The gray sea was as rough as mountains, and Aphrolla's sails were full of sails, soaring between the waves with the help of the cold wind from the Arctic.
Although he had already had psychological expectations, Rurik never expected that just three days after leaving the Narvik Fjord, the weather changed drastically and the wind increased sharply!
An arctic cold wave is moving south, bringing with it the autumn rainy season in Europe.
Gradually, it started to rain. Although there is no need to worry about ice, snow or freezing rain, the Aurora is enduring the wind and cold on the gray sea. The people on the ship still have to endure the cold when the big waves make them vomit.
There are only a few sailors on duty on the deck. They have to monitor the sails to prevent strong winds from blowing off the main sail. In order to prevent them from falling into the sea, they are also tied with cables around their waists.
Rurik and Noren were wrapped in a leather blanket to comfort their woman's almost collapsed heart.
"Rurik...will our ship..."
"Capsizing? How is that possible? This ship is indestructible."
"Is this true?" Nolen hoped that capsizing was really impossible, but the huge waves and bad sea conditions were beyond her imagination.
"Of course it's true. What's this? We've encountered crazier ones."
Rurik was lying. This was the most dangerous situation the Avlora had encountered since it was launched.
Thanks to the strong winds and waves, she sailed on the sea at a speed of up to 25 knots for almost a whole day, risking the sails to blow off and the mast to break.
For an ordinary long ship, such sea conditions will cause it to capsize and sink quickly.
Facts have proven that the caravel-type sailboat's ability to withstand storms has reached a very high level. Once it is upgraded to a Galen ship with a full load and displacement of 2,000 tons, as long as it does not brave a typhoon, it will be almost immune to other winds and waves. Can't touch her.
In just one day, the Aurora made a three-day voyage.
The waves finally calmed down a bit and the rain outside stopped.
Rurik finally stood on the deck again, looking at the still gray sea around him, and a sense of confusion arose spontaneously.
There is a kind of fear called looking across the vast expanse. The ship is still rising and falling. When he subconsciously looked up, he was so shocked that his heart almost stopped.
He screamed: "What's going on? Our mainsail is damaged? Boatswain!"
After a while, the sailors boarded Class A one after another. Based on the current dangerous situation, Rurik was really anxious.
"Repair it quickly and sew up the sail."
The boatswain frowned: "Sir, the sail was partially damaged by the strong wind. The situation is not too bad. We can wait for the wind and waves to subside before repairing it."
Indeed, with the current condition of the sail, sailing with wind is still no problem.
But wait a minute, if the Avora were to forcefully break into the Oresund controlled by the Danes in this manner, it would be courting death.
"Repair it as soon as possible! You can get on board as soon as the wind and waves calm down. Let me check the condition of the mainmast again."
The boatswain added: "Sir, the materials for our repair..."
"Use the linen cloth used to cover the cargo in the cabin, or if it doesn't work, use leather blankets to make up for it."
The cold front quickly rushed into the interior of Europe, and the cold high pressure brought a series of rainfalls.
It is raining in the entire Baltic world, including the Rus-controlled Ironburg, and in the Eastern European world, the continuous rain has caused quagmire everywhere, and it is snowing directly in the Alps and Carpathians.
Rurik had no idea that although he could see the eastern coastline in the gray world, it was difficult to determine his position. The Avora quickly passed through Bel with a damaged main sail and a basically intact jib sail. The outlying island group like a city wall outside the Genfjord. He didn't encounter any fighting at sea, and he didn't even see other ships.
After seven days of lonely sailing, the sun finally appeared and the world changed colors.
People crowded into Class A to bask in the long-lost sunshine. Their wet clothes were hung out to dry, and sailors began to climb the mast with tools and materials. When a man climbed to the top of the mast and looked around, the horrifying sight forced him to descend quickly.
The sailor hurried to the captain's lounge and reported to Rurik, who was resting and refreshed.
