Every year, the Russians import a large amount of flax stalks from the south. The harvested flax stalks have no added value. The Russians buy them and process them themselves.
The original flax rods were scattered and thinned to obtain a large number of rough thin threads in khaki and brown.
These messy threads can be woven by themselves, but they are too rough. Apart from being woven into cloaks, sails and sacks, they don't seem to have many new uses.
The women of Rus inherited ancient craftsmanship. There is no essential difference between them and the craftsmanship of the Franks, and the productivity of the two is also the same.
The khaki coarse linen thread is put into a pottery urn and boiled, and then a little natural Glauber's salt dug from the mountains is added. They didn't know the principle of doing this, but after boiling the twine for a period of time, it not only turned into the color of milk, but also the woven cloth was extremely delicate.
The essence is the combined action of natural and easily available bleach and boiling water. The natural pigments and gum stored in the linen threads are removed, and only then can the body feel comfortable.
It is not a troublesome technology, but it requires a lot of labor from the processor.
Gould imported essentially three types of linens. The khaki cloth is the roughest and cheapest, and its quantity is not substantial. The largest quantity is white cloth, which has a large output and a large sales volume every year.
Only linen dyed sky blue is precious.
Of course white cloth gets dirty easily, but the Russians are not very particular about it. Nowadays, soap is widely used by the tribe, so it is no longer a troublesome thing to wash their own linen cloth.
With the flax rods purchased last year, the women of Rus have been weaving as much as they can in the short daylight hours during the boring winter.
The Ross tribe was originally short of cloth, but the tribe has been the largest leather supplier to the southern allies for decades, and the tribe has never been short of leather. In recent years, trade with the south has become more and more frequent, and its scale has become unprecedentedly large. Linen, which was once relatively scarce, is now commonplace.
It is said that the Duke spent a huge sum of money to buy a large amount of finished linen, and it was actually used to make uniform clothes for the soldiers on the expedition?
Shortly after the arrival of Gould's fleet, the women of the entire tribe, including the hundreds of girls under Rurik, gathered on the beach to accept Rurik's orders.
Soon, each piece of white cloth was torn into three halves, namely three pieces of cloth about 4 meters long and 1.3 meters wide.
Such a piece of cloth can make a white robe for a strong warrior, and there is even a lot of spare cloth, which requires women to use their imagination to make other textiles.
Of all the cloths, as many as ninety bales are pure white cloth. Theoretically, more than 1,300 robes will be made.
There are also thirty packages of rough khaki linen, which are also used to make robes, and these new robes must be made quickly and then supplied to the new mercenaries from Melalen. At onceConsidering the conservation of materials, thirty bales of burlap can be used to make six hundred sets of coarse robes.
Only if Rurik is willing to spend a lot of money to supply equipment to his main force, and only if their morale is high, victory will truly belong to Rose.
A vigorous clothing-making operation has begun! This is the war of women!
Women are essentially responsible for the logistics of the Russian army to a great extent. They already spent their time cutting wood and boiling salt, and now they are taking advantage of the extremely long days in summer to work with high endurance.
Although in Rurik's view, the women of the tribe sat together, talking and laughing, cutting cloth with knives, using bone needles, crude iron needles, and a very few people used extremely precious steel needles. (The place of origin is actually the Tang Empire) to sew uniform robes.
They can obviously use more labor, but unfortunately they will not be able to become assembly line workers in Rurik's concept in this life.
Because they lack key discipline education, and given their current living conditions, they indeed lack the motivation to work hard.
If you ask yourself, Rurik doesn't blame them for dilly-dallying. No matter how dilly-dally they are, they will still be more efficient than the Mellarens, and the Gotlanders, who are also enemies, will not be able to prepare for war at such a speed.
Each woman who received linen had to complete the making of the robe within two days. In order to earn a sum of money, they also wanted to ensure that their husbands and sons who went to war could be in glory. As expected, they were serious. Done the job.
On July 15th, all the white cloth gowns with strikingly similar styles were handed in one after another, and Rurik also began to organize a new batch of manpower to perform secondary processing on these white shirts.
A recognized strong man from Russia wore chain mail, and then put a sleeveless white cloth Uesugi on his body.
What Rurik wanted was this kind of wearing effect. As the cowhide belt tied the strong man's waist, a warrior who looked neat and yet brave came into being. Compared with him before, The onlookers praised this new look.
That alone is not enough!
Through this strong man, Rurik determined the exact position of the so-called sides and waist of the gown.
The finishing is that the front and back of the gown have two strips of blue cloth three fingers wide, sewn on them in a cross pattern.
