Since April, which was full of spring in 842, the Principality of Ostara, under the leadership of the Duchess Carlota, has intended to completely turn the Polotsk people, who are nominal servants, into a part of the kingdom in the name of the Kingdom of Ross.

Now that the farmers-dominated tribes have suffered a lot from the Ross cavalry attack, and the leader of the main battle has died, is it really necessary to support a local nobleman as an agent?

The determination of the Principality of Ostara to expand south was approved by Rurik himself. For this reason, most of the soldiers of the most elite 1st Cavalry participated in it. The Ross-Ostara Cavalry launched a mighty attack on Polotsk military offensive!

Of course, if the local people accept the new order under Ross with extreme obedience, they will enjoy peace. In exchange, they will also pay tribute to Ross, perform military service, and be allowed to share their share of the spoils after the battle .

If they refuse, the kingdom's butcher knife is no joke.

The Duchess Carlota is legally the adopted daughter of the old King Otto, and even Rurik's unrelated sister in law.

And she is indeed one of Rurik's wives, and Carlotta has too many things to do on this trip south. No matter whether the Polotsk issue is resolved well or badly, she will be responsible for all the results.

Since there is a direct stake, of course things must be done well.

In this operation, the young Karl also went south with her Duke mother.

Although the boy does not inherit Rurik's own name, his blood runs through his veins.

The army was fully armed and marched side by side. They hoisted the Ross flag and the Ostara bull's head flag, deliberately showing their proud identity, and the morale of the soldiers was extremely strong.

From Novostara to the fortified town of Big Luki, the straight-line distance between the two was as long as 200 kilometers. Since the army had to go down the Lovati River, the marching distance was quickly stretched to more than 300 kilometers. kilometer.

The emptiness and vastness of Eastern Europe is a strong test for all adventurers. Every time she travels on such a course of action, she has to think about itwhether my principality is too empty.

Although Carlota has set up many supply stations along the route, these stations have a small number of garrisons, and they are expected to become permanent villages, but now they are just miniature outposts with as many as twenty people or as few as a few people.

There are differences between outposts and outposts. Because the northern outposts are close to Yinlmen Lake, they are more numerous and densely distributed. They are arranged in the lower reaches of the Lovati River like chains.

The southern outposts are a real minority. Although they are indispensable for communication lines, they face greater challenges due to their remote location.

The existence of these small outposts gives ships sailing on the Lovati a sense of security.

Because the outpost garrison not only needs to strengthen their houses to resist severe cold, rain and snow, but also build wooden fences to avoid wild beast attacks, and also need to build small docks to provide certain accommodation needs for passing ships.

Those who can be left behind are often the brave and ruthless. Carlota misses these brothers, for fear that they will die tragically in the snow in the past winter...

"Mom, when are we going?" The clever Carl was also tormented by the long, seemingly meaningless march.

The mother and son rode the same horse together, and the little boy was right in front of the mother, stuck firmly in the position by the mother's arms holding the rein.

"Be patient."

"But...it's too boring."

"Boring? When you grow up and become a duke, you have to get used to this kind of boredom. Well, to be honest, it's really boring..."

Carlota looked at the surrounding environment. The relatively wide Lovati River was completely surrounded by endless forests, and the river course meandered like a giant snake.

In addition to the dense forest, the environment and geography of this place are more variable than lakes and silt swamps. What's worse is that it's the spring snowmelt period, and the land is so wet that most places are muddy, but the reeds and grass in the riverside area are growing wildly. The existence of these meadows made the muddy ground a little harder, enough for the horse team to move forward.

But the grass that the horseshoes stepped on would return to muddy, leaving an extremely obvious dirt road behind the cavalry.

The soldiers joked with each other: "At least, if we get lost, we can follow the traces to go home."

Since the son had this question, the soldiers must have been bored by the days of marching.

She sent a positive signal to the entire army advancing by water, and it seemed that as long as they persisted, a post that could rest was close at hand.

Everything was just as she said, after another dewy camping in the riverside area, a small riverside outpost miraculously appeared near noon in the new day.

The listless people cheered up for a while, a longboat was ordered to leave the main team immediately, and the people rowed hard to go straight to the wall. They were blowing horns and drums, and the flag of Rus was flying high on the mast.

