Those sleds used for long-distance travel are no longer a simple structure of two hard oaks in hard contact with ice and snow. A batch of carbon steel sheets are forged by the blacksmith with small holes reserved, and rivets are nailed to the bottom of the oak sled.
In this way, Ross's sled can be made large, sturdy and wear-resistant, and even some strange equipment can be added.
It would be too sloppy to just install a tent made of leather and linen on a big sled. A big sled used by ordinary people can do this, but it would be unreasonable for Rurik, who is a prince, to do this again.
The prince needed a sleigh suitable for his noble status, so he built a wooden house directly on the sleigh. It's certainly not huge, just suitable for many people to squeeze in. The wooden walls are also equipped with small windows and are inlaid with glass windows. This is because large flat glass cannot be made naturally due to technical reasons. The so-called window glass is made by blowing a glass tube and cutting it in the middle and forcibly spreading it. It is not It's large and enough for light transmission.
Since there is relatively ample time, it will take some time for the Ross army to assemble. During this time gap, Aslaqi's mill, which is responsible for the production of military rations, is naturally working at full capacity.
Likewise, carpenters and blacksmiths in New Roseburg found work.
They undertook the work of renovating sleds. Their task was to build a house on top of the big sled and nail the iron sheets to the bottom sled. Such mass-produced manned sleds also need to be hung with deerskin on the outside to enhance warmth, and the reserved windows are still inlaid with windows. Such windows can even have their wooden frames removed unexpectedly.
Without him, if encountering an extreme situation, the soldiers in the sled would hold their crossbows and shoot directly through the observation window.
War is about making money. Rurik can really feel the truth of gold when the cannon goes off.
The fighting method of the Russian army, which is unique to other European countries and tribes, is based on a large number of long-range weapons. Now the principality is not as weak as in the past. There is no need to mass-produce the bones, flints, and glass arrow clusters that were once used. The principality directly mass-produces them. The cost of producing high-quality arrows made of carbon steel arrow clusters and wooden shafts bonded with pine glue is now low enough to be splurged.
Wooden shafts for arrows are mostly made of birch or pine. The bark of the wood is peeled off to make paper, and the remaining part is enough to make arrow shafts.
Arrow feathers are the easiest to obtain. The fact that this thing is readily available makes the Pecheneg people who live there both surprised and understandable.
This is because people in Novorosberg and Novgorod encourage raising chickens. People raise chickens mainly to eat eggs. In order to prevent the chickens from flying away, all the flight feathers and even wings of the chickens are pulled out immediately after they grow up. All that's left is the fluff.
The big feathers were all sold to the prince. As for the small feathers, they seemed useless. When Rurik invented gadgets like feather dusters under Rurik's guidance, the small feathers also became useful.
There is no need to stick to the feathers of wild goose, the feathers of chickens, ducks and geese are all good sword feathers, especially from the current position of the principality, these arrows are regarded as single-use weapons by Rurik. An unconventional word called "ammo" was "invented" by Rurik to refer to this kind of arrow.
The hunters felt that the prince's attitude towards arrows was too strange. This actually led to a benefit, that is, when the Russian army went on an expedition, they always prepared a large number of arrows, so that they could shoot down the enemy without restraint.
The Russian army's pre-war preparations were in full swing, which surprised the female leader Lu Di continuously. She also saw that the tribal girls she brought were forced to work every day. They made rosin gum, chopped firewood, carried supplies, washed clothes and other chores for the Russian people.
The work in general is hard, but it's not any less relaxing than working in my hometown. The selected tribal girls are indeed girls, but in such extremely poor living conditions, children have to work when they are five years old. In fact, they already know how to do a lot of work.
The key is what they get from their labor. The female leader noticed that they were eating wheat cakes and wheat porridge every day, and they could also eat fish every day. The skinny girl has obviously changed in figure, and her eyes and face are full of energy.
If the hospitality was just for a few days, the female leader would think that this was a righteous act by the prince. Obviously this was not the case at all, or perhaps the life of the Russian people was like this, and the prince did not entertain them.
The group of servants must send people to join the army, and it is necessary to send out a few soldiers at the end to make up the number.
The female leader of Ludi also received an order. After the so-called army arrives in the village of Ludi, the female leader should mobilize a hundred men to join the Russian army. By then, the Ludi men will be armed by the principality.
It is impossible for Rurik to provide high technology to those "forest savages". He only rewards simple iron spears, inferior mass-produced axes made of pig iron, as well as discarded bones and arrows with glass arrow clusters. The quantity of all these materials is also extremely limited. .
In Ross's opinion, these weapons are rubbish, and if the Ludi people get them, they can immediately improve the efficiency of production and life.
"They must treat me? No. At least they can't embarrass me. At least they look like a servant instead of a beggar." This is Rurik's mentality.
One-third of the one hundred sleds were modified, and the rest were arranged for carrying people. At least they were erected on wooden posts and nailed with deerskin and linen to keep them warm.
