On June 10, Ragnar divided his forces once again. Vig led five thousand men straight west, while Ragnar himself took eleven thousand south. The remaining two thousand stayed behind to hold the bridgeheads on both banks of the Seine, using trebuchets to bombard Île de la Cité and wear down its defenders.
On the eve of departure, Ulf couldn't help but complain again.
"Right now, we're like a wild boar stuck in a swamp—full of brute strength, yet sinking deeper by the minute. Sigh… we should've attacked Flanders instead. If His Majesty had listened to me, we might already have taken Bruges and Antwerp and returned to Britain laden with spoils."
Ignoring the noise around him, Vig spread out a parchment map and contemplated the next stage of the campaign.
In warfare, supply was paramount. As the army pushed farther west, Calais was no longer a viable supply base. Before striking Brittany, he needed a suitable harbor.
"Saint-Malo," he said decisively. "That's the place."
With the destination chosen, Vig began laying out the route: from Paris westward through Le Mans and Laval, then an attack on the coastal town of Saint-Malo.
Once Saint-Malo was secured, supplies could be shipped directly from Southampton in Britain to the port. And if the situation turned bad, it would also provide a convenient escape route by sea.
Having made up his mind, Vig explained the plan to Ulf and the others. No one objected—after all, none of them were good at this sort of thinking.
"Gentlemen," Vig said, "for the next stretch, we'll temporarily lose contact with the rear. We're looking at roughly two weeks to reach Saint-Malo. Along the way, keep your soldiers under control. Don't let petty looting slow our march."
To prepare for a march of more than three hundred kilometers, Vig requisitioned a large number of draft horses from the former siege camp. Combined with the army's existing beasts of burden, they assembled two thousand draft horses to haul supply wagons.
As for the marching order:
At the very front were fifty cavalry scouts and two companies of mountain infantry, followed by Joren's First Infantry Regiment.
The middle consisted of mixed forces—Ulf, Little Pascal, and other irregular units—along with more than a thousand supply wagons.
Burrowbird's Second Infantry Regiment guarded the rear.
During the march, Vig positioned himself with the First Infantry Regiment, allowing him to react quickly to emergencies.
The wagons carried mostly black bread, with small amounts of salted meat and cheese.
To extend its shelf life, the black bread was made with reduced water content, mixed with bran and chaff, and baked for a long time until a hard crust formed on the outside. This inhibited mold growth and extended storage to about ten days—at the cost of atrocious taste. It had to be soaked in hot water or soup before it could be eaten.
Listening to the chorus of complaints during dinner, Vig suddenly had a new idea.
"After the war… would it be practical to make preserved food using glass jars and ceramic containers?"
Marching along ancient Roman roads, Vig advanced at 20–30 kilometers per day, while sending men to demand grain and fodder from small and medium settlements along the route. Once supplies were obtained, they moved on immediately without lingering.
(Note: Before the Battle of Agincourt, Henry V's army marched about nineteen miles—roughly thirty kilometers—per day. By medieval Western European standards, this was considered a fast pace.)
Whenever they encountered towns with wooden palisades or stone walls, Vig led his army in a wide detour, avoiding combat whenever possible.
After years of warfare, the Serpent of the North had become a name of terror among the Franks. Since he showed no interest in tormenting them, local counts and barons saw no reason to provoke him.
With that mindset, the nobles along the route did not sortie. They merely watched in silence as the black serpent banner vanished beyond the western horizon.
June 22
Five thousand Vikings arrived outside Rennes. After conquering Brittany, Charles the Bald had made Rennes the capital of the newly subjugated territory, forcing prisoners of war to rebuild a six-meter-high stone wall.
Seeing the defenders fully prepared atop the battlements, Vig chose not to attack. Instead, he turned north and marched straight toward Saint-Malo.
Two days later, the Vikings reached Saint-Malo and captured the coastal town after a short but fierce battle. Vig selected a seaworthy vessel and sent it back to Britain to inform Sebert to begin transporting supplies immediately.
In early July, a fleet of twenty cogs and thirty longships sailed into Saint-Malo. Amid Viking cheers, the ships delivered fresh grain, beer, over a thousand soldiers, and numerous prefabricated components for siege engines.
That night, the long-marched Vikings held a celebration. Gazing at the layer of white foam floating atop his cup, Ulf praised the quartermaster's competence.
"Excellent work. This man's far better than the clerks under the king. Back when Pascal was alive, the bureaucrats at least had restraints. After Goodwin became chancellor, he was too afraid to stir trouble, and the civil service just rotted away. Hah—if those useless fools in Londinium had been in charge of supplies, the fleet probably wouldn't even have sailed yet."
After a day of rest, Vig convened a council of war. He left eight hundred men to garrison Saint-Malo, maintaining the supply route and clearing Frankish forces from the Channel Islands to secure the sea lanes—Gunnar had long stationed troops there under the pretext of suppressing piracy.
With everything in place, Vig led five thousand men back toward Rennes. On the way, they ran into a small scouting party leaving the city. After a brief skirmish, all thirty Frankish soldiers were either killed or captured.
From the prisoners, Vig learned the situation in Rennes: about three thousand local residents and eight hundred Frankish troops, with ample grain reserves after the recent winter wheat harvest.
"Only eight hundred?" Vig muttered.
He ordered the city surrounded and trees felled. Thanks to the prefabricated components prepared earlier, the construction of siege engines proceeded at remarkable speed.
Twenty days later, the Vikings had assembled ten large trebuchets, fifteen siege towers, and five hundred ladders. Before launching the final assault, Vig repeatedly warned his men:
"This campaign is special. Our goal is to incite local rebellion. After the city falls, do not loot civilian homes. In return, everything in the city treasury will be divided among you."
Looking at the indifferent faces before him, he felt helpless. Other people's troops would never be as reliable as soldiers he had trained himself. The only advantage of fighting alongside this rabble was that it reduced casualties among his own men.
Raising his eyes to the blazing morning sun, Vig waved his left hand.
The next moment, counterweight boxes crashed down with thunderous force, and twenty stone projectiles screamed through the air, smashing into the northern wall of Rennes.
To save time, the trebuchets focused on destroying towers and battlements, stripping the defenders' archers of their cover. After three consecutive days of bombardment, the section of wall closest to the trebuchets was badly damaged—the once-lofty tower collapsed into rubble, and little of the battlements remained.
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