Rise of Rurik

Otto never imagined that there could be a different kind of bow that could shoot arrows through planks, and that a child could operate alone.

Granted, the steel-armed crossbow is unique and time-consuming, and since the arrows it fires can pierce through planks, it can also shoot bears and boars.

This thing is the true "new trick" of his lovely son Rurik.

When Otto was shooting with a crossbow himself, he suddenly realized that he didn't need any ratchet winches to wind the strings. Putting on thick leather gloves, stepping on the bow arms with both feet, and with the strength of both hands, with a roar, the bowstring of the thick hemp rope soaked in oil can be placed at the trigger.

"Hey? Maybe it's best for adults?"

Rurik, who tucked his hands in the leather jacket, looked at his father's joy with satisfaction: "Dad, this is for adults. It can make our warriors particularly powerful, and it can also make many children have the ability to kill the enemy. ability."

Otto's rough cheek was pressed against the wooden support again. From Rurik's point of view, his father was a senior who bowed slightly, and he was clearly holding a rifle.

Otto muttered: "The wooden shield has no defensive effect. If the enemy's warriors are simply shot and killed like this, is it unfair? Well, maybe real warriors shouldn't have such weapons, or something like Fighting like a real man."

The old chief said no more, and he pulled the trigger again. The hemp rope that quickly returned, like a knife, once again shaved off a lot of Otto's beard.

And this quenched steel-headed arrow that was launched once again pierced through the wooden board and chiseled the second piece of wooden board behind it.

At this moment, eight arrows have been inserted into the second board.

"I'm tired." Otto took the weapon and threw it at Harold Zusen, who was eager to try, and then vigorously shook his arm, which was a little sore from the unarmed winding. He approached his son and asked bluntly, "Son, how are you going to use it? For example, to shoot prey?"

"Sure. Like shooting seals."

"Seal?" Otto shook his head. "Let's go hunt bears, or attack enemies. Tell me, if you command an army, what will you use... your crossbow?"

Rurik didn't even think about it, and said loudly: "Of course it's a lot of equipment, hit and use. Dad, you know, I have a new agreement with Kravasen."

"That's your arrow formation? Well, maybe it will work."

Otto couldn't imagine a scene where all arrows were fired at once,

Perhaps the big reason is that the Rus organized the so-called army to take some actions, and the strength was usually only about 500 people. Now, with the release of rockets by the archers, the sappers are starting to get Otto's attention, but only for arson.

The crossbow gave Otto a strong shock, and he finally patted his son's head wearing a velvet cap: "Son, you may have a chance soon."

Rurik didn't quite understand the meaning of his father's words, and he didn't want to pay attention to the crossbow for the time being. All he had to do was run to the smithy in Kravatsen occasionally to see how many crossbows had been completed while he grabbed some of the spirits he had offered to his father.

After Sorgon's fleet returned, the tribe began its annual loot-sharing convention.

Just like the revised "rules" before, the chief family gets half of all the tribute! And this is also the result of Otto's great compassion out of joy.

This time, a small group of unmarried young Rus men married their wives in Novgorod. After they returned, they held the wedding of the Rus tribe as usual.

Married young men not only get the blessings of the tribesmen for the birth of new warriors, but they also hold a lot of food, so they can bring their new wives to spend a stable and prosperous winter.

More than 500 Rus warriors, sharing as much as 200,000 pounds of grain, this is their deserved reward.

Each soldier had about four hundred pounds of oats or rye, among other things.

The summer of the Rus people is always very busy. When it is the turn of the cold winter, people hide at home due to the severe cold. If there is nothing of interest, they will not leave their homes.

Hiding at home, a man can eat a pound of wheat in two days.

Therefore, in the past Sorgon voyages, all members of the tribe were eating a big pot of rice, so that the food that everyone shared often could only be eaten for a month.

Things have changed now, not only because the tribe has changed the rules of dividend distribution, but also because the tribe has stepped up its blackmail efforts. Today, the wheat owned by the families participating in the operation, the whole family can eat a little bit of food, and the ice and snow can melt, not to mention that they have prepared food for the winter, and the plundered oats are the icing on the cake.

They attribute the reason for being able to eat for a long time to the wise leadership of the leader.

It can be said that every success of Sorgon's voyage is accompanied by an increase in Otto's prestige.

But Otto is getting older every year, and the strength he currently has will be lost quickly in a few years, and finally he will become an old man who is waiting for the end of his life.

