Rurik didn't want to have a long talk about what the so-called campfire meeting was doing, even if he was reminiscing about the past, it should end here.
He wanted to end it quickly so that he wouldn't have to spend the night on the shore again, so he simply hugged a deerskin bedding with a layer of linen and ran to the dry and flat longboat to sleep.
Finally at the critical moment, Rurik ordered his own people to shut up. He approached Mechasta and said, "Let me tell you something now. The expedition you sent was completely wiped out, and no one in my tribe was lost. Those people were all killed."
If they die, I can leave the corpses of those people alone and let them be eaten by the snow wolves. But I got God's order, so before we leave, most of the corpses will be collected. All the corpses are gathered in a place at the foot of the mountain.
Depression."
Mechasta trembled all over after hearing this. He didn't know how to evaluate the children in front of him, why he suddenly told himself this. They were barbaric guys, but they showed kindness. Wait! Is it really kindness? There is also a trace of kindness.
It's a threat!
Putting himself in his shoes, Mechasta asked himself, in those tribal wars in the past, his own people would not care about the corpses of the fallen hostile Salmon Lord tribesmen, and simply let them rot and return to nature.
Mechasta suppressed his emotions, "Where are they... all in there?"
"It's right at the foot of the mountain. I think it's easy to find them. Tomorrow most of us will head to the hill to continue developing the mines that were developed by your people. As for the dead, I want to build a joint tomb for them.
The cemetery near the mountain fort is yours, and I know your tradition. So build a joint tomb, and that area will be your tribe’s cemetery from now on. I think you can accept my arrangement."
Mechasta felt hatred in his heart, but just looking at this handsome boy and the boy's decision, he really couldn't hate it.
Mechasta is a rational person who knows what actions can bring benefits and avoid disadvantages to his people.
Based on absolutely rational considerations, if the members of the expedition team are dead, it is useless to say anything. Now, the most important thing is to appease the hearts of the tribesmen who are still alive.
At least so far, the Rus people have not interfered with the sacrificial activities of their tribe. Instead, the tribesmen have received good food treatment and now better housing. Even the leader of Rurik really understands the Kovin people!
With tears in his eyes, Mechasta fully agreed with Rurik's decision.
His face was looking at the faint hills under the starlight not far away, and a strange feeling with a hint of familiarity arose spontaneously.
It’s so similar! If you build a walled hillfort, set up a cemetery, an altar, and put some canoes on the river beach, it will all look so much like your hometown!
His face came back to reality and he looked at Rurik: "I have also made the decision that our tribe will no longer call ourselves gray squirrels. We have a brand new name, we are iron squirrels!"
"Really?" Rurik responded with a smile: "Let's call it Stella Orava. Your tribe needs to be named after steel. Because we Russians will make steel as long as we get the chance. This is why we are strong.
The key. Mechasta, you should be happy with your decision, your master is destined to become the strongest among the Varyags."
It sounds like something worth being happy about, but the Russians generally don't understand the "Kovin language" spoken by Rurik, and they start making noises. Only Mechasta shed tears of excitement and at the same time, his heart is filled with tears.
Aroused a vague fear.
Because in his opinion, this Varyag child, who is slightly younger than his own son, has huge ambitions, and his vision is so big that it completely exceeds his own imagination. Is he going to conquer "everything that can be set foot on and can be sailed by ship"?
place"?
Ah! After all, the tribe that was renamed the "Iron Squirrels" has always hoped to live a life without fighting against the world by the dense forest river. What ambitions can they have?
So when the other people of the Iron Squirrel tribe knew that they needed to build their new homes just like they built their old mountain forts, everyone was happy.
And when everyone learned that the bodies of the deceased members of the expedition had a clear destination, they immediately exploded!
Because many of the sons or husbands of the old women who survived were part of the expedition! They gathered around the shaman of their tribe and prayed to her that they would wait until tomorrow to find all the corpses and make sacrifices for their dead relatives.
A sacrifice, so that their souls wandering in the cold world can return to the sea of souls in the dreams of the Covin people to rest in peace.
The members of the expedition team are right there! In a snow nest at the foot of the mountain!
This night, the people of the Iron Squirrel Tribe, who had been renamed as the Iron Squirrel Tribe, couldn't let go when they thought of their tribesmen still lying dead in the wilderness. They didn't fall asleep one after another until extreme exhaustion set in.
Rurik and his guys have already made arrangements for what to do tomorrow.
Night has fallen, and it is best not to think too much about anything until dawn.
He lay down on the flagship longship that was towed to the shore, spread deerskin on the flat inside of the ship, and wrapped himself in a quilt to rest.
