Chapter 1079 A big bald head emerges from under the iron helmet
After landing in Riga, Spuyut adhered to discipline and never showed Ross's force to the locals.
Even though most of the Russians who landed were given this status later, it is still nearly ten years ago.
Regardless of their origins, the sins of the old identity of the Saaremaa islanders were completely canceled by the Russians, so legally they became the new Russians. Now that they have become Russians, they must act like real Russians in all aspects. They New clothes and weapons have been added.
Sewing a plain white robe, with blue strips of cloth sewn on the front and back. This robe has no defensive capabilities, it can keep out the cold, and its greatest significance is to show one's identity to others.
Even a group of pirates have uniformed clothing, but the quality is far inferior to the craftsmanship of state-owned garment factories.
Every northerner longs for a good sword!
What was once popular throughout the Viking world was the so-called Viking sword, which was imitated from the broad-bladed sword of the Roman era. That kind of sword was made of pure wrought iron. It had no elasticity and was easy to bend. It was deliberately made thick in the middle to increase its strength. , has a bleeding groove and a wide blade. This kind of sword is focused on slashing and thrusting, but the blade is too heavy, so warriors always install a weighted iron plate on the hilt.
Living in the Danish community in Riga, local elite warriors all have swords of this style.
Indeed, only elite warriors have the financial resources to equip such swords.
The Russians are completely different.
Even the Saaremaa islanders are willing to accumulate a fortune and then go to the mines in the north to buy a cheap sword embryo. The so-called sword embryo is an unedged steel bar, and the islanders hot-forge it themselves after getting it. After a while, they personally sharpened and polished the sword tip. Their craftsmanship was inferior to the masters of the state-owned blacksmith shop, but the advantage was that the cost of self-made swords was low.
Even so, the islanders have been equipped with this kind of "home-made sword" on a large scale. The sword body has been polished to a bright white color, and it is extremely scary when pulled out of the oak scabbard.
They showed off their swords on a large scale for the first time, and bought some mutton fat and butter from Riga, and used the grease to maintain their swords.
The place where the Russians temporarily settled was originally the territory of the Danish community, and these sojourners did not shy away from the wide-eyed onlookers of their temporary allies.
The leader Stekander, who was also sharpening his sword urgently, never imagined that all the Russians had swords.
A sword, a round shield, and a leather helmet with a huge nose guard, all these satisfied all his expectations of a good warrior.
This group of Russians even unloaded a heavy weapon called a torsion slingshot from the ship in a surprise attack. There were six huge weapons, each of which could fire stone bullets and javelins, with unfathomable power.
The weapon called the crossbow was also transported from the ship by the Russians. It looked like a flat bow, but it had a mechanism that could freely control the shooting timing, so that even a clumsy hunter could shoot a squirrel at a long distance using it.
With such a general view in front of him, Stekander had to think about it. If the people who landed this time were not 200 Russian merchants with pirate backgrounds, but the real Russian army, what would happen to Riga? Maybe...then we can only We declare in a high profile that we are Danes and the true allies of Russia in order to protect ourselves.
Judging only from the armaments displayed by the Russians, he felt that the coalition forces would definitely win in future battles.
All this explains why the elderly Ross nobleman was so confident with the small amount of troops he had on hand.
In the distance, a group of monsters were rushing towards them, and a beast also got into the warm shack. This beast was just not crazy. This was the new perception of the local Latvian nobles in Riga towards the Rus merchants.
Indeed, when the sun shone on the earth the next day, a group of warriors with uniform clothes, uniform shields, and large numbers of sword-wielding soldiers walked out of Ross's guesthouse. They looked exactly the same, and they gathered together to talk and laugh. To outsiders, they looked like a bunch of blue people.
The white mixed color is a person not to be messed with.
The majority of Latvian militiamen learned of this situation. Most of them were simple people. They only thought that the big shots had recruited a group of excellent mercenaries. Now the Semigalian sneak attack would definitely fail.
Obviously they are guarding their own territory and surrounding their food and livestock, but the militiamen are not willing to fight with all their might. Just let those Varangian mercenaries fight. At worst, they will go and get the spoils after the war. It is more important for everyone to save their lives.
.I cannot say that this group of militiamen are cowardly, I can only say that they are very thieves.
Keeping this idea in mind, there are indeed a thousand militiamen. Their weapons are various and mainly farm tools, and their clothes are very messy.
