Chapter 841： Young standing army

The Principality of Ross opened three horse farms, the Neva River area, the northern shore of Lake Ilmen, and the southern shore of Lake Ilmen.

The usefulness of raising horses varies from region to region. Packhorses and service horses are tamed on the Neva River.

Many horses are tamed on the north and south shores of Lake Ilmen, and two cavalry barracks are formed, keeping a batch of horses that can be used for a long time.

Now Ross’s first cavalry barracks is located in the city of Nova Aostara, the southernmost tip of Lake Ilmen. The original cavalry units are stationed here to guard the southern gate of the Principality on land. With the guard of the cavalry, even if the Smolensk suddenly attacked northward, the cavalry's super mobility can beat it in the open area south of the lake, and at the same time, they can rush to inform the enemy's attack information.

Rurik had no illusions about Smolensk now, and the orders he gave and the agreements he made with Pecheneg's allies would inevitably directly harm the interests of the Smolensk people. It is reasonable to attract the other party to report, but if they take the initiative, Rose will seize the famous opportunity to become a teacher.

A cavalry barracks is not enough! Rose needs more cavalry!

The second camp was built in Novgorod, and the newly trained cavalry was used directly as a standing army.

Based on the status quo of the Duchy of Russ, it is necessary to form a standing army. There are too many troops to be formed. This gold-swallowing behemoth can eat up the treasury.

How much is the standing army? With the current situation, the standing army, which is completely off production, is limited to one thousand troops.

The rest of the males formed their own courage. Just like the Vikings’ traditional customs, the young men and women of the tribe were obliged to serve as warriors. This tradition should be changed in a new region and a new era. A large number of women can no longer be women warriors, but men in all villages, whether they are from a Viking tribe or a traditional Slavic farm, do not matter. When the ethnic group reaches the age of twelve, it is necessary to enlist in the army during the necessary period.

As a monarch, Rurik did not have the energy to fine-tune the management of the huge number of Slavic farms, and he was not optimistic about how much combat power the peasant soldiers composed of pure farmers could burst out.

Only the new generation of Roths who grow up wailing, they are huge in number, and almost all of their parents are old Roths.

In the next few years, these young people will form a new flag team, leave their current family after marriage, and then use the flag team to open up new settlements. They and their descendants are the number one source of troops in the Principality. And they are also first-class citizens of the principality.

It's just that anyone with a discerning eye can see that the temporary mercenaries who used to take money to do things in the past have become permanent.

Last year, I took the opportunity to defeat the King of Denmark and won the victory, and the price paid was really higher. The main males in Novgorod lost a batch of them. This was something they had never experienced before. From this, the people spied on the fierceness of the war that took place in the distance.

The mercenary group suffered the most, and no one regretted a group of professional desperadoes from all kinds of backgrounds.

but!

People have seen that the newly added new mercenaries are not after the Ross, or after other Vikings, or even the children of Slavs.

When the prince returned to his loyal Novgorod, another group of children with the potential to become strong men were selected.

Nearly 700 children were selected, they were pure-blood Rus, mixed-blood Rus, and pure Slavs.

The youngest is only ten years old, and the oldest is only sixteen.

Those children whose parents have donated money in exchange for quotas, their destiny is to become standing cavalry, plus the cubs who have been selected by Liuliq before, the reserve cavalry has reached four hundred.

A large number of children have long been students of the National School in Liurik. They have already lived in a collective life. The boys also know that they will work for the prince in the future. It is the greatest honor of my life to become a cavalry that can show off his might.

For the other three hundred people, their sources are even more complicated. They almost include all the descendants of immigrants and conquered people who went to Rose. Naturally, the largest number is still the cubs of Old Roses.

The army has its soul, and the soul of the Ross Standing Army is exactly the tribal soldier in the era of the Ross tribe.

There are ten people in a "team", 30 people in a "boat", 120 people in a "hundred-man team", and 500 people in a "flag team".

This type of organization was first born eleven years ago, and the boys trained at that time are now included in the Sixth Flag team. Most of the best in the Sixth Banner were incorporated into the first cavalry squad, and a small group of outstanding men also transformed and became officers of the standing army.

Eleven years ago, when Rurik started training his small soldiers on the slopes of the back hill of Rose’s hometown, there was the beginning of the new Ross army.

The time was not yet ripe, but now everything is enough!

Each team leader is the little boy who received the training at first. Time has changed, and the youngest child is also sixteen years old. After so many years of delicious food and drink, he has become a capable Viking strong man.

A veteran and a new recruit were both born and raised in the country of the Duchy of Ross.

Now, they are gathering in the open space of their school.

