Rise of Rurik - Chapter 745

[Chapter 746 The Karelian Emirate counterattacked the Principality of Rus in 836]

Those Karelians seem to be hours?

Do not.

They simply fled to the north, and after settling down in their winter pastures, the survivors learned from the disaster and plotted revenge.

The old chief died in exasperation while fleeing, and his son Kaskuwe was elected by the refugees as the new chief.

The strength of the “Big Account” tribe is gone, but its influence still exists.

The old chief made some plans for his son before his death, but Kaskuwe complied with the wishes of the people and made a decision against his father.

revenge!

There must be revenge!

Revenge should be done as early as possible!

The priest who spread the defeatist speech was killed by him himself, and there was no more failure and decadence among the refugees. In the first winter after escaping, they started to fight back.

The first step in counterattack is marriage.

Chief Kaskuwe took his cronies to the “Small Tent” tribe to propose marriage with armed forces, and the marriage proposal went more smoothly than he thought.

Since the two sides are traditional allies, the “small tent” has long feared the prestige of the “big tent”. A young man who succeeded the great chief came here to propose a marriage. Marriage must be done.

Kaskuwe married the daughter of the “Small Tent”, and he told the tribal leader of the “Small Tent” a terrible truth after the uncooked rice was cooked.

The “Big Horn” tribe suffered huge losses in the war against the powerful southern Rus, the sacred bear altar was taken, and the big camp of Isotalva was slaughtered.

The tribal prime-years suffered a huge loss, as did the reindeer they depended on for their livelihood.

The once populous tribe is now only a fifth of its original size…

His description is very true. Thinking about it, no chief really wants his strength to be greatly weakened.

For a moment, the leader of the “Little Tent” felt that he had been deceived.

Because the alliance between each other is based on the strong foundation of the “Big Tent”, it is no longer possible for the other party to deter the two allies of the “Small Tent” and “East Tent” from the perspective of strength, but the daughter has already married.

The news spread like wildfire, and some elites of the “Little Tent” tribe were ready to move.

They don’t know what Ross people are, maybe they are just a group of strong men, but the “big tent” is a strong man right in front of them!

In the past days, the tribes have been sending tribute to each other. The “Big Account” tribe is a group of blood-suckers. While they are strong, their own side is also weak in sustainability.

Some elites sighed deeply: “Why do we honor that Kaskuwe as the great chief? My sister is married, and we have to provide a batch of reindeer. It is unreasonable. Now we are stronger!”

Therefore, the speaker is the eldest son of the current leader of the “Small Tent” tribe. With his power and prestige, he is basically the default leader.

He decided to act first, bypassing his father who had an ambiguous attitude, and organized his cronies to assassinate Kaskuwei.

But he never expected that Kaskuwei’s visit would go against his father’s decision, and he felt that he would use brutal means to get what he wanted.

On the contrary, Kaskuwei acted first, and raided the battalion commander of the “Small Tent” tribal elite, and carried out a dark night sneak attack on the extremely cronies of the leader’s family.

The bloody night has passed, and the “Little Tent” tribe has changed.

Kaskuwe’s new wife screamed and cried, facing the corpses all over the floor, angrily hammered her husband for being despicable.

On the other hand, Kaskuwei’s face was as calm as a stone.

He deliberately spared the life of the old leader, and explained to his questioning: “This is a necessary crime! From now on, there will only be the Dazhang tribe, and your tribe will no longer exist. I will treat your tribe well, and I will rule all tribes. Then organize an army to fight against the Rus invaders, the hateful Tavastians, and the hateful Suomi.”

The Karelian society has undergone a major political reshuffle, entirely because of the huge disaster brought about by the brutal attack of the Principality of Rus. The Karelians, who are still in the tribal alliance stage, have completed the upgrade of the chiefdom within a year. .

Kaskuwe gathered all the frightened herdsmen in the Xiaozhang tribe, and he declared himself the “chieftain of all the deer farmers”, claiming that this was the power bestowed on him by God, and God also gave him a great mission.

“The alien Russ are south of the great lake, and they will take our deer and our pastures, and kill all the men and children, and keep the women as slaves. They are already doing this and have amassed an army by the lake. I will unite all the deer breeders, form a huge army, and wipe out all the Ross people.”

In the spring of 835, he announced the establishment of the “Emirate of Karelia”. Kaskuwe was the first chief of the country, and the position of chief would begin to be hereditary.