Every winter, Otto's inner sense of crisis becomes stronger, and when he sees the rapid deterioration of Villa's physical condition over the past year, his worries increase.

"Rurik, you have to gain experience quickly. Rumia, you have to grow too."

This sense of urgency reached the extreme, and it was a great plan that Otto decided to implement. The plan began quietly in the Ross clan in November.

It has been more than a month since the return of the Sorgon fleet, and the time has also entered the December of the Julian calendar.

During this period of time, the people of the Ross tribe did not stay in their warm houses one by one.

Ice and snow are terrible and harsh for many people, but for some brave people, isn't it an opportunity to profit?

What's more, this year's situation has become more variable, and its appearance has really stimulated the hunters of the tribe.

Nowadays, the temptation of spontaneously going out to set traps to hunt ferrets seems to be replaced by another kind of prey.

During the clear and short days, the snow covered the ground as usual, and the fjord where Roseburg was located was a terrifying layer of ice up to half a meter thick. The ice did not block the fishermen's thoughts of fishing, such as digging a hole and throwing down the hemp rope and hook for cod fishing.

However, after the fishermen dig holes, they can often accidentally poke the breathing seals with their short spears.

In the past, the tribes caught seals in winter just to eat meat, and to sell them for tanning after skinning.

now what? Seal grease, once of limited value, is being bought by Rurik at a high price.

Because the explorers were surprised to find that as long as they left the Roseburg Fjord and entered the vast sea of ​​ice, the ice here is thinner and it is easier to cut holes.

There were more than four hundred fishermen, who blocked the boats and pushed them into wooden shacks. Then, with a sleigh and a tent set up, he ran to the distant sea and became a seal hunter.

And Rurik's maids, they all became soap workers.

Yes, they are real child laborers.

But Rurik didn't feel that he had any sin at all. He told his subordinates that the purpose of cooking oil to make soap was to earn silver coins, and then the merchants would use the silver coins to buy food, so that everyone would be full. Having said too much, it is difficult for them to understand, and Rurik simply repeated a truth: We are going to use today's soap to exchange our food for next year. If we don't make soap, everyone will starve to death.

Those Melalen beggars who are now Rus people especially cherish the hard-won favors when they think of the pain of living on the streets with hunger and cold.

The first ten maids became the best "soap teachers", and they were generally responsible for about six subordinates and became a team.

Rurik divided the girls' teams into work, so that all steps of soap production were fully responsible for the team.

Because of the current situation, those hunters with amazing action can bring back more than a hundred plump seals every day. Rurik got not only a lot of fat beyond his estimates, but also a lot of meat.

He really could not have imagined that eating seal meat would actually become a daily routine.

And what shocked him the most was his own Rumia.

"This girl is worthy of being a Sami. What? Raw seal liver has a different flavor? Bah! What a delicious smell."

But Rumia, who has a soft spot for seal livers, does have such an important job now—as a teacher.

Those wooden shed canteens have been reinforced, and the so-called reinforcements are actually snow and ice. The leaking shed was crooked and turned into a closed place, which was the perfect place to serve as a classroom.

Strange to say, now Rumia, a Sami who is good at raising deer, began to hold the priest's board and tell the history of the Rus to a large group of children.

What is the Ross tribe?

What is the Confederation of Thinker Tribes?

What is a Dane again?

And the mysterious Eastern people?

Now Rumia is a supporting role, and when it comes to teaching, Rurik must personally go out.

Here, the most important thing Rurik teaches for the time being is history, or "the story of the past". The children listened to it as a story, and under the dim oil lamp, Rurik saw wide-eyed eyes. In an instant, a kind of joy of being a teacher came to my mind.

It was a pity to him that the number of boys who could study here, except for his maid, could only be counted. The boys sitting here are all their cronies, not necessarily for knowledge, maybe just because they want to have a closer relationship with the boss

In this case, Rurik simply told everyone that the so-called "human world" is not a giant disk on the so-called world tree, but a large ball floating on the water. However, it is too difficult for children to understand the face of the world in an abstract way, so Rurik had to make up some stories to justify it.

A lot of inconceivable remarks made Rumia highly nervous. She felt that the words of "Son of God" were the truth.

She felt that Rurik was her male god, and there was a look of adoration in her eyes.

Of course, all the maids were surprisingly consistent. The master is the greatest person.

Rurik felt that such a life was extremely comfortable, and he could not teach knowledge to all the children of the tribe for the time being, and being able to teach his girls to understand was also a great good thing.