He did not ask the Terravis brothers and sisters about their many feelings about the dead in the mine. Even though they were on the same ship, he could hear the whispers of the brothers and sisters and knew how sorry they were for the dead in the tribe.
Along the river, this place should have been absolutely wild, a purely natural place undiscovered by humans. Now the Russians have planted deep wooden stakes here. Towns are about to rise from the ground, and the desolate land must
It will be full of popularity and the heat of hot steel.
The construction site by the river fell into temporary silence. The bonfire was still crackling and the smell of burning rosin floated in the air. The relatively dry ground baked by the flames was filled with various wooden strips and unprocessed wood.
of logs.
There is even a huge pine tree lying alone here with all its branches cut off. It was dragged out of the woods by more than twenty strong men.
Young people in Ross noticed the unique timber resources here!
Unlike the area where Fort Ross is located, the huge pine or oak trees near his hometown have been cut down almost completely. Coupled with the development of the shipbuilding industry in the past year, the tribe's demand for wood is increasing day by day.
Everyone originally came to the north to explore mineral resources. People who are highly sensitive to navigation instantly realized the importance of the timber resources here.
Big tree! Very tall tree! It is a big tree that is almost extinct in my hometown.
Although in the eyes of the Russian people, the best ship material is oak, but oak tends to grow a little crooked, so the more common red pine has become an important substitute. Pine is slightly less hard than oak.
Russians can judge this through experience.
A group of breathtaking giant red pine trees were discovered near the new settlement. After they had to cut them down, they only had to dig into the trunks to make excellent canoes.
However, its greatest value lies in the keel! The red pine is too tall, and the hardest part of the core is cut into strips and allowed to dry naturally. That is an excellent keel material. Based on it, the Russians can make more
Big ships.
A new day arrives in the cool breeze.
The whole world is immersed in a thin sea fog. When the sun rises, the fog quickly dissipates.
A night's sleep didn't help Rurik get a good rest.
"After all, I have to sleep until noon after all the hard work. Oh, let's get up. I have to take them to the mine at noon today." He patted his little face to cheer up, then sat up and saw that it had already begun.
Working people.
Generally speaking, Russians only eat two meals a day, that is, one meal when they get up and one meal in the evening. Only those who do heavy physical work will eat a meal at noon, so for everyone, in the evening
This meal is a dinner.
Rurik at least provided three meals a day to his young subordinates. Or because of the daily training, the children were forced to eat more because of hunger.
In the early morning, the aroma of cooking wheat porridge wafted over the camp, or looking for this rich and mouth-watering aroma, a group of fishermen, instead of turning around and returning home, sailed their sail fishing boats directly to the beach.
Rurik noticed their arrival and couldn't help but feel touched in his heart.
Some bold young fishermen hope that they can become part of the one hundred selected warriors and follow Rurik, so that they and their descendants can become the top confidants of Rurik who will take power in the future.
In fact, only five small fishing boats washed up on the beach, and only 20 fishermen landed on the beach. They were all young and promising, and most of them were brothers and close friends on the same boat.
Having just eaten the hot salty wheat porridge, Rurik felt energetic, and it seemed that the five-kilometer inland cross-country trip ahead would not be difficult.
The sudden landing of the fishermen made him very happy. After all, the reality was here. He had really overestimated the speed of building a new town with the few people on hand. He needed more strong labor force.
Rurik stood up and accepted the warrior-like baggage of his tribesmen's fists hammering their hearts.
The leader of the fishermen is called Spyut. He and his companions did not participate in the Northern Hunting, nor did they participate in the crusade against Gotland, perhaps just because they were very young.
These twenty fishermen are generally only twenty years old this year. Compared with other warriors, they have never been on the battlefield. Even though they hunt land beasts and kill beluga whales and seals with harpoons, they are still too immature.
"Lord War Chief, we are here to work for you."
"Oh?" Rurik was a little surprised, "I thought you went fishing at night to donate your catch to me."
"Sir, we really want to work for you. We can cut down trees, build houses, and repair ships for you."
"I understand." Rurik grabbed his waist and said, "You want some reward, just like everyone else. Even if you are a little tired from work, if you can earn one silver coin in three days, the food will be free.
You don’t want to miss this good thing.”
Hearing this, the fisherman Spyut smiled naively, and couldn't help but murmur in his heart: Rurik is smart, much smarter than all the children.
Rurik did not reward him: "Your goal is actually to obtain silver coins. Do you think that if you come to do things for me uninvited, I must give you benefits?"
Spuyut was a little panicked. He then looked at the expressions of the other tribal brothers around Rurik. For a moment, he was deeply timid and his steps became a little weak.
"If you refuse, I think we should leave." As he said that, some fishermen had already started to retreat.
"Wait a minute!" Rurik waved.
"Sir, do you have any more instructions?"
