Rise of Rurik

The atmosphere in the room was not solemn or even a little joyous. Not only did Ross's coalition forces not worry about the attack of the Polotsks, they even wanted them to come quickly.

There was only one person in the room feeling a little nervous. Old Harald took the pseudonym Olaf, he turned into a mercenary of Ross, and stood with Ross, but he still did not want Polotsk to be eliminated.

Fisk deliberately asked him what he thought: "So what is the enemy's strength? Our scouts estimate that the enemy's strength is at most 1,000. This is even quite different from your estimate of 3,000."

"Maybe... this is the force they can mobilize quickly. What are you... going to do? Kill them all? If you do, you may suffer a lot of losses."

"I don't think it's possible. Unless it's a **** battle with the Franks, I may suffer heavy losses." Fisk looked left and right, and everyone laughed arrogantly.

Old Harald was very embarrassed, so he didn't mention it at all: "So you really want to do it?"

"Yes." Fisk nodded, "I wanted to give them a chance to fight with us in an upright manner, so they dispatched this person, either too weak or looked down on me. The main body of my plan remains the same. A trooper would meet these guys. How about you? How much do you know about their army?"

Svalgard hurriedly answered: "Our boss is asking you how their weapons and equipment are."

"Weapons?" Mentioning this, old Harald looked contemptuous: "You might as well interrogate that Lambert on this issue. Isn't this person a relative of the enemy leader?"

"I'm afraid he will lie and either speak Polotsk too weakly or brag."

"I'm telling the truth?" Old Harald asked deliberately.

Fisk looked at him sincerely again: "We are all warriors of Odin, you will never lie to the gods. We are a group now."

What old Harald needed was trust, and Fisk gave him trust. He began to describe a detailed understanding of the Polotsk people, although mentioning their poor military strength, it explained a problem that had been ignored in the past.

The so-called if they act on a large scale, when the whole people go into battle, they will definitely use all kinds of farm implements as weapons. Overall, Polotsk is seriously lacking in iron armor, but there is no shortage of iron tools. There are many spears for hunting wild animals, and a large number of scythes. Other than that is a lot of pitchforks. The poor and the poor have a fighting method, and it is probably a group of people who act together with short spear weapons and look like a mobile hedgehog.

In principle, the formation of spearmen restrained the impact of cavalry, and the Russ-Saxon coalition relied on this move to beat the East Frankish army violently at the Battle of the Elbe. Whether the Polotsks also have this kind of tactics, Fisk is not at all willing to use the cavalry charge as a magic weapon for victory, and he does not want to fall into unnecessary losses after the chaos.

The enemy has very little iron armor, which is also important information. But the enemy is not a fool, they will use a lot of wooden shields to defend themselves. After all, thinking in a different position, Fisk also thought of making a large number of wooden shields for defense, and even covered a layer of deerskin on the shield.

The recurve bow of the prairie people has a very strong force when riding and shooting close to the face. Here, the Parthian cavalry frequently used the recurve bow to shoot the Roman soldiers directly through the large shield to kill Crassus. Distance riding face shot. Once the distance is widened, the problem of the rapid loss of kinetic energy of the cavalry's ability to shoot light arrows with a recurve bow is all too obvious.

Fisk received a more advanced education in Rurik, and thus had some understanding of physics. He knew the basic principles of ballistics, kinetic energy concepts, air resistance and gravity, albeit in general terms, which were very useful in actual combat.

The experiences described by old Harald were drawn from the accounts of Riga merchants who sailed on the West Dvina over the years, always exploited by Polotsk and occasionally clashed.

He still firmly believed that his judgment was correct. If the whole people were to fight, it would be reasonable for Polotsk to send an army of 3,000 people, even though there were still many female fighters.

Fisk has already thought of a countermeasure: "Brother Quetzal."

"exist."

"Give me fifty cavalry archers who are good at fighting. I will organize one hundred and fifty warriors to challenge first, and I will personally act to frustrate their courage. It would be better if I can catch their leader."

