Rise of Rurik - Chapter 757

[Chapter 758 Blue Fox Gouldsson Returns Like Lightning]

A flag was raised suddenly on the lonely mast of the boat, and Spuet took a look. Isn’t that special pattern…

“Is it Ross? Is it ours?!”

In desperation, Spueut urgently ordered the crossbow to be unloaded, and the attack command was suspended.

Look at the small boat again, there are some guys in black robes on it, the small boat is constantly rising and falling on the sea, and the people on board are not afraid of the ocean, nor are they afraid of the big ship.

As the two boats approached, one person on the boat began to wave the flag wildly, and even shouted: “I am the blue fox! The blue fox of the Gould family! Are you a Ross ship? Take us aboard !”

Spueut was on the side of the ship, he couldn’t hear clearly, at least he was sure that the other party was definitely a Frankish priest, and as for the Ross flag in his hand, a thought came to his mind.

Because Spuyut knew a lot about Eskil, and also knew that the prince had allowed the construction of a small monastery in the Principality.

Those priests have no intention of fighting, and they are weird people who can quietly chant scriptures when they die.

They were not a threat, and maybe the brothers could get a little extra reward if they were delivered safely to the prince.

The rope ladder was thrown down, and all seven persons on board, including the oarsman, boarded the ship.

Just as soon as he boarded the boat, a thin man with no beard, no hair on his head, and wearing a black robe couldn’t wait to approach Spueut, muttering: “Ah! After almost a whole year, I finally see you Old Ross.”

This time, Spuyut was taken aback again, because the son spoke the standard North Rossburg dialect.

Blue Fox traveled back and forth between the Anglas tribe and the Ross tribe in his ancestral home when he was a child, and was thrown by his father in Roseburg most of the time, and only then did he learn a standard Roseburg dialect.

The Norse language is mastered by all the Viking tribes, and Roseburg is the northernmost stronghold. The long-term occlusion has made the dialect here a school of its own, which is very different from the general dialect of Lake Mälaren in some specific vocabulary. , and even the stress positions of the pronunciation of words and sentences are also different.

Although there is no barrier to communication between different tribes, the Old Ross people can tell whether the other party is their own through words.

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“You… who are you?! We Ross people?” Spueut was very surprised and subconsciously asked.

“Oh? You don’t know me anymore? It’s no wonder that I’ve been a skinny man in the Gould family for a hundred years. There’s no way, these are God’s wills. Standing in front of my father now, he must not recognize me Me. And Lord Rurik, he must not believe that I am the blue fox Gouldsson.”

“Ah? Did I hear you right? You’re a blue fox? You… aren’t you dead?!”

Spueut looked astonished, as surprised as a blue fox, and then said angrily: “Which idiot said I was dead? I am a man who serves the prince, and good luck is with me. And now the Franks’ god is also blessing me, how can I Will you die in a daze? By the way, great explorer, why did you appear here? Oh, all of this is Odin’s will.”

A lot of witty remarks, although very absurd, Spueut is willing to believe that the man in front of him is the blue fox, at least the soul is.

“Yes, all of this is Odin’s will…”

At least Eskil’s identity can be confirmed. As soon as Spueut talked about the embarrassment of this person in Rose that year, Eskiel immediately refuted it.

Needless to say, the old guy is Esquier unmistakably.

They are going to Rose to meet Lord Rurik, and the thin man who claims to be Blue Fox reveals that he will report information about Frank.

In this way, there is no longer any meaning of staying. Whether the skinny man is really a blue fox or not is up to the prince to judge for himself.

The big ship turned around hastily, with full sail, and galloped towards New Roseburg in the east.

The brothers stayed on the ship for more than a month, during which time they didn’t even land.

They exuded an inexplicable strange smell, and the men in black who had boarded the ship with another belief came to ask about the matter one after another.

The blue fox, whose cheekbones were already very thin, had long had enough of the hard life of the Frankish priests, and when it was time to eat, the heavy-tasting food of the past was restored in an instant on this boat.

