Rise of Rurik

Even a rough house is better than an outdoor conversation, with a rough unpolished wooden floor, simply covered with a buckskin blanket, so that the person sitting in it does not slap his legs,

The house is more like a cabin in the woods, with Roth's classic Viking Bucklers hanging on the simple wooden walls, some axes, and a large Roth flag.

It can be seen that the owners of the fort try their best to be as refined as possible in a simple environment. They deliberately hang their flags high, and they are constantly motivating themselves.

It can be said that in this era, Ross first invented the concept of national flags in Europe. It is more convenient than totems and coats of arms, so that two groups of people who are far apart can judge that they are their own only by looking at each other's flags. In addition, it can be given more spiritual meaning, and the warrior can be held by the spirit for a long time.

Just because the room where the small meeting was held was Fisk's command post, it was normal for the Ross flag to be hung here.

If it is replaced by Svalgard's room, there will be an abstract bull-headed horse hanging on the wooden wall, which is the flag of the Principality of Ostara.

Fisk's command post is the administrative center of the Vitebsk fortress, and he sits here to issue orders and has the right to determine whether to start a war.

"Two good brothers from afar, sit down." Fisk's words were quite familiar.

Wladyslav He was a few years younger, and Quetzal was about the same age, rounding up everyone was the same age. It's all because Fisk has extraordinary military exploits and is greatly admired by these two. The more accommodating Fisk is, the more cautious they are.

The two of them twisted their bodies to prepare, and looked at the surrounding furnishings and were too cautious to speak first.

The trio came from three very different ethnic groups, the greatest common divisor of which was Slavic. Even if it is Slavic, there are some differences between Yinermen dialect and Kyiv Krievich dialect. At least there is no more reliable "common divisor" than it. There are many Yinmenslavs in the first cavalry. With this group of brothers, Fisk learns the language to relieve boredom when he is bored on weekdays. Talk to the Pecheneg people and learn a little about the Turkic language of the steppe people.

"Don't be nervous. I don't want to say anything polite, I just have one big question for you right now." Fisk said in Slavic.

"Please," Quetzal replied in a simple Slavic manner.

"You two, have you ever killed an enemy? Or... have your hands been stained with blood?"

"Haha." Quetzal smiled casually, as if he was being looked down upon, and he beat his chest: "I am a steppe warrior first. Khan followed the old Khan in the battle against the Khazarians. I shot the warriors of the enemy and raided their camps. If there was a war, I would fight without hesitation and never back down."

Fisk was the most satisfied with this answer, and then he looked at Wladyslav, who was obviously restrained.

"Brother. How are you?"

"Me?" Vardy smiled too, only with a wry smile ashamed. He didn't want to lie: "I didn't kill anyone, I didn't even fight."

"Is that so? So, have you slaughtered cattle and sheep?" Fisk, who was somewhat dissatisfied, asked this quickly.

"I have slaughtered cattle and sheep. Don't worry, brother, I won't be scared crazy just because I see blood."

"Well, we'll wait and see. Right now there's a chance for you to fight, and as I revealed when we just met, whether you've fought in the past or not, this time, my new fortress here is facing a huge War crisis!"

Fisk stuck his head out with a serious face. He had satisfied the appetite of the other two. The more Vardy and Quetzal listened to this guy's description, the more stressed they became, like a stone pressing on their chest and unable to breathe.

"Unbelievable, you are being targeted by 5,000 soldiers. How many of you are there?!" Quetzal asked struggling, clutching his chest.

But I saw Fisk stretch out three fingers: "Three hundred cavalry."

"That's it? It's not enough at all."

"It's completely different now." Fisk finally squeezed out a smile: "Now I have a thousand cavalry."

"If this is the case, one thousand cavalry will fight five thousand infantry. You still have a chance. So if I take my clan to participate in it..." Quetzal thought for a while, "My team is selected by the Khan, and every warrior can Accurate shooting of geese and eagles in flight."

"Are all marksmen?"

"Yes."

