Ch 21: York
Having driven off the pursuers, the Vikings hastily buried their comrades’ corpses, and with their looted equipment returned to Leeds. After resting for a few days, they finally awaited the arrival of the two thousand troops who had been separated from them.
Having expanded to nearly three thousand men, Ragnar was unwilling to delay. News of the Viking invasion had spread throughout Northumbria, and he estimated that militias were mustering in various places. If they delayed any longer, he feared the enemy would raise another army of two or three thousand men.
“Go North, attack York!”
That afternoon, the Viking fleet entered the River Ouse. For some reason, the river’s water level was very low this year, and the Anglo-Saxons had also discarded a large number of felled trees in the shallows, severely hindering the Vikings’ navigation.
With no other choice, Ragnar led his troops to the East Bank, preparing to walk to York. To prevent the enemy from taking advantage of the situation and burning the ships, he ordered the fleet to return to the Humber Estuary with the plundered treasure, trying to find a hidden inlet.
York was originally built by the Romans; Constantine I had been proclaimed emperor there. As the Roman Empire’s important northern military town, it possessed a five-kilometer-long city wall, approximately six meters high. The River Ouse served as a natural barrier on the west side of the city, making the difficulty of attack far greater than that of Leeds.
Seeing this, Vig completely lost his desire for a surprise attack to seize the city, silently calculating the time and resources needed to build siege weapons.
Ransacking his memory, he chose four types of weapons: long ladders, siege towers, battering rams, and counterweight trebuchets.
A siege tower was a movable wooden high platform that contained soldiers, its height matching the city wall. During a siege, soldiers would slowly push it to the edge of the city wall, and after lowering a ramp, the heavily armored soldiers inside would surge onto the city wall, with far greater transport efficiency than long ladders.
Battering rams were used to strike city gates. Their tops had wooden sheds to protect soldiers from stones and arrows from the city walls. However, the defenders could pour pitch and oil to burn them, making them very dangerous.
Counterweight trebuchets could throw stones to destroy city walls, but their construction difficulty was too great. Vig only had a rough sketch in his mind and was not completely sure he could restore it to a physical object.
“Referring to the records of siege warfare in medieval Europe, it would probably take at least two or three months, or even more than half a year. Do these Vikings have the patience?”
He used his homemade charcoal pencil to sketch on the papyrus, noticing that a large number of people had gathered near Ragnar’s tent, about to hold a war council.
Rushing into the tent, Vig suggested Ragnar act cautiously. “We suffered a loss at Mancunium last time. This time, let’s be safe and wait until I build the siege weapons before launching a full-scale attack.”
His words gained the agreement of those present. However, King Eric’s reinforcements, who had not suffered any losses, were only thinking about rushing into the royal palace to loot, and some even mocked Vig’s cowardice, saying he was unworthy of the Dragon’s Breath Sword.
“Damn it, say that again! I also have a ‘Heartbreaker’. Dare you take both of them?”
Ivar casually picked up a wooden cup and threw it, and the men shoved and cursed each other, instantly throwing the entire tent into chaos.
“Shut up!”
With his men being beaten, King Eric, his face gloomy, spoke. “We came to Britain to get rich, not to engage in meaningless disputes. Since we cannot reach an agreement, I will build long ladders and attack on my own. If anyone is willing to participate, we will share the spoils after the battle. If not, so be it.”
After a huge commotion, Eric left with five nobles close to him. In the following five days, he had two hundred long ladders forged and secretly incited Ragnar’s troops, eventually persuading two thousand three hundred men to follow him in attacking the city.
May 11th, morning.
After breakfast, the Vikings gathered messily in the open space. Eric targeted the east wall, intending to take the city in one go, lest his reputation be surpassed by Ragnar. Though he had married his younger sister Sola, in the face of power, this thin kinship had no binding force.
“Attack! Odin is watching us!”
The first batch of eight hundred Vikings carried long ladders and charged toward the city wall. Three hundred archers, forming a loose line, shot at the Anglo-Saxon soldiers behind the battlements.
The defenders chose to ignore the Viking archers and focused on shooting the Vikings carrying the ladders.
Suddenly, earth-shattering cheers erupted from the top of the city wall. A group of guards surrounded a fat boy and moved around. Without surprise, this was Aella, the only son of Eilaud, and the heir to the Northumbrian throne.
With the prince supervising the battle, the defenders’ morale grew even stronger. They also specifically adjusted their shooting strategy. Each long ladder had four men on either side. The defender archers specifically targeted the soldiers on the left side. When only one or two were left on the left, the ladder would lose its balance, and its speed would greatly decrease.
In the end, only thirty ladders reached the bottom of the city wall. Realizing the situation was bad, Eric led the remaining Vikings in a charge, creating a grand show of force that made Ragnar’s troops, who were watching the battle, eager to try.
“Did I make a mistake? Eric does have hope of breaching the city?”
Ragnar’s expression was serious, his right hand on his sword hilt. Turning his head to look at the hundreds of soldiers behind him, he was in a difficult position. “Vig, bring out the fifty long ladders you built. Once Eric’s troops reach the top of the wall, we must follow!”
“Yes.”
Vig sent men to the camp to carry the ladders. Five minutes later, when he arrived, panting, carrying a ladder, he found the defenders in the distance frantically pouring pitch.
Faced with this tactic, the Vikings climbing the ladders were helpless. They watched as the hot, sticky pitch was poured down on them. The next moment, a torch was thrown from behind the battlements, turning these Viking warriors into screaming, wailing fire-people.
Witnessing the terrible sight of their comrades, the morale of the Vikings at the foot of the city wall collapsed. Holding their round shields, they spontaneously retreated, and the grand-scale siege lasted less than half an hour.
“That was too brutal.”
Looking at the charred corpses lying at the foot of the city wall, Vig swallowed hard with difficulty. No wonder siege warfare in the Middle Ages was mainly based on sieges. A forceful attack was simply a disaster.
He looked at Ragnar. “Londinium’s defenses were no worse than York’s. Two years ago, how did you break through?”
Witnessing this terrible sight, Ragnar was also quite frightened. “It was different. At that time, we arrived at the city via the Thames River at midnight and used rope hooks for a night raid to breach the city. Damn it, I didn’t expect the casualties of a frontal assault to be so great. Now we are in trouble.”