Remember [New] in a second! "They just left? Is this to kill those guys?"

"They let us go and asked us to join? Boss, what should we do?"

The residents of Smolensk Varyag who were left on the frozen riverside felt that everything was inexplicable, and everyone kept hearing about the boss Hagen.

Everyone needs Hagen to take decisive measures, and even hesitation is fatal.

Looking at the Russian flag in his hand again, he clenched it tightly and shouted through gritted teeth: "Listen to me! Everyone, take everything you can take away! Let's go to Gnezdovo, let's go to Riga Brother from the Bay. Let's go to Ross!"

Forget it, he whispered again: "I hope King Ross is sincere."

When everyone is undecided, someone proposes a plan, and it becomes the only plan.

"And what about our ship?" Someone asked casually.

"No! Let's survive first. All of you!" Hagen said again: "We will prepare some gems to pay King Ross, and we will please him in exchange for our safety."

Looking at each other again, it is probably safest to spend money to buy peace.

They are all merchants, and they don't want to exist as warriors unless necessary.

Everyone has no intersection with the Ross people in the past, and it is too naive to unconditionally believe that the bald man's promise, but everyone has no better choice.

Then take a gamble! Just bet that King Ross, who unified the Baltic Sea, is the real king.

The entire Smolensk Varyags took action. Although they were less than thirty families, because they were richer than the locals, each family had a small number of family members.

Even a child's slave.

They bought children from the local farmers who could not support them, paid the farmers a sum of money, and promised that these children would live a good life with their new owners in Rome. The promise is so, if the child resists, he will not hesitate to serve him with a stick.

They hastily packed up the things, pulled out the reindeer and cattle from the stables, and connected them to the sled with ropes. A family crowded on the sled, and all the slaves also sat on it.

As a result, a family of less than 30 households abruptly made up 300 people. Items of little value were abandoned, and the worst thing was that they abandoned their ship.

Well, Hagen suddenly thought of some measures. For example, King Ross must have little understanding of Smolensk. If he wants to conquer here, he needs information from insiders.

Correct business information can determine the success of a transaction. Correct military information is here. King Ross, who has never met after submitting it, will not underestimate it, right? Maybe they will give rewards out of joy.

Just when these Varyags were anxious to organize their belongings and planned to retreat in the opposite direction, Fisk's First Cavalry was showing off its power outside the mansion of the local nobles.

The cavalry raised the Ross flag and galloped to the open space between the manor and the manor. The horseshoes stepped on the deserted farmland in winter. It was extremely flat, not only for galloping war horses, but also an excellent place for decisive battles.

"Stupid, there are obviously a lot of people here, and they would rather live scattered than build walls?" Fisk was full of contempt for the small wooden castles he could see, and even dismissed those simple wooden shed houses.

The old man Swain interrupted casually: "Almost all the manors you see belong to the Romans."

"Romans? Ridiculous! If it was Rome, they would have black hair and purple robes."

"It's just what they call themselves." The old man added casually, "It costs money to build a wall. They only want to build a wall for their own manor, and they don't want to build a big wall for those villagers."

"Hey, they built a big wall to give our Ross army a headache. Although any wooden wall is easy for us to break through."

"So, we're just showing off?"

"That's it! I just want them to see the might of Rose's strongest cavalry."

Fisker is really full of pride, but in the eyes of the old man Swain, he is still a little naive.

"But the cavalry is already here, so you really don't want to do any damage."

"It's not necessary. Don't talk about it, old man, just listen to me." Fisk flicked the reins again, and the whole cavalry team ran further.

However, the attitude of the defenders, especially the powerful nobles, who have witnessed the cavalry looting of manor fortresses is changing dramatically.

"Is this the Ross Riding Bandit? They are well dressed, but they can't do anything against my fortress. Brothers! Taunt them at the top of your voice!" A nobleman was so ostentatious, and as his people really scolded at the top of their throats, the nobleman also I became more confident.

Swearing is called "Suka" since ancient times.

In this era, almost all the Krivich tribes called others "Sovaka" when they called others lowly, which originally meant a male dog, and the meaning it derived was self-evident.

One manor cursed "Savaka Ruski", and other manors followed suit. A group of people hid in a manor, and with their anger at the intruders and their judgment of the absolute safety of their situation, they cursed unscrupulously.

