Chapter 291: Calais Campaign (3)
The iron balls fired from the Field Artillery Cannons smashed directly into the defensive structures of Calais.
Erik marched his four thousand foot soldiers through the broken gates and entered the coastal city.
However, as Erik walked across the paths and looked at the damage caused by his massive siege weapons, he noticed a very strange pattern of destruction.
The areas struck beside the wall were entirely military positions.
The iron projectiles had destroyed the stone watchtowers where the archers stood, and they had shattered the barracks where the city guards slept.
The weapon storage buildings were completely leveled, leaving only broken wood and bent iron spears in the mud. However, no shops were destroyed by mistake, nor was any unnecessary destruction carried out.
The simple wooden houses where the local farmers lived were perfectly intact. The market stalls where the merchants sold fish and bread were completely untouched by the heavy cannon fire.
This precise and careful targeting was not an accident caused by the Norwegian soldiers. This was, of course, on the direct and strict orders of Ragnar and Louis. Before the transport ships ever left the harbor of City Titan, Louis had insisted that Ragnar do this.
Ragnar had agreed completely with Louis’s logical assessment, and he added his own strategic reasoning.
More importantly, it was to remind the city’s inhabitants that they were in constant danger, just as they were threatening the other kingdoms!
As Erik walked deeper into the city square, the true scale of the slaughter became fully visible.
The French army had attempted to defend the broken gates, but they had failed completely.
Two thousand infantry and five knights, princes from Francia, were wiped out that day.
They had tried to block the streets by standing in tight formations, but the men holding the crossbows had fired thousands of explosive iron bolts into their ranks.
The resulting explosions had broken their shields and destroyed their courage instantly, leaving their bodies scattered across the roads.
The five knights who died were wealthy princes from the central territories of Francia, sent by Louis the Germanic to protect the coastal borders.
However, the heavy field cannons did not care about royal titles or expensive iron. A single volley of solid iron balls had struck their cavalry charge, killing the horses and crushing the five princes instantly.
With the two thousand infantry dead and the royal commanders destroyed, the city was completely defenseless.
Only the children, women, and unarmed inhabitants of the city remained after it was entered.
Erik ordered his Viking warriors to secure the main buildings and guard the docks, but he explicitly commanded them not to harm the unarmed civilians.
Erik wanted the civilians to witness his victory so they would spread the news of his power to the rest of the French empire.
For the people living inside Calais, the events of the day were a complete nightmare. It was all madness and bizarre to the residents.
They hid inside their houses, peeking through small windows at the foreign soldiers marching through their streets.
How could this have happened? They asked themselves this question repeatedly.
They had watched their two thousand brave spearmen march out to fight, expecting a glorious victory.
Erik stood in the center of the city plaza with Kevang.
He turned his head and looked directly at Kevang. The King of Norway could not contain his joy any longer. He smiled a wide smile, completely amazed by the destructive capability they now commanded.
"I can hardly believe we actually have these weapons. Imagine, they’re ours and not Ragnar’s!" said Erik.
"They are in our hands today and they have won us a great victory," Kevang stated.
Kevang paused for a moment, looking at the black powder residue covering the iron barrels of the cannons.
"But you must remember... If we run out of the black powder during our march toward Paris, these heavy cannons will just become useless blocks of iron." Kevang continued.
Erik’s wide smile faded slightly, he knew that Ragnar controlled the primary resources, ensuring that Erik could never truly rebel against the Iron Kingdom without losing his advantage.
"You are correct." Erik replied, crossing his arms. "We will tell Ragnar and Louis that Calais has fallen exactly as we planned. We will demand more black powder and more explosive iron bolts."
Erik looked around the captured city, he knew that the news of the two thousand dead infantry and the five crushed princes would quickly reach the ears of Louis the Germanic in Paris.
"We will establish our defensive lines here..."
As the sun began to set over the ocean water, the Norwegian soldiers lit warm fires in the streets of Calais.
...
January 11, 870 AD
A fast messenger ship had just arrived from the French coast to deliver a crucial report from Erik, the King of Norway.
Ragnar held the rolled piece of parchment in his hands. Erik had successfully conquered the coastal city, slaughtering two thousand spearmen with the heavy field cannons.
However, the parchment also detailed the current state of the civilian population living inside the captured settlement.
During the night, a terrible scene of sorrow and confusion was happening inside the walls of Calais...
What did they do to deserve this?
The Viking soldiers were throwing the dead men into massive fires burning in the center of the dirt streets to prevent disease from spreading through the city.
Ragnar did not feel joy regarding the suffering of the innocent commoners, but he also did not feel any crippling guilt that would stop his campaign.
He knew that in the era of the ninth century, peace could not be built by asking polite questions or giving friendly gifts to rival warlords.
This throne must be with the rightful emperor, Louis the Stammerer.
If Louis the Stammerer reclaimed the royal seat in Paris, the two kingdoms would form a permanent alliance of blood and iron.
The door of the room opened, and Louis the Stammerer walked inside...