Taking the lagoon as cover, Seeburg hides in the depths of the lagoon.

Grobinia, which is now inland, existed in the world under the name of Cherbourg in this era.

The Danish immigrants shared the settlement with the Kurlanders. They made a living by fishing off the coast, digging up local specialties such as amber and beeswax for sale.

There are not many merchants who dare to take the inland river route, because these rough gemstones will eventually be sold to Riga, and they prefer to paddle their boats along the coastline of the Courland Peninsula, so that the route is clear and they will not encounter the Semigallians on the way Exploitation is one of the risks of encountering storms at sea, but the greater risk is hijacking by pirates.

Those Gotlanders and Bornholms who cruised the sea, even though they also spoke Norse, would not look up to the Danish stone diggers in Cherbourg as their own.

The concept of a nation-state has not yet been born, and people everywhere only know their tribes, their villages, and their folks.

Even in the next-door village, even if they speak the same language and believe in the same gods, once something happens that threatens their own survival, the villagers will collectively take up arms, and regardless of gender, they will form a militia to fight against their neighbors.

For thousands of years, it seems that the southern Baltic Sea should have such a pattern, but in recent years the situation has changed dramatically.

The merchants who sell stones are of course still cautiously paddling along the coastline. In order to hide their identities, they even dare not raise their sails most of the time to take advantage of the wind. The main material of the sail of the traditional longboat is wool fabric. Due to the inevitable contamination of dust, it is always off-white as a whole, and this is extremely conspicuous in the vast sea.

If the ship is still drifting close to the coastline, the color difference between the gray-white sail and the black coastal forest is too great. Even a color-blind person can detect this serious change of light and shade. The cruising fishermen are very likely to change when they see this scene Come and kill as a pirate.

The short sea route from Cherbourg to Riga is extremely important for the Amber Road, but a small boat can transport a large amount of rough stones, so not many merchants take this route every year. The smart thing is that businessmen will always choose to start operations when winter is approaching, so that the pirates have probably prepared winter supplies, and there is a high probability that they will nest in their homes, push the boat ashore, and wait for the first snow to start a hibernation-like dormant life until spring.

The merchants of Cherbourg did the opposite. They paddled against the bitter cold wind. After entering the Bay of Riga, they raised their sails and rushed into the Daugava River with the harsh north wind. They sold the amber in Riga and bought it from the local people. In order to buy key grains here, by leaving the Bay of Riga before it freezes, I finally returned to my home in Cherbourg in early winter, eating a large amount of purchased grains to spend the winter comfortably.

Because the overall environment of the lagoon area where Cherbourg is located is not good.

The land under the pine forest is generally acidic. Before deep soil improvement, even oats and rye, which are concurrently in charge, will grow in a mess. The income from farming is so bad that locals prefer to fish for a living.

Fishing is about competing with the pirates on the Baltic Sea, and guarding the lagoon with an average depth of only about two meters, the number of freshwater perch caught is limited.

Even eating fish has huge downsides, the vast majority of catches have only a small amount of fish oil in the guts of the fish. It is difficult for people to rely on pure intake of eggs

For the survival of white matter, fat and carbohydrates are the key to survival.

Fortunately, there are not many residents in Cherbourg. They can barely survive by fishing near the sea, actively growing vegetables and collecting fruits, hunting in the forest, raising all poultry, and planting some oats on the limited good fields.

As for the beautiful and peaceful idyllic life, that only exists in the residents' fantasy of Asgard.

Until this day, everything changed...

At first, the fishermen who worked in the sea frantically fled into the entrance and exit of the lagoon. They poured into the settlement of Cherbourg. As soon as the boat landed, they hurriedly got off the boat and shouted heartbreakingly in the village: "Pirates! Pirates!" coming!"

Those who came were not pirates, but the overwhelming Ross Fleet ships.

The blue and white sails quickly gathered at the entrance and exit of the lagoon. Since the guide informed the army of the geography and hydrology of this place, all the big ships no longer foolishly rushed towards the lagoon.

Under the command of General Godlund, the entire army lowered the rope nets one after another. The soldiers of each army flag team wore light piles and carried a small amount of supplies, and began to enter the traditional rowing longboats docked beside the big ship. Head towards the lagoon.

Every ship hoisted the Ross flag, and the soldiers also wore standard Ross shirts.

They maintain formation through the lagoon entrance and exit, and within the lagoon the formation is fully extended.

