The lake breeze blew away the morning fog, and the sun shone brightly on the post-war bear altar.
This important sacrificial center and trade bazaar of the Karelian people quickly collapsed under a dawn attack by a partial division of the Russian army. After the prosperity faded, only a pile of corpses was left, and hundreds of years of violent Russian warriors were busy searching for property.
Arik disembarked from the long boat and floated to the shore. The Vips who participated in the battle also entered the bear altar as attackers for the first time.
Completely different from the Ross army, the Vips servants looked at the devastated tents. They had no joy of victory, but only fear.
When the lake fog rises, they attack. When the lake fog lifts, they plunder.
In a very short period of time, this place that was once considered inviolable by the Vips was destroyed.
Some Russian soldiers set fire to vent their anger, lighting leather tents with ready-made fire sources and letting them burn.
There were also female prisoners whose lives were temporarily spared. The Russians were as happy as they wanted, but they still made up for it with an ax afterwards.
Arik walked menacingly and with terrifying steps. He allowed his subordinates to go berserk and even enjoyed seeing them destroy like crazy.
He signaled to Terravis: "Let the Vips take action."
"Just stick the stakes on the shore? Look here, there are corpses everywhere."
"Wouldn't this be better? Other Karelia people will see this, and we will deeply shock their nobles."
Arik felt that his decision was very reliable, and the Vips servants followed suit.
The wooden stakes were erected, and the heads of the tribute envoys were stuck on them. Their complexions had long been gray, and the broken necks were stained with black blood. Their ferocious terror had always made the Vips servants fearful, but this time
A group of Ross veterans are already used to it.
Seeing that they had finished their work, Aric shook his neck and ordered Terravis: "Let's go. Follow me closely and see what treasures the brothers find."
What interesting things can be found in tents and wooden sheds?
Some useful wooden utensils such as combs, small boxes, and wooden bowls were put into linen bags by the Russians, and some interesting bone tools and leather were also hidden privately. Robbery was an opportunity to make a fortune. Arik was always generous, and he didn't even care too much about his brothers.
Confiscating gold and silver, and finding a large amount of materials, this should not be divided among everyone, but should be handed over to the Duke.
Carrying two swords, he walked into the area with the highest concentration of warriors. There were also the tallest wooden sheds there. Compared to the large number of small cone-shaped tents, the buildings here were obviously permanent. Coincidentally, the Vips servants claimed that this was
The Bear Altar itself.
The Karelian people indeed worship bears, and looking at the group of low warriors covered in bear skins lying dead on the ground fully proves this point.
The berserkers of the Ross army wear the heaviest scale armor. They are formation-breaking madmen and the strongest ones. Not only are their iron helmets reinforced with interlocking chainmail, but they also have to stare at the entire upper jaw of the bear.
, using the chest and upper jaw with a set of fangs as a characteristic sun hat.
The berserkers of the Rus' army are the real "bear men", and these Karelian bear skin men who are said to be altar guards are all fakes.
More than a dozen older priests were dead, and the young priests were beheaded. There were as many as three hundred dead bodies here. What Arik could conclude was that the enemies did not just kill them at the neck. They tried their best to resist and still ended up like this.
The two flag captains came over with smiles, each reporting their results and presenting the gem necklaces they had grabbed.
Arik squinted and said, "That's it? What else did you find?"
"Boss, what a nice necklace, don't you want it?" one person said in surprise.
"Give it to me? Forget it. Keep it for yourself. Tell me what else you find."
Another person said: "We also found the cellar where they stored the leather. There were a lot of squirrel skins in it! It's really amazing."
Squirrel skin? The first thing Arik thought of when he heard this term was that it was a currency.
"Haha, it seems we have also discovered their treasury. Let's go! Let's take a look..."
The battlefield has returned to calm. Those Karelian fishermen only escaped with their lives because they were not important. They saw the ferocity and terror of the attackers and knew that their homes were completely destroyed. All the canoes escaped, and they wanted to escape to
He then rowed the boat all the way east to the nearest settlement, at least first to the Ludi village on the east bank of the lake where the Karelians were the leader of the alliance. He told them that the foreign army had destroyed the bear altar, rested and then looked for the chief.
The "big account" told all the Karelia nobles that the disaster was coming.
But those who successfully escaped from the bear altar were already running on the road to report the news, and another difficult trek awaited them.
At noon, an astonishing number of reindeer were driven to the bear altar full of carcasses. Most of the tents were either burned or destroyed.
Arik inspected the cold cellars and asked his brothers to take out the skins of squirrels, ferrets, lynxes, forest cats, and foxes, tie them up with hemp ropes, and quickly transport them to the big ship.
No one can rob these leather treasures, they will be dedicated to Rurik, Duke of Rus.
