After a long voyage, it was almost evening.
Throughout the day, the fleet moved north along the coast. Everyone could see the coast from a distance, and could clearly see the desert islands dotted on the sea, as well as the ice on the islands that had not completely melted.
In fact, there is still a lot of snow at Rurik's destination, because the other name of that so-called destination is Kemi, and it is also the hometown of Santa Claus.
The fleet approached the mouth of a creek, and ships docked here one after another.
There are only as many as thirty fishing boats. They follow Rurik's fleet. In fact, they want to get Rurik's good luck and protection in exploring the fishing resources in the northern seas. Now they continue their work and are still preparing. A good torch to attract fish bait, and finally cast the net and pray to catch them all.
Will they succeed? Of course it's impossible!
In the northernmost part of the bay, the so-called sea water here is almost no longer salty. A large number of freshwater fish can live here, but the herring and cod that the Russians like will not risk their lives to survive in such a place.
The only thing fishermen can look forward to is the so-called migratory salmon tide, but that's only in September. Besides, the Corvin servants claim that the Ross people have never seen the annual grand salmon tide. In other words, everyone has seen salmon pour into the fjord in large numbers, but it is definitely not as exciting as the Corvin people claim.
Everyone in the fleet spent the night on shore, and those suffering from seasickness could finally have a good rest.
In fact, now, the route ahead is very clear.
A brave and slightly smaller young warrior climbed up the mast, and he saw the looming coast due north.
This warrior had participated in the "Northern Hunting". Last time he came, the whole world was frozen. This time he saw the northern coastline, and a familiar yet unfamiliar feeling naturally came to his mind.
He made a prepared report to Rurik, and Rurik actually knew it well. Everyone believes that tomorrow morning we will all set sail again, and it may only take a while before we reach our destination.
The next day, the anchored fleet embarked on the journey again.
They soon saw the northern coast clearly, and the entire fleet also adjusted the angle between the sails and the central axis of the ship. They all followed Rurik's leading flagship and began to turn at a large angle.
The fleet began to sail in the crosswind, and the Ross people on each ship began to control the south wind. This sailing method gave the Ross sailing ship the fastest speed they could use when using the wind. Just because of this crosswind sailing routine, Kind of learning about airplane wings.
Everyone knew that the fleet's destination was coming soon, and this strong sense of anticipation became extremely strong after everyone experienced the mouth of the first large river.
Rurik also became excited, and everyone on the flagship was staring at the coast, looking for the unexpected mine.
Just as the Rus seek the location of their home through the hills near the fjord, so Rurik and his men are trying to scan the flat horizon for special ridges.
It has to be said that the clear air is enough for people with good eyesight and standing at high altitudes to see important landmarks thirty kilometers away. However, after the Russians experienced the first river mouth, they were already no less than thirty kilometers away from their target.
Gradually, the scene ahead became particularly clear.
Hills! There it is!
The flagship, along with all the ships, became commotion.
"We have arrived! Brothers, get ready to land!" Rurik shouted.
Without hesitation, he gave orders to all kinds of people on the fleet, especially the Ross warriors brought by Rurik and the professional sailors provided by the Gould family. These professional personnel have already begun to maneuver the ship and prepare for a series of landings!
Soon everything became clear.
The fleet reached the mouth of the so-called second great river. The fleet passed through some desert islands, passed through the river mouth that had become somewhat turbulent due to the melting of ice and snow, and all rushed to the flat left bank (eastern) river bank. Because this is the camping ground where Beikuri's army camped after the battle at the beginning of the year! Some people on the boat even saw traces of how they had slept in the open. The wooden frames of the tents that had been set up were still standing crookedly there.
The long boat with a low flat bottom began to wash up on the beach, and the long boat behind it followed closely. Only the cargo ship was still advancing slowly.
Not far ahead of them was the low and stocky mine, which was also the place where Rurik fought for the first time.
"I'm finally here!"
Rurik took a sharp breath and brought the ship to a stop. The hard oak keel was stuck in the mud. Rurik and his companions jumped out of the ship and stepped on the soft ground covered with moss and newly sprouted grass.
