Rise of Rurik

Vadim, who was already exhausted, was knocked unconscious by this collision. Thanks to this thick leather jacket, he was not killed on the spot by the charging horse.

But for someone like him, maybe being killed directly is a very honorable ending. His arms were tied behind his back, and even his thumbs were tied together.

The legs and ankles were tied together, and even the thighs were tied tightly. After being captured, Vadim was tied up like a cocoon. He could only twist and squirm, and there was absolutely no possibility of escape.

For fear that the man would bite his tongue and commit suicide, Rurik ordered his subordinates to tie his mouth with a thick hemp rope, so that the prisoner's teeth could only compete with the hemp rope.

The victorious Russian cavalry temporarily rested on the battlefield, and Rurik was able to see for himself what the enemy's face looked like.

The tied up Vadim was temporarily placed under a tree. Because he had been in a coma, he looked dead at first glance.

Rurik, who was holding the hilt of his sword, came forward menacingly. The closer he got, the more clearly he could see the enemy's face - a face that was not very impressive.

At this moment, Fisk has already taken the lead and is stationed at

Beside "Trophy", when he saw the king coming, he went to greet him. He pointed at the prisoner casually: "He hasn't woken up yet. If he hadn't been able to detect his heartbeat, I would have regarded him as a corpse."

"Are you still awake? Are you knocked unconscious by my horse? Don't die from serious internal injuries."

"My lord, do you pity him?"

"How is that possible?" Rurik shook his head. Fisk turned slightly and still looked at the prisoner of war in the lake with contempt: "Maybe the gods didn't want him to die hastily. He was too despicable. Maybe I can organize my brothers to wake him up with birds." After that, Fisker has the action of unbuckling his belt.

"No need." Rurik stopped the old man: "Insulting is unnecessary. Anyway, we won't stay here long."

"ah?!"

"Are you surprised?"

"Your Majesty, do we still want to continue taking action? It's really getting late now..." Fisk glanced up at the setting sun and continued to suggest: "For safety's sake, we can camp on the spot."

"In my opinion, it's not necessary. Fisk, you know our current location better than many people. It shouldn't be far from the village of Polotsk people, right?" Fisk nodded: "That's natural. Maybe we can ride on horseback for a long time. The time has come. But...does the king want to march at night? The risk involved...is really great."

"You are right!" Rurik patted his beloved general casually: "What are you afraid of when marching at night? I stayed in Murmansk for a month in the polar night. We old Russians never Afraid of the dark.”

"This... I'm not afraid. I'm just worried that something will happen if the army advances."

"Don't worry about whether there is something or not. Are you worried about getting lost? Don't worry, we will have a clear signal soon. Now tell the brothers to clean up the battlefield quickly, and I will send people back to report the news. Listen, the cavalry will be here The general assembly in Polotsk. And I have to take the first step." Rurik decided to continue his rapid advance, and the cavalry would advance while fighting.

He believed that he was likely to encounter Smolensk rout troops along the way, and there would be no problem in killing them.

As for capturing a large number of enemies as slaves and then sending them to the northern mines to mine iron ore, these long-cherished wishes will probably be defeated by reality - a large number of defeated soldiers are fleeing for their lives in the ice and snow forest with basically no supplies. General Dong may They will be killed within a few days.

The reality is more and more consistent with Rurik's initial judgment. Most of Vadim's defeated army must have died of cold and starvation.

Because not much dry food was found from the killed, their sluggish spirit made it almost impossible to resist, and the Russian army's victory was not an honor, and they won without much effort.

The last leather-armored warriors were wiped out, and a thousand warriors Vadim had painstakingly trained were completely lost in constant battles.

In other words, the 4,000-man army he had gathered had been completely wiped out. The Ross cavalry inspected every dead body on the battlefield. The dying ones were stabbed in the vital parts and died quickly, and their ears were cut off as a certificate for the soldiers to claim credit.

Only standing army soldiers have the right to cut off ears for money, and this is also a privilege of being a standing army.

They are specially selected people with excellent overall qualities, and the stimulation of bonuses makes them more brave and fierce.

They recovered the lost arrows one after another, checked the enemy's weapons, and took away the valuable ones. Generally speaking, the Russian cavalry disdains the weapons of the Smolensk people. However, the spears that the enemy can still use can be temporarily used as riding spears, hanging vertically on the saddle, with a Russian flag hanging under the spearhead. If the entire cavalry team is like this Doing so can indeed demonstrate the majesty of the cavalry, but it lacks any help in actual combat.

The battlefield left corpses with no ears on the ground, as well as large areas of blood that had condensed into ice. The setting sun illuminated the entire World City orange, and the corpse was also dyed with a hazy orange color. The brown hair was blown violently by the wind that swept across the river. The warm corpse quickly lost its temperature and has now turned into a kind of solid ice. Be one with the frozen West Dvina River.

At this moment, the First Banner Troop of the Russian Cavalry was carrying their most valuable trophy, Vadim bundled like a silkworm cocoon, and was rapidly advancing towards the village of Polotsk, even if the entire army had to march at night.

