Rise of Rurik

The Danes' military operations, the Northern Alliance knew nothing for a while!

Ragnar was right in that if the victorious Danish coalition broke into Lake Mälaren, it would be perfectly fine to give the locals a heavy blow. As long as they do it right, they can loot for a day and then go away.

Of course, they were given only one day.

Once the Danish alliance's actions were delayed, things became particularly troublesome.

The Danes destroyed the Ostara tribe, and the Meralen tribe could not get news in two or three days.

However, some fishermen who were rowing and fleeing, he entered the upstream waterway and broke into another lake.

These fishermen do not care about their own property, not even their wives and children. In times of crisis, they seem to be cowards.

Not so.

It makes sense to say that their cowardly escape, to another lake district, was to tell the horrific things to allies of the local Gran tribe.

The air of the whole world is clear, and the Gran people can see the smoke burning in the distance.

The Ostara tribe seemed to have fallen into a burning crater, so that the allied tribes far away had already noticed the strangeness before the fishermen who reported the news.

Allied tribes thought it was a rare forest fire, and as some fishermen broke in, they learned something terrible.

The fishermen who escaped from Ostara had planned to move in to rescue the soldiers, but their complaints became a complete alarm.

A small tribe of only five hundred people, to resist the Danes covering the entire bay?

Pooh!

Knowing that the disaster was approaching, the Gran people naturally estimated that the next one to suffer would be themselves.

Therefore, when the Danish coalition forces were enjoying the feast of looting, the nearby Northern Alliance tribes that had not suffered yet hurriedly packed up their weakness, drove a large number of cattle and sheep, and moved towards the northern strategy.

News of at least three small clans was heard, and eventually as many as two thousand began a relatively orderly retreat.

People ride on bullock carts and drive the herds and flocks.

There are also many people paddling, going as far as possible along the small river leading to the north, and then converting to land evacuation.

The Northern Alliance tribes that infiltrated the Gotaland Heights,

They are taking the initiative to evacuate their long-running pasture. Many people are complaining why no one is there to stop the Danish army.

There was a merchant from the north, his name was Fodgen.

That's right, this guy spent a crazy sum of two pounds of gold to buy a steel sword carefully ordered by the big businessman Gould.

This person's industry is to find tribes in the south, buy local people's hides, sheepskins, and other animal husbandry products on a large scale, and transport them to the north for profit. In order to maximize profits, the man has also built some housing on an island near the Mälaren market.

He hired more than 30 local poor people to process leather for them full-time, make daily necessities and sell them at high prices. In fact, the so-called employment here is close to the use of slaves.

Fodgen just gave them food and shelter, and they got their labor. Especially when a lot of leather was shipped to his island, the group had little time to rest. For a steel sword, he consumed a huge amount of assets, and Fodegen felt that it was worthwhile to spend a lot of money for a treasure. The next question was how to make money back.

For the northern thinking sub-tribal alliance, many people continue to migrate to the south for better grazing pastures.

They followed a river full of stones and headed south into another large lake. Hundreds of years later, on the banks of this stone river, a city arose, which would become an important iron smelting town in south-central Sweden in the future.

Many people settled here and gradually formed the Yilmalun tribe, whose lake is also named after it.

But the shores of Lake Yermalen were not the best grazing pastures, and more tribes continued to expand south until they encountered immigrants from Gotland heading north.

Peaceful relations came to an end as the Gotlanders joined the Danes-dominated alliance.

At the beginning of May, the merchant Fodgen, who left the market of Mellaren, his small fleet entered the port of the still prosperous Ostara tribe, and then continued eastward along the river, and found the Gran people. settlements.

Fordegen built his own trading post with the Glan tribe, which he operated with over the years. He had always felt that the Ostarans had placed their settlements on the coast, which was really close to Gotland.

Unexpectedly, disaster has really come.

There is a huge lake in the west, with lush green lakes and mountains. The people of the Northern Alliance who expanded here call this lake "Watern", which is the name of the "God of the Forest".

Lake Witten has an important waterway that flows into Blow Bay, the harbour where the Ostara tribe is located.

The geographical environment here is good, and as many as five tribes belonging to the Northern Alliance live on both sides of the long waterway.

