Rise of Rurik

A group of people dressed in thick furs stood inside the walls of Elronburg. Didn't they sigh at the sudden appearance of this settlement?

Arska, the leader of the deer breeders, never dreamed that this was the place where he was once enslaved.

Fort Allen planned to accommodate a thousand people from the beginning of its design, so the space inside it is actually very large.

A group of reindeer were forced to be driven into the enclosure, together with a large number of sleds being dragged, forming a rather interesting situation under the aurora and starlight.

The visitors lit torches, and the night watchman lit numerous bonfires.

More than 30 deer breeders of different genders were dazed in amazement, and the Ross people chatting and laughing with each other began to unload a large amount of cargo. Especially Yefro and his mercenaries, they finished their meeting with other mercenary brothers, and immediately began to move the wheat belonging to Rurik.

Even, some very special goods - some special tree trunks.

After receiving the emergency report, Rurik hurriedly changed his clothes, and after being severely stimulated by the cold night wind, he cheered up.

Under the light of torches and bonfires, a large group of furry people appeared inside the wooden wall, as well as a huge herd of reindeer.

There was a familiar guy walking towards him, it was Arska.

"It seems that all of you have arrived safely. You have fulfilled the orders of the chief." Rurik said in the language of a deer breeder.

Alska bowed immediately: "We are your servants, now, we will graze for you in winter."

"Very well. You don't have to go too far, though. Well, what do you think of this town?"

"It's... really great."

Arska and his people are just nomads in the snowfields. Their concept of towns is already vague, so they naturally lack the words to evaluate it.

Rurik didn't want to continue asking, so he pointed to the wooden wall and said, "My wall is tall and strong, and can withstand the most violent snowstorm. You take the men to graze, and leave the women and children behind. The wooden wall will protect them." Safe. Rest assured, as the master, I will ensure their safety and their daily food."

Arska gritted his teeth. He was very uncomfortable, but he didn't have any authority to say no.

"Okay, I'll take care of your lord's deer."

Rurik nodded: "In exchange,

I will also take care of your women and children. "

Do you want to continue talking to the deer breeder? To show them a strong castle? Rurik didn't think it was necessary.

After all, they are deer breeders. I am afraid that since ancient times and even in the future, they would like to live alone in the state of a small clan in the snowfield. Rurik vaguely remembered that in another time and space, what he learned about the life of the Sami people from movies and TV shows was that in the quiet and peaceful snow field, a Sami family lived in several wooden houses, and the animals they raised There are hundreds of deer, and rely on receiving tourists and selling various deer products to make a living.

A thousand years later, the stable life of the Sami people was not won by them at all by force, but entirely from the charity of the Swedes. Simply because at that time, Swedes advocated love and peace, as well as environmental protection. They are quite supportive of the Sami people's pursuit of the original ecological life since ancient times.

The current era has serious limitations. A wise man proposes the slogan of fraternity. Does the audience exist?

Rurik wanted to treat these deer breeders kindly, but he was also afraid of letting them graze freely. Maybe he would drive the deer to Murmansk all at once. The cost of finding them in the vast ice and snow world is crazy.

In order to avoid this disgusting situation, Rurik also had to detain their wives and children.

After all, they are human beings, so they wouldn't even want to give up their wives and children just to defect, would they?

People from Fort Rose broke the tranquility of Fort Elrond.

As the nights get longer and longer, it is impossible for people to sleep all the time. Everyone is always full of energy, infected by the noise of the visitors, and the inherent residents of the entire Allen Castle have come out of their houses.

It was a good thing that the sleeping labor force went out one after another. Rurik easily deployed the labor force, unloaded all the linen bags from the sled, and stuffed them all into several vacant wooden houses used as warehouses.