But there are some fools in Fisk's party who don't understand Slavic, especially the young masters of boyar nobles in the first cavalry.

These young masters have become extremely ferocious and arrogant during the war. They couldn't listen to others' abuse, and they were all furious.

At that time, the scolding battle of the locals made the old man Sven sure, those guys have the right to scold, but...

"They're calling you mean. Boy, what a shame! I can't help it." He deliberately provoked.

"Then let's fight!"

Fisk didn't show Li's anger, he yanked the rein and then turned the horse's head, rushing towards a small manor that was scolding.

The cavalry quickly passed through the empty villagers' simple dwellings, and after crossing an open space, they could face the manor wooden fort protected by a low wall.

After all, the local aristocrats who claim to have Roman blood are not willing to live with the miserable tenant farmers and serfs.

It was they who separated each other and opened up the tactics of the Ross cavalry.

"Take out the bow!" When it was time, Fisk raised his own recurve bow himself: "Parthian tactics! Now!"

As a result, the Ross cavalry immediately formed a centurion. They were divided into combat parts and circled outside the target wooden fort.

Each centurion moved in a circle, and when some cavalry moved to the right place, they threw arrows sideways towards the fortress and missed.

Don't ask for precise killing. After all, the enemy is not stupid. When they saw the arrows coming, they hid behind the battlements. However, the arrows falling from three directions were killing the peasants who gathered in the fortress to take refuge.

Under the cover of the guards, the nobles ran towards the strong wooden house. The guards held up the round shield and managed to escape back despite the rain of arrows.

Nobles would never allow serfs to "shelter from the rain" in their houses for refuge, and it was a great kindness to keep them inside the wooden walls.

The guards kicked or beat to prevent the people from rushing towards the house. A large number of people were either killed or injured.

Until the guards were forced to draw their swords to kill people, they still couldn't stop the panic. In the end, these tenant farmers and serfs rushed to the noble lord's house...

"It's a mess inside. Maybe you can take it down." The old man was still clamoring.

"Forget it." Fisk shook his head: "Did you hear the screams inside? It's enough to shock them. The rest..." He looked at the simple houses not far behind him, and noticed that there was smoke and dust It turned out that it was the smoke from the fire, but unfortunately the villagers didn't have time to enjoy it.

With an idea, Fisk, who was in charge of the battle, ordered the trumpet to be blown, and the three cavalry centurions suspended their operations one after another.

The cavalry suspended their raids, and it was no pity to lose some mass-produced arrows. Still feeling **** off, they used the cooking bonfires lit by the villagers to deliberately set the entire messy residential area ablaze.

Thick yellow-white smoke began to emerge from the thatched roof, an existence that even the snow on the roof could not suppress.

A house began to billow with thick smoke, which was seen by all the noble wooden castles nearby, and those who were still yelling suddenly shut up.

Because the Ross bandits are really destroying, and they can only be passive, the peasants watch their houses gradually burn down and are destined to be turned into ruins.

The cavalry moved very quickly. At first, Fisk was very worried that the enemy would attack the ambush, but they just watched from a distance like shrinking turtles.

He held the reins, and the steed stood on the snowy ground. He stared at all the surrounding manors, and even the small docks of the locals and the boats placed on the shore.

It would be a waste of time to continue to destroy. The cavalry was only performing the task of exiling the captives, and there was no reason to continue fighting unless it was necessary.

"Let's go! Stop here." He beckoned to his right hand to attract everyone's attention, and then ordered to blow the trumpet to order his subordinates to assemble.

The Ross cavalry destroyed the residential villages in front of them like wind and clouds. Even if they were obviously simple houses, they were also homes for the common people to live on. Many families have not yet had the opportunity to carry away their surplus food, and now even their houses are engulfed in thick smoke and flames...

The snow on the roof was melted quickly by the fire, and they turned into violent water vapor and flew into the sky in the form of white mist, just like the prelude to a volcanic eruption.

Even in Gnezdovo, even if the straight-line distance between the two places is ten kilometers away, on an extremely clear winter afternoon, the smoke column begins to be yellowed by the gradually setting sun, making it an existence that no one can ignore .

