Vikings: Lords of the Ice Sea

Chapter 97 Wales

After gazing at the map for a long time, Ragnar summoned Theowough and appointed him as Vig's deputy. As the Duke of Mercia, whose territory bordered Wales, he was well-suited for an auxiliary role.

Leaving the tent, Theowuff suggested recruiting more men, and Vig nodded: "Since the royal family is fully funding the military expenses, I plan to expand to four thousand men and crush the enemy with absolute strength."

After more than two months of fighting, his direct troops shrank to 1,400. After the spoils of war were divided up, only 1,000 were willing to continue fighting.

Including the militia that Theowough mobilized in his own territory, Vig planned to recruit another two thousand men.

The two then traveled by boat down the Thames to Oxford, where Hafdan and his more than four hundred defeated soldiers rested.

Next to the lord's mansion, a house filled with the rich aroma of herbs, Hafdan lay on the bed resting with his eyes closed, his left arm wrapped in a thick bandage, with two maids standing by his bedside.

"What happened?" Vig dismissed the maids and inquired about the details of the battle.

Seeing the two figures, Hafdan knew they had come to relieve him of his duties, and replied listlessly:
“There’s not much to say. Esselwolf and I led 2,500 men into the mountains to suppress bandits. The enemy didn’t engage us in direct combat, but kept harassing us with arrows. One day, they suddenly launched a large-scale night attack. I broke through the encirclement in the chaos and was shot in the left arm with an arrow.”

"A night raid? How many people are on the other side? Did Ethelwaugh deliberately leak intelligence and collude with Welsh bandits?"

Despite Vig's series of questions, Hafdan remained unenthusiastic. "The visibility was poor at night, and I couldn't see the exact number of people on the other side. Esselwolf is a very loyal guy; if it weren't for his help, I probably would have been shot dead by the Welsh."

This kid is really something else; he got scammed but still tries to speak well of the situation.

Vig suppressed the urge to burst into laughter, told the other person to rest and recover, and then went to the barracks of ordinary soldiers to inquire about the enemy's tactics.

Mentioning the bandits, the soldiers were still terrified. One officer summarized it as: "Arrows, from beginning to end, there were arrows flying everywhere. If you weren't careful, you would be shot to death."

Sensing distrust in Vig and Theowuff's eyes, the officer ordered ten captured yew bows to be brought out, each approximately 1.5 to 1.8 meters in length.

"My lords, their archers are extremely powerful. They can shoot six arrows per minute, and twelve arrows per minute if they don't aim. Their range, power, and accuracy far surpass our archers."

Vig picked up a yew bow and tried to draw it, finding that the draw weight was unusually high, and that it would be difficult for an ordinary person to draw. Combining this with the information given by the officer, he speculated that this yew bow was probably the prototype of the later "English longbow".

As a signature unit of medieval England, the longbowman could fire both direct shots and volleys from the rear of the ranks, making him incredibly lethal and giving him significant advantages, but his weaknesses were equally prominent.

Vig summoned the thirty Welsh prisoners and immediately recognized five longbowmen in the crowd—their spines were twisted, their left arms were noticeably larger, and their right finger joints were thick.

How long does it take to train a longbowman?

Upon learning of the Vikings' problem from the translator, the oldest longbowman proudly raised his head, "It takes five years to master basic archery and physical fitness. Top longbowmen need more than ten years of training. Looking at your stupid faces, you probably won't learn it even in twenty years."

After listening to the translator's account, Vig nodded slightly. The man was right; training longbowmen was extremely time-consuming. In 1363, King Edward I of England issued the Archery Act, requiring all men to practice archery on Sundays and prohibiting them from engaging in other sports activities, with severe penalties for violators.

Through strict laws, England managed to cobble together a well-trained longbowman force, with remarkable results, but it was unsuitable for the current situation. After a long while, he let out a long sigh: "Longbows and heavy arrows are quite powerful, but unfortunately, ten years is too long."

Upon returning to his camp, Vig selected a small unit to escort the valuables and horses back to Tyneburg, bringing back all the crossbows in stock. "Tell Cader that for the foreseeable future, all the blacksmith's capacity should be used to produce crossbows until the end of the Welsh War."

He then wrote a long letter demanding at least six hundred suits of armor from Ragnar.

"What do you need so many armors for?"

In response to Theowough's doubts, Vig explained his tactics, using heavily armored crossbowmen to exchange fire with Welsh longbowmen.

This inspiration comes from the Genoese crossbowmen, one of the most popular mercenaries of the Middle Ages. They were equipped with iron armor, crossbows, and carried a large shield. They had two main fighting styles:
First, load the weapon with your back to the enemy, then turn around and fire.

Second, using a sturdy wooden stick, the giant shield was propped up on the ground, and the crossbowmen hid behind it to load and fire.

"Use crossbowmen against longbowmen?"

Theowuff neither approved nor opposed this, focusing instead on securing supplies. By July, the army and baggage trainees had arrived, and Vig organized training for the crossbowmen. After three weeks, eight hundred capable crossbowmen were trained.

In addition, there were more than 500 archers in the army. Vig equipped some of them with iron armor and built dozens of handcarts with large shields in front of them to cover the archers as they advanced.

During the training camp, he took the time to inquire with small vendors and learned that the two largest powers in Wales were the Kingdom of Povis and the Kingdom of Gwyneth.

The former is located in eastern Wales, bordering Mercia, while the latter is located in northwestern Wales. Vig planned to first defeat Bovis, then attack Gwyneth, using this momentum to force the remaining nobles to surrender.

At the operational conference, he issued two guidelines to the commanders: build strongholds, fight protracted battles, and prioritize winning hearts and minds over conquering cities.

"Based on my combat experience, the loyalty of the poor to their lords is limited. As long as outsiders do not infringe on their property, most poor people do not care about changing their masters."

In an effort to reduce looting within the army, Vig sent a message to Lentinium requesting that Ragnar allocate funds to pay the wages of all soldiers.

"Use both suppression and appeasement tactics, employ heavily armored crossbowmen against longbowmen, and pay all soldiers their wages,"

Ragnar was greatly troubled by his subordinates' series of ingenious ideas.

Currently, Ivar has returned to Duflin to continue dealing with the chaos in Ireland, a task that seems endless, day after day. Gunnar is responsible for negotiating with the Franks and is unable to leave for the time being.

Aside from these two and Vig, the other nobles were not capable enough to complete this task. Of course, in a last resort, Ragnar could personally lead an expedition against Wales, but this approach had significant drawbacks and could easily lead to domestic political instability.

After sighing and lamenting for a long time, he finally accepted Vig's proposal.

(End of this chapter)