Rise of Rurik

Yin'ermen Lake is really a big lake, and the area around it can also be reclaimed into good acres of land.

There are many rivers flowing into this place. With it as the center, a radius of 100 kilometers belongs to its water system.

A small river passes through the traditional residence of Calf Manor and flows into Lake Inelmen. The locals call it Wallonda River. Its main river channel has an average width of twenty meters. Because of its extremely flat geographical location, the river is shallow enough that people can even wade through it in some areas. There is a lot of sand and mud on the bottom of the river, and the water flow rate is still slow even in the wet season. Both sides of the river are always soaked by the river water. The dense reeds and riverside grass form a very sharp contrast with the nearby forest area.

Compared with other farms, Calf Manor is just like its name. This farm with a small population is a great oddity in the traditional Yin Ermen Slavic community. They are not very willing to farm, but are more willing to feed cattle and rely on animal husbandry to make a living. Compared with others, since their farmland is not much, they are less bound by land.

Farmland is like an invisible shackle. People who are used to farming and eating wheat have been tamed by wheat, and they generally will not give up their current lifestyle.

Niu Calf Manor chooses to live a life of herding cattle and guarding farmers supplemented by growing wheat. Not that the whole village likes this.

It's all about their unfortunate geography - too many trees.

In the past, relying on extremely limited iron tools, it really took a lot of labor to cut down a big tree and pull out the roots.

Their population is too small to compete with those large farms. Since they are unwilling to escape into the forest to survive, they can only find another way in the fertile riverside area.

In the old days, they paid tribute of dairy products and leather to the Rus in Sorgon and the Pine Needle Estate, the overlord of the Lake District.

Now a new era has arrived. Rus has included the entire Yin Ermen Lake area into the core ruling area. King Rurik is a wise ruler. The Calf Manor, which had not been prosperous since ancient times, entered a period of population expansion. As the Ostara people who were better at raising cattle moved in with cattle from Varyag, the Calf Manor also began to develop their livestock industry in terms of cattle raising.

However, the constant trouble is that there are still too many local trees.

Raising cattle requires qualified pastures. The pastures in the lakeside area are already trivial. Especially on the west bank of the lake, pastures have been transformed into farmland, which has greatly reduced the development space for calf manor.

They had no complaints, as they had in the past.

They have their own way of doing things, which is voting with their feet. Boyarwski of the manor is already old, and others are old and confused, or in fact he has no choice.

The only way to raise more cattle is to find qualified pastures where the cattle can graze freely. Of course, grass-fed cattle do not grow as fast as grain-fed cattle eating oats, and currently few people have the luxury of feeding cattle wheat. It is impossible for them to compete with anyone for pasture. They can only search for suitable pasture spontaneously, hoping that a large open space will suddenly appear in the forest and be covered with green grass.

The latter is a kind of dream. When they heard from the Pecheneg people who came from afar that there was an endless grassland in the far south, the shock and confusion were instantly written on their faces, and even jealousy emerged.

It can be said that animal husbandry is a kind of alienated agriculture. Cattle and sheep are equivalent to moving farmland. People get the products they need from these "farmland". So raising one cow requires a lot of grass, and raising a thousand cows requires a huge pasture.

The optimal solution is to organize manpower to drive away the growing herd of cattle and move upstream along the Varonda River.

People ride in bullock carts and hold whips to drive the cattle. The cattle eat all the way, and the villagers carry various equipment for tents to set up camp at any time.

Of course, the Calf Manor has its own permanent settlement along the river, but during the warm summer periods in recent years, their lifestyle has become more and more like that of nomads.

The cattle were driven along the river to graze, and what was visible to the naked eye was that each cow had a full belly after eating. Cows also produce a large amount of cow dung, and the dry and hard dung cakes are collected and used as firewood.

They were grazing seasonally and had been traveling upstream along the river without worrying about getting lost. So a few years ago, the cattle herders who ventured into areas far upstream discovered a large piece of flat land without forest. It was like discovering gold on the flat land!

But is that really flat land?

The cattle herder hurried back to the farm to inform everyone he met of his great discovery, followed by a detailed inspection by Jian Yong in the village.

It soon became clear that it was not flat land, but a large swamp. It is inappropriate to say that it is a pure swamp and muddy land, or that there are a large number of pools and mud pits scattered on the flat land, and all kinds of grass are growing wildly.

People long for a huge and hard-soiled grassland for stable grazing. Perhaps this is a luxury. However, this swampy flat land still has great value. After all, there is really no grazing land more suitable for the calf manor.

Calf Manor calls this place "the swamp", which is not an appropriate name. To be fair, there is still a lot of hard and grassy land here. People still call it "swamp", "Balota" in the local language, and the settlements here are called "Balotawo".

