Taking the cavalry to New Roseburg to participate in the festival and grand event to show off the prince's illustrious martial arts was by no means Rurik's main purpose. His real purpose was to complete the upgrade of the cavalry's armaments.
Rurik not only planned to install steel horseshoes on all horses, but also equipped his own cavalry with steel swords and lances, including some special protective gear.
Each cavalryman must be equipped with integrally forged calf greaves, and the thighs must be covered with a layer of "war skirt", so-called leather deerskin interlaced riveted steel sheets.
The upper body of the cavalry is also more exquisite. The chest and back are covered by integrally forged plate armor. The carbon steel plate armor has been surface-hardened. The Russians' own steel-arm crossbows cannot penetrate armor-piercing arrows.
exist.
Since the arms must be strong and flexible, the arms were covered with chain mail and integral plate armor was hung on the forearms.
According to Rurik's plan, even the horses must have armor. In particular, the chests of the war horses should be hung with "deerskin riveted iron armor", and the horse's neck and crotch should also be armored.
This low-configuration and armored soldier became a powerful weapon for rushing into battle, but it also departed from the nature of light cavalry and was objectively closer to the Eastern Roman armored cavalry.
But from the current position of the Principality of Rus, there is no need for the principality to train a huge group of light cavalry unless the principality is the ruling force and has actually arrived on the Ukrainian steppes. The principality controls the forest area, and the battlefield where the cavalry is turned to fight is always cramped.
, this kind of combat environment is most suitable for heavy cavalry to rush and break formations like tanks.
The grand plan seems impractical for the time being, because Rurik must mobilize enough people to make armor and horse armor for himself, and pay a huge sum of money for this.
The reform of heavy cavalry in cavalry must be gradual, and with heavy cavalry, light cavalry must also be indispensable. The cavalry's riding and shooting skills must be practiced, and horseback slashing and thrusting skills must be practiced even more.
These days, Kagan and other Pechenegs still live in the comfort of New Roseburg. He is very happy that his horses can eat oats and hay again, and paying some money for this is not a problem.
New Roseburg actually has two markets inside and outside the city. The variety of goods sold there really opened his eyes.
Kagan took his men and money into the market to scan the goods. Seeing the cheap leather prices here, he really wanted to buy a few carriages. However, all his horses were sold to the Prince of Ross, and there were not enough pack horses to carry out the purchased new supplies.
Bring it back to the grassland.
Realistic factors forced him to use money to buy the material that the Pecheneg people needed most - salt.
Although Rurik ordered that only principal officials and legal contractors have the right to sell salt, and the price of salt is fixed. As a coastal country, ordinary people would not be able to find out if they scooped up seawater and boiled salt.
Of course ordinary people can do this, but the salt content of the seawater in the Baltic Sea, especially the Gulf of Finland, is too low, especially during the warm summer period. It is an exaggeration to say that the seawater in some sea areas is drinkable. It takes a lot of salt to boil this low-salt seawater
In terms of manpower and material resources, the cost of salt cooked in this way is too high. How can it compare with the salt from the Balmok people in the port of Narvik facing the Atlantic Ocean?
The Balmoks now take the land and river route every year to transport the salt to Ironburg, then ship it to Screwburg, and then transport it by sea to Tombstone Island, Novorossberg on the Neva River, and finally to Novgorod.
The good salt they made was packed in sacks, and a small boat could transport a large quantity at a time.
This is Northern Europe. Only blacksmiths have the opportunity to sweat a lot. The daily amount of salt required by ordinary people is less than 6 grams. Salt is used on a large scale to pickle food. This is the main demand.
The salt content in the northern waters of the Atlantic far exceeds the average value of the Baltic Sea. Since there is always a large amount of surface runoff near the settlements of the Rus Principality, the Rus people boiled the so-called sea water nearby, but the efficiency has long been only one-tenth that of the Balmok people.
In this way, even if you have to cross the central mountains of Scandinavia and go on a long journey to transport Atlantic salt to the hinterland of the Ross Principality, these salt transporters can still make a lot of money, because the principality boils salt according to the efficiency of the Baltic Sea.
Refer to the pricing of salt.
In the East, sun-salting technology can be achieved due to good geographical and climatic conditions. In Northern Europe, sun-salting is not possible. We can only rely on boiling brine in a big man, then controlling the heat to obtain crystallized sodium chloride, and then discarding the bitter brine.
Even though the situation of Yuanhe Zhongxing in the Tang Dynasty had just been destroyed by the Ganlu Incident, the empire had no choice but to raise taxes to clean up the mess, and the price of official salt soared.
But even so, the price was cheaper than the price set by Rurik of Rus. As for the Tang Empire, which continued to make a fuss about the salt tax, reaching a situation where salt was twenty times more expensive than grain in the last years, it was also cheaper than the price set by Rurik.
The situation of a hundred times the difference is better.
Ten silver coins can buy one pound of salt, one hundred pounds of oats, rye, or ninety pounds of wheat.
