Chapter 540 The red dragon is guarding the Oresund
The gray sea was as rough as mountains, and Aphrolla's sails were filled with all the sails, soaring between the waves with the help of the cold wind from the Arctic.
Although he had already had psychological expectations, Rurik never expected that just three days after leaving the Narvik Fjord, the weather changed drastically and the wind increased sharply!
An arctic cold wave is moving south, and the autumn rainy season has arrived in Europe.
Gradually, the sky began to rain. Although there was no need to worry about ice, snow or freezing rain, the Aurora was enduring the wind and cold on the gray sea. The people on the ship had to endure the cold when they were tossed by the big waves and vomited.
.
There were only a few sailors on duty on the deck, and they had to monitor the sails to prevent strong winds from blowing off the main sail. To prevent them from falling into the sea, they also had cables tied around their waists.
Rurik and Noren were wrapped in a leather blanket to comfort their woman's almost collapsed heart.
"Rurik...will our ship..."
"Capsizing? How is it possible? This ship is indestructible."
"Is this true?" Nolen hoped that capsizing was really impossible, but the huge waves and bad sea conditions were beyond her imagination.
"Of course it's true. What does this mean? We have encountered crazier ones."
Rurik was lying. This was the most dangerous situation the Avlora had encountered since it was launched into the water.
Thanks to the strong winds and waves, she sailed on the sea at a speed of up to 25 knots for almost a whole day, risking her sails to blow off and her mast to break.
For an ordinary long ship, such sea conditions will cause it to capsize and sink quickly.
Facts have proved that the caravel-type sailboat's ability to withstand storms has reached a very high level. Once it is upgraded to a galen ship with a full load and displacement of 2,000 tons, as long as it does not brave a typhoon, it will be almost immune to other storms and waves.
Can't touch her.
In just one day, the Aurora made a three-day voyage.
The waves finally calmed down a little, and the rain outside stopped.
Rurik finally stood on the deck again, looking at the still gray sea around him, and a sense of confusion arose spontaneously.
There is a kind of fear called looking at the vast expanse, the ship is still heaving up and down. When he subconsciously looked up, he was so shocked that his heart almost stopped.
He screamed: "What's going on? Our mainsail is damaged? Boatswain!"
After a while, the sailors boarded Class A one after another. Based on the current dangerous situation, Rurik was really worried.
"Repair it quickly and sew up the sail."
The boatswain frowned: "Sir, the sail was partially damaged by the strong wind. The situation is not too bad. We can wait for the wind and waves to subside before repairing it."
Indeed, with the current condition of the sail, sailing with wind is still no problem.
But wait a minute, if the Aurora breaks into the Oresund controlled by the Danes with such an attitude, it is looking for death.
"Repair it as soon as possible! Once the wind and waves calm down, you can go up. Then let me check the condition of the mainmast."
The boatswain added: "My lord, the materials for our repair..."
"Use the linen cloth used to cover the cargo in the cabin, or if it doesn't work, use leather blankets to make up for it."
The cold front of the cold wave quickly rushed into the interior of Europe, and the cold high pressure brought a series of rainfalls.
It is raining in the entire Baltic world, including the Russian-controlled Ironburg, and in the Eastern European world, the continuous rain has caused quagmire everywhere, and it is snowing directly in the Alps and Carpathians.
Rurik had no idea that although he could see the eastern coastline in the gray world, it was difficult to determine his position. The Aurora quickly passed through Bel with a damaged main sail and a basically intact jib sail.
He visited the wall-like outlying islands outside the Genfjord. He did not encounter any fighting at sea, and he could not even see other ships.
After seven days of lonely sailing, the sun finally appeared and the world changed colors.
People took advantage of the long-lost sunshine and crowded into Class A to bask in the sun. Their wet clothes were hung out to dry, and sailors began to climb the mast with tools and materials. When a person climbed to the top of the mast, he looked around and saw the horrifying sight.
forcing him to descend quickly.
The sailor hurried to the captain's lounge and reported to Rurik, who was resting and refreshed.
