Those sleds used for long-distance travel are no longer a simple structure of two hard oaks in hard contact with the ice and snow. A batch of carbon steel sheets are forged by the blacksmith with small holes reserved, and rivets are nailed to the bottom of the oak sled.
In this way, Ross's sled can be made large, sturdy and wear-resistant, and even some strange equipment can be added.
If you just install a tent made of leather and linen on the big sled, it would be too sloppy. You can do this with a big sled used by ordinary people, but it would be unreasonable for Rurik, who is a prince, to do this.
The prince needed a sled suitable for his noble status, so he built a wooden house directly on the sled. Of course, it was not huge, but it was just suitable for many people to squeeze in. The wooden walls were equipped with small windows and were inlaid with glass windows.
This is because of technical reasons, large flat glass cannot be made naturally. The so-called window glass is made by blowing a glass tube and cutting it in the middle and forcing it to spread out. It is not big, and it is enough for light transmission.
Since there is relatively ample time, it will take some time for the Ross army to assemble. During this time gap, Aslaqi's mill, which is responsible for the production of military rations, is naturally working at full capacity.
Likewise, New Roseburg's carpenters and blacksmiths all found work.
They took on the task of modifying the sled. Their task was to build a house on the big sled, and nail the bottom sled with iron sheets. Such mass-produced manned sleds also need to hang deerskin on the outside to enhance warmth, and the reserved windows are still inlaid with windows.
Such windows can even have their wooden frames removed by surprise.
Without him, if encountering an extreme situation, the soldiers in the sled would hold their crossbows and shoot directly through the observation window.
To fight a war is to make money, and Rurik could really feel the truth of gold being given when a cannon goes off.
The Ross army is unique to other European countries. The tribe's fighting methods are based on a large number of long-range weapons. Now the principality is not as weak as in the past. There is no need to mass-produce the bones, flints, and glass arrow clusters that were once used. The principality directly mass-produces them.
Made from carbon steel arrow clusters and bonded to wooden shafts with pine glue, the cost of such high-quality arrows is now so low that they can be squandered.
Wooden shafts for arrows are mostly made of birch or pine wood. The bark of the wood is peeled off to make paper, and the remaining part is enough to make arrow shafts.
Arrow feathers are the easiest to obtain, and the fact that they are readily available makes the Pecheneg people who live there both surprised and understandable.
This is because people in Novorosberg and Novgorod encourage raising chickens. People raise chickens mainly to eat eggs. In order to prevent the chickens from flying away, all the flight feathers and even wings of the chickens are pulled out immediately after they grow up.
All that's left is the fluff.
The big feathers were all sold to the princes. As for the small feathers, they seemed useless. However, under the guidance of Rurik, a gadget like the feather duster was born, and the small feathers also became useful.
There is no need to stick to wild goose feathers. The feathers of chickens, ducks and geese are all good sword feathers. Especially from the current position of the principality, these arrows are regarded as single-use weapons by Rurik. A non-mainstream word called "ammo" has been
Rurik "invented" it to refer to this type of arrow.
The hunters felt that the prince's attitude towards arrows was too strange. This actually led to a benefit, that is, when the Russian army went on an expedition, they always prepared a large number of arrows, so that they could shoot down the enemy without restraint.
The Russian army's pre-war preparations were very lively, which surprised the female leader Ludi continuously. She also saw that the tribal girls she brought were forced to work every day. They made rosin, chopped firewood, and carried things for the Russians.
Supplies, laundry and other miscellaneous chores.
The work in general is arduous, but it is not much more leisurely than the work in my hometown. The selected tribal girls are indeed girls, but in that extremely poor living condition, children must work when they are five years old. In fact, they
A lot of work has already been done.
The key lies in what they gained from their labor. The female leader noticed that they were eating wheat cakes and wheat porridge every day, and they also ate fish every day. The skinny girls had obviously changed their bodies, and their eyes and appearance were full of energy.
If the hospitality was just for a few days, the female leader would think that this was a righteous act by the prince. Obviously this is not the case at all, or perhaps the life of the Russian people is like this, and the prince did not entertain them.
The group of servants must send people to join the army, and it is necessary to send out a few soldiers at the end to make up the number.
The female leader of Lüdi also received an order. After the so-called army arrives in the village of Lüdi, the female leader should mobilize one hundred men to join the Russian army. At that time, the Lüdi men will be armed by the principality.
It is impossible for Rurik to provide high technology to those "forest savages". He only rewards simple iron spears, inferior mass-produced axes cast from pig iron, as well as discarded bones and arrows with glass arrow clusters. The quantity of all these materials is also extremely limited.
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In Ross's view, these weapons are rubbish, and the Ludi people can immediately improve the efficiency of production and life if they get them.
"They must treat me? No. At least they can't embarrass me. At least they look like a servant instead of a beggar." This was Rurik's mentality.
One-third of the one hundred sleds were modified, and the rest were arranged for carrying people. At least they were erected on wooden posts and nailed with deerskin and linen to keep them warm.
In this way, the horses do not have to be ridden the whole way. They are unsaddled, covered with wool felt, the reins are connected to the sled, and they travel with the entire sleigh team.