This waterway is the natural frontier of the Northern Tribal Alliance, or in other words, the frontier of the Svealan Plain. After crossing the river, and further south is the narrowly defined Gotaland Heights.

Smoke billows from the east, and the leader of the Gran people, who feels that something is wrong, decides to escape with his people.

The Gran people have a conscience. When the leader announced the withdrawal, he also sent people to catch up with the fishermen who escaped from Ostara. After joining together, they continued upstream and notified their upstream allies that the Danes were attacking.

Whether or not the upstream allies are transferred is no longer the concern of the Gran tribe.

"Damn, ten years of business has come to nothing! You all ran away, I don't want to be the prey of the Danes!" The businessman Fo Degen was unwilling, because this year's business had not been done well, and it had already been ruined by the war.

The disaster has come, he urgently took a small amount of leather and a large pile of block cheese, and evacuated all the soft goods he had placed in the Gran Tribe's shop as best he could, and started a difficult journey of escape. .

There are more than 500 Gran people, they form a huge land marching team, weaving through the gaps in the forest.

Even the merchant Fodgen was part of the march.

Strange to say, merchants in the Northern Alliance usually travel by boat. Even for immigration, boats are the mainstream means of transport.

This is due to geographical reasons, and there is no waterway that can enter Lake Mälaren unimpeded.

The eastern harbour ignited everyone, and no one dared to investigate what the Danes were doing. In short, the shortcut to withdraw from the eastern harbour to Lake Mälaren no longer existed.

The retreating people can only choose a compromise method, that is, to walk up to 70 kilometers in the forest to find the Yermalen tribe. From there, take a boat back to his hometown in Melalen.

As for the future lives of the Granites who evacuated their homes, Fodgen has no idea what to do.

The caravan of more than 50 people in Fodgen, riding more than 20 bullock carts, accompanied the moving crowd, rushing to the Yermalen tribe.

Everyone knows the direction, that is, advancing in an area with no path at all, and not going very far in a day.

that's the truth.

Due to the fact that there are as many as 2,000 livestock to be taken care of, the speed of the team was slowed down. The speed is slow but slow, and Fo Degen is not worried about his own life.

Because he kept a group of mercenaries in his small caravan, and as for the Granites, they were all long-time friends.

Look at this team, the only beast that can threaten everyone's life and safety, see this battle and avoid it.

However, two days after the team evacuated, some ragged people suddenly appeared.

"What's the matter?! A group of strange people?" Lying on the bullock cart, Fodgen sat up vigilantly after hearing the report of his mercenary.

The mercenary hurriedly said, "My lord, maybe we should take precautions."

"Alert? It's time to be vigilant. Let the brothers prepare for battle. Remember, you must guard my property! When I return to Melalen, I will give you a reward."

"Yes, my lord."

The merchant's mercenaries drew their swords one after another. The Granites also took up arms, and even pulled out scythes for mowing the grass.

Everyone was forced to flee under the coercion of the Danish invaders. Suddenly a group of people appeared from the forest. Who can guarantee that they are not enemies?

In the beginning, it was just like a dozen people got out of the woods. From a distance, the people who come here are generally disheveled and disheveled, and as those people approach, their appearance has been completely revealed.

There are actually many women holding children! And some frustrated men! There are also a group of children who are not supervised by adults.

More and more people ran out of the hidden forest, and they ran wildly on the grass among the forests, as if they had found some treasure.

Even a group of women rushed over, causing the Granites to point their fingers at them one after another.

The unidentified leader immediately ordered: "Men come forward and prepare shields, swords and spears. Women, you take care of our cattle and sheep!"

In the end, the Gran people are also a Viking tribe. Although their population is small, they are well-trained in defending against attacks.

Those men, women, and children were mostly bare-handed, and a few were on crutches. When he encountered the Gran, he cried on the spot: "Give us something to eat."

Many women knelt on the ground, grabbed their children, and begged the shield-wielding Granites to give food.

They complained directly about the fall of Ostara and what happened to them in recent days.

"Big leader, they are from Ostara, and many of them managed to escape." Some members of the group urgently reported to the leader.

"Go! Go and see."

