Rise of Rurik

During this gathering of Qiu Yu, Ella continued to sort out the information submitted by her subordinates.

Paper, quills, relying on simple tools and key and complicated materials, she calculated various key data clearly.

It was a blessing to have a good accountant by my side, and Rurik was involved in the calculations throughout the entire process. What is the kingdom like now? From an economic perspective, Rurik gained a deeper understanding of the country he created.

Just like the original plan, New Roseburg is the kingdom's first economic city. Not only is there a large number of settlers, but also a considerable number of people from various sects are engaged in industries with higher added value.

This is exactly the same as Rurik's estimate, and thinking about it from the straightforward data will give you a deeper understanding.

Rurik had already planned to personally lead troops to intervene in the Frankish Civil War.

841 was almost a silent year, but the expeditionary force in 842 was bound to open up a new situation.

"Is it true, as Ella said, that sending three thousand elite troops can achieve economic balance? Maybe."

The autumn rainy season lasts for two weeks, and the continuous coldness makes people complain endlessly.

Now it has finally cleared up completely. Although the disappearing sun is shining brightly on the earth, the climate can no longer return to the warmth and comfort it had before the rain.

In the still humid and cold weather, every household was busy drying clothes. At the request of their families, the girls walked into the forest together with their vines in hand.

They are basically not worried about wild beasts still causing trouble, because there are still hunters who plan to do a few more successful hunts in late autumn and early winter. The big beasts in the area around the lake have been killed, and the remaining squirrels and ferrets have become walking money bags.

The most popular thing growing in the area around the lake is straw mushrooms, but you can also dig out better black pine trees.

dew. Mushrooms are a key side dish, a special gift from the forest to everyone.

The mushroom picking army is almost all made up of girls. They collect all edible mushrooms and work hard to dig out the precious black truffles with a purpose. They do not enjoy them all for themselves, but sell them to the royal family to make extra money.

After the autumn rainy season, all kinds of mushroom pickers appear in the humid forests. People from Slavic tribes everywhere do this, and people from the Smolensk community are no exception.

But this year, the atmosphere in Smolensk is more complicated and tense.

The long Dnieper River, a calm and flowing river, is like a poet, always hiding songs with a hint of sadness and gloom.

It clears up after the rain, and the world is quickly fading green.

Standing in a world full of autumn, the cool breeze keeps dropping dead leaves, the grass where you step quickly withers and turns yellow, the chirping of insects disappears, and everything is quickly entering the desolation.

Ordinary people still feel desolate, let alone the soldiers who are about to go on an expedition.

An army was gathering at Gniezdovo in the Katyn Forest, the ceremonial center of Smolensk.

A warrior on horseback, wearing a fox fur hat, chainmail to protect his torso, and a brown bear fur coat, was seriously inspecting the troops he had painstakingly trained. He is Vadim, and he is facing the soldiers loyal to him.

There were young faces, and the soldiers were all young people between the ages of fifteen and twenty.

They all come from Smolensk, the largest settlement, and many experience it infrequently.

After all, Vadim is an outsider and his legitimacy as leader is insufficient. It is just that the nobles need this person to lead them to defeat the Ilmenslav relatives and the Rus in the north.

….

Let's temporarily agree to make him the leader.

The nobles are like this, but the attitude of the common people is different.

Ordinary people just want to live a peaceful daily life, and it doesn't matter who is the leader.

But horse bandits, said to be composed of Russians and their comrades, frequently attacked villages and displaced thousands of people.

In the constant attacks, panic turned into hatred. This hatred was directed not only at the horse bandits, but also at the local nobles who did nothing.

At this moment, a young noble from outside stepped forward!

"I can understand your pain! Your village was destroyed by the Rus, and my hometown was also destroyed by them. Many people were killed. I always

I think about revenge every moment, and you must be the same! Escape can only lead to the Rossima bandits gaining ground. Only by uniting and launching a counterattack can we defeat them. Now give your son to me, and I will lead the warriors to victory..."

Vadim's words symbolize justice no matter how you listen to them. As for whether this person was born in Smolensk and whether his bloodline is pure, perhaps only the manor owners and nobles pay attention to it.

