Rise of Rurik - Chapter 805

[Chapter 806 Expedition in the Name of Fishing]

Rurik is going to wage a war against Bornholm, which is a war and is not a war.

His request took everyone by surprise.

What does it mean to subdue others without fighting?

As long as the army is driven over, the local fishermen will obediently surrender?

There is such a good thing?

Arik, Spueut, Medved and others all felt unreliable.

As a guest, Ragnar felt that this possibility existed, but at that time he went to the island to negotiate with those people, and the islanders quickly pulled out an army to prepare for the battle.

He naturally informed Rurik of this news, and asked Prince Ross to think about it.

“Your warning is very important, so I have to be prepared with both hands. It is best to use force to deter them from surrendering obediently. If they choose war, then go for it! I acquiesce that they are a whole, a strong army, obviously they are not That’s it. I respect their strength for the time being, and I will naturally use the strong strength of the Ross Navy.”

Rurik ordered to assemble an army to launch an expedition. Now it is the midsummer slack period, and it is not difficult to mobilize an army of 1,000 people.

One thousand people is not too many, and it is not small, but such a scale does not show Ross’s military strength.

However, Rurik intends to send all the capital ships of the Ross Navy to the expedition. First, the “Eighty-Eight Fleet” will be assembled brazenly, and another 20 standard armed cargo ships (including fishing boats) will be assembled together.

If you just gather the “88th Fleet” to rush over, it is probably just to fight.

When he announced that there were still twenty cargo ships, some wise people had already guessed the prince’s other intentions.

Because those so-called cargo ships are indeed cargo ships, but they also retain the mechanism of throwing down the trawl net and collecting the net with a human winch.

Naturally, light and amazingly tough materials such as nylon do not exist in this era, and fishing nets are all made of flax.

Such nets can be made very large, enabling trawling.

Of course, its realization is based on the acquisition of a large amount of flax fiber. Now that Ross has opened up the flax planting area around Lake Ilmen, the flax resources that were rarely obtained in the past are quite sufficient. Large-scale production of cables and fishing nets is the local Slavic Women’s earning work.

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Although there is no such high technology as sonar, even a large sailing ship dragging a large net to cruise in the sea can still catch a lot of delicious herring.

Even if the fishing nets have to be repaired on a large scale after each voyage, the cost of repairing the nets is very little compared to making profits.

Because the dimension span of the Baltic Sea is much higher than that of the Mediterranean Sea.

What’s more, the Mediterranean Sea has a unique Mediterranean climate, which makes the climate on the north and south coasts of the sea area similar, and the temperature and nutrients of the sea water are also unified across a wide range of regions.

The situation in the Baltic Sea is different, especially in summer, the hydrology gap between the northernmost Gulf of Bothnia and the southernmost Pan-Denmark Strait sea area is very large.

Given the choice, schools of herring prefer warmer waters.

In midsummer, the sea water in the Gulf of Bothnia, the home of the Ross people, is only 10°C, and the warmer waters in the Gulf of Finland rise to 15°C, while the waters in the Denmark Strait have already exceeded 20°C.

Such a high hydrology is naturally due to the warm current of the White Atlantic and the angle of the sun. A large amount of nutrients from the Atlantic are directly poured into the Baltic Sea along the strait, creating a eutrophic zone in the entire waters of the Denmark Strait.

Although the Viking tribes from all walks of life don’t quite understand the reason, they live by fishing, and through years of experience, they also know which sea area and what season is a good time to catch fish.

The West Baltic Sea has the most abundant fishery resources in the whole sea area, where you can catch giant herring as long as a man’s forearm, and also hunt beluga whales, minke whales and a large number of seals.

The news was revealed by the visiting Danes, and the people of the Principality of Ross began to imagine great possibilities.

Rurik’s determination is undoubtedly in line with this idea of “expanding the fishery economic zone”.

The island of Bornholm happened to be in this rich fishing area, and the Ross people had no chance to plunder before, but now they have a chance.

The military meeting was over, Rurik gave some orders and led everyone to prepare separately.

Arik’s mission is to assemble the first banner team. Although the soldiers have already dispersed to fish, now they should try to gather 300 people.

The Slavic flag team should also be mobilized, and at least two hundred men who are extremely difficult to get seasick must be selected to board the big ship.

