Rise of Rurik - Chapter 1390

[Chapter 1,489 The Hidden Power from Gothenburg]

A huge fleet rushed towards Zealandia, but compared to the vastness of the sea and sky, it was still a drop in the ocean.

Admiral Goldlund, who was standing at the bow of the ship, was holding his hat, and the brim of everyone’s three-cornered hat was lowered to protect them from the scorching autumn sun in the strong wind.

“On the left is Jutland, and on the right is Zealand. The wind direction is in our favor now. Let’s take advantage of the last southerly wind to rush to your territory!” He said to the blue fox.

“That’s fine, we won’t go to Copenhagen and stop dealing with those Danes. If they are willing to follow, that’s fine. I don’t care if we watch us leave.”

“Just arrive in Gothenburg directly…” After talking to himself, Gothlund asked: “Brother, can you really recruit another thousand soldiers in Gothenburg?”

Blue Fox narrowed his eyes slightly: “Is a thousand people enough?”

“Can there be more?!”

“At least a thousand. It would be great if… I could recruit two thousand warriors. I have an agreement with them. The warriors have been preparing for too long. When those people heard about going to Frank to plunder, it was like attending a wedding. Delighted. I dare say that as soon as I land in Gothenburg there will be a response and a huge army will join us.”

Seeing the confident look of the blue fox, Goldlund was really happy for this guy, but at the same time he was also worried.

“Did they bring their own boats and food?”

“Of course. I have made an agreement with them a long time ago. It is completely okay to participate in the war, but you need to prepare any supplies yourself. If you die in the battle, you can only consider yourself unlucky. If the King of Ross suddenly shows kindness, he will naturally reward them. Some food, and even their dead bodies were collected on the battlefield and cremated or water-buried.”

“The king is not such an indiscriminately benevolent person. Those Yotalan warriors are your soldiers.”

Blue Fox looked forward and sighed softly: “They think I am the boss now because I can make them rich. I hope… we can really make a fortune during this expedition.”

Because in the northern world poverty is the main theme of the earth. Even though various Viking tribes looted a large amount of silver coins, silver and gems cannot be used as food, and relying on traditional methods to fish, the food output is not as warm as warmer. of the Frankish hinterland.

Besides, if all the fish caught cannot be quickly made into meat and dried, it will not be possible to complete the winter reserve.

Even if salted dried fish can be stored for a whole year, it is still close to its storage limit with current processing techniques.

The core grain-producing area of the Rus’ Kingdom is in Novgorod in the area around Lake Ilmen. The production area has a tendency to move southward. There is no doubt that the Rus’ controls the Smolensk area in the upper reaches of the Dnieper River, forcing it to possess more The surrender of the Vyadich people in the vast eastern region means that Rus has reached the edge of the so-called “central black soil area”. The Eastern European world is vast and sparsely populated. When the core area of the Rus’ Kingdom begins deep cultivation in the black soil area, there will be a huge explosion in food production. It’s just a matter of time.

In contrast, the economic situation in Scandinavia is still the same as before, and the fatigue becomes more obvious after a comparison.

Compared with the Lake Mälaren area, the situation of the residents of Götaland in the Göta River Basin and centered on Gothenburg is even worse. They either bravely go out or stay in their hometowns and continue to be fishermen and farmers, relying on the meager agricultural output. Live life.

They lack everything because of overall poverty.

Originally, even iron tools were extremely scarce in this place, so warriors used to use spears, harpoons and small hand axes as their main weapons. The arrow clusters used in short wooden bows were basically made of bone fragments and Sui stones. Iron clusters were too precious. Do not use unless necessary.

Because the armed fishermen of Gothenburg successfully arrived at the mouth of the Rhine River with their new leader Blue Fox, they successfully plundered along the Maas River at the cost of hundreds of deaths, and finally captured the city of Aachen…

The local leaders of Götaland spent the winter successfully in Roterstad with the remaining troops, enjoying themselves with the Rus and Danes stationed there.

Of course, because Lord Blue Fox has not returned, a group of Jottaland nobles remembered their agreement with Lord, and took advantage of the warm south wind that sprouted after the beginning of spring to go all the way north, passing through small islands that are easy to be stranded, and then entering the Jota River. bay.

The victorious warriors sent not only rich trophies to their hometown, but also products from Utrecht, Brabant, Flanders and other regions.

The most important thing is to bring back the opportunity to make a fortune!

For example, “Broken Bone” Gorm, the Earl of Rus who owned the large settlement of Lake Wenarn, returned happily with the remaining soldiers.

The root word of Lake Vänern is water. Although there are not many residents along the lake, they are a large group of fishermen who rely on the lake. Because of this, whether it is Odin or Thor, people in this corner of the country worship the one who gave them survival. Water God.

As soon as they saw the looted property from Aachen, Liège, and Maastricht, the door to the new world opened for these lakeside residents.

There is no moment like this day, when Gom received a warm welcome from Baixin in his hometown. People’s grief for the war dead instantly turned into smoke. Men, women, old people, children, everyone’s eyes shone, and they placed their hope in a new victory. Change poor lives.

