Viking: Master of the Icy Sea

Chapter 189: Breizh

On June 10th, Ragnar divided his forces once again. Wigg led five thousand men straight west, while Ragnar himself led eleven thousand men south. The remaining two thousand men garrisoned the bridgeheads on the northern and southern banks of the River Seine, bombarding Île de la Cité with trebuchets to weaken the defenders.

On the eve of their departure, Ulf could not help but complain once more.

"We are currently like a wild boar stuck in a swamp, possessing brute strength but unable to escape the desperate situation of slowly sinking," he grumbled. "Sigh, it would have been better to attack Flandre in the first place. If His Majesty had listened to me, perhaps we would have already captured towns like Bruges and Antwerp by now, returning to Britain fully loaded with spoils of war."

Ignoring the distraction beside him, Wigg unrolled a parchment map, pondering their subsequent marching route.

The most crucial aspect of marching and fighting was supplies. As the army continuously advanced westward, Calais was no longer suitable as a supply base. Before attacking Breizh, he had to find a suitable seaport.

"Saint-Malo. Let's just choose this place," he decided.

Having made his selection, Wigg began to plan the marching route: setting out from Paris, heading all the way west through Le Mans and Laval, and then attacking a small coastal town called Saint-Malo.

By capturing this location, subsequent supplies could be dispatched directly from Southampton in Britain and transported to the port of Saint-Malo. In the event that the war turned unfavorable, it would also be convenient for him to escape by ship.

Having made up his mind, Wigg introduced his plan to Ulf and the others. No one objected, as they were not adept at this kind of brain-racking task.

"Gentlemen, for the upcoming journey, we will temporarily lose contact with the rear. We are expected to arrive at Saint-Malo in two weeks. You must keep your soldiers in check along the way. Do not let some petty fly's head profit slow down our marching speed."To prepare for this march of over three hundred kilometers, Wigg requested a large number of draft animals from the siege camp. Combined with the beasts of burden already in the army, he gathered a total of two thousand draft horses to pull the supply wagons.

Regarding the marching order, at the very front were fifty scout riders and two mountain infantry companies, followed by Joren's First Infantry Regiment. The middle section consisted of a motley crew led by Ulf and Pascal Jr., along with over a thousand supply wagons. Butcherbird's Second Infantry Regiment was responsible for bringing up the rear. During the march, Wigg himself was positioned with the First Infantry Regiment, allowing him to react promptly to any situation.

The military rations on the supply wagons primarily consisted of black bread, along with a small amount of salted meat and cheese.

To extend the shelf life, the moisture content of the black bread was deliberately reduced during production. It was mixed with bran and chaff, and baked for a long time to form a hard outer crust. This inhibited the growth of mold, extending the storage time to ten days. The trade-off was an extremely poor texture; it had to be soaked in hot water or hot soup to soften before it could be eaten.

During dinner, listening to the incessant complaints rising and falling throughout the army, Wigg suddenly came up with a new idea.

'After the war, would producing canned food using glass jars and clay pots have any practical value?' he pondered.

Marching along the ancient roads left behind from the Roman era, Wigg advanced at a speed of twenty to thirty kilometers per day. At the same time, he sent men to demand grain and forage from small and medium-sized settlements along the route, never lingering once the supplies were in hand.

By the standards of medieval Western Europe, a daily march of thirty kilometers was considered a remarkably swift pace, comparable to the legendary speeds achieved by Henry V before the Battle of Agincourt.

If they encountered towns with a wooden palisade or stone city walls, Wigg led the army on a wide detour, trying to avoid battle as much as possible.

After years of warfare, the North's Serpent was considered a premier harbinger of death in the eyes of the Franks. Since the other party had no interest in tormenting them, there was no need for them to bring trouble upon themselves.

Harboring such thoughts, the counts and barons along the way did not ride out to do battle. They merely watched in silence as that black serpent banner disappeared over the western horizon. Then came June 22nd.

The five thousand Vikings arrived outside the city of Rennes. After Charles the Bald conquered Breizh, he designated Rennes as the capital of his newly subjugated territory, forcing prisoners of war to reconstruct the six-meter-tall stone city walls.

Looking at the defenders waiting in full array behind the battlements, Wigg did not rush to attack. Instead, he changed direction and headed straight north toward Saint-Malo.

Two days later, the Vikings arrived at Saint-Malo and captured the small coastal town in a brief but fierce battle. Afterward, Wigg selected a usable ship and sent men back to Britain to deliver a message, notifying Sebert to transport all kinds of supplies as soon as possible.

In early July, a fleet consisting of twenty knarr ships and thirty longships sailed into Saint-Malo. Amidst the cheers of the Vikings, the fleet delivered fresh grain, beer, over a thousand soldiers, and numerous components for siege engines.

That evening, the weary Vikings threw a wild revelry. Gazing at the layer of snow-white foam floating on the surface of his ale, Ulf marveled at the capabilities of their quartermaster.

"Beautifully done. This man is leaps and bounds better than the civilian officials under the King," Ulf praised. "Back when Pascal was alive, those scribes at least had some restraint. But after Gorm became the Prime Minister, the man was too afraid to stir up trouble, leading to the daily corruption of the civilian officials. Sigh, if we had let those useless pieces of trash in Londinium handle the supplies, the fleet probably wouldn't have even set sail by now."

After resting for a day, Wigg convened a war council. He decided to leave eight hundred men to garrison Saint-Malo, maintaining the supply route while also wiping out the Frankish forces in the Hebrides to ensure the safety of the shipping lanes—to combat pirates, Gunnar maintained a year-round garrison in the Hebrides.

With everything fully prepared, he led five thousand men back to the city of Rennes. Along the way, they collided head-on with a small squad of scouts sent out from the city to reconnoiter. After a brief skirmish, the thirty Frankish soldiers were either killed or forced to surrender.

From their mouths, Wigg learned the general situation in Rennes. The city housed three thousand local residents, along with eight hundred Frankish defenders. Having harvested their winter wheat last month, their grain reserves were plentiful.

"Only eight hundred men?"

Wigg muttered to himself. He ordered the troops to surround the city and fell timber. Thanks to the prefabricated components, the construction speed of their siege engines was vastly accelerated.

Twenty days passed. The Vikings now boasted ten massive trebuchets, fifteen siege towers, and five hundred ladders. Before the general assault commenced, Wigg repeatedly admonished his men.

"The nature of this war is unique; our objective is to incite the locals to rebel. Once we breach the city, remember that you are absolutely forbidden from pillaging civilian homes. In return, all the wealth within the treasury will be divided among you."

Looking at their lackadaisical expressions, he felt a deep sense of helplessness. In the end, other people's soldiers were never as easy to command as the troops he had personally trained. The only benefit of mingling with these parasites was that it reduced the casualties among his own direct subordinates.

Glancing up at the scorching morning sun, Wigg waved his left hand. In the next moment, the counterweight boxes, brimming with heavy stones, plummeted with a resounding crash. Twenty massive stone projectiles howled through the air, smashing violently into the North City Wall of Rennes.

To save time, the trebuchets focused exclusively on destroying the towers and battlements, stripping the defending archers of their cover. After three consecutive days of relentless bombardment, the section of the wall closest to the trebuchets was severely damaged. The towering structures had collapsed into rubble, and very few battlements remained intact.