The Avora left Fort Ross and began her long voyage.
For Rurik, the Russians, or the Balmoks, this is destined to be an unprecedented long-distance voyage. It will create history for both parties, and it will also lay the foundation for longer-distance voyages that can be expected in the future.
A solid foundation.
Rurik's description of the geography of the Nordic world was absolutely correct on a macro level, but the islands dotted in the ocean added too many obstacles to navigation, and he had to explore a clear route.
This voyage was destined not to be smooth sailing. From the beginning, the people on the ship were ready for battle.
At least in terms of weapons and equipment, Rurik was quite well prepared.
There are some pebbles piled in the cabin. They are first used as ballast stones to enhance the ship's ability to withstand wind and waves. Once there is a battle, this large pile of pebbles in the stream of similar sizes will be the ammunition for the "bull trebuchet".
The maximum range of the "Bull" is between 330 and 300 stika. For a strong man to walk down such a long distance, it would take at least 400 steps (one step here is about 80cm).
The rocks fall from the sky, mainly relying on the acceleration of gravity to continuously increase their kinetic energy, and kill the people on the enemy ship.
If he expected rocks to smash through enemy ships, Rurik had no hope at all.
His ship-destroying weapon is a torsion slingshot, which is placed on the ship like a giant scorpion. The cone-shaped cast iron bullet is a chisel, and in the past winter, all the torsion slingshots owned by the Russians have been overhauled.
Ten new seats added.
The tribesmen caught baleen whales, and the hard and tough baleen became one of the torsion cores of the slingshot. There were also key hemp ropes and rubber bands from leather. The three materials were used at the same time, making the torsion slingshot even more powerful.
The maximum range of the projectile is even close to 400stika. Considering its actual combat value, Rurik will not let the torque slingshot do any projectiles! The tactic is to approach the target until the big ship can clearly see the surprised face of the enemy, and then control the torque slingshot to launch
, in order to penetrate the enemy ship with one blow.
On the vast sea, Rurik knows very well what is the most brutal and efficient tactic. As long as the enemy's ship is sunk by some means, even if there are fifty or a hundred drowned people holding wooden blocks and wailing for help, Ross
People stood by and watched, or walked away. What awaited these people was death. Either they were pickled into bacon in the salty Baltic Sea water, or they were frozen to death.
Even in May, the Baltic Sea is still cold. Or at any time, the sea water temperature in this huge sea area can make a person who falls into the water freeze to death first.
As long as the ship sinks, the chance of survival of the person who fell into the water is extremely slim.
Is the sea fair? It is fair to anyone who falls into the water.
Rurik is not afraid of war? What he is most worried about is running aground on the rocks. Four tiny sampans are tied to the rear side of the ship with hemp ropes? Is this the so-called lifeboat? He is also strong enough to leave the big ship and go to the island to explore.
function.
What if the Aurora hits the rocks, what if the hull is damaged? That is our biggest crisis.
Rurik, there is no real God's perspective? He cannot see whether there is danger hidden under the sea.
Having said that? If you are afraid of the reef and do not dare to go to sea, it is completely a cowardly act because of choking. Rurik at least knows an extremely safe route, which is the route that the Swedish Allied Forces expedition took last summer, and it at least extends to Karl
Horse Strait.
The Aurora is full of military virtue? By the standards of this era, it is completely armed to the teeth.
She also has some more important equipment? They are the newly grown pine branches that Rurik deliberately brought aboard, which weigh a lot.
Wheat cakes become very hard due to natural air-drying and dehydration. Not only does it taste chewy when eaten, but it is also extremely easy to scratch the oral mucosa. What can Rurik have to do to face extreme voyages? Ships need to stock up on extremely durable food.
So another shelf-stable food is smoked bacon, which is a lot of seal meat strips? Each stick is dark brown, and at first glance it looks more like dead branches in winter? Why does it taste good?
, but the disadvantage is that it is still too hard.
The voyager of this ribbon has no concept of healthy eating at all? Nibbles on wheat cakes and bacon? Is there any other food that needs to be stocked?
After boarding the ship, Rurik issued an order to everyone on the ship. Even though the ship lacked the ability to make fire and boil water, pine branches still had to be eaten.
"Why? If it weren't for the lack of flavor in the food, who among us would boil pine branch water? Since we can't boil water, and since there is bacon, why do we have to eat grass like sheep?" Biyonyi's question about Rurik sounded shocking.
People are convinced.
Rurik had no intention of giving a scientific explanation. If he really had to say it, who would understand?!
