Chapter 399: The Viking-Style Blood Sacrifice of the Mellarens

The fog filled the entire Lake of Mälaren, and before the fog evaporated, Rurik was very sleepy and followed his father to the Mälaren Market again.

Early in the morning, the Avrora docked at Melalen Pier, and her "huge" figure attracted a large number of locals watching the excitement. At this moment, the Ross warriors who were instructed to be stationed were vigilant. They stood on the trestle with their sword hilts firmly in their hands, preventing the idlers from getting closer.

Everyone knows that there will be a grand sacrifice in Mälarenburg today. As long as you pay attention to the bonfire that burns overnight near the altar, you will know the big move planned by the leader.

The definite news of the war spread throughout the settlement, and the allies, who had already called themselves kings, wanted to call 1,500 Meralon warriors to go out! The men who had been preparing for Melalen could not wait to be selected. They might be a little timid for a moment, but they thought that thousands of people would form a coalition to start a war. They had never seen such a scene in their lives, and in their In the concept of "one thousand" is an extremely huge number, many ordinary people think of a brilliant victory. .

what! When the lake was covered with longboats assembled on standby, thousands of warriors holding swords, axes, and spears shouted loudly that victory belonged to the Kingdom of Sweden, to the Melalen tribe. .

So, getting riches from victory, especially important food, has become extremely important in the present moment when life is quite difficult.

Families forced to fish for their lives because their surplus food was exhausted, the wife urged her husband to take up arms and participate in the war.

A large number of second and third sons of various families who are destined to fail to inherit their own properties are the most active people. Their bare feet are not afraid of wearing shoes, and they have no property other than a physical body. As long as you win the battle and get the spoils, you will be able to get rich and rich, and you can even grab a woman to be a wife on the battlefield. This is a major opportunity for life to turn over.

The people of the entire Melalen tribe were restless, and soon, when the news of the preparations for the war reached the ears of the people of other tribes, the entire Kingdom of Sweden would boil.

Leaders from all walks of life landed one after another, and Rurik arrived at the altar of the Meralen people under the escort of his own guards.

It was a permanent altar built under cover, and looking at it so closely, Rurik felt that it was much the same as that of Rosberg.

The altar is still in the shape of a boat made of a large number of granite blocks, it is more massive, and there is a permanent altar stacked with square stones in the center of the altar.

"It's crass enough, and it's evil enough."

Rurik's eyes passed through the gaps in the guard's wall, and he saw some shirtless male priests with black stripes tattooed on their bodies were visiting some bronze trays, and some priestesses in plain robes were also walking away with some superb items. Come.

The leaders gathered one after another, all with their own guards,

Compared with the status quo of the "basically uniform dress" of the Rus people, their clothes are varied and cannot be said to be noble.

The Rus did stand out in the growing crowd, and even the guards wore white cloth cloaks with blue cloth strips cross-stitched on them. This set of blue and white robes of the Rus is unique in the gray-black "ocean", as if they are not the same as other people.

After a while, some strong men in black came carrying sharpened wooden stakes, and their appearance aroused the cheers of the leaders watching the show.

I saw that they were manipulating a huge wooden hammer and slamming the wooden stake into the soft mud near the lake.

They erected five stakes, and now Rurik couldn't figure out what they wanted to do.

"Dad, what are they doing?" Rurik grabbed Otto's big hand.

Otto even lowered his head with a dignified expression: "Someone will die today."

"Um?"

"It's a human sacrifice."

"Ah! Are they going to... be slaves?" Rurik reacted instantly.

"Yes. They are slaves. This is their tradition. After every alliance, the lake god, sea god and Odin should be sacrificed with blood."

Otto didn't need to explain too much, and Rurik soon saw the so-called sacrifice - five men tied with ropes.

They were slaves, so most likely they were people from Britain acquired from Norwegian merchants. They staggered, writing on the charcoal blocks on their arms and backs. There was only despair in their eyes, so there was no resistance when they tied it to the stake. Maybe they're all from Northumbria? Or the northern part of Scotland? The Viking invasion and raiding began decades ago, and it is not surprising that a group of slaves from Britain appeared in Melalen, but blood sacrifices were rare.

Finally, the two important figures of the sacrifice, with their extremely gorgeous clothes, came arrogantly surrounded by a group of "black warriors".

Origen, his chin raised almost to the sky, it was at this moment that the fog was at its peak, making his arrogance blurred.

