The young mother was covered in sweat, and the intense contraction pain forced her to bite a piece of wood to endure.
Rumia has stopped all priests' work, and the temple has been temporarily closed.
Her life has reached an extremely critical moment. If she hadn't been holding Rurik's hand all the time, she would have even worried that she would be tortured to death.
Maybe this is something a man should avoid. Rurik no longer cares about so much, he needs to give Rumia comfort.
Who is the best midwife? Now Niya is here, and Rurik's sister-in-law Peravina and sister-in-law Lilia have also come to the palace to give poor Rumia some urgent help.
On the second floor of the palace, the distinguished people were in the living room. Rumia groaned in pain, enduring the pain that a woman must go through.
"Hold on a little longer! I can already see the child's head."
Niya's words made Rumia happy, but this was also the most painful stage.
Rurik knelt down next to her, and she could feel the pain in her finger bones as she squeezed his clenched hand.
I didn’t expect this girl to have so much strength!
"Okay! The child's head has come out. Work harder!"
"Work harder and they'll all come out soon!"
After that last effort, an extremely strange feeling of emptiness enveloped Rumia. She suddenly lay down and relaxed, and the stick she was biting fell off, leaving two lines of teeth marks on it.
At the same time, the child cried loudly again, and a lively little guy was born!
Niya took a closer look: "Huh? It's a girl."
"Girl?" Rurik turned his face sharply, "Is the child okay?"
"Listen to this cry, it's very energetic!" Niya was very experienced in delivering babies, so she ordered Rurik's group of wives and concubines on standby to do what they should do.
A steel knife was carefully sterilized after being boiled in boiling water. Niya also washed her hands with soap and then used it to cut off the umbilical cord...
Everything returned to happiness. The clean child looked red and wrinkled all over, and kept crying with his eyes closed.
Velika was born, just as Rurik had hoped, a girl.
It is truly a privilege to succeed the high priest with this status.
She was placed in swaddling clothes, and the crying child stopped crying instantly when it was placed next to its mother.
Rumia held her child in her arms, how could she express her complete happiness in one word?
In just half a day, Rumia had followed her mother's instinct and started nurturing the child, and Rurik's last worry was certainly gone.
The palace fell into joy, and the wealthy people of Rus were also delighted.
Because this child was given a destiny before he was born - to be the successor of the old priest Vilia.
If there are still some people who feel uncomfortable with Rumia, a deer herder, serving as the high priest of Rus, then it is really justifiable for this child to inherit the priesthood when he grows up.
Velika, Rurik's first child, is also a complete saint!
For three days in a row, Rick stayed by Rumia's side, comforting the woman who comforted him, and occasionally teasing the child. When Otto broke in and wanted to hug his first granddaughter, he was simply pushed aside by Rurik. "Now that she is too weak, break her bones with your hug."
Although Otto gave up, this kind gaze was indispensable.
Otto has a more important thing to do, which is to promote this first great event since Hanukkah to the entire Roseburg.
Just like the birth of Rurik, the old priests Vilia and Otto jointly created a campaign. Rurik is promoted as a child blessed by Odin, and this new born Velika is also indispensable!
Thousands of people began to gather at the two large ships standing on the coast. Otto stood on a high place and solemnly announced this to the people.
The gray hair of his beard could not conceal his face, which was red with ecstasy.
He pointed to the sky and then to the sea, "Veliya has a successor! My Velika was born! She is a divine child, and she has also been blessed by Odin..."
People were cheering and laughing. Some people were even secretly teasing that Rurik was indeed a man. Others complained that their son's brain was still a dull stone at the age of twelve, and Rurik was already a father.
The days are getting longer and longer, and people who were once trapped in long nights and unable to work for long periods of time are now becoming increasingly busy.
A timber transportation route above the ice sea was essentially completed. After the daylight hours began to increase, a team transporting timber returned to Roseburg in about ten days.
Where there is demand, there is an incentive to make money. Some men find that instead of looking for ferrets in the snowy fields, it is better to go logging near Ellenburg. The local spruce is inferior to oak, but fortunately it is large in quantity and easy to find.
The Hotla family and their friends, as well as the entire Roseburg shipbuilding family, are constantly buzzing in their large and small workshops, and more than twenty ships of various sizes are being built.
Although most of them are still traditional rowing fishing boats, the shipbuilding industry is booming like never before.
It can be said that all industries are booming in Roseburg, and this city standing in the ice and snow is developing at a rapid pace.
Metallurgy, carpentry, pottery, charcoal making, shipbuilding, construction, brewing, winter fishing, leather, basic chemical industry and other work are all going on.
