"As you all know, I am a descendant of the most famous Brave Family from Upland." Faroff crossed his waist and showed off in a rough voice.

There was an immediate "here it is again" lamentation, and one of the one-eyed veterans yelled at the detachment commander, "Today's recruit is only Gawain, can you not be so fucking serious?" ”

"Okay, okay." Farov held his thick belly in his hand again, but Gawain was only carefully holding the brand new two-handed moth-headed battle axe that had been distributed to him from the palace armory, "Since our people went to sea, the Danes have gone west, the Swedes have gone east, and the Norwegians have not gone anywhere, they have only plundered the craggy shores lined with pine forests. ”

"Fart, fart!" A group of fiery red-haired Norwegian warriors in the team began to curse.

"Although I am from Upland, Sweden, my family came to Ireland two hundred years ago with courage and skill, but Ireland has already been settled by other Viking families, so I have to continue to Iceland, you must know that Iceland is full of fire-breathing dragons, monks living in grottoes, and giants in the ocean who kill passers-by. But my ancestors overcame all this, slew the dragons, defeated the giants, and of course the monks were robbed by us, and then sat bare-bottomed on the ships and drove them out of Iceland - may Allah bless them all alive now. Farov stroked his belly, smug, "In addition, everyone knows that the Varyags, no, the whole Viking tribe is prevalent in the rule that whoever touches the newly discovered land first on a warship is the king of the newly discovered land, and the rest must become his servants!" At that time, when the bow of the ship was already braving the waves, the great and extraordinarily large waves of the ocean, and no one could survive the waves, and washed up on the shores of Iceland, many brave and clever warriors were already preparing to leap down and become the king of Iceland, and my ancestor was even wiser - he raised his axe, cut off his left hand at once, and then threw his left hand on the shore with a whizz, and he became the first king of Iceland. ”

"Bragging, yesterday you boasted that you had been to the Tree of Igdrasil, and that you had climbed along the roots of the tree to a hell full of fire!" The fighters below didn't buy it and began to dismantle it.

But Farov squinted his eyes and was unmoved, and he continued, "So in memory of my ancestors, and the noble and great blood of the Farov family, our family has used the red hand as its banner for generations, and my shield is smeared with this totem!" Then he raised his oak-clad iron shield and showed it to Gawain, but Gawain didn't move at all, "This silly boy was absolutely stunned by me. ”

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Soon, the guards of the Varangian shield on the school grounds were divided into two groups, one carrying large shields and spears, and the other using two-handed battle axes, carrying out fierce and realistic offensive and defensive simulation drills, and some of the more junior ones were training in changing formations and marching on the roads of the camp - these drills were more in the tradition of Byzantine Rome, and they had to follow the customs when entering the country.

As a new recruit, Gawain's task was simple - to stand under the flag and practice the most basic military postures, and Farov was obliged to tell him some simple combat regulations.

"You don't have to work with other squads, just be my own soldier." In fact, in his heart, Farov still recognized and valued Gawain, "It's too late to change your original strange swordsmanship, so I'll give you some of the simplest ones, because Your Majesty has sent a token, and in five days, our detachment must go to Jukuntina's palace to receive an order." ”

After saying that, Farov asked Gawain to hold his left hand at the end of the handle of the tomahawk, which was a slightly curved wooden handle, which was easier to hold and not easy to get rid of in the fierce and chaotic melee combat; Hold your right hand at the "place of three sevens", that is, the place where you are at the end of the tail "three" and the axe blade "seven"; "Keep your eyes level at your right hand, and straight ahead, not the blade of your axe, or you won't be able to cut any enemy!"

The blade of the axe was slightly on his right shoulder, and his hands struggled to hold it evenly, "This is the gesture of the guards to start fighting, and it is also a necessary ceremonial posture when receiving the emperor's order." ”

Then, Farov raised a huge round shield and hung the shoulder strap on Gawain's shoulders to his waist, and in this way hung the shield on Gawain's back, "Why don't you use the little belt here and wrap it around your hand?" ”

"Silly boy, this tomahawk has to be wielded with both hands, so you don't have a free arm to hold a shield." Farov explained.

"Then why don't you carry the shield, so that you can reduce the weight, this chain mail and this shield are not easy to move freely." Gawain grumbled and questioned.

"You have to use the weight of the double-headed axe to kill, not blindly try to swing it, so you may be exhausted before you kill a person! Remember, the sports moth head axe must be heavy, fierce, and patient. Also, this shield is not a silly boy to defend against enemy attacks, it is a guard against our bows and arrows. ”

At this time, the question mark in Gao Wen's heart is even greater.

Farov explained that the Roman emperor preferred lightly armed archers to strike at the enemy, but he issued a battle doctrine that required the Varangian Guard to serve as the first line of guard. As a result, in the Battle of Durazo, when the enemy's cavalry attacked, we had to close our battle lines, block the cavalry of the Norman bandits, and protect the vulnerable archers; And when the enemy's infantry came up and behind, we had to get out of the way and let the emperor's archers come forward and shoot arrows. As a result, after two or three rounds, more guards were wounded by their own bows and arrows than in the enemy's battles, so the emperor later issued this compensatory order - when the war began, the soldiers of the Varangian guards hung the large round shields of the Greek style behind them to resist the bows and arrows of both the enemy and the enemy.

Soon, Farov's training was immediate: Gawain, who was standing under the Red Hand team, was very skillful and solemn in holding the tomahawk, standing straight, and then he was able to bow down and tilt the tomahawk forward in a very standard chopping position.

"I need the kind of elongated Iris' shield that the Normans used to do." As a result, at the end of the exercise, Gawain suddenly made this request, "This kind of Greek round shield cannot effectively protect against arrows that hit the legs. ”

His request stirred up a chord of the barracks, both veterans and soldiers in the prime of life alike were surprised - for decades the Varangian Guard had used this shield, and the royal armoury workshops had issued it, and the Romans had always been proud of their weapons, and the Guards considered this large shield covered with iron or copper to be much better than the small wooden round shield they had used in their homeland - how could this recruit make such a ridiculous request?