In fact, the river that the Rus crossed was the so-called Tornio River, which originated from Lake Torna in the Norwegian ridge. This so-called Lake Torna is the source of many rivers such as the Gulf of Bothnia, and a westward river originating from it flows into the Narvik Fjord in Norway.
A Norwegian tribe named Balmok is now the owner of Narvik Fjord.
But so far, even if the distance between the two tribes in space is not very far, and even if the two tribes can complete land connections along the existing rivers, the two sides still do not know the existence of the other.
The Rus don't know the existence of the Balmok tribe, but the Balmoks are not fools who are happy to hide in the fjord. They took the initiative to look for external business opportunities. The locals began to set their sights on Britain in the distance, and also on the east of the mountains.
The powerful Balmoks have begun to have increasingly lively business dealings with some "business partners" to the east of the mountains. The scale of this so-called commercial activity is still too small, and it will hardly interfere with the lives of deer farmers in the area.
Therefore, the Balmoks may have known about the existence of the Rus tribe, a confederation of Siiya tribes, but they did not know the exact location of the Rus.
Otto led his tribe to finally enter a new area that even the fishermen had not explored, and everyone settled down in a forest.
It looked like it was going to be another day of spending the night in the cold snow.
However, those hunters who took advantage of the darkness to build tripwire traps in the hope of catching precious ferrets in unknown places noticed mysterious lights appearing in the distance.
what is that? It's a bonfire!
The experienced hunter is extremely sensitive to flames. Based on his experience, he concluded that it was an artificially lit bonfire and had nothing to do with the stars and moonlight.
And there’s more than one bonfire.
What exactly is it? A deer herder's camp? Or an unknown enemy? !
The hunters gave up the idea of setting traps. They all ran back to their campsites and rushed to Otto's warm sleeping nest to convey this amazing discovery.
"Is your eyes okay? If you lie about the news, I will punish you." Otto seriously questioned.
"Oh! Great leader, I dare to swear to Valkyrie that my eyes are normal." The hunter also responded seriously.
Otto continued to ask: "Are there many bonfires?"
"It's absolutely true. Maybe the deer herder at that time was the mysterious enemy in the prophecy..."
"Shut up! Brothers." Otto's eyes widened under the night moon, and he suddenly pulled out his sword. "The prophecy of the high priest has come true. Listen, I know the deer herders. They will not openly set fire to fire." Bonfire, because that will scare the deer! It must be an unknown enemy, it must be a powerful enemy. Brothers, the aurora is in the sky! The opportunity to prove to the Valkyrie that you are a powerful warrior has come, brothers, follow me!"
Otto forgot his fatigue for a moment. Nothing excites the old guy more than fighting.
His men were like wolves smelling blood.
Many people were awakened from their sleep, and those who suddenly woke up were a little bit excited to wake up. However, when they learned that the fateful battle was finally coming, one or two people stood up quickly.
The originally quiet camp suddenly became noisy.
Otto drank a swig of strong liquor, then threw the bottle to one of his subordinates. He wiped his face hard with the snow that was available everywhere, and twisted his lion-like head desperately: "It's time to find out that brat."
Otto stood in front of Rurik's snow nest tent, violently opened the linen roof and jumped in.
Rurik was caught in his sleep and slapped twice by Otto himself.
He was a little confused, why was he slapped by his father?
"Aren't you awake yet? My child! The battle has begun. This is your first battle!"
"First battle? Has the battle begun?"
"Wake up now!" Otto roared, threw his son directly on the snow, and continued to scold: "Get ready, we are going to fight."
With this scolding and the pain on his face, Rurik realized the seriousness of the matter. He felt that unknown enemies were attacking in large numbers, but when he stood up after Rumia pulled him, he saw tribal warriors adjusting their equipment under the snowy night.
Where are the enemies?
Rurik looked around. There was obviously no trace of the enemy in the small woods where he was hiding.
At that glance, Rurik felt that Otto had suddenly become very strange, like a raging lion that had lost the depth of an old man and turned into an outright militant.
Look at what Otto is doing now! The whole camp was busy with the old leader.
And this kind of Otto is also the person Rurik wants to be.
