According to the initial plan, young people who get married and are not the eldest son of the family cannot inherit their own property. Roseburg became too crowded, and the second and third sons of the family had to build houses in new areas after getting married. Such young boys had to take their wives to live in the new Roseburg that was being built.
Even boys who feel that marriage is still far away from them can already hold the hands of girls of their own age. Their eyes were full of admiration for the leader and endless passion for their fiancée.
Holding a wedding at a local manor is a waste of time. Otto thought about it and simply returned to Pine Needle Manor to station his army to supervise and intimidate the locals.
Then dispatch a fleet to take a group of people back to the loyal White Tree Manor, especially those women.
The huge fleet returned to Pine Needle Manor in the evening, and everyone saw the devastated scene after being set on fire.
Some returning residents are already clearing away the ruins, looking for things that can still be used.
However, they saw a large number of dragon-headed warships with huge sails, and hid again in fear.
Some people even ignored the presence of carbon ash and kept digging into the still-warm ruins, like mice.
"A bunch of cowards. A lot of people, but only one kid dared to resist me."
Standing on the bow of the ship, Otto had both contempt and sadness for these residents. It is quite reasonable in the Viking world for cowards and defeated ones to be used as slaves by the victors. It's obviously the same here in Novgorod.
But these cowards had to produce wheat and furs for the Rus' people to enjoy, and now there was an additional provision of providing a wife for all the young Rus' boys.
If they really feel unbearable fear and disaster, they will definitely flee into the dense forest. Without receiving a large amount of tribute, the Ross tribe still suffered the loss.
Otto used a grove near Pine Needle Manor as a campsite, where most of the Rus camped.
A bonfire was quickly lit in this small pine forest, and the Russians, who felt they had won a great victory, had already begun to fill their stomachs with captured wheat and dried fish.
Another group of young people, taking the collected tributes and their fiancées, went straight to the White Tree Manor along the Volkhov River.
This matter has become very important now. Since the local wedding ceremonies in Novgorod are similar, it seems customary for a couple to complete their wedding in any manor.
The young people will camp at the White Tree Manor and complete a brief wedding ceremony with their fiancées. After that, they will become a legal couple confirmed by the locals. The people of the White Tree Manor will be the witnesses of all marriages.
Although Otto did not have a clear purpose, the Russians had to have another clear foothold in the Novgorod area.
Now, the loyal dog-like White Tree Manor has become the stronghold of the Ross people.
On the other hand, when the Russians went to collect tribute along the lake, Brudne seized the time to gather his lost servants.
He couldn't vent his anger to those Russians, but he had to have someone to vent to.
The Russians left the mess behind and set sail to "conquer" other estates. He looked at his servant, who was still frightened, and at his youngest son Vadim, who had an angry face and blood stains on his forehead and mouth.
As for the eldest son, Kapok, his neat face and empty eyes seemed to say that none of this had anything to do with him.
Brudne was furious.
He took off his amber-encrusted belt and whipped his eldest son, Kapok, without any warning.
"You idiot! Coward! You're not even as brave as your brother!"
"You are obviously a man, why didn't you attack the chief of the Rus?"
"Only your brother went to attack, but you hid behind the door. How can you act like an elder brother? You are not worthy of being one of us!"
Kapok was already married, but now he was suddenly beaten severely by his father. He lay down on the muddy ground, curled up into a ball with his head in his hands, and kept wailing in his mouth, begging for mercy.
"You still dare to beg for mercy? Those hateful Russians allow you to beg for mercy? When you become the head of the manor, you will sell the entire manor."
Karpov continued to cry: "Ah! Dad, don't hit me again! I will be beaten to death by you."
The more he begged for mercy, the angrier Brudne became.
Because there must be a window to vent the shame and humiliation Brudne suffered today.
This violent old guy was like a bear that could eat people at any time. Vadim, who was only ten years old, saw this horrific violence very clearly.
"My husband, he is your son, are you going to beat him to death?!" Brudne's wife begged her husband to stop. She grabbed her daughter-in-law. The two women had tears on their faces. Due to the horrific scene, they could only dare to Sad to watch.
Brudne was even more angry: "Kill him, this coward. If he is left here, we will all be finished! This coward doesn't even have the guts to confront the Russians."
Brudne's rage reached the extreme, and he beat Kapok with all his strength, leaving Kapok covered with scars.
Gradually, Kapok's cry and howl for mercy became weaker and weaker.
Brudne's belt kept beating the eldest son's upper body, and the inlaid amber became a murder weapon.
The hard amber hit Kabok on the back of the head many times, and even shattered the bones of his hand.
Suddenly, the crouched Kapok suddenly straightened his body, and after a wild tremor, he collapsed.
Even at this time, Brudne's hand still did not stop.
