The world in Otto's mind is not big, or the concept of distant places is very vague. The gods created a fascinating human world, and there is also an illusory Asgard in the sky. It is a pity that he is old and has lost the capital to continue exploring.

Rurik began to mention that there were other people around Shilla Fort, even if they didn't even see the shadows.

Otto had to be vigilant.

Who are those people?

Rurik gave an amazing answer.

He first looked at the structure of the house and determined all directions, then raised his little finger to the west: "I can be sure that the people living there are Estonians."

"I already know it. It's weird that you gave them names," Otto said.

Rurik immediately pointed to the south: "There are still people there, Mrs. Psko, and a group of people who speak the same language as the people of Novgorod. Now that we have conquered Novgorod, I will want to do so in the future. Conquer Pskov."

Pskov? This is the first time Otto has heard of this term.

The city of Pskov was not established in 830 AD, but if the village were to be regarded as a city, Pskov would have existed for a long time. Rurik knew very well that the Neva River is not far from Lake Chud and Lake Pskov is not far from the Neva River, and the two places are connected by waterways. As for whether there is a direct waterway from Pskov to Novgorod, this is what Rurik does not know.

Here he particularly emphasized that a certain river on the south bank of the Gulf that enters the sea will surely reach Pskov, another Slav settlement.

Only that Otto and Conusson had been taken aback.

Rurik pointed to the east again: "There is an existence named Perm, and there are some people living there, speaking the same language as the Finns. Jeflo is the Finns, and the Corvins under our command can be the same as the Finns. Talk to the people in the east."

"Perm? Who is it? Boy, are you sure they exist?" Otto asked.

"Dad, you can't question me."

"Oh, that's right." Otto slapped his forehead, thinking of the only son, Extraordinary Man. This ability to insight into the unknown world and correct predictions about the future is a huge advantage that the Ross people have and a real God's blessing.

In fact, there are many ethnic groups in the East, including the English, the Marya, the Malians and the Perm people. They are actually a sparsely populated tribe. As far as the snowy field is concerned, they all belong to the broad Finns. What kind of exchanges can be made with these forest hunters from Siberia? Rurik guesses it is only a very limited leather trade, right? Both parties can do business, and it is not necessary at this stage.

But when it comes to the East, Rurik is inevitably very excited.

He opened his hands and emphasized that due to the limited understanding of his father and brothers, his words were forced to speak simple: "There are many big rivers in our east. They either lead to the frozen sea or the same fiery sea. Continue to To the east, there will be a huge mountain range. If we climb over it, we will enter a vast world that cannot be described in words. There are endless leather, a lot of gold and silver, and many unprecedented existences, such as one and the legend A country as great as Rome. If distant trade routes can be established, we should take the initiative to establish trade with that Eastern power, but we should never think of being able to conquer her."

What exactly is there in the Eastern World? Of course the Ross people wanted to explore and explore, and Cornuson wanted to do it a long time ago, but suffered from his inability to organize an expedition. He also never imagined that it would be possible to measure 30,000 kilometers with his feet when traveling to the east. After all, the Russian explorers who went east in history had established multiple camps in California as far as they were, but they were completely destroyed by the Spanish Empire due to their absolute military disadvantage.

"Ah! The East is indeed full of treasures?!" Conuson was overjoyed.

Rurik also struck the iron while it was hot and deliberately said: "I'm talking about oracles. Listen, the gods bestow us favors, and all they tell me are facts. This implies that we Ruth people need to explore."

Everyone was very pleased with Rurik's explanation. Apart from Rurik's use of these words to induce them to explore desperately, even if they were the king of the rotten land, they had to be the first to plant a flag on the rotten land to establish ownership. Although Rose has no land in it. Redundant.

"What's in the north? I'm worried." Otto said suddenly.

"Yes! North." Rurik settled, "I must focus on this. Conuson, have you explored the Great Lakes in the East on a large scale in the past year?"

"No, we don't. If it's your request, we will do it next year."

"Then be cautious, I'm sure there are other people living near the lake, they are Karelians."