But in the fog, a man in ferret velvet flashed his sword, he was Karl standing at the stake, and he was the one who completed the most crucial thing in this sacrifice.

In the fog, Origen delivered a eloquent speech in which he berated the ferocity of the Danes, the betrayal of the Gotlands, the lament of Ostara's allies, and the eulogy of the new kingdom of Sweden, or It is his own boasting.

He shouted especially loudly: "Glorious people, we are the masters of this sacred land, the enemy coveted our land, they killed, they destroyed. Now I am your king, and I will lead you to defeat the enemy. Soon , when the sun pierces the fog, let the blood of these slaves pay homage to the gods. Odin, the gods of the sea, and our great woman of Meralen, the gods will bless us with victory!"

The morning sun finally ripped through the fog, and the sun appeared. It was like a curtain on the sacred altar. The holy light shone on every priest and woman, and made his crown shine.

The time was ripe, and after Origen gave the priest a color, the bald high priest of Melalen began to sing the most crucial prayer.

At this moment, Carl also showed his sword.

Carl, who enjoyed the eerie pleasure of killing, neatly separated the throats of the slaves, deliberately letting blood stain the altar ground.

Rurik held his breath to witness all this...

"It's bloody again. Why do I feel a little bit of a battlefield? I'm also nervous on the battlefield. Hey! Do you use human sacrifices to prove your strength? Still think it's very necessary. What a waste of labor, too pure."

What Rurik was up to was because human sacrifice and human sacrifice were a stupid waste of labor, and the East gradually abandoned such practices since the pre-Qin period. By the time of Hanwu, even some corporal punishments, which were obviously aimed at destroying the labor force of the young, were abolished. It cannot be said that this measure is purely humane, after all, it seriously harms the strength of the country. Several generals of Duke Mu of Qin were buried for him, and as a result, Qin lost several generals, and the consequences of the accidental loss of generals were quickly reflected in the later war.

According to Rurik, he did not ask Origen to go back and respect any human rights (Olegin could not respect things that he did not understand), even if he respected a labor force, he should not do so.

But that's what he did, and the leaders were stunned.

The leaders did not think that human sacrifice was really stupid, but generally felt that five slaves were used in one breath. Apart from Origen's show-off significance, is this really a sacrifice to the gods?

In the Viking world, it is not uncommon to sacrifice the blood of enemy chiefs to gods. Rurik really got it right, the "generous" use of multiple slave blood sacrifices is rare stupidity.

The sacrificial Zamelaren ended with the cheers of the people who were eager to see blood and eager to fight, because they were not thinking of death, but the opportunity to obtain great wealth.

At the end of the sacrifice, the bodies of the slaves were thrown into the big lake, and they were allowed to slowly drift into the sea, which was regarded as the last sacrifice to the god of the lake and the god of the sea.

At this point, the Melalen tribe began the most crucial preparations for the battle. They reorganized their army and counted the ships. Origen and his Carl were in high spirits.

As early as on the altar, Origen announced for the second time that Karl would make great contributions as a member of the Melalen Army.

Having won great honor, as the crown prince of the kingdom, Carl was in his prime, so he naturally took the lead in venting his explosive ambitions on his wife and concubine. He longed for a huge victory, and it was best to kill the heads of several Danish enemy chiefs himself, and then use the skulls as bowls. As a result, some wives and concubines died...

What happened to Carl can only be said to be a glimpse of the manic Melalen clan. The entire clan is preparing for an unprecedented war. One after another, strong men have been selected by Origen and absorbed into the expedition team.

In fact, all tribes are so excited. Most people try this war as an opportunity to make a fortune, and look forward to the autumn with a huge amount of loot to triumph, harvest wheat again, and live a leisurely and leisurely life. winter.

The Rus tribe has also fallen into this pre-war frenzy, but compared to other tribes, the Rus people have been the initiators of wars in summer and winter in the past two years. Many men, they did not find it difficult to crusade the Gotlands and the Danes because they had fought many times and won.

Besides, why should ordinary Rus listen to Origen's bewitchment? They only obey the arrangements of their chief leader, Otto, and even the "son of God" Rurik.

Rosberg has been in action since the first order to prepare for battle arrived.

Those young subordinates of Rurik, they are just a bunch of children, what can they do for this war? Since the leader needs a lot of crossbow arrows, they have all learned how to make crossbow arrows in winter, and new production will start immediately.

With the sudden second order, the children's productivity increased again.