What choice do the herdsmen have? When grazing in this bitter and cold place, the herdsmen are willing to pay tribute to the strong, as long as the strong promises to protect everyone’s safety.

The “Little Tent” tribe disappeared overnight, and the herdsmen turned into the subjects of Kaskuwe, and the men swore allegiance to this strong man.

As for the unlucky ones who were killed, they saw that Kaskuwe had them buried.

After Kaskuwe succeeded, the remnants of the “Big Ten” tribe drove the herd of reindeer from the winter pasture to the traditional territory of the delisted “Small Tent” tribe. Kaskuwe’s population finally recovered to 10,000 people, A combat force of up to 3,000 people can be summoned.

What is a soldier?

As long as a boy can draw a bow and shoot an arrow, he is a warrior.

Therefore, the so-called 3,000 army has a huge amount of moisture. Facing the powerful Ross invaders, Kaskuwei has no good countermeasures.

The disadvantages of fighters’ personal abilities and weapons should be compensated by the superiority of troops, right?

Just in the summer of 835, in the remote north, which is now the territory of the Republic of Karelia, the indigenous Karelians were spontaneously carrying out a large-scale integration of forces in a wide area.

The old leader of the “Little Tent” tribe died inexplicably one night, and Kaskuwe’s wife knew that the murderer was actually her husband.

However, this woman is not an idiot, Kaskuwei will die, and her son will most likely become the king of all Karelians!

This man made a great decision, and an army of two thousand rushed to the “Eastern Tent” tribe.

He abdicated the tribal leader and announced that the “Eastern Account” tribe disappeared and became part of the emirate.

As for when the leader of the “East Account” tribe died without knowing it, no one cared anymore.

Kaskuwe’s integration movement is still going on, and this time he continues to recruit more eastern people eastward.

They reached the shores of Lake Onega, and swept all the small tribes along its shores.

These residents do not have a unified self-identity at all. Although they have formed a large number of small communities with only a few dozen or more than a hundred people, they do not have their own names at all.

Kaskuwe’s idea is simple. The environment here is a bit like Lake Ladoga. He simply called the residents around the Onega lake the Vips. He needs the submission of the Vips.

Kaskuwe spent the whole warm summer recruiting troops, and even encouraged the herdsmen to immigrate immediately to the shores of Lake Ladoga, where the water and grass are more abundant.

The results of his “armed action” even greatly exceeded expectations, and greatly increased the knowledge of the accompanying Karelians.

The world is so vast that people walking eastward in the boreal forests meet another group of people – the Perms.

This word directly refers to the concept of “exchange” in ancient Finnish, but there are not many Perm people, and they do not have a large dominant tribe. The “Perm” market exchanges daily necessities, and there are almost no outsiders in their world, so they all call themselves “Perm people”.

Kaskuwei’s army came, although there were only 500 soldiers left when they rushed to the Perm activity area for various reasons.

Kaskuwei personally led the team and rushed to the Perm market in a daze. The great chief of the emirate came to a scattered clan society.

The warchief lived in the image of his most hated enemy, but it was so effective that he took in as many as two thousand men and hundreds of thousands of reindeer without breaking a sweat!

The Karelians are worthy of being the little overlords of the northern ice sheet, and those who have made achievements are indeed stronger in organizing and mobilizing, which is why they have been able to beat Finnish tribes such as Tavastia and Suomi in the past and have always taken advantage of them.

The expansion of the Karelian Emirate is not at all for Kaskuwei to show his power. He hopes that his subjects will gather more and more, and only by relying on more troops can he recover the lost land and dignity from the Ross people.

The team marching eastward returned to the grassland at the junction of Lake Ladoga and Lake Onega in late autumn. At this time, even the local Ludi tribe declared their allegiance to the chief of the emirate.

The assembly order was issued just after the first snowfall in winter. According to Kaskuwe’s order, all the men in the emirate who can draw their bowstrings are warriors and must assemble at the new big camp.

He began to count his own strength, and finally regained his lost confidence in the face of an army of up to 6,000 people.

It’s just that these 6,000 men are full of water, and there are only 4,000 men who are really capable of fighting.

How can the Karelians, who are active in the north and south of the Arctic Circle, support a large number of people relying on their cold zone animal husbandry?

Their ancestors were indeed residents of North Asia. In ancient times, they followed the footsteps of reindeer from the forests of Central Siberia to the current region and entered the period of great division in Europe. The Karelians were only a part of them, but they also occupied a very large area. harsh terrain.

