Those sleds used for long-distance travel are no longer a simple structure of two hard oaks in hard contact with ice and snow. A batch of carbon steel sheets are forged by the blacksmith with small holes reserved, and rivets are nailed to the bottom of the oak sled.
In this way, Ross's sled can be made larger, stronger and more wear-resistant, and even some strange equipment can be added.
It would be too sloppy to just install a tent made of leather and linen on a big sled. A big sled used by ordinary people can do this, but it would be unreasonable for Rurik, who is a prince, to do this again.
The prince needed a sled suitable for his noble status, so he built a wooden house directly on the sleigh. It's certainly not huge, just suitable for many people to squeeze in. The wooden walls are also equipped with small windows and are inlaid with glass windows. This is because large flat glass cannot be made naturally due to technical reasons. The so-called window glass is made by blowing a glass tube and cutting it in the middle and forcibly spreading it. It is not It's large and enough for light transmission.
Due to the relatively ample time, it would take some time for the Ross army to assemble. During this time gap, the mill of Aslaqi, who was responsible for the production of military rations, was naturally working at full capacity.
Similarly, carpenters and blacksmiths in New Roseburg also found work.
They took on the task of modifying the sled. Their task was to build a house on the big sled and nail the iron sheet to the bottom sled. Such mass-produced manned sleds also need to be hung with deerskin on the outside to enhance warmth, and the reserved windows are still inlaid with windows. Such windows can even have their wooden frames removed unexpectedly.
Nothing else. If there is an extreme situation, the soldiers in the sled will hold the crossbow and shoot directly through the observation window.
Writing a war means making money, and Rurik can truly feel the truth that gold comes from a cannon.
The fighting methods of the Russian army, which are unique to other European countries and tribes, are based on a large number of long-range weapons. Now the principality is not as weak as in the past. The bones, flints, and glass arrow clusters that were once used are no longer necessary. Then mass production, the principality directly mass-produced carbon steel arrow clusters, and then glued the wooden shafts with pine glue. The cost of such high-quality arrows is now low enough to be squandered.
Arrow shafts are mostly made of birch or pine. The bark of the wood is peeled off to make paper, and the remaining part is enough to make arrow shafts.
Arrow feathers are the easiest to obtain. The fact that this thing is readily available makes the Pecheneg people who live there both surprised and understandable.
Because people in Novorosberg and Novgorod encourage raising chickens, the people raise chickens mainly to eat eggs. In order to prevent the chickens from flying away, all the chickens are picked up immediately after they grow up. The feathers, even the wings were pruned so much that only down was left.
The big feathers were all sold to the prince. As for the small feathers, they seemed useless. When a gadget like the feather duster was born under Rurik's guidance, the small feathers also became useful.
There is no need to stick to wild goose feathers. The feathers of chickens, ducks and geese are all good sword feathers. Especially from the current position of the principality, these arrows are regarded as single-use weapons by Rurik. A non-mainstream word called "ammo" was "invented" by Rurik to useRefers to this kind of arrow.
The hunters felt that the prince's attitude towards arrows was too strange. This actually led to a benefit, that is, when the Russian army went on an expedition, they always prepared a large number of arrows, so that they could shoot down the enemy without restraint.
The Russian army’s pre-war preparations were in full swing, which surprised the female leader Lu Di continuously. She also saw that the tribal girls she brought were forced to work every day. They made rosin gum, chopped firewood, carried supplies, washed clothes and other chores for the Russians.
The overall work is hard, but it is not any less relaxing than the work in my hometown. The selected tribal girls are indeed girls, but in such extremely poor living conditions, children must work when they are five years old. In fact, they already know how to do a lot of work.
The key is what they get from their labor. The female leader noticed that they were eating wheat cakes and wheat porridge every day, and they could also eat fish every day. The skinny girl has obviously changed in figure, and her eyes and face are full of energy.
If the hospitality was just for a few days, the female leader would think that this was a righteous act by the prince. Obviously this is not the case at all, or perhaps the life of the Russian people is like this, and the prince did not entertain them.
The group of servants must send people to join the army. It is also necessary to send out a few soldiers at the end to make up the number.
The female leader of Ludi also received an order. After the so-called army arrives in the village of Ludi, the female leader should mobilize a hundred men to join the Russian army. By then, the Ludi men will be armed by the principality.
It is impossible for Rurik to provide high technology to those "forest savages". It only rewards simple iron spears, inferior mass-produced axes made of pig iron, and arrows with discarded bones and glass arrow clusters. The quantities of all these supplies are also extremely limited.
In Ross's view, these weapons and equipment are rubbish. If the Ludi people get them, they can immediately improve the efficiency of production and life.
"They must treat me? No need to. At least they can't embarrass me, at least they look like a servant instead of a beggar." This is Rurik's mentality.
One-third of the one hundred sleds were modified, and the rest were arranged for carrying people. At least they were erected on wooden posts and nailed with deerskin and linen to keep them warm.