Pine branches are indeed rich in vitamin C. Various Viking tribes have the habit of boiling pine branch water, and Orientals also have the habit of drinking tea. The birth of these living habits has nothing to do with vitamin nutrition.
Whether it is the Balmoks or the Rus, the habit of drinking pine needle water on land objectively prevents everyone from suffering from vitamin C deficiency.
However, facing a long voyage, if you are not prepared in this regard, you will suffer a big loss.
Of course, even if they are deficient in various vitamins, sailors can survive on depreciated hard bread, or even the Magellan ship, which almost completely relies on the most determined sailors to endure 5,500 kilometers in the South Pacific without seeing any islands and drifting along the ocean currents for a month.
Team, they created a miracle, but the price they paid was starving to death and half of the crew dying of thirst.
If the cause of the tragedy had been known earlier, the tragedy could have been avoided from the beginning. Rurik is the owner of the Avlora. He claims that on the vast sea, everyone on the ship needs to obey his arrangements. There is no doubt about his power, even if he is
Biyoni and Floki of Balmok also agreed.
The long voyage was full of boredom. At first, Biyongni was very resistant to chewing the bitter pine branches. As the voyage continued, the bitter feeling in his mouth became a means to dispel the boredom.
There is no enthusiasm or boldness in the voyages of this era. Most of the time, everyone just records the random chatting in the cabin, or is in a daze. Whenever a woman appears on the ship, aren't these rough guys like tigers visiting her every day?
In the end they could only throw the woman's body into the sea.
Rurik couldn't expect them to have much noble humanity. He asked himself, he once wanted to be a morally good person, but in the end he was forced to become a Viking by the times. How could a so-called moral saint be surrounded by such powerful enemies?
Can you survive in a world where the weak eat the strong?
Having controlled huge power, Rurik certainly intended to be a sage King of Rus, because the pleasure of controlling power was so great!
There was not a single woman on board, and the forty men became increasingly agitated during the long and boring voyage. It seemed that only sinking a few enemy ships could greatly relieve everyone's pressure.
But where are the enemy ships?
Look at the situation now!
The Avora sailed against the wind at an average speed of three knots and traveled under stars and nights. She had to keep zigzagging, so the actual voyage length was increased by a full third.
Even so, her daily sailing distance is still between 120 and 130 kilometers.
On the sixth day of the voyage, the Aurora successfully arrived at Tombstone Island. She was also the first Ross ship to arrive at Tombstone Island after overwintering. The people stationed on the island warmly welcomed their Lord Rurik. In exchange, Rurik also unloaded
Some goods specially prepared for them were shipped, such as some fine salt.
The Avora rested on the island for a whole day, and people received a very critical supply of fresh water and some fresh fish. Most importantly, people cooked the oats they carried and ate hot fish.
Minced wheat is stewed, and the old onions, which are sweet and then spicy, also become excellent seasonings.
The arrival of the Avora is just the beginning. The "commercial army" from Fort Ross, the Sorgon fleet, will now prioritize docking at Tombstone Island for repairs. The ice floes on the sea have not melted completely. It is conceivable that
When the warm period comes, ships from various tribes in Lake Malaren also begin to enter the sea and go to Tombstone Island, the nearest Russian stronghold, to do business.
In the Gulf of Bothnia and Lake Mälaren, commerce is developing rapidly, and a group of heroes are also rising under this historical tide.
Because of Lake Malaren, a major event suddenly occurred in the winter snow, and the regional political structure underwent seismic changes. Due to the factors of the frozen ocean, the news did not reach Tombstone Island, and even more so.
It cannot reach the ears of the Russians.
Rurik missed the opportunity to know a major piece of news, but the fact has already happened. Whether he knows it now or not, the result is the same. Because, I'm afraid it is still major good news for the Russians.
After leaving Tombstone Island, it took another day to pass through the mouth of Lake Mälaren. Now, the Avora finally began her true voyage.
There is no turning back now.
It was a wonderful early morning, with a warm south wind blowing in our face.
All the people on the ship gathered on the lower middle deck, while Rurik stood on the forecastle deck and talked loudly in front of everyone.
At this moment, he had regarded the Balmoks as his subordinates, and everyone present was his subordinates.
His exquisite dagger pointed south: "Now, in principle, we will not land in search of any supply points. Ahead is Gotland, followed by Kalmar! In principle, it is already Danish territory and we will encounter it at any time.
enemy!
If we encounter any ship, we will approach it and sink it! Remember, there are no friends in the southern seas, only enemies!
We just want to be pirates. We don't land for supplies, we just want to plunder their supplies for my own use.