As for what goods were contained in the linen, Rurik checked it himself, and oats were the main items. Because the wheat grains purchased from Mälaren generally do not have the opportunity to dry well, if the weather is humid, they are likely to rot. Fortunately, when the cold season came, these wheat Rurik estimated that it would be difficult to germinate when planted in spring. They were destroyed by the low temperature. It was precisely the low temperature. They were immortal and could even be stored in the Arctic Circle for fifty years.

The other foods are all vegetables, mainly yellow root carrots and onions. Still because of the low temperature, they all froze into ice lumps. Those purple-skinned onions are like hockey pucks.

For the whole night, the visitors temporarily lived in wooden houses, and those vacant wooden houses were all put to important uses.

Almost all of Rurik's mercenaries gathered in Fort Eron. They were equipped with hand axes, steel daggers, and even twenty crossbows, making this nearly one hundred-man team possess super combat effectiveness. .

Rurik believed that Mechasta, a Cowen man, had completely surrendered, and he was afraid that a few thorns would suddenly pop up from among the ordinary tribesmen to instigate and do things that were not good for him. While such a thing might seem impossible, routine vigilance is necessary.

Besides, Allenburg is essentially a northern city, and it must have the most basic city defense facilities.

The mercenaries are all here. They eat the wheat from the patron and wear the leather clothing of the patron. They are Rurik's reliable minions. These people have a clear stake in Rurik, and they are more reliable than the real Ross fishermen who settled in Ayron, and they are naturally more reliable than the Kewen people.

Nearly a hundred mercenaries essentially undertook the defense of Fort Elrond and further consolidated Rurik's power here.

The next day, the short day began with the red morning glow in the east.

Even though the day is very short, the temperature is surprisingly not so cold. In the short day, various projects in Elronburg's winter daily life had to be implemented quickly, for example, women had to collect firewood, and men had to cut down a little tree.

The head of the deer breeder, Alska, and his fellows, everyone and the Iron Squirrel tribe of the Cowen people, had reconciled in Roseburg as early as half a year ago. Now that the life of the Kewen people is not bad, Arska envies him. He still likes to graze on the snow field.

As long as he guards a large herd of deer, he feels that he is embracing wonderful wealth. Although he has been reduced to Rurik's deer slave.

To be fair, he thinks life is okay now. At least as a slave of Rurik, he didn't feel that the clansmen had suffered any substantial harm. As long as he helped the master raise the deer, he would be able to get good security. What more should he pursue?

A new day, a new beginning.

Arska took his brothers who could be counted with both hands, left his wife and children, took more than 200 deer, some iron weapons for self-defense, sleds, leather tents for accommodation and other camping supplies, and they rushed to The vast snowfield in the north. Among their supplies was a small packet of oats and a little salt. These two are regarded as "carrots" for the deer breeders to ease the discomfort of their wives and children being detained.

Arska also unexpectedly received a request from Rurik: "By the way, you find other deer breeders and tell them to submit to me and pay me some leather every year, so that you can get the military protection of the Ross people, and you can Get a trade license."

Arska agreed to this request, and he had to think about one thing. He saw the strength of the Ross people and their ambition to conquer the known world. If all is fate, and all deer breeders are to be ruled by them, then the chances of avoiding conflict should be taken as much as possible. If you provide them with some from your own deer herd, you will be guaranteed not to be attacked by them. This "deal" is calculated.

However, another request from Rurik surprised him.

"To the sea at the end of the world? Looking for a special river, looking for a bay that will never freeze?" Arska was not very clear about this matter.

He accepted the request anyway, because Rurik rejected his challenge.

In fact, Rurik hopes that these deer breeders who can operate in the entire north, specifically in the Murmansk region of Lapland, can find the Murmansk Gulf and provide a path to get there. Such things as snowfield exploration are of course to be done, and Rurik feels that deer breeders have rich experience in this area.

Alsk's winter grazing has a certain nature of adventure. They took away more than 200 deer, so what about the other 200?

The rest of the deer were all left in Elronburg, and those who were selected were either the fawns or the strongest stags among them.

