Rise of Rurik

At first, Villa felt that it would be enough to organize fifty Otto supporters. Unexpectedly, as many as five hundred people were preparing to go north that night.

Staying in one's house during the long winter makes the feeling of boredom more and more irritating.

Going out to meet the leader back, this trip might have any unexpected results outdoors.

Some brave men are preparing, and some women are also acting spontaneously, entirely because their husbands have not returned with the leader Otto.

When the news of the priest reached the ears of these women, they firmly believed that the husband was pacing the snowy field with a lot of harvest, because the prey was too much, even a strong man could not easily carry it.

The wife's anxiety was swept away, replaced by joy at the prospect of a good harvest.

Nearly 200 women, some even brought their children, all dressed like bears, began to prepare sleds for pulling goods overnight. Sleds are loaded with plenty of dry food, even hide tents for camping outdoors, axes for logging and killing beasts.

In the end, nearly a thousand people were organized, including men and women, and many children.

Even Rurik himself was drawn into this mighty army by his mother Nya.

More people saw that even the wife of the leader Otto and the highly anticipated Rurik acted, and this search to the north could no longer be called a search.

It was Rosberg's warmest expression to the triumphant people.

When the first ray of sunshine in the morning smeared hard on the pale earth, the sense of holiness penetrated the heart.

Everyone who had eaten began to act in unison, and the mighty team spontaneously constructed a wide search line to make it easier to find the returning people.

Rurik also sat on the sled, dressed like a little bear.

Of course, completely different from the bear, he has always had a knife in his waist for self-protection and cutting meat to eat.

Like the other women, Nia is quite thickly dressed, and she will be pulling her sleigh towards the north herself.

Not to mention, even if it is a woman, even if it is a person with some heavy supplies, people stepping on snowboards, everyone can still move faster on the snow.

For Rurik, today's action was the first time he left Roseburg in the fjord!

Leaving their homes protected by the hills, the huge team walked directly on the frozen ocean in order to go north, just because the road was very smooth.

Right next to Rurik, his cousin Arik was chasing his sleigh, along with his wife Peravina.

Beifeng is like a knife, watching his mother struggling to move forward, he couldn't help but feel more worried.

"Mom, why don't I come down and walk?" he suggested.

"No! My child, at least now I can easily pull you."

Niya is really not young. She usually eats too much red meat and fish, as well as a lot of physical work. Her physical fitness is still very good.

Rurik didn't say anything. He sat obediently throughout the short day, until after night fell, people began to camp one after another.

They had a load of charcoal with them, so a little bonfire soon appeared above the ice.

There is no need to worry that the charcoal fire will bake the ice layer under the camp. Because of the continuous freezing for more than ten days, the average thickness of the flat layer in the Gulf of Bothnia has exceeded one meter, and the ice layer is thicker as it gets closer to the coast.

People who go north to find some leaders are very smart, and this road on the ice is indeed the most convenient.

Of course, Otto also knew such a superior way to return home, but this idea was finally changed due to the death of a large number of reindeer.

There is no grass on the ice surface, and the deer that were forcibly driven out caused a large number of deaths in just two days of walking on the ice surface.

Otto had a hundred deer trophies, and when he led his men back to land operations again,

Already only half the number.

Because the nutrition of the snow grass is limited, the reindeer do not hibernate, they will survive the whole winter, and in return they have to use the whole winter to graze the grass.

This is why reindeer people have to do winter grazing.

If they had plenty of grain, they could feed the deer with this extremely nutritious grain, but that's not possible.

Feeding reindeer with wheat is an incredible idea.

But without enough energy, he had to drag the sleigh and the leisurely strong Ross sitting on the sleigh. Forcibly running for more than 200 kilometers would cause a large number of reindeer to die from exhaustion.

Reindeer, of course, are traditional species in the Arctic Circle, migrating hundreds of kilometers every year.

They are naturally extremely stamina, but this is by no means a reason to abuse animal power.

Smart deer breeders would not frantically order their deer to starve and spend a few days walking through the migration route they completed in two months.

Otto and his subordinates are not deer breeders, and their attitude towards deer is also predatory. If the deer can return to Roseburg alive, it can continue to be raised for a period of time to try to obtain more value. If it dies in the middle, there is no need to worry. The owner of the deer can immediately strip the precious skin and antlers, and the remaining venison is The best dry food.

Regardless of whether they have made meritorious deeds or not, they have at least two deer.

Now everyone has to face the bad reality, and many people are left with the last lingering deer.

Some of Otto's subordinates help him drive away the deer, and he himself has to keep an eye on the last deer-keeper girl.

Half dead deer is not a catastrophic problem. Many of his subordinates deal with the deer carcasses. The skin goes to the leader, and the meat goes to the subordinates.

The opportunity to easily obtain a large amount of delicious red meat was in front of him. Fifty heads of venison belonging to Otto quickly turned into pieces of meat, and a considerable part had already entered the stomach of the tribe.

Otto, what he cares most about is still the deer breeder girl.

Along the way, the child did not cry or make trouble, but sat quietly on the sleigh wrapped in a thick leather coat. She ate meat, she also drank water, and she had no intention of running away for several days.

"This kind of person is simply a natural servant?"

Otto became more and more curious, but the girl saw that her deer was being eaten by the barbarians, and her heart was bleeding.

But what can a child who has lost his entire family and is controlled by savages do?

She didn't understand the language of the barbarian, and now she was completely submissive, just didn't want to die. Because she is cowardly now, she has not had the courage to commit suicide like her own mother. It was also very unlucky that I didn't freeze to death like my brothers and sisters.

He was the only one alive, his hands and feet were still bound.

She didn't know where she was going to be escorted, but looking at the current situation, before she decided where to go, she was afraid that the deer that had been kidnapped by her family would be exhausted and starved to death on the vast snowfield, and her personal fate was also similar. tragedy.

The girl remained silent, longing that she would fall asleep one day and never see the sun of a new day.

He has been alive all the time, but the deer are getting fewer and fewer day by day.

Otto and his party turned back to the old road. According to the marks left earlier, everyone basically determined their geographic location.

Everyone is also very happy, and we can go back to Roseburg in two or three days at most.

The only unhappy thing, I am afraid, is that the deer pulling the sleigh are dead. The trip that used to be two days would only take three days or more, because on their sleds were not only their various snow camping equipment, but also the large amount of animal hides, and the large amount of frozen meat that they brought with them. more weight.

It's a good thing to return with a full load, and it's more hopeful that you can bring them back without too much effort.

How Otto wished that his people in Roseburg could send someone to help everyone bring the treasure back, not to mention that the people of Roseburg have missed you for too long.

"Perhaps I should immediately send someone down the road to inform them!"