With an order, all the boys surrounding Rurik fell to their knees, and even the younger ones accidentally lay down on the snow.
At this moment, Rurik felt that he was not even a chief, but a king!
The light of the bonfire shone gently on all the kneeling bodies. Rurik always held his dagger. He raised it high and shouted: "Brothers, I am your leader. ! I am the one you can rely on in the future. I will give you orders, and you must complete them! I will do my best to train you to be the bravest warrior, and I will also help you all become rich and comfortable when you grow up. A house, a beautiful wife, and more silver coins than you can imagine.”
“Like a beautiful woman from Novgorod?” Kanuf, who was kneeling, suddenly raised his head and asked. .
"Shut up! Kanuf. You can't speak until I finish speaking!"
Rurik's harsh words had a strong sense of oppression, and many children Their hearts were tense, as they believed that their "King of Children" had really changed his temperament after killing the deer.
It is like the description of the leader Otto by the children's own father - the old leader is a real man on the battlefield, the berserker who is always at the forefront, he is fair and serious , is also brave and very kind to everyone when the battle is over.
Rurik improvised some words of encouragement, and there were some words he really needed to say.
"Now you all surrender to me, good! I trust you. After this festival, you will be one year older and your family will ask you to do more. I don't care about your family How about it, I will continue to take you to training, not only to teach you how to fight, but also to learn other things. You have no choice, you must follow me. Now, if any of you are dissatisfied, stand up and quit now! ”
Someone stand up? Who dares! What's more, everyone is willing to follow Rurik, just because following him, the boring life has become interesting. Besides, their parents are saying that Otto's son Rurik has amassed a lot of wealth just through soap. If he behaves well, won't he be rewarded by Rurik?
The strongest Fisk surrendered obediently, how could anyone dare to object?
Rurik wanted this effect. He put his sword back into its scabbard and ordered in a childish voice that he didn't like: "All of you, stand up! Just like those on the hillside in the woods. That way, line them up!"
In a short period of time, these more than a hundred children were arranged in five rows, and the children in each row belonged to the "same boat". Now because some people did not come , resulting in a row of less than thirty people. Those who didn't come were just because of some trivial things. It didn't matter if they didn't come. Rurik knew that if he had a hundred elite fans who had been trained since childhood, twenty years later, they would be his most powerful cards.
"Very good! I thought the training would be terminated when it gets cold, but you have forgotten to line up! Look!The training results from coming to us are very good. Rurik paused for breath: "Listen, you will still maintain this team when you grow up. I promise you that in twenty years, each of you will have a beautiful and strong armor, and a beautiful A stelsvard sword that can cut through ordinary swords. Now follow me and roar! "
After saying that, Rurik drew out his sword again and shouted "Ypaaaax" in a very abrupt voice. Ah, we are all Russians, and the descendants of Rus are also the Maozi.
p>
Although it is a bit abrupt, Rurik wants to set a rule now, "Ypa! It represents bravery and victory. From now on, when we face the enemy, we chant Ypa together, and we can intimidate the enemy with just our momentum. Now follow my rhythm and roar! ”
Viking war cries are not uncommon, especially when forming a traditional shield wall to approach the enemy. Each individual in the team must rhythmically coordinate their footsteps to roar. The first priority in doing so is to ensure the pace. No chaos, the second is the psychological shock to the enemy.
However, they are Russians after all, and shouting "Ula" is a must!
Everyone accepted this fun in an instant. The roars, and everyone roared rhythmically at the same time in childish voices, which made me feel so emotional.
Women should not participate in the gathering of soldiers, even many years in the future. A large group of little boys gathered together to become warriors.
Rumia came because of her status as a bed servant.
This servant is unusual, so she started to wear it. The silver jewelry proved that this was a noble slave. Rumia leaned against a big tree. She wisely avoided it because she was afraid of those boys who were outnumbered. Until now, Rumia only believed in Ruri. Ke is the only person in the entire group of barbarians who is really kind to her.
She is carrying a small rattan basket with some hard dried meat and bread cubes in it, which she was ordered to do. The dry food he carried was so that Otto could get some snacks as soon as possible when Rurik and other children were suddenly hungry at the campfire gathering.
The humble girl was stunned by all this and held up her shorts. The little master of the sword easily ordered an astonishing number of children to kneel on the ground, and she was so frightened that she quickly knelt down against the big tree.
Rumia, she saw Rurik holding his short sword high. Accepting the tribute of hundreds of children who could become powerful barbarian warriors in the future, her heart was no longer as touched as being protected.
Rumia, her heart was completely conquered!
