Rise of Rurik

In theory, those slaves just changed their families. In their opinion, their new master was a good man. He gave everyone enough food and water, and also gave them the opportunity to change their destiny.

They realize that they are no longer just cattle and horses that can only work endlessly. Although they are still a tool, they are actually tools that can kill people.

Because Rurik made a promise to them, slaves can also become ordinary people in the Principality of Rus, provided that they serve the prince a lot.

They killed the old master and helped Rurik eradicate the old forces on Bornholm Island. This was a petition but their performance was still insufficient.

There have long been rumors among the crowd that the so-called prince still wants to plan to seize the opportunity to attack the Danes.

The slaves were generally indifferent. They were issued daggers one after another, gathered in the sheds to process the large amounts of herring and cod caught by Ross's ships, and were tacitly allowed to eat fish meat at will. All the Viking people had no objection to eating raw fish. They found that this was a huge benefit, so they ate herrings in large quantities.

They also noticed that the conquerors seemed to have held a meeting, and soon a group of ships headed east carrying the women and children.

There seem to be fewer ships cruising on the sea, but the amount of fishery processing they undertake is guaranteed.

The long life of slavery has made them generally very obedient to the strong. When a Ross warrior ordered them to hurry up and process the fish, they naturally did it, but the new order was strange.

What does it mean to cut off the head, tail, and guts of a herring and throw it into a bucket? Is this the end of processing? Shouldn't it be further made into dried fish?

The women and children had been transported away, and there were not many women left in Bornholm.

These slaves and the captured private soldiers are still on the island, and the conqueror's army is still here.

They murmured to themselves, believing the rumors more and more.

It was a sunny morning, and the sea breeze had already dried up the mud brought by the previous heavy rain. There was a faint salty smell in the air, and the slaves who put down their work were driven to the beach.

They looked left and right and saw a group of Russian conquerors in blue and white striped robes standing in line here. The conquerors just stood with bucklers on their backs and sword hilts in their hands, like statues.

A tall and gorgeous man stood on the platform made of wooden boxes. This man was none other than Prince Rurik of Rus.

The slaves realized that they would get a new destiny. They raised their heads one after another, expecting the prince to make a great speech.

But he saw Rurik taking off his white velvet hat and showing off his golden ponytail. He deliberately grew a beard, but it was trimmed neatly with a sharp steel knife.

He had the appearance of Otto when he was young, and inherited the beauty of Niya when she was young. The faces of his parents came together to form his very masculine face, but his eyes were resolute and fierce.

A handsome and ruthless man is most respected by Viking women, and such a man is also admired by Viking men.

Rurik was polite first: "You are all slaves! But you are not livestock! Will you be slaves forever? No! As long as you make military exploits, you can become free people. I want you to become warriors now, kill Kill the enemy and chop off the enemy's head. As long as any one of you can chop off two heads in the fierce battle in the future and report merit to me, the identity of the slave will be erased immediately. Even if you don't kill the enemy, don't worry, participate more After several wars, your lowly status will be exempted! At that time, I will reward you with farmland, fishing boats, and even women. Do you yearn for a better life?!"

This question of the soul goes straight to their hearts.

Seeing the crowd's overall eagerness to try, Rurik immediately signaled his men to pull out the carts filled with weapons.

They were iron swords, axes, short spears and a large number of bucklers like pot lids captured from the islanders' armed forces.

The car stopped in front of the slave, Rurik pointed and shouted: "Those who are willing to be warriors! Come and get weapons!"

As soon as he finished speaking, the group of eager people rushed forward in a swarm. They scrambled to arm themselves, and now they were willing to do anything to regain their freedom and the bright future promised by the Kingdom of Rus!

Two hundred slaves transformed into the most standard image of Viking warriors.

Their clothes are all ragged and they have bad breath, but they are also relatively tall, and they have developed good muscles from working as cows and horses all year round. They are all young on the whole, and their physical fitness has been improved by eating a lot over a period of time.

