Chapter 1057 The Polotsk People Who Don't Want to Sit Still
At first, fishermen on the river noticed something floating on the water.
It looked like the corpse of a wild animal that had fallen into the water and drowned, or like a floating piece of wood. As the canoe took a closer look, it was discovered that it was a corpse.
The fisherman was so stunned that he almost fell into the water. Although there have been cases of people falling into the water and drowning in summer in the past, there were arrows stuck in the body, so it was not an accident at all.
Could it be that there are bandits in the area again? Or maybe the people who entered the forest to hunt mistakenly mistook humans for prey.
People fishing by the river came one after another after hearing the news. At this moment, the body had been dragged to the shore.
The deceased was obviously old, and his face was unrecognizable due to his body being beaten. The arrow was pulled out with all his strength, and it turned out to be made of pure iron, like a steel needle, completely different from the broad blade of a hunting arrow cluster.
Barb structure.
"Incredible. It's definitely not our arrows! No one has the luxury to use such good arrows."
People talked a lot about it, and just through arrow clusters, the hunters of the entire community were freed from suspicion.
What was the condition of the deceased? Judging from his simple dress, he was clearly a farmer. Who could be so vicious to attack the old farmer?
While they were discussing, a terrible cry came from the canoe still wandering in the river.
"You all come and take a look! There are still corpses floating down!"
This could no longer be described as ordinary murder. The fishermen gathered four canoes and tried their best to stay on the river. Someone also handed over cables to connect the boats to each other, causing the entire river to be temporarily blocked.
Many corpses were successfully intercepted and pulled ashore one after another.
The conditions of the deceased are varied, they are old people, women, and even children.
Many people have arrows stuck in their bodies, and when the arrow clusters are pulled out, it turns out that all the arrows are surprisingly the same.
Others had fatal wounds, such as spears or swords piercing their hearts deeply.
People's scalps were numb after seeing it, and it was difficult to judge the identity of the deceased for the time being.
Suddenly, someone shouted in fear: "Could it be the Varyag people? In the village upstream, could the deceased be a local villager?"
It seems that this is the most likely scenario.
Now there was no thought of fishing at all. The shocked people ran to their own villages to tell everyone about the horrific incident that happened by the river, and then pulled trolleys from the village to the scene of the incident.
The woman wearing a headscarf covered her mouth in shock when she saw the corpse, and the man whose hair was tied with a headband was so shocked that his scalp was numb.
The chiefs of two nearby villages arrived at the scene one after another with Jingzhuang and a handcart. They discussed with each other and decided to collect the body first, dig a pit and bury it.
But this matter is not trivial, and the chief must be notified.
The pony brought from the village dragged the cart away. After the two leaders explained some things, they immediately set off for the wooden village where the big leader lived.
For a moment, the village was filled with tremors.
Women and children were prohibited from leaving the village, and all men over ten years old immediately took up arms to guard the village.
Because there are rumors that the people who can do such terrible things are most likely the Varangians. Firstly, they have such strength. Secondly, they also have such motivation. Thirdly, in recent days, a long boat has passed by carelessly.
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Especially that intruding longship!
The people of the Polotsk community did not know that they were suitable to migrate to the current settlement as a family. After a period of troubled land reclamation, their lives stabilized, and they established a settlement at the T-junction between the West Dvina River and an unknown creek.
Main village. As the population expanded, new villages began to appear in nearby river areas centered on it.
The river is occupied by them, and the fishing resources in the river are naturally theirs. Outsiders can pass through the river if they want to, and they can do so by paying a batch of tributes.
However, they only make canoes and do not have strong interception capabilities.
They know that the area where the river flows into the sea is the territory of the Riga (Latvian) people, and they also know that a group of Varyag people have settled there for a long time. Especially the Varyag people, their boats are light and fast, and the boatmen are also ruthless and don't talk much.
It is relatively easy to intercept the Riga ships. If you want to intercept the Varyag ships, it is basically impossible to intercept them.
The recent failed interception almost led to a conflict. The oarsmen held their axes high and beat the bucklers hanging on the side of the ship, shouting "Fight if you don't accept it" in simple words. Why fight them desperately? If a brutal incident occurs, Riga will
Those guys know that if something goes wrong, it could lead to a war.
As the saying goes, destroying someone's wealth is like killing one's parents, and these guys in Polotsk also knew it. So when they intercepted Sorgon, they were just looking at what they were doing. If they found that they couldn't stop him, they had no choice but to let it go.
