Anno Domini 830, March-1-15
Without wasting time and taking advantage of the weather, which remained quite harsh although mild compared to the worst days of winter, we had already begun the mission of clashing with the Carolingian forces. If I wanted to fulfill my orders in the south, it was completely necessary to destroy this force, otherwise I would have to leave many troops guarding the frontier, and that would leave me in poor condition to face the 30,000 Franks together with the Croatian troops, since I did not know how many Serbs would join our forces.
But the problem was how to force a battle. Unless I charged directly against the Frankish forces, they would surely withdraw into the forested lands of Austria and move deeper into Germany, where our cavalry would lose much of its effectiveness and the rough terrain would give them the advantage, forcing me to march south without securing the region.
So I continued to keep many scouts observing the Carolingian army, trying to send several Slavic patrols to eliminate the Frankish scouts, since I was looking for them to make a mistake.
The only way to achieve our objective was to appear weak, so I had many of our forces deploy far from our main camp.
We remained with a relatively small force in the area, while two armies of 10,000 men waited for orders. At the same time, with my Varangians, we began to harass the Frankish forces, trying to force them to fight when they saw our numbers.
I only had 9,000 men with me, so officially I was at a numerical disadvantage, although that meant little if they managed to send a message reporting how many we truly were.
During the following days, while the temperature slowly began to rise, I took part in multiple small skirmishes against the Frankish cavalry, where we clashed in the plains of the region, limiting ourselves to harassment tactics, shooting arrows and withdrawing when possible, while I watched the Frankish army begin to gather troops from the castles that had not been taken, rapidly increasing their numbers by several thousand more, bringing together the Franks we had not managed to eliminate.
But that was even better, since it left the castles extremely weak to be taken. So I simply sent for more men among the Vlachs and Rhomaioi, who were waiting for orders, along with more Slavs, calling them to come since they would remain as garrisons once all this was over.
So when the Frankish general became confident and began to advance into the territory, he made the mistake of trying to take one of the fortresses we had captured, besieging the Varangians who had remained to defend it.
It was when the battle was practically decided that the Franks lifted their siege camp, and we did the same, camping near them. They did not seem to care much about what we were doing. I even noticed a diplomatic attempt to end the siege, since there was movement up the hill and some troops simply withdrew.
The gates of the fortress, although damaged, had been quickly repaired after we took it, although we would still have to bring siege equipment to take them again or prepare ladders. I used the time well, since while they began the siege, I sent messengers to bring the Slavic armies that had been hiding in the region, preparing to launch two enveloping pincers against the Franks, which soon arrived, one from the north and another from the south.
Obviously, the movement of troops did not go unnoticed, since the plains of the region were ideal for spotting any force moving along the flanks.
But they were trapped.
"Well I do not know who the enemy general is, but he has certainly fucked it up badly" I said, watching from horseback as the Carolingians prepared to withdraw.
"So what do we do now, attack or keep harassing" Sigurd said, watching the Carolingian camp with interest.
"Harass, unless I throw them head on and the Franks decide to fight, I do not think we can inflict a decisive defeat" I said, signaling the cavalry units to begin moving.
Taking advantage of the fact that the Franks were beginning to panic at the presence of my riders, they started marching as fast as they could, trying to leave the area they had entered.
But only minutes after beginning their retreat, hundreds of riders began to gallop around them, firing arrows, while the Franks formed shield walls and the echo of thousands of horse hooves could be heard as they were surrounded.
Arrows flew from side to side, both from the Frankish archers and from our Slavs and Varangian cavalry, who galloped and constantly harassed the Franks.
For hours this continued, with frequent horse changes using the enormous numbers the Slavs had as livestock. From time to time, they changed mounts to continue the harassment without rest.
By midday, arrows were still flying, and a long trail of Frankish bodies was beginning to form, with arrows embedded everywhere.
Even so, despite their attempts to escape, and although we outnumbered them, their retreat was very inefficient, they had barely managed to advance a few kilometers from their camp, leaving behind a trail of dead, while our forces rotated to maintain constant pressure.
Troops arrived every hour to rest and prepare fresh horses, while others departed immediately to repeat the process.
By dusk, the situation remained the same, while the Franks continued their organized retreat, many Slavs were recovering arrows from the bodies to keep shooting, since hours of fighting were draining our reserves of projectiles, but since the Carolingian forces did not bother retrieving their dead, the arrows could be reused.
Until night fell.
The Franks attempted to form a camp without much success, since any attempt to raise tents or light fires was answered with new attacks from our forces, launching more aggressive assaults, throwing torches at their supply wagons and burning their tents.
Seeing that we would not allow them to rest, they kept marching through the night, repeating the same process, while we moved our supplies and set up small camps to continue the attack against the Frankish forces.
