Rise of Rurik

,!

On a new day, under the gloomy weather, Camp Ross stationed on the seaside woke up.

People were worried that a bad rain was going to happen. They got up one after another and were thankful that they were still dry. Even though the weather was very cold and the waves crashing on the beach were a bit violent.

In the past night, those fishing boats anchored at sea did not catch many herrings with fishing fire technology. They attributed the poor results to poor sea conditions, even though the sea was still calm at night.

The Ross camp was now beating drums and blowing trumpets, and all the lazy people had to move quickly after eating some dry food.

Just because they had to complete a key move today - crossing the Vistula River.

The navy took the lead in taking action. The soldiers who waded into the water and pushed the longship that had been intentionally stranded back into the sea jumped on board quickly, regardless of the dampness of their boots, and quickly entered the deep water area with their large oars.

All the large ships pulled anchor, took advantage of today's cold north wind, and gradually drifted toward the western coastline after lowering their sails.

Admiral Goethelund was given a major task, which was to find the nearest mouth of a large river and capture it no matter what resistance was encountered. Then the army troops who organized rowing operations were landed on the other side of the river, and all the vacant longships were put on standby. state, to await the arrival of the cavalry and herd of deer.

Rurik has already thought about it, and made arrangements for the generals at last night's meeting.

If the Russian army did not encounter the locals in the Gdansk area, it would not have any impact on the army itself. The army would just continue westward after crossing the river.

Even if you meet locals, it would be great if you can get supplies from them peacefully. If they don't give them, Ross will also

They are not allowed to rob (but their refusal will be resented by Ross) unless the locals take a hostile attitude and actively attack, and Ross will not hesitate to use force.

Therefore, subjectively, Rurik considered the speed of action and did not want to waste time with the locals.

Unless the locals can provide something that the Ross army urgently needs.

War horses are straight animals. They consume food during the day and some fodder at night. Only in this way can the high endurance and combat effectiveness of the horse team be maintained, and a trail of horse dung will be left wherever the horse team passes.

Reindeer are much easier to care for than war horses. They chew cud, and not only have four stomachs but also very long intestines. They just need to eat grass on the spot. The reindeer herd eats all the way. However, they have difficulty replenishing on the narrow sandbank of the Vistula Lagoon. After arriving in the mainland area, they gnawed away a large area of ​​​​forest under the command of the deer herder. grassland.

There is nothing wrong with feeding a small number of reindeer, but feeding 5,000 deer to maintain their endurance would be too much.

"Maybe I brought too many deer this time. Anyway, they not only serve as pack horses, but they are also emergency food themselves. Not only these, they can also be a commodity."

Walking straight to the mouth of the Vistula River, Rurik, who was riding a horse, held the reins and thought a lot.

The reindeer herd had indeed worked hard along the way, but once the herd arrived in Hamburg, their tactical significance was almost gone.

When the Ross army finally gathered in Nassau-Koblenz, which had already been laid out, the army would generally no longer engage in ultra-long-distance maneuvers. By that time, all this huge herd of deer could be killed and used as military rations.

.

Because the current time determines that the Ross Army must spend the winter in the Frankish hinterland, looting the local people's food is certainly a shortcut to solve the problem of supplies, but it is not the behavior of the Ross Army to put all the supplies on risky plunder.

Looting must be done, and he, the King of Rus, would personally authorize free plundering. If the army did anything bad, Rurik was determined to condone it.

"Hey, because we are Vikings. Everything we do is reasonable..."

If the winter raids that were destined to happen in the future were not very profitable, relying on the army's own stored food and these reindeer, the army would definitely be able to survive the winter, even until the early summer of 844. As for what will happen next, do you know? By then, there must be a way for cars to reach the mountain.

Rurik had a premonition that his cavalry and the rear deer herd would arrive at the mouth of the Vistula River this morning.

His prediction was absolutely correct, and the big river even appeared in front of the entire army earlier than he expected.

Because at this time the mouth of the Vistula River had not filled more sediment into the offshore.

