In dire straits, the remaining guards had not forgotten their original oath of allegiance. With time running out, they banded together to tear down the wall in the northwest corner and broke out of the encirclement with a frustrated Elaud. When they arrived at the foot of the city wall, Elaud was followed by only three guards.
Moreover, most of the militia were trapped in the camp, huddled in a circle, trying in vain to resist the feather arrows fired by the Viking archers.
After more than half an hour of silence, the slow-moving catapults arrived nearby, and Vig ordered his men to throw a stone into the shield line, completely crushing the militia's will to resist.
"Convince them to surrender," he looked at the Viking who could speak English, "Tell them that Ragnar guarantees the safety of the common farmers."
The situation was hopeless, and over 2,700 militia threw their weapons into the trenches and left the encirclement through the narrow passage one by one, sad-faced, like a group of trembling sheep.
The remaining 200 or so men still held out in the encirclement. They were mostly nobles, gentry, and their confidants. Whig had no interest in talking nonsense to them, so he let the catapults and archers kill them all.
By this point, the last Northumbrian field army had been completely destroyed, and the dawn of victory was in sight.
The sky was clear and the sun was shining. Whig looked up at the white clouds and was about to recite some poetry when he suddenly saw Eric's men drawing their swords and deliberately killing unarmed prisoners.
"These people can't be killed!"
Vig ran up and used the Dragon Breath Sword to block one man's weapon, and stood alone in front of the prisoners. Seeing his behavior, Eric laughed in anger: "Why can't I kill them? Moreover, how dare you draw your sword against me because of these Anglo-Dwarves?"
At this time, Ragnar arrived with his men. He approached Eric with a smile and said: "Since you promised to protect them, you must do as you said. If you go back on your word now, how will others look at me in the future? The city is about to fall, should we fight among ourselves at this moment?"
"Okay, I can't kill these prisoners, how do you plan to deal with them?"
Ragnar smiled casually: "Lock them up first, there is no shortage of food in the camp. After we take York, perhaps we can ransom their families or simply sell them to slavers."
...
After achieving this epic victory, Viger ordered the catapults to continue bombarding the city walls. Almost every day, the inhabitants crossed the River Ouse to escape to the west. Some Vikings planned to cross the river to pursue them, but were stopped by him.
"The fewer inhabitants in the city, the better. When most of the people have fled, the subsequent general attack will be much easier."
Encircling three sides and leaving one behind, trying to allow the English to evacuate rather than forcing them to defend York, was the strategy Viger implemented over the next half-month.
Over time, the figures on top of the city wall became rarer. When the number of defenders was reduced to a certain critical point, the general attack began.
Early in the morning, the catapults were throwing stones as usual. Unlike before, the camp had set up ten siege towers, each about seven meters high, and was slowly moving towards York.
Ten minutes later, the siege towers approached the city wall one by one. Before the eyes of the alarmed defenders, the barrier in front of the tower collapsed with a roar, and then countless Vikings in iron armor rushed towards the city wall, crushing the resistance of the English with absolute numerical superiority.
After three months, this strong city built by the Romans finally fell.
Seeing the red and yellow striped flag on the top of the city being cut down by the Viking warriors, Vig felt relieved of his burden and sat down alone near the catapult to rest.
"Why are you still standing here? All the good things in the city have almost been plundered by them."
At this point the archers, led by Nils, changed into round shields and iron axes and entered York last. Seeing Wig leaning against a catapult to bask in the sun, he could not help but urge him into action.
"Hey, I'm tired, go away, leave me alone."
During this period, Vig was not only responsible for building siege equipment, but also worried about the defense of the camp, the distribution of logistics, and the housing of prisoners. He was so tired that he had symptoms of shortness of breath and palpitations from time to time. If this had continued for a while, I'm afraid this guy, who was only 18 years old, would have suddenly died.
"It's not easy, none of this is easy."
Having led an army like quicksand to capture York City, Vig felt that his command skills had improved significantly after this training. Although it was not enough to command a large army, it was enough to handle a force of two to three thousand men, which was enough for the sparsely populated medieval Europe.
...
After a long sleep in the sun, Vig returned to the camp, yawning. There were only over a hundred old, weak, sick and disabled, and 2,700 anxious prisoners.
He looked around the storehouse, asked for a pot of honey and a small sack of bacon, looked at the setting sun, at the black ravens flying in the sky and the surface of the River Ouse reflecting countless fragments of sunlight, and ate slowly alone, occasionally saying something that the others had never heard.
After a long time, an archer under Nils hurried up and interrupted this rare time of rest.
"What happened again?"
"The King of Northumbria led his forces to break through, but was overtaken by Ivar and his men. Only the prince and a few of his followers evacuated. After Ivar personally killed the king, he gave the crown to Ragnar, which made Eric's men very dissatisfied, and they are currently in a state of conflict."
York had fallen, King Elaud had been defeated and killed, and the forces that remained in various places could not cause much trouble. The destruction of Northumbria was a foregone conclusion. This great inheritance lay before them, and Ragnar's forces alone could not swallow it. There would be more quarrels later.
More than ten minutes later, Vig arrived in an open space in the center of York City. Almost all the middle and senior members were gathered there. The expressions between them were subtle, and the atmosphere was solemn, with the exception of Ragnar and Eric.
"Where are they? How long have they been talking?"
Ivar glanced at York Minster on the right. "They have been talking for some time. The old man looks very ill. I think he's hard to handle this time."
Suddenly the church was filled with the sound of breaking glass. A group of people rushed through the door as fast as they could. They were relieved to find that Ragnar and Eric had taken no action.
"Everyone, get down."
Ragnar asked everyone to leave the church. Only Vig remained inside, gesturing for him to leave quickly. "This is a conversation between the two of us. You go out first."
Vig shook his head. "We've talked for a long time, and even smashed things. What the hell prevented you from reaching an agreement?"
"What else could it be?" Eric's eyes were full of mockery. "A month ago, Elaud sent men to attack our fleet at the mouth of the Humber. How did he know the exact location of the fleet? Vig Haakenson, you are an intelligent man. Can you explain this problem?" Was there an insider who intentionally leaked the news?