Viking: Master of the Icy Sea

Chapter 348: The Decisive Moment

At four o'clock in the afternoon, at the Donworth Baronial Estate.

"Uncle, I think it is time to retreat."

The Frankish Army was on the verge of collapse. Lothar II could not find a single sliver of hope for victory, and with a gloomy expression, he left the top floor of the church. Leading a small group of guards, he rushed to the stables. Taking advantage of the fact that the Vikings had not yet completely surrounded the estate, he fled eastward at a breakneck pace.

At this moment, both the northern and southern flanks of the Frankish Army had been routed. The remaining ten thousand or so soldiers relied on the estate to bitterly hold their ground, waiting for the reinforcements the King had mentioned.

After holding out for another half hour, the morale of the Frankish Army completely shattered. Charles the Bald, escorted by his knights, retreated from the battlefield, leaving the Viking cavalry to reap the lives of his infantry.

"It is over."

From Wigg's perspective, the entire battle had been a completely one-sided affair. His forces held absolute superiority in numbers, equipment, and training. Furthermore, as the supreme commander, no one dared to question his decisions or disobey his orders.

Suddenly, Leif reported a new piece of information. The captives confessed that Charles had mentioned two relief forces hurrying toward the Donworth Baronial Estate. The northern reinforcements numbered twenty thousand, while the southern reinforcements were twelve thousand strong.

Another thirty-two thousand men?

Wigg adjusted his deployment, gathering the majority of his troops and having them reform their ranks to prepare for enemies that could arrive at any moment.Not long after, a letter arrived from the First Field Division on the northern front. Leif broke the sealing wax and translated the cipher into plain text.

"Uncle, they were about eight miles from the Donworth Baronial Estate, originally planning to rendezvous with us. Upon noticing the Count of Orléans's army, Butcherbird temporarily changed the plan. He intercepted the enemy on the spot and, with minimal casualties, nearly annihilated the Frankish Army's cavalry."

Pausing for a moment, Leif suppressed his inner curiosity and shock before continuing:

"Their flanking maneuver thwarted, the Frankish Army chose to detour to the east and is expected to arrive at the Donworth Baronial Estate tomorrow. Another possibility is that they heard about Charles the Bald's defeat during their march and decided to withdraw."

Learning of the situation on the northern front, Wigg felt equally intrigued. But regardless, the Count of Orléans was no longer a threat. He only needed to deal with the southern reinforcements.

The battlefield was currently in a state of chaotic disorder. The cavalry and mountain infantry responsible for the pursuit had practically vanished from sight. Wigg detached an Infantry Regiment, ordering them to scatter southward for reconnaissance and ensure they found traces of the southern reinforcements.

On the morning of October twenty-first, the First Field Division arrived to merge forces. The cavalry and mountain infantry that had been roaming outside gradually returned to camp, yet there was still no news whatsoever of the southern reinforcements.

At noon, the Vikings captured scattered Frankish soldiers in a forest ten miles to the south. They belonged to Jean de Poitiers's forces, the very southern reinforcements that had troubled Wigg all night.

Recently, due to continuous small-scale skirmishes, Count de Poitiers's scouts had suffered heavy losses. After receiving the order and while en route to the Donworth Baronial Estate, the entire army had inadvertently gotten lost. Upon learning of Charles the Bald's defeat, the Count led his troops in a retreat to the east.

With that, the Battle of the Donworth Baronial Estate came to an end.

Britain lost five thousand men, with one thousand five hundred killed in action and three thousand five hundred wounded.

The Frankish Coalition lost twenty-eight thousand men. The Count of Orléans lost over five thousand, while the remaining twenty-odd thousand in attrition came from Charles the Bald's army. If previous minor skirmishes were included, the coalition's total losses reached thirty-two thousand.

Having suffered such a disastrous defeat, the Frankish Army lost its field combat capabilities for the foreseeable future, leaving Wigg with the initiative for the next phase of the campaign.

