Rise of Rurik

They feasted all night long, and while drinking and drinking, the nobles saw the generosity of Prince Rus, and also saw the reliability and courage to become a king.

Although many nobles and envoys could not accurately estimate how much benefit their tribe would gain from taking Rurik as their honor, in the end it would be better than the current situation.

Because they all saw the prosperity of New Roseburg, a city that remained prosperous even in winter and covered with snow. They are eager to recreate this kind of prosperity in their hometown, and to continue to have sweet meals one after another privately.

After all, this is not the first time Rurik has dealt with this group of people. They are just a group of small fish nesting in the "water tank" of Lake Malaren. They want to satisfy their curiosity and then satisfy their appetite.

Finally, meet some of their very practical demands.

At the beginning, King Bjorn of Sweden proposed to buy ships. The current situation has evolved to the point where all powerful Swedish tribes want to spend money, or the equivalent value of wheat, to buy Rus' ships.

"You should think about it again and we will finalize the business in a few days."

The drunken Rurik's speech was a little blurry, and he listened in the same confused way. Everyone was red-faced and happy, and finally got drunk...

Honoring Prince Rurik as the new King of Sweden was a big deal, as was the purchase of Russian ships.

When Bjorn regained consciousness, according to what his entourage was waiting for, he was extremely drunk, and was finally wrapped in a deerskin and forcibly carried back to his temporary residence.

Of all the nobles he was the most amiable, and when the Prince of Rus freely offered vodka in glass bottles, he drank bottle after bottle of this flammable spirit. Anyway, this kid Rurik has said it first, and you can enjoy today's feast with all the drinks you want.

"How long have I been sleeping? Is it still dark now?" He muttered, covering his temples.

A follower answered cautiously: "It's already the second night. King, you have slept for too long."

"Ah...I really drank too much."

Bjorn tried his best to recall what happened at the banquet. He drank bottle after bottle of strong wine in his mouth, and coveted the whole roasted venison that was brought up later. Rurik was very interesting and took the fattest roast. The deer leg was given to myself. After all, he drank too much wine, and he probably didn’t chew too much on the deer leg before he fell unconscious. Even so, he clearly remembered the major events that came out of the discussion.

He slowly sat up and continued to stroke his head.

The attendant asked cautiously: "King, are you really going to give up the throne to that boy Rurik?"

"How? You all know?"

"Yes. The whole city has spread! People in this city are talking about the fact that Prince Rus is going to be the king of Sweden. They are already jumping for joy."

Bjorn bared his teeth, "What do you think? Do you think I'm incompetent?"

"No! It's just..." One person replied, and the others were silent.

"It's not that I want to retreat, it's the group of nobles who force me to retreat. All the tribal princes support that kid Rurik, what can I do? Stop talking about it, don't think about anything, the current Melalen is far inferior to Ross , we must appoint. You servants have no right to think too much! You can't hope that we will fall out with the Russians. Look at what they did to the enemy. Don't say bad things about the Russians at any time. I don't want to create conflicts. If you cause disputes, you should not do this."

It sounds like the leader of Melalen just wants to be a coward. Even if what he says makes sense, the Melalen warriors who follow him are dissatisfied even if they don't have a noble status.

"So, we gave up our dominance today, can we still make a comeback?" someone asked.

Bjorn didn't expect the follower to say this, and the words spoke to his heart. He sighed: "The gods are blessing Rurik, what can I do? If the gods don't like him, they will punish him. If the gods reward us, the hegemony can come back. Now, we just need to live a good life." Look, Ross is an ally, not an enemy."

On behalf of the Melalen tribe, he set the fundamental tone for both sides of Mero, and the so-called century-old friendly relations between the two sides will continue. He even pointed out that the rise and fall of a tribe mainly depends on the attitude of the gods. This is also self-deception and self-comfort. The so-called Melalen's downfall is not that he did not work hard, but that the gods favored Ross and made him stronger. That's all. .

The traditional overlord of Sweden, Mälaren, gave up its hegemony in a peaceful and honorable way. It was this tribe that took the lead in expelling the Ross tribe about a hundred years ago. One hundred years is too long, and the common people cannot remember those ancient stories. Only the priests of various ethnic groups still remember the sins they committed back then. Now that the Rus have returned to Sweden after a hundred years, is this their fate?

Feeling helpless against his fate, Bjorn decided to lie down.

He didn't think too much about why his followers asked him these unworthy questions. In fact, there was an expert behind it!

Regarding Rurik being elected as the new king by the Swedish nobles and Bjorn transferring the throne, the whole city was really excited. The merchants from the Mellaren tribe were very happy to welcome Bjorn, the leader and king of the tribe, to New Rossburg. However, due to the arrival of the king, these merchants suddenly changed their minds. But when they heard that the king was about to transfer power, their arrogant mood suddenly cooled down. The merchants didn't know what was discussed at the nobles' banquet. Some merchants secretly muttered, "It was Rurik who forced Bjorn to give up the throne." Even though some people are doing business in the capital of Ross, their souls are still in their hometown of Mälaren. They are really unconvinced.

