No matter how big a ship is, it will eventually become a small floating existence facing the vast sea. This is the case with the Avora, so that the fishermen who saw her from a distance could not judge her exact size at first, but it was just in the way. Stop and look at the beautiful and strange triangular sail.
Last year, the war crisis swept across the narrow Kalmar Strait, and all the settlements here were attacked by the Swedish coalition forces.
Many settlers died and many more fled inland.
A lot of strange news about the Svealan Alliance invaders spread wildly in this area, but the invaders' momentum was finally stifled in Silver Castle.
Among the many pieces of news, the information about the invaders owning a huge ship attracted people's attention the most, especially the Saxons of Borgholm who once again submitted to Danish power provided more detailed information. Strangely, the exact information about the big ship still seems to be hidden behind the truth.
Aphrola, she did not really reveal her true identity.
What do the enemies think? Rurik couldn't care less.
He clearly saw that his big ship entered a special area, which was a wide waterway sandwiched between two land masses. The land to the east is not a real continent, it is the cucumber-like slender island of Öland, and to the west is the southern main part of Scandinavia.
The big ship entered the waters, and the relaxed people cheered up in response to Rurik's orders.
A sailor stationed at the top of the mast saw the target in the distance. He grabbed a cable and descended to the deck in less than ten seconds. Barefoot, he broke into the captain's cabin at the bow of the ship.
“Is there an enemy?” Rurik suddenly jumped up from the comfortable leather quilt.
"Sir! It's a fishing boat, right in front! Two fishing boats."
"Excellent." Rurik nodded and asked the Biyoni brothers who were catching up on their sleep. : "What a lucky morning. The target appeared just after we entered this sea area. Get up, let's kill them."
"Fight!" Biyongni clenched his fists and jumped up suddenly, carrying the handle with him. He grabbed his younger brother Floki who was sleeping soundly.
People resting in the cabin stood on the deck one after another, standing deep with heavy weapons on standby.
Considering combat needs, all long-range weapons, including bull slings, are placed on the deck. Due to the special structure of the Aurora, the bow deck and stern deck are the most armament-rich, and heavy weapons are placed in these two places.
The Avora was walking against the wind, her sails were raised to the top, and blown by the south wind, the huge triangular sail was like a wing, and her progress was like a "plane." Climb fast”. But the Aurora is not this sail! The auxiliary mast at the stern also raises the sail. It is much smaller than the main mast and normally serves as an auxiliary rudder. Now it is also forced to become the driving force for forward movement.
With two triangular sails, one big and one small, the Aurora rushed towards a fishing boat in front of it..
Rurik stood on the forecastle deck with squinted eyes. He held on tightly to the railings and cables, for fear that the high-speed zigzag movement of the ship would throw him out.
The big ship entered combat mode. She was moving at high speed, and every time she adjusted her direction against the wind, she was accompanied by a very low-angle turn. The Aurora turned at a large pitch angle, as if it was drifting on the sea. The huge waves created finally made the fishing boats watching the show aware of the danger - a huge monster was rushing toward them.
The fishing boat simply dropped the dragging net. At the moment of life and death, it didn't matter how many herrings were in the net. The fishing boat quickly set sail, but it was too late.
The speed of the Aurora once reached eight knots. With her huge body running at such a speed, it would be an exaggeration to say that she was a terrifying steamroller.
"Hold on to the cables and prepare for a collision! Don't be thrown out!" As Rurik roared with all his strength, he put his elbow directly into the cable sleeve, fearing that he would be thrown away.
A collision occurred!
No! This is another condescending crush.
The speed of the Avora was much faster than that of the fishing boats that were also escaping against the wind. The bronze bulbous bow directly hit the keel of the fishing boat, and then the entire big boat rode on it. It was huge, flat and extremely solid. The bottom of the boat crushed the fishing boat to pieces.
The big ship brought death, but for those herrings that were just caught and lingering in the rattan baskets, they returned to the sea with the wreckage of the fishing boat.
This was a victory without any suspense. Rurik did not fire a single arrow or a single projectile, but used the most primitive, crispest and most brutal collision tactics in naval warfare, and once again won easily. .
And this is just the beginning of the killings in the Kalmar Strait.
Rurik didn’t care about the exact identities of the fishermen working in this area. Anyway, they were not friendly forces. As for whether they were enemies...
He had no time to talk to the fishermen he met. The only thing he wants to do is attack indiscriminately.
On the first day after entering the strait, four discovered fishing boats were crushed, but Rurik did not let go of any of the discovered prey.
The next day, they successfully arrived at the Borgholm Fortress, which had caused heavy bleeding to the Swedish coalition forces.
The fort is just to the west and anyone can see it.
Biyong Ni was a little flustered for a moment: "Look at this fortress, it seems to be stronger than your Fort Ross. They seem to have formed an alliance with you, so the fishing boats on the sea, we... "
"Continue to attack," Rurik said decisively.
"Okay. I'm just suggesting that since you have formed an alliance, if you ask them for something now, they should give it to you."