Upon returning to Rennes, Wigg hosted a victory banquet. During the feast, someone presented a Crown to him, claiming it was part of the spoils of war found by the Rangers in a certain village.

Wigg took the Crown and examined it closely. Its main structure was a Golden Circlet engraved with a fleur-de-lis pattern, inlaid with eight Sapphires, eight Red Garnets, and four Amethysts. The true value of this item lay in its symbolic significance. He had an attendant store it away safely; perhaps it would prove useful in the future.

As time passed, the atmosphere of the banquet grew increasingly lively. Count Rikard, believing he had made a tremendous contribution at the Battle of Bull Bridge, approached Wigg with a raised goblet, proposing they seize the momentum to attack Paris. He was immediately shot down.

"The River Seine is a natural defensive barrier. With the remnants of the Frankish Army turtling inside the city, it would be utterly impossible to conquer," Wigg declared.

Count Rikard's remarks sparked a heated debate. Someone suggested attacking Calais, but this plan was even more absurd, completely ignoring the difficulties of crossing the river and the massive risks of venturing so deep into enemy territory.

Francia possessed profound foundations. A single victory was far from enough to end the entire war. Wigg decided to play it safe, preventing them from falling into a situation where a string of victories was followed by a sudden, devastating loss.

After resting for five days to allow the soldiers to recover their strength, Wigg initiated the next phase of operations: attacking the nearby cities of Cherbourg, Le Mans, and Caen.

The primary target was Cherbourg. This port city was located at the northern tip of the Cotentin Peninsula, exactly one hundred and ninety kilometers from Southampton. The voyage between the two locations took anywhere from half a day to a day and a half, making it perfectly suited to serve as a follow-up supply base.

In early November, Wigg led the Royal Division to the outskirts of Cherbourg. This was once the port where Gunnar had engaged in the smuggling trade of warhorses to Britain. After the trade was cut off, the port's population plummeted, leaving it with nothing but its military defensive functions.

Using the same familiar tactics, a portion of the soldiers dug trenches outside the city walls while another portion purged the nearby estates of the nobles. After half a month of effort, Britain successfully captured Cherbourg.

Wigg assigned the garrison duties to the 5th Garrison Regiment, specifically instructing Count Rikard:

"The old rules still apply. Have the captives repair the city walls, and once they are done, send them to Jersey for internment."

Since the start of the war, Britain had captured a total of eighteen thousand prisoners of war. Such a massive number of captives was destined to be an extremely unstable and dangerous factor.

If kept on the Frankish mainland, Wigg worried the captives would seize the opportunity to escape.

If relocated to the British mainland, the probability of the captives escaping would decrease. However, if a large-scale rebellion broke out, the homeland lacked sufficient military forces to quell the uprising.

Taking multiple factors into consideration, Wigg accepted Leif's suggestion to intern them on Jersey, reducing the possibility of the captives escaping on their own to the absolute minimum. Even if they staged a mass rebellion, the impact would be confined solely to that single island, completely unable to spread to other regions. At that point, the navy could simply cut off their grain supply, forcing them to either surrender or slowly starve to death.

Before parting ways, Count Rikard made a request, claiming that his own territory was mobilizing a second batch of troops and expected to expand to one thousand five hundred men by next year. He felt he was fully capable of taking on far more challenging missions.

Wigg's expression remained placid. "There is no rush. We will discuss it when the time comes."

Following the end of the Battle of the Donworth Baronial Estate, it was not just Count Rikard; the morale of the entire group of nobles surged to an all-time high. They actively wrote letters back to their territories, mobilizing more militia to head to Londinium for intensive training.

In their eyes, more soldiers meant more opportunities to achieve merit, which translated to a larger share of the spoils of war and post-war benefits.

In early December, Wigg returned to Rennes to spend the winter. The bitter cold forced him to temporarily halt his offensive. To pass the time, he established an army academy to intensively train his grassroots military officers.