It seems that money can only buy some people, or most of the Dukes are still waiting and watching.
At this time, Olegin, who was in a mess, saw Otto, who had been silent, and the two children beside him.
The whole scene made him feel alienated, as if the Russians didn't care about his decision or even the disagreements and quarrels that were taking place.
Olegin spoke: "Otto, my old friend, you Russians, are you willing to continue to fight south with me? If we attack the Silver Castle in the south, a lot of money and endless glory will be ours."
It sounds tempting, and it just sounds tempting. Look at the current atmosphere. Everyone is either opposed or skeptical. Where are the real die-hard supporters?
Otto calmly pulled Rurik to his side, and gently held his son's shoulders with both hands: "Olegin, you shouldn't ask me, you should ask Rurik instead."
As for Rurik, he looked into the eyes of King Origen, and with a calm attitude, he said a simple answer in the eyes of many allies - I object.
Yes, Rurik is an opponent at this moment, because the Russians have fulfilled their contract, renewed the contract or signed a new agreement. The Russians do not support it and have no power to force them.
Rurik said frankly: "King, it is not our plan to continue fighting south."
"I decided, and I'm here now."
"No! It's not in the contract." Rurik looked at the forms on the left and right again and said slowly: "We Russians have done our best to benevolent and righteous. I see that my friendly troops have all become rich, and my soldiers are already full of complaints. If we continue Go down..."
Olegin shook his head. He thought Rurik could speak highly, but he didn't expect that his negative remarks were the same as everyone else's. "You mean, you object?"
"You can continue fighting, but you have to pay more."
"More money?!" Olegin got a headache when he mentioned the matter of giving money. "Good boy, how many benefits do you want to get?"
At this moment, Rurik broke free from his father's big hand and took three steps forward. He looked directly at Olegin with his blue eyes and said extremely seriously: "Give me at least one hundred thousand silver coins."
"What? How much did you say?" Olegin even took a step back subconsciously.
"Give me 100,000 silver coins! After all, we Russians have contributed a lot to the conquest of Kalmar. All of you here are men. You are all at least whose arrows destroyed the Kalmar army. King, if you don't give me the money, Even if I personally are willing to continue going south with you, my soldiers are not willing. They will definitely hold me hostage and force me to retreat to my hometown."
In good conscience, the special fighting of the Russians is indeed the key to a quick victory, but to be honest, if the infantry really fights at close range, Olegin will never defeat the enemy, but the price of such a victory is higher. The current situation is that the expected bloody battle in Kalmar did not happen, and the battle turned into a devastating massacre by the Swedish army.
The coalition has a huge force, and this is the basis for continuing to fight!
Olegin hesitated a little, but he didn't realize that Rurik's remarks were intentional.
"Then let's go! No one will stop you!" Karl yelled, and then said some vicious words.
Just because Karl knew that Rurik's request was absolutely impossible to accept, or that Rurik made this request to force the king to drive Ross away.
The atmosphere was tense in an instant, for example, Otto's sword was already half drawn.
Seeing this fear, Olegin pushed Karl away angrily: "How dare you insult your allies?!"
When he came back to his senses, he saw that the Rurik boy was still standing calmly, his motionless eyes were not trembling at all, but the flames of the oil lamps in the tent were beating violently, with a murderous look.
Karl said disdainfully: "This is the most greedy request! King, this kid is talking nonsense, why should we give him 100,000 silver coins? He is crazy!"
"Then let's stop here!" Rurik's face remained unchanged: "We Russians have fulfilled our commitment. King, I will neither support nor oppose your new resolution unless you really come up with 100,000 pieces of gold." Silver coins serve as military expenses for us Russians.”
One hundred thousand silver coins is one thousand pounds of silver, and Rurik concluded that Olegin couldn't get this money. Based on his own estimation, he might have looted the entire Kalma coin, but it was unknown whether its total value was a thousand pounds of silver.
It seems that the situation is a bit weird. Rurik is planning to announce that the Russians are unilaterally withdrawing from the battle.
He spun around and faced the Dukes present: "Everyone, I'm glad to have fought side by side with you until now. As you can see, the so-called trophies we the Russians got are just dried fish to satisfy our hunger. How will Kalmar's silver coins be distributed? , this is what you and the king need to discuss. The battle involving us Russians is over, there is nothing more to say, goodbye."
As soon as he finished speaking, Rurik walked straight out of the door without looking back, leaving many dukes in the tent.
In this situation, Otto, who wanted to raise his fist to give Karl a few blows, glared at Karl and spat: "Boy, your father is the king, but you are not."
The Russians left the meeting unhappily, making the entire meeting very boring. Otto took Carlotta with him and evacuated, making it impossible to retain the Russians.
