Vikings: Lords of the Ice Sea

Chapter 80 Winchester
In early April, after settling all matters, Vig led 2,500 men and a large quantity of military equipment to Oxfordshire.

"You're finally here."

In recent days, Ragnar has sent small groups of troops to search the surrounding area, capturing nearly six hundred prisoners, but there has still been no news of Esselwolf.

Ragnar assigned 300 men to guard the city, and led the remaining troops to Winchester, where they encountered Ivar, who was retreating. Ivar was accompanied by a large number of warhorses and a following force of over a thousand Anglo-Saxon militia.

After defeating the pursuers, Ragnar inquired about the situation, "What happened?"

Ivar sat on the ground, panting. "Eselwoff is still alive. He returned to Winchester to reorganize the defenses and immediately reinforced the horse farm after hearing about the attack. Ha, luckily I ran fast."

Including Ivar's troops, the Viking army recovered to four thousand men and reached the northern outskirts of Winchester along the road.

The city is surrounded by the River Itchin on its east and south sides. As the commander of the siege, Vig rode around the walls of Winchester on horseback and determined the direction of the attack to be from the west and north.

Building siege camps, logging, and transporting timber marked the beginning of the most tedious and monotonous phase of the war. By mid-May, the allied forces of the remaining four Anglo-Saxon nations arrived.

Having learned the enemy's numbers from the scouts, Ivar, who had been living a leisurely life, perked up. "Two thousand or so dare to come looking for death?"

Tied up by numerous trivial matters, Vig could only watch helplessly as Ivar and Gunnar headed east to intercept the loosely organized militia.

After a month and a half of intensive training, Gunnar's cavalry expanded to two hundred men. While Ivar was drawing the enemy's attention from the front, he led his cavalry around to the enemy's flank and rear on a hillside, launching a charge from a high vantage point.

The Anglo-Saxon allied forces were tactically outdated and had no awareness of the possibility of cavalry flanking attacks. After this devastating blow, the monarchs of Sussex and Essex were killed on the spot, and the King of Kent was seriously wounded and died within a week. Only the King of East Anglia escaped the fastest and barely survived.

In less than half a day, the four small Anglo-Saxon kingdoms in southeastern Britain suffered heavy losses. Ivar ordered the collection of weapons, armor, and flags from various countries, which were piled up outside Winchester, severely damaging the morale of the city's garrison.

Looking at the swaggering Viking riders, Ragnar sighed to those around him:

"Times have changed. From now on, cavalry will be the key to a battle. Perhaps I should follow the Frankish system and promote some Viking soldiers to knights, so that they can practice martial arts in peacetime and answer the call to arms in wartime."

Having made up his mind, Ragnar summoned the captured Frankish knights and inquired in detail about the knighthood system, including the size of their estates, military obligations, taxes they bore, and the upbringing of their offspring.
Ragnar devoted all his energy to studying the Frankish feudal system, leaving all the affairs of the camp to the siege commander, Vig, while Ivar, Gunnar, and others were responsible for clearing the surrounding area and intercepting small groups of reinforcements coming from all over the country.

By June, the Vikings had won more than ten consecutive victories, completely extinguishing any hope of local forces coming to the king's aid.

However, no amount of victory could boost the soldiers' morale. After more than half a year of fighting, morale was low, and soldiers were deserting every day. When Vig asked Ragnar for his opinion, he was told, "You decide."

In order to enforce military discipline, Vig was forced to play the villain. He divided Gunnar's cavalry into twenty squads and sent them out in shifts to capture deserters, barely managing to curb the trend of soldiers deserting.

One day, a rider came to Vig's tent. "Sir," he said, "we have found a very strange place that you might be interested in."

After putting down his ledger, Vig rushed to the scene and found the riders whispering among themselves around a hole.

"I guess this is some rich man's treasure cave."

"I don't think so. The atmosphere is eerie. It must be the lair of some kind of spirit."

Just then, a tall, thin man covered in a foul stench emerged from the cave. He had unusually short white hair and shouted excitedly to his companions, "I crawled into the cave for a long time, but the road ahead was blocked by mud. I smashed it a couple of times with an iron axe and found a ring!"

The white-haired man pulled out a gold ring from his pocket, causing the riders to shout and demand that he treat them to a meal.

"Quiet!"

Vig called the man over, ignoring the stench emanating from him. "The entire cave is made of brick and stone? And it extends all the way into the city?"

"Seems to be."

The white-haired man scratched his itchy skin and said that he had accidentally discovered this cave while on patrol. He mistakenly thought that there were deserters hiding inside, so he endured the stench and crawled in, eventually obtaining this precious gold ring.

"What's your name?"

“'White-haired' Oleg.”

Vig stretched, in high spirits. "Congratulations on receiving the favor of the gods, 'White-Haired' Oleg. Come with me to see His Majesty."

On a hill to the northwest, Ragnar and his lover Aslachi were hunting. Vig rode straight up to them and said, "Your Majesty, I have found a way to breach the city."

After seeing his lover off, Ragnar tossed his bow and arrows to the nearest guard. "What do you intend to do?"

Vig pointed to the white-haired rider not far away, "This man is very lucky. He discovered an abandoned sewer leading into the city. The Anglo-Saxons are slovenly and have let it stagnate and fall into disrepair. More than four hundred years have passed, and they've probably forgotten about it long ago. We can unclog the sewer and send a small team to infiltrate the city."

"Okay, go ahead and do it. Get it done within a month. If you drag it out any longer, the number of deserters will only increase."

With Ragnar's permission, Vig set up a branch camp on the western outskirts of Winchester and erected a large tent on top of the cave to prevent the excavation work from being exposed.

After twenty days and nights of tireless effort, the sewer was cleared, and two hundred carefully selected elite soldiers infiltrated the city along the passageway.

To divert the defenders' attention, the catapults in the northern camp operated at full capacity, sending stones hurtling towards the city walls. More than ten siege towers advanced slowly, drawing a large number of archers to fire arrows.

Finally, once everything was ready, Oleg carefully climbed to the ground. Fortunately, it wasn't a bustling market, but a long-abandoned mansion.

As time passed, the two hundred Vikings had assembled. Leaving a small group to guard the courtyard, Oleg led the rest out, oriented themselves, and rushed toward the west gate as fast as he could.

After a bloody battle, the Vikings defeated a hundred soldiers near the city gate and together lifted the heavy gatepost.

Seeing this, the cavalry, who had been waiting for a long time, charged forward at full speed. The distance of several hundred paces was covered in an instant. They rushed through the city gate and crashed into the crowd, wielding their long swords to kill the defenders who came to reinforce them.

Gaining precious three minutes, a large number of light infantry finally poured into the city, overwhelming Wessex's counterattack with their overwhelming numbers.

(End of this chapter)