Naturally, this group of people is a ragtag group compared to the regular Russian infantry flag, but when it comes to the attitude of killing, Rurik believes that this group of people dare to fight the Danish army. Because they are not really a mob, but have a belief in freedom. No ruler would promise them to kill their enemies in exchange for freedom. Now Rurik publicly announced that this armed slave army would be integrated into the Rus' army and would have the opportunity to become the first force to attack the Danish army.

Are you going to face a powerful enemy all of a sudden? Even if they have some concerns, slaves ignore all risks for the sake of a better future, but in fact they have no choice.

Is it appropriate to arm slaves on a raid? If it weren't for his lack of troops, Rurik would not be willing to take this step.

He re-armed not only the 200 slaves, but also all the surrendered Danish private soldiers and some islander men.

The Ross and Ragnar coalition forces, which had a combat strength of 1,500 people, were joined by more than 400 people this time.

Rurik pieced together an army of two thousand men, of which there were as many as a thousand absolute elites.

Such a force could be described as a strong force in Northern Europe in 838 AD. If placed in the British Isles, it would be a ruthless character walking sideways. If placed in the heart of the Frankish Kingdom, it would be qualified to force the king to mobilize all the nobles of the kingdom to conquer.

It is reasonable for such a large army to deal with the Danish King Horik in the city of Godfrehagen.

There was a very optimistic mood among the soldiers, and some who claimed to be powerful threatened to easily break the city in this battle, and they would just chop off the head of King Horik of Denmark.

Who is Horik? Just an agent arranged by the Franks in Denmark?

Ragnar made significant intelligence contributions to the entire army.

"That's a fat man with a round face and a short face. He has brown hair and knows how to ride a horse. If you find a dwarf in extraordinary clothes during the killing, take him captive. If you can't, you can just chop off his head."

Following Ragnar's description, Rurik also offered a reward - one hundred pounds of silver coins for those who capture Horik, and fifty pounds of silver coins for those who take his head.

Can such a reward inspire the soldiers' desire to kill? What the army faced was the regular army of the Kingdom of Denmark. As long as a war started, they would definitely face a group of old cannons that had been all-powerful in the Frankish territory for many years. It was unreasonable not to give oneself a big reward in the face of a strong army.

"If you kill an enemy, behead him and you will be rewarded with half a pound of silver coins, and for each prisoner you will be rewarded with one pound of silver coins."

Rurik added: "I don't want the heads of old people, children, and women. If you dare to hand over such heads, I will fine you one pound of silver coins! But! If you capture women and children, you will also be rewarded!"

There is a reward for taking the enemy's head, and there is a reward for taking a prisoner, and the reward is generous.

Those who are entitled to receive rewards are not only the flag soldiers of the Russian regular army, but also the Finnish Servants, Saaremaa Islander Servants, Ragnar's allies, and the newly armed slave troops.

As the saying goes, "I don't care about your origin or identity. If you can help me kill the enemy, I will be rewarded."

Rurik firmly believes in victory, but will he "bleed heavily" due to the reward after victory? To pay a huge amount of precious metal silver coins, Rurik even thought about it and couldn't guarantee that he would be able to do it. But he had already established a financial system. The head of an enemy soldier was worth a pound of silver coins, which was equivalent to a thousand pounds of wheat.

The annual grain tax revenue of the Rus Principality and the income from the prince's private land can exceed five million pounds. If the income from the sale of metal products and other materials is added to the tax revenue of the principality, it can be equivalent to 10 million pounds of food per year, and the income from taxation can only continue to grow.

Could it be that with just two thousand people, the treasury of the Principality of Ross was depleted due to rewards? If only this were the case! Therefore, the superhuman army might as well go south and cut down Aachen and then all the way to Rome.

