Rurik got drunk for a rare occasion, and everyone at the banquet slept for the whole day. To Kagan's surprise, there was a second one the next night.
Compared to the craziness of the first event, the banquet in the second event seemed much more gentle.
According to Rurik, it would be natural to have a feast for three days to welcome a brother from afar, not even one day less.
Is this the rule of the Principality of Ross? What a wonderful rule!
Kagan has no reason to resist suspicion. He boasts of prosperity in his life on the grassland, but now he realizes that he was short-sighted. My Ross brothers are very good at cooking. They have a variety of dishes and are particularly willing to add salt.
His blood sodium and blood potassium levels, which were originally maintaining a baseline, soared. Even though he drank every day, he felt full of strength!
Anyway, heavy snow covers the whole world, and people with jobs are doing their jobs. Rurik is celebrating a holiday since the autumn harvest and tax collection are completed. Excessive contact with his wives and concubines is too harmful to the kidneys. Now he takes the opportunity to adjust and drink and have fun with his guests. Ichiban.
Barbecue, bread, mead, cheese, stews and desserts, a strong son of the prairie quickly accumulated fat. It was only three days of eating and drinking. Kagan felt that his face was rounder and his belly was bulging.
Eating, sleeping, bathing and even going to the toilet were all unprecedented experiences.
This includes but is not limited to using soft toilet paper to wipe your buttocks after going to the toilet for the first time, sleeping in a "quilt" wrapped in linen and wool, and taking a bath in a wooden bucket every day.
Kagan's status is such that Maksakye also enjoys the same treatment thanks to Kagan.
All this was Rurik's plan.
Once people who live in the open air have experienced a good life, their thoughts will change. Even if they go back to the past life, they will feel sorry for themselves all day long. We must use the sugar-coated bullets of Russian-style aristocratic life to crit the souls of these Pechenegs, and use gentle means to win over them.
The means were also directed at the accompanying slave warriors.
Those Pecheneg soldiers who live in the barn don't have to worry about their horses, Rurik said. The horses will be fed high-quality oat feed and kept in warm empty barns that serve as stables.
They don't need to pay attention to their master's life. In the three days since arriving in the Principality of Ross, their work has been no work. The strong cavalry soldiers took their time off, drank ale and mead, and ate grilled seabass and bread. In terms of supply, it can be described as unlimited supply.
The cooks who delivered the food delivered three carts full of baked bread in wheelbarrows, and had to deliver three more carts the next day. The caught seabass is roasted and delivered by the truckload. This even raised the topic, and inevitably led to criticism among the people. It was said that the prince was too kind to this group of horsemen. There are also some self-proclaimed wise men who point out that the prince must have a deep meaning in doing this. As for what the deep meaning is, the speaker is just making fun of it.
This was already the last day of dinner, and Kagan, who was half-drunk again, had completely let go. He was shirtless and casually holding a glass goblet, squinting his dark eyes and looking blurry.
"Will it end tomorrow? That's fine. This kind of life is great. I... I'm just worried that if it goes on for a long time, I will lose my courage."
Rurik had no intention of agreeing, and casually ordered: "Assemble your team tomorrow and hand over the ten people given to me."
"Can."
"Okay. When the time comes, I will issue another order and prepare about eighty people for you soon. I will let you be the coach and help me train the cavalry."
"Only eighty horses? I'm selling you a hundred horses!"
"It's the Ninety Riders. Ten of your horses are already mine. Oh, I still have to keep some mares to focus on breeding."
Kagan smiled, gave an exaggerated toast, and pointed at Rurik. He forgot what he wanted to say for a moment, and after a stalemate for more than ten seconds, he suddenly muttered: "It's a deal. I'm resting now and will assemble tomorrow. You can choose the ten soldiers."
Pecheneg Khan's "Guards" were almost all slaves, and their origins were quite complicated. However, they were all boys selected by slave families. They had gone through more than ten years of training to achieve their current strength.
Every ten-year-old slave boy has to learn cavalry skills such as horse riding, riding shooting, and chopping. Kagan himself is not a coach. He once received the same training as these slave boys and became a strong man among the nobles, with an inheritance. The basic strength of the Khan position. Although they are slaves, their living conditions will be significantly improved if they can become a guard to protect the Khan.
The Pechenegs are not a wealthy nomadic tribe, and they are still weak when surrounded by powerful enemies.
Although Kagan wanted to treat his subordinates well and provide them with better living supplies, his own life was far from prosperous. How could he satisfy his subordinates? It is normal to drink milk and eat cheese to satisfy your hunger. Catching a marmot and roasting it will improve your life.
