The young Gorm had his first nickname in lifethe Drifter.

A boy with a good mind but who doesn't look like a fighter, he is often classified as a loser in the habits of the old Ross people.

This kind of person can become a businessman, but in the old Ross tribe's time, he didn't think highly of the tribe as a pure businessman.

The Ross tribe has been a producer and primary processor of leather raw materials since ancient times, and the distribution work is basically carried out by foreign merchants who settled there. Many foreign leather craftsmen even opened small processing shops in the old Rossberg Fjord. .

At that time, because there were too few currencies in circulation, the value of silver coins became extremely high passively.

At that time, the prices of furs such as ferret, fox, forest cat and bear were very high. Now with the destruction of imported inflation, the prices of all kinds of goods are rising. Fortunately, the main goods that people depend on for living The production capacity has also been greatly increased.

However, the production of cherished leather can hardly be increased by the hard work of hunters and craftsmen. The huge forest is an endless treasure house, but cherished small animals can be hunted clean by hunters in a short period of time. When a forest becomes empty, hunters To go to a more distant place.

The amount of precious small animal leather sent to the Kingdom of Ross is indeed increasing every year, and its growth is limited. Therefore, hunters have to explore the endless forest further east.

What exactly does the search for the Volga bring? It is said that after a long drift, they found the shore of the Caspian Sea where the Pecheneg people now live.

How much can ordinary people communicate with those prairie people? Only the royal family urgently needs to import horses because of the urgent need to build a huge cavalry. Besides, Ross is now vigorously breeding his own horse herd. People with vision can see that once the Ross horse industry is strong enough, the connection with the Pechenegs will not be as close as it is today.

Ordinary people pay more attention to the money in their pockets, the food at home and the quality of the clothes they wear. All the immigrants from the north had an extremely strong demand for leather, and it became a wonderful and intoxicating reality to cherish the leather and export it to Frank, and then exchange it for a large amount of ale and wine from the local area.

There are infinite possibilities in the east, and there seems to be no end to catch the little animals there!

As a result, Valdeskoye, the most eastern town in the kingdom at present, this lakeside settlement further expanded. A stench began to fill the air, but to explorers born in Old Ross, it was a scent of alienation.

This is the smell of tanned leather, natural Glauber's salt, plant ash, animal rot, leather itself, plus the craftsman's sweat and body odor. Countless smells are intertwined. The craftsman's family is basically the whole family, and now even helpers The child also stinks.

It's all worth it! There is only one town on the shores of Lake Valdai, connected to it by a branch of the Musta River.

Although the river course is slightly tortuous, it still has smooth traffic.

In this way, the newly hunted small animals in the East are stripped, tanned, and dried in the town of Valdeskoye. In principle, they can be sold in the market only when they are shipped and transported directly to Novgorod.

Hunters, leather craftsmen, and merchants have realized the integration of the leather industry, and even the blacksmiths, carpenters, and fishermen who serve these people have gained benefits. Everything is just like decades ago, the descendants of Old Ross have inherited and strengthened the old craftsmanship of their ancestors, and their exploration has become more and more daring.

More teams of explorers touched the southern shore of Lake Valdai, and in various ways brought the boats to the winding Lake Villiers, and then continued to drift south.

The Great Lake is too open, and there are more than 200 islands in the lake, and these islands have become breeding grounds for some birds.

Especially now that it is summer, some populations of wild ducks and geese will incubate the next generation in these absolutely quiet islands.

It is currently the breeding season of the birds, and expeditions have begun to discover them, and hunting operations have also begun.

The crossbow with the wooden arm launched a sniper attack from a distance, and the geese and wild ducks that were penetrated only fell to the ground and convulsed after fluttering a few times.

The Ross hunters happily disembarked to gather their game, capturing unhatched eggs and chicks. When the big bird wants to drive away these attackers, it immediately encounters the hunter's happiest kill.

After all, the attacks of the birds are a gift, making it easier to kill them.

Ross hunters are very particular. Wild goose meat is too rough, and greasy wild duck meat is more delicious. They catch a lot of birds, and now they are qualified to pick and choose to eat good meat.

