Rise of Rurik

Young Gorm got his first nickname in life - Drifter.

A boy who has a good mind but seems unable to become a warrior. According to the habits of the old Russian people, he is often classified as a loser.

Such people can become businessmen, but in the old Ross tribe era, people who were pure businessmen would not look down upon them.

The Ross tribe has been a producer and primary processor of leather raw materials since ancient times. The distribution work is basically done by the resident merchants who have settled outside. Even many foreign leather craftsmen have opened small processing shops in the old Rossburg Fjord. .

At that time, because there was so little currency in circulation, the value of silver coins became extremely high.

During that period, the prices of ferret skins, fox skins, forest cat skins and bear skins were very high. Now with the destruction of imported inflation, the prices of all kinds of materials are rising. Fortunately, the main materials that people rely on for their livelihoods are Production capacity has also been significantly increased.

However, the production of precious leather can hardly be increased by the hard work of hunters and craftsmen. A huge forest is an endless treasure house. However, rare small animals can be hunted cleanly by hunters in a short period of time. When a forest becomes empty, the hunter Have to go to a more distant place.

The amount of precious small animal leather transported to the Kingdom of Rus is indeed increasing year by year, but its growth is limited. For this reason, hunters have to explore the endless forests further east.

What exactly does the search for the Volga bring? It is said that after a long drift, they found the shore of the Caspian Sea where the Pechenegs now live.

How much communication can ordinary people have with those grassland people? Only the royal family was in urgent need of importing horses due to the urgent need to build a large cavalry force. Besides, Ross is now vigorously breeding his own horses. People with foresight can see that once the Ross horse industry is strong enough, the contact with the Pecheneg people will not be as close as it is today.

Ordinary people pay more attention to the money in their pockets, the food stored at home, and the quality of the clothes they wear. All immigrants from the north had an extremely strong demand for leather, and it became a wonderful and fascinating reality to export precious leather to the Franks and then exchange it for large amounts of ale and wine from the local area.

There are endless possibilities in the East, and there seems to be no end to the little animals there!

As a result, the lakeside settlement of Valdeskoye, currently the most eastern town in the kingdom, expanded further. A stink began to fill the air, but to an explorer born in Old Ross, it was an alien fragrance.

This is the smell of tanned leather, natural Glauber's salt, plant ash, the odor of decaying animals, the odor of the leather itself, plus the odor of the craftsmen's sweat and body odor. Countless odors are intertwined together. Basically, the whole family of the craftsman family works together, and now they even have helpers. The child also smelled bad.

It's all worth it! There is only one town on the shores of Lake Valdai, connected to it by a waterway branched off by the Musta River.

Although the river is a little twisty, it still has smooth traffic.

In this way, the newly hunted small animals in the East are taxidermied, tanned, and dried in the town of Valdeskoye. In principle, they can be sold in the market only if they are shipped and transported directly to Novgorod.

Hunters, leather craftsmen, and traders have realized the integrated leather industry, and even the blacksmiths, carpenters, and fishermen who serve these people have benefited. Everything is just like it was decades ago. The descendants of Old Rus have inherited and strengthened the old craftsmanship of their ancestors, and their explorations have become more and more bold.

More teams of explorers reached the southern shore of Lake Valdai and took their boats to the twists and turns of Lake Villiers in various ways, and then continued to drift south.

The lake is quite vast, and there are more than 200 islands in the lake. These islands have become breeding spots for some birds.

Especially now that it's summer, some populations of mallard ducks and geese will incubate their next generation on these absolutely quiet islands.

It is currently the breeding season of the birds. Expeditions have begun to discover them, and hunting has begun.

The wooden arm crossbow launched a sniper attack from a distance, and the wild goose and duck that was penetrated fell to the ground and twitched after a few flutters.

The Ross hunters happily disembarked from the boat, picked up their prey, and captured all the unhatched eggs and chicks. When the big bird wanted to drive away these attackers, it immediately encountered the happiest killing by a hunter.

After all, the birds' attacks are a gift, making it easier to kill them.

