In the pure Nordic snow, the world turns gray-white.
A large number of black woods are covered with snow, and in the gaps between the woods, a team dragging sleds is moving forward.
Snowboards help Otto and his team reach very fast speeds. Even when entering so-called unknown areas, they are still pursuing the fastest possible speed.
As the team moved forward, the members also opened their eyes to observe the changes in the surrounding scenery, doing their best to find and note down special reference objects along the way, so as to avoid possible getting lost on the return journey.
They moved faster during the short daylight hours and continued to move forward even after nightfall.
Everyone was pulling multiple sleds, one to store luggage and items, and the others to carry prey. The long paddling life in the warm period made these strong men stronger, and they also brought enough dry food.
Extremely strong endurance to move forward in the snow.
Those reindeer are the elves of the snowfield. They are the most endurance animals, but they are no match for humans.
Every time the team advanced for a period of time, someone would start piling snow blocks on the snowfield, forming snow towers one after another.
After all, there are too few unique things in this area, so some markers were built with snow and some wooden poles hung with linen were erected as guides.
In two full days, they had actually traveled an extremely long distance on the snowfield.
In the ninth century AD, there was an extreme lack of roads throughout Europe.
In addition, the cultivation level of Western European farmers is really poor, and long-distance travel will inevitably consume precious food. Farmers are not willing to go too far, even if they have to travel long distances, they face the weed-covered fields with limited dry food.
In the wilderness, you must also carry a stick in your hand to drive away wild beasts.
They can walk up to ten miles a day in the wilderness, which is basically the limit, otherwise they may die of exhaustion.
Even the infantry of the Frankish Army would probably march this distance every day. Moreover, after marching and then fighting, they often needed a day's rest in between.
The Vikings who began to frequently harass the Frankish Kingdom were indeed strong in terms of their ability to move.
Not only were they good at rowing, the Viking tribes were also very good at walking.
When snow covered the ground, the Vikings invented skiing and advanced, and they gained even more outstanding speed on the snow.
Otto didn't know how far he could go in one day, so when everyone in the team was complaining that they were tired, he ordered to camp and rest.
The Russians are also professional hunters. Their physical fitness is very good and they carry plenty of dry food. The assistance of skis allows them to travel faster than purely dry roads.
They were actually moving at a speed of thirty kilometers a day, so Otto and his party walked northeast for two days, actually moving up to sixty kilometers.
When night falls again, Aurora shines in the sky.
After the team walked some distance, they settled down in a small forest.
Some pine trees were cut down and smashed into small pieces. These wet firewood cannot be lived immediately.
Fortunately, the Russians had their own method. They brought special flammable dry firewood, and then used bows and drills to make fire. As long as one person lit the campfire, the camp would soon be lit up with dots.
I saw that everyone had basically set up their tents and started eating dry food around the campfire.
Taking advantage of the opportunity, Otto gave the order: "Let's go here. We will camp here, and this will be the camp for the next period of time. We will use this place as the center, brothers, we are free to explore. After ten days, no matter what
How many harvests have we left together?"
Everyone agrees with the leader's order. Now there is only one question that needs to be resolved - who will come to see the house.
Otto clapped his hands again to attract everyone's attention: "We have to select some people to stay. According to our tradition, those who stay in the camp will receive some compensation, and everything will be done according to the past rules. Now, who of you is willing to stay?
"
Because we are in an unknown territory, now that we have arrived, it is most correct to explore in depth.
But just because it is an unknown territory, hidden threats are also unpredictable. Hunters can fully protect each other by moving in groups, and they also need a large camp as a backing in the wilderness.
After a discussion among the group, 20 seniors from the 200-person team were finally selected to stay. Nearly 20 children were also ordered to stay.
Whether they are too old or too young, hunting in the wilderness for a long time is indeed a huge test for them, especially those children. Do not expect them to have much chance of winning when encountering white bears or wolves.
Besides, hunting is really a technical job.
Otto gave everyone ten days of hunting time, which includes the time to set traps.
Even when it comes to capturing large reindeer or small ferrets, they are very vigilant animals. The success rate of direct hunting by throwing spears is not very high. Whichever is most efficient is undoubtedly laying traps, among which laying nooses is the most effective.
practical.
At this point, four full days after leaving Fort Ross, the hunting operation officially began.
All the hunters dispersed instantly. They took their essential supplies into the snowfields and forests. They began to lay traps, and some even took the initiative to attack directly.
The Ross tribe only has twenty single bows, and they are all imported from allies in the south. After all, the Ross tribe does not have bow-making experience at this stage.
However, the bows retained by the tribe are all used in hunting. They follow their masters and become a force for killing small animals.
Use a single bow to shoot a reindeer in the distance?
Don’t expect too much, because they are all oak bows with low weight, the bowstrings are made of hemp rope, and the shafts of the arrows used are barely straight.
Even if the bows are of poor quality, they can still be useful weapons in the hands of a good hunter.
So on the first day of hunting, someone had already shot the ferret, and they peeled off the fur directly in the wilderness without throwing away the meat. Under the extreme cold, the ferret meat immediately turned into ice.
, it seems that the only way to deal with it is to barbecue.
Ferrets are the most precious fur in the Arctic region. Its pure white and extremely soft and silky fur is a natural luxury product. Especially the wealthy Eastern Roman nobles, what they desire most is to wear silks from the East in summer and robes in winter.
Wearing a pure white mink velvet coat.
One ferret skin is equivalent to three adult reindeer skins.
Otto and his twenty cronies simply formed a small hunting group. They were actually childhood playmates, and their friendship was developed through their daily wrestling and fighting. And this kind of friendship made them naturally possess the
Strong sense of teamwork.
Together they formed a powerful hunter group. On the battlefield, they naturally had stronger organizational discipline than the large numbers of armed peasants temporarily recruited by the Franks.
Among them, Otto is older than all of them. When he was a child, he was the king of children, and now he is a respected leader.
Regardless of these statuses, Otto himself is also an excellent hunter.
After two consecutive days of hunting, twenty people only caught three ferrets and found an Arctic fox cave, catching all the big and small beasts inside.
Although they are willing to let the small beasts go, they are mainly targeting the large reindeer. As for the Arctic fox with its pure white fluffy fur, it is really priceless. Under the temptation of huge wealth, it is natural to find them all.
Living in strict harmony with nature? All the Viking tribes have never thought about this. They first have to make their own lives better, and they have no concept of protecting the environment. Even the people of Rossberg put their own radius around
All large beasts covering fifty kilometers were caught in one fell swoop.
Large game animals that can be hunted have become scarce, and the only solution is to wait for the migrating deer herds, or, as we did this winter, head to unknown places in the far northeast.
Although Otto was a leader, his men were willing to sacrifice part of their prey to him.
It is almost human instinct to dedicate yourself to important tasks so as to benefit yourself or your family in the future.
Otto shook his head and refused. He did not come up with any "great" reasons to prove his selflessness. His explanation was really full of mystery.
"It's better to stay and give it to those who are left behind. I have a huge hunch that we won't care about the others for the time being. As long as the twenty of us continue to move northeast, we will encounter those people."
The so-called "those people" are undoubtedly the Sami people who raise deer.
Otto always had the feeling that since he had walked an unknown distance to the northeast, his encounter with those people was almost a matter of fate.