"Is there such a good thing?" Quetzal agreed without thinking, and he shouted impatiently: "Just so, there will be fifty warriors assigned to Lord Princess (Bejasil), and they should be with you Ross. People fight side by side."

"Very good." Fisk looked at the other two again: "Svalgard, Wladyslav, you two soldiers continue to guard the Vitebsk fortress, the cavalry is on standby, leave some brothers to guard the fortress to ensure our supplies Five misses."

For the battle, Wladyslav was delighted that he did not participate in the battle. He led the Kyiv Horse Team to announce its participation in the battle. If it is not necessary, it is better not to fight directly. Svalgard felt a little regretful, and the boss made himself so he had to agree.

It was still early, and since the cavalry had always been in a state of readiness, ordering them to assemble and go into battle could be done almost instantly.

What the cavalry pays attention to is mobility. Fisk and Quetzal cooperated in friendship, and a highly elite cavalry archer unit was immediately formed.

One hundred and fifty rides to battle!

The iron hoofs lifted countless lumps of mud, and the well-equipped cavalry attacked along the right bank of the West Dvina according to the information. All fighters involved in the operation were told that the operation would be met with a large force of the enemy, and all those who were eager to kill the enemy would be given a chance. Fisk also explained some basic principles, the so-called follow his wisdom in all actions, and stop killing when he is ordered to stop.

He even emphasized one point: "It is better to kill them than to capture them, arrest more people and force them all to give up their resistance."

kindness? Some brothers feel that the boss is suddenly kind.

On the surface, Fisk really wanted to be merciful, but it was actually based on realistic considerations. He did intend to be merciful, just for a good ending in the future.

The cavalry are all cavalry archers, and the elite standing cavalry under the Ross are really prepared. They put on iron plate mail, that is, use a large number of holes on the traditional chain mail to fix a large amount of iron with hemp rope or wool thread. piece. The vital torso and thighs are so armored, and the rest are covered in leather.

The fifty cavalry armors that Quetzal personally led were much weaker. They all wore leather armors, but an abstract iron mask was tied under the tapered leather helmets, which made the cavalry more hideous.

Fisk especially brought ten steel-armed crossbows. Even if the winding process of this weapon is extremely troublesome, it is indeed a medium-to-close-range armor-piercing artifact. A crit is enough

Such cavalry would have no problem hunting a group of bears. They formed a dense formation and marched soothingly along the reed-rich river in small steps. It was only a matter of time before they met the advancing Polotsks.

...

But it was said that the Polotsk Army, when the big leader Proclaw realized that his position was too far behind, deliberately slowed down. His first echelon gradually merged with the dawdling second echelon, and he had no intention of complaining. As the two echelons merged together, the marching force finally reached a thousand people.

Originally, what the Ross scouts saw in the early reconnaissance were only 500 members of the first echelon of the Polotsk Army, and they estimated that they were at most 1,000 soldiers due to misjudgment. Now, their estimates have become reality.

Even if the situation made Proclaw very speechless, he realized that even complaining would not help. Many of the village chiefs who shouted fiercely did the exact opposite of what they boasted when they actually marched in combat.

The first and second echelons that can be gathered have already included a large proportion of the elite fighting forces in this community. He comforted himself that even if the subsequent echelons were merged together, many soldiers waving their flags and shouting for the number of people played a greater role than fighting. With elites in hand, these thousand people already have the ability to go straight to the enemy's fortress.

Proclaw still understands that even self-persuasion cannot deny that the existing troops are difficult to win, and he still needs the participation of the follow-up troops, so setting up camp in the forest area outside the target area is an option.

The forest can wipe out the cavalry advantage of the Russ horse bandits, and can also hide their own strength. As long as there is a little time to breathe, he firmly believes that the follow-up troops can arrive no matter how hard they are, and the rest is a decisive battle of the group charge.