Balotawo is the summer cattle grazing base of the Calf Manor. It is only 30 kilometers away from the farm by the river. The seemingly ridiculous distance doesn't matter to the locals. They have long been accustomed to hiking. The villagers can look thin, but their endurance has long been trained to be strong.

The entire calf farm, including the newborn babies, barely has 300 people. The limited population faces thousands of cows. Therefore, most of the property of the farm is actually shared by the whole village. As a boyar, the Usky family cannot monopolize it, even if His eldest son, a cavalryman, brought back a large amount of loot and wanted to share it with everyone. Because of the relationship, the people on the farm are all relatives, and Boyar's eldest son also had to reward his relatives out of emotion.

Therefore, the summer cattle grazing base has a long official name, the full name is "Barlotava on the Valonda River". As many as fifty people live here temporarily. Most of them are young and strong, and they are also responsible for taking care of most of the cattle on the farm. sheep.

They had to figure out where the area was on hard flat land and where there were mud pits covered by water and grass, to make sure the cattle wouldn't get stuck in the mud pits and drown.

This place has an idyllic scene, just a whole swampy flatland. Its water system is obviously very close to the main channel of the Reed River (Luga River), and the people of the Calf Manor also know that there is a rather wide river continuing to the west. The rivers have no waterway connection with each other.

So some cattle herders imagined that if there was a waterway between the Wallonda River and the "big river" to the west, wouldn't it be possible for a small boat to continue exploring at a low cost? It would be great if a large piece of flat land was discovered.

Unfortunately, their population is still too small, and they are not like the Varangians who have the spirit to abandon some home adventures. It's not that each other is better or worse. In fact, both of them choose a lifestyle that they recognize.

No, the Varangians they were interested in miraculously arrived!

However, it was said that the Karl Brand team who entered the Reed River expedition unexpectedly encountered children from the Novgorod area on the river bank. It was also a miracle for them.

Except for the little boy who was herding the cows, there was no other living person to be seen. The whole team stopped the boat and docked, including the ten little Savok girls, and set foot on the swamp.

Two children were driving the calves back with small whips. They were innocent and twirling the whips and jumping around, but they seemed unwilling to talk to adults.

Karl asked several times before an older child said, "This is called Barlotta. Let's go to a place with many tents first. You and my parents can tell you."

"Aren't you going to your Calf Manor? I know your leader's name is Uski. Is he... okay?" Karl tried to get closer.

"That's the old man. He's very good, but he took his two grandsons to Novgorod. Are you really going to see the king too? It's not too late to go now. Because..."

"What's wrong?" Karl became alert.

"I heard that the king is going to New Roseburg. Since you are coming from New Roseburg, why don't you stay in New Roseburg? In this way, you can see the king soon."

The boy was a bit garbled, but what he said contained important information.

The whole team followed closely behind the two boys and the herd. The boy as the guide shouted again: "There are some bad mire here. If you fall into it, you might drown."

"Is it very safe as long as I follow you?" Karl asked again.

"That's right. Our Calf Manor has already surveyed this large swampland. It's clear where it is suitable for grazing cattle and where not to go."

The child was really speaking the truth. Carl was very pleased and called on his friends to hold the Ross flag hanging on the tree branch high to avoid any misunderstanding. Karl already had an idea in his mind. He felt that he could replenish supplies at the so-called Balotavo, exchange the large amount of goods he carried with the locals for some food, and then immediately set off for Novgorod.

They actually walked a long distance, six kilometers in total.

The cowherd boys had already mastered iron feet at a young age. They were not tired, but Carl's team was already complaining repeatedly. It's not that this old Russian expedition team is not strong enough. It has been a heavy burden to carry important cargo on the shoulders. It is also because such a journey can be described as a kind of torture for the ten little Savok girls. The whole team persisted, and finally saw the tent in the distance, feeling as excited as seeing home.

So in the small riverside tent area of ​​Balotawo, the cattle that had been let out had been driven back, and a large number of cattle simply knelt down on the grass to rest in the sunset.

Iron pots and pottery urns were set up, and the people who stayed there cooked wheat and vegetables on the spot and cooked lake porridge to enjoy. It is paired with grilled fish, cheese and even freshly squeezed milk.

They saw the sudden appearance of Rose's flag in this intertwined world of orange and dark green, as well as a team that was constantly thinking about it, and the leader's standard Rose jersey.

what does that mean?

All the casual people got up, and even the guys who were sleeping in the tent and waiting for dinner quickly changed their clothes and got out.

After a while, a historic contact began.