However, Bjorn only had one bottom line - Rurik could be the king of all Sweden, but he could not control the power of the Mellaren tribe personally or by sending someone.

The Melalen tribe must belong to the Melalen people, and the port of Birka must also belong to the Melalen people, so in the past, each tribe paid tribute to Melalen, and Ross became the king, and other tribes can pay tribute to Ross. , but Melalen will never pay tribute.

These bottom line terms must be clearly stated!

Realizing that the matter was serious and that the matter would require a secret meeting, Bjorn decided to see Rick again in a few days.

However, a cold wave and snowstorm descended on Eastern Europe...

Hanukkah, the winter solstice, is not far away. Eastern Europe is suddenly hit by a snowstorm, and even the brave ones are hiding in their mansions. Those warriors who hunted in distant places hid in cabins in the woods, and the whole city of New Roseburg was simply closed down.

Towering walls reinforced with cement masonry protect the entire city. All merchants doing business in Harvest Square have withdrawn their stalls, and the straight or winding streets are empty.

A blizzard raged outside the city, and people hid in their houses waiting for the snow to end.

But, it’s a snowstorm!

It was not uncommon for it to snow for ten days in a row, and Rurik didn't think there was anything wrong with staying in the warm old palace with his wife and concubines. The earliest settlers lived within the wall, and there were a large number of houses outside the wall where they later moved in.

The wind and snow forced people to stay indoors, and the snow also absorbed and covered up some abnormal noises.

The snow collapsed the house, and the people in the house were buried alive. Even if they didn't die for a while, they died quickly in the low temperature of minus 20 degrees...

No one knew of their deaths, and even New Roseburg lost its life under the wind and snow.

Thanks to the open land where New Rossburg was built on the banks of the Neva River, the north wind swept across here and most of the snowflakes were blown into the forest to the south. That area was uninhabited.

Rurik struggled to push open the thick wooden door of the palace, and he and his wives finally welcomed the open air outdoors.

The sun rose, and the dazzling golden light made everyone dizzy.

Fortunately, everyone was well prepared and put on wooden-framed sunglasses to welcome the light after the storm.

"How long have we been here? What day is this?" Rurik asked with difficulty.

"This is the eleventh since it started snowing. What a bad snow."

"Lumia, you know this very well?"

"Why is it unclear? I am the high priest. Even through the dim light, I am recording the days." Rumia did not feel happy at all. As a woman who was born as a deer herder, he knew the consequences of the snow disaster very well. "You have to go check it out, heavy snow can kill people, it can also kill your livestock. We... also have to clear the snow off the roofs. This year's situation is a little unusual, and we have to be vigilant."

Rurik would not be greatly surprised if his queen said this. This was said by the high priest. When she realized the danger, Rose was really in danger.

Rumia made it very clear that a snowstorm might kill a group of livestock!

Rurik was shocked: "Deer! My deer!"

However, reindeer are born with the ability to withstand severe cold, and can even withstand the extreme cold of -40 degrees below zero. They are still alive in the large and small pens where they are driven outside the city.

People who were passively hibernating crawled out of their homes one after another. It is said that the architectural characteristics of the Russians brought good luck to most people. The architecture on the stone base was very interpretable. The sloping gabled wooden roof provided shelter from rain without accumulating too much. Lots of snow. Rurik noticed that the snow in the city was quite thick, and he could imagine the situation outside the city.

What greeted Rurik was the broad Harvest Square, which was covered with thick snow. When he entered the snow with his wives and concubines dressed like a large group of polar bears, they all found that the snow had reached their crotches.

How thick is this snow? !

The little girl Velika dug into the snowdrift with a smile like a little white bear. She was not afraid of the cold and played in the snow. She didn't understand it at all, but she was shocked by the heavy snow.

But Rurik was clearly aware of the seriousness of the situation.

People who walked out of their homes began to spontaneously clear the snow. People in the city felt that this year's snowstorm was much more serious than previous years, but it was not a disaster. People have enough food, frozen meat, and bacon in their homes, and there are a lot of dry firewood and charcoal piled in their warehouses. There is no need to worry about food and heating being guaranteed.

But when people drove deer sleds and began to transport the snow outwards, and when the closed city gates were opened, the bad scene outside the city, although not shocking, could be said to be the scene of a large-scale snow disaster.

In the snow that was no more than hip-deep, the people in the city quickly cleared passages. Rurik walked out of the city along the passages and saw a large number of collapsed houses.

He was trying his best to stay calm, but the accompanying governor, Old Cornuson, could no longer sit still.

Konuson jumped up and down in shock: "There are collapsed houses everywhere! Many people died! They died in the city I am responsible for! I am guilty!"

Behind them were thousands of people in the city and sleds eager to transport the snow.