After a while, Yevro, who also received the combat order, ran close to his real master Rurik with a group of mercenaries under his command.
"What happened? Where are our enemies?" Rurik asked anxiously.
Jevro pointed to the east with his big hand: "It's over there. Hunters claimed that there were a lot of bonfires on the east side of the frozen river."
"Is it an enemy? Is it a deer herder?"
"This... I'm sorry, the leader didn't reveal more information." Yevluo said regretfully.
Rumia, who realized that something was wrong with the situation, stared at her master seriously: "Deer farmers are definitely not deer farmers. Deer farmers will not expose their situation rashly with bonfires. And deer are a little afraid of fire."
"Not a deer farmer? That's a Finn." Rurik said the word "finn" without thinking.
Jevro immediately denied it: "My master, my hometown is in the south. With all due respect, you cannot meet Finns in this area."
"Not a Finn? How could he not be a Finn?" Rurik was very surprised.
Although Rurik understood the basic geographical structure of the Nordic world, he knew little about the Nordic ethnic pattern in the ninth century. In fact, the so-called Finns in a narrow sense are specifically the indigenous people living along the coastline in Helsinki's geographical location.
Because of this, sometimes fishermen who turned into pirates attacked the indigenous settlements along the coast. Sometimes, the indigenous residents simply came to open their hometowns and seek development on the land to the west of the sea.
The Finns are what they call themselves. Most of the time, the Viking tribes living in Svealan simply call them "people from the east" in general.
Jevro insisted that they were not Finns, and he also raised a possibility: "Maybe the unknown enemy is a Tavastian."
Tavastians? This was the first time Rurik heard this name. He hurriedly asked Rumia, but unexpectedly Rumia claimed to have heard of this name.
"Do you still remember what happened in the past?" Rurik asked Jevro seriously.
"I still vaguely remember that even if I forget my parents' faces, I will never forget that the Tavastians are also our enemies."
Rurik could not have imagined that there was a tribe in Northern Europe that could fight better than the Vikings? This Tavastian, according to Javlo's description, is definitely not a Viking.
So, who are they?
No matter what strange names they have, Rurik believes that this group of people is one of the ancestors of modern Finns thousands of years later.
After thinking about this, Rurik issued an urgent order: "Jevro. Order the brothers to prepare for battle. You all follow me. You, especially, must inform my father of all your speculations."
Most of the warriors of the Ross tribe only took a short rest before having to get up again. After packing up all their equipment, eating some hard wheat cakes and dried meat, they dragged their sleds and continued to move forward in the cold snowy night. .
This time, Rurik also had to follow his father on foot.
What about Jevlo?
Although Rurik was a little reluctant, the mercenaries he raised were ordered by Otto to serve as the vanguard of the team. Regarding receiving such an arrangement, Yevluo felt that this was an opportunity to become famous.
Jevro had already informed Otto of his guess that the people who lit a large number of bonfires were most likely the Tavastians who went north to hunt.
Otto had never heard of the so-called Tavastians, and he even knew very little about the Finns. He felt that Javlo, who was not tall and strong in front of him, was a typical Finn. In fact, Javlo had already become a Viking and could no longer be called a real Finn.
Through these unconfirmed suspicions, coupled with the hunter's report, Lumia further explained the living habits of the deer herders.
Otto put all the information together and he came to some conclusions. No matter who lit the bonfire, they were definitely hunters! Since they are hunters, they must have a lot of leather on hand.
It was fate that caused the two groups to meet. The prophecy was very clear and this battle was inevitable.
The Russian army pulling sleds shuttled through the forest. They couldn't talk about any formation, they were just a large group of people gathering together noisily.
Otto's idea was also very simple. Now that the enemy's position was clear, and the army of explanations rushed forward, with the strong combat power of the Russians, wouldn't they be able to win a complete victory in one attack?
In fact, humans are first of all nocturnal creatures. The large number of rod cells that humans possess enable humans to move with weak light at night. Especially hunters with rich hunting experience are always good at using their nocturnal abilities to hunt at night.
