Lake Valdai is not just a lake, there are large and small lakes around it, which together form an extremely large group of lakes.

In fact, all the lakes are connected by waterways, but the geography and hydrology of this place are still being explored by the Russian expeditionary army who traveled so far, and they could not find all the correct waterways in the first place.

There is only one broad waterway that is unquestionable - the Musta River.

Three longboats left Lake Valdai, and the channel they came in turned back to the Musta.

The Ross flag was hoisted high on the mast, and the people on board had mixed feelings.

A middle-aged man, after the boat returned to the Musta River, his eyes looked towards the east.

"As we agreed, this year we will make a bold attempt! See what else is upstream! Brothers, let's go."

It was none other than the thirty-three-year-old Arik who gave the orders.

Just like his uncle Otto, Eric has blond hair and blue eyes under deep eyes.

After all, he is a cousin, and his face has many similarities with Rurik.

But he is "Twin Swords" Arik, the brave and senseless Arik!

There was a centipede lying on his left arm. It was a terrible scar after the serious wound was stitched up with twine. It grew on his arm like a medal, which proved Arik's great achievements in Gotland ten years ago.

It was in Gotland that he led fifty brothers out of the main force to launch an armed reconnaissance that mixed success and failure. He has extremely strong self-confidence, even in the danger of being besieged, he still feels that he can turn the tables.

As for being chased and killed by the Gotland army in the end and fleeing in embarrassment, he also has the ability to escape successfully, and besides, the final decisive battle will also be revenge.

Today, he is still the heroic man who took the lead.

Although more than 1,000 people went straight to Valdai Lake this year to explore in the name of hunting, plus local leather craftsmen and traditional Slavic settlers, the population of Valdeskoye suddenly swelled to 3,000.

There are more small lakes with twists and turns and trivial structures near Lake Valdai. The forest here is extremely dense, and a large number of hunters are wandering in it. Every few days, families of hunters row back to the town with their prey.

It would be too expensive to simply go hunting. As the king's cousin, although Arik has not yet shown an urgent need for the title, he understands that his children must be bestowed with high status by the king's younger brother.

The eldest son, Askad, has already led the first batch of mixed-race Ross warriors to the east. The first battle of this group of cubs was to defeat the Franks who were feared by all northerners like monsters in the past. The main attack was the capital city. He can enjoy great honor at a young age, why doesn't Aric, as a father, envy him?

He has his own opinions and is used to the lifestyle he loves.

This time he took his youngest son Jill, who was only seven years old, and a group of brothers who were willing to follow him on the adventure and continued to step into the Musta River and run upstream.

Like all men and women, he sat down and held the paddle in both hands.

Both men and women, these Rus people sat neatly like their ancestors, chanting chant and operating wooden oars against the current in perfect rhythm to push upstream.

Only young children could not adapt to the paddling rhythm of adults at all, and the young Jill's hands were very itchy, but now he can only be a spectator.

Instead, this kid was assigned a small task.

Although Jill was small, he hugged the mast of the longship like a little monkey and was afraid to go up, and finally rode on the small beam where the jib hangs on the top.

"Boy! Tie yourself up to avoid falling off! Keep your eyes open and tell me immediately if you find anything abnormal." Arik who was paddling raised his head and ordered.

"Got it, Dad."

The little boy's voice is quite immature, and his eyesight is really good.

At present, the Musta River continues to cross the dense forest. In such an environment, even if Jill has clairvoyance, he can only see things nearby, let alone this small fleet entered the mountainous area.

Starting from Lake Valdai, the area extending to the east began to form a large area of lakes and hills intertwined. People who fall into this situation can easily feel that the world is extremely vast, and the journey is extremely long and even boring.

No one is worried about losing their way, the fleet is still going retrograde along the Musta River, if everyone is slack, at worst let go of the hands holding the oars and let the current push them all the way back to Inlmen Lake, back to their home Mstiysk.

