Chapter 1,358 New Order in Pskov

Latest website: "This is Gower's residence?" Standing under a long house with carved beams and painted beams, Rurik dismounted and looked at it up and down.

The subordinates hurriedly reported: "Yes, Your Majesty. There is even a... gift given to Gore by you."

"A gift? Some glasses? Oh, I didn't expect him to like my things."

As he said that, Rurik looked back slightly at the wooden pole that was temporarily standing on the snowdrift. Gore's half-opened head was almost no longer bleeding.

"Come on, let's go in. For the time being, this will be my residence."

The room was in a mess, and the glasses were scattered and broken. At first Rurik felt that occupying this residence symbolized the possession of the highest power in Pskov, but it was too bad to really spend the night here.

Rurik couldn't help stroking his beard and pinching his chin, thinking that the life in the Gower tributary was really not enjoyable. The life of the big leader who was classified as a region was too traditional - as if he had lived in twenty years. Former Danish chieftain.

This reminded Rurik of his own experience when he was young, living in leather and sleeping on the ground.

Nowadays, even in the prosperous Danish Kingdom of Ragnar, the newly built city of Copenhagen and the city of Malmö across the strait, wooden floors are built on a large scale in new city buildings. Living and accommodation have always been as comfortable as possible. Danish aristocrats who used to sleep on the floor began to pay attention to high standards.

Perhaps this is the isolated, dark corner of Pskov where the descendants of Danish immigrants are still living based on tradition.

However, with the physical disappearance of these people, the situation in Pskov will change quickly.

Rurik took another look and said, "It's okay.

Everyone has implemented the king's order, and it's good that no one set fire to it. Now you guys should clean up this room and throw away all the messy things. Including the broken cup given by the king. "

In Russia today, glassware is no longer expensive. Although it has not dropped to the same price as clay pots, its price is also easily affordable by ordinary Russian families.

The soldiers were not interested in glassware, but they were extra careful when picking up the broken pieces for fear of pricking their hands.

The warriors who were ordered to clear a room for the king to use as a hall to summon surrenders. Gower's longhouse is the best building in the greater community. It is also spacious enough to do some formal work.

Soldiers had great enthusiasm for looting and making money.

The main city of Pskov was quickly looted. After all, the high-value and portable supplies here were limited, and the looting ended in the afternoon. Since Rurik did not issue an order prohibiting the slaughter of cattle and sheep, the soldiers slaughtered the plundered cattle and sheep on the spot. Anyway, it was newly plundered "fresh meat". It was difficult for the cattle and sheep to be taken back to their hometown quickly and it was impossible to distribute them to the locals. It was best for them to The final destination is the warrior's belly.

There were slaughtering scenes of cattle and sheep everywhere, and the fresh leather was peeled off. The soldiers demolished some houses to obtain dry wood to live on the spot. They lit a batch of smoky bonfires without thinking too much, and even directly picked up the bloody meat with their swords. The pieces are roasted on the fire.

Fighting and plundering, the tired warriors did not care about the fresh meat being cooked, half-cooked was the most delicious, so they raised their swords and feasted on the meat, even if the juice spurted out.

The female prisoners were stunned by this scene. They were all unconscious with their hands and feet tied, and now they were huddled in deerskins.

Tuan quietly watched the actions of the Ross people. What happens next? have no idea. They saw with their own eyes the severed head of Boss Gore, and now they saw dead bodies everywhere.

Pskov is finished! All is lost. They would rather fight to death or be killed, but for one reason or another they did not fulfill their wish.

There are only twenty prisoners of war. The army can execute these people, but a nobleman has already ordered them in full.

Bayahir, she is not pitying these Danish descendants of Pskov. In fact, her Demyansk County only exists in theory and is in urgent need of a large number of people who will obey her orders to fill it.

The core of his country is the fifty knight slaves who serve as the personal guard. These prairie people all get married and have children in Novgorod. This is something that the knight slaves never dared to think about in the past.

Fifty Cavalry obeyed Bejasil's words, and she also needed the support of these people. In addition, Demyansk County is in urgent need of population. Instead of recruiting farmers from the villages of Novgorod, it is better to find ways to let its subordinates marry more wives and have more children.

