Those sturdy long ships carried too much cargo, and it seemed that as long as a big wave hit, the ships would capsize.
In 830, the extremely long Sorgon voyage that spanned the entire summer finally ushered in the end of the harvest.
The huge fleet rushed to the west and gradually disappeared from the sight of people on the shore.
Those immigrants who continued to operate New Roseburg continued to build the nearly completed wall and waited for the coming of winter.
Thinking of the past few days, Rurik, who was sitting on the "leader ship" engraved with a dragon's head, couldn't help but think more.
The weak north wind was not so hurtful yet. He looked at the rowers behind him. He was sitting in a cramped seat. In order to ensure a stable center of gravity of the ship, the sacks carrying grain were placed in the center in a line parallel to the keel. . Many people were already shirtless, and even though there was a cool breeze, the sun shone on their muscular arms, still showing their obvious sweat.
Fort New Rose is behind, and the wooden wall erected has become an obvious landmark.
Everything was just the beginning. Rurik believed that Konuson would act in accordance with his city plan. Perhaps ten years later, a solid city wall built of stone would be able to rise on the Neva River. Those were relatively distant things, such as he saw the fleet passing a desert island. It's Kotlin Island, with some rocks on it.
It must be said that Rurik was in great need of solid granite for construction.
The ones on Kotlin Island are not excellent granite, but just some soft sandstone. They have been weathered and eroded over the years, and have covered the island with a layer of sand.
"Maybe I should call it Kronstadt from now on."
There is no fresh water on the island and the fleet has no intention of docking here.
Because Arik led his brothers to attack a seaside village of a group of Estonian tribes, the Russians won an absolute victory without anyone dying. Because of this, Otto had no idea of stopping at the south coast of the bay to rest.
If he led a large army to conquer him, he would be fearless, but now a huge fleet is escorting 200,000 pounds of grain and other supplies. A large group of non-combatants was a liability, and Otto did not want to be harassed in any way. He needed to find a safe anchorage.
There are especially some children from Novgorod and some local young women.
To put it bluntly, these Slavs were all sold to the Russians by their parents. They already believed that their children could live a better life by becoming slaves to the Russians, seemingly as slaves. In this way, when they betray their heirs, they can comfort themselves and not feel too distressed.
The fleet carried a large amount of food, which was a spoil of war distributed to every warrior who participated in the tribute.
A group of children are all servants given to sons. Both boys and girls must devote themselves to future training and work within their capabilities. I really hope that a piece of myth and legend will win over people's hearts, but Otto doesn't think it is a panacea. He would like to see Rurik train his forces so that the family can truly and completely reject the ancient tradition of male duels to choose the leader.
Otto even served as the "Yue Lao". One of the ways to win people's hearts was to solve the marriage problems of young men in the tribe. Although people's living standards have improved in the past two years, young couples will no longer take the initiative to dispose of their newborn daughters, and the gender ratio of the tribe has begun to stabilize.
Not all young boys of the previous generation got married, and even many strong men were able to marry a second wife.
Isn't it natural to introduce wives to them and receive some money from them?
For these reasons, and in order to avoid any accidents, the fleet cannot dock on the coast of the mainland.
So, could it be that the most important fresh water for the long voyage relied entirely on being obtained from the Neva River and stored in pottery urns and water bags in the warrior's personal stomach pouch?
It doesn't have to be this way.
There are many islands in the long and narrow Gulf of Finland that runs east-west, and many of them are large islands with fresh water.
Among the many islands, Mohinet Island is quite unique.
Otto had long known that this island with two small bays was very suitable as an anchorage for the sailing fleet and a resting place for the people on board. What's even more wonderful is that there is an extremely rare and huge freshwater lake on the island, which has truly become a holy place for supplies.
If it was just for the sake of traveling, Otto had no intention of stopping here.
The transportation of personnel and supplies this time was the most extreme of the countless voyages he had led. Of course, it is currently unimaginable that his son's first attack would be even more extreme.
The longship was not an excellent transport ship, and it only served a cameo role in that role.
Because of the wind direction, Otto found that he could not use the wind to move the longship quickly in this east-west bay. Only by entering the Gulf of Bothnia, which runs north to south, can we easily travel against the wind.