Because the girls here are not fake, they are maids. Rurik doesn't think that his kidneys are invincible. He can indeed ask for the marriage of some girls. Most of the girls here are just maids, that's all. They would marry the boys of the tribe with complete purity, and Rurik believed that these girls, who had some knowledge, would educate their own children first.

Rurik was more focused on the next generation. After all, it took ten years to cultivate more than a hundred years of people. For example, it took the old king of Prussia half a century to truly complete the compulsory education of the whole country. Education must be done, but there is no rush.

An easy life always passes quickly.

The maids spend a lot of time every day busy making soap, and after completing the planning work, they receive cultural education in Rurik.

As for a group of boys in the tribe, they are currently busy playing with the snow. Or follow the fisherman's father to catch seals.

The five blacksmiths of the tribe continued to chirp, wearing leather aprons, standing in front of the stove and the blacksmith's bench, working under the heat.

From time to time the blacksmith's sweat fell into the fire, causing a strong crackling sound.

This year's situation is very different for the Clavasons.

"Dad, is it true that we gave up on other people's orders? I'm still thinking of continuing to build steel swords." Kawei, who was desperately bending the iron bars, was emotionally dissatisfied and puzzled.

Clavason, who was digging through the smoldering sponge iron, did not face his son directly.

The old blacksmith buried his head and said, "I made an agreement with Rurik. Fifty steel-armed crossbows, which I must complete before the Winter Solstice Festival."

"But it's not a small amount of work. We have to make a thousand special arrows. Dad, we are blacksmiths who make swords and spears, not bowsmiths."

"We've never been bowsmiths. Listen, Kawhi." Only then did Clavason raise his head, and with the tongs in his hand, he took out the red sponge iron and carried it to the blacksmith's table: "Stop talking nonsense. Yes. This winter, the guys who make steel swords will be handed over to those colleagues, and we will focus on fulfilling Rurik's orders. You don't have to regret, fifty crossbows and arrows, we still earn fifty steel swords Money. Besides, this time you and I don't have to worry about the client's money. Rurik is the richest!"

"This is the same." Kawei frowned and said, "However, I still like to build swords. A man should have his own sword and fight with a sword and a shield."

"Forget it! Kawi, you're a blacksmith, don't think of warriors. We just build weapons. What is a good weapon? A good weapon is what kills the enemy, and it has nothing to do with honor. We do it now. The crossbow is given to Kamne, and the child can use it to kill a strong man with a height of two stikas (nearly two meters)."

"Okay. I guess this thing can easily pierce through thick ship planks. If Kamne can kill a strong man, he can be called a hero." Kavey shrugged, shaping one into an arc. The bows, still in wrought iron condition, are stuffed into a new furnace designed for smoldering carburization.

Kawei even whistled skillfully: "Kamne, bring the charcoal, the rest is your job."

Kamne, who was only seven years old and thin, hurriedly ran to the hearth with a small rattan basket of charcoal, and while stuffing charcoal into it, he responded to Kawi's words just now: "The weapon invented by Lord Rurik is the best. Yes, I will use it to kill all breasts I see, and then give...the bearskin to my lord."

"It's up to you? Well, maybe you have a chance." Kawi shook his head and looked at Kamne, the kid who was about to get into the hearth. He took the hammer and started making iron with his father. forging.

Forging and smelting iron is the first step in making a steel-arm crossbow, and then Kawei also participates in the casting of bronze parts and the processing of oak stocks.

To build a steel sword is a constant process of smoldering and forging. But the process of making a crossbow is really complicated. Kawei, in his heart, he would rather beat more steel sheets than the current tedious work.

No one in the entire Clavason family was laid back, not even the pregnant Lilia.

This Novgorod girl who is barely sixteen years old, her belly is getting bigger and bigger, and now the leather clothes can't hide the essence of her show.

But she still has the important job of making money for her family, making glassware and making distilled spirits. She even felt that just in terms of making money, why should her husband, father-in-law, and even her future son have to work hard with his shirtless?

Isn't it more profitable to make glassware? Using the crystal clear pebbles that are easy to collect in the mountains and processing them into transparent cups, you can earn an income equivalent to a sword with less complicated processing.

She knew that she had no right to dictate a man's work and decisions, so she had no choice but to keep her head down and go about her own business.

And silently waiting for the Rus' Hanukkah on the winter solstice.

The entire Ross tribe is also looking forward to the festival of Hanukkah, and even the new decision that the big leader will inevitably release after the festival.

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