Rise of Rurik

The world in Otto's mind is not big, or the concept of distant places is very vague. The gods have created an interesting human world, and there is an ethereal Asgard in the sky, but unfortunately he is old and has lost the capital to continue exploring.

Rurik began to mention that there were other people around Novi Rosberg, even if they didn't even see a shadow.

Otto had to be on guard.

Who are those people?

Rurik gave an astonishing answer.

He first looked at the structure of the house, determined all the directions, then raised his little finger and pointed to the west: "I can be sure that there are Estonians living there."

"I already knew that. It's a little weird that you gave them names," Otto said.

Rurik immediately pointed to the south: "There are still people there, there should be Mrs. Psko, and a group of people who speak the same language as the Novgorod people. Now that we have conquered Novgorod, I will also be there in the future. Conquer Pskov."

Pskov? It was the first time Otto had heard of the term.

The city of Pskov was not established in AD 830, but if the village is regarded as a city, then Pskov already exists. Rurik is very clear that the Neva River is not far from the Chud Lake and the Pskov Lake is not far from the Neva River, and there are water channels between the two places. As for whether there is a direct waterway from Pskov to Novgorod, this is unknown to Rurik.

Here he particularly emphasized that a certain river on the southern bank of the gulf empties into the sea, and if it goes upstream, it will reach Pskov, another settlement of the Slavs.

That alone had taken Otto and Konusson by surprise.

Rurik pointed to the east again: "There is a being called Perm there, and there live some people who speak a language that may be the same as the Finns. Yevro is the Finns, and the Kovins under our command can be like the Finns. Talk to people from the east."

"Perm? Who are they? Children, are you sure they exist?" Otto demanded.

"Dad, you can't question me."

"Oh, that's right." Otto slapped his forehead, thinking of the only son Extraordinary. This ability to see into the unknown world and the correct prediction of the future are the huge advantages that the Rus people have, and it is also a real blessing from God.

In fact, there are many ethnic groups in the East, the Inglia, the Malians, the Mali and the Perm.

They are actually a small number of loose tribes, and on the snowy plains, they all belong to the broad sense of the Finns. What kind of communication can be made with these forest hunters from Siberia, Rurik guesses that it is only a very limited leather trade? The two sides can do business, and it is not necessary at this stage.

But at the mention of the East, Rurik was inevitably very excited.

He opened his hands and emphasized that due to the limited understanding of his father and brother, he was forced to speak concisely: "There are many great rivers in our east, and they either lead to the frozen sea or the same fiery sea. Continue to East, there will be a huge mountain, if we climb over it, we will enter a vast world that cannot be described in words, where there is endless leather, a lot of gold and silver, and many unprecedented existences, such as one with the legendary A country as great as Rome. If distant trade routes can be established, we should take the initiative to establish trade with that eastern power, but we should never think of conquering her."

What is in the eastern world? Of course, the Rus wanted to go on expeditions. Konusson had long wanted to do so, but he was simply unable to organize an expedition. He never imagined that going to the east might use his feet to measure a road of 30,000 kilometers. After all, the Russian explorers who traveled all the way to the east in history established several camps as far away as California, but due to their absolute military inferiority, they were all destroyed by the Spanish Empire.

"Ah! The East is really full of treasures?!" Konuson was overjoyed.

Rurik also struck while the iron was hot, saying deliberately, "What I'm talking about is all oracles. Listen, the gods have blessed us, and what they tell me is the truth, which is a hint that we Russ need to explore."

Everyone was very happy with Rurik's explanation, except that Rurik was trying to induce them to explore desperately. Even if he was the king of the rotten land, he had to be the first to plant a flag on the rotten land to establish ownership. Although Ross was not an inch of land redundant.

"What's up north? I'm worried." Otto said suddenly.

"Yes! North." Rurik settled down, "I must focus on this. Conuson, have you been exploring the Great Lakes in the East on a large scale in the past year?"

"No, we don't, if it's your request, we'll do it next year."

"Then be careful. I'm sure there are other people living near the lake. They are Karelian."

