king of ros

Chapter 458 Alliance Construction
Visby returned to normal much faster than Rostislav expected. The locals and his soldiers quickly repaired the port that was burned by the fire, and ships from all over the city did not need to be in the city. Landed on the beach outside.

Loading and unloading cargo on the sand is inefficient, and now I can finally get rid of the damn thing.

After all, it was related to their own food, so the residents of Visby worked very hard, and the requirements for the port in this era were really low, so they completed the reconstruction in a very short period of time.

After the reconstruction of the port, Visby has truly returned to peace at this moment. Although the impact of the war can be seen from time to time on the ships that sank in the port, those are the past, and people have to move forward after all. Look.

And the locals did adapt quickly to the rule of the Ross people. Anyway, this is no different from the previous rule of the city dignitaries, and everyone has nothing to do with it.

Even after the Ross people abolished many redundant taxes, they also won the support of the people. For the people, everything is fake, and only a good life is real.

Rostislav's abolition of those taxes was not because of his good intentions, but in the opinion of the Grand Duke of Kyiv, those were complete exorbitant taxes, and keeping them in this land would only affect future trade, so he abolished these laws.

Gotland's new government was stabilized by Rostislav's actions, and the government is now led by Rostislav's captain, Prolev. This is Rostislav's reward for his feat - the rule of an important Baltic town. right.

However, although it was given to him, in fact, Prolev can't get much hands in the town affairs. As an important trading hub on the Baltic Sea, there will inevitably be many important organs of the Free Trade Alliance located here in the future. In fact, the management of the island will be It would be them, not his mayor.

With regard to the Free Trade Alliance, Rostislav has established an alliance coordination office here, which is to facilitate mutual help and coordination between the cities of the alliance. Rostislav plans to move the venue of the alliance meeting here in the future to facilitate the gathering of all parties.

Prolev seems to be very clear about this, but his attitude is also very casual. As long as I can get the money that I can get as the mayor, I don't care about anything else. Anyway, he doesn't know how to govern.

After securing the position of the new government in Gotland and seeing the vigorous development of the Free Trade Alliance, Rostislav did not return to Ross immediately. He was still staying in the north, and the Grand Duke still had things to deal with.

Rostislav was mainly busy with one thing, and that was busy with the construction of a city located on a harbor in Holstein, North Germany. Rostislav named the new city Lübeck.

Yes, this is the center of the Hanseatic League in history, but now it is still a wasteland, and Rostislav made it appear in advance.

The Grand Duke of Kyiv took a fancy to its geographical location. The trade in the Baltic Sea cannot be lacking in the connection with the North Sea in the west. In history, the Hanseatic League relied on the resale trade in the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to transfer a lot of money and almost control The supremacy of the two oceans.

Although it is said that the Kingdom of Norway in the alliance can influence the North Sea, but there is a way to rely on everyone to run. The current king of Norway is willing to cooperate with everyone in the alliance to make money, but what about the future?What about his descendants?
Rostislav must prepare early and invest his strength in the west, and he also knows that sooner or later they will go to war with the Kingdom of Denmark.

This does not mean that now, when the alliance develops for about four or five years, and when they gain more and more benefits from the ocean, some people will naturally be dissatisfied with Denmark's unscrupulous collection of transit fees, and by then it will inevitably lead to war.

Even if it is only for future wars, he must prepare as soon as possible. After the war against Denmark, the distribution of forces within the alliance will inevitably be changed.

Going back to the present, about Lübeck Rostislav first bought this land from the local Slavic princes, and they were also happy to sell this land to distant relatives. With distant relatives as a barrier, those insatiable Germanic knights invaded They will also have one less direction.

There were even Slavic princes who realized the business opportunities behind the construction of Lübeck and came to ask if they could participate in it. Rostislav refused without hesitation. How could the most western outpost of Ross allow outsiders to get involved.

Then there is the construction of Lübeck. Lübeck will become the westernmost outpost of Ross and an important trade hub. Rostislav attaches great importance to it, and immediately sent a huge amount of resources and manpower.

But now it's just a big construction site, with a large number of Germanic and Slavic workers attracted by high salaries. After all, the construction has only started for less than a month.

Rostislav stationed 100 people there for supervision and control, and by the way to ensure local security, the Germanic knights and Slavic warriors on the border are not honest people, and they will definitely take advantage of the opportunity to rob.