Other than that, anything anyone grabs belongs to them!
The opportunity to plunder is given to everyone, including Vips servants, who legally join in the hunt for the treasure.
Apart from a small amount of gems and a batch of rare animal skins, perhaps the most valuable seizure here is the deer.
The astonishing number of deer suddenly confused Arik.
As many as forty reindeer were killed, the fresh hides were stripped off, and the internal organs were violently thrown directly into the lake, except for the nutritious and delicious deer liver.
A large bonfire appeared by the lake, and the Russians prepared roasted whole deer very luxuriously.
Everyone ate meat crazily. Even the Vips were lucky enough to chow down on half-cooked deer legs. The Russians also gave some salt as a gift. The delicious taste actually moved many people to tears.
People were immersed in the joy of victory. When they set out, no one expected that this armed reconnaissance would yield such a big harvest, let alone that the Karelia people, who were boasted to be extremely powerful by the Suomi people, would be so weak.
While eating barbecue around the campfire, Terravis asked Arik a soul question: "How do we deal with so many deer? Take them all away?"
"Of course. If we bring the deer back, we will be the heroes of all Russia. These deer will also make our life much easier in the future."
"But there are too many deer. You...can't put them all on the boat."
"Haha, then eat them all." Arik said this as a joke, and he laughed after he said it.
But Terravis's question is very critical. The Ross Squadron does not have enough transport ships, but this is not a problem.
Arik thought for a while: "We still have to bring back as many deer as possible, and some of them can be used as rewards."
"To whom?"
"To the Vips."
"You?" Taravis was surprised: "I doubt that you are so generous."
"You brat, are you mocking me?" Arik smiled with anger.
"I...I don't dare."
"I'm sorry you don't dare. But the Vips still participated in the battle. They are servants, so we have to give them some rewards. By the way, how many deer should we give them?"
"Is it up to me? If they come to twenty people, give them two hundred, or more. In my opinion, we are all good at raising deer, so it doesn't hurt to give them more. This way we can receive more in the future.
Tribute.”
This was actually a good idea, but Arik looked suspiciously at him. He didn't say it openly, but he was muttering in his heart that this kid was speaking for his servants.
"I've decided to give them two hundred. As for more deer... we will stop the armed reconnaissance now. This will be the landing point for the Ross army, and our army will assemble here."
"Ah! Are you going back to move the transport ship?"
"Of course. Time is urgent, we will take action tomorrow."
When they learned that they would be rewarded with ten deer, the Vips servants all bowed their heads in emotion. They were authorized to choose ten deer themselves, and they were smart and specially selected 200 deer from the herd that were more than one year old.
fawns. What does this mean? These extremely young female deer can give birth for the first time this autumn. From a utilitarian point of view, this maximizes the interests of herdsmen. Apart from those fawns that are obviously just weaned, they are not
concerned.
A fawn is born in the spring. If it is a female deer, it can give birth in the autumn of the following year. Even if it is a reindeer that is raised, the Karelian people will not let a deer live to be ten years old. They will kill the old deer for meat. Therefore
A female deer can only give birth to eight babies in her lifetime, and giving birth to ten deer is the current limit. This kind of creature is not highly reproductive.
Just like cattle and sheep are the lifeblood of grassland nomads, reindeer are the lifeblood of Karelia and other tribes grazing in the cold zone, and their economic foundation is almost based on reindeer breeding.
After being selected in this way, the Vips basically took away the most fertile female deer in the huge herd. For such professional things, Arik, who was like a slayer of demons, was too lazy to know.
However, Terravis and other Covin people simply see through and do not tell the truth. They have regarded the Vips as distant and non-threatening kin. They have also left seeds in the villages of the Vips. They will basically not be responsible for them in the future.
It would also be nice to get some good fawns.
Throughout the afternoon, the huge herd of deer was counted in groups, and the Russians, who had excellent calculation skills, counted the exact number of deer.
After excluding the deer that were eaten, there were still 3,400 deer. After excluding the deer that were rewarded to the Vips, the Rus controlled 3,100 deer.
The more than 3,000 deer are also exquisite, and there are as many as 800 young deer in them.
They are not wild reindeer at all, and there are not many real wild reindeer left in this area. The Bear Altar was originally a center for the Karelians to trade reindeer, and all the deer captured by the Russian army were domesticated.
These deer therefore have two major characteristics that distinguish them from their wild counterparts.
First: They are large in number and clustered together. They are indifferent when their companions are skinned, grilled and eaten by humans. They continue to chew grass on their own, completely losing their aggressiveness and remaining pure docility and humbleness.
Second: male deer are always artificially screened out, and a group of male deer are retained as breeding deer. The most domesticated female deer in Karelia are female deer.
