Rise of Rurik

In the dense pine forest, an army escorted their captives to advance quickly.

"Hurry up all of you! Get to the lake early, and you can open up the land early." A strong man with a round shield scolded abruptly.

This person is none other than Medved, the governor of Novgorod city appointed by Rurik and his brother-in-law.

More than 300 soldiers guarded the captured people closely. These people were captured in name only. Not only was Medved unwilling to do harm, he also ordered his soldiers not to allow the women among them to do anything, and to ensure that everyone arrived at the lake safely.

More than 200 men, women, children and children with their own soft luggage, most of them leaning on wooden sticks, pushed and pulled two-wheeled vehicles full of supplies, and set out on the traditional winding and hidden forest path leading to the Great Lake.

When the autumn harvest was approaching, everyone was captured by a group of terrifying Varyags.

Do not! They are not Varangians! Not even the powerhouse of Pine Needle Manor.

They are actually the guys from White Tree Manor!

The leader of this village is a man who is nearly forty years old. Because he is strong enough and has brute strength, and what is commendable is that he also has an ancestral iron axe, he was elected as the leader by the villagers.

The leader is pragmatic, and he knows that the village's weak strength is not enough to fight against the strong enemy of the iron armored shield. In the past, the Sorbonne requests from the mighty Pine Needle Manor were all very obedient to hand over their belongings. The ban on entry to the lake was also forced to be accepted. If the other party weakly asks for sheep to be raised, he hides the sheep, and if he asks for a young woman, he asks the people to hide it.

But this time, everyone has nothing to hide.

The leader asked repeatedly: "Can we really use the land there freely when we get to the lake?"

Medvedt was obviously bored to march and was in a hurry, and considering how to appease their emotions, he took the trouble to reply: "Of course. You can pay tribute every year in the future, and you can enjoy the fertile lake. I warn you not to run away and not betray. Otherwise, Prince Varyag's army will deal with you like the 10,000 people who wiped out the Pine Needle Manor."

The former promised the village chief how excited, the latter's warning also shuddered.

The leader asked again: "You...will you force us to hand over the woman?"

"Of course. The only thing I can assure you is that you are not slaves. Our warriors at Whitetree Manor are here, and they can be your women's husbands."

A boulder fell to the ground.

The leader didn't dare to believe it too much, and now he can't beat him. If the whole village had to escape this year and have to freeze to death and starve to death in the jungle to become food for bears, he would have no choice at all.

Some people say that the leader is a compromising waste, but if he really chooses to fight one by one, he doesn't dare.

A lot of news circulated among the passive migrants. It was said that they were already the 11th village to be forcibly relocated.

He also said that the escorting soldiers proudly claimed that because the White Tree Manor chose to form an alliance with the Varyagians early, every day is a good day, but if you join the Varyagros villages, life will be better.

They move forward with mixed emotions and are unable to go very far each day. The fertility of their farmland in the dense forest is extremely low, and the low food production makes them already suffering from summer drought.

If someone starved to death in the middle, the prince would be angry when he heard about it! Medvet had no choice but to ask the soldiers to come up with rations to help.

Of course, food is not free, and it is only natural to provide food for harvesting benefits.

A large number of women in White Tree Manor are married to the Rus, and most of the most beautiful women in the farms around the lake have been taken away by the Rus! It is even more difficult for the men of the manor to marry a wife. Now that they have the opportunity, they will find women among the people who are hiding in the manor.

There are still plenty of small villages hidden, and the search will continue to find more, but the autumn harvest at Whitetree Manor is approaching, and Medvedt has suspended work.

It is impossible for the prince to break his word. The Rus people will bring the people from their hometown. They have made this place as their new home. From then on, the Rus conquerors will live permanently with the Slavs.

Once, the Ilmenslavs settled next to the lake, and a large number of people were forced to flee into the forest because of the rapid population expansion that triggered a civil war.

Finally, an open world appeared in front of them, and the sparkling scene in the distance surprised the people.

Only some elderly people remember the beauty of Lake Ilmen, and many more have known only the forests of danger and opportunity, and the creeks that provide water, since birth. As if the world is a village in the forest and the cramped farmland nearby, many people now realize for the first time that the world is actually very big.

Shocked by the sight in front of him, the leader unconsciously walked towards the lakeside field, towards the reeds, and finally into the big lake, and then screamed with excitement.

More people rushed over, cheered in the small talk, and deliberately played with splashes...

