Rise of Rurik

Many of the people in front of them were short, and most of the weapons they held were bone spears. These people are extremely lacking in iron tools, and their poverty is clearly written on their faces.

Explorer Carl remained alert. He asked his wife and children to disembark, and took some "gifts" from the ship.

A small cloth bag was being fiddled with by Karl. He unzipped the rope at the top and showed off the white velvet stuff inside.

The old leader of the village looked at the white thing, and his aging eyes suddenly glowed.

"Ah! Is this really salt?"

"I'll give it to you." After saying that, Karl handed over the entire cloth bag.

The old leader personally tasted it and found that it was salty and bitter. After all, this was crude sea salt, and there were still a large amount of magnesium chloride and other impurities that had not been removed.

It doesn't matter if there are impurities. Many people have forgotten the taste of salt in this isolated small village hidden by a forest and lake. But out of instinct, just tasting the taste of salt is like an electric shock that shocks the whole brain.

The old leader burst into tears: "You... came from a distant sea? You brought such a treasure."

Karl smiled. He wanted to explain but suddenly shut up.

The sea? Is it really that far away?

It has only been seven days since the five families entered the mouth of the river. This is not because they were rushing so hard, but because the fleet stopped and stopped for a lot of time and was busy hunting birds and beasts. What if Working hard, Karl estimated that he could reach the village in three days.

Don’t the people in the village know how to build rafts? Can't you leave the village and go to the ocean to boil your own salt? Even if the salt content of the seawater in the Gulf of Finland is extremely low, it is still better than being surprised and crying by seeing salt today.

He estimated that the people in this village may have an inexplicable fear of the sea, or that they were content to live in a small area beside this forest lake.

Carl displays iron hand axes and daggers, and even a double-pointed, long-handled iron harpoon used for fishing.

He claims that these can be used as gifts, but of course there is a price to pay for the gifts.

"I'm willing to trade with you. Do you... have anything you can trade with me?"

In the entire village, only the old leader has ancient memories. The village is indeed isolated from the world. The last time a stranger arrived, the leader was still young. There are few old people in the village, which means that people here are short-lived. The people holding bone spears put down their weapons and waited for the leader's decision.

"We have some hides from forest beasts. And some dried fish."

"Forest beast? What is that?"

The leader can send someone to get it, and in a moment, a small wild boar skin with its bristles not yet shaved off will be displayed.

Wild boar skins are not popular in Russia at all. This is because wild boars always dig into the mud to create a hard mud shell that makes their skin as hard as iron. It is too troublesome to hunt wild boars to obtain pig skins. Hunters can also collect tusks and bristles. In the past, everyone had no choice. The smell of wild boar was too strong and they had to endure the smell and grill it. Now there are obviously more choices. In terms of selling money alone, the economic value of catching bears or wild deer is higher. Otherwise Ross hunters who need to enter the forest do not want to take the risk of fighting wild boars.

The people in this village probably had no choice. It might be difficult for them to hunt a bear with their poor weapons. Many people holding spears would probably have no problem hunting a small wild boar.

So, what did Ross’s explorers need for the boar skin?

Karl couldn't hide his embarrassment: "This is wild boar skin. What else do you have besides this?"

The leader and his cronies and friends looked at each other in confusion. In fact, the answer was already ready to come out - people.

The most valuable thing a village has is its people. It is acceptable to them to trade some children as goods in exchange for important means of production.

They quickly discussed the results, and the leader replied calmly: "I can give you some children. I know that you will not hurt these children. They can be your slaves and do things for you."

Such an answer was something Karl never expected. He had indeed taken the initiative to conquer the village and kidnap the entire population as slaves to claim credit from the king. If he had the strength, he would definitely do this. As for whether the king will pardon the villagers' status as slaves, it is not his own consideration.

Karl decided to report what he saw today to the Governor of New Roseburg, and then a messenger reported the matter to the king. In the end, there was a high probability that the entire village would be incorporated, and the people who lived in isolation would eventually get out of the cage and contact the people outside.

"How many children can you give me?" he asked.

"At most. I...want your good things."

"That's fine."

