The lake breeze blows away the morning fog, and the sun shines on the post-war bear altar.
This important sacrificial center and trade bazaar of the Karelian people quickly collapsed under the dawn attack of a partial division of the Russian army. After the prosperity disappeared, only a pile of corpses was left, and hundreds of years of violent Russian warriors were busy searching for property.
Arik disembarked from the long boat and floated to the shore. The Vips who participated in the battle also entered the bear altar as attackers for the first time.
Completely different from the Ross army, the Vips servants looked at the devastated tents. They had no joy of victory, but only fear.
The lake fog rises and they attack. The fog from the lake cleared and they plundered.
In a very short period of time, this place that was once considered inviolable by the Vips was destroyed.
Some Russian soldiers set fire to vent their anger, lighting leather tents with ready-made fire sources and letting them burn.
There were also female prisoners whose lives were temporarily spared. The Russians were as happy as they wanted, but they still made up for it with an ax afterwards.
Arik walked menacingly and with terrifying steps. He allowed his subordinates to go berserk and even enjoyed their crazy destruction.
He motioned to Terravis: "Let the Vips take action."
"Just stick the stakes on the shore? Look here, there are corpses everywhere."
"Wouldn't it be better this way? Other Karelia people will see this, and we will deeply shock their nobles."
Arik felt that his decision was very reliable, and the Vips servants followed suit.
The wooden stakes were erected, and the heads of the tribute envoys were stuck on them. Their complexions had long been gray, and the broken necks were stained with black blood. Their ferociousness and terror had always made the Vips servants fearful, but this time A group of Ross veterans have become accustomed to this.
Seeing that they had finished their work, Aric shook his neck and ordered Terravis: "Let's go. Follow me and see what treasures the brothers find."
What interesting things can you find in tents and wooden sheds?
Some useful wooden utensils such as combs, small boxes, and wooden bowls were put into linen bags by the Russians, and some interesting bone tools and leather were also hidden privately. Robbery is an opportunity to make a fortune. Arik has always been generous. He doesn't even care too much about his brothers embezzling gold and silver. As for the large amounts of materials discovered, this should not be divided among everyone, but should be handed over to the Duke.
Carrying two swords, he walked into the area with the highest density of warriors. There were also the tallest wooden sheds there. Compared to the large number of small conical tents, the buildings here were obviously permanent. As it happens, the Veps servants claim that this is the Bear Altar itself.
The Karelians do indeed worship bears, and looking at the group of low warriors covered in bear skins lying dead on the ground fully proves this point.
The Ross army is a berserker who wears the heaviest scale armor. They are formation-breaking madmen, and they are also the tallest and strongest. Their iron helmets were not only reinforced and added with mutual-faced chain mail, but the entire upper jaw of the bear was also fixed on the head, with the chest upper jaw with a set of fangs used as a characteristic sun visor.
The berserkers of the Rus' army are the real "bear men", and these Karelian bear skin men, who are said to be altar guards, are all fakes.
More than a dozen older priests died, and the younger priests were beheaded. There were as many as three hundred dead bodies here. What Arik could conclude was that the enemy did not just kill them at the slightest sign. They tried their best to resist and still ended up like this.
The two flag captains came over with smiles, each reporting their results and presenting the gem necklaces they had grabbed.
Arik squinted and said, "That's it? What else did you find?"
"Boss, what a nice necklace, don't you want it?" one person said in surprise.
"Give it to me? Forget it. Keep it for yourself. Tell me what else you find."
Another person said: "We also found the cellar where they stored the leather. There were a lot of squirrel skins in it! It's amazing."
Squirrel skin? The first thing Arik thought of when he heard this word was that it was a currency.
"Haha, it seems we have also discovered their treasury. Let's go! Let's take a look..."
The battlefield has returned to calm. Those Karelian fishermen only escaped with their lives because they were not important. They saw the violence and terror of the attackers and knew that their home was completely destroyed. All the canoes had escaped. They wanted to escape to the nearest settlement, so they rowed all the way east, at least first to the Ludi villages on the east bank of the lake, where the Karelians were the leaders, and told them about the foreign army. Destroyed the bear altar, rested, and then searched for the chief's "big tent" to tell all the Karelian nobles that the disaster was coming.
But those who successfully escaped from the bear altar were already running on the road to report the news, and another difficult trek awaited them.
At noon, an astonishing number of reindeer were driven to the bear altar full of carcasses. Most of the tents were either burned or destroyed.
Arik inspected the cold cellars and asked his brothers to take out the hides of squirrels, ferrets, lynxes, forest cats, and foxes, tie them with hemp ropes, and quickly transport them to the big ship.
No one can plunder these leather treasures, they will be dedicated to Rurik, Duke of Rus.