The shortcut to marrying a wife is war and plunder. It is normal to snatch brides on the prairie. It is said that "beauty is only for the strong." As a female noble, Beyahil also supports this idea because it is extremely beneficial to her now.

Young Rus warriors have long had forcible relations with these women, which is the reason why many people are in a trance. Rurik acquiesced in this matter, but Beyathil thought it was a good thing.

When these women were finally transported back to Novgorod, they became slaves of Demyanskbo nationality. Bayahir

I wish they would get pregnant as soon as possible and give birth to a child in the winter next year, so that the slaves would become subjects and the children they would give birth to would grow up to be their own little warriors.

It's a pity that Beyashir is a female. If she were a man, she would be qualified to compete for the Khan of the Pecheneg Khanate. Even if the competition failed, she would still be Khan Kagan's right-hand man.

Now she is Rurik's right-hand man, an excellent cavalry general, and a qualified wife.

Beyashir wished she had another child. She was not trying to please Rurik. The child was almost born for her. Only in this way could the number of nobles in the county increase to withstand the unpredictable risks in the future.

But on this issue, Rurik actually maintained great restraint.

Without him, as the countess of Demyansk, Beyasher and her fifty elite cavalry are already in Rurik's expedition plan. She must stay in good condition to fight on Frankish land again.

The young warrior handed the roasted meat to the women, and they untied the captives' hands. The instinct to eat when they were hungry made them eat quickly, but they were tied up again after eating the meat.

Rurik seized the limited time and inspected Gower's grain warehouse on the spot. Their grain storage was obviously not large but not large, and the storage method was extremely pleasing.

A group of land on the shores of Lake Pskov was not fully developed. It was planted with flax. The locals relied on these crops to make clothes. The rough products were roughly woven and sewn into linen bags. This was a kind of tribute. Gore Just use it to store a lot of food.

Rurik stood here with a group of brothers,

In front of them are wooden houses built specifically for storing grain. This is the only place where there are wooden boards that are obviously moisture-proof, and brown and yellow sacks filled with stuffing are piled up here to form a wall.

Ross's steel sword pierced a cloth bag, and he pulled it out. A large amount of oat grains immediately piled up in the bleeding groove of the sword. After a slight pinch, it was obvious that not only had the wheat been completely shelled, but it was also very dry and suitable for long-term storage.

"Very good. This way our military rations will be more secure."

Seeing the king so happy, the soldiers were also quite pleased.

Someone laughed and said, "This is considered a gift from Gao Er to the king. Now that we have obtained these, we don't have to ask for tribute from the local villagers, right?"

"Tribute? When did I say I don't want their tribute?" Rurik glanced at the talkative subordinate, and only glared at him, making the man retreat slightly.

"However, we will have smarter ways to force them to give some good things."

Rurik's words were somewhat meaningful. He understood that the local Krivic people had always resisted Gower's tyranny and had never been able to oppose him. Does Rose mean a savior to these people? Or does it mean the arrival of another hegemon?

Comparing their hearts to their own, Rurik believed that he was the latter in their hearts.

He ordered his men to immediately move the granaries and pull all the vacant reindeer sleighs parked into the city. Of course, the surplus grain that the soldiers collected from the civilian houses could be thrown on the sled and become a common property. Of course, they could also take it with them as private surplus grain.

There is only one purpose - the army packs up everything valuable in the entire city of Pskov that can be taken away smoothly.

The order has been issued, and the silent city after the war has returned.

It became lively, and the faces of the soldiers who took a rest were filled with the joy of the harvest, and the empty sleds gradually became fuller.

The cleanup of the battlefield had not yet begun. After thinking about it for a while, Rurik had no reason to let his subordinates do it.

The Russian army will not stay in Pskov for long, and everyone is just a passer-by at best. To put it more arrogantly, it is just a simple effort of Ross to eliminate Gore.

Pskov was brightly lit that night, and the Russian army lit bonfires and set up barbecue stalls in various open spaces.

Since the captured cattle and sheep could not be taken away, Rurik decided to kill them all except the ponies that could be used. He only took the best of the leather troops and gave the rest to Orafin and Man. Chico.

The servant army did not participate in the battle at all, and they were not eating barbecue with the Ross army now.