It is true that the life on the ship is not leisurely. The robbery is accompanied by the battle, which consumes a lot of energy, and it is even more energy-consuming to land on the enemy ship to carry the spoils afterwards.

The deck needs to be cleaned regularly, important shipboard weapons need to be maintained frequently, and raising and lowering sails is a serious manual labor.

There are still some hard wheat cakes in reserve, but their taste is starting to become sour.

Even though they had to be baked to be completely dehydrated for preservation, now they absorbed the salt spray from the sea, they replenished the water and began to mildew.

The only thing that remains the same is the salted fish, which was the most common food for Ross people in the past.

The sour wheat cakes are far less interesting than the sour black bread. The blue fox ate the wheat cakes and also ate the salted fish. Cut open the fish with a knife and swallow the fish whole.

Although there is a cross hanging on his chest, the blue fox has returned to his old style.

This ship already represented Rose, who had completely left Frank, and no longer had to abide by the priest’s ascetic rules and self-restraint.

In his eloquent description of whether this man is a blue fox, Spueut not only completely trusts him, but also admires the boy’s Frankish Adventures, as well as the most important unknown incident that happened in Hedeby. fighting.

The boring sea life needs fresh stories to adjust. The blue fox on board has completely become the king of the story, making other boarders seem dispensable.

However, as Vardy revealed his identity as a Slav, the pirates of the Slavic ethnicity who wore it immediately came to get emotional.

The two sides have different dialects, but most of the vocabulary is the same and they can communicate with each other.

In a sense, this was also the first contact between the Oberlidids of the West Slavs and the Ilmens of the East Slavs.

As for the North being competent for Esquier, the old boy had been terrified from the moment he set foot on the ship.

He saw the big net bag hanging on the stern of the boat, and he took a closer look and saw that it was full of human heads!

“Oh! God, am I on Satan’s ship?!”

No one cares about his beliefs, and he is simply provided with food and water by Spueut like an outsider.

Spueut didn’t want to get in touch with this kind of person. By the way, he also asked why the blue fox accepted the belief of the Franks, and got a very utilitarian answer: “I am a businessman, and I believe in Frey in the north. Believe in their gods after you reach Frank. Believe in several gods, and there will always be one who can protect you.”

Belief does not mean absolutely no belief, and Spuyut, who asks himself, is not the kind of person who believes in a certain god.

He still couldn’t figure out how the prince, who is the “son of Odin,” would let someone like Eskir go to Ross. Maybe the prince had his own intentions, which mortals couldn’t figure out.

When Blue Fox asked if his father and brother were still in Roseburg, and where the salmon chief would berth.

Spueut’s description made him ecstatic.

Because Gould is staying at Tombstone Island in the Åland Islands at the crossroads of the ocean, the family has set up a material warehouse on the island, so as to quickly supply the Ross store in the Birka Market on Lake Mälaren, and can also come directly by boat. merchants trade directly.

Tombstone Island is a self-contained commercial port, and it is also a distribution center and transit point for the material transportation of the Principality of Ross. Especially when navigation resumed in 836, the number of Ross merchant ships traveling to and from Tombstone Island has more than doubled compared with previous years.

The Ross Fleet is cruising near Tombstone Island, one of which is armed defense of the line of communication, and the other is fishing.

In contrast, the return of the big ship Chief Salmon did not show many waves.

The western sea area has disappeared, and a huge waterway leads to the interior. The bow of the ship is already filled with pure fresh water, and the big ship is sailing in the waters near the huge mouth of Lake Mälaren.

So someone directly lowered the wooden barrel to catch the water, and after lifting it up, the brothers drank wildly. After all, their fresh water use is already very tight these days.

Just in the north, there is a string of small islands floating on the sea, one of which is Tombstone Island.

When the Salmon Chief entered the port, at first the people and businessmen thought it was an ordinary Ross warship.

In the past, an Aurora was an eye-catching “big mac”, but now this kind of ship cruises every day, and everyone is not surprised.

Until they were shocked to notice that a group of sloppy-clothed guys with a vomit-inducing smell walked off the plank and landed like fools laughing.