Rurik still had a sullen face. , said seriously: "I will not land, I don't want to waste time here. They have formed an alliance with the dead Olegin, what does it have to do with us, the Russians? We will continue to attack."
Poor Si Tain·Saxon, this poor leader who once again surrendered to the Danish leader Hafgen, has few followers and few soldiers left to fight. The tribe is struggling to survive, so the fishermen working at sea are more appropriately described as fisherwomen. He saw the classic-looking ship from a distance. Look at her most striking feature, it was a Russian!
What are the Russians doing?
"Attack?! You are actually attacking my fishing boat! Silly women, run to the shore! Run quickly!"
Chief Stein standing on the wall He just watched helplessly. His poor troops were unable to attack at all. Besides, he had known the combat power of that big Ross ship. Even if he had a group of elite soldiers, attacking rashly would be the same as sending death.
As for the Avora, it was attacking like crazy right under the nose of Chief Stein.
Rurik has already given an order, and his order will not change. The fishing boat he witnessed must be sunk by various means before it escapes to the shore.
He didn’t care who the people on the fishing boats were. After a whole day of collision, crushing, torsion slingshot shooting, and trebuchet hits, eleven fishing boats were destroyed.
Rurik boasts that he should prepare for a sailing day, but unfortunately he has not yet produced the paper, but these results really need to be recorded.
The ship repair reserve material in the cabin was a batch of pine boards. Rurik took one and whittled it into a small wooden sign, and then carved traces to describe how many ships were sunk on a certain day. So on this day, he carved eleven traces on the wooden sign.
On the third day after entering the strait, the Aurora arrived at the narrowest point, and two sandbars like gatekeepers were clearly visible.
Rurik stood at the bow of the ship as usual and issued the battle command to his brothers: "Some of you came here with me last year, and in front of you is Kalma! It is also the furthest south our Russian army has ever gone. "Kalmar must be controlled by the Danes again. Let's sink the enemy ships as much as possible and continue sailing south!"
The soldiers were very enthusiastic, especially all the Balmoks, sitting on the big ships and crushing them condescendingly! Overwhelming any opponent, this kind of happy victory makes the blood swell.
The settlement of Kalmar is being rebuilt. A group of new fishermen will not care if this place was a battlefield a year ago or consider the wandering ghost legends. They are the most realistic guys. Since their hometown The island is too crowded, so take the opportunity to grab a new living space.
The new settlers were not Danes in the narrow sense. They did not come from Jutland and its affiliated islands, but from another densely populated island.
Burgundy Holm Island, or Bornholm Island. The former is what the islanders call themselves, and the latter is a term that the Russians have heard of.
Although the Rus have not reached this far south, some Merlaren merchants know about the island and have revealed some information.
It’s just that the islanders of that small island have changed one after another. It is very obvious that once the small island reaches the limit of its population capacity, the island will be destroyed.People must go out.
Today, the population of Bornholm Island has swelled to 10,000, and the islanders may not be able to leave unless they leave.
Times have completely changed.
Six hundred years ago, the "Scarlet Tribe" who migrated from the fjord near Oslo landed on Bornholm Island in a simple boat and became fishermen. When the population of the islanders became too prosperous, the chief Entering the European continent with his tribe.
The coagulated blood was a dark red, described in their Germanic dialect as burgundy.
Everything is in the distant past. The Burgundians who have established kingdoms in Europe have completely forgotten their past and never thought that they were the same family as the Danes in the north. The Kingdom of Burgundy will continue to survive under the control of the Kingdom of Pomfret, while the Danes, together with the Saxon refugees who were ravaged by the Frankish army, have begun plundering the Frankish Kingdom year after year.
But all this has nothing to do with the current islanders of Bornholm.
The old Burgundians migrated to Europe, and the islands were occupied by Danish immigrants. The islanders with an expanding population can hardly move to the European continent on their own. The southern land is the territory of the Pomeranians. They are Slavs who speak another language and have another way of life. The most direct The thing is, those guys have been actively attacking Schleswig, Denmark!
Some islanders from Bornholm landed in Kalmar, and they quickly built new settlements on the ruins, hoping to continue to develop here and continue to fish for the seemingly inexhaustible herring in the sea.
However, they completely underestimated the intensity of the war and its duration.
The Baltic Sea has never been calm, and everyone who goes fishing must prepare their own weapons. It is a generally accepted theorem in the sea that any unknown ship is an enemy.
The fisherman immediately began to avoid the approaching ship when he saw it, but the Aurora was well prepared.
Rurik didn’t even care who he wanted to attack, whether it was a Dane or a Bornholm Islander. The ship that appeared was an enemy ship, and if it was an enemy ship, he would attack it!
A tiger entered the flock of sheep, and the Aurora rammed into the fishing boat with a literal crushing force...
A new day has arrived, and the rising sun has arrived. The golden light illuminated a piece of wood debris on the sea and the horrified faces of the residents on the shore.
