If there was a choice, several tribes of the Kovinsuomi people would prefer to live their lives in the forest and lakes forever and safely.
They know that they are from the south, but because they have no historical knowledge, almost all the tribesmen have forgotten that they have a very close relationship with the Finns, Tavastians, and even the Karelians, and they regard each other as brothers.
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Because of the competition for furs, ores and other supplies, the Kovin tribe finally had an irreconcilable conflict with the Tavastian people who settled in contemporary central Finland.
The population of the Corvins was too small. Compared to the overwhelming power of the Tavastian tribal alliance, they had to retreat to the north.
The Kovin people discovered a river that flooded violently in summer. Because of the abundant salmon resources in the river, it became the key to nourishing the tribe's survival.
During this era, both the Finns and Tavastians began to gradually give up their old life of fishing and hunting. They began to cultivate wheat in the lakes near the settlements, and gradually entered agricultural life.
Losing control of the relatively warm areas in the south, the Kovin people had to continue their fishing and hunting life.
In a relatively barren land, internal disputes among the Kovin people have also become serious in order to compete for catches and furs.
They seem to live in a small universe. They are the masters of a large forest and lake, and then bully the more backward deer herders in the far north.
Finally, a large group of black figures moving on the glacier broke the tranquility of the Kewen people's lives.
The Rus' army had been marching up the frozen Oulu River, treading undisguisedly on the ice, as if conquering the Kovin settlements was akin to going to Novgorod to collect taxes.
After leaving the mouth of the Oulu River, the warriors were in a good mood. Everyone was dreaming about getting rich. They even hugged two local women and became big winners.
They never thought about whether they would be injured or even killed if there was a conflict.
Because in everyone's mind, Kewen people are a bunch of fools.
There are Kevin hunters who hold bows. They go deep into the forest and use long arrows with bone arrow clusters to shoot down the snowshoe rabbits that occasionally pop out of their caves to look out for the wind.
There were even fishermen who dug holes in the glacier and lowered their hooks to try to catch some fish.
People in Kewen are used to winter, and they also know that they can still catch some animals while immersed in a world covered by ice and snow.
Even tribal warriors used their hands to assassinate a few wandering white bears.
These hunters were keenly aware of the unusual vibrations. After hiding, they gradually saw a large group of figures appearing on the glacier.
The hunters' eyes widened. In the short daylight, they suddenly saw the reflected light that must have come from the metal.
An unknown group of people, they all wear metal hats!
No! They are actually...
The Kovin people are not purely isolated from the outside world. They are worried that their neighbors, the Tavastians, will come north to rob their hunting grounds. They are also even more worried about the group of Varangians on the west side of the sea who will cross the ocean to capture slaves.
The Covin people, who were good at doing business, always took the peeled squirrel skins and transported them to the Finnish territory in the far south to sell them in exchange for locally produced wheat kernels and flax. During the trade, they also learned a lot of news.
Especially regarding the situation in the west of the sea.
Those hateful Varangians, who wore metal helmets and often held precious swords in their hands, rowed long boats to raid the coastal villages of the Fens and plundered the local population to be slaves.
Young Covin people grew up listening to these stories, which gave them an unusual fear of the seaside.
Young people don't know what "Varyags" are. In short, they are a group of scary guys, all wearing metal helmets.
Now, the strange people appearing on the glacier are not Varangians or what?
Suddenly, a feeling of impending disaster came to the hunter's heart.
The work of the Kewen hunters came to an abrupt end. They put away their bows and ran towards the village.
Today should have been a normal winter day.
Women make linen or sew leather in their semi-underground homes, and children play without worries. They hide in the warm indoors, and only some men carry axes and go to the nearby woods to cut wood and burn firewood.
The Kewen people already know how to smelt iron ore into sponge iron, and how to further beat it into usable tools. However, due to extremely limited productivity and the huge difficulty of mining ore, they do not have many iron tools.
Even so, the Kewen people had a huge military advantage over the deer farmers in the north.
But in the eyes of the Russians, these advantages are simply not worth mentioning.
Many hunters ran back to the village in panic, shouting: "The Varangians have appeared, let's take refuge in the mountain fortress."
At first, the people in the village couldn't believe it.
Everyone knows about the existence of the Varangians, but no one has actually seen them.
Some hunters who insisted on hunting encountered a bear and were frightened out of their courage, hallucinating.
However, the situation gradually deteriorated, and a large number of hunters and fishermen fled back, reporting the same information in unison.
The hunter ran back to his home, first ordered his wife and children to pack the valuable things at home immediately, then carried them on his back and evacuated towards the nearby mountain fort.
The hunters were the first to evacuate, gradually causing a commotion throughout the village.
This Kovin tribe, with more than 700 people, began to fall into chaos.
The leader of the tribe is an old guy who is over fifty years old. His name is Kaihas. In the language of the Kovin people, the name refers to "spear".
"What's going on? Varangians? I think you were frightened by the bear! Ulosivi, you should have the ability to hunt bears instead of telling me that you are cowardly."