However, who said that a sailboat cannot move due west when the north wind blows? Rurik looked at the uniform single-sided sails of the fleet. It was not the kind of triangular sail that could sail at will using the wind from all directions, so it should not have high expectations. The best sailors can control the existing sails to ride the waves in unfavorable wind conditions. The best sailors need long-term training. Gould raised a group of such people. This matter was not due to Gould's wisdom. It was simply a waste of money to hire a large number of rowers, and large cargo ships were not suitable for rowing. It can be said that it is a pure sailing ship that gave birth to professional sailors who make a living by sailing.
The arms of the Rus warriors, which were almost as thick and powerful as their legs, proved that they were masters of oars. If they had to take care of looting, hunting and fishing at the same time, they could not work hard to learn to control the sails.
However, the fleet was already moving forward with more weight than ever before. They were full of energy in the morning, but in the afternoon they relied entirely on their endurance to endure the boring paddling. Although some ships sang folk songs to try to relieve boredom, and even the Novgorod women accompanying them sang local folk songs, all the singing could not reduce the fatigue of the arms.
Otto could see the fatigue of his men.
He stood on the bow of the ship, holding the wooden carving of the terrifying snake head on the bow of the ship. His bearded face was illuminated by the soft light of the setting sun, which was completely different from the tired looks of the others.
After all, no one would complain that the big chief didn't serve as oarsman himself.
"Brothers, try harder! I'm going to dock at Tamsui Island. I know you're all tired. When we get to the shore, we'll eat wheat and drink water! There are a lot of bass in that lake, and it's easy to catch them. We can catch him! Tonight we will drink wheat porridge and grilled fish and have a good rest!"
There was hope for the voyage. The leader's ship made an inspiring roar. The following ships didn't know what was going on. Adhering to the tacit understanding in the past and the fact that it was getting late, it seemed that the fleet was about to dock for rest. .
Ashore? Which shore is it?
The fleet had just passed a road with a huge beach. At first, everyone thought it was a docking place and never wanted to lead the ship around it and continue moving forward.
Otto would not take the risk of docking, especially since the returning fleet only had as many as 700 people. Among them were a large number of women, children and supplies, so he had to find a reliable docking point for supplies.
A reliable island is just ahead.
The "freshwater island" as the destination is actually Mohinet Island. There is a small island shaped like a dagger on the east side of the island. The two islands are like twins and they are easy to distinguish.
After a while, under the leadership of the leader, the fleet followed the rising tide in the evening and deliberately ran aground on the gravel-covered southern beach of the island, and then people came ashore in large numbers.
The people who landed were like wild horses running wild. Those who knew something about the island rushed towards the center of the island with the water bags they had held back. A large number of people who didn't know what was going on followed closely behind. They only walked less than three hundred meters in the forest before they saw the dreamy lake.
They rowed almost without rest throughout the day, munching on pre-made wheat cakes and dried meat, drinking swigs of the water they brought, but almost no one went to the toilet. It's not that it's indecent, it's just that it's really out of stock.
Many people are thirsty. When they see the lake, they kneel by the lake like deer and drink directly regardless of whether it is clean or not. There are also some people who have already picked up the hemp rope nets they carry with them and are trying to catch fish in the lake.
At night, the young warriors with sore backs sat around the campfire, waiting for the wheat in the pottery urn to be cooked.
Originally, the wheat controlled by everyone was shared in proportion, so it is natural for everyone to eat up the wheat.
Otto collected 200,000 pounds of shelled oats from Novgorod. Otto was also greedy for such a large amount of wealth. He demanded half of it as the wealth of the chief family, plus the money collected from New Roseburg. Although the agricultural tax in the first year was only a little over 10,000 pounds of wheat, it was his own real wealth, and it was a very stable source of wealth with huge development potential.
Absolute power brings such results. Although it is an extreme distribution method, Otto feels that he has taken great care of his subordinates.
Each young warrior can be allocated at least one hundred and sixty pounds of wheat, so it seems that each person does not get much.
In fact, what they benefited from Sorgon was not just wheat. The young men were happy to follow the leader in order to gain experience during the voyage and, more importantly, to get a woman to be his wife. These wheats are all obtained for free and are their pure profits. To know how long the entire Sorgon team stayed in the east, they mainly relied on local people to provide supplies. During the days in New Roseburg, everyone expected to be of the same clan, so they would go fishing offshore and catch rabbits in the woods. In Novgorod, the army's food and drink expenses were of course completely dependent on the locals, especially the vindictive request for most of the supplies from the Pine Needle Estate.
