Rise of Rurik

At first, the long boat arriving at the dock was no different from other fishing boats, except that there were more people on board and everyone looked staggered.

"How can you be so embarrassed when catching a fish? Did you fight with the big fish in the lake?" The old man who was leisurely at the dock asked casually while he was busy pulling the hemp rope.

The excited Hafen never thought that he would actually drift to the city of Ostara.

"We are not fishermen."

"It doesn't matter. What are you Russians doing here in the south? Do you want to bring some Novgorod goods yourself?"

Hafen knew that the old man was just chatting. This man was obviously from the Gran tribe, and he was probably assigned to the dock to help the ships dock because he was in decline.

People were getting off the boat one after another. It was the first time for young Gorm to come to Ostara, especially since he arrived in the form of Fantasy Rafting.

"I want to meet the local nobles." Hafen's words were quite direct.

The old man immediately became alert, "Our Duke is not here for the time being."

"But I have something important to report. Do I have to go back to Novgorod to report?"

"A big thing? What other big things can happen?" The old man paused his work and raised his wrinkled head, and continued to emphasize: "What other big things can happen."

"You...how do you think we got here?"

"It doesn't matter."

"It's very important. We set out from Mstisk to the East. We went to the Great Lake of the East, and ended up drifting to your Lovady River."

Although the old man is old, he is of pure Swedish origin. From just these few words he realized that this group of people had experienced something magical. The old man was impatient at first, but now his decaying eyes widened: "You guys? Did you go around in a big circle and take a new waterway?"

"Yes." Hafen smiled: "I didn't find the Volga River, but I found you. How about it? I want to have a good rest here."

Hafen's face was no younger than that of the old man, and young Gom had already landed. This boy didn't want to waste time. He leaned over rudely and urged, "Uncle! Don't wait any longer. If we can't rest here, we will go north immediately. I still want to see the king."

"You?" The old man looked at Gorm's clothes, especially the gold-plated badge hanging on his clothes. "Young man, are you a tax clerk?"

"It could be, but not now. I want to see the king, that's all."

"Really, but the king is in this city of Ostara. You have come to the right place."

"This is real?"

"Absolutely true."

Everything seemed to be directed by the gods, and young Gorm was very excited. He had sufficient evidence to prove it, so the cavalry who came to the dock urgently to investigate the situation easily determined Gom's identity.

After all, all scribes who were directly responsible to the king and were completely non-combatants had their own special attire and the most important badge.

Even Gorm wasn't completely unfamiliar to the cavalry. The Second Cavalry is too young, many of them are only 13 years old this year. Gorm went to school with them, but he was not good at fighting and had good intelligence, so he was chosen to be a scribe.

Even flag captain Brody knows this kid.

So Gom, accompanied by Brody personally, carried a package of extremely critical paper documents and went to the palace in Ostara to meet the king. At the same time, there was an old man who came, it was Hafen, a retired soldier from the Second Flag Team and now an explorer.

They are all from the Old Rus tribe and are Rurik's family, so it is natural to be polite to them. But Rurik gave them higher courtesy just because they brought magical expedition information. After listening to the brief description of the guard, Rurik couldn't calm down at all.

"If it is true, wouldn't it mean that we have discovered a new and faster transportation line? Wouldn't it be faster for us to expand our land in the east!"

Soon, Gorm and Hafen sat in front of Rurik.

Although it was embarrassing to meet the king in a slovenly appearance, Rurik did not feel uncomfortable at all.

After some pleasantries, Rurik went straight to the point. He pointed to the linen bag placed next to Gom: "You want to prove that you did float from the unknown river in the east. Is what is in the bag really evidence?"

Gorm bowed slightly. He was inevitably a little nervous when he saw the king. Fortunately, the king's attitude towards him was like an elder brother towards his younger brother.

"Yes. I have implemented your request. I will use these eyes to see as much as I can, and use these hands to record as much as I can. I don't dare to make any lies."

"Very good." Rurik nodded: "Submit the documents."

"As commanded."

The thick paper fell at Rurik's feet. He picked it up and scanned it with his eyes. Gradually, he read it carefully and frowned.

The more Rurik read, the more excited he became, because Gorm did take out a very solid "Voyage Record" and also made some charcoal sketches, which were also specially marked with some introductions.

The scene was very quiet for a time. Gorm held his chest high as he was sure that his work would satisfy the king, while Hafen seemed to be left to the side, staring blankly and wondering, and he became increasingly restless and bored as he sat.

Rurik looked at it for a while, then put down the last page with slightly trembling hands.