The children's campfire slowly extinguished, leaving a large number of footprints and a large trace of charcoal fire on the ground.
Rurik was in a great mood, but he didn't know what he was feeling. What kind of mental journey did the servant go through?
His short sword was hung on his waist, and his stride looked like a miniature samurai.
His servant was gentle. Goutou, carrying the basket, followed the little master closely, looking submissive.
Rurik is still thinking about what happened just now. The feeling of being worshiped by others, how comfortable he feels? !
"Rumia?" He muttered suddenly.
"Masta?"
"Very good, you are calling me masta. You saw it just now, they were kneeling to me."
"I I've seen it all. They will be loyal to you, and so will I. "Of course you will be loyal to me, come back with me now, I have something else to do."
< p>Now Rurik knows that he needs a lot of help, especially the two industrial chains he has developed this winter, which require more labor to expand them.Will they always abide by the agreement signed with the priest and the blacksmith?
Unlikely, because people’s hearts will change, and people’s pursuit of wealth and power will never stop. When they feel that the wealth given to them is too little, they will ask for more wealth.
I think I have a contract with them as business partners, and they are not my confidants.
Want to gain a confidant? The best way is to cultivate it from an early age.
It is not that Rurik has never thought about taking some of the brats under his command to learn blacksmithing or making soap, and then he will also distribute wealth to them. Rurik only had some thoughts in this regard and quickly denied himself.
Boy’s parents will not let their children engage in those jobs. Boys generally want to grow up to be new sea warriors and are destined to serve Odin. How can they become Thor’s servants?
So from the beginning, Rumia was different from those who worshiped her.
Train Rumia into a female warrior? Maybe some tribes do this because there are few males in their own tribe, but there is obviously no need to do this in the Ross tribe. Rumia has her own strengths. Generally speaking, she has no objection to the wooden boards kept by the tribe to record knowledge. She is a person who loves learning. If such a person is deeply cultivated, she will be a trustworthy housekeeper and a person who will be good at internal affairs.
And she is a woman who needs to be attached to a strong male authority, either her husband or her master.
The two returned to their warm home. They took off their warm furry coats and hung them on raised copper nails on the wooden wall.
Rurik and I were naturally in my soft and comfortable sleeping nest, while Rumia sat in the corner obediently as always and listened to his wishes.
Otto, the leader of the tribe, the tribe’s grand festival has passed for a long time. According to the calendar, after surviving the long night before us, the sun will rise above the horizon again, and the new year will come.
Life was compressed in a small wooden house. In this era of extreme lack of entertainment, Otto had no choice but to lie on his side and chew dried meat to pass the time. There was already too much stuff in his stomach, and the thought of leaving the house and going to the independent toilet next to the longhouse finally made him feel that nasty cold feeling.He shut up.
Niya, the very young wife, was busy sewing new leather clothes and humming ancient songs.
Otto has no intention of helping his wife at all. Sewing and repairing clothes are all his wife's work. If there is anything a man must do, it is cutting wood and repairing ships. This is where any man can settle down and make a living. Book.
The return of his son made the bored Otto very happy. He should take the opportunity to tell his son some things he was holding back.
"Rurik, don't lie down, come to me quickly, I want to tell you something."
"Oh? Dad?"
Rurik got up and moved closer, sitting cross-legged and looking up at his father, who had a lion's mane.
Otto composed himself: "I discussed something with other people. As you know, the days will be longer and longer starting from tomorrow. Winter will slowly pass, and when the sea ice melts, I also want to take people to Novgorod."
"I know this very well. It is our routine work."
"Yes. I will try to bring some soap over there. Those Novgorodians are generally poor, but there are some rich people among them. Let's not think about how much money can be easily extracted from them with an axe. If I did it once or twice, those rich people. The customer ran away. This time I will try to sell some of your soap at a high price to see if I can exchange it for some other good things."
"Oh? I thought you would lead everyone to defeat them all and treat all Novgorodians as slaves." Rurik's head tilted slightly, and he deliberately glanced at the corner of his mouth while speaking.
"More slaves? No! We don't have that much food to feed them. The child..." Otto's big hand gently covered his son's head: "You are too young, wait until you When you grow up, I will take you to Novgorod for a long experience. When you get there, you will know how poor those guys are. Although they are poor, their population is larger than ours, probably equivalent to ten of us. ”
Huh? Could it be that Novgorod in this era has a population of 70,000 or 80,000?
If according to ancient standards, a city with such a population is not considered small.
It was the first time in a few days that Rurik learned about the existence of the cow named Novgorod. A human settlement with a population of 70,000, gave a population of 70,000 to a human settlement twice a year. It's a big burden to pay for a settlement with a thousand people.