Obviously, the leader Kehas not only distrusts the words of his own people, but also shows great disdain.
When the leader said this, the hunter Ulosivi panicked: "Chief! It's really a Varyag. Please get out of your warm residence and take a look at the situation outside. Everyone is already evacuating."
The leader glanced at the family members in the room and then at his men. He pushed aside the thermal insulation curtain and stood on the snow. What he saw was a group of tribesmen carrying their belongings to evacuate.
His eyelids began to tremble. His people were frightened out of their wits by the unconfirmed news!
If the guys from the "Gray Squirrel" tribe came to attack at this time, wouldn't our own people still suffer huge losses?!
The tribesmen were all saying the same thing: the Varyag army was marching on the ice and attacking the village.
Under this situation, the leader Kehas also panicked.
He hurriedly asked the hunter: "Do you swear what you saw was the Varyag?"
"I swear!" The hunter simply knelt down on one knee to prove to the leader that his words were true.
"Did you see any other details?"
"Varyags?! I saw those guys, all of them wearing metal helmets. Just like the legendary story, they came from the west and must have destroyed our village. Chief, we must defend our
home."
"Bah! I don't need you to teach me about this!" The leader's mood now was like an ant on a frying pan. He anxiously took the lead in ordering his family: "Take the children and run! Take the valuable things up the hill.
Fort!”
"What about you?" asked the leader's wife.
"Of course we are ready to fight! Even if the Varangians appear, we must defeat them. We have no way to retreat."
The leader Kejas put on his own leather armor, a leather armor purchased from the Norwegians by a previous expedition. He also took care of his own dagger purchased from the Norwegians and became a majestic old warrior.
In this Kovin village, in their concept, the Varangians refer to the madmen on the land on the other side of the sea. As everyone knows, their hunting expeditions have set foot in the Norwegian territory many times and fought with the Norwegians.
Trade. Even some men in the tribe knew a little bit of the Norse language.
The expedition actually followed the northern land route, crossed the mountains and the Narvik fjord and had trade exchanges with the Norwegians. They never thought that the Norwegians and the Varyags were the same ethnic group and spoke each other's languages.
They are exactly the same. They have such a strange understanding, probably because these scientific people do not understand the geography of Northern Europe at a macro level. In their concept, the world is also flat.
This winter, the tribe did not send an expedition team. Instead, the gray squirrel tribe next door sent an expedition team to explore the outside world and find a new living space.
If the actions of the Gray Squirrel tribe had not been unexpectedly attacked by the Rus, I am afraid that they would have gradually moved to the mouth of the Tornio River and gradually turned into another brand-new ethnic group derived from the Finnish people - the Tornio.
People of the Valle delle Nio.
The Russians unexpectedly planned this natural historical process, but history will continue to develop in another form. Because of that river valley, the leader of the Russians, Otto, set his sights on the unexpected mine, and he was determined to do so.
Build a new settlement - Ironburg.
Kehas, the leader of the Kovin tribe, quickly gathered more than 200 men.
Hunters with bows and fishermen who speared fish gathered first, followed by a large group of young men who could hold short spears.
The leader stood on a snowdrift and announced his "war mobilization" in public.
"Men, a group of strange guys are calling now. They are probably Varangians. They are here to destroy our village, kill all the men, and kidnap all the women!"
Hearing this, the bloody warriors were excited.
"Can we make them succeed?" Kejas asked deliberately.
"No!" Someone shouted first, and the others roared one after another.
Seeing that everyone's morale had improved, the leader reassured them: "In the past, we have gained advantages in the fight against the Gray Squirrel guys. How can our hard-won advantage be destroyed by the Varyags? Men, you have been defeated.
Gray Squirrel Tribe, now the Varangians are coming to your door. You can defeat them and take away their excellent weapons.
I don’t expect that we can defeat them on the plains! We lure the Varyags to the foot of the mountain fort and shoot them with arrows! It’s like our hunter partnership can shoot the most dangerous white bear and the Varyag invasion
It’s not a problem either.”
In this way, the leader adhered to his past experience and determined that the intruders were relatively weak just like the nearby neighbors.
The leader did not feel that he had an absolute advantage. Looking at the tribesmen at hand, they could easily kill hundreds of intruders, which was really difficult for others.
The only thing the village can rely on is that all men, women, and children of the tribe come together to build a "towering" ring-shaped city wall with a large number of stones and wooden piles. It is the so-called mountain fortress, and it is a symbol of the Kovin people, and even all the Finns.
, a defense system built by the Tavastians due to the tribal life.
The hill fort has only one main entrance, or the opening of the city wall. It is like a huge turtle shell that can protect the village residents. When the enemy invades, everyone can retreat to the hill fort. They block the opening with prepared stones.
Then organize all the men to guard it.
In a sense, the mountain fortress is not just a shelter for the village, it is also the village's granary and material storage place.