"The sun is setting. It will get dark soon, and our progress will be risky." Fisk, who held the reins tightly and rode beside Rurik, wanted to express his concerns out of consideration for the king's safety.

"I understand your kindness. We are already here, and any worries are unnecessary. Besides, it will be of great benefit to us to give our brothers more strength to march at night."

"Okay, I was overly worried. But we didn't prepare torches, because we were afraid..."

"Why worry?" Rurik's smile highlighted his strategizing, and he pointed to the western sky: "Look, it's getting red there."

"It's in the direction of Polotsk..." Fisk raised his head: "Aren't you afraid that Vadim will burn the village down? By then we will not even have food supplies."

"No, he can't do it." Rurik really doesn't need to worry about anything. In other words, even if there is a possibility that Vadim will set fire to the village, the cavalry is already at its current position, and there is no need to worry anymore, so he can only bite the bullet. Moved on.

Rurik even called it a stress test for the cavalry. After this large-scale attack, he believed that Ross's cavalry regiment was indeed capable of maneuvering on horseback from the capital on the Neva River all the way along the coastline to Hamburg in the Principality of Saxony.

Soon the Ross Cavalry began its night march, and the burning objects in the west still illuminated the sky red. Obviously as the distance approached, the soldiers of the First Cavalry believed that they were one step away from the fire scene.

On the other hand, the fast-moving messenger rushed to the temporary camp where the main cavalry regiment was located just after the encounter.

Vadim, the great leader of the Smolensk people and the target of this expedition, was actually captured by the Rus' King Rurik himself?

! Everything is like a dream, everything is the secret help of the gods! The main force of the cavalry, mixed with people from all walks of life, still wants to camp on the spot and wait until tomorrow to set off and walk to Polotsk step by step.

After receiving the king's order, the three standing army cavalry teams had to mount their horses quickly and set off. They were so decisive that they also forced all attached cavalry and allied troops to mount their horses.

In the evening, the sun had just set. The advancing cavalry force passed the site of the final encounter. Rurik left behind a corpse with no ears for his brothers who followed, as well as horse hoof prints that should not have been there on the smooth ice, showing obvious longitudinal marks.

Even with men, horses and weapons and equipment, a cavalryman is an extremely heavy person. Therefore, the traces made by the wide horseshoes with steel nails can reflect a completely different luster from the ice surface in the setting sun.

The traces were densely packed into the shape of a road, heading northwest where the river extended. For Rurik, he personally led his elite and relied on the red-hot sky as a guide, just like staring at the lighthouse and the ships sailing at night.

Because today is a sunny day, the north wind is stronger, and there are not many clouds in the sky. The moon appears in the sky, and the jade disk is particularly bright. Coupled with the stars in the sky, countless glimmers of light shine on the snow-capped world, and the visibility is satisfactory. Minimum requirements for an army march.

However, the rider has a strong endurance as a human being, and the hard-working horse is now completely overdrawing its own life.

The cavalry could no longer advance quickly. In order to conserve horse power, the cavalry slowed down greatly. In fact, to Rurik's surprise, he thought he could easily capture some prisoners, but in the end he didn't even see anyone on the march.

"Did they all really freeze to death? Or were a large number of them killed by Riga reinforcements in Polotsk?" There were no torches. Although the Ross cavalry was marching under the night, there were almost no traces of their whereabouts!

They themselves do not emit light, and any movement they make is masked by the sound of the wind. At the same time, the Russian reinforcements coming from the Gulf of Riga, the largest village of Polotsk, were participating in the grand event with the defenders.

They had executed the villagers who had escaped from participating in the burning of the fortress the day before and stayed in the village for the time being. No one would notice what happened in the future.

As the person with the highest status, Si Puyut thought about how much energy he had wasted by rushing to rescue his brothers, so it made sense to stop doing anything and just rest.

As for the burning Novopolotsk Fortress, only God knows how long it will burn before it is naturally extinguished.

As a guard general, Vesuend himself did not complete the defense of the fortress. He was guilty indeed, but the Russian army still occupied the entire Polotsk village.

However, almost all the villagers died. It is always like this. Wars in which the Russians participate for various reasons often cause large-scale deaths of personnel.

After some tribes fell into war, when the war ended, the tribe was extinct in name only due to the loss of population.

Polotsk has become a place name, and people who were free after the war chatted and talked about it. The most discussed thing was how to move their families to settle here.

After all, riverside

"Ten thousand acres of fertile land" needs a new owner. And problems arise. In principle, the Principality of Ostara is the local owner, and the Duchess has the right to allocate the current terra nullius.

The Danish friendly troops who helped the Russian army need to receive tangible rewards, and the families and friends of the killed Danish brothers need to receive pensions. In short, the Danish community in the Gulf of Riga is eligible to receive a portion of the farmland in Polotsk.

That's what Stekander and his crew thought. Any dispute is far from harmful to He Qi.

Either out of absolute self-confidence, or simply too conceited. After the victory, the reinforcements in the Gulf of Riga were completely too lazy to set up sentries, and Vesuend, who suffered serious internal injuries, handed over the command of his unit to the young warrior Bishom. However, not all young people have leadership qualities.