In this way, the horses do not have to be ridden the whole way. They are unsaddled, covered with wool felt, and the reins are connected to the sled, traveling with the entire sleigh team.
As for the animals that pull the sled, they are luxurious. A docile and unpregnant female deer is selected, and eight deer pull the sled. A single female deer may only have half a horsepower, but the eight deer are a powerful source of power.
A capable yet large-scale winter expeditionary force was assembled in New Roseburg's Harvest Square, and people from all over the city came to watch the event.
Look! Under the howling north wind, there were all kinds of flags. Flags were hung on the top of each sled, and Ross's flag with blue stripes on a white background was flying.
The soldiers wore uniform clothes, white robes with blue stripes, and only their own hats to keep out the cold came in various shapes. They also have a unified backpack. The hard hemp straps are the drawstrings of the pocket. This simple and strong structure has been widely used by hunters for a long time. There is also felt that is curled and coiled around the backpack.
Rurik equipped his men with the attitude of equipping soldiers in World War I. He did not have to be rigid about having muskets. His men were equipped with a large number of lightweight wooden-arm crossbows and steel swords and bucklers. Such equipment was enough for the Nordic warriors. Respond to the current state of war. The strong strength of logistics also determines the strong endurance of this expeditionary force.
Of course, try to be as prepared as possible.
A special sled team does not participate in any wars. Their mission is to transport food and new arrows to the Bear Market Town fortress on the north shore of Lake Ladoga.
Lake Ladoga is very large, so it was decided that a guide was needed to find the Lydian village. The army can naturally cross the glacial lake directly, but when it reaches the east coast, it doesn't know whether to go south or north.
Rurik decided to lead the army counterclockwise in the safest way. He also inspected the villages of the Vips people and came to inspect the Bear Festival Town.
He gave a speech in the fierce wind. The necessary pre-war mobilization speech was not so necessary, but he still said it.
It happened that the army was gathering in Harvest Square, and the golden statues placed in the great temple were moved out, allowing the sunlight to shine on the statues.
The high priest and the lower-level priests got temporary jobs. A deer was sacrificed, the deer's blood was sacrificed to the god, Rurik personally performed the ceremony, and the deer liver was cut out and presented to the high priest. After that, the high priest announced good luck.
Rurik wiped the deer's blood off his dagger, and his breathing was filled with white mist.
"Soldiers, let's go!"
Then the army began to move amidst the sound of drums and horns. Nolen's band immediately played the melody of "Farewell to Slavic Women", which was very suitable for the occasion, but because the band lacked trumpet instruments, the music seemed very Nordic.
Amid the people's farewells and enthusiastic expectations, the luxuriously equipped and magnificent expeditionary force formed a long snake formation and advanced eastward on Nevsky Prospekt. The east gate of the city was opened, and the prince led Queen Svetlana to march in person. As for other wives and concubines, there is no need. After all, Lanna is the real queen, and she alone is enough.
Although the strength of the army exceeded 500, the total number of the marching army reached 1,000 reindeer, and there were more than 100 war horses accompanying them.
According to Rurik's idea, the army arrived at the Vips village to add more sleds and bring a small group of Vipus archers with them. After the army arrives at Bear Festival Town, it is feared that as many as a hundred male and female hunters will bring their own dry food, weapons, sleds and reindeer to join this feast of plunder and exploration.
Naturally, the larger the number of people in the army, the better, unless the guys who join later are willing to obey the command and provide their own supplies.
Everything was under Rurik's control. When the sled team entered Lake Ladoga and marched along the lake shoreline to the town of Bear Festival, a large number of hunters learned about the expedition and gave up their hunting plans and decisively joined it.
More than a hundred hunters insisted on joining the army, and they were generally Suomi. Wouldn't this situation be better solved? Because Yavlo himself is in the army, he has been living in Novgorod since he arrived in Novgorod for the "hajj" in late autumn. His original plan was to return to the Finnish Lake District in the spring.
Jevlo easily organized a hundred-man team, which mainly held short wooden bows and a small number of wooden-armed crossbows, and accepted his command. At the same time, these guys also brought their equipment and never fell behind.
Rurik set up a supply point in Bear Festival Town and unloaded the food for people to handle. In this way, if the army feels that there is not enough food during the eastward expedition, it can return immediately. According to Rurik's tactical reserves, the army can last for a month, so the army can march eastward for at least fifteen days. The best hope is that after annihilating the remnants of Karelia, they will feast on their supplies, and the army's supplies will be relieved.
Kagan always felt that Prince Rurik's desperate calculation was very strange, and it seemed that it was full of wisdom. He was observing silently, and also planned to learn the Russian fighting method based on this Eastern Expedition. If it works well, he would learn it and bring it to his hometown grassland. .
The strength of the troops swelled to nearly 700, which was already a powerful army in the north.
The Ross messenger was really true before. If the Ross people get angry, this army will annihilate Lu Di as easily as crushing a squirrel to death.
The female leader was at least very happy that Rudy had become Ross's servant, but she overlooked one thing - the people in the village didn't know all this.
