king of ros

Chapter 343 Gathering of Vassals
In Ross, wilderness has always been synonymous with danger for city dwellers.If there is no large number of guards, going to the wilderness is almost the same as sending to death.

As for the rural residents, most of them will never leave their villages for the rest of their lives. Even if they go to the market, most of the men and women in the village are often dispatched.

But the villagers will still teach their children and their families to be careful in the wilderness. Gangsters in the wilderness are never easy to deal with. Even a middle-aged man who runs rashly in the wilderness is easy to be caught as a slave. Not to mention.

The prince’s road is much safer, and from time to time, you can see villages and fortresses where you can rest. Their presence provides people with safety.

But when walking on the road, you must remember that the road is also the activity area of ​​various gangs, and there may be hundreds of robbers ambushing anywhere.

This road safety is safe, but once something happens, it is likely to be a big deal.

Although there are princely troops patrolling the road, you can't guarantee that they will be there when you encounter an attack, so you can only rely on your own abilities in the end.

Merchants and travelers travel the lands in large bands, for only a large band can deter the bandits who would look upon them as prey.

Recently, the bandit gang has become more difficult to deal with, because some of them have already equipped with crossbows from Moscow. Although one or two people have this thing in the sky, they are not very effective against this thing.

However, for a group of people, they are very comfortable in the countryside, and these people are the walled city owners everywhere.

On the one hand, these people have guards, and they are wearing iron armor, and on the other hand, it is because they have Moscow's attention.

In response to the robbery of the businessman, Moscow's response was to strengthen road guards, and it would not deliberately sweep up gangs and robbers.

But if the owner of the walled city is robbed and killed, then Moscow will dig three feet. It doesn't matter if the owner can't catch the murderer. Anyway, the captured gangsters must pay the price, and they must hand over enough heads.

Under such circumstances, naturally few people took the initiative to take the initiative to attack the Northeast Ross city. If they did, they would have to face Moscow's elite and come out to claim their lives. After suffering a few losses, they all understood.

Of course, Moscow also spent a huge amount of resources to achieve this effect, but when the satisfactory result was returned to Rostislav, everyone was very satisfied.

However, the walled city owners rarely leave their land. On the one hand, it is because they want to strengthen their control over the land, and on the other hand, they are prepared to respond to possible conscripts that may arise at any time.

Moscow is very strict in enlistment. If someone does not respond to the enlistment and does not pay a huge exemption fee, then his land will be confiscated, his identity will be banned, and he will become a civilian.

Everyone understands how serious Moscow is about these things, especially after a few people have been cleaned up. Since then, those situations such as using privileges to escort caravans and leaving the territory for a long time will disappear.

Compared with the money for escorting the businessmen, it is more important to keep the real estate in their hands. They paid a lot for these real estate.

But today, Suzdal's Walled Lords are gathering in an orderly manner because of orders from Moscow.

Recently, several caravans have been robbed. Rostislav asked the wall masters from all over the country to gather their forces to carry out a clean-up campaign, so that the bandits can restrain themselves.

Valin Kashinski naturally had to attend this meeting. He was the most powerful walled lord in the Suzdal region.The city walled lord also dressed quite flamboyantly. He was wearing the gold-plated armor bestowed upon him by the prince, and his whole body looked golden.

Behind him are a dozen or so followers in iron armor, and these guys are just like their masters, with a ostentatious appearance.

In the past three years, Valin's strength has become stronger and stronger. Before, he was just a lord who could only pull out hundreds of men, but now he is enough to pull out 300 men at one time, and there are several iron-clothed warriors in the city. Well, this is the kind of veteran who has fought on the battlefield, and even equipped the servants at home with a few crossbows.

In fact, Valin does not need to attend this meeting at all. After all, this kind of meeting basically has to be held every once in a while. Everyone who gathers troops to fight against bandits has already become a deal-breaker, because the assignment of tasks assigned each time is different from before. Not big.

And the purpose of his coming this time is to meet an old friend, Meshko.

Three years ago, when Meshko returned, he found that his territory had been destroyed in the rebellion, the city wall had been breached, and the people who led him didn't know where to go.

After all, Meshko will always be more powerful except for his strength. It is too easy for those heretics to incite riots in his territory.

And then, as Varin expected, Meshko was soon given a new territory, and Edward's territory was temporarily handed over to him for management. Although Meshko could not take Edward's territory into his own pocket, but All income from this territory belongs to him.

Relying on the stable funds and slaves sent by the King of Poland, Myszko quickly built a new walled city, which was more majestic and larger than the original one.