For this reason, specially selected pilots of high-altitude night reconnaissance aircraft can accurately detect the extremely weak slow-burning light of cigarette butts on the dark ground, and then determine the location of the enemy's defensive positions.
The glimmer of a cigarette butt can be seen, let alone a large number of bonfires.
After walking for a while, Rurik had to sit on the sled with Rumia.
Such a son made Otto a little worried. How could an excellent warrior be afraid of running attacks? Considering that my son is only eight years old, maybe we shouldn’t ask too much of him at this age.
The army had been walking through the forest for unknown lengths of time. Even with the help of hunters who had explored the road as guides, many people were still worried that they had taken a detour. Until, people can see the bonfire in the distance with their naked eyes.
"Wow! Over there!"
Through the gaps in the snow-covered pine branches, Rurik saw the shadowy hills in the distance, as well as a large number of bonfires on the hills.
At this point, any doubts in the crowd were gone. Everyone was so excited that they wanted to rush over immediately, destroy the enemy's camp, and plunder all the furs they had hunted.
ah! The Russian warriors heard Otto's clamor, and the chats of the hunters along the way, convinced everyone that the so-called mysterious Tavastians who lit the bonfire had accumulated a large amount of leather. Those who boldly expose themselves are simply reckless people who invite death.
That's right, it's the law of the dark forest! The Russians were not going to be reasonable this time.
As the army set foot into a place where the explorer hunters had never left any footprints, everyone's actions became cautious, until a frozen river blocked the way.
It was another frozen river, and the fishermen in the crowd all said that they had never ventured here during the warm period.
Facing this big river, Otto stopped unconsciously, and his men also stopped to wait for the leader's order.
Sitting on the sleigh, feeling exhausted, Rurik reluctantly asked: "Dad, don't we attack immediately?"
"You can't wait any longer?" Otto turned to glance at his son, and suddenly asked with interest: "Do you think we should attack immediately?"
"I think... we should let everyone rest first."
"Rest? I see that our warrior is not tired."
Otto said this, but he actually understood the situation of his subordinates very well. Everyone did not get a good rest, so they walked an extremely long distance under the snowy night. The warriors must be exhausted. Taking part in the battle with such an attitude, Otto had no chance of winning. What's more, look at the location of those bonfires, the army still needs to walk a long way.
"I see that everyone is very tired." Rurik jumped off the sled and said that his father was already drowsy. "Dad, if our people fight tiredly, many people will be accidentally injured or even killed. Since we are going to fight, we must be prepared."
"Oh? I didn't expect that you actually know how to fight?"
"This..." Rurik wanted to be modest. He noticed his father's strange attitude and cheered up. "I know how to fight. The prophecy makes it very clear. This is my first battle."
"Your first battle." Otto smiled and nodded deeply, and then said loudly to his subordinates who were waiting for instructions: "You all heard it! This time, it is our Rurik who leads us to fight, and we will definitely win. A great victory. Now I am determined to follow Rurik's orders on how we fight."
On the bank of the frozen river, Rurik, who was a little depressed, was suddenly appointed by Otto as the "war chief", which is the so-called military commander. The big leader Otto had the right to appoint a tribesman to this temporary but very important position.
It seems ridiculous that the position falls on a little boy, but in fact it is not. Quite a few tribal warriors are looking forward to this day!
Because Otto's aging is obvious, although everyone is reluctant, it is certain that Otto's life will not last long. If Rurik, who has received the blessings of the gods, can become a leader that everyone trusts and can bring military victory, the clan will The last worries in people's minds will disappear.
Things turned out like this, and Otto was a little surprised that his son didn't have any fear.
Rurik took the initiative to take a sip of the spirit he ordered distilled. The strong pungency affected his mind, and his whole body was shaken.
All the tribesmen present were gathered around by Rurik in the name of "War Chief". He drew his sword and stretched his throat in order to suppress the howling of the north wind.
"Warriors of Ross! Now I am your leader. This is the first battle of my destiny, and I will lead you to victory!"
Immediately, the booing young people in the team began to roar Rurik's name, which soon turned into an inspiring roar from everyone.
After the crowd fell silent, Rurik finally made a surprising decision.
