Rise of Rurik

What does Riga mean to Rus?

This is the starting point of the "Amber Road". Raw amber stones collected from various places are gathered in Riga through relay trade, and then local merchants or Danish merchants are responsible for trafficking them to the south.

In today's era, this trade route is not prosperous, and any merchant who intends to go to Eastern Rome has to face the hardships and dangers of the journey. No one would have thought it unthinkable to die during the trip, so when Harold Sr. claimed that everyone traveling with him had died, it didn't shock the Danish community.

They are still more concerned about where Amber went.

If it was explained to them that the attackers were actually Russians and all the rough stones were taken away by them, wouldn't the newly established alliance collapse in an instant? Some things should remain secrets forever. Instead of shutting up those who know about them, it is better not to spread the news from the source.

Anyway, the attackers were Polotsk people, and Polotsk was conquered by the Russian cavalry due to defeat. During the battle, the amber rough stones fell into the swamp and were swallowed up by the earth.

The statement was so convincing that people in the Danish community believed Harold Sr.'s account. After all, the investors in this trade all understand the dangers involved, and they can only swallow it with broken teeth.

But these Danish businessmen are not stingy. They focus on the future. Now the cavalry and pirates of Ross are gathered in Riga. The boss Stekander has joined Ross for the sake of the entire community. In the future, everyone will be regarded as a Ross. This means a wider market!

The guys in Polotsk surrendered due to defeat, and no longer have the strength to block roads and collect tolls. Moreover, the locals in Kiev have miraculously formed an alliance with Rus, and the trade lines seem to be much safer than before.

They believe in Odin and Frey. In the final analysis, they worship wealth and the force that can protect it.

A more powerful force came to Riga, and Latvians were no longer the nominal masters of the city.

But will the airborne city lord have any impact on the current situation?

The people in the Danish community have nothing to do with the local Latvians, and there is no reason to fight if they look up to each other. People simply feel that even if the Russians become local bosses, life should continue as usual.

As the party wound down, Spout, Fisk and Stekander were ready to plot. There were no Latvian representatives involved in the whole process, and they had already made clear arrangements for Riga's future.

When Stekander informed his community of the favorable outcome of the reception, it was now the community's turn to cheer.

The news spread from person to person, and the whole of Riga was informed of the Varyag's intentions that day.

Although the local nobles were banned, they could clearly get news from the outside world.

When the Varangians' strategy came to their ears, they were different from the cheers of others. Although these people were not mourning, they could only be sad, and then they were forced to let go and look for the benefits they could get once they surrendered.

More than a dozen village leaders and local wealthy people gathered together to discuss countermeasures. They sat on the ground, each with different expressions on their faces.

"Alas. What else can we do? After all, we are not strong enough."

"That's right. Even if you give us enough time, we can't defeat these Varyags by gathering all the men."

"Hey. It sounds like you have decided to go to war. Don't mention this. We have no conflicts with them, and those Russians on horseback did not destroy our village. If they are always so kind, it doesn't hurt to let them be the boss. "

"Are you so willing?"

"What else?" Another person looked at everyone with a sad face: "If it weren't for those Danish Varangians, we would have been annexed by the Semigalian guys. We are just weak, like fish in a pottery urn, only Being able to be manipulated by them.”

"So what's your attitude?" Another old man looked at everyone: "My opinion is that the Russians should be the boss. That Spuyut doesn't look like a villain. Our trade with each other is very harmonious, and I don't think they want to destroy it." Let’s build this trade with our own hands. They need us.”

"In my opinion, everything is a conspiracy." The slightly younger village leader lamented: "Unfortunately, even if we see through the conspiracy, there is nothing we can do."

"I don't think so. I heard that the entire northern sea area is peaceful. That Spyut is still a nobleman of Ross. Let him be the boss. From now on, our fishing boats can safely fish far away from the ocean, and all the troubles in the past will disappear. This is very important to us. Important. So my attitude is to acknowledge him." Another village leader expressed his acceptance of the new order under Ross's rule.

