Since he temporarily possessed military power from his father, Rurik naturally had to direct the battle of the 300 men at hand according to his own will.
As a new military commander, shouldn't he try some new tricks?
For example, some new tactics were used that the Ross tribe had never seen before, and through these tactics, everyone involved in the operation was shocked.
Regardless of whether Rurik admits it or not, the prophecy has been fulfilled, and all the warriors present believe that this is a major test of Rurik's ability to serve as the new leader.
This battle is really a battle to establish the power of the new leader in the future! It can be said that even a small-scale victory can gain more support from the tribe than inventing multiple devices.
Rurik knew this very well. What his Ross brothers wanted was victory in the battle.
He had no scruples in publicly questioning the traditional tactics of the Russians charging in headfirst and overwhelming the enemy with their momentum and sheer strength.
The only thing he could think of that could bring about changes in the military operations of the Ross tribe was the "pincer offensive" that was tried repeatedly by later generations of military strategists, and Rurik had an even better idea. This time, he wanted to experiment with a three-quarter siege.
The ultimate goal of tactics is to complete the annihilation of the enemy.
Rurik sat on the snow and used some branches he picked up to outline the positions of himself and the enemy, and performed a "sand table deduction".
Otto and the warriors he had on hand sat around each other on the ground, and everyone understood Rurik's tactical arrangements to a certain extent.
Facing the complex tactics his son was determined to implement, Otto frowned. "Rurik, is this possible?"
"It's definitely possible. As long as everyone cooperates properly."
"You...but you actually asked your mercenaries to fight the fleeing enemies? Besides, they will really flee in the direction you designed. Can you see the future clearly?"
Rurik thought his father's question was a bit funny. Then he thought about it. It was probably just because of all the previous tactics of the Ross tribe. There was no "pincer offensive", and there was no such thing as more complicated and more vicious than the "pincer offensive".
The "surrounding three buildings and one" tactic.
"Dad, take your main force and sneak over as I ask. If you can defeat these...these Tavastians are the best. If they escape, my mercenaries will shoot them."
Otto originally thought that his son's plan was very clever, and only his son could come up with such a plan. He also felt that Rurik seemed to put himself in a more dangerous position.
After all, Otto is the big leader and he can take back military power at any time.
Otto basically agreed with Rurik's decision. In addition to claiming that the main force who would lead the outflank attack would try to complete the battle as quickly as possible and kill all the enemies, Otto also gave Rurik fifty warriors, including twenty more.
A hunter with a short wooden bow.
In this way, Rurik could lay out as many as seventy ambush troops on the road to intercept the escape route.
After the battle plan was laid out, more than 300 Russian warriors formed three combat groups. The two groups led by Otto were responsible for the "Encirclement Three", and Rurik's seventy men were responsible for the "Que One".
The warriors crossed the glacier, which was actually 700 meters wide, and took the time to rest in the woods on the other side of the river until dawn, when the short daylight was about to come.
Rurik rested for a while wrapped in a piece of leather, as did almost all the warriors of the tribe.
Only the soldiers on guard duty kept their eyes wide open to pay attention to the changes in the stars.
The stars have reached their correct positions and the sky has begun to turn blue.
The sentries began to wake up the sleeping tribesmen one by one. After a while, one by one the soldiers lifted up the leather and stood up.
Otto wiped his face with snow, then took out a bronze helmet from his sled and put it on his head. He also put on a thin layer of mail coat, and then put on a fur coat to keep out the cold.
The belt tightened around his waist, and the shield was slung on his back.
He held his steel sword high, supervising the movements of his clansmen, and roared to urge them to prepare for battle immediately.
Rurik's little hand held a leather helmet, and he looked at it thoughtfully.
"Master, put it on quickly! We are going to fight soon." Jevro, who was already wearing leather armor, urged.
"Oh, I'm in a trance."
"Are you scared?" Yevluo smiled slightly: "Don't worry, anyone will be nervous in the first battle. Once you have experienced it more, you will feel relieved."
At this moment, Rurik felt that his Jevro was a veteran who had been on the battlefield for a long time. Yes, this man's more than ten years were probably spent licking blood from a knife's edge.
Rurik was very concerned about Jevro's thoughts. He asked: "If...the enemy is the Tavastians, what will you do?"
"Destroy them all, of course."
