Rise of Rurik

The army of the "North Hunters" returned to Fort Rosberg at the end of February. The official identity of the Kovins who were hunted was Rurik's slaves. This is acknowledged by all the Rus. No one would dare to harass the "property" belonging to the chief's family.

Although they are slaves, their lives are not like the kind of precarious slaves who are bullied.

The population of the Grey Squirrel Tribe dwindled to barely 200, and they settled in Roseburg as slaves.

After the war and the long journey, the old and the weak all died, and some women were taken away by the Rus and became the women of the Rus warriors and accidentally got rid of their slave status.

It seems that life is better off being a slave to Rurik than being a woman of those warriors.

Yeah, life is like this, can it get any worse?

The leader of the tribe, Mechasta, is still the leader of the tribe to this day. Since Rurik's two young children are valued by Rurik, it is clear that the future of the Grey Squirrel tribe will not be bad.

Everyone knows their true destiny in the future - to go to the north.

"Woima Kashad, I can't think of it. You brought the mine with your brothers and brought disaster to the tribe. Soon, the entire tribe will move there to settle. It seems to be a good thing for the tribe."

Thinking of this, Mechasta always put down the axe given by the Rus, and he stood in the woods, looking north.

Yes, after these tribesmen set up their own tents, they began to build a batch of log cabins covered with mud and dry grass to keep warm. Rurik lent them iron axes for logging, scrapers for cutting wood, and even scraps and shovels for planing.

These are just hardened wrought iron utensils, which are stronger and more durable than the pure wrought iron tools of other regions, but somewhat out of date compared to the mild steel tools that the Rus began to popularize.

In fact, as long as it is returned to the furnace to burn red, and then carburized, a large number of iron tools kept by the Rus can be turned into carbon steel tools.

But as far as the actual use effect is concerned, the iron axe is completely sufficient just for logging work. Rather than saying that an iron axe fell down a tree, it was better to say that the tree was smashed by a not very sharp axe.

The Grey Squirrel tribe must relocate to the northern mines and rebuild the tribe there, permanently under the control of the Ruth tribe, or the Ruth chief family.

Legally, the Grey Squirrel Tribe is already Rurik's private property, and so are all the tribesmen. He can command them as he pleases, and he will not be criticized by others.

Rurik had no intention of mistreating them,

Even preferential treatment was given.

He and Mechasta verbally made a promise that he would give the tribesmen food, and the price the tribesmen paid was logging for the Rus.

The people of the Grey Squirrel tribe began to cut down the pine and oak, and then use a scraper to remove the bark, which Rurik then sold to the tribe's shipbuilders who worked through the night for some silver, which would buy a little dried oats from Gould, And buy fish from the clansmen who insist on cutting ice and winter fishing. He gives grain and catch to the grey squirrel tribesmen, thus closing a deal.

In this circular transaction, all parties earn a little of the labor value of those gray squirrel tribesmen.

For the tribesmen, they really feel that the Rus is not as bad as it once appeared.

Many people even felt that the real leader of the tribe was clearly Rurik from Rus, even if it was a child.

That is a noble boy. Since he can get food and security as long as he does things for him, why not do it?

The tribesmen are working harder and harder, and some of them with special skills are gradually showing up.

After all, those men who surrender on the battlefield are hunters themselves. They were allowed to re-equip their bows and arrows, and swore that they would not point the arrows at any of the Rus.

Using carefully selected springy oak branches, recreating their short wooden bows and borrowing iron clusters from the Rus to make the highest quality arrows, they began to hunt around the mountains near Rosburg.

They set off dragging their sleds, claiming they wouldn't run away.

The hunters really have no desire to flee. After all, there are still a large number of tribal tribes who stay in the territory of the Rus as hostages!

Hunters of the Grey Squirrel tribe shoot all they find near the hills, and these Corvins prefer to shoot straight with bows rather than Roth hunters who love to set traps such as tripwires.