Ross hunters are very particular. Wild goose meat is too rough, and greasy wild duck meat is more delicious. They caught so many birds that they now had the right to be picky and picky about the good meat.

The island where birds breed suffered a devastating blow. All members of the expedition team, men, women and children, participated in the expedition, roasting the bird meat into meatballs, and collecting all the bird leg bones and large feathers.

Especially the flight feathers of birds. The flight feathers from wild geese and wild ducks are much stronger than those of domestic chickens. If they are sold to the Novgorod arrow factory, they will surely make a fortune. Of course, these feathered hunters can immediately make new arrows, making the hunting team more powerful.

Villiers is no longer a pure no-man's land. This is the first time there have been human activities here in tens of thousands of years, and it has immediately become the newest eastern border of the Kingdom of Ross.

However, the expedition team is only here for hunting and fishing. It would be best if they can find the correct channel of the Volga River. This is not the main mission.

As a result, teams began to build temporary camps on the lakeside. The ships were pushed to the shore, and the Ross flag with white background and blue stripes was hung on the mast, always fluttering in the wind. This makes friends passing by realize that this is the small camp of the Rus people and not someone else, otherwise...

Everyone knows that there are many groups exploring south, and there may be other tribal activities in the nearby area.

Due to ancient habits, the adventurous Russians first defined the outsiders they encountered as a threat, because they were worried that they would be attacked by the other party, so it was better to strike first. Displaying the flag publicly is purely to avoid misunderstandings, but it can also attract friends to hunt together in the same area and look out for each other.

Some long boats were equipped with a torsion slingshot, which was unloaded upon entering Lake Villiers and then loaded onto a small two-wheeled cart, becoming a heavy weapon for hunting bears.

The Valdai Lake in the north has long been settled by Slavic villages. Even though the local farmers have poor weapons skills, they have cleared away the bears and wolves nearby in the past.

Since Ross's army, all kinds of small animals have also suffered catastrophe. Bears are out in the south, and there are still a lot of them.

On the shore of the southern Great Lake, a small explorer camp suddenly appeared. Four longships are now docked here, and there are more than a hundred Russians on the shore.

They cut trees and built small settlements, which everyone called "Bear Hunting Homes." They entered the forest with heavy weapons, and sure enough, they dragged the bears to the shore one after another, and immediately began to slaughter and skin them.

The Bear Hunting House could only be used as a temporary summer camp for a period of time. It had no development potential in the northern town of Valdeskoye. When the nearby large game was hunted down, the Bear Hunting House was also destined to die.

It is a camp established on the west bank of Lake Villiers, and the lake environment can only allow people to live on the west bank. There are so many mosquitoes now that people have to light more bonfires and rely on smoke and fire to drive away the bugs, but the dense flies cannot linger at all.

A large number of bear skins were spread out, grilled and dried, the bear meat was cut into strips and roasted, the edible internal organs were sorted, and the ferocious bear heads had their brains removed for special preservation.

As for the inedible offal that was randomly thrown into the lake, or thrown into further areas of the camp, they not only attracted flies, but were now also infested with maggots, and the stench filled the air.

Living temporarily in this environment is really a chore, and the Russians are working hard to get more benefits.

Of course, there are also teams that continue to go south along the west coast, which has a good environment and can go ashore for camping. One team inevitably walks on the route that the Hafen team has just walked. It is also inevitably attracted by the current, and the long boat plunges headlong. At the mouth of Hafen (Yavin) River, start the fantasy rafting belonging to this team.

This time the nameless river has a name, and Rurik is leading his team to conduct an inspection by waterway.

Although more people are not better, the soldiers of the Second Cavalry are generally too young, and hiking and training in complex areas is very beneficial to everyone.

Besides, this operation has a clear purpose - to find dangerous damen.

Rurik originally wanted to leave some personnel to train in Ostara City, so he simply left some horses and all personnel participated.

Not only did the soldiers of the Second Standard Corps dismount, but Beyahsir also took some of the guards and mounted their horses to accompany them.

As for the affairs of Ostara City, Bayasil can no longer control it now. She cannot disobey the king's order, so the work will be taken over by the locals.

