Rurik didn't want to have a long talk about what the so-called campfire meeting was doing, even if he was reminiscing about the past, it should end here.
He wanted to end it quickly so that he wouldn't have to spend the night on the shore again, so he simply hugged a deerskin bedding with a layer of linen and ran to the dry and flat longboat to sleep.
Finally at the critical moment, Rurik ordered his people to shut up. He approached Mechasta and said, "Let me tell you something now. The expedition you sent was completely wiped out, and no one in my tribe was lost. Those people were all killed." After they died, I could leave the corpses of those people alone and let them be eaten by the snow wolves. But I got God's order, so before we left, most of the corpses were collected. All the corpses were gathered in a place at the foot of the mountain. The depression.”
Mechasta trembled all over after hearing this. He didn't know what to say about the child in front of him, and why he suddenly told himself this. They were savage fellows, but they showed mercy. etc! Really kindness? There must be a hint of threat!
Putting himself in his shoes, Mechasta asked himself, in those tribal wars in the past, his own people would not care about the corpses of the fallen hostile Salmon Lord tribesmen, and simply let them rot and return to nature.
Mechasta suppressed his emotions, "Where...are they all in there?"
"It's right at the foot of the mountain. I think it's easy to find them. Tomorrow most of us will go to the hill to continue to develop the mines that were developed by your people. As for the dead, I want to build a joint tomb for them. Your cemetery is near the mountain fort, and I know your tradition. So build a joint tomb, and that area will be your tribe’s cemetery from now on. I think you can accept my arrangement."
Mechasta felt hatred in his heart. Just looking at this handsome boy and the boy's decision, he really couldn't hate it.
Mechasta is a rational person who knows what actions can bring benefits and avoid disadvantages to his people.
Based on absolutely rational considerations, if the members of the expedition team are dead, they are dead, and it is useless to say anything. Now, the important thing is to appease the hearts of the tribesmen who are still alive.
At least so far, the Rus people have not interfered with their tribe's sacrificial activities. Instead, the tribesmen have received good food treatment, and now they have better housing. Even leader Rurik really understands the people of Kovin!
With tears in his eyes, Mechasta fully agreed with Rurik's determination.
His face was looking at the faint hills under the starlight not far away, and a strange feeling with a hint of familiarity arose spontaneously.
so similar! If you build a walled hillfort, set up a cemetery, an altar, and put some canoes on the river beach, it will all feel so much like your hometown!
His face came back to reality and he looked at Rurik: "I have also made the decision that our tribe will no longer call ourselves gray squirrels. We have a brand new name, we are iron squirrels!"
"Really?" Rurik responded with a smile: "Let's call it Stella Orava. Your tribe needs to be named after steel. Because we Russians will make steel as long as we get the chance. This is why we are strong. The key. Mechasta, you should be happy with your decision, your master is destined to become the strongest among the Varyags."
It sounds like something worth being happy about, but the Russians generally don't understand the "Kovin language" spoken by Rurik, and they start making noises. Only Mechasta shed tears with excitement and a feeling of sadness in his heart. A sense of fear aroused.
Because in his opinion, this Varyag child, who was a little younger than his own son, had huge ambitions, and his vision was so big that it completely exceeded his own imagination. Does he want to conquer "all the places where you can set foot and sail"?
ah! After all, the tribe that was renamed the "Iron Squirrels" has always hoped to live a life free from competition by the dense forest river. What ambitions can they have?
So when the other people of the Iron Squirrel tribe knew that they needed to build their new homes just like they built their old mountain forts, everyone was happy.
And when everyone learned that the bodies of the deceased members of the expedition had a clear destination, they immediately exploded!
Because many sons or husbands of old women who survived are members of the expedition team! They gathered around the shaman of their tribe and prayed to her that tomorrow they would find all the corpses and make a sacrifice for their dead relatives, so that their souls wandering in the cold world could return to the souls of the Kewen people in their dreams. The sea rests.
The expedition team is right there! Just in a snow nest at the foot of the mountain!
This night, the people of the Iron Squirrel Tribe, who had been renamed as the Iron Squirrel Tribe, couldn't let go when they thought of their tribesmen still lying dead in the wilderness. They didn't fall asleep until they were extremely tired.
Rurik and his guys have already made arrangements for what to do tomorrow.
Night has fallen, and it's best not to think too much about anything until dawn.
He lay down on the flagship longboat that was towed to the shore, spread deerskin on the flat inside of the boat, and wrapped himself in a quilt to rest.
He did not ask the Terravis brothers and sisters about their many feelings about the dead in the mine. Even though they were on the same ship, he could hear the whispers of the brothers and sisters and knew how sorry they were for the dead in the tribe.
