The rendezvous went very smoothly, and Rostislav's team easily integrated into the main army's queue.
At that time, what Rostislav saw was a grand scene. Nobles, citizens, farmers, soldiers, nomads... countless armors, countless weapons, and countless flags were displayed in front of the world, and Liuli
The banner of Christ and God governs them all.
People of all colors formed such a large army. They walked through the avenue in front of the Ross princes to conquer the enemies of the grasslands. This was the largest army assembled by Ross in the past few decades. When the huge army marched, the heaven and earth seemed to be shaking.
.
Rostislav saw the endless queue of infantry, the busy servants, the silent or arrogant soldiers, and the riders driving the war horses. The essence of the entire South Rus was gathered here, but what Rostislav cared about most was the one among them.
of "local aristocrats".
The city lord of the walled city, the local military and political chiefs, the leaders elected by the farmers and other powerful people formed a group called "local aristocrats", who contributed one-third of the army to this army. Different from the business elites in the city,
They were more loyal to the Rurik regime and were willing to bring their soldiers to participate in the expedition, instead of entrusting their troops to the people below and staying in the city like many business magnates.
Rostislav paid great attention to dealing with these powerful local people who were looked down upon by the city's powerful people. He often drank with them. Rostislav, who knew the history of later generations, believed that these people represented the future, the future of feudalization, and he had to fight well with them.
Relationships only have advantages and no disadvantages.
Prince Rus rode across a sea of swords and spears to reach his grandfather, but the first thing he heard as he rode closer was his grandfather's angry roar.
"What? Those two little bastards led the army of Southwestern Ross and ran in front of me? Are they fools? Is there something wrong with their heads! God! How could I have such a stupid son!"
Yaroslav's expression was very ugly, his complexion was extremely ugly, and the veins on his forehead were beating from time to time. The news brought by the scout made him feel extremely bad.
The kneeling scout just lowered his head and remained silent, waiting for the Duke to vent his anger.
In fact, everyone present was like this. Facing the wrath of the wise man, everyone put away their usual thorns and fought freely. Now the Grand Duke was in a bad mood. He had to put away his tail and behave well, and be careful to make him a punch bag.
The nobles and subordinates behind the Grand Duke discussed quietly. During these conversations, Rostislav understood what was going on. The problem lay with the two uncles who were sent to southwestern Rus to recruit troops.
His fourth and fifth uncles - the two uncles he had not met yet - Igor and Vyacheslav were sent by his grandfather to Southwestern Rus to recruit troops, and they completed the task well and pulled out
There were 5,000 people, but then something went wrong.
In grandfather's plan, the fourth uncle and the fifth uncle were supposed to bring the army and main force of Southwestern Rus to gather together. However, when the two uncles arrived at the gathering place, they did not wait for their grandfather to come, but directly led the army to Peicheng.
Rescue.
The Grand Duke was about to be furious when he found out. He had no choice but to march with the main force, but these two fools actually rushed in rashly, hence the words he just said.
The military strength of Southwestern Rus was regarded by my grandfather as an important supplement, but it ended up being gone. As for recruiting from Nuo City, the main reason was that the road to the north was too difficult. By the time Nuo City's army came, the battle would have been over, so he
The power of Northern Rus was not recruited from the beginning.
Rostislav, who understood the matter, also understood his grandfather's anger. Any commander would be in a bad mood when faced with such a thing, and the terrible thing was that he could only stay in a bad mood and could not change the status quo.
"Father, do you need me to chase them right away?"
The second uncle Svyatoslav said in his usual short and direct style that the prince also wrapped himself up like a can and hung up the chain veil that was now lowered, leaving only his eyes exposed.
"Forget it, you can't catch up. Your two brothers can't imitate anyone else. Why don't you imitate Harald? If you don't have Harald's skills, aren't you looking for death?"
The Grand Duke scolded his Norwegian son-in-law by the way. A wise man prefers to win with wisdom and management rather than a reckless style. As a result, his son is now openly disobeying military orders and imitating his reckless march. This is simply beating him up.
Face.
"Ah, father, don't worry anymore. The two of them may be able to bring victory. You see, our nephews have achieved such feats against the nomads. The two of them will bring more people with them. Maybe they will win again."
What a great victory.”
The speaker was Ijaslav, the prince's uncle. The prince was now smiling and saying good things to the grand duke, trying to ease the relationship between the two parties, looking like he was making peace.
"Victory? Thank God these two guys came back alive. If only they were as stable as their nephews. These two bastards are not much older than their eldest nephews!"
The wise man responded to the uncle with disdain. These two guys were so impulsive. If the nomad teased them a little, they would immediately fall into a trap. Prairie wolves like to set traps the most.
The Grand Duke couldn't help but think about how his two sons could make such mistakes even though they were young men, and his grandson was so reliable.
The Grand Duke's words directly choked the uncle. He didn't know how to answer. He could only listen to the Grand Duke continuing to talk about the shortcomings of his two sons. Fortunately, this did not last long, because the Grand Duke also knew that this was not only a way to vent some anger.
It didn't make any sense, so the Grand Duke ordered to speed up the march and catch up with the Southwestern Rus' army that set off first.
All the Black Hats were sent out to look for traces of the Southwest Army or the battlefield where they perished - these were Yaroslav's original words. The Grand Duke was very unoptimistic about the future of his two sons.
In sharp contrast, many people in the army are afraid that their achievements will be robbed by others. In their eyes, the Nomad is vulnerable and is the glory waiting to be harvested. It is completely impossible to fail and overturn.
Rostislav was quite happy. After all, no matter what arrangements the nomads made, there were always people there to detect mines, so he didn't have to stupidly go up to test them.
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In this way, the Russian army sped up in an attempt to catch up with the army that set out without heeding the order.
Some of the new recruits were not used to the sudden acceleration, but the Grand Duke suppressed their dissatisfaction with whips. Yaroslav knew very well when to behave and when not to behave, and now was the time to be strict.
During the march, Rostislav took the opportunity to observe the armies of his two uncles. After all, after his grandfather passed away, they would become potential enemies. For this reason, he often ran back and forth in front of and behind the army.
If Rostislav were to evaluate the uncle's army, the only way to describe it would be to describe it as mediocre. It was so mediocre, and mediocrity was its biggest feature. The soldiers could only be described as average.
However, there are some Polish knights under the uncle's command. They fight on horseback or on foot, and their armors are relatively light. It is said that this is an improvement made by the Kingdom of Poland recently based on its war experience.
But it was different with his second uncle. The personal soldiers were forbidden by law, and even the ordinary soldiers were well trained - although it was done with military sticks and whips. The most important thing was that Rostislav noticed his second uncle's
The soldiers have extremely strong trust and admiration for their second uncle, which makes them have high morale and firm will.
Rostislav is not surprised by this. Historically, the second uncle was the most powerful among Zhuya Roslavich. He was good at everything in civil and martial arts, and he didn't mind getting his hands dirty. In history, he overthrew
The uncle's methods are not honorable.
If he hadn't died too early, he should have achieved more achievements.
Prince Ross knew that this uncle would definitely be his biggest and most terrifying enemy in the future, but for now, his grandfather was still there and everyone was still in the same trench, so he was a reliable comrade he could rely on.