Rise of Rurik

It was rare for Rurik to get drunk once, and everyone at the banquet slept for a whole day. To Kagan's surprise, there was a second game the next night.

Compared with the madness of the first game, the banquet in the second game was much more gentle.

According to Rurik, it is natural to have a feast for three days to welcome the brothers who have come from afar, not even one day less.

Is this the rule of the Duchy of Ross? What a wonderful rule!

Kagan had no reason to resist suspicion. He prided himself on being prosperous on the prairie, and now he realizes that he is short-sighted. His brother Ross is very good at cooking, and he is very willing to put salt in the dishes.

His blood sodium and blood potassium levels, which were originally to maintain the bottom line, soared, and although he drank every day, he felt full of power!

Anyway, the whole world is covered with heavy snow, and the people with jobs are performing their duties. Rurik is celebrating a holiday since the autumn harvest and tax collection. Excessive contact with his wives and concubines is too harmful to the kidneys. Now I take the opportunity to adjust and drink and have fun with the guests. some time.

Barbecue, bread, mead, cheese, stews and desserts, a sturdy prairie son quickly hoarded fat, but after three days of eating and drinking, Kagan felt his face became rounder and his stomach swelled.

This is the case for eating, accommodation, bathing and even going to the toilet, all have an unprecedented experience.

Including but not limited to wiping the buttocks after going to the toilet with soft toilet paper for the first time, sleeping in a "quilt" wrapped in linen and wool, and taking a bath in a wooden bucket every day.

Kagan's status is so noble, and Maksakyi also enjoys Kagan's blessing and gets the same treatment.

It was all Rurik's scheming.

Once the people who live in the wind and sleep have experienced a good life, their thinking will change, and even if they go back to the past life, they will feel sorry for themselves all day long. To use the sugar-coated cannonballs of Russ-style aristocratic life to crit the souls of this group of Pechenegs and win over them with tenderness.

The means are also directed at the servant warriors who accompany them.

The Pecheneg warriors who live in the barn don't have to worry about their warhorses, Rurik said, and the warhorses will be fed high-quality oatmeal, and they will all be kept in warm empty barns that serve as stables.

They don't need to pay attention to their master's life. For three days after arriving in the Principality of Ross, their job is to have no job.

The sturdy cavalry warriors drank ale and mead, and ate grilled sea bass and bread in their leisure time. The food supply was unlimited.

The cooks who delivered the meals used a wheelbarrow to deliver three carts full of baked bread, and they had to send three carts the next day. The captured perch is baked uniformly, and it is also delivered by the whole vehicle. This even led to a topic, which inevitably led to criticism among the people. The so-called prince was too kind to this group of people on horseback. Some self-proclaimed wise men pointed out that there must be a deep meaning in what the prince did. As for the deep meaning, the speaker just laughed.

This was already the last day of the dinner party. Kagan, who was half-drunk again, had completely let go. He was holding a glass goblet with his shirtless arms, and his dark eyes were blurred.

"Is it over tomorrow? It's fine. This kind of life is great, I... just worry that if it goes on for a long time, I will lose my courage."

Rurik had no intention of agreeing, and ordered casually: "Assemble your team tomorrow and hand over the ten people who were given to me."

"Can."

"Okay. At that time, I will issue another order. I will prepare about 80 people for you soon. I will let you be the coach and help me train the cavalry."

"Only eighty horses? I sold you a hundred horses!"

"It's ninety cavalry, and your ten men are mine. Oh, I have to keep some mares to focus on breeding."

Kagan smiled, made an exaggerated toast, and pointed at Rurik again. What he wanted to say was forgotten for a while, so he was deadlocked for more than ten seconds and suddenly muttered: "It's a deal. I'm resting now, and I will gather tomorrow. You can choose ten soldiers."

Almost all of Pecheneg Khan's "Guardian" came from slaves, and their origins were quite complicated. However, they were all boys selected by slave families. They had undergone more than ten years of training to have their current strength.

Every ten-year-old slave boy has to accept cavalry skills such as horseback riding, riding and archery, chopping and chopping. Kagan himself is not a coach. He used to receive the same training as these slave boys, becoming a strong man among the nobles, with inheritance The basic strength of Khan. If they can become the guards who defend the Khan, even though they are slaves, the living conditions of such people will be significantly improved.

Pecheneg is not a wealthy nomadic tribe, and is still weak in the presence of powerful enemies.