Their clothes were chaotic, their weapons were chaotic, and most of them had loose hair tied up with a hemp rope. Those in good condition had leather shoes, and many were simply barefoot.
One party is uniformly dressed and armed. Although he is a pirate, he is extremely tough.
One party was a local farmer, who was poorly armed and dressed in disorder, and believed that fighting was just a matter of people swarming up and fighting in groups.
In between are the warriors from the Danish community. They can maintain a certain degree of discipline and build a shield wall to fight in formation under the command of the boss Strand. Their clothes are also diverse, which makes the overall affluence.
Even if the clothes are not uniform, at least they are kept clean, and the soldiers decorate their clothes according to their own preferences. Therefore, there are many people who use leopard skin to make shawls. Obviously this special leather comes from Polotsk or Derigovich.
Bought here.
In just one night, Riga organized an army. This was certainly not because they had a high degree of organization, but because the city's population suddenly surged on a large scale, and there were also settled and foreign Varyag people to help.
Then during the day of the next day, the public opinion had quietly changed from the initial fear to the courage to fight. They waited for a whole morning and did not wait for the enemy at all. In the afternoon, the boring wait and the courage to fight turned into a request for war.
Could it be that those Semigalians stopped?
The Latvians in Riga deployed sentries upstream, but these sentries did not dare to go too far out of fear. The sentries were also very smart. They gathered some cow dung and prepared fire. They planned to create thick smoke to let the rear retreat after discovering the enemy.
See.
There was no danger warning until the sun went down. Just in the boring and nervous waiting, the third day came quietly.
No one would have doubted that the Semigalians were not coming, and during that calm day in the past, warnings of war had been carried to distant villages by well-legged messengers.
The top priority was to defend their own territory. Later they got the news that the guys in Riga had hired two Varangians as generals. They had no time to criticize the move because it was not a vote of all the leaders that was illegal, but an urgent request from the village.
He picked up the best and went to Riga to help in the battle.
The number of Latvian militiamen increased! The larger their numbers, the more confident they became, and they became more eager for the Semigalians to show up.
The boring waiting will eventually end, and there will be no dramatic changes.
Because even older people can see the thick smoke in the distance.
The horns and drums were blaring loudly, and the whole Riga was in a lively noise.
The strength of the militia has swelled to 1,500 people! Coupled with the Varyag mercenaries, the Latvian tribe organized a force of 2,000 people. Objectively speaking, this is the largest number in the history of the tribe.
If the enemy were to attack Riga directly, they would have no choice but to go straight to the mouth of the river along the river, which would make the battle situation extremely simple.
As a result, the so-called Varangians, that is, Danish and Russian mercenaries, lined up in front of the formation according to the conditions negotiated with the local nobles.
The Russians gathered together to form a rectangular array in blue and white tones. There were six torsion slingshots in the front row, and there were crossbow wielders on standby, and there were sword and shield bearers in the back.
The Danes had already set up a shield wall in advance, and leader Stekander had already drawn his broad-bladed sword and was pacing in front of the shield wall.
Behind them are a large number of Latvian militiamen armed with long-handled weapons. The militiamen stand in a disorderly manner and gather together to form an oval. Several village leaders personally fight, but this group of nobles can only manage their own men. The armies of each village can only
Fighting under the command of one's own leader means that everyone is fighting independently.
This is true for the Latvians, and it is also true for the Semigalians.
At first, Siputu didn't think it was so stupid to hire his own allies. Look at the reality! Just turn around and look at these allies. Although there are signs that they are a group of armed kung fu, a group of wild animals that only rely on instinct to fight.
.
But I felt relieved when I thought that the enemies I faced were also half-matched.
"It's too slow! Are we just waiting here?" After standing there for a while without seeing any sign of the enemy, Spuyut inevitably complained.
After hearing the complaint, Stekander came over subconsciously: "Give those idiots some time."
"Just keep waiting?"
"How about everyone sit down and wait for those guys."
In fact, just look at the current situation. The Latvian militiamen who gathered when they heard the horn sound were already sitting on the ground because they could not wait for the enemy. Their laziness can be contagious. Gradually, more and more militiamen sat on the ground, holding their weapons in their arms and chatting with their companions.
.This is not like a war, but like an audience watching a show that has not started yet.
What else could Spuyut do? We couldn't let the armored warriors stand all the time. He saw his sons sitting down, and it was hard to say anything.
The bravest Varyag mercenaries sat down together, literally waiting for work.
