The Avora left Fort Ross and began her long voyage.
For Rurik, the Russians, or the Balmoks, this is destined to be an unprecedented long-distance voyage. It will definitely create history for both sides, and it will also be a promising future. Lay a solid foundation for longer voyages.
Rurik's description of the geography of the Nordic world is absolutely correct on a macro level. The islands dotted in the ocean add too many obstacles to navigation, and he must explore a clear route.
This voyage is destined to not be smooth sailing. From the beginning, the people on the ship were ready for battle.
At least in terms of weapons and equipment, Rurik was well prepared.
There are some pebbles piled in the cabin. They are first used as ballast stones to enhance the ship's ability to withstand wind and waves. Once there is a battle, this large pile of pebbles in the stream of similar sizes is the "bull's stone". "machine" ammunition.
The maximum range of the "Bull" is between 330 and 300 stika. For a strong man to walk down such a long distance, it would take at least 400 steps (one step here is about 80cm).
The rocks fall from the sky, mainly relying on the acceleration of gravity to continuously increase their own kinetic energy, so as to kill the people on the enemy ship.
If he expected rocks to smash through enemy ships, Rurik had no hope at all.
His ship-destroying weapon is the torsion slingshot, which is placed on the ship like giant scorpions. The cone-shaped cast iron bullet is just a chisel, and in the past winter, all the torsion slingshots owned by the Russians were overhauled, and ten new ones were added.
The tribe caught baleen whales, and the hard and tough baleen became one of the torsion cores of the slingshot. There are also key hemp ropes and rubber bands made from leather. The three materials are used at the same time. The force of the torsion slingshot is even more fierce, and the maximum range of the projectile is even close to 400stika. Considering its actual combat value, Rurik would not let the torsion slingshot do any projectiles! The tactic is to approach the target with a large ship until you can clearly see the enemy's surprised face, then control the torsion slingshot and launch it in order to penetrate the enemy ship with one blow.
On the vast sea, Rurik knew exactly what the most brutal and efficient tactics were. As long as the enemy's ship is sunk by some means, even if there are fifty or a hundred drowned people holding blocks of wood and crying for help, the Russians will stand by and watch or walk away, and death will be waiting for these people. Either they were pickled into bacon by the salty Baltic Sea water, or they were frozen to death.
Even in May, the Baltic Sea is still cold. In other words, at any time, the sea water temperature in this huge sea area can make a person who falls into the water freeze to death first.
As long as the ship sinks, the chance of survival of the person who fell into the water is extremely slim.
The sea is fair to anyone who falls into the water.
Rurik is not afraid of war, what he is most worried about is running aground. Four tiny sampans were tied to the rear side of Avrola with hemp ropes.It is a so-called lifeboat, and it also has the function of leaving the big ship to explore the small island.
If the Aurora hits the rocks and the hull is damaged, that will be its biggest crisis.
Rurik does not have a true God’s perspective, and he cannot see whether there is danger hidden under the sea.
Having said that, if you are afraid of the reef and do not dare to go to sea, it is completely a cowardly act to stop eating because of choking. Rurik at least knew an extremely safe course, which was the route taken by the Swedish coalition expedition last summer, which at least extended to the Kalmar Strait.
The Aurora is full of martial virtue and is fully armed to the teeth by the standards of this era.
She also has some more important equipment, which are the newly grown pine branches that Rurik deliberately brought aboard, which weigh a lot.
Wheat cakes become very hard due to natural air-drying and dehydration. Not only does it taste chewy when eaten, but it is also extremely easy to scratch the oral mucosa. Rurik had no choice. Facing extreme navigation, ships needed to stock up on extremely durable food.
So another shelf-stable food is smoked bacon, which is a large number of seal meat strips. Each strip is dark brown. At first glance, it looks more like dead branches in winter, but it tastes like The mouth is still good, but the shortcoming is that it is still too hard.
The voyager of this ribbon has no concept of healthy eating at all. He eats wheat cakes and bacon, but does he need to stock up on other foods?
After boarding the ship, Rurik issued an order to everyone on the ship. Although the ship lacked the ability to make fire and boil water, pine branches still had to be eaten.
"Why? If it weren't for the lack of flavor in the food, who of us would boil pine branch water? Since we can't boil water, and since there is bacon, why do we have to eat grass like sheep?" Biyongni questioned. Rurik's words sounded convincing.
Rurik has no intention of giving a scientific explanation. If he really has to say it, who will understand? !