Arik, like the others, gradually fell into the boredom of the long voyage. The continuous days of paddling seemed to be spinning in the hilly forest. They also encountered a rain in the middle, and everyone took shelter in the woodland. For a while, the sky was thunderous. , as if Thor was furious!

Amidst the thunder and thunder of the Tianshan Mountains, the boat was towed to the shore, and the people hid under the woods and shivered.

Until this violent thunderstorm is over...

After the rain, the sky cleared, and the rain just now was like a nightmare, but it couldn't dream, because the water flow in the Musta River was obviously faster.

Arik didn't wait for everyone to dry their clothes, so he hurriedly jumped on the wet boat, led the guys to scoop up the accumulated water inside, and resumed the retrograde of drinking.

The sun and the wind blow, the wet clothes dry quickly, and then the paddlers start to go to sea again.

Even Arik himself was not exempt. He took off the lining of his linen shirt, showing off his golden chest hair, and even the hair on his back with the hideous tattoos on it.

He was still a man full of fighting spirit, but his courage and endurance were not shared by everyone, especially the women accompanying him. Although they were embarrassed to express their complaints, the damage to their bodies from the long voyage became more and more obvious.

No one knows where the team is now, only a scribe named Canutet wrote the logbook with paper and a quill, but the worse thing is that the manuscript he wrote was never very clear in the latest heavy rain. Soaked in water. Paper made from birch bark has a certain resistance to water immersion, but the resistance of ink is much worse.

As soon as the party landed and camped, Canutet (ka) hurried around the campfire to sort out his hapless manuscripts.

Arik was sitting next to this young man, silently watching the actions of this man who had no combat capability but was valued by Rurik.

"You have to organize your files carefully, and remember all my great achievements. Hehe, I'm a hero."

Arik said something with a half-joking attitude, and Kanutet also responded in a perfunctory tone. His thoughts were all on re-copying the documents, sorting out the mottled papers, and rewriting new documents on blank paper. After suffering a loss, this time he specially wrapped the written documents in leather, and finally wrapped them in hemp rope Fasten it, because at least the deerskin with all the fur plucked is waterproof.

Arik didn't intend to talk too much with the scribe, and besides, his idea of continuing to explore the East attracted volunteer families. The scribe also insisted on joining with the attitude of serving the king, so he had no choice but to absorb it, even if this Canutet didn't even have the ability to row a boat, so he was worthy of the blood of Old Ross.

In fact, no one would dare to say that a clerk like Kanutet is useless, but this young man is directly responsible to King Rurik himself. It is a reasonable choice not to offend this person.

However, after a week of continuous sailing, the three longboats were still circling in the hilly area. Everyone is constantly consuming grains and dried meat. Now everyone has to go to the nearby forest to shoot some birds, hares, and groundhogs after they start camping, or find small ponds to fish to satisfy their hunger.

There are almost a hundred men and women in the team, how long can they survive only on the meat of some small prey?

In the short term, people hope to shoot bears directly with crossbows, so that they can make a small profit from bear skins and bear heads. Although the cut off a large amount of bear meat has a very strong taste, the fat-rich meat can quickly satisfy everyone's hunger question.

Finally someone in the team began to question the point of the adventure.

Jill is snuggled up beside his father. The little boy is very curious about Canutet, who writes and draws. He is so mischievous that he is driven away, and he simply returns to his father to eat the hard salted fish meat with his immature deciduous teeth in boredom. Dry.

The dry food in the team is all this kind of dried fish meat from ancient times. It is a test of people's bite force, so people who have sailed for a long time often eat this kind of hard food, and all of them have big cheeks, golden hair and Wrapped by the beard is a "national character face".

Arik himself has a tendency to develop like this, and because of his gradual growth, he inevitably has a little belly, and his sharp-edged face is now a little rounder.

Maybe today is as safe and sound as in the past, and everyone can rest for a night and move forward.

But more than a dozen men formed a small group and approached Arik, who was lying down and taking a nap around the campfire, with a serious face.