Other than that, anything anyone grabs belongs to them!
Opportunities for plunder are given to all, including Vips servants, who legally join in the hunt for the treasure.
Apart from a small amount of gems and a batch of precious small animal leathers, perhaps the most valuable seizure here is the deer.
The astonishing number of deer suddenly confused Arik.
Up to forty reindeer were killed, their fresh hides stripped off, and their entrails violently thrown directly into the lake, except for the nutritious and delicious deer liver.
A large bonfire appeared by the lake, and the Russians prepared roasted whole deer very luxuriously.
Everyone ate meat crazily. Even the Vips were lucky enough to chow down on half-cooked deer legs. The Russians also gave some salt as gifts. The delicious taste actually moved many people to tears.
People were immersed in the joy of victory. When they set out, no one would have expected that this armed reconnaissance would yield such a big harvest, let alone the Karelia people, who were boasted to be extremely powerful by the Suomi people, to be so weak.
While eating barbecue around the campfire, Terravis asked Arik a spiritual question: "How do we deal with so many deer? Take them all away?"
"Of course. If we bring the deer back, we will be heroes to all of Russia. These deer will also make our lives much easier in the future."
"But there are too many deer. You...can't put them all on the boat."
"Haha, then eat them all." Arik said this as a joke, and he laughed after he said it.
But Terravis's question is very critical. The Ross Squadron does not have enough transport ships, but this is not a problem.
Arik thought for a moment: "We should bring back as many deer as possible, and some of them can be used as rewards."
"To whom?"
"To the Vips."
"You?" Taravis was surprised: "I doubt that you are so generous."
"You brat, are you mocking me?" Arik smiled with anger.
"I...I don't dare."
"I'm sorry you don't dare. But the Vips still participated in the battle. They are servants, and we have to give them some rewards. By the way, how many deer should we give them?"
"Is it up to me? If they come to twenty people, give them two hundred, or more. In my opinion, we are all good at raising deer, so it doesn't hurt to give them more. This way we can receive more in the future. Tribute.”
This was actually a good idea, but Arik looked suspiciously at him. He didn't say it openly, but he was muttering in his heart that this kid was speaking for his servants.
"I've decided to give them two hundred. As for more deer... we will stop the armed reconnaissance now. This will be the landing point for the Ross army, and our army will assemble here."
"Ah! Are you going back to move the transport ship?"
"Of course. Time is urgent, we will take action tomorrow."
When they learned that they would be rewarded with ten deer, all the Vips servants bowed their heads in emotion. They were authorized to select ten deer themselves, and they were smart enough to select a total of 200 fawns that were more than one year old from the herd. what does that mean? These extremely young female deer can give birth for the first time this fall, which maximizes the interests of the herders from a utilitarian perspective. They paid no attention to the young deer that were obviously just weaned.
A fawn is born in the spring, and if it is a female deer, it can be pregnant in the autumn of the following year. Even if reindeer are raised, the Karelian people will not let a deer live to be ten years old, they will kill the old deer for meat. Therefore, a female deer can only give birth to eight babies in her lifetime, and giving birth to ten deer is the current limit. This kind of creature is not highly reproductive.
Just like cattle and sheep are the lifeblood of grassland nomads, reindeer are the lifeblood of Karelia and other tribes grazing in the cold zone, and their economic foundation is almost based on reindeer breeding.
After being selected in this way, the Vips basically took away the most fertile female deer in the huge herd. For such professional things, Arik, who was like a slayer of demons, was too lazy to know.
However, Terravis and other Covin people simply see through the situation without telling them. They have regarded the Vips as distant and non-threatening kin. They have also left seeds in the villages of the Vips. They will basically not be responsible for them in the future. It would also be nice to get some good fawns.
Throughout the afternoon, the huge herd of deer was counted in groups, and the Russians, who had excellent calculation skills, counted the precise number of deer.
After excluding the deer that were eaten, there were still 3,400 deer. After excluding the deer that were rewarded to the Vips, the Rus controlled 3,100 deer.
The more than 3,000 deer are also exquisite, and there are as many as 800 young deer in them.
They are not wild reindeer at all, and there are not many truly wild reindeer left in this area. The Bear Altar was originally a center for the Karelia people to trade reindeer, and all the deer captured by the Russian army were domesticated.
These deer thus have two significant characteristics that distinguish them from their wild counterparts.
First: They are large in number and clustered together. They are indifferent when their companions are skinned, grilled and eaten by humans. They continue to chew grass on their own, completely losing their aggressiveness and remaining pure docility and humbleness.
Second: male deer are always artificially screened out, and a group of male deer are retained as breeding deer. The most domesticated female deer in Karelian people are female deer.
