If Fisk's raiding cavalry continued south, it would also be feasible to rush along the Rhine all the way to Mainz.

A snowfall calmed the fanatical Ross cavalry. They counted the gold and silver they had looted wildly these days, and they considered the provisions they had now. No one was willing to continue the adventure.

Their actions caused panic among the people in Cologne and Bonn, and also aroused the vigilance of the nobles of the Middle Kingdom on the other side of the river.

Bad news has been flying all over the world in recent days, and Aachen has been attacked by barbarians.

The Normans plundered everywhere in Flanders, and the life and death of the count Baudouin was unknown, and his son automatically imprisoned the country.

It was at this turbulent time that a group of well-trained horse-riding bandits appeared in the east of Aachen.

Aachen is the "place of the best", and Charlemagne's coffin is located here. The defenders have strengthened the city's defense, and it will take some time for the news to reach the king of the Middle Kingdom, Lothair, who is still in the southeast.

A snowfall has spread from the Arctic Circle down to the Alps.

It showed amazing coldness in the north, the whole of Scandinavia was hit by blizzards, the Gulf of Bothnia, and the waters near Rosberg, the place where the Russ thrived, were freezing fast.

It was during the cold season here that the blast furnaces of the Rus did not stop, the flames continued to bake several blast furnaces, and the iron smelting operation continued.

While others' lives have entered a winter state, they will do their best to stay at home until this snowfall is over.

Eastern Europe also suffered first snow, and the Novgorod region was immersed in snow.

It is cold and desolate, because the soldiers of the expedition have not returned, and the news that has come so far is still from September, and the information that people know is that the war will continue.

A group of wounded have returned ahead of schedule. They brought first-hand information on the battle situation on the front line and praised the great achievements of the Ross Army.

The final battle report comes only from the Danish battle in Jutland.

Finally, the Danish forces, which have troubled all the Rus and Swedes, have turned enemies into friends after this war. The grudges of the past are gone! Even if some people don't feel that all grievances should be wiped out hastily.

Anyone with a discerning eye knows that when the maritime disputes are over, the fishing business in the Baltic Sea has become much more stable.

All of this is based on the martial arts of the Rus army. The Rus Kingdom and the Danish Kingdom are bounded by the strait. Rus represents the entire Scandinavia here, and they have the right to rule.

The victory is heartening, and the expedition soldiers are clearly going to fight all the way to next year. This is the first time in history. When the joy fades away, people have the comfort of worrying about the expedition.

The consolation is that the king exempted the whole people from this year's tax, but this year's agricultural tax and commercial tax have been collected, do they have to return it immediately?

No one asked about it.

After all, the taxes collected were not a big problem for the people at the time. Although the tax was still an eleventh tax, the results of pioneering had already shown its power. Although most of the old and new Rus families temporarily lost their strong labor, they were the first to receive the war dividends. They relied on the strength of women and children and paid for the labor of local Slavs. The work of food harvesting was still successfully completed. Taxes were also paid smoothly.

Most of the families still had sufficient food surplus, and the expected invasion of the Smolenskians did not appear.

On the contrary, it was the steppe cavalry who frequently robbed the Smolensk area.

For more than half a year, these short-statured, black-haired prairie people have successively transported more than 500 captive women to the north. These captives were snapped up, for which Kagan and his steppe cavalry made a fortune, and in turn bought steel, leather, cloth, and even precious fine salt from the kingdom of Rus.

The elderly Otto had age spots on his face. Thanks to his gray beard, he covered his face. However, his hair almost fell out, so he used a hat to cover up the embarrassment on weekdays.

He didn't know when he would come to the end of his life, after all, he was already sixty-seven years old.

what does this mean?

In the past, the ten maids he selected for his only son, Rurik, have all given birth to children successfully.

He is an old man surrounded by many grandchildren, living in the city of Novgorod and enjoying endless dreams.

He stayed here like a king, and the Supreme King was a king. Here, the eastern part of the Rus Kingdom was peaceful.

The huge kingdom needs busy communication lines to maintain each other. Before starting the 840 expansion war, it was divided into: northern area, eastern area, Sweden area, and Finland area.

The so-called hometown in the northern region, the old man Haro Zuosen dreamed of becoming the boss of the Ross tribe. His hometown in Roseburg, in the north, couldn't possibly cause any trouble.

The Swedish region has returned to the old state of tribal alliances, with the addition of the governor and the Uppsala temple institution, and Rus controls it in a similar system.