Even so, Karl would not completely believe this village, so only one boat docked, and the other boat continued to watch.

Only the Karl family came ashore with many of their hunting tools to show off. After a while, the other party actually brought ten ignorant children.

The children were both boys and girls, all with dirty little faces, and their clothes were made of coarse cloth and leather, showing poverty and slovenliness to the naked eye. What's worse is that these children still have small white balls in their hair, which are actually insect eggs.

In this era, cats could be eliminated to eliminate the rat problem. Forest cats, which were once regarded as a source of precious leather, became small rat-hunting animals raised by families, and gradually gained value as pets.

It is difficult to avoid parasites such as lice and fleas. The way to deal with parasites is to bathe and wash clothes with soap.

The fastidious Ross family no longer have to catch fleas everywhere, but Carl still remembers the pain of being tortured by parasites.

If you really want to take in these little slaves, you have to quickly change their clothes and shave their hair that is full of insect eggs. In any case, there are no slave markets in the main cities of Rus. The king's personal attitude is essentially that he does not like the slavery system, and he publicly states that he does not support or oppose it, unless the slaves are from enemy prisoners of war, in which case he fully supports it.

There are also factors that work both up and down. After all, the old King Otto selected ten maids for Rurik. This incident caused a sensation in the entire fjord in Rus during the tribal era. Now those slaves have long been separated from their status as slaves, and each of them has become a female noble because they married the current king Rurik.

Karl himself was getting older and had no ambition to become a noble. As a person from Old Ross, my family has long lived a comfortable life in the kingdom society, so this expedition is fully equipped.

He put forward new conditions: "I just want a girl, it doesn't matter if she is younger."

"This...why is this?"

Karl smiled and hurriedly pulled his blond son over, who was also quite ignorant. He held his thin shoulders and raised his chin proudly: "My noble son needs some maids, and these maids will have to give birth to my son in the future." Son. How about it? Please remember our identity! We! But Ross from the northern world, we are very powerful. I advise you to do as I ask."

The old leader felt threatened. He was the well-informed person in the whole village. He still remembered that a long time ago, outsiders arrived here in similar boats, exchanged a few things and left. There were more explorers at that time, and the village would definitely suffer if there was a fight.

There were only two new explorers, and the old leader also saw the blond-haired woman and child for the first time. The language spoken by the other party was basically the same as his own, so the so-called Ross...

Although the old leader lacks understanding of the world outside the forest, he is also aware of the horrors outside. There is a very old legend circulating in this Savok village, because they are essentially a group of Finnish people who escaped from the Karelians. Several forces are of Finnish origin and are constantly fighting among themselves. Before Ross defeated the Karelia forces in one fell swoop, the forces had already completed the upgrade from chiefdom to tribal alliance, and it was not impossible to even upgrade to a feudal kingdom.

Some of the Savoks were forced to surrender to Karelia, while a few walked across the frozen Neva River and finally hid in the dense forests of the southern Gulf of Finland. The history of persecution turned into a legend, so much so that the wizard in the village kept hypnotizing himself, saying that there were many monsters outside the forest, scaring the entire village from going too far out of the settlement.

If the "blond foreigner" with the villagers in front of him can basically win, then the boats floating on the lake will leave. Young people may be confident, but the old leader has a clear understanding, fearing that the other party's companions will retaliate afterwards.

The transaction was carried out immediately. After all, the hand ax, which was already in the state of mild steel, had been quenched and was hard on the outside and soft on the inside, making it extremely easy to handle wood. Karl finally exchanged a bag of salt, five hand axes, and a harpoon for ten girls on the spot, basically taking away all the girls in the village who were five or six years old.

The nature of this Savok village is an armed immigrant group formed by many families who fled together a long time ago. Even if they settled here and lived a stable life, the high mortality rate of children forced each family to desperately try to have more children. They are not likely to get married among close relatives. Based on this situation, a child is not a problem for the family. After all, the probability of him growing up to ten years old is not high. Just like this, the overall size of the entire village was still maintained at only more than 200 people. This was not their intention. It was the harsh life that forced them not to expand their population.