This is the "paddle-shaped coat of arms" unique to the Russian people, and it is also the actual symbol of Russia.
There are twenty packages of blue linen. Rurik did not plan to use them all as clothing from the beginning. They must be matched with various kinds of cloth.
Speaking of it, the "crossed oars" heraldry chosen by the Russians since ancient times is simple, and the reserve of blue cloth is sufficient. It can not only sew the Russian mark on all the elite warriors, but also Ross's ships can be made to float with Ross's logo.
Only those clothes made of burlap are given to the newly recruited mercenaries who surrender their lives in exchange for their future. It would be good to have new clothes. They are self-aware and know that they have no right to choose. Four.
So the six hundred people from the Melalen tribe all put on new clothes the next day, as well as a simple belt made of hemp rope, and a pair of simple leather shoes.
They soon learned their true job - to join the Rus army and launch a massive attack on Gotland.
Some young people are excited about it, while some old people are deeply confused about the way forward.
Young people just hope to express themselves in battle and then take advantage of the opportunity to get trophies. The elders think more about possible death and the sadness of not being able to fight for the Mellaren people.
They immediately accepted the status quo, seeing that all the legendary Ross tribe, including young children, were preparing for war.
After all, the Russians are also part of the new Kingdom of Sweden, and I am afraid that the next war was also ordered by King Olegin.
They comforted themselves that they had finally intervened in this great war, but in a very strange way.
The six hundred new troops of Melalen, their initial weakness was largely due to the torture of boat and cart labor. They changed into new clothes and ate enough fish to fill their stomachs, and then they began to accept orders from their sponsor, the Duke of Ross, to help the Ross people cut down trees.
They also all knew about their weapons and equipment in future battles, which were indeed rudimentary. They were just wood-cutting axes issued by the Russians and short spears that were about the same height as themselves. Key shield? The Rus don't distribute them themselves, but fortunately some Melalen people carry their own shields and even small axes. The remaining people made their own bucklers by chopping wood.
Ross’s elite troops have been practicing traditional formation battles in recent days.
The warriors who are good at archery, including a kind of children, Rurik asked them to focus on practicing "thousands of arrows" and alternating shooting arrow arrays.
The total number of Covin people has reached 150. It can be said that they are veterans who survived the war. Although there was some luck factor in their survival, it is undeniable that they survived after all, which represents their strength. They are an elite warrior. They were once attacked by crossbows, but now they also have the right to touch the Russian steel-armed crossbows.
Of course, the Covins are also users of all longbows, and they have essentially become the core of the shooting force.
All kinds of people are training, and Rurik even forced Gould to hand over the rights to use all his current mercenaries, servants, and sailors. This is a full-scale war. Although many members of the Gould family are non-combatants, now that the rise and fall of the principality is fighting again, they naturally join Ross and must fulfill their obligations.
The sailors and Gould's mercenaries conducted very special training, which was to move the torque slingshot ashore, put it on a two-wheeled trolley, and shoot at the wooden handle.
The torsion slingshot also took the opportunity to undergo important repairs. Considering the previous battle damage, the torsion hemp rope of the slingshot has suffered a large number of small breaks., although it can still be used, the weight loss will become faster and faster in the future. All the slingshots have lost weight, which is one of the reasons why it is difficult to sink the Gotland patrol ship at close range even when it encounters it.
All the torsion slingshots were quickly repaired, and the hemp rope on each side was increased from twelve to fourteen strands, and their torque was also slightly improved, which received extremely positive feedback during training.
The soldiers wore the same clothes and appeared on the battlefield in neat lines. Their military power must have frightened the enemy.
Of course this is not enough!
Fisk's mother Broma was ordered to supervise the work of the women. She has always been favored by Rurik, and now she has to make new achievements.
Rurik found her specially and ordered her to organize people to sew some flags.
Sewing a flag? Sewing a Russian oar flag? Just like the pattern printed on the original sail of the leader's flagship?
With a piece of white cloth nearly one meter wide and one and a half meters long, Broma cut strips of blue cloth and sewed them on the cloth himself.
If that was the case, everything would be normal until Rurik asked for a strip of blue cloth to be sewn in the Norse language marked with runes in the deliberately six hundred area under the flag.
There are five flags that require text labeling, namely:
KRIGAREET (Warrior One), KRIGARETEVA (Warrior Two), HIUTARE (Archer), SLAVRE (Slavs), MELLAREN ( Mälaren).
Russ’s army has become what is now recognized as a behemoth. To command such an army, they must be divided into groups.
