Rise of Rurik - Chapter 981

[Chapter 983 The Winter War Begins]

If Fisk’s looting cavalry continues to go south, it is also feasible to rush all the way to Mainz along the Rhine.

A snowfall calmed down the fanatical Ross cavalry. They counted the gold and silver they had plundered crazily these days, and considered the supplies they had now. No one was willing to continue taking risks.

Their behavior caused panic among the people in Cologne and Bonn, and also aroused the vigilance of the nobles of the Kingdom across the river.

Some bad news has been flying all over the sky in recent days, and Aachen has been attacked by barbarians.

The Normans plundered everywhere in Flanders, and the life and death of Earl Baudouin was uncertain, and his son took the initiative to supervise the country.

It was at this turbulent time that a group of well-trained bandits on horseback appeared in the east of Aachen.

Aachen is the “place of the first good”, where Charlemagne’s coffin is located.

The defenders have strengthened the city’s security, and it will take some time for the news to reach Lothair, the king of the Middle Kingdom who is still in the southeast.

A snowfall has spread from the Arctic Circle to under the Alps.

It showed an astonishing coldness in the north, and the whole of Scandinavia was hit by a blizzard. The Gulf of Bothnia and the waters near Roseburg, the dragon’s birthplace of the Ross people, were freezing rapidly.

It is this cold season, the blast furnaces of the Rus people have not stopped, the flames continue to bake several blast furnaces, and the iron smelting work is still going on.

While others are living in winter mode, they will try to hide in their homes until the snowfall is over.

Eastern Europe also experienced the first snow, and the Novgorod region was immersed in the snow.

It is cold and desolate, because the soldiers from the expedition have not returned, and the news that has been transmitted so far is still from September, and the information that people have learned is that the war will continue.

A group of wounded had returned ahead of schedule, and they brought first-hand information on the battle situation on the front line, praising the great achievements of the Ross Army.

The last battle reports come only from Danish operations in Jutland.

Finally, the Danish forces, which troubled all Russians and Swedes, have turned enemies into friends after this war.

Let the past grievances go!

Even if some people feel that all grievances should not be hastily erased.

Anyone with a discerning eye knows that when the maritime dispute is over, the fishing business in the Baltic Sea will become much more stable.

All of this is based on the great martial arts of the Ross army. The Kingdom of Ross and the Kingdom of Denmark are bounded by a strait, where Ross represents the entire Scandinavia, and they have the right to rule.

The victory is exciting, and the soldiers of the expedition clearly will fight all the way until next year. This is the first time in history. When the joy fades, people have the comfort of the expeditioners.

What is consoling is that the king has exempted the whole people from this year’s tax, but this year’s agricultural tax and commercial tax have already been collected, so should they be refunded immediately?

No one asked much about it.

After all, the taxes collected were not a big problem for the people at that time. Although the tax was still taxed at eleven, the achievements of pioneering had already demonstrated its power.

Although most of the old and new Rus families temporarily lost their strong labor force, they were the first to enjoy the dividends of the war. Relying on the power of women and children and spending money to hire local Slav labor, the work of grain harvesting was still successfully completed. Tax was also paid smoothly.

The vast majority of families still had sufficient surplus food, and the expected Smolensk invasion did not appear.

On the contrary, it was those steppe cavalry who frequently robbed the Smolensk area.

For more than half a year, these short black-haired prairie people have successively transported more than five hundred captive women to the north.

These captives were snapped up, for which Kagan and his prairie cavalry made a fortune, and they changed hands to buy the steel, leather, cloth, and even precious good salt of the Ross Kingdom.

The elderly Otto has age spots on his face. Thanks to the gray beard covering his face, his hair has almost fallen out, and he usually uses a hat to cover up this embarrassment.

He didn’t know when he was going to end his life, after all, he was already sixty-seven years old.

what does that mean?

In the past, the ten maids he had chosen for his only son, Rurik, all gave birth to children successfully.

He is just an old man surrounded by many grandchildren, living in the city of Novgorod to enjoy endless dreams.

He lived here no different from the king, the Supreme King was the same as the king, and with him here, the eastern region of the Ross kingdom was stable.

The huge kingdom needs a busy line of communication to maintain each other. Before the expansion war in 840, she was divided into: the northern region, the eastern region, the Swedish region, and the Finnish region.

The so-called hometown in the northern region, the old man Harrow Zuosen dreamed of becoming the boss of the Ross tribe, and this man’s wish has been fulfilled in the changing times.

He sits in his hometown of Roseburg in the north, so there is no possibility of any trouble.

