Chapter 36： Potential undercurrent

For his son, Otto thought of a lot of things.

It is Niya's special support for her son's actions. Every mother wants her beloved son to be an excellent person in all aspects. This is the mother's instinct.

It was a cold and usual winter morning. Starting today, Lurik had to suspend training on the hillside due to a new round of snowfall.

The suspension is suspended, and it will continue after spring. Many children, like Kanuf, are not idle.

Lurik already knew that Kanuf would follow his father, step on the snowboard and pull the sled to the farther north to hunt. There is no need to worry that the hunted beasts will rot, and the reindeer that are hunted will be pulled back to the tribe in a posture of being frozen like a stone. Moreover, such prey is purely occupied by hunters, and it will not participate in the distribution of wealth within the tribe.

Times have changed. Long ago, many of the wealth of the tribes would still be reasonably distributed. For example, fifty years ago, when the priest Veria was still young, there were only more than two thousand residents of Fort Rose. It took more than half a century for the population to multiply and a large number of small families from southern allies moved in, and the population became the current number.

Those who move in are not very reliable. If there is a major change in the Ross tribe, they will return to the south.

Once the residents were very close by blood, and they were very happy to help each other.

But the majority of the tribes have very little understanding of their own history, and they do not have a clear surname. The residents generally marry early, and it is more difficult for the population to reach 50 years of life.

These factors add up, making Roseburg's fifth generation from its establishment to the present in fifty years!

Many residents are very aware that they and their friends share a common ancestor, and they are not clear when they ask for clear information. The era of uniting the entire tribe with family blood as the bond is gradually passing. Nowadays, the tribe needs a powerful and prestigious person to be the leader. At the same time, the self-awareness of each family is becoming stronger.

In recent years, the principle of the distribution of trophies on the Sogong route has also changed drastically!

Once upon a time, the leader led people to take the tribute from the servants of Novgorod, and brought it back to Roseburg to distribute evenly among all the families.

Nowadays, only the families that sent people to participate can get most of the tribute, and those who don’t participate can only get a small amount of treasures, which gradually become insignificant benefits. Everyone knows that if this continues to develop, the Sogong route will no longer be a "public activity" that benefits the entire tribe.

Times are constantly changing, and they do not complain too much about it.

The winter land hunting operation will begin, and Kanuf and his father will join the army of long-distance hunting. They often walk in groups, and when they encounter a herd of deer, they will encircle and annihilate them.

Their hunting is like fighting. Any wild animal will be hunted by every means.

If you can hunt ferrets, you can make a lot of money by bringing a piece of fur to the market of the Southern Allies!

However, the men's hunting in groups that take care of each other is still to get more meat. After all, they have a soft spot for venison compared to fish that smells like fish.

Otto is the same, he will also be involved as a leader.

According to tradition, he can take his son Rurik to go, and now his son intends to go to Veria to study, he had to give up his own wishes.

On this day, Otto is preparing the food he needs for hunting at his home, so don’t worry too much about this.

Because of the voyage of Sorgong, the leader made great achievements, and the leader's family got the most wealth.

Otto prepares himself some completely dried rye bread, some pickled venison and salted fish, and even a small pot of honey.

Dry food can be prepared by his wife. No, Niya is already using an iron knife to cut the hard jerky into small pieces that are easy to chew.

Otto has more important things. There is a saying that you need to be hard to hit iron. A good hunter must have a powerful enough weapon!

The hilly mountains west of Fort Ross, where there are a lot of red rocks. The blacksmiths of the tribe knew that it was hematite, and after a complicated smelting process, ironware could be made.

Due to the poor iron smelting technology of the Ross tribe in this era, based on experience, they had to burn the pig iron for a longer period of time before forging. The blacksmiths did not have higher craftsmanship to raise the furnace temperature, and all the ironware they made was brittle and soft.

They have no concept of the scientific principles, only the experience left over from their ancestors.

The warriors of the 　　 tribe therefore used single-edged axes on a large scale. Of course, they also used double-edged swords, which were a wide-bladed iron sword with a shorter length.

Due to the current forging process, and even the Danish forging process, they can only produce such weapons, which is actually sufficient in this era.

After all, Europe at this time is a bad era. The Vikings did not realize that their weapons were too backward. They were amazed that the small amount of swords bought from far away in Rome cut iron like mud, and the Rus tribe also sighed Novgo. The Rhodes once dared to use only a pile of wooden sticks and stone spears as weapons to challenge the Ross warrior wearing chain mail and holding a battle axe.

Otto’s sword "Destroyer" is cutting iron like mud. He still doesn’t know that the sword that this ancestor bought from the hands of Roman merchants who stayed in Novgorod with huge sums of money actually came from Farther east. "Destroyer" is a patterned steel sword, it is like cutting iron like mud!

Only in battles with the enemy, Otto would use his sword, for activities like hunting, and have more opportunities to use short spears.

He is making some throwing spears, and the most important thing is to sharpen the sharp edges of the spearheads. Because of the backward technology, there is no grinder here, and Otto has to use the mining whetstone for a long time to keep grinding.

His wife Niya may be tired of polishing her voice, and suddenly mumbled: "You really shouldn't take Rurik, he is too young. Your decision is very smart."

"Why are you talking about this? Rurik doesn't participate in hunting. He went to Veria to study for the first time today. This is what you hoped." Otto murmured, with no whetstone in his hand. stop.

