The Cave Monastery is an important Monastery in the Kiev region; its founder, Antony, dug a cave and practiced asceticism there alone decades ago, and now the number of monks has reached over a hundred.
The monks carved out rooms in the caves to serve as monastic cells, where they refined their minds and thoughts.
Many personnel within the Rus' Church came from this Monastery, and even the current Metropolitan originated from here, making its importance to the Rus' Church unquestionable.
When Prince Rostislav arrived at the Cave Monastery with his army, he saw the famous hill and the villages below it.
Although monks are supposed to cultivate the land and live by their own labor, which they indeed do, due to the presence of the Monastery, nearby farmers and devout believers spontaneously gathered below the Monastery, forming settlements.
Later, the Grand Prince, with a grand gesture, directly assigned these farmers who had gravitated towards the Monastery to the Monastery, allowing them to support the monks with their taxes.
However, even with their needs met, the Cave Monastery still maintained its austere and rigorous style.
The monks continued to participate directly in labor and taught the farmers the agricultural techniques they had mastered, helping them achieve better harvests; in this process, the farmers were gradually influenced by the monks' discipline.
Now, due to the threat of the Polovtsian army, the gates of the village below the Monastery are tightly shut, and vigilant militiamen are visible everywhere on the wooden walls; these young men clumsily wield weapons and don armor as they stand guard.
However, outside the gate, an army composed of peasant soldiers was waiting for Prince Rostislav's arrival, led by Theodosius, the Abbot of the Cave Monastery.
"Thank you very much for your help, Abbot."
After riding forward and speaking with Abbot Theodosius, Prince Rostislav learned that this army was prepared for him; these 600 militiamen from the Cave Monastery would join his army.
Among these people, there were even dozens of Nomads; the Prince only learned upon inquiry that these were grassland wanderers taken in by the Abbot.
After encouraging them to convert to Christian, the Abbot allowed them to stay in the Monastery to do hauling work.
Most importantly, the Abbot also provided a large amount of food and weapons, as well as the carts that Prince Rostislav had been struggling to collect, which can be said to have solved their urgent needs.
"It is merely our duty, son of Vladimir; your father frequently aided our Monastery, and now it is time to repay him."
Abbot Theodosius replied to Prince Rostislav with a serious expression; this Bishop was a strict man, evident from his stern eyes and neat attire.
His calloused hands indicated that the Abbot frequently participated in labor and production himself.
However, looking at his stern appearance, it is difficult to imagine that he had selflessly helped pagans and encouraged them to convert to the great God.
"This is the Scribe we have assigned to you; his name is Nestor."
Theodosius pulled a somewhat timid young man forward and brought him before Prince Rostislav.
"Greetings to you, Lord."
The young man saluted the young Prince Rostislav under the Abbot's authority.
"Nestor? A Scribe? This is truly very kind of you, Abbot."
Prince Rostislav looked at the timid young man, his words a mixture of surprise and joy; although this person was so young now, he knew of his future achievements.
This person would become the author of the first Rus' chronicle, The Primary Chronicle; of course, this still very green young man did not yet know the accomplishments he would achieve.
After obtaining the army provided by the Cave Monastery, the Prince's army exceeded a thousand men, and with these thousand, Prince Rostislav continued his advance.
These peasant soldiers provided by the Cave Monastery had lived with strict monks for a long time, so they generally had a sense of discipline, which pleased Prince Rostislav; this was very rare, as the soldiers he had encountered before were all ones who needed to be restrained with a whip.
The Prince still remembered how helpless he felt when he first led troops and faced those lawless soldiers; in the end, it was his uncle Vishata who came to the rescue, using a whip to discipline these men, preventing the situation from deteriorating.
However, in terms of war experience, these people were complete raw recruits; their posture when holding spears was no different from holding farm tools, and their walk looked entirely like that of farmers.
Moreover, many people still harbored some fantasies about war derived from songs, which made Prince Rostislav sigh.
But it was also normal, for before experiencing war, people always had some inexplicable romantic fantasies about this beast that ravaged the world, until the beast devoured them, and they awakened in a pool of blood, but by then it was often too late.
Most of these farmers were equipped with padded armor, and they held knives, axes, and spears, as well as javelins and shields; these were the equipment provided by the Monastery, many of which were manufactured by residents organized by the Monastery, specifically to deal with today's situation.
Some of the shepherds who tended sheep for the Monastery were excellent slingers, but their simple and honest appearance showed that they were completely unaware of how deadly they were.
Sometimes, looking at these shepherds, the Prince couldn't help but wonder inwardly if there was any essential difference between a lord and a shepherd.
However, these philosophical questions only troubled him for a while; ultimately, he had to focus on reality.
During the daily marches, Prince Rostislav and his personal guards would drill these farmers and teach them how to form wagon laagers for battle; the sides of those carts were fitted with shields to act as barricades, and the Prince had spent no small amount of effort on these things.
The wagon laager was not unfamiliar in this land; the Pechenegs were accustomed to forming large wagon trains for mobile warfare, and the steppe and surrounding peoples were familiar with such tactics, which was precisely the first choice for infantry to counter Nomads when at a disadvantage in numbers.
Upon discovering a large contingent of Nomad cavalry, the Prince would immediately order his subordinates to build a wagon laager with the carts and defend within it.
To defend this wagon laager well, he also specifically brought several cartloads of arrows, precisely to provide enough ammunition for the archers when the time came.
The wagon laager method also had its flaws; namely, Prince Rostislav's unit was too small.
If the large Nomad army launched a full-scale attack, pressing forward regardless of casualties, then he would certainly be annihilated in battle.
But fortunately, his mission was not to challenge a massive Nomad army, but to scout, gain useful information, or achieve some accomplishments.
The Cave Monastery also sent about ten crossbows, which was a heavy gift; as a Monastery with close ties to the Imperial Capital and the Church, obtaining about ten novelties from the Imperial Capital (for Rus') was naturally not a problem.
These crossbows were priceless in Rus', and apart from the Cave Monastery, no other place could produce so many crossbows.
The advantage of crossbows was that they only required a little training; any farmer, no matter how inexperienced, could become a qualified crossbowman if they could draw the string, and crossbows were extremely powerful, making them highly suitable for dealing with heavily armored cavalry.
Prince Rostislav selected about ten reliable men from the infantry to use these crossbows, thus adding a long-range strike force to his army, and crossbowmen were very effective against horse archers.