Chapter 265 Kewen Wars 6: The Birth of a Coalition
If there is an effective means to attack competitors, the Salmon Lord Tribe will certainly use it without hesitation.
This method is to take advantage of the Russian military strength.
Therefore, within a few hours after this tribe was conquered by the Rus, their leader Kaihas changed from resolute resistance to active cooperation.
Kejas told all the facts about the gray squirrel tribe in a hostile and competitive state, and out of emotion, he described the enemy as a powerful enemy.
"That tribe has at least a thousand people, and they are very powerful. The bows and arrows fired by their warriors can accurately penetrate the gaps in the leaves and hit the deepest squirrels. Their people can also hunt wild boars and white bears.
It can also completely wipe out the forest wolves."
Kejas tried his best to prove the truth of this statement with a horrified expression.
But when Otto knew the order of magnitude of the enemy's population provided by this person, he couldn't help but laugh.
"A thousand people? A mere thousand people, do you deserve to call yourself powerful?"
Kejas was a little surprised. How could the gray squirrel tribe actually have such a large population? At most, there were only more than 500 people.
Kejas immediately changed his mind: "Yes, compared to your tribe, we humble Covin people are really...too weak. Being your hunting dogs is our greatest honor."
Otto was very satisfied with this frank flattery, and even felt a little elated.
Rurik had a different feeling when he heard it. Facing the surrendered servants, the master must show his strength, so-called having the face of a king.
According to Kehas's description, the territory of the gray squirrel tribe is in the south. As long as you continue upstream along the frozen river, there is a small lake there, and the real gray squirrel tribe is established on the south bank of the lake.
There are no mounds in any sense where the gray squirrel tribe is located. The land there is relatively flat and covered with vegetation, mainly pine and oak. It is entirely because of the cold local climate that the locals have only cultivated a very small amount of land.
Land to grow some cold-resistant vegetables.
All the Kovin people are fishing and hunting people, and they settle mainly in the Oulu River Basin.
The salmon master tribe lives near the mouth of the sea. When huge numbers of salmon come upstream in autumn, they go straight to Lake Oulu to spawn. This tribe can easily catch large amounts of plump fish with a hemp rope net next to the fast river.
salmon and become food for the winter.
The tribes upstream of them lost their best fishing spots and couldn't get the best fish, so they could only think of other development directions.
Capturing a large number of squirrels, skinning them and selling them to the south in exchange for food seems to be a viable option, not to mention that the squirrel meat itself is also a satisfying food. They are already exploring the north to find a land route for trade with the Norwegians.
The root cause of the dispute is that under the limited ability to obtain resources, everyone strives to expand the scope of land control to gain more profits for their tribe.
So Kejas specifically mentioned a long wall built by a tribe of gray squirrels in the forest.
"It was a low wall, made of stones and wood. Around the low wall, there were also some trip wires for trapping animals, as well as some traps. That wall was the boundary they built."
It seems that Rurik first thought of the concept of the Great Wall.
In the end, Otto couldn't understand the use of a long and low wall. He showed his disdain, "What's the point? Let's cross the wall and chop off their heads."
"My lord, perhaps we need some precautions."
Otto didn't care at all about this suggestion, because he didn't look down on these Covin people at all.
Twenty tribal warriors died, and he attributed such casualties to the damn stone wall fortress. With successful experience today, Otto had already thought of some strategies for dealing with mountain fortresses and bows.
The Gray Squirrel tribe also has so-called hill forts. Due to the need for defense, their settlements have been wrapped in walls.
"Especially the boring stone wall, which will not be easily broken by our army in the future." Otto said disdainfully.
"Master, their walls are...different from ours."
"What? Do you need to cultivate higher?"
"Yes! There are even some special wooden stands on which someone can shoot arrows."
"Is that just that?" Otto's attitude was still dismissive.
Rurik had heard a lot of secrets. With his limited confidence, Rurik thought that the gray squirrel tribe might have used the materials at hand to build a "city" in the style of the Japanese Warring States Period. To put it bluntly, they just used stones.
Make a simple fence with wood and wood to wrap up the village. This is a primitive but relatively effective defense.
To understand why that tribe carried out such large-scale construction, the reason is very simple. It was forced by the Salmon Lord Tribe.
In this regard, there are no real evildoers on either side, but there are simply conflicts of interest.
"Are those people, like you, good at shooting arrows?" Rurik suddenly asked.
"Yes! My master, there are excellent archers among them who can shoot more accurate arrows. But there are not many of them."
Rurik nodded: "Such enemies are the most dangerous. I understand, and I will take some measures. By the way, do they have a lot of iron arrows?"
"No! We are seriously short of iron, my master. When we see the large number of iron helmets you wear, we will know that you are the powerful Varyags."
He was still uttering words of praise, but Rurik was not moved at all.
