Rise of Rurik

Prince Rus, a grand banquet was held on the first floor.

Admiral Goedelund, four citizen flag captains, the newly promoted deer flag captain, and the second cavalry captain, these officers and their subordinates are the main force of the upcoming expedition.

The governor of New Roseburg, the high priest, the owner of the mill and baking complex, and the head of the state-owned iron smelting complex, as key figures in the capital, they must also participate in this banquet.

As military nobles and vassals, the three governors of Gothenburg, Blue Fox, Count Bejahir of Demyansk, and de facto Count Jevlo of Finland were obliged to participate in this key event.

A large number of wooden tables were placed on the wooden floor, cold dishes prepared in advance were served, and wine was poured into exquisite glasses, waiting for the guests to sit down.

Rurik prepared hard dishes for the guests. A strong stag was being roasted after being slaughtered. It was originally a clay kiln for baking a large number of biscuits and bread, and a deer was becoming fragrant.

The people attending the meeting arrived at the palace in the evening. They took off all their weapons, put on civilian clothes, and only kept their meat-cutting knives. They entered the banquet and took their seats one after another.

The officers who were eager to go out sat on the left, and the others sat on the right.

The most distinguished Rurik faces south, with a thick wooden wall behind him. Through this wooden wall is the mighty Neva River, as well as the Rabbit Island fortress and dock on the opposite bank.

The geographical location of the Attic Palace almost coincides with the Winter Palace. This was Rurik's intention, but his own palace was too shabby.

Lan Hu, who had seen the Royal Palace of Aachen in Frankfurt, understood this very well. He did not dare to talk too much, especially today, when he, who was attending the meeting, saw

The blackbird actually participated in the feast.

"What's going on? Blackbird and Verica, two girls sitting together? As for that?"

The round-faced blue fox sat casually on the surface, his cunning eyes looking around, paying attention to the expressions of the participants. There was a black-haired dwarf sitting not far away. This deer herder, said to be named Wahawaning, suddenly became the talk of the city. After all, there was a lot of noise in the open space outside the city this morning. A huge stag. The group suddenly appeared, and the king unexpectedly had the idea to organize such logistics, and even promoted a person for this purpose.

This is beyond Blue Fox's knowledge, and now he has no choice but to continue to wait and see.

The atmosphere at the venue was always restless. King Ross changed into casual clothes and looked energetic under the oil lamp.

Most of the people present knew each other. Even the four flag captains from Novgorod were all veterans. They had seniority in the Russian army, so that others had more or less experience with them. .

The appearance of any stranger would inevitably arouse vigilance. They did not dare to comment on the priestess who followed Verica, but they all noticed that the girl's hands had very obvious runes. The runes are not surprising, it’s a bit too arrogant for her to have the “Guardian of Life” plane tattooed on her hands! Is she worthy? !

People who don't know the inside story are so wise that they suppress their doubts in their hearts, thinking that the high priest is sitting here, and they are afraid that this is the arrangement of the high priest.

Thus, the existence of Vahavanen, the deer herder, became an anomaly. No one wanted to talk to this short man. The brothers looked down upon this kind of slave who worked for the king. However, this man was a kinsman of the high priest. Come and go

, the brothers had to isolate him for the time being to see the consequences.

"Everyone, be quiet!" Rurik, who was sitting cross-legged, opened his arms to signal the guys who were whispering to each other to be quiet.

"You all know the purpose of inviting you to gather today. I have read all the documents you submitted to me this afternoon. I trust you. All the war preparation supplies are in good condition..."

Sister-in-law Aslaqi controls the main mill in the capital, and she bakes large batches of extremely long-storage big leba for the army.

This kind of bread is intentionally added with oak and eucalyptus wood chips. It is precisely because of the presence of these wood chips that it further enhances its shelf-stable properties. In return, they are as hard as wood when dried naturally. Fortunately, Ross's saw-making technology is very mature. It has become an essential tool for carpenters and shipbuilders today, and it is perfect for cutting large pieces of wood.

But Asraqi went one step further. Considering the actual needs of the army, it would be time-consuming and laborious to spend time cutting dry hard bread during the campaign, so why not do it in advance? As many large ribs as possible were sawed into slices, which were still hard and looked like whitish pine boards at first glance, but upon closer inspection, they turned out to be slices of bread. It can be chewed dry and used as dry food for consumption at any time. The disadvantage is that it damages the oral mucosa because it causes more damage to the teeth. The best way to eat it is to soak it in soup and eat it. It doesn’t matter if you don’t have vegetable soup. Just boil a cup of hot water and eat it. The bread slices are soft and comfortable to eat.

