Those Karelians seem young?
No. They simply fled to the north. After settling down in their winter pastures, the people who survived the disaster learned from the pain and planned revenge.
The old chief died of exhaustion on the way to escape, and his son Caskuwe was elected as the new chief by the refugees.
The strength of the "Big Tent" tribe is no longer there, but their influence still exists.
The old chief made some plans for his son before his death, but Caskuwe followed the wishes of the people and made a decision that went against his father.
revenge! Must take revenge! Revenge should be taken as early as possible!
The priest who spread defeatist remarks was killed by his own hands. The refugees no longer had any thoughts of failure and decadence. After surviving the first winter after fleeing, they began to fight back.
The first step in counterattack is to get married.
Chief Kaskuwe took his cronies to the "Small Tent" tribe to propose marriage, and the marriage proposal went more smoothly than he thought. Since the two sides are traditional allies, the "small tent" has long been intimidated by the "big tent". A young man who succeeded the chief even came to propose marriage. Marriage was a must.
Kaskuwe married the daughter of the "Little Tent". After the rice was cooked, he told the leader of the "Little Tent" tribe a terrible truth.
The "Big Tent" tribe suffered heavy losses in the powerful southern Rus' war. The sacred bear altar was taken away, and the large camp Isotalva was massacred. The tribe suffered huge losses in their prime years, as did the reindeer they depended on for their livelihood. The once-popular tribe now has only one-fifth of its original population...
His description is very true. Come to think of it, no chief really wants his strength to be greatly weakened.
For a moment, the leader of the "small account" felt that he had been deceived.
Because the alliance between each other is based on the strength of the "Big Tent", it is no longer possible for the other party to deter the two allies of the "Little Tent" and "Eastern Tent" from the perspective of strength, but their daughter has already been married.
The news spread like wildfire, and some elites of the "Xiaozhang" tribe were ready to take action. They don't know what the Rus are, maybe they are just a group of strong men, but the "big tent" is the strong men right in front of them!
In the past days, tribes have been sending tribute to each other. The "Big Tent" tribe is a group of blood-suckers. While they are strong, their own side is constantly weak.
Some elites sighed deeply: "Why should we respect that Caskuwe as the chief? My sister is married, and we still need to provide a group of reindeer. It makes no sense. Now we are stronger!"
Therefore, the speaker is the eldest son of the current leader of the "Small Tent" tribe. With his power and prestige, he is basically the unofficial next leader.
He decided to strike first, bypassing his ambiguous father, and organized a group of capable cronies to assassinate Kaskuwe.
But he never expected that Caskuwei would go against his father's decision this time, and he consciously wanted to use brutal means to get what he wanted.
On the contrary, it was Caskuwe who took the initiative and raided the elite battalion commander of the "Little Tent" tribe, and carried out a secret night attack on the extremely close associates of the leader's family.
The bloody night has passed, and the "Little Tent" tribe has changed.
Kaskuwe's newlywed wife screamed and cried, and angrily criticized her husband for being despicable and shameless in front of the corpses on the ground.
Looking at Kaskuwe, his face was as calm as stone. He deliberately spared the life of the old leader, and when faced with his questioning, he specifically explained: "This is a necessary evil! From now on, there will only be the Great Tribe, and your tribe will no longer exist. I will treat your tribe well, and I will rule all tribes. Then organize a large army to fight against the Rus invaders, the hateful Tavastians, and the hateful Suomis."
There has been a major political reshuffle in the Karelian society, entirely due to the huge disaster caused by the brutal attack of the Rus Principality. The Karelian people, who were still in the tribal alliance stage, completed the upgrade of the emirate within a year. .
Caskuwei summoned all the frightened herdsmen in the small tent tribe. He declared himself the "chief of all deer herders", claiming that this was the power given to him by God, and God also gave him an important mission.
"The Russians are here south of the lake, and they want to take away our deer and pastures, kill all the men and children, and make slaves of the women. They are already doing this and amassing an army on the shores of the lake. I will unite all the deer farmers, organize a huge army, and wipe out all the Rus."
In the spring of 835, he announced the establishment of the "Karelian Emirate". Kaskuwe was the country's first chief, and the chief's position would become hereditary.
What choice do the herdsmen have? They are grazing in this bitter cold land. The herdsmen are willing to pay tribute to the strong man, as long as the strong man promises to protect everyone's safety.
