Under the cold and calm surface, the whole world is freezing, and some clues have already emerged.
The Neva River is still frozen, and the heaviest reindeer can still walk around on the ice.
There is also endless ice in the Gulf of Finland, and it seems that spring has nothing to do with it.
The vernal equinox was coming, and Rurik planned to leave right after the vernal equinox ceremony, so the date was set on the 29th day of March.
Although there was ice everywhere, people began to find that it became quite warm in the afternoon, and the snow began to melt on the eaves of the wooden houses. Then it began to condense again in the evening, causing a large amount of ice to appear on the eaves the next day, so much so that some children used the ice as a sword and laughed.
Fight with each other.
Svetlana is already preparing dry food for her journey back home. She plans to cook some fish and bake some oatmeal cakes.
The stove was in the corner of the palace's backyard. She had no one to help her and didn't want anyone else to interfere. She just worked hard here and felt very satisfied.
Suddenly, Rurik wearing a velvet hat came over looking for the scent.
"It can be arranged for a servant to do it, you don't have to do it yourself." He said.
Lana smiled brightly: "You haven't recruited many servants. Besides, according to our traditions, women must do these things."
"But you are my queen."
"I am your woman."
Rurik was satisfied with what he heard, and when he took a closer look, he saw that she was indeed cooking a dogfish steak that had been cut into several pieces.
Compared with bass and herring, the largest fish that can be caught in the water near New Roseburg is pike. This fish often grows very large and has a long life. It is as fierce as a vicious dog and is a perfect carnivore.
Fish, so the bait for fishing is freshly slaughtered reindeer meat. The fishhook is tied with a thick hemp rope and thrown into the dug hole in the ice. The line is set out thirty meters away and waits.
Lanna said while cooking the meat: "The fishermen said that the water under the ice has become turbulent, and the ice must be melting. Fortunately, the deep water is very stable. The big fish took the bait, and it took 20 people to work together to pull this big guy up.
"
Rurik took a closer look and found that it was indeed a tough dish.
"Did you send someone to buy it? How much did it cost?"
"Two silver coins, the best fish and meat are all here. Rurik, this fish and meat is enough for us to eat for a week."
"Really? You got a big deal. No, they sold it cheaply on purpose."
"Yes." She smiled in a low voice: "Because I am your woman, and they will pay such a price as soon as they hear that the fish will enter your stomach."
"That's fine. It's just that I still have to spend a lot of money on the trip back."
"So how was your inspection? Their preparations went smoothly?" she asked.
"Of course it is. There are fishing holes all over the ice, and pike and bass are coming out of the water. I also saw the sleds they made in a big way, and they are all very strong. The snow covered a lot of withered yellow reeds, and they cut some of them."
"Reeds? Feed the deer?"
"Exactly. But you don't believe that just eating grass, more than a thousand deer in a larger sleigh team can successfully reach Novgorod."
"That's impossible," she said.
It was this matter that made Rurik worried. Rurik sighed: "I can wait until the ice and snow melt before taking action. But that will delay the farming season. Look at the ice on the palace, the ground is thawing, and the ice can still move.
There is not much time left to sled, but a large amount of ice that breaks the ice can destroy the ship, and I dare not take the risk."
"Yeah..." She continued to use the iron fork to turn the fish.
"The spring sacrifice is coming soon. We will leave after the ceremony. I will whip the deer as hard as I can. We must go back within ten days."
Fort New Rose is indeed making intense preparations for an "Ice and Snow Migration Operation."
A total of nearly 1,300 people will immigrate to Novgorod. They will leave not only themselves, but also all the valuables they can take with them.
The soldiers of the First Flag Team are strong and strong, and their families are all in their hometown of Roseburg Fjord. Their families will immigrate on large ships in the summer. The prince has not only made a promise to this, but also made this a current national policy.
Even higher than foreign wars.
Their winter hunting success turned into heavy silver coins. They made another batch of dried meat or cooked meat, and bought a large amount of wheat cakes or simply fried oatmeal from Aslaqi's shop. Several people
Hire local people to build a sled together. As for the reindeer pulling the sleigh, you don't have to worry about it at all.