Its sediment transporting effect was the main factor in the formation of the sandbanks of the Vistula Lagoon in the early days. Therefore, the coastline has retreated nearly five kilometers compared to more than a thousand years later!

What is Gdańsk?

In other words, there are three cities of Gdansk in the world: the earliest Gdansk, the Gdansk under the Teutonic rule, and the new Gdansk Port.

Thousands of years later, the Port City of Gdansk is still an offshore wasteland. Many areas belonging to the city are still under the shallow sea. The reclamation of thousands of years of siltation of the Vistula River has created the existence of the new Port City of Gdansk.

exist.

In this era, AD 843, a large settlement called Gdansk was on the southern outskirts of the new city a thousand years later.

For more than a thousand years, this extremely ancient city has never disappeared from history. It has existed as the "Prussian Gdansk" town for more than a thousand years, and has existed forever as a satellite city of the Port of Gdansk.

In order to protect against wind, sea tides, and even floods from the Vistula River, the main settlement area of ​​Gdańsk in this era was located at a certain distance from the coast and the river, and this distance was not far.

The mouth of the Vistula River is about three kilometers northeast of it.

This distance is already extremely short, but there are woods, farmland, and some coastal streams blocking the way, making the short distance seem far away.

"Look! That should be the Vistula River that the king mentioned." Gothlund's subordinates pointed their heads and straightened their arms to point out the direction to their boss.

The huge Sea Monarch is like a hill. Standing on the towering bow deck, even if the weather is bad today, Goldlund can still see the target clearly. "Great! Your Majesty has a wonderful plan! Now pass on my order and raise the signal flag. The flagman will go to the stern of the ship to call on everyone to start taking action according to the advance order."

The Ross flag was flying on the towering mast, and a string of colorful flags was raised all the way to the top of the mast using a pulley system. The flags of various colors and patterns represented multiple phrases and words. When put together, they became a graphic language, so that the advancing troops only needed to see clearly. With a string of colorful flags on the flagship, there is no need to send people all the time to watch the flag soldiers dancing to know what to do next.

The sea has become so bad today that people boating offshore have to endure rough waves.

Fortunately, all the soldiers had received training, and they had developed good concentration on the ups and downs of the sea. They successfully reached the legendary Vistula River, which was only marked in the textbook written by the King, through the ups and downs.

As a result, the bumps disappeared instantly, and they found peace on the wide and quietly flowing river.

"It's so quiet here, even quieter than the Neva and Volkhov rivers."

“It reminds me of the Rhine River I once visited.”

"Really? This time you're going rafting on the Rhine River again. I'm really looking forward to going there, haha."

Although most of the personnel in the army are new recruits, the grass-roots officers and a group of backbones among them are all new recruits removed from the old army. Just like those in the standing army who participated in the early expeditions and recuperated in the rear due to various injuries, they were left behind. Rick will not waste these elites, and they are eager to join the expedition and participate in the feast.

All the veterans in each flag corps are the treasures of these newly formed troops. These individuals have been to the Saxony region and the Rhine estuary area. They have some understanding of the local situation. Their presence has enabled each new flag corps to arrive. The Frankish world will not become a black eye.

The intense landing operation has begun, and the Russian army has implemented their usual high efficiency. They established a landing beach on the left bank of the estuary and immediately built a camp. Considering that just transporting reindeer and horses is a major project, and the weather is bad today , it was already a very optimistic estimate that all the large livestock could be transported here today, so Goldlund considered building a military camp on the seaside that would be enough to shelter from wind and rain.

The troops that arrived first started soil work as soon as they landed.

The flag team was responsible for setting up their own barracks. They immediately started plundering the coastal forest with axes, two-man saws and a batch of ropes.

Soon, something shocking happened to everyone...

News about the strange lights appearing on the sea at night spread throughout the large settlement. Kashu himself, who was supposed to rush out with his family to harvest wheat, learned what the visiting Bornholm nobles said and followed the advice of the big leader. Determined to stay on the sidelines for a while.