The garrison at the outpost had discovered the traces of the fleet and cavalry earlier, and slowly raised the treasured flag, just to tell the returning brothers the simple and extremely important answer "I am still alive" eucalyptus.

As a result, the long boat approached the small wet pier, and a few men in bearskins really walked out of the wooden wall like bears. If it weren't for their golden hair tied into strange braids, they were so eye-catching, they really looked like grown-up brown bears. fine.

After receiving the thrown cable, the left-behinds who had waited for a whole winter burst into tears.

"Brothers! We have been looking forward to it for a long time, and you are finally here! Supplies...has the supplies finally arrived?"

"It's here!" The Ostara warrior who just got off the ship resolutely clenched the calloused hands of the resident: "Spring is here, and you will have to work harder in the future."

A thousand words are not as important as the salt that is delivered directly.

Since the residents are aggressive hunters, there is no lack of food in their houses, but fat and salt. Carlotta gave these hard-working brothers two great rewards: butter bricks and salt blocks.

The specific name of this outpost is myrsholm, which means "muddy and watery lowland". Even so, since people started to move locally, the area was not very muddy after the assault. The redundant trees were cut down to artificially create a flat land, making its environment out of tune with its surroundings. It is fair to say that such an environment may not be suitable for growing wheat, but some vegetables are fine.

The pea and bean seeds that began to be popularized on a large scale in Inlmen Lake were also brought to the south by Carlotta.

She bestows bean and carrot seeds on Millsham Outpost, hoping that residents will eat some extra vegetarian food.

She is not here to give this, but to these brothers butter and salt, in exchange for their tribute leather, and even investigative information about the surrounding environment.

One piece of information is extremely important. It is said that not far to the west of Milshum, there is no forest there, but endless swamps instead. Even if wild ducks and wild geese can be hunted in the swamp, the damned mosquitoes can be active until late autumn. Explorers who break into it will be besieged by these little blood-sucking monsters. The whole area seems to be cursed by evil gods. It is really a bad area that does not need to be visited. .

Instead, venture to the east, for the outpost of Milshum was deliberately placed at the confluence of the rivers from which a small, nameless stream empties into the Lovati. As long as there is a river channel, it is equivalent to a wide "Roman road" for the exploring Ross people. Even if the river bed is very shallow, Nordic longships are still capable of rippling in it.

Brown bears are full of treasures. The ferocious bear head and the wide and thick bear skin are the hard currency of the trade in the entire Ross Kingdom and the Nordic world. Even if the current price inflation is very high, the price of the bear skin is also skyrocketing.

The residents of Milsham step on their homemade spikes in winter, drag their homemade sleds, carry food, tools for tenting, and a full set of weapons (including a torsion slingshot for hunting bears), upstream along the frozen river. Shuoyuan.

Brown bears like to hibernate, but white bears don't. They have proved that there are still white bears in the south.

The white bear fur tribute to Carlotta opened her eyes. As for the source of the tributary creek, the residents did not give an answer this year, but driven by the interests of hunting, they will definitely get an answer.

The Nameless Creek has a name, the Milschum River, after the outpost.

In fact, the source of this small river is just south of the watershed in the Valdai Highlands, but the river does not flow into the Volga River system like other rivers, it is part of the independent Lovati River system, and then directly connects to the larger Baltic River In the water system.

So only in terms of geographical distance, the Milshum outpost is as short as 100 kilometers from the source lake of the Volga River. However, the endless forests and swamps have become impenetrable barriers, and explorers have to trek through the mud, and it is extremely easy to get lost in the virgin forest.

Besides, the main purpose of the people going south was not to find the source of the Volga River.

The task Rurik gave to the Principality of Ostara was to seize the main channel of the West Dvina River, control the southwestern area of the Valdai Heights, and protect the "Horse Road" and "Amber Road" with the Kiev community and the Pechenegs. the absolute security of the "road" lines of communication and to combat possible attacks by the Smolensk people.

For them, the expedition is not even a secondary task. The core purpose of the outpost is to ensure a smooth line of communication.

The fog in the forest makes people feel that the world is vast, but in fact, the world of Sparrow Food is not that big.

At this point in time, Carlota and the main force of the Principality of Ostara have been advancing towards the Great Luki in the south, and the most important thing is to reach the West Dvina River to start military operations.

At the same time, Arik led more than a thousand brothers straight to Lake Valdai along the Musta River after spring plowing.