The last dinner was over, and at noon the next day, the fifty Pecheneg cavalry who had been feasting and drinking for three days finally got the assembly order.
The cold outdoors refreshed them. They tied up their braids again, wore new clothes made by Russians, new wool and new boots. They stepped on the solid and flat snow and gathered in a group in Novgorod. Walking towards the prince's palace with people watching.
After all the personnel were in place, the wooden door of the palace was closed by a Russian warrior wearing mail.
As soon as the wooden door was closed, the hearts of the many unarmed Pecheneg warriors instinctively tightened.
Then he raised his head and saw that on the wooden platform of Dunhou's house, his master was standing side by side with Prince Rus.
Kagan took off his hat so that his men could see his face.
After some discussions with Rurik, he announced in public: "I have become brothers with the prince of Rus, and Pecheneg has formed an alliance with Rus! You are all my slaves, and ten of you will leave me. The team, the chosen ones, you can serve for my Ross brothers!"
As soon as he finished speaking, everyone immediately became commotion.
Kagan opened his arms again to control the situation and announced: "Now listen to the sermon of the Prince of Rus."
The above words were all in the Turkic dialect of the Pechenegs. Rurik could not understand them at all, and neither did the Russians or Slavs present. Since the two parties discussed it in advance, Rurik also knew what Kagan preached.
Indeed, if the first exchange between two political entities separated by a thousand kilometers did not involve exchanges with the East Slavs, the two sides would not even have a medium for dialogue, and the cost of communication would be extremely high.
It is precisely the language barrier that is a big obstacle that determines that Rurik must select the right people as his subordinates.
Rurik preached in Slavic in public, and his words were so simple that he only emphasized some key words: "I! The Khan of the Rus! I will choose ten people! People who understand my words! Stand up!"
He repeated this as many as five times before someone cautiously left the team and looked around slightly dullly.
Exactly ten people walked out, which was enough to see that there were enough people. The remaining people who wanted to join the queue just held back.
Everyone still doesn’t know what it means to march out. Those who march out just understand the Slavic commands and implement them mechanically.
"Look, ten candidates are in place, and they can definitely understand the Slavic language." Kagan reminded kindly.
Rurik shrugged. He was tall and covered his thin body with a white bear skin. He looked extremely burly. There is also the prince's mercenary force, a group of berserker warriors wearing leather helmets and bear heads, who are even more powerful.
He descended the wooden steps and personally looked down at the ten leavers, inspecting them one by one.
"What do you think?" Kagan asked Rurik after the review.
"Not bad. The guards you choose must all be outstanding. At least they have all gone through a long march to Ross, so their strength is guaranteed."
Hearing this, Kagan felt a little uncomfortable: "I understand. You still need them to show off their skills."
"That's natural. They are all cavalry. I want your people to show me some cavalry tactics."
"What's so hard about it? It's all up to you."
Rurik sighed softly: "Then let's perform riding and shooting. I want these ten people to perform it myself!"
…
In the afternoon, the people of Novgorod, who lacked entertainment, heard an interesting news. The idlers of the whole city dragged their families to the snow-covered desert beach by the river.
This beachland has not yet been reclaimed as farmland. In fact, since this area can be used as a pasture for small-scale grazing, Rurik did not order the land to be reclaimed, and others were too lazy to do it.
Because it is not only a pasture, it can also be used as a gathering place for the army, and even now a military training ground.
As many as 3,000 people gathered to watch a performance. There were rumors that the people from the east would perform horseback riding and archery at the same time. This kind of people was unheard of, so they all came to watch with curiosity.
Kagan was also surprised by the sudden appearance of so many spectators. He had never expected that Novgorod had such a large population.
But looking at the ten people who were going to perform riding and archery, they put on their own serious Turkic armor, put on their own helmets wrapped in animal skins, mounted their own horses, and held sinew composite bows and iron provided by the Russians. Cluster of arrows.
To be honest, the Pechenegs' bow made Rurik extremely envious.
Ethnic groups from the East are generally good at bows and arrows, and making compound bows is also a traditional skill of all ethnic groups. Take the Pechenegs for example. Their horns are from self-raised steppe cattle. The exaggerated length and forward-pointed horns are enough to make bow blades. The tendon-horn compound bow is the standard equipment for its warriors. Naturally, several nearby nomadic khanates and even the horse archers of Eastern Rome also use the same equipment. Even the Eastern Roman cavalry had the highest bow weight.