The Finnish region is just a country, and its population is too small. Today's economy is highly tied to the city of New Rosesburg, the capital of Russia. A group of Finns have been working in the east for a long time. There are always some shanty towns built by Finns outside New Rosesburg for a long time. . They can't make waves.

The core area of Rus Kingdom's ruling is entirely in the east, where a population of more than 200,000 people gathers, and it climbs to 300,000 at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Prince Ospenslav is here, Supreme King Otto is here, High Priest Lumia and Deputy Priest Velika are here.

Old Rus, New Rus, and a large number of immigrants from Scandinavia settled here one after another. They still maintained the abundant martial virtues of the past, and because of the incredible stability of life, the increasingly prosperous days made each family have a strong desire to bear children.

The population is expanding rapidly, and along with it is the deforestation. The people need a larger living space and a larger trade network, and countless demands give birth to huge desires.

It is already November in the Julian calendar, and soon it will be a brand new year.

By the new year, it means that the results of the second large-scale marriage of the old Rus will show its power. Based on tradition, boys in the north are reluctant to count their first years, and a child is considered an adult when he reaches his twelfth thought after birth.

At the beginning, the marriage between Rus and the Novgorods was just a test. In the second year, when the estrangement between each other was eliminated due to the birth of a child, the marriage became more and more frequent.

From the second year onwards, the population of Rus began to explode. Now, the first generation of the "population explosion period" has grown up, and they have all the obligations of the Rus. The most important thing is to take up arms to expand the strength of Rus.

Because if you don't expand, you will die.

Everyone knows that the expeditionary army has entered the Frankish territory, and as for the situation of the battle, it is impossible to know because of the temporary interruption of traffic.

No one complained that the king was fighting hard, and the new young warriors sharpened their knives. They were not afraid of tigers when they were born, and they even looked forward to the continuation of the war, so that when the king called for reinforcements, everyone could take part in a large-scale war as their coming-of-age ceremony.

Otto is getting old and needs a cane to stand up. He still likes to drink, ale, mead, raspberry wine, kvass, and even precious wine.

He continues to enjoy life, and one more day to live is a day to earn.

He also hopes that the army will triumph, and that he can see Ross achieve greater glory.

There is no military force, and Ross's rear is quite stable.

This is not at all the people of Rus or noble saints, just because Rurik did not apportion taxes to them to replenish military funds, and even passed the official documents to be tax-free for a year.

The vast majority of the people did not suffer losses, and the wounded soldiers who were withdrawn reported another outrageous victory, and they lived their lives well.

Different from pure farming peoples, they have to rely on pack horses and even people's shoulders to transport materials to the front line.

The logistical pressure of the Ross army is very low. Relying on large ships and sails, as well as the vast ocean and countless rivers, the force of nature can push the army to attack at a high speed.

Ross is more war-fighting, relying on looting, Sorgon to meet demand, and immediately trawling during the temporary settlement of the army.

When the first snow fell in northern and western Europe, the Russ Army could still ensure that its soldiers had oatmeal and fish to eat every day.

And it was the people of Saxony who suffered.

Rurik's battle plan has been implemented, and Arik's squadron has been stationed at the mouth of the Elbe to stand by.

He wished that the enemy's army would immediately advance to the Elbe River, but it snowed heavily.

Since they were ready to insist on fighting, the Rus-Danish coalition built a wooden house near Hamburg early on. Most of them build houses with the old craftsmanship of their hometown. The so-called construction of rough wooden houses first, and then accumulate a layer of soil outside, as if creating abrupt earth holes in the flat ground.

This is the old way of building longhouses by the Vikings, and it is really indecent in the current eyes. It is not impossible to build a wood-cut corrugated wall with better protection against the cold, it requires more working hours. Considering that a decisive battle could happen at any time, the soldiers didn't bother to make a fuss and just built a shack to keep out the cold.

The Rus-Danish coalition had all the tools, but the situation of the war refugees who gathered in the Hamburg area was extremely bad.

For the Saxons, it is not uncommon for people to freeze to death in winter, and it is not uncommon for even the whole family to freeze to death.

In a big way, the entire Frankish kingdom freezes to death every winter. Died from diarrhea due to eating unclean food, and died from the cold of winter, these are the two major obstacles that restrict the difficulty of increasing the population of this huge kingdom.