The "little tent" tribe disappeared overnight, the herders suddenly became the subjects of Kaskuwe, and the men swore allegiance to this strong man. As for the unlucky ones who were killed, they saw the Kaskuwe sent men to bury them.
After Kaskuwe succeeded, the remnants of the "Big Tent" tribe drove their reindeer herds from the winter pastures to the traditional territory of the expelled "Small Tent" tribe. Kaskuwe's population strength finally returned to 10,000, and the A fighting force of up to 3,000 men can be mustered. What is a warrior? As long as a boy has the ability to draw a bow and shoot an arrow, he is a warrior. Therefore, the so-called three thousand army has huge water content. Facing the powerful Ross invaders, Caskuwei did not have a good response measure.
The disadvantages of a warrior's personal abilities and weapons should be made up for by the superiority of troops, right?
In the summer of 835, in the remote north, in what is now the Republic of Karelia, the indigenous Karelia people were spontaneously carrying out a wide-area consolidation of power.
The old leader of the "Small Tent" tribe died inexplicably one night. Caskuwe's wife knew that the murderer was actually her husband. However, this woman is not a fool, Kaskuwe will die, and her son will most likely become the king of all Karelia people!
This man made a great decision, and an army of two thousand people rushed towards the "Eastern Tent" tribe. He ordered the tribal leaders to abdicate and declared the "Eastern Tent" tribe to disappear and become part of the emirate.
As for the unknown death of the "Dongzhang" tribe leader and his family, no one cared about it anymore.
Kaskuwe's integration movement continues, and this time he continues to move eastward to recruit more eastern people.
They arrived at Lake Onega and swept through all the small tribes along its shores. These residents do not have a unified self-identity at all. Although they have formed a large number of small communities with only a few dozen or more than a hundred people, they do not have their own names at all.
Kaskuwe had a simple idea. The environment here was a bit like Lake Ladoga, so he simply called the residents of Lake Onega Vips. The reason for this was just because the real Vips once surrendered to him, and He needs the submission of the Vips.
Kaskuwe spent the whole warm summer recruiting troops and horses, and even encouraged the herdsmen to immigrate immediately to the shores of Lake Ladoga, where the water and grass were better.
The results of his "armed action" even far exceeded expectations, and also greatly increased the knowledge of the accompanying Karelia people.
The world is so vast. People walked eastward in the boreal forest and met another group of people-the Perm people.
This term directly refers to the concept of "exchange" in ancient Finnish, but there are not many people in Perm, and they do not have a large dominant tribe. They are just densely packed herdsmen clans and families who have agreed to live in a place called Daily necessities are exchanged in the market of "Perm". There are almost no outsiders in their world, so they all call themselves "Perm people".
Kaskuwe's army came, although when they rushed to the Perm area, there were only 500 soldiers left due to various reasons. Kaskuwe personally led the team and rushed to the market of the Perm people. The great chief of the emirate came to a dispersed clan society. This concept was like the army of the Principality of Rus violently attacking the emirate.
The warchief lived like his most hated enemy, but it was so effective that he managed to recruit as many as two thousand men and hundreds of thousands of reindeer without any effort!
The Karelia people are worthy of being the little overlords of the northern ice field. The founders among them do have stronger organizational and mobilization capabilities. This is also the reason why they have been able to beat Finnish tribes such as Tavastia and Suomi in the past and have always taken advantage of them.
The expansion of the Karelia Emirate was not at all a way for Caskuve to demonstrate his power. He hoped that more and more of his subjects would gather. Only with more troops could he regain the land and dignity lost to the Rus.
The troops marching eastward returned to the pastures at the junction of Lake Ladoga and Lake Onega in late autumn. At this time, even the local Ludi tribe declared their allegiance to the chief of the emirate.
The assembly order was issued just after the first snow of winter. According to Kaskuwe's order, all men in the emirate who could draw the bow string were warriors and must assemble in the new large camp.
He began to count his troops, and finally regained his lost confidence in the face of an army of up to 6,000 people.
It's just that these 6,000 people are full of moisture, and there are only 4,000 men with real fighting ability.