In this way, the horses do not have to be ridden the whole way. They are unsaddled, covered with wool felt, and the reins are connected to the sled, traveling with the entire sled team.
As for the animals that pull the sled, they are luxurious. A docile and unpregnant female deer is selected, and eight deer pull the sled. A single female deer may only have half a horsepower, but the eight deer are a powerful source of power.
A capable yet large-scale Winter Expeditionary Force assembled in New Roseburg’s Harvest Square, and people from all over the city came to watch the event.
Look! Under the howling north wind, there were all kinds of flags. Flags were hung on the top of each sled, and Ross's flag with blue stripes on a white background was flying.
The soldiers were uniformly dressed, with white robes and blue stripes. Only their own hats to keep out the cold came in various shapes. They also have a unified backpack. The hard hemp straps are the drawstrings of the pockets. This simple and solid structure has long been widely used by hunters.There is felt that is curled and coiled around the backpack.
Rurik equipped his men with the attitude of equipping soldiers in World War I. He did not have to be rigid about having muskets. His men were equipped with a large number of lightweight wooden-armed crossbows, as well as steel swords and bucklers. The Nordic warriors so equipped are enough to cope with the current state of war. The strong strength of logistics also determines the strong endurance of this expeditionary force.
Of course, things should be done as prepared as possible.
A special sled team does not participate in any wars. They have one and only one mission, to transport food and new arrows to the Bear Market Town fortress on the north shore of Lake Ladoga.
Lake Ladoga is very large, so it was decided that a guide was needed to find the Luddi village. The army can naturally cross the glacial lake directly, but when it reaches the east coast, it doesn't know whether to go south or north.
Rurik decided to lead the army counterclockwise in the safest way. He also inspected the villages of the Vips people and came to inspect the Bear Festival Town.
He gave a speech in the strong wind. Naturally, the necessary pre-war mobilization speech was not so necessary, but he still said it.
It happened that the army was gathering in Harvest Square, and the golden statues placed in the great temple were moved out, allowing the sunlight to shine on the statues.
The high priest and the lower-level priests got temporary jobs. A deer was sacrificed, the deer's blood was sacrificed to the god, Rurik personally performed the ceremony, and the deer liver was cut out and presented to the high priest. After that, the high priest announced good luck.
Rurik wiped off the deer blood on his dagger, and his breathing was filled with white mist.
"Soldiers, let's set off!"
The army began to move amidst the sound of drums and horns, and Nolen's band immediately played the melody of "Farewell to Slavic Women", which is called very special. Fittingly, because the band lacks trumpet instruments, this piece has a very Nordic feel.
Amid the people's farewells and enthusiastic expectations, the luxuriously equipped and magnificent expeditionary force formed a long snake formation and advanced eastward on Nevsky Prospekt. The east gate of the city opened, and the prince led Queen Svetlana to march in person. As for other wives and concubines, there is no need. After all, Lanna is the real queen, and she alone is enough.
Although the number of troops exceeded 500, the marching army totaled a thousand reindeer, accompanied by more than a hundred war horses.
According to Rurik's idea, when the army arrived at the Vips village, they needed to add more sleds and bring a small group of Vips archers with them. After the army arrives at Bear Festival Town, it is feared that as many as a hundred male and female hunters will bring their own dry food, weapons, sleds and reindeer to join this feast of plunder and exploration.
Naturally, the larger the army, the better, unless the guys who join later are willing to obey the command and provide their own supplies.
Everything was under Rurik's control. When the sled team entered Lake Ladoga and marched along the lake shoreline to Bear Festival Town, a large number of hunters learned about the expedition and gave up their hunting plans and decisively joined it.
More than a hundred hunters insisted on joining the army, and their identities were generally Suomi. Isn't this situation better?Solved? Because Yavlo himself is in the army, he has been living in Novgorod since he arrived in Novgorod for the "hajj" in late autumn. His original plan was to return to the Finnish Lake District in the spring.
Jevro easily organized a team of hundreds. They mainly held short wooden bows and a small number of wooden-armed crossbows, and accepted his command. At the same time, these guys also brought their equipment and never fell behind.
Rurik set up a supply point in Bear Festival Town and unloaded the food. In this way, if the army feels that there is not enough food during the eastward expedition, it can return immediately. According to Rurik's tactical reserves, the army's food can last for a month, so the army can march eastward for at least fifteen days. The best hope is that after annihilating the remnants of Karelia, they will eat their supplies and the army's supplies will be relieved.
Kagan has always thought that Prince Rurik’s desperate calculation is very strange, and it seems to be full of wisdom. He is observing silently, and is also planning to learn the Russian tactics based on this Eastern Expedition. If it works well I learned it and brought it to my hometown grassland.
The troop strength swelled to nearly 700 people, which was already a powerful army in the north.
It was true that the Ross messenger was true before. If the Ross people went crazy, this army would annihilate Rudy as easily as crushing a squirrel to death.
The female leader was at least very happy that Rudy had become Ross's servant, but she overlooked one thing - the people in the village did not know all this.
