Having seen the power of the trebuchet, Pascal, suppressing his fear, explained his intention to the pirate leaders.
"Now that both sides have won and lost, there is no point in continuing the fight. Better to go to Mercia in the south."
The eyes of Ivar and Bjorn flashed at the county magistrate's proposal. They threatened that the man was deliberately teasing them, beat him, and sent him back to York.
"Tell your master that if you want us to leave, prepare at least 5,000 pounds of silver!"
...
The next day, Vig ordered the pirates to move the four trebuchets and set them up 200 meters from the city wall.
"Load!"
Following his order, the strongmen pushed the winch and raised the counterweight box to the launching position at a height of ten meters. The creaking sound of the wooden shaft was especially sharp on the battlefield.
On the other hand, the loader was pushing a stone weighing about 50 kilograms into a leather throwing bag. The surface of the stone was covered with cracks to ensure that it would produce as many fragments as possible upon impact.
"Number one loaded!"
...
"Number four loaded!"
Seeing this, Vig gave the order to fire at the city wall. At the moment the hammer fell, the two-ton counterweight box fell with a crash, and the long arm at the other end quickly rose. The projectile was torn free by centrifugal force, and the scream produced by the tearing of the air was terrifying.
A moment later, three balls of gray mist exploded on the east wall of York City. One hit the battlements squarely, and the archer hiding behind was killed by the broken stones before he could scream. The remaining two hit the wall, and another flew over the wall and fell far into the city, startling a group of women with screams.
"Go on."
The bombardment continued from morning until noon. As night fell, the four catapults were slowly moved back to the camp. After a peaceful night, they returned to their original positions, throwing stones again and again in a boring manner.
At this point, the carpenter suggested a fire attack. Having received permission, he tried to make a ball of pine resin, asphalt, and wood, and quickly threw it after setting it on fire. The fireball left a fiery red trail in the air, like a world-destroying rain of fire called down by the devil of hell.
Within half a minute, a black column of smoke burst into flames in the city. Everyone agreed that the effect was good, and chose two catapults that would be responsible for the fire attack.
In less than half a day, York City was full of black smoke. Because of the narrow streets in the city, the fire spread very quickly, forcing Elaud to send half of his soldiers to put out the fire.
"The Vikings learned evil magic from the pagan gods."
On his way to put out the fire, Elo found that the people were frightened by this new weapon, so he had to invite the bishop to perform an exorcism. With the help of a group of clergymen, he barely calmed the hearts of the people in the city.
In the evening, the bombardment ceased. Elo dragged his tired body back to the palace. While he was having dinner with the nobles, most of the people proposed to leave the city for a decisive battle.
"There are 4,000 militiamen gathered in the city, far more than the Vikings outside the city, so I have the advantage."
"Yes, kill these pirates as soon as possible. We still have much farming to do at home. If we delay any longer, if we delay planting the winter wheat in September, there will probably be a famine next year."
"Even if we cannot win, at least we must destroy their catapults. Twenty percent of the houses have been burned today. If this continues for a few more days, the entire city of York will be reduced to rubble."
...
Stunned by the squabbling of his subordinates, Elaud promised to send troops tomorrow.
After thinking carefully, he realized that the fears of the nobles from all over the country were indeed justified. The bulk of the troops were gathered in York, and the defences of the other districts were weak. They were plundered from time to time by sporadic pirates. This war could not be prolonged.
The next morning, Elaud led 3,500 soldiers out of the city to fight. As soon as they were in line, they were bombarded by catapults. The morale of the militia was low. They fled back to the city, despite the restrictions of their commanders. More than 200 were trampled to death and wounded.
Having reorganised his troops, Elaud led his soldiers out of the city through the north gate, intending to outflank the barbarians' trebuchets and attack their camp from the north.
The trick actually worked. Since the trebuchets were heavy and slow, until the Northumbrian army formed a shield wall, the four trebuchets were still moving slowly, like an old and confused wild boar.
"Attack." Elaud drew his sword and pointed forward.
According to the information Pascal had received, the defenses on the northern side of the camp were weak. The enemy had built many warehouses and kept thousands of livestock, which was the most suitable place to break through.
The shield wall advanced, and the arrows fired by the Vikings did not cause too many casualties. Arriving at the foot of the palisade wall, some of the militia threw down hooks and tied the other end to the pack horses, forcing the horses to break several gaps.
Looking at the soldiers pouring into the camp, Elaud was delighted, but a little surprised. The Viking defense was so crude?
Soon about 3,000 soldiers entered the camp. Elaud followed them with the remaining 60 armored soldiers and found that the northern area was indeed as Pascal had said, with warehouses everywhere, plus a pen with many sheep.
Nearby, the Vikings, carrying round shields and iron axes, were beaten back by the militia. They were forced to abandon their warehouses and flee to the southern region with small bags of goods on their backs.
"So many silver coins!"
As they ran, shiny silver coins continued to spill out, attracting the attention of most of the militia. They looked at each other, then silently ran to the various warehouses, desperately grabbing the supplies stored inside.
As farmers, it was their sacred duty to fight for the king. Because it was a duty, the militia could not receive any pay, and they had to prepare their own weapons to answer the call. Most of the men were armed with only a rusty iron axe and a square wooden board. Being so poor, their thirst for loot overcame all other distractions, and there was only one thought in their hearts - to loot, to loot as much as they could.
"Not good, tell them to retreat!"
The troops fell into chaos, and Elaud sent guards to inform the nobles and gentry to hold back their militia and leave the camp in an orderly manner through the breach.
Urged on by the guards, a small group of militia came out cursing, and were immediately shot down by an oncoming shower of arrows. The two surviving guards hid behind their shields and looked out, and found that a large number of Vikings had gathered outside the camp, over a thousand in number.
"Your Majesty, we have been ambushed, and there is a Viking shield wall outside."
Elaud nearly fell off his horse when he heard the bad news from the guards. The scene was exactly like the ambush he had carefully planned in Manchung.
"This is bad, the barbarians have really figured out my strategy."
There were many ambushes outside the camp. Elaud ordered the entire army to continue advancing south and break out of the south in one rush.
After going about a hundred paces, the troops in front suddenly fell through the ground with screams. The militia behind them stopped and looked down. They saw a spiked trench about four meters wide and two meters deep, with several narrow passages leading to the east, west and south.
Looking at the large number of Viking archers on the other side of the trench, Elaud knew that from this moment the fate of all Northumbria would end.