People nowadays really can’t expect them to have a high degree of discipline. Good discipline requires enough time to train. Rurik certainly boasts that he has the ability to make the entire Russian army follow basic orders and prohibitions, but That takes time, and what I lack is precisely time.
Rurik had already planned and indeed started trying this three years ago. That is, a group of thirty people in a long boat will choose a "captain" to take command. Then one hundred and twenty men in four boats can complete a hollow infantry phalanx, and are also capable of making complex formations. In this way, a "centurion" is selected. This kind of weaving probably also has the meaning of a centurion.
Then when the number of troops reaches 500, it is time to set up a "flag team".
The flag corps is a large-scale weaving of feudal armies that existed widely from Western Europe to Eastern Europe in the Middle Ages. Its positioning is like the positioning of an infantry division in a huge war involving tens of millions of people. .
The infantry flag corps and the infantry battalion are similar in strength. In fact, the strength of a flag corps often reaches 800 or 1,000 people. A similar formation was used by the Romanians and Germans until World War II thousands of years later.
For this war, Rurik planned to set up five flag brigades, each with a strength of between 500 and 700 people.among people.
In his plan, the future Russian army, especially the army, should also have such a basic organization.
He couldn't help but imagine that one of the so-called Sixth Division of the Emperor was equivalent to an army of 10,000. In the Eastern world, an army of ten thousand is not considered a lot, but in the current Western world, it is really a giant.
Really organizing an army of ten thousand people who have been marching neatly is a test of the commander's organizational skills. In this era of poor military order delivery models, Rurik temporarily lacks the experience and confidence in this area. .
"Three infantry flag teams are matched with one shooter flag team. If we can arrange a formal logistics flag team, plus some auxiliary personnel, it will form a legion of nearly 3,000 people? Then the three Each legion forms a division, so that’s fine. If the emperor has six divisions, I must have one too.”
Dreams must have a limit. Rurik knew that he had to gather people from everywhere to piece together one. A "big army" with a strength of nearly 3,000 people.
Among them, there are probably only a thousand local warriors of the Ross tribe who are the qualified backbone, namely the two "Warrior Flag Teams". As for the other flag teams, they are mainly used for auxiliary and heavy transport. .
Soon, the flags of the five flag teams were sewn, and they were all hung on special flagpoles.
The flagpole is like the mast of a ship, and the flag is hung on the crossbar intersecting with the flagpole, just like a small sail. There is a ferocious wooden carving of a dragon head on the top of the flagpole, just like the eagle emblem of the Roman legionary flag. This dragon-headed flag is the symbol of the flag team and must also represent the honor of the entire flag team.
If the flag falls during the war, it will represent a shame for the entire flag team soldiers! It will also cause the top commander to be unable to clearly see the movements of his soldiers, which will be a disaster for the course of the war.
After the flag was completed, it was distributed to the army in Fort Ross. Fighting flag teams were born one after another, and Rurik also appointed the captain of the flag team.
The Warriors’ First Flag Team, captain Arik, and the five hundred elite warriors are currently stationed on Tombstone Island.
The Warriors' Second Flag Team, with a strength of 600 men, is captained by Harold Zuosen. On the occasion of this decisive battle, this old guy must shoulder a heavy responsibility.
The Archer Flag Team has a strength of 700 people. The archery master Frazier serves as the captain and is responsible for commanding the archers of young children (as many as 300 men and women). One hundred and fifty Kewen archers, one There were one hundred and fifty steel-armed crossbowmen composed of older Russians, and one hundred sailors and mercenaries who planned to operate ten torsion slingshots.
The Malaren Mercenary Flag Team has a strength of 600 people. An older man named Herriger is the flag captain because he served as the "leader" for a period of time when he was young. Private soldiers". After getting unified new clothes and seemingly reliable weapons, they have no worries about food and clothing during this period. Seeing that the Ross people are serious about the expedition, they are no longer opposed to the expedition to Gotland. They already have a plan. hope. For example, after the war is over, you can just stay and become a Russian. The battle he participated inFighting is an act of joining the gang.
The Slavic flag force currently has 500 troops, and it is destined that his brother-in-law Medvet will fight for the flag force. Rurik estimated that by the time the assembly was completed, the number of troops would rise to 700, or even more. Because people have been sent to Novgorod to continue recruiting troops, although the local tribes do not deal with each other on weekdays, the core of the conflict lies with the local manor owners. Ordinary people generally live in poverty. If war is the way to get rid of poverty, , Rurik felt that he could really recruit a large number of people who would work for him.
After this calculation, the Ross army has reached 3,100 people, and the final strength can be a little more.