Rise of Rurik - Chapter 663

[Chapter 664 Vipslaine]

After leaving the mouth of the Volkhov River, Arik’s squadron searched for the correct west bank in the huge Ladoga Lake.

The Mercury led many long ships straight to the west. After a day of sailing, on a new morning, when the fog on the lake was cleared by the sun, the dark green and narrow lake shoreline was in sight.

The fleet landed, setting foot on this unexplored land.

Could it be that the mysterious Karelians can be spied around here?

Soldiers with crossbows were ordered to investigate the nearby woods.

The leather boots rustled on the soft pine blanket, and with sharp eyes they noticed some smart pine trees jumping and moving among the treetops.

Suddenly, arrows whizzed past!

That was the accompanying Kewen archer, and shooting pine trees with bows and arrows was already their specialty.

It was none other than Telavis who shot the arrow!

“Boy, good job!”

The Ross soldiers praised him one after another, and the kid also walked forward with a smile, and put away the arrow stuck in the pine tree.

He didn’t have time to deal with this little hand immediately, so he tied a small tail with a rope and hung it on the belt around his waist.

He was almost fourteen years old, a little older than Rurik, but his height, based on his blood, was obviously incapable of growing into a golden bear like the strong man Ross.

He has a slightly flattened face, with tan hair and a sprouting beard.

It is said that the language of the Karelians is similar to that of the Kovins. It is for this reason that the young him led the people and was temporarily incorporated into the First Banner Team to participate in this armed investigation.

Near noon, the warmest time, the forest expedition team came back.

“Have you found any suspicious traces?” Arik asked in a slightly eager tone.

“No, there are quite a few squirrels. This is for you.” After finishing speaking, Telavis untied the booty and threw it over.

European red squirrels are very big, and the northern European red squirrels have even more outrageous tails. Such a large tail is good for climbing and jumping in the forest, and this is also the favorite of hunters.

This pine tree with a broad tail is almost half a stika. It is really not small. Arik is almost holding this huge captured one with both hands, which also attracts everyone who is resting in the camp to watch.

The brothers came together, and Arik stepped on a thick rotten log, holding the squirrel’s head in one hand and tucking its tail in the other, showing off in public.

“You’ve all seen it! Our hunters made a big catch! There’s no one else in this place, and we can make a fortune here!”

The crowd more or less guessed what Arik meant, and they all raised their hands and cheered.

Arik is such a person. He has a noble status, but also has a bitter experience. The complex and contradictory life experience makes him very concerned about the feelings of his brothers.

He is not a greedy person, nor will he give charity on purpose.

He has struggled to make a lot of wealth, but he has no ambition to seize new wealth.

The huge red squirrel moved him, and so did the soldiers of the First Banner Squad!

Are squirrels easy to catch?

Are the pine forests here full of these little jumping beasts?

Even if they don’t have a clear awareness, a huge amount of booty hot money is pouring into the society of the Rus, and the once rare silver coins are nothing now.

Although the price is boiling, everyone has a lot of money in their hands!

Even the Duke provided a lot of labor opportunities for everyone, and even disabled people had the opportunity to save some silver coins to buy wheat for living.

The price of the once cheap squirrel skins has risen, and those small squirrel skins are not worth much, but the big ones displayed in Arik’s hands are worthless!

Only this one end can make a warm, comfortable and gorgeous mouse fur hat, and the price of unprocessed mouse fur costs two silver coins.

It’s still early, and besides, it’s necessary for the brothers to explore the area at this location. If they really find the Karelian camp, wouldn’t the brothers make a fortune by launching a raid?

!

Besides, just plundering squirrels, ferrets (brown in summer), and foxes is worth the trip.

He gave his brothers a three-day holiday, in fact doing his old job as a hunter.

Don’t look at the first flag team are all young people from the principality, each of them is an excellent hunter and fisherman.

They are not as capable of pulling bows and shooting arrows directly to shoot down the turtledoves on the treetops as the fellow Kewen people.

Wooden arm crossbow, it is not enough lethality against armored enemies, but it fully demonstrates what a crazy small animal hunting weapon is.

The vigilant foxes swayed among the fallen leaves in twos and threes, and the crossbow bolts that flew suddenly completed the hunt silently.

