Warrior, he cannot be born out of thin air.

Vadim has completely occupied all the Polotsk villages on the Polota River in name, and he lacks confidence in whether he can get their sincere surrender.

He had three thousand soldiers. After arriving at the village after a difficult journey, his morale, which was on the verge of collapse, recovered a lot with the recovery of sufficient supplies.

He began conscription immediately and on the spot, and forcibly ordered all Polotsk people, from young to old, to take up arms.

"We are not invaders, just to help you save from the rule of the Varyags."

"From now on, Smolensk and Polotsk will be one family."

"Marry your women to my warriors and everything will be fine."

How ironic a series of slogans shouted from Vadim's mouth.

For natives, it would be foolish to refuse to cooperate. After all, this Vadim has a large army, the size of which seems to be uncountable.

Only Vadim knew the true strength of the Smolensk army. The four thousand army lost one thousand and did not collapse. He knew that it was not because of his commanding charm, but because everyone did not want to die of hunger and cold needlessly.

The desire to survive forced the army to walk abruptly to Polotsk. Although the morale was restored, it was impossible for them to be really strong enough to dare to directly attack and destroy the new fortress of the local Rus.

Who can forget the experience of suffering a big loss in the previous war?

We can no longer continue to attack by force, we must think of something.

So, across the Polota River, on one side are the Russian flag flying high at the fortress in the winter sun, as well as various Varyag warriors and fiercely reflective helmets standing on the wooden city wall.

On the other side is the so-called Smolensk-Polotsk coalition that occupies the largest village in Polotsk and takes it as the core area. They are showing off their might on the riverside, making a lot of noise but not attacking.

The two sides entered into a state of "sit-in war".

From the perspective of the fortress guard Visund, it is possible that the enemy is waiting for the ice on the Polota and West Dvina rivers to be thick enough to run freely.

On the side of the village, Vadim tried his best to gather about 500 local soldiers.

They are not soldiers, it is more appropriate to call them armed peasants.

The people have long seen the strength of the Ross army, and they also know that there is a group of Danish businessmen from the Gulf of Riga in the fortress. They are all Varyags. Because these guys want to do business in a distant place, considering the high risk of the journey, they spend a lot of money to buy high-quality weapons and armor. If you want to fight against this kind of people, isn't it like hitting a stone with an egg?

After the meetings of the villages, a group of speakers were elected, but no real chiefs were selected. Under the chaos, the villages only wanted to protect themselves, and they were even more worried that their presumptuous actions would be retaliated by the Ross Kingdom in the future, and the current talkers completely shut up.

Since Vadim from the east intends to be the leader, let him do it well...

All the bigwigs in the local area neither flattered nor refused to cooperate with him. They just wanted to protect themselves, but they still couldn't escape Vadim's unreasonable demands.

Armed soldiers walked around the winding streets and alleys, and the villagers who had nowhere to go could only stay at home and wait for their unknown fate, but they were picked out by the soldiers and ordered to take nothing away.

The corpses of those who dared to resist were thrown into the river full of ice, and the villagers seemed extremely obedient. They were driven to some houses and kept under surveillance, waiting for the limited food rewarded by Vadim.

Because preliminary investigations have made it clear that the total amount of surplus grain in the ten Polotsk villages is not as optimistic as Vadim imagined.

"These hateful Russ, you have taken away so much tribute that you have plucked the geese. Now I can only get the rest? Can my army of three thousand survive the winter?"

The rationing system is not an advanced invention. When food is limited, Vadim must ensure that his army can survive the winter smoothly and have enough surplus food to support him back home. He wants to live frugally, for which the soldiers understand better.

As for the forced locals, giving them food is already a great kindness.

As for the villagers who were locked in the houses doing nothing, they fell into a state of confusion.

for the starvation caused.

In just two or three days, in Polotsk under Vadim's rule, ordinary people basically lost the strength to resist. Those women who were forced to have **** with his warriors were willing to commit themselves to savage warriors for their lives, just because the other party could provide food to feed themselves and their young children.

The ice layer on the river gradually thickened, and the villagers of Polotsk began to die one after another.

Weakened by hunger, the weak will freeze to death. The old and the young began to die one after another, and the people who were held like prisoners remembered the goodness of the Ross people. At least those Varyag cavalrymen from the north and that noblewoman had no intention of killing everyone.

On the contrary, Vadim and his Smolensk army took everyone's surplus grain to nourish themselves. Now it's good. They will plunder all the grain planted in next spring. At this opportunity, everyone will flee with their families.