As for the animals that pull the sled, they are luxurious. The docile and unpregnant female deer are selected, and the eight deer pull the sled. The strength of a single female deer may only be half a horse, but the eight deer are a powerful source of power.
A capable yet large-scale winter expeditionary force assembled in New Roseburg's Harvest Square, and people from all over the city came to watch the event.
Look! Under the howling north wind, there are all kinds of flags. Flags are hung on the top of every sleigh, and the flag of Ross is flying with blue stripes on a white background.
The soldiers wore uniform clothes, white robes with blue stripes, and only the hats they brought to keep out the cold came in various shapes. They also had uniform backpacks, and the hard hemp straps were the ropes that tied the pockets. This simple and solid structure had long been widely used by hunters.
The felt is curled and coiled around the backpack.
Rurik equipped his men with the attitude of equipping soldiers in World War I. He did not have to be rigid about having muskets. His men were equipped with a large number of lightweight wooden-arm crossbows and steel swords and bucklers. Such equipment was enough for the Nordic warriors.
To cope with the current state of war, the strong strength of logistics also determines the strong endurance of this expeditionary force.
Of course, try to be as prepared as possible.
A special sled team does not participate in any wars. They have one and only one mission, transporting food and new arrows to the Bear Market Town fortress on the north shore of Lake Ladoga.
Lake Ladoga is very large, so it was decided that a guide was needed to find the Luddi village. The army could naturally cross the glacial lake directly, but when it reached the east coast, it was unclear whether to go south or north.
Rurik decided to take the safest way and lead his troops in a counterclockwise movement. He also inspected the Vips villages and came to inspect the Bear Festival Town.
He gave a speech in the strong wind. Naturally, the necessary pre-war mobilization speech was not so necessary, but he still gave it.
It happened that the army was gathering in Harvest Square, and the golden statues placed in the Great Temple were moved out, allowing the sunlight to make the statues sparkle.
The high priest and the lower priests got temporary jobs. A deer was sacrificed, the deer's blood was sacrificed to the god, Rurik personally performed the ceremony, the deer liver was cut out and presented to the high priest, and then the high priest announced good luck.
Rurik wiped the deer's blood off his dagger, and his breathing was filled with white mist.
"Soldiers, let's go!"
Then, with the sound of drums and horns, the army began to move, and Nolen's band immediately played the melody of "Farewell to Slavic Women", which was very suitable for the occasion, but because the band lacked trumpet instruments, the music seemed very Nordic.
Amid the people's farewells and enthusiastic expectations, the luxuriously equipped and magnificent expeditionary force formed a long serpentine formation and marched eastward on Nevsky Prospekt. The east gate of the city opened, and the prince and Queen Svetlana led the expedition in person. As for the rest,
There is no need for wives and concubines. After all, Lanna is the real queen, and she alone is enough.
Although the strength of the army exceeded 500, the total number of the marching army reached 1,000 reindeer, accompanied by more than 100 war horses.
According to Rurik's idea, when the army arrives at the Vips village, it will need to add more sleds and bring a small group of Vips archers. After the army arrives at the Bear Festival Town, it is feared that there will be as many as a hundred male and female hunters with them.
Dry food, weapons, sleds and reindeer, join this feast of plunder and exploration.
Naturally, the larger the army, the better, unless those who join later are willing to obey orders and provide their own supplies.
Everything was under Rurik's control. When the sled team entered Lake Ladoga and marched along the lake shoreline to the town of Bear Festival, a large number of hunters learned about the expedition, canceled their hunting plans and decisively joined in.
More than a hundred hunters insisted on joining the army, and they were generally Suomis. Wouldn't this situation be easier to solve? Because Yevlo himself was in the army, and he arrived in Novgorod in late autumn for "hajj"
"I have been living there ever since, and my original plan was to return to the Finnish Lake District in the spring.
Jevlo easily organized a hundred-man team, which mainly held short wooden bows and a small number of wooden-armed crossbows, and accepted his command. At the same time, these guys also brought all their equipment and never fell behind.
Rurik set up a supply point in the Bear Festival Town, and unloaded the food to help. In this way, if the army felt that there was not enough food during the eastward expedition, it could return immediately. According to Rurik's tactical reserves, the army's food could last for a month, so the army's supplies
The expedition can advance eastwards for at least fifteen days. The best hope is that after annihilating the remnants of Karelia, they will eat their supplies and the army's supplies will be relieved.
Kagan always felt that Prince Rurik's desperate calculation was very strange, and it seemed that it was full of wisdom. He was observing silently, and also planned to learn the Russian fighting method based on this Eastern Expedition. If it works well, he would learn it and bring it to his hometown grassland.
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The number of troops increased to nearly 700, which was already a powerful army in the north.
The Ross messenger was indeed true before. If the Ross people get angry, this army will annihilate Lu Di as easily as crushing a squirrel to death.
The female leader was at least very happy that Rudy had become Ross's servant, but she overlooked one thing - the people in the village didn't know all this.