"What? There can't be something wrong with the mast?" Rurik suddenly woke up, his heart beating wildly.
"No! Sir." The sailor also widened his eyes, and then whispered with a trembling face: "I think we have entered the strait with the help of strong winds in the past few days."
"Strait? What strait?"
"That's the strait! I think Oslo is ahead."
"Ah! So fast?" Rurik stood up suddenly and ran to the deck.
I opened my eyes wide and couldn't see anything for the time being. After he waited for a while, the sun slightly dispersed the mist on the sea. Everyone on the deck saw that the Aurora was already sailing against the eastern sun. To her north was
Long coastline, the same is true in the south!
Rurik hurriedly restrained his excitement. He clapped his hands to signal everyone's attention. By coincidence, almost everyone on the ship was working overtime to get some fresh air.
"Attention now! Sailors repair the ship immediately! Soldiers organize and check weapons! We are about to pass through the huge strait and are about to pass Oslo! We may be intercepted by the Danes and prepare to fight!"
"Ho ho!" people roared.
Now there is no difference between Russians and Balmoks. We are all brothers on the same ship. Next, the Avora bravely enters a new battlefield.
As for the name Oslo that Rurik shouted, the Balmoks know better than the Rus. Those people have very close ties with Bergen. In principle, everyone belongs to the concept of Norway, not Denmark. But both sides
The Balmok mercenaries who had almost no contact and became Rurik's new subordinates naturally did not want to have any unpleasantness with any Oslo people. Coincidentally, Rurik also wanted the same.
The current population of Oslo is only 3,000 people, and the core of Norway is still Bergen.
Rurik knew that if he continued to move forward, he would not encounter any risks for a period of time, and even the probability of encountering a Danish fishing boat was low.
The storm has just ended, and the ships in the shelter have not yet come out. The width of the strait is very amazing. Even if an enemy ship is discovered, in order to avoid complications, unless it is impossible to escape, the larger ship will fight with it.
But through the narrow Oresund Strait, it is a narrow road and the brave wins.
Rurik expected a naval battle, and as a force, Hafgen, the leader of the Danish alliance, was not a fool!
More than ten days ago, the Danish merchant ships returning from Bergen were reporting the news of a large triangular sailing ship. The ship led the large fleet straight to the north, or to Narvik.
Hafgen had heard about the Balmoks of Narvik. He was not interested in the fierce people of the Far North, but he had the idea of invading the Frankish Kingdom to make money, especially in the current situation. The expelled former leader Halla
Clark, whose nephew became a nominal earl in Flanders, set up a trading stronghold and successfully attracted some Danish brothers.
The Svealans in the north are a big threat, but the guys in the south, their threat is growing day by day.
The triangular-sailed demon ship suddenly became a new problem. After learning the information, Hafgen summoned the lords who could quickly rush to the core of his rule to share this heart-wrenching incident.
Of course, all the lords are denouncing the viciousness of the Nasvealan ships, and they are all evasive when it comes to sending troops to intercept them.
"Are you cowards? Are you afraid? If we work together, can we still let the ship escape? They must pass through our strait, and now we are preparing to win."
Hafgen was full of confidence, but the tragic loss of the fishermen on Burgundy Island proved one thing, fighting that big ship would be a recipe for death!
Sigurd, the lord of the south, knew that it was impossible to openly oppose him, and his son Ragnar hacked to death the old leader of the Svealans and became a great hero throughout Denmark.
If I give in, I will be bringing disgrace to my family's honor, and my son Ragnar is too bellicose.
It is a sign of a hero for young people to be warlike, but Sigurd is an old man. He needs to consider many things. He can be said to be stubborn, or he can be said to be wise.
Sigurd made a clear statement, "There are large and small straits in our area, and all the straits lead to Haizebi Market. Do we have to send troops to garrison in the straits of your Robard people? Hafgen, that is yours
Territory, it’s really inappropriate for us to go there.”