There is nothing heavy or valuable in the First Flag Team, and they have all the property and dry food on them, so they can run away without any worries.
The Ostara people are another huge immigrant team. Although there are only about 600 men, women and children, they have a lot of soft goods in their hands.
Those Neo-Ostara people who were actually Hijmalen people had traveled thousands of miles to the mouth of the Neva River and had basically completed their wintering. Unexpectedly, new immigration was about to begin again.
Legend has it that Lake Ilmen is very similar to Lake Yelmalen in my hometown, and the climate is warmer. If wheat is planted here, wouldn't it be a bumper harvest every year?
Regarding where the tribe settled, Duchess Carlotta had already figured out the location, even though she had not personally arrived to inspect it.
Tomorrow is the Spring Sacrifice, and on the eve of the festival, all the Ostara people have completed their preparations.
Their camp outside the city walls is about to be abandoned, and what will happen to the old shacks depends entirely on the wishes of the governor of New Roseburg.
The shed became a simple shed. The people of Ostara carefully took away all the cloth and pottery pots. The breath of life was quickly dissipating.
In contrast, there were a large number of oak sleds, loaded with all kinds of supplies, especially sacks full of grain.
The next day after the contract was signed, Aslaki transferred the large sum of wheat that Rurik paid to Carlotta, for which she also paid an additional portion.
Wheat worth twenty pounds of silver coins greatly increased the weight of the Ostara people's supplies. They did not think that the goods were too much, because the people's existing food could already guarantee more than 600 mouths to eat until next year's harvest season, and even more
There will be surplus grain for planting next spring.
There are only about 600 of them, more than 300 adults, and the rest are children.
Although the sled slides on ice and snow, if the weight is too heavy, the sliding effect will be poor. The total weight of the tribe is not large, and their cargo is far heavier than anyone else.
"We will build the best farms and pastures on the southern shore of the very warm Lake Ilmen. We will grow wheat, flax, raise cattle, and fish. We will have unprecedented abundance."
Carlotta described a wonderful picture, even using the legendary Asgard to describe it. People believed this very much, so they were very serious when making the sled.
The men in the tribe are all farmers from the Yermalen tribe. They can also do carpentry and make a number of commonly used farm tools and vehicles. Many people can actually live a decent life in their hometown, and they don't need to take risks.
The Great Immigration.
But their wives who were once in trouble have been clamoring to return to Ostara, and there are also legends about the Russians discovering a wonderful world, and the Russians do sell all kinds of things in the Birka market, and even include the Duke of Rus who killed him personally.
They heard this statement from the King of Denmark. Many reasons intertwined led them to take risks.
However, life on the Neva River has not changed much compared to my hometown.
Now that they are stuck, they can only believe in the new legend and immigrate to Lake Ilmen.
Each small family has its own sleigh, and each sleigh is piled with various goods and secured with hemp ropes.
They have as many as 140 large and small sleds, and now the "army" of sleds has assembled in the camp.
All the tribesmen gathered around the female leader, and the setting sun shone on Carlotta's clean face, eager to hear her give an exciting speech before setting off.
No, Carlotta has already torn her throat.
"The snow is about to melt! People of Ostara, we are going to march to Lake Ilmen, to the watery land south of the lake. There is a river there, the locals call it the Lovaj River, and we are going to
Our new Ostara was built at the mouth of the Vaj River.
There were other tribes in the area, and they despicably betrayed our ally, the Principality of Rus. I led our warriors to participate in the crusade, and all the rebels were killed, and their land became ours as a spoil of war.
I know that many of you men are actually Hijrmalen people. It doesn't matter, you are all my people, and you are also very good farmers and herdsmen. We will get a large area of cultivated farmland, which we can cultivate immediately as soon as we land.
.The land there is fertile and the climate is warmer. We can harvest a lot of wheat this year.
We also have a fortune now, we will buy some cattle and deer, we will breed livestock, skin them for fur coats, milk them for butter, and make cheese. We will do whatever we want under the military protection of the Russians.
There is a new heir in my belly. He is the blood successor of the leader of Ostara and the nephew of the prince of Rus.
