Rise of Rurik

On the night of April 20 of the Julian calendar, on a clear night, the Ross tribe was surging with dark tides.

More than 50 of the tribe's most elite warriors gathered in the humble councilor's house called a shack to discuss the next big thing.

At this moment, Otto looked solemn, he looked at the brothers he had gathered, and said indifferently: "Now the problem is very clear, some people are going to Novgorod, some people are going to crusade Gotland. People. I have no objection to your decision, and now, we need to discuss the specifics. Things can't be messed up."

Saying that, Otto, who was sitting on the ground, widened his eyes, took a good look at his own people, and continued: "You are all the best, who intends to go to the south."

They have been discussing many things for at least a month, and now the memory is only to determine the specific action plan.

At this time, Haruo Zuo Sen volunteered to raise his head: "I'm going to the south!"

"You? I thought you were going to follow me to Novgorod again."

Arik suddenly and vulgarly said: "Boss, I'm going to the south too, I want to avenge my father! I want to kill those Gotlanders to pieces."

"You keep quiet." Otto scolded, and he looked at the others, "Anything else? If you want to go south for revenge, raise your hand."

For a time, at least thirty people raised their hands.

Otto let out a breath of heat, the fact was very clear, they were more willing to attack the Gotlanders than to go to Novgorod to collect taxes.

Most young people are eager to make achievements at a young age, and then get a large amount of gold and silver.

Young people are also the most capable of fighting. They have no family members of their own, and they have no scruples in battle. They urgently need to prove their bravery on the battlefield, in order to gain the recognition and respect of the tribe.

Half of the fifty people sitting here are under thirty years old.

However, the Rus people have not taken the initiative to attack on a large scale for a long time.

Otto consciously had to explain his concerns: "Brothers, we must take revenge. Young people are also willing to prove themselves on the battlefield. I heard that many people are rushing to the legendary golden mountain, please give up this absurd idea. Think. Gotlanders are really rich, but they're also very powerful."

"Could it be that because they are strong, we won't attack?" The young Arik was not afraid of tigers when he was born.

Relying on his status as the chief nephew, he spoke the most radical words.

"You are very brave, Arik." Otto said slowly, "I hope you will always maintain this bravery on the battlefield. However, bravery is one of the elements of victory. If you young people who yearn for wealth and glory, so Attacking in a messy manner will definitely suffer a lot."

"Uncle, do you mean that the Gotlanders are powerful?" Arik asked.

"Otherwise? You think they're stupid?"

"Aren't they stupid? My father was killed by their despicable sneak attack, but that time, you took your brothers and hacked to death two hundred of them. Although we lost some people, two of them died. Hundreds! Doesn't that prove their stupidity?"

Arik's words caused Otto's painful memories, and even though eight years had passed, the pain was still painful to recall.

In terms of feelings, Otto felt that there must be greater revenge to relieve the hatred in his heart.

In terms of rationality, revenge is not as simple as carrying an axe and driving a longship aggressively to slash and kill.

"Arik, you are too young. You and other young men, never think your enemies foolishly! You will suffer from arrogance. Good! I will tell you the details of that battle. We didn't fight those people upright, and we made a surprise attack while they were pushing the boat. Besides, we were also seven hundred against them and two hundred. Is there any reason to be invincible?"

"This..." Arik really didn't think so, but after thinking about it a little, on average, seven people suddenly attacked two people, and it was not difficult to win.

Otto continued: "This time is no trivial matter! As the leader, I know that our entire tribe has a maximum of 2,000 warriors, and it is impossible to dispatch all of them unless it is a crisis. Some people want to go to Novgorod with me in order to build A new stronghold. Some people do their daily fishing, and do business with southerners. The rest are you people who yearn for revenge. Arik, you are very prestige among young people, you think you can gather How many attacked?"

"About 400 people, uncle, in fact, we have already discussed it, and the reason is that 400 people are fighting in the south."

"Is this true?" Otto was busy preparing for his trip to Novgorod these days, and he didn't have time to pay attention to the connection of young people.

He looked at the eyes of everyone, and many people gave affirmative answers.

"There are only four hundred people. You dare to attack an island of twenty thousand people. You are very brave."

Otto's words clearly revealed a negative view of this action. After all, he is in his fifties, and he is somewhat lacking in enterprising spirit at this age.

Arik couldn't feel his uncle's negativity at all, and he argued with reason: "We can move quietly, we already know that we should attack from the south of the island."

"Did that Gould teach you?" Otto asked deliberately.

"Yeah, that's him. Gould made it very clear that day. We rowed at night, we attacked suddenly, and we got out of gold, what do you think."

Otto nodded, "This is indeed the only possibility for your victory. If you are slow, you will be caught up by them, and the consequences will be disastrous."

"Don't worry! Uncle!" Arik beat his chest with incomparable confidence. "They are a bunch of idiots! We can easily win."