There are still people who think of a chance to escape, and more people have no thoughts about the future, just silently waiting for the unknown fate.

In times of crisis, some people began to pray silently, not to pray for the gods to save the suffering, but to hope that the Ross army would come from thousands of miles away.

Because they will never sit back and watch their Novopolotsk fortress collapse!

I'm afraid their reinforcements are already on their way.

It's just that even with reinforcements, whether they can defeat Vadim's army, they can really come from a far away place on snow.

Obviously, based on their own vision, the people underestimated the power of Ross's army. It's coming on snow! It even came from the collapse of the ice.

Two armies were approaching the West Dvina from different directions.

On one side was reinforcements from the Gulf of Riga, three hundred mixed with various pirates, Danish armed merchants, a small number of Ross warriors, and a small number of Latvian warriors, riding horse-drawn sleds and reindeer sleds, as fast as possible along the West Dvina River. And up.

Waiting for reinforcements from this side is quite a long journey. On the way, they have to go through the territory of the Selong tribe, and they have to consider the risk of a sudden snowstorm.

Spueut and Stekander didn't care too much. The interests of many parties were intertwined so that even if everyone gathered a few fighters, no matter how strong the enemy's troops were, they would never refuse to send troops because of this. A very simple question looms, especially for the Danish community in the Gulf of Rigaalmost a hundred brothers wintering in a Rus fortress, they cannot be defeated and killed.

With days shortened to just nine hours, each night presents a challenge for the winter traveler, something only the reindeer seem to be able to ignore.

There are not many reindeer raised by the residents of Riga Bay. Although the horses are cold-resistant species, their shoulder heights are too low to be meaningful for riding. They can be used to pull carts and sleds.

Compared with riding sleds, Spueut still prefers boating, but the big river is rapidly freezing, and the idea of boating for reinforcements has been cut off.

The hastily formed team lacked experience in winter expeditions, and they had no idea how far they could travel in a single day.

"I should be able to reach Polotsk in seven days, and then Vitebsk in three days. Their fortress is well prepared for the winter, and as long as it is not breached, it will last forever..." Spueut made some calculations, hoping that when he arrived in Vitebsk, what he would see would be the still fluttering Ross flag, and the siege enemy army that was exhausted under the city.

Spueut's expectations are just expectations, and some of his conjectures are correct, but the real situation is very different from his imagination.

On the other hand, unlike the reinforcements in the Gulf of Riga, the army led by Rurik himself has a different style of painting.

Every year, Novgorod organizes a large-scale reindeer sleigh team to travel all the way to the capital Novorosberg on the frozen Volkhov River.

Since the long trek on the ice is not uncommon at all, the soldiers did not feel that it was a severe challenge to go southward with all their strength despite the snowfall.

Even if the time to prepare for battle is short, the army has already been preparing for next year's war.

Not far from Hanukkah, the residents of Novgorod began to train the reindeer pulling the sleds early. It was supposed to be a sleigh brigade that transported a large number of people and supplies to the capital. Reindeer and sleds

Requisitioned by the governor, he transformed into a troop transport unit.

Things are far more optimistic than Rurik imagined!

Because it was the conquest of Vadim who escaped, heroes from all walks of life in Novgorod gathered to respond, and they all took out their own sleds and deer to help the king win the crusade. Because many people were oppressed by the Pine Needle Manor when they were young, thinking that Vadim, who fled, aims to regain the rule of the area around the lake and continue to be the leader here, how can he succeed?

The local business environment is very good. King Ross's tax exemption order is valid for people from all walks of life. What's more, even if taxes start to be paid in the future, the increasingly prosperous business has offset that little tax.

Even, the people who supported the raid and provided supplies made a fortune in the raid.

The horses have grown thick manes, and the horseshoes have been refurbished with wide spiked shoes, which make them more grippy and even easier to move on ice.

Horses are still very precious. Even though the Russian crusade army got a key supply in the city of New Ostara in the south of the Great Lakes, the Pechenegs stationed there got on horses to participate in the battle one after another, and even Beya Hill personally brought He led his fifty guards into battle, and the strange thing was that no one on horseback continued to march.

The horses are harnessed and the ropes are tied to the reindeer sled.

At this moment the sledges were filled with men and supplies.

A large amount of ready-to-eat dry food, simple fodder, pure wheat, soldiers' chain mail armor, and even an astonishing amount of tent materials.

Ross's regular army has always attached great importance to logistics, thanks to the fact that the core of Ross's inland ruled area is in Novgorod. This big city gathers most of the resources. To deploy resources, Rurik does not need to invest a lot of time and cost. .

