Taking the cavalry to Fort New Rose to participate in the festival and show off the prince's illustrious martial arts was by no means Rurik's main purpose. His real purpose was to complete the upgrade of the cavalry's armaments.
Rurik not only plans to install steel horseshoes on all horses, but also equips his own cavalry with steel swords and lances, including some special protective gear.
Each cavalryman must be equipped with integrally forged calf greaves, and the thighs must be covered with a layer of "battle skirt", the so-called leather deerskin interlaced riveted steel sheets.
The upper body of the cavalry is also more exquisite. The chest and back are covered by integrally forged plate armor. The carbon steel plate armor has been surface-hardened. The Russians' own steel-arm crossbows cannot penetrate armor-piercing arrows. exist.
Since the arms must be strong and flexible, the arms are covered with chain mail, and integral plate armor is hung on the forearms.
According to Rurik's plan, even the horses must have armor. In particular, the chests of the war horses should be hung with "deerskin riveted iron armor", and the horse's neck and crotch should also be armored.
This low-configuration armored soldier has become a real killing weapon in the battle, but it has also broken away from the essence of light cavalry and is objectively closer to the Eastern Roman armored cavalry.
But from the current position of the Principality of Rus, there is no need for the Principality to train a huge group of light cavalry unless the principality's ruling force has actually arrived on the Ukrainian steppes. The principality controls the forest area, and the battlefield where the cavalry takes its turn is always cramped. This combat environment is most suitable for heavy cavalry to break through formations like tanks.
The grand plan seems unrealistic for the time being, because Rurik must mobilize enough people to make armor and horse armor for himself, and pay a huge sum of money for this.
The reform of heavy cavalry in cavalry must be gradual, and with heavy cavalry, light cavalry cannot be missing. The cavalry's riding and shooting skills need to be practiced, and horseback slashing and thrusting skills need to be practiced even more.
These days, Kagan and other Pechenegs still live in the comfort of New Roseburg. He is very happy that his horses can eat oats and hay again, and paying some money for this is not a problem.
New Roseburg actually has two markets inside and outside the city. The variety of goods sold there really opened his eyes.
Kagan took his men and money into the market to scan the goods. Seeing the cheap leather prices here, he really wanted to buy a few carriages. However, all his horses were sold to the Prince of Rus, and there were not enough pack horses to bring the new supplies back to the grassland.
Realistic factors forced him to use money to buy the material that the Pecheneg people needed most - salt.
Although Rurik ordered that only principal officials and legal contractors have the right to sell salt, and the price of salt is fixed. As a coastal country, if ordinary people scoop up seawater and boil salt, they will probably not be able to find it.
Of course ordinary people can do this, but the salt content of the Baltic Sea, especially the Gulf of Finland, is too low, especially during the warm summer period. It is an exaggeration to say that the seawater in some sea areas is drinkable. Boiling salt from such low-salinity seawater requires a lot of manpower and material resources. The cost of salt cooked in this way is too high. How can it compare with the salt from the Balmok people in the port of Narvik facing the Atlantic Ocean?
The Balmoks now take the overland river route every year to transport the salt to Ironburg, then ship it to Screwburg, and then transport it by sea to Tombstone Island, Novorossberg on the Neva River, and finally to Novgorod.
The good salt they made was packed in sacks, and a small boat could transport a large quantity at a time.
This is Northern Europe. Only blacksmiths have the opportunity to sweat a lot. The daily amount of salt required by ordinary people is less than 6 grams. Salt is used on a large scale to pickle food. This is the main demand.
The salt content in the northern Atlantic Ocean far exceeds the average value of the Baltic Sea. Since there is always a large amount of surface runoff near the settlement of the Rus Principality, the Rus people boil the so-called sea water nearby, and the efficiency has long been only one-tenth of the Balmok people.
Even if you have to cross the central mountains of Scandinavia and go on a long journey to transport the salt from the Atlantic Ocean to the hinterland of the Principality of Rus. These people who transport salt can still make a lot of money, because the principality prices salt based on the efficiency of boiling salt in the Baltic Sea.
In the East, sun-dried salt technology can be achieved due to good geographical and climatic conditions. In Northern Europe, it is impossible to dry salt, so you can only rely on a big man to boil the brine, then control the heat to get the crystallized sodium chloride, and then throw away the bitter brine.
Even though the situation of Yuanhe Zhongxing in the Tang Dynasty had just been destroyed by the Ganlu Incident, the empire had no choice but to raise taxes to clean up the mess, and the price of official salt soared.
But even so, the price is cheaper than the price set by Rurik of Rus. As for the Tang Empire, which continued to make a fuss about the salt tax, reaching a situation where salt was twenty times more expensive than grain in the last years, it was better than the one hundred times difference established by Rurik.
Ten silver coins can buy a pound of salt, a hundred pounds of oats, rye, or ninety pounds of wheat.
