Rise of Rurik - Chapter 1080
Now, the Latvian army in Riga is in disarray, and a strong force can easily defeat it.
Fisk’s cavalry arrived here. He has the ability and the motive in this regard, but in order to take care of the overall situation, he showed a very peaceful attitude.
It was a beautiful coincidence to meet the people of Spuet, and it was this coincidence that could be exploited.
The militias were still evacuating in a disorderly manner, and the well-dressed local nobles were gathering.
Fisk is wary of others, and only trusts the advice of his fellow Speuter. He dismounted and, through a local translator, negotiated further with these nobles.
“I want to talk to your biggest leader.” Fisk’s request was very direct.
This requirement can make many nobles in trouble. They look at each other, and Speuter explains it himself at the critical moment. “Boy, you still don’t know anything about Riga. There’s no big boss in this place!”
“how is this possible?”
“That’s the truth. However, if I have to say…” Speuter pinched his waist proudly, “I am the war chief they elected.”
“Huh? So you’re already the boss of Riga?”
“No, but he has a certain power. I am the chief they temporarily elected to deal with the war.”
“Just fighting us?” Fisk could hear it, and when he looked at these nobles again, his attitude changed a little, and his eyes became sharp.
“Don’t be ferocious, it’s all a misunderstanding. Since the misunderstanding has come into contact, the cavalry can enter Riga directly.”
It seemed like that was the way to go, but that wasn’t what Fisk wanted.
Riga has no supreme leader, which is a bizarre situation, so these guys need a leader, just like a boy needs a father. Fisk is such a thought. He feels that Riga is afraid of being a land without owners. In the future, the benefactor will be the Earl of Saaremaa, the law enforcer of the South Baltic Sea, the great explorer, and the old Rus people Spuu Especially also.
Even the other party has hinted that he has the ability to transform temporary power into permanent.
Of course, the cavalry had to enter Riga, but according to the original plan, they had to go straight to the beach and make a fortune by digging rough amber.
Unexpectedly, encountering many local nobles in the current special way, Fisk has a plan.
He didn’t think about why there was another group of Vikings here for a while, apparently these guys were allied with Spuitt and provided valuable translators.
Behind him, the cavalry was still lined up in a neat line. The soldiers remained on alert and could quickly launch a savage pursuit of those evacuees after receiving the order, but the waiting now became more and more boring.
Fisk could understand the mentality of his subordinates, so he pointed behind him deliberately: “Have you all seen it, Riga? They are Rus cavalry, an army paid by the king himself and only loyal to the king. Be loyal, well-armed and fearless, each warrior has killed at least ten enemies. You better not provoke them, or the fire will burn your cities to ashes.”
He didn’t know if the translator had told the truth, but from the astonished faces of these guys, it could be concluded that the effect of intimidation had been achieved.
Fisk once again mentioned the request: “My people have come from a long way and never intend to kill people in your territory, but brothers should not be empty-handed.” He deliberately gestured, “Give us enough food supplies, other me Don’t ask for it. Otherwise… food! Or war!”
The final appeal was the Norse vocabulary that the local nobles could fully understand. Obviously, although the other party was another group of Rus, the senses were probably the real Rus.
Some people “suddenly realized” that they were afraid that from the very beginning, the businessman Spuut was in the game. The gang paralyzed the Latvians in Riga with rich goods, defrauded the military command and reconciled with another accomplice.
And the Varangians of the Danish community. Varyags are Varyags, whether they are subdivided into Danes or Rus, they are all a group.
What if you feel cheated?
The vast majority of Latvian village leaders and Riga locals are rich and noble, and they are surrounded by the Varyags. The reason why these people did not wave their butcher knives was because of their past friendship, right?
A village chief stopped the panic and hesitation, and he came forward: “Then, we should sit together and talk about our future with the help of wine and food. We… don’t want war.”
