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Pov of Sigurd
Anno Domini, 832-March-30-31
''Cry for your God'' I said as I raised my polehammer and brought it crashing down onto the head of one of the Carolingian warriors, hearing his skull crack along with his spine from the force of the blow.
I heard the tip of a spear scrape across my steel breastplate and simply stepped forward, grabbing the shaft tightly while watching the warrior struggle against me, trying to wrench it out of my hands with both arms.
But by pulling it toward myself, I managed to tear it away from him and also watched the Carolingian warrior fall face-first into the dirt in front of me, completely defenseless.
I saw his eyes filled with fear as I raised my polehammer and with a single motion was about to end his life when someone suddenly threw himself at me with a dagger in his hands.
I felt several blows near my face, the sound of metal striking against the metal of my armor.
I moved my arm and grabbed him by the shoulder, smashing my head against his and hearing the Frankish warrior scream in pain as he brought his hands up to his face and nose. I immediately took advantage of it, grabbing him by the throat with one hand while pressing the other Frank's head into the dirt.
I squeezed hard, my fingers digging around the Frankish warrior's neck as he tried to pry them apart while I strangled him with my grip until I finally threw him to the ground.
I turned my polehammer around and drove the spear-like spike into the back of the Carolingian warrior who still had his hands around my boot, trying to pull it away from his head. I heard his scream of pain as the spike pierced one of his lungs, so he should already have been dead.
So I simply walked toward the man who was trying to get back up after slamming into the ground when he had tried to stab me.
Before he could stand, I kicked him hard in the ribs, shifting him from where he lay and making him groan as he clutched his side. Before he could do anything else, I kicked him directly in the jaw, leaving his arms hanging uselessly in the air. Then I finally placed my boot on his neck and pressed down hard until I felt something snap beneath it.
I heard a piercing scream and saw a woman drop to her knees, crying loudly as she stared at me.
Looking around, I focused on how the fighting was going and everything seemed to be proceeding well.
My men were crushing the weak defense that had formed in a village east of Rome, where several militiamen and Carolingian soldiers serving the Bishop of Rome had been gathering. We had fallen upon them to prevent any concentration of troops that might threaten our siege camps, which were still under construction.
The resistance had been almost nonexistent. They possessed few weapons capable of doing much damage through our heavy armor and the Carolingians were fighting without the slightest cohesion in their ranks. We broke them only moments after the fighting began and they started fleeing in every direction, making everything far easier for my men.
The village was now filled with bodies everywhere: along the roads, in the doorways of houses, inside the stables and across the surrounding fields. There was not even a single one of my men among them after the enemy had simply fled while offering only scattered resistance that was easily crushed.
Listening to the sobbing and screams of the local peasants, I noticed that many people were fleeing toward the village church.
''Follow me'' I said, drawing the attention of my men, who were finishing off the local defenders crawling around with broken legs or shattered arms caused by our polehammers.
Ignoring the crying of several women who ran toward the dead, we walked toward the church, where much of the local population was gathering along with the last remaining warriors, who were signaling for the peasants to run toward them.
When they saw us approaching, the Carolingian warriors looked at one another, threw their weapons onto the ground and entered the church.
''Interesting… Basil did not say they were forbidden from carrying weapons inside their temples, so it seems that part was true, but that is incredibly stupid considering that we are literally killing all of them and they just left their weapons outside lying in the dirt'' one of my men said.
''Yes, but we also have orders not to plunder Christian places of worship because that would look bad afterward. When this land belongs once again to the Emperor of the Romans, having one of his generals actively plundering temples would look very bad in the eyes of the locals and we have to avoid that just as we were ordered. So we will simply go inside, frighten them and leave it at that because otherwise people could hide inside the church and later come back out and take up arms against us again'' I said while pulling on the door they had unsuccessfully tried to close.
With the help of my men, we forced the church doors open and saw a large number of people kneeling and praying while the local priest tried to calm the terrified crowd as we entered the temple.
The moment we stepped inside, I heard the priest begin speaking in a language I did not understand at all, although from time to time I recognized a few words that I had heard Basil use before.
Walking among the worshippers of the crucified god, I soon passed beside the Carolingian warriors who were kneeling and watching me go by, completely terrified by our presence.
Eventually I found myself face to face with the priest, who despite sweating and clearly showing fear on his face never stopped holding a wooden cross toward me while continuing to speak in that language I did not understand. Although face to face was perhaps not the right way to describe it considering I stood two or three heads taller than the small priest staring up at me.
''I do not understand your language'' I said in the tongue of the Romans.
