After a night's rest and buying enough fresh water and food, Ivar said goodbye to the Nordic immigrants and sailed south.
Two days later, the longboat landed and discovered that there were large swamps inland. One of the crew grabbed a handful of dark brown soil from the bottom of the swamp, observed it for a while, and told everyone.
"This soil can be used as fuel, and it is widespread around. If I am not mistaken, this must be a large swamp north of York."
Finding a stream to replenish their supplies of fresh water, they set off along the coastline again and arrived at the rally point - the mouth of the River Humber on the morning of the third day.
The target of this plunder was the city of York in Northumbria. According to the plan before departure, the fleet will sail up the Humber River and capture the capital with a numerical advantage.
Surprisingly, there are over 60 longboats anchored at the mouth of the river, which is only half the number that were at the start. Some of the ships are in very poor condition and have been towed ashore for repairs.
"What happened?" Vig asked the fishing Viking after landing. He lazily replied: "On the way we encountered a storm, and the entire fleet was scattered. Ragnar ordered us to stay here. Ha, I've been waiting for you for five days, and I'm almost moldy."
At this time, a fierce quarrel was heard nearby. Vig recognized the voices of Ulf and Leonard. He approached the tent and saw five nobles gathered around a simple map on the table, arguing over which settlement to attack.
Ulf: "York, as the prisoners confess, is a building left over from the Romans. It has a stone wall taller than two men, and is very difficult to conquer. I propose to attack Leeds in the west, and then head west to continue the attack on Manchester (later Manchester)."
Leonard was young and energetic, and he immediately rejected his old neighbor's suggestion: "Just attack York! If you are worried about danger, why don't you stay at home and farm? Why brave the storm and flee to Britain?"
Ulf: "The troops have not yet been assembled, how can we attack York? Northumbria is not a small country like Kent or East Anglia, which is enough to raise two or three thousand soldiers to go to war with us. Better to do the easy thing first and then the hard thing, attack a city like Leeds, which has only wooden walls, weaken their forces, and then try to besiege York.
As the initiator of this plunder, Ragnar was in no hurry to speak. When they were almost finished arguing, he decided to accept Ulf's plan.
"Only a third of the fleet's provisions remain, and the atmosphere in the camp is becoming increasingly stormy. Let us first find a settlement with weak defenses to plunder the provisions, lest some marauders fail to attack on their own."
Upon learning that the high chieftains had decided to send troops, 1,600 idle Vikings burst into thunderous cries. The next morning, led by Ragnar, the marauders plunged their oars into the depths of the river.
A Viking longship had a draft of only one metre when fully loaded, making the Vikings' tactics flexible and changeable, and they could manoeuvre quickly along the inland rivers. Sometimes, before a lord could react, they had already fled with the plundered supplies.
With the shocked and panicked villagers along the coast watching, the fleet sailed west, arriving in Leeds the following day.
As Northumbria had no lighthouse system, until a large number of longships had moored on the south bank, there were still a small number of villagers working in the fields outside the city, and a few horsemen hunting on the south-west side, looking happy and contented.
"Very well, they are completely defenceless, hurry up, attack!"
Ivar didn't want to waste time and led a small group of Vikings to Leeds, hundreds of meters away, intending to take the city in one fell swoop.
Labor productivity in Britain at the time was low. With the exception of a few cities left over from the Roman period, most cities had only wooden walls. Leeds was no exception. Its walls were sandwich constructions with two layers of wooden piles inside and outside, filled with gravel and earth in the middle. The total height was about three meters, and a layer of soil was applied to the surface to prevent enemy fire attacks.
Having crossed
shallow trench, more than 20 Vikings approached the foot of the wall. Ivar let the tallest Om stand firmly against the wall, then stepped on his shoulders and jumped up, holding tightly to the edge of the battlements with both hands, like a nimble gibbon, easily climbing over the wall.
Looking around, the whole city was in chaos, the streets were full of hurrying pedestrians, and the monastery bells were ringing everywhere, creating a sense of the end of the world.
"Follow me to capture the city gates!"
Ivar did not want to wait any longer and led Bjorn, Gunnar and the others to rush to the city gates.
This is the most critical link in the entire raid. The city gates must be captured before the enemy reacts, so that the main force of the Vikings can rush into the city. On the contrary, once the enemy has secured the city gates and withstood the first wave of attacks, there will be enough time to mobilize the city's inhabitants, and the subsequent siege will develop into a tragic siege.
...
Soon, Vig climbed the wall and found Ivar and ten Viking warriors desperately fighting outside the city gates. Just as he was about to rush to help, a group of archers suddenly burst onto the wall, ready to shoot at the Vikings below.
"What a quick reaction, it looks like they were attacked a lot."
Vig raised his round shield and rushed forward. Some he simply knocked off the wall, and some tried to resist, but usually they could be dealt with in two moves.
After running for tens of meters, only a clumsy and immature man remained in front. He was holding a huge heavy crossbow and looking at the outside of the city. His legs were shaking, and he could not decide which target to choose. Hearing the cry of his comrade, the man subconsciously turned his head and accidentally met the gaze of a Viking barbarian more than ten meters away.
Stunned for two seconds, the man raised his heavy crossbow and shouted: "Barbarians who believe in paganism!"
Damn, where did Britain get a heavy crossbow?
Looking at the huge iron arrowhead on the front of the heavy crossbow, Vig realized that something was wrong. The moment his opponent pulled the trigger, he instinctively jumped off the wall. Before he landed, he heard a scream from the side and behind him.
Then a corpse fell next to Vig, eyes open, a thick crossbow bolt lodged in its chest, the sharp point piercing its back, still dripping with blood.
The dead man was the Viking warrior who had been chasing him. The man wore a suit of leather armor with iron studs, and his defenses were far superior to those of ordinary soldiers, but he still could not withstand shots from a heavy crossbow at close range.
"What a dangerous weapon! Fortunately, its reload speed is slow enough and it is not widely used, otherwise this battle would be impossible to fight."
Vig picked up his round shield and prepared to join Ivar. Before he could take a step, he felt a piercing pain in his left ankle that almost made him fall to the ground.
He pulled up his trousers and saw a large swelling on his ankle. Vig was speechless. He had imagined the injuries he would sustain in battle, but he had not expected a sprained ankle!
In the days that followed, he could only watch as Ivar hacked down the soldiers blocking the road and opened the city gates to the cheers of the crowd. The raid on Leeds was declared over.