Aware of the scene, Jill hurriedly pushed his father. Hearing the noise in his ears, Arik jumped on his mount, and clenched the hilt of his sword with his right hand almost instinctively.

Seeing that Arik was overreacting so violently, everyone took a step back for a while.

The leader persuaded with kind words: "Don't be nervous. Arik, the brothers just want to chat with you."

"Talk to me? Cedric, my brother!" He directly called the speaker by name: "You volunteered to come here with your family, and the reality must tell me that I plan to go back."

The speaker collected himself and swallowed his saliva cautiously: "Yes. At least ten days have passed! Where are we now? Only God knows! Where are we going? Only God knows."

"But you are not a god!" Arik retorted directly, "Don't forget our scribe Kanutet, he writes records every day. It's only been nine days since we set off. How can there be ten days?"

"But is there any difference? What have we found so far? We don't ask for gold and silver, but we haven't even skinned the big animals. Now that we eat less and less, what will we do? Continue to move upstream? "

"You asked well?" Arik slapped his thighs and stood up. He looked at the people who were approaching one after another, pulled Jill behind him first, raised his head and shouted loudly: "I know you are very tired! I Why not? Well, you can leave now if you want to. But I will never leave! I will not be content with a peaceful and boring life, and I will not give up a great expedition just to get some precious furs."

"Then what exactly are you planning? Just looking for the water source of the Musta River?" The speaker just now, a veteran named Sedrek who belongs to the First Banner Team and is purely from the old Ross tribe, said bluntly. asked.

Cedric is also asking questions for everyone, and everyone has huge doubts about the meaning of continuing to sail.

"At least our king's prophecy must come true! Sooner or later we will discover the Volga River. Don't question the king, otherwise you are questioning Odin and the gods. Only God knows that our future expeditions will arrive there, but since God knows , the gods have already given us a hint. This is like mining, the gold is in the rock, maybe you can find the gold if you persist a few more times, don't retreat when you are close to victory!"

Arik is not the strongest king, and he cannot rely on his three-inch tongue to persuade the expedition team, which is facing the risk of food shortage, to continue working hard.

What they said was also reasonable, and we asked ourselves, even if we found the source of the Musta River, what would happen afterwards? Maybe it's just entering an empty and no-man's land, unless there are a lot of beasts, fishing resources, and even open-pit gold mines in the area.

Even for a moment, Arik backed down. After all, willpower overcomes the cowardice that suddenly sprouts, and other people can retreat, but I must not retreat.

Facing the friends who insisted on asking for an explanation, Aric simply said: "If you don't want to continue sailing, you can withdraw! I didn't force you to follow up. If you feel that you can't get more benefits, go back to Vaal." Daihu, you compete with hundreds of other hunters for animal skins. I will continue to move forward tomorrow. If you are willing to follow me, I cannot promise that you will make a fortune. At least I will not retreat. I will persist even if I die of starvation or exhaustion. To the end!"

His attitude was as firm as a bull's-eye, and his words forced some people to stay out of honor in a aggressive way.

But on the second day, two longships chose to leave.

The entourage suddenly decreased by nearly 70%. Now that he had let go of his bold words and did not prevent them from leaving, Arik could only watch them being quietly pushed downstream by the water of the Musta River in an atmosphere of regret and sorrow...

"They left. Are you really willing to go all out?" The young man standing beside Arik was none other than Kanutet, who was called incapable of fighting.

"You? It's ironic." Arik slightly hooked his head and smiled wryly, "The soldier chose to retreat, but you, as a clerk, are willing to continue working with me."

"It's nothing, I'm just a scribe, and I live for the king. My father died in battle a long time ago, and I have lived on the king's food for so many years, and the knowledge he has learned from the gods has also given me. The king ordered me to explore the eastern world, and I will try my best to do things for the king even if I try my best."

The young man was very conscious, and suddenly Arik felt that he had foolishly underestimated him.