Olegin's head was confused for a moment after he was kicked off. He was very confused, but he would not continue to criticize his crown prince's recklessness in front of everyone.
The Russian people's great achievement was that they clearly did not give face to their king, and their arrogance made Olegin feel like a huge stone was pressing on his chest.
He clutched his chest and said deliberately: "Let them go, and the spoils of war will naturally not be given to them. And you, all the Dukes, are you still willing to continue fighting south? You may not know that from the news I learned, Silver Castle really has silver coins. A mountain of mountains! Some people have given up the opportunity to share the silver mountain, I hope you will not."
For a moment, the attention of the Dukes present was focused on the so-called Silver Mountain. When the Russians evacuated, there was indeed one less person to share the cake!
Olegin tried his best to lobby for the so-called Silver Castle and the so-called Silver Mountain. All the rhetoric was obviously his imagination at this moment to deceive everyone. What was the result? This old guy talked so much that he actually believed it.
People were deeply stimulated by such language, and more determined people like Winderson also said that the fight could continue. "You still have to give us a lot of money, but I won't be as greedy as the Russians. What the Russians say is not unreasonable. The brothers are too tired. It is indeed not advisable to attack with a exhausted army."
Others followed suit, and Ungrif of Unclas suggested: "I want to transport the spoils back first, and then recruit some warriors from my homeland. It is still June, and I think we will send out troops in early August, and we will bring them after the war." With the spoils of war, I’m going back to harvest wheat.”
"This is good!" Wenderson immediately expressed his support.
A month to repair? Olegin thought for a while, and now he really wanted to compromise with his allies. If he angered one more, he would withdraw like the Russians.
He doesn't blame the Russians. The contract is a contract. The Russians want to help the coalition forces reach Kalmar. Now that the task has been completed, it is reasonable for them to evacuate. It's also a contract, so it's reasonable not to give them an immediate share of the spoils.
Olegin calmed down and thought about it. Rurik made a request that the Malaren people could never implement, and gave him one hundred thousand silver coins? What a fuss! Adding money is not such an addition.
Kalmar at night was like a violent volcanic crater. The thick smoke obscured the stars and illuminated the entire Swedish military camp.
Kalmar has become a scorched earth, and its use value is temporarily gone.
Olegin and the Dukes who were leading the battle made their new plan in detail, which was to completely burn Kalmar. Since it was on fire, they would burn it even more thoroughly to vent their anger on the Danish forces.
The main force of the team withdrew to Borgholm with the captured prisoners. The damage to the local fortress was only the collapse of the wooden door, and the residential buildings near the shore were mostly intact. Looking at this area, Borgholm is indeed the best gathering point.
Such a large army temporarily placed the trophies collected by Kalmar in Borgholm. After the troops repaired for a few days, they organized a fleet to transport them back to their home in Lake Mälaren. When the fleet sailed south in July, a new force was recruited!
Although without the support of the Russians, Olegin, who had achieved a series of victories, was so confident that he no longer needed to ask the Russians to fight in person. At most, it was enough to purchase their good weapons.
On the other hand, Rurik had a serious and unbeatable posture in the tent. He really felt relaxed when he walked out of the tent.
However, Otto suddenly caught up and grabbed him by the neck: "Rurik, you actually said such words!"
"Ah?" Rurik was shocked: "You want to blame me?"
"No! You know they will definitely object. One hundred thousand silver coins, our contract is far less than that."
"I did it on purpose. Dad, you also saw their attitude."
Otto clenched his fists with his loosened hands, "Let's go back to the camp and talk about this. Boy, I know you have other ideas."
The most useful "trophy" obtained by the Russians in this battle was dried fish. When Otto and Rurik returned, the ten sheep had been skinned and roasted on the fire. Many people who had eaten had curled up and fell asleep, while others were still nibbling on half-cooked barbecue.
Seeing the Duke's return, Jevro hurriedly slapped the lazy guys, and a group of mercenaries gathered one after another.
"You guys keep eating." Otto waved his hand and asked for a greasy leg of lamb to feast on by the campfire.
Otto focused his anger on chewing the meat, and his bloody mouth was almost ready to chew the lamb leg into pieces. The Russians were offended by Origen. At that moment, Otto really wanted to break Karl's teeth and make this bad mouth honest.
"Dad, are you still angry?" Rurik was also chewing meat, but his movements were much more elegant.
"There are a lot of idiots in this place. Olegin didn't say anything. In my opinion, that old boy just thinks that victory is his first priority. Without our assistants in the future, they will still be able to succeed easily."
"Huh? Do you care about them? Why should we Russians care about other people's attitudes? Recognizing him as the king was just out of profit considerations from the beginning, wasn't it?"
When Rurik said this, Otto felt a lot more relieved.
