The voyage did not take long, and Rurik and his party arrived safely at the Washobi Farm in Osten.
Rurik tried his best to block the sun with his palms. When he first saw this place, he only felt that this place was shabby.
There are a large number of wooden longhouses here, and a few houses have walls made of stones, but their overall simplicity is obvious.
The long boat docked at a small pier.
"It seems that your family owns many ships." Rurik said casually.
"No. Rurik of Rus, most of the longships you see are not my people."
"Who are they? Why are their ships here with you?"
"Just friends. They are all the masters of Washebi."
Rurik was a little strange, but fortunately Floki, who was accompanying him, gave a simple explanation. Because Vashobi itself is a village composed of a group of small families, and the Osten family is the most prestigious among them.
I am officially the village chief of this village.
As Rurik landed, he stepped on the green grass and soon saw the overview of the entire village with his own eyes.
A large number of simple houses are covered by sparse pine and oak forests. Of course, many of the houses are essentially like tents. You can't tell that they are houses unless someone comes in and out.
When those people saw that Ostein was back, many of them walked out of their houses with smiles and greeted him.
Why are there still some strange visitors?
They were dressed uniquely and seemed to have something to do with the big ship entering the fjord?
People were cautious about outsiders, and Rurik also tilted his head slightly, scanning the crowd of people from the corner of his eyes to estimate their number and composition.
The scene was a little awkward for a while, and Osten stretched out his hand in greeting: "Don't be nervous, these are Russians. Especially this young Rurik, he is our honored guest!"
After that, the old guy patted Rurik on the shoulder again: "Friend, please stay at my place tonight. I will just talk to you about that great thing."
"I have no objection. However, you need to send someone to inform the leader about this."
"I'll send someone to take care of it right now."
A batch of pine branches was set on fire, and a lamb was skinned and roasted.
Vashobi welcomed a distinguished guest, and Osten decided to roast a lamb for Rurik, which made his simple home more dignified.
The number of cattle and sheep raised by the locals is very limited. These livestock are often blown by the wind from the Atlantic Ocean and forage on the trivial meadows on the western coast. The harsh natural environment has made Washobi almost a forbidden land for grazing. However, people living there still live there.
People here are still struggling to survive.
Because the best settlements in the fjord are already overcrowded, people who cannot bear the overcrowding have to open new settlements in the area near the home port, or betray the tribe and go to "work" for the Bergen people.
As everything settled down, it was not until Rurik personally entered the village banquet that Rurik fully understood that compared to the entire Balmok tribe, Washobi was a semi-free settlement, equivalent to the Rus'
The relationship between the Ross homeport and Tombstone Island.
More than a dozen strong men from Washobi entered the largest brightly lit house at Osten's call.
This house is not a longhouse. According to Rurik, it is a huge permanent tent. A huge wooden "mushroom head" is installed on the nearly circular wooden wall. There is a hole in the center, so that the indoor space is
Light a bonfire and all the exhaust gas will escape from the holes.
With his noble status, Rurik naturally had the right to enjoy the sizzling roast leg of lamb. Even the three Russian warriors, including Evro, whose heroic spirit was admirable, naturally became guests. Likewise.
, Nolen and Floki are the two children of the leader, and Ostan must also treat them with courtesy.
In fact, when Austen saw the intimacy between Nolen and Rurik, an indescribable sense of loss enveloped him.
The younger son Esbjorn was already old enough to get married. He had intended to wait until Noren grew up, and then took his younger son to propose marriage. Now, all plans have come to nothing, but he is not at a loss.
Rurik, a boy from the sea, whose hometown is actually the ocean to the east of the mountains.
Although this is very unbelievable, looking at it now, the Russians have fantastic ships, which can naturally sail extremely long distances.
Many strong men gathered together, and they all wore swords and hand axes. Their eyes glanced at him from time to time. Rurik felt really uncomfortable eating this meal.
It wasn't until Ostan saw Rurik chewing half of the leg of lamb that he finally spoke up: "It's time to talk about business! Rurik, look, our bravest men in Vashobi are gathered here."
"Okay! Let's talk about business."
Rurik put down the meat gently. He looked around and realized that he no longer needed any cover: "Ostan, I know what you are going to do. You are going to try to rush into the so-called sea at the end of the world. You are going to find a new home and build a new home."
Better Washoby.”
"Not bad. It's refreshing! Do you... think we can do it?"
