A horse-riding team was marching in a slightly desolate forest. They had more than fifty people but more than one hundred and sixty horses.
They came from the more distant east, from the Volga River Basin, even from today's Volgograd to Astrakhan.
The leader is a young man with a beautiful black mustache. He is short in height and looks unattractive at first glance. However, he is dressed in iron armor and has a gem-encrusted scimitar hanging from his waist. He cannot be said to be expensive. In other words, it can also be said that he is a martial artist.
The Turkic horses they ride have strong endurance and good assault capabilities. Each rider has a luggage bag hanging on the saddle, which contains dry food and sleeping bags. The saddle also has a leather pocket, which holds a compound recurve bow with a loose string, and another leather pocket holds fifty wild goose feather arrows.
They are a gust of wind from the Central Asian grasslands. Due to the attack from the Tang Empire, the entire tribal alliance was forced to migrate westward on a large scale.
Some personnel and subjects completed the historic separation, and bypassed the northern shore of the Caspian Sea and entered the Inner Caucasus region on a smooth road with no danger to defend and no strong local forces to block it.
They finally encountered a formidable enemy - the Khazar Khanate.
The two sides fought fiercely in the Donbas Basin, and the fight ended in a draw. In this way, the Khazar Khanate had to admit a new trouble from the east after the Eastern Rome.
The entire Crimea and the Odessa area are under the firm control of the Romans and the Roman fleet. The five-oared battleship may have lagged behind the times. For Rome, this kind of ship regardless of It is an excellent platform for transporting infantry or cavalry.
Two nomadic groups appeared in the north and fought fiercely. This is what the Eastern Romans were very happy to see, especially if the Khazar Khanate suffered a heavy setback. The northeastern border of the empire (Greek Thrace region )'s strategic pressure is plummeting. But Rome was not stupid enough to sponsor a new group of nomads.
The newcomers are none other than the Pechenegs. They broke away from the Western Turks and the Oghuz Alliance. They are the fierce westward existence among the entire huge ethnic group.
They have no strategic purpose. They just instinctively drive their cattle and sheep to find the most suitable pasture. If the rich pasture is occupied by others, they will kill the local people to replace it.
However, they are not simply reckless people, and they fully understand the importance of seeking help from outside forces.
Trading with the Slavs in the forest area was beneficial. Horses, dairy products, and leather were exchanged for the Slavs' large quantities of cloth and storable wheat.
In 836, a Slavic caravan came again uninvited! They passed through the forests of the Chernihiv region and entered the steppe area, where they met Pecheneg herders. They came with valuable salt and a large amount of cloth. To the surprise of the leader of the Pecheneg Alliance, this time it was the Slavs' turn to sell salt.
The leader of the Slavic caravan was none other than Kiev Maksaky, who had overwintered in Russia. He took the guys back to his hometown in Kiev and said to his eldersAfter Ming successfully opened up the Varangros trade, he rested for a while and then headed east.
A land trade route from the Kiev section of the Dnieper River to the Volga River has long existed. There are a large number of grassland areas in it, which is actually a smooth trade route. In the gap between the Bulgar Khanate and the Khazar Khanate, the Pecheneg Khanate used its fast horse scimitar to create a trade corridor and successfully contacted Krivichslav in the forest.
Maksakyi returned to the Pecheneg camp not far north of present-day Volgograd. In the Khan tent, they described to the Khan a wonderful Rus principality. location.
"The Russians have good iron, big ships, fine wine, gems, and a lot of crystal vessels. But the Russians need a lot of horses. Only you can provide them, and the Russians are willing to pay a lot of money to buy them. . ”
It is good to develop a distant trading partner in exchange for good things, but does it do him any good to have a forest Slav speak for the Rus of the Northern Varangians?
At least for Sakhi and his guys, there is indeed a big reward for doing the job of buying horses for the Prince of Rus. Under the heavy reward, this group of adventurers would rather live like Cossacks in Eastern Europe.
Why do Slavic merchants have salt? It turns out that these were made by the Russians.
It is shameful to say that the Pecheneg Khanate, which clearly occupies the mouth of the Volga River (Caspian Sea), does not know how to separate salt from the bitter brine of the Caspian Sea. They clearly have no shortage of it. For salt, they had to trade with Eastern Roman merchants. Those treacherous Roman merchants could not do business with conscience. The Pechenegs had to exchange more horses for salt, and there were even purchase restrictions here.
The Roman merchants also had their own explanation: "What we are doing is a beheading business. If the governor of Crimea discovers, our whole family will be killed. You have no right to complain."< /p>
The Khan was moved, and a young man was entrusted with an important task.
"Kagan, you are not young anymore. If you want to inherit my throne, you must demonstrate a series of achievements to prove yourself to other tribes. As the Khan, you will go to Rus and take our Go and exchange their treasures as much as possible!" Khan ordered his son. Although the young prince Kagan was a little doubtful, after all, this was a meritorious deed. If he brought back a lot of salt from this trip, wouldn't it be a good thing for the whole world? The league's great hero?