They ate the cooked wheat, and the accompanying women were also asked to grind some wheat using stone grinding rods brought from their hometowns and make some wheat cakes with coarse flour for later use.
The aroma of wheat and grilled fish filled the beach. The warriors' bellies clapped like stones. Already exhausted, they fell asleep together around the campfire due to hypoglycemia caused by overeating carbohydrates.
Together with their father Otto, they all wrapped themselves in blankets impatiently and quickly fell asleep.
"Damn it, I thought you wanted to hold a bonfire party, but I was overthinking it."
Rurik didn't want to go to bed so early. He only ate a small bowl of wheat porridge and sat on the dry gravel on the beach, listening to the waves and looking at the moonlight and stars, as well as the rows of ships.
"What are you thinking about?" Arik came with a wooden bowl and sat next to his brother again.
"This is such a lack of vigilance."
"Um?"
"I'm talking about father and the others. If an enemy attacks us, we sleeping guys will be in danger."
Arik was speechless for a moment and laughed loudly, "Your ideas are too naive. Is there any force in this sea that knows how to sail better than us? Who are you worried about? The Finns? Or the Estonians you mentioned? Look, this This island is already our territory. I never knew there was a lake here. It seems that we should first stop here for our future voyages."
"It's better to be more vigilant." Rurik shrugged, as if he was unfounded.
Arik swallowed his third bowl of wheat porridge in three mouthfuls and said casually: "Damn it, who would have thought that the ship would become bulky? Look at the brothers, is it normal for them to fall asleep after eating?" "
"What's that like?" Rurik turned his head back, "They won't catch a cold because they're wrapped in leather."
"They are so tired, maybe we should take a good rest on this island for a day."
"Huh?" Rurik was shocked, "The leader has no plan to do this."
Arik looked helpless: "Unless there is a gust of south wind tomorrow. In my opinion, everyone should rest their arms."
south wind? Easier said than done? It's simply not possible.
Rurik knew very well the basic geography of Northern Europe. There was no mountain range, which allowed the north wind to blow endlessly in autumn and winter.
Otto did not inform himself of his future voyage plans. Perhaps he told Arik?
"Brother, what did you say about our next voyage..."
"Of course we need to be well prepared. We are going straight to the west. Maybe we won't go to the second stop before arriving at Tombstone Island."
"Ah?!" For a moment, Rurik felt that this was not reliable.
"Don't be in a daze." Arik pointed at a group of children huddled up and sleeping around a huge bonfire. "You know the Novgorod language very well. You can talk to your new servants." . Haha, if you see that girl has potential, you can train her well. You know the leader’s attitude..."
Rurik gritted his teeth. He didn't feel any shame at all. He also felt that once he took control of the highest power, he would not have any ethical comfort. It was really up to him to marry as many as he wanted. He doesn't care about the matter of men and women for the time being. Right now, there is nothing more urgent than letting the Ross tribe's comprehensive strength take off.
Everything went as Arik predicted. When everyone stopped exercising, their overstretched bodies began to feedback danger signals to their minds.
Early in the morning, a large number of young warriors complained to the leader about their sore arms.
"Ridiculous! You are actually afraid of paddling?! You never complained when you went to Fort New Rose! Will the enemy stop attacking just because you are in poor health!"
Otto didn't care about the fatigue of his people at all. He forced everyone to get on the boat, and they had to continue sailing even if they were not physically fit.
Here Otto neglected to mention that sailing on the Volkhov River, Lake Ladoga and the Neva River was completely different from sailing on the sea. In previous voyages, we almost didn't have to paddle. The river water alone pushed the fully loaded ships forward. Especially when it came to the Neva River, it allowed the ships to move forward quickly even in the dry season.
Once at sea, the mortal Rus must exhaust their strength to drive the overloaded longship forward.
Of course, forcing people will not bring good results. When we boarded the ship, the team was delayed and everyone was resentful. When it was time to paddle, everyone's embarrassed faces made Otto realize his mistake.
During the entire day, the fleet only advanced a mere thirty nautical miles. Before evening, everyone was forced to dock at a larger island.
She is Gogland Island, the largest island in the Gulf of Finland.
