Rise of Rurik - Chapter 1027

[Chapter 1027 The Story of Smolensk in 840 Years]

The so-called Ostara cavalry has a mixed crew, consisting of the survivors of the old Ostara, the Viking immigrants who joined later, and the Slavs who joined in large numbers.

To be fair, compared to the purchased and bred Turkic or Mongolian horses, a tall and strong Nordic warrior always looks awkward on it, and it is quite suitable for a shorter Slav.

The Duchess Carlotta was not picky. She selected a group of cavalry and, together with Prince Pecheneg’s subordinates, robbed the village of Smolensk.

They raided villages, killed those who resisted, and took as many prisoners as they could to the north.

Throughout 840, this mixed cavalry team teamed up to abduct nearly a thousand people, both male and female, who could not escape the fate of slaves after being abducted.

The Ilmen Slavs often call themselves Slavigne, while the Smolensk people and the Kyiv locals belong to the huge Krivich ethnic group in principle, and the two sides do not consider each other to be friends even if they speak the same language.

The joint iron cavalry is elusive, accurate in archery and good at using cables.

They were all in armor, perfectly resisting Smolensk’s arrows and failing to counterattack.

After all, Smolensk did not immediately condense into a whole, and the various tribes quarreled endlessly.

Many leaders think this is a conspiracy by the northern guys, but the most urgent task is to deal with the cavalry, which is more terrifying than the forest bear.

Villages near large settlements were frequently attacked, and some unbearable or fearful villages were simply abandoned.

A large number of people are concentrated in the city of Smolensk, and the population of this settlement along the Dnieper River is rapidly expanding.

And so a strongman from the north saw his chance.

Vadim, the son of the leader of Pine Needle Manor who escaped by chance, is destined to devote his life to revenge.

He is an aristocrat from the north, the son-in-law of Smolensk, and he has also become the largest main fighting faction in the area.

He has been planning to recruit an army of thousands or even tens of thousands of people. After the army rushes to Valdezhe, it will go all the way north, defeating the Ross people at Lake Yinlmen to regain their power.

He promised the nobles of Smolensk that, after that, a large number of ethnic groups would merge into one Slavic emirate.

Obviously, if this son-in-law wins the war, who would dare to ignore his military exploits?

Who is the Great Chief of an Emirate?

It is not this Vadim who is in charge.

In the non-stop discussion, Smolensk ushered in 840 years of spring plowing.

However, when the people were busy plowing the land, a group of cavalry came over with unprecedented destructive power.

There is no need to discuss conscription to the Northern Expedition. First, all tribes are facing a major crisis.

Vadim’s plans were dropped for at least this year, but he saw himself standing in the city of Smolensk, a settlement with a growing population.

The eyes of the refugees blazing after regaining their spirits, they are hungry for revenge!

This is an opportunity!

At a meeting in the summer, facing a group of leaders with erratic eyes, Vadim simply scolded everyone: “Are you all cowards? Organize an army to fight those cavalry! In my opinion, you give up power, Now elect me as the leader, only I have the ability to defeat those bandits before the Northern Expedition.”

Such a long carnival speech caused the leaders to be furious, followed by endless abuse.

They called Vadim a defeated man, a scumbag, and a shameless usurper.

Is Vadim a usurper?

He is, and not quite.

The lord of the capital of Smolensk, the largest nobleman in the area, appreciates this troubled “prince” and pays more attention to this kid’s promise.

After recruiting a son-in-law, Smolensk can grandly launch the Northern Expedition and annex the entire Yinlmen Lake.

This is the dream, but the old leader is old after all, probably suffered from a serious illness after eating poisonous mushrooms, and now his face is often ashen, as if he has been cursed by a demon.

In fact, the poisonous mushroom had seriously injured his kidney and liver. Seeing that the old man was about to die, Vadim kept doing nothing and forced him to give up power with private soldiers composed of locals.

At the same time, the grown-up sons of the old leader all died for no apparent reason, claiming that they were killed by the northern horse bandits and the bandits from Kyiv.

These arguments are more convincing. Ordinary people don’t care about this. They are anxious and expect a ruthless person to lead them back to peace.

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The old chief’s youngest son is still alive, but his wife knows that everything is actually her husband’s conspiracy.

But the deal is done, the woman gave birth to a son, and this crying boy can naturally inherit the position of Smolensk City Lord.

It is impossible for her to have no selfishness. It would be a good thing if her son inherits the position of leader.

What else can the old leader who is dying of illness do?

He felt that it was a foolish move to recruit Vadim as his son-in-law, but now, at least his grandson could inherit the position.

Vadim is an insidious man. Considering the bad things that Smolensk is facing, this kind of ruthless man is also beneficial to the entire ethnic group.

Because there are not many leaders of the main combat faction with an extremely resolute attitude.