He shrugged and sat upright: "In this case, we can make some large shields. As for the enemy's higher walls, wouldn't it be good to make some ladders."
However, Rurik never expected that the concept of "ladder" was relatively new to the Salmon Lord tribe. First of all, these tribesmen had seen ladders, but they lacked the skills to really only make it.
In other words, the local people are very lacking in the ability to process wood mortise and tenon structures. This is not the case for the Russians. Those shipbuilders had to use mortise and tenon structures to piece together the core frames of their ships.
In this way, Rurik thought of three types of equipment needed for siege.
First, the arrow-proof wooden shield. That is, some small pine trees are cut down, and a large number of thin tree trunks are pieced together and tied with hemp ropes, eventually forming a large wooden shield with a width of up to two stikas (nearly two meters). Since the wet pine wood is cut down
, the water in the tree trunk will freeze quickly after being chopped down, unexpectedly increasing its strength. The materials selected are all fine pine, and the entire large shield must be something that a strong Russian man can easily pick up and push forward. Rurik can be sure that
What's more, even if the opponent fires an iron-tipped arrow, due to its clumsy short wooden bow, it can penetrate the large shield at most, exposing an arrow that may only be a few millimeters. As for the bone arrows, the wooden shield will completely intercept them.
Second, build a ladder. Or cut down two pine trees of similar growth age. Its trunk should be as thick as a strong man's thigh, and some defects should be cut on it to hold the thick branches arranged horizontally. Finally, they should be further tied with hemp ropes.
Fixed. Since Rurik does not know the height of the opponent's "city wall", he defaults to the height of the "city wall" being at least three meters, so the ladder needs to be four meters long.
Third, the battering ram. Only this weapon proposed by Rurik attracted a positive response from several young Russian soldiers present. Because the Russians have sufficient success stories. The so-called battering ram, in Rurik's vision
, that is, after arriving at the destination, a large pine tree is selected and chopped down, and then a large number of hemp ropes are tied around the trunk. The hemp ropes are then tied around a batch of thin tree trunks. A group of warriors carry the thin trunks, and finally the big pine tree is carried directly.
Blast the enemy's wall or gate.
All the opinions came from a little boy. Kejas was shocked and realized what a powerful enemy he had fought against before.
The battle is inevitable and the battle will continue.
The siege weapons used to attack Gray Squirrel Hill Castle were easy to build. Otto was very satisfied with his son's fantastic idea, but he still couldn't believe that with the help of these items, his tribe could achieve zero casualties.
.
Otto did not fall into arrogance and forget about himself. In the melee, he saw the courage of the local people to defend their homeland. So will the surrender of such people last long? If the Russians are weak one day, they will definitely declare themselves free.
We must use them to fight for the Russians and inspire their fighting spirit.
Otto thought of a brilliant idea.
He solemnly said to Kejas: "Now, I ask you to provide an army to fight for us. You already know this very well."
"Yes! Master!"
"Now I give you a chance to show your loyalty. When the battle is won, you will also benefit. I know that the furs and food you donated to us are large, and you actually lost a lot. What you lost is completely acceptable
Get it back from the gray squirrel tribe. I promise that after the battle, you can take half of the loot."
After hearing Gevro's careful translation, Kejas rubbed his ears vigorously and said nothing, and also asked Yevro if there was a problem with the wording when translating. Ah, he really didn't believe that the Varangians were actually kind.
Otto said again: "I can give you half of the loot, provided that your people actively cooperate. How many people can you provide?"
"This..." Kejas immediately thought that this was a test of him by the Russians.
While hesitating, he realized that there was something deeper here. It was a foregone conclusion to send people to join the war. Participating in the war was an act of submitting a petition to his master, but once a fight broke out, his people would probably suffer heavy casualties.
Kejas also believed that if a war with the Gray Squirrel tribe was announced, with the support of the powerful Ross people behind it, the men of the tribe would be absolutely indignant and would regain their dignity that had been trampled by the Ross people by completely defeating the Gray Squirrel tribe.
Kejas thought for a while, "One hundred people, it should be... OK."
"No! It's too few. You need to provide at least two hundred people."
Kejas looked embarrassed: "But! The men of our tribe, those very brave men, were all killed by the powerful you. Master, do you ask me to organize some ten-year-old boys to join the army?"
Some ten-year-old boys? Otto did know that when the old guy was resisting, he did organize a large number of little boys to throw stones and cause trouble. Those children were simply a burden, and fighting was a matter for strong men.
Maybe there wasn't much deception in this guy's words. Otto thought about it. Almost all of the buried enemy corpses were adult men.
Otto thought of a compromise: "You must provide me with one hundred and fifty people. I don't want a ten-year-old boy, and the minimum age must be twelve. What I want is a man. In my opinion, a boy must be ten years old."
At the age of two, you can do what men should do."
Kejas is still very embarrassed.