In order to ensure that the landing operation will not be messed up, the general Goldlund, especially the group of howling Ross soldiers under him, will not become beastly as soon as they land. Drummer and trumpeter, a semaphore soldier stood at the stern of the ship facing the densely packed boats behind him,

Relying on complex body movements to relay the general's orders.

At this moment, the three guides on board are in a state of intense entanglement.

"Your Excellency, you must keep your promise. Your army is really ruthless, and Cherbourg will be finished."

"What? How dare you doubt our Ross army?" Goldlund looked contemptuously at him.

The guide trembled all over and stammered, "Don't dare. I really don't dare."

"I know your worries, that's why I stand at the head of the team and guide my soldiers. What I want to prevent is that someone will continue to direct and attack your people. Forget it." Godlund paused: "You point out a soldier to our army. A flat landing site, as long as we set up camp, there will be no trouble."

The three guides breathed a sigh of relief, they met each other's eyes, and then pointed to a piece of wild grass in the southeast of the fleet.

"Where?" Goldlund supported Drike on the bow and squinted, and indeed saw a meadow under the sun. "It's fine as a landing point, but there are more reeds. Well, that's where it is."

Some personnel were guarding the anchored ship, and the Ross Navy set up tents to build temporary outposts on the long and narrow sandbar between the sea and the lake. The sail destroyers and armed cargo ships, after some adjustments, each ship threw the prepared nets into the sea, and then lined up to start the tried-and-tested trawling to focus on sweeping the herring in this sea area.

The well-trained Ross Navy began to operate according to the plan arranged by Rurik, searching for the small boats crossing the peninsula and protruding from the forest, and began to deploy the marine cordon on the first day of arriving in Cherbourg.

On the other hand, the four army flag teams that landed on the same day landed on the land confirmed by Godlund.

Points to build sprawling tented camps.

It was also on the same day that the residents of Cherbourg, who were frightened, ignored their boats, dragged their families and took their belongings into the forest area in the east to avoid disaster, leaving a large empty village and throwing it to the "pirates" them.

This made the three guides who were sent to inform the people that everything was safe were in vain.

On the first day of landing in Cherbourg, the campfires at the Ross Barracks were connected to each other, and the fishing fires were lit in the offshore. The amount of herring caught by trawling nets during the day was not much. In the era without sonar, fishermen could only rely on luck to keep scraping their fishing nets in the sea , but using the phototaxis of fish at night and laying a large net can make great profits.

The Russians who had worked all night, in the early morning of the next day, as a large number of fish transport boats entered the lagoon, the camp of the Ross army was suddenly covered by an indescribable fishy smell.

Cooking the wheat on the spot, the soldiers are choosing their favorite fish, pinching the fish head and throwing away the internal organs, washing it in the lagoon, putting it on a pine branch and putting it on the bonfire to smoke it. Waiting for the meeting of the King's Army according to the plan.

The faint scent of delicious food wafted through the forest, and the people who escaped into the forest noticed that their villages had not been attacked by pirates no matter what.

These outsiders are extremely weird. They actually lit endless bonfires in the wasteland, and their ships floated on the sea, but they just let go of the small port of Cherbourg and all the residential buildings. Obviously, there are still a lot of valuables that are too late to take away. object.

But the three guides, they suddenly found that the whole village became empty, but they all went back to their homes to have a look, and were unlucky to see that the old man at home had disappeared, so they ransacked the box again

, I found that the most valuable property has also disappeared. No! It was the left-behind family members who took their belongings and took refuge in the forest.

In the end, on the second day, hiding in the forest was not a problem at all. Some bold people went back to the village tentatively, and saw the three fellow villagers who had been waiting for a long time.

After hearing the news, it is known who the "pirate" who blocked Cherbourg was.

They are actually Ross people!

The prestige of the Ross people has been resounding in this sea area. In the past few years, the Gotland pirates and Bornholm pirates have disappeared without a trace. There are rumors that their lair was destroyed by the Ross people, and all kinds of people were killed. clean.

The latter rumors are too terrifying, but for these amber merchants who have been harassed by pirates, they appreciate these rhetoric.

But then again, since the Ross people are so savage, wouldn't they lay hands on Cherbourg?

Now the most worrying thing has happened, the Ross people have surrounded Cherbourg.

"Brother, those Ross people must have killed us all!"

