Castle Hall.

Upon receiving Brecken's battle report, Vig took out a small black disc and pinned it to the map. Looking around, the western mountains of Ireland were covered with densely packed black discs, each disc representing a stronghold captured by their side.

Based on the estimated progress, the expeditionary force arrived at the western coastline two days later and completed the mopping-up operation.

He stretched and asked the busy servants, "The report isn't finished yet?"

Chief Attendant Sebert Storm looked up. “Your Majesty, it will take another hour.”

Seeing this, Vig went to the castle's back garden, had a simple lunch, rested with his eyes closed for half an hour, and then returned to the hall to retrieve an investigation report.

This was the result of many days of labor by the servants. Based on the information provided by Imon, the confessions of the prisoners, and the army's on-site statistics, they roughly deduced the population distribution in the area west of the Shannon River.

After the war, Vig planned to build wooden forts in various regions, from the plains to the hills, to the western mountains, and then to the western coastline, leaving no room for the rebels to expand.

"Also, write to Rendinium and ask the War Department and the Navy Department to send over the records of merits."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

The following day at noon, Vig received an urgent military intelligence report. Brecken claimed that he had trapped the rebel leader "Sven" in the mountains. Sven and his remaining troops were stationed in a mountain stronghold called Rises and asked to surrender.

"That's it?"

Vig was too lazy to get entangled with this unidentified rebel leader. He went to the map table and ordered the Shrike, which was closest to Brecken, to send reinforcements. He was determined to eliminate this rebel group by any means necessary.

(End of this chapter)