Another very unfamiliar term, what kind of people are they? Perhaps a rabble that can be easily defeated.

After all, Rurik asserted that Lake Ladoga is not a lake shared by the Rus and bears, and that humans are the masters of the world. No matter how strong the Karelians are, if they organize an army, is there any danger in the Nova Ross Fort? New Roseburg is very close to the Great Lakes.

Rurik especially emphasized the need to beware of threats from the north. Through the information obtained by various parties, some existing tribes have been well confirmed, and the strength level of the Rus has also been estimated.

Rurik began to enumerate the forces that should exist north of the Neva in this era: the Karelians, the Tavastians, the Finns (Suomi), the Kovins, the deer-raisers (Sami).

Both the Corvins and the deer breeders have surrendered and boarded the ships of the Rus. What is the general situation of the Finns, Yevluo has given a detailed explanation. As for the Tavastians who have never met, they have always been the enemies of the Kovins. As for the Kovins from the two sides who often fought each other, they were killed by a small group of Ross expeditions. Does this mean that the two sides have been pecking at each other for a long time? ? Since the Rus people quickly conquered the Kovins, it must not be difficult to conquer the Tavastians in the future. That's what he estimated.

It is the Karelians who still remain mysterious. In Rurik's impression, the Karelians have always been extremely weak and have almost zero sense of existence. They are not even as good as the Sami. .

In line with the principle of paying attention to potential enemies, Rurik thought for a while, and simply overestimated those who had a vague sense of existence, so that his clansmen would not be too arrogant, and treat possible military threats with vigilance and rigor.

Rurik claimed that the Karelians were strong enough that, if they attacked, Fort Novo Rose would have to rely on the walls to keep it safe.

So what is the actual situation?

The Tavastians and the Karelians are not weak these days. In other words, the reason why they are relatively strong is that their clan members exceed 10,000. Even if the tribes live scattered and rely on fishing, hunting and gathering, they have at least entered the half-iron age, and the proportion of iron in their weapons and tools has continued to increase. There are indeed many Kievan Rus nobles in history who were attacked by Tavastians and Karelians when they asked for tribute to the north, causing a lot of losses for a time.

But today's Karelians can only maintain a population of up to 20,000 people, their productive capacity is extremely low, and they have no resources to feed more people. The population directly controlled by the Koross was barely 6,000 people. When he was at an absolute disadvantage, Rurik did not want to take the initiative to provoke some wars, unless the war was uninvited.

Now Rurik had a strong premonition that a major war was in the not too distant future.

Otto was excited. At this moment, he felt that his son's sudden visit was an oracle, which made the people of New Roseburg realize that their life was never easy and that there were potential enemies on all sides.

Otto squeezed his chin: "Is it the Karelians? If we have more warriors here, can we conquer them? Rurik, give me an answer."

"War? If possible, I would like to have peaceful contact with them, unless they are really plundering our interests."

Rurik wanted peace, and Otto laughed: "Forget it. If they are really strong, let's do business well. If they are weak... tell me how many people can conquer them."

"This..." Rurik couldn't make up his mind for a while, so he lied: "Maybe a thousand people are needed."

"so much?"

Arik was displeased, he slapped his proud chest: "Forget it. Give me five hundred people, and I will conquer them all. What Karelians, in my opinion, they are all weak and only worthy of being. Our slaves. Brother, don't look up to them."

"Well said." Otto nodded in satisfaction and looked at his son again: "You should study your elder brother. Listen, when they do surrender, you can be kind to them. Before they kneel, you They should be defeated."

"Okay." Rurik didn't want to waste any more words, he sighed that some small peoples were really destined to be conquered by the strong to become vassals. "Now you know, there are people all around New Roseburg, they are just hiding in the woods. I see that the land is fertile and suitable, the rivers ensure enough fresh water, the sea is adjacent to boil salt, and the lake is adjacent to fish. In the north, we can conquer those people, in the south we can ask for tribute from the Novgorods, and in the west we have clear trade routes. Novrosburg is our new beginning, and maybe we should move all the people of our homeland.”