The reason is simple, will a fawn that is only a few months old die outside? Although the wild reindeer herds migrate year after year, a group of small deer should die.

Rurik didn't want any mistakes for these captive deer. It was already a great feat for them to reach Elronburg, and they would just eat grass around the settlement in the future.

As for those beefy stags, they will come in huge use!

Those disappearing forests are not really "Lu Chen" anymore. The ground was littered with fallen pines whose branches had been chopped off and burned for firewood, leaving a mass of straight trunks.

There are plenty of hemp ropes in Fort Eyron. The trunks are tied up with hemp ropes, pulled out by manpower, and transported to the frozen pier. How much manpower will be consumed? Human power is obviously so precious, but animal power is different.

The selected stags were carefully trained servants by other Kewen tribes. They were docile masters at pulling sleds, and naturally they could easily pull tree trunks out of the "forest ruins".

No, the reindeer started working on the first day.

Rurik didn't even pay attention to the backs of the deer breeder and the herd of deer, but led a group of mercenaries to the ruins of the forest to deal with the big trees.

A large number of pine trees were covered with hemp rope, and the other end of the rope was hung around the neck of the deer. The reality is that two deer pull a log, which is laborious for humans, but reindeer don't seem to feel tired.

Rurik didn't care that much, until the short day soon turned into evening, and he found that some stags were already panting and walking a little wobbly. Even so, the reindeer were whipped and continued to drag the logs towards the frozen pier.

At this moment, on the snowy ground at the pier, those Kewen people with double saws, under the leadership of Mechasta, have already processed the logs twice, that is, sawed them into lengths of about 2 stikas, so that they can be used better. It is convenient for ship materials and even transportation.

Mechasta and his people undertook the crucial timber stacking operation. The logs with the same length are probably the thick thighs of strong men, and they are stacked in a herringbone shape. Two hundred reindeer, driven together by the detained women of the deer breeder, the women of the Kewen tribe, and even the mercenaries of Rurik and the fishermen of Ross, formed a transportation line on the snowy ground, bringing the deer and people together. The place to walk turned into a hard and slippery road.

Finally, in the evening, an extremely important transportation process was finally carried out in Rurik's fervent prayer.

Yevro, the brave mercenary captain, was the one who personally presided over this extremely important escort.

There were twenty mercenaries and five Kewen tribe men, and they insisted on driving dozens of strong stags to drag a very special huge log.

It is an extremely tall spruce, and it is also an outstanding presence in the forest.

Rurik also learned from Mechasta that at the beginning of September, Ross fishermen who settled here stood on the mine and saw a few outstanding trees in the pine forest in the distance.

Those are some tall spruces, and they don't feel particularly tall when viewed from a distance, but you can only know what is towering when you stand under them.

Ross fishermen used classic Viking logging techniques to cut down the tree. Of course, when it collapsed, it not only broke some small pines, but also caused a small earthquake.

After preliminary measurements, after it was cut off all the branches, the remaining part of the trunk actually amounted to 40 stikas. This is the mast material that Rurik dreamed of. It is straight and extremely tall. Although 40stika, that is, 40 meters in length, is too crazy for a caravel ship, it is more suitable for use as a Galen ship. mast.

Only relying on ten stags to drag him, Yefro gritted his teeth and felt the difficulty of the stags. At last all the men joined the dragging army, and with the stag they pulled the heavy pole away.

At first, Rurik didn't find it extremely difficult.

Until he saw Yeflo's blushing face holding on to the hemp rope, and the reindeer panting crazily...

Rurik saw clearly the trunk of the tree that had been dragged abruptly from the woods, and had been dragged to the flat snow. Is it really that strenuous to tow a large tree trunk in the presence of slick snow?

The truth is that extreme.

Rurik only knew its length and its diameter, which was almost a little more than a stika, but did not calculate its weight. The reason is not to blame for Rurik's inaction, it is entirely because he does not know the density of spruce logs.