"What? Could it be that there is something wrong with the mast?" Rurik suddenly woke up, his heart beating wildly.
"No! Sir." The sailor also widened his eyes, and then whispered with a trembling face: "I think we have entered the strait with the help of strong winds in the past few days."
"Strait? What strait?"
"That's the strait! I think Oslo is ahead."
"Ah! So fast?" Rurik stood up suddenly and ran to the deck.
I opened my eyes wide and couldn't see anything for the time being. After he waited for a while, the sun slightly dispersed the mist on the sea. Everyone on the deck saw that the Aurora was already sailing against the eastern sun. To her north was The long coastline, also in the south!
Rurik hurriedly restrained his excitement. He clapped his hands to signal everyone's attention. It just so happened that almost everyone on the ship was working overtime to get some fresh air.
"Attention now! Sailors repair the ship immediately! Soldiers check weapons! We are about to pass through the huge strait, about to pass Oslo! We may be intercepted by the Danes, prepare to fight!"
"Ho ho!" people roared.
Now there is no difference between Russians and Balmoks. We are all brothers on the same ship. Next, the Avora bravely enters a new battlefield.
As for the place name Oslo that Rurik shouted, the Balmoks know it better than the Rus. Those people have very close ties with Bergen, and in principle everyone belongs to the concept of Norway, not Denmark. But the two sides had almost no contact. The Balmok mercenaries who became Rurik's new subordinates naturally did not want to have any unpleasantness with any Oslo people. Coincidentally, Rurik also meant this.
The current population of Oslo is only 3,000 people, and the core of Norway is still Bergen.
Rurik knew that if he continued to move forward, he would not encounter any risks for a period of time, and even the probability of encountering a Danish fishing boat was low.
The storm had just ended and the boats in the shelter had not yet come out. The width of this strait is astonishing. Even if an enemy ship is discovered, in order to avoid complications, unless it is impossible to escape, the larger ship will fight with it.
But through the narrow Oresund Strait, it is a narrow road and the brave wins.
Rurik expected a naval battle, and as one of the forces, Hafgen, the leader of the Danish alliance, was not a fool!
More than ten days ago, Danish merchant ships returning from Bergen reported news of a large triangular sail ship. The ship took the large fleet straight to the north, or to Narvik.
Hafgen had heard about the Balmoks of Narvik. He was not interested in the fierce people of the Far North, but he had ideas about invading the Frankish Kingdom to make money, especially in the current situation. The nephew of the expelled former leader Harald Clark became a nominal earl in Flanders. This man set up a trading stronghold and successfully attracted some Danish brothers.
The Svealans in the north are a big threat, but the guys in the south, their threat is growing day by day.
The triangular-sailed demon ship suddenly became a new problem. After learning the information, Hafgen summoned the lords who could quickly rush to the core of his rule to share this heart-wrenching incident.
Of course, all the lords are denouncing the viciousness of the Nasvealan ships, and they are all evasive when it comes to sending troops to intercept them.
"Are you cowards? Are you afraid? If we work together, can we still let the ship escape? They must pass through our strait, and now we are preparing to win."
Hafgen was full of confidence, but the tragic loss of the fisherman on Burgundy Island proved one thing, fighting that big ship would mean death!
Sigurd, the lord of the south, knew that open opposition would not work, and his son Ragnar, who hacked to death the old leader of the Svealans, became a great hero throughout Denmark.
If he gives in, he will bring disgrace to the family's honor, and his son Ragnar is too bellicose.
It is a sign of a hero for a young man to be warlike, but Sigurd is an old man. He needs to consider many things. He can be said to be stubborn, or he can be said to be wise.
Sigurd made a clear statement, "There are large and small straits in our area, and all straits lead to Haizebe Market. Do we have to send troops to garrison in the straits of your Robard people? Hafgen, that is yours Territory, it’s really inappropriate for us to go there.”
