Rise of Rurik

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Spring plowing begins quietly while moistening things quietly.

Even if the soil is still relatively muddy, the impatient farmer will take out the adjusted curved shaft plow or ordinary iron plow from home, and then the whole family will go to work and start turning the soil.

In the vast majority of farms, rough broadcast sowing has been eliminated, and all villages have adopted the drill sowing mode, which sows faster and reduces the intensity of nutrient competition between seeds. Sowing and soil turning are almost done at the same time. When iron plows and columbists After passing by, there are only slightly raised strip-shaped ridges and a bunch of wheat seeds buried in the middle area.

How to farm the land is decided by each farm. Even if the land in the village has been allocated and confirmed, in theory, the farmer family can enter the small farmer mode. However, due to ancient habits, the majority of Slavic farmers still adhere to sentiments on the issue of farming. Help each other farm.

The men of the entire farm were organized by Boyar, and the large livestock raised on the farm were also used intensively.

Plowing oxen was too advanced a task, so these farmers could only use horses to plow, but horses were a rarity, so they had to resort to deer pulling sleds in winter and put reins on them to drag the curved shaft plows. Men and deer plowed the soil together, and the gathered women and children followed closely behind to sow the seeds.

All the labor force in the entire farm is organized, and the farming time is limited. They know that they must complete the sowing within the time window, otherwise the wheat will be mature and hit by autumn frost, which may lead to a tragedy of harvest failure.

On the other hand, there is another benefit waiting for them to earn quickly.

Will the good farmland allocated to the old Russian immigrants really be well taken care of if it falls into their hands?

The farmland is always being taken care of, and it’s just the people who put in the effort.

People are a bunch of microphones.

Everyone knows that wheat is good, but it is difficult for the Ross family, who are accustomed to a life of fishing and hunting, and whose family has gained a lot of trophies and wealth from previous wars, to dig the land and grow wheat themselves.

They transformed themselves into rent-collecting landlords, recruited a group of Slavic farmers nearby, outsourced all the work from sowing to harvesting, and finally collected half of the land rent from them.

It was a good thing to farm for Mr. Ross.

The farmers who can be tenant farmers mainly come from the White Tree Manor, and some tenant farmers come from the new immigrant manors composed of "hidden people". Farming in the fully developed mature fields of the Russian immigrants is quite easy for experienced farmers.

These people can work on the rented Russian fields while completing their own farm work. After all, for a peasant family, the family situation and identity determine that the men in the family are unlikely to plunder wealth by going out to fight. As they pay more and more attention to the land, they are no longer willing to leave their hometowns and travel through difficult roads. They can only look at everything they see in front of them. Opportunities to make a fortune.

Farming land for the Russians is a way to make money, and...

Because the Russian immigrants and their descendants live as the "first-class citizens" of the Russian Kingdom. The closer you get to them, the better. It is best to get closer to your own daughters when their boys are growing up. If the children see each other enough, if they can develop feelings for each other, the tenant farmers who rent the land should start marrying off their daughters.

This is all evolving rapidly.

As a result, a large group of professional farmers in the Ilmen Lake area started spring plowing operations in the farmland of the entire region. They took over all the farmland of the Russians, and they still have it until now.

The Russian immigrant family who was actively working hard gradually became an alien.

After all, everyone has the power and ability to send troops to fight and explore distant places. That is not a job that can make money faster. What kind of coward dares to be a farmer who digs the ground?

Although this is not what Rurik wants to see, it has naturally evolved into this, and it is not good to go against the trend.

There is a good thing. Under the land rent model, new boys in various Russian families become free. They grow up listening to the adventure stories of their fathers and ancestors, and they can see with their own eyes the triumphant victory of the Russian army and the large amount of loot pouring into their homes. . Who wouldn’t want to surpass their parents and become a new hero?

Ross is still actively expanding externally, and the new generation is not yet qualified to become a dandy. And firmly holding the power of violence, even if all the farmland is rented out, Ross will always be the one who sets the rules. The tenant farmers can only do things according to the contract, and Ross also has the right to amend the rules according to the situation.

Because Rurik is the largest landowner, he owns the most trophy farmland, and all farming operations are outsourced to White Tree Manor. They are the royal family's fields, and White Tree Manor is the background of the queen's relatives. The two sides are allies in all aspects. The output of the royal fields is not used for the king's squandering, but is put into the large granary - the grain-based Rus' Kingdom. They are the basis for maintaining Rus's. core of economic stability.

In 843, the spring plowing began one after another. Rurik was not worried about the farming situation of the Wangtian at all. He made a sowing request to Governor Medved. From this year on, the field was divided into two, with cold-resistant wheat planted on one side and cold-resistant wheat on the other. Planting Dutch peas on one side.

In 844, it was reversed again.

This year it is still free

The tax year is also the first year for large-scale planting of peas in the Ilmen Lake area.

Based on the cold climate in the north, peas will become storable and can be used as the main army food, but the real main force in this Ross expedition is the stored wheat.