When he was suddenly asked, Rurik was slightly stunned: "Is this my problem? It's obviously your problem. If you have confidence, you will sail with your friends. So, you don't have full confidence until now."
"Indeed, because sailing to the west, you are either swallowed by sea monsters, or fall into the abyss at the end of the world, no one knows what is there. I know some brave people tried to sail away..."
"Then what?" Rurik asked.
Osten shook his head with a sullen face: "No one survived."
Of course, sailing in the ocean has to face too many dangers. At least the hydrological conditions of the Baltic Sea are much better than those of the Atlantic Ocean.
Rurik leaned back slightly: "So, what can I do for you? Encouragement with words? Or provide more direct help?"
"We...I..." Osten continued to hesitate for a while, and finally brought up the desire that Vashobi and his gang had been thinking about all night: "I want to buy your big ship."
"Buy?" Osten's suggestion immediately cheered up Rurik. After all, Rurik had already made a verbal agreement with Biyoni about buying a ship, so even if he bought a ship, he would be selling a new ship to the leader.
Magnut.
"Yes! Ordinary long ships may not be able to withstand the waves of the sea, but we have a big ship, so we have nothing to fear."
Rurik did not want to refute Ostein's extravagant hopes. The Avora was modeled after the Caravel. Even if she was upgraded to a Galen-type ship with a displacement of thousands of tons, she would still be unable to withstand the huge waves when encountering a typhoon at sea.
That plane-free bully Halsey, in order to rush for time, led the entire fleet to brave the typhoon. Even a 30,000-ton steel aircraft carrier could only rely on its huge size to resist it, so he also took advantage of it.
The lives of eight hundred sailors.
To be honest, even if there were new big ships, Rurik didn't want to sell them to this group of people. It wasn't that he had strategic concerns, but that these guys simply couldn't afford them.
Faced with Rurik's hesitation, Osten urged: "Friend, at least give me a price."
"Okay." Rurik took a long breath, "at least two thousand pounds of salt."
As soon as these words came out, the whole room was suffocated.
Osten was silent for a long time and finally suppressed a bitter smile: "Two thousand pounds of salt? This... is crazy. We in Washebi must have spent many years of hard work to produce so much salt."
Rurik shrugged: "But I see that you are very happy to buy my ironware."
"That's different. I want to arm my friends, and we want to organize an armed expedition. Even if the weapons cost a lot of money, you still have to pay. Besides, the quality of your Russian ironware is excellent. It's really eye-opening for me."
"Oh. To be honest, as for the price of a large ship, which is equivalent to two hundred pounds of silver coins, this is actually the best price for selling it to a friend. If I want to be serious, it is reasonable to sell you four hundred pounds of silver coins.
What do you think? We have to go through twenty days of continuous sailing, crossing the Danish blockade, and fighting if necessary, before we can sail the ship to your port. I also narrowly escaped death for this voyage."
What Rurik said was completely true, and in the eyes of Osten and others, the Russians were simply using their strength to persuade them to back out on the issue of buying big ships.
"But two thousand pounds of salt is crazy. In order to buy this batch of ironware from you, we at Vashobi have sold you a whole year's worth of boiled salt."
"You can only produce a hundred pounds of salt a year?" Rurik asked with his head suddenly raised.
"If you work hard, maybe you can get it to two hundred pounds. You see, it will take us ten years at the fastest to buy one of your big ships."
"That's because you are too poor!" Rurik slammed the table. Now that he had some unkind words in his heart, he finally shouted out.
"Osten!"
"exist."
Rurik no longer modified his words with any honorifics. He stretched out his hand and pointed to the west: "Do you know Britain? That big island is in the southwest. Do you think the sea in the west is the end of the world? Let me tell you, what abyss
What kind of giant sea monsters are all the imagination of cowards. Cowards dare not go to sea, so they make up some lies to cover up their cowardice. If you believe it, you are a fool."
How could Osten endure being scolded by a kid at such an old age? But he held it back because Rurik's words mentioned a very wonderful conclusion.
"We all know the existence of Britain. The guys from Bergen went there and captured a lot of slaves and a lot of gold and silver. But how do we get to Britain when we go all the way west?"
"You... think Britain is just a small island? Its length is longer than the distance from Balmok to Bergen. You are very poor now, but what I see is a group of warriors." As he said, Rurik
He simply stood up and said: "I can guarantee that you will be able to find land when you sail westward, and you can build a new settlement in a more comfortable place. And I also intended to control the big ship to explore the western waters. Because, I got
oracle."
