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The army gathered in Vitebsk, holding a cavalry group of 700 people. For a moment, Carlotta felt that he could take the army to take the initiative to attack the Smolensk-controlled area.

The pea seeds are planted, and then time is left to ferment.

Perhaps it could be successfully trial-grown in Vitebsk and begin feeding the kingdom's southeasternmost settlement the following year.

However, making his subordinates self-reliant is not Carlotta's original intention. The settlement must be fortified, and the supplies needed at this stage need to be dispatched from the outside.

Old Man Jellinger was surprised that the Duchess brought so many cavalry, which was unimaginable in the past.

Corridors were built on the wooden walls, small holes for crossbows and wooden bows were deliberately dug, and there were also stacked walls that could cover people from driving away, all for defense needs.

Carlotta and his son Karl walked and inspected on the wooden corridor of the Vitebsk city wall, followed by the old man Jellinger.

They stood at a high place, and the warm summer wind felt quite comfortable on their faces. As far as the eye can see, due east is a reedy swamp, watered by the flooded West Dvina. In the south are endless clumps of forest, and natural roads between the forests.

The forest here cannot be used as a natural barrier. On the contrary, there are sufficient intervals between each tree, and even cavalry can move in the forest. The soft pine needle soil humus can breed many mushrooms, and picking them in autumn can provide a little special food for the Vitebsk defenders.

The fluffy pine needle soil can cover the footsteps of conspiring attackers. If an enemy tries to attack Vitebsk, it is theoretically feasible to use the forest cover to launch a sneak attack.

How to strengthen the defense in the future?

Carlotta already had an idea.

She stopped and pointed to the wetland due east: "Vitebsk's defense is still too weak. Old man, I need you to start digging ditches from there."

"ah?"

She turned her head: "Didn't you understand?"

"I don't understand."

"Just dig ditches. Listen! I want you to send men around the whole fort to dig ditches big enough for boats, and it will keep our fort safe. We're going to keep only one pontoon road to land, so that in case the enemy A sneak attack can only be launched from the only floating bridge..."

In the final analysis, it was because Carlotta learned about the city defense situation of Hamburg two years ago. The trenches dug by the Saxons made a large area including the city look like islands in the river compared to the flowing Elbe River.

The only iron chain pontoon bridge connected the other side of the river, so that the Eastern Kingdom's army at that time had no choice but to attack the pontoon bridge if they wanted to forcibly attack the city.

This caused the final battle to be delayed until the severe winter when the Elbe River froze.

She tried her best to explain that Naihe's mere digging of circular ditches was too new for most people.

The old man Jellinger still didn't understand, but fortunately he was willing to carry it out.

He asked an additional question: "Could it be that my lord still wants us to beware of the Baltic people? With all due respect, if they dare to rebel, your army can easily destroy them."

"Of course it's not Polotsk, at least it's not mainly about them. Beware of the Smolensk people." Carlotta added.

"So it's them? My lord, after all, you have this large army. If you take the initiative to attack, you can also severely damage them. Maybe... our operation of digging ditches is not particularly necessary, and you can use simpler means to solve the problem."

"You think I don't understand." Carlotta rolled her eyes at the old man, and then sighed a little: "The king gave me limited tasks, I am his woman, and besides, this operation is mainly for my son, who is also the king's son. In this matter... it is better not to cross the line."

Therefore, the operation of digging trenches around the Vitebsk fortress began quickly, taking advantage of the abundant manpower and material resources now.

The Ross-Ostara coalition forces can actually force Polotsk farmers to dig ditches with farm tools, and make them prove their loyalty by means of forced labor or corve.

Even if there is a lot of evidence that those guys really surrendered, considering that I used conspiracy to kill Lambard, the new leader of Polotsk, even though that guy died suddenly by drinking strong alcohol, after all, people died in the The Russian city of Great Luki, sooner or later the Polotsk people will know about it. Are they angry and rebellious because of this?

We need to think about how to deal with the most troublesome situation, and the old man Yellinger's question needs to be pondered.

The work of digging trenches was mainly done by dismounted cavalry, and their digging techniques were exactly the same as those used by Ross to build the Luga River Yinlmen Lake Canal. With their shovels, the warriors dug deeper and deeper, at first rapidly seeping pits deep enough to submerge a full-grown man, and then these small pits connected to each other to form huge circular passages.

The junction of the trench and the channel was blocked by an earth dam of mud, reeds, and timber, using Ross's technique of digging dry docks.

Their city defense construction uses the advanced technology of this era in Eastern Europe, and even civil engineers of any era will get dirty when they do their work.