Although Kagan wants to treat his subordinates kindly and provide better living materials, but his own life is not rich, how can he satisfy his subordinates? It is normal to drink milk and eat cheese to satisfy hunger on weekdays. If you catch a marmot and roast it, it will improve your life.

The last dinner was over, and at noon the next day, the fifty Pecheneg cavalry who had been eating and drinking for three days finally got the assembly order.

Refreshed by the cold outside, they re-braided their braids, wore new clothes, new fur and boots with Russ hair, and stepped on the firm and flat snow, huddled together in Novgorod Under the onlookers of the people, they walked to the palace of the prince.

After all the personnel were in place, the wooden door of the palace was closed by the Ross warriors in chainmail.

As soon as the wooden door closed, the hearts of many unarmed Pecheneg soldiers instinctively tightened.

Then he raised his head, and on the wooden platform of the honest house, he was standing shoulder to shoulder with Prince Ross.

Kagan took off his hat so his men could see his face.

He made a discussion with Rurik, and then he preached in public: "I have become brothers with the prince of Rus, and Pecheneg has made an alliance with Rus! You are all my servants, and ten will leave me. The chosen team, the chosen ones, take your place and play for my brother Ross!"

As soon as the voice fell, everyone immediately became agitated.

Kagan opened his arms to control the scene again, and announced: "Now listen to the preaching of the prince of Ross."

The above words are all the Turkic dialects of the Pecheneg people, and Rurik couldn't understand them at all, and the Rus and Slavs present didn't know anything. As the two parties discussed it in advance, Rurik also knew what Kagan had preached.

Indeed, for the first communication between two political entities separated by 1,000 kilometers, if both parties had not communicated with the Eastern Slavs, the two sides did not even have a medium language for the dialogue, and the communication cost would be ridiculously high.

It is precisely the language barrier that is a major obstacle, and it is decided that Rurik must select suitable personnel as his subordinates.

Rurik spoke in Slavic in public, so simple that he only emphasized some key words: "Me! Khan of the Rus! I will choose ten! Those who understand me! Stand up!"

He repeated it as many as five times, and then someone cautiously left the team and looked around a little dumbly.

There were exactly ten people who came out, which is actually enough to see the number of people who came out.

Everyone still doesn't know what delisting means. Those who delisted were just doing it mechanically because they understood the Slavic command.

"Look, ten people have been selected, and they can definitely understand the language of the Slavs." Kagan reminded kindly.

Rurik shrugged. He was tall. He was wearing a white bear skin to cover his still thin body. He looked extremely burly. In addition, the prince's mercenary troops, a group of berserkers with leather helmets and bear heads, are even more sturdy.

He went down the wooden steps and looked down on the ten leavers in person, reviewing them one by one.

"What do you think?" Kagan asked Rurik after his review.

"It's not bad. The guards you choose must have their own advantages. At least they have all experienced a long march to reach Ross, and their strength is guaranteed."

Hearing it, Kagan felt a little uncomfortable: "I understand. You still need them to show their skills."

"That's natural. They're all cavalry, and I want your people to show me some cavalry tactics."

"What's so difficult about it? It's all up to you."

Rurik sighed lightly: "Then let's perform riding and shooting. I want these ten people to perform in person!"

...

In the afternoon, the people of Novgorod, who lacked entertainment, heard an interesting news. Idlers from the whole city dragged their families to the snow-covered desert by the river.

This beach has not yet been reclaimed as farmland. In fact, since this area can be used as a small-scale grazing pasture, Rurik does not order the reclamation, and others are too lazy to do it.

Because it is not only a grassland, it can also be used as a gathering place for the army, and even the current martial arts field.

As many as 3,000 people watched a performance. It was rumored that the eastern grassland people would perform horseback riding and archery at the same time. This kind of people was unheard of, so they all watched with a curious attitude.

The sudden appearance of so many spectators Kagan was also surprised. He did not expect that Novgorod had such a large population.

But looking at the ten people who were going to perform riding and shooting, they changed into their own serious Turkic armor, put on their own helmets wrapped in animal skins, rode their own horses, and held composite bows with tendons and horns and iron provided by the Rus. Cluster arrows.

To tell the truth, the bows of the Pechenegs attracted Rurik to the extreme.

People from the East are generally good at bows and arrows, and making compound bows is also a traditional skill of all ethnic groups. Just like the Pecheneg people, their horns are self-raised grassland cattle, and the horns with exaggerated length and pointed horns are enough to make bows. The compound bow with tendons and horns is the standard configuration of its warriors, and naturally several nearby nomadic khanates, and even the horse archers of Eastern Rome, are also equipped with the same equipment. Even the Eastern Roman cavalry had the highest bow poundage.