Rurik patted his chest, his words "I got the oracle" really shocked Ostan.
"Sailing westward, we will encounter some islands where settlement may be possible. If we leave the port and turn southwest, we will definitely find the northernmost point of Britain."
Hearing this, Austen excitedly shouted: "So, you will help us?"
"It's not just you? I'm not just here to sell a shipment of goods. I'm here, so our two tribes will join hands to do something big." Rurik simply approached Ostan and looked up.
The old guy: "Don't you want to be like those in Bergen and go to Britain to seize a lot of wealth?"
"I think! I dream about it. Maybe I won't live to see that day, but my two sons, my family, and my friends must farm and shepherd sheep in a warm place."
"Then just follow me!"
"Okay. However, with all my Washebi warriors, including all the female warriors, I can only assemble a team of one hundred and fifty people, which is not very strong. I don't want to simply plunder in Britain. I
I want to settle down."
Compared with ordinary Vikings, the expedition motivation of this Vashobi Osten was really strange. Rurik thought about it carefully, and suddenly he realized that these guys were Norwegians.
Although they are both Vikings, the Norwegian Vikings and the Danish Vikings are indeed very different. The various Norwegian tribes, rather than raiding, are willing to explore the new world and serve as pioneers.
Vashobi, by the standards of the current era, Rurik determined that it was already a medium-sized village. According to various Viking tribes, even if a girl has the strength to pick up an axe, she is considered a female warrior. Each tribe can be described as
All the people were soldiers, and here in Vashobi, Rurik saw the simplest "nodic democracy".
This Osten, his position in Washobi is that of a spokesman for all residents.
The men present all began to express their opinions, and their attitudes were very pure. If the Russian ship wanted to explore to the west, and if Rurik wanted to find Britain and start plundering, then the entire Vashobi warriors would row a long boat.
Ships, as free mercenaries of the Russians, participated in the war. Once they plundered the locals in Britain, they decided to give half of the loot to the Russians.
Everyone had this attitude, and in the end Ostein also gave strong support. Everyone started to boo, just to hear Rurik's positive attitude from Ross.
"Okay, I'm relieved to see you support me so much. But..."
"What other difficulties are there?"
Rurik cleared his throat: "Your leader will hold a meeting soon."
"Yes. Many distinguished nobles are planning to gather at our tribe's council meeting to have a good meeting with you. The matter I invite you to now is only a private matter for our Washebi. Any contract we sign will not be essentially
It doesn’t count if you go up.”
"But you are really eager to leave here and build a nyvastholmby in a warm place. You don't have to worry about this at all." Rurik patted his chest, "Biyong and I are already brothers, and we have talked a lot. Biyong
After Ni learned that there was a route that could directly reach Britain, he also strongly supported the attack there. You, the Washebi, can't organize an army alone. If your entire Balmok tribe organizes an army, we can take advantage of the summer this year.
During the warm period, we can rush to Britain smoothly."
Ostan was extremely excited when he heard this. A sleeping beast was aroused with the desire to hunt. "It would be great if everyone supports this plan. I'm just a little worried."
Suddenly, Floki, the bald boy who had been in the audience, stood up: "Uncle Ostan, what brother Rurik said is absolutely true. We have been brewing this plan for a long time, and now the Russian ship is parked in the port and heading for Britain.
We have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to gain wealth."
"You? Boy." Osten glared at Floki angrily: "There may be a battle. At your young age, are you also eager to explore and fight?"
"Fight? I've fought several naval battles with the Danes. I'm not afraid."
"This is a fact." Rurik immediately added: "I am not afraid of any enemy in a naval battle. I will announce this in public in the council chamber. Chief Magnut will definitely support me, and I believe you will also be very supportive.
"
"Of course."
"Very good. As long as you rush to Britain, you will have the opportunity to loot and become rich. At that time, you will have a steady stream of wealth to buy our goods. Listen, I don't intend to fight with those who are willing to be poor.
Guys do business, you must get rich quickly."
Osten nodded deeply, then opened his arms and held Rurik in his arms, just like a father holding his son.
"You...are indeed the messenger sent by Odin. You have brought us an opportunity in Vashobi."
Rurik hurriedly broke away and asked: "What do you think you should do?"
"I understand. I will be your absolute supporter in the chamber, and I will attack all doubters. We will definitely succeed in our plan to attack Britain!"