Rebirth of the Viking King

After Oleg led 100 warriors out of the cave, the first stop of their attack was the "Knut Horse Ranch".

There are almost no forests in the Dragon's Breath Plateau province, and it is entirely composed of vast pastures. Backed by the towering Tianduan Mountains, the melted snow water flows along the mountain peaks into the grassland at the foot of the mountain every spring. After the plateau land absorbs sufficient water, it will breed extremely strong and high-quality pasture.

Looking at the entire Western Continent, this is a grassland second only to the "Yinyu Plain". Herding was the main means of livelihood for the Viking residents living here. Among these large and small ranches, the largest one belongs to the Knut family's "Knut Army Horse Ranch".

The owner of the ranch, Depe Canute, is the childhood playmate of Angus Moklash, the lord of Dragon's Breath Plateau. After the Mokrash family seized power and took a high position, Depay's status naturally increased.

Not only does he own the most fertile pasture, but also the rarest stallion. He also owned the highest quality slaves in the entire province.

After all, herdsmen are no better than unskilled miners. Especially herding military horses is a truly technical job. Every autumn, when the Viking pirates who raided across the sea returned, Depay would personally select the most skilled herders, buy them back to the farm, and personally brand them as slaves.

The defense facilities of Knut Army Horse Ranch are even cruder than those of Hanshui Village. The entire village is simply a low wall surrounded by wooden boards. The purpose of its existence is not to defend against foreign enemies, but to prevent horses from fleeing after being frightened.

This is why Oleg plans to make this place his first target.

The night was as cold as water, and there was only one soldier on watch on the watchtower. This unlucky guy won the lottery for the village left behind during the autumn raid. Seeing that the moon was about to rise above his head, he took out the wine bottle and was about to take a sip when he suddenly heard the neighing of a horse.

This cry came from outside the walled city.

"Damn it! Could it be that some careless bastard forgot the horse in the pasture?" The guard muttered, and stretched his head out of the wooden building to watch. But as soon as he stretched out his neck, he was greeted by a flying flying head. Here comes a hatchet!

The hatchet struck deeply into his head, almost splitting his entire head in half. The guard died quietly. His body fell from the wooden city tower. A tall figure next to Oleg held him back, and then gently placed him in the dark corner of the bottom of the city tower.

This man's name is Montort, and he is one of Bakan Bush's personal guards. There was another slender man beside him, and it was this man who made the neighing of the war horse just now using ventriloquism. With the cooperation of these two people, it took the Slavs only half an hour to clear the entire military horse farm guard post.

Oleg once grazed horses in this pasture for two full years. He was very familiar with the habits of Viking slave owners on the ranch. After clearing away the guards on the outer sentry, Bakanbusi summoned his black bear. With a high-pitched roar, the charging bear smashed the door of the house with a bang.

Once the originally quite loud sound was amplified to the scale of the vast grassland, it was not too noticeable. Most of the Viking herdsmen have followed Duke Moklash to the Slavic lands to rob, and the only ones left in the village are a few women and children left behind.

and large numbers of Slavic slaves.

"Don't make any noise after entering the door. Follow my footsteps. Don't alert them yet."

The 100 soldiers Bakanbusi brought with him were the most elite troops in Murmansk. The lurkers faithfully carried out Oleg's orders. They walked quietly through the ranch and went straight to the slave shed at the back of the ranch.

Here, nearly 1,500 Slavic slave laborers were imprisoned.

Although these people are considered "skilled workers", the Viking slave owners in Knut's Horse Ranch did not treat them kindly. During the day, these slave workers not only have to herd horses, cut grass, wash clothes for their masters, cook and clean the house; at night, they also need to clean the livestock sheds, and they have to be busy until late at night every day before they can fall asleep.

However, even in this kind of life, the Viking slave owners would not make any of them very comfortable. Before falling asleep, their necks and feet would be shackled to a hard wooden bed. Sleeping in this position, they could not turn over, get up, or even turn their necks slightly.

The slave workers did not even dare to drink water once it was past noon. Because if they feel the urge to urinate at night, they can only urinate on themselves like animals.

After Oleg experienced this kind of life for two years, he didn't want his compatriots to endure it for even one second! Rushing into the slave barracks, he found the key and immediately released everyone.

When the Slavs saw their king and the familiar black bear, war intent burned in everyone's dull eyes.

What happened next was nothing short of a brutal massacre.

