Chapter 806: Expedition in the Name of Fishing

Update super fast|

Rurik is going to start a war on Bornholm, it's a war and it's not a war. watermark advertisement test watermark advertisement test

His request took everyone by surprise.

What is a soldier without a fight? As long as the army is driven over, the local fishermen will surrender obediently? Is there such a good thing?

Arik, Speuter, Medwait and others all felt unreliable.

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

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

"Your admonition is very important, so I must prepare both hands. It is best to deter them obediently surrender with force. If they choose war, then fight! I default they are a whole, a strong army, obviously they are not So. I will respect their strength for the time being, and I will naturally show the strong strength of the Ross Navy."

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

A thousand people say that it is not too much, and it is not too small to say that it is small, but such a scale does not show Ross's military power.

However, Rurik planned to send all the main ships of the Rus navy to the expedition. First of all, the "Eighth Eighth Fleet" was recklessly assembled, and another twenty standard armed cargo ships (taking into account fishing boats) were to be assembled together.

If they just assembled the "Eighth-Eighth Fleet" and rushed over, they would probably simply want to fight.

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

Because of those so-called cargo ships, they were indeed cargo ships, but they also retained the mechanism for dropping the trawl and the human-powered winch to close the net.

Lightweight and surprisingly tough materials such as nylon did not exist in this era, and fishing nets were woven from linen. Such nets can be made very large, enabling trawling. Of course, its realization is based on the large amount of flax fiber obtained. Now, after Ross has opened up the flax planting area around Lake Ilmen, the flax resources that were rarely obtained in the past are now quite abundant. The large-scale production of cables and fishing nets is the local Slavic Women's Earnings.

Although there is no high-tech like sonar, even if a sailboat drags a large net to cruise in the sea, you can still catch a lot of delicious herring.

Even if the fishing nets have to be repaired on a large scale after each voyage,

Compared with the profit, the cost of repairing the network is very small.

Because the dimensional span of the Poros 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 of the north and south sides of the sea 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 northernmost Gulf of Bothnia and the southernmost Pan-Danish Strait have a big hydrological gap.

Schools of herring prefer to run to warmer waters when given the choice.

In the midsummer season, the waters of the Gulf of Bothnia, the hometown of the Rus, are only 10c, the warmer Gulf of Finland waters are raised to 15c, and the waters of the Denmark Strait have exceeded 20c. Such a high hydrology is naturally due to the warm current of the White Atlantic and the angle of the sun, and a large amount of nutrients from the Atlantic are directly poured into the Baltic Sea along the strait, creating a nutrient-rich zone in the entire Denmark Strait.

Although various Viking tribes don't quite understand the reason, they live by fishing, and through years of experience, they also know that sea area and when is a good time to 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, as well as hunt beluga whales, minke whales and a large number of seals.

The information was revealed by the Danes in the guest house, and the people of the Rus Principality began to imagine great possibilities.

Rurik's determination is undoubtedly in line with this idea of ​​"expanding the fishery economic zone".

Bornholm Island happens to be in this rich fishing area. Before the Rus had no chance to plunder, now there is an opportunity.

The military conference was over, and Rurik ordered everyone to prepare separately.

Arik's task is to assemble the first flag team, although the soldiers have already dispersed to go out to fish, now they should try to assemble as many as 300 people.

The Slavic flag team should also be mobilized, and at least 200 men who are extremely seasick must be selected to board the big ship.

All the boys of the Sixth Banner's youth team suspended school and took up arms to join the action, adding nearly two hundred more.

One hundred men from the prince's guard were selected to participate in the operation.

As for the remaining gap of 300 people, the problem is better solved by recruiting warriors from the subordinate tribes, such as the Veps and the Ludi. , a group of fresh troops came from the Suomi people.

The so-called thousand people in Rurik are just a thousand people in the Principality of Rus. Ragnar will naturally bring his brothers and ally to join in, that is their own business, and how many troops they send is also Ragnar. own meaning.

The expedition mobilization order began to be issued, and the army began to assemble!

Regarding who the war was aimed at, the purpose of the war, and how the war was conducted, all were 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 started to worry, it was the manor owners. They sent their youngest son to the Rus Kingdom as cavalry. The winter cavalry attacking the inferior Karelia remnants is not a big problem, but the new war is clearly a battle between the Principality and another group of Varangians. This is clearly a civil war of the Varyags! It's a duel of the strong! Wouldn't it be better to seek death for his own son to join in the fun?

Can cavalry still run at sea? Aren't those war horses unsaddled to breed foals?

The draft order issued by Rurik did concern the young sons of the estate owners who were cavalrymen, and all the cavalry would take part in the battle as infantry, including ten Pechenegs. Valuable cavalry is extremely valuable even when dismounted to fight, and they are all supported as archers.