Someone asked bluntly: "You are indeed Russians. You came from the west? How is this possible? How did you get here?"

"Of course it's by boat." Karl said casually.

"Take a boat? Where's your boat?" That's all. The people gathered around began to talk in a hurry, and all kinds of questions came one after another, making the Ross explorer who had tired legs, feet and sore shoulders miserable.

Karl showed a rare timidity: "Let us have a good rest. I smell you are cooking, can you prepare some for us? We...will pay."

Upon hearing "will pay", the curious people's faces were filled with intense joy for a moment.

Karl and Brand really paid the fine Frank silver coins, and the villagers who received the money were very honest and rewarded the explorers with a large amount of wheat porridge. At night, people gathered around to hear what these explorers experienced along the way. The children from Calf Manor also chatted with the children from the expedition team, and pointed at the Savok children as if they were looking at fools.

Summer grazing is always accompanied by boredom, and the people who stay in Balotawo are eager to chat with outsiders.

On the one hand, he was eager to chat to kill boredom, and on the other hand, he was eager to understand his situation and the way to Novgorod.

After all, the blood of the five old Ross families headed by Karl is extremely pure, and the children they bring are all as pure blond as King Rurik. Unlike the Romans, who had black hair as the most noble, in the eyes of the Slavs, because the powerful Varyag warriors were all blond, pure gold hair was the most noble.

After some introduction, Carl explained his former identity as the Second Flag Troop, and told about the decisive battle he participated in to wipe out the old Pine Needle Manor.

After going back and forth, they discovered that each other was the comrade-in-arms who fought side by side ten years ago, so there was nothing to hide anymore.

So what is shocking is that the nameless river in the west, which was discovered later than this grazing swamp, actually winds up and eventually flows into the sea, and its mouth is not far from Fort New Rose.

Local Slavs have always believed that the Varyags have almost only one waterway connecting to the sea, and that is the north-south Volkhov River.

Unexpectedly, there is another passage hidden in the unknown western forest area? The simple villagers did not think too much. They only knew that if the Russians continued to make more use of this waterway, then they would meet more wealthy old Russians in Balotavo in the future, so they would bring some agricultural products here. Wouldn't it be profitable to wait? Their thoughts generally stayed here, and they were completely unconcerned with the ambitions of the Ross explorers.

It was a pleasure to rest in the settlement called Balotavo, but the whole team was a little disappointed to hear that it would take some time to reach the Calf Manor along the river called Valonda.

It is precisely because the old Russian men from five families were ordered to participate in the war ten years ago. They have a clear understanding of the geographical location of the Calf Manor relative to Lake Yinelmen, and they know that even if they arrive at the manor, they will need to take a boat to Novgorod. It will take some time.

There will be a long journey waiting for everyone, but no one will complain about the hardships of the journey.

Karl said this to the cattle herders: "Send a suitable guide and use your cattle cart to take our group to the Calf Manor, and then find a ship to transport us all to the big city. I want to report all the expedition findings to the king. , Your Majesty will definitely reward me. You, as collaborators, will also be rewarded."

Soon, self-recommended people came forward, they were willing to be guides purely for money.

In this way, Carl's team had enough to eat and drink in Balotawo, and finally had a good sleep. The next morning, they divided into five oxcarts, took the goods they carried, and rushed along the riverside grassland to the lake where the Valonda River enters. mouth.

This was probably the last land journey, and Karl and Brand kept observing the surrounding scenery. The two of them could conclude that although the Wallonda River was not very wide and the water level was shallow, based on their experience, it would be no problem to float a standard dragon-head long boat on such a river.

The biggest problem was how to get the two longboats parked on the banks of the Reedy River to the Wallonda River.

The swamp caught Carl's attention, and an idea emerged.

"Why doesn't your Majesty organize people to use the natural mud ponds and pools in the swamp to dig out a river channel to connect the two rivers? This is no better than using an ax to cut out a connection between Novorosberg and Novgorod in the forest. Is the path of Germany reliable? The overall flow of the Reed River is very gentle, but it is much better than the violent Neva River and Volkhov River." He thought so, intending to use this to advise the king, and believed that since the king needed a second road and will definitely accept the proposal to build a canal.

(The shortest straight-line distance between the upper reaches of the Luga River and the western shore of Yin Ermen Lake is only 30 kilometers, the shortest distance between the upper reaches of the Luga River and the upper reaches of the Msaga River, which flows into the lake on the west bank, is only 15 kilometers, and the shortest distance between the upper reaches of the Luga River and the upper reaches of the Msaga River, which flows into the lake on the west bank, is only 15 kilometers. The upper reaches of the Dahe River are only seven kilometers long)