Rise of Rurik Chapter 137

Since leaving the Åland Islands, the main fleet led by Otto turned into the Gulf of Finland.

Along the way, they took advantage of the southerly wind, and the northerly wind that occasionally blew in zigzag.

Otto had no interest in some of the islands that appeared on the route.

It was the sudden appearance of some ships that aroused his great interest.

Because this bay has never been exclusively enjoyed by the Ross tribe. Some Finn tribes and Baltic tribes had sporadic activities on the seashore and rushed to land and fight with them, which Otto did not want.

Those tribes have not been conquered by the Rus at all, and even peaceful trade with each other does not exist. There have been several encounters in history.

He didn't want an accident at all now, so after turning into the bay, the huge fleet never docked at all.

The fleet only stayed for a day on a deserted island where there was no one. After leaving a bunch of bonfire traces, the fleet continued to rush towards the destination.

The sea area is full of thin ice floes, and the number of ice floes continues to increase.

"Boss, the situation ahead is a bit unclear, will there be a thicker layer of ice that will make our ship unable to get through?"

The speaker was the young blacksmith Kawei, who stayed at the leader's flagship, deeply disturbed by the unknown future.

"Are you afraid of ice hitting our boat?!" Otto, who was paddling, asked with a smile.

"I'm worried. Because our ship..."

"It's okay, the big deal is that you lie on the bow and break the ice with an axe, and we move on."

Hearing Otto's words, Kawei was even more worried.

Otto let out a sigh of relief, and he continued paddling his oars and shouted: "You young people don't have to worry about anything. You are coming with me for the first time. You will settle in our Shilla Fort in the future. Does ice make you worry? Let's think about the future life."

Because this year's voyage of Sogong is not as simple as Otto leading a group of people to ask for tribute.

Compared with collecting taxes in Novgorod, the most important thing is to establish new settlements.

Since a lot of houses are to be built and life is to be settled down, it is bound to require labor to work.

The Ross people have not captured a large number of male corpses, making cutting trees, building houses, and even clearing land for cultivation. All the work must be done by themselves.

The biggest goal of a large number of young Russians on this trip is to obtain a wife from Novgorod. As a price, they have to pay a betrothal gift that can be married peacefully. After that, they must accept the arrangement of the leader and become the No. A group of residents thrived and thrived.

Nostalgic for homeland?

Do not! Young people are happy to go out and venture.

The hometown of Roseburg is not a wonderful place. The young people can't figure out that their ancestors can't live in the Svealand Plain, and they have to break away from the core of the alliance and settle in the Gulf farther north.

The young people do not want to know more about the Rus ancestors facing the pressure of life and going north to obtain the rich animal furs of the north.

Once, the Ross people moved northward and gained a lot from decades of hunting. They didn't intend to kill all animals, large and small, but their hunting efficiency was higher than the reproduction rate of native animals. This made this tribe of reindeer hunters turn to large-scale fishing.

Fishing? It would be better to find a place where you can grow wheat with good geomantic omen.

After all, everyone has been able to enjoy the wheat tribute by the Novgorod people for decades, but unfortunately the amount of tribute from the other party is limited, so that ordinary residents can only eat the wheat for a short period of time.

The current tribal distribution method is changing, and there are fewer and fewer young people who lack power in the tribe.

Besides, as there are more and more young people in the tribe, it is really not pursued to expect a little wheat from Novgorod to relieve their greed.

Everyone is dreaming of being able to eat wheat cakes, bread and porridge all at once, and even use the extra wheat to make a good life of ale.

Some people even fantasize about organizing an army to completely conquer Novgorod, so that the locals can pay tribute to wheat throughout the year.

Of course people with normal minds find this idea too unrealistic, even if the Novgorod people are not good enough, their numbers are too much. If they are truly turned into slaves, the premise must be a decisive military victory.

This victory must be based on mass killing and wounding of men in the Novgorod region.

Of course, local men would bring a large number of wooden sticks and stone hammers to the battle, and such enemies seemed to be easily destroyed.

Killing the vast number of men in Novgorod is the most stupid. They are all dead, who will farm the land?

Completely conquer Novgorod, Otto, as the leader, did not have this idea. However, there are too many opponents, and maintaining the current situation is the best choice for the Ross tribe.

