Since the announcement was made in advance, when the grand sacrifice arrived, the majority of the Russian people were not surprised at all. On the contrary, they sang, danced and often roared loudly.
Just because everyone is looking forward to a huge war!
Although it is easy to start a war, to end it, perhaps it can only be ended by completely defeating the hostile party.
In the past few decades, every household in Russia has been attacked by the Gotlanders while fishing at sea. Although it was just a special form of people coming and going at sea at the beginning, the situation gradually expanded, and two people who were good at
Fierce fights between ocean fishing groups are becoming more frequent.
At that time, everyone at least still belonged to the "Svealan Tribal Alliance" and there was no public disagreement.
As the big families on Gotland Island finished their meetings, it only took a moment for them to withdraw from the alliance.
The Gotlanders have withdrawn, will the Russians also withdraw?
A long time ago, the Rus people who were squeezed out by the tribal alliance at the same time moved northward. The connection between the tribe and the alliance almost only existed in mutual private trade.
It was not until 831 that a formal alliance and a king's war brought the Russians back.
In fact, in the hearts of Rurik and Otto, they never appreciated the title of duke awarded by Olegin who proclaimed himself king. We are all businessmen, some want face and some want honor, that's all.
At least the Russians did not withdraw from the alliance, and were not truly isolated from the southern world.
This time, the people of Russia were excited about conquering Gotland, completely conquering and annexing those guys! Before Rurik announced his war mobilization at the altar, the men who had returned from fishing were already carefully polishing their robes at home.
Harpoons and axes, and the women stepped up their efforts to smoke and dry fish.
Did the Russians ever have a full-scale war with their enemies? It seems to be recorded on the wooden boards with ancient stories.
The war is in August, everything must give way to the war.
The old father encouraged the young children to fight for the glory of their ancestors and took out the heirloom weapons.
The old mother kissed her child's face, encouraged him to fight for the Russians, and hung an amber pendant engraved with a little man (lucky elf) around his neck.
Some families have three or four children, and the old father never thinks about the possibility of losing all his sons in the war, because this is an all-out war against the Gotlanders, and the entire family, like the entire tribe, is trying its best.
The soldiers Rurik planned to recruit should be no less than sixteen years old. In fact, this is very scientific. As a true Nordic, men of sixteen years old generally have thick beards, and they already look strong and powerful at first glance.
Before the sacrifice, Otto was not at all leisurely. As the Duke of Ross, he used his appeal to easily gather the elite and secondary combat forces of the Ross tribe.
He took an inventory and found that there were as many as 650 men between the ages of sixteen and fifty who lived in Rossburg and had pure Ross tribe blood.
Of course, the Ross tribe still has a large male population, but they are generally too young. How useful are the young warriors in a real battle? Otto doesn't want the cubs without beards to fight the enemy desperately, at least
They have to grow beards first.
He took this opportunity to actually complete the statistics of the men of the pure-blood Ross tribe. In this way, plus the five hundred people gathered on Tombstone Island, and the thirty adult fishermen who settled in Ironburg in the north, they settled in New Ross in the east.
There were about two hundred adult men in the fort.
There are as many as 1,400 Russian men, and this is also the result of losing a number of soldiers in the past few wars.
If the statistical range is calculated from the age of twelve, including those who are old enough to pick up an ax as warriors, there should be 2,000 men in Rus.
However, the number of elite Russian men was only 700.
From the perspective of military strength alone, Otto clearly realized that he was indeed extremely vulnerable to the Melalen tribe. However, if those servant tribes could be trained to form an army that only obeyed the command of Duke Ross,
The situation is very different.
Completely trusting outsiders? The outsiders that Otto trusts most now are mercenaries like Jevro. They have proved what loyalty is with the bloody heads of their enemies on many battlefields.
Finally, others are always suspicious, unless they kill the enemy to get a certificate of surrender.
His son requested to recruit at least a thousand elite Rus' troops. OK, the job has been completed. However, the other tribesmen were really eager to fight and could not refuse their hospitality, so Rurik had no choice but to accept their applications and simply arrange them all into the team.
Just out of tradition, for any expedition, the expedition should proactively prepare food on its own initiative. Of course, the Duke will also prepare food himself, but no soldier can expect charity from the Duke during the march.
Just when Rurik had no time to take care of it, Otto pulled out a team of as many as 700 people. In fact, there were many children aged only fourteen to fifteen years old among them. They admired the legendary hero Arik very much.
They also worshiped the holy Rurik, and they took this war as a major opportunity to prove that they were men. It is true that they may not get this opportunity for many years next time.
If this happens at any time, how can the Russians raise an army of 3,000 men?
Otto never dreamed that his son would plan to organize boys and girls as young as ten into the team to fight the enemy.
The build-up of the army is still one of the top priorities in the future, but it is not now.
The grand sacrifice is tonight!