The Ross warriors who had just landed were busy logging in all the forest land. They made a lot of noise, and the distant troublemaker noticed a hint of uneasiness.

Someone rushed to the door of the big leader's mansion in a hurry. There were so many people reporting the situation that it was impossible for the leader Bogslaw to ignore them.

He hurriedly changed his clothes and walked out of the mansion to stand in the crowd. Everyone was talking about it for a while.

"Shut up, everyone! Tell me what's going on?"

After continuing the chaos, people pointed to the forest to the northeast.

As Bogslaw walked to the edge of the city, his eyes looked at a wheat field that had not yet been fully harvested. He saw that there was indeed a big commotion in the forest over there.

"What's going on? Did the guest Swinder and his people visit their Ross kin?" he asked his cronies.

"Reporting to the boss, Swinder and his gang just set off."

"It's strange." Bogslaw narrowed his eyes: "What's going on over there in the woods? Is someone destroying our windbreak? It's really unreasonable."

"Boss, what should we do?!" The confidant seemed more nervous than his leader: "No one can go there to cut down

Wood. If the newly arrived Russians destroyed the forest there, it would take many years to rebuild the windbreak. "

"Damn it! Do you think I don't understand?! I have no ill intentions towards the Russian people. If they really destroy my forest, we are not easy to mess with! Brothers! Organize the men from each household and pick up the Weapons follow me there to ask for an explanation! If they are not Rus but other Varangians...kill them!"

Although the Bay of Gdańsk does not belong to the general Courland Coast, it is also an edge area. The geographical structure here makes it face the northern sea. The Baltic Sea has a special climate. A storm may suddenly break out in summer. It may not appear particularly deadly at sea, but it will appear in the form of strong winds on the south coast.

As autumn and winter gather, the cold current from the Arctic can suddenly produce extremely strong winds, strong enough to overturn the haystack roofs of coastal residents in this era, and strong enough to uproot large trees.

Therefore, the Kashu people will definitely plant some big trees in their settlements to offset wind erosion. As for the forests on the seaside, they are like city walls and try to protect the wheat fields behind them.

Kashu's daily wood needs come from the forests in the southwest, and all villages maintain a tacit understanding that those who dare to destroy the coastal windbreaks will be punished, and in serious cases, they will be sentenced to death.

That was the immovable counter scale of the residents of Gdańsk, enough to cause Chief Bogslaw to gather a group of warriors for action.

On the other hand, the Ross Army did not understand the twists and turns here. They just saw that there was excellent woodland near the landing site, and they brought efficient tools with them.

Start logging work.

The coastal pine and fir trees collapsed quickly under the action of the two-man saw. The soldiers peeled off all the branches with their hands, and the main body of the trunk was smashed to pieces in the subsequent work.

They accidentally passed through this woodland during the logging process. Here they saw the open land behind and the huge settlement hidden by the woodland.

Either nervous or excited, the Russian soldiers who had developed a serious situation hurried back to the landing place.

Goldlund was surprised but not surprised. He was different from the simple and excited infantry soldiers. He pinched his beard and thought thoughtfully: "Maybe that is the Gdansk predicted by the king. If the people there don't attack us, we shouldn't take the initiative. Continue. While we wait for the king to arrive, we cannot resist."

This determination gave a cold water to the soldiers who had the intention of plundering, and they had no choice but to wait for the king.

However, a small fleet of longboats floated up the Vistula.

There are three long ships. They are different from the triangular sails of the Russian army. They are very traditional single masts and single beams. On the contrary, the sails are made of blue cloth strips to form a huge blue X pattern. The masts There is also a Russian flag floating on the top.

After all, the landing site of the Russian army is now full of long ships, and the offshore area at the mouth of the Vistula River is also filled with large Russian ships. Some ships simply took advantage of the north wind to rush into the river and anchored.

At first glance, these three longships look no different from other ships. Only if you look closely will you notice the scale sails.

At first no one noticed these three uninvited guests until they approached the Ross Army landing site.

The visitor was none other than Count Swinder of Bornholm.

His men.

"Sir, is that Spuyut's army?"