"There is only one boat left now." Arik sighed again: "I explored with the mentality of looking for water sources. Only God knows if I will succeed this year. I don't know where I will drift. At least those who evacuated will tell Others, brave Arik has rushed to the endless east."

"Yes. If we can reverse the legendary Volga River, we will be heroes. I can make such a contribution to the king, and my life is worth it."

The so-called cowards have already retreated, and the streamlined staff all have a heart as hard as iron. I am afraid that everyone has a no-success or success attitude. After the number of staff is reduced, it will be easier for Arik to lead the team.

He couldn't help but think of ten years ago, when he led a mere fifty brothers and dared to take an armed expedition on the perilous Gotland Island. Looking at the so-called risks now, how could it be one-tenth of what it was back then?

They reasonably pushed the only long boat into the river, and with the addition of Jill, who was only seven years old, there were only twenty-five Ross people who continued to explore.

They are still ignorant of their geographical location, but they can determine the direction through the "black technology" water float compass, and this miraculous deed is mastered by mortals. Everyone can comfort themselves-we are actually still being The gods bless.

Arik can determine the north, south, east, and west in the dense forest river, but the Musta River still does not know where it extends.

In the following days, they sailed quite a long distance every day, just to take advantage of the long daytime in summer and the temperature of warm events, and seize the time window to try to find the water source of the Musta River.

There is no need for words of encouragement, only wordless persistence.

Everyone became silent, and the boats were still going against the river in the hilly valley. They had noticed that the channel had become narrower and the river bed gradually shallower, which was a good hint that the so-called fleet was probably approaching the source of the water.

However, is its source a swamp, or a small lake in a hill?

Finally, Arik found the source of the Musta River - a winding lake.

When everyone discovered the lake, they didn't think it was the real source of water. Aric wasn't excited, but most of them were. The only good thing was that the fishing gear they brought finally came in handy. Some of the most common European perch were caught, and people set up temporary camps on the relatively empty lakeside to live and grill fish.

The lake immediately got its name, the so-called Musta Lake.

However, this is not the absolute of the lake.

Arik and his party did not take it lightly, they were still searching for the ultimate source of the lake, and finally arrived at the southernmost tip of Lake Musta, where they were dumbfounded.

Because in the southwest direction of the south bank of Lake Musta, the field of vision passes through a muddy swamp that lacks vegetation, and the world not far away is sparkling, and there actually exists a lake that looks bigger!

what are you waiting for? Even if there is no clear waterway, even if everyone has to step on the mud and forcibly drag the boat to the big lake not far away to continue exploring, Arik led his brothers to do so without hesitation, and even his youngest son Jill's immature feet were deeply touched. Step on the mud and push the boat with the adults with meager strength.

But what they didn't know was that they were the first Ross people to stand at the watershed in the entire Valdai Heights.

What is the watershed?

It is this swamp that divides the two worlds.

To the north of the mud is Lake Musta, along which boats can eventually drift uninterrupted to the Baltic Sea.

The South of the Mire has no name yet (actually Upper Volodsk Lake ~www.mtlnovel.com~ There are many rivers flowing into the lake in this hilly highland, and it has a very critical and only exit - special ville r.

The Tver River is an extremely important tributary of the upper reaches of the Volga. Similarly, the point where the water of the Moskva River flows into the Volga River is geographically close to the point where the Tver River flows into the Volga River.

Yes, Arik has actually stood at a lake in one of the sources of the upper reaches of the Volga, and a whole new world has opened up to him. He can claim to have found the source of the Volga.

But no one realized this, and Aric still felt that he had just found the real source of the Musta River. All the people who persisted here felt that their long-term persistence finally ushered in victory. They found the source of water. The tense spirit suddenly relaxed, and people were finally able to enjoy a trace of peace.

The vast world shows the insignificance of the Ruth people who suddenly broke into the big lake. People can't help being afraid of the fear brought by this sense of emptiness, and even Arik feels uncomfortable.

Because everyone is too far away from home, it is time to consider going home.