Maybe he was tired. When the belt slackened, Brudne realized that the situation was serious when he saw his eldest son motionless with blood on his face.
Brudne knelt down and patted the eldest son's face. He found that the child was completely limp. When he subconsciously held the back of the eldest son's head with his hand, he could clearly feel the flow of water.
He looked at his hands again, they were all bright red...
"Kapok, you..." In an instant, Brudne woke up from his rage and sat on the mud again, his eyes widened and his whole body trembling.
He really couldn't imagine that he would actually kill his own child in a fit of rage.
"No!" His wife rushed to the child's side like crazy, and along with her daughter-in-law, she cried heartbreakingly when she realized that Capok had passed away.
"You bastard! You actually killed your son."
"You can't beat the Rus, how can you take it out on your son?"
"Damn it, I'll die too!"
The mother who lost her mind suddenly pulled out the iron dagger that her eldest son had on his waist and stabbed her heart without hesitation...
A good family, first the Russians took away their three daughters, and then the eldest son died at the hands of his father. The grieving mother eventually went to another world with her eldest son.
Vadim saw such a tragic accident clearly. With his eyes wide open, he realized that his life was completely different from now on.
The trembling Brudne slowly stood up, trying his best to stay awake and calm.
He was quiet for a long time before thinking about what to do next.
He threw away the bloody belt in his hand, pointed at the two corpses in the pool of blood, and angrily said to Vadim, whose mind was blank: "Child, did you see it? Damn the Russians, this is all what they did. "
"Yes...I...I saw it." Vadim responded tremblingly.
Brudne walked angrily and suddenly slapped Vadim to the ground.
Vadim covered his face and looked at his father who was as terrifying as a devil.
"Vadim, you will become the new leader of the village. It was the Russians who killed your brother and your mother. The Russians lost a lot of houses and wanted to take away your people. You must take everyone to revenge!" "
Vadim nodded weakly.
Brudne slapped her youngest son again: "Do you understand? You have only one purpose in this life. Tell me, what is the purpose of your life?"
"revenge."
"You answered like a coward, louder!"
Seeing his father's angry and furious bear, Vadim looked at the corpses of his mother and eldest brother from the corner of his eyes. He gently lowered his eyebrows and revealed that his whole face was tense and his eyes were like hungry wolves. He said fiercely: "I want revenge. When I am old enough to fight, I will take revenge. I will take all the people in my clan and fight back against them. As long as I am alive, my revenge will not stop."
That's what Brudne wanted to hear.
But life has to go on. Maybe Vadim can lead the tribe to complete the great cause of revenge. Obviously, a ten-year-old child cannot be expected to complete it immediately.
Brudne believed that after the bravest young son experienced today's humiliation, his heart would be as hard as iron.
Revenge is in the future.
Currently, Pine Needle Manor must be patient and pretend to be a loyal dog in order to avoid being attacked by the Ross people.
Brudne sent his servants to do their best to find the fugitives, threatening them with expulsion from the manor, or demanding that the debt be doubled if they did not come back immediately. Using some coercion, he succeeded in recalling at least two thousand people before sunset.
The Russians came back and camped in the woods. Based on the current situation, Brudny believed that the Russians had no intention of launching any attack at night.
The Rus didn't go far, they were just a group of watchers. If I didn't fulfill their request urgently, I'm afraid that by tomorrow evening, the entire manor would suffer the most complete disaster of fire.
In fact, if the men and women who can fight in the entire Pine Needle Manor can be organized to fight to the death with the Ross people, both sides will lose in the end, and the Ross people will also suffer heavy losses. If there were corpses everywhere after the battle at Pine Needle Manor, it would be better than being attacked unilaterally by them now.
The team is scattered and it is impossible to organize the huge team. Not to mention how much damage the current Pine Needle Manor can inflict on the Ross people. I am afraid that against the "second force" White Tree Manor, the current strength of Pine Needle Manor cannot be achieved as before. Complete victory.
At night, Brudne ordered the summoned residents to assemble. He ordered the residents to hand over their rations, cloth, and furs to meet the Russians' demands.
He even announced in a sad tone: "The Russians need more tribute from us. I originally hoped to discuss it with them, but the Russians rejected all my proposals. They burned many houses and killed many people. Even my eldest son and my wife were killed by them.
We have no ability to defeat them. If we want to survive, we must give them more wealth.
Now the Rus need your daughters as their slaves. If we don't deliver fifty girls over twelve years old before daybreak, they will kill us all after daybreak.
You might say that you just need to take your family and run away.
If you do this, all the houses will be burned down by them. To make matters worse, no other manor dared to take us in.
Handing over food, cloth, and daughters to meet their demands was our only chance to survive. "
The current situation has become so bad that even the most powerful manor family has been wantonly humiliated and hurt by the Russians.