Dalieba's highly processed products are the most abundant ready-to-eat military rations in the Russian army. In addition, there are pickled salty fat, salty braised meat sauce, and sauerkraut in pottery urns, which are the condiments of their staple foods.

In terms of meat reserves, Ross is the most traditional and

The classic salted fish jerky and air-dried wild meat are based on kabayaki-processed dried herring and cod slices.

Aslaki is the sister-in-law. Although her family originates from the defeated island of Gotland, she essentially has no affection for that island.

Merchants only need a stable base as a home port, and then they can organize their fleets to travel across the ocean. If this home port collapses, they can organize their fleets and continue to take root in another place.

She had no brother, and even if Ross never sacked Gotland, ultimately the responsibility of the family would still fall on the shoulders of this woman.

Those things have become a thing of the past, and now I have given birth to my son Gustav, who is three generations related to King Rus. To a large extent, Aslaqi won over Arik with her looks, and then gained Rurik's recognition with her talent. For me, that is to borrow seeds from Arik to breed the only male heir for my family.

Little Gustav is only nine years old. If he begs Rurik, the child will definitely be able to join the expedition. Aslaqi didn't do this because she didn't want her only son to be in danger. After all, Gustav was not born a warrior. His life was limited to being a businessman because this was an agreement with the royal family.

In the future, when Gustav fully controls this greatly expanded family fortune, he must also be loyal to Rurik and the prince Osborne Slav.

Although the Governor's Palace is solely responsible for the logistics and transportation of the expeditionary force, Aslaqi controls most of the mills and all the water-powered mills in the capital. She takes out the wheat from the warehouse and processes it as much as possible in her hands to make coarse flour. Then seal the packet, so it is convenient

The army eats it during wartime.

As the saying goes, the most traditional wheat cake of Ross and northerners is to use coarsely ground oat flour to form a cake and place it on a hot stone to make a cake. It is really an ancient cookie.

In terms of military rations, wheat replaces oats as much as possible, and considering practical factors, these mass-produced coarse flours are a mixture of wheat and oats in proportion. As for the matching cooking utensils, there are not only conventional cast iron pots, but also simple iron plates.

Finding good smooth pebbles in a war zone can be difficult, but bringing your own iron plates makes excellent special cooking utensils. It is said that the Frankish world was crisscrossed by rivers. He scooped up a bowl of river water, quickly kneaded the dough into a ball, flattened it, and placed it on a hot iron plate. He must have just chatted with the guys for a while before he could pick up the wheat cake with a sword and eat it. .

Aslaqi cooperated deeply with Konuson, and they organized military rations for the Ross army according to the standard of feeding four thousand people for half a year.

Compared with the large-scale war three years ago, because fewer troops were mobilized, the current military grain reserves are not as good as those back then, but the quality is much higher. A major reason is that in the three years since the outbreak of the war, Ross has not suffered any war damage in the rear. All kinds of people are content with production, and the core territory of the entire kingdom has accumulated a lot of wealth in absolute peace. .

The sufficiency in logistics is evident, and Ross is fighting a very rich battle again. Only in this way can Ross be qualified to launch an expedition on both land and sea.

The report submitted to Rurik in the afternoon was still on the second floor of the palace. Recalling that he was reading it just now.

Adequate logistical reserves were enough to keep the army in Frank until late winter.

Rurik did not expect the army to rely entirely on his own reserves for operations, and even went so far as to fish in the local waters, and even sent envoys to request additional transport ships to transport food.

Why bother? It is better to take a batch of silver coins and buy them on the spot in Saxony, the Netherlands, Flanders, Cologne and Mainz after arriving in the Frankish world.

In fact, Rurik's plan for obtaining food is completely out of the ordinary. In the traditional northern world, there is almost no concept of "logistics". The best way to solve the problem of food during wartime is to loot.

Based on the written report of Blue Fox, Rurik could not imagine that the Black Fox, who had become a vassal of the Duke of Bavaria, would plunder Lothair's territory under the banner of Nassau. They would even dare to attack Trier, It seems that big cities like Metz have succeeded.

The Black Fox kid was a free man, and Rurik never expected that he could really carve out a territory in Frank's heart and firmly control it. The cost of turning Nassau into a territory of the Kingdom of Ross is prohibitive, so why bother? For Ross, the best result is to support a local force that is absolutely friendly to Ross for peaceful trade in the future.

