Vadim, who was already exhausted, was stunned by the collision. Thanks to this thick leather jacket, he was not killed by the impacting horse on the spot.

But for a person like him, maybe being hit to death directly is a very decent destination. His arms were tied behind his back, and even his thumbs were tied together.

The ankles of both legs were tied together, and even the thighs were tightly bound. After being captured, Vadim was **** like a cocoon. He could only twist and wriggle, and the possibility of escape was definitely gone.

Fearing that the man would bite his tongue and kill himself, Rurik ordered his subordinates to tie his mouth with a thick hemp rope, so the prisoners' teeth could only compete with the hemp rope.

The victorious Russian cavalry temporarily rested on the battlefield, and Rurik was able to see for himself what kind of face the enemy had.

The bound Vadim was temporarily placed under a tree. Since he had been in a coma, he looked like a dead person at first glance.

Rurik, who was holding the hilt of his sword tightly, approached aggressively. The closer he got, the more clearly he could see the enemy's facea face that was not very bright.

At this moment, Fisk has already been stationed in the

Beside the "spoils of war", when they saw the king coming, they went up to meet him. He casually pointed at the prisoner: "I haven't woken up until now. If I didn't feel the heartbeat, I would treat him as a corpse."

"Aren't you awake yet? Just knocked unconscious by my war horse? Don't die from serious internal injuries."

"Your Majesty, do you pity him?"

"How is it possible?" Rurik shook his head. Fisk turned around slightly, still looking at the prisoners of the Lost Lake with contempt: "Maybe, the gods don't want him to die hastily. He is too low. Maybe, I can organize my brothers to wake him up with birds." After that, Fisk has the motion to untie the belt.

"No need." Rurik stopped the old man: "The insult is superfluous. Anyway, we won't stay here for long."

"ah?!"

"Are you surprised?"

"My lord, do we still need to continue to move? It's getting late now..." Fisk glanced up at the gradually setting sun, and continued to suggest: "For safety's sake, we can set up camp on the spot."

"I don't think it's necessary. Fisk, you know our current location better than many people. It shouldn't be far from the village of the Polotsk people, right?" Fisk nodded: "That's natural. It might be a half-day gallop on horseback The time is up. But... Your Majesty wants to march at night? The risks here... are really great."

"You guessed right!" Rurik slapped his favorite general casually: "What are you afraid of marching at night? My king stayed in Murmansk for a month in the polar night. We old Russians never Afraid of the dark."

"This... I'm not afraid, I'm just worried that the army will make trouble when it advances."

"Don't worry about what is missing. Are you worried about getting lost? Don't worry, we will have a clear signal soon. Now tell the brothers to clean up the battlefield quickly, and I have to send people back to report. Listen, the cavalry will be there Polotsk is always assembled. And I, I have to go first." Rurik decided to continue his rapid advance, and the cavalry would advance as they fought.

He believed that he would likely continue to encounter the Smolensk rout along the way, and it would be no problem to kill them easily.

As for capturing a large number of enemies as slaves, and then sending them to the northern mines to dig iron ore, these beautiful long-cherished wishes will probably be defeated in reality - a large number of defeated soldiers are fleeing for their lives in the ice and snow forest with basically no supplies, General Dong may Killed all within a few days.

The reality is more and more in line with Rurik's preliminary judgment. Most of Vadim's defeated army must have died of cold and starvation.

Because, not much dry food was found from the slain, and their sluggish spirit made it almost impossible to resist, and it also made it impossible for the Ross Army to win, and it didn't take much effort to win.

The last leather armored warriors were wiped out, and the thousand Jianyong that Vadim painstakingly trained were completely lost in the continuous fighting.

In other words, the 4,000-man army he gathered had been wiped out. The Russian cavalry inspected every dead body on the battlefield. The dying were stabbed to the vitals and died quickly, and their ears were cut off as a certificate for the soldiers to claim credit.

Only standing army soldiers have the right to cut their ears for money, and this is also a privilege of being a standing army.

They were specially selected with excellent comprehensive qualities, and the rewards stimulated them to be more aggressive and ruthless.

They recovered the arrows one after another, checked the enemy's weapons, and took away the valuable ones. Generally speaking, the Russian cavalry disdains the weapons of the Smolensk people, but the spears that the enemy can still use can be temporarily used as riding spears, hanging vertically on the saddle, and a Russian flag is hung under the spearhead. If the entire cavalry team is like this Doing it can indeed show the majesty of the cavalry, but it is not helpful for actual combat.

The battlefield left corpses without ears all over the place, as well as a large area of blood that had frozen into ice. The setting sun illuminated the entire world city orange, and the corpse was also dyed a hazy orange. The brown hair was violently shaken by the wind that swept across the river. The warm corpse quickly lost its temperature, and now it has turned into a kind of solid ice. Become one with the frozen West Dvina River.

At this moment, the First Banner Team of the Ross Cavalry consigned their most valuable loot, Vadim, which was bundled like a cocoon, and quickly advanced towards the village of Polotsk, even if the whole army had to march at night.

