Vikings: Nordic women

Chapter 57 Blood Eagle Ritual

As several hesitant Curonian soldiers were executed by the local lords, arrows began to be fired at the slaves intermittently, some of which fell to the ground.

The captives driven away by the Viking warriors fell down one by one with screams. The morale of the enemy army gradually dropped. They could not bear to witness this scene.

Slaves outside the town tried to flee the massacre but suffered heavy casualties.

Margaret quickly gave orders, having the warriors kill some of the slaves, force the others back, and force them to climb the ladders.

However, as time went on, the hatred of the enemy began to grow, and they wanted to eat Margaret and others alive. But more of it was fear.

The enemy soldiers on the city wall fired arrows, the rain of arrows became more and more intense, and slaves kept falling down.

Those who pretended to be dead were also trampled to death by passing Viking warriors, and those who blocked their way were also killed.

The shield was placed only ten meters away from the town and was studded with arrows, providing cover for the Viking warriors who charged with their shields raised.

The warriors hid behind shields and used bows and arrows and javelins to look for opportunities to counterattack the Kuronians who showed their heads on the city wall.

Simple ladders were placed on the city wall, and the Viking warriors began to climb up and pull the enemy down from the wall. Archers behind the shields also fired back at the enemy soldiers on the wall.

Corpses kept falling from the city walls, some falling on the ladders, and some falling down with the Viking warriors. The battle was extremely brutal.

As northerners, the Viking warriors had the advantage of being tall and large.

They struck their enemies one by one, with axes and spears, among a crowd of Curonians that were only as high as their necks.

"All archers, go and occupy the city wall!" Margaret gave the order immediately when she saw the Viking warriors already rushing onto the city wall.

These most elite archers, carefully selected from ordinary warriors, were 1.9 meters tall and sturdy on average. They discarded their bows and crossbows, drew their swords, and climbed the city walls holding shields.

Any enemy who mistakenly thought they were just archers and tried to kill them easily in close combat would soon discover to their horror that these carefully selected archers were more capable than even infantrymen and could be strangled to death with just one hand.

On the contrary, ordinary warriors, who were not much higher in status than cannon fodder, were actually easier to deal with.

After they climbed up the city wall, they were able to rely on their strong physique to chop down the enemy with one axe and shield and quickly occupy the city wall.

Under the siege from three sides, the city walls were gradually controlled by the warriors. The enemy's morale collapsed and they began to flee. Most of the enemy troops were killed on the city walls, and only a few were forced to retreat to the residential area.

The Viking warriors rushed into the residential area and killed any enemy with weapons they saw. Wherever they passed, corpses were scattered all the way, and large flocks of ravens gathered in the sky.

Margaret ordered the warriors who controlled the various districts to stop killing, and took the lead in entering the town with the lords.

The priests rushed to treat their own wounded and kill those enemies who were still struggling, relieving their pain and extinguishing their hope of survival.

Everywhere she looked, there were corpses scattered along the road. It was a tragic scene. Margaret frowned and looked at the corpses lying on the ground, feeling deeply sorry.

She realized that she could no longer fight like this. If she continued in this way, it would be difficult for her to accumulate a large number of slaves and convert them into subjects to maintain her rule.

Unfortunately, due to the language barrier, she was unable to effectively incorporate these captives into her system of rule and utilize them.

Margaret planned that in the future, all male slaves would be required to hand in their heads in exchange for their freedom and become free citizens.

Only by beheading the enemy and cutting off their heads in subsequent wars could the slaves become "their own people." This means that they can only be free after killing the enemy and taking his head.

Although ears could be considered as a substitute, Margaret was worried that slaves would arbitrarily cut off the ears of their own people who could not be recognized in order to make up the numbers, so in the early stages, only heads could be used for counting.

In this way, she could pacify the slaves while using them for war and quickly convert them into territory population.

Margaret and others arrived outside the enemy lord's hall. Facing the closed door, her brows were furrowed.