The translator explained it well, and Fisk nodded: “I really need a friendly meeting. Now, I need you nobles to make a promise immediately. I have seven hundred soldiers under my command, and I have to give no one two hundred pounds of food.”
Therefore, the Russ cavalry asked for a total of 140,000 Roman pounds of grain, which is 1,400 “sacks” when converted into a concept that is easy for Riga to understand.
For the convenience of statistics and transportation, Riga, as the trading center of Latvia, also fully used the general weights and measures of the Vikings because of the settled Danes, and most of the dimensions of these calculations came from the definition of the Roman Empire.
Bulk goods such as grain, a hundred pounds of oats were stuffed into a burlap pocket and tied. So the sack has also become a unit of measurement.
Here, the Riga nobles were ashamed of the cavalry’s appetite. They were all saying that this request was too outrageous. Unexpectedly, the two Varyag generals who were personally selected by them were no doubt at the moment with the robbers.
“The demands of those who support us. It’s just fourteen hundred sacks of grain, which you would not bear compared to war and death?” Speuter said.
At this moment, the Dane Stkander is fully aware of the situation and fully stands in the position of the allies, the Rus. The old man thought with his toes and knew that his community had no power to bargain with the Rus. Fortunately, Denmark and Ross are already in an alliance state, and the brothers will join if they can’t beat it. Now is the opportunity to act with the Ross people.
Stkander then warned the nobles in the Latvian dialect of Baltic: “We won’t fight them anyway. I don’t think you have the slightest chance of winning even if you have the opportunity to organize a large army. Give them food, It’s not shameful to buy peace. Besides, you have negotiated the price, and if there is an accident in the future, the Rus will help you fight.”
What a joke! The battle axe is already pressed on the neck, and at this time to persuade “you don’t resist obediently buy food and buy peace”, what kind of persuasion is this? Clearly a threat.
“Hurry up and answer.” Fisk urged.
Seeing that the nobles were still hesitant, they simply put on an indifferent look: “The big deal is that we will pick it up in person, but it will cause unnecessary casualties at that time. Listen, you have to be responsible for the deaths of those people.”
Having said that, what about the nobles? They all expressed their willingness to give food.
“Very good. Within three days, we will see enough food. We will also enter the city of Riga to station. While waiting for food, we will exercise restraint. If we do not see food, we will loot.”
Seeing that Fisk is a boy of five and six, Speuter didn’t want this junior to share his power, and he added: “Dear people, your villagers better get out the food quickly. You stay in the city for a while, and we’ll release you when we get the food. Don’t worry, this isn’t imprisonment.”
As a result, the Ross cavalry and the pirate army of Speuter joined forces. They fought side by side in last year’s war, and now they are willing to reminisce with each other when they meet.
Among the cavalry were flying bull-headed flags. This was the Ostara cavalry, and there were quite a few. There are also a large number of prairie people who wear iron masks, and the number is actually the largest. In contrast, the real Russ cavalry is only one sixth.
In any case, after completing the reunion, they became a group, and the force at the scene swelled directly to nearly 1,200 people, and their military literacy was extremely high. If you include the non-combatants of Riga’s Danish community, a new force has arrived in Riga, with a population of 2,000.
Just two thousand people? Many of Riga’s residents have strong ties to the Danish community, business partners, in-laws and friends. It is this kind of relationship that Riga can open the door to later Rus merchants, just because they have good feelings for Varyag merchants.
It is exactly the same, it can be said that they have given up power themselves, and the entire Riga has completely turned into the territory of the Varangians.
The entire Latvian tribe is only 30,000 people, and this population is unable to eliminate the influence of the Varyags, let alone he will not do so.
Because the local aristocrats have no backbone, they all support appeasement out of self-preservation instinct, that is, hand over food to buy peace.
The cavalry lined up in a neat line, the soldiers held their heads high, and the horses marched with great strides, so mighty marched towards Riga. They showed unstoppable force but turned into a guard of honor on the bright side. The refugees entrenched in Riga finally saw the existence they feared, and when they really saw the faces of these cavalry, they felt that they were not evil.