“Broken Bones” Gorm is very smart. In addition to holding on to his own portion of gold and silver, he led his surviving brothers to focus on collecting clothes, shoes and hats. Even if these things were pulled from the dead, as long as they were washed clean Blood stains and damaged sutures are popular items when brought back to your hometown.

After all, during the crazy plundering of Maastricht alone, the coalition nearly killed three thousand enemy militiamen. In Liège, they killed thousands more soldiers, and finally launched a nationwide campaign against the two empty cities. Search for directions…

When they left, all that was left on the battlefield was a field of stinking corpses that had turned gray to white, and crows and vultures could be seen everywhere, pecking away at the carrion.

The people of the County of Wienerenstad are not afraid of these dead people’s clothes. In terms of fabric material, they are a hundred times more comfortable than their own leather clothes made of coarse cloth woven from basswood bark and a lot of scraps of leather.

The most important thing is actually the shoes!

The real Russian army enjoys its own high-quality leather shoes, which are mostly made of deerskin, and only the soles are made of extremely wear-resistant cowhide.

Since Sweden in the Lake Mälaren region was already of the same child as Ross, the Swedish Mälaren Army that participated in the war in small numbers also had channels to obtain better equipment.

This reflects that the accompanying Danish and Götaland fishermen are the most authentic Viking pirates, showing their characteristics of looting everything.

Some of the shoes ripped from the feet of Frankish soldiers and armed peasants who died in battle were used by the garrison themselves, and most were transported back to the Göta River.

There are at least a thousand pairs of shoes of various colors, which are tied up in pairs with hemp ropes. After the soldiers escorting the supplies returned to their hometowns, they put them up for sale publicly, and the locals used their limited money to snap up these good goods.

Even if you buy a damaged product, it doesn’t matter. Damaged products are cheaper. After you take them home, you can repair them and still have a good pair of shoes.

It doesn’t matter if you buy a size that’s too big, it’s just a matter of wrapping an extra layer of foot wrap around your feet.

In any case, the cost of repairing old shoes is much lower than making new ones, not to mention… Originally, many fishermen’s shoes were just a layer of animal skin wrapped around the feet and tied with hemp rope to the calf.

All the changes were immeasurable to Blue Fox, who had stayed in the hinterland of Ross for more than half a year.

Of course, he considered that the life of the people in his feudal country was far inferior to that of Novorosberg and Novgorod, so he used the money to purchase a large amount of supplies.

He planned to target the prepared armed fishermen only in Gothenburg and give them a batch of clothes, shoes, and weapons that could be equipped in large quantities.

At least the costumes should be consistent with the real Rus’ army to prevent chaos in the war.

The fleet passed Zealandia smoothly. It was so huge that many fishing boats operating in the sea happily came over.

News about the personal expedition of the King of Rus has long been spread in this sea area, so much so that a group of Danes, Götalanders, and Oslo people happily rowed to the mouth of the Rhine in the spring.

The port of Durist is already a thing of the past. Now the radiation range of Rotterstad, which is in a similar geographical location, has covered the old Durist. A large number of new northern immigrants have established large and small new fishing villages at the mouth of the Rhine. Because the buildings are all quickly built wooden houses, they adhere to the old northern style in terms of the quality of the houses. Only considering that the place is really humid, they added wooden floors to the large haystack long house.

At first glance, both sides of the main channel at the mouth of the Rhine River appear to be Viking-like, and all the scenes are incompatible with Utrecht and Antwerp not far away.

All this is crazier than in past times, but peace is maintained because of the treaty signed by all parties.

The Vikings are still rampant in the Rhine Estuary. Fortunately, the Ross garrison maintains basic security. They will punish the scum who harass the Netherlands and Flanders Counties (provided they can catch them), so in the open The three parties in the same place reached a balance.

This is also a huge opportunity for the Archbishops of Ghent and Utrecht to spread the Gospel.

The lowland area at the mouth of the Rhine adheres to complete freedom in terms of belief. Rurik never thought of unswervingly maintaining the worship of Odin here. Ragnar, the Danish king who also regarded this place as a perfect place to sell stolen goods, did not care about those priests. They spread the faith.

The Russians and Danes built altars here and performed northern sacrifices as usual. The Benedictine priests felt sorry for this and were not stupid enough to accuse the Normans under their noses of “worshiping evil spirits” again.

Quietly, the Benedictine priests were quietly wooing the Danish immigrants, hoping to rely on the power of faith to turn the barbarians into their own people, and changes were happening silently.

A coastal communication line connecting the mouth of the Rhine to Denmark, it had become quite busy in 843.

Like a string of pearls, fishing camps set up by Danish fishermen began to appear in the West Frisian Islands, which tended to develop into permanent villages.

In the north, Henry Nassau, Count of the Netherlands, enfeoffed Groningen to one of his sons in order to gain real control over the area.

Because of their alliance with each other, Danish fishermen were able to rush into the Groningen area openly. They did not pay taxes and did not believe in God. They quietly built a fishing village on a small highland at the mouth of the Ems River that would not be flooded by the tide. , used to boil salt and make dried salted fish.

