Rise of Rurik

The selected people rode their own horses. At first, their training was only to sit on horseback.

Rurik even mixed in, Arik, Medved and others were also beginners.

Everyone learns how to ride a horse under the escort of real Pecheneg cavalry, and develops skills for a long time.

When the riders basically learned to walk on horseback during the three-day special training and began to try to run wildly, many young cubs felt that they were born with this kind of material, and the most frequently asked questions were unparalleled, the so-called when can we ride horses fighting.

Fighting on horseback? Just like the skill of riding and archery, it can be performed at any time, and even the rider can pick up a short wooden bow and explore the profound meaning of riding and archery by himself.

On the occasion of training, the second winter snow came unexpectedly.

Unlike the gentleness of the first snow, it came with the storm, and it was as cold as the fury of a god.

The walls of each settlement are excellent windbreaks. People hide in the city, horses are hidden in stables, and domesticated animals and poultry are all in pens.

All living creatures hide in warm places and are hard against ice and snow. I am afraid that only the hardy reindeer can withstand the cold with only their thick fur.

After this snowstorm, the world completely froze.

Lake Ilmen is covered with thick ice, and the snow in Novgorod is enough to cover a large crotch, and the roofs of all the houses are terrifyingly thick.

After the snowstorm ended, the people of the whole city first swept the snow in front of their doors, and then used methods to remove the snow on the roofs as much as possible.

A large amount of snow accumulates on public roads and is gradually pulled outside the city by animal-powered sleds.

Those early ponies and a large number of reindeer took on this work. Although they were all horses, the local ponies were only suitable for the work of pack horses, and the Turkic horses trafficked by the Pechenegs were used for fighting. pregnancy.

There was no shortage of labor in Rurik for the time being, and three hundred warriors from Ragnar were mobilized, and they were paid to clear the snow. Everyone was happy at first, but as soon as the two consecutive days of work came to an end, many people were directly exhausted, and some people were panting and feeling cold. Although there were excessive bread nibbling and greasy grilled fish afterwards, Ragnar's department should have a good rest. This group of Danes almost at the cost of overdrafting their lives, piled up a snow-filled pyramid outside the city. For a time, innocent children had big toys that act as slides.

The top of the Snow Pyramid has a high commanding height, and some children stand in fixed sections.

Round eyes stared at the horse riders who gathered again not far away, commenting on those people, and even expressing some great dreams.

Rurik's own horsemanship became even more exquisite. He clamped his feet on the belly of the horse to brake, kicked the horse's belly lightly at the same time to move forward, held the reins with both hands, and pulled to the left to pull to the right. In addition to not knowing how to "reverse", the mount is an obedient and understanding horse.

He wears a fur hat on his head, his short sword is hung on the belt around his waist, and with his little golden beard, he looks quite a classic Cossack.

His young cavalry subordinates were given a uniform garment - the white bearskin.

The helmets of the elite mercenary guards are decorated with bear heads, and the more elite warriors are, the more they wear bear fur coats.

As the emerging military force of the Principality, the cavalry must combine splendor and combat effectiveness.

Young people like their new coat very much. It has excellent cold resistance, and the thick white fur on the outside is soft and comfortable to the touch. When they think of this as a bear skin, they feel a sense of pride in their hearts.

Even the ten Pecheneg "coaches" under Rurik's command had new bearskins, and even the pointed iron helmets they brought with them decisively stabbed the bear's head. Be where the sun hat is. It is quite amazing that all ten of them wear sunglasses.

In other words, the horse riders who gathered together wore wooden-framed sunglasses on a large scale, so that the dazzling white snow would no longer be blind.

Kagan is the real instructor, and his current forty subordinates are the real teaching assistants. More than 40 of them formed a small cavalry combat unit, and Rurik deliberately made his own people imitate it in all directions.

Therefore, on the first training day after the snow, it was time to stop the boring slow ride of the royal horse, which should be the beginning of the training for cavalry combat.

Some thick bowl-mouthed pine poles were stuck on the snow, all covered with deerskin and fastened with cables.

They are all targets, and what kind of training will be carried out today, the smart young rider can guess just by clenching the hilt of his steel sword.

Rurik rode his horse and stood in front of many cavalry. He stood up straight on the saddle with his tall posture, so that his eyes were overlooking his subordinates and Kagan's Pecheneg allies at a height of about three meters.

"Brothers! Is it too boring to let you guys walk around on horseback all day? It seems to me that you have learned how to ride a horse. From today, you will learn to fight!"

