Chapter 1,304 The War Has Rapidly Expanded Into a Campaign to Annex the Klivi Community in Smolensk.

Rurik finally stood in the village of Polotsk, where he had only heard of his name but had never met him.

He had some fantasies about this place, but the gap between reality and fantasies was too big.

He dismounted and the 1st Cavalry rested on the spot.

For many Danish warriors from the Gulf of Riga, Rus' bald general and his men were no strangers to them.

The King of Rus seems to be just a famous name far away for them. No matter how many gorgeous words are used to praise it, it is not as real as seeing is believing.

People need a male ruler in his prime to lead everyone's lives, and the Rus are really, as the legend says, a noble giant.

Indeed, Rurik stood in the snow, his height could dominate the crowd, and even the war horse seemed a bit too small.

Even if he takes off his velvet hat, he is still more than half a head taller than Spute and Stekander.

Most of the warriors staying in the village happily walked out of their sleeping shacks to admire the heroic appearance of King Rus. After feasting their eyes, they had to admit that they could tell from his aura alone that this young man was indeed a living hero - indeed. Received Odin's blessing.

Rurik held his head high, accepted Spuyut's guidance with great interest, and visited the lively largest village of Polotsk under the cover of night.

"Your Majesty, this is the new house built by the people of Ostara. For the time being... it is my command post." Si Puyut pointed to a relatively grand wooden building intentionally.

Rurik took a look. The tactics on guard were holding torches, and he was able to see many architectural details.

"It does have the architectural style of Ostara, which reminds me of the city south of the Great Lake. But... you will make my Carlotta angry if you do this. This is her house after all." Rurik reminded intentionally, But he deliberately did not say that Carlotta's own cavalry was behind.

"She... wouldn't point at my nose and scold me. Hehe, at least I am an old Russian." Spuyut smiled.

"That's not true. You are an earl consecrated by the king, so you naturally have to live in a dignified manner."

"Thank you, Your Majesty, for your support. And..."

"How?" Rurik stopped and looked at it, turning his head slightly: "Is there something hidden?"

"Yes. In other words, I brought reinforcements to knock down this building and the entire village from the enemy. Smolensk Army!"

"Vadim?!" Rurik asked knowingly, pretending to frown.

Spuyut's nerves were also startled: "The king is wise. It's Vadim! The Smolensk army was led by Vadim, Russia's public enemy. He was defeated, haha! It's a pity that our army was careless and didn't Take the opportunity to kill him. But why does the king..."

Spuyut suppressed a series of questions. He asked Rurik what he could guess, but he refused to reveal his intention to tell the truth.

"Let's continue talking about Polotsk. My cavalry needs food. Do you have food?"

"Yes. Vadim and the others escaped very quickly. Before they had time to destroy the granary, my army had already charged into the village and killed them. It's a pity... we were still a step too late."

"Oh? It seems that you are still upset about accidentally letting them go?"

"This..." Seemingly sensing the harshness, Sipuyut shook his head and denied, "I didn't mean it. Besides, didn't you say that? Don't pursue the poor. There are thousands of them, and we only have 400 at most to fight. . Besides, I have lost many brothers, and I really don’t dare to take any more risks. Let the severe winter kill those people who fled without even bringing food. They will eventually freeze to death and be eaten by wolves.”

"Are you quite optimistic?"

"..." Siputu didn't want to say anything for the moment. He could feel that the king did not mean to be harsh. It was as if the king no longer cared about Vadim's life or death.

Rurik continued to ask for guidance, and they walked and talked. Stekander and the soldier Bishom, who had been by his side, both had their own opportunities to speak.

All parties explained their experiences, and now Rurik finally had a clear understanding of Polotsk's experiences in the past period. After understanding the basic overview, he really couldn't laugh anymore.

First, Poloz

The Croat Village Alliance was in name only. As the local population either fled or died for various reasons, only a handful of villagers who were protected by the Ostara garrison through marriage survived.

Secondly, Polotsk is preserved as a place name, and Stekander has made no secret of his hope that his Danish immigrant brothers in the Gulf of Riga will build a second community in Polotsk's historic past. In this way, the huge losses of Danish armed merchants in the war were compensated. At the same time, the Danes in Riga still served as supporters of King Rus and defended this inland trade line on behalf of King Rus himself.

Third, although the victorious army did not intend to take prisoners, Spuyut still sent people to find the pretended dead from the pile of corpses. After interrogating some information, a group of prisoners of war were executed, but a handful of prisoners were still imprisoned. After all, he had to give a report to King Rus after the war, give an explanation to Duchess Ostara, and leave a few living prisoners of war to serve as living evidence. However, in the end, the surviving prisoners of war had their tongues cut out and their teeth maliciously cut out to prevent the prisoners from talking nonsense later.

