Rise of Rurik

In principle, the selected person is to be a full-time soldier, but due to practical factors, many people cannot give up their wealth, so they get more benefits.

The first cavalry team will serve as the most senior guard of the Rus prince, and will also be used flexibly as a mobile army in the war.

They must be worthy of the supplies of food, clothing and weapons given by the prince, and must be worthy of the monthly allowance of silver coins.

Just like the cavalry soldiers from the Sixth Banner Team, each of them has a hectare of land and a wife. When the farming is busy, they still have to harvest in the spring and autumn. In the rest of the time, they don’t have to do other side jobs, and they can do their own cavalry seriously.

As for the cavalry warriors from White Tree Manor, their social status has risen sharply. Get a stable allowance during the time of service, although for them, they have to serve until the age of 30 before they can retire and marry a wife, which is not a big disadvantage. According to the prince's regulations, these people are destined to marry later and have children later, so there are loopholes in the rules, and the prince did not forbid them to create illegitimate children. When they retire, they will be divided into fields and a generous pension. Retiring at the age of 30 is not really retiring. If there is a large-scale war, once the cavalry is expanded, these veterans will serve as reservists immediately.

All who serve as cavalrymen must serve a full ten years, after which they are honorably discharged into the reserve.

Their children will also receive certain preferential treatment, and the sons of the cavalry will have the right to take their father's class first. According to Rurik's idea, a father who has been riding for ten years can teach many sons who are good at riding in advance through family education.

In this regard, Rurik intends to learn the service system of the Roman legions, and then make certain adjustments based on the status quo of the Duchy of Rus.

The natural and simple tradition that the Principality has long pursued that all people are soldiers must be rewritten in line with the new era.

The 100-strong mercenary team that was completely infantry could be described as the first standing army that was completely out of production.

In the follow-up, the Six Flags team formed by the people is not very well prepared. This complex military formation has a clear military significance only when a real war breaks out. Militia capable of combat and the ability to immediately assemble into combat.

In the full sense, the private armed forces that only belong to Rurik's own mobilization are currently only 250 people. Although the people of the mercenary team will be ordered to do some logging and fishing work, it is just an economic supplement, and their source of funding is almost all from the appropriation of the prince.

These people lived on the stipends, and the food and clothing all came from the princes.

With this kind of complete economic bond, they can live a good life with no worries about food and clothing, good treatment and a certain degree of superiority.

Really devoutly believe in a living god? A human hero blessed by Odin? Giving them enough status and money is the foundation of loyalty.

As the so-called management field is extremely large, in the seemingly boring winter, one of Rurik's jobs is to organize the young scribes he has trained to do economic accounting for the huge principality.

The quiet-minded Ella Hestoria can't be a female warrior. She is busy with paper and pen work, and now she is busy with statistical calculations on the output data of taxes and other materials collected by the Principality of Ross, and then for the next spring. Subsequent material consumption is made in the previous financial budget. The amount of calculation is quite large, which is exactly what she is, and she is very happy that she has established her unique position in the power center of the duchy and has become more important.

Ella is the head of the scribes, and more than a dozen local women who study with her are also improving their business, and at the same time, they uniformly accept the more advanced mathematics education from the prince himself.

This winter, the prince, who had learned to mount and slash himself during the day, turned into a priest and taught the scribes the linear programming of advanced mathematics.

Those boring functional equations, various characters, and complex formula systems were born to deal with real problems.

Continental powers compete for the hegemony, and any technology that can be used to improve combat effectiveness has been adopted by the monarchs of various countries. Operations research such as linear programming is used in the calculation of logistics material mobilization and army action calculation. Precise budget, which in turn becomes the calculation of the production and consumption of the material system of the entire country, finally reaches an extreme, which leads to a great attempt - planned economy.

The general population living in the Principality is 100,000 people, and the population that is actually firmly controlled is only 60,000 people, including more than 10,000 children. This is an extremely limited economy, but also a rapidly developing economy.

Although it is not enough to create a functional department called the "Planning Committee", the principality has set up a calculation team based on this population, which can basically calculate the public's demand and consumption of major bulk materials, so as to make an official price for the materials. And to ensure that the "oat-based" economic system can continue to operate safely.

Of course, the principality has only this small population. In today's rotten era in Europe, a kingdom with 100,000 people, strong organization, and strong fighting power can walk sideways on the continent without any problem.

It is like the Ostrogoth kingdom that was defeated by Belisara three hundred years ago. The country mobilized only 25,000 men from all over the country. After a war, the kingdom was instantly destroyed due to the collective extinction of the male group.

The Principality of Ross faces the same possibility, and the Principality simply cannot afford a big defeat!

Unless, the priority for combat is not soldiers mobilized by civilians, but professional soldiers who are paid.

Looking around, except for the apparently infighting Denmark and the even more infighting Frankish kingdom, the Duchy of Rus has no strong enemies under their noses. If they have assembled thousands of troops in the past few years to launch a war of gambling for the country, at least there is no visible future. possible.

