On December 6, St. Nicholas' Day, the first snow of the year 999 was long overdue.

This year's winter was warm and refreshing, and the moist water vapor enveloped the entire land from the North Sea to the Baltic Sea, and the dark mountains and rivers changed color in just one night, like a lazy girl who was not dressed up, reluctantly changed into a clean white shirt at the urging of Mother Nature, and came to the world with a lazy waist.

St. Nicholas was the patron saint of sailors and merchants, and Leonardo, who was born in business, was very convinced, and often went to the church on this day to celebrate Mass in person, and donated a lot of money to the church to pray for the fortune of the next year.

This well-to-do saint is said to be an orphan, influenced by his parents to believe in Christ, scattered all his wealth to support the poor, heard that anyone in trouble would disguise himself at night, throw a bag containing gold coins into the window of someone's house, and become more and more influential, and eventually became a local bishop, participating in the famous first Council of Nicaea presided over by Emperor Constantine, which played a role in promoting the development of Christianity in the future.

I played with my fingers and stood in the square outside the hall of the newly decorated Neustadt Castle, staring at Yaroslav, who was seriously skinning the newly caught stag.

The latter's exposed arm was stained with blood, steaming hot, holding a delicate knife, skillfully cutting the skin with fat, and the look of full concentration made me realize the subtlety of the ancients to create the idiom of cooking, the whole smooth deer skin was peeled off from the flesh and bone without damage, revealing red muscles and white fat, and the blood oozing from the skin melted the white snow on the ground, and it didn't flow far before it coagulated again, turning into a thin layer of pale red ice.

He measured the buck's chest with the palm of his hand, then cut it with a sharp knife, reached in and took out the deer heart, which was still very warm, and carefully put it on the plate next to him, then raised his arm and wiped the beads of sweat on his forehead, and smiled at me honestly:

"The heart of the deer is a treasure, a cure for all diseases, and was once made as an offering to the god of war, Sventovitz...... Please forgive me for my slip of the tongue, Amen! ”

He hurriedly drew a cross on his chest, looking at the sky and praying sincerely: "That's all in the past, this thing must be enjoyed while it's hot, do you want to try it, my lord?" ”

"Thank you for your kindness, I appreciate ......"

The sight of the flesh was disgusting enough to look at, not to mention swallowing it, it was almost like suicide, and I waved my hand to decline Yaroslav's kindness, and subconsciously stood away from him, as if I might be splashed with dirty blood at any moment.

"One of my men is named Kohler, and his archery skills are so good that he never hurts his wings when he shoots a fly's leg."

"I prefer to use an axe."

Yaroslav rinsed the skinned venison with boiling water, carried it and threw it on a board, took the axe from his companion, and wondered where to start.

"We Slavs regard the tomahawk as their own life, and the first gift that every child receives from his father when he reaches adulthood is a hand axe at his waist, which marks that he has officially grown into a man and can stand on top of his household."

As he spoke, he slashed at the stag's neck with all his might, and the blood in my arteries collapsed all over my face, and I jumped my eyebrows and let out a long sigh of relief, glad I had the foresight to be in case I soiled my expensive fur coat.

Yaroslav took the dark clotted blood flowing from his veins with his hand, put it to his mouth without hesitation, and smeared a few rough patterns on his forehead and cheeks with the rest of his fingers, and then looked up at the churning and changing sky, the light of his pupils pure and reverent, and the words in his mouth.

I know that, despite his conversion to God, he still believes in his own gods, that God is only a stronger protector for him, and that only by throwing himself into the arms of the cross Christ can his people attain relative peace and civilization.

The Lyutich were not the name of a unified tribe, but more of a tribal union, and Yaroslav was the most powerful and influential tribal leader among them, and it was he who proposed a plan to attack the camp in Nijmegen during the torrential rains, which received a positive response from all the tribes.

At the time of his surrender, several small tribes with relatively weak attachments to them chose to join Nijmegen's camp together and obtain legal residency, and two large tribes were persuaded by Yaroslav to accept the recruitment.

Another large tribe equal in population and strength to his tribe refused to take refuge in the Franks, who believed in the weak cross, and went far away from Neustadt to the land adjacent to the Danes, annexed other Slavic tribes that had relocated there, continued to attack German villages and castles, chose to stand in opposition to Nijmegen, and claimed to teach the Slavic traitors who betrayed the god of war a hard lesson, and razed the Frankish castle to the ground!

The Lyutić, who had surrendered, still maintained their own way of life and tribal structure, and the chiefs of these tribes accepted my canonization as barons and knights loyal to Nijmegen, and were given the corresponding lands, and Yaroslav renounced the title of baron, preferring the title of Imperial Knight.

"I know that the knight's land and power are nowhere near the squire's, but it sounds more powerful."

Yaroslav once explained to me that the word powerful was probably the highest figure of speech he could think of when describing things.

"It's like Sventovet, the god of war, an invincible being...... Damn, I'm mouthful again, God forbid! He grabbed the bone cross hanging from his chest and muttered in fear, not knowing that carving a holy relic from a bone was a heresy.