"Absolutely impossible. The leader of the Ross people said that all of us in Cherbourg have surrendered to Ross, and we will also be Ross people in the future. Anyone who dares to attack us is an enemy of Ross. Their leader will use the army to help us relieve our hatred. "

How can the residents of Cherbourg believe the unbelievable words that the guide returning home told his fellow countrymen? What did the brothers do, how can He De deserve the high praise of the ruler of Ross? The only thing the brothers deserve credit for is digging rocks on coastal sandbars.

"Why? Don't they lay hands on us? Are they good people? Or... it's all

Is it a conspiracy, as long as we all leave the forest, they will kill people? "

"It's impossible. It's all because of our brother Olstein." The guides said his name earnestly.

"he"

Ostein, who took a group of relatives and friends to sell stones on the inland route to Riga, suddenly became the "war chief" conferred by King Ross, and is now Cherbourg's top talker. Although there is no real chief in the settlement of Cherbourg, the people follow the traditional Nordic principle in the north, and when they encounter major events, they choose the speakers in the council in the big village. If the old guy Olstein can settle things for everyone, there is nothing wrong with choosing him as the talker.

The people who came back first learned that the first reason why Ostan was reused by the King of Ross was because this guy helped Ross completely defeat the Semigallians. Because of the great credit for leading the way, the entire settlement of Cherbourg, whether Danish immigrants or Chur The Lan natives won security protection.

It is unbelievable that happiness came so quickly. You must know that as long as the influence of the leader of the Semigallian people who blocked the way to collect tribute is eliminated, the merchants of Cherbourg will not have to worry too much about sailing inland when they go inland.

The people hiding in the forest were skeptical until they couldn't get the key supplies in the forest, and a small-scale rainfall made them feel uncomfortable again. Under the pressure of survival, they had to return to Qiu Wugui's home.

At this moment, the Ross Army under Goethelund's rule maintained a strong concentration. Their troop size was almost equal to the total population of Cherbourg. However, they maintained great restraint and no Ross invaded their villages.

Because the Ross army brought a lot of supplies,

The military rations prepared for this expedition can be used by the whole army for at most half a year. If supplies are made halfway, it may take until next spring to run out of food.

The loss of supplies by sea is not only traces, the ocean itself is Ross's granary, the Ross Navy did not launch fishing operations on the day it rained, and a large number of catches were sent to the barracks on other days, and there was even a lot of wealth in the catches.

The fishing capabilities of the Ross Navy have greatly overflowed. Fishing fires buried nets and line trawls are high-tech techniques that local fishermen have never heard of. Herring, cod, smelt, and flounder, the four most common catches were transported to the camp in large quantities. Now it is really midsummer, and the roe of larger fish is fat, so Godlund deliberately reduced the grain supply of the grain ships anchored in the sea, The soldiers in the camp had no choice but to eat a lot of fish. Fortunately, fish meat and fish oil were plentiful.

The fish that can't be eaten can only be cut and made into fish boards, and then smoked into salt-free dried fish by the campfire. Boring soldiers mostly do this, and everything is for the future.

Because every soldier in each banner team has received cultural education, the basic theory of military logistics was accurately instilled in everyone by Rurik. From the small soldiers to the officers, they all take it for granted that the army should prepare a large amount of food and grass. This is like doing a large-scale sacrificial activity to pray for the blessings of the gods before going out. It is a necessary homework.

No, a small altar was quickly set up in the Rose camp, and Verika, her good sister Blackbird, and the second daughter took all the accompanying priests and started the thank-you ceremony at the temporary altar.

They burn fresh fish to thank the gods and pray for smooth sailings ahead.

anyway

There was nothing to do all day long in the camp, and the first priority for everyone was to wait before the arrival of the king's army. The priests had to burn some fresh fish to ashes every day. In name, this was paying tribute to the gods, but in fact It is also to kill boredom - simply playing with fire can arouse excitement from the depths of the soul.

The guides were released for many days in a row, and Godelund, who was staying in the camp, had no time to take care of that.

Whether the residents of Cherbourg surrender immediately or stay at home and stick to it, what does it matter to Rose?

Goldlund essentially disdains to talk to those poor people, just look at the thick haystacks of their longhouses, which reminded him of Ross more than 20 years ago, and now this kind of inferior buildings have been eliminated in sevens and eighties .

Little did they know that the Ross Navy's act of blocking the entrance and exit of the lagoon directly cut off the "food road" of the residents of Cherbourg.

