Rise of Rurik

When spring returns to Scandinavia, the "trade season" of the year begins again, and of course, trade often comes with conflict.

The long ships that had disappeared in the bay suddenly appeared.

The Danes and Norwegians are again exploring Britain, or going south along the coast.

In addition to the inevitable conflict with the Danes on the sea, the Si Yazhong tribe began to conduct regular trade with the Baltic tribe on the other side of the sea.

Here too the Rus tribes traded with their relatives in the south and with the Baltic people further south.

The only difference is that the Ross clan has mastered a secret route to the waterways deep in the interior.

It's a long voyage, and last fall's Sorgon voyage was attacked by Gotlanders, making the once safe route dangerous. Even so, as long as the army is in position and keeps hitting the shield with the tomahawk, the powerful aura can make the locals of Novgorov obediently take out the treasure.

In fact, if it were some ethnic group with strong fighting power, the Ross tribe would obediently do peaceful trade with them and would try their best to avoid conflict.

But those who were rich were weak, and in the ninth century Baltic region where there was no clear law, might be truth!

Even, they never considered looting to be a sin.

At the beginning of May 822, the Sorgon voyage in the spring was launched again under the leadership of the leader Otto. This time, the fleet was very smart next to the coast of the Finns, and touched the mouth of the Neva River, and the next road was smooth. .

Otto asked for a tribute, and the Swigs were as cowardly as ever. At least Otto thinks so.

Otto and his warriors were very pleased by the humility of the Swigs. With kindness, Otto gave the family leaders a small piece of amber for the first time, which was regarded as a reward.

Is this little amber heralding a subtle change in the relationship between the Rus tribe and the Swig people of Novgorod?

Maybe yes, maybe not.

Otto just rewarded several family leaders with amber, which is more common in Scandinavia, out of his own pleasure.

But for the Swigs, perhaps this is the beginning of a warmer relationship after their encounter with the Rus.

As early as 754 AD, the explorers of the Rus tribe went west to find the mouth of the Neva. The place is desolate, covered with thatch under the snow. Some bears and deer are active here, and obtaining their fur is probably the only value here.

But as they found a channel deep inland, a warm place lay before them.

They went upstream, and at first they also traded with the huge village of Novgorod, until they found that the warriors here were not good, and evil thoughts followed.

In the first few years, the trade between the two groups was normal, until Otto's grandfather's area, they began to trade by sword.

If they could be physically compelled to hand over their wealth, it would be a no-brainer business.

Besides, the Ross tribe doesn't want to occupy the territory of the Swigs. As long as they get enough treasure, the left and right people will return to the leading warship and leave.

In 822 AD, both Sorgon voyages were successful.

By 823 AD, this was still the case.

Otto was pleasantly surprised to find that as long as a symbolic amber was given, the Swigs would be very happy to take out a lot of treasures.

This is completely different from the normal transaction in the past, and it is different from the robbery without capital and profit.

As long as the tribes really give out a little bit of insignificant financial resources, the Swigs will be very generous with their treasures.

Novgorod is a huge settlement, a small city surrounded by many villages.

They are dominated by several families in the city, and the rest of the small villages are vassals of Novgorov.

The entire region has a population of more than 200,000 people, and the land there is at least more fertile and the climate is milder. They were able to produce more wealth and actively trade with other Swigg tribes in the south.

Every year, a great deal of wealth in Novgorod flows into the pockets of the Rus tribe with a population of less than 8,000.

Today, as long as there is no conflict with the Danes, under the leadership of Otto, the wealth of the Ross tribe has been expanding, isn't it?

Otto returns triumphantly with a trove of treasures, and once again he is the hero of the tribe. The whole tribe is also full of confidence in surviving the new winter.

Liu Li was two years old and had to accept his unique identity as Rurik.

"Rurik, Russ. What the hell, am I supposed to have such a fate? To lead this group of Vikings to Eastern Europe to establish Kievan Rus?"

"Is that possible? Look at these people, they're Vikings! Aren't they supposed to sack England?"

"Really, they named me Rurik."

Two-year-old Rurik harbored a real adult in his weak body.

In the past two years, he has basically figured out where he is and the fact that he is a Viking.

Liu Li knew very little about the historical development of Russia. For the concept of Vikings, he was also a group of sea madmen with horn helmets, round shields and battle axes.

Vikings, they seem to be a group of pirates who do all kinds of evil.

However, the fact completely subverted Liu Li's imagination.

The tribe he belongs to is called "Ros", which means "paddle hands". He estimated that there was only one city-state of Roseburg among the tribes, and that the population of the settlement was not much.

They don't have any horn helmets either, but they have a lot of leather and iron helmets with eye and nose guards.

But the classic dragon-headed warships, forest axes and painted round shields are real.

And the real thing is probably their food.

In the past two years, Liu Li was weaned early. He felt that he had to eat meat before he was a year old. In the days that followed, there was only a small chance that he would be able to eat bread that did not taste very good. Most of the time, all he could eat was all kinds of meat.

right! All kinds of meat, and some that are not carefully cooked.

He saw tribal fishermen hunt Baltic seals, cast nets for herring, fish for cod, and even hunt for sharks.

It may be that the land here is too barren, people mainly rely on marine fishing for food, and trade cattle and sheep with people in the south. As one of them, Liu Li also had to eat the same meals as them.

In a sheep, the skin will be stripped off to make clothing, the meat will be eaten, and then almost all the internal organs will be eaten, and the bones of the sheep may also be used for further use.

The taste of the food was crazy, but the extremely young Liu Li had no choice but to bite the bullet and eat these weird meats, even shark meat.

Historically Rurik would have established a Slavic state in Eastern Europe and named it after Rus.

Moreover, Rurik was invited by the locals to be a prince.

Liu Li thought it was absurd, but his name certainly sounded like "Rurik", and "Ross" was the name of his tribe.

He was very happy that the son of his tribal chief, his biological father was a very strong white strong man, who always exuded a strong and annoying smell. But he should be a qualified father. According to his biological mother, Nia, his biological father is also a qualified leader.

The whole tribe is full of respect for the biological father, and they are full of awe for themselves, a baby.

The situation is not that he is the son of the leader, but because of a prophecy from the elders of the tribe that the son of the leader will bring prosperity to the tribe.

"Well, I don't know what kind of life Rurik should have had in history. If my destiny is to become a leader in the future and lead them to immigrate en masse to the vast plains of Eastern Europe, they can indeed prosper. But by that time, their The descendants are no longer Vikings."

All the thoughts Liu Li hid in his heart.