Rise of Rurik

The appearance of a group of people on the ice was very unexpected, not to mention the fact that they were armed. When the cavalry suddenly appeared, they not only did not panic, but pointed their spearheads at the enemy.

Who are they? Who else could it be? Rurik very much hoped that among this group of suddenly recalcitrant rebels was the target of his trip—Vadim.

This guy better be here! Even though the battle with Vadim was not as vigorous as expected.

Just imagine, two kings each with an army of soldiers and horses fighting in formation in the open field, and finally they were killed in darkness. The winner stood on the battlefield. How glorious it was for one king to execute the other king.

That will be an epic that can praise thousands of years, and finally turn into a myth that lasts for thousands of years... Rurik hopes that Vadim will be a vigorous figure and a strong military figure. Defeating and killing such a powerful enemy will further highlight the king of Rus. of glory.

However, Vadim may not have such qualifications in reality. Or even that this person has betrayed all his relatives?

"Fighters! Disperse! The first and second teams are following me. Go to the right!" Rurik ordered, holding his recurve bow high.

Fisk immediately answered: "The third and fourth teams are following me. Go to the left!" The four centurions of the First Cavalry Standard were instantly split into two. This was quite easy for the warriors who had experienced hundreds of battles. This was the first time for Rurik himself to experience it.

The noble King of Rus went to war as a de facto cavalry commander for the first time. From the perspective of the crowd forming a formation, more than a hundred soldiers gathered together in fear, facing the outside world and protecting their leader.

Vadim was in the military formation just as Rurik hoped, and he was not exposed until now because he was well protected.

These spearmen have thrown away most of their burdens, and their current armor is upper body leather armor and a small wooden shield.

Those hardened cowhide nails soaked in resin are lighter and even have a crisp feeling of plastic when knocked.

This kind of armor has good defensive properties against ordinary iron weapons, but the equipment of the Ross cavalry has always remained unchanged in response to changes.

The cone-shaped armor-piercing arrows were set up, and those archery masters even used special techniques to hold Sansei in their right hands. They made their horses pass by the enemy's wings and attack sideways.

"Three consecutive shots in the face". Those masters of archery can shoot right through an enemy's face! The arrow missed and penetrated the face, destroying the brain, and probably killed the opponent before he even realized what pain was.

Leather armor is useless under close range strikes from a recurve bow. Five hundred cavalry passed by quickly, immediately causing half of the casualties of the formation members. Many of them were hit by several arrows. They huddled on the ice for a while and then vomited blood and died... The formation members were stunned. Although Vadim was Under tight protection, his ears were filled with the painful wails of his subordinates. What he saw was the twisted and squirming wounded soldiers on the ground, and the scarlet trickle that spewed out from the wounds of the dead and formed on the ice.

Vadim raised his sword and gritted his teeth. He was at a loss. Maybe he could only resist? !

"Watch our back, the Russians are coming again." He ordered the surviving brothers to turn around immediately. At this moment, Rurik and Fisk, who had just completed the first round, were quickly forming their team. They started the second round of attack without much rest.

The cavalry passed by on both sides again, and the cavalry turned sideways and fired rapidly. The battle became a one-sided killing. The desperate infantrymen could only try to throw the spear like a javelin, but it was not a javelin after all.

Resistance became futile. After the second round of shooting, new corpses were added to the battlefield, and the ice layer trampled by the horses' hooves added more broken ice.

Two consecutive rounds of high-intensity charges caused a considerable loss of horsepower. The cavalry returned to its original position, and the war horse subconsciously turned its head up and down and continued to breathe heavily.

Fisk roared: "Brothers, prepare for the third round! Completely annihilate them."

"Wait! The whole team suspends the attack." Rurik suddenly stopped the army's restlessness.

"Your Majesty? Why stop? Mercy?"

"No. At least, I want to know the identities of these people before killing them."

"Send an envoy to negotiate?" Fisk thought for a moment: "That's okay, I'll make arrangements immediately."

"No. We lined up and pressed forward. Look." Rurik pointed with his right arm: "There are not many enemies left alive. It's incredible that they didn't run too far. Are they scared? Or are they scared? Do you really have the courage to prepare to die?"

"They are like targets for our archery. Your Majesty, why should we care about their identities? They are probably just a small group of Smolensk soldiers. It doesn't matter if they are killed."

"I feel strange. If damn Vadim is mixed in, it will be too easy for us to kill him hastily. Listen to me!" Rurik paused and said: "Crush them head-on. Anyway, we will fight with more than less." .”

"Okay. Organize a fence! If your Majesty is willing, we can smash them into pieces with one charge." So far in the encounter, the Ross cavalry relied on non-contact grassland mounted shooting tactics to cause no casualties.