A huge group came from the north, and the people of Ludy, who had suffered their first major defeat, were bitter that they were defeated by twenty Russians. They deeply remembered those abominable blue stripes on white cloth, and thought of defeat when they saw it.
Now, the Ross army is here again.
The first thing that ordinary Ludi people thought of was to run away. An old man was elected as the temporary leader. He called on the people to run eastward.
At that moment, a small sleigh rushed away, and the female leader rushed back in time. Everyone was shocked to see that she was safe. Although they were suspicious after hearing her description, many people still stopped.
"A village under the trees. Do you want to go in?" Arik looked at it and asked contemptuously.
Rurik shook his head: "If you walk by the sparrows, they will fly away because you are too huge. Don't scare them. We will stay here temporarily and let the old woman explain the situation."
This female leader is the most prestigious, and the simple Ludi people have no good intentions. Since Ross has become the new master and promised to give some iron tools and salt, then don't run away.
The Ludi people welcomed the arrival of the Ross army, but Rurik was still worried that his army would uproot them. As the saying goes, he would start with a sharp sword and a murderous intention.
The Russian army camped in the ownerless forest, and Rurik ordered all the men in Ludi who could bear arms to come to see him. He said that he would select servants from the tribe and give him some rewards.
The messenger of the order was the female leader. It was true that everyone was trembling with fear and eager to give it a try. They have never seen a powerful external force other than the Karelia people, and it is said that they are the giant Rus people west of the Great Lakes.
To show her sincerity, the female leader gathered 233 men and went to meet her master with bare hands.
The menacing Russian warriors were ordered to put on a show. They formed a shield wall and held short spears, looking majestic.
This frightened the man Ludi to tremble.
Rurik appeared in a bearskin, with a large number of crystal clear glass balls hung on his body deliberately, making him look too gorgeous. Rurik felt that he was dressing up as a clown.
This bejeweled appearance really opened the eyes of the Ludi people, and they subconsciously understood that this was the most noble person.
Suddenly, Rurik ordered: "Everyone sit down!"
This was a language they understood. As soon as the man from Lu Di heard it, he sat down obediently.
Then Rurik preached in ancient Finnish. Most of the words were understood by the Ludi people, and they also knew the promise of the conqueror king.
Everyone was quite surprised. They thought they were going to be slaves. Can they get many benefits by being slaves to the Russians? Even if they want to attack the Karelian people, everyone is still afraid.
Rurik asked them to stand up again. The tall man walked past these short men and picked the outstanding ones among them.
The most young, strong and physically fit men were selected, and men of the next level were also pulled out. Some time ago, they took up arms to attack Ross hunters, but now they have turned into Ross warriors.
Their productivity is too low, and getting new clothes is a major happy event. Now Rurik gave them the white-and-blue-patterned robes of the Russian army, and also gave them iron spearheads and arrows with iron clusters.
A group of people exchanged their guns for cannons, and a hundred-man Rudy's servant army was born. This was their fighting power. Rurik had no extravagant expectations at all. They only had to do a good job as guides.
A young man named Makut who was believed to be prestigious was appointed as a temporary commander by Rurik to restrain Lüdi's servant army, but the female leader also had to accompany the army.
Rurik, who is a Ludi or a border people, wants to personally find a pug to be the ruling agent. Is this Makut okay? At least he must perform outstandingly in this operation.
The Ross army temporarily stayed near Ludi Village, but the accompanying hunters and many soldiers had already begun trading with the locals.
The Ludi people are extremely short of all kinds of living materials, but they still have a lot of squirrel skins and ferret skins. They are too simple and crazy poor. The Russians don't have to annihilate them to plunder materials. They can rely on the sudden rise of forest foraging fields to complete the plunder of materials through commercial means.
This includes, but is not limited to, buying large quantities of squirrel skins with salt and buying the bodies of local women for one night with grain. What is very strange is that the latter not only did not feel that they had suffered a big loss, because each clan did receive a batch of iron tools and salt, and the women of the clan may even have been given Russian blood.
Don't they have any shame? On the contrary, their relatively isolated lifestyle and strong rejection of inbreeding deep in their souls determine their willingness to have close interactions with good foreigners.
Yusiliuriqi didn't want to do this, but considering the practical factors, he simply acquiesced.
The Russians are so tall and not afraid of the cold! They kept the seed, and the children born in this way will definitely be strong. The Ludi people are very open-minded. Each clan hopes to have more children and a larger population. As long as the children are still members of the clan, there is no need to worry about issues such as appearance.
Of course Rurik doesn't want to see this situation now, but this scene has happened many times. There are more and more babies mixed with Viking blood in the principality. This is the choice for the people under the rule to get what they need. He really Can't control it.
There is a good thing, the Ludi clans feel that they have made a profit. They believe that the new descendants after the surrender will become strong and cold-resistant, and obviously they will not die of illness easily.
In Rus, their decision was very convenient for the rule of the princely family.
So working together to defeat the remnants of Karelia is the biggest pledge of honor for the Ludi people.