"You don't have to blame yourself, this is a natural disaster." Rurik hit the governor hard to calm him down, "Fortunately we have enough food, it's not too late to provide relief now! Go rescue people and rescue supplies, it's not too late yet!" "

The capital of the Principality of Rus is facing a disaster, and things are far from simple! The vast land of Northern Europe and Eastern Europe is completely undefendable, and the huge plains can easily absorb all the cold winds from the Arctic. As long as this cold wind goes south, it can bring severe cold to the grasslands of southern Russia and heavy snow on both sides of the Black Sea, which is warm in summer.

This disaster not only affected New Roseburg, but also affected the whole of Europe.

Perhaps this was not the most violent snowstorm that Ross had ever experienced, but it was different from the past, when the Ross tribe stayed in the Marina Bay with nearby mountains to shield them from the wind and cold. In the past, Russia was not that big, but now it is expanding its territory everywhere. With a large number of bottles and cans, it would be painful to lose some of them, not to mention that there are definitely many dead people under the collapsed houses.

The buildings outside the city are very different from those inside the city in terms of architectural structure.

Although New Roseburg's walls enclosed a large area of ​​land, the settler population within it was already saturated. The buildings in the city provide housing for more than 4,000 people. Because the construction plan of a number of basic buildings has completely reserved the remaining land, if the city wants to continue to live in people, the building height must be increased, and this is also the reason for the city. The wooden carvings began to give way to double-story stone buildings.

But outside the city, a large number of people who come to do business are building privately and randomly. Except for ensuring that a few roads leading to the city are open, other areas can build houses as they want.

Rurik knew very well who the settlers outside the city were. The most populous were the Suomi hunters who migrated from Finland in the southwest, that is, the people of his own Ayevluo tribe. They are typical Finns. Because they cleverly surrendered to Russia, their population increased a lot. They are essentially taking advantage of the hegemony dividend of the Principality of Ross to open up new hunting grounds in the eastern region that they did not dare to set foot in in the past, and join in the plunder of leather resources in the uninhabited forest. It's a pity that the construction skills of this group of people are too average. They dig a half-underground pit according to the method in their hometown, and then build a shed with wood.

A group of later Slavs built woodcarvings according to the craftsmanship of their hometown, and opened up new farmland in nearby areas. If it weren't for the fact that there was no room to build residential buildings in the city, they wouldn't want to stay outside the city. The woodcut rugs are made strong enough not to be easily crushed.

These Slavs were all farmers, pure settlers.

Businessmen from all walks of life built winter residences. Businessmen from Sweden were rich enough to build warm houses and even install private walls. The Balmok merchants who came from the port of Narvik also have wealth, not to mention that Countess Nolen of this family is one of the prince's wives. Due to this close relationship, although their house is built outside the city, It has evolved into a small walled community.

If the world outside the city goes into depression, it will be a catastrophe for Ross.

When Rurik and Governor Old Cornuson personally investigated, they breathed a sigh of relief, but also lamented that the experiences of different ethnic groups were really different.

Because almost all the people who died in the snowstorm were Finns. If they could build their houses strong enough, they would never turn into gray ice sculptures. But they don't want to do that. In the capital of the Principality of Rus, it doesn't cost too much money to buy wheat, but buying thick and beautiful ready-made clothes and hiring craftsmen to build a solid house will cost a huge amount of money. In a sense they died from not having enough money.

A large number of corpses were excavated from the collapsed buildings. After three days of meticulous rescue, as many as 200 bodies were unearthed as cold as stone.

People are sympathetic, and the Finnish hunters present cried bitterly for their dead tribesmen. The cries aroused empathy. Even though they were not of the same ethnic group, the Russians and Slavs were all crying.

High Priest Rumia felt like a big stone was weighing on her heart. Although she had seen terrible battlefields, where a large number of dead bodies were from the enemy, she would feel uncomfortable and even vomit, but she would not be in pain.

However, the people who died here were all the people of the Principality of Ross, dying in front of themselves!

Bodies of all sizes were piled uniformly in the snow for easy counting. When she saw the frozen bodies of young children and the white cloth covering their black hair, Rumia's tears also turned into ice crystals in the extreme cold.

The Suomi people of this era had not yet mixed with Germanic ancestry on a large scale, and the same Lapp people (deer herders) were exactly the same. Rumia's cry was reasonable, she truly felt that the one who died was her own race.

A group of soldiers maintained order at the scene, and thousands of people watched and mourned the victims.

Liurik pulled Rumia: "Don't cry. You are the high priest, and you have to perform a ceremony for these dead people to let their souls rest in peace."

"Okay, I won't cry. Ceremony? According to which ceremony?"

"Ah...most of them were Finns, and there were also some Slavs. They were so pitiful, so they burned them to ashes with fire, and buried them all in the cemetery in the south of the city."

"Isn't that the Valhalla on earth? The people buried there are all those who died in the war."

"It is also the cemetery of this city. We will hold cremations for them, and you will sing the eulogy at that time."

Rumia nodded: "I understand."

Please remember the first domain name of this book: . :