Along the river, this place should have been absolutely wild, a purely natural place undiscovered by humans. Now the Russians have planted deep wooden stakes here. Towns are about to rise from the ground, and the desolate land must It will be filled with popularity and the heat of hot steel.
The construction site by the river fell into temporary silence, the bonfire was still crackling, and the faint smell of burning rosin floated in the air. The relatively dry ground baked by the flames was filled with various wooden strips and unprocessed logs.
There was even a huge pine tree lying alone here with all its branches cut off. It was dragged out of the woods by more than twenty strong men.
The young people in Ross noticed the unique timber resources here!
Different from the area where Roseburg is located, the huge pine or oak trees near the hometown have been cut down almost. Coupled with the development of the shipbuilding industry in more than a year, the tribe's demand for wood is increasing day by day.
Everyone originally came to the north to explore mineral resources. People who are highly sensitive to navigation instantly realized the importance of the timber resources here.
Big tree! Very tall tree! It is a large tree that is almost extinct in my hometown.
Although in the eyes of the Russians, the best ship material is oak, but oak tends to grow a little crooked, so the more common red pine has become an important substitute. Pine trees are slightly less hard than oak trees, as the Russians can judge by experience.
A group of breathtaking giant red pine trees were discovered near the new settlement. After they had to cut them down, they only had to dig into the trunks to make excellent canoes.
However, its greatest value lies in the keel! The red pine is too tall. The hardest part of the core is cut into strips and allowed to dry naturally. It is an excellent keel material. Based on it, the Russians can build larger ships.
A new day arrives in the cool breeze.
The whole world is immersed in a thin sea fog. When the sun rises, the fog quickly dissipates.
A night's sleep didn't help Rurik get a good rest.
"After all, the journey is so tiring, I have to sleep at least until noon. Oh, let's get up. I have to take them to the mine at noon today." He patted his little face to cheer up, then sat up and saw that it had begun Working people.
Generally speaking, Russians only eat two meals a day, that is, one when they get up and one in the evening. Only those who do heavy physical work will eat a meal at noon, so for everyone, the meal in the evening is the main meal.
Rurik at least provided three meals a day to his young subordinates. Or because of the daily training, the children were forced to eat more because of hunger.
In the early morning, the aroma of cooking wheat porridge wafted over the camp, or looking for this rich and mouth-watering aroma, a group of fishermen, instead of turning around and returning home, sailed their sail fishing boats directly to the beach.
Rurik noticed their arrival and couldn't help but feel touched in his heart.
Some bold young fishermen, how they hope that they can become part of the one hundred selected warriors and follow Rurik, so that they and their descendants can become the top cronies of Rurik who will take power in the future.
In fact, only five small fishing boats washed up on the beach, and only 20 fishermen landed on the beach. They are all young and promising, and most of them are brothers and close friends with each other on the same boat.
Having just eaten the hot salty wheat porridge, Rurik felt energetic. It seemed that the five kilometers of inland cross-country that followed would not be difficult.
The sudden landing of the fishermen made him very happy. After all, the reality was here. He had really overestimated the speed of building a new town with the few people on hand. He needed more strong labor force.
Rurik stood up and accepted the warrior-like baggage of his tribesmen's fists hammering their hearts.
The leader of the fishermen is called Spyut. He and his companions did not participate in the Northern Hunting, nor did they participate in the crusade against Gotland, perhaps just because they were very young.
These twenty fishermen are generally only twenty years old this year. Compared to other warriors, they have never been on the battlefield. Even though they hunt land beasts and kill beluga whales and seals with harpoons, they are still too immature.
"Lord War Chief, we are here to work for you."
"Oh?" Rurik was a little surprised, "I thought you went fishing at night to donate your catch to me."
"Sir, we really want to work for you. We can cut down trees, build houses, and repair your ships."
"I understand." Rurik grabbed his waist and said, "You want some reward, just like everyone else. Even if you are a little tired from work, if you can earn one silver coin in three days, the food will be free. You don’t want to miss this good thing.”
Hearing this, the fisherman Spyut smiled naively, and couldn't help but murmur in his heart: Rurik is smart, much smarter than all the children.
Rurik did not reward him: "Your goal is actually to obtain silver coins. Do you think that if you come to do things for me uninvited, I must give you benefits?"
Spuyut was a little panicked. He then looked at the expressions of the other tribal brothers around Rurik. For a moment, he was deeply timid and his steps became a little weak.
"If you refuse, I think we should leave." As he said that, some fishermen had already started to retreat.
"Wait!" Rurik waved.
"Sir, do you have any more instructions?"