The warriors in iron armor ride on the war horse. Their slender stature forms a wonderful contrast to the tallness of the Turkic barbarian horses.

A group of Rus warriors who had fought against the Frankish cavalry happened to be staying in Novgorod, especially a group of Danish warriors under Ragnar, who were all watching the show. Everyone was proud of having a big victory because they had defeated the Frankish heavy cavalry, but now seeing a group of light cavalry who were not good-looking, they naturally didn't think there was anything special.

Horseback riding and archery? Is this a joke? How does a cavalryman do it?

Ragnar was wearing sunglasses and his face was stern, and the whole person looked very dignified.

It's not just the Danish aristocrat who wears sunglasses, but a bunch of people in Novgorod also wear sunglasses. It's an excellent tool to protect your eyes when working in the snow. Fair enough.

There was a large group of people wearing black things in front of them. Although Kagan knew that they were magical sunglasses, he did not expect that Russ people generally owned them. The people who wore these things became funny as a whole, and he was secretly happy in his heart.

Old Otto also came to watch in thick clothes. Many of Rurik's wives and concubines were dressed warmly and gorgeously, and even brought their children to watch the show.

Especially holding the child Carlota, she came here not just to watch the good show, because she had already had a basic discussion with her man, so the so-called many horses naturally cannot be raised in Novgorod, which is north of the lake. New Ostara, south of the lake, has a large range of natural lakeside pastures, which are most suitable for raising large livestock. Naturally, it is an excellent horse farm. Besides, no one in the entire Ross Principality is better at raising cattle and sheep than Ostara. Keeping horses is a no-brainer.

Carlotta has to observe carefully, she has to undertake the later work of raising horses, and the newly formed cavalry unit will also be stationed in New Ostara to guard the southern gate of the Principality of Ross.

Even his eldest son Carl.

She patted the infant child: "Karl, you will also be a man on horseback in the future. Don't sleep, and look at these warriors."

The so-called target is to attack two tall wooden poles standing in the open space, and pull up the hemp rope, and ten newly caught big red squirrels are hanging under the rope.

It stands to reason that these small beasts should be skinned and sold immediately, and now they are bought by Rurik as beast targets. Even if it's just a cover up for riding and shooting, it has to be prepared exactly like hunting, so that the riding shooter can fully demonstrate its strength.

Let's look at the ten cavalry archers, they have all understood their future, and each is full of fighting spirit.

The Maharaja Ross must show his own strength, so that he can be recognized in exchange for the qualification to eat and drink spicy food in the future.

"Just cover up according to the way you Pechenegs fought." Rurik reminded Kagan.

"Then, the distance of the archery has to be twenty paces, or even closer."

"what?"

"Are you wondering?" Kagan asked.

"So close?"

"At least it's a lot closer than a foot archer, and that's how mounted shooting is. It seems that you don't understand it at all."

Rurik didn't refute, he really didn't understand riding and shooting, but after Kagan explained it, he had a basic understanding.

Indeed, it is an extravagant hope to shoot arrows as if standing still while pulling a bow on a swaying horse.

After Kagan gave an order in Turkic language, Rurik greeted his subordinates to beat the leather drum, and the first cavalry galloped away with the drum beat.

I saw this soldier walking on stirrups, leaning sideways and drawing the bow full with both hands. Although the arrows given by the Russ were a little strange, the smart cavalry knew at a glance that they were good arrows.

The cavalry under the watchful eyes of the audience pulled the bow to an astonishing tug-of-war, which immediately attracted the whining of the onlookers. Men who are good at hunting do not use bows like this.

It is not surprising that people with discerning eyes can see the release technique of the cavalry. Everyone is a release technique of the finger-wrench style, and even bone finger-wrench is used.

The warhorse galloped past, the arrow hit the squirrel with a whistle, and the leather armor of the conical arrow cluster pierced through the big red squirrel, almost two-thirds of the entire arrow passed.

"A perfect mount shot, isn't it?!" Kagan's words were full of pride.

Rurik was amazed, "Wow! If there is an enemy soldier standing over there and an arrow is hit, the opponent will not even have a chance to counterattack. The cavalry has already run away!"

"Looks like you all understand, cavalry and archery are like this. You can conquer the sea, but you don't understand cavalry combat at all. In my opinion, you must not fight recklessly with the enemy's cavalry, the grasslands are very wide, and you should try your best to fight with the enemy. Shoot the enemy from a distance, or shoot the enemy horse. As long as you really find the enemy's flaws, send cavalry to rush up to break up their array."