It’s not like their relatives, the dear Shanians, are planting wheat, and it’s not like their relatives, the Magyars, have become a cavalry nation with a large population.

Such a force is already enough to support Kaskuwe’s self-confidence, the power is in the hands of the army, everyone is calling for a war, and launching a counter-war is also the root cause of the people’s support for his rule.

Kaskuwe subjectively hopes to have a decisive battle with the Ross people, but he has a high probability of losing out in a head-on confrontation.

It would be great if they can pull out their stronghold and win the initial victory.

They were supposed to perform the winter solstice sacrifice at the bear altar, but now they can only do it in the new camp.

The sacrificial ceremony became an opportunity for the army to gather. He quietly provoked and selected 2,000 people, and started a counterattack after the ceremony.

Goal, Bear Altar!

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Naturally, they first arrived at the old place of Isotalva. The Karelian army mixed with multiple communities found dense human skeletons under the snow.

People are first terrified, then furious.

Some chiefs asked rationally: “Great chief, the Ross people are so fierce, how should we deal with them?”

What kind of tricks can Kaskuwei have? The bones on the ground shocked him, but he must maintain a tough attitude in front of his subordinates: “The Ross invaders built a fortress at the Bear Altar, and we will take it. According to previous battles, Ross Human arrows are very strong, so this time we have prepared more arrows. With the advantage of arrows, we will be able to tear down their fortress and kill all enemies without mercy.”

He just wanted to rely on his strength to complete his first victory, just like the Zulu army went to besiege the British army’s military stronghold.

It was the Ross hunter who was hunting for squirrel skins and encountered a large number of active “black skins”, which seemed to be bears rather than bears. When they realized that they were potential enemies, the hunters immediately retreated.

The two sides have actually discovered each other, and Kaskuwei didn’t even think about hiding the army’s actions. Seeing this situation, he ordered: “Follow me!”

The Ross hunters withdrew to the wooden castle of Bear Festival Town one after another. Someone beat the buckskin drum frantically to attract everyone’s attention. The messenger had already concluded that the person who came was the Karelian, and the number of the other party was astonishing. Obviously, they wanted to demolish Bear Festival Town.

Ross hunters and fishermen have turned into warriors. They are warriors, and the winter season is the most lively period in Bear Festival Town. After experiencing the winter sacrifice in New Rose Fort, there are more than 50 Ross people and 100 Slavs. People, even fifty Suomi people, arrived in Xiongji Town on sleds to plunder the local small animal resources.

War threatened this emerging city. There are as many as 400 settlers in the entire city. The men made a major decision together and issued a very straightforward statement: “This is the territory laid down by the Principality of Ross. Even if you fight to the end No one can be lost!”

Women and children were urgently evacuated, and some men who were really old were also forcibly persuaded to leave.

More than a hundred people had to leave the town of Bear Festival. They rode sleds on the frozen Ladoga Lake in order to rush to New Roseburg.

What is the strength of the enemy?

There may be a thousand or more.

At least the enemy’s purpose is obviously to destroy the fortress, then they must pay the price in blood!

The Principality of Ross mobilized 250 combatable men in Bear Festival Town, and since almost all of them were hunters, almost all of them held bows.

Not only short wooden bows, but also a batch of wooden arm crossbow equipment, and even heavy individual equipment such as steel arm crossbow specially used for bear hunting.

As early as the construction of settlements, Rurik thought about the issue of urban defense.

Karelia’s border troubles have not been eliminated, and the existence of Bear Festival Town itself is an insult to the enemy. It is also the gathering place for the next crusade against the enemy, so it must make a big fuss about defense.

Hunters only need leather, but all the meat is reserved for storage.

There is also a batch of wheat and frozen fish in Xiongji Town.

Although there were more than 200 people crowded in the fort, everyone prepared a lot of food for hunting needs, and even some flatbreads bought in Fort New Rose during the Great Sacrifice.

The people are full of confidence, and their food reserves are enough to withstand a month-long blizzard, so it is no problem to resist the enemy’s siege for a month.

Based on their own experience, it took at least 15 days for the princes to gather the army for reinforcements after receiving the news.

Fifteen to twenty days, the critical period to become a guardian!

On the other hand, the Great Chief Kaskuwe marched in person, but his 2,000-strong army was not monolithic.

