Chapter 1,319 News About the Surrenders and Yartevo

From then on, Smolensk was included in the territory of Russia.

However, in today's era Smolensk is really a huge concept.

In other words, it is a collective name for all Krivich people in a large area centered on the main city of Smolensk.

There are not only Krivic people here, but also communities of Vyadzic and Ladmic. The latter two live in really remote areas.

The continuous snowfall has finally stopped, making the already snowy world even worse. It can be called a white hell. After the snow stops, the vast snowfield is filled with snow up to the knees, especially in the southern area of ​​the lumpy forest. The snow is piled up by the wind into a snow wall as high as a person. The snow wall is so fluffy that it can crush people. It can be directly submerged, but it is also possible to dig a snow cave directly in it to temporarily hide the winter hunters.

After all, the main settlement of Smolensk on the riverside is on the right bank of the Dnieper River (the current north bank). The ice layer in the wide river channel has reached half a meter thick. Strong north wind swept across this relatively large open land, and most of the snow was blown down. A wall of snow visible to the naked eye was forcibly built on the south bank, but the snow in the open area was not thick. At least personnel, cavalry, and sleds could still move freely.

Although it is a white hell, it does not mean that it is difficult to move forward. The tributaries, large and small, were frozen, and only the river bottom still had living water flowing. The river water freezes very harmoniously. Their overall appearance is that the ice layer in the center of the river channel is slightly raised, but the overall appearance is still very smooth.

The sky is still gray and the white earth is extremely cold.

The frozen river is extremely black, with large and small expansion lines on the ice, and it looks like an abyss beneath the ice.

Reindeer are born with special hooves that can move at higher speeds on the ice, and can then pull the sled to move quickly. Horses behave much worse on ice, and people have to do some anti-slip treatment on their hooves.

Ross Cavalry goes one step further. Every autumn is the time for large-scale renovation and replacement of horseshoes. Use a scraper to trim the horse's hooves intensively, clean the dirt from the hooves, and then nail the newly made wide carbon steel horseshoes with nails.

This has been the case for several years, and it has become a routine every autumn and winter, and it has effectively enabled the Ross Cavalry to maintain good combat condition throughout the year.

Of course, the large-scale use of cavalry to fight would be a huge curb on the reproduction of the horse herd. In particular, Ross mostly chooses female horses as his mounts. The quality of females is naturally weaker than that of male horses, but their temperament is docile and easy to control, and they will not be irritable in April. The major disadvantage is that once there is a war, these war horses will never be able to breed foals.

The battles Rurik is going to fight now and in the future are really overdrafting the stamina of the Ross cavalry. He is now seriously short of spare horses, but in the next six months and even throughout 843, the cavalry will face high-intensity battles.

Especially after solving the Smolensk problem, the cavalry is about to participate in an unprecedented and epic expedition.

For this reason, soldiers must take good care of their horses.

The snow has stopped and the weather is colder.

In the peaceful days of the past, the majority of the people in the free collective farms adjacent to the tributaries were not willing to stay outdoors for long. At most, they would go to the firewood warehouse to get new firewood, and then throw out the feces and filth in the slop buckets. The entire village will live like hibernating bears in "caves" built of wood, guarding the built-in bonfire pits until spring and the end of the pulping period.

Now these villages have to make tough decisions.

When the snow first began to fall in many villages, messengers were already secretly reaching an agreement in the woods.

If they had fled their homes and escaped the control of the Ross gangsters, the whole village, young and old, would have fled upstream to the settlements along the Dnieper River, which is as soft as the ice.

These villages did not flee, not only because many people were timid and confused, and they were dragged into the dangerous snowfall when they were hesitant. It was also because many smart people realized that those bandits had large cavalry and overwhelming infantry riding reindeer sleighs.

The strength of the army seemed to be comparable to that of the army assembled by leader Vadim. Some people who escaped said that Vadim was captured and all four thousand soldiers died in the battle.

Why? ! Why does this bastard Vadim still have the nerve to live? !

Each village sent more or less personnel to participate in the war, especially the talkers of each village, who were elected

He came out and was given power by everyone. Due to the order of the big leader, the speaker had to send his nephew to join the battle to make a deal. Now all the people sent from each village have died without a burial place...

Escape for the whole village is seeking death. Escape from the white hell will cause everyone to freeze to death in the extreme cold in January, right?

Even if they escaped, since those Ross cavalry ignored the wind and snow and launched a strong attack, it would be easy for them to launch a pursuit again.

More than thirty villages reached a secret agreement to collectively go to the large settlement by the river on the agreed date and surrender to the Russians!

But sending people to surrender the plane seems insincere. If some goods are paid as tribute, the greed of the Rus people may be satisfied and the leader will forgive everyone.

Pay tribute! There are also particularities.

Don't pay tribute to rare treasures, otherwise the Rusians will think that the villages have accumulated a lot of wealth, and they might be plundered by them. Of course, the villages in Kuhaha are extremely short of even iron tools, so what other treasures can there be?