So, what kind of number is this?

Rurik regarded the tree trunk as a special cone, and then calculated its volume to be about 10.5 cubic meters with a simple calculation formula.

In fact, the density of spruce is 417kg/m3, and the huge spruce trunk they pulled out weighed four tons.

This is an extremely exaggerated weight, and only twenty-five people and ten stags can pull it out with the combined efforts of the relatively slippery snow.

The massive weight directly melts some of the snow, and the towing job can be done in smoother conditions, but four tons is no joke.

There is more than one big tree of this length. Looking at its dense growth rings that make people dizzy, Rurik dares to be sure that this tree has grown for at least five thousand years.

In fact, this is not an exaggeration at all. The lifespan of this special tree, the Nordic spruce, tends to be infinite in theory. It is difficult for it to die naturally. Its death mainly comes from external reasons, such as human felling.

Spruce may not be a good choice for making masts, but even if the Ross people get the technical support of Mellaren's shipbuilding industry, those shipbuilding masters don't understand, and there is no need to implement "mast splicing" on small boats , even a ship like Caravel is still a small ship. The density of red pine is a bit higher, but it cannot grow as exaggeratedly as spruce.

Yefro's face turned red as if he had drunk a bottle of strong wine. The people who carried ordinary logs saw such a group of warriors suddenly coming out, and they couldn't help but gather around to watch. They were shocked that these guys managed to pull the giant tree out, and they were also worried about their bodies.

Evro was eager to make a positive statement to Rurik: "My lord, we are almost there."

"This... is really crazy, you really succeeded."

Rurik stroked the rough bark, and the man who was dragging the hemp rope hurriedly sat down to rest. They had already taken off their fur hats, and this time they sat down, they grabbed handfuls of snow and stuffed them into their mouths.

"My lord, this tree is very heavy."

"Yes, I've seen it all."

"So." Yefro gasped and boldly demanded: "I hope you will call all the brothers together. We will use a hundred people to pull this big tree away. Just rely on..." Immediately afterwards, Yevro violently cough.

"You!" Rurik suddenly turned around, noticing the blood on Yevro's mouth, and instantly became very nervous. "You! Are you ill?"

"I'm so tired. My lord, my chest feels like it's about to explode. I..." Yefro coughed again, and there were some bright red blood in the protruding phlegm.

Is it tuberculosis? It must be impossible. I am afraid this is the embodiment of extreme fatigue.

The fact is indeed the case, Yefro must set an example, he exerted his strength very fiercely, his lungs were always suffocated, and suddenly burst many capillaries. He has already shown obvious internal injuries, and it is not worth the loss to continue to let him do things.

They are all strong men. Looking at this exaggeratedly long tree, Rurik gritted his teeth and hurriedly ordered the mercenaries driving the reindeer to assemble urgently. Also assembled were a group of busy Ross fishermen and Kewen tribesmen. .

In his excitement, Rurik drew out his dagger and encouraged: "Brothers, this big tree will be the mast of our big ship! It is extremely heavy, but don't be afraid! We will organize a hundred deer and a hundred people , work together to pull it away! Listen, this job is done, we go back to dinner. All of you! Whether it is Ross or Cowen, or my mercenary brothers, you have given too much! All can tonight Get three pounds of wheat!"

Hearing this promise, the tired guys all jumped up, and even Yefro felt that he had regained a lot of strength. wheat! Delicious on earth, and Rurik indeed has the ability to fulfill this promise immediately.

Of course Rurik will keep his promise. After all, it is 70,000 pounds of wheat, and this amount of wheat is not evenly distributed to the residents of Allenburg. They are all rewards for strong men who have put in a lot of hard work, and only it can replenish nearly 4,000 calories of precious calories for strong men in a very short period of time, so that they can jump up and do high jumps the next day. Intensity of heavy physical labor.