Rise of Rurik

It has been many days since the battle on Visingser Island ended, and the Russian soldiers who were exhausted from the fierce battle were able to take a good rest.

As for the future of the entire Lake Wettern, including this island, according to the vision of the Hjärmalen army in the Allied Forces, they have now defeated the overlord of the lake, "Crazy Bear" Karl, massacred the locals and kidnapped thousands. Prisoners of war, the natives of the Lake District would never again threaten the north.

The Hjärmalen people, the Swedish force closest to this lake, should expand their sphere of influence southwards.

The Hjärmalen people's idea immediately received support from a group of small tribes, and the biggest opposition was naturally the most powerful Mälaren tribe in Sweden.

But no matter what their wishes are, everything still needs to be decided by their shared monarch, King Rurik of Rus.

Rurik himself took a boat to Jönköping, the southernmost point of the lake. He stayed for many days and seemed to fall in love with it.

If the king does not return, the troops remaining on the island will continue to camp and live their lives.

The army had prepared wheat and dried meat for several months. Since it always sailed along rivers and lakes, the special way of traveling resulted in very little material consumption during the journey. Even the rich fish resources in the huge Wettern Lake immediately replenished a batch of seabass for the stopped army when encountering the trawling method of the Ross army.

For many tribal leaders (dukes) such as the Yelmalen people, their goal is quite short-term - just drive away the enemies of Jotalan in the south.

Even if King Rurik intends to take over the entire Jotaland, it would be too radical to achieve his goal before this winter.

Longstall, Duke of Hjärmalen, led his own tribal militia to the end of the battle. He witnessed the powerful rain of arrows from Rurik's direct lineage army of the Rus' Principality. The arrow shafts were covered with feathers, and they fell densely on the ground more densely than the ears of wheat in a harvest wheat field. Under the arrow feathers, there were scattered enemy corpses.

He did not lose any warriors, and a few of the wounded seemed to eventually die of fever. As a result, the Russian special personnel treated the wounds with strong wine and honey, and sutured the cracks with linen thread. The injured recovered well, and fever did not occur. This shows that the gods love warriors who serve King Rurik, otherwise such a miracle cannot be explained.

The eyes of the nobles are sharp. Some of the injuries that were considered fatal in the past, after the rescue, most of the injured soldiers are not serious.

After all, it was difficult for the wounded soldiers to make it to the next battle, and there happened to be a large amount of loot to be transported back.

The hearts of the people on the island are floating. A large number of Swedish Allied soldiers were dragged over to fight by their own lords and nobles for various reasons. Now that the war should be over, it is time to return to their hometown with the spoils and prisoners. After all, the wheat harvest is not far away. .

The restlessness of the soldiers directly made the nobles eager to return home. If it were not a sin to leave without saying goodbye, some small nobles would actually evacuate with their people.

They are waiting for Rurik's return. There are already different opinions in the army about the future actions, and everyone urgently needs Rurik's return to give an explanation.

Finally, the army returned to the king.

The mansion that was once the "Crazy Bear" Karl is now the military meeting room, where Rurik convened all nobles and officers to hold a military meeting.

The fleet transporting loot, prisoners, and wounded people has returned, but there are still 6,000 troops left on the island.

Many nobles bluntly stated that they wanted to retreat. Seeing this, Longstall repeated his demands from the previous days.

For a time, the discussion room was abuzz with divergent opinions.

"Shut up!" Rurik frowned and shouted: "Retreat? Monopolize the lake? You can't even think of retreating! Moreover, this lake cannot be exclusive to a certain tribe."

He suppressed everyone in one corner, and now Rurik could not tolerate arguments from others.

He traveled among the people and persuaded them to agree with his new ideas.

"We must conquer the entire Götaland! You all know that I stayed in Jöntöping for many days. The locals have wanted me to surrender and gave me some important information. I already know the situation in Götaland very well, and I still have There are two forces that need to be conquered. As long as this final conquest is completed, the entire Götaland region will belong to us. Is this... a difficult question? "

Rurik deliberately kept quiet, looked at everyone's eyes, and suddenly asked: "Langstall, is the small victory now worth your retreat? You are in the prime of life... Do you think that kidnapping a hundred slaves will satisfy you? ?I don’t want to create greater achievements.”