It is more important to obtain warm land than to start a war to complete a thorough conquest and then enslave them.

The Ross people can cultivate the land by themselves. Since the purpose is to harvest wheat, it is safer to cultivate by themselves.

The mighty fleet with 900 people sailed for another five days after passing through the Åland Islands!

Finally on the morning of the sixth day, a large island in the distance appeared in front of everyone.

Otto put down the oars, standing at the bow of the boat and looking far away.

"Brothers! We finally arrived! Continue rowing, and in the afternoon we choose a good place to land."

The long journey is finally coming to an end. The young people have finally found a point of venting after holding back their emotions for a long time. They are already cheering.

Also cheering were the Novgorod women who went back to their parents' home with the ship, and they held their stomachs and followed their husbands closely.

These women, if they continue to live in Novgorod, they are almost destined to never leave the shore of Lake Ilmen for the rest of their lives.

Because the large and small Slavic farms in the Novgorod region live around Lake Ilmen, the local people have completely transformed into a farming nation.

Agricultural production is the most important thing for a family, and rash travel is really a kind of death-seeking behavior.

Even if you marry a Rus, your living conditions are a little better than in the hometown. For example, the once-scarce meat can be eaten frequently, and the half-starved and half-satisfied life will be relieved to a certain extent.

But hometown is, after all, hometown, no matter how bad she is.

What's more, the biological parents are still in their hometown!

As long as the army of the Ruths landed, it meant that everyone had left the ocean.

Because she is Arik's wife, Peravina is treated as her niece by Otto, and has the right to sit on the leader's flagship.

She supported her belly and crawled slowly in the boat, for fear that the shaking of the boat would make her clothes wet.

She crawled near Otto and asked, "Dad, as long as we land, we will enter the river. Will I be back soon?"

"Why did you come to the front? Go back!" Otto scolded.

"I just want to... just want to ask." Peravina hurriedly hooked her head and explained cautiously.

"Quickly. We will land in the afternoon and we will continue our journey tomorrow morning."

Because after Arik's biological father died in battle, he called Otto's father for many years, and the married Peravina also followed her husband's habits and called Otto's father.

This intimate call really evoked Otto's imagination.

Seeing Peravina's face, he thought of his nephew Arik who had attacked Gotland, and the young people who had revenge.

Their battle should go smoothly!

Otto couldn't really think about it. He arranged the army very tightly. The so-called one hundred families with the ship immediately set up permanent camps as soon as they docked, and they will officially start the Fort Shilla at the next morning at the latest. Infrastructure.

He took his married and Sorgon army straight to Novgorod, staying at that Ilmen Lake for at most one day, and finally after a maximum of seven days before and after, the army will bring more of Novgorod's youth. The woman returns and joins the great cause of building a town.

The mighty fleet passed Kotlin Island smoothly.

What everyone is most worried about is that the collision between the ship and the sea ice will cause the ship to be destroyed. As the ship continues to winter, the floating ice is indeed more and more, and soon flakes of ice appear!

As a result, everyone discovered that there was obviously a wide waterway between the ice floes, and the fleet of ships sprang into the waterway naturally and moved forward without being affected by any ice floes.

But when entering this waterway, the paddlers also felt a resistance.

People understand the reason why there is no ice floes in the waterway, and some people deliberately put their hands into the water in order to verify their ideas. Lick your hand, you can't feel the salty taste at all on the tip of your tongue!

Facts have proved that this waterway is full of fresh water.

Walking along the waterway, a yellowed beach not far away appeared in front of everyone.

Where is the landing field of the fleet? If it's just for landing, all the oarsmen rush to the beach with all their strength, and everyone can land safely.

Many people are itching, and they paddle more vigorously.

"Boss, the beach in front is really a perfect landing field. We just rushed over?!" Kawei asked excitedly.

"No!" Otto retorted bluntly.

"Why? That beach is obviously better than our Roseburg."

"Young man, you are here for the first time. When the tide comes, the beach will be submerged. We continue to row and you will soon know that there is no landing site."

In fact, the so-called beach in front of the fleet is the west beach of Vasilievsky Island.

The average elevation of this island is eight meters, and the elevation near the beach is less than two meters.

The so-called Vasilievsky Island is a sandbar washed out by the sands of the Neva River, and its scale is still slowly increasing.