Both boys and girls, according to the previous standard, they cut pine branches to make arrow shafts, and even crazy used cast iron and glass to make arrow clusters. Using feathers as a tail is too extravagant, and simply a large number of crossbow arrows are tails of glued veneer pieces.

Here we have to praise the technology of the Rus people.

The blast furnace is back on fire, and the molten pig iron is poured directly into a large number of prefabricated clay molds, producing arrow clusters at breakneck speed. Cast iron is of course not a good material for arrow clusters, and if these arrow clusters are fired in a normal furnace for a while, everything changes. Part of the carbon element was lost, and a layer of high carbon steel material appeared on the surface of the arrow cluster, which was a kind of tool steel.

The Ross blacksmiths took Professor Rurik's "atomic theory" as a standard and regarded it as "the truth of God". Not to mention, the practice made according to this theory, especially in metal processing, are the blacksmiths who are best at exploring techniques in practice. They not only explored the means of making high carbon steel by frying It is used as a large number of tools for fine machining. For example, drills, chisels.

Of course, it is really suitable for use as arrow clusters, especially after a surface quenching, it is really hard.

Due to the consumption of the previous war, the Ross tribe needs to equip more arrow clusters. The Ross tribe has long been qualified to seriously consider "defense construction". All Rurik can think of is to make a large number of arrow clusters in winter, whether it is bones , glass or iron, can be used without distinction.

The absoluteness of Rurik's order, at least 20,000 format arrows, as well as the "cannonballs" and javelins of the forged torsion slingshot, all test the armament capacity of the Rus.

Hundreds of food kings have been awarded for many years, even if they are in love, they are very willing to make contributions to their masters. But the most critical task is still the craftsmen of the Ross tribe, especially the potter and blacksmith.

Children can only make clusters of arrows, and small-scale processing of wooden shafts for javelins.

The Russ actually needed a lot of arrow delivery equipment, which really forced Kravatsen to sleep. More than a dozen carpenters undertook the manufacture of the new torsion slingshot, and only a few castings were made by blacksmiths.

The Rus people actually need a lot of crossbows, but the cost of the best steel-arm crossbows is too high and the production time is too long. Wouldn't it be the same to replace the steel arm with elastic wood if it was just in the attitude of being able to shoot arrows effectively. They use leftover oak materials from shipbuilding for bows and pine for crossbow bodies, and the precise crossbow machine requires Kravasen to put out his own molds that have been processed into high carbon steel and only use bronze casting methods to manufacture .

In order to accomplish his purpose, Kravason even sacrificed his own bronze oil lamp base. The news reached the ears of Niya, who was left behind, and Niya informed Rumia of the predicament. So far, a spectacle has appeared!

The longhouse contributed a batch of bronze utensils, and even the bronze cauldron was beaten out. The high priest Willia, whose physical function is already very bad, told Rumia in a rage, that for the victory of the great war that the Rus people participated in, these bottles and jars can be thrown away!

Under normal circumstances, this situation occurs when the war is extremely anxious and the supply of materials is difficult. The situation of the Rus was very similar. Rurik gave too little time, especially the delay in transmitting information was many days, and a lot of time was wasted. This caused the Rus people to make such a bad plan, but after the war, the Rus tribe will have a lot of iron supplies to replace the former.

In this way, a large number of bronzes were returned, and they were all turned into the core of crossbows and torsion slingshots, and even used to strengthen leather helmets.

It can be said that if there is no active preparation for winter, the Rus people will not be able to explode a lot of weapons for this summer war.

All the clansmen noticed that the weapons required by the leader were all long-range weapons, not the most common swords, axes, and spears. Some smart people have realized that this is what Rurik himself meant, the so-called "can kill you from a distance, why should I pick up the axe myself?". However, there are still many old warriors who feel that this method is inappropriate, and a true warrior should fight with a sword.

According to the second order, Rosberg must have all the equipment on the list ready by May 20, and two hundred soldiers must be in place. A fleet of people, a huge amount of armaments, food and other materials will be the first to rush to Tombstone Island and then enter Lake Mälaren. They had to get personnel and ammunition to Gould Island on May 26.

It can be called a stress test of the potential of the Rus tribal war. Sometimes Rurik thinks this order is too harsh. However, after thinking about it, the intensity of the war will inevitably escalate, and everything will become harsh. The Rus people feel that the war will not burn. Can you sit back and relax when you go to Roseburg in the extreme north? That was so naive.