There are high and low production efficiencies here, but they all at least exist and have strong development trends.
The Principality of Rus is really an outlier in the Nordic Viking world. In other words, Rus under Rurik's rule is drifting away from the concept of Vikings.
At the same time, when the north is completely covered by ice and snow, the ice-free port of Narvik is ready to move.
In the core area of the Balmok tribe, Biyongni, who has made great military exploits, has gained great prestige.
People who longed to get rich and live a stable life had their eyes fixed on the island of Britain.
The Narvik Fjord is so close to the North Pole that the local total darkness lasts for at least half a month.
On dark and cold days, people can stay at home. Even though there are only a few offshore ice floes in the fjord, no one is willing to risk fishing.
The Balmoks even suspended the art of boiling salt, waiting for the light to return.
Only on that day, when the Rus celebrated Hanukkah in fire towers and ships, the Balmoks also celebrated their own Hanukkah in their temples and altars.
The polar night was coming to an end soon. Taking advantage of the remnants of the festival that had just passed, the leader Magnute anxiously invited all the family leaders to gather in their council chambers to discuss important matters.
What does the leader want to say? Everyone can guess it.
This time people saw Biyongni, a brave young man, sitting in a key position, and knew that he would be ordered to visit Ross again this winter.
Someone shouted to Magnut first: "Brothers are planning to organize an army and go to Britain next year. The country called Northumbria is a big fat sheep. We should try our best to cut the wool and enrich our country." Life."
"They are indeed weak. This time we will send more soldiers to rob their big city."
"Especially their women!"
Someone said this, and the whole audience laughed.
In the joy of Washobi, Ostein is not satisfied with simple robbery.
"Brothers, in my opinion, we are going to rob their wealth and women, and then why should we go back to the fjord? We Balmoks will occupy that place. We have excellent land to grow our wheat and raise our keep."
Many family leaders were very interested in this proposal, and even Magnute was full of hope.
People discussed it with each other and quickly reached a consensus.
But Biyongni had something to say: "We may not be able to get a lot of land at once. We must force the king to admit our control of the land, otherwise there will be fighting."
I heard someone shouting, "Who is afraid of fighting?"
"No. I'm just afraid of endless fighting."
"It doesn't matter, kill them all, we don't have enemies anymore and we don't have to be busy fighting."
Biyoni shook his head, "Rurik of Rus knows them very well. There is more than one country there. Once they know that we are killing people on a large scale, they will unite to fight back. So when we start to march into Britain this year, we have to listen to the Rus." Views."
Russian people, everyone became rational after hearing this term.
No one denies that Rurik of Rus was both wise and brave, and Rus's army must have been very powerful.
Some family leaders boasted that they were invincible because of their victory, but others felt that last year's victory relied heavily on Rurik's command and those wonderful weapons.
They got into a discussion that even started to get heated.
Magnut coughed twice and appealed: "Of course we are all brave, and my son Rurik is equally brave."
Everyone shut up and listened to what other plans the leader, who called the Russian Rurik his son, had planned.
It is natural in their culture to call a son-in-law a daughter-in-law, and Magnute is also complacent about this marriage.
"My Biyongni and Floki will visit Ross again, and this time I will send a large team to Ross with our salt, refined whale oil, and a sum of money."
"How many people do you plan to send?" asked a family leader.
"This... about a hundred people. Brothers are all here. You each send some people, and we organize a large delegation to visit Ross. And, the most important thing."
Magnute slapped his thigh violently, "We have to see how the construction of our big ship is going. Rurik won't lie. We can take the ship back when the ice and snow melt."
This decision is very wonderful. After discussing some details, everyone finally agreed.
But as for how many people to send, each family hopes that their cubs can successfully complete this trial and then go to Ross to see the world.
Twenty families sent at least their eldest son, and some Jianyong. While they gathered five hundred pounds of good salt and one hundred pounds of solidified whale oil, they also brought a batch of walrus tusks.
Magnut originally planned to organize an armed merchant group of one hundred people, but the number suddenly increased to three hundred!
Which family is taking a step toward a profitable plan?
No one doubted Biyongni as the leader of the business group, and the man "adventure madman" Modgen led the way. Everyone was not worried about getting lost at all, but just hoped to arrive as soon as possible.
But even if it is fast, the journey will take at least twenty days no matter what.
It wasn’t that the journey was too far, it was entirely because the Balmoks lacked reindeer to pull their sleds.
Only twenty strong and docile female reindeer pulled five cargo sleighs, while others could only pull their own small sleighs, carrying a large amount of prepared food, and moving forward with the belief that they would hunt to satisfy their hunger on the way.