If you insist on retreating, you will become a coward in the eyes of the nobles! However, considering his own situation, Longstall really did not want to continue the expedition with his tribal army.

It was at this time that a man mocked disdainfully: "Some fish don't dare to swim too far. They are afraid of being eaten by big fish outside their own ponds. How cowardly! We Malaren people Otherwise, although I don't like Olegin and Karl, these two men led us Malarens to the Danish Silver Castle, which is further south than the current location. It is said that as long as we sail a while It can burn as far as Jutland.”

"You..." Rurik looked at Bjorn who was speaking.

"Your messenger claims that you want to attack Gothenburg. Then fight! We Mellaren people will follow you." Bjorn emphasized.

"Well said." Rurik stamped his foot fiercely, "I tell you clearly that I stayed in Jönköping for many days, and I also sent some additional troops there. In the south, the cavalry and infantry were mixed into one. The army, they have rushed further south to prepare to conquer the village alliance called Växjö. I have launched the next action. The next step for the main force of our army is to attack Gothenburg. Those of you who are willing to follow me can come. Those who are not willing, If you want to withdraw, this is an offense to the king. If so, you should consider how you will be punished."

As the saying goes, punishment is unpredictable and power is unpredictable, Rurik's threat forced Longstall to change his face.

Some small groups formed around Duke Langstall of Hjärmalen. In other words, because these nobles have lived in the southern part of traditional Sweden for a long time, they have always had demands for controlling Lake Vettern in the south. Instead, they wanted to control Lake Mälaren in the north. There is nothing extravagant about the area on the shore.

These nobles and people simply wanted to give up as soon as they could. As Duke Longstall, he was actually elected as a talker by his own tribe, not a dictator. He had to listen to the attitude of the warriors of his tribe. But it was completely against the king's wishes.

The arm could not twist the thigh, and the restless mentality in the army was suppressed by Rurik. Whether they wanted to or not, the expedition would still go on.

There was nothing more to talk about in the council chamber, and Rurik ended the meeting, giving the entire army one last full day and night to rest.

But this incident also reminded him that the Swedish Allied Forces were all short-sighted.

But if you think about it carefully, their short-sightedness has its own reasons.

Bjorn's army is either debt slaves or mercenaries and servants. In addition, Bjorn is an abdicated king after all, so even if he is weak, he still has appeal. These armies were forced to fight with Bjorn for various reasons. They would be good assistants to the Ross army, but the "good assistants" would definitely not want to continue to expand the war after the army solved the Jotalan problem.

The other tribal armies are purely composed of tribal people, and they have shown their willingness to stop here. For the time being, you can force them to fight for a while, but in the long run they will mutiny or run away.

There is a key time point to grasp, which is mid-July. The Swedish Allied Forces had 2,000 men, and a large number of them had to rush to harvest wheat during the harvest season. If it took too long, they would miss the farming season.

The Russian soldiers naturally have no worries in this regard. There is sufficient labor behind the Russian army, so there is no need to worry about harvesting wheat.

…

The day of march is today! Early in the morning, the entire army began to board the ship one after another.

In fact, the day before, all the heavy equipment was disassembled and transported back to the ship, and some unused supplies were also stuffed into the cabin.

The troops on the island were all lightly armed, and even the tents for overnight stays were packed and packed on boats. The soldiers huddled around the bonfire all night, and boarded the ship one after another when the morning fog cleared the next morning.

On the last day of rest, Rurik bypassed the allied armies, and only the officers of the Russian army gathered together to hold a secret military meeting.

There are some things that there is no need to tell those allies, and only these senior personnel know what Rurik said today.

How ambitious can a king be? Anyone who understood what Rurik meant was stunned.

Because capturing Gothenburg and Växjö is only a phased goal, the Russian army will eventually get rid of those allies and the army will directly enter Denmark.

The layout of previous years must be implemented in advance!

A new Danish Kingdom, close to Rus, will be established with the support of Rus.