Hafgen thought about it and felt that this was the case. He occupied the largest and safest strait waterway and made a fortune from tolls. If other lords' military forces were to intervene, wouldn't there be endless troubles. Once he did this, Luoba would
The opponents in the German tribe will surely stand up and attack them in groups.
Sigurd took advantage of the situation and pointed out a proposal that everyone accepted, which was to divide the troops and garrison them.
"Brothers, guard your strait to prevent that big ship from escaping secretly."
People support this, and Hafgen can only support it. He is the leader of the alliance, not the king. If the lords oppose it on a large scale, Hafgen will not be able to use force to make them surrender.
In fact, Hafgen was just talking nonsense, and many of the lords just didn't want to get involved in this unfortunate incident. It was the ships of Bornholm and the Robards that were destroyed by the enemy, and the other lords suffered no losses.
What fool wants to take a bullet from Hafgen? This guy won't compensate.
In fact, the lords are happy to see Hafgen and his men suffer losses, so that other lords can gain more benefits. It would be better if the Robard people suffered a huge loss, so that the brothers can negotiate with Hafgen in the future and bring the disaster to an end.
All tolls on Le Strait have been cancelled.
Lords like Sigurd hoped that the big ships from the north would beat Hafgen's fleet again.
The brothers also tacitly understood that if a large ship passed through their waters, let it pass. They could not suffer losses for the sake of this plague god.
"If I were an enemy, which waterway would I take? Do I really want to look for unknown waterways instead of taking the smoothest one?" Hafgen thought for a while and finally realized the true intentions of those lords. They ordered
People are annoyed, but on the surface, Hafgen knows that he cannot take any drastic action, not even insulting and refuting.
Hafgen had a premonition that as time went on, he felt that a fateful battle was about to break out.
The Robard tribe lives in the northernmost part of the Jutland Peninsula. The free movement of that big ship puts the warriors of all tribes to shame.
His brother-in-law died in the failed interception, and nearly two hundred brothers were buried in the sea.
Three days before the news of the reappearance of the big ship reached Denmark, a storm came. The strong wind and rain could not stop Hafgen's interception plan. This time, he decided to use the pride of his power - the giant longship Red Dragon!
The storm had just ended, and Hafgen's most trusted generals gathered in his "palace".
He surprised everyone by issuing a special blockade order.
No one raised objections, but everyone had a lot of very real concerns.
Regarding their concerns, or rather everyone's concerns, Hafgen thought he had come up with an excellent tactic.
"I want you to gather all those who are good at archery and collect all the bows and arrows. I want you to send out your strongest oarsmen and bring your best longships into the strait to prepare for war.
I will dispatch the Red Dragon and find that the big ship takes the initiative to attack. I will prepare a batch of ropes with hooks. When the Red Dragon forces the big ship to stop, the warriors will throw out the hooks, climb up and kill the people on the enemy ship.
In order to win the operation, we must send a large number of ships to force the big ships to stop. Even if the enemy can sink some, it is like an arrow that can penetrate one layer of leather, but cannot penetrate three or four layers. If we lose some ships, we can definitely force them to stop.
Stop. Then we will surround it with a large number of ships. Victory will be ours.
We capture it and study its construction methods, so that in the future we Robards will be able to build such powerful ships in large quantities."
I have to say that Hafgen is a person with an above-average IQ. Capturing, studying, and imitating a dragon is really a dream.
In essence, his plan was exactly the same as that of his brother-in-law, who was seriously injured and died.
My brother-in-law's defeat must have been due to sending too few troops. If the big ship was attacked by an "insect swarm", would it still be able to escape?
The leader of the alliance is full of confidence, and this blockade is a rare initiative to intercept the Red Dragon. Even if there is still a chance that the brothers will be lonely in the blockade, it will allow the passing merchant ships to see the charm of the Red Dragon.
It is common for combat-type long ships in this area to have fifteen people on each side of the port and starboard sides. Because the keel of the ship is usually a whole oak, the length of a single oak directly determines the length of the ship. If possible, the long ship must be built longer.