"The sun is setting. It will be dark soon, and our progress will be at risk." Fisk, who was riding next to Rurik with a tight rein, really wanted to explain his concerns out of consideration for the king's safety.

"I understand your kindness. We have already arrived here, and any worries are unnecessary. Besides, it will be of great benefit to us to let the brothers have more strength to march at night."

"Okay, I was worrying too much. But we didn't prepare torches, because we were afraid..."

"Why worry?" Rurik's smile showed his strategy, and he pointed to the western sky: "Look carefully, it is turning red."

"It's in the direction of Polotsk..." Fisk raised his head: "Aren't you afraid that Vadim will burn down the village with a fire? We won't even have food supplies by then."

"No, he can't do it." Rurik really doesn't need to worry about anything, or even if there is a possibility of Vadim setting fire to the village, the cavalry is already in the current position, and there is no need to worry anymore, so he can only bite the bullet moved on.

Rurik even called it a stress test for the cavalry. After this large-scale attack, he believed that Ross's cavalry corps was indeed capable of maneuvering on horseback, from the capital on the Neva River all the way to Hamburg in the Principality of Saxony along the coastline.

Soon the Ross cavalry began to march at night, and the burning things in the west still illuminated the sky red. Obviously, as the distance approached, the soldiers of the 1st Cavalry believed that they were one step away from the fire.

On the other hand, the fast-paced messenger rushed to the temporary camp where the main cavalry corps was located just after the encounter.

Vadim, the great leader of the Smolensk people and the purpose of this expedition, was actually captured by Rurik, the king of Rus himself?

! Everything is like a dream, and everything is the secret help of the gods! The main force of the cavalry, mixed with people from all walks of life, still wanted to set up camp on the spot, and wait until tomorrow to set off and walk to Polotsk step by step.

At the king's order, the three standing army cavalry had to get on their horses and set off quickly. They were so decisive that they forced all the subordinate cavalry and allied troops to mount their horses.

In the evening, the sun has just set. The advancing cavalry force passed the place of the final encounter. Rurik left a body of missing ears for his subsequent brothers, as well as horseshoe prints that should not be there on the slippery ice surface, showing obvious longitudinal marks.

Even with men, horses and weapons, a cavalry is extremely heavy. Therefore, the traces of the wide horseshoe with steel nails can reflect a luster that is completely different from the ice surface in the setting sun.

The traces are densely packed to form the appearance of a road, which goes northwest of the river extension. For Rurik, he personally led the elite to rely on the burning red sky as a guide, like staring at a ship sailing at night with a lighthouse.

Since today is a sunny day, the north wind is stronger, and there are not many clouds in the sky. It looks like a bright moon is in the sky, and a jade plate is extremely bright. In addition, the sky is full of stars, and countless twilight lights shine on the snow-capped world. The visibility can be satisfied. Minimum requirements for army marches.

However, the rider has great stamina as a human being, and the hard-working war horse is now completely overdrawing its own life.

The cavalry could no longer advance quickly, and in order to conserve horsepower, the cavalry slowed down considerably. In fact, to Rurik's surprise, he thought he could easily capture some prisoners, but in the end he didn't even see anyone on the march.

"Is it true that they all froze to death? Or, were a large number killed by Riga reinforcements in Polotsk?" There were no torches, and even though the Ross cavalry were marching under the night, there were almost no traces of their whereabouts!

They don't emit light by themselves, and all the movements they make are covered by the wind. At the same time, the Ross reinforcements from the Gulf of Riga, the largest village in Polotsk, are joining forces with the defenders.

They executed the villagers who fled back for participating in the burning of the fort the day before, and stayed in the village for the time being. No one will pay attention to what will happen in the future.

As the highest-ranking person in the world, it is reasonable to think that the brothers have put in a lot of effort in rushing to help, so it is reasonable to do nothing now just to rest.

As for the burning Novopolotsk fortress, only God knows how long it will burn before it is naturally extinguished.

As a guard, Vesund himself did not complete the defense of the fortress. He was really guilty, but the Russian army still occupied the entire village of Polotsk.

However, the villagers basically died. As has always been the case, wars in which the Rus participated for various reasons often resulted in mass deaths.

After some tribes fell into war, when the war ended, the tribe also survived in name only due to the loss of population.

Polotsk has become a place name. After the war, people chatted nonsense, and the most discussed thing was how to move their families to settle here.

After all, the riverside

"10,000 mu of fertile land" needs a new owner. And problems ensue. In principle, the Duchy of Ostara is the local master, and the Duchess has the right to distribute the current unowned land.

The Danish allies who helped the Ross Army need real rewards, and the families and friends of the killed Danish brothers need to be compensated. In short, the Danish community in the Bay of Riga is eligible to take part of the farmland in Polotsk.

That's what Stekander and his fellows thought. Any controversy is far from hurting and its point.

Either out of absolute self-confidence, or simply too conceited. After the victory, the reinforcements in the Gulf of Riga didn't bother to set up guard posts at all, and Wisund, who suffered serious internal injuries, handed over the command of his troops to the young warrior Bischom, but not all young people have the attitude of leaders.