The Swedish region has returned to the ancient state of tribal alliances. The governor and the Uppsala Great Temple institution have been added locally, and Ross controls it with a system similar to that of a prisoner.

Finland is just a country with a small population. Today’s economy is highly tied to the Ross capital, New Roseburg. A group of Finns have been working in the east for a long time. There are always some Finnish shanty towns outside New Roseburg. .

They couldn’t make any waves.

The ruling core area of the Ross Kingdom is entirely in the east, where a population of more than 200,000 people gathers, and it is climbing to 300,000 at a speed visible to the naked eye.

The prince Osban Slav is here, the overlord Otto is here, the high priest Rumia and the deputy priest Velika are here.

Old Russians, New Russians, and a large number of immigrants from Scandinavia settled here one after another.

They still maintain the abundant martial arts in the past. Due to the unbelievable stability of life, the increasingly prosperous days make every family have a strong desire to have children.

The population is expanding rapidly, and along with it, the deforestation is intensifying.

The people need a larger living space and a larger trade network, and countless needs give birth to huge desires.

It is already November in the Julian calendar, and soon it will be a brand new year.

The arrival of the new year means that the results of the second large-scale marriage of the Old Ross people will show its power.

Based on tradition, boys in the north do not want to count their first years of age. When a child reaches his twelfth thought, he is considered an adult.

At the beginning, the marriage between Rus and the Novgorodians was just a trial. In the second year, when the barrier between them was eliminated due to the birth of the child, the marriage became more frequent.

From the second year onwards, the population of Ross began to explode. Now, the first generation of the “population explosion period” has grown up, and they have all the obligations of the Ross people. The most important thing is to take up arms to expand the strength of Ross. .

Because if you don’t expand, you will die.

Everyone knew that the expeditionary army had already entered Frankish territory. As for the situation of the battle, it was unknown due to the temporary interruption of traffic.

No one complained that the king was militarizing. The newborn young soldiers were sharpening their knives. They were not afraid of tigers as newborn calves. They even hoped that the war would continue, so that when the king called for reinforcements, everyone could take part in large-scale wars as their coming-of-age ceremony. .

Otto is old and needs crutches to stand up.

He still likes to drink, ale, mead, raspberry sparkling wine, kvass, and even precious wine.

He continued to enjoy life, and every day he lived was a day he earned.

He also hopes that the army will triumph, and he can see that Rose has achieved greater glory.

There was no militarism, and Ross’ rear was fairly stable.

This is not the people of Ross or the noble saints at all, because Rurik did not apportion taxes to them for military funds, and even sent official documents to be tax-free for a year.

The vast majority of the people did not suffer losses, and the wounded soldiers who were withdrawn reported another outrageous victory in one game after another, so they lived their lives well.

Different from pure farming peoples, they have to rely on pack horses and even human shoulders to transport materials to the front line.

The logistical pressure of the Ross army was very low. Relying on large ships and sails, as well as vast oceans and countless rivers, the forces of nature could push the army to attack at high speed.

Ross even supported war by fighting, relying on looting and Sorgon to meet needs, and immediately trawled for fishing when the army was temporarily settled.

Then when the first snow fell in northern and western Europe, the Russian army could still ensure that its soldiers had oats and fish every day.

And it is the Saxon people who are suffering.

Rurik’s battle plan has begun to be implemented, and Arik’s squadron has been stationed at the mouth of the Elbe River on standby.

He wished that the enemy’s army would advance to the Elbe River immediately, but it snowed heavily.

Now that they were ready to continue fighting, the Ross-Danish coalition forces built wooden houses near Hamburg early on.

Most of them build houses with the old craftsmanship of their hometown. The so-called building a rough wooden house first, and then piled up a layer of soil on the outside, is like creating an abrupt earth hole on the flat ground.

This is the old Viking way of building longhouses, which is really indecent in today’s eyes.

It is not impossible to build a woodcut that is better protected against the cold, it requires more man-hours.

Considering that a decisive battle might happen at any time, the soldiers didn’t bother to make a fuss, and just built a hut to keep out the cold.

The Ross-Danish coalition forces had all the tools, but the situation of the war refugees who gathered in the Hamburg area was extremely bad.

For the Saxons, it is not uncommon for people to freeze to death in winter, and it is not uncommon for even whole families to freeze to death.

On a larger scale, many people freeze to death in the entire Frankish Kingdom every winter.

Died from diarrhea after eating unclean food, and died from the cold in winter. These are the two major obstacles that restrict the population of this huge kingdom.