Bishom didn't set up any defenses either. He felt it was unnecessary. Most of the Smolensk people who escaped would die in the snow. Even if they came back, the brothers could just kill them with swords.

However... another group of people, relying on the cover of low visibility at night, appeared majestically outside the largest village in Polotsk.

Rurik, who was already tired, suddenly woke up. He tilted his shoulders and poked Fisk casually: "This is the village of the Polotsk people. It seems that there is no burning except for the bonfire. On the contrary, there seems to be a small town burning not far away, and that is the point of the fire."

"It was the Novopolotsk Fortress, built under Carlota's order. She stayed here during the past summer and supervised the completion of the fortress before leaving."

"This..." Rurik rarely showed embarrassment: "She is in our rear team. Will she cry when she sees her beloved fortress in this state?"

"It's hard to say. I'm afraid I have to beat the fortress guard with a riding crop." Rurik shook his head again: "The atmosphere is a bit strange. There should be our friendly forces there, but... if they are really Russians, they should be outside the camp. Set up sentries. We are cavalry! If we launch a surprise attack on an undefended village, it will be a one-sided killing! Damn it, is this how Spyut leads his troops?!"

"Are you sure it's him? Everything is just an inference based on the prisoner's words."

"Who else could it be but him?" Rurik shook his head again. After all, he is also an old Russian, and he has a series of achievements.

Fisk couldn't help but smooth things over: "His men are all pirates, and those people are used to freedom. If they win, they will kill them. If they don't win, they will run away decisively. There is no honor for a warrior. Your Majesty, don't have extravagant expectations. There are too many of them.”

"That's all." Rurik waved his hand and signaled the trumpeter to blow the trumpet immediately and blow the warning horn. Suddenly the horns sounded loudly outside the village, and all the trumpeters of the centurion gathered together. They blew the trumpet of the old Ross style. It was a low, melodious and penetrating tune that could not be suppressed by the wind. .

The people stationed in the village noticed this, and many of them were particularly nervous. Si Puyute had already taken a nap, but his sensitive nerves were so stimulated by the sound of the trumpet that he subconsciously jumped up.

He rushed out of the warm house and asked loudly in the winding streets: "The trumpeter?! How can you blow the trumpet without my order? It's still a warning signal." After cursing, his guards had already removed the trumpets from the team. The hand was pulled over.

Several trumpeters were also particularly aggrieved. Because the trumpet sound of the Russian army is a special

"Sound language", relying on low and melodious tunes, allows simple communication between ships operating at sea, thus supplementing the lack of communication with flags and colorful flags.

Because of its excellent practicality, the horn language has reached a tacit understanding throughout the Rus Kingdom and it has become a universal existence.

The trumpeters all stood in front of Spuyut, and there was no need for them to defend themselves. The horns were right here, and the warning signal was still heard in the distance.

Although it was a bit outrageous, Siputu suddenly had an idea and slapped his thigh: "Perhaps our friendly forces have appeared." As for why there are friendly forces and what their identity is, who knows?

Sipuyut didn't care too much and immediately ordered his own trumpeters who had already assembled to blow the trumpet immediately in response.

They no longer blew warning horns, but responded with soft yet cheerful tunes, representing

"We are friendly forces." The response from the village trumpet quickly attracted Rurik's attention.

"They are really my allies." Fisk was overjoyed.

"They can only come from the direction of the Gulf of Riga, and the only person who knows how to use the horn is Spuyut." Rurik was very satisfied with the trumpet call and responded: "It's time for us to have a good rest. Let's go! Give that guy a surprise ." The Ross Cavalry still had night cover, but people holding a large number of torches gradually came out of the village.

Even though his image was blurry, Siputu saw a large group of black shadows moving towards him.

The "overwhelming" momentum was pressing on me.

"It's the cavalry?! It's actually the cavalry?" Spuyut gradually saw the truth, and also noticed the cavalry's little trick - deliberately forming a wide and thin horizontal line, relying on the night to cover their weak depth, making the troops look extremely powerful. Strong.

The cavalry swaggered into the village, and almost all the defenders staying in the village were dispatched. Si Puyut personally held the torch. He didn't even need to ask anything personally, just because there was a familiar noble face here.

Seeing the tall horseman, his right hand holding the torch couldn't help but relax, and he knelt down on one knee to salute.

"King! Did Odin use his divine power to send you to Polotsk?!"

"Sure enough, it's you. Haha, it was indeed Odin who sent me here with his divine power, and the gods gave me victory. Spyut, get up!" After that, Rurik glanced at the action with interest. Soldiers with torches.

Under the firelight, the soldiers had strange braids, and there were many people with beards, and their beards were also styled into strange braids.

Although the dim light was not enough to reveal the color of their hair, just by the style of their braids, Rurik was convinced of the Nordic identity of these people.

The local Slavs would never bother with their beards and hair like this. Their identities were the Danes under Spuut's command and the Gulf of Riga.

This is, Polotsk's situation is completely different from his knowledge. What about the tens of thousands of people?

Now, there were only about three to four hundred Nordics standing in front of him. The villagers of Polotsk seemed to have disappeared from the world.