So no one can hurt us and everything will be fine..."
Although many words have been repeated too much. In the past, it was just passed down by word of mouth. Now it is very important for Carlotta to preach it personally.
The people of Ostara were shouting, which attracted nearby residents to watch and comment.
Some people are reluctant to leave, some are attracted by their abandoned wooden shacks, and many people are itching to immigrate with them.
Immigration is not random immigration. The people of Ostara do not have any worries about immigration. Rurik has guaranteed it. Rurik even spent money on this year's "big immigration project". This immigration sled team
There are already 250 vehicles approaching. He is not just transporting people this time, but also a large amount of materials.
In particular, a large amount of seed grain has to be transported, which takes up the load quota of many sleds. There are also some sleds that simply transport oats and baled hay, which are feed for reindeer.
Rurik mobilized a thousand deer and a small number of horses. He now had such capital, but the deer were not chosen randomly.
Locally owned and newly captured deer have resulted in a huge herd of nearly 4,000 deer here in New Roseburg. Almost all of them are the property of the Prince of Rose. Governor Knusson has the obligation to breed them and also gets some from them.
Eligibility for benefits.
The captured deer herd is believed to be selected by the Karelian people, so the number of female deer far exceeds that of male deer. Many female deer are already pregnant and are about to give birth, and the deer herd will expand to nearly 5,000 this year.
.
There is still a group of doe deer that did not complete pregnancy during the mating season last autumn due to various reasons. They are now perfect for use. These deer are different from their wild counterparts, and their genes have even been slightly changed, making them more attractive.
They are willing to be raised and used by humans, and humans will try their best to increase the number of deer.
Each sleigh is equipped with four deer, including a female and a stag. Reindeer are inferior to horses, but they surpass Mongolian horses in terms of endurance and are extremely cold-resistant.
These deer are excellent winter livestock, and Rurik has figured out how to make good use of them, which is to spend some money to feed oats vigorously. Simply feeding oats is not enough, just put salt on your hands, so that the deer will
Use your tongue to lick. When the team starts to rest, untie the reins and watch the deer. They will dig in the snow and eat hay and moss.
Land transportation is far worse than water transportation, especially since the settlements controlled by the Principality of Rus all rely on lakes and rivers. However, the farming season cannot be delayed. Rurik needs a large number of strong men who have a strong desire for farmland and abundant harvests. He needs a third
The brothers of the First Banner Team are sweating hard. More importantly, they are growing wheat, even though they can only grow a little more than one hectare now.
He hoped that after the sea in his hometown froze, the tribesmen in his hometown would strictly implement the order, and the new ship would carry a huge amount of wheat all the way to Novgorod in the shortest possible time, so that the land could be planted at the end of spring plowing. Just like this
It will be a failure, so that’s okay. You can just grab the empty land and plant vegetables or hemp stalks immediately.
The "Immigration Oath Meeting" of the Ostara people was very lively, and the people sent by Rurik came back and gave a truthful report.
He was very satisfied. The people of Ostara who were most worrying were already ready, and they just needed tomorrow's sacrifice to convince people's hearts!
Since this is the great migration of the Vikings, the people and gods of the Vikings must be worshiped.
The priests who were stationed in New Roseburg in the early years escaped the "Burial for Vilia" incident in their hometown. They are the remnants of the old priest group. They know that coveting the highest power is seeking death, so they deliberately live a life of poverty and simply serve as priests.
.
However, the residents of New Roseburg did not worship the priests much. These new priestesses did not believe in Rurik himself. The heroic young man was clearly a tangible and visible god.
Rurik indeed brought benefits to his tribe and those who joined later, and his status as "son of god" was further consolidated.
In a sense, he did become the Son of Heaven, the medium of communication between mortals and the gods of Asgard.
No, the whole New Roseburg people came out for the spring sacrifice.
Rus has changed its customs. There will be a stone ship altar to slaughter deer and cattle, and a fire tower will be lit. This will make the Vikings, Slavs, and even the Finns happy.
He killed a stag himself, and the priestess cut the liver open and cheered auspiciously. The main sacrifices were to Frey and Freya, and finally to Odin. When the fire tower burned, it was equivalent to a sacrifice to Peron, the Slavic god of fire.
