A group of small but strong boys followed Rurik's order and all gathered. They stood in the open space outside the blacksmith workshop area of Klavassen and accepted Rurik's review.
Rurik looked at them one by one with his hands behind his back.
These ten-year-old boys were originally destined to be farmers in Novgorod, spending a short and mediocre life in poverty, and even died prematurely due to malnutrition.
Now, everything has changed.
Their bodies are stronger than Rurik's. Due to regular physical labor, everyone can see obvious muscle texture when they roll up their sleeves, even if they are only ten years old.
They ate a lot of meat every day. In the past six months, they had to have a pound of oats every day.
Such a highly nutritious and high-calorie diet is not about fattening the boys. They were ordered to work hard and each of them became a good little blacksmith. These children are just small in age and short in stature. They are already as strong as cattle now. Will they be able to do so in the future?
Aren't you so strong that you can chop down a pine tree with a big axe?
These Slavic boys can basically take charge of their own business. Although their work efficiency is not as good as that of the young and strong Kawi, their future is bright.
Kamni came to report excitedly, "Boss, everyone is here. Arrange the tasks and we can complete them without sleeping."
"Okay! You are very energetic. Then follow my order and I will let you make a new type of weapon."
There is no need for Ryurik to elaborate on everything. After all, these children are all involved in the direct manufacture of torsion slingshots and weapons. These children are very expert.
How could the gray-bearded Klavason alone produce a large number of weapons? The Russian ships are equipped with a large number of "Scorpion Crossbow" torsion slingshots, wooden-arm and steel-arm crossbows, which are the efforts of these young blacksmiths.
Without such success, Rurik would not have dared to assemble them and entrust them with important tasks.
The wild donkey trebuchet is a so-called powerful torque-driven lever. When the stone is thrown out, the inertia also drives the entire machine to jump up, just like a donkey kicking a child.
The best way to prevent it from jumping up is to install a counterweight at the end.
These children are being trained by Rurik as "all-round craftsmen". They are young miners, metallurgists, cement workers, and promising carpenters.
Clavason was busy forging steel swords himself, which he always enjoyed. Kawei and the men he recruited still guarded the blast furnace and continued to mass-produce iron tools.
Children cannot be protected by capable craftsmen? But Rurik himself is their best teacher.
The warmer water from the southern sea invades the Gulf of Bothnia. The sea has basically thawed, and there are large and small ice floes on the sea surface. There are even some giant icebergs.
The fjord where Roseburg is located is still frozen? But people noticed that the stream upstream was becoming increasingly turbulent, and the fjord's freeze would break down within a few days.
Summer came late this year. The snow on the ground is melting on a large scale, but it freezes again at night. Everyone has to use various tools to break off the amazing ice edges on the eaves of their houses every morning.
Five days of work? The six "wild donkey trebuchets" planned by Rurik were just completed by his young men!
There are no wild ass in Northern Europe. The donkeys in the world all come from Central Asia. Today, there is not a single donkey in Europe from Western Europe to Northern Europe.
If he had to use the kicking behavior of an animal to describe this weapon, Rurik would not hesitate to think of a bull.
Ten "bull trebuchets"? They can be described as standardized products.
Its base is a frame that is one stika in length and half a stika in width, which is about one meter and half a meter. One end of the weapon has a reinforced wooden post, and up to five layers of buffering deerskin are tied to the post.
Its source of torque is hemp rope, baleen and rubber bands, which are soaked in grease to further enhance its willfulness.
It is essentially a highly adaptable tactical machine, and its overall structure is very simple. Of course? Its accuracy is far inferior to that of a crossbow-type torque slingshot.
Lord Rurik has invented a new weapon!
People who are looking forward to the thaw of the sea are becoming more and more anxious these days? They need some interesting things to relieve their mood.
Rurik sent some strong men, and each two people easily carried the completed "bull trebuchet" and placed it outside the wooden wall that was still under construction. The ten trebuchets faced the sea, waiting for operation.
Thousands of people came to watch? The wooden wall scaffolding that was just built was also full of people? Not to mention a group of guys standing on the roof.
They have probably guessed it? The function of these weapons is to launch rocks. Each of them is small, so how effective can they be?
Everyone speculates that Rurik has the technology and ability to build a larger torsion trebuchet, but he lacks time.
These small items, with a total length of more than one meter and a torque lever of more than one meter, are weapons that can be used in a short time.
Everyone is looking forward to the stunning performance of the new weapons in their hearts. Their eyes are looking at the frozen sea where you can still move around, and they are looking forward to seeing the splash of rocks in the distance.
Otto watched silently. When he saw the actual object being built before, he knew the usefulness of this weapon and even the tactical effect it could bring.
