Chapter 318: Situation on the wall of Danevirke
Chapter 318: Situation on the wall of Danevirke
Outside the wall of Danevirke, a group of young men were glaring at the wooden wall in front of them.
“You don’t think it’s strange that they are repairing the wall. I think they realized that we will attack them before the end of this cold winter.”
Said a young soldier who was warming his body using a woolen blanket with holes in it.
“The only thing I know is that stupid Emperor Ludovico is taking revenge against all of us because look at how we are in this place.
Most do not have proper clothing, and the food is only moldy barley and stale oats.
What is the high pontiff thinking, to allow this sinner to stop the civil war, at least at that time it was easy to get food.
Because robbing the stupid nobles who supported the emperor was feasible, but now we can’t even send support to our families.
Well, this holy war against the Northerners is something we cannot refuse. I just hope we find enough things in their lands. “
The young soldier just looked at his companion and smiled bitterly “You think that group of pagans and barbarians will have something of value.
They are only arid and cold lands where there is nothing to eat; I am sure that is why they constantly attack our coasts.
A colleague I met in Count Freudian’s army told me how his town was mercilessly attacked. Those damned people burned the place.
Women were raped and taken away, children were impaled, and most of the men were killed. Only the strongest were taken to be slaves.
How horrible to experience something like that. Thank goodness that my home is in Aquitaine. “
The soldier raised an eyebrow “But the emirate of Córdoba is not always supposed to launch raids against Aquitaine, it is not more dangerous to be a slave of the Muslims.”
The young soldier shook his head “My family does not live on the border but my uncle is a merchant who travels through the border cities of the emirate of Córdoba.
According to him, Christians can continue to process their faith on the sole condition that they pay a tax, but they live better than us.
You can believe that in a country that is hostile to us, they have better lives than us, even tell me that some rich Christian merchants.
They have traveled to Jerusalem, where they have been able to see the birthplace of Christ and his deathbed. One of them even told him fantastic stories about Bethlehem.
I would also like to travel to Jerusalem to get to know the holy land, hopefully the Supreme Pontiff will do something so that we Christians can go.
If we will already be called warriors of god unless we are given the opportunity to go to the holy land. “
The soldier looked with some condescension at the young soldier “You have enormous ideas, but first we have to survive the winter.
I am sure that at this rate, we will run out of wood so we will end up dying of cold.
What a depressing way to die. You know, my grandfather saw his family die in a snowstorm in his village in the Alps.
The local nobleman, a dirty son of a bitch, thought it was a good idea to take the grain from the village and the supplies from the town because, according to him, they were to receive a duke.
My grandfather, who was a child, just watched as his parents and other members of the village were savagely beaten.
He says that after that, a winter storm began that did not allow him to see beyond his hands.
He never lacked a plate of water with wheat or barley, but he noticed how his parents lost weight day by day.
When the wood ran out, his father took an ax and left his house. When he returned at night, he did it carrying wood and food.
That day he says that the meat tasted sweet and soft. His mother and he ate, but his father only ate a little because according to him he had already eaten. “
The following days, they only ate meat until it was finished. At that moment, his father took up his ax again and left in the morning.
When he returned at night, he did so with a wound on his arm. My grandfather did not know why his father was injured, but his questions were never answered.
Well, the aroma of the meat in the pan distracted him from the conversation his parents were having. According to what his mother said, from that day on, he only ate enough meat.
All of this continued to repeat itself throughout the winter until the storm finally ended, at which point her parents took their things and left the town.
From what he had understood is that all the inhabitants had died and that their houses had burned down.
From that moment on, his family traveled north and settled in a beautiful town where wines were grown.
There was where he made his life and where I was born, near the city of Strasbourg, a beautiful place to grow up. “
The young soldier was surprised by the story of his partner “I think your grandfather’s father was an excellent hunter to only use his ax to have meat.
But did you ever say what kind of meat it was? “
The soldier shook his head “According to what I heard from my grandfather, it was sweet meat with a taste of pork, sometimes was very soft and others were hard.
He could never taste such delicious meat again. “
While this was happening, Gautier’s ship was entering the river Rhine. The situation inside it was somewhat depressing.
For they had completed the mission that had been entrusted to them, but they never thought that Kassia was married to a young Norse king.
That he had weapons that could somehow make explosions had a very great sense of defeat, especially the priests.
Those who, despite seeing thousands of Christian slaves, could not do anything, could only report their findings to Rome so that they would know of the existence of a dangerous place like that in the north of the continent.
A dangerous and distant island that must have been at the end of the known world. The only thing they knew about it was that the natives called it Iceland.
Although their words were incorrect because there were crops and roads, they did not want to name that place filled with pagans in another way.