The Ross cavalry were still rushing forward on the frozen river.

The daylight hours are now very short, and the cold conditions add to the serious challenges of cavalry advances.

Rurik didn't dare to force the horses to advance desperately, even if it could be done for two hundred miles a day, he still required all soldiers to advance at a normal speed just to be on the safe side.

Even so, cavalry is fast enough.

They first ran to the southeast, then turned to the northeast, and camped in a river delta area that evening.

The war horses were panting through the intense white mist, and the setting sun turned the earth orange, and the Ross cavalry carrying a large amount of supplies were ordered to camp in the nearby woods area when they marched out lightly.

"It's the end. If the direction is completely correct, our first priority is to camp, and then ask the guide which river is the real Dnieper." General Fisk persuaded Rurik.

"It seems so." Rurik was indeed a little confused standing in the delta, his back turned orange in the setting sun.

This place has surpassed the understanding of the Ross people. Even if Rurik has a lot of understanding of the Eastern world, it is at best some understanding without practice. The current army stands here to truly feel the vastness of the world.

Youdao is a white hell, and the current environment is cold, lonely, empty, full of indescribable dangers.

Rurik waved his horsewhip to show the whole team what they had found in the camp, so the flag teams turned their horses and rushed towards the forest in the northwest direction.

The cold blows snow to build a snow wall on the south bank of the river, but the north bank is very flat and has little snow.

At first, each team brought their own dry charcoal, tinder chips, soil salt and spirits for combustion. The tinder is ignited by the bow drill, and the charcoal block is gradually ignited after the combustion accelerant is already on fire.

Then the pine trees felled nearby were laid on the fire. At first, there was thick smoke that choked people to tears, and gradually a blazing fire appeared.

The sun finally set, and the Ross camp under the forest formed a string of bonfires. The tired soldiers laid blankets around the bonfires to prepare for bed, and used the bonfires to boil some snow and drink some hot water.

The war horses took off their saddles and were tied to tree stumps one after another. They were fed a large amount of oats and raised together, kneeling on the pine needle fields that were cleared of snow by the soldiers.

The bonfire was crackling, and Rurik, who was warmed all over his body, was not tired for the time being.

Four cavalry captains walked here and were able to dine with King Rus and all the Smolensk guides.

After all, this is an area that the Varyags who live here have never set foot. Perhaps some Danish businessmen rowed past here by chance, but because they could not find any living people, and the environment here was no different from other places, they evacuated angrily.

At least Hagen and his men couldn't be guides.

In the past days, the situation in Smolensk certainly had direct contacts with the people in the Alan stronghold, especially the serfs in the hands of the old nobles. Serfs can be cultivated as good confidantes for nobles.

The serfs had new masters, some of whom were reused for their special talents.

Four people acted as the guides of the Ross cavalry team, and each team had a guide and one person. Rurik deliberately arranged this configuration to prevent all teams under his command from getting lost. It is better to be cautious in unknown areas.

Rurik also didn't believe that these people would lie. Because of the reuse of a slave by the new master, the whole lowly family can live a good life through credit. The home records of these four people are all in the hands of the newly built Smolensk Governor's Mansion, and the hostages are in hand, and Rurik expects them to ignore the wrong way.

Of course, subjectively, they must not dare to give directions blindly, but the river is frozen in a world of whiteness. In the past daytime, the team has encountered many frozen tributaries, and there is even a tributary that seems to lead to the southeast easily. It is misleading and may eventually lead to a wrong path.

Rurik took out a folded piece of hard paper from his leather pocket, on which the general direction of the upper reaches of the Dnieper River was outlined with a stick dipped in sticky ink, and some misleading tributaries were even marked.

"Okay." He looked at the four nervous guides: "Now we have trouble again. There are two rivers in front of us, which one

Is the real Dnieper River? What is the name of the wrong river? "

The four were stunned for a moment, and then an old man with a thin face explained: "The wide one is the Dnieper River, and the narrow one is Hermost."

It sounds like nonsense, but it is true if you think about it carefully.

Rurik scratched his head: "It's strange. At the confluence of the rivers, I really can't see which river is really narrow. Besides, the river we're going up has narrowed a lot. People who know me know the situation in Kiev. , how wide is the Dnieper River there?"

The four were speechless. They were restricted from leaving their hometown because they were serfs of the nobles. They had at most heard some news about everything in the distance, and they couldn't imagine the "broad river".

Because even in the section of the Dnieper River where Smolensk is located, the average width of the river channel during the wet season is only 70 meters, and some areas can only be expanded to 100 meters. For the serfs, this was the only big river they knew.

The forest in the upstream area is becoming more and more dense, and there are still a lot of bushes in the riverside area.

Snow-covered dry bushes were easily cut down by the roots and made good fuel, and cavalry in camp were more than willing to burn it. Clearing the bushes with axes and swords turned out to be flat places to lay down blankets to sleep on.