An official expedition team of four hundred people was led by Rurik himself and guided by "Drifter" Gorm himself!

They have fifty horses and twenty long boats. Their mighty team can easily destroy a forest tribe. They are more like an expedition than an expedition.

After all, Rurik is the king, and only this kind of pomp can match his noble status.

War horses stood on the boats, some soldiers had to stay with the horses, and many boats seemed crowded.

The team is currently swimming upstream on the relatively wide Pola River, and the slow water speed makes paddling not a problem.

The flagship carried a beautiful royal banner, which was essentially the same as the other Russian banners, but was much more decorated.

Next to Rurik sat Gorm and Hafen. These two were important guides, and now they had to point out the correct channel of the Hafen River.

Finally, the fork in the road was inevitable.

Rurik stood up slowly and held the bow of the ship. He looked out personally, and at the same time, the crew members on each ship also looked toward the mouth of the river ahead.

"Is that the river you came from?"

"Don't doubt my drawings and records, I guarantee it with my honor. Yes!" Gorm was still a little unruly even when facing the king. He had the strength to have such an attitude.

"Then we'll see! Let's go."

After saying that, Rurik sent a signal to the soldiers carrying the command flag. With a simple semaphore, the team began to turn.

"Now, let us paddle hard! Rus! Everyone is like their ancestors!" Rurik not only shouted, he actually sat down and held the oar with both hands.

The king rowed the oars himself and matched everyone's rhythm, which was a great morale booster.

They sang ancient and traditional chants, and most of them were men, women and children from the old Ross tribe, and happily walked backwards on the Hafen River.

While Rurik was singing, his eyes turned away for a while to look at Beyathil, who was in a daze at the scenery.

She looked like a passenger, her arms resting on the side of the boat, her wrist resting on her chin, her peaceful look very cute.

Beyathil was not looking randomly, she knew that this area would be her future fiefdom. Both sides of the river are lush and green, but there is not a lot of flat grassland. Grazing in this kind of place is really difficult, but many houses can be built with local materials.

She was not interested in the legendary damen section of the river that was full of rocks, unless there was a large area of ​​flat land in that area.

As the river gradually narrowed, people became more alert. They also felt that paddling gradually required more power, but the speed was decreasing.

Rurik was the same as the others. Although he was not rowing hard with his back wet with sweat, his linen shirt was completely soaked with sweat.

His hair and beard were wet, and a thick strip of cloth was wrapped around his forehead to prevent the sweat from stinging his eyes.

"Your Majesty, do you want to continue paddling?" Halfen asked, feeling very strenuous.

"Are we almost there?"

"Soon! It should be soon."

"Okay! Let's find a slightly flat land and go ashore. All the cavalry will move ashore."

Soon, all the long boats purposely washed up on the beach, and everyone was able to have a good rest.

They had been paddling hard for the past few days, relying on enough morale to persevere. They never relaxed. Until now, everyone finally relaxed after knowing that they were almost at their destination. Such relaxation instantly transformed into a large-scale narrow grass on the riverside. He lay down in confusion and fell into a deep sleep.

Rurik sat down as well. Seeing his brothers like this, he simply lay down and let his wet clothes be stained with mud and a lot of green grass juice.

Beyathil hurried over carrying a leather sleeping bag and sat next to Rurik.

"Drink."

"Okay." Rurik sat up and took it with a smile, but he felt something was wrong after just the first bite. "It's actually wine?!"

"Koumiss." She said with a smile, "I also added some honey, I know you like it."

"It tastes good! It tastes really good and quenches your thirst. Ah!"

Beyathil was immediately pulled down, and the two of them lay on the grass looking up at the blue sky and white clouds. She snuggled gently next to Rurik, not wanting to say anything for the time being.

No one disturbed the warm moment of the king and his beloved concubine. Everyone was very tired. It was obvious that it was impossible to continue marching today. It was better to set up camp here and sprint again tomorrow.

Unless, of course, the scouts are really sure that the rocky destination is not far upstream.

At this moment, Beyathil's bodyguards finally come in handy.