The cavalry team circled around the riverside area, deliberately letting the locals see the lineup, first to frighten them, and secondly to resolve the fear of the unknown.
Such a move worked well. The nobles who were under house arrest saw the happy smiles of the people as if they were participating in the memorial service. Their fear of the Rus disappeared, and the Rus did abide by their promises when they arrived in their chosen quarters. Peace of mind. They don’t even harass local women, they don’t harass anyone. Riga people have not been violated, how can they resist so much?
Even more good news is spreading wildly—the Russ cavalry passed through the village without any looting, and all the refugees could go home and live on their own.
This is real? At least they didn’t loot in Riga.
The people began to withdraw again, hoping that those who did not withdraw would be safe and that such peace could continue. Ordinary people began to console themselves. Riga already had a Danish community, and it would not hurt to have a Rus community in the future. There is even a clever propaganda to friends that the so-called two Varyags are stationed here, and the Semigallians will not be infested in the future.
So, what is the price? ! In the short term it is food. In the long run, it is the Latvians who have just entered the village alliance who want to surrender their power and sovereignty.
The village leaders sent reliable messengers back to their villages to raise food, and they themselves were grounded. They had plenty of time to discuss how to make a big deal with the new Rus, and everyone on the other side had gathered.
In the middle of the night, a fun cocktail party.
“Cheers for our friendship!” Stkander raised the oak cup and paid tribute to his friends who also believed in Odin.
On behalf of the Danish community, he organized this very Viking-style party, where people sipped cloudy ale, freed themselves from roast sheep with knives, and cemented friendships between cups and cups.
At first, Stkander had some doubts when Speuter claimed the Ross-Danish alliance, and now that doubt is gone.
Among the people sitting was a prairie nobleman from the far south, with a strange appearance and a short stature, with a big face and small eyes. Stkander naturally despised the boy, but when he learned that the Ross cavalry were trained by the grassland tribe, he was instantly impressed.
Stkander does not know the structure of the earth, the infinite expanse of the world. He felt that the Danish community he belonged to was approaching the end of the so-called human world in Midgard, and that he was still small after all.
Therefore, some fundamental problems should seize the opportunity to be solved immediately.
Stkander hosted this reception, and behind him was the Danish community of thousands of people, bearing the responsibility for the future of the entire community. There is another very familiar face sitting here!
“Harold, why are you with the Ross?” he asked.
I saw that old Harold really didn’t know how to say it, so he had to hook his head.
Fisk, who was blushing from drinking, was surprised: “Harold? Do we have someone named Harold here?”
“It’s the guy next to you.”
“He? He’s Olaf, our friend.”
“Bah, Olaf, he’s Harold. Well, if your kid is willing to change his name to Olaf.” Stkander gave him another stern look, and recalled: “You took some young boys with you. Going into the world, what about them? Shouldn’t they all be dead?”
“It’s dead. It’s all dead in Polotsk territory.”
Originally, when this old guy talked about this, Fisk was a little nervous. Hearing that this guy whose real name should be handed over to Harold, “they died in the Polotsk territory”, he wanted to admire the old boy’s slanderous words. , and also sighed that such a witty remark really takes into account the overall situation. (After all, it was a misunderstanding that it was the Ross cavalry who chopped down those boys.)
“Those Polotsks are murderers? That’s true. They also detained the caravans on our side, took the supplies, and threw the people away.” Strykander, who was slightly drunk, quivered indignantly.
Old Harold wouldn’t be stupid enough to tell the truth, anyway, everyone was happy that the big villain was named Polotsk by him.
“My friend, everything has changed now. Our young war chief, Fisk, has conquered Polotsk. Those guys will go back to Rus later, and if someone jams our ship and asks for tolls, it’s all over.”