"Well done. The only flaw is that the writing is a bit sloppy."

At this moment, Gom was convinced that he had received Wang's approval: "I will continue to work hard to correct this shortcoming."

"You will do better, and I will reward you with a pound of silver coins immediately."

The seated Gom quickly stood up and saluted with a half-kneeling posture: "Oh! Thank you, Your Majesty."

"Excuse me, you deserve this. And... you are the recorder of this sailing expedition. You have made great achievements but you are not the biggest hero." Who is the real hero? Rurik looked at Hafen.

"Uncle Hafen." Rurik spoke very affectionately and looked kind, "You are the real hero."

"That's natural." After finally ending the damn embarrassment and feeling relaxed, Hafen sat cross-legged and subconsciously picked up his boots, expecting to receive a sum of money. "I have participated in all the wars. Now I am old, not too old to do anything."

"You did a good job! I will give you two pounds of silver coins immediately. I think..." Rurik's eyes became sharp: "I think we have found a new channel."

Two pounds of silver coins is indeed a lot, Hafen continued enthusiastically: "I think so too. I took the guys from Mstisk with the original intention of looking for the Volga River waterway you mentioned, but we struggled to enter Vienna through Lake Valdai. Lake Liye finally drifted here from the mouth of the magical river. You don’t know! My boat was almost destroyed in the rocks. It seems that it was blessed by the gods."

The old man is very laid-back and easy-going. He doesn't care about Rurik at all. After all, the two of them are distant relatives in the same tribe.

Rurik continued: "Gom's records are very solid, so that we can go back to the Veliya River against the river course. Even! Go to Lake Valdai to surprise the brothers who are exploring there."

Hafen stirred up his energy and said, "Are you going to disturb the Great Eastern Lake?"

"Just a thought."

"I advise you to think about it carefully. Now that you are the king, you should be cautious about adventures. I almost had an accident, but I don't like to hope that you will take risks."

"Forget it." Rurik shook his head: "I have been to the sea at the end of the world in the north, and I have nothing to fear. Besides, since I know the reasons for the risks, just pay attention to avoid them when the time comes. I will go there sooner or later. Look, this is very necessary, maybe we can still use this waterway, the winding Musta River is probably not as good as this new Hafen River."

Indeed, Rurik was already calling the newly discovered waterway after Hafen.

He wanted to go and have a look. It was just a whim at first, but after thinking about it for a while, he felt that it was extremely necessary to go and investigate immediately, and he wanted to take Beyathil with him, just for that promise.

The spelling of hjaveon can easily be simplified to yavon, which is finally pronounced as "yawen" consisting of only two simple syllables.

News of the explorers spread like wildfire and spread throughout the small city of Ostara very quickly. People talked about the major discoveries made by the Hafen expedition, because the locals have been following the Luo River in recent years. The main channel of the Vaji River is explored due south, and there is no urgent desire to explore the large number of tributaries.

Essentially, it comes from the fact that the principality of Ostara has too few hungry people. The vast majority of the newly added people are Slavic farmers, and their enthusiasm for cultivating and operating farmland is far greater than exploring.

When the name of the new river began to spread, people from Sweden such as the old Rus' guest fishermen, the people of Old Ostara, and the Glens could correctly pronounce the new river named after the old man Hafen.

The Slavs, who have the highest proportion of the local population, simply call it the Yavin River.

Rurik's initial guess was extremely correct. The Lovati River-Pola River-Yavin River waterway connects the city. Although the fact that the higher upstream is hindered by the fact of "climbing the Valdai Highlands" makes the river rapid and dangerous to navigation, it is not a big problem in nature.

Rurik is very optimistic, even a lot more imaginative.

He was not in a hurry to go to Veliky Luki, Vitebsk or even Polotsk in the south to see the results of Carlotta's expansion. There was no national war in Russia this year, and the domestic political affairs were settled. Rurik was quite happy. Plenty of time to go on an armed parade yourself.

You can go on a cruise anywhere, and you can even go all the way west to Lake Chude. You don't have to wait for a reply from the local messenger, and you have to take the cavalry in person to share the experience with the local chief who is said to be a Danish man named Gower. Xiang grand event.

Perhaps considering basic diplomatic etiquette, it is better to let the envoys who return in the spring report the news in person. Even if they send troops rashly without any malice, the existence of the cavalry regiment will make the de facto Danish-Pskov Krivich mixed tribe highly vigilance.