As many as twenty fishing boats were forced to work intensively in the narrow waterway to catch the shallow-layer herring that were desperately looking for food, and all of them were sunk by the Aurora.
The Aurora sailed away at dusk yesterday, and Rurik rushed further south without looking back. He only continued to carve twenty scratches on the wooden board. It is the greatest respect for the enemy.
So far, Rurik has recorded forty ships sunk. Although they are all small fishing boats, sinking them cannot be said to be a great military achievement.
But wait! Fishing boats are the most important means of production for local residents. Barren land and wheatThe harvest has always been mediocre, but the sea area in this area is the Øresund fishing ground with extremely rich fish. People live by eating fish, and famine will occur if a large number of fishing boats fishing for herring are lost.
Rurik's desperate attack on the fishing boat was not considered honorable by real warriors, and Biyoni and Floki both viewed it this way.
Rurik has his own ideas.
It was another sunny morning. He stood on the bow of the ship and pointed in the direction with his sword: "Look, we have left the strait after a night's sailing. The coastline has expanded to the west, and we are heading west. Going to Silver Castle, we can launch a larger attack and directly attack the Danish merchant ships. But! We want to continue to the south and attack the island called Bornholm. I want to continue to sink the fishing boats. The fish will fill our stomachs!"
Everyone raised their fists and roared in response to Rurik's words. Everyone didn't care anymore and just wanted to continue the battle.
Rurik had to admit that the brothers were becoming crazy in their constant fighting, and killing enemies and fighting became the happiest things.
This kind of person is a berserker in a sense, and he should be exploited if he is so crazy.
The Aurora headed south, but when it was sailing at full speed, the big ship accidentally encountered a slow merchant ship, which was groping the coastline heading north.
If a huge piece of fat jumps in front of a tiger, is there any reason not to eat it?
What is going on?
It turns out that a bold Danish businessman decided to go to Kalmar to expand his horizons. The businessman certainly knew the risks there and the bad luck in the ruins of the war. The desire to make a fortune had made the businessman ignore all risks. Now, businessmen should pay with their lives for their adventures.
Ordinary merchant ships are much larger than long ships, but their disadvantage is that their speed is too slow.
The Aurora is essentially a Cork-type merchant ship. She is larger and has some unique designs that make her completely different.
It was still a classic collision tactic. The businessman watched helplessly as his ship was knocked out of a large hole by an unknown ship that rushed straight towards him. Then the ship quickly entered the water and sank into the sea with some supplies.
The ship sank so quickly? This is not much different than a cooked duck flying away.
Biyongni felt unhappy looking at the calming sea. He complained: "Now we are doing pirate things! But we are not real pirates."
"No! We are pirates," Rurik shouted.
"We are not."
"What?"
Byony approached Rurik and patted him on the shoulder: "My little brother , Did we grab anything? We sank a merchant ship and harvested the wood chips floating on the sea." Okay... let's move on, next time. Some, at least some fresh fish," Rurik muttered helplessly.
Russian and Balmok people are willing to accept eating herring raw, so-called removal of internal organs.Take the fish head and tail, grab the fish tail and put it into your mouth. Sprinkle a little salt during the process, it is a simple delicacy.
Rurik never complained about eating sashimi, especially raw herring. The soft and waxy fish meat was really delicious, but it was a pity that the variety of seasonings in Northern Europe was too scarce.
The Aurora managed to eliminate a longship without any damage in just one collision. She is the God of War on the sea and immediately rushes to the sea further south.
Rurik has officially entered the Oresund fishery. Under the sea are millions of tons of herring swimming in the shallow water. He even saw schools of fish and seals chasing the fish. .
Soon a large number of fishing boats appeared, and the man standing on the top of the mast pointed to the south: "Sir! Lord Rurik! Is that the island you mentioned?!"
After some time, the people on the Aurora could clearly see the black dot on the distant horizon, the only island in the vast sea.
It is the island of Bornholm. It must be the island described by those merchants from Mälaren!
A brand new killing belonging to the Aurora, a drama of human versus human on the Oresund fishery suddenly unfolded.
One fishing boat after another was sunk, Rurik was not at all complacent about small victories, and he did get some loot.
During the entire day's battle, fifteen fishing boats were sunk, some fish were captured, and the people on the Avora were able to happily eat delicious herrings.
"Now, we are pirates." After saying that, Biyongni swallowed a fish in one mouthful, and then belched.
"Yes! It's a pirate, I just want them to know how powerful I am."
Biyongni beat his chest and suggested: "It's time to prepare well, let's Wandering near their Danish island. Is it called Bornholm? We will be besieged by them in the future. They will not let us plunder. ”
Rurik nodded: "I am very confident in the big ship. You are right, there is nothing wrong with being prepared. I will fight in this area again, rob the island for at least three days, and defeat them until they are afraid. The core of the Danes, and only left the legend of marine horror to the local people."
Biyongni nodded, smiled and gently hammered his Rurik brother: "You are. A beautiful boy and the scariest person I have ever seen, but I like it. Fighting with you makes me very brave, right?"