It's big, but its length is always limited to less than 20 meters.
The Red Dragon was an accident.
People in Denmark certainly use spliced keel technology, but due to technical reasons, such ships are considered relatively fragile. In rough sea conditions, the joints between the keels are very likely to break.
The Red Dragon has always faced this problem. What’s crazy is that it has a keel made of three pieces of oak wood. It’s not that a ship with a spliced keel is fragile. In fact, the Red Dragon, an open boat, uses too primitive technology.
The bow of the Avlora is also spliced to the keel, but the huge ribs, staggered plates, and even the deck made of mortise and tenon structure, the mathematics and mechanics given by the famous shipbuilding family Hotla family in Rurik
Under the guidance, Avora's mechanical structure has become very stable. Those large ships that have recently been launched and are being built still adhere to this stable mechanical structure, which gives them the ability to brave the wind and waves.
For a long ship, longer is never better!
The name of the Red Dragon not only comes from the ferocious snake head painted red with cinnabar on the bow of the ship, but also from the overall slender body proportions, like a sea snake. It has even been described by good people as imitating the giant python in the world.
Big ship.
This boat is large enough for seventy-five people to row on each side of the boat, and the space in the center of the boat can accommodate at least fifty more people to stand and draw bows and fire arrows.
The Red Dragon, like the sea demon king hiding in the Jutland Peninsula, slowly left its home port amid the cheers of the Robard people.
A sword is unsheathed! When it is unsheathed, it must see blood.
Hafgen stood on the bow of his Red Dragon, holding on to the ferocious dragon's head, and ran toward the Oresund Strait with great momentum.
His proud and heroic appearance appeared in the strait, especially at the narrowest point where it narrowed to a mere four kilometers.
He saw a large number of stitched and dyed sails floating on the sea with the totem emblem of the tribe, and at least twenty longships wandering here as far as he could see.
Are there only twenty ships? No! There are also a group of longships interested in a wider area, and a group of ships are moored on the shore and are on standby.
Eyes have also been placed on the two small sandbanks in the strait to keep an eye on the sea conditions at all times.
Hafgen's men set up a "drag net". In order to intercept and capture the Aurora, he mobilized as many as two thousand athletes from his tribe to directly fight. All the lords of the Danish Alliance also nominally assisted in the battle.
The fear that the Aurora brought to the Danes prompted them to get rid of it quickly.
Rurik had clear psychological expectations for all this. The big ship had repaired its sails and had successfully passed the northernmost part of Jutland. She was traveling through the Kattegat geographically close to Scandinavia.
The waters of the peninsula. She has actually sailed within the waters actually controlled by the Danish Robard tribe.
The front is becoming more and more dangerous. It is extremely easy to hit the rocks when sailing at night, and you must face battle when sailing during the day.
Under the choice, Rurik decided to drop the anchor before crossing the Oresund Strait.
Although in theory he does not have to go straight to the Oresund Strait, he can enter the Baltic Sea through the Belt Straits in the south where the defense is equivalent to the "theoretical existence".
But, which Viking hero will escape his fateful battle?
Rurik knew quite well that even if he could not bring a prosperous life to his people, as long as he could show his illustrious martial arts and win battle honors, his brothers would still support this warrior king because everyone needs their own heroes.
Even if Rurik knew that there was a safe waterway for navigation, he would still choose this waterway that was full of dangers and was as vicious and insulting as excreting water on the head of the Danish leader. The very reality is that Rurik did not know about the Great and Little Belt
The exact location of the strait, rather than taking risks to find a way out, it is better to approach the Oresund Strait in front of you.
The soldiers on the ship fully understood the risks ahead. Rurik no longer needed to make any impassioned speeches. The brothers must be facing a big battle. Before the battle, everyone had a hearty meal of wheat cakes and drank some ale to strengthen their courage.
At dawn tomorrow, the heavily armed brothers rushed over, trying to catch the north wind and pass through the entire strait in one breath, heading towards the wide and relatively calm Baltic Sea.