It is now that it does not have the name "Vasily Island" at all, no one named it, Otto now only wants to call it "Xishazhou".

Since we are going to land and establish new settlements, it is very necessary to name nearby settlements.

The big lake is called Ladoga Lake, and the river is naturally called Ladoga River.

There was no order from Otto, no ships attempted to land, everyone was paying attention to the surrounding environment and planning for future development prospects.

A place that was just considered an excellent landing field by many people was quickly ignored. Because everyone found that it was just an island divided by a river. It is not a good choice to establish a settlement on an island, just because the sand there is definitely not suitable for farming.

The fleet has entered the river, and the strong current has made it difficult for many young people who have just arrived here to paddle.

The so-called Ladoga River is the Neva River. The river has begun to enter the spring and summer flood season, so that the rising water on both sides of the river has also submerged many water plants.

In the early days, the Neva River was near the mouth of the sea, and the strong currents broke down into three waterways abruptly and created many sandbars.

Otto had been looking for a suitable landing point, and he finally determined a suitable location.

And this location is where the Winter Palace is located.

The Russ are about to build the Shilla Fort in the location of the Winter Palace!

"Brothers, let's turn the corner! Log in!"

After all, he suddenly drew his sword, and the place where the sharp sword pointed was the official landing field.

The leading flagship turned first, followed by all the ships behind it.

Muscular young oarsmen rowed desperately, the keel of the bottom of the boat rubbed against the reeds inundated by the flooding river. For a while, the water surged, and the boat directly washed up on the beach made of sand, rock and mud.

Otto held the hard dragon head relief on the bow of the ship, and after the violent shaking of the ship's beach, everything became calm.

He jumped off the boat suddenly and became the first lander.

"Great! Brothers, we are here to build our Shilla Fort! Everyone, get off the boat!"

Excited people jumped into the shallows one after another, and no one complained that their boots were flooded with river water.

The quiet place suddenly became lively because of the more than nine hundred Ruths who appeared, and many people had already called their companions to do those things immediately after landing.

The boats docked collectively, and the people who landed on the beach discussed the next work clearly on the boat. Their actions were indeed orderly, and there was no chaos at the landing site.

Many young people jumped down, pulled the rope non-stop, shouted collectively, and dragged the boat to the shore.

Others slammed down wooden stakes on the sand and tied the boats towed ashore.

This is true for more than forty boats, and Otto is not instructing everything himself, because everyone is worried that a sea tide will surge in the evening, and those irregular boats will be washed away by the tide.

This worry is entirely correct.

Because once the tide hits, the inverted sea water can inundate the sandbank at the westernmost end, the so-called "Vasily Island" as a whole.

St. Petersburg on that plane, when Peter the Great decided to build a new city, he encountered the embarrassment of seawater intrusion. Until the 1970s, the Soviet Union decided to build a 40-kilometer breakwater with Kronstadt Port in the west of the city as the center.

Due to the impact of the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the construction of the breakwater was shelved midway, but it was still completed in 2011, which permanently solved the problem of seawater intrusion in St. Petersburg.

On this plane, the Ross tribe from Roseburg in the north, their hometown is a small bay, and everyone knows the erosion of the tide.

Otto chose to establish a settlement location, which coincides with Peter the Great on another plane, or anyone who understands the sea, will set the location of the Winter Palace as the core of the settlement.

The reason is simple. People standing on the boat can see at a glance that a small **** suddenly appears on the gentle floodplain. This is the most suitable place to build a town.

The location Otto chose was a soothing breakthrough. Compared with the open sandbar, the breakthrough altitude of the landing point quickly rose to fifteen meters. Whether it was inverted seawater or flooded river water, it would never be flooded here!

More than 900 landers of all kinds, they are already unloading their messy equipment.

Especially the one hundred Ruth families who are about to become the first residents. They have axes and scrapers in their hands. There are even men who carry prefabricated wood from their hometowns and prepare to insert them into the sand. , Set up the basic frame of the wooden house.

Many accompanying housewives lack the strength to carry hardwoods.

They carried water bags made of seals or reindeer stomach sacs, and ran to the turbulent Neva River to drink water first, and then filled them with water for their husbands who had already started building a house.

The children brought by the couple began to do what they could.

The evening is coming. Don't talk nonsense, a vigorous construction movement has already begun.

Chapter end