After knowing this, Valin couldn't help but sigh that people are really different. He has struggled for more than ten years to get everything, while Meshko can get it with just a few fingers.

And the walled city owner's desire to bring the family to a higher level has also become stronger. It would be great if his descendants could also be like this.

The last time I met Meshko was betting on horses at the Moscow Hippodrome three months ago, and I haven’t seen him for a while, so Valin really wanted to meet this old friend, so he still came to this boring meeting.

Soon, Valin's team arrived at the meeting place. There was once a tower built here, but the tower is now dilapidated, and only some stones are left on the ground as signs of its existence.

As for who it once belonged to, no one knows. The name of the founder of this tower has disappeared in the long river of history.

Because it is the highest point in this area and the surrounding area is open, everyone chose it as the center of the meeting.

Rostislav once settled here when he was inspecting Northeast Ross. Valin still remembers the grandeur at that time, with the tower as the center and surrounding tents, all of which were nobles who followed Rostislav.

There were already many people here before Valin arrived. Although it is said that each city wall master brings at most five or six followers, the total number of people must be hundreds of people.

And there are also some merchants here, including kvass dealers. Now these servants have a cup in each hand. This national drink of Ross is sold everywhere.

There are also some farmers who set up their own stalls to sell their agricultural products to their followers, and some farmers even set up canteens on the spot to make a mess of stews and sell them to these followers.

In fact, this is the market in the local countryside. After all, the terrain here is open and at a high place. Every month at a fixed time, the nearby villagers will come here to exchange with each other, so the merchants and farmers here have never less than.

This bazaar rose after the arrival of the princes of Moscow. Rostislav not only brought feudal oppression, but also made the economy more prosperous, and many people also enjoyed the productivity improvement brought about by the advancement of technology and tools. The pool of stagnant water in the past has also become more active.

But after all, Rostislav did this to collect taxes. For example, in this market, there are tax collectors of the princes of Moscow. He is responsible for managing the market and collecting some reasonable bribes from transactions. The tradition of officials receiving supplies from their locations.

Varin's team quickly integrated into it, and Varin quickly found his old friend, Meshko.When he found Mieszko, the illegitimate son of the former Polish king was fighting for wine, which he found to be wine from Bulgar.

Since the war in Bulgar, Northeast Rus has established a stable wine trade with Bulgar, and with this trade, wine has also begun to spread.

The price given to the Bulgar winery by the Prince of Moscow is very favorable, which makes the owner of the winery even willing to damage the share of the local market to satisfy the foreign market.

Of course, the manor owners received a lot of complaints, but they didn't care about those complaints, no matter what was more important than making money.

And this is exactly the effect Moscow wants, so as to strengthen the tendency of this group towards Russia and create a strong pro-Russ faction in Bulgar.

This group is now using the funds earned from Moscow to actively open up wasteland and build new wine estates. There is no need to worry about quality issues. There is a big gap in the bottom wine in Moscow.

In Northeast Russia, people don't see so much, they just think that the prince let them drink, so they cheered Rostislav constantly, and they also supported and loved the prince of Moscow more.

Now, even at the roadside vendors, most of them have a small barrel of wine, but this thing is not cheap, even the worst kind is considered a luxury item for the common people.

After all, this is real wine, not a substitute like kvass. People are still willing to pay for a small glass, and Moscow makes a lot of money from this imported wine.

But for an existence of Mieszko's level, this wine is obviously too bad. When he was a child, he drank the best wine in the cellar of the Polish king, and after he arrived in Northeast Ross, he drank the best Bulgar wine.

Even kvass is the kind of boutique in the Moscow court that has been added with a lot of honey and debugged.

But who let the wine bag be drained by him, and now he can only drink this low-quality wine, but because the quality of this thing is too bad, he drinks wine like water.

The man who was drinking with him naturally couldn't deal with such an old alcoholic, and soon began to shake amidst the boos, and then retreated wisely, so as not to pass out and be ashamed, but Myshko was still as normal as a person, with a face There is also a sense of invincibility and loneliness.

"Myshko, long time no see."

Seeing this, Valin immediately went in front of Meshko and took over the drunk man's place, while the Polish knight's attendants immediately filled the walled city with wine.

"Oh, it's you, Valin. It's a pity that there is only this low-quality wine here, but this is the only thing I can drink now. I can't even get drunk from this stuff, it's like drinking water."

Even when Meshko saw his old friends, he was a little bit less interested. After all, drinking this wine was too boring and affected his mood too much.

The Polish knight looks like a dandy now, I believe many people think the same way, looking at him like this, I am afraid that no one can think that he is the warrior in the Bulgar War, that is, the one who is sung in the ballad that.