The son's words directly hit Otto's heart. Compared with his hometown, the New Rose Fort at the mouth of the big river is indeed a treasure of feng shui.

"The migration is to be done, we have to take it slowly. But I think the hometown still has a role to play."

"Is it a mine? Maybe it will be enough for our hometown to be responsible for ore production in the future." Rurik replied very succinctly. Although he was attached to the small fjord, the Rus people never loved their home, and they never relocated to the land. the people.

When he mentioned the ore Otto, he couldn't think of a lot, and he continued to mention the original topic: "Rurik, you went to the north with the submissive Kovins, to the big mine we discovered in the winter. The situation is all Are you okay? Those special ores..."

"It's in very good shape, and in my opinion that mine is a hundred times better than ours near Roseburg."

It must be true that his son has a high praise for it. Otto recalled what happened more than half a year ago, and thought that the forest in the north was also surrounded by mountains and rivers. It was cold or cold, and it was not difficult to build a settlement.

"How are the settlements there? Are the Corvins adapting?" Otto pressed.

"Of course. I went there with a lot of brothers, and I also guided some fishermen to explore, and even organized an expedition to go north against that river. Dad, you know, the Kewen people are used to building a mountain fort, and they don't want to. Forget the squirrel, I named it Fort Elron Orava, and they were all happy. A brand new mountain fort was built, and it was surrounded by walls and it was five hundred stikas in length. We they did It is agreed that from this year, those Kewen people must pay us a large amount of iron."

Otto was very happy to hear it, and he was a little suspicious: "Iron? Those guys actually have a blacksmith?"

"They didn't have one, so we raided a group. Dad, you should have gone back. We should go to the Oulu River and collect tribute from the other Kowen people."

"This year's situation is more complicated." Otto sighed, "The sea will freeze in November, I don't think it matters. Since we have conquered the ice sea, we can conquer it for the second and third time. We use reindeer. A sleigh collecting tribute is no more difficult than sailing."

"Okay. Fort Elronorava is indeed a good place. Soon, iron will become a cheap product in our tribe, and we can sell it for a huge profit."

The nephew Le Zhong took the warriors to loot to make a fortune, and the son Le Zhong sold high value-added commodities to make money. Now New Roseburg is rapidly evolving into a production base for major living materials, and many foreigners regularly provide tributes. Otto strokes his beard, life is really beautiful.

But wait a minute, just now my son mentioned that he organized an expedition to go wildly north along the river?

"Rurik, you sent an expedition, how is the situation? I see your expression, they will get something."

"I was about to say this." Rurik patted his thigh, his excitement beyond words.

"Dad, we all know that Roseburg is a dangerous mountain to the west, and there are a large number of Norse tribes to the west of the mountain. There is a group of people unknown to us or even the other tribes in the alliance. They came across the mountain. They called themselves Balmer. Kewen people speak a language that we can fully understand. In fact, they are not unfamiliar. They are the northern fur traders in the mouth of the Kewen people. They are looking for the Kewen people. We are the masters of the Kewen people, so..."

"Where are they?!" Otto's sitting upright body already made his back aches, but the series of key information mentioned by his son kept trying to refresh his worldview.

"There are ten travelers, and they are in our Roseburg. They are happy to talk to us, and they are happy to buy our pelts."

"The Balmers? I don't know. Do they have silver coins?"

"A little bit, silver coins don't matter. They bring a lot of salt, which is very good quality. Boiled salt is very troublesome, and in my opinion, if our business is stable, we can buy theirs for a long time. Salt, you don’t have to go to the trouble of making it yourself.”

"Balmerk merchant..." Otto clenched his fists, "It seems that I should go back sooner."

"Dad, when will the fleet leave?"

"Are you urging me? It's coming soon. After two or three days, we will finish loading the supplies and then return. Haha, the brothers in my hometown will praise my greatness again this time." Otto was greeted with a wave of compliments when the tribute returned to his hometown, and through which he has been increasing his prestige over the years.