If they could live a good life, the Pechenegs would not be willing to roam the grasslands to fight for their living space. However, the grasslands are big if they are big, and small if they are small. At least there are four forces competing for the huge southern Russia- In the Inner Caucasus grassland, if Pecheneg showed weakness, the outcome would be annihilation of his family.
Kagan, who had a mustache, took his personal guards and commercial horses, and followed the guidance of Slavic merchants to reach Kiev for the first time, where forests and rivers intertwined.
It was the summer solstice when Kagan and his party arrived. The people of Kiev were at their big riverside altar, each wearing a beautiful flower crown, dancing and circling around the altar's sacred tree matrix.lock up. The Slavs worshiped their gods of the sun and agriculture in the hope that crops would grow vigorously and achieve a good harvest.
Kagan and his party were all spectators. He respected the beliefs of these Slavs, and all he could think about was heading north as soon as possible.
Prince Pecheneg arrived in Kiev in person, and a small portion of the cowhide, sheepskin and wool carried by the horse team were sold on the spot in exchange for a batch of wheat to feed the people and horses heading north.
They stayed in Kiev until late July in the Julian calendar, and the long overland journey northward officially began.
Compared with last year's Sakye expedition, the scale of this Pecheneg horse team was too large, and it was impossible to take a convenient waterway.
A terrible natural chasm lies in front of us - the Pripyat Swamp.
It is a huge Zeguo. Legend has it that it is the residence of the Chaos God Cherniberg. Those who enter rashly must leave quickly, otherwise they may die of a sudden illness.
It is impossible for the horse team to advance in the thick mud. The rotten smell there can be tolerated. If a large number of horses die from breathing the foul smell, a large amount of capital will be lost for the Russian trade. no?
If you can’t break through forcefully, take a detour. The mixed caravan rode horses along the border between the forest and the grassland. They walked toward the northeast while groping, spending a lot of time to make a large circle, and then plunged in. In the forests of today's Bryansk region, he successfully found the upper reaches of the Dnieper River.
Compared to the disgusting and terrifying Pripet Swamp, the Valde Zee is much gentler.
Unfortunately, an autumn rain brought a lot of trouble to the cavalry team.
However, Kagan and his cronies are a true nomadic army. Even if the horses enter the forest, the cavalry can still exert a certain degree of strength.
A small forest village appeared in front of him. Kagan ignored Thackeray's warning of "don't attack" and rushed over with his men. He easily solved the entire unsuspecting village and slaughtered the villagers. When Sakhi arrived at the scene, all he saw were dead bodies and women being toyed with by this group of nomads.
“Don’t you want to be happy?” Kagan on horseback pointed to his happy subordinates and the village women struggling to survive without hesitation.
"Thankfully you still understand our language. You are attacking the Smolensk village. Once our traces are exposed, they will retaliate against us!"
"Then Let's fight. This group of people is obviously weak, and I have no fear."
Sakhi didn't want to say any more and warned bluntly: "Let the attack end here, we must not be left alive, and we must not be exposed. Traces. I warn you, you are not allowed to kill any Russians when you get to Rus, otherwise you will offend the powerful forces in the north. "You don't need to tell me about the Varyag people." I still know that I will not foolishly attack a group of strong people like us."
Indeed, the Rus are part of the Varyag people, and armed traders from Northern Europe have long appeared in Dnieper. HeheVolga River, but their traces are too mysterious. Because most of the time, Varyag armed traders from Denmark and Sweden like to enter the hinterland of Europe from the West Dvina River. From the perspective of the people of Kiev, these Varyag people mostly come from the north, and they bring They not only produced trade products, but also left behind legends of kidnapping and kidnapping. In short, they were a very entangled existence for the local Slavs.
At least the Russians among the Varyags have never done anything vicious to the people of Kiev. They must be a powerful force with their own principles.
Kagan held up a short spear and stabbed the woman in front of his subordinates who were busy doing business.
"Boss, what are you doing?!"
"Idiot! Get out of here! Move all the bodies away. We will stay in this village until the weather clears. Go and search for food. and the cloth," Kagan ordered.
For the entire cavalry team, a long forest march was very tiring, not to mention the lack of high-quality forage in the forest area. They arrived just in time. All the wheat in the so-called Smolensk area had been harvested, and the warehouses of the villages plundered by Kagan's group were also full of wheat.
The nomadic warriors wanted to take away all the wheat, and they did their best. Taking advantage of the rainy weather, everyone hurriedly made linen sacks and hung the oats on the backs of a large number of horses.
All the horses also got a chance to eat to their heart's content. During the rest period of a few days, together with Sakhi and his group, a total of nearly 200 horses munched on the delicious oats. The huge appetites of both men and horses quickly depleted the small village's food stocks. Compared with European rushes as a representative pasture, the caloric value of oatmeal is naturally much higher than it.
Oats are actually the most cost-effective horse feed concentrate in Europe. Feeding horses with oats seems to Kagan to be an extreme luxury, but it can also help him reach Ross smoothly.
During the break, Sakhi was so idle that he even felt that Kagan had executed the peasant women prematurely.