For a moment, Rurik glanced at the rushing river from the corner of his eyes. He thought that the idea he had yesterday could be implemented immediately with the help of these fishermen today.
"You can work for me, but not in construction." Rurik pointed his little finger up the river. "You go against the river and explore the fish in the river for me. I don't believe it. You can't catch a few fish in this sea area, and you still can't catch it in the river."
"Let's go fishing for river fish? Is this okay?"
"Who knows?" Rurik shrugged, suddenly having another flash of inspiration. He stamped his feet: "Oh! Who knows how many resources there are in this area? We caught a lot of ferrets and snow rabbits in this area in winter. If you go upstream, you might be able to catch some small animals too."
This reminder really brings to mind a lot of things.
Spuyut suddenly realized: "Spring is here, those hibernating black bears, and wandering white bears, they should all appear. The bears in my hometown have been hunted to death, maybe here..."
"What a great idea! Just do it!"
What Rurik is sure of is that there must be more polar bears than people living on the land north of the Gulf of Bothnia. How many are they? Thirty thousand, fifty thousand, or more. Perhaps the ice floes in the Arctic Ocean are now full of polar bears wandering around.
Rebuilding a Corvin-style mountain fortress is to defend against sneak attacks by polar bears.
Polar bear leather is a kind of treasure, and bear meat is also a good meat. Hunting a strong bear weighing nearly a ton is a difficult task no matter how you think about it. If you don't do it well, you may be revolted by the bear. Killing makes the hunter become the prey.
When the fishermen were here, Rurik immediately recruited five mercenaries under his command and gave the crossbow-equipped mercenary warrior a special mission - to explore with the fishing boats and shoot them directly when they found large prey.
Finding and hunting bears, wolves, foxes, and reindeer became part of the fishermen's business.
Rurik made a condition, that is, he would purchase all fresh leather according to the traditional Russian leather purchase price. Rurik was also willing to spend money to buy the meat of prey and catches.
His only warning was that once he encountered the so-called "summer grazing" deer herders, he should not take the initiative to shoot them. Instead, he should use force to capture them and finally bring them all back to the camp.
They are a Ross expedition team that goes upstream and obeys Rurik's orders! Five small fishing boats with a total of twenty-five people!
They received brand new orders, and they were fortunate to have the opportunity to work for Rurik, and everyone received an honor.
Of course, in addition to the relatively empty honor, Rurik, who has always been "particularly fond of abiding by contracts", promised to use real money and silver to buy all the good things discovered by the expedition.
In order to obtain huge benefits and honors, the fishermen did not stay any longer. As the mercenary warriors carrying steel-armed crossbows boarded the boat, the fishermen felt that their strength had greatly increased.
Five small boats went upstream, with the four oars on each boat rowing regularly, and the spread sails were blown by the south wind that was no longer as sharp as a knife. They gradually disappeared among Rurik and other people watching on the shore. In sight.
Kawei always stood next to Rurik, watching the fishing boat go further and further away, gradually being obscured by the dark green forest.
"Rurik, do you really think they can hunt a group of white bears?"
"Who knows?" Rurik shrugged. "Whether they succeed or not, this area will always be our territory. From here it continues to the Oulu River of the Kovin people, and Murmansk due east of us. The peninsula is surrounded by the sea on three sides, and the deer herders who live there must all be my servants."
Rurik spoke a bit too much, and Kawei vaguely heard some strange words. "Rurik, what Moor? What Sk? A peninsula?"
"Ah!" Rurik's small body was startled, and he pointed to the endlessly flowing river: "Everything here belongs to us! That's what God told me."
Kawei was greatly surprised: "Ah, it seems you got a revelation last night."
Rurik has made similar remarks many times. He said casually: "Even if we haven't been to some areas, God has given me revelations."
"Odin...any other revelations?"
"Yes!" Rurik smiled confidently, "There is a peninsula, which is the territory of deer farmers. Directly north of us, in the frozen sea at the end of the world, there is a bay that never freezes. Let's go, we want to Climb the mine. Remember! It was Odin who gave me the battle of destiny, and it was Odin who gave us the mine. Next, it is the time for you to show your talents."
"Then let's go." Kawei turned around and looked at his tribe, "Everyone is ready. Those Kewen people are ready, and your subordinates are also ready. Just waiting for your order. Got it!"
"Let's go!" After saying that, Rurik suddenly pulled out his sword, and with the buzzing sound of the blade, he roared: "Except for the brothers who stayed behind to continue the construction, everyone else, go to the mine!"
The tribesmen let out inspiring roars, but the Kewen people seemed extremely urgent. They gathered together to form a mighty team, numbering as many as four hundred people!