How can the Karelia people, who move north and south of the Arctic Circle, feed a large number of people relying on their cold zone animal husbandry? Their ancestors were indeed residents of North Asia. In the ancient times, they followed the footsteps of reindeer from the Central Siberian woodlands to the current area and entered the Great Schism period in Europe. The Karelia people were only part of them, but they also occupied a very large area. Bad territory. It's not like their blood relatives, the Elshanians, are growing wheat, and it's even less like their relatives, the Magyars, who have become a cavalry nation with a large population.
Such a force has been enough to support Kaskuwe's self-confidence. The power is in the hands of the army. Everyone is calling for a war, and launching a counterattack war is the fundamental reason why the people support his rule.
Kaskuwe subjectively hopes to have a decisive battle with the Russians, but there is a high probability that he will suffer a loss in a head-on confrontation.
It would be great if we could extract their stronghold and achieve early victory.
They were supposed to perform winter solstice sacrifices at the Bear Altar, but now they can only do this at the new camp. The sacrificial ceremony became an opportunity for the army to assemble. He quietly provocatively selected two thousand people and began a counterattack after the ceremony. Target, Bear Altar!
Naturally, they first arrived at their hometown of Isotalva. The Karelian army, which was a mixture of multiple communities, discovered densely packed human skeletons under the white snow.
People were first frightened, then furious.
A chief will ask rationally: "Great chief, the Russians are so fierce, how should we deal with them?"
What kind of clever plan could Kascu have? He was shocked by the bones on the ground, but he had to maintain a tough attitude in front of his subordinates: "The Ross invaders established a fortress at the Bear Altar, and we are going to seize it. According to the previous battle, Ross Human arrows are very powerful, so we have prepared more arrows this time. With the advantage of arrows, we will be able to demolish their fortress and kill all the enemies without mercy."
He just wanted to rely on the superiority of his troops to achieve his first victory, just like the Zulu army besieging the British military base.
The Ross hunter who was hunting squirrel skins encountered a large number of moving "black skins" that seemed to be bears but not bears. When they realized that they were potential enemies, the hunters immediately retreated.
The two sides have essentially discovered each other. Cascuwei did not even think about hiding the army's actions. Seeing this situation, he ordered: "Follow me!"
The Ross hunters retreated to the wooden castle in Bear Festival Town. Someone beat the deerskin drum frantically to attract everyone's attention. The messenger had concluded that the visitor was a Karelian, and the number of them was shocking. They obviously wanted to demolish Bear Festival Town.
The Russian hunters and fishermen turned into warriors. They were warriors, and the winter period was the busiest time in Bear Festival Town. After the winter sacrifice in New Rossburg, there were more than 50 Russians and a hundred Slavs. People, even fifty Suomi people, arrived at Bear Festival Town on sleds to plunder the local animal resources.
The war threatened this emerging city. There were as many as 400 settlers in the entire city. The men made a major decision together and issued a very simple statement: "This is the territory acquired by the Principality of Rus. Even if the battle is fought to the end, No one can be left behind!”
Women and children were evacuated urgently, and some older men were also forcibly persuaded to leave. More than a hundred people had to leave the town of Bear Festival. They rode sleighs on the frozen Lake Ladoga just to call for help from New Roseburg.
What is the enemy's strength? Maybe a thousand people or more.
At least the enemy's goal is obviously to destroy the fortress, so they must pay the price with blood!
The Principality of Ross mobilized 250 combat-ready men in Bear Festival Town. Since almost all of them were hunters, almost everyone held a bow. Not only short wooden bows, but also a batch of wooden arm crossbow equipment, and even heavy individual equipment such as steel arm crossbows specially used for bear hunting.
As early as the expenditure on building settlements, Rurik thought about the issue of urban defense. The border troubles in Karelia have not been eliminated, and the existence of Bear Festival Town itself is an insult to the enemy. It is also the gathering place for the next crusade against the enemy, so a big fuss must be made in defense.
The hunters only wanted the leather, and they kept all the meat in reserve. There is also a batch of wheat and frozen fish in stock in Xiongji Town. Although there were more than 200 people crowded into the fortress, everyone prepared a lot of food by themselves for hunting needs, and even some big cakes bought in New Roseburg during the big sacrifice.
People are confident that their food reserves are enough to withstand a month-long snowstorm, so they can withstand a month-long siege by the enemy.
Based on their own experience, it would take at least fifteen days for the prince to gather reinforcements after receiving the news.
Fifteen to twenty days is the critical period to become a guardian!