Only wealthy people don't have to worry about eating salt, and ordinary people in the Principality of Rus can eat sparingly. At least eating sea fish naturally has a salty taste, which the Rus people can tolerate. As for the Slavic people around Lake Ilmen who have been living a long-term salt-deficient life.
, it is good to be able to buy salt stably now, and they are even happy that the price is cheap.
But the price the ruling group represented by Rurik paid for the Balmok people's salt was not so extreme. He used the power of the prince to deliberately lower the price. The purchase price was 50% of the selling price. If necessary, he could still
further reduce the purchase price.
After all, the Balmok people have no other competitive product except salt. The brave men from the local harbor have all gone to Britain to establish their Viking Kingdom of York. The rest of the group is said to be biased towards cowards.
existence. Of course, they also hope to live a better life and send experiments to the principality in exchange for other daily necessities. Even if they pay a higher price, it is acceptable, not to mention that they do not feel that they are at a disadvantage now.
Rurik did not explicitly charge a salt tax, but he made a precise decision between the purchase price and the official selling price, and charged a heavy salt tax instead.
He really has no choice. Soon there will be five thousand children in the principality who will need to eat from the treasury. It is difficult for these children to create more wealth before they grow up to 12 years old. They are eating away at the principality's finances, which forces Rurik to make money.
money.
Infrastructure construction, child care and education, and military expenditures are the three major expenditure items of the principality.
At present, the national revenue is greater than the expenditure. If the principality maintains its current productivity, a large number of children will be born soon to overwhelm the principality. Further expansion is inevitable and necessary. When they grow up, they will take up arms and form armed immigrants to form Il
With Menhu as the center, it attacks the Eastern European world in all directions, asking for farmland from the forest and living space from other people.
Therefore, what Rurik has to do at this stage is to ensure the lives of his children and raise them to the age of twelve to reach adulthood in the traditional sense and become people who must support themselves according to the traditional concept.
The redirected salt tax rate is extremely high, but the consumption of this stuff by the people across the country is not shocking.
The first tax in the principality is the grain tax, followed by the iron tax, then the leather tax, and the salt tax comes last.
Of course, there is also a special source of wealth such as war dividends. Only pirates with no plans are busy grabbing gold and silver. The Russians either don't take action, but once they do, they aim at other countries' granaries to plunder.
All this required a group of scribes who were proficient in calculations, and Rurik happened to have already trained a team who were still improving their statistical abilities.
Training an army is the most expensive. Launching a large army to fight not only costs money but also involves the risk of damage. However, as long as there are generous captures after victory, most people will naturally forget about the risks involved.
Rurik chose to be conservative and temporary. He trained the cavalry and improved the cavalry armament. This behavior directly blocked the mouths of many people. How can the prince be conservative? The principality even has cavalry!
In seven days, Kamni, who was given the order, showed his initiative and led his brothers to complete the imitation and improvement of Pecheneg horseshoes.
Five hundred horseshoes made of carbon steel with preset holes were piled up into a hill, each one shimmering under the fire. They had all been polished with sandpaper, and the beauty of the metal was dazzling.
After learning that Kamne had completed his mission, Rurik was very interested in finding Kagan, who had completed a large purchase of salt, and explained to him the good thing about horse shoeing the horses collectively.
Horseshoeing is of course a good thing, and what's even more amazing is that even the Pecheneg people's mounts will receive brand-new horseshoes for free.
"Is this true?" Kagan was shocked. "I didn't even have to pay a silver coin."
"We are sworn brothers, aren't we? This is my gift to you."
"Ah!" Kagan said with a smile, a little embarrassed that he owed a favor. "Then, I have to do something for you."
"This is easy to say. We will naturally fight side by side in the future. And there is also the matter of horseshoeing. My people have just come into contact with this matter, and I need you to send someone to guide them! If the horseshoes are not slapped well and the horses are frightened, it will be terrible.
.”
"It's a simple matter. Just think of it as my reward for winning the horseshoe," Kagan said.
In a sense, Kagan has worked hard to obtain the dozens of sets of horseshoes that belong to him.
Rurik took him to visit the principality's large iron works, which really opened Kagan's eyes.
Kagan looked around: "I didn't expect you to forge iron like this? It's amazing, you are clearly making steel."
"We are making steel, let's make more things. Let's follow me and look at the horseshoes first." Rurik said and motioned for Kamni to lead the way.
A small warehouse is filled with horseshoes. Their styles are exactly the same. Although they are handmade, the tolerances are negligible.
Caressing the horseshoe with a smooth surface, Kagan was surprised. He also noticed the neat and regular protrusions on one side of the object, and felt curious.
Rurik explained casually: "I ordered it deliberately. Such horseshoes are nailed to the horseshoes. The protrusions can sink into the mud and make small pits for the ice and snow. Such horseshoes are more stable."