"Anyway, my people don't want to go to war. Even if I give them some food as tribute every year, it doesn't matter. As long as my people can fish in the ocean, the loss of food can be offset by the rich catch. What's more..." An old guy said cleverly Staring: "The Russians will definitely not refuse gems. We go to the seaside to dig amber and dig in the forest. We can make extra money by selling the amber to them. The Russians are definitely more powerful than the Danes who have settled here for a long time. They can sell the gems If we continue to sell them to distant places, we will continue to purchase the rough stones mined by our tribe.”

This description really enlightened everyone.

yes! As long as there is demand, there is a market! As long as the gems can be sold safely, they will need to purchase a large amount of rough gems.

"Then let's vote according to past traditions! Most of the leaders are here anyway." An old man with an exaggerated white beard initiated the vote in a hoarse voice. "Just as we supported the Russian Spyut as a general before, those who support him as a general all the time, raise your hands."

People of different ages looked at each other. The wealthy businessmen, as representatives of the city of Riga, raised their hands in agreement out of interest considerations. Although the village leaders hesitated, they still raised their right hands after seeing the situation clearly. . That's all, they looked at each other again and laughed. Some are happy smiles, and some are just sad and bitter smiles.

The nobles and the wealthy have absolute power to influence the development of the entire Latvian tribe. They are very aware of their weak strength. As elites, they know that once they challenge someone who is much stronger than themselves, they will suffer a devastating blow. .

Not to mention humiliation, they made what they thought was the right choice.

When this meeting ended, any uneasy local nobles were completely relieved.

As everyone knows, ordinary Latvians who have already learned the news agree with the new situation on a large scale. Ordinary people believe what they see. They have seen that these Ross cavalry did no harm to the village, and they have seen that even the pirates recovered by Ross have become peaceful merchants. A large number of people in Riga once brought weapons to prepare for the possible battle. They saw the real prowess of the Rus' people, realized the tragic results of fighting against them, and were thankful that once these people became allies, they would be such powerful guardians.

Latvia only has a small population, so as long as the nobles decide to surrender, the people in the countryside can only accept this result smoothly.

Therefore, the banned Riga nobles simply expressed their attitude of submission to the Russians. They were so obedient, which really surprised Spuyut.

In this case, even if the grain that those people asked for as tribute has just begun to arrive, the so-called striking while the iron is hot, the formal meeting is just in time to implement it.

Compared with the large seaport cities built by the Russians, Riga is far from dirty, and the appearance of the city is also terrible.

The young people brought in by Fisk thought the place was terrible, while the handful of older guys under Spuyte thought the place was very retro.

Local people use local materials to build their houses. Old-fashioned Viking longhouses can be found everywhere, as well as a large number of shacks. They surrounded the city courtyard with a fence, and the so-called wealthy people in the city erected wooden stakes and built taller wooden walls. The structure of the entire huge settlement is to spread out the pie. There are no two-story buildings in the whole city, so the settled population is not large and the city area is not small. The city has no city walls, making it easy to attack.

It really fits the description of the Danish leader Sterkander. If it weren't for the Danish community here, some nearby tribes that are eager to annex it would have already annexed it. Do guys who speak a similar language to the locals have to make a lot of demands? At least the Danes, who have turned guests into settlers, run their own communities and do not demand justice from the Latvians nor give them tribute.

The Danish community is indeed an outsider and has had a mutually beneficial relationship with local Latvians for decades.

Spuyut is very satisfied with the current state. Now that it has developed extremely stably, Rose should take over without any changes.

Before the formal meeting, the Rus-Danish community completely unified its attitude. In the eyes of Stekander and Harald Harald, the Rus had made the wisest ruling strategy, and these demands gave the Latvians no reason to bargain. , should be accepted directly.

The small carriages transporting grains continued to arrive in Riga, and the villagers escorting them were somewhat uneasy. They saw the powerful Russians on horseback at close range, and immediately evacuated after unloading the grains.