After liberating the Slavic slaves, Bakanbusch's team surged from 100 to 1,600 people. Although the Knut Army Horse Ranch is not small, the Slavic women and children and a small number of guards left in the village are also large. to five hundred.

Buchan Bush ordered his men to surround the ranch. Then, he and the angry Slavic slave workers drove all the sleeping women, children and old people into the slave barracks, threw the dry straw for feeding the horses through the doors and windows, poured fuel on them and set them on fire!

Before dawn, 1,600 cavalrymen walked away from the scorched earth. They headed straight for their next destination: the Merus Mines.

**

From the outside, Merus Ferre looked like a tall, fat Byzantine man with a kind face.

People who are familiar with Merus like this humorous young man very much. The "Ferret Family" where Merus belongs is also one of the most prestigious business families in Constantinople. Mervus was a classmate of Mehrantine O'Sullivan when she was studying in Constantinople.

After graduation, Mohlantin became a Byzantine citizen and became an honorary citizen of Byzantium. The following year, she served as the Byzantine ambassador to the Vikings and was promoted to the nobility by Michael III. Before returning to the conqueror's fortress, the Viking princess personally visited her and asked Merus to follow him to open a route to Scandinavia. After careful investigation, the bachelors of the Ferre family discovered a copper mine with considerable productivity in a cave on the Dragon's Breath Plateau.

Merus was transformed into a foreign slave owner.

As a friend personally invited by Princess Mohlendine, Merus' business received considerable preferential treatment in all aspects. And he himself is not stingy. In the contract signed with the Duke of "Moklash" on the Dragon's Breath Plateau, Merus promised to use 1,000 dinar gold coins every year in exchange for 3,000 Slavic slaves from the Duke of Mokrash.

For the Viking lords, this was a pretty good business. After all, Slavic slaves were like wild beasts to them and did not cost anything.

Therefore, the relationship between Duke Mokrash and Maus Ferre is quite good.

Not only did Merus treat the lords, but he also treated the Viking herders very generously. He funded the construction of a number of post stations for carriages and horses to rest, and all herders were charged very low fees for entering the inns to eat and live. In just three years, the name of the "Great Good Man" Merus spread to all corners of the Dragon's Breath Plateau.

It's just that... Merus' humor and kindness were only for the Vikings. Ask any Slavic slave laborer where life was hardest, and you won't hear any answer other than "the mines of Merus."

There were nearly 10,000 Slavic slave workers living in the Merus mines.

They live a life that is worse than death every day.

During the day, they need to enter the bottom of the mine to dig out ore. The mine goes hundreds of meters underground, and the tunnel is hot, humid, and poorly ventilated. Not only that, but the ore is accompanied by a large number of hot springs and combustible gas channels. It would be okay if the hot spring was accidentally smashed, but at most a few people would drown. Once the combustible gas is dug out...when these gases meet the open flame illuminated in the dark passage, a violent explosion will occur.

Slave owners from Byzantium simply wouldn't stop working because of the explosion. They would not even take the initiative to buy explosives from the Tang people to blast the tunnels. Every gas explosion is like a festival to them. They will cheer loudly and at the same time instruct the slaves to carry out the ore stained with the flesh and blood of their compatriots and carefully identify the composition of the ore.

If they dig out gold, silver, or even tin, they will toast to celebrate.

As for the slaves who died underground, haha, Slavic slaves have never been treated as living people in this province.

Going down into the mines was just a day job. At night, slaves burned coke and smelted ore. This round of work is not easy either. The high temperature of hundreds of degrees in the steel-making furnace is achieved entirely by Slavic slave workers operating blowers. During the day, the slag all over the mines has not been cleared away, and at night they have to endure hundreds of degrees of fire. The skin of many slaves remains dark all year round due to the radiation from the fire. Many people even died directly next to the blast furnace during labor.

When the mine was opened, Merus had 30,000 slave workers from all over the world. However, five years later, only 10,000 of the 30,000 slave laborers died. This was despite the fact that Duke Moklash provided him with "fresh slave laborers" every year. Tens of thousands of lives are lost in exchange for nearly 100,000 tons of brass, pig iron, and various metals every year. These metals supported the construction and development of the Byzantine Empire, and Merus even had a surplus that could be exported to France, Visigoth and other countries in exchange for gold coins.

"Mevus Ferre" was also established by the King of Byzantium as a model among foreign merchants because of his outstanding personal abilities, and he received royal awards every year.