On the other hand, Chief Kaskuwe led the expedition in person, but his army of 2,000 men was not monolithic. Multiple tribes and dense clan communities recognized his power, and the composition of the army was also very complex. The soldiers lacked the usual tacit understanding. As for attacking the Russians, they did not have a clear concept of dying in battle, but they all thought about fighting after the war. Grab some iron tools.
The news that the Russians had a large amount of iron tools spread like wildfire, which almost eliminated half of the people's fear of the enemy.
A group of troops clad in deerskin, armed with short spears, throwing spears, wooden shields, and a large number of bows and arrows began to appear on the snow-covered grassland outside Bear Festival Town. The Ross army, waiting for work, relied on wooden walls and sentry towers to prepare for defense. Combat.
The crossbow has been cocked, and the torsion slingshots placed at the corners of the tower and fortress have also been charged. Many people did not wear armor at all, so they used deerskins and bearskins as temporary defense.
They hid behind the walls and maintained absolute silence, leaving the entire fortress virtually deserted.
Such a situation put Kaskuwe in a difficult position. Fortunately, this Karelian army was quite reckless.
Compared to the Rus defenders, the hostile Karelia warriors had more hunting experience and lacked the concept of fighting.
Someone murmured: "Maybe the Russians were scared away. Their main force is not here, so they were worried that they would not have enough troops to flee overnight."
If someone says this, someone will test it.
Cascuve sent a hundred men to approach the wooden castle from all directions. Just as it approached the trench, the hidden Ross defenders suddenly appeared.
The crossbows and torque slingshots fired accurately first, and then the bows and arrows fired randomly.
The Karelian scouts suffered losses and fled, so for the sake of glory, Kaskuwe issued an order for the entire army to attack.
Two thousand people besieging a wooden castle with 250 people? Logically speaking, "attack ten times" is a correct tactic, but how can the weapons and equipment and fighting will of both sides be on the same level? The one hundred Slavic warriors in the defenders are not good at archery, but they are also spearmen who have fought fierce battles in the flag team. Over the years, good food and good food have made them different from other Slavs and become strong and healthy beings.
Most of the people in Rus are armed with crossbows, and the Suomi people are also good archers.
Of course, the Karelians and the Suomis are of the same origin, and both are good archers. But after surrendering to the Principality of Ross, Suomi hunters have been fully equipped with iron arrow clusters, and they can even buy a lot of them at the market!
On the other hand, the Karelian army and the army assembled by Chief Kaskuwe are still using bone clusters extensively.
On the first day of the battle, the Karelians abandoned more than fifty corpses and retreated with more than a hundred wounded in various conditions.
On the third day, a new round of attack began again. Kaskuwe improvised some wooden shields made of small tree trunks and continued the attack. This time they successfully reached the trench, but they suffered a loss in climbing the wooden wall.
On the seventh day, this is already the third round of attack! Arrows have become the main weapon for attacking each other. The Karelian army has been reduced to causing damage by throwing arrow rain. It is impossible to predict what kind of results it can achieve. Attacking has become more of a form of catharsis, and the Karelia people have also learned war in the war. Now there are no reckless men who risk their accurate arrows to rush indiscriminately.
It was at this time that a small snowstorm hit, and the cold finally forced Chief Caskuwe to calm down. So far, he had lost 200 people, including those killed in battle, some who died of serious injuries, and more than 300 people who were slightly wounded by arrows.
Some people thought of retreating, but the chief was killed for disturbing the morale of the army.
A small fortress could not be conquered for a long time. The war chief got addicted to fighting and decided to bring reinforcements from the rear. Before the army arrived, the existing army surrounded the Bear Altar, hoping that the enemy would be exhausted from hunger before launching a general attack.
However, Ross's flag with blue stripes on a white background was fluttering in the cold wind, and its existence was the worst mockery.
More than twenty of the fortress defenders were wounded in three battles, and two unfortunate men were shot through the neck and died. Looking at the enemy, some corpses fell in the trench, and the enemy was unable to even collect the corpses.
Let them continue the siege!
Some warriors who were originally nervous were now in high spirits, and the Karelia people once again demonstrated their vulgarity to the fullest.
It seems that the Ross guards can go out of the city and attack on their own initiative. Reckless people will do this, and the guards just want to wait for work. Everyone knows that the prince has long made preparations to attack Karelia again, and the enemy's uninvited arrival is just an opportunity!
