Rise of Rurik

One day passed, and the Corvins of Mechasta, a group of mercenaries sent by Rurik, and the fishermen of Ross began to use their own skills to frantically destroy the woods near Fort Aron.

What motivates them?

It is understandable that the mercenaries and Ross fishermen wanted to get money and material rewards from Rurik.

What about the Kewen people of the Iron Squirrel Tribe? Rurik drew a pie for them: "Do things well and make me happy. Not only will there be wheat to eat right away, but I will reduce your tribute next year and exchange wheat for your leather."

They were already forced by the military power of the Ross people, but also because the conditions proposed by Rurik were indeed attractive.

After night fell, those Kewen people who were ordered to destroy the forest frantically dragged their exhausted bodies and retreated into the wooden wall.

They never imagined that what awaited everyone was indeed a feast.

When it comes to giving rewards, it does not discount.

During the day, Rurik sent people to take out all the uneaten wheat, and handed it to the women of the tribe to pound it into oat crumbs. They don't make it into flour, and don't need it. All the crude crumbs were poured into pottery urns and boiled over high fire. It is also served with chopped frozen fish, which turns into surimi, which is further boiled with the porridge that turns into a sticky paste.

In order to increase its aroma and oil content, Rurik also ordered the mercenaries to pour a lot of lump seal oil used as fuel for oil lamps into it.

Some Atlantic refined sea salt imported from the Balmerks makes it taste extremely attractive, and considering that each meal of this high-sugar, high-oil and high-protein meal is for those who have paid a lot of physical labor, it is worth noting that Rick didn't care whether it was lightened or not, Weng Li was very extravagant and poured in half a pound of salt.

Another piece of forest disappeared, and the trunks that were too late to be pulled away fell to the ground in all directions.

The exhausted Cowen woodcutters, who admired the high efficiency of the saw, also held the wooden bowl with trembling hands, watching the extremely viscous soup in the bowl move the spoon.

Chief Ross is rewarding the Cowen people!

Chief Ross did not hesitate to pour a lot of salt!

Chief Ross kept his morning promise!

The Kewen people widened their eyes, feeling the blissful feeling of happiness like heaven, and couldn't help being moved to tears.

In fact, they are not simply grateful to Rurik, but these Kewen tribesmen who have lived in the inland areas for generations and have only migrated to the coastal areas in recent months. Their bodies have always been short of salt.

Objectively, this also limits their combat effectiveness.

Their bodies yearn for a large amount of sodium chloride, so they eat salty porridge, and everyone pours it into their stomachs two or three times.

The meal was not over yet, the hungry lumberjacks almost ate two more smoked fish each, and they didn't give up until their stomachs couldn't hold them anymore.

On a boring winter night, besides creating a new life with your wife, is there any other entertainment?

The tribal men who were full of food, they were the survivors after the battle, and the former enemies actually rewarded them with a good meal. It seems that there will be many more days like this in the future.

They are in their own home, sleeping soundly with their bulging bellies, and they don't want to talk to their wives and concubines at all, which makes women really uncomfortable.

They just didn't consider that their husbands were so excited when they were cutting wood that they almost collapsed from exhaustion. This time I ate too much, the blood was concentrated in the stomach, busy mobilizing the digestive organs to deal with the unprecedented sugar impact of the body owner in this life. In short, the brain is relatively ischemic. Coupled with the exhaustion of the body, it is foolish to get up and "fight" with wives and concubines.

It can be said that after winter, the women of the Iron Squirrel Tribe have an instinctive desire to use fertility to help the tribe's lost population. They never felt that the tribe was Mechasta's tribe, but everyone's tribe. Women are only a little weaker than men in terms of physical strength, but they are no worse than men in terms of obligations to the tribe.

The logging work was still going on, and Rurik had only a small amount of wheat in reserve, and the rest of the wheat was eaten up by a group of big eaters in an instant.

What's next? Has the army that transported food already set off? Have the deer keepers and their caravans gone north?

Before they arrived, Rurik had to eat grilled fish like everyone else. Thankfully, Allenburg has stockpiled a large amount of fish, which are now frozen so hard that they don't have to worry about rotting. What's worse is that these fish are all salmon, that is, salmon. The days of eating grilled fish every day are really boring.

When Rurik was bored, he noticed something, the women of those tribes, they were actually taking the initiative to hook up with the settled Ross fishermen.

They are actually actively having a relationship, and this relationship is clearly illegal, and they have no marriage relationship witnessed by the priest.

He simply found Mechasta directly, and got a piece of news that didn't surprise him.

"The leader." Yes, Mechasta simply used the Norse vocabulary he learned to call Rurik the "leader": "Don't be surprised, these things have actually happened long ago. After the war, many of my tribe died Men. Women are resolutely reluctant to marry their relatives, they need foreign men."

