After leaving the Åland Islands, the main fleet led by Otto turned into the Gulf of Finland.
This way, they sailed zigzag with the help of the south wind and the occasional sudden north wind.
Otto had no interest in some islands that appeared on the route.
It was the sudden appearance of some ships that aroused his great interest.
Because this bay has never been exclusively used by the Ross tribe. Some Finnish tribes and Baltic tribes had sporadic activities on the seaside, and they rashly landed to fight with them. This was something Otto did not want.
Those tribes were not conquered by the Rus at all, and they did not even have peaceful trade with each other. However, they had experienced several wars in history.
He didn't want any accident to happen now, so after turning into the bay, the huge fleet never docked at the shore.
The fleet only stayed on a deserted island for one day, leaving traces of a bonfire before continuing towards its destination.
The sea area is covered with thin ice floes. As we continue to move eastward, the number of ice floes is increasing.
"Chief, the situation ahead is a bit unclear. Will there be thicker ice that our ships can't pass through?"
The speaker is the young blacksmith Kawei. He stayed in the leader's flagship, deeply uneasy about the unknown future.
“Are you afraid that the ice will damage our boat?!” Otto, who was paddling, asked with a smile.
"I'm worried. Because our ship..."
"It doesn't matter. At worst, you lie on the bow of the ship, break the ice with an ax, and we move on."
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Hearing what Otto said, Kawei was even more worried.
Otto breathed a sigh of relief. He continued to paddle and shouted loudly: "You young people don't have to worry about anything. This is your first time coming with me. You will settle in our new homeland in the future." Rossburg. Is it possible for you to worry about a little ice floe?"
Because this year's tribute voyage is not as simple as Otto taking a group of people to ask for tribute.
Compared with collecting taxes in Novgorod, establishing new settlements is the most important thing.
Since we want to build a lot of houses and stabilize our lives, we must need labor force to work.
The Russians have not captured a large number of male slaves so far, so all the work of cutting down trees, building houses, and even reclaiming land for farming must be done by themselves.
The biggest purpose of this trip for a large number of Russian young people is to get a wife from Novgorod. As a price, they have to pay a dowry that allows for a peaceful marriage, and then they must accept the arrangement of the leader. , became the first residents of New Roseburg, and prospered.
Nostalgic for your homeland?
No! Young people are willing to venture out.
My hometown of Roseburg is not a wonderful place. Young people simply cannot understand that their ancestors could not live in the Svealand Plains even if they left the good land.The core of the breakaway alliance ran to settle in the bay further north.
The young people do not want to know more about the fact that the ancestors of the Rus people faced the pressure of life and went north to obtain the rich animal furs in the north.
Once upon a time, the Russians moved northward and gained a lot from decades of hunting. They did not intend to kill all animals, large and small. In fact, their hunting efficiency was higher than the reproduction rate of local animals. This prompted this tribe, which hunted reindeer as a whole, to start fishing on a large scale.
Catch fish? It would be better to find a good Feng Shui land to grow wheat.
After all, everyone has been able to enjoy the wheat tribute from the Novgorod people for decades. Unfortunately, the amount of tribute from the other side is limited, so that the wheat distributed to ordinary residents can only be eaten for a short period of time.
The current tribal allocation method is changing. Young people who lack power within the tribe are getting less and less.
Besides, as there are more and more young people in the tribe, it is really hopeless to expect a little wheat from Novgorod to satisfy their greed.
Everyone dreams about a better life where they can eat wheat cakes, bread and wheat porridge every day, and even use excess wheat to brew ale.
Some people even fantasized about organizing an army to completely conquer Novgorod, so that the locals could pay tribute of wheat throughout the year.
Of course people with normal minds think this idea is too unrealistic. No matter how bad the Novgorod people are, there are too many of them. If they are to be completely turned into slaves, the prerequisite must be a decisive military victory.
This victory must also be based on the killing of a large number of men in the Novgorod area.
Of course local men will bring a large number of wooden sticks and stone hammers to the battle. Such enemies seem to be easily eliminated.
Killing the vast number of men in Novgorod is the most stupid thing. They are all dead, who will farm the land?
To completely conquer Novgorod, Otto, as the leader, had never thought of this idea. However, there are too many people on the other side, so maintaining the current situation is the best choice for the Ross tribe.
It is more important to obtain warm land than to launch a war to complete complete conquest and then enslave them.
