Rise of Rurik - Chapter 781

[Chapter 782]

Those Russian and Danish warriors who have experienced many battles have seen a brand new way of fighting. The Pecheneg cavalry and the Frankish cavalry they have encountered are completely two tactics.

The Frankish cavalry are brave, because they dare to charge and assassinate with cavalry spears upright. On the other hand, the Pechenegs, they shoot arrows and run away!

Smart people like Arik and Ragnar can realize how disgusting and cowardly this tactic is.

The Pecheneg cavalry archers ran away as soon as they shot their arrows. The soldiers had to hold their shields to avoid the arrows and fled away just as they were about to counterattack the enemy.

Of course, Arik also thought of the soldiers in formation restraining them with crossbows.

It’s just that both sides are good at archery, whether the Ross army still has an absolute advantage in bows and arrows.

At least one thing is certain, if the Ross army is all infantry, at best they can be defeated, and it is too difficult to complete the annihilation.

Only a few people realized the advantages of the Pecheneg cavalry, and the vast majority of people were purely watching

The big show finally ends, and when all the performances are over, the gathered crowd retreats one after another.

That night, the ten cavalry warriors who performed well were treated with great courtesy.

They were nothing more than slave warriors in the tribe, and now they are the guests of Prince Ross!

Naturally, their former master Kagan was present again.

A small banquet was regarded as the beginning and end of today’s work, so Rurik formally accepted these ten people as his subordinates.

Let’s see these ten cavalrymen get together and kneel on one knee, accepting the instructions of “Ross Khan”.

“Now you are all my servants, and you will serve me in the future. You must do your duty well. If you have any betrayal, you will be hanged in public. As long as you do your duty properly, you will receive stable food, clothes, A house and a stipend. When you are older, I will reward you with women who will eventually become my horsemen and breed more horses for me, and your sons will serve me.”

This is a good relationship, and brothers who work for Prince Ross can get more.

They all said yes.

“Very good. Just sit down! Finally drink my wine, you are my soldiers…”

Those who can be selected by Kagan must be the elite of the Pechenegs, and these ten people must have the qualifications to become officers.

They each reported their own names. The names in various Turkic languages really confused Rurik, and he learned the true meaning of the names they represented. There was nothing special about the names.

Some are called “Spike Fangs”, some are called “Big Arms”, some are called “Arrow Feathers”, and some are called “Big Eyes”…

As the name suggests, the warrior named “Big Eyes”, among the many children of the small-eyed grassland, this person’s eyes are indeed big.

They have all kinds of names. Since they are all slaves, the right to name them theoretically belongs to the master’s family, so it is naturally impossible to take any elegant names.

In other words, the names of the Pechenegs are generally taken randomly, and the rules are that there are no rules and they are quite random.

Kagan’s own name is quite particular, which means “khan’s saber”.

This is like the Viking lord naming his son “Bjorn”, the so-called “lord’s attendant”.

None of the Pechenegs had a surname, or a surname meant nothing to them, especially a group of slaves.

Even the concept of surname has no practical meaning for most of the people under the jurisdiction of the Principality of Rus. Only Rurik adopted coercive means, which enabled the Slavs in the Novgorod region to have various surnames with various meanings.

At least these ten people must have a surname, so as to facilitate management after serving as cavalry officers.

Half drunk with each other, Rurik had an idea, and pointed clockwise to the people according to their current seats, and rewarded them with their so-called surnames.

“Your name is one, your name is two, your name is three…you are called ten. This is your attribution name (surname concept). If you call yourself a name in the future, you must add this at the end.”

Rurik spoke in a Slavic language they could understand. What choice did a group of slaves have? The new master gave them a surname, and the brothers only had to thank them.

During the previous warm period, the city of Novgorod was under construction, and the essence of the movement to build houses is still going on.

You can get rewards for building a house for the prince, and at the last time, you can get a day’s ration.

Rurik spent a lot of money on this, thanks to this year’s bumper grain harvest and the fact that the fleet plundered a batch of grain in Frank and Britain, which covered the financial expenses very well.

It is undeniable that a batch of good quality woodcuts are currently idle in the city.

They were built to cope with future population expansion, and they are here to stay.

Each of the ten people will be a cavalry officer, and each of them will be assigned a wooden room to live temporarily. From this, they will live a better life than Rurik’s regular mercenaries, and they will also be on the same level as those who still live in the barn. Draw a line.

The temporary life of these ten people is still at rest. They have the right to move freely in the city, and they don’t need to spend their own money for three meals a day.

Their personal weapons and armor are still under seizure, including their own mounts are still being detained for breeding.

In fact, all Pechenegs are in a state of leisure and leisure. People living in barns will spend their own expenses from now on, and their master Kagan is responsible for living expenses, so it depends on how to spend money. Kagan’s own will.

In his opinion, his brother Rurik has done the best of benevolence and righteousness, and his subordinates live in his brother’s warehouse for free. What he asks for payment is the food for the remaining forty subordinates and the fodder for the forty horses.