There were more than three thousand old and young women and children of the Lyutić people, who had built humble dwellings around Neustadt Castle, and within a few days there were ugly and filthy shacks on the grassy slopes, even worse than the outer city of Nijmegen, and only after they were covered with snow did they look much lovelier, with crystal white mushrooms on top of them, and curling smoke.

I worry day and night about how to subdue this barbarian, who prefer to live in tribes and kinship according to their proximity, obey the orders of their respective chiefs, and completely ignore the decrees issued in the name of the Duke of Nijmegen, and clash with the soldiers of Nijmegen again and again.

The chieftain who was given a knighthood only rejoiced in his civilized title, and continued to go his own way in his daily life, often disobeying my instructions and doing things out of the ordinary, much to my annoyance.

Think about it, with hundreds of people under your command surrounded by thousands of barbarians, do you dare to get angry casually?

In order to disintegrate and divide these barbarians, it is necessary to completely smash their tribal structure, just like the Americans who assimilated the Indian tribes back then, step by step let the cohesive barbarians forget where they came from, where they are going, who their ancestors are, and who they are.

Conversion was only the first step, and the next step was to guide them to gradually adapt to the new way of life, to give up their former skills of fishing and hunting, and to become obedient people who cultivated the land of the lord, and then influenced their cognition, starting with the next generation, cultivating minions, separating the chieftain from his people, softening the martial customs with beautiful titles and fertile fiefs, and causing the great trees of the tribe to rot and deteriorate at the roots, and no longer bear new fruits.

So from the first day Yaroslav joined, I asked him to send his people to Nijmegen to explain in detail the benefits of moving there.

A more comfortable climate, a richer land, more convenient transportation, a more civilized city life, etc., but each time he refused without hesitation.

"The Lyutich are the children of the forest, and when we leave this land that feeds life, we become duckweed without roots, birds without feet, and we are bullied everywhere."

Yaroslav used a knife to sharpen the shoulder blades of a stag and carved a vivid pattern, which was his innate talent: "Our ancestors, though driven westward by a powerful people from the east, never left the forest. Thank you for your kindness, Lord Duke, the prosperity of Nijmegen belongs to the Franks, not to us Lyutić. ”

If people don't want to go, what can you do? Anyway, sooner or later, a city no less than Nijmegen will be built here, and it is always good to have more labor, but the tribes are too powerful, and on the surface they submit to Nijmegen's rule, but in fact the tribes are still on their own, and the only ones I can mobilize are the pikemen who came with me, and the Wallengian guards stubbornly resisted to the end, and were killed by the Lyutić who stormed the castle.

"These barbarians are so arrogant that they don't even pay attention to your orders!"

The bull and a few other henchmen came to my room at night to collectively express their inner dissatisfaction.

"Some tribal chiefs are mere knights, and they compete with your immediate guards for prey, and they regard Nijmegen as a major wrongdoer, and more and more Slavs move into Neustadt to receive your wintering supplies."

I waved my hand and motioned for him to be quieter, not because of weakness, but because I was worried that the spread of the word would not be conducive to unity, after all, there would be a place for them to be used in the future.

"The Lyutich people have just been attached, there are still many rules to learn, and the old tribal chiefs still have absolute influence over their own people, so we should not be too careful at this time and try to avoid conflicts."

I poured a glass of wine for the bull and pushed it in front of him to persuade: "Seeing that Christmas is coming, His Majesty the Emperor has not issued an edict for a long time, the plan for this year's expedition to Poland will definitely be in vain, and it will be difficult to walk on the road after a few more snowfalls, our materials must be hoarded as soon as possible, especially the wood needed for construction in the coming year, and reserve as much as possible, and when Kohler and them arrive, I will live in this broken castle enough, and at least double it!" ”

"Aren't you worried about being attacked by the enemy?" The bull asked with a frown, rubbing his hands against the smooth surface of the wooden wine glass.

I smiled, holding the flickering candlestick, and approached the map of the Polish coast that the priests had just drawn up, and stroked the elaborate parchment, on which the light blue coastline was marked.

"Sven of Denmark has been fighting intermittently with the Norwegians for almost a year, Olaf's allies are gradually getting tired of the endless war, and understand that they cannot defeat their powerful neighbors across the sea, two of the seven counts have already announced their withdrawal, and by next summer at the latest, Sven will be able to reunite the Vikings on both sides of the strait, and the Swedes, although temporarily out of the matter, will eventually join the war of the northerners, and the mission in Nijmegen has secretly paid a visit to the count of Berka, believing that cooperation is only a matter of time, Centuries-old feuds cannot be resolved by unification. ”

My finger slowly slid to Poland: "The snow is covering the mountains, the Poles can't attack us, according to the spies, the outpost of Grand Duke Mieszko has not yet crossed the Oder, they will have to wait until tomorrow spring to regroup, the Slavic tribes of Pomerania have long been in hiding for the winter, and we only have to worry about our own problems during the long snowy nights." Of course, there is also the Liutich people who are making a lot of noise right now, and the new millennium is coming! ”