Only wealthy people don't have to worry about eating salt, while ordinary people in the Principality of Rus can save some. At least eating sea fish naturally has a salty taste, which the Russians can tolerate. As for the Slavic people around Lake Ilmen who have been living a life of long-term salt shortage, it is good to be able to buy salt stably now, and they are even happy that the price is cheap.
However, the price purchased by the ruling group represented by Rurik for the salt of the Balmok people was not so extreme. He used the power of the prince to deliberately lower the price. The purchase price was 50% of the selling price. If necessary, he could still further reduce the purchase price.
After all, the Balmok people have no other competitive products except salt. The brave men from the local harbor have all gone to Britain to establish their Viking Kingdom of York. The rest of the group is said to be biased towards cowards. The presence. Of course, they also hope to live a better life and send experiments to the principality in exchange for other daily necessities. Even if they pay a higher price, it is acceptable, not to mention that they don't feel that they are at a disadvantage now.
Rurik did not explicitly charge a salt tax, but he made a precise decision between the purchase price and the official selling price, and charged a heavy salt tax instead.
He really has no choice. Soon there will be five thousand children in the principality who will need to eat from the treasury. It is difficult for these children to create more wealth before they grow up to 12 years old. They are eating into the principality's finances, which forces Rurik to make money. money.
Infrastructure construction, child care and education, and military expenditures are the three major expenditure items of the principality.
At present, state revenue exceeds expenditure. If the principality maintains its current productivity, the large number of children born will soon overwhelm the principality. Further expansion is inevitable and necessary. When they grow up, they will take up arms and form armed immigrants. They will attack the Eastern European world from all directions around Lake Ilmen, asking for farmland from the forest and living space from other people.
Therefore, what Rurik has to do at this stage is to ensure the lives of his children and raise them to the age of twelve to reach adulthood in the traditional sense and become people who must support themselves according to the traditional concept.
The redirected salt tax rate is extremely high, but the consumption of this stuff by the people across the country is not shocking.
The first tax in the principality is the food tax, followed by the iron tax, then the leather tax, and the salt tax should be placed behind.
And, of course, there was the special source of wealth that was war dividends. Only pirates without a plan are busy grabbing gold and silver. The Russians either don't take action, but once they do, they aim at other countries' granaries and plunder them.
All this required a team of scribes who were proficient in calculations, and Rurik happened to have already trained a team who were still improving their statistical abilities.
Training an army is the most expensive. Launching a large army to fight not only costs money but also involves the risk of damage. However, as long as there are generous captures after victory, most people will naturally forget about the risks.
Rurik chose to be conservative and temporary. He trained the cavalry and improved the cavalry's armament. This behavior directly blocked the mouths of many people. How can the prince be conservative? The principality even has cavalry!
In seven days, Kamni, who was given the order, used his initiative and led his brothers to complete the imitation and improvement of Pecheneg horseshoes.
Five hundred horseshoes made of carbon steel with preset holes were piled up into a hill, and each one shimmered under the fire. They've all been sandpapered and the beauty of the metal is dazzling.
After learning that Kamne had completed his mission, Rurik was interested in finding Kagan, who had completed the large purchase of salt, and explained to him the good thing about horse shoeing the horses collectively.
Horseshoeing is of course a good thing, and what’s even more amazing is that even the Pecheneg people’s mounts will receive brand-new horseshoes for free.
"Is this true?" Kagan was shocked. "I didn't even have to pay a silver coin."
"We are sworn brothers, aren't we? This is my gift to you."
"Ah!" Kagan said with a smile, a little embarrassed that he owed a favor. "Then I have to do something for you too."
"This is easy to say. We will naturally fight side by side in the future. And this matter of horseshoeing. My people have just come into contact with this matter, and I need you to send someone to guide them! If the horseshoes are not slapped well and the horses are frightened, it will be terrible. .”
"It's a simple matter. Just think of it as my reward for winning the horseshoe." Kagan said.
In a sense, Kagan has worked hard to get the dozens of sets of horseshoes that belong to him.
Rurik took him to visit the principality's large iron factory, which really opened Kagan's eyes.
Kagan looked around: "I didn't expect you to forge iron like this? It's amazing. You are clearly making steel."
"We are making steel, let's make more things. Let's follow me and look at the horseshoes first." Rurik said and motioned for Kamni to lead the way.
A small warehouse is filled with horseshoes. Their styles are exactly the same. Although they are handmade, the tolerances are negligible.
Caressing the horseshoe with a smooth surface, Kagan was surprised. He also noticed the neat and regular protrusions on one side of the object, and felt curious.
Rurik explained casually: "I ordered it deliberately. The horseshoes are nailed to the horseshoes. The protrusions can sink into the mud and make small holes in the ice and snow. Such horseshoes are more stable."