"However, they are not married to each other."

"It doesn't matter."

Rurik was not surprised, his attitude was very calm: "Could it be that your priest doesn't want to interfere? Even if it's a Covin-style ceremony, it's good."

"It doesn't matter. Chief, my tribe needs people, a lot of people. Whether it's men or women! I'm happy to see the women of the tribe combine with your men, and now life is stable under your governance, and everyone doesn't have to worry about starvation , freezing, and not worrying about being attacked, so that we can have more children. My tribe will be revived, and more people in the future... will also." Mechasta hesitated, and then said calmly: "More steel squirrel tribesmen will pay you more tribute. I have one more request."

"You speak."

"Your...your mercenaries. They are extremely strong, if you can..."

"Okay!" Rurik agreed without hesitation with a wooden face.

"Huh? Really?"

"Of course. But you should also understand that if the father of the child is a Rus, then they are not simple Cowens, they are Russ. They are not slaves, but they need to pay taxes. If you are in a hurry, I will soon can arrange my people."

Rurik seemed to have no hesitation, but in fact he had already engaged in a psychological struggle. Because Mechasta's hope, as well as the initiative of those women, really conflicted with the fixed three views in his mind.

He has been adapting to this wild but extremely real world. People or tribes really do everything in order to survive, so in order to restore the population lost in the war, they also do everything they can. What about male and female morality? It seems that these are all nonsense. For the Kewen tribe, the concept of "marriage" is very vague to them.

Anyway, Mechasta is a man. If the leader is a woman, the whole tribe might not be a large matrilineal clan.

Oh, at least the community of deer breeders is probably a matrilineal clan. Rurik especially remembers the rescued deer breeder women, who now generally have a puffy belly. As for the father of the child, it doesn't matter, it's all Ross anyway. men do.

Rurik has overcome his "moral cleanliness", which is by no means a simple compromise.

If the Ross tribe wants to develop, having a larger population is the optimal solution when technical means cannot be used to significantly improve the efficiency of material production.

There is a saying that all problems are human problems, as long as the population increases, those things that cannot be done can be accomplished.

Rurik also thought about using force to force slaves to work. The overall efficiency of this economic method is questionable and extremely dangerous.

Slaves in general are also unreliable unless they are truly contained as one of their own. It may be a troublesome job to directly transform these foreigners into Ross people, but their descendants can be easily transformed.

Rurik has truly understood that this is a world where the weak prey on the strong, and it is more direct, more violent and unreasonable than he imagined.

The weak will be beaten. Not being beaten does not mean that it is good to be indifferent to the world, but that the strong are busy attacking others and have no time to take care of this.

Whether the mercenaries are really loyal, or purely for money and wheat, Rurik tends to agree with the latter. If you want to win over them, I am afraid that money and food alone are not enough. Most of them are young people who can't get along in their hometown of Mellaren. They are mercenaries who have nothing but strength.

Using women to win them over is an effective method.

In this way, all parties can get what they need.

Finally, will Fort Aaron Olawa usher in a baby boom next summer?

Anyway, Roseburg and New Roseburg, the two major settlements, will have a baby boom next year.

The days are getting shorter and shorter, and the night takes up most of people's life time.

The logging work is going on every day, but the follow-up workload has been far reduced. Some towering spruces that were discovered were brought down by the classic Viking logging technique, and a large number of pine trees with a thick mouth were sawed off.

Taking advantage of the moonlight and aurora, the residents took small hand axes to cut off the branches of pine and fir trees, and simply used them as fuel and threw them into the fireplace to burn.

Most of the people who do this work are women. They do it with a smile, tie the branches with hemp rope, put them into the small sled for pulling, and sometimes caress their stomachs, thinking about happy things.

Their attitude towards the Rus has long since changed. Rurik's fluent and understandable language, coupled with the feast for the loggers, made them feel more at ease.

All Rurik's mercenaries had sex with the women of Kewen's Iron Squirrel tribe, and the first time was followed by the second time.

The mercenaries who have been eating, drinking, and doing hard work on weekdays have completely subverted the perception of "what is a man" by the women in Kewen.

In a difficult environment, weak women yearn for the protection of strong and promising men. No, a group of dewy couples were born in this way, but the dew may not be so easy to dissipate.

For example, the settled Ross fishermen, their wives are local Cowen women.

Everyone has good expectations for next year. No matter men or women, the Iron Squirrel Tribe is looking forward to a baby boom. Mechasta didn't say anything, but he was calculating in his heart. Fifty children will be born next year, and another two years later, another fifty will be born. As long as there is enough food, the tribe can increase by fifty every two years. The child's speed increases the population, and his imagination is like a spring and autumn dream. It seems that it is not impossible to expand the tribe to a thousand people in his lifetime.