Even five-year-old children are an important labor force. However, the production tools in Savok Village are too backward. Even fishing is done by digging puddles to lure fish, sealing them, draining them, and catching them because there is a lack of fish for fishing. hook.

If you start using iron tools, everything will be fine. Children in the village not only belong to their parents, but are the property of the entire village. Children are always at the mercy of adults until they reach adulthood. In a realistic sense, children cannot be counted as "people" in the concept of Savok villages. Trading children means losing ten labors, which is not a problem. The village can just give birth to more children. But iron tools are really rare!

The Carl family did not want to stay on the shore any longer. The ten dirty girls did not know what would happen in the future, so they were very obedient and were carried onto the semi-stranded ship.

As soon as they boarded the ship, Karl's wife asked her youngest son: "You go and choose the two you like, and they will be your wives from now on."

The idea of ​​a golden retriever boy is quite simple. He is still too young and doesn't care about maids. He just wants two playmates.

The reason there were ten girls was because there were five Ross families on this expedition, and each family took two. Carl felt that his arrangement was very fair. Besides, even if he has accumulated some wealth, his eldest son, who has already started a family and started a business, has already taken most of it. He wants to accumulate as much wealth as possible for his younger son, such as two maids.

Karl's family cannot afford to have ten maids, not to mention that if he does this, he will be criticized by his fellow villagers afterwards. As the saying goes, "Only the king can have ten maids at a time. What does your family want to do with this?"

The salt and iron were left on the shore, and a very special gift was given to the old chief free of charge.

Karl specifically asked: "Whenever you see a ship like ours again or someone in a robe like mine, show this flag. This way if there are any explorers coming in the future, we can still make some deals."

The special gift was the Ross flag. Karl did this very well. Any small tribe that surrendered to Ross would have a flag given by Ross. It was the surrenderer's obligation to display it to prove their surrender.

In this way, Karl can announce to his companions in a high-profile manner that the village surrenders to Ross by taking away the flag.

Brand watched the whole show and even waited impatiently. Unexpectedly, Old Karl also acted like a hero.

The exploration of the two long ships will continue. Even if there are many little girls on board, it is not a problem for everyone. It wasn't until nightfall when we were stationed ashore that the problem arose.

The fleet continued to search upstream along the long lake. Sensitive people discovered that the lake was not clean water, proving that the source of the river was still far away.

They lit a bonfire on the shore, and after collectively eating grilled fish, they began to deal with the dirty children.

The old clothes were tattered and had parasites, so the linen that was originally used as a tent was quickly cut into pieces and roughly made into robes with hemp rope for the ten children to put on. It's a pity that these children have been crying for a while, just because their hair full of parasites was shaved clean with a sharp dagger. Such a simple and crude method solved the parasite problem, but all of them became bald and looked depressed.

The expedition is still looking for the source of the river. Carl and Brand are not afraid. They have their own longboat as if they have everything. They relied on fishing and hunting to maintain their supplies, but with more than ten mouths on the ship, the consumption of supplies did increase.

Gradually, the river channel pointing to the southeast gradually turned due east, and then began to change to the northeast.

"Finally we can lower the sail." Overjoyed Carl took the lead in raising the sail.

The scene of raising the sail shocked the little girls on the boat. They didn't know what the blond "giant" was doing, so they saw him untie some hemp ropes and manipulate a very thick cable, and a huge cloth appeared.

They were so surprised that they hugged each other and opened their mouths. They also sighed at the huge blue patterns on the white linen cloth.

Compared with the traditional weighing sail, the Latin-style jib has a certain wing-like ability, which can create a pressure difference in the wind more easily. Such a good structure has become popular quickly, and the jib structure is absolutely the mainstream for all large and small ships built subsequently.

So the two longships hoisted their triangular sails, which were a mixture of various textile fibers. The cost of weaving a huge sail in one piece is very high. For cost-effective reasons, even the sails of Russia's large battleships are patchwork and stitched, but only close contact can see a large number of stitches.

There are two very long strips of blue cloth sewn on the sail, intertwined with each other. This is the eternal totem of the old Ross. As native Russians, Carl and Brand are very happy that their ship can represent Ross.

