Rise of Rurik

A warrior, he cannot be born out of thin air.

Vadim nominally completely occupied all the Polotsk villages on the Polota River, but he lacked confidence in whether he could obtain their sincere surrender.

He had three thousand soldiers. After a difficult trek to the village, his morale, which was on the verge of collapse, rebounded a lot with the recovery of sufficient supplies.

He immediately began to recruit troops on the spot and ordered all Polotsk people from young to old to take up arms by force.

"We are not invaders, we are just helping you to rescue you from the rule of the Varangians."

"From now on, Smolensk and Polotsk will be one family."

"Marry your women to my warriors and all will be well."

The series of slogans shouted from Vadim's mouth were so ironic.

For locals, it would be foolish to refuse cooperation. After all, this Vadim has an army that seems to be incalculable in size.

Only Vadim knew the true strength of the Smolensk army. The four thousand army lost one thousand but did not collapse. He understood that it was not because of his charisma as a leader, but because no one wanted to die needlessly from hunger and cold.

The desire to survive forced the army to march to Polotsk. Although its morale was restored, it was impossible for it to be really strong enough to dare to directly attack and destroy the new local Russian fortress.

Who can forget the experience of suffering huge losses in the previous war?

We can no longer continue to attack by force, we must think of some ways.

So, across the Polota River, on one side were the Russian flags flying high at the fortress in the winter sun, as well as various Varyag warriors standing on the wooden city wall with their highly reflective helmets.

The other side is the so-called Smolensk-Polotsk coalition army that occupied the largest village of Polotsk and made it the core area. They showed off their power on the river bank and made a lot of noise but did not make a forceful attack.

The two sides entered a state of "sit-down war".

In the view of Visuende, the fortress guard, it was possible that the enemy was waiting for the ice on the Polota and West Dvina rivers to be thick enough for horses to run freely.

Just on the side of the village, Vadim tried his best to gather about five hundred local soldiers.

They are not soldiers, it is more appropriate to call them armed peasants.

The people have long seen the power of the Russian army, and they also know that there is a group of Danish businessmen from the Gulf of Riga in the fortress. They are all Varangians. Because these guys want to do business in distant places, considering the extremely risky journey, they spend a lot of money to buy high-quality weapons and armor. If you want to fight with such people, wouldn't it be like hitting a stone with an egg?

After each village held a meeting, they elected a group of talkers, but no real leader was elected. In the chaos, all the villages just want to protect themselves, and they are even more worried that their overstepping will be retaliated by the Kingdom of Rus in the future. At present, those who are talking about it have completely shut their mouths.

Since Vadim from the east wants to be the leader, let him do it...

All the local leading figures did not flatter him enough to cooperate or refuse. They just wanted to protect themselves, but they still could not escape Vadim's undue demands.

Armed soldiers walked around the winding streets. The villagers who had nowhere to go could only stay at home and wait for an unknown fate. They were picked out by the soldiers, forced to take nothing with them, and sent away.

The corpses of those who dared to resist were thrown into the river full of ice. The villagers seemed extremely obedient. They were herded into some houses and kept under centralized supervision, waiting for the limited food rewarded by Vadim.

Because preliminary investigations have made it clear that the total grain surplus in the ten Polotsk villages is not as optimistic as Vadim imagined.

"These abominable Russians, you took away a large amount of tribute, which is like plucking the hair off the wild geese. Now I can only get the rest? Can my three thousand army really survive the winter smoothly?"

The rationing system is not an advanced invention. When food is limited, Vadim has to ensure that his own army survives the winter smoothly and has enough surplus food to support the return home. He wanted to live frugally, and the soldiers understood this better.

As for the forced locals, giving them food is already a huge kindness.

As for the villagers who were locked in their houses doing nothing, they fell into a state of confusion.

caused by hunger.

In just two or three days, ordinary people in Polotsk under Vadim basically lost the strength to resist. Those women who were forced to have relationships with his warriors were willing to surrender to the barbaric warriors in order to survive, just because the other party could provide food to support themselves and their young children.

The ice on the river gradually thickened, and Polotsk villagers began to die one after another.

Weakened by hunger, weak will freeze to death. The elderly and young began to die one after another, and the people who were being held like prisoners remembered the kindness of the Russians. At least, the Varyag cavalry from the north and the female noble had no intention of trapping everyone to death.

On the contrary, Vadim and his Smolensk army took away everyone's surplus grain to fatten themselves up. What's good now is that all the grain for next spring's cultivation has been looted by them. Even if they don't die this winter, if they still have it next spring, At this opportunity, everyone will have to flee as a family.