At this moment, Rurik has ordered the entire army to rest freely, and the soldiers are still searching for loot everywhere. As some boldly discovered the buried gold and silver coins from the local tombs, the grave digging operation started spontaneously.

The remains of the deceased who were incinerated in the past era would be put into pottery urns or wooden boxes, and buried with some valuables of the deceased. Even human sacrifice is not uncommon, but there are not many nobles who are really capable of human sacrifice.

The local manor nobles living in Smolensk will definitely place the cemetery on the hills near the altar. (In fact, because the hilly area is not suitable for farming, Smolensk built a city and opened rice fields in the flat area upstream of the Great Altar, where multiple tributaries and the main river meet.)

The more noble the tomb, the taller the mound was built. Just stare at the strange mound and do it.

Heroes from all walks of life are doing this, and everyone regards this as further revenge against the enemy.

So some people even played with the excavated skulls and swaggered at their companions with their own swords. The remains of the deceased were discarded everywhere, the gemstone rings on the finger bones were stripped, and the gold teeth inlaid on individual remains were chiseled off.

All this was acquiesced by Rurik.

The behavior of destroying other people's cemeteries is indeed very sad, but I have ordered my subordinates to kill on a large scale. Since the behavior is bad enough, it's okay to think about it even worse.

There is no need to be afraid of the fear of the anger of the Slav gods. The main forces of the Ross coalition believe in Odin and Thor, and all their actions at the altar can be interpreted as venting their anger.

They did have reasons, the first of which was to eradicate the ancestral graves of hostile forces on a large scale under the banner of "revenge for the dead Polotsk villagers and Riga Bay businessmen", thereby covering up everyone's attempt to search for spoils.

As more and more people saw the yellow-white smoke column rising from the east, those who were in a daze got up one after another to observe the vision, and subconsciously took out their weapons to prepare for unexpected events.

Rurik stood directly on the towering rammed earth altar, and he was busy supervising his subordinates to set up wooden poles here, the so-called home of the enemy chief Vadim.

Of course the blood eagle will do it, and then it will be burned with a fire. In the end, the death row will be turned into smoke and dust, as if it never appeared.

"My lord! Vision!" A soldier raised his right arm in surprise and pointed at the treetops in the forest.

Rurik looked sideways, at first a yellow and white blob was nothing but a cloud. It's so weird, it's actually a column of smoke?

A strong sense of dj vu arises spontaneously. He slapped his thigh and couldn't say anything, and secretly cursed: "Fisk, I asked you to do a small thing, and you really attacked them?! You really belonged to me."

Fisk led his 1st Cavalry to over-execute orders and expand limited military operations. There are too many such things. The army is in a chaotic battle with others, so aggressively he can use his strong subjective initiative to open up a situation that is beneficial to his own side, but now... Rurik does not intend to do everything, but his subordinates really have great desires.

"Let's go, brothers, let's go to the river to have a look." He ordered again.

Rurik organized a little cavalry, and hundreds of cavalry stood on the frozen river to watch the theater.

They watched more carefully, and the king's initiative also attracted thousands of warriors out of the forest, standing sideways on the frozen river to observe and discuss.

Many banner captains and centurions under the banner team, these mid-level and senior military officers have learned of King Rurik's actions.

Is it too idealistic for the king to think that after killing a lot, he can force the enemy's nobles to come to sue for peace?

Of course, the so-called "invitation to seek peace" is a trap, and what the nobles came to wait for them was the Hongmen Banquet.

Ross is not really pursuing peace, or what Ross wants is the peace under Ross's rule, which has nothing to do with the local nobles, and they should be destroyed physically. To eliminate them by means of conspiracy, it is better to regroup the army and go directly to the main settlement of Smolensk to kill them.

The majority of officers and soldiers do not want to stay in Smolensk in the future, nor do they think that the people here can be turned into their own people. They hoped to take some beautiful girls from the local area back to their hometowns in Novgorod and the Bay of Riga, and after the girls were firmly controlled, they would be their wives and have a lot of children. Their wishes are so simple.

Fisk and his men felt that enough was enough, the sun was gradually turning orange, and the days were running out.

The burning village was really a warning to vent anger. There were no casualties in the village, but the manor that suffered the Parthian burst ushered in a large number of deaths in a great panic.