Long-legged snow rabbits, alert ferrets, and even the occasional arctic fox, they hunted down a few. The meat of the prey is naturally divided for the hunter, the leg bones of the prey are made into bone clusters, and the leather is given to Rurik.

There are also some tribesmen, they are craftsmen who know how to make charcoal. The crooked branches of the oak were cut off, and the relatively straight trunks were "tributed" to Rurik, and those branches were naturally processed into charcoal blocks.

There are only 200 surviving tribesmen, how did they use so many charcoal blocks? They "tribute" the excess burnt carbon and pray for more food.

Rurik was a little surprised by these changes, and they naturally supported many of their reasonable demands.

Is this flattery? may be.

They don't crave preferential treatment, they just want a better life.

The Kewen people and even the deer breeders, two ethnic groups with a common origin, joined the Rus camp for different reasons and were so obedient, obviously working very hard for themselves. How to explain this? Rurik felt that it could only be explained in terms of the so-called "weird maniac" mentality.

Compared with the Ross people, they are all others. In order to prove that they are useful to the new masters, they are desperately proving their worth.

If they are in this state of mind, things are obviously too good!

Rurik admired the skilled craftsmen in this group of people, and also managed all the children in one group.

In the end, the entire Grey Squirrel tribe will be completely absorbed by the Rus tribe, and their descendants will eventually think that they are the real Rus. Even now, Rurik feels that they cannot declare that they are the "New Rus". They are still a group of slaves, and the duty of slaves is to be obedient. If rewarding them with some of the necessities of their lives could be exchanged for their obedience, Rurik would be happy to do something last time and reap even greater benefits for himself in the foreseeable future.

The time finally came to May, and to the shock of the Cowen and the deer breeders, they saw a spectacular sight.

More than 500 ships of all sizes, old and new, cover the waters of the fjords and cover the sun with their huge sails!

People whose concept of boats is limited to canoes are completely stunned by the sight in front of them.

After a short period of time, the Kewen Grey Squirrel Tribe, who had made some mental preparations in their hearts, finally waited for the official order from the master - our expedition is about to begin!

The big businessman Gould personally led a huge commercial fleet to the south. He took away all the goods in stock, and also took away most of the geographic officers.

The pier built by Gould's own family temporarily became deserted, and soon, it suddenly resumed its liveliness.

Two young fat boys, Gould's other sons, were ordered to manage the mansion after he left, and also to manage the relationship between the family and the head of Ross, and the life of the family.

The two faced the honorable Rurik with great humility, and they obeyed the orders of their old father and met all of Rurik's demands without reservation.

It was another good day, and it was this very day that Rurik had decided to set out on.

On May 20 of the Julian calendar, all preparations are in place!

It was almost the summer solstice, and there was no dark night in Roseburg on that day. The days are now very long and the entire fjord is immersed in the warmest period of the year.

But the sea water is still relatively cold, only the courageous guy dares to throw his clothes and swim in the sea water. This is an act of bravery, and most of the fishermen in Ross are reluctant to do so, because of their awe of the sea.

Early in the morning, the awakened Rurik clapped his hands on his smiling face and got up from his mother's arms.

He felt pity for the mother who was lying on the side, because her only son was going to take a group of clansmen to the north to build as a "war chief".

Although this matter has nothing to do with the war, after all, it is the pioneering of the unknown territory, which mother is not worried?

What should be told Nia has already finished.

After she woke up as usual, she prepared a little breakfast for the child who was about to leave, as if today was a normal day.

Rurik sat cross-legged near the dining table, nibbling on wheat biscuits and jerky, and kept gazing at his mother who was not thinking about tea and rice.

He could understand the mother's mood.

"Mom, I know you're still worried. There's nothing to worry about, you just stay here and I'll be back when I'm done."

What does "finish work" mean? Niya didn't know, she lightly pushed her wheat cake to Rurik: "Eat it, eat more."

"okay."

There were actually four children sitting in front of Nia, except for Rurik, Carlota, Ella, and Seporava. The three girls are destined to be his wives and concubines, but he clearly hopes that his wives and concubines can become female warriors, not weak ones.