There are still people who think about the opportunity to escape, and even more people have no thought about the future and are just waiting silently for an unknown fate.

In times of crisis, some people began to pray silently, not to pray to the gods for help, but to hope that the Russian army would come all the way to fight.

Because they will never sit back and watch their Novopolotsk fortress collapse!

I'm afraid their reinforcements are already on the way.

But even if there are reinforcements, can they defeat Vadim's army? They can really come from a distant place through the snow.

Obviously, the people underestimated the operational capabilities of the Ross army based on their own vision. Just come through the snow! It even came from falling ice.

Two armies were coming from different directions straight towards the West Dvina River.

On one side were reinforcements from the Gulf of Riga, three hundred people mixed with various pirates, Danish armed merchants, a small number of Russian warriors, and a small number of Latvian warriors, riding horse-drawn sleighs and reindeer sleighs, traveling as fast as possible along the West Dvina River. And up.

It was quite a long journey to wait for reinforcements. On the way, they had to pass through the territory of the Seron tribe, and they had to consider the risk of being caught in a sudden snowstorm.

Sipuut and Stekander did not care too much. The intertwined interests of many parties made it possible for everyone to gather just this few soldiers, no matter how powerful the enemy's troops were, they would never refuse to send troops just because of this. A very simple problem lies before us, especially for the Danish community in the Gulf of Riga - nearly a hundred brothers have to stay in the Russian fortress for the winter, and they cannot be defeated and killed.

The daylight hours are shortened to only nine hours, and every night is a huge challenge for winter hikers. Only reindeer seem to be able to ignore it all.

The residents of the Gulf of Riga don't raise many reindeer. Although the horses are cold-resistant species, their shoulder height is too low, making them difficult to ride. They can be used to pull carts and sleds.

Compared to riding on a sleigh, Spuyte still preferred rowing. However, the river was freezing rapidly, and the thought of rowing reinforcements was discontinued.

The hastily assembled team lacked experience in winter expeditions, and they had no idea how far they could travel in one daylight.

"It should take me seven days to reach Polotsk, and then another three days to reach Vitebsk. Their fortress is fully prepared for the winter, and as long as it is not breached, it will last forever... Spuyut made some calculations, hoping that when he arrived in Vitebsk, he would see the Ross flag still flying and the siege enemy troops who were wasting their lives in the city.

Spuyut's expectations were just expectations, and some of his guesses were correct, but the real situation was vastly different from what he imagined.

On the other hand, unlike the reinforcements in the Gulf of Riga, the army led by Rurik himself is completely different.

Every year, Novgorod organizes a large-scale reindeer sleigh team to ride on the frozen Volkhov River all the way to the capital, Novorossberg.

Since long treks across the ice were not unusual at all, the soldiers did not feel that it was a severe challenge to brave the snowfall and go all out south.

Even though the time to prepare for battle is short, the army has already been preparing for next year's war.

Hanukkah is not far away, and residents of Novgorod began training the reindeer pulling the sleigh early. It was supposed to be a sleigh brigade transporting a large number of people and materials to the capital. Reindeer and sleigh

Requisitioned by the Governor, they were transformed into a troop transport unit.

Things are far more optimistic than Rurik imagined!

Since it was a crusade against Vadim who had escaped, heroes from all walks of life in Novgorod City gathered to respond and took out their own sleds and deer to help the king's army win the crusade. Because many people suffered from the oppression of Pine Needle Manor when they were young. Thinking that Vadim's purpose is to regain the dominance of the area around the lake and continue to be the leader here, how can he succeed?

The local business environment is very good. King Ross's tax exemption order is effective for people from all walks of life. What's more, even if they start paying taxes in the future, the increasingly prosperous business has offset that tax.

In fact, those who supported this sudden crusade and provided supplies suddenly made a fortune.

The horses have grown thick manes, and their hooves have been fitted with refurbished, wide spiked shoes, which provide a stronger grip and even make it easier to move on ice.

Horses are still very valuable. Even though the Russian Crusade Army received a critical supply in the city of New Ostara south of the Great Lakes, the Pechenegs stationed in the local area mounted their horses to participate in the battle, and even Bayasil personally led the army. He went into battle with fifty of his own guards, but curiously continued the march without anyone on horseback.

The horses were harnessed to ropes tied to the reindeer sleigh.

At this moment, each sleigh was filled with people and provisions.

A large amount of ready-to-eat dry food, simple fodder, pure wheat, soldiers' chainmail armor, and even an astonishing amount of materials for tents.

The regular army of Russia has always attached great importance to logistics. Thanks to the fact that the core of Russia's inland ruling area is Novgorod, this big city gathers most of the resources. To allocate resources, Rurik does not need to invest much time and cost. .