"Actually...actually I..." Niya thought of a lot of things, and the iron knife in her hand for cutting bacon also stopped.

Niya raised her wrinkled forehead because of her hard work and looked at her husband: "Otto, in fact, for my son, I don't want him to be so keen on fighting."

"He has no choice. He is a boy and will be a man from now on. He has to fight."

"But..."

"I know what you are thinking!" Otto calmed down, he also thought of many sad past events. "Neus, and Togra, their death was an accident. Both you and I are very sorry."

The husband and wife mentioned the two elder brothers who died in Rurik. It was a great misfortune to lose their children until Niya succeeded in giving birth to a healthy child at a very high age.

In fact, the fact that Niya had successfully given birth only from the age of forty was a real miracle.

gave birth to Rurik, his lack of crying or making trouble at the beginning of his birth fully reflects his strong and fortitude character.

At least that's what the priest Veria explained. The most prestigious priest has never encountered such a thing in his seventy years, so naturally he had to give some supernatural explanations.

Niya can't manage that much, regardless of whether Rurik is "Odin's blessing", first of all, he is his only biological flesh and blood. Niya, who died of two consecutive sons, was almost fifty years old, and she couldn't stand the new blow.

She hopes that her son will not come into contact with anything dangerous. Although she knows how selfish her thoughts are, she is also fighting against the values ​​of warriors and disgusting her husband.

She explained her thoughts to her husband, but Otto's objection was naturally obtained.

"You don't have to worry about anything. Let Rurik stay at home with peace of mind, or stay in the priest's long house forever? It seems that he is safe, but what is the difference between that and a coward. Niya! You have to understand! When our son could speak, he personally told us that he was the man who wanted to become the leader. Everything is his destiny! If we dare to stop, we will be immediately sick and die."

Otto’s words were threatening, and Niya suddenly asked, "But you still allow him to go to Vilia. Why? Why do you support this?"

"Oh! That is his own choice, we can't interfere with him too much. My attitude will never change. I don't want Ruriek to get too close to the priests."

"Are you afraid of being infected by them and forgetting to fight?" Niya asked.

"I did think about it this way, and there are other factors." Otto calmed down and looked at his wife, "No one knows Vilia better than me. She is not an ordinary woman! Now I am really lucky, Vili Ya has great prestige among the tribe. Everyone trusts everything she said at the altar, and she still supports me as always. But Velia is too old! Her life will end soon, she is after all A person."

Niya could hear her husband’s words have a deep meaning, but she really didn’t understand.

"what does it mean?"

"I'm a little worried about Bona." Otto said solemnly: "A good leader cannot be controlled by those priests. I heard about the Franks, their priests are more powerful than the leaders! Who is the leader? What? Maybe the priest is!"

Of course Otto is not talking about the truth here. It is actually the Frankish monarchs and nobles who have extremely high respect for the Holy See, and the power of the Pope is indeed increasing. When the news spread to Northern Europe, it became Otto's rhetoric when it was replaced by what the Vikings could generally understand.

"That Bona is not an ambitious person." Niya retorted.

"I hope so. When Veria dies, Bona will succeed. At that time, will she have ambitions? Niya, you and I are old, maybe we can't see our Rurik On the day of marriage. We can’t fully believe what Vilia said. I even think that Vilia deliberately said that Rurik was blessed by Odin. Does Odin really bless, and how do mortals know?”

"No! He is blessed." Niya firmly said.

"Okay, I hope so." Otto continued to pick up the whetstone. "I still don't want Rurik to get too close to the priests. If Rurik is infected by their words, will he take his time? He became only obedient to the opinions of the priests. In this way, even if Rurik became the new leader, could his ambition be realized? Because in that case, he would have to listen to the priests."

Niya heard the conclusion of the problem, and her heart couldn't help but tensed: "If this is the case, we might indeed call him back."

"No need." Otto shook his head: "In the past few years, UU has only read for a few years. After this period of time, he can no longer go to Veria to study."

"So you only let him study for a few years, such as twelve years old?!"

At the age of twelve, according to the traditional concept of the Ross tribe and even the Southern Mind ally, when a boy reaches the age of twelve, he should fulfill the obligations that many men should have. In a sense, it can be assumed that the boy has grown up. Of course, this is not the case. .

Otto explained: "Everything depends on Veria's lifespan. At the wedding ceremony a few days ago, I saw that she was too old, and in one or two years, she may no longer be able to wear a antler helmet. Perhaps, before Rurik was twelve years old, Villa had already died. By that time, I didn’t think Rurik could learn anything from Bona’s."

Speaking of this, Otto sighed again: "I tell you, my dear Niya. Veria is great, I can prove it, I have learned some knowledge from her, so I know how to be very Govern our tribe well. I have always believed that if Veria is a man, she will be a leader for a long time. There is no need to mourn for her identity, she is our wise man and is respected by everyone.

But that Bona! She is not a wise man, and she knows nothing except for the festival priests to recite some spells. "

Niya nodded: "I basically understand. You hope that Riccardo will learn some knowledge from Vilia, and you also hope that Vilia will not live too long."

"Yes. Rurik must be trained to be a brave man who is good at fighting, he must become strong, he must have the ability to defeat many people, he has shown this talent and must be further strengthened. When he grows up, I am a little bit older. I will choose a warrior I can trust to train him. I love him, and I must use this method to push him to the position of leader."