Multiple trade nodes quietly appeared on the transportation line. The fishing village of Ems Bay was most useful as a haven. The largest node was Hamburg, followed by the Norwegian port of Oslo, and the blue fox’s fiefdom of Gothenburg.

“Your fiefdom should be ahead. I have already seen a small coastal archipelago.” Goldlund pointed at the hazy scene in the distance and shouted.

“I’ve seen it all.” Blue Fox grasped the wooden railing and cheered up: “There is a risk of running aground here. You should inform all ships about this.”

Goldlund nodded: “That’s fine. This will tell the ships to follow us closely.”

The flagship raised a series of instructions, and the flag carrier stood at the bow of the ship and issued instructions to the surrounding ships. Then with the low sound of the horn, the entire sailing wedge quickly transformed into a column.

People sailing in long ships can completely ignore the islands and rocks at the mouth of the Göta River because of the shallow draft of the ships. The large warships owned by Ross can no longer take risks on this issue.

The main ships were anchored in key waterways and anchored on the spot after safety considerations.

“That’s it! Our cargo cannot tolerate any risk.” Blue Fox said and continued to point to the river mouth area: “My territory has arrived, now we get on the boat and land.”

“Okay. How long do you plan to stay here?”

Blue Fox thought for a while: “When the army is assembled, we will immediately pull up anchor and set sail. Maybe we will stay for two days at most.”

“It seems a little too hasty.”

“How can I see it?”

Goldlund smiled: “The king will definitely be in front of us. The cavalry will arrive at the legendary Nassau first, and we can only follow behind.”

“We must follow the king. Even if there is the possibility of moving faster, we must ensure that the king arrives first.” Blue Fox’s attitude was determined. He did not dare and was unwilling to overstep.

When Blue Fox arrived in his fiefdom, he didn’t just take away the warriors who had been gearing up for a whole year. He also wanted to come back to announce a big event.

The warships threw down the rope ladders, and the soldiers who were eager to go ashore to rest began to board the swaying boats with light equipment.

In a short time, the estuary area was full of ships flying the Ross flag, and countless small boats swayed with large oars and headed towards the settlement at the estuary.

The heroic appearance of the fleet has long been seen by the locals in Gothenburg. Like a fateful encounter, men and women rushed to the dock one after another in anticipation of the arrival of the main force of the Ross Expeditionary Force.

At the same time, a small fleet of ships was already moored at the Gothenburg pier.

There were five armed merchant ships moored quietly. The originally lazy sailors were surprised that the expeditionary force came to the mouth of the Jota River like the gods of Asgard descending to earth at this time. They stood on the high stern of the ship and squinted their eyes to look into the distance.

This fleet is not others, they are the cargo brothers who set out from Nassau.

Among the supplies from Nassau, wine was the most important. After they arrived at Ross’s shop in Rotterstad by long ship, more supplies were shipped and continued northward. At the current time, they were resting in Gothenburg.

Different from the deep worries of Blue Fox, these five ships were mixed with Russian and Danish sailors, and under the correct guidance of the locals, they arrived at the Port of Gothenburg very safely.

Of course the locals were very interested, because the Earl’s brother unloaded some of the wine, ale, and other supplies in Gothenburg.

The supplies belong to the count, and the locals have the obligation to look after them. Considering that most of these supplies are still used by everyone, they look after them as they look after their own property, and they treat the sailors who come from afar like family members. enthusiasm.

UU read www.SonicMTL.net

The blue fox sat on the long boat, and the bow of the boat stirred up water. It was a dragon boat charging forward, and the hazy harbor became clearer.

Staying on the ship and traveling all the time, even if you are sitting on a big ship, you still have to endure the bumps.

Blue Fox wanted to have a good sleep on the shore. He was happy to see a large number of people gathering on both sides of the river to watch the excitement. He was also happy to see a group of local boats rushing into the waterway to welcome him.

However, five armed cargo ships were moored on the pier not far away. The cover of the woods was gone. Blue Fox could see their appearance clearly, and saw the Ross flag clearly flying on those masts.

“Strange, there is already a transport ship ahead of us? Impossible.” Blue Fox asked in surprise.

Goldlund immediately vetoed: “I am a naval admiral, and I know best where those ships went. Maybe, that is Spuyut’s ship?”

“Him? Impossible.” Suddenly, a thought came to his mind, and Blue Fox slapped his thigh excitedly: “No need to guess. That’s Black Fox’s Nassau ship. I’m afraid all five cargo ships will be filled with wine. .”

This statement really irritated Goldlund. He couldn’t believe it and smiled: “So much wine? How is it possible?”

“It’s not impossible. I actually know that the mountains over Nassau lack a lot of supplies, but… they are so poor that all they have left is the fruits all over the mountains. The juice is mixed with Rhine water, fermented and put into oak barrels. Nassau The villagers never think that wine is a precious thing, but if it is shipped to us, we can make a lot of money. Even if it is sold much cheaper, Nassau will still make money.”

“That’s okay.” Goldlund couldn’t help but admire the courage of the Fox brothers. They really used the king’s ships to transport goods to the king in legal terms, and also enriched their own pockets.

[End of This Chapter.]