The princes and nobles of the coalition forces spent a very happy night. As victors, they can naturally be so relaxed.
But for losers, it's not so leisurely.
Echoing the joy outside the city, Minsk was wailing, and the flags of Polotsk seemed to be infected by this scene, hanging listlessly on the flags.
Minsk was originally the most vital city in the Polotsk Principality. It continued to develop as the emerging center of the Principality. Its future was originally bright and brilliant, but after this war, things were bound to change drastically.
Many women and children are lamenting that as residents of Minsk, their children followed the prince out of the city to fight, but as a result, no one came back, and most of them were left outside the city. It is not known whether they turned into corpses or
Became a prisoner.
More soldiers were sitting on the roadside as if they had lost their energy. Many of them had no weapons in their hands, and their armors looked extremely messy, but no one scolded them.
Because too many people died, everyone lost their comrades, friends, relatives and even lords, and the city gate was closed before to block too many people outside. After hearing the screams and wailing outside the door, everyone couldn't help but feel...
More sad.
The atmosphere in the entire city was so low, and Vseslav could only open the warehouse and let the soldiers freely use the food and wine inside to soothe their hearts.
This is the only benefit brought about by the defeat. There are fewer mouths to eat in the city, so the remaining people can naturally enjoy more food, but no one is happy because of this.
As for Vseslav himself, the wizard prince could only lament in the fortress of Minsk, and after lamenting, he had to immediately put his face aside and lead the people to fight.
At present, he has less than 3,000 troops, and the composition is still mixed. The only good thing is that there are still a lot of soldiers and Polotsk militia. Vseslav does not have to worry about anyone rebelling for the time being. These people are absolutely loyal to him.
.
Outside the city, the Yaroslavichs quickly set up a siege camp full of trebuchets and ballistae, and began to drop stone bombs at the city non-stop.
At the beginning, the trebuchets in Minsk were still actively counterattacking the attacks outside the city, but there were obviously siege experts outside. They quickly determined the location of the trebuchets, and then continued to project there, and soon
Destroyed the trebuchets in the city.
As a result, daily life in the city has become a situation where stone bullets may be thrown at any time, and there are three projection climaxes every day. At that time, everyone has to find a hiding place, otherwise they may be smashed into pieces of flesh and blood.
of.
The morale in the city of Minsk is getting lower and lower. How can morale be high after being attacked unilaterally? Moreover, they cannot even repair the city wall after it is damaged, because there will be special attacks on the repairers outside the city. When those siege equipment create a
A pile of pieces of flesh and blood.
Everyone knew that no matter what Vseslav did, he could not hold on to the city, and some people were even ready to surrender.
Various rumors are constantly circulating in the city, that the Polotsk Principality has been occupied by Yaroslavich, that his hometown has been burned, and that his family has become hostages of the coalition forces. In short, morale is getting lower and lower.
It was under such circumstances that the Yaroslavichs felt that the situation was almost over, so they sent envoys to Minsk to persuade them to surrender.
So, while the coalition forces were leisurely spending their siege time in the camp, an important meeting was held in Minsk, which was being bombarded by countless stone bombs.
In the halls of Minsk, important personnel of the Polotsk Principality were gathering together to discuss the next situation - to be precise, they were discussing whether they should surrender next.
This hall was built by the Polotsk Principality to demonstrate its authority. The materials are all white stones brought from afar. As for the interior, it is even more magnificent. It can always shock visitors, but now, no one cares about these things.
On the contrary, at this moment, all this makes people look upset.
The boulders that constantly hit the city could not stop the lords from arguing. Each lord seized every opportunity to speak, used all his strength, shouted and shouted, and expressed his opinions with the loudest voice, as if whose volume could overwhelm him.
Among all the companions, whose opinion is the most reasonable.
They did not consider humility or politeness at all when they spoke, and the whole meeting was so noisy that it even made people blush and thicken their necks.
This is not a quarrel, but a way to vent the depression that has been accumulated since the siege. At the same time, the most important thing is to cover up fear. Only those who show bravado when facing their companions can cover up the uneasiness in their bones.
.
"My lords, please be quiet."
Sitting on the ancient oak chair of the Polotsk ruler, the wizarding prince Vseslav put his left hand on the armrest of the chair, and touched his forehead with his right hand in distress, feeling helpless about everything in front of him.
No one paid any attention to him. Several people glanced at him, gave the prince an apologetic look, and then continued to participate in the argument.
This chaotic meeting made Vseslav very troubled. The defeat in the city greatly reduced his prestige. The mystery of the past was also shattered after people saw his soldiers dragging the prince and escaping back to the city, so now it is somewhat difficult to control the situation.
But fortunately among the misfortunes, those who were not determined in the team basically did not escape to Minsk. Although the people here may be dissatisfied with him now, they are all staunch loyalists.
"That's enough, didn't you hear what I said?"
The prince was a little angry and slapped the long oak table hard. The soldiers behind him also hit the ground neatly with the bottom of their spears. This stopped the argument for a while.
"My lords, please be quiet and come one by one. This will not help the situation. We cannot get any results from such arguments."
As soon as the prince finished speaking, a huge boulder hit near the hall, making a huge noise, and a lot of debris fell from the ceiling. There was an awkward silence in the scene.
"My lords, let's talk carefully now." After a while, the prince broke the awkward silence with a somewhat embarrassed expression, "What should we... do?"
"What else can I do? What else can I do?"
Ivar, who was sitting closest to the prince's left hand, said feebly, "This is a young man from the North vassal group, he is only 29 years old this year."
However, he looked more like a noble from the imperial capital. He was dressed in exquisite Greek clothes, and his fingers were full of gorgeous and extravagant rings. He seemed out of place with the other Polotsk lords.
This is because he once stayed in Kiev for a while and studied at the Yaroslav Palace Academy. However, he met a Greek and learned a lot of imperial customs from him, which almost angered his father to death.
I didn’t ask you to go to Kiev to learn the frivolous customs of Greece.
But since his performance on the battlefield was as good as anyone else, his father didn't say anything in the end.
His father died in the Battle of Minsk and was trampled to pieces by Svyatoslav's cavalry, so young Ivar inherited his father's position as lord, but he was not happy about it, and instead seemed
Lack of interest.
Normally, he would be happy about this, but now, this is a hot potato. He misses the time when his father is still alive, and the reason is very simple. At that time, he doesn't have to think, he only needs to execute the order, and he doesn't have to worry about his subordinates.
Thinking about life, you can completely act according to your own will.
"Yaroslavichs now have the advantage and will definitely eat us up. Now we can only fight. But we have no hope in this battle, everyone knows it."
The young lord's words were full of disappointment, "Perhaps we should not have launched this rebellion from the beginning. After all, we will still be unable to fight against the whole of Russia."
His words aroused a response. The Polotsk lords here all suffered heavy casualties in the war. If they had all kinds of illusions about the war before the war and were therefore extremely looking forward to it, then now they are not only frustrated but also dejected.
A decadent atmosphere spread in the hall, and it was at this time that someone spoke up.