The terminally ill old leader stood up for Vadim at the conference with a whimper, solemnly declared that after his death, Vadim was the lord of Smolensk, and whimpered that it would be okay if the other leaders did not support him.

Vadim will definitely organize the Northern Expedition to end the current turmoil.

The implication is also obvious. If Vadim really has an army, which leader would dare to object?

The quarrel was useless to solve the problem except wasting words. Vadim claimed to lead a force to find and kill the horse bandits.

The local chiefs don’t like this guy, but they are more afraid of horse bandits raging and destroying this year’s autumn harvest. They simply hope that Vadim can promise one or two defensive counterattacks to solve the current problem.

As he promised, Vadim did lead hundreds of Jianyong to launch a counterattack. Facing the elusive horse bandits, they decided to wait for the rabbit. However, the cunning Pecheneg-Ostara joint cavalry encountered a relatively weak defense. Strong villages will be bypassed.

The brothers came to rob and capture prisoners, and they had no time to confront the prepared enemy head-on.

The “prairie fox warfare” of the Pechenegs is to bully the weak and fear the strong. It is at odds with the Vikings’ warrior creed, but it is effective in making a fortune.

For a whole year, from planting to harvest, Vadim and his cronies did not fight a single battle, and their defiance became more and more like a theatrical one.

Then some local aristocrats made a big fuss about this fact, criticizing Vadim as a boaster.

But he also has difficulties!

He retorted loudly: “You have organized all the men to gather together! We defeated them in the expedition to Novgorod, and any problem of horse bandits was solved.”

Now no one said anything…

Regardless of whether Vadim really wants to fight or is simply a drill, his attitude towards the battle is seen by the refugees.

At least this kid is more aggressive than other nobles, and following him at least has some hope.

Even without a single battle, Vadim’s prestige in Smolensk continued to grow.

This is the political change that occurred in Smolensk and most of the upper reaches of the Dnieper River in 840. The so-called Ross’s defensive attack and looting reaped a lot of benefits, disrupted the opponent’s plan, and greatly accelerated the opponent’s plan. process of centralization.

The plundering cavalry sent by Carlotta didn’t know about the local nobles in Smolensk and the few Varyags who took another waterway to pass immediately.

In the past three years, Kagan, the prince of the Pecheneg Khanate, first formed an alliance with Ross in the far north, and then built a key salt and iron trade route.

Grassland people are good at land transportation, so the prince personally organizes a cavalry team every year to transport leather goods, dairy products, and horses from the grassland to Ross, and exchange them for important commodities such as salt, iron, and cloth.

Exporting horses to Ross to buy necessities such as salt and iron will gradually become a negotiation with the Khanate in the long run. This kind of trade is extremely unfair to Pecheneg, and they lack suitable products to sell to Ross.

Finally they found the best commodity, which was population.

Kagan himself turned into the leader of the horse bandits. In the past two years, he focused on plundering people and selling them to Ross, so much so that he arranged for his subordinates to supervise the trade horse team.

A large amount of strategic materials were grandly and continuously transported to the khanate tent area in the Volga River estuary area through a large cavalry team.

Kagan is smart. Since Ross has the ability to mass-produce iron arrow clusters, he should import more of this good thing that is not expensive in Ross.

The cast iron arrow clusters are cast into shape at one time, and a single clay mold can cast up to 30 arrows. After that, the steel is fried and carburized, and then polished on a manual grinding wheel. The second heating and quenching is done for surface hardening.

The arrow clusters specially provided to allies do not need to be exquisitely made, and the man-hours required are not much.

Kagan got the benefit, and tens of thousands of arrow clusters arrived in Pecheneg, and the locals immediately began to replace the bone clusters with steel clusters.

They are not good at cavalry hand-to-hand combat and are best at riding and shooting. As a result, their combat effectiveness has greatly increased. The visible strengthening is really the credit of Kagan.

Even if the prince has been staying in the far north this year, he will not come.

Only now there is a special situation!

After the expedition, Ross’ standing cavalry became the guests of the city of New Ostara. This city already had a second camp of standing cavalry. The unique grassland-like environment in the small area is very suitable for cavalry training.

There is a local reserve of standing cavalry, very young cubs who missed out on the expedition because they were too young.

The reserve troops also didn’t take part in the looting, they just guarded here in case of any eventuality, and now this group of cubs can’t wait to listen to the descriptions of the men who returned from the expedition.

In the fortress in the inner city, the Duchess Carlotta hosted a banquet and invited her old comrade-in-arms, cavalry captain Fisk, and she also explained the information she had learned from Smolensk.

The former children have grown up and become the masters of one party, and the two exchanged their war experiences and talked happily.

While they were toasting, Prince Kagan of Pecheneg arrived at the castle happily and entered the drinking scene with great enthusiasm.