A huge group came from the north, and the people of Ludy, who suffered their first major defeat, were bitter that they were defeated by twenty Russians. They deeply remembered those hateful blue stripes on white cloth, and thought of defeat when they saw it.
Now, the Ross army is coming again.
The first thing that ordinary Ludi people thought of was to escape. An old man was elected as the temporary leader. He called on the people to run eastward quickly.
At that time, a small sled rushed away, and the female leader rushed back in time. Everyone was shocked to see that she was safe. Although they were suspicious after hearing her description, many people still stopped.
"A village under the trees. Do you want to go in?" Arik looked at it and asked contemptuously.
Rurik shook his head: "If you walk by the sparrows, they will fly away because you are too huge. Don't frighten them. We will stay here temporarily and let the old woman explain the situation."
This female leader is the most prestigious, and the simple Ludi people have no good intentions. Since Ross has become the new master and promised to give some iron tools and salt, then don't run away.
The Ludi people welcomed the arrival of the Russian army, but Rurik was still worried that his army would uproot them. As the saying goes, he would start with a sharp sword and a murderous intention.
The Russian army camped in the ownerless forest, and Rurik ordered all the men in Lüdi who could bear arms to come to see him. He said that he would select servants from the tribe and give him some rewards.
The messenger of the order was the female leader, and it was true that everyone was trembling with fear and eager to try. They had never seen a powerful external force other than the Karelians, and it was said that they were the giant Rus people from the west of the Great Lakes.
To show her sincerity, the female leader gathered 233 men and went to meet her master with bare hands.
The menacing Russian warriors were ordered to stage a show. They formed a shield wall and held short spears, looking majestic.
This frightened the man Ludi to tremble.
Rurik appeared wearing a bearskin, with a large number of crystal clear glass balls hanging on his body deliberately, making him look too gorgeous. Rurik felt that he was dressing up as a clown.
This bejeweled appearance really opened the eyes of the Ludi people, and they subconsciously understood that this person was the most noble person.
Suddenly, Rurik ordered: "Everyone sit down!"
This was a language they understood. As soon as the man from Lu Di heard it, he sat down obediently.
Then Rurik preached in ancient Finnish. Most of the words were understood by the Lydians, and they also knew the promise of the conqueror king.
Everyone was quite surprised. They thought they were going to be slaves. Can they get many benefits by being slaves to the Russians? Even if they wanted to attack the Karelians, everyone still had lingering fears.
Rurik asked them to stand up again. The tall man walked past these short men and randomly selected the outstanding ones among them.
The youngest and strongest men at the peak of their physical fitness were selected, and the men of the next level were also pulled out. Some time ago, they took up arms to attack the Ross hunters, but now they have turned into Ross warriors.
Their productivity was too low, so getting new clothes was a major joyous occasion. Now Rurik gave them the white-and-blue-patterned robes of the Russian army, and also gave them iron spearheads and arrows with iron clusters.
A group of people exchanged their guns for cannons, and a hundred-man army of Ludi's servants was born. This was their fighting power. Rurik had no extravagant expectations at all. They only had to do a good job as guides.
A young man named Makut, who was believed to be prestigious, was appointed as a temporary commander by Rurik to restrain Lüdi's servant army, but the female leader also had to accompany the army.
Rurik, a man from Ludy or a border people, wants to personally find a pug to be the ruling agent. Can this Markut do it? At least he must perform outstandingly in this operation.
The Ross army temporarily stayed near the village of Ludi, but the accompanying hunters and many soldiers had already begun trading with the locals.
The Ludi people are extremely short of all kinds of living materials, but they still have a lot of squirrel skins and ferret skins. They are too simple and crazy poor. The Russians don't have to annihilate them to plunder materials. They rely on the sudden rise of forest foraging fields to trade.
The plunder of materials can be accomplished by means.
This includes but is not limited to buying a large amount of squirrel skins with salt, and buying the body of a local woman for one night with grain. What is very strange is that the latter not only did not feel that they had suffered a big loss, because each clan did get a batch of iron tools and salt
, and even the clan women may have been left with Russian blood.
Don’t they have any sense of shame? On the contrary, their relatively secluded lifestyle and strong rejection of inbreeding deep in their souls determine their willingness to have close interactions with good strangers.
Yusiliuriqi didn't want to do this, but considering the practical factors, he simply acquiesced.
The Russians are so tall and not afraid of the cold! They have preserved their seeds, and the children born in this way must be tough. The Ludi people are very happy. Each clan hopes to have more children and a larger population, as long as the children are still members of the clan and look like this
There is no need to worry about the problem.
Rurik certainly doesn't want to see this situation now, but this scene has happened many times. There are more and more babies mixed with Viking blood in the principality. This is the choice for the people under the rule to get what they need. He really
Can't control it.
On the other hand, there is a good thing. The various clans of the Ludi people feel that they have made a profit. They believe that the new descendants after the surrender will become strong and cold-resistant, and will obviously not die of illness and disease easily.
For Rus, their decision was very convenient for the rule of the princely family.
So working together to attack the remnants of Karelia is the biggest pledge of honor for the Ludi people.