Throughout the day, the fleet moved north along the coast. Everyone could see the coast from a distance, and could clearly see the desert islands dotted on the sea, as well as the ice on the islands that had not completely melted.
In fact, there is still a lot of snow at Rurik's destination, because the other name of that so-called destination is Kemi, and it is also the hometown of Santa Claus.
The fleet approached the mouth of a small stream, and ships docked here one after another.
There are only as many as thirty fishing boats. They follow Rurik's fleet. In fact, they want to get Rurik's good luck and protection in exploring the fishing resources in the northern seas. Now they continue their work and are still preparing.
It is a torch that attracts fish bait, and finally casts the net and prays to catch them all.
Will they succeed? Of course not!
In the northernmost part of the bay, the so-called sea water here is almost no longer salty. A large number of freshwater fish can live here, but the Russians like herring and cod, and they will not risk their lives to survive in such a place.
The only thing the fishermen can look forward to is the so-called migratory salmon tide, but that is only in September. Besides, the Covin servants claim that the Russians have never seen the grand annual salmon tide scene. Or rather, they have never seen it.
Everyone has seen salmon pouring into the fjord in large numbers, but it is definitely not as exciting as the Coven people claim.
Everyone in the fleet spent the night on shore, and those who suffered from seasickness could finally have a good rest.
In fact, now, the route ahead is very clear.
A brave and slightly smaller young warrior climbed up the mast, and he saw the looming coast due north.
This warrior had participated in the "Northern Hunting". Last time he came, the whole world was frozen. This time he saw the northern coastline, and a familiar yet unfamiliar feeling naturally came to his mind.
He made a prepared report to Rurik, and Rurik actually knew it well. Everyone believed that they would all set sail again tomorrow morning, and it might only take a while before they reached their destination.
The next day, the anchored fleet embarked on the journey again.
They soon saw the northern coast clearly, and the entire fleet also adjusted the angle between the sails and the central axis of the ship. They all followed Rurik's leading flagship and began to turn at a large angle.
The fleet began to sail in the crosswind, and the Ross people on each ship began to control the south wind. This sailing method gave the Ross sailing ship the fastest speed they could use when using the wind. Just because of this crosswind sailing routine,
A little bit of learning about airplane wings.
Everyone knew that the fleet's destination was about to arrive, and this strong sense of anticipation became extremely strong after everyone experienced the mouth of the first large river.
Rurik also became excited, and everyone on the flagship was staring at the coast, looking for the unexpected mine.
Just as the Rus seek the location of their home through the hills near the fjord, Rurik and his men are also trying their best to scan the flat horizon for special ridges.
It has to be said that the clear air is enough for people with good eyesight and standing at high altitudes to see important landmarks thirty kilometers away. However, after the Russians passed the first river mouth, they were already no less than thirty kilometers away from their target.
Gradually, the scene ahead became particularly clear.
The hill! It's there!
The flagship, along with all the ships, became commotion.
"We have arrived! Brothers, get ready to land!" Rurik shouted.
Without him giving the order, various personnel on the fleet, especially the Russian soldiers brought by Rurik and the professional sailors provided by the Gould family, had already begun to operate the ship and prepare a series of landings.
Prepare!
Soon, everything became clear.
The fleet arrived at the mouth of the so-called second river. The fleet passed through some desert islands, passed through the river mouth that had become a bit turbulent due to the melting of ice and snow, and all rushed to the flat left bank (eastern) of the river. Because this is where it was at the beginning of the year.
At that time, there was a camping site for Beikuri's army after the battle! Some people on the boat even saw traces of their own camping experience, and the wooden frames of the tents that had been set up were still standing crookedly there.
The long boat with a low flat bottom began to wash up on the beach, and the long boat behind it followed closely. Only the cargo ship was still advancing slowly.
Not far ahead of them was the low and solid mine, which was also the place where Rurik fought for the first time.
"I'm finally here!"
Rurik took a sharp breath and brought the ship to a stop. The hard oak keel was stuck in the mud. Rurik and his companions jumped out of the ship and stepped on the soft ground covered with moss and newly sprouted grass.