In the past, many residents were very critical of the manor head and his family. Just because they control a lot of wealth, they have tied up many farmers by lending food for a fee during famine years. Yes, the Brudny family is actually a big landowner, the king of the Pine Needle Manor with absolute wealth and power. A group of farmers and fishermen took his "relief" and became tenant farmers in the true sense.
If you accept the exploitation of the manor head, your life will be very tight at worst, but your family will still be able to get enough food to avoid starving to death.
The Ross people have gone crazy this year!
Many residents changed their criticism of the manor chief. They believed everything Brudne said. In addition, his family members also died at the hands of the Russians, which made ordinary residents empathize. They were actually united as never before, and some even proposed to attack the Russian camp at night with sticks.
This move was immediately rejected by more reasonable people, and they even supervised each other to strictly prohibit provocations at night.
Everyone is eager for revenge. They show tolerance on the surface. They urgently need a figure who can lead everyone to fight back.
Brudne followed this idea and immediately moved out his youngest son.
"Brothers, sisters and brothers, we need a brave man. My youngest son faced the murder of his mother and brother, and dared to bravely attack the leader of the Rus. He is better than me, and he is the most determined avenger. "
After saying that, Brudne simply raised his youngest son in public: "I am already old. When I die, Vadim will have grown up, and he will be the head of our manor in the future. Vadim, tell everyone now !”
Obviously, the eldest brother was killed by his father in a rage, and his mother also committed suicide in grief and anger.
However, in the final analysis, the root cause of these tragedies comes from the barbaric behavior of the Russians.
Vadim was indeed smarter than his deceased eldest brother. He had no intention of inheriting the position of head of the manor, but now it seems that he must inherit this position.
He roared in a childlike voice: "My tribe, I will take you to take revenge! My mother and eldest brother died in their hands, and my three sisters were kidnapped by them. Your houses were burned down by them, you Many relatives were also killed by them. I heard that a long time ago, five hundred of our tribe were killed by the hateful Rus. We must take revenge!"
The boy's words attracted more people to the area!
People were immersed in pessimism and despair. The last heir of the manor family, respected and feared by everyone, was actually a rare brave man. Although he is only a child, at least everyone sees a glimmer of hope.
People really need hope!
Hope is still far away, even if the grown-up Vadim will lead his tribe to fight back desperately, until then, the entire manor must lick its wounds, continue to live a life of humiliation, and sharpen its knife in secret.
The more tragic the moment, the more necessary it is to win over the people.
After all, Brudne is a rational person. Even if he loses his family, as long as he still has heirs and as long as the other group of elders in the manor are still alive, the manor will not collapse.
It is now really crazy to squeeze the life-saving rations of the people who are surviving the disaster. If the Russians don't take action, they will starve to death before the wheat harvest.
Faced with the great humiliation, Brudne gritted his teeth. After a fierce ideological struggle, he suddenly looked at the residents and said: "The Russians need double tribute. I will try my best to use my family's wealth to satisfy those barbarians." People. You only need to contribute a small part. At least you must have enough food to last until the autumn harvest."
People feel incredible.
The head of the manor was originally stingy, but now he has become generous! He actually took the initiative to bear the majority of the tribute, and suddenly began to care about the livelihood of ordinary people.
What Brudne did was indeed to build momentum for her only youngest son, playing both the bitterness card and the generosity card, all in an effort to gain more support for Vadim.
Of course, there is a very practical reason here.
Pine Needle Manor was very large, and the real fire was caused by the wealthy households of the manor who lived near the river mouth.
A large number of already poor people have their houses intact.
The most fundamental criterion for distinguishing poverty and wealth in a manor is the area of farmland and the ownership of farmland. Even if the homes of wealthy households were burned down and their property looted, their land holdings would still be considerable.
In order to make a comeback and for Vadim to have a chance for revenge, Brudny must stabilize the wealthy households in the manor. As long as the manor head and the big households unite, the small households will naturally choose to follow.
The big players suffered heavy losses, and in order to win over people's hearts, Brudne knew that he had to bleed a lot!
On this night, Brudne personally buried his wife and eldest son, losing three daughters. One of him regarded his daughter-in-law as his own daughter.
However, it was obvious that he was the one who killed his eldest son, but his daughter-in-law did not appreciate it at all and said she wanted to return to her parents' home.
As a result, the next morning, Brudne announced to his tribe that last night, his daughter-in-law committed suicide for her dead husband in extreme pain and hanged herself.
Brudne led several tribesmen to dig another hole in front of the eldest son's grave so that the couple could be buried together.
Brudne was indeed a ruthless character, but facing the Russians, his ruthlessness became meaningless.
A new day has arrived. At noon, Otto led his subordinates who had not evacuated and entered the core of Pine Needle Manor.
A large amount of supplies and fifty girls were piled on the river beach.