Hafgen thought about it and thought that was the case. He occupies the largest and safest Channel waterway and makes a fortune from tolls. If other lords' military forces were allowed to intervene, wouldn't there be endless troubles? Once he does this, the opponents in the Robard tribe will definitely stand up and attack him in groups.
Sigurd took advantage of the situation and pointed out a proposal that everyone accepted, which was to divide the troops and garrison them.
"Brothers, guard your straits to prevent the big ship from escaping secretly."
People support this, Hafgen can only support it. He is the leader of the alliance, not the king. If the lords object on a large scale, Hafgen will not be able to use force to make them surrender.
In fact, Hafgen is just talking nonsense, and many lords just don't want to get involved in this unfortunate thing. It was the ships of the Bornholm and Robards that were destroyed by the enemy, while the other lords suffered no losses.
What fool wants to take a bullet from Hafgen? This guy won't compensate me.
In fact, the lords were happy to see Hafgen and his men suffer losses so that other lords could gain more. It would be best if the Robards suffered huge losses, so that the brothers could negotiate with Hafgen in the future to cancel all tolls on the Oresund Strait.
Lords like Sigurd hoped that the northern ships would beat Hafgen's fleet again.
The brothers also tacitly understood that if a large ship passed through their own waters, let it pass. They could not suffer losses because of this plague god.
"If I were an enemy, which waterway would I take? Do I really want to look for unknown waterways instead of taking the smoothest one?" Hafgen thought for a while and finally realized the true intentions of those lords, and they ordered People are irritated, but on the surface, Hafgen knows that he cannot take any drastic action, even insulting and refuting is not advisable.
Hafgen had a premonition that as time went on, he felt that a fateful battle was about to break out.
The Robard tribe lived in the northernmost part of Jutland. The free movement of that big ship put the warriors of all tribes to shame.
His brother-in-law died in the failed interception, and nearly two hundred brothers were buried in the sea.
Three days before the news of the reappearance of the big ship reached Denmark, a storm came. Heavy wind and rain could not stop Hafgen's interception plan. This time, he decided to use the pride of his power-the giant longship Red Dragon!
The storm had just ended, and Hafgen's most trusted generals gathered in his "palace".
He surprised everyone by issuing a special blockade order.
No one objected, but there were plenty of very real concerns.
Regarding their concerns, or rather everyone's concerns, Hafgen thought he had come up with an excellent tactic.
"I want you to gather all the archers who are good at archery and collect all the bows and arrows. I want you to send your strongest oarsmen and bring your best longships into the strait to prepare for war.
I will dispatch the Red Dragon and find that the big ship takes the initiative. I will prepare a batch of ropes with hooks. When the Red Dragon forces the big ship to stop, the warrior will throw out the hooks, climb up and kill the people on the enemy ship.
In order for the operation to be successful, we must send a large number of ships to force the big ship to stop. Even if the enemy can sink some of it, just like an arrow can penetrate one layer of leather, it is unable to penetrate three or four layers. We have lost some ships and can definitely force the ship to stop. Then a large number of our ships surrounded it, and victory was ours.
We capture it and study its construction methods. In the future, we Robards will be able to build such powerful ships in large quantities. "
It has to be said that Hafgen is an extremely intelligent person. Capturing, studying, and imitating a dragon is truly a dream.
In essence, his plan was exactly the same as that of his brother-in-law, who died of serious injuries.
My brother-in-law's defeat must have been due to sending too few troops. If the big ship was attacked by a "swarm of insects", would it still be able to escape?
The leader of the alliance is extremely confident, and this blockade intercepted the Red Dragon's rare proactive attack. Even if there is still a chance that the brothers will be lonely in the blockade, it will allow the passing merchant ships to see the charm of the Red Dragon.
It is common for combat-type long ships in this area to have fifteen people on each side of the port and starboard sides. Because the keel of a ship is usually a whole piece of oak, the length of a single piece of oak directly determines the length of the ship. If possible, the longship would of course be built larger, but its length is always limited to less than twenty meters.