Warriors in armor mounted war horses. Their thin bodies formed a wonderful contrast with the tallness of the Turkic horses.
A group of Russian warriors who had fought against the Frank cavalry happened to be staying in Novgorod, especially a group of Danish warriors under Ragnar. They all came to watch the show. Everyone was naturally proud of their great victory because they had defeated the Frankish heavy cavalry, but now that they saw a group of humble light cavalry, they naturally didn't think it was anything special.
Can you shoot an arrow while riding a horse? Is this a joke? How does a cavalryman do this?
Ragna wore sunglasses and had a sullen face, and his whole person looked very solemn.
It’s not just this poor Danish aristocrat who wears sunglasses. All the people in Novgorod also wear sunglasses. They are an excellent tool to protect their eyes when working in the snow. The prince sells them privately and sells them at a good price. It's fair.
There was a large group of people wearing dark things in front of their eyes watching. Although Kagan knew that those were magical sunglasses, he did not expect that the Russians generally embraced them. People wearing these things became funny, and he was secretly happy in his heart.
Old Otto came to watch the show dressed thickly, and many of Rurik's wives and concubines were dressed warmly and gorgeously, and even came to watch the show with their children in their arms.
Especially Carlotta, who is holding her child in her arms. She is not just here to watch the show, because she has already had a basic discussion with her man. Naturally, the so-called numerous horses cannot be kept in Novgorod, north of the lake. New Ostara, south of the lake, has a large natural lakeside pasture, which is most suitable for raising large livestock. It is naturally an excellent horse farm. Besides, no one in the entire Principality of Rus is better at raising cattle and sheep than Ostara. Raising horses is a piece of cake.
Carlotta needs to observe carefully. She will be responsible for the later work of raising horses. At the same time, the newly formed cavalry unit will also be stationed in New Ostara to guard the southern gate of the Principality of Ross.
Even his eldest son Carl.
She patted the swaddled child: "Karl, you will also be a man on horseback in the future. Don't sleep and watch these warriors carefully."
The so-called target is to attack two tall wooden poles standing in the open space and pull up the hemp rope. Ten newly captured big red squirrels are hung under the rope.
It stands to reason that these small beasts, which are not too small, should be skinned and sold immediately, but now they are bought by Rurik and used as animal targets. Even if it is just a cover for mounted archery, it must be prepared exactly like hunting, so that the mounted archer can fully demonstrate his strength.
Let's look at the ten cavalry archers. They all know their futures and are full of fighting spirit.
He must show his strength to Prince Rus, so that he can be recognized and gain the qualifications to be popular and popular in the future.
"Just follow the way you Pechenegs fight and cover it up." Rurik reminded Kagan.
"Then the shooting distance must be twenty steps or closer."
"ah?"
"Are you wondering?" Kagan asked.
"So close?"
"At least the shooting distance is much closer than that of an infantry archer. That's how mounted shooting is. It seems that you don't understand it at all."
Rurik did not refute. He did not understand riding and shooting, but after Kagan explained, he finally had a basic understanding.
Indeed, it is an extravagant hope for a person to draw a bow and shoot an arrow while standing on a swaying horseback, as if he were standing still.
After Kagan gave an order in Turkic language, Rurik then asked his men to beat the leather drum, and the first cavalryman galloped away with the drum beat.
I saw this warrior with his feet in stirrups, leaning sideways to fully draw the bow with both hands. Although the arrows given by the Russians were a bit strange, the clever cavalry knew that they were good arrows at a glance.
In full view of the crowd, the cavalrymen pulled out their bows in an astonishing sawing motion, which immediately drew cheers from the onlookers. Men who are good at hunting don't use bows like this. Why can the grassland people draw their bows so ridiculously?
However, people with a discerning eye can see the cavalry's release technique. This is not surprising. Everyone uses the finger-wrenching style of release, and even uses bone finger-wraps.
The war horse galloped past, and the arrow hit the squirrel with a whoosh. Not to mention the big red squirrel, the entire arrow was almost two-thirds gone.
"A perfect riding shot, isn't it?!" Kagan's words were filled with pride.
Rurik marveled, "Wow! If there were an enemy warrior standing over there, and an arrow hit him, the opponent wouldn't even have a chance to fight back. The cavalry has already run away!"
"It seems you understand. This is what cavalry archery is like. You can conquer the sea, but you don't know anything about cavalry combat. In my opinion, you must not fight head-on with the enemy's cavalry. The grassland is very vast. You must try to draw a line with the enemy. Shoot the enemy from a distance, or shoot the enemy's horse. As long as you really find the enemy's weakness, send the cavalry to rush up and break up their array."
