Rise of Rurik

The cavalry teams that were released came back one after another, but one team still didn't return.

It's Ureko's team. I'm afraid they went to a very far place to investigate. There is no need to worry about their safety. These ruthless men have experienced many bloody battles and have rich experience in surviving in the wild. They have Turkic horses with extremely strong endurance. They can take advantage of the warm season to explore more distant places.

It doesn't matter that a ten-man team has not returned. Captain Fisk believes that they have their own destiny.

For Fisk, in the name of King Rurik, it is indeed an important task to assist the Principality of Ostara in establishing a new stronghold with the south during this non-war period. He still has huge management rights over the First Cavalry. After all, the king has gone to the capital and is unable to remotely command the cavalry. Fisk, who has great power, can fully exercise his power. What he wants to do is to further explore the intelligence from afar and pave the way for Ross's future expansion.

A military stronghold called Vitebsk is about to be established, and after a few days of rest, Fisk has already set off to gather his men.

Currently, there are only ten squads of regular troops belonging to the First Cavalry Corps gathered in Luckiholm (Big Lucki). Since one squadron has not returned, only nine squads of ninety people are actually controlled by Fisk.

The number of these ninety people was still full after the war ended last year. There are some new recruits among them, and the overall combat effectiveness has been weakened.

Even so, they are still the strongest marine force in the kingdom.

Fortunately, the Principality of Ostara transformed from a navigator into an equestrian force. They contracted a considerable part of the horse-raising work. While providing excellent riding horses to the regular army, they kept the inferior horses for their own use. Although it is a bad horse, it still has good strength after being well maintained and trained. The cavalry warriors of the Principality of Ostara are semi-full-time citizen soldiers, so there is a visible gap between the horses and riders and the regular cavalry.

Considering that the nearest Polotsk tribe did not even have cavalry, even inferior cavalry still had a strong tactical advantage.

Since the name of the new settlement was thought up by Duchess Carlotta, it makes sense for her to send her own people to build the stronghold. It just so happens that the Ostara cavalry is not strong, so the warriors must be suitable as laborers for building houses and building wooden walls.

King Rurik wants to do his own thing in the north, and even sail to Lake Mälaren to inspect the Swedish world and worship at the Great Temple of Uppsala.

A huge kingdom, the various Viking forces living in the northern seas finally ushered in peace. However, based on the current limited communication technology, Rurik cannot personally manage this huge area.

The basic structure of the kingdom is still part of the Principality of Ross. The area managed by the governors is the core of the principality, and it is also where the real strength of the Kingdom of Ross lies. Each governor-general is either a blood relative of the country or a relative by marriage. There are also some earls in remote areas, their existence is equivalent to "border earls", their bloodline is either from the blood of old Rus, or they are the new Rus who joined later. Because they were far away from the core area, the confederation granting them independent power was actually a low-cost means to maintain the stability of the kingdom.

Ross's version of the "parallel system of counties and states" already exists. The closer each region is to the core area, the greater the king's management authority.

Just like the Principality of Ostara, it exists between an allied kingdom like Denmark and a vassal state of Rus. Just like the relationship between Carlotta and Rurik, they are husband and wife and brother and sister.

In this way, Ostara's expansion has a strong legal autonomy, and there is no need to ask Rurik for instructions. Moreover, if you really send someone to ask him for instructions, the time cost is too high.

As the saying goes, there will be some consequences for the foreign monarch, and Carlotta herself is a duchess. She was authorized by Rurik to mobilize the kingdom's First Cavalry for her own use, and thus began to truly exercise her power.

After all, the 1st Cavalry was an elite unit, and most of its personnel had to stay in the rear to continue training and maintain communication with the new town of Lukiholm in the south through the Lovati River access road.

Fisk decided to act conservatively. The more troops he had, the more he would consume. The three hundred cavalrymen of the cavalry were dispatched collectively just to fight. There was obviously no war now, so dispatching one-third of the troops was enough.

But one hundred riders seemed too few to Carlotta!