Panicked until the Ross cavalry really drove away, only the hiding people squirmed out from the arrow hiding corners to treat the wounded, dragged the corpses, and by the way, pulled out the arrows to find out.

The nobles who are still in shock know the goods. When the subordinates present the arrows they picked up, look at the straight shaft and the wonderful arrow clusters. The arrow cluster is completely different from their perception. It is a collar-like structure, and the cone-shaped arrow cluster is inserted into the arrow shaft. The two fit harmoniously and are as straight as a stick.

This kind of arrow is definitely not a hunting arrow. Shooting it to kill the target can only dig a hole and seem to do no more damage.

However, all the found arrows were of this style, and when they were tiled together, the nobles and guards could see that the arrow clusters, arrow shafts, and arrow feathers were almost the same, which was abnormal. They are indeed high-quality iron cluster arrows. Although a number of peasants were killed and wounded, the doors of the nobles were still locked. The dead were temporarily dragged to the wooden wall and then pushed directly outside. Stand by the wall and hold on.

The 1st Cavalry has begun its return journey, still passing through tiny communities of Varyags trying to persuade them to surrender.

Recruiting these people is a temporary measure. Before these people openly show their hostility to Ross, Fisk will definitely not do anything to these people.

The cavalry was galloping down the frozen river right under their noses, and everyone saw the strange behavior of those fellows.

The old man Sven hastily reminded Fisk: "Maybe our persuasion is effective. We should go and see if they are willing to follow us..."

"Is it necessary? If they are willing to surrender, they can set off on their own. We have no reason to go with them."

"Forget it, whatever you want." The old man shrugged and stopped talking.

Fisk really didn't want to stop to take care of the Varyags who were obviously starting to move on the ice, even though they were almost all of Danish descent.

He didn't want to, those Varyags saw the reappearance of the cavalry, but they didn't have the slightest fear.

It can be said that the rising white smoke gave everyone enough shock. Anyone who hesitated was worried that this place might turn into a large-scale battlefield, so he unconditionally obeyed Hagen's words and joined the defection team.

Those who started early had already started queuing up on their sleds with soft clothes. Of course Hagen didn't want to leave alone with his family, he intentionally waited for the price. Anyone who has an affair with the Varyags can leave with the team, even if their own Varyag man is dead or moderate, and the identity of the woman is even a Slav. Going in large groups will not encounter rejection.

The Ross flag that was presented has been hoisted by Hagen, and he is willing to believe that this flag can bring stability to everyone.

No, the Ross cavalry did some damage and then obviously left in a column at high speed.

Are they leaving? !

Hagen quickly jumped off the sled to greet some brothers. They kept waving their hands and running on the ice, just to attract the attention of the cavalry and stop the bald warrior.

"You see, they just have something to say." The old man Sven reminded again with a smile: "Thank you! They are all friends from Riga Bay, and they must have listened to my advice."

It was really a surprise, Fisk felt that they were really willing to surrender, and the speed of their actions was really decisive.

The cavalry immediately adjusted its direction ~www.mtlnovel.com~ The last sled team stood in line. Rebellious warriors stood here. They had just done damage and fought a small-scale war. The indescribable murderous aura emanating from them was clearly perceived by Hagen and others.

But Hagen and his fellows are not content to be humble dogs, let alone nodding to Fisk on horseback.

They are all northerners, and all forces respect unruly fighters, while flatterers are despised.

Hagen raised his chest, his gray beard and braids were swaying in the wind, and his deep eyes were full of determination. He pointed to the smoke column not far away: "Did you do it? The battle has broken out? Are you really going to fight against Smolensk?" The Skren do it?!"

Fisk looked calm, "You? Why stop us? The mission has not been completed, and we have to report back to King Ross in Gnezdovo. As for whether there is a war or not, it all depends on King Ross's intentions. Are you...really planning to surrender? "

"Yes. We will surrender to King Ross and hand over some tribute. You see." Hagen pointed at his sled again, "I have already hung your flag, I hope you will keep your promise."

"That's natural." Suppressing the joy in his heart, Fiske remained serious on the surface, but he had changed his mind in his heart: "Then act. I can wait for you for a while, and you can prepare as soon as possible. All of you are recommended to King Ross."