Fourth, a group of villagers were indeed coerced by Vadim and ordered to attack the city. In fact, they caused a raging fire in the Novopolotsk Fortress. Because they were guilty, they were killed as enemies in the chaos after breaking into the village. Even if they returned to the village one after another, they were executed. Although Rurik felt sorry for these villagers, he did not blame Spyut for his determination.

All this has created the current situation in Polotsk. Apart from the troops who came from the expedition and the surviving garrison, there are only a handful of locals in the village.

"My Rus' army will cause huge carnage wherever it goes. Once again, history repeats itself. Alas, isn't my nickname of "Human Massacre" more profound? It will be considered brave by some people, right? Will it be interpreted as me? The army is blood-sacrificing Odin? Well... things have happened, just put all the blame on Vadim." Rurik suppressed the words in his heart.

He finally stood at what was said to be the village's public granary.

The so-called granaries seem to be just a few huge wooden sheds. Presumably the granaries are in better condition among the houses that are in "horrible" condition.

Anyway, Polotsk has been crippled. Even if all the depopulated villages along the Polota River are burned to ashes, the new immigrants can rebuild on their basis.

Rurik now prefers to call Polotsk a food and grass supply place, and there is nothing wrong with emptying the granaries.

He walked into the granary in person and got a clear overview of the granary by relying on the torches held by the soldiers who entered the room.

"Strange, I thought the villagers would use a large number of sacks to pile grain into a wall. They just put the wheat in huge wooden boxes? They are not afraid of being destroyed by rats." Rurik checked the condition of the wheat grains himself and couldn't help but shake. Shaking his head: "Is there still a lot of straw debris that hasn't been screened out? I don't feel any moisture at all."

"Your Majesty, this food is enough for my army to eat until next spring." Sipuyut added.

"Of course, I think there will be enough food for your people until next autumn. You... do have four hundred people now?"

"yes."

Rurik thought for a moment, then looked at the overall situation of the granary, and couldn't help but feel some worries about the future.

As the saying goes, as a medieval army, due to the huge limitations of the logistics and transportation capabilities of that era, the army often became bloated as the number of soldiers increased. It is unnecessary for a big fat man to try to walk as fast as he can. In a battle operation, the combat effectiveness of the army is not necessarily directly proportional to the number of troops.

food! Rurik is worried about this now.

He let out a long sigh and stared at Spyut with piercing eyes: "Including you, I now have six thousand soldiers, more than two thousand horses, and seven thousand reindeer. I don't have to worry about the reindeer's food. , this large beast of the ice is very good at digging through the snow to find grass roots to eat. But what warriors and war horses need most now is wheat."

"Ah?! Did I hear it right? Your Majesty is saying that you dispatched six thousand troops? And, you..." Sipuyut made a determined decision: "Your Majesty, it's time! Just tell your brothers how you did it Come."

"Want to hear it? I thought you smart people already knew it. It doesn't matter...but not now. You organize people to start carrying food and start cooking on the spot, even if it is getting late. I want to treat the hard-working cavalry well."

"All right

! All right……"

"Also, I will quickly show you that I have caught a noble prey along the way."

…

Vadim woke up long ago, and he found himself in a building, with this blazing existence not far away. He realized that he was not dead, but that the next situation would be worse than death.

He was pulled off the horse, twisting and squirming crazily in pursuit of death, his trapped mouth whining without knowing what he was saying.

The Ross soldier who was guarding the man couldn't hear clearly, but he could feel the man's anger.

"be honest!"

One of the soldiers then kicked Vadim's weak spot with his foot. He screamed in pain and gradually became calmer. Specifically, Vadim is too weak...

Vadim was very familiar with this environment, and he returned to the place of defeat-the village of Polotsk in a state of confusion.

It's just that this place is occupied by the Varangians, and all they hear is half-understood and half-understood Norse.

Gradually, the strong aroma of boiled wheat fills the air, which arouses greed and makes your stomach growl. But all we could see were the Varangians holding wooden bowls and other containers, holding hot boiled wheat and feasting on it. He even saw that the Varangians were so extravagant that they carried wooden barrels filled with wheat and used them as mangers to feed their war horses.

However, Vadim could only watch and simply closed his eyes. He wished he could just starve to death to avoid physical torture in the future.

Because he really knew the methods of the Russians and learned many legends about the cruel punishments of the Varyags.

For example, Blood Eagle.

Suddenly, intense pain forced him to open his eyes.

Vadim reluctantly raised his head and saw a tall being.