They ate in silence, and Nia didn't say anything else.

Before long, the world of the outdoors has become lively.

Although it was agreed that the departure crowd would be assembled at the pier of Gould's house, Rurik's besties, such as Fisk and Kanuf, gathered all of them, including themselves, and were selected to participate in the "expedition." Fifty little warriors from ”, armed with iron weapons issued by Rurik, only for real adults, gathered at the door of the leader’s house.

The ten maids who came with them, from Anna to Yulia, stopped making soap, picked up wooden bows and arrows, and came to see themselves as "Valkyrie Legionnaires". Commander Carlota and his master Rurik.

Thirty mercenaries with iron swords and axes on their waists and crossbows in their hands are also here. The leader of the mercenaries, due to Yevlo's temporary departure, has become an archery coach Fraser. . At the same time, this Fraser still has to take on the management of all the children, just like the usual training, accepting the supervision of his important task.

This time on the "expedition" Rurik was surrounded by a group of capable men.

He, the war chief, has the power to mobilize hundreds of soldiers to fight the enemy. He only mobilized a hundred pure-blooded Rus soldiers in addition to the mercenaries. Don't look at the small number of these soldiers. They are veterans who participated in the "Northern Hunting Operation" and fought with the Cowen Tribe Allied Forces.

Originally, Rurik mobilized them simply considering that everyone had fought side by side, and the existence of this comrade-in-arms relationship would allow him to better command them.

But in the eyes of most people, this was Rurik's little trick.

Even if Rurik agrees that those Kovin slaves will not rebel, everyone seems to see that those Kovins who can pick up iron axes and spears unprecedentedly after receiving the gift are really full of the possibility of rebellion, so they need strong Rus warriors Suppress them with momentum.

After the meal, Rurik, who was consciously full of energy, put on gorgeous clothes, and appeared in front of the waiting people with high fighting spirit.

"Looks like you're all ready! I won't say anything, let's start."

He didn't make any high-spirited shouting, but his little warriors responded to their war chiefs by yelling "wuraaaaaaah".

Rurik struttingly led a group of people to the beach, where he wanted to meet the Kowen people who were waiting to board the boat.

He didn't look back at his mother, but Niya was staring at his son's back, and the golden ponytail that was shaking under the snow fox's hat with the pace, and then she joined the team.

Rurik is going to take a group of people to the north to open up the legendary iron mine? It is said that the iron ore is better than the ore of the small hill near the Fort of Rossman? ! The blacksmiths of the tribe are all jealous of this resource, but Rurik specially selected Kawei to participate in the operation.

There is no other reason than the young man Kawei who discovered the secret of the iron mine. At the same time, Kamne and ten other blacksmith apprentices from the Salmon Lord tribe of the Kewen people, who were less than ten years old. Interestingly, because of the early learning of art, Kamne is the elder brother of this group of Kewen children.

In fact, after two months of all-weather study, although the new boys did not have the strength to pick up the hammer and participate in the blacksmithing, they did their best to help. In general, they are full of admiration for the work of blacksmiths, and they observe the essentials of blacksmithing all day while doing the helpful work of their abilities.

It can be said that from the very beginning, these children were learning one-stop skills from prospecting, beneficiation, smelting sponge iron, wrought iron, carburizing, quenching and polishing. The Rus people are really exporting technology to the Kewen people. In the final analysis, they are still cultivating a brand new group of blacksmiths that can be completely controlled for the Rus tribe.

After all, the reality is a little funny, the native Ross boys, they prefer to be brave warriors rather than blacksmiths who work all day.

What can Rurik do? He can only arrange obedient slaves or submissive people to learn how to be blacksmiths.

One day, the entire gray squirrel tribesmen must take iron smelting as their main life. Rurik arranged for his slaves to explore such industries, and it was also his primary purpose for developing mines.

In a big way, the future of the Rus people will be inseparable from the huge chromite mine in the north.