Otto thought of the decisive battle on Gotland Road. If we had been able to launch stones on a large scale at that time, a large number of stones falling from the sky would have smashed the Gotland army from a distance.
Suddenly, he was surprised to see that the people operating the machinery were actually a group of children!
Rurik only arranged for strong men to carry them, and the operators were the little blacksmiths who built them.
"Brothers, are you all ready? Act as we agreed!"
There was no need to hesitate, and it was necessary to incite the emotions of the onlookers. Rurik simply gave the order, and the children still turned the ratchet winch, and the lever was lowered little by little.
The ten bull trebuchets are finally ready.
"hjutra!"
Rurik gave the order, and ten children pulled the rope holding the bayonet at the same time.
The bull trebuchets, fully charged with power, suddenly activated their levers, pulling the leather bags wrapped around the seaside stones, and violently threw the leather bags out.
Because angular momentum is conserved. The lever rotates violently to reach the peak, and it hits the cushioning pad, and almost all the angular momentum is given to the bag hanging with the hemp rope.
A pebble as big as an adult man's fist flew into the air! Even a helmet couldn't save his life if he was hit hard by such a stone.
People raised their heads one after another, watching their retreating shadows. The shadows gradually blurred and became difficult to recognize. Finally, ten water pillars were set off in a very far place.
No cheers! No cheers really!
People weren't even shocked, or they didn't know what was happening. The thousands of people watching made a violent buzz, and they were all discussing with each other.
Rurik was surprised. He always felt that the range was three hundred meters at least.
This is an extremely astonishing distance, a range that most bows and arrows cannot match.
Rurik noticed from a distance that the falling points of the stones were relatively concentrated.
"Not enough! Do it again!"
After hearing the order, the children continued to work. After the lever quickly returned to its position, they installed the stone and inserted it into the bayonet.
A new round of volleys began soon, and everything was just like the first time.
"Great, do it again!"
Rurik kept giving orders, and as a result, each trebuchet was fired ten times. The hundred prepared pebbles were all used for "special ice cutting," not to mention that the ice in the distance was indeed penetrated.
It seems like the experiment should come to an end?
Rurik finally patted Kamne on the shoulder and handed him the hemp rope recording the length.
It was a hemp rope with a total length of one hundred stikas. It was a tool used to calculate the range of crossbows in the past, and was later used to calculate the range of various long-range weapons.
It is knotted every tenth stika, and each stika is painted with a blue channel.
Kamne was a child, so he didn't have to worry about crushing the ice. However, when he kept measuring with the rope and completed the second length of hemp rope (about 200 meters in total), he suddenly felt guilty.
The weapon actually threw the stone so far?
As he continued to move forward, he noticed something extremely surprising: there were actually cracks in the ice on the sea surface! He still took the measurements and finally measured the 280th stika, but he did not dare to continue one step further.
He has not yet reached the point where the rocks are falling intensively, but the ice in front has cracked in large areas.
He returned in a hurry and reluctantly reported the truth.
Rurik squinted his eyes and listened, and couldn't help but sigh: "Did the rocks smash the ice? 280 stikas are still not the landing point."
Rurik didn't waste any more words and immediately moved to the testing ground on land.
A forest, now only bare tree trunks are left. There are absolutely no stones in this generation. If the experiment finds that the fist-sized stones must be fired stone projectiles.
The people of Russia all followed Rurik's footsteps and continued to watch, this time there were even more spectators.
Everything went smoothly and in a very safe manner, and an exciting result was in front of Rurik.
Rurik started the experiment in the morning and continued until the evening. He collected a large amount of data and clarified the maximum range of the bull trebuchet, as well as how to control the torque for different distances.
Rurik is the greatest scientist in the entire Principality of Rus. His knowledge of advanced mathematics directly affects ballistics calculations. And his knowledge of optics uses human reference objects to make human figures visible to the naked eye at different distances.
Size, directly chisel the scale on the wooden sight.
He does not require this kind of trebuchet to be accurate every time. The so-called large-scale use relies on probability throwing and targets the enemy's dense formation, but will achieve excellent results.
At night, everything seems to be calming down.
Those who participated in the bloody battle gradually realized the horror of this weapon and began to share their insights with their family and friends.
In the Duke's mansion, Rurik and his family gathered together for dinner as usual, but Niya knew that this scene of people gathering together would soon be over.
Otto drank a bottle of strong wine, and while he was drinking, he seemed to be complaining to his son for no reason, and his emotions became more and more intense.
"Rurik! Why don't you invent this kind of weapon? If you...it's the furthest 330 stikas! We can obviously kill those Visby guys slowly, and we don't have to kill hundreds of brothers.