The man's leather boots suddenly stepped on his face again, and he pressed his head and rubbed hard on the snow before he stopped.

"Vadim." The speaker was Rurik: "Running coward, Vadim! Look at me now. I am Rurik Ottoson, I am the king of Rus, and you are just the king* Prisoners of **."

Vadim raised his head again. Although his mouth was tied with a rope, he could only continue to moan. His sharp eyes clearly contained a murder warning.

[An app that has been running stably for many years, comparable to the old book-chasing tool, used by all old bookworms.

The symbolic meaning is far greater than the punishment itself.

Soon, Vadim was still defeated by instinct. He crawled like a broken-ridged dog and ate food like a dog. The survival instinct surpassed everything else.

At this time, Vadim's soul basically collapsed. He seemed to be a living person, but he was just a special human being without any thoughts.

But it was said that Rurik led the 1st Cavalry and rushed to the village of Polotsk despite exhaustion. The subsequent cavalry movements were much slower.

The subsequent cavalry had to set up a temporary camp in the forest. The cold-resistant Turkic horses gathered together to rest, and the soldiers relied on their mounts to take a nap in the warmth.

What they didn't know was that in the forest area near where the cavalry army was sleeping, a large number of bodies frozen into lumps of ice lay dead in the snow nest. Those were the defeated Smolensk troops sleeping in snow pits, but most of the defeated troops never woke up after falling asleep.

The next day, a mighty cavalry team greeted their rescuers on the glacier.

They were soldiers of the 1st Cavalry, standing on the ice, holding a high wooden pole with a Russian flag. The flag fluttered in the wind, and the huge dyed wild goose feathers on the soldier's white bearskin hat also trembled violently in the wind.

The wind was cold to the bone, and the soldiers' hearts were extremely hot.

All subsequent cavalry arrived in Polotsk, but seeing the messy villages here, people had mixed emotions.

"Damn it! How did my village become like this? Vadim... you have to die!" Carlotta was strongly stimulated.

Novopolotsk Castle disappeared, replaced by ruins that still burned.

The villagers who were supposed to welcome him disappeared, leaving only friendly troops cruising around.

The only thing that made her feel relieved was the flying Ross flag, and even the bull-headed flag of her own principality - proving that even if the fortress was burning, the defenders were not completely wiped out.

And this was the last bit of comfort for Carlotta.

But all his plans for the summer fell apart due to the fierce attack from Smolensk.

Soon, the army entered the village. The furious Carlotta quickly found Rurik. She did not bother to express condolences to the garrison subordinates who came to meet her, but immediately found Vadim who was tied up to seek revenge.

Carlotta's steel sword was drawn out, and Vadim closed his eyes. No matter who it was, he hoped that someone would poke him with an arrow and end the pain, even if it was a woman.

However, a strong hand strangled her wrist tightly.

"Wait a minute, it's too cheap to kill him now." Rurik scolded sharply.

"I'm so angry that I'm going to kill him."

"You will. Carlotta, calm down. Remember, the war is still going on. The next step..." Rurik gently approached Carlotta's ear: "Polotsk exists in name only. In the future, we can only move to new places." Immigration filling. I don’t plan to stay here for a long time. I will leave after resting for two days at most.”

Carlotta gradually relaxed her wrist, and Rurik also relaxed his hand immediately.

The steel sword was put back into the scabbard. Carlotta looked up at Rurik's face and scolded with still anger: "I finally forced the Polotsk people to surrender, but damn Vadim killed them all. I'm angry ! The people of Smolensk will pay the same price! Promise me, homogeneous revenge!"

"Of course." Rurik answered without thinking.

After all, King Rus had already hatched a revenge plan in his heart. After witnessing the tragedy of Polotsk after the war, he became even more determined to take revenge. Even if it would be cruel, it was extremely important to Rus' expansion in the Eastern European world. .

Because the vast Eastern Europe does not allow another great power to exist. When the opponent shows his fangs and starts to bite, you should decisively break his spine.

A strategic opportunity is just around the corner. They march into Smolensk in one go. Now all conditions are in place, especially food. By emptying out the remaining food in old Polotsk, the Russian coalition army of more than 6,000 people is completely ready. It can withstand about a month of high-intensity combat!

There is probably no tug-of-war. At least the Russian coalition has enough supplies to rush to the core area of ​​​​the Smolensk people.

Support for Viteb from Lake Inelmen and the Gulf of Riga

The reinforcements from the Sk Fortress finally completed their rendezvous in Polotsk.

The war has rapidly expanded into a campaign to annex Smolensk's Klivi community.

Ross Army!

Officially began to move against the West Dvina River, along the proven road, towards Smolensk on the upper reaches of the Dnieper River.