Pine branches are indeed rich in vitamin C. Various Viking tribes have the habit of boiling pine branch water, and Orientals also have the habit of drinking tea. The birth of these living habits has nothing to do with vitamin nutrition.
Whether it is the Balmoks or the Rus, the habit of drinking pine needle water on land objectively prevents everyone from suffering from vitamin C deficiency.
But facing a long voyage, if you are not prepared in this regard, you will suffer a big loss.
Of course, even if they are deficient in various vitamins, sailors have to live on depreciated hard bread, and even if they rely almost entirely on the most perseverant sailors, they can endure 5,500 kilometers in the South Pacific without seeing any islands and follow the ocean currents. Magellan's fleet drifted for a month, and they performed miracles at the cost of half of the crew starving to death and dying of thirst.
If the cause of a tragedy is known early, it can be avoided in the first place. Rurik is the owner of the Avlora. He claims that on the vast sea, everyone on the ship needs to obey his arrangements. There is no doubt about his power. Even Biyoni and Floki of Balmok agree.
The long voyage was full of boredom. At first, Biyongni was very resistant to chewing the bitter pine branches. As the voyage continued, the bitter feeling in his mouth became a means to dispel the boredom.
There is no enthusiasm or boldness in the voyages of this era. Most of the time, everyone just records the random chatting in the cabin, or is in a daze of interest. Whenever a woman appears on the boat, aren't these rough guys like tigers visiting her every day? In the end they could only throw the woman's body into the sea.
Rurik could not expect them to have noble humanity. He asked himself that he once wanted to be a morally good person, but in the end he was forced to become a Viking by the times. How can a so-called moral saint survive in this world surrounded by powerful enemies and the weak and the strong?
Having control of huge power, Rurik certainly intends to be a sage King of Rus. The pleasure of controlling power is so great!
There was not a single woman on board, and the forty men became increasingly agitated during the long and boring voyage. It seemed that only sinking a few enemy ships could greatly relieve everyone's pressure.
But where are the enemy ships?
Look at the current situation!
The Avrora moved against the wind at an average speed of three knots and traveled under the stars and at night. She had to keep zigzagging, so the actual sailing journey was increased by a full third.
Even so, her daily sailing distance is still between 120 and 130 kilometers.
On the sixth day of the voyage, the Aurora successfully arrived at Tombstone Island. She was also the first Ross ship to arrive at Tombstone Island after overwintering. The people stationed on the island warmly welcomed their Lord Rurik. In exchange, Rurik also unloaded some cargo specially prepared for them, such as some fine salt. .
The Aurora rested on the island for a whole day, and people received a very critical supply of fresh water and some fresh fish. The most important thing is that people boiled the oats they brought and ate hot fish stewed with wheat. The old onions, which were sweet at first and then spicy, also became an excellent seasoning.
The arrival of the Aurora is just the beginning. The Sorgon fleet, the "commercial army" from Fort Ross, will now give priority to docking at Tombstone Island for repairs. The ice floes on the sea have not melted completely. It is conceivable that when the warm period comes, ships from various tribes in Lake Malaren will also begin to enter the sea and do business on Tombstone Island, the nearest Russian stronghold.
Business is developing rapidly in the Gulf of Bothnia and Lake Mälaren, and a group of heroes are also rising under this historical tide.
Because of Lake Malaren, a major event suddenly occurred in the winter snow, and the regional political structure underwent seismic changes. However, due to the factors of the frozen ocean, there was no news. If it reaches Tombstone Island, it cannot reach the ears of the Ross people.
Rurik missed the opportunity to know a major piece of news, but the fact has already happened. Whether he knows it now or not, the result is the same. because, that is probably a big piece of good news for the Russian people.
After leaving Tombstone Island, it took another day to pass through the mouth of Lake Malaren. Now, the Avora finally began her real voyage.
There is no turning back now.
It was an excellent morning, with a warm south wind blowing in our face.
Everyone on the ship gathered on the lower middle deck, while Rurik stood on the forecastle deck, talking to everyone.
At this moment, he has regarded the Balmoks as his subordinates, and everyone present is his subordinates.
His exquisite dagger pointed south: "Now, in principle, we will not land in search of any supply points. Ahead is Gotland, followed by Kalmar! In principle, there are already Danes there. We will encounter enemies at any time in our territory!
If we encounter any ship, we will approach it and sink it! Remember, there are no friends in the southern seas, only enemies! We just want to be pirates. We don't want to land supplies, but we want to plunder their supplies for our own use.
