Ch 93: Seine Riverbank
Receiving orders, Ivar rallied his troops, reorganized their formation, and then turned north, attacking the main French army where “Bald Head” Charles was stationed.
As the core offensive force in this battle, Ivar’s troops numbered one thousand soldiers. He himself wore a leather vest inlaid with scales, with chainmail underneath. Including his iron helmet, the total weight reached an astonishing fifty jin.
Following the grey wolf banner, the soldiers marched with heavy paces towards the Frankish infantry’s shield wall. After a brief engagement, the Frankish lines spontaneously retreated north.
Out of instinct, Ivar was not eager to break through the enemy formation, but instead proceeded steadily, gradually driving the enemy towards the Seine Riverbank.
The central high platform on the west side.
Seeing Ivar’s troops making good progress, Vig felt that the battle was eighty percent won. He waved his banner, signaling his direct troops to encircle from the east and quickly cut off the Franks’ retreat back to the bridgehead.
At this moment, “Bald Head” Charles realized the crisis was upon him. He now understood that the Viking “main force” in the west was a mere illusion, a grand show of force, but without much effect.
On the contrary, the real killer move lay in the one thousand heavy infantry in the south, and the two Viking formations about to flank from the east.
Unfortunately, even though he saw through Vig’s tactics, he could not prevent the enemy’s encirclement.
After losing the troops on the south side of the battlefield, the Franks had more than six thousand men remaining. While seemingly numerous, they were conscripted militia with low morale and disorganized formation. Now facing double pressure from the west and south sides, the six thousand plus men unconsciously crowded towards the Seine Riverbank in the north, like a messy flock of sheep.
As time passed, Vig continuously issued new orders, step by step sealing off the enemy’s chances of survival.
“The southwest corner formation is weakening. Let “White Hair” Oleg reinforce and replace Ulf’s unit.”
“Niels’ archers prepare to attack, following behind Leonard and Theodulf’s units. Once within range, volley arrows towards the enemy’s center, without aiming for immediate heavy casualties but maintaining sustained shooting, and try to disrupt their reorganization.”
“Orm is advancing too fast, his formation is disconnected from Leonard’s! Damn it, tell him to slow down!”
“Bjorn’s unit has finished resting, proceed to the south side battlefield, cover Ivar’s rear, and prevent sporadic Frankish cavalry from interfering with his offensive.”
By one o’clock in the afternoon, accompanied by five hundred light infantry, two pike formations successfully flanked to the east side of the battlefield, blocking the Franks’ retreat to the bridgehead.
Through a series of maneuvers, Vig successfully executed the pre-battle plan, trapping the main French army on the Seine Riverbank.
The situation was decided. He sat cross-legged on the high platform, had a shield-bearer hand him a bag of clean water, drank half of it, and used the rest to wash his sweat-soaked face.
A gentle breeze brushed his cheeks, lifting a strand of loose hair by his ear. Vig looked up at the endless white clouds, the warm sunlight enveloping him, as if soaking in a warm bath.
“Military strategies are ever-changing, like water. In this battle, I managed to achieve victory by adapting to the enemy. If Gunnar, Ivar, or others were in command, I estimate the result would be far less successful.”
After this battle, he had a realization that his command ability had greatly improved, and commanding less than ten thousand troops would be no obstacle from now on.
Two o’clock in the afternoon.
Under the arrow shower from three directions, the Franks consecutively launched five breakouts, all of which were repelled. As the battlefield space continuously shrunk, the six thousand soldiers crowded together on the Seine Riverbank, unconsciously surging towards the shallow water area.
Realizing the king was in danger, the garrison on Île de la Cité hurriedly sent more than thirty ships as reinforcements. Seeing this, the Viking longships met them. The two sides became entangled, and the Franks’ usual fire-attack ship tactic also failed.
Half an hour later, a fast boat rushed to the shore, carrying “Bald Head” Charles and more than ten grand nobles, rocking and swaying away from the riverbank.
“I am the nephew of the Earl of Orleans’ cousin.”
“Take me, I am willing to surrender two wineries in Bordeaux.”
“Your Majesty, are you going to abandon this devout clergyman?”
Ignoring the many shouts, the fast boat frantically rowed towards Île de la Cité, with a few unwilling people clinging to the ship’s side refusing to let go. Seeing that the ship was about to capsize, under the king’s tacit approval, the captain of the guards drew his sword and hacked at the side of the ship. Fingers were severed, rolling onto the deck, a chilling sight.
Finally, under the desperate protection of the French ships, “Bald Head” Charles returned to Île de la Cité and saw the pale-faced queen and a group of noblewomen.
“Everyone, don’t panic. Île de la Cité has a dangerous terrain; the barbarians cannot attack,”
Before the king could finish, a noblewoman rushed to his side, grabbing his sleeve and questioning, “Your Majesty, why didn’t my son come back with you?”
Led by her, the noblewomen broke through the guards’ obstruction, inquiring about the whereabouts of their sons, husbands, fathers, and brothers.
Three o’clock in the afternoon.
With the king having fled, the remaining Franks had no morale and readily surrendered their weapons, declaring the Battle of the Seine Riverbank at an end.
In this battle, the Vikings suffered one thousand three hundred casualties, the vast majority from the south side battlefield—in order to deal with one thousand French cavalry, Bjorn, Ulf, Gunnar, and two pike formations paid a considerable cost.
On the Frankish side, one thousand five hundred were killed, and nearly six thousand became prisoners, with hundreds fleeing as scattered soldiers.
After tallying the results, the nobles held a brief war council. The victory was truly splendid; with only one thousand casualties, they had completely annihilated the main French army. The command layer unanimously decided to capture Paris, make a big profit, and then return to Britain.
Afterwards, while the sun had not yet set, the Vikings built a siege camp outside the bridgehead on the south bank. Conveniently, many houses and a marketplace were nearby, greatly accelerating the camp’s construction progress.
Given past battles, Vig was elected as the siege commander, responsible for constructing the camp and conducting the siege. The nobles successively departed; Ivar and Bjorn led hundreds of elite soldiers to the north bank to look for their father, while the others sought entertainment.
Regarding how to conduct the siege, Vig first considered a siege by encirclement.
A few days ago, when the army passed through Rouen, the Franks had a river barrier of iron chains stretching across the river surface. The Vikings captured the south bank fortress, cutting one end of the chains, causing them to sink to the riverbed under gravity.
Now, Vig planned to capture Rouen on the north bank. The other end of the iron chain was still fixed on the north bank, and then they would pull the chain out of the water, transport it upstream using ships, and use it to block the Seine River surface on the east side of Paris.
“Now that the main French army has been completely defeated, Île de la Cité only has a few court guards and one or two thousand unusable militia. I can build siege camps outside the bridgeheads on both the north and south banks, and set up river barriers upstream, completely besieging this city located in the center of the river.”