All the boys among the young men of the Sixth Banner were suspended from school to take up arms and join the action, adding nearly two hundred more.

A hundred men were selected from the prince’s bodyguard to take part in the operation.

As for the remaining gap of 300 people, the problem can be better solved by recruiting fighters from the subjugated tribes, such as the Veps and Ludi. Soon, a group of fresh troops came from the Suomi people.

Rurik’s so-called 1,000 people are only 1,000 people from the Principality of Ross. Ragnar will naturally bring his brothers and join them as an allied army. the meaning of.

The expedition mobilization order has been issued, and the army has begun to gather!

Regarding who the war is against, the purpose of the war, and the way the war is conducted, all are issued in the form of paper documents.

The villagers around Lake Ilmen knew about the war, but the war had nothing to do with them.

If anyone began to worry, it was the estate owners.

They sent their youngest sons to serve as cavalry for the Kingdom of Rus. It would not be a big problem for winter cavalry to attack the poor remnants of Karelia, but the new war was clearly a war between the principality and another group of Varyags.

This is clearly a civil war among the Varyags!

It’s a duel of the strong!

Wouldn’t it be courting death for one’s own son to join in the fun?

Can cavalry still run on the sea?

Didn’t the war horses unsaddle to breed foals?

The conscription order issued by Rurik did involve the young sons of the manor owners who had become cavalry, and all cavalry would fight in the form of infantry, including ten Pechenegs.

The precious cavalry is extremely valuable even if they dismount to fight, and they are all regarded as the real support of the archers.

The prince also ordered that the army should complete the strategic assembly on Tombstone Island, and the date of assembly must be completed within the first three days of July.

The order came suddenly, and the courier sailed to the direction of Roseburg’s hometown as quickly as possible, and could not bring the northern troops over at the appointed time.

The elite area of the principality has been moved to the east for several years, and what Rurik mobilized was also the power of the east.

According to his vision, the Ross Army and the Danish Allied Army, together with the professional sailors operating the ships, will have a total of 1,400 people, and they will be divided into as many as 36 large ships, and the average number of ships will be divided into 1,400 people. Seems like a waste of space.

In fact, the twenty standard armed cargo ships each carried a huge trawl net, and there were also a handful of fishermen on board.

In the early years, Rurik signed a fishing agreement with some tribesmen. They leased the prince’s boat to catch fish and became a special kind of tenant farmer. Now the broken fishing boat has been replaced by a standard cargo boat/fishing boat.

There are twenty broken ships, and twenty new ones. They have exchanged guns and guns, and now they must fulfill the contract and go to the southern seas to fish for fish under the escort of warships.

A fishing boat is controlled by a family, as long as some soldiers are added, it is a good combat unit.

Most of the soldiers had to stay on sixteen warships, while some of them stayed on armed cargo ships with bows and arrows.

The large ships staying in Lake Ilmen followed the rushing Volkhov River into Lake Ladoga, then entered the Neva River, and first assembled at the berth at the mouth of the sea.

The date of departure was quite close to that of the Summer Priest, so Rurik simply set June 28th as the departure date for the Summer Priest.

But a strange situation happened that made him speechless!

A majestic big shark cruises the ocean, often accompanied by a group of Indian fish to join in the fun and take advantage of it.

Regarding the fact that the expedition to Bornholm Island was actually a threat of force to force them to surrender, it has been posted on the bulletin board of Harvest Square along with the public document, and the people of New Roseburg know the prince’s decision.

There are so many smart people in this city, and there is an opportunity to go fishing in the southwestern waters, how can we not take advantage of it?

In the Viking society, both fish and wheat were staple foods, and most coastal tribes did not have the ability to produce wheat, and their life was basically tied to fishing.

New Roseburg has attracted people from all walks of life to trade here, and the expansion of the population has also spawned a variety of industries.

Not only the official large-scale shipyards, because only in densely populated areas can there be more orders, the shipbuilders from Mälaren and Old Ross are not idle, although their technology is still in the traditional long rowing boats, Same harvest order.

Because it is not only the locals who order, but also the Finnish Suomi people.

Today, fishing boats across the Gulf of Finland fly the flag of Ross, and Finns, who once lacked ability and acted cautiously, now fish in the ocean with dignity.

A group of wealthy Finnish people began to upgrade their boats. The canoe was replaced by a Viking longboat, which also detonated their wilder fishing ambitions.