A huge group came from the north. The people of Ludi suffered their first big defeat at the hands of twenty Russians. They deeply remembered those abominable blue stripes on white cloth, and when they saw it Think of failure.
Now, the Ross army is here again.
The first thing that ordinary Ludi people thought of was to escape. An old man was elected as the temporary leader. He called on the people to run eastward.
At that moment, a small sleigh rushed away, and the female leader rushed back in time. Everyone was shocked to see that she was safe. Although they were suspicious after hearing her description, many people still stopped.
"A village under the trees. Do you want to go in?" Arik looked at it and asked contemptuously.
Rurik shook his head: "If you walk by the sparrows, they will fly away because you are too huge. Don't scare them. We will stay here temporarily and let the old woman explain the situation. . ”
This female leader is the most prestigious, and the simple Ludi people have no good intentions. Since Ross has become the new master and promised to give some iron tools and salt, then Don't run away.
The Ludi people welcomed the arrival of the Ross army, but Rurik was still worried that his army would uproot them. As the saying goes, he would start with a sharp sword and kill himself.
The Russian army camped in the ownerless forest land. Rurik ordered all the men in Ludi who could bear arms to come to the meeting. They said that they would select servants from the tribe and give them some rewards.
The messenger of the order is the female leader. It is true that everyone is trembling with fear and eager to try. They have never seen a powerful external force other than the Karelians, who are said to be giants west of the Great Lakes.Like a Russian.
To show her sincerity, the female leader gathered 233 men and went to see her master with bare hands.
The menacing Russian warriors were ordered to put on a show. They formed a shield wall and held short spears, looking majestic.
This scared the man Lu Di to tremble.
Rurik appeared in a bearskin, with a large number of crystal clear glass balls hanging on his body deliberately, making him look too gorgeous. Rurik felt that he was dressing up as a clown.
This bejeweled appearance really opened the eyes of the Ludi people, and they subconsciously understood that this was the most noble person.
Suddenly, Rurik ordered: "Everyone sit down!"
This was a language they understood, and the Ludi man sat down obediently as soon as he heard it.
Then Rurik preached in ancient Finnish. Most of the words were understood by the Ludi people, and they also knew the promise of the conqueror king.
Everyone was quite surprised. They thought they were going to be slaves. Can they get many benefits by being slaves to the Russians? Even if they want to attack the Karelian people, everyone is still afraid.
Rurik asked them to stand up again. The tall man walked past these short men and randomly selected the outstanding ones among them.
The most young, strong and physically fit men were selected, and men of the next level were also pulled out. Some time ago, they took up arms to attack Ross hunters, but now they have turned into Ross warriors.
Their productivity is too low, so getting new clothes is a major happy event. Now Rurik gave them the white-and-blue-patterned robes of the Russian army, and also gave them iron spearheads and arrows with iron clusters.
A group of people exchanged their guns for cannons, and a hundred-man Rudy's servant army was born. This was their fighting power. Rurik had no extravagant expectations. They only had to do a good job as guides.
A young man named Makut who was believed to be prestigious was appointed as a temporary commander by Rurik to restrain Lüdi's servant army, but the female leader also had to go with the army.
Ryudi, who is still a border people, wants to personally find a pug to be the ruling agent. Is this Makut okay? At least he must perform outstandingly in this operation.
The Ross army temporarily stayed near the village of Ludi, but the hunters and many soldiers accompanying them had already begun trading with the locals.
The Ludi people are extremely short of all kinds of living materials, but they still have a lot of squirrel skins and ferret skins. They were too simple and crazy poor. The Russians did not have to annihilate them to plunder materials. They could rely on the sudden rise of forest foraging fields to complete the plunder of materials through commercial means.
This includes but is not limited to buying a large amount of squirrel skins with salt, and buying the bodies of local women for one night with grain. What is very strange is that not only did the latter not feel that they had suffered a big loss, because each clan did receive a batch of iron tools and salt, and the women of the clan may even have been given Russian blood.
Don’t they have any shame? On the contrary, their relatively isolated life style and the strong rejection of inbreeding deep in their souls determineThis shows that they are willing to have close communication with good strangers.
Yuliuriqi didn’t want to do this, but considering the practical factors, he simply acquiesced.
The Russians are so tall and not afraid of the cold! They kept the seed, and the children born in this way will definitely be strong. The Ludi people are very open-minded. Each clan hopes to have more children and a larger population. As long as the children are still members of the clan, there is no need to worry about issues such as appearance.
Of course Rurik doesn’t want to see this situation now, but this scene has happened many times. There are more and more babies with Viking blood in the principality. This is a situation where the people under the rule take what they want. I really can't control the choice I need.
One good thing is that the Ludi clans feel that they have made a profit. They believe that after the surrender, the new descendants will become strong and cold-resistant, and they will obviously not die of illness easily.
For Ross, their decision is very convenient for the rule of the princely family.
Then joining forces to attack the remnants of Karelia is the biggest pledge of honor for the Ludi people.