Medved's soldiers were busy drinking the lake to quench their thirst, so they just laughed and watched this group of rare and strange guys play in the water.

The leader got himself wet, and his clothes smelled of mud. He approached Medwait with a smile on his face: "My lord, can we really settle here? No one will expel us again?"

"Are you a fool?"

In a word, the leader was dumbfounded: "I..."

"Have you never seen a lake?"

"My grandfather has seen it, and it is indeed the first time I have seen it."

Hearing these silly words, Medved took off his helmet and laughed again.

Well, he pointed north: "Look carefully, there's a settled village there. We're going a little north, and when I've said enough you stop and settle here. Listen, I allow your men Then go back to harvest wheat, but if you escape, you must consider the safety of women and children."

"Don't dare! We don't dare to escape, we will open up settlements immediately."

It seems that Shunchang is really rebellious. Along the way, the Governor Medvet only made verbal threats and promises. The soldiers covered in iron did not use force. It seems that they did not intend to use violence. The people who were forced to emigrate invisibly. Not furious.

Everyone is a pragmatic person, if the current situation does not force anyone to live in the isolated forest.

It is said that the White Tree Manor has been Varangized, and tens of thousands of Varangians have settled in the north.

This is the eleventh village to be forcibly emigrated, and the population of each village is around 200 people. Life in the forest is very difficult. They try their best to give birth to avoid the high mortality rate of their children. However, every winter, some people will suffer from long-term weakness and freeze to death due to poor food intake.

If you live by the lake, everything will be fine.

Since this was the permission of the Rus prince of the Varangians, the villages were willing to accept his rule. Of course, the premise is that the amount of tribute paid every year does not force everyone to die.

The earliest forced immigrants had limited encounters with Ross fishermen. The encounter with each other is generally harmonious, because these fishermen generally speak some Slavic languages. Since they can communicate effectively, there is a layer of estrangement.

Most of these fishermen are young people from the first flag team. They have a lot of savings in their hands because of their outstanding military exploits. They have high self-esteem. They are arrogant and compassionate to these savage people who have emerged from the forest.

So some fishermen took out cheap mass-produced cast-iron hammers and harpoons, and from these people replaced them with a young woman who would take Mstisk as a wife.

In just one month, the soldiers of the first flag team brought in fifty women, and this was what Arik wanted to report to Rurik.

Just as the Ross fleet finally arrived at Lake Ilmen, Medved just emerged from the forest.

When the eleventh farm began to lay the piles for the new house, and just began to treat the grass with the stone sickle, Medved also continued north with the main army.

All eleven new villages of Medved remain garrisoned. The people who left the forest had no clear hatred for the White Tree Manor. They were both forced to leave the Great Lakes by the Pine Needle Manor back then.

These resident warriors are often not married, so how is this not good news for new immigrants? The village leader immediately offered up his daughter, and then selected a good-looking woman from the village to be stuffed into the warrior, in order to further obtain the promise of safety through marriage.

On the first night after Rurik landed, Mstisk was indeed a sea of ​​revelry. There were lit bonfires and dancing crowds everywhere, and the strange bright sight was seen by the Neo-Slavic immigrants, and they couldn't help but wonder, only the resident soldiers proudly pointed out that it was the settlement of the Rus.

Drunk men were everywhere in Mstisk, and even quite a few women were drowsy. The ale and kvass from Novgorod, the soldiers of the first flag team got a lot. Also, because they have more wheat in their hands, they can make a lot of wine.

They don't have a choice in an age when alcoholic beverages are pretty much the only cheap drinkable pastime. Drinking and eating grilled fish, the reunited Ross family is so cathartic. Once this kind of carnival could only be done on the day of Hanukkah. Now that the supplies are full and the harvest is approaching, there are too many reasons and solid material foundations for everyone to squander.

Arik blushed, and Rurik was in bad shape.

This was the first time Rurik had been drinking hard, and it was all because my brother had mixed honey and strong vodka in the ale. The sweetness of the honey overshadows the spiciness of the alcohol, and when Rurik realizes that the problem has turned upside down...

At least when he was awake, Rurik learned the good news from the south. The so-called Medvette has been carrying out his tasks, and the villagers who were caught out are all willing to accept the rule of the prince.

Are they really submissive? When Rurik was sober, he reviewed the village women who had recently married. Although they were timid to meet him, Rurik, who had many royal daughters, could see from the eyes of these women that they were actually very satisfied with their current life.