"Is this how you fight?"
"How else can we fight?" Kagan shrugged.
The ten cavalrymen performed one after another, and to the beat of the drums they all completed the first round of cavalry shooting, not to mention all ten arrows hit the target. This was only the first round of riding and shooting. After completing one round, they followed up with the second round.
It would be a shame to end the performance in a short time. They would ride and shoot as many as twenty times in a row. Rurik wanted them to treat the performance as an actual battle.
They did live up to their expectations. After one round of shooting, the man and the horse took a break, then started another round.
Naturally, some arrows missed, but it didn't matter, because the row of squirrels that were the targets were now covered in arrows, and the so-called leather was completely ruined!
Regarding how to use the steppe cavalry, Rurik at least knew some of Genghis Khan's cavalry tactics, which was to use light cavalry to lure the enemy, and when the enemy was exhausted, he used the heavy cavalry reserve with both men and horses to crush them.
Now that this group of people actually gave a demonstration, Rurik was so impressed that he even imagined such a scene in his mind.
It is said that a group of hostile Viking warriors in front formed a shield wall. Our cavalry challenged them first. The cavalry archers holding heavy steel-armed crossbows fired with their weapons and then rode away. The tactics were like those of the Qin crossbow cavalry. Although the tactical value of such a cavalry unit when it was first established was harassment, in the current Nordic and Western European world where wars are everywhere, the tactic of cavalry and shooting with strong targets must be able to achieve great results.
Rurik's mind fell into fantasy, and he was slapped on the shoulder again.
"Kagan, you..."
"After seeing their performance, I adopted them. Brothers, do you know about Rapid Fire?"
"what for?"
"Watch me perform."
Kagan mounted his hard-working horse, and he transformed into the Prince of Pecheneg. The whole person still looks a bit unattractive, but the way he holds the bow looks a bit heroic.
Rurik was looking forward to the nobleman also performing a mounted and archery show. He was really performing a mounted and archery show, but he was definitely not riding a horse at high speed and just firing a single arrow.
Kagan's legs were lightly placed on the horse's belly, and the horse walked to a distance of about fifteen steps from the target full of arrows. According to the regular length unit of the Russians, it exceeded 23 stikas, which was about 23 meters.
Kagan stood directly in the stirrups, and Rurik saw that while holding a bow in his left hand, he was also grabbing a large number of arrows with his left hand.
"Ah! Is this your rapid fire?!"
Holding ten arrows in his left hand, Kagan used the right-hand mode to fire the arrows quickly, but only stabbed his eyes a few times. Rurik saw that all ten arrows were fired.
This was not over yet, Kagan took out three more arrows from the quiver on the horse's back, and in the blink of an eye, all three arrows hit the target.
Can you still shoot arrows like this? too fast!
Rurik completely understood that the bow should be placed on the left for accurate shooting and the right for fast shooting. He certainly understood this truth. However, the traditional wooden bows of the Russians could not achieve an exaggerated draw length, and hunters widely used bows that were more efficient in shooting animals. Crossbows and even wooden bows don't have much use anymore, so let's talk about practicing right-handed bows in the dormitory.
People were too lazy to practice archery skills, so it was an eye-opener to see Kagan's rapid-fire operation as fierce as a tiger.
He rode back, shook his arm violently, and looked down at Rurik with a proud smile: "Thanks to your hospitality these days, I am full of strength. Shooting arrows twenty times in a row hurts my arm, which is why I have this ability."
"Let me see your bow." Rurik asked with a dull face.
"OK."
Rurik drew his bow suddenly, which shocked Kagan: "You..."
"I don't draw the bow without an arrow, I understand. I won't draw it empty."
Kagan was still stunned and hurriedly urged to stop: "Be careful, if the bow is really empty, it will overturn, and my treasure will be ruined."
Rurik never imagined that he would feel the sinew compound bow in this way. It is small in size and weighs a lot, and the draw length can indeed be extreme. If such a compound bow was converted into a crossbow, wouldn't the tactical effect be better? It is difficult to train a good archer, and it is even more difficult to train a better mounted archer. On the contrary, crossbowmen can be trained quickly.
After trying his strength, Rurik returned the bow to Kagan and patted his thigh in the stirrup: "Brother, your bow is so good. You should bring some for me next time you come here."
Kagan, who was in high spirits, readily agreed: "Yes, but the price is a bit more expensive."
"It doesn't matter. I'll pay you as much as you want."
