Viking: Master of the Icy Sea

Chapter 378: Tactical Superiority

To guard against the Viking Empire's invasion, the Frankish remnants maintained an army of over twenty-six thousand men and conscripted tens of thousands of laborers to build fortresses, pushing their finances to the brink of collapse.

"I do not care anymore. Sardinia has not paid taxes in fifty years. I refuse to believe Basil will sever ties with us over a tax-evading territory!"

The Earl of Orléans resolutely led his army across the sea, landing in northern Sardinia before marching along the coast toward Torres on the island's northwest side.

Since the seventh century, Eastern Roman control over the western Mediterranean Sea had steadily declined. Consequently, Sardinia gradually developed four native powers: Torres, Gallura, Arborea, and Cagliari, boasting a total population of roughly one hundred eighty thousand.

On August twenty-fifth, five thousand Frankish soldiers marched into the fertile northwestern plains. The local king dispatched an envoy to negotiate, only to receive a list demanding an astronomical amount of supplies.

Negotiations broke down. Torres hastily organized a defense, but the Franks had clashed with the Vikings numerous times. Their tactics had vastly improved, far exceeding anything the local forces could handle.

Realizing Torres intended to resist, the Earl of Orléans led three hundred cavalrymen and five hundred mounted infantry in a swift raid on the crucial inland town of Adham. Catching the enemy off guard, they easily routed two thousand soldiers who were still marching to their positions.

A siege followed. The Frankish army routinely employed tunneling tactics, burning down the supporting timbers to collapse the walls of two major towns. They seized massive stockpiles of grain and wool hoarded within.

"Sardinia is rich in resources and its army is incredibly weak. Why did we not come here sooner?"

The Earl of Orléans was immensely pleased with himself. He immediately penned a letter to Charles the Bald in Pisa, requesting more reinforcements.With matters progressing to this point, Charles the Bald had no other choice. He dispatched his remaining four thousand mobile troops while simultaneously paying a hefty bribe to a eunuch in Constantinople, hoping the nobleman would put in a good word for him.

With his forces expanded to nine thousand, the Earl of Orléans decided to split his army. He led five thousand men south to attack Galilus, as well as the southernmost territory of Cagliari.

The unit containing Alfred was ordered to attack Gallura in eastern Sardinia. This kingdom featured rugged terrain, a sparse population, and the fiercest people on the island.

In mid-September, Alfred pushed inland. Along the way, he discovered several abandoned ancient stone towers scattered across the island.

These cylindrical stone towers typically stood thirty-three feet tall, constructed from square blocks of stone. Surprisingly, there was no concrete or mortar between the blocks; the entire structure relied solely on the immense weight of the stones and perfectly aligned joints to hold together.

"Incredible. How did the ancients manage this?"

Alfred learned from documents found in one of the local monasteries that long before the Roman Empire, these stone towers, known as nuraghi, were already standing in Sardinia's interior. By this deduction, the towers had existed for over fifteen hundred years.

Occasionally, the locals would use these ancient ruins to mount desperate, to-the-death resistance. They sealed the tower entrances and hid in the upper levels to shoot arrows and hurl javelins, causing massive headaches for the Franks.

Alfred's countermeasure was to construct mantlets, shielding his soldiers as they advanced to the base of the towers. The men used iron pickaxes to smash open the entrances, then ignited piles of firewood, using the thick smoke to flush out the enemies hiding on the upper floors.

With these tactics, the Frankish army steadily pushed forward, eventually reaching Gallura's capital, Civita, where they began excavating tunnels and constructing trebuchets. During the siege, the local king repeatedly sent priests out of the city to negotiate, demanding of the Frankish commander, "Why do you invade Sardinia instead of fighting the Vikings or the Moors?"

The Frankish commander maintained a stony silence on the matter. In truth, the reason was quite simple: they could not defeat the Vikings or the Moors, so they had to find ways to extract resources from elsewhere.

In October, the eastern Frankish forces captured Civita, then marched south along the coastline, invading Cagliari in southern Sardinia. At that same moment, the western Frankish army led by the Earl of Orléans was also advancing south.

Hearing of the tragic fate that befell the other three kingdoms, Cagliari immediately requested reinforcements from the East Roman army stationed in Sicily. At the same time, they dispatched an envoy to Rome, begging the Papacy to step in and mediate.

Faced with mounting external pressure, the Frankish high command began to consider a retreat, but Alfred insisted on pressing the attack.

"My lords, we have thoroughly offended Sardinia this time. If we let Cagliari go, it is highly likely they will swallow up the remnants of the other three kingdoms and become a sworn enemy of the Franks. We must fight this battle. The Eastern Romans are still hesitating; there is still time."

Persuaded by Alfred, the Frankish army accelerated their siege efforts. They even produced a pile of dubious evidence, accusing the King of Cagliari of conducting backroom deals with the Moors and the Vikings, painting him as a venomous snake lurking in the shadows.

On October twenty-fifth, the Eastern Roman fleet departed from Sicily. By the time they arrived at Cagliari, the seaport had already fallen. A massive breach had been torn through its eastern wall, the city was in ruins, and countless bloated corpses drifted in the waters near the harbor.

"Such a fast siege."

The commander sent a small boat ahead to gather information. The Franks did not make things difficult for these allied forces. They hosted them warmly and even gave them a tour of the palace, showing off the locations where the king and nobles allegedly held heretical rituals, along with a massive stack of correspondence with the Moors and Vikings.

Half an hour later, the top brass of both sides sat down to negotiate on the sandy beach. The Franks were willing to return Sardinia for two reasons:

First, Sardinia nominally belonged to the Eastern Roman Empire. The Franks' justification for the invasion was their suspicion that the island's factions were colluding with the Moors and Vikings. Now that these traitors had been purged, it was only natural to return the island to their ally.

Second, the Frankish army's extortion of Sardinia had been overly ruthless. They had plundered enough grain and livestock to feed eighty thousand men for a year, on top of valuables worth thirty thousand pounds. They had squeezed the entire island dry. Sooner or later, famine and rebellion would erupt, so it was better to pull out early and dump this terrible mess on their ally.

"Purged the traitors? You have been such a great help, shouldn't I be thanking you?" the fleet commander retorted.

After venting his anger, he wore a gloomy expression and ordered his troops to take over Cagliari's defenses, tacitly accepting the Franks' story.

Not long ago, the commander had received a Royal Edict from Constantinople containing a clear directive: as long as the Franks surrendered Sardinia, the matter was to be dropped.

From Emperor Basil's perspective, Sardinia had not paid taxes in ages. Even if it was picked clean, the Eastern Roman Empire lost nothing. On the contrary, taking over the island without suffering a single casualty was actually a great boon.

Furthermore, the Franks served as a vital shield against the Viking Empire's eastward expansion. Basil had to maintain their alliance and keep this group of Franks holding the line at the Alps. If the Vikings were to break into Italy, they could launch a naval invasion of Greece from Naples. The Eastern Roman Empire would then fall into the desperate plight of being attacked from both the east and the west.