Hearing that, Fisk was overjoyed: "Be sure to help me."

"In this case, we Kyiv people must also participate. Because, our alliance." Wadislav took the opportunity to reiterate the alliance treaty. Although participating in the war is not what the Kyiv horses want to mix, he is very clear that participating in the war can huge political benefits. It is said that we have helped the Rus people today, and if we encounter trouble in the future, the other party will also be of great help.

"Okay, so our thousand cavalry coalition should be able to win."

"A thousand horses?" Quetzal realized that something was wrong, and his already small eyes narrowed into two slits. "With us, it can't be 1,700 cavalry?"

"No!" Vardy hurriedly followed up, "Is there really only three hundred cavalry in Ross's cavalry, and the one thousand cavalry you originally called, already included us?"

Just this trivial matter, Fisk thinks Wladyslav is a smart guy, and Quetzal's math ability is worse.

Fisk shook his head: "Actually, there are only one hundred real Ross cavalry."

At this moment, Svalgard, who had been "statuary" for a while, finally spoke: "And we, Ostara cavalry, we have two hundred soldiers. In this way, we form a team of one thousand cavalry, and we will surely win."

The more he listened, the more strange Quetzal stood up and stomped his feet: "Let's deal with 5,000 of them, only 1,000 people? I don't understand those Polotsk people at all, but after all, there are 5,000 of them! If it is We prairie people are facing this crisis alone, and we will choose not to fight for the time being."

"So, you're not cowardly, are you?" Fisk raised his head as if questioning.

"I'm not a coward." Quetzal hurriedly sat down again, "I just think this is a complete adventure, and our coalition is very disadvantaged. Unless."

"What's your plan?"

"We can adopt grassland tactics, sneak attacking them in the dark, set fire to the house, and then ride away on horseback. To create a situation where we are active and passive, we should not confront them head-on."

It is fair to say that what this kid said is very true, but Fisk, who has his own opinions, is not willing to use such tactics.

After a follow-up interrogation, Lambert, who was kept in the barn and under close surveillance, explained something more. It was Ross's Ureko team that slaughtered an outlying village of the other party that caused the entire Polotsk community to rage. The lips are dead and the teeth are cold, and the various villages have joined hands. The Polotsks are all farmers, and the settlements cannot be moved quickly, especially as the harvest season is approaching. In order not to starve to death next year, they have to guard their farmland from leaving.

They were so united that they did not allow a strong enemy to linger near the settlement, so they assembled the forces of the entire community alliance to take their lives to level it.

If the combined cavalry led by Ross further ruthlessly destroy the village, mass killings are naturally possible, but how will it end in the end?

So, Fisk completely rejected Quetzal's idea.

"You think I don't understand, this is a very special situation in this battle. Just confront them head-on, and we will stay here, just like the way two groups of people fight, I want to fight in an upright manner."

"I understand, you northerners like to fight dignifiedly. It's good, but we don't pay much attention to it." Quetzal has his view of war, or the view of war of the entire Pecheneg Khanate. The Pecheneg people, who are still weak, are still living in the gap between the Khazarian Khanate and the Ogus Khanate. Their population is much smaller than that of the two left and right. As the saying goes, Daze is upright and upright, while the weak attack sneakily.

"We Rus people still like to fight dignifiedly." Fisk's hand inadvertently pointed to the ceiling, "Our god, we prefer to see a brave warrior face a powerful enemy, a dead man dies on the battlefield with a weapon in his hand, it is his best The destination. His soul will ascend to the sky and enter the Hall of Valhalla…”

Now that Quetzal has said what he has said, there is no need to take it back. The horse team must participate in the war. It is not his intention to fight head-on, but he has no intention to refute anything.

Quetzal spread his hands: "Okay. Brother! The Khan returned to the steppe and told you about your achievements in the Northern War. You led the army to capture a great Khan in the Western world (referring to Ludwig of the Eastern Kingdom). , There are brothers from our grassland in the victorious team. We are all very happy. I am too immature and lack talent. The Khan ordered me to practice in the north. Now I am willing to hand over the command of the army, and you will lead our horse team! "

Even if Quetzal didn't say it, Fisk would have to seize the leadership of the Pechenegma team for the convenience of management in the event of a war. Unexpectedly, this Quetzal handed over the power himself, and things became easy to deal with immediately.