Rus gangsters are probably a type of Varyag people. Whatever the Varyag armed merchants in the past wanted, everyone just gave it according to the old rules.

There are actually more than 150 villages, large and small, living in each tributary! The large villages have nearly a thousand people, while the smaller villages only have a few dozen people. They are quite scattered. Villages that are too remote no longer regard the main city of Smolensk as their economic center. If they want to exchange materials, they will go to Rzhev and Toropets (currently still using their old names). ).

Smolensk is not the only economic center of the local Krivi people. It is actually because it is the largest and most powerful, and it has the nearby Lamic tribe and Vyadzic tribe as allies. making it the leader of several Krivi communities.

Almost all the wealthy people are in the main city of Smolensk, which has now been completely looted by the Russian army.

The greatest wealth a remote village can acquire is actually its people.

For children, the entire farm is actually a kind of "talking animal." In other words, everyone is living a hard life on barren land with simple farm tools, and their lives may not be as good as animals. After all, cattle and sheep can survive by eating grass.

Many children died due to various reasons before they grew up. Since those Varyag merchants wanted to obtain slaves, instead of having their own villagers robbed, it would be better to bring the children who could not be fed directly to Smolensk and hand them over directly. To the Varyag people who have been stationed there for a long time, in exchange for the village's extremely important iron tools.

Therefore, the commonly used logging axes in these villages are often imported Nordic goods-hook axes.

In fact, because even stones are extremely scarce in this area, there is naturally no iron ore. They know how to smelt. When the iron ax in their hands becomes dull, they will heat it for a second time to make and polish it.

Trading a group of children for axes, shovels, and spearheads is a profit no matter how you think about it.

No, each village took out a group of children one after another, regardless of the crying of these children. Those who were obedient would be put into nice leather clothes by their parents and placed on the sleigh, and those who were disobedient had to be tied up.

They comforted themselves that all the children handed over would meet kind masters in distant places and live stably in the new world. Even they know that this may be self-deception.

Now the villagers can no longer care too much. A group of children and a small amount of honey are their most valuable tributes.

In order to avoid being misunderstood, some villages took the lead in sending envoys to Smolensk.

The messenger dragged the sled with his bare hands, on which were placed several pottery jars of honey.

The messenger's appearance was extremely sudden, with a gray-black color that looked like a brown bear.

The cavalry who had resumed winter operations immediately captured him. Seeing that he was not threatening and kept emphasizing "tribute" in Slavic, the vigilant cavalry escorted him directly back to Rurik's palace in Smolensk.

After all, Vadim has been making noises in the entire settlement for the past two years. After he gained hegemony over one area, he built himself the best house. Rurik already knew this, and immediately defined the wooden house he built as his palace. It was also the official residence of the governor of Smolensk, his cousin, and even the garrison of the army.

Regarding the news that Arik had become the governor, after the snow stopped, the cavalry was sent to the Gniezdovo camp on the same day.

The nervous messenger was pushed and pushed to Rurik.

There were five people who came. When they saw Rurik, who had pure golden hair and blue eyes, they all subconsciously knelt down.

After all, in their eyes, Ross, who is now wearing a polar bear fur coat and temporarily wearing a golden laurel crown, is tall, extremely neat and powerful, like a god from myths and legends, and is completely different from the Varyag merchants they have seen in the past.

Seeing them all kneeling down, Rurik couldn't help but feel good feelings and the pleasure of being a conqueror.

"I heard that you are the envoys of each village? It seems that you have understood your situation. You have made a very correct decision. I am very satisfied."

He opened his mouth and spoke Slavic, which made the five kneeling people greatly surprised and even more frightened.

Rurik continued: "I am the king of Rus, the ruler of the north, and now your leader. So..." He paused deliberately and ordered sternly: "Everyone, raise your heads and look into my eyes! "

The five people had no choice but to comply, and had to look at Rurik in horror.

"You surrender to me and to Ross, and from now on you are Ross people. You will be protected by Ross and live a better life. All disputes between you and the north will end! Go back and tell your friends that Ross Submissions will no longer be killed, but rebels will all be executed."

Things completely subverted the expectations of these five people. They did not dare to bargain with King Ross, and continued to listen carefully to King Ross's descriptions of previous war actions.

They were greatly shocked. They did not expect that King Rus planned to use the captured Vadim as a sacrifice at the Gniezdovo Altar at the end of December? !

The conqueror of Rus ordered that the surrendered villages must send village leaders to the high altar to witness Vadim's death.

Now, it was finally the messengers' turn to say their final words.

Flattered, they immediately spoke of their village's wishes...

"What? Give me a group of children as tribute? As slaves?" Rurik pinched his golden beard and was slightly surprised, but after thinking about it, he was relieved. "Okay, I will accept your tribute. You can go back to your respective villages and tell your people that these children will be properly handled in my hands and will cultivate warriors loyal to Ross."

They didn't dare to hope that at least the ruler of Rus was willing to accept the tribute, which was to prove with practical actions that Rus accepted everyone's surrender.