The soldiers who had finished their vacation returned to the team one after another. Just outside Novgorod, Rurik personally conducted a training session for them.

Just as the soldiers expected, the four newly formed Citizen Flag Troops have become bloody veterans based on their resumes, even though they are all very young.

Is it still due to the inevitable non-combat attrition in winter operations? Although the soldiers have all returned, those who suffered from frostbite or other physical injuries have been exposed after a physical fitness test.

The soldiers who were in poor health had to stay in the military camp with regret, and they were deprived of the right to expedition to Frank.

If you complain, just blame your bad luck!

An infantry flag corps has a full strength of 500 men. If each flag corps is not full, veterans from other citizen corps flag corps will be taken to fill the gap.

Even some veterans of the Slavic flag corps were inserted. Elite warriors drawn from all of Novgorod immediately enhanced the combat effectiveness of the four young flag corps on paper. However, soldiers need to get along and build mutual trust between soldiers who originally belonged to different units and different ages.

Just as spring plowing gradually began, the grass was growing wildly in the open space outside the city, where the army was conducting final training before setting off for the expedition.

The biggest difference between this training and the past is that Rurik did not ask the soldiers to strengthen formations, collisions and fighting.

Instead of traditional tactical skills, the configuration of crossbowmen in the flag team has been greatly strengthened.

Originally there were four centurions in the flag force, one of which was in charge of crossbows.

In fact, all soldiers must learn archery and operate crossbows as early as when they are in school. Their inclusion in the flag corps means that all archery subjects are up to standard.

Of course, the traditional "shield wall fighting" skills of the warriors cannot be neglected. A round shield and a steel sword are standard equipment.

Now the four flag brigades must be fully equipped with crossbows on this basis.

Just like the Tang army, every heavy infantryman also carried a bow. It is also like the Roman infantry after Marius' reform, each man has one javelin and one heavy javelin. Infantrymen have the ability to deliver lethality from a distance. Compared with full-time crossbowmen, even if they are not specialized, they can greatly increase the overall combat effectiveness.

Under Rurik's rule, Rus's military expenditures were stronger than those of other tribes, including the use of bows and crossbows.

Various farms in Novgorod are raising poultry, and chickens are the most numerous. These poultry can only be controlled by cutting off their flight feathers, and all the flight feathers are sold to the authorities and eventually turn into a rain of arrows. To be fair, the flight feathers of chickens are just makeshift. The flight feathers of wild geese, wild geese and mallards are really good, and they rely on the tributes from hunters.

The acquisition cost of arrow clusters and arrow feathers is low, but the production of arrow shafts is quite particular, and the cost is also higher.

Just because Ross's crossbows have a higher poundage, the arrows they shoot must have a lower deflection. Fir is still a good material for arrow shafts. The wooden shafts are cut into straight and thin rods with scrapers and planers and then dried in the shade. When they are dry enough, arrow assembly can be done.

In Novgorod and Novorosberg, there is a group of personnel who are paid full-time to do this (in previous battles

In theory, they work all year round, so as to ensure that Ross's arsenal is full of arrows and even has enough surplus for private sales.

The single-piece wooden bows of the Russian army are almost all made of fir, and spruce is everywhere. Hunters use it to make single-piece hunting bows, and then add bow strings made of sheep intestines and deer sinews. In this way, mass-produced arrows are used in the hunting bows. It is a hunting weapon and can also be used in combat.

Every family will buy a bow if they can afford it. A father prepares a bow for his son, collects money to order daggers and battle axes, and if the family is well off, he goes to the state-owned blacksmith shop in the capital to order a good sword. This is a father's love for his son, and it is also an investment in the future - the son who goes on an expedition can win the battle better and plunder more loot only if he is well-equipped.

Rurik soon saw such a scene.

He discovered that even though he did not have to personally intervene in the arming of the army, the equipment of the Citizen Flag Troops was actually equipped by the families from which they came.

What Rurik had to do was to place two crossbow centurions for each banner.

One team is equipped with normal wooden-arm crossbows, and the other team is equipped with steel-arm crossbows that require winches to operate. However, although they are wooden arms, the arms of those crossbows are real prairie recurve bows. The core material is indeed wood, but the combination of sinews and angles makes it weigh 60 pounds.

It is unrealistic for a group of warriors who are only about fourteen years old to frequently draw sixty-pound recurve bows and shoot them. It is another matter if they are converted into crossbows. The young warrior shoots mass-produced arrows in the stepping mode and uses his whole body strength. His strength cannot be underestimated.

Always pay attention to bows and arrows

Ross is now rapidly equipping the expeditionary force with long-range weapons.

More than just bows and arrows? Torsion slingshots and torsion trebuchets, these heavy equipment can be mounted on trolleys and deployed quickly on the battlefield, and can maneuver quickly with the infantry.