Regardless of whether his own people's emotions had stabilized, Rurik yelled: "Let's start! A settlement!"
He walked towards the increasingly solid land, looking at his back, everyone could feel the enthusiasm for construction.
A group of strong men jumped from the side of the ship. They caught the dropped cable and began to pull the ship ashore.
For a moment, their leather boots stepped into the mud, and after some strenuous walking, they finally landed on harder land, leaving a deep mark on the empty long boat.
Soon, the people of the Gray Squirrel tribe were carrying their own luggage and standing in this completely unfamiliar land.
More and more supplies began to be unloaded, such as a large number of burlap sacks, which contained a large amount of oats, charcoal blocks, and uncut linen specially used for building tents.
Rurik found the former camp.
He squatted down and pulled at the wet traces of the bonfire with his small hands. He stood up again and looked at the mines in the distance where a large amount of snow continued to cling to, as well as the ice lumps that could be seen everywhere in the surrounding area.
The whole world is extremely humid, but there is no heat at all.
The world is still cold, just as there are still a lot of ice lumps floating on the sea, including dangerous ice packs of terrifying sizes.
Rurik noticed that those who waded ashore quickly took off their wet boots, just because they were poured into the cold water. They sat on the wet ground, pressing the young grass leaves that had just sprouted, covering their heads with their hands.
He held his cold feet in an attempt to provide warmth.
Rurik was a little glad that he didn't wade into the water, but his boots were already covered in a lot of black mud.
"Black mud? It seems like the land here is fertile, right? It's just too cold. Any cold-resistant crops will freeze to death,"
Everyone has logged in, and Rurik himself has no control over what happens next.
While they were still on the boat, various personnel received their own tasks. They had already gone ashore, and they had to start construction immediately even if it was just to warm their cold feet from wading in the water.
The Ross people and their servants, the Gray Squirrel tribesmen, started building a settlement based on the temporary camp that was abandoned five months ago, at the mouth of the river not far from the mine.
Without any more words, they started the arduous work and even wished they could build the settlement before the sun went down.
Those Russian warriors estimated that they would not encounter any enemies on this trip, and all they could do was provide a large amount of wood for the new settlement.
Rurik was not stupidly generous. To get the monthly reward of ten silver coins, he had to do things according to his requirements.
Since he was a war chief at a young age and was in charge of food, he had no complaints about getting rich.
The strong warriors took off their leather armor, even if the temperature was very low, they only wore loose linen shirts, their hands were tied with linen strips, and they operated advanced mild steel heavy-duty Nordic forest axes built for logging.
The sharp ax blade was polished to a shine, and with just one heavy blow, a tree as big as a bowl was cut down in half.
It only takes three blows to cut down a pine tree.
The Russians even used their own special skills to tackle the huge red pine that required two people to work together.
The strong lumberjack used a steel ax to chisel one side of the trunk, creating a dangerous but unlikely collapse section. Then he lightly chiselled the other side and added a specially made iron wedge. The lumberjack struck the wedge, and the tree finally moved along the largest length.
The section collapsed suddenly!
It was a feeling like the earth was shaking, and all the gray squirrel tribesmen were shocked! Not far away, the dense pine forest that could almost block the sun was experiencing terrible changes, and the ground was shaking violently.
Even some ice blocks on the ground shattered due to the vibration.
The tribesmen soon understood everything in shock - the Rus were cutting down trees that were almost impossible to cut down.
The Russians did it. Before the sun set, as many as thirty huge red pine trees were cut down. In addition to a group of cut down small trees, the once dense forest became very dense in just half a day.
That's all.
These pine trees can produce a large number of pine cones. In theory, their fruits can be used after processing. It is not that Rurik has never thought of using the pine trees that are everywhere in the area to develop pine nut resources, which is to open the hard shells, but
Requires some skills.
Rurik now only hopes to make use of the pine resources in the region. Although the performance of oak is much better than that of pine, the biggest advantage of pine is the extremely low cost of developing it.
A group of Russian warriors received the wood brought back by their companions, and immediately began to use axes and scrapers to process the wood carefully.