The priest stared at me and shook his head.
''Apparently these inhabitants of Rome use the second language of the Roman Empire… Latin… I do not speak a single word of Latin and these people do not speak the language of the Emperor of the Romans in Constantinople'' I said while moving my polehammer, hearing several frightened cries from the people surrounding me.
''Well, then what do we do?'' one of my men asked.
''Try… listen carefully, you miserable priest. Your god has done nothing to protect you… well, perhaps he already has, considering that my jarl ordered me not to harm you or your temple, but here I am armed inside the temple of your god and he is doing nothing'' I said while turning around inside the temple and looking at everyone surrounding me until I once again fixed my eyes on the priest.
''If we find any of these men who abandoned their weapons to enter your temple carrying arms again, I will make sure that nobody walks out of this place'' I said while bringing my face almost level with the priest's.
''Enough, let's go'' I said while turning around and beginning to walk toward the exit. ''Burn the village to the ground so these houses cannot be used to quarter any troops that might continue arriving in the meantime'' I told my men as we left the temple.
''After we loot it, right?'' one of my men asked.
''Take the grain and the animals or waste your time looking for copper coins. That is the only thing you are going to find among these peasants. The estates are where the real money is. This place only provides food for our army and nothing more'' I said while pointing toward the brazier we had brought with us.
Seeing my men nod, they quickly took torches and lit them before setting the village on fire, burning the houses while those who had not taken refuge inside the church now rushed toward it as the flames began consuming the entire settlement. My men set fire to all the surrounding houses while avoiding the church and leaving the buildings closest to the temple untouched because the flames could spread toward it.
Once the village was burning properly and a great column of smoke had risen into the sky, I mounted my horse and we began moving toward another village, repeating the same pattern and burning every settlement surrounding Rome.
Again and again we continued until there were no villages left in our wake while enormous lines of wagons filled with wheat and animals were sent back toward our camp along with every useful construction material we could take.
Throughout the entire day we had been destroying small armed groups and burning villages all the way toward the Apennines, noticing increasingly large concentrations of soldiers because by now they had clearly been informed of our presence.
Fortunately, the raids along the northern coast appeared to be working because when we advanced north to begin burning villages and reducing the number of places where any relief army could obtain supplies, we encountered almost no resistance at all. Nearly every fishing settlement was already burned and the signs of fighting showed that the seaborne raids were proceeding according to plan.
Besieging Rome itself was the true challenge. At the moment there was no resistance to our presence beyond the defenders inside the city, who had made no attempt whatsoever to interfere with the construction of our siege camps.
Ostia and Portus had fallen along with their fortifications, meaning that we now possessed a port through which we could unload supplies and I quickly began sending ships south to see whether Basil could send me reinforcements to help us garrison the siege camps.
There were simply too many walls and gates and that forced me to keep a large number of men permanently involved in maintaining the siege while at the same time I needed troops blocking the Apennines to the south in case the Carolingian army there attempted to escape Basil's trap.
And all of that was clearly far more than a force of only sixteen thousand men could realistically accomplish because maintaining the siege alone required more soldiers than I had available and constructing both a circumvallation and contravallation around the city would take far too much time.
So I found myself in an extremely difficult situation if I wanted to accomplish every objective without something going wrong. Burning Latium was necessary to prevent it from becoming a gathering point for troops and if the encirclement of Rome was broken, the Pope could escape and that would destroy the entire purpose of the plan. On the other hand, if the Carolingian army in the south managed to slip out of Basil's hands, we would be in serious trouble.
''Sigurd… the scouts have spotted a Frankish host in the Apennine region. Apparently they are already recruiting men in large numbers throughout the area. It is only a matter of time before an army begins marching against us'' one of my men said as he dismounted from his horse.
''Inform me when they begin marching toward us. We can meet them in the field while still preventing a sortie from the city of Rome, but concentrate on burning the villages in the region. Without food we can decide where we want the battle to happen and poison the wells. I do not want them to have a single drop of fresh water until they reach us, which means they will have to carry enormous numbers of barrels filled with water'' I said while looking at my men.
''As you command'' my subordinate said before beginning to pass down the order.
''Basil… Basil… Basil… you certainly made this difficult for me. Valhalla or following your orders… a difficult choice, really, but if I disobey my orders I break my oaths and the All-Father will not accept me… this is going to be difficult if those reinforcements do not arrive soon'' I said while watching the military camp being constructed.
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If there are spelling mistakes, please let me know.
Leave a comment; support is always appreciated.
I remind you to leave your ideas or what you would like to see.
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