Everyone was cheering, enjoying the warmth spread by the flames, as if bathing in the early summer sunshine.
The sacrifice was a great success. After the priesthood, spring arrived and the ice and snow would soon melt away.
Those who were very worried about the immigration journey were reassured. The priests and princes would not lie to people, and the gods had promised everyone a safe arrival in Novgorod.
The appointed day has arrived!
People rested beautifully all night, and at dawn the next day, golden light spread over the ice and snow.
"What a beautiful scene!" Rurik looked into the distance, looking east and west.
Svetlana wrapped herself tightly, took off her scarf, and couldn't help but look at the sun.
"Rurik, we are about to leave. I see people have already gathered."
"Indeed. Oh, my brother is here."
Arik came with a confident step. He ate wheat cakes and grilled fish, and his stomach was filled with energy.
"The first flag team is ready, you have to lead everyone into action. Thanks to my second wife's ability, brothers will not be short of food now."
Rurik nodded: "Sister-in-law and Askard are also leaving."
"That's natural. It seems that my third son will be born in Novgorod. I will call him Kil."
"It is indeed a son, what if it is a daughter?" Rurik was surprised and asked again.
"It must be a son. Freya gave me a dream. My son will make great achievements."
"Yes. It is indeed a great achievement."
"Oh? So you can still see your nephew's fate?" Arik asked with a smile.
"Right, after all, he is a child of our family. Go and inform the brothers to show all the flags. I'm not sure if Rocky will play a prank on the way. Be careful of sudden wind and snow. All sleds should hang flags to ensure that no one is left behind.
."
"Good decision, I'll make arrangements right away."
Rurik chatted with Arik and Carlotta for a few words, and then said goodbye to Governor Konuson.
The huge team is hunting with flags. Although they are immigrants, they are actually a powerful military force in Northern Europe. They are out-and-out armed immigrants, accepting the direct command of the Prince of Rus.
Horns were blown one after another, and leather drums were beaten violently.
The immigration operation began, and reindeer-pulled sleighs began to move on the frozen and flat ice of the Neva River. Behind Rurik were more than two hundred large and small sleighs, and people marched enthusiastically on the ice and snow road leading to happiness.
They successfully crossed the Neva River and entered Lake Ladoga, continuing to advance in front of the frozen lake. People with a discerning eye could see that the lake ice was thinning, so in order to avoid danger, when the sled team entered the Volkhov River, they all advanced on the left bank of the river.
, only to reach Novgorod directly.
Svetlana keenly noticed the changes in the river: "Look, Rurik, there are cracks in the ice."
"It looks like the Volkhov River is about to freeze over."
"Yes, the thaw is a little later than before. It seems that spring plowing may have to be postponed this year."
Lanna said it was very normal, but Rurik felt a little scared. The climate was indeed gradually getting colder in this era, and we were in the process of a mini ice age in Europe.
Northern Europe as a whole is not suitable for farming, and it is basically impossible to operate without the support of modern agricultural technology. In Novgorod and more difficult areas, the warm wind from the Black Sea can penetrate the entire region.
Agriculture in Eastern Europe will develop rapidly, and the large Russian immigrants will need to seize the land here.
The journey was so uneventful that it was almost boring, and God Loki did not cause any trouble. The ground was indeed thawing, and every afternoon, the immigration team discovered that there was melting ice. Some people even saw grass sprouts breaking through the snow, and dead branches starting to sprout.
Once the team left, it lasted the whole day. The reindeer herd consumed a lot of oats, which Rurik could afford to consume, ensuring that he could reach Novgorod by sleigh in eight days.
The forest suddenly disappeared, and the front suddenly became clear!
Under the snow are the fields of Novgorod, and a city appears on the riverside!
It's a tower, it's a wall!
Finally arrived at the destination!
Rurik took the whip and whipped it at the deer. The deer, which was walking slowly, began to speed up, causing the entire team to run wildly.
The Ross flag and the Ostara flag trembled violently, people cheered as the deer roared wildly, and the mighty team finally arrived at this happy place and returned to this field of hope.