Although several knight slaves loyal to Bejasil live a good life in Ostara City, they still cannot swim and are not good at paddling like the Rus. They were of no help during the entire voyage, during which even the Russian children rolled their eyes at these guys.

Now everyone in the Hafen expedition followed the king back the same way, and the old longship was no longer needed because Rurik promised to reward him with a new and better ship.

Hafen's little grandson is naughty and adorable, even he is helping the adults row with him. It seems to Rurik that the Ross tribe does have successors.

For those riding slaves who were treated like stalls, everything changes once they get on a horse!

They were very energetic and small groups moved quickly on the right bank of the river. Just as everyone had set up a camp that was almost a long snake formation, and the dense bonfires must have looked like fire dragons at night, the Pecheneg people's scout cavalry actually returned.

Not only did they return, some of them were even injured.

Although some warriors riding slaves were unexpectedly hit by arrows, there were still "captives" riding into the camp on horseback.

Rurik was confused. After taking a rest, everyone who was busy cooking wheat in the stove gathered around him.

The injured warrior's arm was hit by a barbed hunting arrow cluster. Its style and material seemed to have come from the hands of the Russians.

Rurik walked nervously and stood in front of the injured. He shut up the surprised Beyakhir first, and then he asked in Pecheneg dialect.

As a result, he was extremely shocked, and no words could speak to the prisoners who were sent to him.

Because this prisoner is an old Russian guy.

"Is it Carolde? Carolde Ogenson?" The guide Hafen standing next to Rurik recognized his old friend at a glance, and he was extremely emotional.

"Is it you? Hafen! When we went exploring south together, I thought you were missing. But you... are actually..."

Of course, Carlold, who is also an old man, knows the tall and majestic young Rurik standing next to Hafen. Even if the king's clothes are too plain and simple, he will not forget his face that is very similar to Otto's when he was young.

"I am the King of Rus. You... are actually from Rus."

Carroll wanted to pay the king a warrior's salute, but he was exempted from the ceremony because he had internal injuries.

The situation was easily explained, but the answer surprised everyone.

It turns out that unlike the Carroll expedition, which followed the Hafen expedition, they did not have the same luck as the former. In the dangerous damen river section, because its long ship had a mast and a bilge keel, it became difficult to control the rapid river, and the keel It was broken by force, and the people in the boat were washed to pieces by the river.

The river bed was not deep enough and was filled with large rocks. No one was washed away. Everyone stumbled onto the shore. Soon some people died of severe internal injuries, and many suffered skin injuries.

Having just escaped death, everyone could only lie down on the shore to relieve their emotions.

In such a situation, it is easy for bears and wolves to prey on them. Now there is no need to collect the lost prey. The survivors check their weapons. The intact crossbows have lost their strings. They are highly nervous and decisively shoot arrows at the scout cavalry who rush out of the woods like ghosts.

The scout was so careless that he did not carry the Ross flag, so he could be forgiven for being regarded as an attacker in this no-man's land.

The truth comes out and it was all a tragic misunderstanding.

"It's actually like this!" Rurik sighed: "Sure enough, the current is turbulent and dangerous, and one of us actually died. But now you are saved."

Hafen was deeply frightened after hearing his old friend's experience. When Rurik asked him something, the old man was still trembling.

"Don't be dazed. Now I'm sure you're right. The place is rocky and the water is fast, but there are advantages."

"Your Majesty... Your Majesty is so optimistic."

"At least we are here. The dead are buried on the spot, and the injured are treated as much as possible. A town can be built here, and I want its stones! Since you call the river section Damen, then I will name it Dameniask (Demyansk). , it must become a new town whose main purpose is to obtain stone.”

Rurik was ambitious, but the soldiers were still doubtful. Maybe it's because stones are extremely expensive in the vast area, but stones are everywhere in Roseburg and the northern region.

A new town is about to be built. This is one of the important purposes of Rurik's visit. Tomorrow, everyone can see its true appearance.

Demyansk, in this era its original meaning was the so-called "Stone Dam City on the River".

History is taking its due course in a more wonderful way, and this settlement that urgently needs to be built is geographically too close to the real main channel of the Volga River.