The fleeing farmers lost their homes and fields one by one. They moved upstream of the river, making their way through the new wasteland. Even though they are also members of the Smolensk community, it does not mean that all villages have a high degree of alliance.

Regarding the existence in the upper reaches of the river, these fellow countrymen are also "despicable foreigners". If these people of the same race occupy the village's land, the young and old men will not hesitate to unite and expel them with confidence.

Therefore, they are die-hard supporters of Vadim in any village that suffers major attacks by horse bandits.

Because only Vadim gave the big

The family hopes to regain their lost land and home and restore their old life. In the same way, the wrongdoers have the right to blame, and the horse bandits killed their own family and friends. It was natural for them to organize an army to fight back and seize the enemy's horses and weapons.

Five years have passed since the initial horse bandit attack, and most of the former fleeing boys have grown into young adults.

Most of them are standing at the big altar in the forest, with the murderous forest behind them, and in front of them is Vadim, the big leader who can lead everyone to revenge!

Look at these elite Smolensk infantry warriors!

Just like the name of this settlement - Smolensk.

Its original meaning is "rosin city by the river", and its name refers directly to rosin, a natural resin that is extremely cheap and crucial to life.

The people raised cattle on a large scale far better than they raised horses. All the rideable horses in Smolensk were a breed imported from Eastern Rome, but there are not many of them today. Each village focuses on raising cattle, so most of the leather used in daily life comes from these cattle.

Although they are domestic cattle, they are not too many generations behind their wild European aurochs ancestors. In fact, the cattle domesticated by the Smolensk people came with them along the way.

People's ancestral area is in the upper reaches of the Vistula River, where there are still wild aurochs and even wild and untamable European bison, which are distantly related to domestic cattle. People do not keep records of their past, and the most common people circulate are memories from a hundred years ago.

Only a handful of upper-class nobles in Smolensk vaguely remember that their ancestors came from the Roman Empire long ago. As for the sense of belonging to Rome, no one took it seriously.

….

Ordinary people’s understanding of themselves

It's very simple - we are Slavs.

Any metalware here is valuable. Through past trade, Smolensk relied on selling cattle and sheep products and grain to exchange for ironware and salt from the south. They even made careful transactions with the Varyag merchants in exchange for some fine iron and amber from the north.

Without enough iron, it was impossible to make a Roman-style broad-bladed iron sword. Vadim's infantrymen each had an iron spear about three meters long.

In view of the fact that Roman horse bandits and their infantry were widely armored, these iron spears were deliberately made into spikes, and a wide blade was installed at the end of the spear head as if a battle ax was attached, making the spear more like a halberd. It can stab, tamp, peck, and cut. It is truly a multi-functional weapon.

Each warrior carries a round shield, and Vadim deliberately imitates his enemy in making the shield. It was a large shield that resembled a Viking buckler. It was thick in the middle and became thinner towards the edges. Patterns composed of circles and waves are drawn on the shield surface. The drawings of each shield are very similar, so that the infantry gather together to form a shield formation, which has a high degree of unity in form.

As the saying goes, if you hate your enemy, you may live like your enemy if you are not careful.

Vadim had no intention of doing so, but after more than a year of recruiting and training, his soldiers became more and more like a large group of Varyag soldiers.

Because there are indeed a few Varyag mercenaries around him as guards, that is, Danish immigrants from the Gulf of Riga. These people, who live in Smolensk and have been cut off from the Gulf of Riga because they have a new life, do not know that in the last year

The entire city of Riga surrendered to the Kingdom of Rus, and the local Danish relatives transformed into new

Russians.

Vadim is training his troops according to the Varyag way. The so-called fighting according to the old tactics has failed. The Varyag infantry tactics defeated his father and the army of Pine Needle Manor. It is better to imitate the enemy and retaliate in kind.

"Why did we fail at that time? We had a large number of soldiers and horses. The defeat was probably due to the soldiers' lack of discipline in fighting. The soldiers were extremely short of armor and had too few bows and arrows."

Vadim is good at summarizing his failures.

Since there is a shortage of armor, it is not too late to make up for it now.

