Since the end of the Great Hunt, time has passed very quickly. Peace has nourished the land of Northeastern Rus, making it prosperous. The wounds caused by the war have been repaired, and vitality pervades the land.
Northeastern Rus is very peaceful these days, and everything is proceeding step by step according to Rostislav's plan.
Occasionally there is news in the local area that village communities or tribes have killed or expelled the city owners, but this does not affect the overall peace.
Even for Rostislav, he was quite looking forward to such a thing. Whenever such a thing happened, it would be a time of swordsmanship, which would prevent his subordinates from being eroded by peace.
However, the prince knew very well that there were always undercurrents surging in the countryside outside the city walls. Most of the village communities may have some feeling for the prince's authority, but deep down they still had no feeling. After all, Rostislav's hand could not reach that far.
This situation is now thanks to the large-scale hunting, otherwise it would be worse, but the prince knows very well that as time goes by, the powerful power displayed by the hunting will eventually dissipate in people's hearts.
Moreover, the rebels choose to continue to lurk, and when the situation is right, they will definitely launch resistance.
So there had to be a permanent solution, and after careful consideration, the prince decided to carry out a major project on his territory.
This project is to overhaul the city wall.
The reason why the Muscovite princes' control over the countryside is so weak today is that there is only one reason, and that is that in 70% of the Northeastern Rus' region there is not a single town or fortress that declares the prince's authority.
Yes, 70%, this figure is not an exaggeration. After all, the land behind the forest is a frontier area developed by immigrants. Even by Ross's standards, it is a barbaric land.
And even in the 30% of areas where there are cities and towns, in fact, most of them are just one or two walled cities on a vast land.
Rostislav's plan is to build as many fortresses, towers and walls as possible in the wilderness, and to station soldiers with strong armor inside. This is undoubtedly the best way to expand his authority. When he sees those solid fortresses, no matter how unruly he is,
A tame person will also feel fear.
It's just that Rostislav does not have the manpower and material resources to spread the walled city to every corner of Northeastern Rus, so it can only focus on the layout.
The prince knew the location of important cities that would rise in later generations (referring to a hundred years later), and these areas are now basically in areas without the influence of the prince, so Rostislav planned to build cities in these areas to consolidate the authority of the prince.
At the same time, it is also preparing for future development.
And since the ancients built a city here, it means that it must have the value of building a city. It is generally right to follow the footsteps of the ancients.
As for whether Rostislav has this power, of course he does, because strictly speaking, except for the towns, this young prince owns every piece of land behind the forest.
However, since the prince only roughly knew the locations of those later towns, he had to send men to explore.
In the past five months, the German engineers under the prince, accompanied by janissaries, have been traveling all over Northeastern Rus for this purpose.
At present, Rostislav has a total of thirty city construction sites and corresponding city construction plans. Robert is a very responsible engineer. His designs are very suitable for the terrain and environment, which makes Rostislav very satisfied.
However, the city construction plan that was about to begin was postponed due to one thing, and that was the arrival of the prince's wife's childbirth period.
The Prince of Moscow's first child was about to be born, which made Rostislav give up other things at hand and concentrate on waiting for his wife to give birth.
However, because the prince was nervous about having a child, many times he did not wait in his palace, but went outside Moscow to find something to soothe his nervous nerves, such as going horse racing.
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On the outskirts of Moscow, there is a racecourse.
This racecourse is very simple, with just a large circle drawn and some wooden platforms built around the large circle.
Several horse races are held here every day. Although it is not as good as the grand racecourse in the imperial capital, it is already a great pleasure in this era of lack of entertainment.
Therefore, there are always spectators here at any time, and it is even more crowded during break time.
The tickets for this simple racecourse are very low, and you can enter with a little bit of broken silver. In order to facilitate the farmers who only have physical goods, the prince specially arranged businessmen to buy goods here so that people can exchange money.
However, the most fundamental reason why Rostislav placed the money changer was not to earn some scraps of silver, but because he was running a big business here, and this business was horse racing gambling.
Yes, horse racing and gambling is a method that the princes recently came up with to make money, and the people are very happy with it. There are always people who are willing to spend a lot of money on it, and those nobles and wealthy businessmen spend money like water.
And Rostislav's money-making targets are also these people. After all, as a banker, he will never lose money.
But today, with the end of the morning race, the racecourse was closed in the afternoon, and a large number of armed soldiers came to block the place.
Although it is said to the outside world that the racecourse is being repaired, how can it be possible that so many personal guards are required for maintenance, so everyone actually knows that the Prince of Moscow is inside.
In the empty racecourse, Rostislav was running a horse.
He was still riding his red war horse, which was currently running with all its strength. Sweat seeped out of its skin as if it was tilting, and its thick veins also popped out.
The current situation is very dangerous. The two riders behind the prince are only half a horse's head behind him. If he is not careful, he will be overtaken.
The two riders were also old friends of the prince, one was Jan Visadzic and the other was Edward Wessex. The three riders here were all important figures in Northeast Rus.
The two riders did not give in to each other because of Rostislav's identity, and they also tried their best to drive the horses under them.
And as if they sensed their master's will, the war horses also ran as hard as they could.
But then at a sharp bend, Rostislav took advantage of the opportunity to turn away from his opponent. His horse and he were old comrades in arms. Their cooperation could be said to be perfect. With just a slight slowdown, they
The corner was successfully completed.
The two riders behind him found it difficult to do so and could only slow down significantly to make safer turns, which put a large distance between them and Rostislav.
With such a huge distance already opened, there was no doubt about Rostislav's victory. Soon, the Prince of Moscow was the first to cross the finish line.