By mid-June, the second class of students concluded their five-year curriculum. Vig and Herligev attended the graduation ceremony and assigned positions to the fifty graduates.
After discussion, Vig made the following appointments:
35 entered the administrative system
10 became apprentice shamans in various temples
5 stayed on as teachers and continued studying the first-year middle-school syllabus
"With this cohort filling the gaps, administrative efficiency in the four northern counties will rise sharply. Starting next year, we can gradually establish town-level administrations."
Vig was outlining future plans when two columns of thick black smoke rose from the eastern sky.
Enemy attack.
Two smoke columns meant an enemy force somewhere between 100 and 500 men.
The graduation ceremony was suspended. Vig escorted Herligev back to Tyne Town Castle, leaving fifty shield-guards to defend the keep. He led the remaining fifty to the southeastern wall of Tyne Town.
Ten minutes later, the newly formed garrison infantry company had fully assembled—150 men, all in iron armor—waiting on the field behind the wall.
Over the next hour, armed townsfolk streamed in.
Tyne Town had 3,200 permanent residents. During an attack, every adult male was obliged to defend the town. They formed squads of 30–50 by neighborhood and, after hearing the alarm bells, ran to the castle to draw weapons.
A total of 800 armed residents assembled—nearly half carrying crossbows.
"So Erik really dares attack Tyne Town? Interesting."
Counting the militia, Vig had nearly a thousand defenders—more than enough to hold the wall.
At his order, the garrison carried out jars of fire-oil and piled them near the six small trebuchets.
All preparations complete, Vig dispatched two hundred militiamen to move the docked boats upriver, away from the coming battle.
At 2 p.m., the enemy fleet appeared—twenty longships, around five hundred men.
Strangely, no ship flew Erik's sword-and-axe banner. Their formation was sloppy, drifting like a flock of half-drowned ducks.
"Their armor rate is only ten percent. Pathetic. Hardly Erik's men."
Vig signaled the crews to halt loading the trebuchets, and motioned for the militiamen behind the parapets to sit down and feign weakness.
Soon, the raiders' vessels anchored at the docks. They stumbled around in confusion, then formed a shieldwall and began edging toward the south wall of the town.
Vig raised his voice:
"Who are you? Why do you attack Ragnar's Britain?"
A response came from behind the shieldwall:
"We come only for Vig! We mean no offense to King Ragnar and do not seek to seize this land. Kill Vig, and we swear to leave at once—no harm to the locals!"
Bergen's lord, Auh?
Realizing they were copying his own excuse from earlier, Vig laughed aloud. He gestured for his men to remain seated until the enemy closed within fifty meters.
"All crossbows—fire!"
At the command, the militia pulled their triggers. Hundreds of bolts punched into the shieldwall, dropping over twenty raiders instantly.
The raiders' archers tried to return fire.
But they were only forty in number—no match for hundreds of crossbows behind stone battlements. After two exchanges, they were pinned down so completely that none dared lift their heads again.
Under the hail of bolts, the raiders wavered. The shieldwall began edging backward.
Then the trebuchets fired.
Six fire-oil jars whistled through the air, arcing toward the beached longships.
Cheers erupted from the defenders as the jars smashed into the nearest vessel. Flames devoured the woolen sail, then leapt to a second ship.
Seeing their ships burning, the raiders panicked. Gaps opened in the retreating shieldwall. The crossbowmen exploited them immediately—another volley dropped more than thirty men.
"They're breaking. Shield-guards! Garrison infantry! Attack!"
Two hundred armored soldiers surged out of the south gate.
The raiders were trapped between two bad options:
If they retreated in formation, they'd be overtaken by rested armored troops.
If they sprinted for the ships, they'd expose their backs to crossbow fire.
After only a moment of hesitation, small groups at the edges broke and ran. Once that began, the rest lost all cAuhsion and bolted for the shore.
A second volley of fire-oil jars crashed into the docks—two more ships burst into flame.
Chaos erupted. Some longships overflowed with men. Others had too few to launch. Before they could sort themselves out, the armored troops crashed into them.
The raiders had rowed twenty kilometers upriver—over four exhausting hours. Their strength was drained; they were no match for fresh, armored killers.
Within minutes, most threw down their weapons. Only two longships managed to shove off and flee downstream in disgrace.
When the fighting ended, Vig ordered militia to extinguish the fires before the docks were lost.
Then he accepted the scribes' interrogation notes.
Cross-referencing the confessions, the truth emerged:
the raiders had been stirred up by Lord Auh of Bergen, acting without King Erik's approval—an unsanctioned private vendetta.
After thinking a moment, Vig said:
"Draft a report for Londinium. Inform Ragnar of this raid. Send two prisoners as witnesses."
"As for the remaining three hundred—same as always. Throw them into the labor crews. Drain marshes, clear land."
By now, Tyne Town County's population exceeded 30,000:
15,000 Northmen
4,000 Welsh from the three tribes
10,000+ Anglo residents
To house the swelling numbers of migrants, Vig intended to clear the vast land south of the Tyne.
"Viking raiders and Pictish bandits… a steady source of free labor. Perfect for major works.
The south bank's population is growing fast. Perhaps it's time to build a floating bridge, with a small stone fort on the southern end. And since Iceland is sending us loads of volcanic ash every month—it'd be a shame not to use it."
Labor was abundant, so Vig even agreed to the Raven-Speaker's proposal:
to build a grand new Norse temple in the town center—tall, majestic, forward-looking. A temple to symbolize a reformed, progressive version of the Norse faith, overshadowing Uppsala, Nidaros, and Tissø once and for all.
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