The Principality must take advantage of this period of opportunity to develop its comprehensive strength, and it must further develop its standing army, but the number of people must be controlled.

"Build a cavalry flag team with a strength of 600 people. A team of ten people, a squadron of three teams, and a team of 100 people from the ten teams. Six hundred troops are combined with the command center of the flag team to form the entire flag team. So who will come? What about being the captain of the flag? Well, let them compete, and the strong will do it."

The great plan was calculated in Rurik's head. According to his estimation, it was possible to support a full-time standing army of 1,000 people with his current financial resources, but it was not suitable to continue to expand the scale.

At the end of November, the selected Eighty Riders began to increase their training in spear thrusting.

It's still the old rule, you'll get whipped before you hit the target with a spear.

The snow-covered wilderness outside the city is terrifyingly cold. According to the habits of the Pecheneg people, people and horses should not run around in this cold weather. It is the right way to hide in the warm stables. These Turkic horses are cold-resistant as a whole. After all, the Ukrainian-South Russian grasslands where they galloped, the lowest temperature in winter can reach -20℃, and now each horse has a very thick winter mane, which makes each horse appear more For fluffy hypertrophy.

The treatment of the horse's food became better because of his participation in the training, and Rurik naturally got more horse manure. Horse manure is a treasure that cannot be thrown away, and fermented compost can be used for fertilizer fields next year.

The horse breathed white mist, and the rider with the spear of the infantry also breathed the white mist.

In front of the rider is a column with a leather ball about the size of a football standing on it. Two large squirrel skins are sewn together, and the interior is stuffed with a lot of hay, creating such a cavalry stab target.

Behold! The young cavalry galloped and charged with all his strength, the spear was leveled, and the spear hit the ball instantly! He pulled the reins lightly, the galloping horses slowly stopped, turned three times in the same place on the snow and stopped.

In combat, the cavalry will use spears that are easy to break, but if they hit the enemy, they will cause fatal injuries. They are now trained to hit the ball with precision. Everyone must be trained to be able to do this easily.

The seven-day training camp for spear and thrusting was actually exhausting for both people and horses.

But after three days of rest, the high-profile riding and shooting training finally began!

Even Rurik himself got involved on horseback.

The short-statured Prince of Pecheneg, Kagan, is now dressed as a Russ warrior, and he never fails to disobey the classic blue stripes on his trousers.

He didn't tie his weird braids at the back of his head, and simply learned to keep a "ponytail" like the prince.

More than him, a large group of cavalry cadets are either born with straight or curly hair, but nowadays they generally have rough "pony tails", which are so-called elegant and brave like a galloping horse.

Many people have learned archery, and there is no wonderful recurve bow to replace it with a short wooden bow.

The Principality generally used the finger-wrench exorcism technique, but on weekdays everyone was used to having the arrow on the left, just like a soldier always holding a sword in his right hand.

Kagan stood on the stirrup and declared to the crowd: "The arrow should be placed on the right side, and it should be placed on the thumb of your left hand holding the bow. Only in this way, you can draw the arrow from the quiver and put it on the bowstring to shoot the arrow immediately. Excellent. An archer can hit ten arrows in a very short time..."

Kagan simply did a demonstration, not to mention the accuracy of the shooting, he did achieve the ten arrows he claimed in a very short period of time, and the whole action was smooth.

Arrows on the right can shoot quickly, but how can a shooter who is used to shooting on the left suddenly change his bow position quickly? All today's cavalry, including Rurik himself, are extreme beginners in mounted archery.

The right bow is a bit awkward, so the riders simply dismounted and shot at the target with the right bow.

It just so happens that the horses can also rest further.

The archery training camp has been tossing for many days. Even with a low-pound short wooden bow, who shoots up to 300 times a day, who doesn't have a sore arm?

Finally came the riding and shooting test that showed the success of the training camp. At the beginning, everyone just sat stably on horseback and shot the target sideways.

Those handsome boys from the Sixth Flag Team who have had sufficient archery training have adapted to the new archery mode and have the highest target rate.

The worst thing was the sons of the Boyar nobles who were forced to serve as soldiers. The so-called sons of nobles were just stupid sons of the landlord's family. Their poor archery skills are indeed embarrassing, which is not uncommon. A group of boys who may be destined to be out of hunting are now cavalrymen, beginners with bows and arrows, and now even more ignorant of riding and archery. Their inherent arrogance was completely crushed by the ruthless reality, and fortunately, their white backs were not torn apart by the whip.

As a whole, they seemed to be riding, shooting and pulling the hips, and Rurik couldn't help but pouted his grief.

Because, his own horseback archery seems to be pulling his hips.

No one will accuse the king of poor skills, because the performance of the group is not good.

Some people showed frustration, and Kagan explained optimistically at the critical moment: "Don't think that you will learn to ride and shoot in a few days. We Pecheneg people learned to ride horses at the age of six, and at the same time practiced riding with our father's arrows. Shooting. An excellent fighter needs to be trained until he is 20 years old, and more than ten years of riding and shooting training can cultivate a superb riding archer! You need many years of training to be successful."