The island of bird breeding suffered a devastating blow. All members of the expedition team, men, women and children, participated in the process, roasting the bird meat into meat cattails, and collecting all the bird leg bones and large feathers.

Especially the flying feathers of birds, the flying feathers from wild geese and wild ducks are much stronger than domestic chickens, and the arrow loss workshop in Novgorod will definitely make a fortune. Of course, these feather hunters can immediately make new arrows, making the hunting party more powerful.

Villiers was no longer a purely uninhabited land. It was the first time in tens of thousands of years that there were human activities here, and it immediately became the latest eastern border of the Kingdom of Ross.

However, the expedition team only came here for hunting and fishing. It would be best if they could find the correct channel of the Volga River, and it was not the main task.

So teams began to build temporary camps by the lake, the boats were pushed ashore, and the Ross flag with white background and blue stripes was hung on the mast and fluttered in the wind all the time. In this way, friends passing by realize that this is a small camp of the Ross people rather than others, otherwise...

We all know that there are many expedition teams going south, and there may be other tribe activities in the nearby area.

Given the ancient habits, the explorers of Rus first define the outsiders they meet as a threat, because they are worried that they will be attacked by the other party, so it is better to strike first. Displaying the flag publicly is purely to avoid misunderstanding, and it can also attract friends, and everyone will hunt together in the same area to take care of each other.

Some long boats are equipped with a torsion slingshot, which is unloaded when it enters the shore of Lake Villiers, and then loaded onto a small two-wheeled trolley, becoming a heavy weapon for hunting bears.

Lake Valdai in the north has long been settled by Slavic villages. Even though the local farmers have poor weapons, they have cleaned up the nearby bears and wolves in the past.

Since Ross's army, all kinds of small animals have also suffered extinction. Southern bears are infested, and there are still many of them.

On the shore of the Great Southern Lake, a small explorer camp suddenly appeared. There are four long ships docking here now, and there are more than a hundred Rus people on the shore immediately.

They felled logs to build a small settlement, known by everyone as the "Bear Hunter's Home". They entered the forest with heavy weapons, and they dragged the bears to the shore one after another, and immediately began slaughtering and skinning the bears.

The Bear Hunting Home can only be used as a temporary summer camp for a period of time. It has no potential for the development of the northern Valdeskoye town. When the nearby large prey is caught, the Bear Hunting Home is doomed to die.

It is a camp built on the west bank of Lake Villiers, and the lake environment can only allow people to live on the west bank. Now that there are so many mosquitoes, people have to light more bonfires to disperse these insects with smoke and fire, but the dense flies can't linger at all.

A large number of bear skins are spread out to be roasted and dried, the bear meat is cut into strips and baked, the edible internal organs are sorted, and the ferocious bear heads are removed from the brain for special storage.

As for the inedible offal, which was randomly thrown into the lake, or thrown to areas farther away from the camp, they not only attract flies, but are now also full of maggots, and the stench is pervasive.

Temporarily living in this environment is really hard work. In order to get more benefits, the Ross people are desperate.

Of course, there are also teams that continue to go south along the west bank where the environment is not bad and they can go ashore for camping. A team will inevitably walk on the route that the Hafen team has only traveled, and it will inevitably be attracted by the current, and the long boat is struggling Haven (Yarvin) Estuary, start the fantasy rafting belonging to the team.

This time, the nameless river already has a name, and Rurik is leading a team to investigate the waterway.

Of course, more people are not better, but the soldiers of the Second Cavalry are generally too young, and hiking in complex areas is very beneficial to everyone.

Besides, this operation has a clear purposeto find dangerous damen.

Rurik originally wanted to leave some personnel to train in Ostara City, so he simply left some horses and all personnel participated.

Not only the soldiers of the Second Banner Squad who dismounted, Beja Hill also brought part of the guards on horseback to accompany them.

As for the affairs of the city of Ostara, Beya Hill can't control it now, she can't disobey the king's order, and the local people will take over the work.

An official expedition of 400 people under the leadership of Rurik himself, and under the guidance of Gorm the Drifter himself!