As long as this can be accomplished, Ross will take advantage of his morale to directly invade the territory of the Frankish Kingdom and plunder it. After all, although this expedition was not empty of money, it also caused Rurik's treasury to bleed a lot. If someone has to pay for this expedition, maybe the Franks can pay for the military funds.

Everyone was shocked by Rurik's ambition, and after a brief surprise, everyone became excited again.

This is another military operation gambling on the fate of the country. The difference is that the Russian army has mobilized five thousand domestic troops, and the logistics are quite abundant. When military strength reaches a huge scale, the risk of operational failure is also extremely low.

Thus, a mixed army formed two attitudes.

One side hopes that the war will continue to expand, and it is best to really burn into the Frankish Kingdom this year or in the next few years, and the Russian army will loot and make a fortune.

One side is eager to give up as soon as possible and quickly expand settlements in the newly controlled territory.

Regardless of their attitude, the army had already entered the correct waterway, led by guides composed of Jönköping locals who had submitted to Rus. The huge Rus-Swedish-Finnish fleet drifted northwest on the highland lakes of Götaland.

After a day's sailing, the narrow waterway ended, and there was a huge stretch of water ahead that could not be seen to the end.

Is it a lake or a sea?

As long as you taste the water, you will know that it is fresh water. This body of water is nowhere else but Lake Vänern, which is three times larger than Lake Vättern!

Lake Vänern has a very special meaning to the Götalans, the Danes, and the Norwegians in Oslo.

It is a sacred lake, and it is said that this is the residence of the Vanir Gods.

According to the words of nearby residents, noble gods such as Frey and Freya came from this Lake Venarn. There is a secret place in the lake called Vanaheim, which is the home of the gods.

However, these explanations are all beautiful legends. The origin of the name of Lake Vänern is very simple - wind.

Unlike the root word of Lake Werternsee, which is water, the root word of Wernern is wind.

According to what the leader of the Jönköping people said, Rurik learned of such a thing.

Gothenburg is not a city, but a region.

The suffix "burg" did clearly mean "walled and sheltered town" in the Frankish Kingdom, but in northern Scandinavia, it simply meant "enclosed area". Rurik should obviously know this best, after all, that’s how his hometown of Roseburg was named.

He thought about it for a while and realized that he was careless after all.

So what exactly is Gothenburg?

Lake Vänern is a highland glacial lake in the region. It is a huge freshwater area surrounded by glacial hills. The annual melting of snow provides the lake with a steady stream of water resources, and the lake water overflows into the sea. Not much.

It either empties into Lake Vettern in the east, or else, by a wider river, it meanders into some sheltered spot in the Denmark Strait.

This river has no special name. It is very simple. The Ghotalans directly call it the Göta River.

A large number of Jotalan people live on both sides of the river, cultivating wheat and raising cattle and sheep. The river as a whole runs north-south, so its geographical structure is similar to the Nile River in distant Africa. The water of the lake flows south. If you want to go south, just follow the current. If it is easier to go north, you can set sail in spring and summer when the ice and snow melt, and the south wind can push the ship north.

This riverside area belongs to the essence of the Götaland region. A large number of people live here, and they form the entire concept of Gothenburg.

How many people are there in the local area?

The guides in Jönköping had never made any statistics, and they were just businessmen who had been there many times to do business. They could only tell Rurik based on their intuition that the people in the riverside area were at least from the huge fishing village on Vissingse Island. double.

double? Based on the prisoners captured in a series of battles and the corpses found, Rurik knew the more accurate data that the total population of the Yotalan people in Lake Vetern was 13,000.

Let us assume that there are thirty thousand people living in the Göta River alone.

So assuming the worst, how many armies could they muster? If a decisive battle occurs, will the Rus Kingdom army face 10,000 local warriors?

Kill? No! If these 30,000 people who speak Norse and believe in Odin can surrender to the Kingdom of Rus, even if they only need to pay a small amount of tribute every year, it will be a huge benefit to Rus. Moreover, the existence of these people is also a pawn to check and balance the development of traditional Swedish power.

Do not attack indiscriminately if not necessary.

That's what Rurik thought, but he also thought his thoughts were ridiculous.