It is a very unfamiliar term again, what kind of people are they? Maybe it's a mob that can be easily defeated.

After all, Rurik asserts that Lake Ladoga is not a lake shared by the Rus and the bears. Humans are the masters of the world. Regardless of the strength of the Karelians, is there any danger in Fort Shilla if they organize an army? Shilla Fort is very close to the Great Lake.

Lurik especially emphasized the need to guard against threats from the north. Through the information obtained from various parties, some tribes have been well confirmed, and the strength level of the Rusians has also been estimated.

Rurik began to enumerate the forces that should exist north of the Neva in this era: Karelians, Tavastias, Finns (Suomi), Corvins, and deer breeders (Samis).

Both the Corvin and the deer breeder have surrendered and boarded the Russian warship. What is the general situation of the Finns? Jeflo has already given a detailed explanation. As for the Tavastias who have never met, they have always been enemies of the Corvins. As for the Corvins on the two sides who often fight with weapons, they were killed by a small group of Ross expeditions. Does this mean that the two sides have been pecking each other for a long time. ? Since the Rus quickly conquered the Corvins, it would not be difficult to conquer the Tavastias in the future. That's how he estimated it.

The Karelians who still remain mysterious are the Karelians. In Rurik's impression, the Karelians have always been extremely weak and have almost zero presence. They are not even as good as the Sami. .

In line with the principle of valuing potential enemies, Rurik thought for a while, and simply overestimated those with vague sense of existence, so that his people would not be too arrogant and treat possible military threats with vigilance and rigor.

Rurik claimed that the Karelians are quite strong, and if they launch an offensive, Fort Shilla must rely on the wall to keep it safe.

So what is the actual situation?

The Tavastians and Karelians are not weak today. In other words, the reason why they are relatively powerful is that their tribes have more than 10,000 people. Even if the tribes live scattered and live by fishing and hunting, they have at least entered the half-iron age, and the proportion of ironware in their weapons and tools has continued to increase. In history, many Kievan Rus nobles were attacked by Tavastians and Karelians when they demanded tribute from the north, causing considerable losses at one time.

But today's Karelians can only maintain a population of up to 20,000. Their production capacity is extremely low and they do not have the resources to feed more people. But the population directly controlled by the Rus is barely 6,000. When he was in an era of absolute disadvantage, Rurik did not want to initiate some wars on his own initiative, unless the war was uninvited.

Now, Rurik has a strong hunch that a big battle will be in the near future.

Otto was excited. At this moment, he felt that his son's sudden visit was an oracle, and the people of Shilla Fort had realized that their lives were never easy and that there were potential enemies in all directions.

Otto squeezed his chin: "Are you Karelians? If we have more fighters here, can we conquer them? Rurik, give me an answer."

"War? If possible, I hope to have peaceful contact with them, unless they are really plundering our interests."

Rurik wanted peace, Ottohaha laughed: "Forget it. If they are really strong, we will do business well. If they are weak...you tell me how many people can conquer them."

"This..." For a while, Rick couldn't make up his mind, and lied: "Maybe a thousand people are needed."

"so much?"

Arik was displeased, he slapped his proud chest: "Forget it. Give me five hundred people, and I will conquer them all. Karelians, in my opinion, are all weak, only worthy of doing Our slaves. Brother, you can't look up to them."

"Good point." Otto nodded in satisfaction, and looked at his son: "You should study your brother well. Listen, when they really surrender, you can be kind to them. Before they kneel down, you They should be defeated."

"Okay." Rurik didn't want to spend any more words, he secretly sighed that some small nations were destined to be conquered by the strong to become vassals. "Now you know, there are people everywhere in Shilla Fort. They are just hiding in the woods. I see that the land here is fertile and suitable. The river guarantees sufficient fresh water. It is adjacent to the sea for boiling salt, and adjacent to the large lake for fish. We asked The north can conquer those people, the south can ask for tribute from the Novgorod people, and the west is a smooth trade road. Shilla Fort is our new beginning, and maybe we should migrate all the people from our hometown."