Rurik was in steady supply, and the price of oats was steady at ten pounds a silver.

Compared with people, brothers’ horses are the most important.

In the hometown of the grassland, the horses can still graze on the turf in winter. Even after such a winter, the horse herd of the entire tribal alliance is in a state of extreme weakness.

It’s not that people mistreat their horses on purpose, it’s all because of the seasonal lack of pasture.

In addition, when the pastures are lush, the horses have entered the breeding season. Therefore, in the eyes of many grassland people, it is necessary to raise soldiers for a truce in winter and spring. The best time to start a war is when the horses are most sturdy in autumn. .

It is also because of this factor that the cavalry team led by Kagan set off in late summer and arrived in Ross in early winter.

If it were another season, the war horse would be exhausted to death…

Even so, the horses who arrived in Ross were very weak. Thanks to the large amount of oats provided by the Ross people, the weak horses recovered quickly.

Everyone loves horses. Kagan used to be incapable, but now that he has money, he immediately buys oats to feed the horses.

In this way, Rurik directly negotiated with Kagan a preferential price for agency breeding. It is said that each horse stays in the stable every day and does not go out without any tasks. The standard food for each horse is five pounds of oats a day, supplemented by a small amount yellow root carrot and cabbage.

Even if the supply of vegetables is a preferential category, labor costs and site costs are exempted, and the hard expenditure of 200 pounds of wheat a day for 40 horses must be paid.

Two hundred pounds of oats a day?

Isn’t that two pounds of silver for ten days?

I heard that the winter in this lake area will end in early March, and the brothers will have to wear them here for up to five months. The cost of raising forty horses alone is a big sum.

Rurik is very reasonable, and the cost of raising horses this winter has accumulated to 30 pounds of silver coins.

In contrast, people’s food expenses are much less.

Taking advantage of the opportunity to rest, Kagan wandered around the city of Novgorod without hesitation.

He bought a new leather jacket for himself, and specially bought sunglasses for his subordinates, which cost him a lot of money.

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He was fascinated by the glassware sold by the Ross people, and he couldn’t get enough of the flower-scented soap for bathing.

After a lot of buying, buying, and buying, another fortune is paid out.

Even so, he still feels that he has made a lot of money!

Nowadays, due to the mass production of die-cast glassware, they have become so much cheaper that they were originally extremely expensive, so that five silver coins can buy a glass plate, and ten silver coins can get a glass.

Kagan hurriedly bought some more, and immediately stuffed a lot of hay into the wooden box to seal the stacked glass tableware.

As for the simple colored glass bead pendants and necklaces, he also bought a few sets, so-called bringing them back as gifts to his mother, sisters, and beloved wives, and as a tool to win over the leaders of the alliance.

It took only three days, and the one hundred silver coins for selling the horse had already been paid out, which was seventy pounds!

Among them, he also ordered ten Ross steel swords, and even used ten gold coins donated by Rurik, so that young local craftsmen melted gold coins and plated them on the swords.

The so-called silver coins were indeed a commonly used accounting tool in Ross, and Rurik earned back the proceeds Kagan sold the horses in a short period of time.

On the other hand, Rurik had already given the order to form the cavalry, and he needed some time to wait for the selected people to assemble in Novgorod.

Of the 100 horses purchased, ten of the best mares will be used for breeding. Of the remaining 90, 80 will be pure war horses, and the last 10 will be noble mounts.

People such as Arik, Yevro, Medved, etc., everyone must learn to ride a horse and learn to handle weapons on horseback.

Let’s talk about the 80 riders matched with the 80 war horses. They cannot have a single source, and even select riders, which Rurik uses as a tool of control.

The Sixth Banner Team, all young members, selected thirty people, twenty-five people from the most loyal White Tree Manor, no one from Ostara, and five people from Calf and Angler Manor (including the leader) of a son).

There are also ten traditional lakeside estates that have steadfastly surrendered to Ross rule after the counter-insurgency war. Their boyar chiefs must surrender a son to join the cavalry.

Among the 80 cavalrymen assembled in this way, there is also a limit on the age of the personnel. The so-called minimum age is fifteen years old, and the upper limit is twenty years old.

Thirty were boys from the Russian capital, and the remaining fifty were pure Slavs.

The cavalry should be elite. Of course, Rurik wants to build a team composed entirely of Ross natives. Due to the current situation, the cavalry will not only be a mixed force, but the internal language will also be Slavic.

The order had already been issued, and the selected personnel were required to arrive early, especially those manor owners who handed over their sons to serve as cavalry. If they missed the date, they would be disrespectful and punishable.

The people of White Tree Manor were really happy about this matter, they looked majestic on horseback, if given a choice, the boy would naturally prefer to be a cavalryman.

The Principality of Ross pursues a simple citizen soldier system, and all men have the obligation to serve as soldiers and fight. In this regard, the Slavs and Vikings from all walks of life, including the Ross, have reached a complete consensus, but everyone is destined to be only infantry. Now being a cavalry has become a new choice.