"Stupid!" Otto, who was supposed to be forced to be quiet, suddenly burst out, "Arik, you big fool! You are too young to think you can be a little leader, as if going to Gotland is a trip?

Do you think they are stupid? But you don't know that their elites are all on the island. The big merchants of the Gotland have their own elite guards, and they need hundreds of people to protect their treasures. Those people were not ordinary fishermen, but warriors in chain mail, who lived to protect the rich man's gold. How will you get gold if you don't kill them? "

"This...is this true?" Arik asked cautiously, his eyes also revealing concern.

"Well, it's not that I'm trying to scare you. Arik, remember, tell your young brothers. You grab those fishermen and you'll get some salted fish. If you want everyone to come back with a chest of gold, just Those armored warriors must be slashed. Young people don't understand, but we old guys do. When you go to take revenge, you must be led by old guys, and you can't let you mess around."

Otto criticized the so-called newborn calf that is not afraid of tigers, and his eyes deliberately drifted to Haruo Zuo Sen.

"Haruo Zuo Sen, you are also willing to go south. This is very good! As the leader of the young people, go to command them to fight, supervise them to organize the war profits, and order them to complete their plans and withdraw."

"Okay!" In fact, Haruo Zuo Sen has always wanted this.

Otto looked at the others again: "Brothers, I have arranged for Haro Zuo Sen to be the leader of the battle, do you all support it?"

Everyone looked at each other, followed silently, and expressed their support.

After all, no matter what, Harrodsen killed at least ten enemies by himself in the battle eight years ago. When he was young, like Arik now, he longed for victory with a battle axe.

The fact is that when he was young, Harrodsen was leading people in a boat and robbed several Gotland fishing boats.

Later, in the competition of the clan leaders, Harrodsen was a strong contender, but he still lost to Otto.

It is important to have self-knowledge. Haruo Zuo Sen has long since lost his desire to compete for the throne. This time, he can easily obtain a lot of wealth by following the leader, so why should he be competitive?

It is impossible for the leader to lead his subordinates to do everything in person. The upcoming raid is completely contrary to the arrangement planned by Otto last year, but public opinion cannot be violated.

The Ross tribe has the concept of "war leader". It is not a big leader of the tribe, and its meaning is completely equivalent to a simple military general, an upcoming army.

Now, Harrodsen has justifiably obtained the status of "the general of the crusade against the Gotlanders".

Since Arik is in his twenties, young people who are in desperate need of making a career have a huge reputation here.

Arik also obtained a temporary status as "Second War Chief" and was recognized by everyone.

In this way, the commander system is so determined, as for the grassroots...

Grassroots warriors don't need to worry too much, because everyone knows how to do things like war from a young age.

They naturally understand a lot of tactics, and they won't fight individually on the battlefield. The elders teach the younger ones, and the battlefield is not a competition, and it is necessary to ensure that there are more fights and less fights.

The so-called back is protected by his brothers, he organizes a shield wall to overthrow the enemy, and a group of people join forces to hack and kill.

At this point, Otto felt that his only son, Rurik, was going to develop the old tactics of the Ross tribe to the pinnacle.

It was so extreme that the child was thrown at the children of the training tribe under ten years old, forcing them to walk, block, and push the shield in exactly the same way.

When these children grew up, they all fought with steel swords, fearing that the warriors of the rich Gotlanders who had made them cautious would turn into idiots who could be defeated quickly.

The meeting did not last long, and the meeting also determined two things.

The crusade in the south and the collection of taxes in the east were two things that started on the 22nd day of the fourth month of the Julian calendar, which was the morning of the second day after the meeting.

At that time, the entire tribe will undergo great changes.

That morning, the army heading for Novgorod will set sail, and the army heading south to attack the Gotlandians must also act.

And the new operation is destined to be on a larger scale than before. The most elite forces of the Ross tribe will be dispatched. For this reason, more than a thousand male warriors have left the tribe.

Colleague, a large number of guest residents have already begun to trade south. The great merchant Gould has the most goods. He is waiting for the Russ army to set sail, and then he follows.

Some families, they are willing to accept the leader's request, that is, to bring all kinds of soft immigrants with family and family to Lake Ladoga to become the first residents of the new settlement at the mouth of the sea.

To this end, Otto actually has deeper arrangements.

The Ross tribe must have lost more than half of its people because of this. And when people return, Roseburg's population isn't what it is now. Because in the settlement of Ladoga, there will inevitably be a split of the population, and then more people will leave the crowded Rosberg Fjord, and more and more Novgorod women will marry in the New World and have more children. The larger the population, the larger the settlements will be.

Otto, he doesn't know what economy is, he simply believes that the limitations of the narrow land have limited the development of the tribe. If you don't want to be sleepy, go out and build New Roseburg. In the past few years, he has been contemplating the establishment of new settlements and trying to find a reliable location.

