If there is an effective means to attack competitors, the Salmon Lord Tribe will certainly use it without hesitation.
This method is to take advantage of the Russian military strength.
So within a few hours after this tribe was conquered by the Rus, their leader Kaihas changed from resolute resistance to active cooperation.
Kejas told all the facts about the gray squirrel tribe in a hostile and competitive state, and out of emotion, he described the enemy as a powerful enemy.
"There are at least a thousand people in that tribe, and they are very powerful. The bows and arrows shot by their warriors can accurately penetrate the gaps in the leaves and hit the deepest squirrels. Their people can also kill wild boars, white bears, and even white bears. It can completely wipe out the forest wolves.”
Kejas tried his best to prove the truth of this statement with a horrified expression.
But when Otto knew the order of magnitude of the enemy's population provided by this person, he couldn't help but laugh.
"A thousand people? A mere thousand people, do you deserve to call yourself powerful?"
Kejas was a little surprised. How could the gray squirrel tribe actually have such a large population? At best, there are only more than 500 people.
Kehas immediately changed his mind: "Yes, compared to your tribe, we humble Ko people are too weak. Being your dog is our greatest honor."
Otto was very satisfied with this frank flattery, and even felt a little elated.
Rurik had a different feeling when he heard it. Facing the surrendered servants, the master must show his strength, so-called having the face of a king.
According to Kehas's description, the territory of the gray squirrel tribe is in the south. As long as you continue upstream along the frozen river, there is a small lake there, and the real gray squirrel tribe is established on the south bank of the lake.
There are no mounds in any sense where the gray squirrel tribe is located. The land there is relatively flat and covered with vegetation, mainly pine and oak. It is entirely because of the cold local climate that the locals have only cultivated a very small amount of land to grow some cold-resistant vegetables.
All Ko people are fishing people and settle mainly in the Oulu River Basin.
The salmon master tribe lives near the mouth of the sea. When huge numbers of salmon come upstream in autumn, they go straight to Lake Oulu to spawn. This tribe can easily catch large amounts of plump fish with a hemp rope net next to the fast river. salmon and become food for the winter.
The tribes upstream of them lost their best fishing spots and couldn't get the best fish. They could only think of other development directions.
Capturing a large number of squirrels, skinning them and selling them to the south in exchange for food seems to be a viable option, not to mention that the squirrel meat itself is also a satisfying food. They were already exploring the north, looking for overland routes to trade with the Norwegians.
The root cause of the dispute is that with limited access to resources, everyone is trying their best to expand the scope of land control to make more profits for their tribe.
So Kejas specifically mentioned a long wall built by a tribe of gray squirrels in the forest.
"It was a low wall, made of stones and wood. Around the low wall, there were also some trip wires for trapping animals, as well as some traps. That wall was the boundary they built."
It sounds like Rurik first thought of the concept of the Great Wall.
Otto ultimately failed to understand the use of a long, low wall. He showed his disdain, "What about that? Let's cross the wall and chop off their heads."
"My lord, perhaps we need some precautions."
Otto didn't care about this suggestion at all, because he didn't look down on these people at all.
Twenty tribal warriors died, a casualty he attributed to the damned stone fortress. I had a successful experience today. Otto had already thought of some strategies for dealing with hillforts and bows.
The Gray Squirrel tribe also has so-called hill forts. Due to the need for defense, their settlements have been wrapped in walls.
"Especially the boring stone wall. It will not be easily broken by our army in the future." Otto said disdainfully.
"Master, their walls are different from ours."
"What? Could it be that you have cultivated to a higher level?"
"Yes! There are even some special wooden stands on which someone can shoot arrows."
"Is that just that?" Otto's attitude was still dismissive.
Rurik had heard a lot of secrets. With his limited confidence, Rurik felt that the gray squirrel tribe might have used the materials at hand to build a "city" in the style of Japan's Warring States Period. To put it bluntly, they use stones and wood to make simple walls to wrap up the village. This is a primitive but relatively effective defense.
To understand why that tribe wanted to build so much, the reason was very simple. It was forced by the Salmon Lord Tribe.
In this regard, there are no real evildoers on either side, only simple conflicts of interest.
"Are those people, like you, good at shooting arrows?" Rurik suddenly asked.
"Yes! My master, there are excellent archers among them who can shoot more accurate arrows. But there are not many of them."
Rurik nodded: "Such enemies are the most dangerous. I understand, and I will take some measures. By the way, are they a lot of iron arrows?"
"No! We are seriously short of iron, my master. When we see the large number of iron helmets you wear, we will know that you are the powerful Varyag people."
He was still uttering words of praise, but Rurik was not moved at all.
He shrugged and sat upright: "In that case, we can make some large shields. As for the enemy's higher walls, wouldn't it be good to make some ladders."