They have fifty horses, twenty boats and one longship, and their mighty team can easily destroy a forest tribe. They are not like expeditions, but more like expeditions.

After all, Rurik is the king, and only such a pomp can match his noble status.

The war horses stood on the boats, and some soldiers had to stay with the horses, and many ships seemed very crowded.

At present, the whole team is going up the relatively wide Pola River, and the soothing water flow makes paddling not a problem.

On the flagship stands the beautiful King's Banner, which is essentially the same as the other Rus' banners, except that it is heavily decorated.

Gorm and Halfen sat beside Rurik. These two were important guides, and now they had to point out the correct course of the Halfn River.

Finally, the inevitable fork in the road has arrived.

Rurik stood up slowly and supported the bow of the ship. He looked at it himself, and at the same time, the crew of each ship also looked at the river mouth ahead.

"Is that the river you came from?"

"Don't doubt my drawing and recording, I guarantee it with honor. Yes!" Gorm is still a little rebellious even when facing the king, he has the strength of such an attitude.

"Then wait and see! Let's go."

After saying that, Rurik signaled to the soldiers carrying the command flag. With a simple semaphore, the team began to turn.

"Now, let's paddle hard! Rus people! Everyone is like our ancestors!" Rurik didn't just yell, he actually sat down and held the oars with both hands.

The king himself rowed the oars and kept pace with everyone, which was a great morale booster.

They sang ancient and traditional chants, and most of them were men, women and children from the Old Ross tribe, happily going retrograde on the Haven River.

While Rurik was singing, he looked away at Bejahir who was dazed at the scenery for a while.

She looks like a passenger, with her arms resting on the side of the boat, her wrist resting on her chin, her peaceful appearance is very cute.

Beja Hill didn't just look around, she knew that this area would be her future fiefdom. Both sides of the river are lush and lush, but there is no large amount of flat grassland. It is really difficult to graze in this kind of place, but many houses can be built with local materials.

She wasn't interested in the fabled damen section of the river, which was full of rocks, unless there was a lot of flat land in that area.

As the river gradually narrowed, people became more and more vigilant, and they also felt that paddling gradually required greater strength, but the speed was decreasing.

Rurik was like everyone else, although he was not rowing hard with sweat on his back, and his linen shirt was completely soaked with sweat.

His hair and beard were wet, and a thick strip of cloth was wrapped around his forehead, just to prevent the oozing sweat from stinging his eyes.

"Your Majesty, do you want to continue paddling?" Ha Fen, who was feeling very strenuous, asked vigorously.

"Are we almost there?"

"Soon! It should be soon."

"Okay! Let's find a slightly flat place and go ashore, and all the cavalry will move ashore."

Soon, all the longboats rushed to the beach, and everyone got a good rest.

They have been paddling hard for the past few days, relying on enough morale to persevere, and they have never let up. Until now, everyone finally relaxed because they knew that they were approaching their destination. Such relaxation instantly turned into a large-scale riverside narrow grass. Lie down and sleep soundly.

Rurik sat down as well, and seeing his brothers like this, he simply lay down and let his wet clothes be stained with mud and a lot of green grass juice.

Beyahir hurried over with a leather sleeping bag and sat beside Rurik.

"Drink it."

"Okay." Rurik sat up and took it with a smile, feeling something was wrong after the first bite. "It's actually wine?!"

"Kumumiss." She said with a smile, "I also added some honey, I know you like it."

"It's delicious! It's really delicious to quench your thirst. Ah!"

Beyahir was immediately pulled down, and the two of them lay in the grass looking up at the blue sky and white clouds. She nestled gently beside Rurik, not wanting to say anything for the time being.

No one disturbed the warm moment between the king and his favorite concubine, everyone was exhausted, obviously it was impossible to continue marching today, so it is better to set up camp here and start sprinting tomorrow.

Of course, unless the scouts can really confirm that there is a rocky destination not far upstream.

At this moment, Bella Hill's guards finally came in handy.