In the eyes of Manchico and the armed villagers he brought, life became extremely magical. Pskov changed overnight. The local Danish immigrant power collapsed, and everyone controlled a group of people who were crucial to production and life. Now they are feasting on those people's beef and mutton.

While Manchico was laughing and chatting with the guys, Ross's messenger arrived and asked him to go to the king's temporary palace to participate in the grand event.

In Gower's mansion, a large long house that had been cleaned up and looked empty, it was brightly lit and decorated as a very good parliamentary scene. Rurik would definitely not stay here. He planned to stay with Beyasier in the cabin-style sleigh that accompanied the army tonight.

He was sitting with the captains of each flag, and a pair of eyes suddenly stared at Manchico, who had just joined the team. The old man was so shocked that he stepped back repeatedly, because of the fierce look in his eyes.

Thinking of what Ross Jun had done during the day, he suddenly broke into a cold sweat.

But Manchico still inevitably became the protagonist of the temporary meeting.

He had no right to refuse, and the loot obtained during the chaos was not for nothing - since the leader of the Rope Village was awarded the title of Boyar, he must fulfill his obligations to the king.

The task Rurik gave this person was not difficult. It was just to visit villages large and small near Pskov and invite the leaders to come for a meeting.

…

For neighboring villages, they all learned about the war in Pskov from the mouths of refugees. Those refugees were all Krevics living in the city. They were servants of the people in the larger Danish community, and there were also some small businessmen who went to live in the city temporarily.

Hundreds of villages are the providers of the entire city of Pskov, but these villages have small populations. If they can truly unite, they can indeed become a powerful force.

This is because the entire area around Lake Pskov, including all the upper reaches of the Velikaya River that are nominally subject to Pskov, is a group of mysterious people who live in the forest without any contact with outsiders unless necessary. village. The total population of this self-contained community is on the order of one hundred thousand people.

Notifying those villages is not a problem for Manchico. After all, everyone is of the same Krivi family and has long-standing contacts with each other. In addition, everyone must pay tribute to Gol, which forces the villages to have closer relationships.

Manchico and the people he brought sat in Ross's reindeer sleigh. They raised their flags high and marched along the path he was most familiar with. This move was too high-profile and immediately aroused panic among the villagers, and even caused panic among the villagers.

Armed resistance caused by fear.

Until those knowledgeable people saw that the person who came was actually Manchico, the boss of Rope Village, and they were still wondering why this man was flying the so-called Russian flag with white background and blue stripes.

The village talker left. After a conversation with Manchico, he had to take a drastic step considering the future of his village - board the sled and follow.

The source of the speaker in each village is either voted by all male villagers, or the wealthiest man in the village becomes the leader because of his obedience to the masses. The attitude of these people can represent the attitude of the entire village. Talkers from each village boarded the sleigh one after another, planning to rush to Pskov, who knows what it has become, to pay allegiance to the new ruler Rurik, King of Rus.

As for providing tributes or anything else, it doesn't matter. The most important thing is to survive, right?

Manchico moved quickly, and in one day he gathered as many as thirty village chiefs. This of course does not represent all the villages in Pskov, but the main villages in the region have sent people.

The Russian army was resting throughout the day, and Rurik planned to re-establish relations with the village leaders before leaving. It is easy to break an order, but difficult to establish a new order. Rurik does not plan to garrison troops in Pskov immediately, and even if he plans to build a governor's palace to control the local area, it is not what he wants to do now.

What will happen to Pskov in the future?

"Just like the Novgorod Republic, if a large number of villages of similar strength come together and the village leaders meet together to decide on certain major events, then there is no need for a supreme leader to control them? This is expedient after all. Plan, but Lingpu

It is to my advantage that Skov is temporarily republican. In this way, when I have my hands free, I can naturally send a governor to govern the area, and I won't encounter fierce resistance from the villagers who cannot truly unite..."

In fact, Rurik has realized what is a good life for local villagers? A day without Gower is a good day.

I'm afraid that as long as Ross doesn't go too far in the future and does some kind things that Goyle wouldn't do, the villagers will support him.

Rurik felt that Manchico would return the next day, and if he didn't, he would be killed as a traitor by the angry villagers.

Unexpectedly, this guy moved very quickly. Before evening, he returned with a group of men of various ages dressed as bloated as bears. It was obvious that these were the leaders of the local Krivic people.