"Is that how you fight?"

"How else can we fight?" Kagan shrugged.

The ten cavalrymen performed one by one, and they all completed the first round of cavalry shooting with the drum beat, not to mention that all ten arrows were hit. This is only the first round of riding and shooting, and after completing one round, they are followed by the second round.

If the performance ended in a short time, I would be very sorry for the people who came to watch the good show in the cold weather. They would mount and shoot up to 20 times in a row. Rurik wanted them to treat the performance as a real battle.

They did live up to expectations, and after a round of shooting, the men and horses rested for a while, and then they went another round.

Naturally, an arrow misses, which is harmless, because the row of squirrels that are the target is now covered with arrows, and the so-called leather has been completely useless!

Regarding how to use the steppe cavalry, Rurik at least knew some of Genghis Khan's cavalry tactics, that is, the light cavalry to lure the enemy, and when the enemy was exhausted, he showed the heavy cavalry reserve team equipped with both men and horses to crush it.

Now the group of them has actually made a demonstration, and Rurik has a big vision, and he even came up with such a picture in his mind.

The so-called group of hostile Viking warriors in the front rowed out the shield wall, and our cavalry challenged first. The cavalry archers with heavy steel-armed crossbows shot with their weapons, and they ran on horses. The tactics were like the Great Qin crossbow cavalry. Although the tactical value of such a cavalry unit at the beginning of its establishment was harassment, in the current Nordic and Western European worlds where there is a lot of sluggish warfare, the tactics of cavalry and shooting strong arrows must be able to achieve great results.

Rurik's mind fell into a fantasy, and he was slapped on the shoulder again.

"Kagan, you..."

"I adopted them after seeing their performance. Brothers, do you know Rapid Fire?"

"what for?"

"Watch me perform."

Kagan rode his hard-working warhorse, and he changed his body and restored the appearance of Prince Pecheneg. The whole person still looks a little unpretentious, and the appearance of holding a bow seems a little heroic.

Rurik was looking forward to the aristocrat also performing a horse-and-shoot show. He was really performing a horse-and-shoot show, but he was by no means a horse that swept past at a high speed and only aimed at a single target.

Kagan's legs lightly rested on the horse's belly, and the horse came to a distance of about fifteen paces from the target full of arrows. According to the normal length unit of the Rus, it exceeded 23 stikas, or about 23 meters.

Kagan stood directly on the stirrup, and Rurik saw that while the man was holding a bow in his left hand, he was also snatching a large number of arrows with his left hand.

"Ah! This is your rapid fire?!"

Holding the ten arrows in his left hand, Kagan shot his arrows quickly in the right-handed mode, but after pricking his eyes a few times, Rurik saw that all the ten arrows had been shot.

It wasn't over yet, Kagan drew three more arrows from the quiver on the horse's back, and all three hit the target in the blink of an eye.

Can you still shoot like this? too fast!

Rurik fully understood that he could shoot the left bow accurately, and shoot the right bow quickly. Of course he understood this principle. However, the traditional wooden bows of the Rus people could not achieve exaggerated draw distances, and hunters widely used shooting beasts to be more efficient. A crossbow, and even a wooden bow, is not much use. He Tan is in the dormitory for practicing the right bow.

The people were too lazy to practice archery, and seeing Kagan's fast-moving jet operation was an eye-opener.

He rode his horse back, threw his arms violently, and looked down at Rurik with a proud smile: "Thanks to your hospitality these days, I am full of strength. Shooting arrows 20 times in a row hurts my arms, which is why I have such a ability."

"Let me see your bow." Rurik demanded it with a blank face.

"OK. "

Rurik pulled his bow suddenly, which shocked Kagan: "You..."

"A bow without an arrow, I understand. I won't let it go."

Kagan was still stunned, and hurriedly urged to stop: "You can be careful, if it is really empty, it will turn the bow, and my baby will be destroyed."

Rurik never dreamed that he would feel the sinew-horn compound bow in this way. It is definitely not low in size and the draw distance can be extreme. Wouldn't the tactical effect be better if such a compound bow were converted into a crossbow? It's hard to train a good archer, and even harder to train a better mounted archer, but a crossbowman can do it quickly.

After trying his strength, Rurik returned the bow to Kagan, and patted his thigh on the stirrup: "Brother, your bows are so good, bring me some next time you come."

Kagan, who was excited, readily agreed: "Yes, but the price is more expensive."

"It's okay, I'll give you how much."