After a brief greeting and intimacy with his wife, Rostislav returned to his palace, with Leo immediately following him, as he had a large number of documents to deal with.
Although Rostislav had enfeoffed many meritorious officials, these enfeoffments had not yet been implemented, which was why Rostislav was in such a hurry to return to his palace; a large number of documents were waiting for him to sign and stamp.
Moreover, Rostov Old City and New City had to be given equal privileges, which was a huge project.
Although the Prince had made many preparations, he still worked until night, because the Prince had to carefully read every document, and even compare maps.
If he were to stamp mindlessly, it would be a matter of time before he was hollowed out, especially now that he could still handle all affairs of the territory, after all, the power to enfeoff and bestow was the source of power.
After finishing these tasks, the Moscow Prince had to attend the evening celebration banquet, so he hurriedly changed his clothes and rushed to the venue.
While the Prince was still busy with the approval and organization of documents, a simple market was spontaneously set up by Moscow citizens in the open space in front of the Moscow Cathedral, which was largely completed but not yet named.
How simple was this market? In reality, it was just two wooden poles with a canopy, then those who wanted to sell goods would just lay them on the ground, and then sit and wait for buyers.
This market was bustling during the day, full of people, bargaining, and hawking sounds.
After all, whenever a battle ended, soldiers would obtain a large amount of spoils of war from the corpses and enemy camps.
Therefore, after obtaining so many spoils of war, most of the warriors wanted to quickly sell these items for money, because they were numerous and heavy.
And now, Moscow city was full of soldiers with their bundles packed with spoils of war, so such a market naturally became lively.
However, naturally, what was sold were things that the soldiers considered worthless, and the prices were also very low.
In a few cases, there were very good things, and since that person was selling those things in such an occasion, it meant that he must have been in great need of money, and the price would be much lower than the market price.
So, this was a good opportunity to find a bargain; if you looked carefully, you could still find good stuff in this simple market.
So when this "market" opened, whether Moscow residents or soldiers, everyone was digging for treasures inside; as long as you were willing to search and had good eyesight, you could always find useful things.
Such a story already existed: a merchant found a seemingly ordinary ring, and after a little polishing, he discovered it was actually an expensive ruby ring, whose value instantly increased tenfold.
However, today, this market was completely "removed" to make space for tonight's banquet.
In front of the Cathedral—which was the original location of the good camp—dozens of bonfires had been lit, and a large number of simple tables and chairs had been piled up.
A huge tent was also set up opposite the Cathedral.
The seats in the square were packed, piled high with black bread, large chunks of roasted meat and roasted fish, and rounds of cheese, with large barrels of kvass next to each table.
Anyone in Moscow could participate in this grand banquet; this was the Grand Prince's generosity, and also a cheer and joy for victory.
Cheers for the Prince echoed through the sky, and people wolfed down the food; even Moscow citizens could not easily feast like this.
Naturally, the Prince and his close retainers would not sit with the soldiers; their banquet hall was located inside the huge tent on a raised platform.
And below the platform were the tables for nobles, generals, and meritorious individuals; even Bulgar captives were given tables, and they filled every table to the brim, with better food on their tables than outside.
The food enjoyed here was wheat bread and wine, with wine coming from Moldavia in the south; Rostislav spent a lot of money to acquire these goods, but only with these things could the banquet be of sufficient standard.
Steaming roasted venison ribs and whole bear paws were served together, along with fried fish roe; this was a custom the Prince brought from Kiev, and was considered the Kiev style in everyone's eyes.
And like all banquets Rostislav had experienced, after everyone had eaten and drunk their fill, all sorts of wild antics began to unfold.
The Prince saw his younger brother Yang pulling two close companions and drinking wildly; these three, of similar age, got drunk and began to tease the serving girls in the venue, even lifting their skirts in public, just like children.
Boyile directly jumped onto the table and started dancing, his cheeks extremely red, his face full of joy; the former chiliarch stood in a half-crouch, then his legs danced wildly, and a large group of nobles cheered around the clearly drunken general.
His relatives Meshko and Edward gathered together, chatting and drinking, both with smiles on their faces; their relationship had become very good since the raid on the Bulgars.
Gvaran, the Captain of the Guard who usually had a rigid face, finally smiled, even drinking wildly in the manner of a Northerner; this was the first time the Prince had seen the Captain of the Guard reveal his Northern heritage.
The sound of heroic songs came from outside the tent, and the Prince heard the words within, seemingly praising the story of a brave warrior who overcame many difficulties to travel from Northeast Rus' to Kiev.
The Prince drank the precious wine, looking at the joyful scene before him, but his mind was filled with complicated state affairs.
The victory over Bulgar undoubtedly consolidated his power in Northeast Rus', so now he had to make good use of this opportunity to properly consolidate his territory.
Given the failure of the silver mine project, the only path he could take to accumulate strength was to enfeoff territories and strengthen control, raising a large army through exploitation and oppression.
But this would take time, a lot of time, and a lot of money.
Fortunately, after this war, the cities of the Northeast had practically submitted, and he only needed to send nobles or officials to the cities to take over power.
Moreover, he could also extract a large sum of wealth from the Bulgars, and this money would be enough to bolster his treasury.
But the countryside was troublesome, very troublesome.
If Yang's news about the veles priest was correct, then his feudalization plan would face serious obstacles...
And in the future, Rus' would have several more conflicts, and he would have to prepare for the future.
But let problems come if they must; Rostislav was never a person who feared problems, otherwise he would not have made it to today.
The Prince thought this, and drained the contents of his cup.