The people of Cherbourg had to row boats to go fishing in the offshore to maintain their livelihood. Although people came back one after another, more and more people began to believe the words of the three guides, but Austen and others had not returned yet, and a large number of residents still chose wait and see. It all ends when food tends to run out.

They were forced to hold a meeting in the council hall of the village. The Danes and Kurlanders, as a community of interests, had no choice but to recommend some speakers to pay homage to the Ross military camp.

So five days after the Ross Navy arrived, a team brought some poultry and rabbits as tributes, and cautiously followed the first three guides to the Ross camp.

A pair of sharp eyes stared at these locals, because it was noon, and the Ross warriors were busy cooking wheat and grilling fish on the spot.

It has a mouth-watering aroma.

All the visitors to Cherbourg felt a growling in their stomachs, and they couldn't help swallowing their saliva.

They were eager to find the commander of the army, and soon a middle-aged man wearing a huge felt hat stood up.

Goldlund skillfully folded the felt hat into a three-cornered hat. He was wearing a standard rosbu robe with a tight belt that looked very slim. He had a steel sword at his waist, and the silver-plated scabbard was inlaid with precious stones ( It's actually stained glass) seems expensive.

"You...are King Ross?!" A visitor exclaimed subconsciously.

"Bah! People of Cherbourg, admirals under the command of my grandma King Ross, you poor fellows, don't talk nonsense." Goldlund hastily corrected him.

"My lord, we are back." A guide respectfully.

"Are they your fellow countrymen?"

"Yes, they are our people. They are very afraid that the Ross army will destroy Cherbourg, so they didn't come to see them until now. I hope your lord can..."

"There's no need to say more." Goldlund waved his hand, and he ordered all his entourage to retreat, took off their hats to reveal their graying hair, and appeared as an old man, which was not hostile in any way. "People of Cherbourg! The people I sent must have told you the truth. In fact, you are already part of our Rose, and we are actually a family. Why should I do anything to my family?!"

Goldlund deliberately concealed, he opened his arms as a welcome, and the smile on his old face was reassuring.

Although it's unbelievable, the Ross army's markings ignored everyone, and the commander of the Ross army didn't feel any malice.

"My lord..." a

The person who recommended it boldly said: "Please also open the exit of the lagoon, we are almost out of food, if this continues, everyone will starve to death. Since you are very kind to us, please..."

"Is there such a thing?!" Goldlund thought for a while, "Actually, your fishing boats left the lagoon and entered the ocean, and my people have no intention of attacking you. The great King Ross has already said that if you dare to attack you, you will be punished. I dare not disobey the king's order."

"But... we dare not."

"Now you can do this. What is that?" Goldlund glanced at the wooden cage they brought: "Chicken? Rabbit? A tribute to us?"

"Yes."

"Alright, I'll take it. In exchange!" Goldlund casually pointed at a grassy field of fishy fish, "I just caught them today. We can't finish them and want to use them as dried fish. How about you all?" Take it away."

They were very depressed at first, and only dared to take the fish after repeated confirmation.

Therefore, because of this fish, the misunderstanding between the Ross army and the residents of Cherbourg came to an abrupt end due to poor communication.

The two sides quietly shared this lagoon, UU Reading www.uukanshu.comThe people of Cherbourg resumed their daily life, and the Russian army always obeyed Rurik's order and did not commit any crime against Cherbourg.

Soon, the trade between the two parties also started because of each other's needs.

One side has ready-made amber eager to sell in exchange for grain, while the other side has a lot of grain. But Goethelund does not have the right to sell military rations, but he has the right to order his subordinates to catch more fish, and sell the big smelt, flatfish, and even the particularly big pike that they accidentally caught to the people of Cherbourg, so as to exchange To unprocessed amber, beeswax rough stone.

This is true

Now it's a win-win deal.

So before Rurik arrived at Cherbourg, the whole settlement had happily flown the Ross banner.

Now, Rurik has arrived in his loyal Cherbourg, which also means that one of the important starting points of the Amber Road has been controlled by the Kingdom of Ross. In the future, the residents of Cherbourg will no longer think about it, and will directly transport the amber to Ross. And immediately replace them with key production and living materials such as grain, cloth, and ironware.

The life-risking business practices of the Cherbourg people are history...

And Rurik already planned to take advantage of this expedition to completely monopolize the mining rights of Baltic amber.