Because these messengers clearly stated a wordVyadzic.

In the Slavic world, "Via" is a common name for men. Just because the leader of the tribe a long time ago was called Via, the tribe changed its name to Viadzic because of the leader's personal wish.

The river was originally unknown. When the tribe continued to move upstream along the left bank of the Dnieper River, they finally stopped migrating after entering a wide tributary. The nameless river has a name, it is the Vyazma River.

Rurik's knowledge of Vyazma came only from the war that broke out in 1941.

If you want to attack Moscow, you must take the important town of Smolensk.

It is very normal to build roads along the river. The Smolensk Avenue was built next to the Dnieper River, then continued along the Vyazma River, and finally went straight to Moscow.

It is almost the only road to Moscow. Whether it was 1812 or 1941, the troops who went to Moscow had to take this road. It seems that it is a conventional path. Even the Lithuanian army in 1372 started from the surrendered Principality of Smolensk. It took this path to directly attack the Principality of Moscow, but was forced to retreat because of the obstruction of Moscow's city wall.

In the autumn of 1941, the Soviet army built a line of defense from Rzhev to Vyazma, but the German army broke through, and the west gate of Moscow opened wide. After the Soviet counterattack, millions of Soviet troops stood on the front line of Viazma, and the tug of war like a meat grinder lasted until the big counteroffensive in 1944.

Even in the autumn of 1812, the famous Borodino battlefield was in the area where the city of Vyazma was located.

However, the city of Vyazma was built very late. When Napoleon invaded Russia with an army of 600,000, the city of Vyazma was still a plain with many forests, and the village of Borodino died 70,000 people in one day. Famous for **** battles.

In this era, the deep winter of 842 AD, everything is different, but everything has signs of development.

Today, the concept of Moscow does not exist, not even the name of the Moskva River.

But that doesn't mean that area is no man's land.

The Viadzic tribe has been immigrating, and large and small villages have sprung up in the Vyazma River Basin. Some immigrant teams that continue to advance eastward have touched the upper reaches of the Volga River without knowing it.

They have "liquid elements", and they trace the source of the river to find an area suitable for building a village. The farthest river they saw was called Mosai, a word used to describe a "shallow swamp" in the Slavic dialect of the Viadzic people. This river is the Moskva River, and the cities of Moscow and Mozhayinsk also come from Mosai.

The Mosai River eventually emptied into the upper course of the Volga River, which the Vyadich tribes did not know and did not need to know. The settlements they built along this river are few and sparse, and the tribe population is not large, and its comprehensive strength is slowly expanding.

All the village leaders who visited Rurik tried their best to prove their submission so that King Ross would not destroy their village.

If these Ross people really want to destroy, really want to plunder wealth, no matter what, they must not rob themselves.

As someone mentioned Vyazma, others followed suit, raising their heads and explaining what they knew.

They are just bringing disaster to the east, perhaps only in this way can they ensure the absolute safety of their village.

Rurik, who was agitated, calmed down and sat down again. He asked a few articulate guys to explain what he knew.

Aram settlement, it must be Yartsevo. Caiwo is the suffix of the place name, so the pronunciation of Yalan and Yar seems to be only different in the strength of the tongue.

Once a settlement is established, even if it is destroyed, it will be rebuilt in the original area. The name of the settlement often does not change drastically, but the pronunciation of individual syllables is fine-tuned. After all, 842 AD was only 800 years away from 1942, and the famous city names that Rurik learned through World War II are more or less visible in today's era.

These village leaders have said a lot, and the meaning of what they revealed is also very clear.

"So, you suggest that I go on an expedition against the Vyadzitch? They seem to be your neighbors? Even so, you want Ross to go on an expedition against him

You...you are so insidious! Is this how you prove your loyalty? "

All the leaders were speechless for a while under the power of Ross.

"Attack! Of course the king wants to attack, but not now. Since the territory of the Viadzitch people is too far away, I don't want to waste any more time this year. Stop here for your suggestions! Unless, you can have better suggestions. "

After a while of hesitation, an old man slowly knelt up and said, "I have one more thing."

"when?"

"The leader of the Viadzic people is called Heda. He has been staying in Smolensk. I heard that he supports Vadim in fighting against you Rus, but he has not sent troops for a long time."

"Is it just support other than help?" Rurik pinched his beard for a moment of thought, "It seems that I have a reason to kill this chief named Heda."

"Maybe Your Majesty has a chance!"

"oh?"

"From the Vyazma River to here, it will take seven days to row a boat, and it will be even slower if you walk. Heda fled with his people, and snow fell just after he fled, so..."