Compared to his destroyed hometown of Pine Needle Manor, the living environment at that time was quite similar to that of Smolensk.

He valued rosin, especially its military value.

A piece of cowhide is cut into thin pieces of similar size and drilled, and the pieces of leather are tied with hemp rope. Finally, a set of Sarmatian-style leather armor can be created, although they do not know this set. The traditional armor-weaving technique was learned from the ancient prairie people.

Cowhide is already hard enough. If each piece of leather is deeply soaked in fresh rosin for ten days, then taken out and dried in the shade, it will gradually harden naturally.

This is the original hardened leather armor. Due to the abundant rosin resources in the Smolensk area, it is possible to make hardened cowhide armor on a large scale.

Deliberately delaying for a year before trying to take the initiative to attack, Vadim was able to assemble an elite army and equip the team with new hardened leather armor on a large scale.

He had done experiments and found that the iron sword could cut obvious marks on such leather armor but could not break it at all, and the iron spear could hardly pierce it with one blow.

….

As for hard resistance coming from tomahawks and hammers, we can't hope for that. Vadim until even the warrior wears

The Daivarian-style leather helmet can withstand the slashing and arrow shooting of swords, and can be hammered by a hammer without an edge. The hammer simply ignores the protection of the helmet, and the skull of a soldier can be smashed. Even a long-handled wooden hammer made of hardwood can break a bone if it hits a warrior wearing chain mail head-on.

Blunt weapons have their place.

Therefore, as secondary weapons of the soldiers, they carried iron weapons such as handaxes and daggers in their waists. Some also carried wooden sticks with iron nails on the ends, which were used as blunt weapons in close combat.

The leather helmet, which is enough to protect the face, is decorated with furry fox fur. The soldier's torso, shoulders and neck are covered with hardened cowhide armor, and then put on a layer of leather clothing mixed with various colored leathers to keep out the cold.

They wore thick leather shoes, and linen foot wraps were wrapped from the feet to the knees.

They all wore trousers made of burlap, with ordinary cowhide hanging on their thighs and crotches for protection.

When being inspected by Vadim, the warriors held spears in one hand, carried bucklers behind their backs, and wore leather armor to bear similar skin injuries.

In the past era, Smolensk had never seen such an army. The army was composed of local young people. Their eyes showed the desire for revenge and the hope of a victory. They plundered the wealth of the Russians in tit for tat and enriched themselves.

It was here that Vadim gave another impassioned lecture. The soldiers were so powerful that they raised their spears high and shouted. Their morale seemed to be ready to eat the Rosmar bandits alive immediately.

But this is not all about the Smolensk Army.

To persuade the local nobles to send troops, Vadim, as the big leader, must use his family wealth to set an example.

He gathered all the horsemen in the community to fight

A cavalry force barely enough for a hundred people was assembled. They were just a group of infantry on horseback. The horses they rode were usually used to pull firewood carts. Now they were used as war horses by various nobles for Vadim to make up the numbers.

On the other side of the review ground, the nobles who had discussed the plan to send troops were here to observe the elite soldiers that Vadim had spent huge sums of money to build.

Like the leader of the Vyadzic tribe who came from afar, as an ally, he never thought that his neighbor would actually come up with such a strong army.

"Damn it! How come I don't know this kid Vadim's secret? This is how they strengthened their army. If they attack me instead of fighting the horse bandits, can I withstand it?"

On the surface, he would not say anything but smile, but the leader Heda was very worried that Vadim would raise the butcher knife towards him when he grew up.

Riding on horseback to inspect his warriors again, Vadim's confidence was palpable.

He tightened his grip on the reins, and the horse suddenly "braked" among the nobles.

What a young general who can fight with swords and horses!

Such Vadim finally ignited the local nobles' self-confidence, and also forced the Vyadzic leader to make support claims due to military deterrence.

"What do you think? With this army, we can win a key counterattack. So...do you still have any reason to delay sending troops?"

The nobles looked at each other, and then someone stepped forward to greet them with a smile: "If that's the case, you can be a qualified leader. I will send people to participate, but don't expect me to have the financial resources like you to come up with such powerful soldiers."