It is very early to spring plowing, the whole world is still covered by ice and snow, and the people are facing the threat of cold currents going south at any time. No one dares to wear thinner lightly.

Residents in the city heard very clearly that the prince summoned a group of young boys in the seasonally closed school and did not start school early. The prince had already announced the formation of new cavalry and the construction of a standing army.

The general public criticized the selected children, and a large number of people complained about why the prince did not favor his cubs.

Obviously, it is a huge advantage to make a standing army for the prince, not only to pay for the prince's food, drink and clothing, but also a monthly allowance for each person. More importantly, the standing army will of course give priority to fighting, so it has the right to give priority to robbery. As the saying goes, the battle for the destruction of the country must be a total mobilization of the entire Ross, and a small-scale conflict is the priority of the standing army. How much risk is there in a small-scale expedition? The key is that their own cubs got the chance to looting trophies frantically, and serving as a soldier alone can bring a lot of surprises and wealth to the family.

And the glorious reputation that everyone desires.

Rurik talked loudly in front of all the selected, he mentioned what is glorious and what is great, and also mentioned the significance of the standing army to the Duchy of Ross.

The boys squinted their heads and stared at the lord's pacing on the wooden platform, listening to his preaching with all ears.

"You remember, you are from the Principality of Ross. You can only be loyal to me and my family, and secondly to the Principality of Ross. Your mission is to defend me and the Principality of Ross. You must fight the enemy ruthlessly and protect our people."

"You must understand your identity. This is like the relationship between Odin and the warriors in the Hall of Valor. I am the hero blessed by Odin. As my most loyal fighters, when you take the oath, you will enter. The qualifications of the Hall of Valor."

"Now, I ask you to make an oath to me, as long as there is a betrayer, the soul will fall into the abyss. If you die in a glorious battle, your soul will directly enter the Hall of Valor to share the endless glory."

Rurik said a lot, and they all swore a poisonous oath at their request.

Many people think that the prince’s request is quite redundant. Everyone has long eaten the free wheat and meat rewarded by the prince, and learned some wonderful wisdom. If anyone wants to betray the prince, it is like a person who wants to get down and eat horse dung. Incredible.

Everyone still gathers together to swear that the Viking war roar formed by immature business still has great momentum.

Four hundred people will immediately be recruited into cavalry and learn how to ride horses before the arrival of spring.

Three hundred people are incorporated into the Imperial Guard. They will be infantry, but they will receive quite strict combat training.

In addition to the inherent army, the total number of cavalry will be 500 horses, and the Imperial Guard will also have 400 men. The standing army with a total of 900 people has not yet reached the set expectation of 1,000 people, and these 900 people are merely bluffing people in number, and the current quality can be described as a mess. Because soldiers are almost all boys who have just entered puberty, they belong to the talents of the future, and now they are the existence that is easy to be killed in battle.

It is impossible for this kind of army to engage in high-intensity combat, and can only use bows and crossbows to hide behind the army to assist. Even so, as long as they are given another three to four years to grow into adults, these years of training will have long been a group of professional fighters.

The head of the Guards is Grund. It has been seven years since he was captured and surrendered. Maybe this man is only for money, if so, everything is easy. It is impossible for Rurik to completely believe in this surrender, but he needs his abilities. Lurik hired Grund as the head of the imperial army. He was not too young, and his family was also in Ross. He was really pinched to death. When Grund got old and the young cubs of the Guards had reached the age of thirty, when they were young and powerful, the leader of the Guards had naturally changed at that time.

Rurik even thought of a candidate, and then he would choose one from his sons. For example, Oleg, the son of Lumia, is his own son after all, so he will never turn against him.

As for the coach of the cavalry, there happens to be one of the most outstanding talents, a noble prairie noble-Prince Kagan of Pechenegg.

It was an ordinary day. The Pecheneg soldiers who lived in Ross continued to hunt in groups with local Ross and Slav hunters at the request of the boss Kagan.

The leather of the red squirrel is also very good, but the price of a piece of leather is too cheap, far less than ferrets and snow foxes. Kagan didn't understand at first, but now he fully understands the reason. Among the so-called Northland leather products, squirrels are the most abundant, making leather naturally cheap. But the situation is not always the case, because Ross and Slav hunters have tried every means to buy a wooden arm crossbow. This weapon participates in hunting, and catching squirrels has become a simple aiming and shooting game. The hunters used simple and rude methods to deal with the seemingly inexhaustible resources of squirrels, which made the Pechenegs personally obtain a batch of squirrel skins.

Although this thing is worthless in the north, it is completely different if it is shipped to the southern grassland.