Ruyi's abacus is well played, and the initiative in the battlefield seems to be in his hands all the time.

Although the marchers were exhausted, their morale was generally good. People chatted and relieved their boredom during the march, imagining how many spoils they could get after victory. Because of bad luck, they did not mention the possibility of death in battle at all, and their optimism shrouded the entire army, and they also ignored that they might be attacked at any time.

It was in this turbulent situation that a grayish-white shadow appeared in the distance upstream of the river.

The Polotsk warriors with their heads are old Orion origins, and they are extremely sensitive to moving objects in the wilderness.

That's not a moving pack of bears, it's the enemy!

"Horse bandit! It's a horse bandit!"

They shouted in shock, grabbing the hilts of their short wooden bows and preparing to shoot.

The entire parade was in chaos in an instant. Proclaw thought about what to do in case of an enemy attack. No matter how he thought about it, the Russian horse team really appeared, and he could already see it with the naked eye at this moment.

"Brothers, fight!" He shouted several times in a row, hurriedly summoned several village leaders in the general, and ordered: "Hurry up and organize your people to fight! Tell them not to run away. The spearmen are gathered together, and the archers are placed in it, and we will defend with all our strength. !"

In fact, based on the previous small-scale battles, Proclaw has realized how to deal with the impact of cavalry. One trick is to form a battle with spearmen and mix them with long-range arms to wait for an opportunistic output. It is silly to set up the formation like this, and it is indeed difficult for cavalry to break through the hedgehog formation.

Unless, the Russ army that rushed over was a kind of armored cavalry with heavy armor, like a four-legged, one-ton dump truck hit by it like Eastern Rome.

A thousand people in Polotsk are moving in a mess, and quite a lot of people are seeing the horse bandits of the Rus for the first time, and hatred and curiosity are also born. They formed a formation as quickly as possible, and turned their spearheads out of the formation, forming a hedgehog formation with the riverside area.

The wooden shield covered at least half of the surrounding warriors. The simple wooden shield was tied to the left arm so that the soldiers could hold spears in both hands. In this way, the soldiers bowed their backs to meet the impending impact.

At the same time, the Russ cavalry discovered the enemy on the march, and Yuzai Youzai's advance came to an end.

"Cavalry! Get in close formation! Check your bows and arrows. Crossbowmen! Charge now!" Fisk ordered loudly in Norse, but then repeated it in a short Pecheneg Turkic dialect.

As a result, Quetzal saw the preparations of the Rus for the first time. These taller men with mostly blond hair were like prairie people, and their left hand holding the reins was holding the bow handle by the way. Experts even hold a few arrows in their left hand, and some people simply hold an arrow in their mouths. Quetzal knew that all this was done in order to fire more arrows in a shorter period of time. Grassland warfare was about losing lightly and quickly, and the Rus seemed to be faster than the steppe people.

"This is the performance of veterans who have fought **** battles." He sighed silently, and was surprised to see ten Russ cavalry lying flat on horseback, their hands constantly "stirring" an implement, and finally it seemed It was actually to wind up their magic weapon.

Ross's crossbow was exported to the grasslands on a small scale before this year. At that time, Kagan, the current Khan, was full of confidence that this thing could turn the weak into a marksman, but the actual performance was not satisfactory. There is no shortage of sharpshooters in the steppe, and there are countless opportunities to practice archery in the open valley plains of the lower Volga River.

He had long known the incredible use of iron as a bow arm by the Rus. Can a bow be made of iron? Only actual combat can prove one or two.

Quetzal approached Fisk with the reins on his horse, and said bluntly: "This is the first time we have fought side by side. I saw that the enemy actually formed a formation on the ground. It is better that we attack from the left and right flanks."

"That's what I mean." Fisker didn't even want to answer this, and he added: "But before we attack, let's shoot in the air and create chaos first."

"Okay. You decide when to strike."