The promise of reward provided the basis for the entire army's expedition. There was no need to worry about looting in order to get the treasure. The enemy's head was filled with pounds after pounds of silver. Capture them, and the victor would gain more.

Rurik didn't come up with such a price just out of his mouth. The price of a young male slave has long been equal to one pound of silver coins, while the price of a female slave is half of that. In the past, this was a very high price. For the Principality of Rus, which is rich in precious metals, this price is no longer very high. It is about the net output value of half a hectare of oats. Rurik naturally hopes that his men will take out more prisoners of war, and the prisoners of war will be turned into slaves to perform various tasks such as mining, clay digging, and logging. They will be able to squeeze out more value. Such a decision was equivalent to the prince purchasing slaves from the soldiers. In the end, the prisoners of war were only the private property of the prince's family.

The whole army has unprecedented morale, and Rurik even promised that professional sailors who did not participate in the battle would receive some rewards after victory. Non-combatants can also enjoy the dividends of war. How is this not a good thing?

Those small traditional longships had already carried prisoners and some of the captured supplies, as well as large quantities of dried fish and sea salt to the East.

What Rurik lost was a large number of non-combatants. The personnel who were dragging down the army were almost non-existent. The troops were able to slim down, and the rest were combat troops!

Rurik controls an army with extremely complex ethnic groups. If you look closely, it can be called a coalition of ethnic groups around the Baltic Sea.

There are Russians, Swedish multi-tribes, Finns, Danes, Slavs, Estonians from Saaremaa, and even ten Pecheneg Turks from the steppe.

Eight sailing cruisers, eight sailing destroyers and twenty standard armed cargo and fishing ships formed a diamond-shaped fleet array and left Bornholm after worshiping at the seaside.

As the Count of Bornholm in the Principality of Rus, Swinder, the speaker, watched the huge fleet conquer Denmark. The fleet gradually became blurry, with only the huge white-based triangular sails still reflecting dazzling light in the sun.

There are hundreds of islanders who have become Swinder's followers, and everything is like a nightmare for them. When they woke up from the dream, they still had lingering fears. Facing a new life, many people asked themselves, maybe the future is also bright.

At least Swind's family was saved, and the surviving islanders all respected Swind as their boss. He did not dare to have any unreasonable thoughts. In the past, the islanders succumbed to the strong, but now the Russians were monsters like the sea monster Kraken. The promise of "War Reward" by Rurik, the Prince of Rus, made Swinder Eye-opener. Rurik is a clever and strong man. If you obey him, your family will continue to reap benefits.

The trace of the fleet was swallowed up by the sea, and Swinde sighed secretly: "King Horik of Denmark, the assassin is coming, your head will be stuck on a wooden stick." When he came back to his senses, he not only looked at the huge charcoal on the seashore Hei Weizi lamented again: "You! If you don't take the initiative to attack, you won't be killed. If I am a servant with peace of mind, don't I have meat for everyone to eat together? But you all died and gave me all the benefits."

The sea breeze continued to blow away the black coal and ashes, and the innocent souls of the big family who turned into powder seemed to be lamenting...

But Horik's Danish kingdom knew almost nothing about the imminent danger! Horik humiliated himself and was forgiven by the Frankish prince Ludwig. His act of kneeling led to rebellion and the departure of some lords.

If it weren't for the large amount of farmland, more Danish lords would have to evacuate with their tribesmen.

Horik still remains strong because he has a strong army at hand. Most of this army is infantry, and there are also powerful cavalry under its command.

Although the Russian navy is a disgusting threat, the Russians have not launched a large-scale attack at present.

Frankish Bremen destroyed? It seems that it was the exiled Danes who did it? Afterwards, the Franks found out that the initiator of all the disaster was the exiled Ragnar. The Stonewall tribe and Ragnar are not dead? Actually burning and killing in the Frankish hinterland? In the end, he disappeared mysteriously?