Regardless of whether his own people's emotions had stabilized, Rurik yelled: "Let's start! A settlement!"
He walked towards the increasingly solid land. Looking at his back, everyone could feel the enthusiasm for construction.
A group of strong men jumped from the side of the ship. They caught the thrown cable and began to pull the ship ashore.
For a moment, their leather boots stepped into the mud, and after some strenuous walking, they finally landed on harder land, leaving a deep mark on the empty long boat.
Soon, the people of the Gray Squirrel tribe were carrying their own luggage and standing in this completely unfamiliar land.
More and more supplies began to be unloaded, such as a large number of burlap bags, which contained a large amount of oats, charcoal blocks, and uncut linen specially used for building tents.
Rurik found the former camp.
He squatted down and pulled at the wet traces of the campfire with his small hands. He stood up again and looked at the mines in the distance that continued to have a lot of snow, as well as the ice lumps that could be seen everywhere in the surrounding area.
The whole world is extremely humid, but there is no heat at all.
The world is still cold, just as there are still a lot of ice lumps floating on the sea, many of which are dangerous ice packs of terrifying size.
Rurik noticed that those who waded ashore quickly took off their wet boots, only to be poured into the cold water. They sat on the wet ground, pressing the young grass leaves that had just sprouted, covering their heads with their hands. He held his cold feet in an attempt to provide warmth.
Rurik was a little glad that he didn't wade into the water, but his boots were already covered in a lot of black mud.
"Black mud? It seems like the land here is fertile, right? It's just too cold, any cold-resistant crops will freeze to death,"
Everyone has logged in, and Rurik himself has no control over what happens next.
While they were still on the boat, various personnel received their tasks. They had already gone ashore, and they had to start construction immediately even if it was just to warm their cold feet from wading in the water.
The Ross people and their servants, the Gray Squirrel tribesmen, began to build a settlement based on the temporary camp that was abandoned five months ago, at the mouth of the river not far from the mine.
Without any more words, they started the arduous work and even wanted to build the settlement before the sun went down.
Those Ross warriors estimate that they will not encounter any enemies during this trip. All they can do is provide a large amount of wood for the new settlement.
Rurik was not stupidly generous. To get the monthly reward of ten silver coins, he had to do things according to his requirements.
Since he was a war chief at a young age and was in charge of food, he had no complaints about getting rich.
The strong warriors take off their leather armor, even if the temperature is very low, they only wear a loose linen shirt, their hands are tied with linen strips, and they operate advanced mild steel heavy-duty Nordic forest axes built for logging.
The sharp ax blade was polished until it was shiny. With just one heavy blow, a tree as big as a bowl was cut down in half.
It only takes three blows to knock down a pine tree.
The Russians even used their own special skills to deal with the huge red pine that required two people to work together.
Strong loggers used steel axes to carve into the side of the trunk, creating a dangerous but unlikely collapse section. Then he lightly chiseled the other side and added a specially made iron wedge. The lumberjack hit the wedge, and the tree finally collapsed along the largest section!
It was such a feeling as if the earth was shaking, and all the Gray Squirrel tribe members were shocked! I saw that the dense pine forest not far away that could almost block the sun was experiencing terrible changes. The ground had been shaking violently, and even some ice blocks on the ground were broken due to the vibration.
The tribesmen soon understood everything to their shock - the Rus were cutting down trees that were almost impossible to cut down.
The Russians did it. Before the sun set, as many as thirty huge red pine trees were cut down. Together with a group of small trees that were cut down, the once dense forest became very dense in just half a day. All in all.
These pine trees can produce a large number of pine cones, and theoretically their fruits can be used after processing. It’s not like Rurik has never thought about using the pine trees that are everywhere in the area to develop pine nut resources. Even opening the hard shell requires some skills.
Rurik now only hopes to make use of the pine resources in the region. Although oak has much better performance than pine, the biggest advantage of pine is the extremely low cost of developing it.
A group of Rus warriors received the wood brought back by their companions, and immediately began to use axes and scrapers to process the wood carefully.