"I probably know the truth, but you..." Kagan didn't know the exact reason, but he only knew that it was beneficial. He was surprised that all the horseshoes had exactly the same shape, including the positions of the ridges and indentations.
"Okay..." Rurik motioned to Kamne: "Bring the brothers over here, transport the horseshoes to the cart, and follow me to the big stable outside the city."
There are no riding tasks, so the horses are tied together in the stables in winter to quietly eat grass and oats. The horses that stretch out of Novorosberg still eat a lot. They eat good food for many days, which directly makes up for the loss from Novgoro.
The long journey to the Neva River was exhausting.
The work of shoeing the horses is carried out outside the stables (a group of wooden sheds that were suddenly renovated).
They are all well-trained horses, and they are also large livestock with high intelligence. They have understood what humans want to do with their hooves.
Even for people like the Pechenegs who live with horses every day, because of the preciousness of iron tools, they will only shoe the best war horses, not ordinary horses. In fact, they can fight without horseshoes, just like without horseshoes.
A warrior with boots can also fight barefoot.
Without the help of the Pechenegs, it would have been difficult for Kamni and others to start the horseshoeing work.
Fortunately, Rurik was one of those who had a keen eye for discerning people, and Kamnier had a good learning ability. Kamniu watched the old horseshoes being pried off by the Pechenegs, and observed that the iron nails were separated from the horseshoes, and at the same time, the horses actually obeyed.
He stood there as if nothing had happened.
The old horseshoe was peeled off, and the horseshoe was cut into a flat surface with a knife.
Kamni looked surprised and said to himself with a strong desire to see it again: "Hey?! It doesn't seem to hurt at all."
Rurik replied casually: "Does it hurt if you bite your own fingernails? Horse hooves are like horse fingernails. They walk on their toes, and their toenails are like shoes. All we have to do is to put four iron shoes on them.
.”
Only then did Kamne suddenly realize.
Every horse must first repair the hoof and then shoe it. Kagan pointed out that everything will be fine just by nailing it on, because the horse's hoof will continue to grow, and the wear and tear of the hoof will be reduced after the horseshoe is shoed. The horse's hoof therefore needs to be repaired regularly, and the horseshoe will have to be removed at that time.
.
Even a BMW needs regular maintenance, let alone a real horse.
The shoeing work is proceeding in an orderly manner, and it seems that the mentality of the horses that have been shoed has also changed. They have become more lively and willing to stretch their ladders.
Some horses are even too lively and need to be pulled hard on the reins to restore stability.
"Are they suddenly excited? Or are they in some pain?" Rurik couldn't help but ask.
Kagan explained casually: "Don't you have to take some time to adapt to new boots? Don't worry, they will be completely normal within three days."
There is really no other reason. The horseshoes have been built, which objectively makes the horse's perception of the earth more sensitive, just like a person has scraped off the old calluses on the soles of the feet and the soles of the feet have become sensitive.
It's also because the horses noticed something strange when they were walking. Because the ground in the stable was free of ice and snow, the noise when they walked was suddenly too loud, which naturally caused uneasiness.
The shoeing work lasted two days, and it took another three days for the horses to adapt and return to normal.
It’s time to go out for a walk and experiment!
Rurik gathered his soldiers. The brothers changed into uniforms and even put white robes with blue stripes on the brown horses. The riders and horses were actually wearing snow camouflage, and they looked like they were riding horses.
prestige.
The cavalry assembled, lined up in two columns, and under the leadership of Rurik, went around the road under the city wall of New Roseburg for a costume parade.
Naturally, this kind of good thing is indispensable for Arik, Jevlo, Medved and others. Everyone's horses are shoed and they have reason to join the team for a parade.
Arik even did not forget his second wife Aslaqi who stayed in New Roseburg, so he asked her to put on a warm and beautiful white bear robe and sit sideways in the saddle. Showing off was the main purpose.
All the riders realized the gratifying results after shoeing, and they could clearly feel that their horses were much more confident walking on ice. The snow in the city was compacted, but it still melted slightly under the pressure of the raised structure at the lower end of the horseshoe.
After digging out of the pit, the powerful horse's hooves can even lift up ice cubes. The grip is really incredible.
The people watched the heroic appearance of the Ross cavalry, and anyone with a discerning eye noticed the changes in the horses' hooves.
Look! What is the prince doing?!
The prince actually rode his horse and sprinted through the city. He was so confident in controlling the horse.
The young boys were the most curious. They looked at the majestic older brothers with wide eyes, especially the majesty of the princes.
These boys are either the descendants of traditional Viking immigrants, direct descendants of the Rus' tribe, or a mixture of Rus's and Slavs. What is unique is that these boys have been told by their parents that they must serve as soldiers for the principality when they grow up. This means
It's as natural as eating and sleeping.
Since you want to be a soldier, wouldn't it be good to be a cavalry?
They walked past him in a noble manner, and the children's eyes were full of envy and desire, eager to become mighty warriors and make achievements.