The Russians can completely cultivate their own land. Since the purpose is to harvest wheat, it is safer to cultivate their own land.
The mighty fleet, carrying 900 people, sailed for another five days after passing through the Åland Islands!
Finally on the morning of the sixth day, a large island in the distance appeared in front of everyone.
Otto put down the oar and stood on the bow of the boat to look far into the distance.
"Brothers! We are finally here! Keep rowing, and in the afternoon we will choose a good place to land."
The long journey is finally coming to an end, and the young man has been holding back his emotions for a long time. Finally finding a point to vent, they were already cheering.
Also cheering were those who returned with the boatNovgorod women from their natal families follow their husbands closely with their bellies puffed out.
If these women continue to live in Novgorod, they are almost destined to never leave the shores of Lake Ilmen throughout their lives.
Because the large and small Slavic farms in the Novgorod area live around Lake Ilmen, the locals have completely transformed into a farming nation.
Agricultural production is the most important thing for a family, and rashly traveling far away is really an act of seeking death.
Even if you marry a Rus, your living situation will be a little better than in your hometown. For example, the once scarce meat can now be eaten regularly, and the half-starved and half-full life has also been alleviated to a certain extent.
But hometown is hometown after all, no matter how bad she is, she is still hometown.
What’s more, the biological parents still stay in their hometown!
As long as the Russian army docks, it means that everyone has left the ocean.
Because she was Aric's wife, Peravina was treated as his niece by Otto and had the right to sit on the leader's flagship.
She held her belly and crawled slowly in the boat, fearing that the rocking of the boat would wet her clothes.
She crawled near Otto and asked: "Dad, as long as we land, we will enter the river. I will be able to go back soon?"
"How did you get there? The front is coming. Go back!" Otto said harshly.
"I just want to... just want to ask." Peravina quickly lowered her head and explained carefully.
"It will be soon. We will land in the afternoon and we will continue our journey tomorrow morning."
Because after Arik's biological father died in the war, he called Otto his father for many years and married Peravina, who came over, also followed her husband's habit and called Otto daddy.
This intimate call really made Otto's imagination wander.
Seeing Peravina's face, he thought of his eldest nephew Arik who attacked Gotland, and those young people who took revenge.
Their battle should go smoothly!
Otto really couldn't think too much. He arranged the army's time very tightly. The so-called hundred families who came with the ship would camp permanently as soon as they docked. They would be there the next day at the latest. At dawn, the infrastructure construction of New Roseburg officially began.
He went straight to Novgorod with his army for marriage and tribute, and stayed at Lake Ilmen for at most one day. In the end, after up to seven days, the army would bring more people. The young women of Novgorod returned and joined the great work of building the town.
The mighty fleet passed Kotlin Island smoothly.
What everyone is most worried about is the collision between the ship and the sea ice, causing the ship to be destroyed and people to die. As the ship continues the winter, there are indeed more and more floating ice, and soon patches of floating ice appear!
As a result, everyone discovered that there was obviously a wide waterway between the ice floes. The fleet naturally rushed into the waterway and moved forward without any influence from the ice floes.
But entering this waterway, the paddlers also feltThere was a resistance.
People all understand the reason why there is no floating ice in the waterway, and some people deliberately put their hands into the water to test their ideas. Licking your hand, you can't feel the salty taste at all on your tongue!
Facts have proved that this waterway is full of fresh water.
As we walked along the waterway, a yellow beach appeared in front of everyone not far away.
Is that the landing site for the fleet? If it was just for landing, all the paddlers would hit the beach with all their strength, and everyone would be able to land safely.
Many people felt itchy, and they rowed harder.
"Chief, the beach in front is really a perfect landing site, are we just going to rush there?!" Kawei asked excitedly.
"No!" Otto retorted bluntly.
"Why? That beach is obviously better than our Roseburg."
"Young man, this is your first time here. When the tide comes, that beach will be Submerged. We continue rowing, and you will soon know that it is not a landing site.”
In fact, the so-called beach in front of the fleet is the west beach of Vasily Island.
The average altitude of this island is only eight meters, and the altitude near the beach is less than two meters.
The so-called Vasily Island is a sandbar washed out by the sand and stones of the Neva River, and its size is still slowly increasing.
That is, now it does not have the name "Vasily Island" at all, and no one has named it. Otto now only wants to call it "Xishazhou".