They even hunted a miniature herd of reindeer, and carried eight deer back to the camp by the lake.

Some hunters went there for two days. Although they were hunting in an unknown forest, their hunting experience kept them from getting lost.

Focusing on the camp at the landing point, the soldiers of the First Banner team explored the lakeside forest with a radius of about 20 kilometers.

They had gained a lot from this trip. When everyone came back and made sure that no one was lost, everyone showed their prey to each other, gnawed on the half-baked meat, and soon came to an obvious conclusion-there is no one Area.

They were old warriors covered in iron, with a lot of equipment for killing the enemy. They never thought that they would become wild hunters again, so that the chain mail for body protection became a complete burden.

There are foxes, squirrels, wolverines, minks, reindeer, and squirrels are the most caught.

Whether it is shooting directly or making a net trap, every soldier has at least one squirrel skin to hunt, and individual good hunters, such as the beast hunters among the Kewen people, can have ten squirrel skins scraped around their waists.

The young Telavis was such a talent. He tied the squirrel’s tail and limbs with ropes, and when it was about to be fully unfolded, he carefully peeled the skin with a steel dagger. He scraped off the fat with special care. After such simple processing, the untanned leather has been dried for a long time without rot.

He made up his mind that after completing this mission, he would immediately sell the leather in New Roseburg for money.

They boarded the ship again, and everyone had a windfall.

They were not satisfied at all, but instead regarded unknown enemies as wild animals running around, waiting to be hunted by themselves.

Soon, the squadron advancing along the west bank of the Great Lake passed a river into the mouth of the lake.

What kind of river is this?

No one knows.

Arik admired Telavis’ superb shooting skills. He was on the flagship Mercury, and he patted the kid on the shoulder and asked casually, “Do you know what river this is?”

“Me? I have no way of knowing.”

“Strange, you Kewen people have never set foot in this area?”

Arik’s question was really mentally retarded, and Teravis was too embarrassed to scold him, so he had to say: “If there are people active here, they are also Karelians.”

“Really? I think this place is clearly no man’s land. For three days, my men surveyed a large area. All the moving things are small animals. There are no living people or even bears. This lakeside forest is a good place.”

“How about we enter the river and go upstream to investigate?” Telavis asked kindly.

“Forget it. My brother said that the Karelians should be active in the north of the Great Lake. It’s strange. If it weren’t for the cold, clear fresh water, I would have thought I was cruising in a new ocean. Where is the northern shore of the Great Lake? ?”

“Maybe, this is a sea of fresh water…”

Arik shook his head and didn’t answer any more.

They passed by the Burnaya River, which is not ordinary. As long as they go against the current and follow the correct waterway, they can reach the core area of Suomi’s allies in Finland.

But in the maze-like upper lake area, how easy is it to find an extremely tortuous waterway?

Without a map, ships going upriver would have to do trial and error.

Even if the correct waterway is found, it must be a very tortuous and time-consuming voyage.

The glacial lakes of Central Finland feed thousands of rivers, which turn into large rivers and flow into the Gulf of Finland, the Gulf of Bothnia, or the sea-like Lake Ladoga.

Abundant water resources nourish dense pine forests and fir forests, and then squirrels and minks jump freely, which also raises large beasts and people.

But the forest is not a place to raise reindeer. Karelia’s original meaning is “herders”, and they will indeed not be stupid to graze in forest areas.

To the north of the Great Lakes, there is a large amount of grassland, which is a good place for natural grazing.

However, it is not just the Karelians who live around the Great Lakes. Other small ethnic groups who speak similar languages are also living their own closed and tranquil lives.

Even the leaders of those small tribes must recognize the authority of the Karelian tribal union, serve them, and provide tribute to the Karelian chiefs.

An unnamed small offshore island appeared in front of him, and Arik knew by feeling that it was another uninhabited island.

Uninhabited islands often have their own resources. For example, some birds use it as a habitat. Hunters wait until they can pick up a batch of bird eggs and put them on the hot stone slabs to make delicious fried eggs. It is really a good picnic.

They successfully passed the waterway between the island and the land. Up to now, the whole voyage has been shrouded in dullness.