"I have discussed with the Kagan brothers. First, we will learn to chop and chop, then we will learn to stab with a spear, and finally we will learn to ride and shoot."

"I heard that fighting on horseback is more difficult than fighting on foot. As long as you learn it, you are the strongest soldier."

"Now even I, like you, have to learn from the Pechenegs. I will train with you..."

There is no big reason, even if Rurik knows that he is standing at a historical watershed, from today onwards the Principality of Ross officially learns cavalry tactics, and it can be said that it really becomes a cavalry. He felt this was a historic moment, how did the young fighters feel? Everyone just simply hopes to become an excellent cavalry as soon as possible, and to make contributions to the duke in future battles, and to make money for themselves and a huge amount of loot.

The purpose of Rurik seized the opportunity to create the cavalry was not to defend the land and protect the country. If the Principality had not expanded wildly over the past few years, it would have taken some time to digest the prey like a giant python swallowing a wild boar. The purpose of suspending expansion is for better expansion, and the internal rapid development of comprehensive strength. The creation of cavalry is a direct manifestation of this strategy.

As the strength of the Principality's navy continues to expand south, the advantages of the Principality's navy are almost useless, and the cavalry will become the new "imperial battle axe".

After Rurick finished his speech, Kagan got the order, and immediately took his own people to perform a horse slash.

The Pecheneg people are holding a slightly curved saber that resembles the Tang Hengdao. It is indeed a knife. Although it has a sharp tip, it is sharpened on one side and deliberately thickened on the other side. The slight curvature of the back of the blade is deliberate, just to adapt to horseback slashing. It weighed five pounds, and it was a heavy weapon for killing the enemy.

In contrast, Rurik's cavalry was still equipped with a standard infantry steel sword, which was flexible and double-edged and weighed a little over four pounds. The Rus and other Vikings, who were good at rowing, developed too strong arms in rowing, and the four-pound sword was still quite heavy, which was nothing. tired.

The two weapons do have one thing in common, they are both straight handles.

Seeing the saber of the Pecheneg people, Rurik intuitively felt that it was too similar to the Tang Hengdao.

Thinking that the essence of these guys is the Turks who were driven away by the Eastern Empire, it is normal to absorb the military technology of the East for their own use. Of course, Rurik thought of redesigning a saber for his subordinates—a Cossack saber with a larger curvature.

Not even just a new sabre, a batch of spears is also planned.

As for what kind of spear to use, Rurik knew very well, so he decided to imitate the easy-to-break spear of the Polish hussars. This spear is a one-time weapon, and it will break if it hits the enemy, so that the rider will not be pulled off the horse by the inertial force, so he can also ride in the same way. The spear was used twice by the enemy. In this way, there is no need to pay too much attention to the production of the spear head, and the only thing to pay attention to is the choice of wood for the spear, which must be easy to break.

Kagan led the team to show off well in front of everyone. They held high the Turkic saber and galloped like lightning. It was a deep knife to the wooden pole wrapped in deerskin, and then they flew away.

The entire cavalry team was dispatched in succession, and some soldiers roared for life at first, and then the saber slashed.

At first, the many deerskins did not show much damage. As a result, more than 40 people rode two rounds of chopping, and the completely damaged deerskins drooped casually, exposing the cracked wooden stakes inside.

There's even a wooden stake that's been chopped down to the brink.

Kagan rode on his horse with arrogance and faced Rurik: "You have seen it all, if that is the enemy, they have already been seen bloody by us. Remember, in the cavalry battle on the steppe, you almost only once Opportunity. Seizing the opportunity means you can survive, so this blow must be done with all your strength. I have heard a rumor that some strong warriors can cut the enemy in half with one knife!"

Rurik shuddered when he heard the following description, and his subordinates had long been dumbfounded by the mess of wooden stakes. They couldn't help but be amazed that those prairie men were obviously not tall, so how could they mount a horse and chop wood piles with such great power. If they were given an axe, wouldn't a tree be cut down in the blink of an eye?

Finally, the young Ross cavalry was divided into ten teams, each under the leadership of their own Pecheneg captains.

Since the prince was willing to use deerskin as a target, the brothers also obeyed.

The young warriors understood Kagan's admonition, and this time they swung the steel sword with maximum force.

Naihe, this kind of chop is always in the air, and they have to train hard just to seize the right chop and chop when the horse is galloping. Even if he was lucky enough to cut the stake, because the power is mutual, no matter how hard the rider chops, the reaction force will be the same.

Some people even shook the steel sword out of their hands, causing a big embarrassment.