The move of the Grand Duke Ross who defeated Gotland to build a city in Lübeck was very eye-catching. People looked at Rostislav and analyzed the plan of the Grand Duke.

Some businessmen with a keen sense of smell have already begun to plan to live in Lübeck. They all see the location of this place, and it will definitely become a prosperous place.

Not to mention, there is the Rostislav platform behind the city, and now everyone can see that Rostislav's free trade alliance will become the overlord of the Baltic Sea, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with following in the footsteps of that grand duke.

His authority and army can guarantee the safety of the city. If the safety of a newly built city is guaranteed, then immigrants will inevitably flow in an endless stream.

Residents of such a scene have already appeared, and the local Slavs have moved into the city one after another after conversion, and then turned into a worker to join the city construction.

Rostislav offered these pagan residents very generous conditions. As long as they converted to Christ, they could live in the future city. city.

Rostislav is still very happy to win over these distant relatives. After all, distant relatives who can find something in common in language are better than Germans, and after they believe in Orthodoxy, they will be completely reliable.

Some small feudal lords of this land were also attracted, some of them were Slavs, some were Germans, but they were all small precarious lords, their lands were newly opened, and they wanted to get shelter.

Rostislav gave these unattended feudal lords a shelter, and the Grand Duke of Kyiv was happy to increase the sphere of influence for Lübeck-of course, these acceptances were normal vassal relationships in the name of the empire, after all, Lübeck was also an empire in name city.

If you want to operate in the Holy Roman Empire, you have to act according to the rules of the local people. Rostislav knows this better than anyone else, so he has never stopped buying the emperor's court, and these sacrifices are worth it. For Lu Baker traded for the title of an imperial city.

That's why the construction went on so smoothly. Without the consent of the emperor's court, Rostislav's behavior would have been regarded as an invasion, and then he would have been besieged by many parties.

However, shortly after the construction started, many refugees came from Saxony, including nobles and farmers, who asked to join the construction of this new city and asked for the asylum of the Grand Duke of Kyiv.

This surprised the Grand Duke of Kyiv, but he still readily agreed. The more people there are at this stage, the better.

And then he also learned the reason for their escape from these mouths. It turned out that a rebellion and uprising broke out in the Saxon region, and it seemed that Emperor Henry was busy.

This is a good thing for Rostislav's cause. It is impossible for Emperor Henry to remain indifferent to the construction of Lubeck, and until the city develops as powerful as possible, it is better not to let the monarch devote too much energy to this side. .

In this huge project, Rostislav didn't spend much money in the whole process-to be precise, the Grand Duke of Kyiv spent all the resources and cash he picked up from Gotland and the towns that followed it.

These towns can be said to be very rich, and the treasury is full of coins, and now these things belong to Rostislav. Rostislav put them into production without hesitation. The money spent today It will all swell up tomorrow.

He is very optimistic about the future of this place. This position will definitely lead to prosperity in Lübeck, and the gold and silver that are smashed down will definitely be rewarded.

After letting the Lübeck matter temporarily come to an end, it was almost January 1074, a full year since Rostislav left Kyiv.

At this moment Rostislav received a letter from Kyiv, from his son, telling him what had happened in the South.

During Rostislav's absence, Ross was calm, and Rurik managed Kyiv so well that no one could find fault with him.

The prince was just and considerate, and flexibly coordinated the contradictions of all parties in Kyiv, making most people satisfied with him.

Many people in the Kyiv court were worried that there would be problems if the Grand Duke handed over affairs to the prince for so long. This concern reached its peak when Rostislav sailed to Gotland, because what Rurik had done before was in fact impossible. After Rostislav's approval, Rurik was just Rostislav's puppet at that time.

Now that the Grand Duke is gone, will this young man do something bad? Such worries flooded people's minds.

The fact is that as mentioned before, Rurik performed very well. Even without his father's instructions, he can manage the city in an orderly manner, and he is also tough to face foreign enemies.

During the time when Rostislav left, the Saru Khan on the grassland continued to harass Pereslav and even Kyiv, robbing merchants everywhere, destroying villages, and the Polovite cavalry even appeared in Kyiv's field of vision among.

Saru Khan's explanation to these cavalrymen was that they were all tribes walking alone, but with the appearance of such a number of raiders, no one could be fooled by his lies.

And Rurik didn't have any cowardice, he directly chose to attack and wiped out all the Polovets who dared to cross the border.