The rowers didn’t even have to exert themselves, and many simply drew back their oars.

The Mercury and the longship behind were all raising their jib sails, and drifted slowly to the north under the warm south wind in summer.

enemy?

The enemy really lives on the shore?

People even began to suspect that His Excellency, the Duke, had overestimated those unknown enemies, and would actually regard the powerful enemies described by the Suomi and Tavastians as really powerful enemies.

Ten days have passed since I left the Novgorod people, and apart from the familiar faces of my brothers, I really can’t even see the shadow of anyone else.

They start to be lazy, and it is often the case that abnormal things suddenly appear in the distance.

The sleepy Arik was awakened by the sailors, and he hurried to the high poop deck, and indeed saw the boat floating on the lake in the distance.

“What’s that? A canoe?” he asked.

The sailor message said: “After so many days, we finally saw other people.”

“No. That’s the prey, we…” Arik wanted to kill them, but then he thought about it, he has been wandering in unknown waters until now, and he has no idea about the future. Who owns those small boats, I’m afraid It’s the Karelians.

“Let’s go, let’s go at full speed, and catch up before the boat escapes!”

Arik immediately issued an order, and the Mercury with its human-powered propeller began to enter the highest speed.

Those long boats took orders even more. They lowered their sails, and stretched their big oars into the water, like a huge water strider rushing rapidly on the water surface.

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If the boss asks to catch the work, the brothers will not do it regardless of the severity.

Looking at the canoe, the fishermen on the boat naturally sensed the abnormality, and instinctively drove the fishermen to paddle and escape for their lives.

Let’s look at the squadron that entered the battle state. The fleet was rushing at the fastest speed it could reach. Soon, they saw a lonely canoe, and there were actually three in front of them, all of which were running for their lives.

The two sides have completely unequal strengths, just like a leopard chasing a rabbit, the result is naturally the victory of the Ross Squadron.

The brash fighters of Ross forced the canoe to stop, and the soldiers screamed, even drowning out the questioning shouts of the accompanying Kewen people.

The Corvins saw the terrified fishermen on the fishing boats.

There are men, women and even children here. They are trembling with fright, but their facial expressions are familiar to the Kewen people, and they are even kind.

There was a canoe shot from the hull of a large ship by a torsion slingshot, and it fell silent quickly, and the overboard man grabbed the thrown cable and was pulled aboard the Mercury.

The other two boats saw the situation, and the fishermen were completely captured. They sat in their clothes and were easily captured by the Ross people who boarded the boat. They tied them up and twisted them to the flagship Mercury.

They were all frightened rabbits. The man looked calm, but he was frightened like a log, only his big eyes were trembling.

The woman was so frightened that she shivered, curled up and hugged the crying child.

Don’t want Arik to have any compassion for these people. If there is a killing, he doesn’t mind chopping it with an axe. After all, if he does this kind of thing too much, he will be cruel.

After all, Arik acted very rationally on this issue. Even if he wanted to kill him, he had to wait until he had obtained useful information.

He pointed at Telavis. “Boy, it would be great if you understood the language of these captives. I hope you understand Karelian.”

“let me try.”

This face of Telavis made the prisoner feel a little safe, he sat down and asked casually, what made him gratified, although the other party’s language was a bit strange, it seemed that some words were just modified.

Is it Karelian?

The captive denied it.

The women and children were still curled up in a ball, obviously it was impossible for these people to cooperate.

Only the captured men claimed to be not Karelian at all.

Who are they?

A word called “Vipslaine”.

Vipslaine?

Are they in peace with the Karelians?

The words of the captives are also very clear. They Vipslane, or Vips, exist as servants of the Karelians.

From this, Telavis accurately judged that the Ross Squadron had finally officially entered the control area of the Karelian forces.

The Duke’s previous prediction was also very correct. The seemingly powerful Karelian ships are also common canoes in Finland. This kind of ship is higher than a raft. When encountering a big Ross ship, it is no different from a mayfly shaking a tree.

Perhaps a young child is trustworthy, and the prisoner explained some very critical information that the entire squadron needs to see most clearly.

The captive said it clearly, and when Telavis told it again, Arik burst into ecstasy…

[End of this Chapter]