Vikings: Lords of the Ice Sea

Chapter 82 Stonehenge

While everyone celebrated their victory, Vig was in a camp outside the city, writing his battlefield diary by the bright light of candles.

Despite Wessex's surrender, he dared not let his guard down and volunteered to stand guard at the camp. It would be too humiliating to die if he were captured at the victory celebration.

Hearing the cheers coming from inside the city, Vig raised an eyebrow and spent two hours finishing the Wessex chapter of the Chronicles of Britain.

After that, he took out a brand new roll of parchment and began a long and arduous task—writing a military treatise.

The military treatise is expected to be divided into three parts: training, logistics, and tactics.

Considering that this information would be passed down to his descendants and confidants, Vig wrote it in great detail. The camping section of "Logistics" took two thousand words to complete, and he also spent a lot of time drawing sketches.

"Phew, so tired."

Working late into the night, the camp setup was still not complete. Vig rubbed his aching wrists, went out to inspect the campsite, then blew out the candles and climbed into bed to sleep.
The next morning, he was shocked to hear that troops would be sent to Frankish territory the following year.

Ragnar explained somewhat awkwardly, "As a monarch, one must carry out one's publicly stated pronouncements, otherwise it will damage one's authority. I have no intention of occupying Frankish lands; at most, I will conduct an armed march as a warning to 'Bald' Charles."

After waiting for half an hour, the nobles, who had been partying all night, arrived one after another and began to divide the spoils.

Ragnar took the ledger from Goodwin and flipped through it from beginning to end:
After a war that lasted for more than half a year, the Vikings achieved an unexpected and great victory, with the total value of precious metals, jewelry, armor, weapons, warhorses, cattle, sheep, and woolen cloth exceeding 12,000 pounds of silver.

After a long pause, he cleared his throat: "The soldiers and junior commanders will receive 45%, the royal family 15%, and the nobles will split the remaining 40%. In this operation, Ivar, Vig, and Gunnar have made the greatest contributions, so they will choose first. Then..."

Ivar's territory was embroiled in war, so he selected three hundred sets of damaged armor, six hundred purple bows, and fifty thousand arrows, converting the remaining amount into silver coins.

When it was Vig's turn, his share of the spoils was six hundred pounds of silver.

Flipping through the ledger listing the spoils of war, Vig's first thought was of warhorses. Unfortunately, the number of horses he could exchange for was limited, and he only received thirty Frankish horses, including twenty mares and ten temperamental young stallions.

Each mare was worth five pounds of silver, while the price of a stallion doubled, totaling two hundred pounds of silver.

Then, Viggo asked for two hundred sets of damaged armor. Since the Anglo-Saxons were shorter in stature, they would probably have to be modified to fit the Vikings.

Having nothing else he wanted, he closed the ledger and returned it to Goodwin, saying, "Take another two hundred pounds of silver."

Next was Gunnar, who, as a cavalry commander, also demanded thirty warhorses, followed by a small amount of armor, weapons, and six thousand sheep.

"Cambridge has flat land, so why abandon farming and choose grazing?" Vig wondered. The only reason he could think of was that grazing was less troublesome.

With the help of sheepdogs, one shepherd can manage two hundred sheep, and six thousand sheep would only require thirty shepherds. In plains areas, each acre of pasture can support three sheep, so approximately two thousand acres would be needed, equivalent to two large estates.

"Besides wool, sheep can also provide milk and meat. If Gunnar focuses on herding in Cambridge and allows the flock to continue to grow, the market price of wool is expected to decrease."

After dividing the spoils, before the army set off, the shaman Kemi Wildfire approached Vig and said, "My lord, there are rumors in the army that there is a large ruin twenty kilometers west of Winchester."

"Ruins? I hope you're not kidding me." With nothing else to do, Vig led a small group of shield guards to visit the site. Guided by a local shepherd, they arrived at a desolate and quiet meadow.

From a distance, dozens of grayish-white boulders form several concentric circles, with the tallest boulder about seven meters high, and some long stone strips supporting the top.

Stonehenge!

Sensing its master's excitement, the gray horse suddenly accelerated, arriving first ahead of all its kind. Vig reached out and touched the nearest stone; it felt rough and cold, with obvious signs of weathering on its edges.

Just then, a gentle breeze blew across the grass, and a few rough, hoarse cries echoed through the air as several black ravens landed on top of the rocks.

Pulling out a roll of parchment, Vig sat on the grass and began to sketch the scene, which had a rather mystical feel, with clumsy strokes. The shaman Kemi, leading a group of shield guards, was shouting and making a ruckus, raising money to buy a sheep and two chickens from a shepherd in order to hold an impromptu sacrificial ceremony.

After they finished their work, Vig was almost done painting. They camped out in the wild for the night and returned to Winchester the next day.

Ragnar was facing a dilemma at this time.

With the war over and the army about to set off, he originally planned to choose a nice manor in Tamworth to settle his new lover, Aslaci, as compensation for the past six months of companionship.

However, during a dinner gathering of the Allied forces' high-ranking officers in the evening, Asura suddenly stood up, calmly stroking her lower abdomen, and announced that she was pregnant.

Instantly, Vig's smile vanished, and he lowered his head to stare at the eel soup on the table. The other nobles behaved similarly, as if they hadn't heard anything, silently eating their food.

"What's with those expressions? This is a fantastic thing!" Ivar was the first to cheer, bringing up his experience from twenty years ago.

At that time, Ragnar was just a pirate living hand to mouth, occasionally going out to plunder and spending the rest of his time farming at home.

One cold winter day, an old traveler wearing a tattered black cloak asked for lodging. He had one eye and was leaning on a sturdy oak cane. The Ragnars took him in.

Ivar was an eight-year-old child at the time, even younger than Yorn, who was only five. The two pestered the traveler for stories, and the traveler, with his vast knowledge, seemed able to answer all their questions.

Finally, Bjorn posed a tricky question to the traveler: "Can you predict the future?"

"What an interesting little guy! What would you like to know?"

Bjorn, “Every spring, my father is hired by the lord to go out to sea and plunder, returning in the fall. He says he'll save up enough money to stay home and play with me. Will that come true?”

"No, he has more important things to do."

Beside the warm fire, the old traveler took a sip of the cloudy ale and smiled at the two children. “Ragnar is destined to achieve great things. He will have three wives and five children in his life. Unfortunately, he will not have enough time for you.”

After recounting this story, Ivar suggested to her father that he bring Asra back to York. Since Queen Sora disliked her, it would be better to find her a rival to wear her down.

(End of this chapter)