Fisk ordered his own people to exercise restraint and not to make any trouble, and not even to worry about whether the amount of grain transported was enough.

Xinmai knew that it was prone to moisture. A hundred-pound bag of wheat that had not been air-dried and sun-dried contained too much moisture. Even though he knew that there were elements of chicken thieves, Fisk was too lazy to investigate after learning the situation.

There is a good thing about Xinmaidao. The horses that are marching and participating in battles have always maintained a high physical energy consumption. Especially in autumn, the horses lose weight a lot and are in urgent need of eating wheat to quickly restore their physical fitness. New wheat is easy to digest, and war horses who are sensitive to the aroma of wheat also like to eat it.

The wheat came very timely. After all, Fisk's cavalry will not stay here for long. It plans to return in October and will arrive in the Novgorod area at a very appropriate time to settle down. This batch of wheat, combined with the tribute from the Polotsk people, just met the rations of the returning troops. Now the people who got the new wheat are already enjoying a feast.

In the Danish community, a larger longhouse was chosen as the location for negotiations between the Rus and local nobles.

It was obviously a meeting to establish the ownership of Riga, but the atmosphere was not solemn, but even full of joy.

Because the situation has changed, it is not known that the Latvians are ceding the ownership of Riga, but that they are leading the entire tribe and twenty villages, large and small, to collectively defect to Rus. The information they learned was that the Russians would be just rulers and everyone's life would be better than before, so why be sad?

Everything seemed to have gone back to the past. Sitting on a simple bench indoors, Sipuyut looked left and right and felt that time and space were a little confused. It seems that this is the parliamentary court built by the Ross tribe in their hometown in the old days, which can accommodate a hundred people to gather together to discuss matters.

The longhouse has a central corridor as its center line, and on one side sit the Rus' people, the Danish community people, the Ostara people and the steppe people, who represent the Rus' power. On the other side sat Latvian nobles and merchants.

Spout was undoubtedly the protagonist of this meeting. Of course, Fisker, who took off his helmet to reveal his bald head, was really conspicuous.

Seeing that all the nobles who were supposed to come had expired, Spuyut did not hesitate: "Let's get started! Everyone look at me, and I will announce something. From now on, I will be the Lord of Riga."

After the words fell, the Latvians in front of them showed no objection or doubt at all. Their eyes were very kind, and it seemed that they fully accepted the result as they had revealed before.

"Do you have any doubts?" he asked.

That's all. Si Puyut pointed at a few nobles and asked them about their attitude. All they got were in agreement.

"Very good, since you are so obedient. Let me announce one more thing! From now on, your entire Latvian tribe will be merged into our Kingdom of Rus!"

This is a request for the sovereignty of an entire tribe. During the period, it will not be obtained through war, but only through armed deterrence and economic wooing. When Spuyut and the guys were discussing, they could not guarantee that the Latvians would support such an excessive request, so he emphasized it again. , open your eyes and observe their attitude.

"Do you support or oppose it?" he continued to ask.

At this moment, an old man knocked on his wooden stick in public: "It is okay for the entire tribe to accept the rule of your Ross. So, what will we get? Is it a stable life as always?"

"You... old man, can you represent the wishes of other nobles?" Si Puyut temporarily suppressed his inner joy and asked specifically.

"Okay. I'm the oldest. So, what do you mean?"

"Of course, just like our peaceful trade before, we will maintain such peace in the future. Moreover, it is happy to be ruled by Rus! Our king is full of wisdom and will be kind to all those who surrender to him. I actually know what you are worried about, no matter what Besides worrying about whether to pay tribute, how much tribute to pay, and whether the people will become slaves..." Halfway through the words, Fisk noticed the heads of the nobles thrust out, "I say, you don't have to worry at all."

"How do you promise?" the old man asked again.

