For his son, Otto thought of many things.
Niya is particularly supportive of her son's actions. Every mother hopes that her beloved son will become an excellent person in all aspects. This is a mother's instinct.
A cold and ordinary winter morning started today. Rurik was forced to suspend training on the hillside due to a new round of snowfall.
The pause is a pause, and it will continue after the spring. Many children, like Kanuf, this child is not idle.
Rurik already knew that Kanuf would follow his father and pull a sled on skis to hunt farther north. There is no need to worry about the hunted beasts rotting away. The hunted reindeer will be brought back to the tribe in an attitude as frozen as stone. Moreover, such prey is purely owned by the hunter, and it will not participate in the distribution of wealth within the tribe at all.
Times have changed. A long time ago, much of the tribe’s wealth was still distributed fairly. For example, fifty years ago, when Priest Vilia was still young, there were only more than 2,000 residents of Fort Ross. It took half a century for the population to reach its current number due to population reproduction and the immigration of a large number of small families from southern allies.
They are not very reliable with those immigrants. If anything big happens to the Ross tribe, they will return to the south.
In the past, residents were all closely related by blood, and they were very willing to help each other.
However, the majority of the tribesmen have very little understanding of their own history, and they do not have clear surnames. Residents generally marry early, and it is even difficult for the population to live up to fifty years old.
The sum of these factors has made Roseburg reach its fifth generation in the fifty years since its establishment!
Many residents are well aware that they share common ancestry with their friends, but are unclear about specific information when asked. The era of using family ties as a bond to unite the entire tribe is gradually passing. Nowadays, the tribe needs a powerful and prestigious person to serve as the leader. At the same time, the self-awareness of each family is becoming stronger.
In recent years, the spoils distribution principle of the Sorgon route has also undergone tremendous changes!
Once upon a time, the leader took people to collect the tributes from Novgorod's servants, brought them back to Rosberg and distributed them equally among all the families.
Nowadays, only families that send people to participate can get most of the tributes, and those who do not participate can only get a small amount of treasures, which gradually become insignificant benefits. Everyone knows that if this continues, the Sorgon Route will no longer be a "public event" that benefits the entire tribe.
The times are constantly changing, and they are unruly and do not have many complaints about this.
The winter overland hunting operation will begin, and Kanuf and his father will join the hunting army. They often travel together and are surrounded and annihilated by deer and wolves.
Their hunting is like fighting. They will try their best to hunt any wild animal they encounter.
If you can hunt ferrets, you can make a lot of money if you bring a fur to the market of the southern allies!
However, men look after each other and hunt in groups to obtain more meat. After all, they prefer venison to fishy fish.
The same goes for Otto, who will also be involved as the leader.
According to tradition, he could take his son Rurik there, but now that his son intends to study with Vilia, he has to give up his wish.
On this day, Otto was preparing the food he needed for hunting at home, so there was no need to worry too much about this matter.
Because of the tribute voyage and the leader's great achievements, naturally the leader's family gets the most wealth.
Otto prepared some completely dry rye bread, some pickled venison, salted fish jerky, and even a small jar of honey for himself.
My wife can prepare the dry food. No, Niya is already using an iron knife to cut the hard dried meat into small pieces that are easy to chew.
Otto has more important things. It is said that to make iron, you need to be strong. A good hunter must have powerful enough weapons!
There are a lot of red rocks in the hilly mountains west of Fort Ross. The blacksmiths of the tribe know that it is hematite, and after a complicated smelting process, iron tools can be made.
Due to the poor iron-smelting technology of the Ross tribe in this era, based on their experience, they had to roast the pig iron for a longer period of time before forging it. The blacksmiths did not have the advanced technology to raise the furnace temperature, so all the iron tools they made were brittle and soft.
They have no concept of the scientific principles involved, only the experience left by their ancestors.
The warriors of the tribe therefore used single-edged axes on a large scale. Of course, they also used double-edged swords, which were short, broad-bladed iron swords.
With the current forging technology, and even the Danes' forging technology, they can only produce such weapons, which are actually completely sufficient in this era.
After all, Europe at this time was in a worse era. The Vikings did not realize that their weapons were too backward. They were amazed that the few sharp swords they bought from distant Rome could cut iron as well as clay. The Rus tribe also lamented that the Novgorod people once dared to challenge the Rus warriors wearing chainmail and holding battle axes with only a pile of wooden sticks and stone spears as weapons.
Otto's sword "Destroyer" is as sharp as iron. He still doesn't know that his ancestors spent huge sums of money to buy this sword from Roman merchants who stayed in Novgorod. The sword actually comes from the more distant east. "The Destroyer" is a patterned steel sword that can cut iron like clay!
Only in battles with enemies, Otto will use his own sword. In activities such as hunting, there are more opportunities to use throwable short spears.
He is making some short throwing spears, and the most important thing is to polish the sharp edges of the spearheads. Because of the backward technology, there is no grinder here, so Otto had to spend a long time sharpening the knives from the mine.The stone is constantly polished.
His wife Niya, perhaps tired of polishing her voice, suddenly muttered: "You really shouldn't have taken Rurik, he is just too young. Your decision is very smart."
"Why are you bringing this up? Rurik will not participate in hunting. Today he went to study with Villya for the first time. This is what you want." Otto raised his head and muttered, grinding his hands. The knife and stone didn't stop.