"Very good. Brother, your people are under my command, and everything is done according to my requirements. You can rest assured that I will not let your people die, even if it is a frontal battle, I will not let anyone sacrifice in vain."

Some words that need to be cautious or even should not be said, Fisk specifically stated, it is really ugly to say up front.

The words "I won't let you die" are just a reassurance for the two in front of them, and the wording is too straightforward.

At this moment, even though Wladyslav was hesitant, the other three people in this room ignored the predicament of the so-called 5,000-strong army and insisted on fighting. "Our Kyiv cavalry is at your disposal. I will convince all my personnel that they must participate in the war."

After a small meeting, the southern cavalry of more than 700 people who had just met like magic soldiers joined the Rus army, which made the Rus-Kyiv-Pecheneg three-party forces essentially form a coalition for the first time. Its positive political significance is indeed great.

Even with only 300 cavalry, Fisk was not afraid of the so-called 5,000 Polotsk armed peasants, not to mention there were 1,000 now. And how outrageous the cavalry can achieve against the infantry, Quetzal and Wladyslav still need an opportunity to understand.

Although military power is coming in name, it is impossible for Fisk to accurately command the two allied armies in a short period of time, which requires ensuring the good cooperation between Wadi and Quetzal.

He was satisfied with Quetzal's steppe army, but worried about Wadi's Kyiv horsemen. The former have at least participated in the grassland war, and the latter have almost no experience in combat (group fights do not count).

The steppe cavalry can be used as the main force. As for the Kyiv horsemen, they can act as a crowded battlefield atmosphere group at most.

Of course, Fisk felt that even if the Polotsks created an army of 5,000 people, there would definitely be a lot of atmosphere groups among them.

The mass killing of a large group of armed peasants would not end well. Once a frontal battle broke out, the cavalry only had to divide and strangle a part to force other enemies to flee.

"I still have this guy Rabat in my hand, and I will send this guy to act as my messenger to negotiate."

This is how Fisk made a wishful thinking, so the coalition army was uncharacteristically, although it had swelled to a thousand cavalry, but still stuck to the swamp where the Vitebsk fortress was located, as if people and horses were wearing heavy armor and could not move an inch.

It was the coalition commander who adopted conservative tactics himself. He clearly had super mobility but completely gave up this huge advantage and forced the battle back to the extremely primitive "super-large group fight scene".

This is what is needed, otherwise how could the Polotsks accept defeat? They would be defeated by the Rus army in so-called decent battles, and the rest would be given them a decent retreat, and then a decent surrender.

So although the war has not yet started, and he doesn't even know the real situation of the enemy's troops, Fisk has already figured out how to solve the mess after the war.

Of course, the Allied Forces are not fooling around in the fortress and waiting for work, and the cavalry still has active measures.

Allied troops camped at the Vitebsk fortress, and the goods were moved to the houses inside the fortress. All houses have rough floors, which are so perfectly protected from humidity that there is no need to worry about contamination of the cargo even in the presence of rain.

With this opportunity Fisk knew what they had shipped.

The joint horse team this time is much larger than in previous years, and the goods it transports are still similar.

The fist products sold by the prairie people are really recurve bows. According to the craftsmanship of the Pecheneg people, the bow is like a sledboard when it is fully stretched. People who don’t understand it will feel that the bow tips that are bent at both ends can be easily wound directly. Actually the winding is in the exact opposite direction. The bowman pressed his thigh against the handle of the bow and forcibly bent it, and took the opportunity to put a bowstring made of sheep's small intestine on the tip of the bow.

The total number of recurve bows sold this time has reached 500, and there are nearly 1,000 bowstrings. It is obvious that the bowmakers of the Pecheneg people must go all out to make them, and I am afraid that they will not stop throughout the winter. And new ones are still being made.