Although he felt a little unhappy, Rurik was willing to admit that Black Fox had become Ludwig's vassal. After all, if you think about it from his perspective, you will realize that it was you who asked that fat man to go through all kinds of troubles. If he was killed, you would have to consider yourself unlucky.

Now that the boy has become prosperous, if he doesn't recognize it, it will damage his image.

This is not something to worry about. Of course, the Ross Expeditionary Force will have a base for overwintering, and that is Nassau-Koblenz. No matter what that guy Black Fox thinks, Big Ross

The army's cavalry, infantry, and river fleet must stand in the Lahn Valley of Nassau and Koblenz on the other side of the Rhine. Relying on the dangers of the mountains and the natural chasm of the river, as well as the advantage of the ships that Ross is proud of, the Ross army controls In the flat area of ​​Koblenz, the "German Corner", we are standing on a strategic commanding heights. Next... it is really exciting to think about it.

As long as the supply of military rations is stable, this war can be fought for a long time.

What supports the strong combat effectiveness of the Russian army lies in its powerful armaments.

Those heavy armors plated with zinc, the purpose of galvanizing is to make the armor visually powerful, and its inner content is the most important. Thinking about Lothair's army, there must be no obvious difference between its armor and Ludwig's army.

After all, Blue Fox reported that the so-called first wave of expeditionary troops, wearing the earliest plate armor, annihilated a Frankish army believed to have numbered 800 people.

The new version of plate armor has a greater defensive effect than the former. If there is really an infantry battle, wouldn't Ross be able to organize a plate armor group of a thousand people?

According to the tactical square formation developed by Rurik for Ross, the heavy armor group is basically used as a tactical reserve team. Ross is good at using bows and arrows. Although it goes against the traditional martial arts of the northern world, using long-range weapons on a large scale to seal the victory before a close encounter is very crucial for Ross.

After all, Ross in the past was limited in size and could not withstand large-scale casualties. The fact is that the war three years ago caused Ross to suffer heavy losses. Fortunately, the results of the large-scale intermarriage strategy more than ten years ago were highlighted. The new generation of mixed-race warriors not only supplemented the deficiencies of their predecessors, but Ross finally had a huge supply of soldiers.

But this

It is not a capital that can be squandered. Compared with the huge size of Frank, even if Ross integrates the power of the entire Northern Europe and Northeast Europe, its population is far inferior to Frank.

After nearly a full year of war preparations, Governor Konuson Jr. reported a clause to Rurik, written in black and white: 500,000 standard arrows.

Is this number really possible? If Rurik hadn't made a surprise inspection and went to the warehouses used as military camps to see arrows piled neatly like walls, then he would be sure that Konuson was not lying.

If you think about it again, the capital city has the most powerful industrial resources in Russia, and it is also the location of the metallurgical complex.

Standard arrows are divided into three parts: arrow cluster, arrow shaft, and arrow fletching.

Ross's attitude towards arrows is completely different from other forces. It is a consumable item. The original design intention is that it does not matter if it is discarded after being shot once. Of course, it can also be reused, but because the quality of the arrow shaft is average, the warriors do not Extravagant hope.

With New Roseburg as the center, this area has been home to more than 30,000 people for a long time. A large number of Suomi people came to the capital to seek a living, so the craftsmen among them immediately found work-ordering military supplies.

A flexible woodworking lathe is used to mass-produce straight and slender pine poles, which are soaked in rosin and dried in the shade. After drilling holes with a bow drill, arrow clusters are installed in a collar. The three parts of arrow clusters, wooden shafts and feathers are assembled together. The Suomi people are fully capable of this kind of work. After all, there are a large number of forest hunters who make a living. They usually make their own arrows, but now they are making arrows for King Rus in the capital. Not only can you earn a stable salary, you can also learn new techniques, and you can even secretly hide some arrow clusters so that you can make your own arrows in the future.

After all, the state-owned arrow-making machine

The number of people in the structure is limited, and they are also responsible for the production of javelins. This group of people is also responsible for the maintenance and new construction of torsion slingshots. They naturally thought of labor outsourcing, and the Suomi people, who had the cheapest labor costs, made their appearance.

Rurik only looked at the quality of the weapons, and did not care who made the arrows and javelins. Moreover, the Finns had a weak foundation in the past. Their life was stable and trade was smooth. To treat them fairly, the Finns, mainly the Suomi people, were strong. All aspects cannot be underestimated.

Rurik had already decided on a grand strategy and was waiting to take advantage of this opportunity to announce it to everyone.

Pairs of eyes stared at him, listening attentively to the noble king's speech.