"Actually...Actually, I..." Niya thought of many things, and the iron knife cutting bacon in her hand paused.
Niya raised her forehead, which was wrinkled from hard work, and looked at her husband: "Otto, actually, for my son, I don't want him to be so keen on fighting."
" He has no choice. He is a boy and will be a man from now on."
"But..."
"I know what you are thinking!" Lowering his mind, he also thought of many sad past events. "Neus, and Togra, their death was an accident. You and I are very sorry."
The couple mentioned Rurik's two dead brothers, who lost their sons in old age. It was a great misfortune until Niya successfully gave birth to a healthy child at an extremely advanced age.
In fact, just from the fact that Niya successfully gave birth at the age of 40, it is an out-and-out miracle on earth.
When Rurik was born, he neither cried nor fussed when he was born, which fully demonstrated his strong and resolute character.
At least this is how Priest Vilia explained it. This most prestigious priest has never encountered such a thing in his seventy years of life, so naturally he had to give some supernatural explanation.
Niya can't control that much. No matter whether Rurik is "Odin's blessing" or not, first of all, he is his only biological flesh and blood. Niya, who had lost two sons in succession and was almost fifty years old, could not withstand a new blow.
She hopes that her son will not be exposed to anything dangerous, although she knows how selfish her thoughts are, and they are against the values of a warrior, which also disgusts her husband.
She still explained her idea to her husband, but naturally received Otto's opposition.
"You don't have to worry about anything. Let Rurik stay at home in peace, or stay in the priest's longhouse for the rest of his life? It seems that he is safe, but what is the difference between that and a coward. Ni Ya! You must understand! When our son can speak, he will tell us that he is going to be the leader. If we dare to stand in the way, he will be immediately sick and die."
Otto's words were threatening, and Niya suddenly asked: "But you still allowed him to go to Viglia. Why? Why do you support this?"
"Alas! That is his own choice. We cannot interfere with him too much. My attitude will never change. I don't want Rurik to get too close to those priests."
" Are you afraid of being infected by them and forgetting to fight?" Niya asked.
"I did think so, and there are other factors." Otto calmed down and looked at his wife, "No one knows Vilia better than me. She is not an ordinary woman! Now I really Fortunately, Vilia has great prestige in the tribe, everyone trusts everything she says at the altar, and she still supports me as always. But Vilia is too old! After all, she is a person."
Niya could hear the meaning of her husband's words, but she really didn't understand.
"What do you mean?"
"I'm a little worried about that Bona." Otto said solemnly: "A good leader cannot be swayed by those priests. I I heard that among the Franks, their priests are more powerful than their leaders! Who is the leader? Maybe the priests are!”
What Otto is talking about here is of course not true, it is actually the Franks. Monarchs and nobles have a high level of respect for the Holy See, and the power of the Pope is indeed growing. When the news reached Northern Europe, it became Otto's words in a way that the Vikings could generally understand.
"That Pona is not an ambitious person." Niya argued.
"I hope so. When Vilia dies, Bona will succeed. By that time, will she be ambitious? Niya, you and I are already old, maybe we can't Seeing the day of our Rurik's wedding. We can't completely believe what Vilia said, I even think that Vilia deliberately said that Ruric was blessed by Odin, whether Odin really exerted the blessing. How do you know?"
"No! He is blessed." Niya said firmly.
"Well, I hope so." Otto continued to pick up the whetstone, "I still don't want Rurik to get too close to those priests. If Rurik is moved by their words, Will he slowly become someone who only listens to the opinions of the priests? Even if Rurik becomes the new leader, can his ambition be realized? Because in that case, he will have to listen to those priests. "< /p>
Niya could not help but feel nervous after hearing the crux of the problem: "If this is the case, maybe we should really call him back."
"No need." Otto Shaking his head: "In these few years, only these few years. After this period, he can no longer go to Wei Liya to study."
"So you just let him study. How many years, for example, until the age of twelve? ”
In the traditional concept of the Ross tribe and even the Southern Siyan allies, when a boy reaches the age of twelve, he should fulfill many male obligations. obligations, in a sense it can be concluded that the boy has grown up, but of course this is not the case.
Otto explained: "Everything depends on Vilia's lifespan. At the wedding ceremony a few days ago, I saw that she is too old. In another year or two, she may no longer be able to If I can wear the antlered helmet, maybe Rurik will die before he turns twelve. By that time, I don’t think Rurik will be able to wear it anymore.What else can Ke learn from Bona? "
At this point, Otto breathed again: "I tell you, my dear Niya. Vilia is great, I can attest to this, I have learned some knowledge from her, so I know how to govern our tribe well. I have always believed that if Vilia were a man, she would have been a chief for a long time. There is no need to mourn for her identity, she is our wise man and is highly respected by everyone.
But that Bona! She was not a wise man and knew nothing except that the festival priests recited some incantations. "
Niya nodded: "I basically understand. You hope that Rurik will learn more knowledge from Vilia, and you also hope that Vilia will not live too long. ”
“Yes. Rurik must be trained to be a brave fighter, he must become strong, must have the ability to defeat many people, and this talent he has already shown must be further strengthened. When he grows older, I will choose warriors I trust to train him. I love him, and I must use this method to push him to the position of leader. ”