The leader Kejas gave the last order: "Owners of Salmon, we all retreat to the mountain fort. Bring all your bows and arrows and prepare your javelins. We don't have to fight with the enemy, just shoot them with the bows and arrows we have. Don't worry.
, no matter how fierce the enemy is, they cannot break the mountain fortress."
Therefore, the name of this tribe is called "Salmon Lords". They are a relatively strong tribe of the Kovin people. Not only are they different from the "Grey Squirrel Tribe" that Otto intended to attack, the hunting methods of the two tribes are also different.
Due to the overlap of the fields, there have always been conflicts between the two sides for the sake of interests.
But Otto couldn't bear that much. His trip was not aimed at the "Grey Squirrel" tribe, but he planned to attack the Covin tribe as much as possible so that the Russians could gain as much benefit as possible.
Otto, who was marching, had no idea that the Russians' unconcealed actions had already begun to put the nearest Kovin village on full alert.
It was another long journey, and the Ross army camped by the glacier again.
The long march crazily sapped the fighting spirit of the warriors. Gradually, everyone felt that the captive who led the way had impure motives.
Yes! In fact, Voima Kashad who led the way did have impure motives. His only pure intention was to see the Russians fight against the people of the "Salmon Lord", and it would be better for both sides to suffer losses. This is called borrowing from the Russians.
Sword, kill the biggest competitor of the "Grey Squirrel" tribe.
In this way, even if nearly fifty tribesmen died, the "Gray Squirrel" tribe finally gained a larger living space, which was also a benefit.
But Otto was really impatient.
Otto put a "dog leash" on Woimakashad made of hemp rope and ordered him to lie down and imitate the barking of a hound. In humiliation, Woimacasad had to flatter and behave like a loyal dog.
Dog, otherwise, he believes that if he does not cooperate, the hemp rope around his neck will become his own noose, and eventually become a frozen corpse that will soon rise.
Because, the village of "Salmon Lord" will soon arrive.
The tribal warriors who imitated the dog's tricks made the bored tribal warriors laugh. Rurik couldn't laugh, but he didn't interfere.
Rurik unexpectedly noticed that the deer herders were very happy to see Voima Kashad humiliated. They even wanted to see this man excrement, and they even wanted to see the Rus invade the Kovin village.
A mass killing spree.
The deer herders just wanted to vent their anger, so to speak, hoping that the Kovin people would suffer the same suffering, and then praise the Russians for their brilliance.
Rurik didn't want to say anything about this. After all, the men who followed his father were not his close confidants. In the days to come, he felt that the Ross tribe under his control would no longer need these madmen. The young children who were trained
, will eventually become the backbone of the Russian army. They will be principled and bottom-line warriors built in accordance with Rurik's wishes.
They will definitely not engage in such tricks as humiliating the captives. Rurik firmly believed.
As the Ross warriors keenly noticed signs of being dug into the glacier, the warrior, who was a fisherman, subconsciously determined that this was a hole dug by fishermen, even though it was covered with thin ice.
The news was sent back to the Russian camp and immediately attracted everyone's intense attention.
Otto completely believed in Voima Kashad's words and realized that this person was still useful up to now.
By the campfire, Otto summoned the prisoners who had taken off their leashes.
"It seems we are really coming to your village. Will your people kneel down and surrender to me?"
Voimakashad hesitated in response to the question.
Otto said arrogantly, "They shouldn't take the initiative. Unfortunately, I'm going to kill your people."
Voima Kashad was actually secretly happy to hear this. He deliberately said: "Anyone who is unwilling to surrender should be killed! I am willing to be your loyal dog."
Otto was amused and laughed, then threw down a piece of roasted snowshoe meat.
"Eat! My loyal dog, lie down like a hunting dog. I want to see you eat this piece of barbecue without using your hands."
In this situation, there was no need for a Javlo translator. Voyma Kashad knew what he should do. He really did it, so in Otto's heart, this guy really became a loyal dog.
On a new day, at dawn, the Ross Army began its final march. And this day was the ninth day as promised. It was obvious that Voyma Kashad was not lying.
The Russians still used the glacier as their path. As they walked, after passing a bend, they saw village houses covered with snow on the river bank.
"This! It's such a big village." Rurik was a little shocked, but he also felt a little strange, "It's really strange, why can't I feel popular?"
Rurik could not help but suspect that Otto, with his consent, gave the mercenary captain Jevro a very bold order, that is, to take all the mercenaries as pathfinders and set foot on the territory suspected of the "Grey Squirrel Tribe".
The mercenaries held loaded crossbows and, under the leadership of Yevro, cautiously advanced toward the enemy village. Behind them were thirty meters of melee warriors holding swords and shields.
Otto sent fifty scouts to explore the reality of the village. The warriors were very happy. The order they received was to take the risk and enter first. They immediately attacked the enemies who resisted. After winning, they distributed the spoils and got more.
a little.
Except for these fifty people, the others were waiting on the ice for the good news.
Everyone is also prepared. If they notice that a fight is breaking out in a distant village, the rest of the people will rush over to help the scouts resolve the fight.