They began to build a large number of wooden houses. As the construction concept of Novgorod-style wooden houses spread to the Russians, the previous model of randomly building wooden walls and adding beams has been eliminated. Now everyone
Knowing that a house built with wooden planks and wooden beds is a real pleasure to live in.
The Russian soldiers all liked the new wooden houses, and Rurik also gave everyone an order: the houses in the new settlement must have floors.
This request was difficult for the people of the Gray Squirrel tribe. They originally planned to dig a pit according to their own traditions and then build a semi-underground house on the foundation.
The leader, Mechasta, tried to dig downwards. After digging through a thin layer of moist soil, he flatly rejected his idea.
Why?
After digging down only thirty centimeters, the shovel begins to contact the hard frozen soil.
These Kovin people had no choice but to learn how to build houses from the Russians. In the process, they once again realized how backward they were.
The gray squirrel tribe is an ambitious group. The only remaining men hold metal tools in their hands and they began to learn the house-building skills of the Russians.
In fact, as far as building houses is concerned, the Novgorod people are more capable than the traditional Rus' people. Even if they use limited iron axes and a large number of stone axes, they still chop down big trees and perform fine processing.
The young warriors of Ross learned a number of unique construction methods, and compared with those in the East, they also had a huge advantage in tools.
The residents of Novgorod don't need iron nails at all. They just chisel tree trunks of similar thickness into similar lengths, and then carve out both ends of the thick wooden strips to carve out tenons.
Since they are building wooden houses, the Russians probably don’t have any method that is more cost-effective than the Novgorodians. Because the model of this type of wooden houses has completely changed the Russian people’s image of wooden houses as “relatively leaky”
The mortise-and-tenon structure of the wood carvings makes perfect use of the thermal insulation ability of thick wood, and some moss and linen are used to plug the final gaps. Even if it is minus 40 degrees outside, separated by a wooden wall, the indoor life is still warm.
A large number of wooden piles were whittled into awl heads, and were driven into the ground by Russian warriors wielding huge and hard oak sledgehammers, digging into the deep permafrost zone.
Taking a typical new wooden house as an example, it is built like this.
According to the process set by the Russians, which combines the construction techniques of Novgorod and their own tribe, construction begins with digging piles.
Sixteen short and thick wooden piles (the number is not limited, the more the house, the more stable the house) forms a matrix. The ends of the wooden piles are drilled with tenons, and then four parallel processed wooden poles are placed.
Then, a large number of square wooden strips processed by scrapers began to be laid neatly to form a solid wooden floor.
In this way, a fairly flat building platform is completed! The next thing couldn't be simpler.
Those prefabricated wooden strips with tenon joints began to be piled up like stacks of wood, completing the tenon and tenon joints with each other, so the wooden wall was piled higher and higher.
Finally, the traditional Russian herringbone frame is installed on the roof, a large number of wooden ribs are laid, wooden boards are laid based on the wooden ribs, and finally a layer of thatch is laid. A wooden house is basically completed.
Of course, the warriors Rurik selected were not all young people. There were no fewer than ten older warriors among them. These people actually worked as carpenters. They had experienced the wildest youth, and now fighting and looting can be regarded as side jobs.
Bringing these people along, what Rurik needs is their skills. Because they are all involved in the construction of the leader's new house and have sufficient experience in building Novgorod-style woodcuts.
The Gray Squirrel tribesmen who will enjoy the benefits of brand-new housing have joined the construction team, as well as a large number of children under Rurik's command, who are also doing their best.
At one time, as many as twenty-five wooden carvings had completed the construction of the foundation, and many had even completed the laying of the floor. Anyone with a discerning eye would understand that the next work is to stack the wooden strips with mortise and tenon, which may take three or four days.
, all the wooden houses being built now are about to be completed.
Initially, there were only 25 wooden blocks, which was certainly not enough!
Rurik hopes that this town under construction will become the largest iron smelting center controlled by the Ross tribe. Even though it is already May here, there is still ice and snow everywhere. The heat of iron smelting will protect the people who live here.