What can we do? Novgorod originally means "new big city", and its residents are immigrants who moved from other places. The Novgorod people are not idiots. They are reduced to servants paying tribute to the Russians just because the Russians are stronger.
"Dad, the people in Novgorod are even poorer. Why do we want these poor people to pay tribute?" Rurik asked deliberately.
“Well, they were poor and so bad with weapons that they couldn’t even build a boat bigger than a canoe.But their land was richer and warmer, and the woods around them were teeming with deer and even bears. Don't worry, I'll be back with plenty of leather. Since the priests need grease to make soap, I'm going to see if I can get some from them. Haha, there are also some young people who will bring back some Novgorod women to serve as their wives this time. ”
The poverty mentioned by co-author Otto refers more to the weakness of force.
Times have changed! Rurik is especially aware of Villya’s warning, It’s just that everyone doesn’t quite know what the so-called “Odin thinks of the tribe’s behavior”. Although all the Novgorod women who were married were pregnant, could the children be born successfully?
Vilia was a little worried that if Odin opposed it, he would make the tribe pay the price. In order to maximize the price, the divine power was used at the last moment, that is, all married women and their unborn children would die at the last moment. . The consequences of dystocia causing one death and two lives are quite common in this time and space.
Otto can't control that much. In his opinion, the priests used to sit on the floor doing nothing all day long, with their minds occupied. They are thinking about strange things. Their life must be more boring than that of the sea warriors, so now they have a job of boiling oil and making soap, and they are all given a new lease of life, even though they endure the pain in their arms and work all night long.
The more they do this, the more money the leader and his family can make from the soap business.
If they just collect offerings, they can choose some beautiful women from there and give them to the tribal men. Young people choose wives, Otto's spring voyage to Sorgon in 829 is really not more pioneering than last autumn.
But Otto has made a great decision.
p>“Child, I must tell you that on our way to Novgorod, we will pass through a huge lake. Only through this lake can we find a new waterway to enter Novgorod. It was a very large lake with many fish and seals in it. That place actually has a better environment than our fjord. It seems that after reclaiming the land, we can grow wheat ourselves. Alas, it's too cold here, so we can only grow some onions. You also know the taste of bread. Once you have eaten it once, you will never forget its taste.
I discussed it with others. I plan to build a new settlement there, and I will take people to build some houses there, and I may have to station people there for a long time. It would be better if some land could be reclaimed and wheat could be harvested.
Many people support me. They think it is beneficial to build a new town. With it, in the future we will no longer go to Novgolov twice a year, but more frequency. We can do business with them through more frequent trade, and they will provide us with more good things than if we force them with ax and sword. "
When Rurik heard this, his eyes widened instantly.
"Dad, is this your plan? We...we all movedcivil? "
"Immigration? No! We do need a good living environment, but all of us can’t leave yet. Child... Even if you become the leader, you cannot lead the tribe to leave. We cannot withdraw from the alliance. We also have thousands of allies living in the fjords. If we leave, we will break the alliance, we will not get support from our allies, and it may even trigger a war. We still need to expand trade with the Novgorod people and expand our income. We are just establishing an auxiliary settlement, and children, when those Novgorod women marry, they will definitely have many children left. Maybe when you grow up, our fjords can't hold such a large population, and we have to get out! "
"Ah! I already understand... Just do it, Dad, you are looking for a new and better future for our Ross tribe. "
Otto was very happy that his son was so good at talking and understood him so well.
He continued: "The people of Novgorod called that lake Ladoga. There is a river along with Lake Ladoga and the sea. There are many small islands in that estuary, which is really suitable for building a port, even safer than our Fort Ross. Maybe you don't know yet, but the most fearful thing for any fisherman is a storm. Our Roseburg itself is a haven. I believe that if we build a settlement at the mouth of that river, it will be a safer haven. ”
Otto himself became more and more happy as he talked, and Rurik’s heart pounded loudly.
Rurik didn’t even know when Lake Ladoga got its name. , since my father specifically mentioned this word, it is obvious that the people of Novgorod have already known the existence of this large lake, and the people of Russia have also known it for a long time. What is even crazier is that Lake Ladoga is connected to the estuary of the Neva River in the Baltic Sea, and the people of Russia have known it for a long time. People have realized the strategic value of it as a port. In 829, the Russians intended to build the second settlement of the Russians at the mouth of the Neva River! Whether it will be named St. Petersburg in the future, the construction of the city at the mouth of the Neva River must begin in 829 AD.
This is called a historical necessity!