"Don't you understand?" Otto suddenly shouted, scaring Rurik. "I will release one hundred and fifty outstanding men, and they will fight for us! Victory, your tribe
They will receive preferential treatment. If they don't fight well, the rest of your tribe will all die!"
There is no doubt that this is the ultimate threat. To be honest, Rurik does not like Otto's threats. No! This is not a threat, but something that is really possible.
After all, his father was also the big leader. Although Rurik declared his ownership of these conquered people and became their master, if his father did not admit it, it would really be of no benefit.
So at this moment, Rurik was completely on his father's side.
"Kejas, I advise you to accept our request. Listen, we can help you enter a new era of prosperity, provided you cooperate unconditionally. If you show any laziness or betrayal, your family members will be in trouble!"
Rurik said such intimidating words with a cold expression. Kejas was afraid. He was not afraid of Rurik, a child, but the powerful force behind him.
Kejas lowered his head and knelt on the ground, thus swearing that he fully agreed with all the orders of the Russians.
"You are very smart." Otto's expression relaxed, and then he stood up and said, "Let's go! Go outdoors and gather your men. We will form a joint army to defeat our common enemy."
Originally, even in the warm season, Kejas intentionally organized tribesmen to attack the gray squirrel tribe. Both sides were competing for animal resources in the forest and rivers. When hunters from both sides met, the probability of fighting was very high.
The Salmon Lord tribe does not object to fighting, but Kejas just doubts whether winter warfare is appropriate.
In this way, a large number of men were released. Under the escort of heavily armed Rus warriors, they poured into a relatively flat area in the village.
After Otto's instruction, Kejas stood on a haystack, and after his tribesmen gathered together in fear, in the biting cold wind, he loudly shouted out the good results of his negotiations with the Russians.
"We're going to attack the Gray Squirrel tribe! We're going to end this with the help of the Rus!"
"Everything we lose can be regained by the gray squirrel tribe!"
"The Russians are reasonable! As long as we surrender and fight for them, we will get benefits."
"As long as we fight for them, when we are attacked, if the Tavastians attack us, the Rus will organize an army to help us!"
"We could have avoided fighting the Ross people. It was the gray squirrel tribe that caused all this. It was them who instigated discord and caused this war! The gray squirrel tribe is the source of all evil!"
…
After these remarks, the dejected men originally discussed that the Russians would execute all the men in public, but they did not expect that it would be a huge opportunity for reward.
After Kejas's words became clear, the men's emotions were aroused.
Rurik and Otto were both very surprised. These Covin people burst out with amazing roars. It was obvious that they were highly enthusiastic about attacking the gray squirrel tribe.
Rurik doesn’t think they are very smart, because smart people can understand that the Russians want to expand the spoils through new wars, but also to consume the men of the conquered tribes. After all, the bravest warriors
, often rush to the front line, and will naturally encounter key blows from the enemy.
Therefore, there are often only two types of people who survive, the war-mad ones with good luck and strength, and the cowardly ones.
If a fighting maniac is promoted, Rurik believes that such people will become loyal supporters in order to keep the rewards of their new master.
As for the cowards, they basically can't make any trouble, but they can pay taxes steadily.
Rurik actually has no objection to the Gray Squirrel tribe, which is just a new tribe that will be conquered by the Rus. As for their conflicts with the Salmon Lord tribe, Rurik is also not interested.
What Rurik is most concerned about is whether the children of the conquered tribes agree with the rule of the Rus after this expanded "Northern Hunting" operation.
After all, the master of the new era is Rurik! Those children will be the warriors of the future, and they are the fighting force that he needs to control. But those who are in their prime now may be old when they grow up.
In the outrage of the men of the Salmon Lord's tribe, one hundred and fifty were singled out.
Otto and Rurik supervised this process, and the selected people were as old as forty and as young as fifteen.
After being disarmed, they were re-armed, and these Covins picked up bows and spears again. Of course, these so-called weapons did not look very good to the Russians.
At this scene lit by a bonfire, Otto appointed the tribal leader Kejas as the commander of the tribal soldiers. This person's job is to rush to the front line of the army when the battle begins. Regarding this, Kejas
Already have sufficient psychological preparation.
Otto also selected an elite force, with a total strength of only 200 people. He left a group of soldiers to continue to control the village and the remaining locals.
Otto's threats were by no means mere threats. He controlled the families of those men and forced them to fight bravely.
Under the cover of night, a coalition army of up to 350 people was born.
The Russians cheered that the battle could be further expanded, and generally felt disdainful and even worried about a group of losers joining their team. Since this was the order from the big leader, the warriors had no choice but to agree.
After a battle, the team needs to make amends.
The team does need to be revised, because the Russians have been on the road in the past few days, and it is time to seize the housing in the village of Kovin and settle down for a few days to recharge.
At the same time, we must also use local materials to build a batch of equipment necessary for siege, and take them on the glacier to reach the goal.