Without him, Kagan deliberately spoke out about the matter, saying that a so-called cavalry soldier loses his weapon during combat, which is no different from suicide.

"People who let go of the saber! You should be glad that you are on the training ground. If you were on the battlefield, you would be dead!"

Is it just a few stern warnings to end it?

Since the soldiers were trained according to the rules of the grasslands, Kagan was hired as a coach and got a lot of training freedom, so for this matter, the wrongdoers were punished according to the rules of the grasslands.

Five of the eighty young cavalrymen lost their swords, including even the son of the manor.

When the five learned that they would be punished with whips, they immediately cried out and begged for mercy.

Even Medved and Arik on horseback were paying attention to Rurik's reaction to the matter. According to the attitude of the two nobles, it was understandable that the arms of a group of "bearded" cubs were too weak to lose their swords.

Rurik's face was iron, and those people's begging sounds were annoying like flies.

He exclaimed: "Just follow the law of the grasslands! You should be punished if you are wrong! Listen, I'd rather you train on weekdays, sweat and tire your muscles and bones, and bleed at most, and don't want you to be killed on the battlefield! Your whip is to make you remember! Remember this pain! When you are injured again on the battlefield, you will be able to hold it back perfectly."

Kagan admired the Rurik brothers very much.

With a whip in hand, Kagan, as the chief instructor, stated in advance: "What your prince said is completely correct. Now that you have endured the pain, you will not be afraid of fighting in the future. Each one whips a whip, which is already my greatest kindness. "

Let's see that the five people were all tied to independent wooden stakes, their thick coats were peeled off, and even the inner shirts were gone. Only their whitish backs merged with the snow that could be seen everywhere.

Kagan was about to start, when Rurik asked fiercely, "Only one whip? What is your real rule?"

"Yes... three whips."

"Then three whips. Kagan, you come first..."

Rurik didn't want Kagan to kill him in the end, he only emphasized in a low voice: "Just three whips, don't be too harsh, try to create a small amount of bleeding, I chop the stakes so hard, I don't want you to kill people with one whip. "

"I have my measure."

Each of the five received three whips, and three clearly visible bloodstains quickly appeared on their white backs.

Many pairs of eyes looked at this punishment, and the young cavalry staggered and was uneasy.

Rurik on horseback was as firm as a sculpture. He had long since faded away from being a childish man, but now he has become a strong and ruthless man. To the cavalry who had high expectations, he asked his brothers to be ruthless.

"You all saw it!" Rurik pointed with his sword: "This is the rule! They let their weapons go, and they are punished according to the law! I am fair, I am not punishing you without reason. From now on you must step up your training, wrong If you are punished, you will be rewarded for doing well.”

So in the next hack and slash training, the young riders showed mercy to the wooden stakes, and beware of losing their swords. Even so, when night fell, there were as many as ten people who had been rewarded with whips.

The cavalry complained in the unified dormitory, but the ten people were independently arranged to a new dormitory.

The fireplace warmed the dormitory, and the ten hapless people who were whipped all lay on the soft bed. The wounds on their backs were cleaned. First, they were roughly debridement and sterilized with spirits, and finally a layer of honey was pasted along the wound.

Kagan is indeed merciful, the so-called injury is that the abrasion is slightly more severe.

Because the local Slavic farms have expanded their traditional skills of tree-hole beekeeping in the past warm seasons, and harvested more honey, they sold the honey to the Raja Rus, so Rurik received far more honey than ever before. . Honey is not only edible, but also a medicinal material. Since a piece of sucrose sticking to the affected area of ​​the oral ulcer can accelerate wound healing, it means that all kinds of sugar pieces can promote wound healing on the body surface.

What's more, honey is not known to be a mixture of fructose and glucose, as well as a large amount of vitamins. The viscous form can also form a protective layer outside the wound.

Some people were punished and whipped, and the rest of the staff made a series of internal connections, and quickly developed a method to prevent the sword from falling out of the hand - tying the right hand with the hilt of the sword with a cloth strip.

This behavior was acquiesced by Rurik, and Kagan did not stop him when he saw it.

Compared with mounted archery, mounted slashing is the most test of a steppe cavalry's tactical ability. After all, riding and shooting is just harassment, and it is a method of slowly cutting flesh with a knife. The purpose is to force serious flaws in the enemy array. The really decisive tactic was the cavalry group rushing in to break the formation, and finally turning into a saber to ruthlessly slash and kill the fleeing enemy. Therefore, it takes a lot of time to train to hack and slash, which is the foundation of the grassland cavalry.