It was summer, and the young soldiers simply wore unlined clothes or even standard military shorts. After fastening the waistband of the hemp rope trousers, they jumped in the muddy water and continuously shoveled the mud into rattan baskets. shipped to the ground...

Digging of trenches continued on the edge of an area with a radius of one hundred paces centered on the large wooden house in the center of the Vitebsk fortress.

One hundred steps is almost one hundred and fifty meters. The fortress is on the left bank (south bank) of the river. It was already close to the river. The trenches dug now use it to clearly define the city edge of Vitebsk.

Is it enough to dig a trench? The enemy is to carry some extremely long pine poles. A few poles can be put together to create a bridge and attack directly across the trench. It is not particularly necessary to expand the width of the trench. Carlotta thought of a more realistic and operable trick-cutting logs to piece together a larger-scale wooden wall.

The years Carlotta and Rurik lived together enjoyed not only the long-lost family life, she learned some advanced mathematics knowledge directly from Rurik's side.

Now she's applying what she's learned about calculating pi to the defense of Vitebsk.

How long will the outermost wooden wall of the city be repaired? If the central wooden house is the center of the circle, it would take about 630 steps to build the wall on flat ground.

Due to the distance of the city from the main river, the length of the city wall is smaller than that, and a wooden wall of about 500 steps is required to be built (about 800 meters rounded).

More than 700 people went into battle together, and with the support of nearly a thousand horses, they dug a trench and built such a long wooden wall in a short period of time. Both Carlotta and Fisk felt that this was not a big problem.

The Ross people have been constantly improving their skills in practice. The young soldiers in the army, sooner or later, they have to help each other to build their own houses, and they also have to contribute to the repair and maintenance of the old city walls for their hometown cities.

Many people have helped their parents repair their houses in their hometowns. Now they just use freshly cut pine logs to assemble wooden walls, which is much easier than repairing houses in their hometowns.

The Danish businessmen who hadn't left were dumbfounded. They didn't understand why the Ross-Ostara cavalry, with their amazing strength, were now digging pits and logging with their clothes off their way. They are obviously free men on horseback! Why overstretch defenses for a settlement?

Even the act of building a comprehensive defensive wall seems strange to these people from the Danish community in Riga City, and it is even more strange to dig trenches to enhance protection.

Strange is strange, they are about to go to Kherson of the Romans, and the local city is even more bizarre-building a huge wall of stones to protect the entire city.

With such a defensive behavior, the Rus seem to be learning from Rome.

The Danish merchants did not linger any longer, it is fair to say that they realized that the act of digging the trenches would facilitate future shipping so that the longships floated directly over their flooded trenches and thus bypassed the pontoon bridges.

According to the Duchess, Vitebsk City will build a more advanced thing like a rope suspension bridge. In short, the bridge across the trench can be retracted and retracted freely. And the description of the suspension bridge alone surprised these businessmen.

They rowed their longboats all the way south along the small river, heading towards the Roman world where they thought they could make a fortune...

Although Vitebsk has become a large construction site, some problems have also begun to become apparent-the risk of food shortages.

Digging holes and building walls is heavy physical labor, and food consumption increases, but the food carried by the army is limited.

The plan of Carlotta and Fisk is to extract food from the warehouses of Polotsk peasants. It is indeed very refreshing for the army to raid the local area and control it immediately. Doing so will definitely scare them.

According to Fisk's meaning, of course, the soldiers dispatched to solve the problem instantly.

After all, Carlotta is a female nobleman. No matter how brave she is, she will always have a woman's sensitivity and tenderness in her heart. Perhaps that is the benevolence of a woman, but in her opinion, at this stage, gentle means are needed to achieve quite peaceful control.

So a cavalry team composed of 30 people was given the task of envoys of peace. They were ordered to "not shoot the first arrow first" at any time to ensure that there would be no misunderstanding due to their own actions.

Under the leadership of the old man Harold, whose alias was Olaf, they held high the two flags of Ross and Ostara, and rushed to the Polota River and Sidvi, where Polotsk people are highly concentrated, in a very shining way. Estuary area of the Na River.

So for the people of Polotsk, life goes on no matter what happens.

They have long forgotten that their ancestors immigrated on foot from the Vistula River to the current geographical location, and naturally they have forgotten that their ancestors are more or less related to the ancestors of the extremely large number of Yinlmen Lake Slavs ruled by the Rus. , The languages of the two sides are so similar that there are basically no communication barriers, which is the proof of this.

On the other hand, the Polotsk people and the Drevlians and Drigovich people in the south they know, although they must be able to understand their speech and gestures, it is quite strenuous.