Rurik raised his head abruptly, squinting his eyes slightly to realize that the matter is not simple: "Could it be that this Heda can still avoid the wind and snow in your so-called Arran stronghold?"

"Very likely. If the king moves fast enough, he may be captured alive."

"There is such a good thing?!" Rurik jumped up again, his heart ignited.

Rurik originally did not want to expand the war. General Winter's threat was not a joke. Even the Rus, who were accustomed to living in extreme cold, now had to consider whether their Turkic horses could withstand the extreme cold.

However, killing or capturing Heda by beheading, not forcing Viadzic to surrender now, even if it is used against it in the future, it will be much easier for Ross to conquer them after losing the chief.

The opportunity to capture the chief alive is here, and this is indeed a reason enough to attract Rurik to take the risk. It's really alluring.

The old guy was still calm and composed, and his attitude was very firm. No matter how he looked at it, he didn't lie. The old man continued: "Even if Heda really fled to his tribe, the king will not lose. There are still some villages in Aram, and no one knows whether they surrendered to Ross. Most of them are unwilling to surrender. Those stupid people It takes the king's beating to truly submit to the king."

Look at this old guy, he seems to have become a counselor on Ross's side. From the standpoint of the Smolensk people, this kind of person can be called a traitor, but from the standpoint of Ross, such an old man is a wise man who abandons the dark and turns to the bright.

Rose naturally needs such smart people.

The current Rurik basically knows nothing about the Viadzic people, only has some strange understandings of their names that transcend time and space. There are still a large number of independent Slavic tribes to be conquered in the huge Eastern Europe, and the last thing is to force them to recognize the hegemony of Rus and make them pay tribute regularly.

The chiefs of these villages ended their audience one after another, and Rurik fully accepted the hundreds of little slaves they paid tribute to.

slave? These children fell into the hands of Rurik, and they were only slaves in name. Don't look at this group of people who are just children now, and they will be young men and women who can fight in seven or eight years at most.

The so-called forced emigration of some young men and women from Yinermen Lake in the north, they will definitely resist, and they will leave their hometowns for a long distance, and they will feel fearful when they don't know.

If the forced immigrants were all slaves, the situation would be completely different. Slaves have no choice, they can only depend on their masters to live, and the masters here are only the top nobles of Ross.

Some children were directly assigned to cousin Arik. The so-called guards were trained from an early age. In the future, they will serve the governor of Smolensk and maintain law and order on one side.

Some of the children were given to Carlotta to fill her lost population of the Polotsk region. The child immediately threw himself into the two fortresses of Vitebsk and Novopolodsk, and became part of the garrison and remained there.

Since Rurik had plundered all the old Smolensk nobility, all the stored food was in the hands of Ross, and its scale supported his profligacy.

A batch of grain was carried on the sledge as a gift, and the chiefs of the villages did not drag it.

The sledge went home empty, but it carried some iron and a lot of food.

For the first time, the ruler of Smolensk gave back food to Free Farm, which was an extremely positive signal, clearly showing that King Ross needed everyone to live. After all, for some villages with a small population, a sledge of food is enough for everyone not to worry about the spring famine next year.

Because holding a large amount of food in hand can have the capital to squander, Rurik checked the food a little bit and determined that this huge amount of seizure was enough to keep the army lying down and eating for a whole year.

In peacetime, all villages have to pay tribute to the ruler. The best tribute that the village can get is grain. The nobles living in Smolensk also hoard a large amount of it, make wine and kvass, and then sell it to Va Good grid merchants exchange money. Food is the most effective extraction from the hands of the rulers and farmers.

However, this area suffered serious damage. The war caused the death of 4,000 male youths, and the population of Gnezdovo and Smolensk Riverside fled in large numbers due to the attack of the Russian army. The population of the two regions is as high as 60,000, and now only one-tenth of them remain.

Of course, there are distant villages that were excluded and surrendered one after another. They may not be able to support the rapid revival of the main city of Smolensk.

The nobles were eradicated, and there were no fugitive serfs or tenant farmers, but the loyal masters changed from self-proclaimed Roman descendants to the Smolensk Governor's Mansion in Ross.

They still have to plant in the spring of next year, but after a large number of population losses, those who stay must sow a larger farmland, which will be extremely hard work.

They are extremely happy and look forward to next year's spring plowing and autumn harvest.

When the old aristocrats were around, they often demanded as much as half of the rent from the tenant farmers. Half of the new Meinagon, and then thrown away to grow grain, tenant farmers often only get 30% of the harvest, and they have to pray for good weather.