Bischom didn't make defenses either, he felt that it was unnecessary. Most of the fleeing Smolensk people will die in the snow, and even if they come back, the brothers will kill with swords.

However...another group of people, relying on the cover of low visibility at night, appeared majestically on the outskirts of the largest village in Polotsk.

Rurik, who was already tired, suddenly woke up. He tilted his shoulders and poked Fisk casually: "This is the village of the Polotsk people. It seems that there is no burning here except for the bonfire. On the contrary, there seems to be a small city burning not far away, and that is the point of fire."

"It's the Novopolotsk fortress. Carlota ordered it built. She stayed here this past summer, supervising the completion of the fortress."

"This..." Rurik seldom showed embarrassment: "She is in our rear line. Seeing the beloved fortress like this, will she cry?"

"It's hard to say. I'm afraid I will use a horsewhip to beat the fortress guard." Rurik shook his head again: "The atmosphere is a bit strange. It should be our friendly army there, but... if they are really Ross people, they should be deployed outside the camp. Sentry. We are cavalry! If we launch a surprise attack on an undefended village, it will be a one-sided killing! Damn, is this how Spyut leads troops?!"

"Are you sure it's him? Everything is just inferred from the captive's words."

"Anyone else but him." Rurik shook his head again. After all, he was also from Old Ross, with a series of achievements.

Fisk couldn't help smoothing things over: "His subordinates are all pirates, and those people are used to being free. If they win, they will kill them. If they can't win, they will run away decisively. There is no honor as a warrior. Don't expect too much, my lord. There are too many of them."

"That's all." Rurik waved his hand, signaling the trumpeter to blow the horn immediately, the warning horn. Suddenly, the horns outside the village blew loudly, and all the centurion players gathered together, and they blew the old Ross's tune, which was a low, melodious and penetrating tune, which could not be suppressed by the wind .

The people stationed in the village noticed this, and many of them were extremely nervous. Spueut had already taken a nap, and his sensitive nerves subconsciously jumped up because of the strong stimulation of the trumpet.

He rushed out of the warm house, and asked loudly in the winding streets: "The bullhorn player?! How can you blow the horn without my order? Damn it is the warning horn." Hand pulled over.

Several trumpeters were also particularly aggrieved. For, the sound of the horns of the Rus' army is a peculiar

"Sound language", relying on low and melodious tunes, ships at sea can conduct simple communication, so as to supplement the lack of semaphore and colorful flag communication.

Because of the excellent practicability of the horn language, the entire Ross Kingdom reached a tacit understanding, and it became a universal existence.

The horn players were all standing in front of Spueut, and there was no need for them to make excuses. The horns were here, and the warning horn was still coming from afar.

Although it was a bit outrageous, Spueut suddenly had a flash of inspiration and slapped his thigh: "Maybe our friendly army appeared." As for why there are still friendly troops, who knows what the identity of the friendly troops is?

Spueut didn't care too much, and immediately ordered his own trumpeters who had assembled to blow their horns to respond immediately.

They are no longer blowing the siren, but back with soft and cheerful tunes, representing the

"We are allies". The answer from the village's trumpets quickly caught Rurik's attention.

"It's really my friendly army." Fisk was overjoyed.

"They can only come from the direction of the Gulf of Riga, and the only person who knows the horn can only be Spyut." Rurik was very satisfied and responded to the sound of the horn: "We should have a good rest. Let's go! Give that guy a surprise . The Ross cavalry still had the cover of night, but people holding a large number of torches came out of the village one after another.

Even if the image is not as good as the lake, Spueut also saw a large group of black shadows

The momentum of "overwhelming" came to him.

"It's cavalry?! Is it actually cavalry?" Spueut gradually saw the truth, and also noticed the cavalry's little trickdeliberately forming a wide and thin horizontal line, relying on the night to cover his weak depth, appearing to be extremely strong. .

The cavalry walked into the village swaggeringly like this, and almost all the defenders staying in the village were dispatched. Spueut held the torch himself, and he didn't even need to ask anything himself, because there was a familiar noble face here.

Seeing the tall rider on horseback, his right hand holding the torch couldn't help but relax, and he quickly knelt down on one knee to salute~www.mtlnovel.com~King! Could it be that Odin used his divine power to send you to Polotsk? ! "

"It really was you. Haha, it was indeed Odin who sent the king here with divine power, and the gods gave me victory. Sput, get up!" After finishing speaking, Rurik glanced at the action again with great interest. Soldiers with torches.

Under the firelight, the soldiers had strangely braided hair, many of them had beards, and their beards were also combed into strange braids.

Although the dim light was not enough to realize the color of their hair, Rurik was convinced of the Nordic identity of these people just by the style of their braids.

The local Slavs would never bother with their beards and hair like this. Their identities are the Danes in the Spuut Department and the Gulf of Riga.

This is, the situation in Polotsk is quite different from his cognition. What about the tens of thousands of people?

Now, there are only three or four hundred Nordic people standing in front of him. Polotsk villagers seem to have evaporated.