His strong reaction made that Khan Saru soften immediately, announcing that the looters had nothing to do with them, and they had "crossed the border on their own".

For these words, everyone understands that there is so much water, just like the news that the tribe went alone, but no one tried to break it. These nomads have spread countless lies. It's too boring, and it might make these guys angry, which is very inappropriate.

In addition, after his son had dealt with Khan Saru, he also met the challenge of the prince of witchcraft, the prince of Polotsk who wanted to take back his principality in Rostislav's absence.

But he found that everything had changed dramatically. The local Polotsk nobles had been wiped out in several rounds of melee, and some villages where the loyal subjects of their families had been living had also been vacated to lead the people. The nobles are even more indifferent to them.

Vseslav could not stand firmly on such a land, and he was indeed quickly driven away. After entering Polotsk, Rurik's army overwhelmingly defeated the remnants of the witch prince. The man got the fuck out of Ross again.

Rostislav is very satisfied with the news, his son has proved himself, so it seems that there is no problem in inheriting his career in the future.

Nothing could be more comforting to Rostislav, who had been worrying about his succession, and now his son had told him not to worry.

In addition to the son's actions, the message sent also included what happened in the south.

What happened in the southern empire was very explosive. First, Russell’s rebellion was quelled, Ankara was conquered, and the Norman’s head was chopped off. It was none other than the young Alexios Cole Munning.

This made Rostislav couldn't help but feel that Russell has finally reached the historical result. It seems that his remarks have not changed much reality.

However, as expected, Rostislav was not surprised that Russell's rebellion was suppressed. He brought all the resources of Russia to go south to seize the imperial capital, and it was difficult to win. That Norman wanted to succeed with a few thousand mercenaries?

Yes, Rostislav encouraged him to rebel with the idea of ​​pushing him into the fire pit from the very beginning, but after the rebellion began, he still had some expectations that this person would achieve something beyond historical achievements. After all, even if he entered the imperial capital, he would not even think about it Sit tight, you'll have to get out sooner or later.

And the more chaos the Normans made in the imperial capital, the better it would be for Ross.

But after all, everything still develops according to the logic of history, which makes him quite regretful.

But the report about the two Ruriks—that is, the two cousins ​​of Rostislav—is very interesting. The two men were obviously aware of Russell's defeat, so they led the troops to another hill before the Battle of Ankara , broke away from Russell's rebels.

They took away a full 2000 people, not only the Ross people, but also many ethnic groups in the Russell rebels. It seemed that no one wanted to stay on a ship that was about to be silent.

After disappearing in the mountains for several months, they finally appeared, and the place where they appeared was also very interesting. After marching in the mountains of Minor Asia for several months, the two of them appeared in Trab on the shore of the Black Sea Zong.

The two Rurik armies conquered the land with lightning speed, captured the city of Trabzon, and became the ruler of the land.

Then they continued to participate in the Black Sea trade, and news of the presence of the two Ruriks there also came out.

Rostislav has to admit that this choice is very smart. As long as the local Greek forces are resolved, with Trabzon's geographical independence, they will wait completely quietly for the next few years to escape and recuperate for further development. Get ready for action.

But for Rostislav, this is an episode after all. Occupying a Trabzonspor won't affect anything, it's just a few more years of training time. If they stay there for a lifetime, their achievements will only be limited to this place. , will be wiped out by Turks or Greeks in the future.

While Rostislav was reading these, a messenger suddenly knocked on the door and walked in. He brought a letter, a letter that surprised Rostislav.

There was a black eagle on the letter, which undoubtedly showed the identity of the sender. Rostislav opened the letter, and then his expression changed several times.

"Really, how could that person ask to meet me at this time."

The Grand Duke of Kyiv muttered, he really didn't expect to meet that person at this time.

"Lord Rostislav?"

Domhnall, who had been by the Grand Duke's side all the time, asked, obviously asking about the Grand Duke's arrangements.

"Prepare a fleet, we are going to Lübeck, damn it, the time to return home has to be postponed again."

The Grand Duke of Kyiv stood up complaining, and prepared for the next work. He didn't want to see that person yet, but he didn't expect him to take the initiative to come up so early, so he had to deal with it.

And the captain of the personal army who ordered the matter quickly followed his master, waiting for his orders and arrangements.

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(End of this chapter)