All the ships were destroyed and Eric returned to the camp outside York in a state of disarray.
Ragnar and his retainers were furious when the bad news arrived, and they shouted to kill all members of the Northumbrian royal family.
"That's it, the retreat is cut off, and now there is only one choice - to fight to the death..."
Ragnar did not blame anyone, but gave a very infectious speech in public. With his deep oratory skills, he turned this despair into a vengeful fury, just as he wanted. So far, the only 2,100 remaining Vikings had regained their fighting spirit and reunited as one.
In the crowd, Vig's mouth curved into a barely noticeable smile. The first stage of the plan was completely successful, and the next goal was to conquer the kingdom.
In his opinion, the Viking army was like a pack of wild wolves. Too much food would make them lose their fighting spirit, and they were only most effective when they were half hungry and half full.
Nearby, York, meanwhile, was jubilant. Thousands of soldiers were escorting a long convoy to the west bank of the River Ouse and ferrying captured baggage into the city by boat.
Riding a white horse and clad in chain mail, Ella rode into the city, surrounded by soldiers. The people at the roadside enthusiastically shouted the name of the young crown prince, and girls threw flowers through his window. In an instant, petals rained down from the sky. He casually reached out, grabbed a few pink and white petals, and sniffed them, only to smell a scent he had never smelled before.
Was this the taste of victory?
When Ella arrived at the palace, she found her father Elaud calling a meeting of the nine county governors, mainly to discuss the collection of taxes for the year.
Due to a tradition left over from the Roman Empire, the British countries usually chose silver as their currency. The silver penny weighed about 1.46 grams and was printed with the head of the country's monarch. At this time, the English pound weighed about 349.9 grams, and a pound of silver could be exchanged for 240 silver pennies (1 pound = 20 shillings = 240 pence).
The previous year in Northumbria had seen good weather and good harvests on the county farms. The royal family's income reached 1,300 pounds of silver, which was the highest income in the entire period of Elaud's reign. Unfortunately, the unexpected arrival of the Viking army brought the kingdom's finances to the brink of collapse.
In less than three months, much of the kingdom had been plundered by the Vikings, especially the wealthy areas of Leeds and Sheffield. Tax revenue for the year was expected to be only £500, provided the Vikings were exterminated as quickly as possible, otherwise even that target might not be met.
"Father, nine lords."
The nine county governors bowed and saluted Prince Aella when they found him back from his expedition. Aella found the other side unharmed and asked how much property had been taken this time and whether the fabled 3,000 pounds of silver had been taken.
"One thousand and thirty pounds of silver, fifty-seven pounds of gold, and the rest iron goods, woolen cloth, and food."
Ella sighed and admitted that the Viking ship had escaped under a hail of arrows. It was estimated that a lot of silver had been loaded. It was estimated that the rest had fallen to the bottom of the river along with the sunken ship, and there was no need to think about salvaging it in the short term.
"Not enough, not nearly enough." Elaud rubbed his eyes with his hands. He had thought that the surprise attack had been successful, and the Vikings outside the city would be scattered everywhere. Suddenly, this group of men were so motivated that they insisted on fighting to the death outside the city of York.
So the end of the war was not in sight, and the captured property could not meet the needs. Where can I raise money?
War is a bottomless pit that devours gold and silver. Take a full palace guard of 300 men as an example. Each soldier is equipped with iron scale armor, a helmet, a square shield, an iron sword, several sets of clothes and socks for daily change, and a yellow robe worn over the armor, for a total of three pounds of silver.
After the Battle of Manchuria, only a quarter of the guard remained. If you wanted to rebuild this single standing army, you would need over 700 pounds of silver to buy equipment, plus the soldiers' pay and training costs, the total cost would be a thousand pounds, over 80% of the annual income!
"Has the situation really gotten that bad?"
When it came to finances, Prince Ella's first thought was taxation. However, the southern region was badly damaged, and there was little money to be squeezed out. If taxes were collected haphazardly, a large number of people would flee to the kingdom of Mercia in the south.
With no way to collect taxes, the only option was to borrow money. Ella looked at her father and suggested borrowing money from the church as a last resort.
"Let me think about it," Elaud hesitated.
The monasteries in Northumbria owned their own land. Not only did they not have to pay taxes, but they could also require the faithful to pay one-tenth of their agricultural produce to support the clergy and the upkeep of the church. Their financial situation was much better than that of the other classes.
During his many years in power, the king borrowed money from the church five times, but was ultimately unable to repay the debt and could only use the land to pay off the debt.
In his view, using land to pay off debts was a last resort. Every time a piece of land was given away, the royal family lost the corresponding tax revenue. The less income the royal family had, the more often they would borrow money from the church. If one went up and the other went down, who would govern Northumbria in the future?
At this time, the county governor proposed: "Borrow money from the church to overcome the difficulties, call an assembly of wise men after the Vikings have been repelled, and levy special taxes to pay off the debts."
After he finished speaking, another county governor named Paschal made a shocking proposal: "Since war cannot be waged, it is better to negotiate with the Vikings outside the city and let them plunder Mercia. In any case, we can't plunder much."
"What nonsense are you talking about?" Prince Aella was furious and wanted to beat the man. "We finally burned the warships at the mouth of the Humber, but you plan to let them go? If they don't want to go, do they want to bribe them?"
There is no precedent for Britain paying compensation to the Vikings. Once the royal family pays, they will inevitably become a laughing stock for other countries.
Unfortunately, no one on the scene could have imagined that in 991, a century and a half later, Wessex had already united the entire region of England and was strong. However, the king at that time first paid the Vikings 10,000 pounds of silver to beg for peace, and three years later he paid 16,000 pounds again. From that moment on, things got out of hand... After
a long debate, the king accepted Pascal's offer of peace talks and sent him to the siege camp to find out the Vikings' true intentions under the pretext of negotiations.
...
Realizing that he had said something wrong, Pascal left York with a sad face and moved with difficulty towards the Viking camp.
Having revealed his identity to the pirates responsible for the sentry, Pascal remained at the camp gate until midday. Five hours later, he could not help but wonder if the pirate leader had forgotten him.
Towards sunset, someone woke up the soundly sleeping Pascal and led him east through the camp.
Along the way, the Vikings were very unfriendly to Pascal, who was well dressed. It seemed they were teasing a rare pet at a friend's house, deliberately making strange noises to intimidate it, or simply pushing it.
When he came to the lawn on the east side of the camp, he saw many Vikings tinkering with a tall machine. With a loud thud, the machine threw a stone bullet, like a legendary cyclops throwing stones, whistling and smashing into pieces into the distant forest.
Crack.
Before Pascal's shocked eyes, the stone easily broke several tree trunks, frightening the birds in the forest.
"Oh no, the barbarians are going to use it to destroy our city wall!"