Someone continued to explain: "From the northwest is the Hermost River. Its upper reaches are narrower and will eventually become creeks. Some people live in its upper reaches."

"Oh. How's the local population? Is there a leader?"

The speaker realized that King Ross wanted to conquer again, and hurriedly clapped his fingers to explain: "There are less than ten villages, and they grow some food and live by fishing. There is no leader there at all, and the king can easily get it."

"Very good. It sounds like the population is too small. This king has no intention of capturing them now. The governor will help me complete the conquest in the future."

Rurik just believed in the guide's explanation, and the four of them had indeed not led the wrong way until now.

Someone else was eager to express himself: "My lord, your cavalry arrived at the Hemost River in just one day, which means..."

"You? Tell me."

"Yes. Your cavalry will continue to set off tomorrow morning, and it is likely that we will arrive in Aran before evening. We will continue to advance along the correct river course, and we will soon encounter the place where the Wally River flows into the Dnieper River. You don't have to worry about going the wrong way anymore. , because that junction is where the settlement of Aram is.

"So it was like this?" Rurik asked the serfs to describe it again, and drew a dotted line after the solid line on the paper, the so-called estimated path.

He stopped writing and glanced at all four of them: "You have done a good job so far. After the matter is resolved, your family will no longer be slaves. Your children can work with the governor, become soldiers, and gain wealth. And even... become noble."

Slaves become nobles? This kind of thing is beyond the cognition of four people. They didn't know what it meant to be born slaves. In short, King Ross made a great promise, and all the premise was to be a good guide.

They were so happy that they knelt down and kissed Rurik's leather boots, which is the greatest courtesy a serf can show his master.

For this reason, the four flag captains couldn't help covering their faces and laughing at the slaves' antics.

Laughing, the Ross Cavalry Corps now has a clear direction to march, and the captains who returned to the camps of the flag teams quickly summoned the centurions again. The message is passed layer by layer, and finally implemented to every soldier.

So when the whole army fell asleep, everyone realized that tomorrow afternoon would be the moment of battle.

Rurik drew up a preliminary battle plan based on the guide's intelligence.

The so-called since the confluence of the Wally River and the Dnieper River is the largest settlement in Aran, as long as it is taken down to force all the local leaders to surrender, and not to kill the subjects, it is enough to ask for another batch of tribute.

As for the fact that the escaped Viadzic leader Heda can be caught locally, let's just let it happen!

There is even a possibility that Heda died of freezing and starvation on the way to escape.

After all, the cavalry had already discovered the fugitives who froze to death in the forest by the river along the way, and the number of corpses was truly appalling.

The majority of fighters are not

Afraid of these frozen corpses, even when they saw Timberwolves seeming to be gnawing on the dead bodies, they were still calm.

Dead bodies exist like milestones. The dead are all fugitive refugees. Their ability to concentrate their deaths means that they know where they can live. However, people who freeze to death are really unlucky.

But the Hermost River, the shipping value of this small tributary in 842, had not been exploited by the Varyags. Its source comes from a small lake in the southern region of the Divide, and the Gobuza River can be found immediately after passing the Divide Hills. Starting from the Gobza River, the voyager will drift all the way into the Kaspilla River and then reach the upper reaches of the West Dvina River.

Travelers continue sailing, and the next step is to reach Vitebsk, Polotsk, and finally enter the Gulf of Riga and enter the Baltic Sea.

The Hermost River is essentially an optional remote course, one of the components of the "Road to Khiva", and it is just a branch route. However, in the current era, even the route from Lake Kaspria to Smolensk has not yet been discovered. The main route of the Khiva Road is still the more western "Amber Road". The commercial value of this place has not yet been developed. The region is full of wilderness, and the speed of development is creeping forward like a snail.

Now comes the dashing Ross.

The Russian cavalry will also be the first Varyags to enter Syria, and what they bring is by no means commodities and transactions, nor is it a small-scale sneak attack.

Come and solve the problem in one package.

In the early morning, the whole army mounted their horses one after another after eating some dry food. They didn't even care about the smoldering bonfire. The cavalry used to leave only a series of traces of the camp. The black, giant snake-like existence quickly twists and moves on the frozen river with the change of the river.

This is the Ross cavalry marching. The four flag teams make up twelve centurions, and each centurion is divided into three platoons of more than thirty people, forming as many as thirty-six units that can independently perform combat tasks. The fighting group rushed towards the Krivich stronghold that Rurik called Yartsevo but was actually Yalan.

Rurik had already made up his mind, he didn't even want to do reconnaissance, what he wanted was to take advantage of the negligence of the other party to complete the occupation of the main settlement immediately.

Naturally, they saw fallen dead bodies along the way, the number of which was not necessarily less than what they saw yesterday.

The corpses were briefly inspected. Among all the dead, the elderly and young children were the most important, but there was no clear corpse of the armed person here.

Optimistic news spread throughout the ranks.