The alliance between Rus and Denmark and Saxony is only an alliance with Duke Ludov, and the life and death of Saxony civilians is Ludoff's concern. Ross rewarding these commoners with some food is benevolent, and it is understandable not to give them.

Now, what Rurik does is give nothing.

After the snow began, the Saxons suffered from frostbite and frostbite one after another.

The highest temperature in the environment suddenly dropped below zero, and those frail women and children who could not stand the test of low temperature began to die, and the fighting power of robust men was also weakened by the cold.

Liudov's army of 10,000 people pieced together in the way of pulling strong men, there were not many soldiers who could fight, and his strength was further reduced by Snowfall.

He won't beg the Rus and Danes for some relief, he won't do it out of pride, and the situation hasn't turned into a mass casualty of the populace.

The priests have gone to appease these poor people, and organized the burial of the frozen dead.

Eskil, in particular, conveyed this message to the people: "Some people die because they are not religious enough. This is a trial, and you must overcome the test of cold and war."

The northern sage has spoken, and everyone has nothing to say.

As for the Russ and Danes who didn't see any signs of freezing to death, what's going on?

what! Maybe it's just because they are weird people who jumped out of ice cubes, and they don't need to go through God's trials at all.

Are the Vikings really not afraid of the cold? Is it really a creation of ice and snow? !

Right in Hamburg, Eskil hosted a humble Halloween festivities, and after the festivities the snow began, it was like a follow-up to the festival.

In the blizzard and snow, the coalition forces were still holding on to the Elbe River, and Hamburg became a large military camp, with various wooden buildings rising from the ground.

The Rus-Danish army has a very normal supply of food, and their living conditions are better.

The overall situation of the people of Saxony is much worse, and most people will not fall to the fate of freezing to death. More than a dozen people gathered in a room to keep warm. The food they brought with them could last for a long time, and they all hoped that the snow would pass sooner.

Snowfall is a test for both sides of the war.

It delayed Ludwig's next move. The main body of the Frankish army with a large force has moved to the north of the Weser River. For the time being, they still have to stay in the rebuilt Bremen, and then build some wooden houses for more than 20,000 people. survived this snowfall.

The Archbishop of Cologne, Hardbold, held a simple Halloween ceremony in the open space of Bremen. After the ceremony, snow began to fall, and many soldiers chewed their tongues and said that the archbishop brought bad luck.

But is there less bad luck for this Frankish expedition? In other words, when King Ludwig insisted on launching a winter expedition, he was bound to face the winter wind and snow.

But the snow could not have caused trouble for the Franks alone.

Ludwig rarely came to Saxony. He lived in the south for a long time. He mainly used remote command for the northern region, and learned about the situation in the north mainly through letters from nobles.

"Maybe it's colder this year, maybe the Elbe will freeze. My troops go straight through the ice, take Hamburg and fight them, and I'll win."

The size of the force will determine the outcome of the war. Ludwig has always believed that his strong army is invincible in land warfare, and all the previous setbacks were the hateful ships of a Norman. The strong cavalry can't run on the water, and the previous defeats were all willing to do so. If the roads were smooth, how could the Franks fail?

Ludwig's self-esteem is here, and he will never admit that his strength is not good. He now spreads the hatred of the failed border friction with his elder brother Lothair on the traitors and invaders in the north, even if he scolds it 10,000 times.

Both sides of the war are waiting for the snow to stop, and it is clear that the snow will continue for some time.

On the other hand, while Rurik was waiting for the snow to stop, Noren and Bejahir, who were at the end of their pregnancy, gave birth on the same day. uukanshu. com happened to be two normal baby boys.

One hair color is like gold, one hair color is brown. They were all screaming with their eyes closed, wrapped in soft sheepskin, and embraced by their mothers.

The two princes of the Rus Kingdom were born in Hamburg, and helping them a lot at the moment will be very good for them in the future.

Liudov provided a good room for Noren and Bejahir to cultivate, and he also handed over his maid to take care of their children.

There are few women in the Ross Army, and women are very weak after giving birth and do need to be taken care of. The maids of the Liudov family are pure maids, including some old women with old faces. They are the servants who take care of the noble family, from cooking to washing. They were a group of professionals, and Rurik was of course satisfied with Liudov's assistance in this regard.

However, the old man Eskil saw this as an opportunity. He estimated that his actions might make Rurik angry, but he thought that the big boy Reglaf Ruriksson was wandering around Hamburg every day.

He couldn't help but start his own conspiracy again...