Especially those who submitted written reports. They all knew that the king was busy inspecting everywhere and studying reports in the palace that day. Everyone expected the king to give a fair evaluation of their work.

Rurik cleared his throat again: "Everyone! I have reviewed all the documents you submitted, and you have done a good job. Our army's logistics supplies, weapons and equipment have never been fully prepared for this battle. You really Half a million arrows were prepared, and Novgorod prepared more than a hundred thousand arrows.

Never! We're going into battle with over 600,000 arrows! We can shoot any enemy into a hedgehog. "

As soon as he finished speaking, the serious venue suddenly burst into laughter again.

"Now the navy is also well prepared. A huge fleet and various warships can cover the entire Kronstadt mooring. Goldlund!"

"Here." The only naval admiral was already impatient.

"The sea trials of the Sea Monarch are all going well. Now you have to order to expand the crew. Now the results are great."

good? "

"Yes. I have been prepared for this battle. The fishermen who signed up in advance learned the news and are now gathering with supplies. My naval personnel have doubled, and now the strength has reached one thousand." He paused After a pause, he said, "It's absolutely true."

"Very good. But you also need to tell them to bring their own food for future operations. The king's military rations are only for the expeditionary force." Rurikti thought.

"Your Majesty, you can rest assured that they are aware. Moreover." Goldlund smiled.

"How? Why are you laughing?"

"Many people had planned to go to the mouth of the Rhine River for activities. The fishing resources there are very rich. Not only does the king not have to worry about them, but if the army wants to eat fish, the brothers will immediately fish for the king."

It sounds so good, but with the addition of the navy, the strength of the expeditionary force will increase by another thousand.

The original plan was to dispatch about 3,000 men to stir up trouble in the Frankish world based on the elite strategy. Now it seems that the reality is not contrary to the plan. Including the navy, the number of combat troops has reached 3,500. Counting various logistics personnel, the number of soldiers has reached 5,000.

Wait! Since the north has been stabilized, the "Northern Alliance" is not an organization that plays tricks. The ports and sea areas that were once closed to northerners have been opened, and trade has been restored. Northern heroes from all walks of life have rowed boats to the mouth of the Rhine River in a grand manner. They Although he is essentially a fisherman, it only takes a blink of an eye to transform into a "Viking warrior".

Moreover, Jevro can select some Jianyong from some Suomi people staying in the capital to serve as archers to assist in the battle. Blue Fox did this in his Gothenburg fiefdom last year.

Mobilization, I am afraid that some Gothenburg Götalanders could not restrain their impatience and had rowed to the Netherlands to join forces with the brothers of the same race stationed there.

The Netherlands was the main location of Ross's first expeditionary force, and the second location was Nassau-Koblenz on the inland river.

Rurik stopped chatting with Goldlund. When everyone saw the king standing up suddenly, everyone was so surprised that they also stood up.

"You all sit down. Forget it." Rurik shook his head: "You can just stand and listen.

This king’s expedition will take place simultaneously on land and sea. The land forces, all the horses and reindeer were loaded onto ships first, arrived in Riga as quickly as possible to meet up with the local garrison, and then marched along the coast to the Principality of Saxony. I will personally lead the cavalry corps forward through Courland, Memel, the Lagoon District, Rostock, Stralsund, Lübeck, and then into Hamburg in Saxony.

As for the sea route, Admiral Goethelund served as marching commander. During the operation, we stayed in line with the king's army until reaching the Jutland Peninsula. The sea fleet detoured to the port of Rotterstad in the Netherlands to station and wait for the king.

The king's cavalry will go directly south, taking Hamburg, Bremen, and Münster until they reach Cologne. "

A large number of nouns came out of Rurik's mouth, and only the officers present knew the meaning behind these nouns through systematic study.

Some are real settlements that have been dealt with in previous battlefields, and some seem to be just the king's whim to give an unknown place a name.

Indeed, in this era, the population on the southern coast of the Baltic Sea was too small, and most of the areas were not developed at all, and were filled with nameless places.

, so much so that it was a bit abrupt for Rurik to accurately name it with a name from a thousand years later.

"I'm done. Do you understand? What do you think?" Rurik asked.

The officers were deeply shocked, and the others looked at each other in confusion due to their cognitive limitations.

"Great!" Although Blue Fox was confused, he took the lead in applauding in order to break the embarrassment.

He took the lead, and everyone applauded in celebration. No one raised any objection to Rurik's marching strategy.

Even the initial so-called transportation of reindeer by various ships seemed risky to Rurik.