They are all Slavs, doesn’t Sakhi have empathy for the dead?
He indeed did not.
After all, once he is detained by the Smolensk people, he will inevitably be beaten or even executed. The reason here is very simple. Anyone who tries to do business with the Ilmenslavs will be killed by the Smolensk people. People regard them as enemies. This is like the Pechenegs and Khazars speaking almost the same language, but still fighting each other.
Taking the opportunity to relax, Sakhi pointed out the follow-up path to Kagan.
“We will go directly through the swamp (Valde Zede), thus perfectly avoiding the attention of the Smolensk people. We will find the channel of the second large river, which is called the Lovady River. We continue to go north along the river. As soon as we see a strong castle, we will enter the territory of the Principality of Rus. The prince of Rus has a high status. Thinking of my relationship with your Khan, I have a very good relationship with the prince. When he learned that you breathed a sigh of relief. If you want to sell a hundred horses, you will become the most distinguished guest and you will enjoy it for the rest of your life!Enjoy it like never before. ”
What is “enjoyment”? Sakhi said that it is the pleasure that transcends men and women.
For example, soaking in a warm barrel makes your whole body soft. , surrounded by things filled with warm white mist, lying on the wooden board and being rubbed off with linen cloth, and washing the hair and body with strange-smelling soap, so that the smell of sweat and mutton disappeared in the grassland. It is not easy to take a pleasant bath, and it is easy to catch wind and cold if you take a hasty bath. Therefore, the people of Pecheneg adhere to the habits of their hometown in Central Asia. Although they are keen on cleaning themselves, they subjectively reject bathing.
The Russians have a kind of flaming wine. Drinking it will make you feel a fire igniting in your belly. People who are shivering from the cold will immediately regain their firepower after drinking it.
The Russians have barbecue and big bread. , the barbecue is heavy on salt because they have no shortage of salt, and the bread is big and soft because they have wheat.
......
Kagan was fascinated by all this and couldn't wait to hear it. Enjoy it immediately.
The nomads and cavalry continued to go north, leaving behind them the burning villages and the corpses that gradually turned to ashes...
The autumn wind of the Lovaj River was bleak, The sky was hazy again and it seemed like there was rain again. They were not far from New Ostara, a city on the southern border of the Principality of Ross. Kagan and Sakhi had almost seen the end of their journey, but the snowfall had begun.
They would rather move forward in the snowfall. Fortunately, everyone is well prepared, and these Turkic horses have physiologically changed into long manes. The South Russian grasslands are not much milder than the winter in Novgorod. These naturally cold-resistant Turkic horses are fearless. The cold wind and snow here meant that a large number of horses did not have iron horseshoes, so they could not be expected to move forward quickly in the snow.
Success was just ahead. The wind and snow had just stopped, and a wooden castle lay across it. The Lovaj River enters the mouth of Lake Ilmen!
The hunters of the Ostara people have noticed a group of foreigners on horseback, but the female leader Carlotta and her young son are in the north of the lake. The people of Fugorod came forward spontaneously. Many people suspected that the visitor was the horse rider from last year, but they still took self-defense just in case.
As the saying goes, New Ostara has become a fortress. The crossbowmen on the wooden city walls shoot arrows in a deterrent manner, and the fixed-position torque slingshots also fire javelins to deter sudden attacks. Kagan was shocked, and even the horses were in a commotion.
Kagan was really impressed. He was not an idiot, and he knew that the Russian defenders deliberately missed the javelin. They thought that they and their horses were shot dead.
Sure enough, someone from the city wall asked loudly: "Who are you?" It's the enemy! Still a businessman! ? Put down your arms and accept our questioning! "
Kagan couldn't understand Norse until the other party yelled again in Slavic with a strange accent.
At this time, Maksakhi hurriedly dismounted and opened his arms to signal without anyIn order to fight, he stood within the precise shooting range of the torque slingshot, greeted the people at the top of the city and revealed his identity.
He gave a reason for adoption that the people of Ostara could not refuse.
The so-called Kiev Horseman Sakye, on the order of the Prince of Rus, came again with horses, and a large number of horses will be sold to the Prince.
As for a group of black-haired foreign knights, they are the best horse breeders and are Pechenegs from the East. They requested to see the prince as envoys.
The Ostara people let go of the border, but the Ostara army also dispatched. They were guarding Nanguan and were not careless enough to let anyone go. Since it was a large delegation, they should be escorted by soldiers. It's said to be an escort, but actually it's surveillance.
A larger team began to go north along the land route along Lake Ilmen. It was also because there were too many people and horses. The plan that could have taken the water route was meaningless. At least Kagan saw a large number of Ross ships. Although this is just a city in the south gate of the Ross Principality, the strength of the navy is evident. Without him, the Pecheneg Khanate only has a few small boats, and it clearly controls the lower reaches of the Volga River. If the entire clan does not know how to build a ship, it is as tragic as guarding a golden mountain but not knowing how to mine and smelt.
However, there is a boat heading north quickly ahead of the rest of the army. They must report good news to the prince - the horse rider has returned, or there may be hundreds of good horses for sale.