Quetzal knew very well that he would stay in the north for a long time under the order of the Khan in the future, and he knew very well his future status. Now, he would do his job as a "partner general" as soon as possible to facilitate his relationship with other Rus nobles. This young bald Fisk, for example, was a high-ranking Roth nobleman, and the Khan claimed that this man was qualified to be a brother to "Ros Khan" Rurik.

Are high-ranking nobles slaughtering enemies? Quetzal is happy to see the opportunity to kill the enemy is today.

The cavalry's speed of action is far better than that of a continuous marching team. They love horsepower and pay more attention to how to use it. The Turkic horses have strong endurance, but their attack speed is not strong, so the horse team first lined up to ride the wall.

To highlight the greatest attack effectiveness of the long-range arms, there is nothing more than the use of line formation.

At this moment, Fisk was riding in front of the formation. He raised his right fist and turned to warn the soldiers: "Three arrows! Rapid fire! Prepare now!"

All the soldiers stared at the clenched fist of his raised right arm.

"All ready! Projectile! Right now!"

There is no problem with shooting a prairie recurve bow against a target 200 meters away, but if you want to shoot accurately, it will be a test of luck. After all, the projectile is the collective behavior of the archers, and the attack is also the enemy who is in formation.

200 meters, under the distance that the actual figure appears to be a little small, it is the stage for Ross's performance.

As the Polotsk infantry archers gritted their teeth in the spearmen array, waiting for the enemy to advance, there was a sudden swish in the sky.

It was an arrow that came from flying!

By the time the bow hunter realized it was too late.

The standard armor-piercing arrow is Ross's mass-produced weapon. The stir-fried steel method removes the excess carbon from the cast pig iron arrow cluster into low-carbon steel, and then quenches it for performance hardening. It's a slender chisel that renders any ordinary chainmail meaningless, with terrifying penetrating power against an unarmored foe that can be based on wounds of lethal depth on the foe's torso.

Arrows fell from the sky, and the armorless warrior was hit with various strange body parts. The person who was hit by the arrow immediately began to mourn, and the person who was intact raised his shield subconsciously, and saw the arrow cluster penetrate the wooden shield and get stuck in public...

Even the pony that was pulling the load was hit by an arrow because of the extreme pain and struggled, and the army that was originally formed began to become chaotic under the continuous arrow rain.

They also counterattacked, with the bow-wielding hunters shooting arrows at the cavalry, but even if they were thrown, their arrows could not hit the cavalry at all.

The distance was already close, and Fisk could clearly hear the screams and pained roars of the chaos.

The Russ cavalry was still advancing, and the soldiers had their legs clamped on the belly of their horses. After being ordered to complete the three losses, they took out new three losses from their quivers, either in their hands or in their mouths.

Fisk looked left and right again, the time was ripe, he waved his fists: "Russians, follow me to the left! Pechenegs, follow Quetzal to the right! Ride a shot at close range and pierce the enemy's face! Let's go! !"

It was also a hundred from the left and fifty from the right, and the Russ Army, which was clearly outnumbered, launched a strong attack on the enemy infantry several times its own.

They adopted the classic one-hundred-and-tested prairie cavalry tactics~www.readwn.com~ is actually a kind of Parthian tactics.

From the point of view of Proclaw, the leader of Polotsk, the Rosma bandits really had to sprint head-on.

In desperation, he mobilized some sane spearmen to form a formation on the front line, one after another aiming at the direction of the cavalry's attack.

It's not a Parthian if it really hits hard.

Not far in front of the formation, the cavalry that entered the galloping state suddenly split into two. The two cavalry teams galloped past the two wings of the formed infantry and shot arrows. rear. The cavalry looked back, the horses stood still, and they continued their more precise pile-driving arrows from the saddle.

During the period, the steel-armed crossbow, which had just completed a close-range crit, was slowly charged, and the enemy hit by it was hopelessly fatally wounded.

A sprint horse needs a break, and Fisk just gives in to the horsepower.

When he felt that the warhorse got a breather, he started the second round of operations...