They got off the sled one after another, and Rurik couldn't help but be surprised by how many there were. As for these leaders, they were also shocked by the strength of the Russian army. It was obvious that this was a large group of Varyags who spoke Norse, but... were they really Varyags?

Is Ross the noblest and most powerful being among the Varangians? It seems so.

Because they saw a real cavalry unit, the Russian cavalry riding multi-maned and extremely cold-resistant Turkic horses, one person and one horse were like a giant. Rurik rode the horse like a king. He particularly flashed his pure gold hair, and he did wear a golden laurel crown on his head that he was proud of.

He looked down at these Krivic people, visually estimated their specific number, and made some plans in his mind.

"This is the great King of Rus. See you, King. Kneel down!" Manchico called everyone at the right time.

"Business matters".

Then Rurik saw a group of people kneeling on the ground to show their submission, and their skillful appearance made him feel a little uncomfortable.

"You all get up!" Rurik ordered in Slavic with a strong accent.

Those people couldn't help but be startled, and then slowly got up.

Just by simply hearing the news, Rurik figured out the population situation in this area. Some of the villages behind the thirty leaders in front of him were comparable to the rope village in Manchico, and the rest were all with only a small population. More than a hundred small villages, large and small, are spread out like a pie in the flat area at the mouth of the Velikaya River.

As for how many villages there are in this place? Clearly there could be more.

Some people claim that there are about fifty villages that have not yet come, which is a shocking number.

"Are those guys against me? Or do they not know that something big happened in Pskov City?" No one answered Rurik's question. Seeing these men's submissive expressions when he saw them again, he couldn't help but think, "I'm afraid these people are... Very controllable”.

Like a herd of domesticated cattle and sheep, Rurik was once worried that the local villagers would violently resist. It seemed that the dead Gower had actually done something for Ross in advance.

Perhaps, the Krivici villagers in the lake entrance area have become accustomed to having higher-ranking people who rule them in a god-like manner.

Of course the situation is a little more complicated than Rurik wants.

It is fair to say that the Russian army did not pursue the Krivich fighters in Pskov during the battle. Moreover, the Krivich fighters who were killed were all from Pskov itself. These people were members of the Gower Group. Servants, most people and villagers outside the city

There is already a certain gap between them.

For villages even close to the big city, they saw the fighting and chose to flee as a whole village for a while, but then fled back to their safe and sound villages that night.

Instead, they discovered that the compatriots who had escaped from Da Da were eating and drinking secretly, and had to control them. After learning the whole story, they could only temporarily resettle them.

The Russian army did not attack the Krivi villages, so the largest number of villagers have been spectators to this battlefield. Gal and his forces suddenly disappeared, and the new Varangian Rus actually appeared violently in such a way. They had already made some preparations, so they saw Manchico's sleigh the next day, and the village leaders Then they climbed up one after another, hoping to face the conqueror King Rus directly and pay their allegiance to him for peace.

Because they had hope amid mixed emotions - the Ross army might indeed be targeting Gore and his forces, and might really have no intention of attacking us Krivics.

…

Although thirty leaders came, this was already more than Rurik expected.

He never expected that a hundred leaders would come to kneel down and pay allegiance. These thirty leaders represented the thirty most elite villages in the local area. As long as he could ensure that these people even nominally surrendered to Ross, he would achieve success. An unexpected and huge success.

Therefore, in their opinion, to enter the long house of the former Gore, one must pass in front of the majestic ceremonial array of the Russian army. There were a huge number of warriors, uniformly dressed, and with murderous eyes. Everyone did not dare to look at those people's faces. They only used their peripheral vision to look at their beautiful, gorgeous and heroic clothes, and felt a little bit envious in their nervousness.

Enter

In the longhouse, King Rurik of Rus is high up.

Everyone was allowed to have a glimpse of the king's honor, and just now they could really see that King Rus was a young man with golden hair and golden beard, a hundred times more youthful and energetic than Goyle. As for Goyle, here he is, more specifically a head.

The leaders met the King of Rus in the presence of Rus warriors. On one side was the noble king, and on the other was the gray-white head of the former ruler Gore.

They were allowed to sit cross-legged and were on pins and needles, wary of any disturbance, for fear that those warriors would suddenly draw their swords and cause them to become dismembered like Gore. But with Gower's head here, they finally understood that a powerful old force had truly ended.