"Whether to pay tribute, and if so, how much to pay, I actually have no right to decide this kind of thing, only our past can decide. As far as I know, the king will grant you ten years of tribute exemption because of your smart surrender. And even if we start paying tribute ten years later, the tribute will be very small. Besides, I am the Count of Saaremaa Island. I don’t want to collect your tribute. Now just relying on our normal trade is enough to meet my needs. As for the issue of slaves .Listen! Only criminals and prisoners of war can be slaves. Our king is very kind. In principle, ordinary people will not be slaves."

Spuyut explained it like this. The local nobles took a good look at this already familiar man and started whispering among themselves. To be fair, it would be great for the Russians to offer such a price, as if they were a group of good people, and they also had a good impression of the young man named Rurik, the king of Russia whom they had met.

Now, it's the Latvians' turn to make their case.

Because the old man was the oldest, he was elected as the speaker to speak on behalf of all Latvians: "The result of our discussion is that the entire tribe will be merged into Rus. We don't know your specific situation, but we know you. You will treat us well." Us? General Spyut?"

"Will do."

"Actually... we don't have any choice. We can only accept your rule. I hope you will fulfill your promise."

The old man said it very truthfully. Spuyut was not a kind person. He had already prepared in his mind that if this group of Latvians refused to be ruled, the army would attack to force them to surrender.

"I will fulfill my promise. Our relationship goes beyond allies. From now on, you will be my people, and I will answer directly to the king."

"Very good. Then, our proposal is to elect you as the permanent general. From now on, you will lead us to resist attacks from other tribes and lead us to become rich. We have never elected a permanent leader, and now you are. "

As expected, there was no bargaining, and the Latvians accepted the new order established by the Russian conquerors very smoothly.

This meeting determined that the Danish community in Riga and the entire Latvian tribe would be integrated into Rus. Under a fine division, the two forces were directly integrated into the Earldom of Saaremaa.

As a result, the Russian flag was officially flown in Riga, and Spuyut, who had only a few men under his command, was transformed into a border noble with theoretically tens of thousands of people. He especially remembered the power given to him by King Rurik, and his current expansion was just the fulfillment of power.

Theoretically, the king did not intend to expand in 841, but this did not mean that he rejected any form of expansion. The ban is limited to the main force of the kingdom marching far away. For example, the expansion of the Principality of Ostara is legal, and the peaceful expansion of the County of Saaremaa is also legal.

For the Latvian tribe, surrendering to a powerful force is their fate! Their merger with Rus is exactly on the right path of historical development. Either submit to the power of the West or submit to the power of the East.

The process of history is not disrupted here. Rus controls trade points and routes, while the surrendered Latvian tribes continue to live ordinary lives. They have huge autonomy on the premise that they cannot rebel. It is profitable to belong to Rus, and they are happy to accept the new order for the sake of continuous wealth and improving life. It's just that compared to the progress of the other plane, the Ross people are more than two hundred years ahead of schedule.

The autumn rain season has finally arrived, and the Ross cavalry who came from afar have picked up a batch of amber and beeswax rough stones on the beach, among which the much turbid beeswax is the most abundant. Due to the rapid cooling and rain, this stone-picking operation has been suspended.

The Riga and Latvian tribes experienced some turmoil and life returned to its original state.

It's just that what is currently being shown is a restoration to the original status quo.

Times have completely changed. Latvians no longer worry about attacks on offshore fishing. The sea is open to them. In theory, bold Latvian businessmen can directly go to New Roseburg to do trade under the banner of the Earldom of Saaremaa Island. In fact, Spuyut decided to take the surrendered Danish community leader Sterkander and representatives of the Latvian nobles to the capital to meet King Rurik in person, and the king would confirm the legality of the surrender, and then fully determine the status of the surrender. Rights and Duties, and the rights and obligations of the Kingdom towards them.

"It's time to come to an end. I clearly set out inland, and now I finally see the sea. It's a miracle. The king's map is actually real. Odin protects us..." It was rainy outside, and Fei was hiding in the house. Si Ke felt very comfortable. He was already planning to return the same way and bring his adventure this year to an end.