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

The order came suddenly, and the messenger boat also headed towards Rosberg's hometown as quickly as possible, and could not pull the troops from the north over at the appointed time. The essence of the principality has been moved to the east for several years, and Rurik has mobilized the power of the east.

According to his assumption, the Rus army and the Danish confederate army, together with professional sailors who control the ships, will have a total of 1,400 people, and they will be divided into as many as 36 large ships, and each ship will be evenly distributed. Seems like a waste of space.

In fact, the twenty standard-type armed cargo ships each carried huge trawl nets, and their crews were also a handful of fishermen. Rurik signed a fishing agreement with some tribes in the early years. They leased the prince's boat to fish and became a special kind of tenant farmer. Now the broken fishing boat is replaced by a standard cargo ship/fishing boat. There are 20 broken ships, and 20 new ships. They have replaced guns with guns. Now they must fulfill the contract and go fishing in the southern waters under the escort of warships. A fishing boat is controlled by a family, as long as some soldiers are added, it is a good fighting unit.

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

The large ships staying in Lake Ilmen followed the rushing Volkhov River into Lake Ladoga, and then into the Neva River, where they first assembled at the estuary.

The expedition date was quite close to the summer priests, so Rurik decided to set the departure date on June 28 of the summer sacrifices.

But something amazing happened that made him speechless!

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

The fact that the expedition to Bornholm Island was actually a force to deter them to surrender has been posted on the bulletin board of Harvest Square along with the public document. There are a lot of smart people in this city, and there is an opportunity to go fishing in the southwest waters, so why not take advantage of it?

In Viking society, fish and wheat were both staple foods. Most of the tribes along the coast did not have the ability to produce wheat, and their lives were 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.

More than the official large shipyard, because only in densely populated areas have more orders, the shipbuilders from Melalen and old Ross are not idle, although their skills still stay in traditional rowing longboats, Harvest orders the same. Because it is not only the locals who order, but also the Finnish Suomi.

Today, fishing boats all over the Gulf of Finland fly the flag of the Ross, and Finns, who were once incapable and cautious, are now openly fishing the seas.

A group of wealthy Finnish people began to upgrade their boats, and their canoes were replaced by Viking longboats, which also detonated their wilder fishing ambitions. Naturally, the canonized ruler of Finland, Gevlo, he could also organize a very traditional Viking fleet, living at sea like the most traditional Vikings. If there is a group of people whose ships look like Viking longships, who dress like Vikings, who have weapons like Vikings, and who can speak Norse, then they are Vikings. Now Yevro can organize such a team, they are a group of "short black hair" Vikings.

Even though the salinity of the sea in the Gulf of Finland is low, the cost of salt production is indeed high. It is natural that the Balmers in Narvik Port who are trying to sell salt to make money are simply unable to communicate with them. If the salt is only made for personal use, the situation is completely different.

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

People have reached a consensus that the southwestern Baltic Sea has the best fishery resources in the entire sea area. It is rumored that the total amount of herring there is ten times or twenty times that of the Gulf of Finland and Bothnia, and several times stronger than that of Gotland. It seems that as long as you rush to the waters of the Danes to 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, the cold winter is not far away. Snow falls as early as October in the Julian calendar, and as long as there is the first snow, the rest of the day is getting colder day by day. So when the big sacrifice in midsummer is over, smart families have to make salted fish to prepare for winter. Although the Principality now has abundant food supplies, it would be foolish to base its existence entirely on eating wheat!

Smart people need to prepare with both hands, because a large number of people do not have fields in their hands, and it feels unreliable to buy food through money. Only the skills of fishing are firmly in their own hands.

Rurik was in Novelrosburg, looking at the beginning of the construction of the third floor of the palace, and he was in a very happy mood.

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 to follow the army's useless search for the Danish fishing grounds, why do they need to do anything to hinder it? On the contrary, which is a great thing, Rurik, the prince, publicly declared his support.

The whole New Roseburg market has been bought clean of salt, and Rurik himself is a big buyer.

While the Balmers who transported the salt made a fortune, the locals who boiled it at extremely high costs also expanded their production, which in turn led to the business of charcoal-burning kilns and clay-maniacs in the region.

However, Rurik did not bring much food on his trip, which seemed to be uncharacteristic of the expedition.

He has already made up his mind. Since the expedition to force Bornholm Islanders to surrender by force has actually been developed into a "herring plundering movement" by the common people of the Principality, the army should also obey the will of the people, and mainly focus on plentiful fishing. for food.

A herring has its head and tail cut off, and its internal organs cut off. It doesn't matter how thin the herring is, both men and women can stuff it into their mouths, chew it, and swallow it. This is also the most traditional and purest way for the Vikings to eat herring.