For these people, Rurik will never have any discussions with them. The leaders can only obey orders honestly, and things are developing in a good direction...

"This king has ruled Pskov. You and your villagers are all subjects of Rus! You are like a group of lambs, and I am the shepherd, so you provide some wool for my use in exchange for Rus protecting you. Safe, that makes sense." Rurik used this metaphor to describe the meaning of "tribute" or "tax".

"But! I have no intention of managing you now, nor will I force you to do something beyond your power. You are all the leaders of each village. In the past, you submitted to Goul, and now you submit to me! Now I grant you all the titles of Boyar, you all become nobles of equal rank. No one among you is more noble. This is the great city of Pskov that you share in common. You can live freely in this land.

live……"

Boyars are the lower-level nobles under the Ross hierarchy. A village leader is granted the title of hereditary boyar, which really gives this generation of leaders a reason to inherit the family. Who doesn’t want to be hereditary? As long as you hold the leader position, you can occupy the best resources of the village. In this regard, they understood Gower's actions, but they had been exploited as a weakling at that time. Now, they can actually become exploiters?

This is the new order in Pskov that Rurik wants to create immediately.

The great Danish community, which represented the highest authority, fell apart, and its inhabitants were either killed or made slaves who were bound to be taken away.

As for the small communities that have long been separated from them, Orafin, who holds the title of earl (war chief), will take the villagers of the small community to the Lake Lubans area to establish their earl kingdom after the dust settles. Everyone will also have the title of Boyar, because this kind of title is actually the power owned by Olanfen.

Some boyars were village chiefs, while others were just heads of merchant families.

This title is more like a ticket, so that people who are not old Rus can get the opportunity to develop to the upper echelons of the Rus Kingdom.

Here, all the leaders are smart. They all learned about the concept of the "Kingdom of Rose" from the news sent back last year, and also heard that she was "extremely powerful." How powerful is it? Just look at the large number of corpses of the war dead that were not buried and you will understand it all - the Ross army killed the Gal forces as easily as they slaughtered sheep and cattle.

They shouted long live, whether it was due to pressure or out of sincerity, they all lamented the king's wisdom.

Look at them, Rurik

The deliberately serious face gradually returned to a comfortable smile.

Because that’s what checks and balances are.

In the future, the Governor's Palace will be the highest power in the Pskov region. The Governor will be someone who is related to the King of Rus himself. In fact, Rurik has already thought of finding a good deal for his actual second son Oleg. The way out is that the boy will be twelve years old in seven or eight years. The boy who was born into a noble family needs to participate in the governance of the kingdom.

Where does Oleg plan to go? Putting it in Pskov might be a good idea.

The Governor's Mansion represents the king's will. There will no longer be a county here, but only boyars and their villages, large and small. No boyar has the power to covet the highest power in the region, and of course they cannot have the strength to do so. Rurik feels that he has limited their development limit. Even if the population of these villages develops in the future, Ross can still easily suppress it. The presence.

A republic was temporarily formed among the boyars, and a day came without Gower.

As a token of gratitude, it would not be an exaggeration to hand over a batch of tributes, mainly food, to the King of Rus and the Rus army.

Originally, these people had the idea of ​​spending money to buy peace. To go to the extreme, it would not be unacceptable to organize some girls in the village to give them to Rose - each village would take some extreme measures in order to survive.

However, they never thought that while providing "tribute", King Rus also had a term called "return".

Is this still a unilateral tribute? Isn't it a business transaction? It's just that the name is different in expression, but the underlying thing is not still a transaction.

Various trophies were exchanged for a batch of food for local villagers.

, even if the Russian army obtained a large amount of food after the details of the city, so that the army did not lack it at all, it was not uncommon for the Russian army to have better steel products for the same trophies of scrap metal.

At least for the large number of local villages that lack iron, even rusty iron ingots are extremely precious.

oppression? humiliation? In front of King Rus, these thirty leaders felt for the first time that the new King of Rus was worthy of the titles of "sva" and "skoi".

Rurik is already a young saint in the eyes of these Krivic people.

No one else, because what King Rurik of Rus is showing now is indeed much better than Gower the Dane.