Although several riding slaves loyal to Beja Hill lived a good life in the city of Ostara, they still couldn't swim and were not good at paddling like the Ross people. They couldn't be of much help during the entire voyage, during which even Ruth kids rolled their eyes at these guys.

Now all the members of the Haffin expedition returned with the king, and the old longship was lost, because Rurik also promised to reward a better new one.

Haven's little grandson is playful and cute, and even he helps the adults paddle with him. From Rurik's point of view, there are indeed successors to the Ross tribe.

As long as those riding slaves who were treated as stalls got on a horse, everything changed!

They were very energetic, and small teams moved quickly on the right bank of the river. Just as everyone set up a camp that was almost a long snake formation, and the dense bonfires must have looked like fire dragons at night, the Pecheneg scout cavalry returned.

Not only did they return, some were even injured.

Although some slave warriors were unbelievably hit by arrows, there were still "captives" who rode into the camp.

Rurik couldn't figure it out, and after taking a rest, everyone who was busy burying the stove and cooking wheat gathered around him.

The wounded warrior had a barbed hunting arrow cluster in his arm, the style and material of which seemed to be from the hands of the Rus.

Rurik came nervously and stood in front of the wounded. He silenced the astonished Bejahir before asking questions in the Pecheneg dialect.

As a result, he was extremely shocked, and even a thousand words were not worth the captives who were sent.

Because, this captive is an old guy from Ross.

"It's Carold? Carold Ogensson?" The guide Hafen standing next to Rurik recognized his old friend at a glance, and he was extremely emotional.

"It's you? Hafen! I thought you were missing when we explored the south together. But you... are..."

Carold, who was also an old man, of course knew the tall, stalwart young Rurik standing next to Hafen. Even if the king's clothes were too plain and simple, he would never forget that face that was very similar to Otto's when he was young.

"I am King Ross. You... are from Ross."

Carold wanted to salute the king as a soldier, but he was exempted because he also had internal injuries.

The situation is easy to explain, but the answer surprised everyone.

It turned out that Carold's expedition was not as lucky as the Hafen expedition. They were not as lucky as the former. In the dangerous damen river section, because their long ships had masts and bilge keels, they became difficult to control in the turbulent river. It was broken abruptly, and a boat full of people was washed away by the river.

The river bed that was not deep enough was full of large rocks, no one was washed away, everyone staggered up to the bank, and soon some people died of serious internal injuries, and many people had skin injuries.

Just escaped from death, everyone can only lie down on the shore to relieve their emotions.

In such a situation, it is easy to become the prey of bears and wolves. Now it does not matter to receive the lost prey. Those who survived inspected their weapons, and the intact crossbows were unstringed. They were highly nervous and decisively shot arrows at the scout cavalry who rushed out of the woods to cover them like ghosts.

And the scout was so careless that he didn't carry the Ross flag, so it is understandable to be regarded as an attacker in this no-man's land

The truth came out, it was all a sad misunderstanding.

"It turned out to be like this!" Rurik sighed, "Sure enough, the current is so fast and dangerous, we actually died. But now you are saved."

After hearing the experience of his old friend, Hafen was deeply afraid. When Rurik asked something, the old man was still trembling in a daze.

"Don't be in a daze~www.mtlnovel.com~ Now I can be sure that what you said is right. There are many rocks in that place and the water flows quickly, but it is also good."

"Your Majesty... Your Majesty is really optimistic."

"At least we are here. The dead are buried on the spot, and the wounded are treated as best they can. The local area can build a town, and the king wants its stones! Since you call the river section damen, then the king will name it dameniask (Dmyansk) , it must become a new town whose main purpose is to obtain stone materials."

Rurik was ambitious, and the warriors were still puzzled. Maybe it's because the vast area is extremely expensive and lacks stones, but stones are everywhere in Roseburg and the northern area.

A new town is about to be built, and this is one of the major purposes of Rurik's visit. Tomorrow, everyone will be able to see its true appearance.

Demyansk, in this era, was originally meant to be the so-called "stone dam city by the river".

History is going on its proper track in a more wonderful way, and this settlement that is in urgent need of construction is already too close to the true main channel of the Volga River geographically.