The Red Dragon was an accident.
People in Denmark certainly use spliced keel technology, but due to technical reasons, such ships are considered relatively fragile. In rough sea conditions, the joints of the keels are very likely to break.
The Red Dragon has always faced this problem. What's crazy is that its keel is actually made of three oak logs. It's not that a ship with a spliced keel is fragile, it's actually that the open-top ship Red Dragon uses too primitive technology.
The bow of the Avlora is also spliced to the keel, but the huge ribs, staggered plates, and even the deck made of mortise and tenon structures are based on the mathematics and mechanics given by the famous shipbuilding family Hotla family in Rurik. Under the guidance, Avora's mechanical structure has become very stable. Those large ships that have recently been launched and are being built still adhere to this stable mechanical structure, which gives them the ability to brave the wind and waves.
Longship is never better!
The name of the Red Dragon not only comes from the ferocious snake head painted red with cinnabar on the bow of the ship, but also from the overall slender body proportions, like a sea snake. It has even been described by good people as imitating the giant python in the world. Big ship.
This boat is large enough for seventy-five people to row on each side of the boat. The space in the center of the boat can accommodate at least fifty more people to stand and draw bows and fire arrows.
The Red Dragon, like the sea demon king hiding in the Jutland Peninsula, slowly left its home port amid the cheers of the Robard people.
A sword is unsheathed! It must see blood when it is unsheathed.
Hafgen stood on the bow of his Red Dragon, holding on to the ferocious dragon's head, and ran toward the Oresund Strait with great momentum.
His proud and heroic appearance appeared in the strait, especially at the narrowest point where it narrowed to a mere four kilometers.
He saw a large number of sails stitched and printed with the totem emblem of the tribe floating on the sea, and at least twenty longships were wandering here as far as he could see.
Are there only twenty ships? No! There are also a group of long ships interested in a wider area, and a group of ships are moored on the shore and are on standby.
Eyes had also been placed on the two sandbar islands in the strait to keep an eye on the sea surface at all times.
Hafgen set up a "drag net". In order to intercept and capture the Aurora, he mobilized as many as two thousand athletes from his tribe to fight directly. All the lords of the Danish Alliance were also nominally assisting in the battle.
The fear that the Aurora brought to the Danes prompted them to get rid of it quickly.
Rurik had clear psychological expectations for all this. The big ship had repaired its sails and had successfully passed the northernmost part of the Jutland Peninsula. She was traveling through the Kattegat geographically close to Scandinavia. Peninsula waters. She has essentially sailed within the waters actually controlled by the Danish Robard tribe.
The front is becoming more and more dangerous. It is extremely easy to run into rocks when sailing at night, and you must face battles when sailing during the day.
Under the choice, Rurik decided to drop the anchor before crossing the Oresund Strait.
Although in theory he does not have to go straight to the Oresund Strait, he can enter the Baltic Sea through the Greater and Lesser Belt Straits in the south where the defenses are equivalent to the "theoretical existence".
But which Viking hero will escape his fateful battle?
Rurik knew quite well that even if he could not bring a prosperous life to his people, as long as he could show his illustrious martial arts and win battle honors, the brothers would still support the warrior king because everyone needs their own heroes.
Even if Rurik knew that there was a safe waterway for navigation, he would still choose this waterway that was full of dangers and was as malicious and insulting as excreting on the head of the Danish leader. It is very realistic that Rurik does not know the exact location of the Great and Small Belt Straits. Rather than risk finding a way out, it is better to approach the Oresund Strait in front of him.
The soldiers on the ship fully understood the risks ahead. Rurik no longer needed to make any impassioned speeches. The brothers must be facing a big battle. Before the battle, everyone had a feast of wheat cakes and drank some ale to strengthen their courage.
At dawn tomorrow, the heavily armed brothers rushed over, trying to catch the north wind and pass through the entire strait in one breath, heading towards the wide and relatively calm Baltic Sea.