To find an area with many waterways and a milder climate, there must be a lot of trees around. There is a possibility of establishing settlements around Lake Ladoga and even at the mouth of the river.

After some consideration, he finalized the location of the estuary and made full use of the resources of several islands in the estuary. He even noticed a stone island outside the estuary of the river. It has a winding coastline, and its existence also wraps a small sea area at the estuary into a natural harbor.

Undoubtedly, Otto's so-called "stone island" was Kronstadt and realized its value as a port.

There was only one full day left until the day of departure, and the good news of the upcoming expedition quickly spread throughout the entire tribe. All warriors of all ages who were determined to participate, all stepped up to sharpen their knives at the last minute, and stepped up preparations for dry food and drinking water!

Along with all those hunters who have bows and arrows, they are also sorting out the recently made arrows. These people deliberately followed Arik southwards, intending to treat the enemy as a wild deer and shoot him ruthlessly, thus proving to the rest of the tribe that although the archers did not participate in close combat, there was still a way for them to be separated by at least fifty paces. Distance, it is easy to kill the enemy, this is another kind of bravery, it is not a so-called coward!

No one is in a hurry, the crusade army going south, they have spontaneously made a series, the meeting has decided to crusade generals, as long as they bring food and water, they can theoretically set off immediately.

The trip to Novgorod and the establishment of new settlements have long been prepared, a large number of construction tools, and more than 100 immigrants are ready to go.

What everyone has to do is to say goodbye to the people left behind tomorrow, have a big meal together, and then go to their unknown "travel".

They are already saying goodbye!

April 21, if nothing else, is an ordinary day. For many Rus, tomorrow will surely have a fresh start for themselves.

Arikgui, the leader's nephew, made the steel sword order he handed over to the blacksmith to be completed first, even though he still had some of the money on credit.

Early in the morning, he wiped his shiny steel sword with a sackcloth, and even tried to touch its sharp blade with his fingers, with a look of admiration on his face.

His wife, Peravina, was packing her luggage for their "travel" with her stomach slumped.

Out of the corner of the woman's eyes, she caught a glimpse of her husband playing with a sharp sword, and her inner words could no longer be suppressed.

"Arik, you promised to accompany me back, but I was the only one who went back to visit relatives..."

Arik was still playing with his steel sword, waving it in the air unconsciously, as if slashing at a transparent enemy. "What do you know? I have to get revenge, I have to avenge my father."

"Hey...you promised me." Pausing the work in her hand, Peravina supported her waist, straightened her whole body, and looked at her husband with regret.

Arik didn't appreciate it at all, still playing with his beautiful and elastic steel sword, and didn't notice his wife's melancholy at all.

"Arik, you...you go get revenge. I'll go back with your leader, and I'll tell my parents that I'm doing well with you Russ. I just hope that after a while, I'll take The child was born healthy. You...you want to..." Peravina didn't say any more.

At this moment, Arik, who seemed to have never listened to her, suddenly stopped the sword in his hand and quickly returned the sharp sword to the wooden scabbard.

Arik looked back at his wife: "Are you worried about me? Afraid of my accident?"

"I……"

How can Peravina say something unlucky? To be honest, she quite likes her current fate, and she knows that her current life is completely based on her husband's health. If possible, she just hoped that her husband would not crusade those enemies, but it was impossible.

"You're still worried about my accident. It's stupid!" Arik strode closer to his wife, his face full of confidence, and his heart was full of relief. Seeing his wife's belly slightly hooked, he felt even more pity.

Arik stroked his wife's blond hair and approached her ear: "Do you want jewelry made of gold? My brother actually made a set of silver jewelry for his servant. I was destined to not be a big leader like him, and now I As a war chief, I will take my brothers to slay those sinners, and I will get some gold for this. I will make you a gold necklace, and I will put gold pendants on your ears. I will also pay for You ordered a furry coat made of ferret. Want it? Then support me."

It is impossible to say that Peravina is not material, and she is moved when she hears her husband's promise.

But reason quickly took over her mind, she suddenly grabbed her husband's stout arm and looked up pleadingly: "Promise me, nothing will happen!"

"Something happened? What's the matter? You're really a woman, shut up!" Arik knew that his wife was worried about his own safety, but this worry was too unlucky. He continued with a harsh tone: "You continue to do things, prepare the bacon I need, and the ones you need yourself. You must listen to the leader in the future, don't cause trouble to the leader, and do your part. thing."

After speaking, Arik paused again: "Listen, don't worry about me. Before you come back from Novgorod, I have already gone home, and you will see a lot of gold."

"you promise?!"

"I promise! I'll make a fortune for it. You keep doing things, and I'll take you to my father's grave in the evening. Understand?"

Peravina nodded without saying anything.

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