Chapter 676 Weeping and heading north in the cold autumn rain
In this era, strong men were the foundation for the successful survival of a political power. The Karelia people had three major tribes, among which the Isotarva tribe of the Great Horde had the largest population and was able to dominate the family.
The Dazhang tribe was arrogant because of the large number of people, and because of the large number of people, they had to take the initiative to expand and find the most abundant pastures for grazing reindeer in the forest, sea and snow fields.
The past glory was suddenly lost with a tragic defeat. Although more than 10,000 people still managed to escape from the large camp by the lake, the tribe's military capabilities had been fatally hit, and nearly 4,000 men died in the battle.
The tribe was almost destroyed.
Are they about to collapse?
The young women fled with their children. They had to take care of a large herd of deer, and their escape was too hasty. This group of people did not escape too far. Fortunately, they were covered by the forest, and their presence was not detected by the Ross army.
If Rurik seizes the time and orders the army to pursue and kill them regardless of priority, the Russian army can probably catch the fugitives and obtain sufficient results.
He did not do this because he would not risk the entire army at a time when the enemy's situation was unclear and the geographical situation was unclear.
The invaders did not continue their advance, and the fleeing Karelian women did not know whether they were already at war or what the situation would be like.
Finally, hundreds of defeated men crossed the forest in despair. On a dark cloudy night, they saw the bonfire formation under the mound in the distance.
Could that be an enemy? The frightened men were so frightened that they would rather wait until daytime. When they saw clearly the brown and gray shadows of winter, they concluded that they were huge deer herds, and then they walked away confidently and boldly.
The new camp of the Karelian women is thirty kilometers away from the destroyed Isotalva camp. This seems not that far away, but now that there are no roads, they are fleeing with their children and belongings.
, according to the plan, they will go straight to the winter pastures in the north.
Even if the Russian army does not launch a war, the Karelian tribe will still start to migrate. Winter is not far away, and winter grazing related to the breeding of reindeer herds next year must start early in the autumn. Even for domesticated reindeer, migration is imminent.
Instinct in their genes. The spontaneous migration of reindeer has been broken by human domestication. Are they actually migrating under the leadership of their Karelian owners? But looking back, the Karelian people rely heavily on reindeer breeding.
, they are also forced to migrate every year by their domesticated livestock.
Unless they have a stable supply of high-energy feed, winter grazing becomes redundant.
Animal husbandry is a kind of alienated agriculture, and the reindeer herd is like a "walkable field".
Rus needs to control a large number of livestock to supplement its rising plantation agriculture, and Rus's demand for furs of all colors will only increase year by year. So the Karelians, who have an astonishing number of reindeer, must either sacrifice their humans and animals to surrender, or
Go to hell.
Rurik did not write such a strategy on the wooden board, but he did lead a large army to launch a war to achieve this goal.
The Karelian women who evacuated with their deer herd were not stupid either. When the defeated people of their tribe suddenly appeared, the heartbreaking news instantly spread throughout the camp, and there was a burst of wailing...
What to do next? What exactly do the intruders want to do?
They used themselves to save others and also knew the enemy's purpose: to kill the men, kidnap the women and children, and kill all the deer.
The Karelian Tribe Alliance used this strategy to deal with the Tavastians, and they were the source of a group of slaves who evacuated with the women.
Isotalwa has collapsed, and what's worse is that an autumn rain has finally fallen.
In the desolate environment, more than 10,000 people from the Dazhang tribe drove a total of as many as 200,000 large and small reindeer, dragging wooden carts towards the winter pasture. A large amount of tent materials were lost, thousands of
People can only rely on the dense pine needles of the red pine forest to protect themselves from the rain. The rain protection effect is negligible. The forest is full of trembling rain seekers, and the plague has begun to appear.
Some people catch a cold and cough desperately, while others die directly from hypothermia.
The rain has been going on for three days. In these short three days, more than a hundred infant children died, adding another sorrow to this tribe that had suffered a great disaster.