Oh, the sun will not set tonight, but will freeze on the western sea level in a very magical way. The afterglow of the setting sun will last forever, until at a certain moment it lazily rises again.
The fishing boats operating in the Gulf of Bothnia returned to port one after another, and many people who settled in Ironburg even wandered back at sea long ago in order to catch up with this sacrifice.
Originally, the sacrifices on the summer solstice were not so grand, but the leader was going to fight, and the news spread throughout the bay immediately. Everyone was looking forward to the war, and everyone was looking forward to the grand sacrifice to pray to the great god Odin that the Rus would win, and everyone was also looking forward to the leader.
An adult can say a few inspiring words.
Rossburg is crowded. Compared to the past, there are only a few foreign merchants here (male merchants arrived in large numbers after the autumn harvest), a large number of married Slavic women and their children, as well as servants, slaves, and a large number of people.
Mercenaries.
All kinds of people have increased the population of Rossburg to more than 5,000, and these 5,000 people can be dispatched by the chief family. The traditions of the past tribes have inadvertently faded to the edge, and the power of the Principality of Ross has been greatly enhanced.
Concentrated in the hands of Otto and Rurik.
Among the first Slavic women to marry, some of them had already given birth to a second child, and even more extreme, some not only gave birth to a second child, but also had a new baby in their belly. Nowadays, parents who dare to commit infanticide are a serious crime, and people's
Living standards have been greatly improved, and there is no need to do this kind of thing anymore.
In the past, Rose's parents did not intentionally kill their daughters, but simply used their extremely limited resources to support one or two boys in the hope that they would do heavy work when they reached a certain age. Nowadays, ordinary families cherish all labor.
The food shortage problem has been greatly improved as the tribe as a whole has become richer. There are more days to eat, and with more wealth, a large number of Rus-Slav mixed descendants have been born. Their fathers are Rus, so they are also "
"Pure Rus", Otto is not too entangled in these. He just hopes that the descendants of his tribe will prosper. Obviously, this hope is being implemented quickly.
No, the population of married Slavic women has reached 400, and now new women are brought here every year. The marriage of Russian men is a long-standing problem, and Novgoro has been married for a long time.
They were settled by German women and women captured from previous battles, and a few even had multiple wives and more children.
The baby boom has arrived in Roseburg. Although some children died unexpectedly, the miracle is real, and the mortality rate is incredibly low (soap is indispensable for improving sanitary conditions).
Now the whole tribe has more than 200 children who have just turned one year old. Whether the children's mothers are willing or not, they come from different estates in Novgorod. Now they are all Russian women. Smart women know that they need to work hard to give birth to Russia.
People prove their worth, and more children will also consolidate their family status as mothers in the future.
The whole world was bright. When the sun was fixed in the sky, the Russians wore comfortable clothes and walked towards the altar in large numbers. The Slavic women also followed their husbands closely, wearing their own dowries, so-called
They wore exquisite cloth shirts and covered their heads with colorful scarves to cover their braids. They hugged their children tightly, and many of them held out their bellies.
At this moment, Rurik had already put on a white plain gown that looked simple but was actually studded with gold and lakes. A cowhide belt wrapped with gold wire hugged his waist.
The priests all came, and their clothes were also gorgeous, with some blue tones deliberately added to the white plain robes.
They wore flower crowns, but Rumia wore a crown of antlers.
The real high priest Vilia was sitting on a short dumpling, and she was carried to the sacrifice site by the lower-level priestess. She had done what she had to explain, and Rumia was responsible for the rest of the work.
It's her again! A little girl seems to have officially taken over the job of high priest.
At this moment, some people still doubt that Rumia is qualified to be the high priest of Ross because she is just a deer herder. However, more people refute this view. She is indeed a deer herder. That was all in the past. Now she has antlers on her head.
The helmet is Odin's gift and command.
People were whispering to each other, and the whole venue was like thousands of buzzing bees flying non-stop.
The sun, which had not risen at all, set slightly until it stopped completely.
A large number of stars appeared in the sky, and their stars were extremely dim.
Look! Some light green streamers are twinkling in the sky.
The time for the sacrifice has arrived. Rumia stood in the stone boat altar with a circle of oil lamps lit. She held up a calf horn and alerted the noisy crowd with the melodious sound of the horn, announcing the start of the sacrifice.
All the priestesses began to sing ancient prayers with their voices. They prayed that the gods who protect the tribe would continue to send favors, that the sea would be calm, and that people would be safe.
Every year during the summer solstice ceremony, they would sing the same prayer to a traditional tune. Only this year, the people who stayed quiet and listened to the ethereal singing heard strange lyrics.
They are using their songs to report a war to the great god Odin and ask for God's support.
At this moment, Rurik was half-kneeling, with his right fist against his chest and his head lowered, assuming a pious and strange posture with a strong sense of ritual.
This war itself is a man-made affair, and the greatest role of sacrifice is to stabilize and unite people's hearts. In this way, Rurik doesn't mind adding a touch of sacredness to it.
