When Marin hid in Rome to write his papers, the northern part of England was already in chaos. According to Marin's suggestion, the Scottish army retreated north in two parts. But before the retreat, the Scottish army snatched all the food along the way, destroyed all the crops, killed all the livestock, and even the dogs used to guard the door, making them jerky.
In this way, the Scottish army headed north with plenty of food, and the people of several counties in northern England were in great danger. Their property and food were stolen by the Scottish army, all the crops were destroyed, and even all the animals were killed.
It was fine when the Scottish army first withdrew. After all, everyone could find grassroots, tree bark, dead leaves and other things to eat. In addition, the animal offal and leather left by the Scottish people when they killed all the livestock can also be cooked and eaten.
However, after eating up these things, the local people felt that they were going to be finished...
So, while the people who still have the strength and experience began to take their families and flee south to flee the famine and beg all the way to find a way out.
In ancient times, due to low grain output, once a natural disaster occurred in a certain year, some poor farmers would have to flee to famine and beg in areas without famine to spend the disaster year. It was normal for both China and Europe.
Of course, there is a prerequisite for this - that is, these farmers must be free people...
If they were serfs, they could not escape famine at will. Because they had to obtain the consent of the serf owners when they left their homes. However, in the 15th century, the serfdom in Britain and France had basically collapsed, and most of the farmers became self-cultivated farmers. However, in the German region at the same time, the serf system was generally retained. It was not until the 19th century that Prussia began reforming the serf system.
Because they were self-cultivated farmers, the British farmers' escape was free. When the British army completed the sweep of the area controlled by Edward in eastern Ireland and tried every means to land on the west coast of England, they saw several counties in northern England that were extremely depressed.
After inquiring, British commander Richard Poll was shocked. It turned out that the Scottish army had adopted a similar strategy to the British army's eastern parts of Ireland to several counties in northern England. In this way, Richard Poll's scalp was numb.
Because, they will pass through several northern counties filled with famine...
Sure enough, when marching along the way, in the middle of the night, local young people often came to steal British troops at risk of their lives...
You know, that's military rations! Moreover, the military rations piled up in the military camps are not military rations transported halfway!
So, those hungry young people were basically gambling with their lives to steal food. Richard Pohl was very angry at the beginning and executed some of the local young people who came to steal military rations, and hung their bodies outside the military camp.
But, compared to the fear of starving to death, what is this threat? Anyway, if there is no food, they will starve to death...
In addition, there were a large number of old and weak people surrounding the barracks, begging the British soldiers to give them some food...
Many soldiers who were originally from the local area were immediately moved, especially some of the English longbow soldiers who were born in several northern counties were completely shocked by the tragic situation. They began to use the food they saved to exchange for information. The main thing was to inquire about their relatives.
In the refugee group outside the camp, many English longbowmen discovered some familiar faces. Some even met their families who were fleeing famine.
Richard Bol originally planned to drive away these refugees, but was strongly resisted by more than 800 longbow soldiers from several northern counties, which almost caused a mutiny. These soldiers from several northern counties did not want to see their fellow villagers starving to death in front of them.
Although the soldiers from other regions did not boycott publicly, they were worried and supported the soldiers from several northern counties to help the refugees.
In fact, there were more than 800 longbow soldiers from the northern counties, but dozens of knights. However, the knights were nobles and were not along the way with civilians. Therefore, the knights did not care much about those fleeing people, they only cared about their families.
But those longbowmen are different. Longbowmen are a special class in England. They do not belong to the nobles, but because of their combat effectiveness, the country has given them certain privileges to make them a class between nobles and civilians. But after all, they still come from the civilian class. Therefore, they are still very concerned about their fellow villagers.
Longbow soldiers from other regions also support the relief of those refugees. After all, no one can guarantee that the elders in their hometown will never be affected by disaster.
Under the pressure of the Longbow class, Richard Boer had to compromise. Anyway, they snatched all the food and killed all the livestock in the area controlled by Earl Edward on the Ireland Island. Therefore, they had a lot of food and jerky.
So Richard Boer took out some of the food and jerky to help some of the refugees outside the camp...
However, unexpectedly, because of this action, news began to spread among the refugees that "there is food in the military camp, and the officers are happy to help the refugees."
Then, a scene that made Richard Pole fear appeared - in a few days, 50,000 or 60,000 refugees around him surrounded Richard Pole's camp, making it impossible for the British army to go north to pursue the Scottish army.
If the refugees are not continued to be rescued, it may arouse the anger of those refugees and cause them to attack the military camps...
Thinking of such terrible consequences, Richard Pole began to regret the act of rescuing refugees. However, now he is in a difficult situation. Moreover, he has no idea of ​​going north. Because, on the way north, he will encounter more refugees...
In desperation, Richard Pole had to ask the soldiers to quietly bring the remaining food in the middle of the night, suddenly left the barracks, and hurriedly retreated south, intending to go to the area that was not destroyed by the Scottish army to avoid the army being surrounded by refugees.
When the refugees learned that the army suddenly ran away, they followed them south. In this way, a wonder appeared in northern England - Richard Pohl hurriedly fled south with the British army. However, it was not because they were chased by the enemy, but because they were chased by tens of thousands of refugees...
When the news reached London, the government and the people were shocked. Henry VII and his ministers also felt numb from the 300,000 refugees in the northern counties and did not know what to do.
The English court is unable to provide relief to these more than 300,000 refugees. However, letting them go without them is easy to have big problems. Therefore, the English court is in a dilemma.
In fact, if there are only tens of thousands of refugees, the English court may have directly sent troops to arrest and suppress them. Even the massacre is not impossible, just to be concealed. However, there are more than 300,000 people, more than one-tenth of England's current total population. Therefore, violent means cannot work. If you dare to suppress the massacre casually, it may cause dissatisfaction and even riots from the whole country.
Chapter completed!