The Franks still maintained their discipline. Even after hours without rest and marching in full armor, they showed no signs of breaking, and we were approaching one of the Frankish castles, so I began to order Varangian cavalry charges against them.
As dawn arrived and the light of the sun spread, I began to organize an attack to finish everything.
"Move move" I shouted, spurring my horse forward as I led a group of riders flanking the Franks.
The Frankish cavalry had begun to chase a group of Slavic horsemen, leaving their infantry exposed.
So this was the moment to strike.
Several hundred horse archers began to approach the Frankish forces.
A great volley of arrows struck the shields at once, as the screams of those who had not been lucky enough to block them echoed across the field.
A second group of Slavs rode forward and did the same, while we sought to cut off their path, since the entrance to the castle was only three kilometers away.
"Formation formation" I shouted, as I ordered the Varangians into a wedge.
A line of spears leveled forward, as around three thousand Varangians formed ranks, preparing to charge the Carolingian line while the archers softened it.
That was the moment I regretted not bringing the cataphracts Skleros had given me. At the time I thought they would be useless, too slow and heavy to fight alongside Slavs, but now they would have been perfect to crash into an infantry line with leveled spears. Even so, this was the only way to win the battle before they could take refuge in a castle.
We waited while the Slavs continued firing until the last arrow, until finally a Slavic leader sounded a horn, signaling they were out of projectiles.
"Good that is the signal, let us show those Franks how to fight" I shouted with all my strength, as I ordered the charge, although I consciously remained in the rear lines.
The Frankish lines were reforming after having lost dozens in the last attack, as thousands of Varangians charged with their spears aimed at them.
The Franks, tired and exhausted, still presented their spears, preparing for the impact.
Men were thrown into the air, screams and the clash of metal filled the battlefield, along with the snorting and neighing of horses, followed by cries of pain as both forces began to fight to the death.
The sound of polehammers crushing mail and breaking bones echoed across the line, as the Varangians swung their weapons from side to side, striking everything they could, while the Franks hurled their axes, hitting Varangian armor and smashing horses.
As the combat became extremely bloody and both sides bled, the Slavs returned with more men and began to harass the Franks from the rear.
At the same time, a second group of Varangian cavalry, led by Sigurd, began to prepare for a charge.
I swung my polehammer and shattered the shoulder of a Frank who had tried to impale me with a spear, striking against my bevor.
As I steadied my horse, I saw the Franks break and begin to flee in disarray, abandoning the fight.
"Chase them quickly, do not let them escape" I shouted, and one of my translators repeated the orders to the Slavs, who immediately stopped harassing the Frankish lines and began to pursue the fleeing men, impaling them with spears or shooting arrows into their backs.
Within minutes, the Frankish formation began to disintegrate, just as their cavalry returned, and upon seeing that the infantry had scattered, they simply galloped away, abandoning the rest to their fate.
We quickly moved to surround, capture, and kill the survivors of the Frankish army.
We had achieved victory with few losses, although most were concentrated among my elite group, the Varangians, since I had ordered them to charge directly into leveled spears.
But it paid off. We had defeated seventeen thousand Frankish soldiers with losses in the hundreds, which was a great victory, especially because now we had many of their armors intact.
As the spoils began to be distributed, a Slavic leader approached me and began to speak.
"He says if these can be put in chains" the translator said.
"No, not them either, no Christian is to be put in chains" I said, wiping the blood stuck to my armor.
The translator repeated my words, and the Slavic leader showed confusion.
"He asks then what we do with them" the translator said.
"They will be sent to our settlements, they can be used for ransom later or simply work in the villages until they pay their own ransom" I said, while cleaning the blood from my polehammer, removing fragments of bone.
After translating to the Slavic leader, he nodded and began to receive what his men brought him, a piece of better quality armor.
Taking advantage of the victory, we soon captured Pressburg, which was a settlement that seemed to be turning into a city of the Carolingian Empire, being the last major stronghold in the region of the Carpathian plains. We had secured the entire region after defeating the Franks.
We remained a few more days in the area, securing and taking the remaining local castles, which surrendered without a fight after learning the fate of the Carolingian army and knowing that another twenty thousand riders had arrived now that winter was ending.
Reinforcements of Slavs, Vlachs, and Rhomaioi had arrived, and they took charge of filling the western garrisons of both the mark of Pannonia and the region of Nitra. I took several thousand Vlach riders with me to reinforce my forces and march south with thirty five thousand men, since the mission of going to Croatia and supporting the imperial campaign still remained.
So we gathered the supplies looted in the thema of Pannonia, assembled the troops, and prepared everything to cross the Drava River and begin the invasion of Croatia, seeking to cause chaos from the north to draw the attention of the Carolingian forces that were fighting against the Serbs.
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