As for those serfs, in theory, all their harvests were handed over to their masters, and their own family ate only leftovers, and their lives might not be as good as those of livestock.

Rurik hasn't thought about exploiting these people crazily, at least now it's completely unnecessary.

Rus will still implement the tithe tax in the newly conquered Smolensk, and the serfs and tenant farmers will still be bound to the farmland, but they only need to pay 10% of the grain as tribute, and the rest will be freely controlled.

This is a great thing that they dare not think about at all. Since the conquerors of Rus have vowed to do this, they will believe it, and it is up to them whether to believe it or not.

Rurik has better means of exploitation, and relying on poor industrial and agricultural scissors is really cutting meat with blunt knives. If high-quality industrial products are placed here, farmers must have a strong desire to buy them. Ross will not force them to buy, but the appearance of a high-quality steel axe, a hard dagger made of chrome steel, a mass-produced cast iron spearhead, and even a plow and cogwheel, which are artifacts of cultivation, will immediately arouse people's attention. With an agricultural revolution, farmers will accumulate a lot of grain to buy these high-quality farm tools.

The price is here, whether they like to buy it or not, as long as they buy it, the food they pay will probably use up a year's surplus food.

The promise was for all, and those village chiefs who had sworn to surrender brought back great good news.

Their tribute quota is also 10% of the harvest, but they have not gone through the field, and there is no real supervision. In the end, they have the final say on how much the harvest is and how much they plan to pay. There is no time to accurately and thoroughly investigate and punish.

At least, this group of guys living in the forest must communicate with the outside world. There were better farm implements produced in Rus and sold in the riverside city of Smolensk, and their acquisition immediately changed agricultural life, at the cost of a lot of grain.

Now the Ross cavalry is assembled again!

The sound of horns resounded across the earth, and the war horses that had been dormant for a long time were pulled out from the warm houses. The soldiers stepped out of their comfort zone to stretch their muscles and bones in the cold outdoors.

Those village chiefs finished their audience yesterday, and they just left this morning.

By noon, Rurik had completed the cavalry assembly.

The soldiers had already received the information yesterday that the war horses were bred in a surprise attack.

Feed a lot of oats, and the soldiers had a good meal last night.

The four cavalry teams have assembled, with velvet caps sewn from polar bear skins on their heads, and bearskin coats covering the plate armor underneath. The hats are stuffed with wild goose feathers dyed blue, and the chest clothes are sewn with decorative blue cloth strips . With the battle flag as the center, they are arranged in a fairly neat matrix.

Rurik was the most gorgeously dressed. He inspected the soldiers on horseback, and suddenly drew out his sword, pointing the blade straight to the east.

"Start action now! The first team, go first!"

As the order was issued, Fisk, the captain of the First Cavalry, flicked the reins, "Brothers, let's go!"

Then came the second, third and fourth teams. The cavalry turned their horses and stepped into the frozen Dnieper River one after another. Under the guidance of the locals, they began to march to the upper reaches of the Dnieper River. The goal was very cleartake a chance Catch the legendary Heda, and if not, complete the conquest of the Arran stronghold.

Arik is already the Governor of Smolensk, and he and the veterans of the First Banner Team are temporarily stationed in this large coastal settlement. He is not worried about the risk of having fewer troops at all. His army is all brave veterans, and this place is actually very close to the Gnezdovo military camp.

Standing under the horse~www.mtlnovel.com~ looking up at the younger brother of the king who was about to go to war, Arik squinted his eyes and couldn't help sighing: "It's just like in the past. Once the battle starts, we always expand the war. This time, you Could it be that they want to conquer the Viadzitch people at once?"

"If the opportunity is ripe, why not do it?" Rurik smiled and suddenly sullenly said, "Brother! Stay here well, I will be back soon."

"Be careful. The winter war is very risky, and this is an unknown area for us. If it's just an uninhabited forest, we don't have to worry about it. There are still people who are hostile to us here, so you must be careful."

Rurik was really surprised, why did his cousin, who was always brave, suddenly become timid? Maybe it's just because he's older?

"Don't worry, the gods bless me. This is our once-in-lifetime opportunity! If I capture that Heda alive, maybe the whole Viadzic will surrender. I'm leaving!"

Seeing his younger brother's determination, Arik slammed his chest hard: "May Odin grant you divine power!"

"Odin is with me, of course! Ah!" Rurik flicked the reins, and the horse quickly caught up with the marching cavalry column.