In this way, Lukiholm's total number of cavalry was still forcibly expanded to 300. Carlotta risked her life. She mobilized her own people and the fused Gran people to piece together 200 cavalry for Fisk to dispatch.

Unable to resist the hospitality, Fisk had no choice but to claim these weak cavalry. "At least you'll be good builders."

In 841, the Kingdom of Rus and the entire Viking world faced a completely new situation.

The Danes deliberately wreaked havoc in the western seas, some plundered Britain, and some entered the Rhine River and entered the hinterland of Western Europe to further intervene in the Frankish Civil War.

In the Rus' Principality of Rus, Rurik wanted to lick his wounds after the war and become strong enough to expand again. As for the Swedish, Götaland, and Finnish parts, since Rurik announced that there will be no large-scale wars, the noble lords everywhere are happy to produce and trade peacefully.

Only the Principality of Ostara, they were once the victims of the invasion war, but now they have turned to the vanguard of the expansion of Eastern Europe.

Carlotta has strategic initiative and huge strategic and tactical advantages.

Because she knows the macro map of the Eastern European world.

The paper outlines the map, the black lines describe the land and ocean, the black lines inside the land describe rivers and their basic directions, and the circles represent proven lakes. The picture is a painting by Rurik. He did not know the precise direction of the river, but he was able to depict the direction of the key river very accurately through his understanding of the territory of later Eastern European countries, especially his basic understanding of the Soviet-German war in World War II.

No one expects Rurik's painting to be accurate. As long as the explorer knows that such a river exists, the latter will then personally search for it and describe it through some surveying and mapping methods.

Nowadays, anyone who has received a Ross-style cultural education has no doubt that Misrad (the human world) is a huge sphere.

In Russia, "Flat Earth Theory" has completely lost its market among young people and aristocrats. "Flat Earth Theory" is truth and can be practiced.

Set up a stika-high wooden pillar on the summer solstice, measure the length of the sun's shadow at noon, and use some mathematical calculations to deduce the dimensions.

The dimensions of Lukiholm have been measured, and a surprising conclusion has been drawn - it is 10° lower than the dimension of Fort Ross, and 4° lower than the capital city of New Rossburg.

What's the use of measuring like this? Very useful.

Since the Nordic people usually use stika as the unit of length, Rurik felt that it looked similar to meter. In this case, let's estimate the two to be equal.

Rurik can be regarded as the founder of "Russian Geography and Mapping". He roughly interpreted stika with meter. Since the circumference of the earth is considered to be a circle of 40,000 kilometers, it is simply regarded as 40,000 kilostika, the so-called 40,000 rosli. Such a dimensional difference of 1° can be estimated to be 110 kilostika (Rosili) differences on the earth.

This was of great strategic significance to the military. People who established strongholds as far away as Lukiholm were able to estimate their straight-line distance from Novgorod and Novorosberg. By understanding the speed of horses traveling in one day, we can boldly estimate the speed of one trip of people. Another way of understanding is that once Lukiholm is attacked by foreign enemies, the defenders can infer that reinforcements can arrive the fastest in theory. Time, even if he abandoned the city and fled, he could estimate how long it would take to retreat to the north.

This is Carlotta's choice, the choice of the Principality of Ostara, and her active expansion on behalf of Ross. She knows very well that she must be responsible for the decision to expand. If the expansion is frustrated, she will bear full responsibility.

However, once the expansion is successful, the Principality of Ostara will be a miracle, and Ross will also achieve strategic suppression of Smolensk.

"As long as I build Vitebsk, I will block the river traffic. From now on, the guys from Riga will never want to contact Smolensk. Smolensk will never get sea salt, nor can they sell grain and leather. Change the iron."

This is her strategy, an extremely insidious and cruel conspiracy. She was convinced that if she acted like this, she would definitely encounter counterattack from the other party.

There was no turning back for her, and almost all of Ostara's cavalry was handed over to Fisk, enough for the general to carry out military adventures.