Female deer are much more docile than male deer. Female deer are the main force for carrying goods and pulling sleds. This is something that the Russian leather craftsmen know very well. A small number of breeding deer and a large number of female deer result in an astonishing number of fawns in the herd.
After all, the bear altar is a trading place, and the antlers of young deer are also a commodity. The meat of young deer is more delicious than that of older deer. When it comes to food, the Karelia people are also trying their best to eat well.
Arik and other Russians paid more attention to the development prospects of young deer. It was this kind of young deer that was easier to tie on a rope and pull to the Mercury.
The herds of deer were divided into different grades, and the bear altar itself began to be thoroughly cleaned.
In principle, Arik and the guys didn't want to collect the bodies of the killed Karelians, but their plans completely changed because of this herd of deer.
Why did the army leave? On the contrary, the brothers occupied this place, and the enemy's corpses were buried or burned. The Russians built their own permanent settlements on the ruins of the tent group, so as to give priority to the fishery resources here and serve as a gathering place for excellent troops. .
The settlement should have a name, and since it was the bear altar of the Karelians, the Rus followed this meaning and gave it a Viking-style name - Bjornvistadt. Meaning: Bear Festival Town,
On these issues, Arik showed his greatest command, not only the deer were divided, but the army was also divided.
The next day, the four flag captains under the sun were forced to gather together to draw lots.
Arik held a silver coin with Justinian's face printed on it. After some group guessing, he selected a lucky team of 100 people to escort the first batch of supplies back. Who would really want to stay in this wild place? They fought a victorious battle, and many became wary of Karelian retaliation. Although the brothers are very confident, if the opponent suddenly kills thousands of people, things will be difficult to handle.
Although the latter is a small probability time, the fact that the three centurions were left behind was clearly God's choice, and the result of the coin toss cannot be questioned.
They dug a big pit, threw all the bodies in, covered it with soil and set up markers. The mark is nothing else. The heads of the twenty Karelian envoys were moved to this huge tomb and became a kind of terrifying tombstone.
Those Vips decided to go home overland. Nineteen of them took some iron weapons that were rewarded by the Russians, and drove as many as two hundred young female deer on the familiar road.
Why nineteen people? Just because one person will serve as a messenger and return to the village of Vips in a big boat to tell the local people about his experience.
It was a long trek back overland, and the Vips who were good at hiking were not afraid. Their inner ecstasy surpassed everything else. Everyone was imagining that it would be a great thing to surrender to the new blond master Ross. The Russians are not like masters, but like fathers and mothers. In their concept, only parents can give such generous rewards.
This is of course just wishful thinking on their part.
Vips are sheep. Killing them for meat is one way of doing it, and letting them grow and shearing them regularly is another way of doing it. Obviously the latter is more clever. It was meaningless to kill them and grab a wave. Arik naturally implemented the latter option, and he could not think of a third way.
The more than 300 people who stayed behind used local materials and began to build a walled settlement. This would be a huge project. Considering the possible retaliation of the enemy, defensive fortifications must be done. The big trees were cut down quickly and the sheds would be the quickest to build. It is very inconspicuous to build the wall in a short time. It is very important to convert some wooden sheds into wooden towers. These are watchtowers and the commanding heights for archery.
This group of young and strong veterans put their experience in fighting powerful enemies here. After all, they relied on advanced civil construction to take advantage of the decisive battle in Gotland.
Arik left first with a large number of captured things. Now three long ships towed the Mercury. All the ships lowered their sails and relied on the most traditional oars to head straight south along the lake shoreline.
When the Ross fleet came, they were forced to sail carefully due to the unknown environment, and they kept a slow speed. There was nothing to worry about now, and Arik had only one thought in his mind: to take the female leader of the Vips on board, and then immediately rush to New Roseburg.
And this was done in just four days!
Arik traveled from the northernmost end of Lake Ladoga to the mouth of the Neva River, taking the aging female leader with him, in just four days.
The paddling brothers did not enter downstream mode until the fleet entered the faster-flowing Neva River and had a chance to take a good rest. They arrived at New Roseburg smoothly. At this moment, the city was already in a busy wheat harvest period. Farming peoples throughout Eastern Europe had begun their wheat harvest season. Even Rurik, in order to show his closeness to the people, also brought his newly arrived group of wives and concubines. , holding a wooden chain to beat the newly harvested wheat ears to shell the oats.
Arik's return was not unexpected, it must have been the result of an armed investigation. However, when Rurik, who was busy with farm work, learned that there were only four ships, one large, three small, and four in total, things became complicated.
Rurik was suddenly startled: "Oops, don't let my carelessness and his recklessness cause my army to suffer heavy losses!"
He left his farm work behind and hurried to the dock...