I don’t know how long I waited, but just as the boredom continued to increase, a black shadow really appeared in the distance. The people in a daze seemed to have been stung by bees on the face. They jumped up one by one, patted their Azabu cheeks hard, and tightened their weapons.
Prepare for battle. The trumpets and drums in the army are constantly sounding, cheering up the listless people.
"It's time to fight! Damn it, these Semigalians are getting a little weird." Stekander didn't think much, and he yelled at his stunned allies: "The fool is in a daze! Get ready to fight!"
Siputu, however, squinted his eyes and seemed to be still in a daze.
"Hey! Friend, are you still dazed? Quickly organize your people and prepare to fight!"
It is very strange to say that Stekander noticed that the Russians were all looking at the "things" slowly approaching in the distance, as if they were watching the excitement and not fighting at all. They pointed their heads and pointed, and they should have tightened their grip on their swords.
The handle is also quite loose.
The Danish leader's shouts were all in his ears, and Spyut felt his ears grow calluses. He suddenly turned his head and asked impatiently with a sullen face: "The people who are coming are all your so-called Semigalians."
?”
"Yes. You... doubted it."
"Yes. I'm very doubtful. I'm not blind yet, so why do I feel that they are actually a group of guys on horseback."
"Equestrian?" It's embarrassing to say that this concept is very unfamiliar to the Danish leader Stekander. "Who knows. It's better to prepare for battle immediately."
"Don't worry. I...feel very strange."
Although it was very strange, Spuyut noticed that the people on horseback all had white colors and were holding something similar to a flag. The distance was still shortening, and the opponent's movement speed also slowed down.
A very strange thought came to his mind: "That's weird, could it be...our cavalry over there?"
People on horseback usually dress in white. The only person Spyut knew who could be dressed like this in so many years of traveling across the ocean was the Ross Cavalry. Since the war, he had been responsible for patrolling the ocean and knew that the cavalry returned by boat. From then on, there was nothing about the cavalry.
Don't know anything about it.
Don’t jump to conclusions yet!
Si Puyut was so anxious that he ordered his subordinates to hang the folded flag on a wooden pole, and then performed an action that was extremely inexplicable to outsiders.
"Signal soldiers! Go out into battle! Send greetings to those guys!" he ordered.
Naturally, there are people under Spuyut who understand semaphore. Since the invention of "semaphore", it has been used in naval battles. Now that he is a marine law enforcer, he has greatly developed this technology. He feels that as long as the opponent is the Russian army, it will definitely
Understand the concept of semaphore. No matter whether the other party can understand it or not, as long as you notice a person doing a set of seemingly incomprehensible gymnastics, you will realize that this is a friendly force.
The so-called flag is two wooden sticks temporarily tied with cloth strips, and the flag soldiers then bared their teeth and claws in public, leaving others confused.
"What are you doing?" Stekander felt that the world had become extremely absurd.
It is obvious that the signal soldier's arrogant operation really caused the approaching enemy to take action. Listen carefully, the wind brings distant sounds, which is the sound of the horn, and the rhythm of the blowing is the signal.
Si Puyut showed a comfortable smile. He simply sheathed his sword and suddenly ordered all the soldiers to put away their weapons.
"Is this the end of the fight?" Stekander asked again.
"No fighting! I don't know what's going on with you. The information is simply wrong. But those people are not Semigalians, they are... us Rus."
"Um?"
"It's us Russians!"
Spuyut may have heard the wrong sound with his own ears, but the ears of all the Russians who landed would not be confused as a whole. The melodious sound of the horn turned into a muffled sound, and everyone could still judge that this was a signal to "retreat troops."
"Retreat" means rest, truce, the non-combat state of truce, and also extends to the meaning of peace.
He asked his allies not to be nervous anymore, because the other side is no longer hostile. He even said: "Don't worry! If a fight really breaks out, Ross's cavalry will make you cry. Fortunately, they are not hostile."
"Ah? Are they really your people? Didn't you come across the sea? How come you came from upstream on horseback?"
"Who knows? At least I can guess who their leader is."
When all the Varyag mercenaries gradually slackened collectively and the Latvian militia was confused, the cavalry had arrived within the range of the Ross Torque Slingshot.
The cavalry lined up in a wide queue, with the Ross cavalry in uniform uniforms in the front row, the second row became the Ostara cavalry, and the steppe cavalry at the end. The cavalry team flew the Ross flag and the Ostara cavalry.