Of course, what Rurik is praying for at this stage is not this, but the long night. He feels that his mercenaries have become a little weak, and even Yevro has become weak.

Without him, it's time to slaughter a reindeer and let them drink deer blood to nourish their kidneys.

What he was looking forward to was a group of people from Roseburg. They were the deer breeders who drove the deer north to graze in winter, and the mercenaries of Rurik who were ordered to go north collectively in Roseburg, as well as a large amount of goods.

It has been half a month since the terrible long snowstorm ended, and the Julian calendar has reached November 1st, and there are still four full weeks before the Hanukkah of the Ross people, but Elrondburg is more affected by geography, Polar night actually lasts a little longer in this settlement than in Roseburg.

The difference in dimension between the two places is actually very small, and the complete polar night in this place is only one and a half days.

The latitude here is indeed very high. Due to the factor of being close to the sea, even if the sea is frozen, the day and night temperatures in Fort Elrond are not so extreme on clear days. The temperature during the day is indeed below freezing, and the temperature at night is basically maintained at around minus ten degrees. Unless there is another snowstorm, the temperature will suddenly drop below minus twenty degrees.

Such low temperature is not so fatal, as long as you go out and wrap yourself in thick fur, you will be fine.

Since Elonburg is already a small city, the basic city defense measures seem to be redundant, so there must be one.

Some were ordered to stand guard, and they lit an ever-burning bonfire on the frozen pier beyond the wooden walls. They use campfires to keep warm, take naps, and even grill fish frozen like stones for supper.

They are also always equipped with weapons, especially sharp short spears, so that if a wandering polar bear appears, everyone can rush to get this unexpected surprise.

To Rurik's surprise, the ever-burning bonfire actually functions as a lighthouse!

A deer breeder, mercenaries, and a small group of Rosedong hunters who decided to set off early, organized a team of more than a hundred people, and they all got on as many as forty sledges of different sizes pulled by reindeer, Pulling a batch of hay and a large batch of wheat, I moved north along the frozen coastline.

The navigators are a group of veteran hunters who have participated in winter hunting many times. They have rich experience and are best at arranging traps to catch ferrets and forest cats. Being able to possess such abilities just proves that they have the ability not to get lost in the woods, and they are most suitable to be guides.

The reindeer pulling the sled were carefully cultivated servants by the other three Kewen tribes. They themselves were tools for pulling goods. Compared with the burdens that had to be borne on the Oulu River, the Ross people and those goods were not very heavy.

The herd of deer has multiplied, there are as many as four hundred big deer and small deer, mixed with a large number of people and cargo sleds, and the deer breeders headed by Arska have taken on the very important work of driving, and it is they who are most responsible The ability to train the reindeer to be submissive.

The deer breeders cherish the power of the animals, and will not force the reindeer to work hard, but stop at the right time, and the people will camp and rest on the spot, and the reindeer will eat the hay pulled by the sled, and even a group of sleds will be specially prepared for the main force of the sled. The batch of oats eaten by the reindeer.

Letting deer eat oats is a luxury, but Rurik reminded his father. As a result, when he arrived at Roseburg, Otto listened to Carlota's attitude without hesitation, and got similar opinions as Rurik. Who is Carlotta? Her Ostara tribe is good at raising cattle and sheep. There seems to be no essential difference between reindeer and cattle and sheep. If they want to work hard, they must be fed wheat.

Luxury is real luxury, and Otto couldn't forget his inexperience back then. They actually forced the reindeer to walk non-stop. As a result, almost all of the more than 200 deer captured died of exhaustion and starvation on the road.

Arsaka felt that the family of the head of the Ross family cared for the deer, and even used excellent oats as feed.

The reindeer have a strong digestion and utilization rate of cellulose, they get all the heat from the oats, which shows a strong strength, fast forward in winter, the reindeer herd that continues to go fast, the speed and the long boat with the wind There is not much difference in speed.

In fact, only three days later, that is, the third day of departure, they had reached the northernmost coastline.

They continued to advance along the frozen coast, and night fell early. Everyone who was resting on the spot suddenly saw the ground in the distance lit up with fire, and everyone was no longer calm.

It's Allenburg! It's Allenburg's fire!

Is there still time to light a campfire and grill meat?

This team of transporting materials started the final journey, and their sudden visit at bedtime first frightened the deer breeder into thinking it was a robbery attack, and after figuring out the situation, the closed wooden door was also opened.

Rurik was awakened by the noise, and he suddenly regained his energy.

Although the timing of their arrival was somewhat irritating, the army of transporting supplies and deer breeders finally arrived.