….

"Me too." Another person stood up and said, "Of course I can send troops, and I can leave them to your command. I will even send my son to lead troops to assist you, but you really can't expect that.

My servants are strong. "

All the nobles agreed to send troops, which should have made Vadim extremely happy, but these old guys were all old foxes.

"What?" Vadim, who was riding a horse and looking down at everyone, winked deliberately: "Why do I think you still have some doubts?"

"Which one of us dares? After all, you are the leader. This is what everyone is united in and declares to God on the altar that is still here." Another old noble said this, but there was always a hint of disdain in his words.

"Uncle. You still don't trust me?" Vadim narrowed his eyes and asked.

"I'm not qualified."

"No. You, and you..." He continued to look at the nobles, and slapped his heart with his right fist in front of everyone: "Give me your nephew. Try to gather an army of three thousand people. If you can, More, for example, four thousand to five thousand would be better. We will choose the current time point to attack the Russian stronghold on the West Dvina River, occupy it and cut off the caravan of horse bandits with absolute force..."

He repeated the strategy that had been discussed collectively, which was to occupy Vitebsk, cut off the "Amber Road", and then use the geographical advantage to force the Polotsk people to join the group (he did not know that the Polotsk people had already been defeated) , and even forced the "Dubler League" co-organized by the Drigoviches and Derevlians to establish good relations with the Smolensk community.

He made a special oath: "If you don't succeed, you will succeed. If God abandons me, let me die in battle. Of course, I will win!"

Vadim's ambition is actually very great. He not only thinks about revenge, he even has the idea of ​​establishing a formal Slavic country by taking advantage of the situation.

Thinking about it, it seems that the historical process of the Principality of Great Moravia is being re-enacted in the heart of Eastern Europe. It is said that all the tribes, large and small, related to the huge Krivi people were finally brought together in the national system centered on Smolensk, and he, Vadim, became the king of the new country.

Bloodline is extremely important now.

In any case, the Pine Needle Manor where Vadim originally belonged was a small tribe of Krivics who moved north, mixed with another group of Pomeranian immigrants, and was called "Ilmenslav" by outsiders. Call yourself.

Just like Smolensk people call themselves S, people in the north call themselves Svne, just with a nasal sound at the end.

Unfortunately, close relatives in the north have been conquered by the Rus, and Vadim, who lost his own people, finally launched his revenge in Smolensk and the first attempt to establish his own kingdom.

The entire Smolensk was fully mobilized after the autumn rain season, and it was difficult for large settlements in remote areas to send troops. The leaders of distant settlements who came to the worship center for meetings all handed over their guards as a sponsorship for Operation Vadim.

Almost all of the troops came from the city of Smolensk and nearby villages, as well as the Yala (Yartevo) settlement. Because it was very close to the big city, hundreds of militiamen decisively sent troops to assist. Because from the perspective of the Yala Village Community, he is on the edge of the activity area with the Vyadich people. Although both sides are safe now, who can guarantee that the Vyadich people will not take advantage of him? Yala community is in great need of military protection from Smolensk

, now is the time of war, sending troops to assist the big leader is actually a vote of honor.

The situation is far worse than Vadim expected.

Three thousand people? No! The total number of militiamen participating in the battle has reached four thousand!

Because of the large number of troops, those involved became more and more confident. Bringing weapons to join the militia to attack the horse bandits is full of justice, because the army composed of fellow villagers is too strong, so that from the nobles to the Orion farmers, what they think about is not defeat and losses, but worry about robbing after victory because too few troops are sent. The spoils of war don’t even have a chance to eat soup.

The local nobles took out their sons and nephews to lead their servants in the battle, and batches of young farmers participated in it, which became a fashion.

It was just after the autumn harvest, and Smolensk's food supply was very abundant.

It seemed that everything was under control, and the balance of victory tipped towards Smolensk from the moment the army was assembled.

Delayed until early October, the army was assembled.

The muddy ground is drying again, and although the climate has become colder, the first snow will not hit the ground yet. Now is a good time to launch an early winter offensive.

Smolensk Army, attack!

The reborn star fruit