Rise of Rurik

The two rivers meet together, and they merge into the broad Mann River, which briefly flows for only about three kilometers before emptying into the main channel of the Loire.

At the comprehensive confluence of three rivers, a city arose.

After the once Gallic Antican tribe was conquered by Rome, their settlement arose in this Roman city.

It was a passing city on the westward stretch of the Gallic Way, and now its former Roman glory has faded. With the influx of new Frankish immigrants, Antika Durum also became Anjou through word of mouth.

After the Count of Anjou was defeated and killed, the Count of Tours exploited the area on a large scale, causing it to sink further.

The Earl of Tours claimed to be legally exploiting this place for war supplies, and he has been exploiting it for ten years now.

Compared with the small-scale sneak attacks by the Normans, this kind of exploitation is long-lasting.

Any local nobles who had the guts to do so were either defeated and killed, their family property divided among the victors, or the survivors fled with their property.

The remaining people had to pay taxes to the new conquerors, and the former serfs became slaves working for the Count of Tours.

It was precisely when the Anjou region was hit hard that the Bretons in Armorica in the west, who spoke the traditional Celtic language, led by a new generation of strong leaders, through constant small-scale conflicts, like smoldering fires, Slowly eroding the northwest region of Anjou.

In order to avoid the attack, although the people realized that the Earl of Tours was deliberately exploiting them, it was better than being captured and made into slaves by the Bretons.

At the confluence of the Loire and Main rivers, people gathered here, and a number of new villages sprang up after the war.

Because these areas belong to Jiu'an

The Earl of Ru was directly under the jurisdiction of the Earl of Tours, so the Earl of Tours collected taxes directly and reasonably. Coupled with the fact that the villagers lived together enough and the garrison was directly responsible to the Count of Tours, it was easier to collect taxes.

Although Reglaf had been struggling in Tours for three years, except for passing through Anjou when he first arrived in Tours, he did not enter the city of Anjou in the following days.

All his understanding of the city came from hearsay later. As for how much was true and how false, he wanted to find out this time.

With limited information, Reglaf decided to enter the city of Anjou in an upright manner.

Suddenly, under the rising sun, the horns played a glorious dawn, and the troops who had spent the night in the dead grass by the river got up one after another.

"Let's all get up! Let's all go to the river to wash our faces, change our clothes, and let's set off after dinner." Reglaf inspected the small camp and gave orders casually.

The soldiers patted their faces and got up one after another, and the horses lying on their sides also got up.

Soon, the soldiers with wet faces and hair were gathered around the campfire, waiting for the wheat grains flying in the pottery urns to be cooked, while the war horses were already gnawing grass everywhere.

At this moment, Beikong had just finished his meal. His leather boots collapsed in the dry control. He stood on the riverside and looked around. In front of him was the increasingly wide Loire River, and to the northwest was a forest.

If there were no forest blocking the view, a person standing by the river could see the cross on the spire of the Little Martin Abbey in the distance.

Although, Becon is still willing to call it "Saint Martin Cathedral of Anjou". Let’s face reality. A large number of the church's sacred vessels and manuscripts have been transferred to the cathedral in Tours, and all the monasteries in Anjou have little value left.

goods.

This matter is definitely not the greed of the Count of Tours, or even has anything to do with the nobles of Tours.

St. Martin's Cathedral in Tours is the largest church in the entire Neustria region. It is the office of the regional archdiocese and has the largest library in the region.

Wars between great nobles inevitably disturbed churches. For safety reasons, a large number of sacred vessels and books from monasteries in Anjou had already been escorted to the cathedral in Tours.

If you don't do this, some greedy soldiers are very likely to break into the monastery and either violently plunder or steal quietly. Even if those guys go to hell, they will still think about the wealth in this life. Regarding the soldiers with red eyes, the priests did not expect that these guys could be persuaded.

Regarding the birth of a new count in Anjou, Robert, the new count of Tours, he only learned of this possibility from a messenger.

Hand over Anjou to some noble? Is King Charles serious? Or are you just mentioning it and using it to demonstrate to yourself?

The fact that Anjou would grant Reglave the title was indeed just an idea of ​​Charlie's at first. But Anjou would be given to a certain noble. This matter was definitely not Charlie's decision.

After sending away the messenger Ariubert, Robert, who was furious, calmed down. Considering that it is very likely that he is about to lose his occupation of Anjou, it is better to... search it again.

So, when Reglaf happily went to Poitiers to meet the king, the local garrison along the Loire-Main River in Anjou, where people lived in a highly concentrated area, was ordered to start taxing intensively.

It was promised that after collecting the surplus grain, the soldiers who collected the tax would get a proportional share of the pie, even if the proportion was only

One percent is enough to attract soldiers to fill their pockets legally, even if their barbaric actions make the priests despise them.

The garrison troops on horseback and armed with swords entered the villages along the river one by one and ordered the locals to hand over all their remaining grain.

At first, the grain collection effort was not so extreme. However, as some free farmers resisted with arms, they were brutally beaten to death by soldiers. After hearing the news, some serfs built rafts and forcibly crossed the icy Loire River, but unfortunately fell into the river and died.

The barbaric acts brought more and more tragedies. Abbot Raymond tried to persuade them to stop it, but the garrison simply ignored the church's requests in order to complete the count's mission.

The abbot said harshly: "What's the difference between you being so barbaric and the Norman pirates? Your souls have been possessed by the devil, and you will all go to hell."

The words frightened the soldiers at first. They thought about it and then choked back: "We are executing the order of the Earl, and we have no right to refuse."

The implication is that it was Robert who gave the order who was going to hell.

Since the forced search was met with resistance, the soldiers intensified their tactics.

As a result, soldiers began to take away farmers' seeds and grains, and beat and kicked the crying villagers.

In addition, ponies and donkeys needed for plowing the land were taken away, and sheep, cows, and even some poultry raised by farmers were often found and taken away.

They are not really like the Norman pirates who committed murder and looting, but because their hands are already black, even if they stop now, the so-called dirty souls of the priests cannot be washed away, so there is only one The road goes dark.

Peasants did not dare to resist, especially serfs

He even dared not resist the Earl of Tours. Because they were worried that their resistance would be trampled by the more brutal heavy cavalry of the Tour army.

Those barbaric stories have long been circulated. Because of the crowd resistance, when the Tour army conquered Le Mans, they took extreme measures against the local army, and some villages simply disappeared.

Who would really believe that the "vanished villages" were the work of Bretons? It must be that the Tour army used the name of those barbarians to do more barbaric things.

They didn't dare to resist. If they had to face the cold and wide Loire River when they fled, the farmers simply chose to kill their livestock and poultry first, at least let the family feast on meat first, and at the same time bury the remaining food.

The situation in some villages was like a doomsday carnival. Within a few days, the entire village had no chickens and eggs. There were rumors that those crazy soldiers might even capture the dogs and cats, so the dogs were released and the cats were exiled.

As for the dog that fell in love with the family and ran back, the owner still cried and chased the dog away, telling him to "run away if you don't want to die."

The villagers did not feel that they could survive until the new autumn safely, but when the weather warmed up, everyone dug out the buried food, collectively built a new raft, floated across the Loire River, which was no longer cold, and then headed south on foot. Go in the direction of Kitan.

Even if he went to Aquitaine and worked as a serf for the local nobles, the situation would be better than the current situation.

In fact, the people are looking forward to the coming of a savior.

The abbot opened the church's granary, but on weekdays, Dean Raymond had very limited food. The priests did help the people with their mercy, but the hungry people who were looted were quickly exhausted.

Store food for the church.