Especially the key military rations can be transported directly from the warehouse! Although Rurik has not collected taxes in the past few years, buying grain from farmers through the sales income of various state-owned factories has become a happy event for you and me. The so-called exemption is the direct tax, and the industrial and agricultural scissors come and go. Rurik still exchanged grain from the vast number of Slavic farmers, just in time for this sudden winter war.

Obviously, a large amount of food is in preparation for next year's expedition. Since the damned Vadim is looking for a dead end, he has no choice but to adjust his strategy.

Each sled was erected on a wooden pole, on which there must have been a Ross flag. The white background and blue stripes of the Ross flag may not be particularly conspicuous in the white world, but it may not be conspicuous if replaced with black cloth because it is similar in color to the pine tree trunk. Based on practical considerations, each sled has red cloth strips wrapped around the wooden poles.

That is the ground cinnabar and turpentine are mixed together, and after the white cloth is deeply soaked, there is a relatively dry and hard red cloth. Due to the lack of natural red vegetable dyes, the red cloth made in this way is too precious, and basically can only be used as a decoration for clothes.

There is a touch of red in the whiteness, how obvious it is!

As long as there are leather drums and horns, they must be used, and it is best for each sled to have objects that can make a lot of noise.

Red cloth, flags, drums and horns, the mighty Russian expeditionary force relied on these objects to ensure that no sledge was accidentally left behind.

The sleigh stewards supervised the reindeer movement, and they were supposed to go to the capital with their goods to make a fortune at Hanukkah, but now they were fighting for King Ross, happily pulling a sleigh of warriors to the south. The royal husband will not directly participate in the battle, and the food and drink of the people and deer along the way will be paid by King Ross, and a small amount of spoils will be given after the battle. King Ross will surely win, and no matter how you think about it, you will make a lot of money if you participate in it!

So, the soldiers of the four cavalry teams sat on the reindeer sleigh and guarded their horses, which were completely light-packed.

Quetzal, Nurg, and a small number of Kiev horsemen gathered around the serious Pecheneg princess Beyahir. The army was commanded by the princess, and the princess had to listen to King Ross on how to fight.

Everyone sat on a sled, guarded all kinds of baggage and lightly armed horses, and formed the so-called "Prairie Cavalry".

The five Russian infantry banner teams, the huge Slavic banner team, and the Ostara army constituted seven marching groups of the Russians. Each group has a commander in charge. A commander does not have to manage 500 people himself. It is enough to manage the four centurions under him, and the centurion manages the four heads of thirty, and the management authority

Finally, it was implemented to the captain of ten people. And a team of ten must share one sled.

[In view of the general environment,

Such a pyramid-shaped command structure makes the Ross army huge but not chaotic. Although the marching ranks are lined up in a long snake formation, the position of each group in the ranks is determined in advance. Holding the flag and listening to the drums, even when the team is in chaos when camping, it is impossible to fall behind.

At first they marched in light snow, but as the march deepened, the weather gradually cleared.

No, people who bought sunglasses put on this treasure of snow marching. Each soldier wrapped himself up quite demonstratively, and the eyes that should have been exposed were covered by huge gray-black wooden frame sunglasses, which made the whole army look quite weird.

Rurik and his two wives and concubines were sitting in the army sleigh.

Carlota and Bejahir are not ordinary wives and concubines. According to the northern tradition, they are the Valkyries in the world.

Female warriors are not uncommon, and female warriors who can command a large number of troops are rare~www.mtlnovel.com~ For this battle, Ross, who lives in the Novgorod area, has sent out all the elite, and Rurik expected to gather himself A giant of 5,000 men, the actual strength is more than this.

After all, it is a crusade against the ambitious Vadim. Maybe this winter war is a huge opportunity to solve the Smolensk problem in one package.

In this case, why not organize an army?

After Arik heard the news, he immediately organized the First Banner Squad composed of citizen soldiers and strongly demanded to join. Rurik had no reason to refuse his brother's kindness. After all, behind him were a group of old Ross people who were eager to try.

For a while, the battle became a "father and son soldier", and the sons of the veterans of the first banner team were basically in the four subsequent expanded banner teams.

"I accidentally assembled an army of 6,000. I have never fought such a crazy battle... What a challenge."

Rurik's sled was directly against the fixed tent, and he was able to think about the battle process in it, hoping that his army would rush to Vitebsk, which had not been broken by the enemy, and then directly fight the damned Vadim.