The fleet that had always been extremely large suddenly emerged from the huge Lake Vänern. Was it to tell the locals that it came with love and peace? Who believes it?

The military alert cannot be lost, nor can the subordinates be allowed to land and plunder without warning.

According to the guide, there is no unified leader on the banks of the Jota River. It is a tribal alliance composed of powerful clans, large and small, forming a series of villages along the lakeside.

If that were the case, it would be extremely easy to conquer the so-called Gothenburg. If they are not unified internally, it will be difficult to form a coalition. The scattered villages are easy for the Russian army to defeat them one by one.

It is possible for the army to kill indiscriminately, but how can it win the hearts of the people if it results in a large number of corpses?

After all, if you don't show force, how can you force them to surrender?

The army needs to attack one or two villages, so let's open a breakthrough from the first village it encounters!

So as the fleet continued to move south, the strangeness of the water flow became clearly visible. The soldiers noticed that even if they no longer sailed against the wind, the fleet was slowly drifting south. The only explanation is that there is a river in front, which must be the legendary Göta River and the huge Gothenburg formed along the river.

The fleet also encountered fishing boats on the lake like no other. Most of the fishing boats instinctively evacuated. There were still three fishing boats that were intercepted by the "racing" sail destroyers.

The trembling fishermen were captured, and some were transported directly to Rurik's flagship.

Facing the well-dressed Rus army, especially Rurik, a tall and strong man in gorgeous clothes and a golden laurel crown on his head, the fishermen in tattered clothes sat on the deck, looking up to Rurik was equivalent to looking up to God.

"You... are gods who came out of the lake?"

"God?" Rurik was taken aback, then chuckled: "That's right. Fishermen! I will be your king! If you surrender to me, you will be rewarded and protected. If you oppose me, my army will kill you."

That's all, he signaled to his subordinates, and in no time at all, a guard handed him a bag of money.

Rurik was very generous and threw the pound of silver coins on the ground. The fisherman took his wallet and opened it. He saw that it was full of fine silver coins. He was trembling all over.

"This is a reward for you. Take us into your village and convince your leader to surrender to me. Otherwise!" Rurik suddenly pulled out his sword and threatened amidst the buzzing sound of the sword: "That will be death." !”

"Yes! Yes...the great...chief. What on earth do you..."

"Stupid guy." Rurik shook his head regretfully: "I am Rurik, King of Rus! Remember my name! Rurik! I am a king! I am your king."

"Yes! King..."

"Then stand up."

Forget it, Rurik met this thin and somewhat elderly fisherman, saw his wife and children who were sitting nervously, and ordered his subordinates: "Give him a spare set of uniforms, and give his women and children some wheat cakes."

Huge amounts of silver coins, new clothes and delicious meals, they are not the lake god appearing in the world, and the fishermen do not know what Rus means, but the fishermen know the concept of Sweden. Rurik is indeed the king of the Swedes, and his current move is to conquer the entire Gothenburg.

Gothenburg, which is close to the river, has never been a national concept. Find the book garden www.zhaoshuyuan.com The alliance between Götaland here is not close, and they even fight with each other. Each village is not resisting a more powerful force as its ruler, unless this force is a villain, such as a Danish pirate who comes to capture slaves, which will naturally arouse fierce resistance in all villages.

The captured fishermen felt as if they were dreaming while holding the money bag in their hands. One pound of silver coins was a real huge sum of money for the fishermen of Jotalan. As their understanding deepened, the fishermen unexpectedly met a guide from Jönköping on the boat, and also learned about the recent major event in Lake Vättern next door—thousands of people were killed on the island of Weisinger due to resistance.

Therefore, refusing to surrender can only lead to death. The captured fishermen didn't care about other villages, but their own village was at the mouth of the river. If their villagers foolishly took up arms to resist, the result would be death.

A smart person will make the right choice based on his survival instinct. Rurik felt that what he promised "if you surrender, you will be protected as one of your own". Such conditions are simply a blessing as warm as the summer sun.

What happens next is probably extremely simple. The army had its first surrendered village and its first foothold. The army landed to rest and then marched along the Göta River waterway, with a high probability of peacefully conquering the entire Gothenburg.

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