He shouted excitedly in broken Norse: “Let me see who is here! Hey! It’s Khan’s general Fisk!”

“It’s the honorable Kagan.” The slightly drunk Fisk turned his head and waved his hand very casually, “I want to share the good wine with my brother, let’s enjoy it together.”

To this day, Kagan is still willing to call Rurik a khan, and he also calls Carlota a khan.

He still didn’t know the difference between the names of kings and princes, so he called the supreme ruler Khan according to the custom of the grassland.

His personal relationship with Carlota was very good.

Kagan and Rurik are blood brothers and relatives by marriage.

Carlotta is Rurik’s wife, and legally she is also sworn brother and sister.

The relationship between each other is complicated, why Kagan called Carlota his sister grandly, but what really determines the personal relationship between the two is the close economic contact.

Any supplies from the south must first be inspected by the Principality of Australas, the southern gate of Ross. In particular, a large number of prisoners of war must be transported here first, and the sale of slaves will also be handled by the Principality of Australasia.

As an ally, Kagan can station an army in the territory of Ostara. They help Carlota train new cavalry, and they also serve as a training base to wait for an opportunity to rob Smolensk villages in rotation.

Just in the castle, the three parties happily explained what they had seen and heard. It was really one victory after another.

But on the whole, the victory of the Ross Expeditionary Force is greater, which really makes Kagan ashamed.

“Oh! It’s because I can’t get away. If I have another chance, I also want to go to the west with Brother Rurik. Fisk, we organize a cavalry expedition, and the results will definitely be greater. Just let me The younger sister is honored, and she finally gave birth to the child.” Kagan, who was drunk, could talk quite well, but his spirit began to be a little dazed.

The younger sister gave birth to a son, and she became an uncle herself.

In this way, the plan of the father Khan will be greatly successful, and the nephew is a nail that the Khanate embedded in Ross, and the relationship between the two countries will be further strengthened.

“What’s the kid’s name?” he asked.

Fisk thought for a while: “It seems to be called Hasal.”

“Is that so? It’s very interesting.” Kagan muttered slightly, and the smile on his face showed his satisfaction.

“What does the child’s name mean?” Fisk couldn’t help asking.

“There is no restraint, just like a horseman galloping on the vast grassland.”

They ate and drank, Fisk did not forget her mission, and while Kagan was still very clear-headed, she finally mentioned the business: “I came this time also by the king’s order, and invited the Duke of Ostara and you… Honorable Kagan .You two must leave for Novgorod quickly, because the king’s fleet is about to arrive.”

“So my sister and my nephew are coming back too? That’s great. My brother Rurik, I have something important to tell him myself!”

Kagan didn’t seem to be polite this time, and his so-called “big event” should be real.

The drunk Fisk didn’t think much, and asked, “Dare to ask, what’s the big deal.”

“Of course it’s a big event for me to succeed Khan! Haha.”

If Fisk is clear-headed, he will be surprised. He is calm now. Anyway, this guy will be Pecheneg Khan sooner or later. It’s just the difference between today and tomorrow.

“Then congratulations to the venerable Kagan on becoming the Great King (Kanog) of Pecheneg,” he said.

“No. It’s Khan. Well, the meaning is the same.” Finally, the prince inherited Khan’s throne. Ensure a stable transfer of power.

After all, Kagan has been in a remote place for the past two years, making Jianyong, who covets the Khan’s position in the Khanate, ready to move. In order to avoid extra problems, Kagan must do so in advance.

This is a secret message from a close friend. Although it is a bit abnormal, it is relieved to see the situation of the Ross people.

Kagan is qualified to call old Otto a “father khan”. In principle, Otto is the old khan of Ross, and Rurik is the new khan.

Rurik’s power succession does not have to wait until the old father’s death. This early transfer of power is manifested in a peaceful transfer, and Ross’s internal affairs seem to be quite stable.

The news that Kagan was going back was known to all the nobles in Novgorod. He was already ready to go home to succeed him, but now the plan has to be postponed a little.

Postponing is also a good thing. You can have a good chat with the triumphant Rurik brothers, and tell the people in your hometown a lot of first-hand news about the north. It is estimated that you can get a batch of cheap spoils from the west.

Taking this opportunity, he should have a good chat with his younger sister, Beyahir, and take a good look at his eldest nephew Hasal, to confirm that this child really exists and is healthy, and then tell the tribal leaders in his hometown this fact.

In this way, Kagan and Carlota will no longer dawdle in New Ostara, and a large team of mixed cavalry will go north along the lakeside road with a very splendid guard of honor, and will highlight Pecheneg and Ostara in a high-profile manner. Under the banner of Stara, I have an audience with Novgorod, where the palace of King Ross is located…

[End of this Chapter]