In order to welcome these distant visitors, the banquet in July lasted for three days.
These three days are still talked about by many people even after a long time, because Rostislav's work this time is really the most ambitious since the founding of Moscow.
Moreover, this banquet was not only Rostislav's welcome to the guests from the south, but also Rostislav's declaration of the Bulgar war.
On the last day of the banquet, Rostislav, accompanied by the future Bulgarian bishop Tiberius and the current Moscow bishop Luka, declared that the conquest of Bulgaria was a matter of God's favor.
Under the providence of God, this country on the Volga River will inevitably become a Christian country, and the souls of all those who participate in this conquest will be saved and all their sins will be washed away.
Rostislav also announced that this was a crusade, a great crusade to bring salvation to distant unbelieving lands.
Of course, this has little impact on the vast number of pagans in Northeastern Russia. At most, it inspires the will of the Christians, and more importantly, it shows the firm will of Rostislav.
Moreover, not many people knew the concept of crusade in this era. This time it was Rostislav who mentioned this word deliberately. When he mentioned this word, most people actually didn't understand it - what was the person above talking about?
This is what they think.
As for why, it is of course that Rostislav is engaging in the behavior of squatting that he is best at.
These little things still seem inconspicuous, but they will be mentioned in future research, and some people will definitely write a large paper using this.
Maybe in the future, some people will use his words to say that he was the earliest crusader, but in fact his goals were all secular. The matter of supporting Christianity was religious on the outside, but it was still secular on the inside. Come to think of it,
This is also interesting.
After the banquet, life in Moscow seemed to have returned to its former peace. Except that the citizens received a special piece of birch bark that recorded their family information, nothing changed.
But changes also came subtly. As time passed and the autumn harvest ended, farmers from all over the country rolled up their grains, carried weapons and armor, and came to Moscow, the gathering place in Rostislav's words.
At first there were only a few people, or a team of dozens, and they set up their sheds and tents in the vast wilderness outside the Moscow city wall.
As the time gets closer and closer, the arriving team is getting bigger and bigger, and the number of people in it is also increasing, ranging from farmers to mercenaries from far away.
There are also various businessmen and followers from all walks of life gathered here. Everyone knows that when the army gathers, it is also the time to make a lot of money, and many of these people plan to continue to join the army and continue their business until the end of the war.
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Rostislav welcomed the arrival of these people, because it would be a big deal if there were so many strong men outside the city wall and they could not meet their various needs.
However, he did not allow these people to enter Moscow. If they were allowed to enter, the city would be in chaos.
Walled city lords and city dignitaries from various places also arrived with their troops. The arrival of these teams made everyone suddenly realize that the war was already so close to them.
There were also a large number of nomads arriving, and they were the southern visitors who had been taken in by the Prince of Moscow.
Although many of them have already started farming, these few years have not been enough for them to lose their grassland skills and they are still powerful nomadic cavalry.
Moscow was immediately organized under the prince's order. Vicher organized the citizens of each city district and asked them to assemble into temporary battalions one after another.
The guild also brought out a force of 300 people, but most of them were agents and mercenaries hired by the guild. The guild would not let their craftsmen go on any expedition, just to participate.
He also joined the prince's craftsman team.
As for the villages under the jurisdiction of the city of Moscow, all the strong men in the villages gathered and went to Moscow to serve their Lord Rostislav.
Soon, a huge "city" appeared outside the walls of Moscow, and the city continued to grow every day, because excited applicants came every day.
Rostislav's personal soldiers and followers did not do anything else every day. They concentrated on rectifying these troops and taught them step by step how to line up and how to maintain order.
The surge in crowds has brought great security problems to Moscow. After all, the people who flock here are all strong men. These people are very angry and are warriors who have seen blood. They also have weapons and armor in their hands, and they have some weapons.
Conflicts and even crimes are normal.
For example, some time ago, a prostitute's head was cut off and thrown into a pool in the city. The murderer has not yet been found out.
There was also a fight in the tavern, where knives started immediately, five people died on the spot, and then Rostislav hanged the rest.
Now the corpses of various criminals are hanging under the city gate of Moscow, and some living people are locked in cages and dying of thirst and starvation. Only such behavior can deter potential criminals.
During this time, good families in Moscow do not let their daughters go out. God knows what those restless animals will do. These people are very experienced in this.
However, although all this was messy, Rostislav was only busy rather than panicked, because this was an expected chaos, and he could just deal with it how he should deal with it. He had already made a plan for this.
Citizens, farmers, forest dwellers, tribesmen, nomads...Moscow is now crowded with all kinds of people, and naturally there are all kinds of conflicts, but Moscow officials are all familiar with it.
The recently joined Greek officials are quite comfortable facing this unfamiliar situation, because although the appearance has changed, everything at the core remains the same:
People from all walks of life who don't understand each other's languages, various conflicts arising from cultural differences, and crowded streets, weren't they experiencing all of this every day when they were in the imperial capital.
Of course, there are also problems that hinder their work. The most important one is the language problem. In this regard, they can only rely on their "predecessors" to translate.
As for Rostislav, he was busy meeting with people from all walks of life, including dignitaries, city owners, tribal chiefs, village elders...
These people were all loyal ministers who responded to his call, and Rostislav needed to entertain him and establish relations with them.
It is not easy to hold a banquet with these people, especially the tribal chiefs and village elders. Anyway, they drink like crazy until they drink these guys down. This is a reflection of enthusiasm in the eyes of these guests.
Fortunately, Rostislav is still a good drinker, and he is not inferior at all when competing with these old wine drinkers. This actually earned Rostislav a lot of praise.
Although the Prince of Moscow has always had a good reputation, those old diehards despised this young man because of his age, but after Rostislav drank them down, these people showed no dissatisfaction at all.
Bishop Luca is also very busy, because there is really an endless stream of people coming to Moscow's Saint Sophia Cathedral. Now Moscow is crowded with people from all sides of Northeastern Russia, and naturally there are many Christians among them.
On weekdays, these people do not perform any kind of worship, and their attitude towards Christ is just that, that is, the attitude of worshiping a god.
But since they all came to Moscow, they naturally had to go to the Saint Sophia Cathedral in Moscow to pay homage and worship under the icon of the god they had taken refuge in.
In fact, many polytheists came, and what they came for was purely utilitarian. When they came to the Christian land to pay homage to the Christian gods, they might be able to bless themselves on the battlefield in the future.
However, after coming to the Lord's temple, there are a lot of converts because of its grandeur. Although the motives are often very utilitarian, and some even believe in it for fun, the right way is to judge the deeds and ignore the heart.
Once converted, Bishop Luca had to get busy. Although the conversion could be handled by someone else, the bishop always did it himself because he always liked it. For him, there was nothing better than converting unbelievers.