Many tribes and densely packed clan communities recognized his power, and formed an army with a complex composition. The soldiers lacked the usual tacit understanding. As for the fight against the Ross people, they did not have a clear concept of death in battle, but they all thought about it after the war. Grab some irons.

The news that the Rus possessed a large number of iron weapons spread like wildfire, which almost eliminated half of people’s fear of the enemy.

A group of troops dressed in deerskin, armed with short spears, throwing spears, skinned wooden shields, and a large number of bows and arrows began to appear on the snow-covered grass outside Xiongji Town. The Ross army, who was waiting for work, relied on wooden walls and sentry towers to prepare for defense. fight.

The crossbow has been wound, and the torsion slingshots placed at the corners of the tower and the fort have also completed charging.

Many people didn’t wear armor at all, so they used deerskin and bearskin as a temporary defense.

They all hid behind the walls to keep absolute silence, leaving the whole fort almost deserted.

Such a situation made Kaskuwe difficult, but fortunately, this Karelian army is not lacking in recklessness.

Compared with the defenders of Rus, the hostile Karelian warriors have more hunting experience, and lack the concept of fighting.

Someone muttered: “Maybe the Ross people were scared away. Their main force is not here, so they are worried that they will not have enough troops to escape overnight.”

If someone says so, someone will try it out.

Kaskuwe sent a hundred men to approach the wooden castle from all directions, and just as it approached the ditch, the hidden defenders of Ross suddenly appeared.

Crossbows and torsion slingshots start with precise shooting, followed by random shooting with bows and arrows.

The Karelian scouts suffered a loss and fled, so for the sake of honor, Kaskuwe gave the order for the entire army to attack.

Two thousand men besieging a wooden fort with two hundred and five men?

It stands to reason that “ten times the attack” is the correct tactic, but how can the weapons and equipment and fighting will of both sides be on the same level?

The one hundred Slavic warriors in the guards were not good at archery, but they were also spearmen who had fought fierce battles in the banner team. The good food and drink over the years had made them different from other Slavs and became a strong existence.

Most people in the Rossi tribe hold crossbows, and the Suomi people are also good at archery.

Of course, the Karelians and the Suomi are of the same origin, and both are good archers.

It’s just that after surrendering to the Principality of Ross, Suomi hunters have been fully equipped with iron arrow clusters, and they can even buy a lot at the market!

In contrast to the Karelian Army, the army assembled by Chief Kaskuwe is still widely using bone clusters.

On the first day of the battle, the Karelians left more than 50 corpses and retreated with more than 100 wounded in various conditions.

On the third day, a new round of attack began again.

Kaskuwe improvised wooden shields made of small tree trunks and continued to attack. This time they successfully reached the trench, but they suffered a disadvantage in the attack of climbing the wooden wall.

On the seventh day, this is already the third round of attack!

Arrows have become the main weapon for attacking each other, and the Karelian army has been reduced to causing damage by throwing arrow rain. As for the results of the battle, it is impossible to predict.

Attacking has become more of a catharsis, and the Karelians are also learning about war in the war, and now there are no reckless people who are risking precise arrows to rush.

Just at this time, a small snowstorm hit, and the cold finally forced Chief Kaskuwe to calm down.

So far he has lost 200 people, some died in battle, some were seriously injured, and more than 300 people were lightly injured by arrow wounds.

Some people thought of retreating, but they were killed by the chief for disturbing the morale of the army.

A small fortress could not be attacked for a long time, and the great chief came to the head because of his love for battle. He decided to move reinforcements from the rear. Before the arrival of the army, the existing army was besieging the bear altar, hoping that the other party would be exhausted from hunger before launching a general attack.

However, Ross’s flag with blue stripes on a white background fluttered in the cold wind, and the existence of the flag was the worst mockery.

More than twenty of the defenders of the fortress were wounded in three battles, and two hapless ones were shot through the neck and died.

In contrast to the enemy, some corpses fell in the trenches, and the enemy was even unable to collect the corpses.

Just let them continue the siege!

Some of the fighters who were originally nervous are now fighting high, and the Karelians once again showed their inferiority to the fullest.

It seems that the defenders of Rose can go out of the city to take the initiative to attack. The reckless will do so, and the guards just want to wait for work.

Everyone knows that the prince has already made some preparations for fighting against Karelia again, and the uninvited arrival of the enemy is just an opportunity!

[End of this Chapter]