Especially the key military rations can be transported directly from the warehouse! Although Rurik has not collected taxes in recent years, it has used the sales proceeds from various state-owned factories to purchase grain from farmers, which has become a happy and beautiful thing for us. The so-called exemption is direct taxes, and there is a scissor gap between industry and agriculture. Rurik still exchanged grain from the hands of the vast number of Slavic farmers, just in time to participate in this sudden winter war.

Obviously a large amount of food was prepared for next year's expedition. Since damn Vadim was seeking death, he had no choice but to adjust his strategy.

Each sled has a wooden pole, and a Russian flag must be hung from it. The Ross flag has a white background and blue stripes. Maybe it is not particularly conspicuous in the vast white world. It may be replaced by black cloth and it will not be conspicuous because it is similar to the color of the pine trunk. Based on practical considerations, each sled has wrapped red cloth strips around the wooden poles.

It was ground cinnabar mixed with rosin. After the white cloth was deeply soaked, a relatively dry and hard red cloth was produced. Due to the lack of natural red plant-based dyes, the red cloth made in this way is too precious and can basically only be used as a decoration for clothes.

A touch of red stands out in the vast expanse of white, how obvious it is!

Whenever there are leather drums and horns, they must be used. It is best for every sleigh to have something that can make a lot of noise.

Red banners, flags, drums and horns, the mighty Ross Expeditionary Force relied on these objects to ensure that no sled was accidentally left behind.

The charioteers who control the sleigh supervise the reindeer operations. They should have taken the family goods and took advantage of the Hanukkah to go to the capital to make a fortune. Now they are fighting for King Rus, happily pulling a sleigh of warriors to the south. The charioteer will not directly participate in the battle. King Rus will also pay for the food and drink for the man and the deer along the way, and he will also receive a small amount of loot after the battle. King Ross is bound to win, no matter how you think about participating in it, you will make a lot of money!

So the soldiers of the four cavalry teams sat on reindeer sleighs and guarded their horses, which were completely light.

Quetzal, Nurg, and a small number of Kiev horsemen gathered around the upright Pecheneg Princess Beyashir. The army was commanded by the princess and how to fight, while the princess had to listen to the King of Rus.

Everyone rides on sleighs and guards various baggage and lightly-armed horses, forming the so-called "Prairie Cavalry".

The five Russian infantry banners, the huge Slavic banner, and the Ostara army constitute seven marching groups. Each group has a commander in charge. A commander does not have to personally manage five hundred people, he only needs to It is enough to manage the four centurions under them, and the centurions manage the four thirty-man commanders, and the management authority

Finally, it was decided to be a ten-man captain. And a team of ten must share a sled.

[In view of the general environment,

Such a pyramid-shaped command structure makes the Russian army large but not chaotic. Although the marching column is arranged in a long snake formation, the position of each group in the team is determined in advance. As long as the rear team follows the front team honestly, keep an eye on them. Holding the flag and listening to the drums, the team is also in disarray even when setting up camp, so there is no chance of falling behind.

At first they marched through light snow, but as they advanced further, the weather gradually cleared up.

No, people who bought sunglasses wore this treasure of snow marching one after another. Each soldier wrapped himself up quite demonstratively, and the eyes that should have been exposed were covered by huge gray-black wooden-framed sunglasses, making the whole army look quite weird.

Rurik and his two wives and concubines were sitting on the sleigh of the Chinese army.

Carlotta and Bayahir are not ordinary wives and concubines. According to northern tradition, they are the Valkyries in the world.

Female warriors are not uncommon, but female warriors who can command large armies are rare.

For this battle, all the elite Rus living in the Novgorod area came out. Rurikben estimated that he had gathered a huge force of 5,000 people. The actual number of troops was more than this.

After all, it is a crusade against the extremely ambitious Vadim. Maybe this winter war is a huge opportunity to solve the Smolensk problem in one package.

In this case, why not organize an army?

After Arik learned the news, he immediately organized the First Flag Team composed of citizen soldiers to forcefully request to join. Rurik had no reason to refuse his brother's kindness. After all, behind him were a group of old Russians who were eager to try.

For a time, the battle became a "father and son soldier", and the sons of veterans of the first flag corps were basically in the four flag corps that were subsequently expanded.

"I accidentally gathered an army of six thousand. I have never fought such a crazy battle... It's really a challenge."

Rurik's sled was directly pressed against the fixed tent, where he was able to think about the battle process, hoping that his army would rush to Vitebsk, which had not yet been conquered by the enemy, and then directly fight the damned Vadim.