According to the past trading experience, every intact recurve bow has a high price, which is definitely not the price of the grassland people. How is it made? It is probably made by mixing materials such as wood horns and animal tendons. Unfortunately, the bow makers in Ross have not been able to reproduce.

Of course, the prairie people have their own big problems. They clearly face the sea but do not know how to extract useful salt from bittern. Cooking seawater to separate out table salt is also a technique, but the people of the grasslands do not understand it. Then the mass production of low carbon steel and cast iron weapons is not because Ross has extremely advanced technology. Ross's biggest advantage occupies the northern iron ore area and the more extremely noble European only chromite ore area.

The prairie people demand high prices for recurve bows, and this problem is directly offset by Ross's high-quality salt iron, which can be said to be each other.

The grassland horse team is not willing to waste their idle animal power. They gather a large number of horses. The horses themselves are commodities, and the horses have to carry as much goods as possible on their backs, even if some goods are not of high value. The sheep raised by the Pechenegs cannot independently consume the wool. If they produce too much wool, it is impossible to sell them to the enemy to make money. Since the news that the Khan brought back is that the Rus people need wool, this gives the steppe people a chance.

With demand, Pecheneg herders are more willing to breed sheep. There was a lot of wool in the cargo this time. Due to the lack of sacks, the large lumps of wool were simply trampled and compressed by people's feet and tied with ropes, which made many horses carry large lumps of yellow and white things. It was too heavy. Eye-catching, I don't know what it is from a distance, but only when I look up close I know it's wool.

There are few kinds of things trafficked by Kyiv people. The Krivic people who live in the south have a large population and are scattered. The farthest settlements have expanded eastward to the present Chernihiv to Sumy. forest area. Their production and way of life are no different from those of the Slavs in Rus. They are all agricultural populations, which can be obtained by farmers in the north, and are basically the same in the south. Even the land on the banks of the Dnieper River owned by the Kyiv people is more fertile, and the grain yield in the black soil area should be higher. However, the backward agricultural technology like a joke greatly limits the possibility of large-scale production increase.

Completely different from the steppe people, the Kyiv community cannot complement the industrial advantages of Rus. This time, the horse team Kyiv tried its best to transport agricultural and sideline products to the north, UU read www. uukanshu. com has something to say about alcoholic beverages, such as ale and kvass, in oak barrels. In addition, thyme and dill, which are packed in sacks, can be highly productive in the southern region. They grow wildly in the southern fields, and farmers can freely pick them during the warm season and then dry them for sale.

Honey in clay pots is a popular product in Kyiv. Beekeeping in tree holes can be described as a Slavic tradition since ancient times. It has been developing in Rus in recent years, but the warmer southern regions are more suitable for breeding bee colonies. Local wildflowers More greatly contributes to the production of honey by the bee colony.

In addition, the biggest commodity of the Kyiv community is probably human resources. You can get paid for doing work for the king of Rus, in the handicraft workshops affiliated to the Rus royal family, and even helping the Rus people to cut wood can also get some pay. The most extreme version is that farmers bring their own tools to go to the far north, the so-called "sea near the end of the world" to mine in northern mines, or directly face the sea at the end of the world (Arctic Ocean) to catch rare birds in the so-called Murmansk stronghold. Alien sells money.

Rus has a huge demand for human resources, which has a strong attraction to the Kyiv community, and because of the alliance, Rus has established a legal order not to hurt any ally. In the past years, Rus has indeed fulfilled With these laws and regulations, because of the security, it is more attractive for Kyiv people to go to the north to find opportunities.

It’s just that it’s not used for the wars that the steppe people know is a very important part of life. Many Kyiv people follow the horse team north just to find a job. From autumn to next spring, they make money and buy local supplies and return with the return horse team. Only by living can you make money, and fighting a war is too risky.

It's a pity that the brothers are now riding a tiger.

Better yet think about it! Maybe everyone can get some useful trophies in a battle, and it may be more than a part-time job.