There are two kinds of flags, and Spuyut knows these two flags very well.
The cavalry had no intention of fighting, or they had. They started to get suspicious when they saw someone in the distance making some weird body movements that only semaphore soldiers could do. Then they noticed that there was a Ross flag among the troops arrayed in the distance.
This fighting spirit quickly dissipated.
A tall and strong cavalryman waved his hands first, and then ran towards the formation of the army alone.
At this time, even the Danish mercenaries could clearly see the attire of the man on horseback. You can notice the huge nose guard of the man's iron helmet, and the mail shield that covered most of his face. The round shield was hung on the saddle.
, the pattern painted on it cannot be said to be slightly similar to that of his allies, it can only be said to be exactly the same.
The emphasis on drawing patterns on bucklers is to be unique and unique to reflect the bravery and tenacity of the owner. A small group will collectively draw a pattern. The larger the group, the more important it is to ensure that everyone has the same pattern so that they can identify friendly forces during battle.
As if in a dream, Stekander saw the cavalry up close for the first time in his life.
Because the Latvian tribes did not have cavalry, he only heard that the Utvin (Lithuania) tribe far to the southwest had horsemen. He did not know anything about horseback combat, let alone seeing cavalry in front of him.
Now, Spuyut, a Russian, took off his helmet and revealed his old face: "Fisk! Is that you?"
The equestrian loosened his saddle, held his helmet with both hands and slowly revealed his face. A funny bald head appeared under the helmet!
The man has a mustache and a bald head, and the absence of wrinkles on his forehead proves his youth. His face is naturally recognized by Sipuyut. Now that the truth is revealed, it makes the current situation even more absurd and ridiculing.
"Fisk! I didn't expect it was you! Why are you here?"
"Is it Uncle Spuyut? It's really strange. Why are you in Riga?"
"Ah?!" Now, it was Spuyut's turn to be further surprised: "Do you know this is Riga?"
"I know. I just came to find the people here, but in the end I still have to fight? I don't want to fight." Fisk said it easily, never expecting that such a relaxed attitude would make the feeling of absurdity even worse.
"Then stop fighting! Let's talk about everything. Damn it, if I had known it was your people, what kind of army would you have organized?" Sipuyut slapped his old face hard to wake up, looked at his allies again, opened his arms and
Norse kept yelling: "Let's all break up! It's all a misunderstanding! They are not enemies at all."
If this is the case, the Danes can immediately declare that they will not fight, but the Latvians look at the situation in front of them, and the nobles subjectively do not want to withdraw their troops casually. What the local nobles learned is that an enemy is destroying the village, and the suspect is locked in Semi.
As for the Galians, who knows the outcome? They don't know these guys at all, and they are very powerful. If a fight breaks out and the Varyag mercenaries collectively give up, wouldn't Riga be destroyed by then?!
Ordinary militiamen could only see the situation in front of them. They found that the battle could not be fought at all. Their already depleted morale was even more demoralized. Those so-called enemies were not Semigalians at all. Although they were very strange, they were not hostile.
He even had a pleasant conversation with the Varyag leaders.
Even if the local nobles remained on alert, when the militiamen felt that there was no point in continuing to stand here, they began to spontaneously withdraw from the battlefield. The withdrawal became more and more intense, and the nobles had lost the ability to fight.
The noble felt fear, but then he thought that these horsemen, who were dressed very similar to the Russians, did not appear hostile. If they talked to them, they could find out the situation.
Therefore, the so-called military confrontation was only a theory that existed for no more than thirty minutes. When the Varyag mercenaries began to talk happily with the so-called enemies, the powerful Latvian militia directly disbanded itself. The local nobles stood up and left one after another.
A leisurely formation of Varangians approached the bald foreigner and the cavalry army behind him.
Although it can be judged from the clothes alone that the strangers have a very close relationship with the Russians, some local nobles simply greeted them in Norse with a strange accent: "People who have come from afar, who are you...?"
Fisk just wanted to have a good chat with the relatives he met miraculously, but he saw some "warriors" wearing various furs approaching and asking very stupid questions.
"We are Russians." He replied arrogantly: "It seems that you are the local leaders?"
"Yes"
"Very good, we just want to chat with the Riga people here. We are not hostile at all. I don't know why you are hostile. That's fine! I didn't expect that my people have arrived here first, so that there will be less misunderstandings in our future exchanges. I'm really lucky.