Medved was responsible for his share of twenty-five people, and quickly selected qualified personnel according to the prince’s request.

First of all, they are young fighters in the Slavic flag team, with an average age of only 21 years old. Even so, many of them participated in the decisive battle in Gotland many years ago with an immature appearance, and there have been many battles since then. There is participation.

They’re still young, and there’s nothing to say about loyalty.

Although Fisk, the captain of the Sixth Banner Team, could not step down as the captain to become a cavalry soldier, he was also honest in fulfilling the order to select personnel.

At their settlement in Youth City, a jousting within the banner team was held immediately.

Although I don’t know what it means to form a cavalry team, at least the selected personnel must be strong.

They competed in wrestling and archery in the snow, and competed in a more gentle way out of thirty boys.

Carlota, the Duchess of Ostara, selected five riders. She wrote a letter. The longboat sailed on the ice-floored Lake Ilmen, and the letter arrived at the New Ostara Fortress. The five candidates were quickly selected.

Even if this once extremely down-and-out tribe is severely lacking in men, it is possible to gather five fifteen-year-old boys.

Of course, Rurik also considered their practical factors, so he only asked for five people.

The Calf Manor and the Fisherman Manor stood firmly in the Ross Prince’s camp during the counter-insurgency war, and they enjoyed a lot of post-war dividends. Now, the two leaders have no scruples about recruiting people to serve as cavalry.

They didn’t just hand over one son, they even handed over their own nephew.

The two handed over a total of ten boys, all related to themselves, just because they didn’t want to let go of this shortcut that could make future generations prosperous.

But what about the other ten manor owners, how many of them have such awareness?

Because of the geographical isolation, they only knew that a group of horse riders from the south went to the north, and they basically didn’t know the identity of the horse riders.

What does it mean for the prince to build a cavalry force?

Probably for better control.

The prince forcibly handed over his son to serve as a cavalryman, and the manor owner took it for granted that this was an act similar to a proton.

What else can I do?

If you don’t hand over a son of the right age, it will be bad for the prince’s thunderous wrath.

The departure of the youngest son means the complete loss of the right to inherit the manor. Naturally, the eldest son of the manor owner is most happy about this kind of thing.

However, the child’s mother thought about it, and always felt that her son would not come once he left, and became a slave-like existence who only obeyed the orders of the prince, and cried loudly when she saw her off.

This kind of thing happened in many manors, and for a while, the boy who was eager to become a cavalryman panicked, as if he was going to Novgorod by boat.

The personnel have been assembled one after another, and they have different expectations for their future.

Especially those sons of the manor owner, they came tremblingly, what they saw and heard was not what they expected.

They saw a herd of well-fed horses, all fitted to saddles, bits, and bridles.

A group of prairie people on horseback stood majestically behind the horses.

look!

The blond man.

Who else could it be if it wasn’t Prince Rurik?

!

Indeed, Rurik was not afraid of the north wind, and let his golden hair be praised by the wind.

Although the weather is good today, the wind is a bit strong, showing the desolation of the northern country.

Let’s look at this group of Turkic wild horses. In addition to eating oats and carrots every day these days, their manes are also growing wildly.

They are supposed to be gradually consuming their physical energy, but they are stronger. They are completely different from those of the same kind who survived the winter on the grassland and are physiologically sluggish.

While Kagan was shopping in the city, Rurik was busy improving his equestrian skills.

Probably the running-in period has passed, the mount I have chosen is obviously very intelligent, and the orders given are all implemented very well.

This horse thus got an elegant name, the so-called “Monkbjorn”, the so-called “Black Guard”, which is really a domineering name in Viking culture.

It was Rurik who gave the assembly order. Seeing the selected boys ignorantly gathered in the open space outside the city, blowing the cold wind, he lightly rubbed his feet on the horse’s belly, and the steed walked slowly.

Prince Ross inspected his subordinates from an absolutely overlooking perspective, and gave a brief speech.

He didn’t dawdle any longer, and ordered: “There are gentle and powerful horses here, go and choose your own horses! Remember, the person who chooses a horse must swear to treat his horse well. It is your comrade-in-arms and your future. family…”

An interesting horse selection meeting began. Under the watchful eyes of Kagan and other Pecheneg cavalry, a large group of young novice knights chose their mounts.

Curiosity and joy were written all over their faces, they subconsciously stroked the horse’s mane, and hugged the horse’s head again.

The sons of the manor owners who were worried, this chin must learn to ride a horse immediately, so as to have a majestic appearance like a prince.

In Kagan’s view, these young people must not have horse riding talent like Prince Rurik.

Next, Prince Pecheneg himself will be the head coach to train these yellow-haired guys into cavalry!

By the way, I can also earn a tuition fee, and further purchase a batch of supplies to bring back to my hometown next year.

[End of this Chapter]