Vikings: Lords of the Ice Sea

Chapter 345 Stone Bridge
It was late autumn in October, the sky was overcast, and the river flowed slowly beneath the bridge, its waters murky and icy. A messenger was dispatched to the west side of the Running Bull Bridge to deliver the king's decree to Earl Rickard.

"You want me to hold out until noon? Okay."

After dismissing the messenger, Rickard remained standing, gazing across the river at the rolling hills on the east bank. Before long, a large group of figures crossed the hills and came into view.

"Hiss, so many cavalry? When we retreat later, we can't take the original route; we have to go into the forest."

The Running of the Ox Bridge is a Roman-built structure with a double-arched design. It features a typical semi-circular arch, is 25 meters long and 6 meters wide, and can accommodate two heavily loaded carriages side by side.

Following the advice of the military cadets, Rickard built simple fortifications on both banks of the river. A rudimentary wooden fence stood on the east bank, with a shallow moat on the outside.

In contrast, the defenses on the west bank were much stronger. In addition to trenches and low walls, the garrison had laid a row of wooden planks along the riverbank to block arrows, with firing holes in the middle.

At nine o'clock in the morning, the French launched their first attack. Viking crossbow bolts rained down from behind the palisade like locusts. French soldiers formed a shield wall and slowly approached the palisade. Finally, spears suddenly thrust out from between the shields, viciously stabbing at the figures behind the wooden palisade. Viking weapons also emerged from the gaps in the palisade, and the two sides stabbed and slashed at each other through the wooden palisade.

After a long stalemate, the wooden palisade was forcefully pushed down with a loud crash. French soldiers surged through the breach, hacking and slashing fiercely with swords and axes at the narrow entrance. The Vikings retreated in panic, and the eastern bridgehead quickly fell.

However, this bloody battle has only just begun.

As the French soldiers stepped onto the bridge, a hail of crossbow bolts rained down from the west bank. With no cover on the bridge, the French soldiers could only move with difficulty, shields raised against the arrows. Soldiers from both sides were crammed together, swords slashing against shields and armor with a piercing scraping sound, and screams of agony filled the air as men plunged into the murky current below.

Even before setting off, the military cadets suggested that the Earl bring more crossbows, which Rickard readily agreed to, and he obtained four hundred light crossbows from the quartermaster.

The light crossbow is easy to operate. During the training camp, everyone received relevant training, including non-combat personnel such as the military shaman, clerk, and groom.

At this moment, Ricard's four hundred crossbowmen were positioned on the west bank of the river. They took cover behind shields and mechanically loaded, aimed, and fired, inflicting heavy casualties on the French army.

At 10 a.m., the French troops rushed across the bridge and attacked the defensive fortifications on the west bank. They pushed the bodies of the fallen into the trench and brought in many sandbags from the rear to completely fill the shallow trench.

"What should we do next?"

On the high ground not far from the west bank, Rickard looked at the three military cadets beside him, but received no valuable answers. At this stage of the battle, the outcome depended on the will of the soldiers on both sides; stratagems had become ineffective.

After repeated assaults, the French breached the low wall, leaving the Vikings with only one last line of defense: numerous makeshift chevaux-de-frise. Further on, the Vikings piled up a large amount of firewood, which they planned to set ablaze to slow the French pursuit should they retreat.

Separated by barricades, the two sides thrust at each other with spears. Count Rickard looked bewildered, regretting joining this cruel and bloody war.

Realizing victory was imminent, the Frankish banners left the hills and slowly approached the stone bridge, followed closely by a large group of heavy infantry, creating an indescribable sense of oppression.

The defenses couldn't hold. Rickard ordered his men to prepare for retreat, inwardly sighing, "If I had known this would happen, I would have just handed over command and stayed home to sleep."

Just as the Vikings were about to light the fire, a commotion erupted among the French troops on the east bank. Rickard stared intently; chaos reigned near the French flags, suggesting something was amiss. At that moment, a young man on the west bank, brandishing a light crossbow, shouted, "I hit it! I hit it! Odin is protecting me!"

Rickard summoned the man, "What have you done?"

The young man was so excited that he was incoherent, claiming that his crossbow bolt had passed through the crowd and pierced the throat of the French commander, who should be dead.

The French response confirmed this claim; the frontline troops retreated across the bridge like a tide, and the soldiers of the 5th Garrison Regiment did not cheer, but sat wearily on the ground in a daze.

“I…we won?” Rickard looked at his attendants and officers in disbelief.

A voice rang out from the crowd: "It seems so."

Even now, Odin's favor continues. Ricard sends men to interrogate the wounded French soldiers, who learn that the opposing commander is none other than the King of Provence. (After Lothair's death, the Middle Frankish Kingdom split into three parts: the eldest son inherited Italy, the second son inherited Lothairnia, and the youngest son inherited Provence.)
"Quickly, write a letter to His Majesty." Rickard was in high spirits. He never expected that his first battle would yield such a result. Was he born to command battles?

When news of the great victory at Benniu Bridge reached Rennes, the Duke's mansion fell silent. Chief of Staff Leif clutched the letter, his face ashen. "Uncle, this fool has ruined our plans!"

Vig fell into deep thought. Since Count Rickard had repelled the French vanguard and seemingly killed the King of Provence, the ambush had failed, and all the preparations of the past two days had been in vain.

But none of this was Rickard's fault. It was because Vig was worried that this big mouth would leak the truth, so he deliberately concealed the truth and only had him stationed at the Running of the Bulls Bridge.

The Fifth Garrison successfully completed its mission, and Vig had no reason to blame the Earl. He took the letter from Rickard and read the confessions of the captured soldiers repeatedly.

After a long time, he began to adjust his deployment, sending two mountain infantry battalions to the hills on the east bank of the Benniu River to gather more information.

In addition, he ordered two infantry regiments from Utgard to approach a village garrisoned by a French force to test the enemy's reaction.

On October 18th, a large-scale scouting battle broke out on the northern front. In the forest, facing these well-coordinated squads equipped with light cloth armor, the Frankish scouts were at a clear disadvantage, and hundreds were captured.

Based on the reports from various departments, Leif and his staff carefully reviewed the information, filtering out some outrageous and nonsensical statements, and added more markings to the map.

At this point, Vig had roughly located Bald Charles's position: northeast of Rennes, about a day and a half or two days' journey. Moreover, the more than 60,000 French troops were not clustered together, and it was estimated that Charles only had 20,000 to 30,000 men left with him.

As I guessed before, Bald Charles's main offensive direction was indeed on the northern front, aiming to seize Saint-Malo and then cut off the Vikings' retreat to the west.

Following the Battle of the Pont des Anglais, with the King of Provence presumably killed, Vigé speculated that the French army might postpone its attack on Saint-Malo or even withdraw to Laval.

He gradually developed a bold idea: to intercept Bald Charlie and end the war quickly!
On the morning of October 19th, Vig led his army out of Rennes, joining forces with Utgard's troops en route, bringing their total strength to 31,000. Shrike's 9,000 men were also on their way, expected to rejoin the force by noon the following day.

(End of this chapter)