The onlookers found the source of the stench, which was actually a rotten head?

All the truth is revealed, this is the ship of the royal pirate Spjudt. When they left the port, they threatened to kill wildly in the Danish waters. It seems that they are really lying?

How much loot did they grab?

A batch of seized axes, spearheads, and harpoons were sold on the spot. They were all rusty utensils made of wrought iron. In terms of quality, they were not comparable to Ross ironware, and the price was inevitably low.

Spueut didn’t expect these things to make money, and a piece of news spread like wildfire and spread immediately.

“They got a lot of wool! Haha!”

Some people preached it convincingly, and the onlookers immediately started talking about it, which directly attracted a group of leather merchants from Mälaren.

Let’s talk about the good thing about buying wool. The Gould family is rare. After all, since the Ostara tribe and the Gran tribe who are good at raising cattle and sheep have fled to death, the Swedish region has lost important wool suppliers. The extremely cold fiber was so in short supply that it became so sought after that merchants knew that a successful blend in the wool trade would be profitable.

A dramatic thing happened.

Gould was indeed aging rapidly, and he was seriously ill after hearing the bad news of his second son’s death.

After recuperating throughout the winter, he can still walk. Life must go on no matter what. Don’t think about the expansion of Denmark’s business. He can only focus on the trade with Sweden.

He just heard the news reported by his servants, so he took the silver-inlaid wooden staff and went straight to the pier, saying: “A group of pirates, let me see what treasures you have snatched. Revenge my son, I want to reward you .”

The second son has the courage of his youth, but unfortunately he lacks luck.

Gould was also thinking about it during his serious illness. Among the many family members, the kid said that he did not believe in gods but only in money. If he had chosen to believe in a god at that time, he would probably have been lucky enough to survive.

Gould is a big businessman, even if he is an old man, walking out of his mansion on Tombstone Island like this would still be majestic.

More than 20 attendants were all wearing leather jackets with beautiful glass beads, trying their best to show off.

They also violently pushed those who stood in the way, shouting loudly: “The big businessman Gould is coming, and the poor small businessmen are avoiding!”

Gould is so arrogant, even though the public has complaints, they all let go.

There is no way, this old boy has received the kindness of the prince, and he is known to be a dragon. It is really unwise to annoy this person who can’t live for a few years.

Let’s look at the big boat, the big businessman’s appearance with great fanfare directly attracted the attention of the blue fox.

The black robe was thrown away, along with the hat.

The blue fox has lost the demeanor of the fat-headed fish in the past, and has actually changed its skin, except for the hidden birthmark and mole.

Dad actually showed up in person!

He didn’t care too much about pushing away the crowd and rushing forward, but he was directly blocked by his father’s guards.

“Who are you? Blind? How dare you stand in the way of a big businessman?” The arrogant guard spoke rudely, fiddling with a wooden stick in his hand as if he wanted to hit someone.

Blue Fox is now a warrior who has opened meat. It stands to reason that he expressed his attitude to Odin, and later converted to the Lord. The two great gods in the north and the south are serving him.

He noticed that Dad was getting old, although he was still a big-eyed figure, with more brown spots on his face, graying beard and hair, and losing his blue eyes.

It’s unreasonable that Dad didn’t pay attention to himself.

The blue fox pushed hard and pushed the guard away. Just as the others were about to take it down, he yelled in public: “I am the blue fox! The person in charge of the Ross shop in Denmark appointed by the prince. Father, I am yours!” The second son, Blue Fox!” He even said his baby name directly, which directly hit Gould’s heart.

Gould was trembling all over, his eyes fixed on the blue fox’s face: “You? You are my son? How is it possible…”

“Why is it impossible? Or is it because I’m too thin for you to recognize me? Don’t you all think I’m dead?”

“…” Gould’s lips trembled, it was too difficult for him to believe that the man in front of him was the second son.

Blue Fox had no choice. He probably expected this embarrassing situation. He simply took off his shirt and exposed his chest covered with chest hair. He pointed to the birthmark and mole: “You will never forget this? Whether I am fat or thin, the birthmark Always be with me.”