Ludwig was furious. He couldn't catch the murderer and faced the annihilation of one of his cavalry troops. Is it reasonable to really hold Horik accountable to Horik who just knelt down?

As the top Frankish noble, he simply did not believe that the Danes could defeat his cavalry!

Ragnar is the real murderer? The more this matter is explored, the more bizarre it becomes.

Until the sudden return of the missing saint Esghar, the priest who claimed to have been abused in the far east revealed shocking news.

It was Rus' expeditionary force, it was they who burned Bremen, it was they who massacred, it was they who took in Ragnar and so on.

When Ludwig figured out the situation, it was already the summer of 838. The prince was furious. He knew nothing about the Russians, only that Esgar described that they were a powerful force in the Eastern Baltic Sea, and that there were a large number of Slavs in the tribe.

Slavs? Aren't they the people of the East that border the East Frankish territory? When did those ragged guys become powerful?

It is difficult for Eskil to explain clearly with just one mouth. He now only has deep hatred for Rurik, and the good impression in the past is gone. He longed for the prince to send troops to attack the Russian barbarians, but he did not dare to explain it because of his own beliefs.

And Ludwig also wants revenge, but now he can only be helpless and furious.

The prince revised a letter and sent it to the Danish territory immediately. Horik opened the letter and learned the secret of the tragedy in Bremen.

"Is this also done by the Ross people? I have to be on guard."

What precautions can Horik take? It's nothing more than arranging ships to cruise around, and reporting the news when they spot the big Russian ship. In his plan, if the Russians want to fight, they will fight ashore!

But blindly defending is courting death. The Kingdom of Denmark needs big ships!

Danish craftsmen began to build large cargo ships. This glue Kirk ship, which was completely powered by style, was no different from the traditional cargo ships in Svealand.

This type of ship has been eliminated by the Principality of Rus, giving way to a larger and slender standard armed cargo ship.

Horik is not a fool! Although he did not know the heavy weapons of Ross's ships, he also realized the value of large ships. To hell with the saying that a sailboat is not as good as an oarboat.

Since the Russians fully used sailboats, it shows that they are more useful than long rowing boats. He would place archers on the cargo ship, shoot at the Russians, and even put down planks of wood to join forces with the enemy and kill them.

His core control area is Godfrehagen at the northern end of the peninsula, as well as the adjacent large islands. He set up an observation post here and collected cow dung to build a beacon. When he saw the intrusion of the Ross ship, he lit it and used the thick smoke to tell the fishing boats operating to return to the harbor and take refuge.

He also financed the construction of an onshore shipbuilding workshop in the walled town of Godfrehagen. This is a bit like the Russian shipbuilding factory. In terms of shipbuilding technology, it is obviously still inferior to the Russian.

Therefore, Horik never chose to sit still and wait for death. He had no choice but to surrender to Frank, and the fire of revenge in his heart was never extinguished. He hung up the cross again, secretly still sacrificing Odin. Find Shuyuan www. zhaosｈhuyuan.com He hoped that the fleeing Danish lords would come back, actively contacted the nearby Norwegians, and was also wary of the chaotic Russians and Swedes.

Even the Western Slavic people in the border areas, such as Pomeranians and Oberlidits, were wary.

The already unstable foundation of rule of this king who had just experienced a civil war was even more shaky. He was forced to free a group of slaves to increase the number of his troops. He did not collapse precisely because of the large number of troops at hand.

His original plan was to send an envoy to Bornholm Island after the Danish autumn harvest to persuade the locals to stop fighting and surrender. The payment of tribute and taxes could be discussed slowly.

He was carefully maintaining his rule. Subjectively, he did not want to build more weapons. He wanted to gather strength before bargaining with the Franks.

However, Prince Rurik of Rus, who subjectively did not want to fight, gave him a large amount of information and would not let go of the good opportunity.

The main force of the Principality of Ross rushed over! This is the regular army of the principality, and it is the personal conquest of the Prince of Rus!

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