Rurik himself has just returned to Novgorod from the capital along the traditional Volkhov and traffic lines with the second cavalry team that has undergone a whole winter training. His eastern expedition is still early.

One side went south with all their strength, and the other went east with all their strength. In 842, they perfectly missed the source lakes of the Volga River, but they actually touched some water sources.

The discovery of the Volga River is already a close call, but within a period of time, even if the Volga River is indeed discovered, it will not be easy to obtain benefits from this long waterway.

Just like Carlotta and her Duchy of Ostara, she has more realistic needs.

The army stayed in Milsham for only one day, and the army continued to march the next day.

To everyone's disappointment, because the water vapor in the vast world is too thick, they wake up in the wet early in the morning, and people have to add new firewood to the smoldering bonfire, take off their wet clothes and bake them until they are white mist, and that's all. Wear it comfortably.

It is also beneficial to do so, the so-called roasting the parasites on the clothes to death will make you feel comfortable.

The next outpost is named after a hand ax commonly used in northern Europe, and Kaldheim is its name.

Just because the Lovati River makes a short sharp turn here, the river channel instantly becomes a right angle and extends due west. The shape of the river channel is reminiscent of a hook axe. The river washes out a bay area in the endless forest. Such an area is very suitable for building a village.

After undergoing the same treatment as at the Millsham post, Carlotta's army continued to advance along the river to the next post.

Sandholm Sandholm Outpost, which is also at the big bend of the Lovati River. Different from the environment of Kaldheim downstream, there is a large amount of yellow and clear river sand here, which makes it not muddy at all during the snowmelt period in spring. However, it may be difficult to grow some vegetables in such an environment.

The outpost is also at the confluence of rivers, from which a small river from the west flows into the main channel of the Lovati River. The local resident also gave Carlota the western intelligence he had explored in the past winter.

The intelligence can be described as lackluster, only God knows what is in the endless western forest, the dangerous winter daylight hours are too short, and now the manpower is too tribal, all kinds of reasons curb the resident's actions to explore in depth along the small river. No major discovery is reasonable. The dense forests in Northeast Europe are intertwined with trivial lakes and rivers, and the areas that can be settled and developed are limited.

Carlota has limited enthusiasm for developing the area along the Lovati River. Logging to open up a flat living space cannot be completed in just a few years. Larger flat areas.

According to this principle, thoroughly controlling Polotsk, which has already been developed, becomes the top priority.

After Sandholm, the road continues all the way south.

Already in the upper reaches of the Lovati River, the water flow here has become very soothing, and the river channel has become narrower accordingly.

The last important outpost going south appeared in front of the army.

The sentinel is so clear that the snake is called snakur. It is only because of this that although the river course runs north-south as a whole, the river course becomes extremely distorted due to its special geography, just like a snake in motion, hence the name.

Milschum, Milschum, Sandholm, Kaldheim, and Snakur, they are the southern outposts that must pass through the four lines of communication, and will surely become village-level settlements in the foreseeable future.

Finally, the staged destination of going south, Great Luki, appeared in front of Zhouma Lawton's army.

"We're finally here!"

Carlota patted Karl, who was lost in the lake, to wake up. The little boy rubbed his eyes. Even seeing the larger wooden fence could not arouse little Karl's excitement.

"He's just too tired." Fisk, who was still bald, rode his horse close to Carlotta.

"Tired? This kid is not qualified to say tired."

"But he's only six years old, UU Reading www.uukanshu.com You ask him...it's too much."

"I don't like to hear you say that." Carlotta pouted and shook her head: "I heard that Rurik was full of ideas when he was six years old. As his son, Karl seems lazy, which is not good. , he must quickly grow into a man."

"There is only one great Rurik. It would be best if Karl also gets Odin's blessing. If not, then don't force it." Fisk sighed softly, and then asked: "How...how do you plan to make Karl a man?"

"You?" Carlotta, who was holding the rein tightly, turned his face slightly, and smiled maliciously: "You bald brother...you really have something in your words."

"It seems that I guessed right. Maybe you shouldn't think highly of those Polotsk farmers, and you shouldn't give them great rewards. Anyway, you are the Duke as you like." Fisk didn't want to ask any more: "You are his Mother, Carl is too young, and you still need to solve many things for him."

"Of course. I will control Polotsk, it's very simple. That's why I must take Karl south, the brat is not just to see the world."