She is indeed very sincere. If her son Karl were ten years older, he would naturally participate in the action. She felt that she was giving birth to a second child with Rurik, and she was not suitable to participate in military operations. She then pulled Svalgard, the leader of the Gran people and now the general of the Principality of Ostara, from the rear to command the cavalry and accept Fisk's command.

This is a good thing. The weak Ostara cavalry happens to be training together with the regular cavalry. High-intensity training during this critical period just enhances their own strength.

As a result, the grassland near Lukiholm became a large-scale training ground.

The infantry trains here, and the cavalry also gallops. The latter practiced riding and shooting, shooting on horseback, and shooting on dismounted feet, and then learned how to thrust with spear-carrying cavalry, push horizontally while riding on the wall, and even charge with swords and battle axes staggered. When three hundred cavalry launched an assault, the entire building in Lukiholm shook.

According to the plan, the plan to go south to build Vitebsk will be postponed until August.

This is also a vicious conspiracy!

Why is this so? The whole of August is the wheat harvest season in the Yin Ermen Lake area, and also the wheat harvest season for the settled tribes in the entire West Dvina River Basin. The economy of the people of the Principality of Ostara is highly dependent on animal husbandry. The livestock products it produces perfectly complement other industries in Rus, so the labor force does not have to focus on growing wheat.

The people of Ostara and the Pechenegs have been in close communication for many years. In terms of belief, they still believe in Odin and the gods, and their living habits will inevitably begin to undergo a certain degree of Turkic change.

In mid-August, the wheat harvest in the Polotsk community is almost done, right? Just as the cavalry rushed over to "thresh the grain grass", this was a typical Turkic raiding pattern.

The cavalry will definitely not get lost. Firstly, since the Polotsk community lives along the river, the cavalry will inevitably encounter them when they run downstream along the West Dvina River. Secondly, there is Olaf (Old Harold). If older mercenaries serve as guides, the success rate will definitely be higher.

Since it is a conspiracy, there is no need to hide it.

Old Harold wanted to serve as a guide in the follow-up mission to prove his worth as a guest. He had to take the lead. Because he fully knew that this was Ross's strategy, he felt chills on his spine and was praised at the same time.

Although there is no sword fighting, the war has already broken out! They want to cut off the lines of communication, they want to cut the necks of the Polotsk people, they want to cut off the financial resources of the Riga settlers, and they also want to cut off the salt and iron of the Smolensk people. Ross's move was to make the three parties enemies, and he heard the words of Duchess Carlotta of Ostara imitating King Ross: "What does it have to do with you to conquer you?"

Wouldn't it be a great honor if one actively promoted the conquest? To be fair, Harold Sr. sincerely despised Vadim's usurpation of power in Smolensk because he was not upright enough.

It is completely inferior to Ross's move. Since he decided to conquer, he would openly suppress the army. Ross wanted to cut off the lines of communication and fight those who refused. This is the glory of the Vikings.

The Principality of Ostara has an abstract bull-headed flag with black stripes on a white background, paired with Rus' flag with blue stripes on a white background. The mixed cavalry flew both flags and differed in military dress. It is not a problem to sew the abstract bull head pattern on the robe with black cloth strips. The costume of the Ross Cavalry is just more simple to sew blue cloth strips in staggered ways.

The sewing methods of the white robes of the two are exactly the same, the only difference lies in the coat of arms they sew.

Now, the fleet drifting on the Lovati River began to transport military supplies, including chain mail, a large number of missing arrows, and spare short wooden bows and wooden crossbows. Fisker is actively preparing for military operations and does not have much time left for himself.

…

Just when the plan was completed and the soldiers were polishing their sharp claws, the long-missing Ureko team finally returned!

Even if they found the source of the Lovaj River and walked along the riverside area of ​​the ever-widening river, they were all almost paralyzed from exhaustion when they arrived at Lukiholm due to rain and heavy material losses along the way.

There are seven men and ten horses. The horses are in slightly better condition, and the cavalry are exhausted from racing one by one.