Many people joined the chorus, especially a group of girls raised by Rurik. They will definitely participate in the next battle, but now, they are all dressed in plain clothes and wearing garlands on their heads, standing next to the altar and joining the chorus.
If you just chant uninspired prayers, will there be any benefit other than making the people who spontaneously kneel down one after another have calluses on their ears?
They began to sing some new catchy songs with strange rhythms. This was the melody Rurik taught them, and the lyrics naturally had to be modified to keep pace with the times.
No matter what the song is, there is only one song that Russians must learn.
"Holy War", this song must always be the Russian war song! Rurik did have a bit of a bad taste at the beginning, forcing his men to learn this song quickly, but in the current scene, this song really fits the situation
.
So, these priestesses and girls sang these words:
Rise up, glorious Rus. Fight to the death! Destroy the Gotland traitors. Defeat all enemies.
We are completely different from our enemies. We want to defeat them, we want light and victory, but the enemies only want to suppress us.
Foolish enemies, watch out for your lives. We are going to attack you! Prepare the coffin!
Everyone takes up arms to fight the enemy for the glory of our ancestors, for the sake of our wives and children.
We support "War Chief" Rurik and contribute all our strength to defend our Rus. Victory belongs to Rus!
The girls from the Valkyrie Army, who serve as priests, sang this song publicly for the first time.
The tribesmen listened to their ethereal singing and were soon infected by the very exciting lyrics.
Otto's eyes widened. What he noticed was that the brothers around him were all praising the song as a wonderful song. They were eager to sing, as if they were infected by the song.
He had to admit the appeal of this song while being moved, because this song clearly meant that the era that belonged to him, Otto, was probably going to end with this war.
"Oh, using songs to establish your power? Maybe that's good. You must grow up early. If you win this war, you will definitely gain the highest power that no one can question."
Otto, who had a son at an old age, gave all his love to Rurik. Fortunately, his son was truly magical and had a promising future.
When the singing quieted down, the catchy rhythm had been "brainwashed" by the girls' repeated repetitions, and the Russian people present had even been humming along while the girls were singing.
Since as many as 5,000 people gathered in the forest where the altar was located, it was impossible for the girl's singing to travel very far in the era without loudspeakers.
The tribesmen could hear the melody, and the exciting lyrics were only heard by a few people for the time being. Even so, the tribesmen had raised their hands in the air and cheered and jumped. A large number of unaware people were infected by this intense emotion and rushed to shout out Viking war cries.
.
Seeing their enthusiasm, Rurik's face cracked in an exaggerated way.
"It seems that my efforts were almost in vain. If I had known, I would have taught them a few more songs. It would not be too late to discuss this matter after the war."
As the ten reindeer as sacrifices were brought into the altar, Rurik, holding a short sword, stabbed all the deer to death in public. His decisiveness also amazed the nearby onlookers.
Lumia personally took out the heart of the strongest stag, held it up high to show it to the tribe, and then used her fingers full of deer blood to write marks on Rurik's face.
Not to mention this, Rurik endured the fishy smell and drank a bowl of deer blood from a small bowl made of pure silver in public.
Rumia then cut open the deer's liver, held the severed liver high, and announced the good omen in public.
"Odin has made a statement. He supports our war. He supports Rurik as our war chief. He will give us victory. All Russians who participate in this war, whether they die in battle or at home when they are old,
Pass away peacefully, and his soul will be selected by the Valkyrie. Odin is watching his warriors, the god will not ignore any brave person, and the brave will enter Valhalla!"
She is already the high priest, who can not support the high priest?
Rumia can now speak Norse well. She is actually over thirteen years old. In addition to having the beauty that a woman should have, she also has some necessary physical foundations for a mother.
Of course, any deer farmer must have a good voice to call out deer or cattle or sheep that run away in the open space.
Her high-pitched voice was quite penetrating, and the good news of "God's blessing" really stimulated the Russian people's eardrums, and the sacrifice reached its boiling peak.
When people's excitement gradually became exhausted due to the constant shouting, Rurik stood on some logs that had been moved into the altar and once again publicized his major promises to those who supported the war.
He understands very well that spiritual encouragement is very necessary, but it is even more important to give clear material rewards.
He will mobilize all the men, women, children of the tribe, and even everyone who is willing to serve the Ross tribe. All participants will enjoy the "war dividends". Of course, this war is famous. The protracted friction and fierce fighting must come to an end.
, because its existential threat affects the development of the Russian people.
This battle is to end the war against the Gotlanders.
As for the way to end it, it is to defeat the enemy and eliminate the effective strength of the Gotlanders.
In this matter, Rurik no longer cares about human kindness and mercy. All he can think about is mobilizing the power of the tribe, making the best weapons and armor, and becoming a madman for his tribe.
The majority of tribesmen are even more fanatical!
They celebrated crazily on a nightless night, ushering in intense and ambitious preparations.