The son's words hit Otto's heart. Compared to his hometown, Fort Shilla, where the river flows into the sea, is indeed a treasured land of geomantic omen.

"We must move slowly. But I think the hometown is still useful."

"Is it a mine? Maybe in the future, our hometown is responsible for producing ore." Rurik replied very simply. Although he has a nostalgia for the small fjord, the Ross people never love home, and they never settle down. Of the people.

Speaking of Otto's ore, he couldn't think much of it. He went on to mention the original topic: "Rurik, you took the surrendered Corvin people to the north and went to the big mine that we discovered in the winter. The situation is all Are you okay? Those special ores..."

"The situation is very good. In my opinion, that mine is a hundred times better than ours near Roseburg."

The son's high praise for it must be true. Otto recalled what happened more than half a year ago, thinking that the northern woods were also surrounded by mountains and rivers. It was a little bit colder, and it was not difficult to build settlements.

"How are the settlements there? Are the Corvins adapted?" Otto asked.

"Of course. I took a lot of brothers there, and guided some fishermen to explore, and even organized an expedition to go northward against the river. Dad, you know, the Corvin people are used to building a mountain fort, and they don't want to Abandoning the name of the squirrel, I named it Fort Elon Orava, and they are very happy. A brand new mountain fort has been built, it is surrounded by a wall, and it is full of 500 stikas. We and they made it. It is agreed that starting from this year, those scientific and cultural people must pay us a large amount of ironware."

Otto was very happy to hear, and he was a little suspicious: "Ironware? Those guys actually have blacksmiths?"

"They didn't have it, so we trained a batch. Dad, you should have gone back long ago. We should go to the Oulu River and collect tribute from other Kovin people."

"This year's situation is more complicated." Otto sighed, "The sea will freeze in November, I think it doesn't matter. Since we have conquered the ice sea, we can conquer the second and third time, we use reindeer Collecting tributes on a sled is no more difficult than sailing."

"Okay. Ayron Orava Fort is indeed a good place. Soon, in our tribe, ironware will become a cheap product, and we can sell it to make huge profits."

My nephew is loyal to taking the warriors to rob and make a fortune, and his son is loyal to selling high-value-added products to make money. Now Shilla Fort is rapidly evolving into a production base for the main daily necessities, and many foreigners regularly provide tribute. Otto stroked his beard, life is so beautiful.

But wait a minute, just now the son mentioned that he organized an expedition to go crazy north along the river?

"Rurik, you sent the expedition, what's the situation? I see your expression, they must have something."

"I'm about to talk about it." Rurik patted his thigh, his excitement was beyond words.

"Dad, we all know that Roseburg is a dangerous mountain to the west, and there are a large number of Norwegian tribes to the west. There is a group of people unknown to us and the other tribes in the alliance. They came over the mountain and they called themselves Ballmer. Kren, speaking in a language that we can fully understand. In fact, they are not unfamiliar. They are the northern fur traders in the Kewen people's mouth. They are looking for the Kewen people. We are the master of the Kewen people, so..."

"Where are they?!" Otto's body that has been sitting upright has made him sore in his waist and back pain. UU has been desperately refreshing his worldview by reading a series of key information mentioned by his son at www.uukanshu.com.

"There are ten travelers. They are in our Roseburg. They are happy to communicate with us and buy our fur."

"Balmerks? I don't know. Do they have silver coins?"

"A little bit, silver coins are not important. They bring a lot of salt, which is of excellent quality. Cooking salt is very troublesome. In my opinion, if our business is stable, we can buy theirs for a long time. Salt, you don't have to work hard to make it yourself."

"Balmerk Merchant..." Otto clenched his fists, "It seems I should go back soon."

"Dad, when will the fleet leave?"

"Are you urging me? Soon, we will wait two or three days to load the supplies, and then we will return. Haha, this time the brothers in my hometown will praise me for my greatness." When the tribute returns to his hometown, Otto can receive a wave of praise, and he has been improving his reputation for many years.