Vikings: Lords of the Ice Sea

Chapter 21 York
After repelling the pursuers, the Vikings hastily buried the remains of their comrades, took the captured equipment, and returned to Leeds. After resting for a few days, they finally received their two thousand lost troops.

Ragnar expanded his force to nearly three thousand men. Unwilling to delay any longer, news of the Viking invasion spread throughout Northumbria, and it was estimated that militias were being assembled in various places. If the situation dragged on any longer, the enemy might be able to muster another army of two or three thousand men.

"Head north and attack York!"

That afternoon, the Viking fleet entered the River Us. For some reason, the river was low in water this year, and the Anglo-Saxons had also dumped large amounts of felled trees in the shallows, severely hindering the Vikings' navigation.

Left with no other choice, Ragnar led his troops to the east bank, preparing to march on foot to York. To prevent the enemy from taking the opportunity to burn the ships, he ordered the fleet to return to the mouth of the Humber with the looted treasure, choosing a more secluded bend in the river.

York was originally built by the Romans, and Constantine I was enthroned here by his army. As a major military stronghold of the Roman Empire in the north, it had a five-kilometer-long city wall, about six meters high, and the River Us on the west side of the city served as a natural barrier, making it far more difficult to attack than Leeds.

Seeing this, Vig completely lost the idea of ​​launching a surprise attack to seize the city, and silently calculated the time and resources needed to build siege equipment.

Sifting through his memories, he selected four types of equipment: a long ladder, a siege tower, a battering ram, and a counterweight catapult.

Long ladders were the most commonly used siege equipment, and they were the easiest to build. Soldiers had to carry them to the bottom of the city wall, and then climb up the wall to fight the defenders. This was known as "ant swarming siege," and the casualty rate was extremely high. The Viking army of today had a loose organizational structure and could not afford such casualties.

The siege tower was a movable wooden platform, housing soldiers, and its height was the same as the city wall. During a siege, soldiers would slowly push it to the edge of the city wall, lower the barriers, and then a large number of heavily armored soldiers hidden in the tower would surge up the city wall, making the transport efficiency far superior to that of long ladders.

The battering ram was used to strike the city gate. It had a wooden canopy on top to protect soldiers from stones and arrows from the city walls, but the defenders could pour asphalt and oil on it to burn it, making it very dangerous.

The counterweight catapult could throw stones to destroy the city walls, but the downside was that it was too difficult to build. Vig only had a rough sketch in his mind and was not 100% sure that he could recreate it in the real thing.

"Based on records of medieval European sieges, it would probably take at least two or three months, or even more than half a year. Do these Vikings have enough patience?"

He scribbled on the papyrus with his homemade charcoal pencil and discovered that a large number of people had gathered in Ragnar's camp not far away, where a war meeting was about to be held.

Rushing into the camp, Vig advised Ragnar to proceed with caution, "We learned our lesson at Manchuni last time, so let's play it safe this time and wait until I build siege engines before launching a full-scale attack."

His words resonated with the participants, but the reinforcements brought by King Eric had never suffered a loss and were only thinking about rushing into the royal city to plunder. Some even mocked Vig's cowardice, saying he was unworthy of the Dragon's Breath Sword.

"Damn it, dare you say that again! I also have a 'Broken Heart,' dare you take it with you?"

Ivar grabbed a wooden cup and threw it, and the crowd shoved and cursed at each other, turning the entire tent into chaos.

"Shut up!"

With his men beaten, King Eric spoke with a grim face, "We've all come to Britain to make our fortunes, not to engage in pointless disputes. Since we can't reach an agreement, I'll build my own wooden ladders to attack the city. If anyone is willing to participate, we'll split the treasure after the battle; otherwise, that's fine too."

After a great disturbance, Eric left triumphantly with five close nobles. Over the next five days, he had two hundred long ladders built and secretly ordered his men to incite Ragnar's troops, eventually persuading two thousand three hundred men to join him in attacking the city. May 11th, morning.

After breakfast, the Vikings gathered haphazardly in the open space. Erik focused his attack on the eastern city wall, intending to seize the city in one fell swoop and prevent Ragnar from surpassing him in prestige. Although he had married his younger sister Sora, in the face of power, this weak familial bond held no sway.

"Attack! Odin is watching us!"

The first wave of eight hundred Vikings charged up the city walls with long ladders, while three hundred archers provided cover, forming a loose horizontal line to fire at the Anglo-Saxon soldiers behind the battlements.

The defenders chose to ignore the Viking archers and focus their fire on the Viking warriors carrying the wooden ladders.

Suddenly, a deafening cheer erupted from above the city wall. A group of guards surrounded a chubby boy as he walked around. Unsurprisingly, this was Era, Elaud's only son and the heir to the throne of Northumbria.

With the Crown Prince overseeing the battle, the morale of the defending troops grew even stronger, and they even adjusted their firing strategy. There were four men on each side of each long ladder, and the defending archers specifically targeted the soldiers on the left. When only one or two men remained on the left, the long ladder would lose its balance and its movement speed would be greatly slowed down.

In the end, only thirty long ladders reached the foot of the city wall. Erik realized the situation was dire and led the remaining Vikings in a massive charge, which made Ragnar's troops, who were watching the battle, somewhat eager to join in.

"Am I wrong? Eric really does have a chance to break through the city?"

Ragnar's expression was grave. His right hand gripped the hilt of his sword. He glanced back at the hundreds of soldiers behind him, caught in a dilemma. "Vig, bring out the fifty ladders you built. Once Eric's troops reach the city walls, we must follow!"

"Yes."

Vig ordered his men to fetch a long ladder from the camp. Five minutes later, when he arrived, panting, carrying the ladder, he found the garrison in the distance frantically dumping asphalt.

Faced with this tactic, the Vikings climbing the ladders were helpless, watching as scalding, sticky bitumen was poured over them. The next moment, a torch was thrown from behind the battlements, turning these Viking warriors into screaming, writhing figures of fire.

Witnessing the tragic fate of their companions, the Vikings below the city walls collapsed in despair, spontaneously retreating with their round shields in hand. The massive siege ended in less than half an hour.

"This is too tragic."

Looking at the charred corpses lying below the city walls, Vig swallowed hard. No wonder medieval siege warfare was mainly based on sieges; a forced attack was simply a disaster.

He looked at Ragnar. "Lundium's defenses are no worse than York's. How exactly did you manage to breach them two years ago?"

Witnessing this horrific scene, Ragnar was also quite frightened. "It's different. Back then, we reached the city walls along the Thames in the dead of night and used grappling hooks to launch a night raid. Damn it, I never expected the casualties from a frontal assault to be so high. This is troublesome."

(End of this chapter)