The leader of the Gran people flicked his neck, and he led more than a dozen people out of the shield wall and squatted directly beside a poor girl. And this woman immediately held up her infant child: "Sir, at least please save him. My child is going to starve to death."

The leader looked around, and these ragged guys were sitting on the ground, no matter how they looked at it, they were dead without threat.

"You...it's so pitiful. It seems that our escape was correct." After speaking, the leader took the child and immediately ordered his subordinates: "Find me for the wet nurse and save the child. Come over with those cheeses, hurry up. !"

His subordinates immediately said: "But my lord, we don't have much food in our hands! Don't you think it's too much, these Ostarans?"

The leader was indeed moved with pity, and for the time being, he returned the infant child to the child's mother. After he stood up, he saw a large number of people sitting on the grass, "Ah! How do I think, you... have more people than me?!"

For a split second, the chief of the Gran people felt that his kindness needed to stop in moderation. After all, they are allies, but not their own followers.

Even as an ally, it was based on the existence of the Ostara clan. Now that the homes of these refugees have been destroyed, what is the obligation of the Gran people to support them?

Giving each refugee a bit of cheese is already a favor.

Unless there is a man in his ministry who is willing to accept the refugee woman as a new wife immediately.

On the orders of the chief, the Granites gathered the group of refugees, and then someone came with a small sack.

The leader stood on an ox cart and shouted in front of a crowd of refugees with a staring attitude: "Now, I will give you food, come and collect it."

In an instant, hungry refugees flocked to the ox cart, and then the leader himself spread the cheese chunks in the sack.

Like wolves tearing at their prey, hungry people show their fierce nature. For the precious food, the refugees are really fighting for their ability.

The young child was crying, the mother was screaming, and the shouting and scolding continued.

Those fleeing loggers, they tried their best to grab food, and stuffed it in their mouths immediately.

One woman grabbed a piece of cheese, and immediately someone else tried to take it.

The chaotic scene made the Gran leader who was standing high grit his teeth. Look at this group of hungry people, they dare to bite the fingers of their kin to snatch that bit of cheese for food.

In the chaos, a dexterous figure slipped into the random crowd.

She is the older sister of the two sisters. Even though her leg was injured, she had to fill her and her younger sister's stomach, so she had no choice but to burrow into the ground like a groundhog. She got a bit of a stampede, grabbed three small pieces of cheese, and stuffed them into her clothes.

The girl is not greedy, she knows that if she continues to stay here, she will either be seen carrying food and cause a fight, or she will be trampled to death by her family.

The younger sister sat on the ground, the breeze blowing her blond hair, and the golden threads swayed in front of her blue eyes. She didn't care about the chaos not far away, because she was already in a trance from starvation. Finally, she saw a dexterous figure come back with a smile, and her spirits were lifted.

It's my sister!

The girl looked left and right, quietly took out a small piece of cheese from her arms, and looked around again vigilantly: "Eat it quickly. If others see it, they will definitely come and grab it."

Without saying a word, my sister grabbed this small piece and stuffed it in her mouth. Although it was a smelly feeling, the two girls had completely ignored it because of hunger.

The two women shared a piece of food, and there were still two pieces that were carried by the sister in her arms. Even if the sisters are still hungry, they can only save food until they find a safe place for the future. .

Now, no one respects the two sisters anymore because they are the granddaughters of the chief. In other words, no one has noticed that there are still members of the chief family surviving.

"Sister, what do I do next? I want to continue eating."

"No. We still need to leave some food to go to the port of Yermalen." The elder sister hugged her younger sister and comforted her.

"Can we... get there? I haven't been there, I... haven't even been out of our bay."

"Me too. My dear, we've got no choice. Hopefully we can get to Merlaren at last and try our luck there. Maybe the chief of Merlaren will take us in."

"Merlarens...really?"

"Of course." My sister's little hand squeezed her neck gently: "We are women of the chief family of Ostara, and they will take care of us. In the future, when we grow up, get married and give birth to a son, our Ostara will take care of us. Tara is revived."

My sister didn't understand what my sister said.

In fact, before the disaster, my sister would not have said such mature words. Even if the two sisters are nine and seven years old, under the coercion of disaster, the sister is forced to become a "sensible adult".