Five days later, the Viking army left the Po River and marched north onto the Veneto Plain.
They quickly seized the coastal docks.
However, they failed to capture a single ship.
"Now this is troublesome."
Mounted on Greywind III, Vig gazed across the four-kilometer-wide lagoon and the countless vessels floating upon it.
The thought of launching an assault on the city immediately vanished.
In his memory, the Republic of Venice had endured until the end of the eighteenth century.
It had survived numerous sieges, yet its main islands had never fallen.
Only in 1797, after Napoleon defeated the First Coalition, had Venice voluntarily surrendered, eventually becoming Austrian territory.
As things stood, Venice maintained excellent relations with the Eastern Roman Empire.
Its wealth flowed from acting as the intermediary for trade across the eastern Mediterranean.
The city was in the midst of its rise.
There was no reason whatsoever for it to submit to a foreign ruler of a different culture and religion.
In a sense, Venice occupied much the same position in the eastern Mediterranean that Britain held in Western Europe.
Even if its army suffered disastrous defeats, its navy could buy time.
Given enough time, its immense wealth would eventually outlast any enemy.
By contrast, commercial republics like the Netherlands and Genoa, situated on the mainland, could easily be conquered by continental powers.
Their survival was never as secure.
After remaining on the eastern coast for a day, Vig admitted he had no answer to Venice hidden within its lagoon.
He summoned his commanders and once again divided the army into three columns.
Their new objectives were Padua, Ferrara, and the surrounding cities.
His aim was simple—
Occupy the entire Po Valley.
While Italy burned with war, the northern front was strangely quiet.
The Viking coalition fielded 16,000 men.
Only the Fourth Field Division possessed genuine offensive capability.
The Bavarian and Bohemian militias suffered from poor morale.
Their only real advantage was that every man wore armor, allowing them to hold out longer in battle.
The enemy was larger still.
The Balkan kingdoms had contributed 13,000 soldiers, while the King of Moravia raised another 12,000 militia, bringing their combined strength to 25,000.
Back in late May, the Moravian king had attempted an offensive.
Despite being outnumbered, Douglas had defeated him.
Since then, Douglas had occupied western Moravia—Bohemia—while the Balkan coalition controlled the east.
Neither side possessed the strength to defeat the other.
Beginning in summer, Douglas repeatedly wrote home requesting an artillery detachment.
Every request was rejected.
According to the Cabinet, Italy was the decisive theater of the war.
Douglas's sole responsibility was to pin down the enemy.
He was not expected to launch offensives.
Douglas sighed.
"I've already spent half a year sitting in Bohemia.
"Am I supposed to keep wasting away here forever?"
With nothing better to do, he organized football matches throughout the army.
The games distracted the soldiers and prevented unrest.
Soon, the local militias became fascinated by the sport as well.
Following Viking rules, they enthusiastically chased leather balls across open fields.
The intense physical competition gradually improved their stamina without anyone really noticing.
Kocel asked Douglas,
"My lord... are we really just going to keep feeding them like this?"
"That's right," Douglas replied.
"We're not short on grain."
The eastern coalition enjoyed the same luxury.
Funded by Basil's treasury, they too had no shortage of food.
Bored out of their minds, the nobles copied Frankish customs and entertained themselves by holding knightly tournaments.
On August 11, the coalition received a letter from Emperor Basil.
It contained two announcements.
First:
Supplies worth 50,000 pounds of silver had arrived at Rijeka and were currently being unloaded.
Second:
The Balkan kingdoms were ordered to recruit another 20,000 troops to reinforce the Italian campaign and buy more time for the Franks.
Once the Eastern Roman army had fully assembled, Basil promised he would personally cross the sea and crush the wicked Viking barbarians.
Late August.
Parma, southern Po Valley.
Standing atop a hill outside the city, Vig silently observed the siege.
The artillery crews moved with practiced efficiency.
Position the guns.
Aim.
Fire.
Swab the barrel.
Reload.
Fire again.
After repeating the process several times, Parma's walls collapsed.
Two garrison regiments surged through the breach with excitement.
The remaining troops followed behind, clearing defenders from the battlements before Welsh longbowmen occupied the walls and rained arrows down upon the surviving enemy.
This had become the standard Viking method of siege warfare.
From generals to ordinary soldiers, everyone knew the drill.
Nice.
Genoa.
Milan.
All had fallen before this standardized system.
But this time...
The defenders had come up with something new.
From Vig's vantage point, the sounds of fighting inside the city showed no sign of weakening.
After more than half an hour of combat, increasing numbers of stretchers emerged from the breach carrying wounded soldiers back outside the walls.
Leif and several staff officers questioned the casualties.
Piecing together their reports, they estimated that at least three thousand defenders remained inside the city.
Their true defenses were not the walls.
Instead, they had fortified the city itself.
Barricades.
Stone-walled mansions.
Makeshift strongpoints.
Rather than contesting the breach directly, the defenders harassed the invaders with hidden archers.
Whenever isolated Viking squads pushed too far forward, they counterattacked with forces three times their size.
Little by little, they began regaining the initiative.
After hearing the reports, Vig looked toward his officers.
"What do you think?"
The Second Prince answered before anyone else.
"Push the cannons into the city.
"Use solid shot to smash the barricades.
"Then load grapeshot and tear apart the defenders."
Vig nodded.
He handed command of the assault to his second son.
"Take the city before sunset."
Frey's tactics were straightforward.
He selected the more flexible mountain infantry.
Entering Parma through all four gates, they advanced along the main roads.
Each detachment brought a bronze cannon.
Whenever they encountered barricades or earthen walls, the cannon fired first.
Only after the obstacle had been shattered did the infantry charge.
Once a barricade fell, Frey strictly forbade his mountain troops from pursuing enemies into narrow side streets.
Instead, they continued advancing along the city's main thoroughfares.
By three in the afternoon, all four columns had reached the central square.
Frey had no interest in negotiating surrender.
He ordered the artillery to bombard the lord's manor and every other substantial stone building before clearing them room by room.
"This is how it's done!
"I spent half a year fighting in the forests of Livonia, and it wasn't nearly as satisfying as these few hours!"
Watching the lord's manor gradually collapse under cannon fire, Frey burst into laughter.
His bodyguards surrounded him with raised shields, terrified that some stray arrow might strike the reckless prince.
"What are you afraid of?"
Frey grumbled as the shields blocked his view.
"Do you think this armor is made of paper?"
A little over ten minutes later, Viking troops secured the central square.
Advancing along the main roads, they effectively split the city into four isolated sections.
Only then did Frey begin taking things slowly.
He concentrated superior forces on clearing one district at a time.
The soldiers pushed their cumbersome bronze cannons forward street by street, blasting apart every obstacle in their path.
The only frustration was the guns' enormous weight, which constantly delayed their advance.
By six in the evening, dusk was approaching.
Frey had captured three-quarters of Parma.
Driven to despair, the defending commander set fire to the warehouse where he had made his last stand.
The flames quickly spread throughout the district.
As a result, the Vikings recovered very little usable loot from the city.
—------------------------------
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