"Then let's fight." Rurik made a determined decision. He originally felt that his situation was too magical. After all, reality is reality, and the first battle in life is coming.
He tore off the hemp rope that tied his hair, rarely loosened his beautiful ponytail, and then buckled the leather helmet, which seemed to have little defense, on his head.
Rurik did not wear high-end armor such as chain mail, and he did not even wear leather armor. It was not that Rurik felt that defense was not important, but that the armor was too heavy for his small body.
Besides, the troops under their command have unique combat methods. In theory, everyone should try their best to avoid close contact with the enemy, and just use the long-range weapons at hand to kill the enemy before close contact.
In this way, the mobility of light armor is much higher than that of heavy armor.
On the other hand, most of the people led by Otto had to wear more leather armor, even if they were covered with a piece of deerskin.
Because Jevlo's intelligence clearly pointed out that the unknown enemy faced by the Russians was likely to fire a large number of arrows. Those arrows were destined to be mostly bone arrows, and maybe two layers of leather could offset the attack of the arrows. As long as they were hit
By passing the enemy's arrows, the Russian warriors had an absolute advantage.
In this way, when the sky turned blue at dawn, the Russians unloaded their sleds and brought only combat equipment. Only twenty people who seemed to be relatively weak shouldered the important task of "looking after the house".
But Rurik's men were different.
The obviously weak commander Rurik was sitting on the sleigh, with a crossbow beside him and more than twenty arrows behind him.
In this battle, Rurik's seventy men, who were responsible for intercepting "Que Yi", actually brought all the arrows in their reserves. The total number of various arrows was fifteen hundred!
Rurik could not judge the enemy's strength well just by the number of bonfires. The so-called preparedness meant that he was ready to shoot out all the arrows.
The Russian troops divided into three groups and began to take action.
On a macro level, surrounding the unknown and abrupt hills, the Russian army took the lead in launching a pincer offensive in the true sense, aiming at the large number of bonfires on the hills.
The general direction of the three Russian armies was eastward. Otto personally led more than 70 people to detour to the north side of the hill, and another confidant led 90 people to detour to the south side of the hill.
They were not gathered together in a tight formation, but in a loose formation, forming a net for catching fish.
Otto developed his imagination and used the working mode of the tribe's trawler as a template to come up with this trick. This trick is to imagine the enemy as a fish.
It is best if the enemy is willing to face him head-on, so that his son will not have to take action. Otto firmly believes in the power of his own people.
If the enemy flees, his son's reputation will be ruined.
Probably, that's it.
Otto was a little worried, but the arrow could not be turned back. His troops in the north had already connected with their brothers in the south.
Dark shadows moved forward in all the woods near the hill. At this moment, the sky gradually became brighter.
Being at a relatively high position, the howling north wind makes it even more desolate.
Otto saw that the position was almost there, and he estimated that not only was the entire net completed, but now was a good time to close it.
Are we going to launch a surprise attack? Bah! I'm afraid the enemy has already realized that something is wrong.
Stepping on the snow-covered slope, Otto drew out his sword. With the buzzing sound of the sword, he roared: "Russians! Attack!"
Upon receiving this order, those who were still advancing slowly accelerated their running speed, and at the same time, they used swords or axes to knock on their wooden shields to increase their momentum.
"Ah?! Has there already been a fight?!"
After pausing for a moment, Rurik, who had already established a "blocking position" on the hillside, could not help but panic when he heard the shouts from his fellow tribesmen.
Yevluo can comfort you: "Master, don't worry about anything. I will protect you."
"Protect me? Am I still a woman?"
Jevro deliberately teased, "Oh, my master. If you keep your hair loose and wear a one-piece linen suit, you will indeed look a bit feminine."
"Dressing up as a woman? It's fun, if it makes the brothers happy. But I'm a man, and I have to prove myself in this battle." Rurik immediately pulled out his dagger, pointing the blade directly at the top of the hill not far away.
bonfire. "Brothers, load the crossbows and wait for my order to shoot."
Rurik has already begun preparations.
His twenty crossbowmen were divided into two rows, and each row was relatively far apart. They formed a line array about twenty meters long, with the first row half-kneeling and the second row standing.
The thirty bow-wielding hunters in the team formed a relatively tight group. After all, the current short wooden bows of the Russians really shouldn't expect it to give arrows the range. Besides, the long arrows the hunters have on hand, many arrow clusters are
The sharpened leg bones of small animals are hung on long branches. Such harsh arrows are easy to kill small animals, but they are weak against enemies with leather armor.