The honey they brought immediately was immediately accepted by Rurik. Of course, as a means of wining over, some captured iron tools were thrown to them as rewards. These poor wrought iron products need to be remade in Ross, but they are still treasures for the farms living deep in the jungle.

Submitting tributes and receiving rewards, the conquerors of Rus showed a benevolent image for the first time.

The messengers' backs gradually disappeared into the forest, and Rurik and Arik silently watched their disappearance...

"Are you too kind to them? These villages obviously sent people to attack us." Arik was a little puzzled, "We can obviously retaliate again."

"Brother, the killings have been enough. The remaining villages are extremely poor. They must have been forced to send troops by Vadim. You see, the main force takes out the children of the village as tribute. How could it be like this if it is not extremely poor?"

"That's true." Aric had to admit this.

"Brother, since you have to govern yourself, these villages must obey you. You are equivalent to becoming their leader. You must treat them better in the future! Besides, when the south enters peace in the future, our trade with Kiev and the grassland will It will become more frequent, people coming and going can be stationed in Smolensk, and the place will prosper quickly."

"I do hope for a better future."

"It will definitely prosper." Rurik looked forward: "This good place will naturally be under my control. I don't feel comfortable entrusting it to others to manage it."

"Haha, of course it's just me and my son."

"right."

Now, it is Rurik's rational choice to let his blood cousin Arik and his descendants manage Smolensk on his behalf.

But history also achieved a subtle coincidence here. Gil, a relative of Rurik himself, was destined to become the ruler of Smolensk.

It's just that in another dimension, Gil is the prince of Smolensk and the new principality that was first established after the southern expansion of Northern Russia. The next step was Gil's further southward invasion, and he and his brother Askard jointly ruled Kiev, and Southern Rus was born.

In this plane, Gil is just the next generation of Smolensk Governor. Rurik did not give his cousin family complete legal power over Smolensk, so legally it is still a direct jurisdiction of the king, but the current situation is that there is Ostara-Polots in the middle Dukedom.

When the messengers returned to the village, the people couldn't believe the overly good news.

The noble young Rus' king promised everyone a better life in the future, and life would be better than when Vadim was the king.

It was empty words, but the axes and spearheads given by King Rus became real tokens, shutting up all the doubters.

Because it has never happened before, whether it was Vadim who became the big leader, or the previous leaders. The nobles living in the main city along the river have always only asked for, but never given, property to the villages.

Maybe being ruled by Ross is a good thing.

Maybe this kind of good thing should be shared with people farther away? No! Maybe……

The village leaders and elected speakers brought their own tributes to form a team of envoys. They had as many as thirty-five teams at full strength, and after gathering, they formed a team of up to two thousand people!

They arrived in the riverside area in great force. Such a large team made the Russian cavalry highly alert. Under the escort of the cavalry, the large team arrived in Smolensk smoothly.

The children were driven off the sleigh one after another. What greeted these confused and helpless children were not whips and sticks, but wheat cakes and salted fish jerky!

Originally, there were a large number of half-grown men among the Ross cavalry. They were a bit too young, because they usually had good food, and they already looked like strong men at such a young age. Most of their mothers are Slavs, and naturally they also speak Rurik Slavic.

The young man was ordered by the king to give some solid food to these children.

The gifting of food was done in front of the village leaders. As those people watched in surprise, the little slave who was presented as a tribute was gobbling up the food given by the Ross cavalry. Take a closer look at the Russian cavalry. They are all talking in Slavic that they understand?

"Is this... the Varangian army that fell to the ground? Or is it an army composed of those Slavinians from the north?"

Everyone thought this, and then thought about it, maybe what King Rus said was true - these slave children may have become warriors more than ten years later, otherwise it would be impossible to explain that there are a large number of people in the Rus cavalry who can speak Slavic.

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The village leaders all knelt down to the governor again. Although they didn't understand the meaning of the word "governor", they were probably the leaders.

In the past, these people had to half-kneel to declare their loyalty to Vadim, but they had to kneel down when facing the more powerful Ross. They would not feel humiliated, because King Rus announced that in the future he would give all surrenders iron tools, better seeds, and most importantly, "no promise of war."

It doesn't matter if you kneel down, you can lie down. If King Ross can really fulfill his promise, everyone can do whatever they want.

As a result, some village leaders went a step further and became extremely flattering.

Someone openly reported to Rurik: "In the east of Aram (Yartevo), a large number of dissenters went there. The king has strong troops and can easily capture him. Further east of Aram is Via The Dichi people, they did not submit to the rule of Vadim in the past, and they will certainly not submit to the rule of Rus. Those who disobey will definitely concentrate in Vyadich and will always be a threat to you, why not..."

After hearing this, Rurik, who thought the matter could come to an end, realized that the matter was not simple.

Rurik burst into tears: "Alan? Isn't it Artevo? Vyadzic? Isn't it Vyazma? Tell me about this!"