Naturally, Geflo, the canonized ruler of Finland, can also organize a very traditional Viking fleet, just like the most traditional Vikings to achieve sea life.

If there is a group of people who have a ship like a Viking longship, dress like a Viking, have weapons like a Viking, and speak Norse, then they are Vikings.

Now Gevlo can organize such a team, they are a group of “short black hair” Vikings.

Even though the salinity of the seawater in the Gulf of Finland is low, the cost of salt production is indeed high. Naturally, trying to sell salt to make money is simply impossible to compete with the Balmok people in Narvik Port, who wantonly transport good salt.

It would be a different matter if the salt was produced only for one’s own use.

Salt is a kind of rigid need. Not only do people need to eat salt, but also because it is the most cost-effective medium for keeping meat fresh.

People have reached a consensus that the southwest Baltic Sea has the best fishery resources in the entire sea area. It is rumored that the total amount of herring there is ten to twenty times that of the Gulf of Finland and the Gulf of Bothnia, and several times stronger than that of Gotland. As long as you rush to the waters of the Danes to catch fish, you will have a good harvest.

So the biggest problem is how to get the fish back!

It is now the end of June, and although the temperature is pleasant, winter is not far away.

Snow will fall in the earliest October of the Julian calendar. As long as there is the first snow, the remaining days will be colder every day.

Then when the big summer sacrifice ends, smart families have to make salted fish jerky to prepare for the winter.

Although the Principality now has abundant food supplies, it would be foolish to rely entirely on eating wheat for survival!

Smart people have to prepare with both hands, because a large number of people have no land in their hands, and it seems unreliable to buy food with money. The only way to catch fish is to firmly grasp it in your own hands.

Rurik is in New Roseburg, watching the construction of the palace on the third floor, and he feels extremely comfortable.

Since a large number of people are ready to move, they want to bring their own dry food, weapons, and ships to go out with the army, or follow the army’s unnecessary raids on Danish fishing grounds, why do they do anything to obstruct it?

On the contrary, this is a great thing, and Rurik, as the prince, publicly announced his strong support.

The salt in the entire New Roseburg market has been bought clean, and Rurik himself is a big buyer.

While the Balmerks who transported salt made a lot of money, the locals who boiled salt at a very high cost also expanded their production, which in turn drove the business of charcoal kilns and clay madmen in the region.

However, Rurik did not bring much food during this trip, which seemed to be an uncharacteristic of the expedition.

He has already made up his mind. Since the expedition to force the Bornholm islanders to surrender by force has actually been developed into a “herring plundering movement” by the people of the principality, the army should also follow the public opinion and mainly feed on the abundant fish. .

A herring is decapitated and gutted.

It doesn’t matter how thin the herring is. Both men and women can stuff it into their mouths and chew it. This is also the most traditional and purest way for the Vikings to eat herring.

What if there is not enough salt to pickle the fish?

As long as the fresh fish is processed, it can be air-dried directly by the sea breeze, or roasted into jerky by the campfire.

As long as the dried fish was hard enough to survive the remaining three months into winter, everything would be fine.

Rurik personally participated in the summer solstice ceremony, and the fleet set sail on the same day.

Most of the main force of the Principality’s fleet assembled at the berth at the mouth of the Neva River, which Rurik called the Kronstadt berth.

It is because there is a Kotlin Island in the depths of the bay that the impact of high tide and low tide on New Roseburg is much smaller.

Rurik didn’t have the ability. If he could, he would build a long and narrow breakwater along the trend of the sandbar, turning the berth into relatively still water.

However, this project was not completed until 2019 on another plane.

Any seaside city will face the problem of tidal erosion. Fortunately, New Roseburg is a short distance from the mouth of the Neva River, and there are also a number of sandbars as guards.

A large number of boats ran aground intentionally on the Neva River after finishing the fishing work of the day, so that they perfectly avoided the erosion of the sea tide.

The fishermen then spread their nets on the shore to mend them, and at the same time repaired their boats.

Every day there are always boats out fishing, and there are always a batch of boats repairing and repairing.

Now, the formerly bustling river beach is suddenly deserted, but the berth where the big ships are moored is bustling.

People from all walks of life are determined to join in the fun, and businessmen from all walks of life have their own ghosts.

In principle, everyone has never liked the Danes, and now this opportunity to plunder the catch should not be missed.