We must continue to advance until we pass through the intensive activity area of the Danes. If we encounter the most formidable combat threat, we do not need to be afraid. Fight them! Try to cause destruction and create an atmosphere of terror.
We must keep sailing until we reach Balmok, which is the only end of the voyage.
Here, there is no difference between Rus, Balmoks and mercenary sailors, our fate is exactly the same, we must fight as a unit!"
Rurik's impassioned speech first attracted applause from his elite mercenaries. Seeing Biyoni's attitude, the Balmok travelers also began to cheer.
"So, do we really want to be pirates? Do we really want to attack the Danes?" Biyongniang raised his head, his seemingly serious expression clearly showing a smile.
"Not strictly! But we are indeed pirates."
"how to say?"
Rurik did not go into details: "What if the ship that appeared in front belongs to the Bergens? What is our choice? Let it go?"
"No!" Floki said with his changing voice: "Fight them! I can clearly identify which fishing boats are from my tribe. They are either our people or enemies. This is our way of life."
Rurik stared into Floki's eyes with satisfaction and smiled in agreement: "You're right, this is our way of life. So, I don't want to lose any fighting opportunities by moving out all the bull trebuchets.
"
If Rurik wants to kill people and sell goods at sea, he really will not face any sanctions.
In other words, if there are sanctions, it is a war between two powers!
"Being a pirate king this year? It sounds good to me. At least my ship is more powerful than Arik's group of warriors."
To annihilate the enemy's effective strength, rather than to be complacent with various forms of rout wars, this is Rurik's so-called principle of war. The Baltic Sea is big even if it is small. If Russia wants to rise, it must start from
The Danes are grabbing resources from their hands. In this highly involutional small world, a war for hegemony is inevitable.
In this case, Rurik would be happy to bleed the Danish forces in advance.
Gotland is just ahead. During the boring voyage, Biyoni and Floki did not hesitate to ask Rurik about the decisive battle on the island between the Russians and the Visby people. In order to once again highlight the Russians
With his illustrious martial arts skills, he sailed the boat directly to the coast of Visby and looked at the huge settlement that had been reduced to ruins from a distance, because facts are better than any eloquence!
Of course, there are still settlers in Visby, the more than a hundred Mälaren people who stay here. The existence of this group of people means that the Swedish power and the Mälaren tribe have ownership of the island. It is these one hundred people.
How big a storm can multiple people create? Did they successfully survive the winter? Or did they freeze to death on a large scale in the past winter?
This group of guys seemed to be the people abandoned by Karl. After all, they were facing the Danish forces and were on the front line of danger.
Are they doing okay?
The more he thought about it, the more Rurik wanted to take a look. He did not change his order, which was to try not to land before arriving at Balmok (Narvik Fjord). The big ship was to get close to have a look at the new immigrants.
What became of Visby under control.
Until, as many as five fishing boats appeared in front of the Aurora.
The atmosphere suddenly became tense!
Standing at the bow of the ship, Rurik could clearly see the structure of the ships with his naked eyes. He hunched over and stared, seriousness and caution written on his face.
Biyongni stood beside him, looking at his adopted brother's attitude, he realized that those ships were very suspicious.
"Are they friends? Or enemies? Judging from your attitude, those fishing boats look like enemies?"
"Strange, I have never seen this kind of ship in Lake Malaren." Rurik murmured.
"What kind of ship? I don't see anything strange about it. It's basically the same as the ship in my hometown."
"No! The stern ends of the ships of the Melalens are generally flat. No! They..." Rurik suddenly thought of something: "They are not friends of the Melalens. They are outsiders! They are enemies!"
"What... do you mean?" Biyongni said solemnly.
Rurik turned his head suddenly, stared into Biyoni's eyes, and said calmly: "Brother, prepare to fight! I'm sure those Danes came for revenge. They killed our friendly troops who settled in Visby, and then
An occupation!”
"Then hit me! My hands are itchy. Haha, to be honest, my hands are still white."
Rurik couldn't help but be startled. In terms of aspect, Rurik believed from the beginning that Biyongni must have killed many enemies. This guy hinted that he had no record of killing enemies?
Rurik did not laugh, let alone laugh. Fighting is a very serious matter, and this battle can be completely avoided. Since the ships on the sea are not friendly ships, they must be enemies. The friendly ships on the shore must be wiped out by this group of people.
In order to avenge his friendly forces, Rurik found an excellent reason to fight.
He didn't need any evidence at all. Just because the ship in front did not belong to the Mellaren people, that was a reason to fight.