The cavalry formed a dense line and rode on the wall. Rurik and Fisk stood in the queue. The two old Russians were majestic, and among them Rurik was the most glorious one.

Dressed in uniform and fluttering flags, and riding Turkic horses with low shoulder height, the Ross cavalry could not bring about the stronger cavalry pressure brought by the Frank cavalry.

But for the Smolensk people who had limited knowledge of cavalry combat, even though they had cavalry, they still talked about fighting on the wall. The so-called cavalry was just a group of horseback riders.

Vadim had long since lost his cavalry, and now he had to command soldiers in battle as an infantryman.

Now the last supporters suffered heavy casualties, and there were less than thirty people still with him who could still fight.

After all, Rurik and Fisk were actually a little surprised that someone survived after being shot with more than two thousand steel arrows.

There were many arrows stuck in the small buckler. The steel arrow clusters penetrated the wooden board, and some arrow clusters directly pierced the soldier's left arm.

Fortunately, these arrows are armor-piercing and are designed without barbs for easy removal. The left arms of some warriors were bleeding and their bucklers were thrown away. The Smolensk warriors put their spears under their right armpits and held them up with their right hands, pretending that they could continue to resist.

The Ross cavalry continued to press forward. The soldiers held the reins and kept their bows in their hands, ready to follow orders at any time and fire a fatal volley at the enemy.

The corpse is cooling rapidly, flowing into

"Red Xiao Tan's" hot blood is not enough to melt the ice, but is quickly solidifying and freezing. The squirming wounded soldiers were losing blood rapidly, their wailing sounds gradually disappeared, and they gradually fell into shock and died.

The bodies of the dead and injured were covered with missing arrows, most of which were made of chicken and duck flight feathers glued together. They swayed violently in the wind, and were densely packed like wheat ears in late autumn.

The hand holding the spear was shaking, and even his legs were shaking violently. The last warriors who stayed with Vadim finally forgot how to escape. They were so frightened that they could no longer be called warriors.

On the contrary, Vadim, a man who once had great ambitions, suddenly pushed away his ambition at this moment.

"Human Shield", holding the Ross steel sword he captured and pointing it at the approaching cavalry like a performance art.

That's a Ross steel sword! It sparkled in the afternoon sun. Rurik clearly noticed this. It was already a huge provocation to be faced with a sword by someone who looked like an enemy chief. The sword was a serious Ross sword, so the provocation was even stronger.

Rurik couldn't help frowning and veins appeared on his face. Fisk narrowed his eyes as well, without glancing at King Ross beside him.

After all, the king has issued an order. If the king were not present, he would have ordered to rush over and trample the immortal guy into a pulp with his horse's hooves.

"Your Majesty, kill that person?" He couldn't help but whisper.

"No need. That man...maybe is Vadim."

"That rebel? Your Majesty, do you still remember that person's face?" Fisk was quite surprised.

"It's been more than ten years. Of course I forgot about it. We... will find out as soon as we ask." Feeling that the distance was enough, Rurik raised his right fist fiercely and ordered the entire army to suspend the attack.

On the contrary, he boldly left the team slightly and deliberately slanted his shoulders slightly to look relaxed. In front of him was a small group of shivering enemy soldiers and corpses full of arrows.

Rurik's move had a stronger sense of provocation, and he taunted silently: "You see, killing you is like a game." Vadim was immediately furious, and he shouted filial piety with his sword, which was simply incompetent rage.

"Roaring? A chief was also yelled at me?" Rurik spoke first! He spoke the Yin Ermen Slavic dialect, and it was this question that hit Vadim's heart.

It was a dialect from his hometown, and it was really jarring to say it from the mouth of a young Varyag man with flowing blond hair.

Vadim temporarily put away his sword and subconsciously took a step back.

"You? Who are you?" he asked.

"Do you know my name?" Rurik still tilted his head deliberately, and behind him, as long as he gave his order, thousands of arrows were fired in an instant.

"You? But Vadim?!" As soon as he finished speaking, Rurik noticed that the man's right hand holding the sword was obviously shaking at the distance.

Although I had already predicted it, it was a bit fateful to think that I actually bumped into the damn Vadim here.

"It seems that it is indeed Vadim." Rurik tried his best to suppress his excitement: "I can't believe it! Twelve years have passed, and many people thought that you were eaten by a bear, but you didn't expect that you actually became a Smolensk man. Chief. As far as I know, you are still a usurper. What a filthy bitch, a despicable person wherever you go. You...are like a piece of horse dung."

"You! Damn Russians, what qualifications do you have to speak against me." Facing the malicious verbal insult, Vadim angrily confronted him with a sword.

"You admit that you are Vadim?!" Rurik, who was sitting on the horse, suddenly stood in the stirrups. He and the horse were almost three meters high, like a giant standing on the ice, full of oppression.