Even the older priests were in critical condition due to weakness and illness, and finally even the priests died on a rainy night...
People dug pits in the mud and buried the dead, large and small, praying that their souls would smoothly enter the sea of ancestral souls and no longer suffer in this mortal world.
Some women lost their husbands and children and had to run to winter pastures in the north in the cold and damp conditions. Their own situation was also precarious and they were so weak that they were about to die. There were more than fifty women looking for vines, strips of cloth, and even bindings.
The sinews of materials were used as a rope to tie up one's neck and end one's life quietly.
The rain lasted for eight full days! When the sun finally emerged again, the once-large tribe had lost as many as a thousand people during the rains.
The bow drill, the only fire-making tool that could be used in the muddy environment, could not complete the ignition. When the dried meat they carried was eaten, they could only kill the deer, eat the fresh deer meat and drink the deer blood.
Young children can only eat raw meat like adults. They complain that the meat is not delicious, and their mother blames the intruders.
Some children ignorantly asked when their father would come back and whether he would return to the camp next year.
The more the child asked this question, the more the mother cried.
The mother can only pinch the child's face and order him to take revenge when he grows up...
This fleeing team did not simply rush to the winter pastures. When the material problem encountered a big problem, they took the initiative to rush to the small tent tribe, hoping to get help from their traditional allies.
Even though the situation was tragic, a miracle happened!
A team came from the distance, and the frightened people gathered around the reindeer herd. The men dragged their tired bodies, holding spears, and looked warily at the group of people coming from the west.
Soon the alert was lifted, and the person who came was not an enemy, but our chief Valkhba!
A thousand of the strongest warriors of the Karelian Great Tribe were walking on the smoothest road back, and the entanglement with the Suomi people delayed the great chief Valkhba for some time. They left the lake group in the west again, that is
A group of people carried their more than a hundred canoes and walked overland through the flat forest area, and then found streams in the damn rain and rushed to their hometown.
They were moving forward in the twists and turns of the waterway, drifting in the heavy rain. Not only did people have to struggle to control the boat to prevent it from being capsized by the turbulence, but they also had to fight against the cold. They were very surprised to see the crowd not far away, and after a little exploration, everyone was shocked.
.
The family was finally reunited, but this reunion caused the soldiers fighting on the front line to almost collapse psychologically.
Valkhba is the chief of the tribe and the leader of the entire Karelia.
He is also a man, the husband of his wife, the father of his children, and the brother of his relatives.
Both brothers and nephews died for the tribe. The entire tribe's strength and young men were lost. Now there are less than 2,000 men who can hold weapons.
The large camp by the lake collapsed, his wife and concubines were missing, and his younger sons were either massacred or died on the muddy road to escape.
Valherba looked up at the sun and cursed loudly, then hugged his head and cried. Suddenly, his head was buzzing and he fell to the ground.
What a cruel blow is this?
Thousands of people have been running around in sorrow for so many days. The appearance of the great chief is a miracle. The low morale has just improved. Now the great chief has fallen. There are rumors that the chief died in grief.
This is not the case, but the situation is not much better.
Valheba was suffering from a high fever. Lying in the temporary tent, he completely broke his original plan of returning to the lakeside camp to defend himself against the enemy.
The original plan was completely meaningless. The Great Tribe was finished. At least he personally felt that he had no hope of making an offer.
What he needed most was the truth, so when he was dying, he asked his eldest son to sit beside him, and invited several fugitive men who had personally participated in the battle to enter the tent to explain the situation.
Five people came, and they saw the great chief suppressing his blushes, or falling to the ground crying out of shame or sadness.
"You...don't cry. Tell me, what happened to Isotalva? What exactly was the attack...Why did you lose...lose so miserably!"
The last word was actually accented, and everyone saw the chief spit out a mouthful of old blood.
Yes, why did it fail so miserably? With Valheba’s perspective, it’s impossible to understand.