For a moment, Rurik glanced at the rushing river from the corner of his eyes. He thought that the idea he had yesterday could be implemented immediately with the help of these fishermen today.
"You can work for me, but not in construction." Rurik pointed his little finger up the river. "You go upstream along the river and explore the fish in the river for me. I don't believe that you are in this sea area.
If you can't catch a few fish, you still can't do it in the river."
"Let's go fishing for river fish? Is this possible?"
"Who knows?" Rurik shrugged, and suddenly he had another flash of inspiration. He stamped his feet: "Oh! Who knows how many resources there are in this area? We caught a lot of ferrets in this area in winter.
And snow rabbits, if you go upstream, you might be able to catch some small beasts."
This reminder really brings to mind a lot of things.
Sipuyut suddenly realized: "Spring is here, those hibernating black bears and wandering white bears should all appear. The bears in my hometown have been hunted to death, maybe here..."
"What a great idea! Just do it!"
What Rurik can be sure of is that there must be more polar bears than people living on the land north of the Gulf of Bothnia. How many there are, 30,000, 50,000, or more. Maybe there are more polar bears floating on the Arctic Ocean now.
The ice is full of polar bears wandering around.
The purpose of rebuilding a Corvin-style mountain fort is to defend against sneak attacks by polar bears.
Polar bear leather is a kind of treasure, and bear meat is also a good meat. Hunting a strong bear weighing nearly a ton is a difficult task no matter how you think about it. If you don't do it well, you may be revolted by the bear.
To kill, the hunter becomes the prey.
The fishermen were here, and Rurik immediately recruited five mercenaries under his command, and gave the mercenary warrior equipped with a crossbow a special mission - to follow the fishing boats to explore, and when they find large prey, shoot them directly.
Finding and hunting bears, wolves, foxes, and reindeer have become something fishermen need to do.
Rurik made a condition, that is, he would purchase all fresh leather according to the traditional Russian leather purchase price, including the meat of prey and the catch, and Rurik was willing to spend money to buy it.
His only warning was that once he encountered the so-called "summer grazing" deer herders, he was not to shoot them proactively, but to use force to capture them and finally bring them all back to the camp.
They were a Ross expedition team that went upstream under Rurik's orders! Five small fishing boats, with a total of twenty-five people!
They received brand new orders, and they were fortunate to have the opportunity to work for Rurik, and everyone received an honor.
Of course, in addition to the relatively fictitious honor, Rurik, who has always said he "particularly likes to abide by contracts", promised to use real money and silver to buy all the good things discovered by the expedition.
In order to obtain huge benefits and honors, the fishermen did not stay any longer. As the mercenary warriors carrying steel-armed crossbows boarded the boat, the fishermen felt that their strength had greatly increased.
Five small boats sailed upstream, with the four oars on each boat rowing regularly, and the spread sails were blown by the south wind that was no longer as sharp as a knife. They gradually disappeared from Rurik and other people watching on the shore.
In sight.
Kawei always stood beside Rurik, watching the fishing boat go further and further away, gradually being obscured by the dark green forest.
"Rurik, do you really think they can hunt a group of white bears?"
"Who knows?" Rurik shrugged, "Whether they succeed or not, this area will always be our territory. From here it continues to the Oulu River of the Kovin people, and Murmansk due east of us.
The peninsula surrounded by sea on three sides, and the deer herders who live there, must all be my servants."
Rurik talked a little too much, and Kawei vaguely heard some strange words. "Rurik, what Moor? What Sk? A peninsula?"
"Ah!" Rurik's small body was startled, and he pointed to the endlessly flowing river: "Everything here belongs to us! That's what God told me."
Kawei was greatly surprised: "Ah, it seems you got a revelation last night."
Rurik had already tried similar rhetoric many times. He said casually: "Even if we haven't been to some areas, God has given me revelations."
"Odin...any other revelations?"
"Yes!" Rurik smiled confidently, "There is a peninsula, which is the territory of deer farmers. Directly north of us, in the frozen sea at the end of the world, there is a bay that never freezes. Let's go, we want to
Climb the mine. Remember! It was Odin who gave me the battle of destiny, and it was Odin who gave us the mine. Next, it is the time for you to show your talent."
"Then let's go." Kawei turned around and looked at his clansmen, "Everyone is ready. Those Kewen people are ready, and your subordinates are also ready. Just waiting for your order.
Got it!"
"Let's go!" After saying that, Rurik suddenly pulled out his sword, and with the buzzing sound of the blade, he roared: "Except for the brothers who stayed behind to continue the construction, everyone else, go to the mine!"
The tribesmen let out an inspiring roar, but the Kewen people seemed extremely eager. They gathered together to form a mighty team, with as many as four hundred people!