"I am Vadim, and you...Russian, who are you?! If I must die today...at least let me die clearly."

"Okay. Killing you is easy. I, the king, will satisfy your curiosity. Vadim!" Rurik, who stood like a giant, looked down at the humble chief: "I am Rurik! Rurik Ottoson . Boy, my father is still alive, and you! Vadim Boludnevich. Your father Borudnevich has long been dead! Your pine needle manor was completely destroyed by us. The fertile land of your manor is now My field. In fact, I should thank you. We Russians built our city on the basis of your manor and grew our own food. You are a complete loser." Rurik kept using words to anger Vady Well, he could see that this man was a rebellious person, and perhaps he shouldn't expect to capture such a fierce horse-like being alive.

Besides, this person is good at escaping. If he is captured alive, he might still have to worry about someone else taking advantage of the chaos to escape. Fearing that Vadim had some bewitching power, he fled to Smolensk and became the local leader, and actually raised thousands of troops to start a war.

Vadim is in the prime of life, and there are many tribes in the huge Eastern Europe. If this person wanders into a tribe again, he may be able to inspire an anti-Russian army to continue to cause trouble at the borders of the kingdom.

It would be better to kill him directly to avoid further trouble, but Rurik hoped that this man would rush in like a warrior and die like a man.

Unexpectedly, the angry Vadim actually said: "Rurik! The son of Otto, the leader of Rus, are you?! Let's duel! Solve all long-cherished wishes."

"Duel?! Did I hear correctly?!" Rurik, who was standing, simply sat back on the saddle.

"Let's duel! Rurik, either you kill me or I kill you. To resolve all long-cherished wishes of both of us."

"Actually trying to duel?" Rurik laughed in anger. He couldn't help turning his head to look at everyone, and noticed the laughing faces of the brothers one after another.

"Are you willing to talk about a duel? Vadim, you obviously haven't understood the current situation. You will be killed, and I can tell you something before you die." Now Vadim finally knew the composition of the cavalry unit in front of him. There are a large number of existences with special status.

In the original villages around Yin Ermen Lake, small farms were once forced by the hegemony of Pine Needle Manor. The farm owners were forced to send their nephews to King Ross to train as cavalry.

Today, those nephews have become brave cavalry and are proud of their identities. They just felt that fighting for King Rus was a shortcut to making a fortune and gaining great political status, and this was indeed the case.

Many of them were hereditary boyar nobles given by the king in their hometown, and for the first time in the army, they became cavalry captains.

Since his wealth and status all come from King Rus, it is natural to serve him. And they also share the same memory - the memory of being exploited year after year by Pine Needle Manor.

Although in the past, Ross's tribute fleet asked for money and food every year, they came at least twice a year, and the focus of exploitation was actually the White Tree Manor.

However, Pine Needle Manor often demanded money from all manors. Since the entire White Tree Manor family moved to remote areas, they often escaped the exploitation of Pine Needle Manor.

Good or bad is determined by comparison. The eyes of these warriors from hereditary minor aristocrats were filled with the kindness and loyalty of King Ross. Regarding Pine Needle Manor, what they heard from their fathers and what they saw themselves were all evil.

Vadim is the continuation of evil! This person is not only Rurik's sure-to-kill political enemy, but also everyone's enemy.

Vadim was surprised to know this secret.

"Vadim!" Rurik still tilted his head and yelled: "You are a decent man. I can give you a rope and go to the nearby forest. Hang yourself and let everything end."

"Bah!" Vadim flatly refused. He suddenly threw off his velvet hat and stroked his curly hair: "Rurik! I'm going to kill you!" After that, he held the captured Ross steel sword towards him. The cavalry group charged alone.

"What a reckless Vadim..." Rurik shook his head, clamped his feet on the horse's belly, and the horse rushed away in an instant.

For Vadim, he doesn't know what a giant is until the war horse is right in front of him. He was knocked unconscious and passed out, and Rurik quickly walked out of the battlefield on his mount.

Immediately afterwards, Fisk received the signal from his eyes, and the soldiers who could not hold back their killing intent took up their bows and shot arrows, killing all the last handful of Smolensk warriors, or the last die-hard supporters of Vadim!

Of course, after all, there are thousands of Smolensk troops fleeing, and there are still troops crawling on this ice road.

Vadim was completely defeated. Even if he was alive, he had lost all his supporters. The remaining warriors had degenerated into farmers who moved around relying on their survival instincts.

In the eyes of the Russian army, Vadim had been hit by Rurik's horse and had all his bones broken. If the man hadn't rolled over in pain on the ground, he would have been killed.

Not dead, but injured. Rurik looked down upon him and ordered: "Come here! Bind this man. Be careful not to kill him."