"I'm afraid not! Could it be that...we have encountered the expedition of King Rus? There is news that King Rus will launch an expedition this year." Although it is unbelievable, I really saw a large number of temporary anchorages for the Rus navy with magical multi-masted galleons. , and the landing site on the left bank was densely packed with half-stranded longships, Swinder could not deny his judgment.

No one noticed their presence until the three ships had landed, or even if someone noticed their presence, they thought "they were probably subordinates of a certain flag force."

In order to show that he was a supporter of Ross, and to avoid unnecessary complications, the Count of Bornholm imitated the regular Ross army in all aspects of clothing, so that even after contact between the two sides, the difference could not be seen at first glance.

However, in a legal sense, the Bornholm Army is also a component of the Rus Army. Swinder and the guys are legally obliged to do things for the Rus King when they stand here.

Naturally, when Swinder was looking forward to seeing King Rus, Admiral Goldlund could not believe his eyes.

A group of strange Ross troops stood in front of him. The leader had an unfamiliar face and kept saying that he wanted to see King Ross. The reason why Swinder was able to quickly find the command center of the landing force was because Goldlund had erected many tall flagpoles here, which were extremely conspicuous.

"We are the Bornholm Army. I am Count Swind, and I want to see the King of Rus." Swind did not know Goedlund, or maybe he was Rurik's servant when the two armies met many years ago. , at that time Goethelund was still a small character

color.

"County Bornholm? Something's wrong. Who are you?! Wearing our clothes like this."

Goldlund was not at all happy. He first discovered that a group of people in disguise had arrived at his command post under the nose of the Russian army. If they were hostile, wouldn't his head be chopped off? !

Goldlund subconsciously clenched the hilt of his sword, and his eyes attracted a group of armed onlookers from his companions.

Swinder noticed that there was a tendency of misunderstanding, and a smile appeared on his aging face. He spread his hands to express peace: "Friends, are you the army of King Rus? Is the king really here?"

"Who are you? Please introduce yourself."

"Yes, my lord... I am Count Swinder of Bornholm..."

"It's you?! Why are you here!" A round-faced man came looking for the noise. He was none other than Lan Hu.

"You?! Blue Fox Gouldson, our Earl of Gothenburg, you are here!"

"Of course it's me. It's strange. Swinder, you are not staying on your island, how could you meet us in Gdansk." The blue fox was equally confused.

"Gdansk?! Do you know its name?!" Swinder was even more surprised.

…

Blue Fox kept a low profile along the way. He knew that he would become the protagonist after returning to Gothenburg. After all, he would have to recruit some more soldiers to join the Ross Army to expand the strength of the entire army, but now he and his entourage's status More like "passenger".

After Blue Fox's explanation, Goldlund remembered the attack on Bornholm Island last year, and also thought of the leader at that time.

Goethelund only works with

There was a chance encounter with Swinder seven years ago. The two parties did not speak, so they did not remember the man who had become an old man.

Although the misunderstanding has been resolved, it is a miracle that several old friends can meet here. Swinder had a lot of questions. There were two things he wanted to know most: where was King Rus and why the Rus army came straight to Gdansk.

With nothing to do, they stayed at the huge landing site facing the sea breeze and chatted.

As a result, Swinder knew to some extent the details of King Rus's great expedition plan, and knew that the Rus' army had no ill intentions towards Gdansk. He himself also explained his past to the Russian soldiers. Although Swinder was not a lobbyist in Gdansk, he had good personal relations with the locals and now he has actually become a lobbyist for the locals, just to ensure that Ross The army will not launch an attack.

Swind even came up with the idea of ​​lobbying the King of Rus to sign a peace treaty with the chief of Gdansk.

"I really want to see King Ross!"

"Really?" As there was a movement on the other side of the river, people were delighted to see the figure of the war horse and the big blue feather on the top of the warrior's helmet. Goldlund happily pointed to the other side of the river: "King Rus is right there. He is about to cross the river. You can tell him anything by then! I think the king will be very happy to meet you, a loyal minister."