On September 17, after nearly two months of intensive recruitment and material preparation, the immigrant army recruited by Rostislav finally set off.
There were a lot of people who came to see the team off when they left, because many family members and friends of people from Kiev and nearby areas were in this huge immigrant team.
The farewell party sent dry food, blankets and other items as farewell gifts. The Northeastern Rus behind the forest was far away and desolate. Now that we were saying goodbye like this, we didn’t know when we would see our relatives and friends again.
Many people shed tears when they left their hometown, but more people just silently grabbed a handful of soil from their hometown and carefully wrapped it as a sustenance for their hometown, and then moved forward firmly.
Rostislav's farewell to his uncles was also full of family affection, especially the uncle. He thought that it was torture for such a young junior to go to such a desolate place, but this was Yaroslav's distribution, and the juniors also
Just obey.
They did not forget to give farewell gifts. The uncle gave a warrior armor, which was enough to attract warriors. The second uncle gave a war horse from the grassland. This was the second uncle's careful selection among his trophies.
The third uncle sent a batch of precious hand-written books that he had made and bound himself, and the book covers were decorated with gold, silver and precious stones.
No matter what Yaroslav's children and grandchildren think in their hearts, at least at this moment they are filled with family affection.
This also sent out a powerful political signal that Yaroslav's descendants were friendly and united, telling the guy with evil intentions not to act.
Of course, this person with evil intentions most obviously refers to the witchcraft prince of the Principality of Polotsk. Shortly after the uprising in Kiev, Yaroslav discovered that these heretics came from Polotsk, but there was no evidence.
And there was no crusade.
Although there is no crusade, it is still necessary to maintain deterrence, especially now that Yaroslav has left, and the blood connection between Polotsk and Kiev is already very far away. In the eyes of Zhu Yaroslavich, those Polotsk are enough to ignore
For outsiders.
After bidding farewell to his uncles, Rostislav praised his red horse and stroked the bright red fur of his old comrade, Rostislav set out on his way north.
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The huge team of immigrants squirmed slowly like a long snake that could not be seen to the end, winding along the banks of the Dnieper River.
According to the pre-arranged grouping, strong men walked on the outside with their bags on their backs, holding weapons such as hunting spears in their hands, watching the forest on the river bank vigilantly, always ready to protect the women, children and the elderly on the inside, who were the weakest and most vulnerable.
Sick people could sit in a carriage and stay with a lot of heavy luggage, while others - even the elderly or children had to walk on their own feet and carry small packages on their shoulders.
Nomads drive their livestock while their families stay in boxcars. Even after being semi-settled for many years, the herdsmen still maintain the ability to move quickly.
Guardsmen are scattered among the immigrant teams, trying to maintain order in the areas they are responsible for and ensuring that these immigrants do not fall behind or do stupid things.
Floating on the vast Dnieper River are fleets loaded with food. They can supply immigrants at any time, or when they encounter trouble, they can put down the soldiers on board to solve the problem, or separate the immigrants who are in conflict, or surround and kill them.
A beast without eyes.
On both sides of the long snake, there are a small group of cavalry accompanying them every 100 meters, including the mounted infantry of the Ross nobles, the prince's personal cavalry, and the nomads holding riding bows. Together with the fleet on the river, they are important in maintaining order.
When they see a large group of cavalry roaring past, even the most timid people will have courage in their hearts, and they can quickly support those locations that are attacked by wild beasts.
Fortunately, seeing such a huge human team, most of the wild beasts, except for a few that were going crazy with hunger, only dared to let out piercing screams in the forest, scaring some cowards who could not sleep at night.
As for the local village communities and tribes, under Rostislav's silver bullet offensive and the authority of the prince, they all chose to cooperate honestly with the passage of the immigration brigade. They sent guides and supplies, and Rostislav received precious treasures in return.
of silver.
Although a lot of preparations have been made, Rostislav's immigration team still has to stop every few hours. After all, the main body of the team is disorderly immigrants. It needs to stop from time to time to rectify the team, otherwise the team will be unrecognizable.
.
Rostislav was also mentally prepared for this. He prepared so much food just to deal with such a situation. Prince Rus had long been prepared for a protracted war.
In this huge relocation operation, the most tired one is the leadership headed by Rostislav.
Rostislav is troubled by all kinds of trivial matters in the team every day, and many problems require him to appear in front of the people in person to deal with them.
However, he did not reject it. After all, only by showing more authority in front of the people can he leave a deep impression on them.
In this era of underdeveloped productivity and in this backward political system of Ross, if you want to establish authority among the people, the most convenient and simple way is to judge those trivial civil matters. The power of the lord is practiced in these trivial matters.
While dealing with various trivial matters, he also had to deal with letters from all sides, Kiev, Slovakia, and even Rostov. Many things required him to make decisions.
The letters from Kiev were mainly from uncles, especially the uncle, asking if he needed any help. To this, Rostislav could only politely refuse. He had already received so much kindness from his uncle, so how could he make another request?
Sicheng came from Uncle Visatta. Visatta refers to the hoarding of various materials. Not only did he spend countless amounts of food along the way, but he must have spent even more after arriving in Northeastern Rus. After all, if there is no initial investment, how can we usher in the new year?
later development.
As for Rostov, the city where Rostislav nominally took office showed great enthusiasm for their new prince, and had no objection to the migration of a large number of Russian immigrants. It even took the initiative to send them the map of Northeastern Rus in their possession, which can
Said to be extremely humble.
Rostislav was very satisfied with the city's attitude, but he did not relax his vigilance. He would not relax his vigilance easily until he controlled the place.
Regarding trivial matters, Rostislav regarded all these as exercises. If these cannot be handled well now, how will the vast Northeastern Rus be governed in the future? How will that barbaric land be turned into a civilized and prosperous place?
During this journey, this huge team of immigrants finally approached Smolensk, an important node on their journey, the hub city of Russia.