Vikings: Lords of the Ice Sea

Chapter 389 The Battle Was Intense
Five days later, the Viking army left the Po River and marched north to the Veneto Plain. They easily occupied the coastal docks but failed to capture a single ship.

"This is going to be difficult."

Riding Greywind III, Vig gazed upon the four-kilometer-wide expanse of water and the countless ships of all kinds, and immediately abandoned his idea of ​​attacking the city.

In his memory, the Republic of Venice persisted until the late 18th century, enduring numerous sieges, but the main island of Venice never fell. It wasn't until 1797, when Napoleon defeated the First Coalition, that Venice surrendered and became Austrian territory.

Currently, Venice enjoys a harmonious relationship with the Eastern Roman Empire and is reaping enormous wealth from the Eastern Mediterranean through entrepot trade. The city is on the rise and has no reason to willingly submit to a ruler of a different culture and religion.

In a sense, Venice's situation in the Eastern Mediterranean was similar to Britain's situation in Western Europe:

Even though the army suffered a crushing defeat, it relied on the navy to buy time and eventually used its vast wealth to outlive its opponent.

In contrast, commercial republics such as the Netherlands and Genoa, being located on the continent, were easily occupied by land-based hegemons and ultimately could not last long.

After spending a day on the east coast, Vigé was at a loss with Venice in the lagoon. He summoned the commanders of the various divisions and once again divided the army into three parts to attack towns such as Padua and Ferrara, attempting to occupy the entire Po Plain.

The fighting was fierce in Italy, but the northern front was unusually calm.

The Viking army totaled 16,000 men, with only the 4th Division capable of field battles. The Bavarian and Bohemian militias were demoralized, their only advantage being that they were all armored, allowing them to hold out for a longer period.

The enemy was even larger, with 13,000 soldiers from the Balkan states, plus 12,000 militia from the King of Morvia, totaling 25,000.

In late May, the King of Morvia attempted an attack, but was defeated by Douglas, who was outnumbered.

After that, Douglas occupied western Moravia (Bohemia), while the Balkan coalition occupied the east, and neither side could do anything to the other.

Beginning in the summer, Douglas repeatedly wrote to Italy requesting an artillery unit, but these requests were always refused. According to the cabinet's reply, the key to the war lay in Italy, and Douglas's task was to entangle the enemy, not to launch an offensive.

"Sigh, I've been in Bohemia for half a year, do I have to keep enduring this forever?"

With nothing else to do, Douglas began organizing football matches in the army to distract the soldiers and prevent them from causing trouble.

Soon, the sport attracted the interest of the local militia, who, imitating Viking rules, frantically chased a leather ball across the grass. Thanks to this intense physical contact, the militia's physical fitness also improved subtly.

Kozel asked Douglas, "Sir, are we going to keep them like this all along?"

"Yes, we don't lack food anyway."

Similarly, the Eastern coalition had the financial backing of Basil and was not short of food. The nobles, bored, imitated the Frankish custom of using jousting tournaments to pass the time.

On August 11, the Allied forces received a letter from Basil containing the following two points:

First, goods worth 50,000 pounds of silver have arrived in Rijeka and are being unloaded.

Second, he demanded that the Balkan states recruit another 20,000 troops to reinforce the Italian battlefield and help the Franks buy time. Once the Eastern Roman army was assembled, Basil promised to personally lead his army across the sea to defeat these evil and barbaric Vikings. Late August, Parma, southern Po Plain.

Vig stood on the hills outside the city, watching the siege battle with an expressionless face.

The artillery regiment skillfully deployed its artillery positions, aimed, fired, cleaned the gun barrels, loaded, and fired again.
After repeated attempts, Parma's walls collapsed, and two garrison regiments excitedly poured into the city. The remaining troops followed, clearing the enemy from the walls, and then had Welsh longbowmen occupy the walls, firing down on the remaining enemy inside.

This was the standard procedure for Viking sieges. Everyone from top to bottom was familiar with this operation, and cities like Nice, Genoa, and Milan were all conquered by this standardized tactic.

However, this time the defending troops seem to have come up with a new trick.

From Vig's perspective, the shouts of battle within the city showed no signs of abating. After more than half an hour of fierce fighting, more and more stretchers carried the wounded out of the breach in the city wall to the open space outside the city.

Leif and his staff found the wounded and, based on their descriptions, determined that there were at least three thousand soldiers in the city.

The defenders focused their defenses not on the city walls, but on various defensive structures within the city, such as barricades and upscale mansions with stone walls.

Faced with a large contingent of Viking soldiers, the defenders opted to harass them with sneak attacks, while also sending out troops with three times the strength to besiege the Viking squads, gradually turning the tide of the battle.

After listening to the staff officers' report, Vig asked in return, "What are your thoughts?"

At this moment, the second prince preemptively replied: "Push the cannons into the city, blast open the barricades with solid shot, and then bombard the enemy with grapeshot."

Vig nodded slightly, handing over command of the front lines to his second son, instructing him to capture the city before dusk.

Frey's tactics were simple: he chose the more tactically flexible mountain infantry to enter Parma through the four city gates and advance along the main road. Each detachment was equipped with bronze cannons, and upon encountering the defenders' barricades or earthen walls, the cannons would bombard them first before the infantry charged.

After breaking through the barricades, he strictly forbade the mountain infantry from pursuing them into the alleyways, and instead continued to advance along the main road.

At 3 p.m., the four detachments arrived at the central square one after another. Frey had no intention of persuading them to surrender. He ordered the artillery to bombard the stone buildings, including the lord's mansion, and then cleared them out layer by layer.

"That's exactly what we should do! I fought for half a year in the Livonia forest, but it wasn't as satisfying as this half-day!"

As he watched the lord's mansion crumble, Frey burst into laughter, surrounded by guards holding shields, fearing that the reckless prince might be struck by a stray arrow.

"What are you afraid of? Do you think this armor is made of paper?" Frey's view was blocked, and he was slightly annoyed.

More than ten minutes later, the Viking soldiers seized the central square and cut the city into four parts along the main road.

At this point, Frey patiently concentrated his superior forces to clear an area, ordering his soldiers to slowly advance the cannons and bombard any obstacles in their path. The only downside was that the bronze cannons were too cumbersome, causing considerable delays on the journey.

At six o'clock in the afternoon, as darkness fell, Frey had captured three-quarters of the city. The desperate defenders set fire to the warehouses they were in, and the fire spread, resulting in the Vikings not gaining much in terms of supplies.

(End of this chapter)