“He? Young?!”
Fisk was smirking and now had to explain. With one hand, he stroked his big, red, bald head that was dripping with sweat: “To be honest, I am twenty-three years old this year.”
“Unbelievable, you seem to be forty years old.”
“Uncle, you are wrong. I cut my hair on purpose. It is very important to cut it clean. If I don’t take good care of it, I will soon have thick hair, which is not good.”
“Your hobby? It’s interesting.” Speuter now fully understands that the kid’s “bald” nickname comes from this hobby, not a skin disease speculation.
Taking this opportunity, he began to mention the business: “I heard that Ross and Denmark have been allied. The descendants of the Stonewall tribe have obtained the highest power, is this true? I want to confirm one more.”
“It’s absolutely true.” Fisk played extremely crisply, his eyes full of sincerity.
“So what are we going to do? I mean, the community is all Danes, and there are a lot of mixed kids, at least one of the parents is Danish. Where do we go.”
“Maybe you can go back to Zealand. The new Danish king Ragnar built a big city called Copenhagen there, and the Danes who have been visiting us in Rus this year will continue to return home. Denmark is just at the time of employment, and your return Maybe they can be reused.”
Listen, a young cavalry general talks deeply about this insight. What Fisk said is good, but it is not in the interests of the Danish community in Riga. A very simple reason is that it is too far away from Denmark and the Rus force is in sight.
Stkander drank a large glass of ale in public, and after a burst of burp, raised his chest in particular: “I am the head of the community! I don’t want to go back to Denmark with my family! I want to meet King Ross in person. , I want the whole community to join Ross! Hopefully, we will always be brothers in the future.”
His proclamation was something Fisk and Speuter didn’t expect! But think about it carefully, a very powerful force appeared in Riga, and it was even very crazy to attack from two directions, which further reflected the strength of this force.
Everyone is a Viking, and they have the commonality of admiring the strong. Bald Fisk and Speute, Earl of Saaremaa, are related by blood to King Ross. After all, they are from the same blood tribe. In addition, Svalgard, the principality of Ostara, whose duchess or leader is a wife of the king of Rus. Prairie Quetzal is a nobleman, and his elder sister is another wife of King Rus.
Stkander is a wise man. When he realizes that his new friend has a close relationship with the king of Rus far north, how can he pass this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity?
He begged for submission, a request that Spewt and Fisk could not have asked for.
And his thoughts don’t stop there: “What do you think of Riga? What do you think of the Latvians living in this generation?”
Speuter, who has lived for a while, finally doesn’t have to hide his ambitions: “In my opinion, the rule of Ross needs to be included here.”
Fisk’s original plan was only to establish business contacts with Riga~www.mtlnovel.com~ Of course, the eventual occupation of Riga is also in the future plan. He never imagined that the local people in Riga were so inferior, and the truly powerful people had already thought about it, so how could such an opportunity be passed up? “I also support your decision,” he said.
The people present supported Stkander’s proposition, and at that time everyone continued to pursue traditional Nordic democracy, and Riga became a free port in the northern world, but the ownership was in the hands of Ross. This is the result of the final discussion, and the final question also comes – who will manage Riga on Ross’s behalf?
The answer is no need to think about it at all! As the first Ross nobleman, Spuut has experienced many battles and is well-informed. His first fief is the island of Saaremaa, which guards the exit of Riga Bay. It can be said that whether people here can fish in the ocean depends on this person. Spuitt’s face. His title is still hereditary, and his eldest son who has the first right of inheritance is in Riga.
Who better to have the management of the city of Riga than Speuter on behalf of Ross? There is none now.
Everyone chose to support Spuut, but the old guy was also very particular about what he said: “This is the best. We will convince those nobles to give up control of Riga, and even convince them to collectively annex Ross. But do I really have the right to? , and I need to report to the king after stabilization. When the king announces that I have this power, my family is the master of Riga, and I will move here.”