Female deer are much more docile than male deer. Female deer are the main force for carrying goods and pulling sleds. The Russian leather craftsmen know this very well. A small number of breeding deer and a large number of female deer will create a small deer in the herd.
The number is astonishing.
After all, the bear altar is a trading place, the antlers of young deer are also a commodity, and the meat of young deer is more delicious than that of older deer. When it comes to food, the Karelia people are also trying their best to eat well.
Arik and other Russians paid more attention to the development prospects of young deer. It was this kind of young deer that was easier to tie on a rope and pull to the Mercury.
The herds of deer were divided into different grades, and the bear altar itself began to be thoroughly cleaned.
In principle, Arik and his friends did not want to collect the bodies of the killed Karelians, but their plans completely changed because of this herd of deer.
Why did the army leave? On the contrary, the brothers occupied this place, and the enemy corpses were buried or burned. The Russians built their own permanent settlements on the ruins of the tent group to prioritize the use of the fishery resources here and to make great achievements.
Excellent military gathering place.
The settlement should have a name. Since it is the bear altar of the Karelian people, the Rus followed this meaning and gave it a Viking-style name - Bjornvistadt (bjornvistadt).
:Bear Festival Town,
On these issues, Arik showed his greatest command. Not only the deer were divided, but the army was also divided.
The next day, the four flag captains under the sun were forced to gather together to draw lots.
Arik held a silver coin with Justinian's face printed on it. After some grouping and guessing heads and tails, he selected a lucky team of 100 to be responsible for escorting the first batch of supplies back. Who would really want to stay here?
A wild place? They won the battle, and many people began to be wary of revenge from the Karelia people. Although the brothers were very confident, if the opponent suddenly killed thousands of people, things would be difficult to handle.
Although the latter is a small probability time, the fact that the three centurions were left behind was clearly God's choice, and the result of the coin toss cannot be questioned.
They dug a big pit, threw all the corpses in, covered it with soil and set up a mark. The mark was nothing else. The heads of the twenty Karelian envoys were moved to this huge tomb, forming a kind of
Horrifying tombstone.
The Vips decided to go home overland, and nineteen of them, armed with some iron weapons gifted by the Russians, drove as many as two hundred young female deer on the familiar road.
Why nineteen people? Just because one person will serve as a messenger and return to the village of Vips in a big boat to inform the local people about what happened.
It was a long trek back overland. The Vips who were good at hiking were not afraid. Their inner ecstasy surpassed everything. Everyone was imagining that it would be a great thing for them to surrender to the new blond Ross master. The Ross people
Not like a master, but like a father or mother. In their concept, only parents can give such generous rewards.
This is of course just wishful thinking on their part.
Vips are sheep. Killing them for meat is one way of doing it, and letting them develop and shearing their sheep regularly is also another way. Obviously the latter is smarter. Killing them to grab a wave is meaningless, and Arik naturally implements the latter.
option, he couldn't think of a third way.
The more than 300 people who stayed behind used local materials and began to build a walled settlement. This would be a huge project. Considering the possible retaliation from the enemy, defensive fortifications had to be built. Big trees were quickly felled, and shacks were built.
It will be the fastest to be built. It is very inconspicuous to build the wall in a short time. It is very important to convert some wooden sheds into wooden towers. These are watchtowers and also the commanding heights for archery.
This group of young and strong veterans put their experience in fighting powerful enemies here. After all, they relied on advance civil construction to take advantage of the decisive battle in Gotland.
Arik left first with a large number of captured things. Now three long boats towed the Mercury. All the boats lowered their sails and relied on the most traditional oars to head straight south along the lake shoreline.
When the Ross fleet came, they had to sail carefully due to the unknown environment. They kept a slow speed. Now there was nothing to worry about. Aric had only one thought in his mind, which was to take the Vips female leader on board, and then immediately
Rush to Fort New Rose.
And this was done in just four days!
Arik traveled from the northernmost point of Lake Ladoga to the mouth of the Neva River, taking the aging female leader with him, in just four days.
The paddling brothers did not enter downstream mode until the fleet entered the faster-flowing Neva River and had a chance to have a good rest. They arrived at New Roseburg smoothly. At this time, the surrounding city was already in the busy period of wheat harvest.
The farming peoples of Eastern Europe have all begun their wheat harvest season. Even Rurik, in order to show his closeness to the people, brought his newly arrived group of wives and concubines to beat the newly harvested wheat ears with wooden shackles to remove the oats.
Arik's return was nothing unusual, it must have been the result of an armed investigation. However, when Rurik, who was busy with farm work, learned that there were only four ships, one large, three small, in total, things became complicated.
Rurik was suddenly startled: "Oh no, it's not my carelessness or his recklessness that caused my army to suffer heavy losses!"
He left his farm work behind and hurried to the dock...