Considering that the soldiers of the expeditionary force were generally young, it was too risky to expect them to have a head-on confrontation with the Frankish army. Why fight with them? The Russian army should keep a distance from the enemy, rely on constant shooting of arrows to wear down their strength, and eventually defeat the enemy alive.

This is the tactic that Rurik came up with. Considering the current armor defense level of the Frankish army, he believes that this tactical concept is fine.

The infantry is like this, and the cavalry is also expanding.

The number of horses available for mobilization in the entire Novgorod region is limited, and April is the traditional horse breeding season.

"All mares are under control and there will be no breeding this year! This is too late!"

Rurik slapped his thigh, causing all the restless stallions to lose their love.

Horses are being transported from the city of New Ostara in the south of the Great Lake to Novgorod in the north one after another. Although Carlotta has doubts about Rurik's determination on this issue, she will not object to her man, and ...Because she provided a group of war horses, even if the Ostara army did not send troops, she had the right to get a share of the expedition to Frank. This is a military adventure. All the war horses that may be invested will die in Frank, causing Ostara's horse breeding business to suffer a heavy blow.

Today is like every other day, a sunny spring plowing day.

There are busy people everywhere in the farmland around the lake, and fishing on the lake has returned to normal. However, compared to last year, there are far fewer people boating on the lake this year.

Because a large number of fishermen have gathered in Novgorod, even the Fishermen's Manor and the Calf Manor have set out with the boats they purchased.

The port on the Volkhov River was bustling, and the conscripted people were eagerly awaiting the king's order.

At the same time, a huge herd of horses was being driven from the east bank of the lake, passing through villages one after another, and arriving at Novgorod after passing the pontoon bridge on the Musta River.

That was a qualified horse from a southern horse farm brought by someone sent by Carlotta.

For many days in a row, Rurik spent his time mainly on dispatching supplies for the expeditionary force. He sent a group of scribes to do the work and asked Governor Medved to fully cooperate. All kinds of military supplies and military rations have been prepared, especially some grains have begun to be loaded onto ships, and small-scale grain transport ships are already heading down the river towards the capital.

Now, what Rurik is looking forward to is the horses.

Finally he came to these weapons of war.

Today, the wind is beautiful and sunny, and the Volkhov River is a little more turbulent during the wet season, which means that the ship can reach the capital in just one week.

Rurik and Carlotta were waiting at the port before they received the news that the horses were about to arrive.

Finally, in the afternoon of this day, the herd of all-male horses, escorted by the Ostara cavalry, safely arrived on the right bank of the Volkhov River, across the river from Rurik.

"Huh? We have been raising horses for several years, but we only have... so many horses?" Rurik squinted at the dark horses, feeling a little disappointed in his heart.

"This is all the horses we can muster. Rurik, don't be too greedy. You know, I have paid a lot for your purpose.

cost. "

With that said, Carlotta teased her man, glared sideways, and whispered softly with a smile: "You have to make it up to me. Immediately! I'm not participating in the expedition anyway."

"Yes! Tonight. But these horses..."

"What other worries are there? Worry that they are not rideable. Don't worry, the horses that can be given to you have been trained. They can be ridden or used as pack mules. The horses should have entered breeding! I have sacrificed a lot. . Now all the suitable mares in the entire stud farm are here. You can take it easy and don’t let them die in large numbers. Otherwise, in the next few years..."

"I understand. Just stop nagging." Rurik shook his head, he was still dissatisfied.

This dissatisfaction is directed at himself. If he had realized earlier that the Russian army would increasingly rely on war horses for expansion in the future, he should have tried to train cavalry ten years ago. There are many ways to get horseback riding. The key lies in awareness. It is already wishful thinking to create a huge cavalry force.

The horses brought by Carlotta totaled 300, plus the spare horses placed in Novgorod. In addition to the cavalry, Ross could prepare another 500 spare horses.

Nine hundred war horses, according to Rurik's special plan, they will all float all the way to New Roseburg in a long ship.

Even after arriving in the capital, the horses will be driven onto larger ships. After being transported to the port of Riga, they will all disembark. Then the Ross army that has completed the rendezvous will begin to march toward the Principality of Saxony by sea and land, and the Ross cavalry will take a special path. , the "Road to Hell", takes the Via Romana from Hamburg directly to Cologne, and then

Nassau and friendly forces complete the Grand Division.

The cavalry will arrive at the destination first with the infantry advancing by sea. Rurik's plan is so simple and crude.

Therefore, in order to quickly transport so many war horses, military rations, arrows, javelins, heavy weapons, and other supplies.

Qualified fishing vessels throughout Novgorod were subject to requisition.

Rurik does not give him for free, the conscripts can immediately receive food rewards and some cash. For these ship owners, it is indeed an honorable thing to serve the King's expeditionary force, and it is natural for them to be paid. Anyway, we have to go to the capital city on this trip. We can buy some good things in the capital city with the silver coins rewarded by the king, and then we can walk around the Luga River and the canal to go home.