"Haha, the Yartsevos don't have an army. We'll take it lightly."

"It doesn't matter whether Heda is captured or killed. It is enough for us to occupy the new city."

"Maybe Heda is indeed in Yartsevo. He must have no pawns in his hands. We will easily capture him."

Many warriors still hope to capture a leader alive, whoever can catch this person and present it to the king will get a high cash reward, even if everyone only recently learned about a character named Heda, and they only knew about the existence of the Vyadzchi with approximate orientation.

The next action is already familiar to the Ross cavalry.

The weather was exceptionally clear, and the whole army wearing sunglasses could see the large settlements that couldn't be more obvious in the distance.

Rurik would not dawdle, or even make some camouflage for the military.

On the contrary, he ordered the soldiers to blow the melodious Nordic horn, and the deep sound seemed to come from the realm of the gods.

Rurik gave an order: "The whole army goes out, follow me to occupy the settlement!" He flicked the reins, first led the first cavalry team, and then led the three rear troops to advance with all their strength.

Therefore, for the peak of the melee that was falling into a sudden civil war and the first stage of the public chaos had just ended, Heda, who had the appearance of a leader, devoted all his energy to organizing manpower to collect food and planned to end the conflict with the locals in Aram within a few days. internal friction.

He made a new promise to the Krivich tribe who are determined to be loyal to him-we go with supplies, all of you spend this year's fire **** sacrifice in my Vyazma.

Heda thought well, and the armed militia under his command were exhausted, and their enthusiasm for a better future made them completely let down their vigilance.

Why not relax? hide in

The people in the deep hilly area of the Wally River are just defending. They have no intention of attacking actively, so there is no need for everyone to do anything to them. After all, everyone has nothing to do with Alan.

It was at this time that the Ross army came.

Of course, Heda knew that the Russians would attack his Viadzic in the future. He couldn't imagine what might happen in a few years, and it had happened to him in just a few days.

Heda has two understandings of the Ross army: good use of cavalry, and blue and white clothing.

The blue tone is quite obvious in the pale world, not to mention that some warriors deliberately decorated their bodies and horses with yellow and red cloth strips in order to pursue magnificence. Because the local Slavic people in Yinermen Lake weaving calico is a special craft, the soldiers are spontaneously willing to dress themselves up gorgeously to highlight their nobility and extraordinaryness.

Hedda's riverside camp was completely undefended, and he didn't even have time to take it. When he really heard the sound of the low horn, the gorgeously dressed Ross cavalry had entered the largest settlement in Aram.

Those armed villagers resisted almost instinctively. Anyone who raised a wooden spear, a long-handled flail, or a variety of agricultural tools to try to resist was considered a warrior by default by the cavalry.

The greatest courtesy to an enemy fighter is to kill him, and the young Ross cavalrymen killed him painfully.

The battle became without any suspense. The cavalry, which had a huge advantage in strength, killed a group of rebels, and the rest dropped their weapons and surrendered.

Now that they surrendered, Rurik had no intention of killing them. In the final analysis, they are a group of shabby-clothed armed refugees. Those clumsy weapons are not for war at all, but to guard against polar bear attacks.

[In view of the general environment,

But here are some people wearing chain mail and carrying iron weapons.

After a short battle, the armored men were suddenly defeated by the armor-piercing arrows of the cavalry.

Heda has been stunned! He took more than 20 subordinates who were still alive and hid in a residential house collectively. The goods he planned to transport back to his hometown were completely occupied by the Ross army.

And he hid in the simple haystack house in an extreme embarrassment, completely lacking the high-spirited and ambitious appearance a few days ago.

At this moment, the largest settlement in Aram was flying the Ross flag everywhere, and a large number of terrified people knelt down and begged the Ross army not to kill themselves. Only this time, after receiving explicit orders from Rurik, the entire army showed extreme restraint.

The entire large settlement in Binhe was controlled, and only those who tried to escape were shot and hacked to make an example, so that others would not dare to escape.

There are clearly armored armed men hiding in a haystack room~www.mtlnovel.com~ Their status and status, given their special clothing and weapons and equipment, they must be nobles.

The news reached Rurik's ears immediately.

"Could it be that I caught Heda, who is only known by name? Who knows what kind of person this is. It doesn't matter if it's not."

Rurik was quite bored with the easy victory in the invasion of Yartsevo, and he was excited only after hearing the report from his subordinates. This encircled the target hayhouse with cronies from the 1st Cavalry.

"Take down the house? Kill the people inside?" Fisk asked.

Rurik's face was filled with a faint smile, his golden beard was blown by the wind, his sunglasses covered half of his face, and he was riding a war horse with arrogance and arrogance: "No need. Attacking and killing a group of armed farmers is nothing, now It can be regarded as meeting a real warrior. Ah! I almost won no honor, now let's ask who the guy inside is."

"Heda? Who knows?" Fisk shrugged, still hoping that Rurik would kill him directly to avoid future troubles.