The alliance between Ross and Denmark and Saxony is only an alliance with Duke Liudov, and the life and death of Saxon civilians is something that Liudov has to manage.

It is kind of Ross to reward these civilians with some food, and there is nothing wrong with not giving them.

Now, what Rurik is doing is giving nothing.

After the snowfall began, the Saxon people died of frostbite one after another.

The highest temperature in the environment suddenly dropped below zero, those weak women and children who could not withstand the low temperature test began to die, and the combat effectiveness of strong men was also weakened by the cold.

In Liudov’s 10,000-strong army assembled in the form of a strong man, there were not many soldiers in it who could fight, so Xue Xue’s strength was further reduced.

He wasn’t going to ask the Russ and Danes for some relief, he wouldn’t do it out of pride, and the situation hadn’t turned into mass casualties.

The priests have already gone to appease these poor people, and organized manpower to bury those who died of freezing.

Especially Eskil, he conveyed this message to the people: “Some people died because they were not devout enough in their faith. This is a test, and you must overcome the test of cold and war.”

The northern sage had spoken, and everyone had nothing to say.

As for those Russ and Danes who can’t see the situation of freezing to death at all, what’s going on?

what!

Maybe it’s just because they are weird people who jumped out of the ice, and they don’t need to go through God’s trial at all. They are integrated with the ice and snow and are not afraid of the cold at all.

Are the Vikings really not afraid of the cold?

Is it really a creation of ice and snow?

!

Right here in Hamburg, Eskil hosted a humble Halloween celebration, after which the snow began, as if it were a follow-up to the festival.

In the wind and snow, the coalition forces still held on to the Elbe River, Hamburg became a large military camp, and various wooden buildings rose from the ground.

The food supply of the Ross-Danish Army is very normal, and their living conditions are better.

The overall situation of the people of Saxony is much worse, and most people will not suffer the fate of freezing to death.

At worst, more than a dozen people gathered in a room to keep warm. The food they brought with them could last for a long time, and they all hoped that the snow would pass sooner.

Snowfall is a test for both sides of the war.

It delayed Ludwig’s next move. The main body of the huge Frankish army has moved to the north of the Weser River. This snowfall.

Archbishop Hardebold of Cologne then held a brief Halloween ceremony in an open space in Bremen. After the ceremony, snow began to fall, and many soldiers chewed their tongues saying that the archbishop had brought bad luck here.

But did this Frankish expeditionary force encounter less bad luck?

In other words, when King Ludwig insisted on launching a winter expedition, he had to face the winter blizzard.

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But this snowfall could not have only caused trouble for the Frankish army.

Ludwig seldom came to the Saxony region. He lived in the south for a long time. He mainly conducted remote control for the northern region, and mainly learned about the situation in the north through noble letters.

“Maybe it will be colder this year, maybe the Elbe will freeze. My army will go straight through the ice, take Hamburg and fight them, and I will win.”

The size of the army will determine the outcome of the war. Ludwig always believes that his strong army is invincible in land battles. All the previous setbacks were caused by a nasty Norman ship.

The powerful cavalry can’t run on the water. The previous defeats are all willing to do so. If there are smooth roads everywhere, how can the Frankish army fail?

Ludwig’s self-esteem is here, and he will never admit that his strength is not enough.

He is now spreading his hatred for the failure of the border friction with his big brother Lothair in the summer to the traitors and invaders in the north, even if he scolds him ten thousand times, it is not an exaggeration.

Both sides of the war are waiting for the snow to stop, and it is clear that this snow will continue for a while.

On the contrary, when Rurik was waiting for the snow to stop, Noren and Bejahir, who were in the final stage of pregnancy, gave birth on the exact same day. It happened that they were two normal baby boys.

One has golden hair, the other has brownish-yellow hair.

They all closed their eyes and screamed, wrapped in soft sheepskin, and hugged by their mothers.

The two princes of the Kingdom of Ross were born in Hamburg, and doing them a lot of help at this moment will do me good in the future.

Liudov provided a comfortable room for Noren and Bejahir to recuperate, and he also handed over his maid to take care of their children.

There were few women in the Ross army, and women were very weak after giving birth and did need care.

The maids of the Liudov family are pure maids, and there are many old women among them. They are the servants who take care of noble families, from cooking to washing.

They are a group of professionals, and Rurik is certainly satisfied with Liudov’s assistance in this regard.

However, the old man Eskil saw this as an opportunity. He estimated that his actions might make Rurik angry, but he thought that the big boy Regraf Ruriksson was wandering around the city of Hamburg every day.

He couldn’t help but started his own plot again…

[End of this Chapter]