"Burn them to death!" Margaret decided not to take the risk of letting the soldiers rush into the house because there might be a large number of enemies hiding inside.

As the flames ignited, thick smoke billowed up, and the gate was finally opened. Many enemy soldiers could not stand the thick smoke, and they came out and knelt down to surrender, saying words she could not understand. However, Margaret did not find the figure of the suspected local lord. She guessed that the lord might have changed his clothes and mixed in with the crowd, or had already escaped.

"Did he run away?" She sighed. "Go and get someone who can speak our language and ask him where their lord has gone!"

A prisoner was dragged out, and the warriors grabbed her hair, brought her in front of Margaret, and kicked her to her knees.

The sword pressed against her neck, cutting the skin, and the warrior looked to Margaret, waiting for her instructions.

Margaret did not look at the prisoner. She only felt the blood on the soles of her shoes, which made the stone slabs sticky and difficult to step on.

She raised her foot and wiped the sole of her shoe on the clothes of a corpse beside her: "Where is your lord?"

"The lord ran away!" Her voice trembled.

"Where did you go?"

"He ran away on horseback with the lord's wife, the young master and some riders!" the prisoner answered honestly under the sword.

"Let her go!" Margaret ordered, and the soldiers let go of her one after another, leaving her lying on the ground trembling.

"Why do you know our language?"

"My father came from the north. His leg was broken and he was abandoned. It was my mother who took him in! This is what he taught me!"

"Would you like to help us?" Margaret poked her shoes out from under her skirt and gestured with her eyes.

"Yes, my lord! I do!" The woman crawled over and kissed her shoes.

"Protect her!" Margaret instructed the soldiers, "Also find more people who can speak our language and let them act as translators!"

“Gather all the spoils of war in this town, seize the food from all the houses of the inhabitants, and separate the captives, both men and women.

Pick out the most beautiful slaves and give them as rewards to the brave soldiers!
The men were divided into groups and allowed to elect their own team leaders to manage the group. They supervised each other and if any one of them ran away, the entire group would be killed.

Tell them that they will join us in conquering other territories, and that as long as they hand in a head, they can choose to free themselves or their families from slavery and join us!" Margaret explained to the lords, with a dangerous light flashing in her eyes.

At this moment, the sound of horse hooves sounded: "Your Majesty, we have captured a guy who claims to be the leader. Do you want to meet him?"

Margaret shook her head and replied indifferently: "Bring him here, and make him into a blood eagle and sacrifice him to Woden in front of all the captives. Avenge our dead soldiers and kill all those who are related to him by blood! Don't leave any enemies for us!"

The Blood Eagle Ritual is an extremely cruel form of execution, often used to punish betrayers or enemies.

The ritual involves holding the victim in mid-air and then using a knife or other tool to cut the ribs one by one from the spine, exposing the internal organs.

The executioner would then remove the victim's lungs and stretch his ribs into a wing-like shape, making the victim look like an eagle with outstretched wings.

Margaret needed to use the most brutal sacrifice ceremony to tell all the captives that this was the fate of rebelling against her, so that they would think more about the consequences before rioting.

"Have mercy on me! Have mercy on me! Please, have mercy on me. I am willing to give everything I have!" The lord's humble plea reached Margaret's ears.

With the translation of the woman beside her, Margaret did not answer, but looked at the priests of Woden: "Let's start!"

Under the horrified gaze of all the captives, the originally high-handed local lord was fed a bowl of medicine and hung under the eaves. A mysterious priest with a dagger in his mouth operated on his back with an axe, causing him to howl in fear.

At the same time, news that an unprecedented large-scale pirate army had landed and captured a coastal town spread wildly in nearby territories, causing great panic among all the Curonian lords.

At the call of a lord of great prestige, all the nearby Curonian lords gathered with their troops to attend his banquet and discuss how to deal with Margaret and other brutal uninvited guests.

(End of this chapter)