They began to build a large number of wooden houses. As the construction concept of Novgorod-style wooden houses spread to the Russians, the previous model of randomly building wooden walls and adding beams has been eliminated. Now everyone Knowing that a house built with wooden boards and wooden beds is a real pleasure to live in.
The Russian soldiers all liked the new wooden houses, and Rurik also gave everyone an order: the houses in the new settlement must have floors.
This request was difficult for the people of the Gray Squirrel tribe. They originally planned to dig a pit according to their own traditions and then build a semi-underground house on the foundation.
The leader, Mechasta, tried to dig downwards. After digging through a thin layer of moist soil, he flatly rejected his idea.
Why?
After digging down only thirty centimeters, the shovel begins to contact the hard frozen soil.
These Kovin people had no choice but to learn how to build houses from the Russians. In the process, they once again realized how backward they were.
The gray squirrel tribe is an ambitious group. The only remaining men have metal tools in their hands, and they have begun to learn the house-building skills of the Russians.
In fact, as far as building houses is concerned, the Novgorod people are more capable than the traditional Rus' people. Even if they use limited iron axes and a large number of stone axes, they still chop down big trees and perform fine processing.
The young warriors of Ross learned a number of unique construction methods, and compared with those in the East, they had a huge advantage in tools.
Novgorod residents don't need iron nails at all. They just chisel tree trunks of similar thickness into similar lengths, and then carve out both ends of the thick wooden strips to carve out tenons.
Since they are building wooden houses, the Russians probably have no method that is more cost-effective than the Novgorodians. Because the model of this type of wooden house has completely changed the Russian people's "relatively leaky" image of wooden houses. The wood-carved ridges of the mortise and tenon structure make perfect use of the thermal insulation ability of thick wood, and some moss and linen are used to plug the final gaps. Even if it is minus 40 degrees outside, separated by a wooden wall, the indoor life is still warm.
A large number of wooden piles were whittled into awl heads, and were driven into the ground by the Russian warriors who wielded huge and hard oak sledgehammers, digging into the deep permafrost zone.
Taking a typical new wooden house as an example, it is built like this.
According to the process set by the Russians, which combines the construction techniques of Novgorod and their own tribe, construction begins with digging piles.
Sixteen short and thick wooden piles (the number is not limited, the more the house, the more stable the house) form a matrix. The ends of the wooden piles are drilled with tenons, and then four parallel processed wooden poles are placed.
Then, a large number of square wooden strips processed by scrapers began to be laid neatly to form a solid wooden floor.
In this way, a fairly flat building platform is completed! What happens next couldn't be easier.
Those prefabricated wooden strips with tenon joints began to pile up like stacks of wood, completing the tenon and tenon joints with each other, and the wooden wall was thus stacked higher and higher.
Finally, the traditional Russian herringbone frame was installed on the roof, a large number of wooden ribs were laid, wooden boards were laid based on the wooden ribs, and finally a layer of thatch was laid. A wooden house is almost complete.
Of course, the warriors Rurik selected were not all young people. There were no fewer than ten older warriors among them. These people actually worked as carpenters. They had experienced the wildest youth, and now fighting and looting can be regarded as side jobs. . With these guys, what Rurik needs is their skills. Because they all participated in the construction of the leader's new house, they had sufficient experience in building Novgorod-style woodcut ridges.
The Gray Squirrel tribesmen who will enjoy the benefits of new housing have joined the construction team, as well as a large number of children under Rurik's command, who are also doing their best work.
At one time, as many as twenty-five wooden carvings had completed building the foundation, and many had even completed laying the floor. Anyone with a discerning eye will understand that the next work is to stack the wooden strips with mortise and tenon. Maybe within three or four days, all the wooden houses being built now will be completed.
Initially, there were only twenty-five wood carvings, which was certainly not enough!
Rurik longed for this town under construction to become the largest iron smelting center controlled by the Rus tribe. No matter it’s already May here, there is still ice and snow everywhere. The heat from iron smelting will protect the people who live here, and the settlers will become prosperous because of iron and steel.