The creek was originally nameless, but it became famous after the Polotsk people settled here.
The Polota River is its name.
It has the largest settlement at its confluence with the West Dvina River. More than two thousand people have settled in this narrow area, forming a large but loosely built village. A double-story tower with wooden walls is at the end of the village.
The core area is occupied by the ruling family and is the great leader respected by all village leaders.
A middle-aged man named Proclaw Vorobyovich is the leader of the entire community.
The terrible news spread from one to another, and the villages in Polotsk had close communication with each other. When two villages took the lead in taking military alert, the villagers would then add information to the people in the neighboring villages and add details to the news they had heard.
, the news became more and more terrifying as it spread, causing the entire community to be in a state of panic in a short period of time.
After all, Polotsk in this era is still too far away from becoming a grand principality. Its population is less than 10,000 people and is highly concentrated in a small area. It is not an exaggeration to describe it as a large village.
In the wooden castle, the two leaders nervously reported what they saw and knew to the big leader.
"Is the news really reliable? Was it really done by those Varyags? You said a lot, I... can't believe it." Proclaw didn't want this kind of thing to happen at all, and he subconsciously denied it.
"Then, please take a look at our evidence."
"Evidence? A large number of corpses? I can go to your village to have a look."
"They are some special arrows." As he said that, a leader opened the bag and presented all the collected arrows.
Although the big leader Proclaw comes from the ruling family, he is by no means a mediocre person. His appointment as the big leader was recommended by his family and recognized by many village leaders. He was very strong when he was young, and now he has become wiser as he gets older.
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He couldn't help but look at the arrows: "These arrows are not ours."
"It's most likely a Varyag."
"Them?" the big leader glanced at the two of them: "Are they willing to use fine iron to make arrow clusters? Also, what is the use of pointed arrow clusters? They can't be used for hunting at all."
"But it can kill people. Many people were killed. When we pulled out the arrows, we found that the arrow clusters were pierced very deeply and could even penetrate the body."
"So? Let me believe that all this was done by the Varyags downstream? Just because of the longship that we failed to intercept? We must stay calm. However, this matter is indeed worth our vigilance."
The current information is very confusing, and for the time being the big leader Proclaw has decided to take conservative but prudent measures. He intends to issue a warning advisory to all villages, asking them to investigate any outsiders.
Especially in river areas, although it is not advisable to intercept foreign ships indiscriminately, a high degree of vigilance must be adopted.
The West Dvina River is not busy. Those who dare to carry out long-distance trade are mainly the local Varangians in Riga in the eyes of the Polotsk people. These guys do not move frequently. The real Riga people have small boats.
They are also generally willing to pay a tribute and leave. Under normal circumstances, the Riga people will find a small river in the upper reaches and turn into it, and then go all the way south to find the Derevlians to trade with them. This kind of trading behavior is also practiced by the Polotsk people.
If you do, even if you drive the pony carriage south, it won't be a long journey.
On the first day, public opinion continued to ferment, and the murderer was identified as a Varyag from Riga.
The logic everyone believed was very simple. It was because of the unpleasantness of the past few days that those guys retaliated and attacked innocent civilians upstream.
That night, an armed expedition was being organized. They were bear hunters, old hunters with bows. They planned to organize twenty people. This trip was just to visit Duka Village. These senior hunters did not want to be involved in Weiming's attack.
I hope that the village of Duka will be safe and sound, and that all the dead found came from distant and unknown places.
But in the early morning of the next day, the fleeing farmers were discovered by the Polotsk people who were on alert.
Who would have thought that they were the villagers of Duka Village who successfully escaped?!
They were transferred to a large settlement on the other side of the river. The frightened, exhausted and hungry people collapsed one by one as soon as they reached safety.
Among them, the man who was in reasonable mental condition was brought into the wooden castle, and the chief asked him to explain what happened.
The villagers' eyes were full of fear, their eyes were dull, and their mouths mechanically explained attacks and killings...
At this moment, the big leader tried his best to summon the leaders of nearby villages and even the most respected people in the large settlement. More than forty people gathered together to listen to the stories of the villagers who had escaped.
The more everyone listened, the more horrified they felt. Finally, whether the attacker was a Varyag, the situation became confusing again.
Originally, according to public opinion, the Varangians in Riga had been convicted from a distance and they were responsible for the killings.
According to the victims’ statements, could the legends that have been circulating in recent years come true?
The horsemen were good at using bows and arrows, and they robbed the Smolensk people everywhere. There were even large horse teams passing by. The horsemen deliberately killed people, captured prisoners, and burned the villages. No one knew why these guys were targeting the Smolensk people.