Even if they were involved in the battle, those who fled did not fully understand how they were defeated.
Someone explained: "Azailas sent people to guard the mouth of the river, but the enemy's ships were as big as earthen hills, and their masts were as high as the pine trees here. Those ships fired deadly javelins, and our arrows could not hit them. Our people were
They were easily killed. A horde of iron giants jumped from their armor, but the enemy could not be killed. Spears and arrows could kill deer, but they had no effect on them."
Such rhetoric is too ridiculous. In fact, this is what the Karelian warriors saw as the Russian Viking army.
But in the eyes of the Suomi people, this is what the Ross army looked like. When the Ross fleet suddenly appeared, their tentative attack was easily crushed. Uko, the leader who knew the current affairs, surrendered immediately, relying on playing the role of a submissive hound, and Yev
It was Luo's miraculous "internal aid" that brought peace to the Suomi people under the rule of Ross.
Then someone else said: "I saw the Tavastians. There are many of them, and they followed the iron giants to kill us."
"Tavastiya?!" Valkhbachan, who squinted his eyes, sat up with energy and was just about to say something, but he felt another mouthful of old blood.
"Father." His son immediately helped him up.
"Don't help me, let him continue talking."
"Yes." The man continued: "They must be Tavastia people. They must have traded their souls with the mysterious iron giant. We all know that only Tavastia hates us the most in this world. Maybe all this will
It’s their plan to sell their souls in exchange for the evil god’s army. How can we defeat the god’s army? Everyone at the Bear Altar was killed, and our Isotalwa camp is full of slain tribesmen.”
Someone quickly followed this statement and explained: "Lord Aisailas must have noticed this situation and made the women flee with the deer. We fought until the end, no matter how we were the opponents of the magic soldiers, we successfully found other
People, please forgive us, chief."
The Tavastians sold their souls and signed a contract with the evil god in exchange for the "Iron Giant" to destroy the Great Horde tribe.
Valherba felt that this was believable, and even felt that it was the only reasonable explanation.
But his son Kaskuwe thought this was ridiculous.
"The army of the evil god defeated us? The Tavastians do not have this ability yet. Father, this world must be very huge. Maybe a powerful enemy from outside the territory is eyeing us..."
"We didn't see the Tavastians at all in the west. They disappeared! Many people must have sacrificed their souls." Valkhba ordered his son to shut up first, and then sighed deeply.
The tent fell into deathly silence. Finally, as the chief, Valheba spoke. He had thought a lot.
"If it is a new enemy from outside the territory, we may kill them. If it is the army of the evil god, when the Tavastians have no more sacrifices, the evil god will not continue to help them." He
I don’t know the truth, but this dialectical speculation has indeed found psychological comfort for the confused and frightened people of the Dazhang tribe.
"We may not be able to defeat the evil god's army, so we should evacuate first. If it is actually a new enemy, we can still win by recharging our strength. Son!"
"Father." Caskuve quickly turned his head.
"I'm going to die... Now I hand over the entire tribe to you. You are not afraid of evil gods or any enemies. This is why everyone recognizes you as the next leader. Now that the tribe has suffered a catastrophe, only the remaining men are left to fight.
There are more than 1,000 people, and we still have 10,000 women and children who need to be protected by them, as well as more than 100,000 reindeer... You must not recklessly seek revenge on the enemy."
"I will."
Seeing that his son's attitude was not firm, Valheba suddenly raised his arm, gripped his son's elbow, and said while spitting blood: "At least for a few years! No revenge is allowed! Before we understand the enemy's situation, we will not be able to recapture it.
Bear Altar.”
His hands were covered with blood vomited by his father. Kaskuwe opened his eyes wide in fear, "I dare not disobey."
"You are the leader now. Take my sword and lead all the clansmen to the Xiaozhang tribe. You go and marry the daughter of the leader over there. You have to unite all the Karelia people! This is a disaster for all of us.