"They don't welcome us to grab the spoils of war. Anyway, our army has completed the contract. If we continue to fight, they still won't pay..."
Otto shook his head: "He will definitely not give you one hundred thousand silver coins."
"This is the effect I want."
Otto, who felt calmer, asked himself, as the leader of the Ross tribe, he could declare the battle to continue and achieve greater glory. "Actually, if the money he gives is reasonable, we can continue to go south. In my opinion, the enemy is not as strong as imagined. Our coalition can defeat more enemies."
Rurik was stunned and turned to look at Otto: "No! That's not the case at all. That's because we Russians are very strong. If we continue to fight with Olegin, it is no longer our battle. If there is a battle, I will Going north."
"Is that all? Look at your soldiers. They didn't make a fortune because of the war. Everyone looks regretful."
Rurik didn't care what Otto seemed to be implying, just because he had already planned a new plan, or this plan was deeply rooted in the heart of every Ross warrior.
Rurik said deliberately: "There are still a thousand of our soldiers on Tombstone Island. They are still in a daze, and more soldiers in their hometown are also gearing up. We have to attack a target personally. We can make a fortune ourselves, but we can't let anyone Brothers, it’s chilling!”
To hell with all the anger! Otto's eyes ignited with two balls of fire, and he patted Rurik's back hard with his big greasy hands; "Say yes, like a warrior. Tell me, who to kill?"
"Gotlanders! We attack Gotland, attack their core, the place called Visby."
"Ah?! You...are you looking forward to a decisive battle?"
"What? You lack confidence?"
"This..." Otto indeed lacks confidence. He has an inherent understanding that even if the enemies on Gotland Island are weak in combat power, there are so many of them! How strong are the Russians? Do you want to risk everything and gather all the soldiers to implement a decisive battle?
Rurik said bluntly: "I just want to bet on the fate of the country! No, this is not a bet. Dad, you may not be able to estimate that our Rus tribe is actually very powerful. Look at the Gotlanders, they have lost Denmark. The protection of the forces. Let Olegin fight to the death with the Danes who may come, and we will conquer Gotland."
"Can we... really win big?"
"As long as we gather enough troops, we can win a great victory, but the decisive battle must be commanded by me to ensure a complete victory. Looking at the current situation, people will find it incredible if we really return home empty-handed. So, let's just bet on it. Wouldn’t it be great if we use all the strength of Russia to capture the Visby Castle on Gotland, make them surrender, and take away their wealth?”
Otto was so frightened that he trembled all over, and the leg of lamb in his hand suddenly lost its aroma: "I have thought about this before, but I didn't expect you to decide to do it."
"Are you still scared?"
"Afraid? You actually suspect that your father is afraid of those stupid Gotlanders?!"
Rurik's expression remained unchanged: "Don't worry, this is our war. We Russians only fight for ourselves. God protects us, so our army will win."
Just when Otto was still having some doubts, Carlotta ran over decisively and threw herself at Rurik's side: "I support! Aosta and I absolutely support it! The ones who loot the most are the Gotlanders. We must continue to take revenge! Until they completely surrender."
"Look." Rurik smiled slightly and said: "The people of Ostara demand revenge, and I will continue to take revenge. In my opinion, the ultimate revenge is to conquer them, let them become us, and let them forget their past. identity, but consider yourself a New Rusian. Dad, maybe you think this is strange, but if I want to rule a huge principality, I have to do this."
"Ask them to surrender? Are they willing to surrender?" Otto still thought this was ridiculous and couldn't help but curl his lips.
"Easy to handle! Those who surrender will be spared, and those who resist resolutely or are suspected of rebellion will be killed. Dad, I think that Karl does not welcome us. We Russians should also think about what will happen to us if Karl becomes the king? Maybe when that day comes, Karl will actively exclude us and even break out a war."
"This...is not impossible."
"In my opinion, there are no eternal enemies, only eternal interests. He doesn't share his interests with us, so why should we be with him? If we have similar interests with the Gotlanders, we will become friends. I am going to fight now Get them to surrender, just this year! Just before the wheat harvest!"
Ever since he knelt before the high priest and was listened to by Rose's grandmother, Otto's feelings towards his son had changed.
The gods must have protected the Russian people, so they gave Rurik to Rurik. Otto has always supported Rurik. Although this time he may have to gather the strength of the Russian people to launch a decisive battle, it seems that the victory still belongs to Rurik.
"Then let's do it! We'll leave as soon as we replenish the fresh water tomorrow morning. This damn place smells like burnt food, and I don't want to stay there for a moment." With that said, Otto threw the sheep bones into the fire, and ordered the man who had just communicated with his father and son to do it. Jevlo, who was so frightened that his whole body shivered, went to break off another mutton chop.