However, Rurik never expected that the concept of "ladder" was relatively new to the Salmon Lord tribe. First of all, this group of tribesmen have seen ladders, but if they really only want to do it, they lack the skills.
In other words, the locals are very lacking in the ability to process wood mortise and tenon structures. This was not the case for the Russians. Those shipbuilders had to use mortise and tenon structures to piece together the core frames of their ships.
In this way, Rurik thought of three types of equipment needed to siege the city.
First, the wooden shield against arrows. That is to say, some small pine trees are cut down, and a large number of thin tree trunks are pieced together and tied with hemp ropes, eventually forming a large wooden shield that can be as wide as two stikas and nearly two meters wide. Because the wood was cut from wet pine, the water in the trunk quickly froze after it was felled, accidentally increasing its strength. The materials selected are all fine pine, and the overall large shield must be something that a strong man can easily lift and push forward. What Rurik could be sure of was that even if the opponent fired an iron-tipped arrow, due to its clumsy short wooden bow, it would at most penetrate the large shield, revealing an arrow that might only be a few millimeters long. As for the bone arrows, the wooden shield will intercept them all.
second. Build a ladder. It is better to cut down two pine trees of similar growth age. Their trunks should be as thick as a strong man's thigh, and some defects should be cut out to hold the thick branches arranged horizontally. Finally, they should be further tied and fixed with hemp ropes. Since Rurik didn't know the height of the opponent's "city wall", he assumed that the height of the "city wall" was at least three meters, so the ladder needed to be four meters long.
Third, the battering ram. Only the weapon proposed by Rurik attracted positive responses from several young Russian warriors present. Because the Russians have ample success stories. The so-called battering ram, in Rurik's idea, is to pick a large pine tree and chop it down after arriving at the destination, and then tie a large number of hemp ropes throughout the trunk, and then a number of thin tree trunks are tied around the hemp ropes. A group of warriors carried thin tree trunks, and finally large pine trees, and directly attacked the enemy's wall or gate.
All the opinions came from a little boy. Kejas was shocked and realized what a powerful enemy he had fought against before.
The fight is inevitable and the fight will continue.
The siege weapon used to attack Gray Squirrel Hill Fort was easy to build. Otto was very satisfied with his son's fantastic idea, but he still couldn't believe that with the help of these items, his tribe could achieve zero casualties. .
Otto didn't just fall into arrogance and forget about himself. In the melee, he saw the courage of the local people to defend their homeland. So will this kind of person’s surrender last long? If one day the Russians become weak, they will definitely declare themselves free.
We must use them to fight for the Russians and inspire their fighting spirit.
Otto thought of a brilliant idea.
He solemnly said to Kehas: "Now, I ask you to provide an army to fight for us. You already know this very well."
"Yes! Master!"
"Now I give you a chance to show your loyalty. When the battle is won, you will also benefit. I know that you donated a lot of furs and food to us, and you actually lost a lot. What you lost is completely OK Get it back from the gray squirrel tribe. I promise that after the battle, you can take half of the loot."
After hearing Yevlo's careful translation, Kejas rubbed his ears vigorously and said nothing, and asked Yevlo if there was any problem with the wording when translating. Ah, he really didn't believe that the Varangians were actually kind.
Otto said again: "I can give you half of the loot, provided that your people actively cooperate. How many people can you provide?"
"This" Kejas immediately thought that this was a test of himself by the Russians.
While hesitating, he realized that there was something deep inside. Sending people to join the war is a foregone conclusion. Participating in the war is an act of surrendering to the master. Once a fight breaks out, one's own people may suffer heavy casualties.
Kejas also believed that if a war with the Gray Squirrel tribe was announced, and there were powerful Ross people behind it, the men of the tribe would be absolutely indignant, and they would regain their dignity that had been trampled by the Ross people by completely defeating the Gray Squirrel tribe.
Kejas thought for a while, "One hundred people should be enough."
"No! It's too few. You need to provide at least two hundred people."
Kejas looked embarrassed: "But! The men of our tribe, those very brave men, were all killed by the powerful you. Master, do you ask me to organize some ten-year-old boys to join the army?"
Some ten-year-old boy? Otto did know that when the old guy was resisting, he did organize a large number of young boys to throw stones and cause trouble. Those children were simply a burden, and fighting was a matter for strong men.
Maybe there wasn't much deception in this guy's words. Otto thought about it. Almost all of the buried enemy corpses were adult men.
Otto thought of a compromise: "You must provide me with one hundred and fifty people. I don't want a ten-year-old boy, and the minimum age must be twelve. What I want is a man. In my opinion, a boy must be ten years old." At the age of two, you can do what a man should do.”
Kejas is still very embarrassed.