Kagan seems to be exaggerating, but it also shows the fact that horse archers can't be quick.

So Rurik decided to cheat.

It was a normal winter morning. Today the sun is bright and dazzling, the air is dry and cold, and the small wind is like a knife, which is very piercing.

In front of the collective dormitory of the young cavalry, the crowd gathered, and a large number of wooden-armed crossbows were placed on the ground.

Rurik said in public with his hands behind his back: "My brother Kagan said that a horse archer can't be done quickly, which is obviously correct. Look at the crossbow in front of you, and go get what you like."

Everyone is quite confused, since the prince has ordered again, let's implement it.

They got the crossbow and listened to the prince's order: "After all, the purpose of riding and shooting is to shoot arrows into the chest and neck of the enemy. For this purpose, a crossbow can also be used. I can't wait for you ten years to become excellent riding archers, that When you all retire. Now riding a crossbow and shooting, just follow this training first."

They went to the stable with a light wooden crossbow to collect their war horses, and showed them in front of Kagan in a unique manner, which really surprised the Pecheneg people present, including the Pecheneg captain of each team.

"This is your unique bow?" Kagan said, stroking the crossbow that Rurik wanted to play with.

"This is our standard weapon."

"A bow placed sideways, and it can actually..."

"Yes." Rurik said with a sullen face: "It's like the arm is always pulling the bowstring, and you can fire whenever you want. You can even aim at the target and fire again, and a fool can become a marksman."

"I... I don't believe it." With that being said, it was the first time Kagan saw the unique bow of the Russ, which was a painful blow to his arrogance. ,

what for? After all, Kagan didn't really see the dignified division of the Rus army, but he had some general and fallacious understanding of the Rus army.

Even a simple saddle has a stiffer structural bulge at the very front, which happens to be a fulcrum, which could have been used to tie the reins, and also to put on the hoop of the crossbow. The power of the wooden crossbow is limited, and it fires ordinary light arrows. After all, it is a modification of the short wooden bow, and only the tendons of the bow are usually thickened to increase a little strength.

"Show you an arrow on horseback."

Rurik retrieved his crossbow and manipulated it in front of Kagan. The iron ring covered the bulge, he pulled the bowstring with both hands, and the whole person leaned back, and the string buckled the mechanism. An arrow is then inserted into the groove and is lightly held in place by a steel shrapnel at the tail. This kind of crossbow was originally designed with a shoulder rest, and Rurik shot it precisely like a musket at a hanging squirrel target not far away.

"Ah! It's actually hit!" Kagan was shocked, and almost at the same time, a question from the soul came: "Brothers, it seems that you have a lot of such..."

"It's a crossbow."

"I want to buy it."

"Do you want to buy it?!" Rurik's body was shaken. It stands to reason that people who want to buy themselves can sell them, but they just talked about the transaction, why not get a big ticket?

Rurik replied decisively: "Just exchange your recurve bow with me, a recurve bow for a crossbow."

"This……"

"Are you hesitating? Is this a wonderful deal for you?"

Rurik was suddenly very lively, and Kagan could see that his sworn brother really liked recurve bows. According to the rules of the prairie, the brothers received courtesy in Ross, and they had to send some gifts anyway.

Kagan thought for a moment and slapped his thigh: "Then I will exchange thirty recurve bows with you."

"Deal! It's just not now." Rurik sighed lightly, looking at his brothers riding on a crossbow, then looking at the target set up, and staring into Kagan's eyes: "Indeed, I can't finish riding and shooting. Quick, if we use our crossbow, it should be much better."

"It doesn't matter." Kagan shrugged. "If you can use a sling to fire a stone to kill the enemy, no one thinks that riding a sling is wrong."

A crossbow cavalry was born? Do not! Whether the cavalry used the crossbow or the recurve bow, and possibly the firearm, it was all a tactical aid, a means of disrupting the enemy array. The main weapons of the cavalry team are still spears and sabres. At least the use of the crossbow makes a group of beginners become good shooters immediately, that is, it is hoped that the "fire suppression" will be implemented with rapid jets. Don't imagine.

The squirrel target began to hit the arrow frequently, and the cavalry with the crossbow on the side swept past quickly, and they could better grasp the opportunity to pull the trigger.

From Rurik's point of view, the cavalry unit that he had dreamed of with preliminary combat effectiveness has been successful. Although they have not undergone any actual combat test, they at least showed a fairly good ability on the training ground.

There is no need to be too extreme on them. This group of young people has only been training for a month at best. They have mastered horseback riding, horseback hacking, spear thrusting, crossbow riding and shooting. Although they are not skilled, they have enough time to improve.

It can be said that in the eyes of ordinary people, the Principality of Ross has successfully produced a cavalry unit that looks majestic, which is a great honor for the Principality.