Rurik hoped that the archers would throw arrows to create chaos, and the crossbowmen were the main force in blocking the attack!
His idea was perfect before he came into contact with the enemy, but Yevluo was not at ease. At this moment, Yevluo seemed to have become a military staff officer, and asked all the soldiers to stick their swords and short spears in the snow.
It is said that once the enemy breaks through the arrow array, they draw their weapons and fight. Especially when there are twenty warriors left, they are all standard sword and shield bearers. It is the short time difference caused by the crossbowmen before they transform into melee infantry, and they take the lead.
A person who attacks in melee combat.
Yevlo himself was also mentally prepared. Even if he was injured, he had to protect Rurik. This was not only to follow his professionalism, but also to be grateful for being reused.
Rurik's preparations have been made, and the battle has begun on the top of the hill that he cannot see.
The people who lit the bonfire were not the legendary Tavastians at all.
But it was also the first time that the Russians learned such a term from Yevlo's mouth.
Otto can't control that much. In the current situation, if it's one of our own, it's the enemy. The enemy is the enemy. It will be enough to leave two people alive and ask them for their identities. All the Russian soldiers can perfectly distinguish between ourselves and the enemy. The reason is
It lies in the leather helmets covered with bronze plates between each other.
As for the enemies? They seemed to have never noticed that they were being targeted by a powerful enemy in their camp from the beginning.
Otto scoffed at the enemy's slow reaction speed.
"We gave you the opportunity to prepare, and it's like you just woke up from a dream."
When the battle began, Otto himself fought with a sword, and the young warriors under his command were already charging forward bravely.
A short foreigner wearing a cotton hat was stabbed down by the Russian's bright white steel sword.
And those aliens who had just come out of the tent wearing a leather coat because they heard the terrifying roar, just picked up their stone spears and even crudely made hammers, and saw a large group of tall and strong people.
people rushed over.
More than a dozen foreigners took the lead and started an instinctive counterattack. The Russians attacked so quickly that the foreigners basically had no time to use short wooden bows and shoot arrows to fight back.
They also fired some arrows. Just as the Russians had estimated at the beginning, arrows made of bones would only serve as a source of harassment unless they blinded the eyes of the Russians.
Seeing that the arrows were of little use, the foreign warriors tried to stab and attack the armored Ross warriors with stone spears. The obsidian spearheads could make deep scratches on the Ross wooden shields, and the damage was basically the same. The young and strong Ross warriors decided to spend a lot of money to buy them.
The steel sword can cut off a head with just one critical blow.
There were also foreigners who attacked with hammers, but they were all a head shorter than the Russians. They were knocked hard by the Russian soldiers and fell to the snow, and were immediately stabbed to death with swords.
The so-called battle is really about reducing ten skills with one strength. And when it comes to battle, Otto will choose veterans who have killed Gotland soldiers.
What happened on the hill was basically a one-sided battle. In terms of stature, physical fitness, weapons and equipment, and even the number and organization of the two sides, the two sides were not at the same order of magnitude.
Otto originally thought that the enemy was very strong, but the reality was that the Russians were bullying them.
A middle-aged man wearing a hat made of a large number of squirrel skins sewn together was the leader of the aliens who lit the bonfire.
The battle declared his defeat from the very beginning. The leader felt that he had to move his head, but he unexpectedly survived. The well-equipped attackers, why didn't they attack from the west?
Indeed, from the boss's perspective, escaping to the west is the only way out because there are invincible guards there.
After a conversation in a language that the Russians could not understand, the remaining foreigners covered in leather began to carry their own weapons, mainly short spears and hammers. A few people temporarily picked up bows, but they ran out of arrows.
Simply remove the bowstring and use the bow as a stick.
They began to run toward the west and down the mountain.
The leader led more than thirty people on the so-called safe escape road.
It seems that as long as you escape fast enough and abandon the treasures you have caught before, the attackers will definitely come to snatch the treasures, and you will be safe. What is more important, the treasure or your life. The boss and his guys, choose to save their lives.
However, Rurik and his seventy special warriors have already set up a battle formation and are waiting for the enemy!
The leader never dreamed that not only would his men not survive the desperate situation, but that many of them would die suddenly for no apparent reason.