The girls firmly believed that they had to sacrifice themselves for the survival of the manor. When they heard that they were going to be slaves to the Russians, their tears did not stop, and many of them even had red eyes that were swollen.
In contrast, this is the joy of the Russian people when they face the mountains of various belongings.
Otto seemed to be possessed by the god of war. He carried the steel sword on his body and walked towards Brudne arrogantly.
The Ross warriors behind him also deliberately formed a shield wall and deliberately looked like they were going to fight. This move was a force deterrent to the people of Pine Needle Manor.
Otto pointed his sword at Brudne with an arrogant look: "You did not deceive me. The quantity of supplies was indeed twice that before. You also provided enough women. Compared with the deadline I gave you Higurashi, you Got it done ahead of schedule.”
Brudny did not let his youngest son confront Otto, fearing that the brave Vadim would turn into a reckless fool.
Ah, in ancient Slavic, "Vadim" originally means reckless and impulsive. The boy certainly lives up to his name.
Brudne suddenly knelt down on one knee, holding his heart with his right hand, showing the respect that a humble person should have.
"Great Rus, we no longer dare to defy your wrath. Please accept our tribute and forgive us fools."
These words were all said in Norse, and Otto was in a good mood after being suddenly flattered.
Otto's patterned steel sword gently picked off Brudne's leather hat, and the sword was also placed lightly on his almost bald head. He said arrogantly: "If you had been so respectful earlier, things would not have turned out like this. In the future. Do you know what to do?"
"Yes! Great Rus people, when you come in autumn, we will still provide double tribute."
"It's not just that." Otto warned forcefully, "Only we have the right to collect taxes. Even if your manor has the largest number of people, you are just sheep for us to cut your wool. Do you want to be a king? You are not worthy! If I start from If other manors learn that you are collecting tribute after we leave, I will organize at least 3,000 people and a hundred warships to completely eradicate your manor. I tell you, I only want loyal dogs, not wolves."
Three thousand strong Russians? ! This number is enough to frighten all Novgorodians.
"Yes, yes. We will be a loyal dog."
"Okay." Otto put away his sword with satisfaction and said nothing more.
The Russians began to carry goods on their own, and many ships almost reached the limit of their load!
Fortunately, Viking warships are the strongest, and the towed transport ships also have an amazing load capacity. The structure of the keel also provides the ship with the possibility of breaking through the limits!
When evening came, all the tribute the Rus had plundered from Pine Needle Manor, along with the fifty women, were sent to White Tree Manor.
The newly arrived women were immediately cleared away. The priest of White Tree Manor, who was tied with cloth and holding a small drum, immediately recited a prayer by the bonfire and announced the completion of the wedding of another group of young people from Russia and local girls. .
At this point, the Russian people's Spring Festival tribute plan is more than half completed. The tribute collected this time is the largest harvest in all previous tribute voyages!
Those girls who completed their weddings earlier realized that their Russian husbands were not terrible and evil people.
The Russians did not want to use violence against their wives, and even broke off part of their bread and gave it to their wives. This move quickly eliminated the girls' fears, and the girls became more aware of their mission as women, which was a very simple mission - to give birth.
In this respect, both Rus' men and Novgorod men are the same.
Life will continue, and perhaps marrying a Russian will be better for your personal future. Because those Novgorod girls who will be the mothers of the next generation of Russians have already told the newly married tribesmen how to get along with the Russians. During the long winter, as a woman, staying in a warm wooden house and eating a lot of meat, this kind of life sounds good.
The White Tree Manor is peaceful. People here no longer think that the Ross people are purely violent and hateful. Specifically, they have no intention of using violence against those who surrender, but will instead give back some property as a reward for their loyalty.
However, now Otto, the leader of the Russian people, suddenly faces an extremely bad dilemma!
It would be too crazy to bring back a total of 164 Novgorod girls and a larger amount of tribute in forty ships, including people and belongings.
Just sailing seemed manageable.
If the waves were bigger and the ship would be in danger of capsizing due to its overweight, that would be terrible!
What can Otto do?
The only solution he could think of was to transport it in batches. After all, our people would have to sail up to four days to reach New Roseburg, which was under construction, and it would probably only take three days to sail back.
A group of people are left to stay here now, or even stay longer!
Otto intended to send some people to stay at White Tree Manor, and this move was approved by Rigus.
How could Ligus dare to refuse? Look at the tragedy at Pine Needles, the result of rejection and disobedience!
However, Rigus had only one small request. At least, the blacksmith Kawei will stay until the fleet arrives again in about ten days and wait for his eldest daughter to leave.
"Haha, you just want Kawei to repair the only iron tools you have? That's absolutely fine." After all, Kawei is not his son. Otto learned that Kawei himself had no objections, and he agreed without thinking.
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Chapter 149 Vadim longs for revenge