It was already mid-January, and Biyongni led the "army" of 300 people to finally start the ice and snow journey to the friendly country.
The people of Balmok cheered for the heroes of the expedition and looked forward to their return on the big ship belonging to the Balmok people.
As for a big ship transporting many people, each family has its own purpose. For example, some families plan to settle a son in Rus, hoping that this son will develop well.
After all, Balmok is a people's union, essentially a miniature tribal alliance. The major families gather together for common interests. Now that they have found new possibilities, some families that lack strength spontaneously move closer to the big tree of Ross.
This time Biyongni not only left with friendship, he also brought gifts for his sister, as well as a very crucial new plan to attack Britain.
Biyonyi was very confident and felt that his words could persuade Rurik to send troops, and then he could organize the coalition to make a big fortune.
This team dragged a large number of sleds and climbed the mountain on the ice and snow.
The central mountain range of Scandinavia stretches from the North Pole to Oslo at the foot of the mountains in the south. Some of its places are peaks over 1,000 meters high, and some mountain passes are only 500 meters above sea level.
Although it is only 500 meters away, the strong wind on this mountain pass can be called a murderous knife.
Although Biyongni was very confident in his own people, he felt that they should all be as able to defeat them as he was. However, five men froze to death in their sleep during the night after crossing the mountain pass, or because they consumed too much energy and neglected to provide supplies.
Death cannot dispel people's desire for the future. They feel that the deceased did not withstand the test of Odin and the gods and died. The living people kneel down and pray to the sun and continue to move forward in the short daylight.
They entered the mountain glacier lake and moved along the glacier.
The glacier is a wonderful road, and the memory of our guide Modgen is also wonderful.
After crossing the central mountain range, their group of nearly three hundred people trekked for another fifteen days!
During this period, a light snowfall lasted for nearly a week. As they advanced in the dim snow, the whole world was not only strange but even desolate and sad.
But the glacier guided the right path, and finally they arrived at the lake!
A group of black shadows suddenly appeared in the snow!
The Russians who were busy digging holes to catch seabass on the glacial lake were all instinctively vigilant.
Biyongni was speechless when he saw the people working on the lake pulling their sleds running away.
"It seems they regard us as potential attackers." Modgen said.
"Maybe. We are obviously allies, but maybe some people haven't reacted yet."
"What should I do? Should I negotiate with them in person? Fisk Castle has been mentioned here. The camp we have been to has become more prosperous. I'm afraid they will forget us."
Biyongni nodded, then took out another flag from his linen pocket and handed it to Modgen.
"Hang on your spear and hold it up to show who you are."
"This flag... Rurik gave it to you?" Modgen was shocked when he looked at the white-on-blue paddle flag.
"No, I sewed this at home just to avoid misunderstandings."
Modgen was overjoyed and summoned a few brothers to go, while the others stayed put.
The large-scale envoy from the Balmok people surprised the winter hunters of Fort Fisk.
Continuing to go south, Biyongni's team reached the Iron Olawa Fort without any difficulty.
Many Balmok people subconsciously think that the fortress is Fort Ross!
The place is quite prosperous. Mechasta, the Kovin who was ordered to lead the place, resolved their misunderstanding and also entertained key guests including Biyongni.
They feasted on an all-fish feast, and the giant salmon they caught was an eye-opener.
Biyoni ate a mouthful of fish oil and was overjoyed that he no longer had to rely on two legs on his journey to Rossburg.
If these guys are allowed to continue eating and drinking in the territory they are responsible for, they will be impoverished.
It happened that a new batch of teams transporting wood was about to go south, and a small team transporting chromite ore was preparing to follow.
There are many reindeer in Ellenburg, and there is a traditional winter pasture nearby.
Biyongni and the others mingled with the Russian mixed transport team. They were bathing in the winter sunshine on the vast ice sea, and rushed to Fort Ross in an extremely wonderful journey experience.
Finally, the huge Rossburg built on the mountain is right in front of you! It is the giant of ice and snow in the north, a vast and powerful city.
The Balmok men who arrived here for the first time were shocked and envious. As for Biyoni, he was eager to see his sister Nolen, to see Rurik, and to see the big ship belonging to the Balmok people.
With his excellent eyesight, he suddenly noticed the ships placed on the beach. The towering black masts were indeed very conspicuous in the world of ice and snow.
"That is our ship? It must be so. Rurik, you are truly a man of your word."
Of course, he also shocked the huge number of ships parked with the Russians. When the ice melted, whoever the Russian fleet wanted to conquer would probably win easily.