A large number of Pechenegg fighters are Kagan's slave soldiers, so when Rurik was serious about creating the Janitor, Kagan had a very strong sense of sight.

Kagan was too lazy to go hunting in the forest himself. He was a noble on the steppe, and he could enjoy the money he held in Novgorod. Now that the Rurik brothers have an invitation today, let's reluctantly talk about it.

As a brother who was righteous, Kagan himself behaved quite easy-going, so Rurik was also unintentional.

The two of them sat in a small room in the palace of the princes.

Kagan was in a good mood, and this time he took off his hat and deliberately showed his fancy braids. "Won't you always invite me to drink together? Do you invite me to do something? Or do you take aim at a new enemy and invite me to send troops?"

Suddenly, the short steppe man suddenly stretched his head, and asked Gods and gods: "Hey, it's always your decision? What shall we organize the army to grab that? Oh, yes! Go grab the Smolensk."

"Attack them? Now is definitely not the time." Rurik shrugged silently.

Kagan sat upright again: "Do you have any plans?"

"Brother, I do have a request."

"Speaking."

"Just like at the beginning, you help me train the cavalry again."

It was not surprising that Rurik would say this to Kagan. He subconsciously squeezed his mustache and said meaningfully: "I have been paying attention to your cubs a long time ago. Are they your slaves?"

"Slaves? How is it possible? They are all children of my people, and many people even have some blood connections with me."

"To be honest, your behavior reminds me a lot. Look at my fighters. Those people are slaves. They were trained when they were very young. Now they work for me. I don’t know much about you, but I Understand your moves."

Rurik also laughed meaningfully.

Then asked: "Since you all understand, what do you think? Help me train soldiers, at least in the next month, train these cubs to learn how to ride horses."

"How difficult is this, I am willing."

"Great." Rurik clapped his hands with joy. "I will pay you some money."

"Remuneration? One more move. I'm your brother, and it's nothing to help you train your soldiers."

Seeing Kagan's triumphant posture, Rurik guessed that this guy was enjoying it. Also, these days Kagan has been doing nothing in Novgorod. He eats and drinks every day and always takes a bath. The round face is now rounder, or Kagan has eaten a lot of fat. Maybe he himself thinks that this kind of life should stop for a while, but who is willing to give up the leisurely life? He needs a reason to force himself to act.

Kagan deliberately, Rurik deliberately owed this favor, and respectfully said: "Then I will trouble you."

At least for his Rurik brothers and the entire Rus Principality, Kagan was completely indifferent. Obviously a small group of Rose nobles are wary of the Pecheneg people, and Kagan doesn't know and doesn't care at all.

The distance between Ross and the prairie was three months of riding, and a long enough distance at least Kagan felt that Ross was a simple ally.

Even Kagan has a plot of gratitude.

He knew that the Ross people could provide a lot of salt, and the price of salt was too cheap.

Rurik did not know the price paid by the Pechenegs in trading salt with Roman profiteers in the past. From Kagan's standpoint, he felt that he had bought an incredible amount of salt at a very low price in Ross~www.novelhall .com~ even thinks that this is an intentional concession by the Rurik brothers. In any case, a huge amount of salt was imported into Pechenegg, and the chronic problem of salt deficiency was greatly relieved at once.

Kagan is much older than Rurik. He has the pride of being a elder brother, which is naturally reflected in his help to his younger brother.

After this small meeting, he quickly recalled his subordinates who were scattered hunting, and then showed the posture of the Pecheneg cavalry unit. The two hundred cavalrymen all wore iron ties that looked like riveting chain mail at first glance, and each cavalryman wore iron masks that covered his entire face. They gathered in awe-inspiring cluster with short spears in their hands, attracting thousands of Novgorod citizens to watch.

Among them is Otto, who is very old, but also thanks to a warrior costume that conceals his aging.

When Otto saw the assembled Pecheneg cavalry, the iron armor shone in the sun. The first thing he felt was fear. He didn't think it was wise for his son to allow such an army to be in the hinterland of Rose, but out of reason. , The allies of this group of cavalrymen, they don't know how to make irresponsible remarks.

Otto's vigilance comes from instinct, and it seems that his son Rurik has similar thoughts.

A large number of Ross horses were brought out, plus the latest purchases and previous local horses. Although the quality of the horses is uneven, at least four hundred horses have been collected, which is enough for each rear cavalry to be equipped with its own mount.

On one side are 200 prairie cavalry in armor and masks, and on the other side are 400 children with horses.

The hearts of the children were greatly shocked and feared, followed by pure envy and expectations of their glorious future.

Because the short, dark-haired, round-faced man said very clearly in stubborn Slavic: "I will train you to be as tough as them (referring to the steppe cavalry)."