Many people simply don’t intend to really fish well. Since there are royal pirates, why can’t other brothers become free pirates themselves?

Invade Danish sea fish, and plunder ships that do not fly the Ross flag. Even if the Danes protect them, brothers and sisters still have the principality’s large fleet to cover them, right?

The flagship Aurora has been repaired several times. She has been to the warm Atlantic waters, so the barnacles were found attached to the bottom of the ship.

The barnacles were removed and the planks of the hull were partially replaced.

She is already a hard-working veteran, and now she is still going to be the flagship, but she is no longer the most effective ship.

Rurik sits on the flagship, seemingly saying goodbye to his hometown elders, but all the “fathers” followed closely behind.

How many long oars followed?

I’m afraid there are a hundred ships!

Standing on the stern deck, he visually inspected and counted a little, feeling that the number should be over a hundred!

The fact is that as many as 1,500 people have joined the gang with their own boats, whether they brought fishing nets or simple fishing rods, and they are going deep into Danish waters to plunder.

These long rowing boats were all replaced with triangular sails, which became the most distinctive feature different from the Danish ships, and the Ross flag with white background and blue stripes fluttering on the mast was a straightforward identification.

On the surface, Rurik would lead an expedition with an army of 1,400 men, but in fact there was a reserve army of 1,500 men behind him.

Is that all there is to it?

When this fleet entered the port of Helminki, when Evro learned about the expedition, the new force from Finland was not only the 200 men led by Evro himself, but also 400 people from the 30 long ships that followed. I am a Finnish fisherman.

But when this mixed fleet entered Tombstone Island for supplies, it simply attracted another group of Swedes to join.

It was already the last day of Rurik’s rule, and the arrival of the mighty army surprised the merchants as to what had happened. When it was learned that Prince Ross had taken the initiative to use force against the Danish waters, the matter became more subtle.

The merchants are not in the mood to do business anymore, so they might as well steer their ships and follow the pace of the Ross Fleet to try their luck in the southern seas.

Therefore, from the standpoint of the messenger and speaker Swind, his whole body is broken.

Maybe this is fate!

The Rus organized a flotilla of the kind he had never seen before, perhaps five thousand men, rushing towards Bornholm.

The islanders have no power to resist at all, and the number of people on the entire island may not be as large as this fleet. If Prince Ross is willing, he can clearly go to Denmark to chop off the head of the king of Denmark.

But Prince Rurik didn’t seem to have any intentions in this regard.

The huge fleet has already headed to the south, the next destination – Saaremaa Island.

Now that things have become like this, Rurik feels that the group of old pirates on Saaremaa Island are also being idled, and they are ordered to push their longships into the sea. Let’s join together.

…

A large fleet suddenly appeared on the Tombstone Island of the Ross people, and the Principality of Ross almost rushed to the waters of Denmark. Is this provoking a war against Denmark?

When the news reached King Bjorn of Sweden, the information was seriously distorted.

He was a little annoyed that he was not the commander of this army, and he sent troops to show that they were still allies, since they had already gone south, the matter was over.

In recent years, Tombstone Island has become more and more prosperous, and the Ross people’s self-contained trade routes have eclipsed their own port of Birka.

Although the trade economy of Lake Mälaren is centered on Birka Port, the market size cannot be compared with Rossby.

Envy breeds jealousy, and jealousy breeds hatred.

An evil thought flashed through his mind and was immediately rejected: “Maybe I can take advantage of their emptiness and sneak attack? Oh! No! If I do this, other tribes will not help me, and the people who are close to the Mellaren are no enemies at all. But the Ross settles after the fact.”

He had no choice but to give up resentfully and continue to live his peaceful life.

But the Ross people had to defend, because he could not guarantee that the increasingly powerful Ross would not have a strong interest in controlling Sweden.

This problem is inherently difficult. The people of Ross have always owned taverns in Birka and sold ironware and other materials to the public. Every year, they wantonly buy materials with silver coins. Every year, there are rumors that some people leave the lake to immigrate to Ross.

However, the king Bjorn is just a leader. His power comes from usurping the throne, and what he gets is the recognition of other tribes.

It seems that he can only watch the huge Lake Mälaren being sucked away by the Duchy of Ross for wealth and population.

He was really helpless.

[End of this Chapter]