How about not having enough salt to marinate fish?

As long as the fresh fish is processed, it can be directly air-dried by the sea breeze, or grilled into jerky by the campfire. As long as the dried fish gets dry and hard, and through the remaining three months into winter, everything will be fine.

Rurik personally participated in the summer solstice sacrifice, the same day the fleet set sail.

Most of the main force of the Principality's fleet was assembled at the berth at the mouth of the Neva, which Rurik called the Kronstadt berth. It is because of the fact that there is a Kotlin Island deep in the bay, which makes the impact of high and low tides on New Roseburg much less. Rurik was incompetent. If he could, he would build a long and narrow breakwater along the trend of the sandbar, making the mooring a relatively still water. However, this project was not completed until 2019 on the other side.

Any coastal city has to face the problem of tidal erosion. Fortunately, Nova Rosburg is a short distance from the mouth of the Neva River, and there are also a number of sandbars to guard it.

A large number of boats finished the day's fishing work and deliberately ran aground on the river bank of the Neva River, so they were perfectly protected from tidal erosion. The fishermen were drying their nets on the shore to repair their nets, and at the same time repairing their boats.

There are always boats out fishing every day, and there is always a group of boats tinkering.

Now, the bustling river beach in the past is suddenly deserted, but the berth where the big boats 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 no good opinion of the Danes, and now this opportunity to plunder the catch should not be missed. Many people simply do not intend to really fish well. Since there are royal pirates of the prince, how can other brothers not be free pirates in person? Invading the Danish sea fish and looting ships that do not fly the flag of Rus, even if the Danes protect them, the brothers still have the Duchy fleet to cover them, right?

The flagship Avrora was repaired several times, and she traveled to warm Atlantic waters, so 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 she still wants to be the flagship, but she is no longer the most effective one.

Rurik sits on the flagship and seems to bid farewell to the elders of his hometown.

How many oars longboats followed? I'm afraid there are 100 ships!

Standing on the stern deck, he made a visual observation and counted it a little, and felt that the number should have exceeded 100!

The fact is that as many as 1,500 people brought their own boats to join the party, whether with fishing nets or simple fishing rods, they are going to go deep into the Danish waters and plunder. These rowboats were replaced with jibs, which became the most distinctive feature of the Danish ships, and the blue flag of Ross on a white background flying on the mast was a straightforward identification.

On the surface, Rurik would go on an expedition with an army of 1,400 people, but in reality there was a reserve army of 1,500 people behind him.

Is this all?

When the fleet entered the port of Herminki, when Yevlo learned about the expedition, the new force from Finland was not only the 200 people led by Yevlo himself, but also four of the subsequent 30 long ships. Hundreds of Finnish fishermen.

But when the mixed fleet entered Tombstone Island for supplies, a group of Swedes were simply brought in.

It was already the last day stipulated by Rurik, and the arrival of the mighty army shocked the merchants not knowing what was going on. When they learned that the prince of Ross took the initiative to use force against the Danish waters, the matter became more subtle.

The merchants are not in the mood to do business, so it is better to control the ships and follow the pace of the Ross fleet to try their luck in the southern seas.

Therefore, from the standpoint of Swinder, a messenger and a talker, his whole person collapsed. Maybe this is fate! The Rus organized a huge fleet of ships he had never seen before, or five thousand rushed to Bornholm.

The islanders have no resistance at all. The number of people on the island is probably not as good as this fleet. If Prince Ross is willing, he can obviously kill Denmark and chop off the head of the Danish king.

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

The huge fleet has already rushed to the south, and the next destination is Saaremaa.

Now that things have turned out like this, Rurik felt that the old pirates on Saaremaa were also idle, and made them push their longboats into the sea. Join this opportunity together.

...

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

When the news reached the ears of King Bjorn of Sweden, the information had been seriously distorted.

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

Tombstone Island has become more prosperous in recent years, and the self-contained trade routes of the Rus have overshadowed their own port of Birka. Although the trade economy of Lake Mälaren is centered on the Port of Birka, the market size is simply not comparable to that of Ross.

Envy breeds jealousy, and envy breeds hatred. An evil thought flashed in his mind and was immediately rejected: "Maybe I can sneak a sneak attack while they are empty? Oh! No! If I do this, the other tribes will not help me, close to the Melaron people's fundamental enemy. But the Russ will settle accounts after the fact."

He had no choice but to give up angrily and continue to live his peaceful life. But the Russ had to guard because he could not guarantee that the increasingly powerful Ross would not take a keen interest in Swedish control.

This problem is inherently thorny. The Rus people have always owned a tavern in Birka and sold iron and other materials publicly. Every year, they also buy materials with silver coins. Every year, I hear rumors that some people leave the lake and immigrate to Rus.

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

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

He was really helpless.