"I don't care what I drink, you know, I've had worse."

Valin climbed up from the bottom, and he drank a lot of kvass mixed with water. This thing is really nothing, so he drank the wine in one gulp.

"If only there was a glass of Kvass from the Rostislav Palace here, it's really wonderful."

Meshko lamented the fine wine in the prince's court, that is a good thing, but thinking about it, he couldn't help but nostalgic for his life in Krakow before, when he enjoyed the treatment of the Piast royal family.

But it's just thinking about it, he already knew that kind of life is destined to never come back, and his business is pretty good now, there is nothing wrong with it, and there is nothing worth complaining about.

"yes……"

Varin also sighed subconsciously, he had tasted that thing before, and the result after tasting was that Varin subconsciously believed that it was definitely not kvass.

That is, when he was savoring the wonderful taste, he suddenly heard the ringing of the bell.

"Tsk, what a pity, it started before I had time to say a few words."

Myshko subconsciously complained that this was the bell for the meeting, indicating that the time was up, but the movement did not stop, and he stood up directly.

"Let's go to a meeting and see what those people have to say today."

The venue of the meeting was very simple. It was the place where things were announced in the usual bazaar. The princes pulled up their chairs and sat side by side, listening to the prince's orders narrated by the Moscow officials above.

The number of walled city masters is quite large, and the number of low-level nobles representing the authority of Moscow has expanded a lot in the past three years. After all, everyone can see the prosperity of Moscow, and there are a steady stream of warriors joining the princes, and there are always people who cannot enter the family Soldiers, then naturally the distribution of land.

Rostislav's criteria for allocating land are very loose, as long as you have iron armor and prove that you have force, then you will be allocated a piece of land and a few slaves, but it is up to you to tame the countryside.

At this stage, many people will be eliminated. Some people will always have their heads blown off by the old farmers, but more than half of them persisted, successfully tamed the village, and then built the city with the materials provided by Moscow.

It has been 13 years since Rostislav came to Northeast Ross, and many things have changed.

After so much chaos, everyone's resistance to the princely regime is not so strong, and these things are easier to do than before-but only a little.

When the Moscow officials talked on it, as always, the wall masters were drowsy after listening to those things. After all, the things they preached each time did not change much, and the same was true for Valin. Anyway, it was just something to deal with. .

But what Meshko said beside him made Valin alert.

"Look at these guys, if you don't seize this opportunity, this is a great opportunity to practice yourself. When the war starts, you can only go to the battlefield to practice, and failure is death."

Regardless of being attacked in it, Valin's focus is on the war. Does this mean that a war is about to start?

Meshko has a source of news in Moscow. Unlike them, the city's lords, Meshko's blood determines that he was born in the top circle of power in Ross. compared to.

This is also the key reason why Valin has always maintained a good relationship with Meshko. Meshko's strong fighting power is one aspect, and his source of information is another aspect.

Some information casually revealed by the king's illegitimate son can be followed by a local person like him if he can't get it right.

Valin has always been eager to go to the next level. Now he can only be regarded as half a foot in that circle. If he wants to truly become a regular visitor to the Moscow court, he still needs to continue to work hard.

He hopes that he can finish the road as much as possible. He doesn't believe in future generations, so he must complete things.

And he also has this condition, Valin is still very young and can still rush.

"How to say?"

The Walled City Lord lowered his voice and asked, this kind of thing is not suitable to be discussed among the public.

"Vseslav in Polotsk is going to make trouble sooner or later. The news from over there is that he is getting more and more restless, and Kyiv is making more and more temptations there. And Mr. Rostislav has long been secretly Preparing for the battle will probably be a big battle that will sweep the entire Ross, and now we must seize the opportunity to practice well, so as not to face that kind of battle and die directly, and this time to clear the princes, I also want to see the state below."

Meshko said something that had a huge impact very casually, but it was only in front of Valin that he was so casual. If Meshko was not regarded as a person in his network, Meshko would not mention a word. And.

Valin's heart was shaken because of this. Although he said he couldn't understand the details, he still heard the "Ross War" very clearly. That is to say, a war on the scale of the entire Ross is going to be fought?

"In short, Valin, you have to train your people well during this time. You can only rely on yourself to save your life on the battlefield. Others are unreliable."

Meshko continued, he persuaded his old friend to strengthen training.

What he didn't know was that he didn't use any persuasion at all, the few words he said still made his old friend decide that this time the suppression of bandits must be serious, and the group of people under him must see their blood.

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(End of this chapter)