They didn't realize this, they only knew that the entire village alliance worked hard but was easily defeated by the rising Ross people.

The Rus people were all northern aliens who spoke the Norse language, and there were a large number of Slavs under their rule, so that there were also Slav warriors serving in their army. The Polotsk people, like those who spoke a similar language, became the ruled people.

Maybe the situation isn't too sad.

Everyone has not been collectively turned into slaves. If you can continue to live by paying tribute, you can survive by gritting your teeth.

Besides, didn't Lambart, who made himself the leader, take some brothers to the north to swear allegiance to the leader of Ross?

Those Ross people will not be able to black-hand their servants.

What is the future? have no idea.

The farmers only knew that if they did not plow this spring, the entire village alliance would not have to worry about being retaliated by the Ross cavalry for failing to pay the tribute on time, and everyone would self-destruct under the blow of the Great Famine.

Now, the Ross army has appeared with a very high profile!

The farmers weeding the fields fled back to the village in ashes, and the terrible news spread to all the villages along the Polota River in an instant.

Any resistance would be fatal, and the Ross people did not seem to be hostile.

Farmers hid in their homes one after another, and the bustling community seemed to have fallen into dead silence.

Those who are usually prominent must stand up. Behind them are their families and friends from the same country.

Since Lambart, a young boy who was defeated in the war, became the leader with the support of the conqueror, the attitudes of the various families towards this matter were extremely complicated. Even if it's the leader's turn to be such an ambitious person? However, the Conqueror of Rus trusted such a character.

It is precisely because of this situation that when Lambat himself left his hometown, these local wealthy families in Polotsk did not convene a meeting of top figures to elect a new head.

Perhaps Proclaw, the headman of the old days, could resume his old career, but the peasant army he commanded was defeated, and he was captured and abandoned by the conquerors.

He was not executed afterwards, but would the exiled family still have the face to live on?

The former chieftain lost all prestige, but his family is still the most powerful in Polotsk, and even the pretentious Lambart is also from this family.

Afraid of being accused by thousands of people, Proclaw did not leave the door, but the torment in his heart could not be subsided for a long time.

On a peaceful winter night, he ended his life with a hemp rope.

On a calm snowy night, family members worked hard to dig an earthen pit according to the tradition, and buried it in a very low-key manner in an unknown place, just to prevent those who lost their families in the war from finding the grave to vent their anger.

After his death, after Lambat left, the ten Polotsk villages, large and small, no longer had the highest talker.

To a large extent, the village alliance fell apart, and because of last year's defeat, their overall strength was greatly weakened, and this year's spring plowing was far worse than previous years.

The men let the Ross cavalry enter the village. They stood bare-handed on the winding dirt roads and alleys, staring at the soldiers who suddenly descended with complicated emotions.

One fighter yelled in the local dialect: "You men with words! Stand up."

The men looked at each other in blank dismay, and no one dared to step out of the crowd of onlookers.

"Are you all deaf? Still can't understand me?!"

This high-spirited warrior is the eldest son of a boyar, a local manor owner from Yinermen Lake. There are many such brave young men in the First Cavalry. They never feel that they are the conquered party, but they are the rulers, and they are part of the Ross people.

The soldiers continued to yell, and their words became more and more ugly.

The onlookers were all mentally dull, or their backbones had been broken last year.

Finally, a bearded man wriggled out of the crowd as if inspired by something, and asked cautiously on behalf of the villagers present: "Glorious... Ross people. What can we... do for you?"

"Finally someone willing to speak. Old man, are you the leader here?"

The old man had no choice but to continue to explain: "I'm just an ordinary person."

"Ridiculous! You are not worthy to speak to me."

"But." The old man continued to reply cautiously: "If I can't do it, UU Reading www.uukanshu.com others can't do it. There is no leader here, you... are the masters of Polotsk."

At this moment, the young soldiers felt that the men in front of them were extremely despicable. Are you really willing to lie on the ground like a dog? After being humiliated, he didn't dare to make a final resistance?

But... that's fine too.

From their eyes, the soldiers couldn't see the aura of conspiracy, there were frightened people everywhere, and every face was extremely fearful and cautious.

The warrior suddenly drew his sword, and the buzzing wind of the sword made the men retreat one after another amidst the humming.

"Don't be afraid! As long as you obey sincerely, you won't suffer any harm. Listen up! The army of Ross is about to arrive, so inform your wives and children who are hiding in hiding, and gather in the open space to swear surrender to your master!"

That's all, the soldier shouted again: "Praise the mercy of King Ross! All of you will enjoy the peace under the Principality of Aostara! The wife of King Ross, the Duchess of Aostara, is your real leader .