, you have to lead the others to fight to the end!"
After saying that, Valherba had already passed out...
That night, the leader of the Karelian people, the chief, fell into a coma due to high fever. His vomiting of blood was actually stomach bleeding. This was a secret he hid from his tribe. Now he suffered a series of blows. Gastric bleeding combined with severe fever finally led to his death.
His life was blocked by blood. Valherba, who was in a coma, died of suffocation.
The chief died of illness, and the people who were talking a lot early in the morning heard the bad news.
The people whose tears have dried up are now left with howls. They are not only sad for the death of the chief, but also sad for themselves and their tribe's tragic fate.
Such a cruel scene did not frighten Kaskuwe. He stood tall and wore a gold-decorated antler crown symbolizing the leader's status. He raised high the broad-edged iron sword of the great leader left by his father and declared that he would immediately
Succession.
"People! My father's soul has gone to the ancestral spirit! I am now your leader, and the leader of all Karelia people. We are going to build a new camp in the winter pasture! Women! Give birth! Men
! Guard our women and let them give birth safely! Guard our children and let them grow up safely! In ten years, we can recover.
I will lead you to make a closer alliance with the Xiaozhang tribe, I will marry their women, and I will still be the leader recognized by all tribes. I will definitely lead you to regain your brothers and regain our lost glory!"
What they need most is hope, and Caskuwei gives them hope. He is not a naturally brave leader. Times make people. After the catastrophe, he must immediately lead the tribe to rebound.
He was not the bravest warrior on the battlefield, but now he must be the first warrior of the Great Tribe, even if he is still acting.
Valkhba ended his life. He was already suffering from an old disease. It was his greatest hope for the rest of his life to carve out a large fertile land from the lakes of the west and build it into a new paradise in Karelia. He died, he
The dream also came to nothing.
There was no honorable burial, a muddy pit was his grave, and there was no tomb, no tombstone, nor any markers. This was Valkhba's last wish for his successor, and the tribe suffered destruction on his watch.
If a person is sexually assaulted, he does not deserve a funeral. As a guilty person, he should be hastily buried as punishment.
The reindeer trampled the earth flat, and the whole tribe began to run north in the new rain, enduring the cold and shedding tears.
History followed the general trend at this moment. Rurik basically expelled the Karelia people a generation ahead of schedule and essentially occupied the entire lakeside area of Lake Ladoga.
This is not an escape by the Karelia people, but a strategic contraction that they have to make for future counterattacks.
Kaskuwe became the new chief. He categorically did not believe what those people said. The "iron giant of the evil god" was the nonsense of those who were frightened into thinking. It was to excuse the self of those who fled the battlefield. It must be the new enemy.
!The so-called conclusive statements are ridiculous, because Suomi prisoners captured in the West are saying that the Tavastians were completely killed by the Russian army.
Ross? The enemy should be Ross!
The more he thought about it, the more reliable it seemed to Cascowe, and finally he began to preach the results of his "investigation" to the people who were migrating.
Those were not the "apostles of the evil god", but the Rus, a group of bandits who came from a distant place, the bandits who made the Suomi people surrender, and the bandits who killed the entire Tavastia clan.
The enemy is human! Human beings can be killed. As long as everyone cultivates their martial virtues again, victory will belong to Karelia.
Kaskuwei has already guessed the truth of the matter, but the entire immigrant group is still wondering whether they were defeated by the evil god's army.
It wasn't until the priest who spread the news about the "evil god" was directly killed by Kaskuwei, who threatened to kill anyone who dared to tell lies again, that everyone was forced to shut up.
Finally, they braved the new rain and arrived at the winter pasture, the traditional winter pasture of the Dazhang tribe. It was not far from the White Sea. This was already an extremely remote area, and the cold was always with them. The Dazhang tribe had lost half of its food in total.
The people and 20% of the reindeer finally fled here to start a new life.
Many people believe that they finally escaped from the land of right and wrong...