As for exploring the endless uninhabited forests and lakes in the west is another matter. Now, the entire huge highland area centered on Lake Valdai is precisely because it is an important geographical height and a factual water tower in the region. It became an area under the direct control of the king that Rurik must occupy immediately. It has an important strategic position. It is the back garden of Novgorod and is also used as an optional immigration point to carry the expanding population.

So, in this palace, Rurik specially held a meeting.

Bay Hill and Brody joined the meeting because their presence was indispensable in future operations.

At the beginning, Rurik briefly elaborated on his proposition, the key point of which pointed directly at the Volga River that no one had seen but which he had always emphasized.

"The many large lakes in the East are essentially connected together, and there are often streams connecting each other. Even if there are no streams, you can walk from one lake to another in a short journey.

My ultimate goal is to find the correct upper reaches of the Volga River. Don’t think this is impossible. That river is real.

Don't doubt it either, there are indeed waterways connecting each of the great lakes, and the waterways may be large or small. It has now been proven that the Hafen River directly connects Lake Villiers and Lake Inelmen, even if some of the waterways are very fast.

The king intends to personally lead a team to conduct field exploration, and even plans to build some new settlements. We have a reason to utilize this waterway in the future! "

Rurik's attitude was very firm, and he looked at everyone with resolute eyes, as if he was going to organize his troops and launch a personal expedition tomorrow.

He looked specifically at Beyathil and reiterated the agreement he made a few days ago: "You can't stay in Ostara for a long time. Since you mentioned a title and a fief yourself, now an opportunity is presented to you. Everything in front of me seems to be God’s arrangement.”

Beyathil knew what this meant. It seemed that the Hafen River area due east was not a particularly good place. Since he had made the conditions and declared to abide by them, Rurik wanted to do so without any complaints.

She gritted her teeth and said, "I will also go to the east to look around and choose a good place. I will build a city there in the future."

Rurik nodded, and then had to discuss something very practical.

"There are some rapids and shoals on the river, and there are a large number of stones at the bottom of the river that are extremely rare in the local area. Do we have to use clay to build houses and transport the stones from northern quarries? If we can remove all the stones from the river bed, not only will it be dredged The waterway is conducive to shipping, and the problem of insufficient stone can also be greatly solved. What do you think?"

He asked everyone, what else can everyone present say? Of course I support the king, and there is no doubt about it.

If there is any doubt, it is also about how to move the stones from the bottom of the river at that time. That's not a problem. The Russians have a lot of means. As long as there are enough stones in the local area, they can transport them anyway according to the trend of interests and practical needs.

When everyone thinks deeply about this issue, a brand new possibility comes to mind.

There is a serious lack of or no stone material in the area around Lake Innermen. The stones in the Haven River cannot appear out of thin air. Either the stones were washed away from Lake Villiers, or a certain section of the river itself is extremely rare in this area. washed over shallow rocks.

The record documents mentioned a dangerous area marked as "damen" because there were so many rocks in this section of the river that the keel of the only longboat was in danger of breaking.

"I need to go to that damen and take a good look in person. If possible, I will remove the rocks from the river in a short time! I will also send people to the nearby area to do some research. If a large amount of rocks can be found to build a mine on the spot. This way... ..." Rurik looked at Beyasier with interest, "You can even build a city in Damen. Maybe you can provide the kingdom with a steady stream of food in the future."

She obviously wanted to find a forest and pasture along the river and continue to live a life that focused on grazing. After all, Beyah Hill was born in the grassland. She never expected that her man would have a soft spot for stones.

She had no choice but to smile and show that she would comply.

"Then it's settled! We only need to visit the damen area with a lot of rocks, and then follow the river and finally enter Lake Villiers. I will advance with a small number of cavalry, and you, I will also organize a small fleet, The remaining cavalry brothers rowed their boats and marched..."

Rurik did read the documents carefully. He was convinced of Gorm's records. Based on this first-hand intelligence, he learned that the rivers in the east were too dense. Even if you advance along the main channel of the Hafen River, you must at least pass through the wide Pola River on the way. Continuing to advance forward, although the war horses can forcefully pass through some small river shoals, if there is no shoal that can be crossed directly, traditional long boats will still be needed to carry the horses across the river.

Besides, when we arrived at the damen area, there were dangerous rocks and rapids, making it difficult to pass through this bad river channel with manual paddling alone. By then, soldiers can be turned into trackers, and war horses can also be used as traction force.

So the small cavalry and the small fleet cooperated with each other, and Rurik was optimistic: "In this way, we can reach Lake Villier smoothly, and I will also ride a horse to see the characteristics of the great lake. In the end, I went directly north to enter Valdeskoye!" This is how I want to see this most eastern city."