Since we are going to land and establish new settlements, it is also very necessary to name the areas near the settlements.
The big lake is called Lake Ladoga, and the river is naturally called Ladoga River.
Without Otto’s order, no ship attempted to land. Everyone was paying attention to the nearby environment and planning for future development prospects.
What was considered by many people to be an excellent landing site just now was soon no longer taken seriously. Because everyone discovered that it was just an island divided by a river. It was not a good choice to establish a settlement on an island, just because the sandy soil there was definitely not suitable for farming.
The fleet has entered the river, and the strong current makes paddling difficult for many young people who are new to this place.
The so-called Ladoga River is the Neva River. The river has begun to enter the spring and summer flood season, so that the rising water on both sides of the river has submerged many aquatic plants.
In a very early time, the Neva River was near its mouth, and the strong current broke into three waterways and created many sandbars.
Otto has been looking for a suitable landing point, and he finally determined a suitable location.
And this location is where the Winter Palace is located.
The Russians are going to build a new Fort Ross at the location of the Winter Palace!
"Brothers, let's turn a corner! Land!"
After saying that, he suddenly pulled out his sword and pointed it directly at the ground.This is the official landing site.
The leading flagship turned first, followed by all the ships behind it.
The muscular young oarsmen rowed hard, the keel of the boat bottom rubbing against the reeds submerged by the flooded river water. The water splashed for a while, and the boat rushed directly onto the river beach composed of sand, gravel and mud.
Otto held on to the solid dragon head relief on the bow of the ship. After the violent shock of the ship hitting the beach, everything turned calm.
He jumped off the ship and became the first person to land.
"Great! Brothers, we will build our new Fort Ross here! Everyone, get off the boat!"
Excited people jumped into the shoal, but there was no one at all Complaining that his leather boots were filled with river water.
The quiet place suddenly became lively due to the appearance of more than 900 Russians. Many people have called their companions to do those things immediately after landing.
The ships docked collectively, and the people who rushed to land on the beach discussed the next work clearly on the ship. Their actions were indeed orderly, and there was no chaos at the landing site.
Many young people jumped down and pulled the cable non-stop, shouting slogans collectively, and pulled the ship to the shore.
Some people suddenly nailed wooden stakes on the sand and tied the boats that were dragged ashore.
This is the case for more than 40 ships, and Otto does not personally direct everything. This is because everyone is worried that a rising tide will rise in the evening, and those ships that are not well fixed will be washed away by the tide.
This worry is completely correct.
Because once the tide hits, the incoming seawater can completely submerge the westernmost sandbank, the so-called "Vasily Island".
In that dimension of St. Petersburg, when Peter the Great decided to build a new city, he encountered the dilemma of seawater intrusion. It was not until the 1970s that the Soviet Union decided to build a breakwater stretching for 40 kilometers with the Kronstadt Port in the west of the city as the center.
Due to the impact of the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the construction of the breakwater was shelved midway. However, it was still completed in 2011, which permanently solved the seawater intrusion problem in St. Petersburg.
In this plane, the Ross tribe comes from Fort Ross in the north. Their hometown is a small bay, and everyone knows about the erosion of the tide.
Otto’s choice of the location to build a settlement coincides with that of Peter the Great in another dimension. In other words, anyone who knows the sea will set the location of the Winter Palace as a settlement. core.
The reason is simple. People standing on the boat can see at a glance that a small slope suddenly appears in the gentle impact plain. It is the most suitable place to build a town.
The location Otto chose is a soothing breakthrough. Compared with the open sandbank, the breakthrough altitude of the landing point quickly rises to fifteen meters. Whether it is the intrusion of seawater or the flooding of rivers, It will never get flooded here!
More than 900 lander of all kinds are already unloadingCarry your own mess of equipment.
Especially those 100 Russian families who are about to become the first residents. They hold axes and scrapers in their hands, and there are even men carrying prefabricated wood shipped from their hometowns. , prepare to insert it into the sand and set up the basic frame of the wooden house.
Many of the accompanying housewives lacked the strength to carry the hardwood and walk quickly.
Carrying water bags made from seals or reindeer stomachs, they ran to the fast-flowing Neva River to drink water first, and then filled the water for their husbands who had already started building a house.
The children brought by the couple also began to do what they could.
Evening is coming, and without Otto's nonsense, a vigorous construction movement has begun.