Gould was finally deeply touched. He already believed that this was his blue fox. As the man showed his back, there was a tattooed word with rune letters on it, transcribed in Latin letters to be GULDEN.

There is no longer any doubt. Although the second son has a very strange appearance and figure, he is a member of the Gould family!

It is not surprising that father and son have such a hard time getting to know each other. Not only is this road experience too dreamy, but also because the family, men, women, and children are fat boys, and a lean and handsome boy like Lanhu has been born in a hundred years.

Not to mention, the blue fox is much more handsome after losing weight this time, but after half a year of ascetic life from fat to thin, he has thought of the sweetness of losing weight, just to experience the life of an ascetic again. Don’t want to wait either.

Spueut was going to resupply at Tombstone Island, and the crew ran to take a bath in the sauna, and then enjoyed the long-lost cleansing with sulfur soap all over their bodies.

They bought new clothes and changed them, and even the Saaremaa Island pirates who accompanied the ship completely changed their outfits.

The blue fox finally came home, and Gould was so excited that he couldn’t sleep peacefully.

In the end, Gould also had to feel that a cub who was his was really not worthy of death. He asked Blue Fox to explain the adventure, so the father and son had to talk about it all night.

It was the night talk that night, when Gould was excited, he saw his decrepit body sinking into endless melancholy.

“I once heard that there is a sacred mountain in the south, which has been covered with snow and will never melt. You have actually arrived there. You have seen too much in the hinterland of Frank, and I can no longer see it with my own eyes…”

The blue fox took out some dried yellow-white flowers from the cloth bag very appropriately, and they looked very strange.

“This is the flower that grows on the holy mountain. The Franks call it velvet flower. Only the brave can get it. Therefore, many Franks regard these flowers as tokens of good luck and proof of courage. We businessmen are very lucky, so I wear them on my body.” .”

In Gould’s eyes, the blue fox had changed too much. He began to believe in gods and made some weird amulets, which was a beneficial change.

There is an opportunity to do business with the Franks, which is what Blue Fox said.

From the perspective of pure businessmen, it is also possible for the Gould family to open up a Frankish market in Hamburg and Bremen.

It’s just that today’s Blue Fox not only loses fat, but also has a mentality that is closer to a warrior.

He said viciously: “The arrogance of the Frankish nobles is a great shame to us. If we can’t beat them, we can do business peacefully. In my opinion, we Ross can directly invade those cities and take away all the treasures. I will tell the prince about these things. , the prince will definitely kill. Even if the prince is hesitant, as far as I know, the big pirate of Spuyut already wants to vote.”

Times have changed, merchants are no longer peaceful trade, they have completely turned into merchants with swords, and their son has grown into a ruthless man directly from this disaster, which is really a blessing in disguise for the family.

Gould knew that his son would continue to go to the East. Blue Fox was an important trader appointed by the prince. There was a big disturbance in the Danish market, and he had to report to the prince.

Gould finally asked: “When you finish your report, what are your plans for the future?”

The blue fox really didn’t think about it, and just said: “I can only listen to the prince’s decision in the future. But I heard that the prince intends to take revenge on Denmark. If there is a large-scale war, I will lead the way for the army. I will die for you.” Revenge, brothers! And those arrogant Franks, we will take care of them together.”

These words should not be uttered by a businessman.

The son changed and became unrecognizable.

Gould felt awkward. The so-called fat blue fox had died in Hedeby, and the person in front of him was the blue fox or not. He inherited the former’s memory but had a new belief.

Perhaps this is the drastic change of mind forced by reality!

This is also a good thing, because according to tradition, the second son is not divided, and the family property is divided less, and wealth and power must be won by one’s own ability.

Compared with Blue Fox’s travels and the fact that he personally beheaded the enemy, Gould felt that this boy was more suitable to inherit the family business than his eldest son, White Fox.

But is the second son Blue Fox really rare?

Gould asked himself, based on his understanding of the prince Rurik, the kid knew that Lan Hu was such a talent, he would definitely continue to use him.

[End of this Chapter]