Arik said very bluntly: "They hide in the forest and are often accompanied by hunger. Once the wheat is eaten, they can only starve, so people starve to death every year. But here, they have wheat and fish every day. eat……"

Many of the news described by the elder brother revealed his arrogance, and the brothers were looking at the Slavs who were caught out with pity. Other than that, no one persecuted them.

Maybe it's really a rich conscience? Rurik didn't quite think this was true, but he was afraid that those people were too poor to make the Russ mean. As for arresting people as slaves, the unspoken rule that emerged in the Rus society in recent years is to exclude pure slaves.

The brothers still got a new batch of people, they traded iron tools for women, and they traded fairly well with each other.

When Rurik is awake, he will go to these new lakeside farms for an armed parade and show the local village chiefs the style of the prince of Ross.

Just do it!

Rurik stayed in Mstissk until the third day, and after the hilarity of that night, the clansmen all vented their emotions that had been held back for more than half a year.

Both the oats and the wheat are growing well, they are just beginning to head, and the earliest harvest is two weeks away.

In the interim period of at least ten days, I have a lot of things to do, so I decided to assemble the army to visit those farms.

The horn was blown, and the souls of the warriors moved!

Arik hurried to Rurik's temporary residence early in the morning and questioned the prince, who had put on a sumptuous furry suit, if he was going to fight.

"Who are we going to fight with the army?! Could it be that there is an enemy attack?"

"No, I still have to assemble the army. Well, at least assemble me two hundred men, and let's take a boat to those new villages and see."

Arik scratched his head and didn't think there was anything clever about it, "I probably understand that we are going to parade in arms like those poor people?"

"Yes! It is to show my existence."

"Oh, then they'll think it's God on earth!"

"That's exactly what I want."

Arik shrugged, and since it was his brother's order, it was carried out. Showing the illustrious martial arts to the poor and weak was nothing but vanity, and he didn't like it.

What Rurik wants is not vanity. He does want to show his strength to those people. By the way, he also takes his "young cubs" to explore their future living space, and by the way, see if he can solve the marriage of some boys. question.

There is a farm that has always been an iron-core alliance of the old pine needle manor. The former was killed and the latter was killed.

Only the ruins of a smaller farm remain, but the land is not desolate.

Parts of the area there were given to the soldiers of the White Tree Manor after the war. They plowed oats and sowed seeds on all the land they saw.

The wheat there has a master, and the master is Rurik. Ruri decided to give the land to the youngest warrior, form a new flag team, and build a new city.

The prince has been feeding a large number of children, and when the children are over twelve years old, according to tradition, such boys should fend for themselves, and girls should consider marriage.

Rurik couldn't really cut off such a young child, they still had to cooperate with each other to survive, but it was time for the prince to cut off the free food supply.

When the children grow up, they will feel guilty. They really need to fend for themselves, and they have to pay the debts to the princes in the past.

Rurik intends to build a "city of youth", with a total of nearly 400 men and women of the right age (the ratio of men to women is about 2:1), they have received cultural education, physical training, fought wars, and can carpentry. These people can be described as The best descendants of the principality need to show their strength in the new world.

Their other existence is also as the Rus army to watch over the Slavs who leave the forest. It seems that those people cannot rebel, and the Rus army must be around those people to prevent accidents.

When an army of 600 people was assembled, Rurik was gorgeous and brave. The soldiers generally did not wear heavy chain mail, and the weapons at hand were quite complete.

There are as many as 20 flags of Ross, and each standing halberd of about three meters (with an axe under the spear head) is tied with blue and white cloth strips, and the soldiers are uniform and neat.

This unit is placed in Frank, and any lord will treat it with caution. It is very bluffing just in terms of visual sense, and their strength is indeed strong.

Rurik wanted to show off his force, and this time it was going by water.

Since the main force of the Russ navy happened to be in Mstissk, the professional sailors who went ashore and rested would control the fleet and go to the south for a cruising, and parked in front of the people of the new villages to open their eyes, and then the army, who was good at expeditions, swaggered. arrival.

Rurik also thought about it, Medved's method of forcing them to leave the forest was really rough. Then giving them a little iron is a kind of consolation.

Everything seems to be in place.

Rurik looked at his army again, checked the wagons and deer carts containing camping supplies, and finally ordered: "Let's go! Show the newcomers how good we are!"