The Lensk people have such great hatred, they are a group of plague gods, like the imps controlled by Cherniberg, and their purpose of existence is to kill people.
It is not an exaggeration to accuse this group of equestrians with all kinds of dirty words, but this is the most suspicious thing.
Horses are nothing new, but can they be ridden?
One of the biggest problems is that in the Pan-Polish community from the Vistula River to the West Dvina River in this era, ponies with a shoulder height of only about one meter were the mainstream.
In this era, the Magyars, the ancestors of the Hungarians, had just crossed the mountain pass and entered the Carpathian Mountains, and the Turkic horses from North Asia and the steppe areas had not yet flowed in on a large scale. At the same time, the Pan-Polish tribes had always been hostile to the Franks, and the Franks were
There was also no large influx of Roman horses owned.
Two hundred years ago, when the Avar Khanate was all-powerful, the ancient Polish people did not get many good horses. Even so, they improved the short legs of their own ponies through the Turkic horses they obtained. Otherwise, they would be just some good horses.
A little guy whose shoulder height is only as high as a man's crotch can't even think about riding, but he can pull a cart.
It was obvious that the attackers were riding taller horses, and they were very good at archery.
Today's Polotsk people are a pan-Polish ethnic group who immigrated to the east from the Vistula River. They are really different from other nearby people who speak similar languages. They can clearly distinguish each other, but they have no intention of starting a war.
. Each other's settlements are separated by forests and swamps. There is no interest in each other, so why fight?
But in recent years, a group of horse bandits has been like a monster emerging from the mud. Ordinary people can ignore it without knowing it, but Proclaw, as the big leader, must pay attention to it.
So, the horse bandits really have nothing to do with the Varangians in Riga?
The big leader ordered the people who had narrowly escaped death to go to the barn to rest, but the barn was also guarded by the militia. He did not want these people to openly explain their horrific experiences in the settlement. After all, public opinion was already very confused, and the top priority was to keep everyone safe.
Be calm and do not tolerate confusion.
"What should we do now?" Proclaw, the big leader, summoned all the village leaders to hold a meeting overnight.
At this moment, he has stopped the planned exploration of Duka Village today. After all, it is meaningless. But the problem has become more difficult!
Some village leaders asked loudly in public: "Is the news credible? There may be only ten horse bandits, or at most less than twenty. Even if we all know that there are very few people in Duka Village, they will not be easily defeated, right?"
"The attackers are good at archery and slashing. Their horses are so tall that they can even be ridden. Our people cannot take advantage." Someone immediately retorted.
"Are you trying to boost the enemy's morale?"
"No! The gangsters are very powerful."
As a result, the village chiefs started a heated discussion among themselves. As a last resort, the leader coughed violently and stamped his feet: "That's enough! Let's have a good discussion and don't quarrel."
How should we discuss it?
The legend is becoming more and more real. Regardless of the connection between the attackers and the Riga Varangians, it is certain that a new danger has begun to appear in the area near the settlement. Could it be that those horse-riding bandits are tired of the attacks on Smolensk? Start
Go to attack Polotsk?
At least there is news that great changes have taken place in Smolensk. After a new leader took over, the entire ethnic group went on high alert. Perhaps the horse bandits suffered a loss in their robbery this year, so they found a better target to bully and attack?
Many village leaders, as community elites, know a lot of things that ordinary people don't know. Everyone discusses with each other and thinks that this guess is very reasonable.
"So, the top priority now is how to deal with the challenge! We cannot sit back and wait for death, like the Smolensk villages are burning everywhere."
"Then organize the men. Once we find the gangsters, we will hit them with force and kill them."
"We also want to seize their horses. Since their horses are better than ours, we can capture them and keep them for breeding."
…
No one is willing to sit still and wait for death, because of the disaster in Duka Village, they no longer have any illusions.
Immediately, the big leader issued an order to mobilize all villages. Any man over ten years old would take up arms and the villages would keep in touch. Their way of keeping in touch was very primitive and very effective. They called for preparing a large amount of cow dung and pine wood, and lighting a fire when the enemy was discovered.
, when everyone sees the black smoke column, they can organize militia action.
This is a conservative tactic.
The Polotsk people decided to take a more active approach, which was to gather all the hunters and form a mobile unit to roam outside the village. They mainly acted as scouts, hiding the traces of the bandits and then reporting them to the rear, so that the militiamen would attack in groups.