We will continue to move forward until we encounter the most difficult combat threat. We don't need to be afraid. Fight them! Try to create as much damage as possible and create an atmosphere of terror.
We must persist until we reach Balmok, which is the only destination.
Here, there is no difference between Rus, Balmoks and mercenary sailors, our fate is exactly the same, we must fight as a whole!”
Rurik’s impassioned speech first attracted his elite! The mercenaries cheered, and the Balmok travelers looked at Biyongni's attitude and started cheering too.
"So, do we really want to be pirates? Do we really want to attack the Danes?" Biyongni raised his head, his seemingly serious expression clearly showing a smile.
"Not rigorous! But we are indeed pirates."
"How to say?"
Rurik did not go into details: "If the ship that appeared in front is The Bergen people? What is our choice? Let us go."
"No!" Floki said with his changing voice: "I can clearly identify them! The fishing boats of my tribe are either our people or our enemies."
Rurik stared into Floki's eyes with satisfaction and smiled in agreement: "That's right. , This is our way of life. So, take out all the bull trebuchets, I don’t want to lose any fighting opportunities.”
If Rurik wants to kill people and steal goods at sea, he really doesn’t want to. will be subject to any sanctions.
In other words, there are sanctions, and that is a war between two powers!
"Becoming a pirate king this year? It's not bad to think about it. At least my ship is more powerful than Arik's group of warriors."
To annihilate the enemy's effective strength, andNot being complacent about all forms of rout warfare, this is Rurik's so-called principle of war. The Baltic Sea is big when you say it is big, but it is really small when you say it is small. If Ross wants to rise, he must seize resources from the Danes. In this highly involved small world, a war for hegemony is inevitable.
In this case, Rurik would be happy to bleed the Danish forces in advance.
The island of Gotland is just ahead. During the boring voyage, Biyoni and Floki did not hesitate to ask Rurik about the decisive battle on the island between the Ross people and the Visby people. . In order to once again demonstrate the illustrious martial arts of the Russians, they sailed the boat directly to the coast of Visby and looked at the huge settlement that had been reduced to ruins from a distance, because facts are better than any eloquence!
Of course, there are still settlers in Visby, the more than a hundred Mälaren people who stayed here. The existence of this group of people means that the Swedish forces and the Mälaren tribe have ownership of the island. How big a storm can these more than 100 people create? Did they survive the winter successfully? Or did they freeze to death on a large scale in the past winter?
These guys look like the people abandoned by Karl. After all, they are facing the Danish forces and are on the front line of danger.
Are they doing well?
The more he thought about it, the more Rurik wanted to take a look. He did not change his order. He said that he should try not to land before arriving at Balmok (Narvik Fjord). The big ship was to get close to see what Visby looked like under the control of the new immigrants.
Until, as many as five fishing boats appeared in front of the Aurora.
The atmosphere suddenly became tense!
Standing at the bow of the ship, Rurik could clearly see the structure of the ships with his naked eyes. He bent over and stared, seriousness and caution written on his face.
Biyongni stood beside him, looking at his adopted brother's attitude, he realized that those ships were very suspicious.
"Friends? Or enemies? Judging from your attitude, those fishing boats look like enemies?"
"Strange, I have never seen such boats in Lake Malaren. ” Rurik murmured.
"What kind of ship? I don't see anything strange about it. It's basically the same as the ships in my hometown."
"No! The stern ends of Mellaren ships are generally flat. No! They..." Rurik suddenly thought of something: "They are not friends of Melalen! They are enemies!" "What do you mean? Ni Suran fights in close combat.
Rurik turned his head sharply, stared into Biyoni's eyes, and said calmly: "Brother, prepare to fight! I'm sure those Danes came for revenge, and they killed Visby. Our friendly forces have settled down and taken over again!”
“Then fight! My hands are itchy, to be honest, my hands are still white.”
Rurik couldn't help but be startled. In terms of aspect, Rurik believed from the beginning that Biyongni must have killed many enemies. So this guy hinted that he didn't have a record of killing enemies?
Rurik did not laugh, let alone laugh. Battle is a very serious matter, and this battle is completely avoidable. Since the ships that appear on the sea are not friendly ships, they must be enemies. The friendly forces on the shore must have been wiped out by this group of people. In order to avenge the friendly forces, Rurik found an excellent reason to fight.
He does not need any evidence at all. Just because the ship in front does not belong to the Mellaren people, that is a reason to fight.