Won."
When Rurik heard this, the wheat stew in the bowl suddenly lost its aroma.
"What do you think he did?" Niya pushed Otto displeased.
Otto trembled: "We obviously have a chance to kill fewer people."
Rurik was also helpless. He said calmly: "The situation of the new weapons is all in my estimation. No! I think it can hit 200 stikas at most. I didn't expect it to be so fierce. Indeed, if we equip these early, it is best to use them in large quantities.
Using it, we can annihilate 10,000 Visby warriors without killing a single person."
Otto dug out another bottle of strong wine, stared at the crystal clear glass bottle against the hot oil lamp, and giggled at the so-called Roman characters on it.
"They died well. The high priest is the Valkyrie, and their heroic spirits have gone to heaven. Rurik..."
"I am here."
"The ice will melt soon. With these new weapons, I am completely reassured about your voyage."
Niya let out a long sigh and subconsciously pushed a plate of meat in front of her son, "You may have to spend the whole summer to do this. Eat. Eat more."
"Okay! Okay... I don't think there is any risk." Rurik muttered.
Niya sighed and murmured, "I just think of your two brothers, ugh..."
"Bad luck." Otto slammed the table violently, shocking Rumia and other women and retreating hastily. "This is to fulfill the covenant, and this is to make a lot of money. Also, to mock those arrogant Danes! Niya!"
Otto ordered his wife as a master, "Your task now is to take good care of Rumia. She is not only a high priest now, she must be pregnant. If you take good care of her, you will take good care of our first child."
grandson."
Niya nodded and casually brought Rumia to her side.
In the past, Niya despised this deer herder's little slave, but now everything has changed. She hugged Rumia to show her closeness, just like she hugged her own daughter. Indeed, in the days to come, Rumia, Ka
Girls such as Lotta, Ella, and Saipolava are her spiritual support.
Men go on expeditions to the sea, while women stay at home port to guard the place. The tribesmen think it is natural.
Niya did not dare to block Rurik's voyage, she could only pray silently that God would continue to favor Rurik.
The sea has finally thawed!
It's already May and everyone has lost all illusions that this year will have a sadly short summer.
Smart people are already worried about this year's wheat harvest. Although Rurik is very worried that he won't be able to get a lot of oats in the autumn, he really can't care about that much now.
Think about it differently! If they can get a lot of salt from the Balmoks over a summer, the Russians can make bacon on a large scale. From the perspective of survival, eating bacon is at least better than eating spoiled meat.
The meat is better.
A large amount of cargo was stuffed into the cabin of the Aurora, and her load capacity was already as high as ten tons.
Of course, this is nothing to her, whose cargo capacity exceeds fifty tons and everything is normal.
After all, this trip has to pass through the Danish-controlled area. Rurik learned that the Danish leader has a very high opinion of himself. He wants to jump repeatedly under the nose of that guy. It can be described as a crazy provocation. A fight is inevitable.
As many as ten torsion slingshots are installed in Class A, arranged six in the front and four in the back.
The bull trebuchet is placed on the forecastle in the "captain's lounge" for a compact arrangement, and can be moved out when necessary.
Rurik planned to traffic mainly leather, followed by 10,000 pounds of wheat. There were also 100 pig-iron axes and hammers that were both weapons and tools. Wouldn't it be embarrassing if the other party couldn't afford to transport too much goods?
Rurik himself did not want to engage in loss-making business, and even selling favors to his allies was enough.
Therefore, the most valuable items in the cargo were a set of glassware, ten bottles of spirits, a pig iron cauldron for stewing meat, and a batch of soap. These items were given to Biyongni's parents, the chiefs of Balmok, and at the same time
It can be regarded as taking away Nolen's betrothal gift.
In an extremely warm atmosphere, the Russians completed the spring sacrifice and pushed all the ships into the sea.
During this period, Otto and his brothers completed the taxation of merchants. Gould was still the one who paid the most taxes in public, and of course he received a part of the tax refund behind the scenes.
The most lively event was naturally the two large ships entering the sea, and people cheered for them.
The Gurdot! Sperosvilia! Two large armed merchant ships became the new protectors of the Russians.
This is still a new beginning! Because people saw that the two keels of the huge wooden workshop of the Hotla family's shipbuilding workshop have been laid, and one of them is the beam of the old priest's longhouse!
Rurik finally began his great voyage. The Aurora carried forty people, elite mercenaries such as Jevro, all Balmok guests, and Gould's most elite sailors.
Otto stood on the pier at the pier, calmly watching the ship leave. Niya held her old husband in her arms, crying and watching the ship go away, until the ship gradually left people's sight among the fine floating ice, and everything returned to calm.