In a practical sense, two old friends took three other friends and formed an expedition team of five families to explore deep into this reedy river. This is a classic performance of the Vikings.

They went on adventures in order to gain wealth, and they also hoped to claim credit from the king after their expeditions were fruitful. After all, the nature of the royal pirate Spuyut is a highly-recruited explorer. It was well known in the old tribal days that this guy was a madman who traveled far away. The era of expansion gave great opportunities to people like Spuyut, and he did accomplish feats that were enough for others to follow.

Now, that guy is no longer young but has control of the entire Saaremaa Island, has become a noble of the kingdom, and has the right to organize fleets to enforce law in the southern Baltic Sea.

During the expedition, the five families could not help but think of the guy who was enjoying a happy life in Spuyut, and discussed with each other, "The king should admit our great discovery, and this river should at least be called the Reed River."

Taking advantage of the wind, the two ships continued to push northeastward on the gradually narrowing river channel. The surrounding environment is still dense with reeds along the river, with tall pine trees and other tree species mixed in on both sides.

Strangely, the forest gradually disappeared. Instead, a large area of ​​plains appeared on the east bank of the river. No! It looked like a watery meadow with wetlands sandwiched between it.

Even cattle herders!

right! Cattle herders.

Karl never expected that he could actually see a living person in the distance. He subconsciously stood up and shouted loudly to the figure that looked like a child in the distance, shouting: "Come to me quickly."

Brand, who was in the back boat, was really speechless and gave way at the top of his lungs: "Are you stupid? Can that person understand you?"

"Maybe you understand? Have a look!" Carl said with a smile on his face: "Look, that man is clearly driving towards us with his cattle."

"Ha! A miracle." Brand stopped talking nonsense and simply threw the anchor off the ship, temporarily stopping the entire longship in the river.

The two boats were motionless, and the five families watched with wide eyes as the cattle herder gradually approached. They all had a hunch that the people approaching could probably understand Norse.

Two little boys were driving six cows of different sizes. The horns of these cows had been chopped off. Each cow had probably eaten too much grass and had an absurdly round belly. The two children were jumping around without any fear at all. Carl saw that, unlike the black-haired villagers who spoke Finnish he met a few days ago, the two children had brown hair. Looking at their clothes, they looked more and more suspicious. A familiar feeling.

"Hey! Do you understand what I say?" Karl continued to ask.

Just listen to a child reply in a sharp voice: "I understand! How did you get here? You! You are not the one who went to explore the Solon River!"

The reply was indeed in Norse, but the pronunciation was a bit strange, especially the Slavic nasal sound. The most important thing is the content of the reply. Karl and others heard it clearly. Although the other party was just two children, they must have dealt with Ross.

The children herding the cows were not afraid at all. To them, the raised sails and matching patterns meant that the people who suddenly emerged from the creek were their own. They drove the cattle to the riverside and smiled at the crowd of people waiting on the boat.

Karl was more aware of the problem of the scene, so he asked a soul question: "Where is this place? Do you live nearby?"

"This is Novgorod. Strange, don't you know? You are such fools. Oh, we come from the Calf Manor, uncle, you see we are still herding cattle." The boy's words were full of childlike innocence. is naughty, and the content must be true.

Hearing the content, Karl and others were simply shocked.

"Impossible...impossible?!" Karl denied subconsciously, "How could this be Novgorod?"

The child pouted with disdain on his face: "How about you park the boat here and come with us now." After that, the child looked at the sun again: "We should have returned to the village, why don't you come with us. Our Calf Manor has always been very close to White Tree Manor...oh no, Novgorod."

A slip of the tongue revealed the information. Originally, Novgorod was defined by Old Rus as the entire area around Yin Ermen Lake. Now, with the expansion of White Tree Manor, Novgorod only refers to the city expanded by the manor. .

An answer is already available.

Karl looked at Brand, who looked stunned, and shouted: "Hey, don't be stunned! I think we may have found a second waterway leading to Novgorod."

"Really? It seems true?!"

"How about walking with the kids herding the cows? I think we have to meet the king in person. The king is in the city of Novgorod. Haha, the gods are blessing us. It's time to take credit! Let's go ashore."