"I probably know the truth, but you..." Kagan didn't know the exact reason, but he only knew that it was beneficial. He was surprised that all the horseshoes had exactly the same shape, including the positions of the ridges and indentations.
"Okay..." Rurik motioned to Kamne: "Bring the brothers over here, transport the horseshoes to the cart, and follow me to the big stable outside the city."
There are no riding tasks, so the horses are tied together in the stables in winter and quietly eat grass and oats. The horses that stretch out of Novorosberg still eat a lot. They eat good food for many days, which directly makes up for the loss from Novgoro. The long journey to the Neva River was exhausting.
The work of shoeing the horses is carried out outside the stables (a group of wooden sheds that were suddenly converted).
They are all well-trained horses, and they are also large livestock with high intelligence. They have understood what humans want to do with their hooves.
Even for people like the Pechenegs who live with horses every day, because of the preciousness of iron tools, they will only shoe the best war horses, not ordinary horses. In fact, you can fight without horseshoes, just like a warrior can fight barefoot without boots.
Without the help of the Pechenegs, it would have been difficult for Kamnier and others to start nailing the horseshoes.
Fortunately, Rurik was one of those who had a keen eye for recognizing people, and Kamnier had a good learning ability. Kamnier watched the old horseshoes being pried off by the Pechenegs, and observed that the nails were separated from the horseshoes. At the same time, the horses stood obediently as if nothing had happened.
The old horseshoe was peeled off, and the horseshoe was cut into a flat surface with a knife.
Kamni looked surprised, and said to himself with a strong desire to see it again: "Hey?! It doesn't seem to hurt at all."
Rurik replied casually: "Does it hurt if you bite your own fingernails? Horse hooves are like horse fingernails. They walk on their toes, and their toenails are like shoes. All we have to do is to give them four iron shoes. .”
Only then did Kamne suddenly realize.
Every horse must first repair the hoof and then shoe it. Kagan pointed out that everything will be fine after nailing it on, because the horse's hoof will continue to grow, and the wear and tear of the hoof will be reduced after the horseshoe is shoed. The horse's hoof will therefore need to be repaired regularly, and the horseshoe will have to be removed at that time. .
Even a BMW needs regular maintenance, let alone a real horse.
The shoeing work is proceeding in an orderly manner, and it seems that the mentality of the horses that have been shoed has also changed. They have become more lively and willing to stretch their ladders.
Some horses are even too lively and need to be pulled hard on the reins to restore stability.
"Are they suddenly excited? Or are they still in some pain?" Rurik couldn't help but ask.
Kagan explained casually: "Don't you have to take some time to adapt to new boots? Don't worry, they will be completely normal within three days."
There is really no other reason. The horseshoes have been built, which objectively makes the horse's perception of the earth more sensitive, just like a person has scraped off the old calluses on the soles of the feet and the soles of the feet have become sensitive.
It's also because the horses noticed something strange when they were walking. Because the ground in the stable was free of ice and snow, the noise when they walked was suddenly too loud, which naturally caused uneasiness.
The shod work lasted two days and another three days for the horses to adjust to normalcy.
It’s time to go for a walk and experiment!
Rurik gathered his soldiers. The brothers changed into uniforms and even put white robes with blue stripes on the brown horses. The riders and horses were actually wearing snow camouflage, and they looked like they were riding horses. prestige.
The cavalry assembled, lined up in two columns, and led a costumed parade around the road under the city wall of New Roseburg.
Such a good thing is naturally indispensable for Arik, Jevlo, Medved and others. Everyone's horses are shoed and they have reason to join the team for a parade.
Arik didn't even forget his second wife Aslaqi who stayed in New Roseburg, so he asked her to put on a warm and beautiful white bear robe and sit sideways in the saddle. Showing off was his main purpose.
All the riders realized the positive results after shoeing their horses, and they could clearly feel that their horses were much more confident walking on ice. The snow in the city has been compacted, but under the pressure of the convex structure at the lower end of the horseshoe, it still melts slightly and creates a dent. The powerful horseshoe can even lift up ice cubes. The grip is really incredible.
The people watched the heroic appearance of the Ross cavalry, and anyone with a discerning eye noticed the changes in the horses' hooves.
Look! What is the prince doing? !
The prince actually rode his horse and sprinted through the city. He was so confident in controlling the horse.
The young boys were the most curious. They looked at the majestic elder brothers with wide eyes, especially the majesty of the princes.
These boys are either descendants of traditional Viking immigrants, direct descendants of the Rus' tribe, or a mixture of Rus's and Slavs. What is unparalleled is that these boys have been told by their parents that they must serve as soldiers for the principality when they grow up. This is as natural as eating and sleeping.
Since you want to be a soldier, wouldn't it be great to be a cavalry?
They walked past him in a noble manner, and the children's eyes were full of envy and desire, eager to become mighty warriors and make achievements.