"Don't you understand?" Otto suddenly shouted, scaring Rurik to the point of being startled. "I will release one hundred and fifty outstanding men, and they will fight for us! If we win, your tribe will receive preferential treatment. If they don't fight well, all the remaining people in your tribe will die!"
There is no doubt that this is the ultimate threat. To be honest, Rurik does not like Otto's threats. No! This is not a threat, this is something that could actually happen.
After all, his father was also the big leader. Although Rurik declared his ownership of these conquered people and became their master, if his father did not admit it, it would really be of no benefit.
So at this moment, Rurik was completely on his father's side.
"Kejas, I advise you to accept our request. Listen, we can help you enter a new era of prosperity, provided you cooperate unconditionally. If you show any laziness or betrayal, your family members will be in trouble!"
Rurik said such intimidating words with a cold expression. Kejas was afraid. He was not afraid of Rurik, a child, but the powerful force behind him.
Kejas lowered his head and knelt on the ground, thus swearing that he fully agreed with all the orders of the Rus.
"You are very smart." Otto's expression relaxed, and then he stood up and said, "Let's go! Go outdoors and gather your men. We are going to form a joint army to attack our common enemy."
Originally, even in the warm season, Kejas intentionally organized tribesmen to attack the gray squirrel tribe. Both sides were competing for animal resources in the forest and rivers. If the two sides met, the probability of fighting was very high.
The Salmon Lord tribe does not object to fighting, but Kehas just doubts whether winter warfare is appropriate.
In this way, large numbers of men were released. Under the escort of heavily armed Ross warriors, they poured into a relatively flat area in the village.
After Otto's instruction, Kejas stood on a haystack. After his tribe shrank and gathered together, in the biting cold wind, he loudly shouted out the good results of his negotiations with the Russians.
"We're going to attack the gray squirrel tribe! We're going to end this with the help of the Ross people!"
"Everything we lose can be regained by the gray squirrel tribe!"
"The Russians are reasonable! As long as we surrender and fight for them, we will get benefits."
"As long as we fight for them, when we are attacked, if the Tavastians attack us, the Rus will organize an army to help us!"
"We could have avoided fighting the Ross people. It was the gray squirrel tribe that caused all this. It was they who instigated discord and caused this war! The gray squirrel tribe is the source of all evil!"
After these remarks, the dejected men originally discussed that the Russians would execute all the men in public, but they did not expect that it turned out to be a huge opportunity for reward.
After Kejas's words became clear, the men's emotions were aroused.
Rurik and Otto were both very surprised, and the Komen burst out with an astonishing roar. It was obvious that they were highly enthusiastic about attacking the gray squirrel tribe.
Rurik doesn't think they are very smart, because smart people can understand that the Russians want to expand the spoils of war through new wars, but also to consume the men of the conquered tribes. After all, the bravest warriors are often on the front line and will naturally encounter key blows from the enemy.
Therefore, there are often only two types of people who survive, the war mad with good luck and strength, and the cowardly.
If a fighting madman is promoted, Rurik believes that such people will become loyal supporters in order to keep the rewards of their new master.
As for the weak, they basically can't make any trouble, but they can pay taxes steadily.
Rurik actually has no objection to the gray squirrel tribe, which is just a new tribe that will be conquered by the Rus. As for their conflicts with the Salmon Lord tribe, Rurik was not interested either.
What Rurik is most concerned about is whether the children of the conquered tribes agree with the rule of the Rus after this expanded "Northern Hunting" operation.
After all, the master of the new era is Rurik! Those children will be the warriors of the future, and they are the fighting force that they need to control. But the guy who is now in the prime of life may be old when he grows up.
Amid the indignation of the men of the Salmon Lord tribe, one hundred and fifty were singled out.
Otto and Rurik supervised this process, and the selected people were as old as forty and as young as fifteen.
Disarmed, they were rearmed, and the Kos took up bows and spears again. Of course, these so-called weapons are really not that good in the eyes of the Russians.
At this scene lit by a bonfire, Otto appointed the tribal leader Kejas as the commander of the tribal soldiers. This person's job is to be on the front line of the army when the battle begins. Regarding this, Kejas has been fully mentally prepared.
Otto also selected an elite force, with a total strength of only 200 people. He left behind a group of warriors who continued to control the village and the remaining natives.
Otto's threats were by no means mere threats. He controlled the families of those men and forced them to fight bravely.
Under the cover of night, a coalition army of up to 350 people was born.
The Russians cheered that the battle could be further expanded, and generally felt disdainful and even worried about a group of losers joining their team. Since the big leader gave this order, the warriors had no choice but to agree.
After a battle, the team needs to revise.
The team does need to be revised, because the Russians have been on the road in the past few days, and it is time to seize the housing in the village of Ko and settle down for a few days to recharge.
At the same time, they also had to use local materials to build a batch of equipment necessary for siege, and take them on the glacier to reach the target.