Their staggering appearance made the responder who discovered their traces almost unrecognizable as one of their own, and thought they were a small horse team from Kiev.

"What happened to you? The boss came back before he could wait for you. It seems that you were fighting with someone?" The person who responded to them was also a comrade from the First Cavalry.

The haggard Ureko could only nod in acquiescence.

"Eh? No! Why are there only seven of you? Where are Eric and the others?"

"Die in battle!" Ureko replied in a hoarse voice, instantly causing the responder to be astonished. He said: "Take us back quickly. I want to report our encounter to Boss Fisk and the Duchess. It is very important! We must do it quickly!"

There must be something big happening, so the responders hurriedly took the reins of the returning horses and brought them all back to the wooden wall of Lukiholm.

Is the forever team back? ! Sure enough, they were not wandering in a fugue, but encountered a war!

Realizing that the situation was serious, Carlotta, Fisk and Svalgard jointly held a debriefing meeting with the seven returning people.

"Did you fight the enemy? Who is the enemy?!" As the cavalry captain, Fisk asked very directly.

Ureko quickly recovered his strength after drinking some honey water and oatmeal. He mentioned that he was ashamed of his escape and did not add any self-beautification, describing it as a failed military adventure.

"We discovered a village community called Polotsk. We wanted to rob the locals but encountered their counterattack. Although they were weak, they attacked and killed three of us..."

Ureko actually said a lot, and told everything about the massacre of the village by the ten knights, and also explained the specific circumstances of the subsequent sneak attack.

Carlotta's forehead was wrinkled like ravines, and her mood was extremely complicated.

Her description of the massacre of the village has PDST, after all, the old Ostara also suffered the same fate. But it is fair to say that the people who were attacked were the Polotsk people. Due to their geographical proximity, they also had close contacts with Smolensk, Russia's archenemy. The team's adventure was not worthy of promotion, but it also did not deserve any criticism.

"You destroyed their village and naturally made all the villagers furious." Karlota controlled his emotions and asked: "What do you think of their soldiers?"

Ureko was stunned at first, thinking that he would be scolded severely and then punished, but it seemed that this would not be the case.

Fisk then urged: "Tell me. How do you think of Polotsk's soldiers?"

"The soldiers were weak and unarmored. They used spears, axes and inferior bows. We were attacked by a sneak attack, but the ten brothers fought back and killed us. Three brothers died, and the rest should have killed fifty of them."

"It seems that they are really weak." Fisk nodded. Although "killing fifty people" is not credible, at least its description is the same as Olaf's description. After all, the latter had recently raided the Polotsk village and captured three prisoners.

"The troops are indeed weak."

"Then attack them! Three of our brothers died, which is enough reason to attack." Fisk gritted his teeth first, while Ureko was stunned and quickly realized what the captain really meant.

At this time, Carlotta simply opened the skylight and said clearly: "We must conquer Polotsk. I have no intention of annihilating them all. What we want is their surrender. So I unite the Kingdom of Rus in the name of the Principality of Ostara." In the name of the enemy, we must use troops against Polotsk. Revenge for our dead brothers is only a small purpose, our biggest purpose is to conquer. You have had real battles with them, and your experience must be promoted."

Fisk continued: "You came back in time. I will take you south soon. In fact, whether you come or not, the conquest of Polotsk is also in our plan. Ureko, you provided a first-hand battle This is information that brothers really want!"

Ureko fully understood that no one blamed him for his reckless actions, but he was rewarded. Obviously, it's not that he is reckless, but that the big shots have ambitions to swallow the sky.

"I am the captain, and I still want to avenge my dead brother." He tilted his head slightly and said these words deliberately, like a whispering wolf.

"You will take revenge. Return to the team now! Tell the other brothers what you saw in Polotsk and arouse the brothers' emotions. We will defeat the Polotsk army on the battlefield and conquer them with our killings. They." Fisk said excitedly. The big bald head he had deliberately shaved off his hair frequently was now shiny, which further highlighted his aura.

"As you command!"

Without any modifiers, Ureko only replied with his complete approval.

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