Chapter 53： Hunter on the snowy field

Pure Nordic snow, the world becomes off-white.

A large amount of black woods are covered with snow. Just in the gaps in the woods, a team dragging the sled is marching forward.

Snowboards help Otto and his party have a very fast speed, even if they enter the so-called unknown territory, they are still pursuing as fast as possible.

The team is advancing, and the members are also watching the changes in the surrounding scenery with their eyes wide open, doing their best to find special reference points along the way, so as to avoid possible getting lost when returning.

They accelerated their march during the short day, and they continued to move even at night.

Everyone dragged a number of sleds, one for the luggage and the other was the so-called carrying prey. The long paddling life in the warm period has allowed these strong men to develop stronger strength, and they also have enough dry food, and they have strong endurance to move forward in the snow.

Those reindeer are the elves of the snowfield. They are the most endurance animals, but they are not human opponents.

Every time the team moves forward for a period of time, some people start to build snow blocks in the snowfield, so there are snow towers one after another.

After all, there are too few unique things in this area. Use snow to build some markers, and then stand up some wooden poles with linen cloth as guides.

For two full days, they have actually traveled a very long distance on the snowy field.

In the ninth century AD, the whole of Europe was extremely lack of roads.

In addition, the farming level of Western European farmers is really bad, and long-distance travel will inevitably consume precious food. The farmers are not willing to go too far. Even if they have to travel far, they face the weedy wilderness with a limited amount of dry food, and they must carry a club to drive away wild beasts in their hands.

They can walk ten miles in the wilderness at most a day. Basically this is the limit, otherwise they will die of exhaustion.

Even the infantry of the Frankish Kingdom army usually marches this distance every day. Moreover, after marching and then fighting, it often takes a day's rest in the middle.

began to frequently harass the Vikings of the Frankish Kingdom, and they were indeed strong only in their ability to move.

Not only are they good at rowing, the Viking tribes also have outstanding walking ability.

When snow covered the earth, skiing was invented and the Vikings advanced, but they had a better speed on the snow.

Otto didn't know how far he could go in a day, so he ordered the camp to rest when the people in the team were crying tired.

Ross are also professional hunters. They have very good physical fitness and carry enough dry food. The assistance of skis makes them faster than pure dry roads.

They are actually moving forward at a speed of 30 kilometers a day, so Otto and his party walked northeast for two days and actually moved for 60 kilometers.

When night falls again, Aurora shines in the sky.

The team walked some distance and settled down in a small forest.

Some pine trees were felled and then smashed into small pieces. These wet wood can't live immediately.

Fortunately, the Ross people have their own set of methods. They bring their own special combustible dry wood, and then use a bow to make the fire. As long as one person’s bonfire is lit, the campsite will soon be lit up.

I saw that everyone had basically set up a tent, and began to eat dry food around the campfire.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, Otto gave instructions: "Let’s come here. We will camp here, and this will be the camp for some time in the future. We will take this place as the center, brothers, we are free to explore. Ten days later, no matter what How much gain we left together."

Everyone agrees with the leader's orders, and now there is only one question that needs to be solved urgently-who will come to visit the house.

Otto clapped his hands again to draw everyone's attention: "We have to select some people to stay behind. According to our tradition, those who stay in the camp will get a little compensation, and everything will be done according to the previous rules. Now, who of you wants to stay? "

Because I am in an unknown realm, now that it has arrived, in-depth exploration is the most correct.

Because it is an unknown territory, the hidden threats are also unpredictable. Hunters can fully protect each other in group action, and they also need a large camp as a backer in the wilderness.

Everyone discussed it, and in the end of the 200-person team, 20 elders were selected to stay behind. There were also nearly twenty children who were also ordered to stay.

Too old or too young, long-term hunting in the wilderness is indeed a huge test for them, especially those children, don't expect them to have a big chance of winning when they encounter white bears or wolves.

Besides, hunting is really a technical job.

Otto gave everyone ten days of hunting time, which included the time to set up traps.

Even catching large reindeer or small ferrets are very vigilant animals. The success rate of direct hunting by throwing spears is not very high. As far as the efficiency is the most efficient, it is the trapping, and the laying of nooses is the most important. practical.

At this point, four days after leaving Roseburg, the hunting operation officially began.

All the hunters dispersed in an instant. They stepped into the snowfields and forests with their indispensable supplies. They began to arrange traps, and some people simply attacked directly.

The Ross tribe has only 20 single bows, all of which are imported from allies in the south. After all, the Ross tribe does not have any bow-making experience at this stage.

However, the bows owned by the tribe are all thrown into hunting. They follow their own masters and become the power to kill small animals.

Single bow to shoot the reindeer in the distance?

Still don't expect too much to be okay. Because they are all oak bows that are not high in pounds, the bowstrings are also twisted out of hemp rope, and the shafts of the arrows used are barely straight.

Even if the bow is of poor quality, they can still be a weapon in the hands of good hunters.

So on the first day of the hunt, someone had shot the ferret, and they peeled off the fur directly in the wilderness, and the meat of the mink was not thrown away. In the extreme cold, the ferret meat immediately turned into ice lumps. It seemed that the only way to deal with it was barbecue.

Ferret is the most precious fur in the Arctic. Its pure white and extremely soft and silky down is a natural luxury. Especially the wealthy East Roman nobles, what they desire most is to wear oriental silks and satin in summer and pure white mink coats in winter.

One ferret skin is equal to three adult reindeer buck skins.

Otto and his 20 cronies simply formed a small hunting group. They are actually childhood playmates, the friendship behind them that they cultivated in the daily wrestling. And this kind of friendship makes them naturally have a strong sense of teamwork.

Together, they are a powerful hunter group. On the battlefield, they naturally have a large number of armed farmers temporarily recruited by the Franks, and they have stronger organizational discipline.

Among them, Otto is older than all of them He was the king of children when he was a child, and now he is the respected leader.

Putting aside these statuses, Otto himself is also an excellent hunter.

After two consecutive days of hunting, only three ferrets were caught by twenty people, and an Arctic fox cave was found, and the big beasts and small beasts inside were swept away.

Although they are willing to let go of the small beasts, they are mainly aimed at the large reindeer. For the Arctic fox with pure white fluffy fluff, it is really invaluable. Under the temptation of huge wealth, it is naturally found that it will be wiped out.

Harmony symbiosis closely with the natural world? None of the Viking tribes thought about it. They must first make their lives better. They don't have the concept of protecting the environment. Even the people of Roseburg have swept away the large beasts with a radius of 50 kilometers.

The large hunting beasts have become scarce. The solution is to stand by the deer waiting for the migration of rabbits, or to go to the unknown place in the far northeast like the action of this winter.

Although Otto is expensive as the leader, his subordinates are willing to give part of their prey to him.

It is almost human instinct to devote diligence to important tasks so as to benefit oneself or family members in the future.

Otto shook his head and refused. He did not come up with any "great" reason to prove his selflessness. His explanation was really full of mystery.

"Still stay and give to those who are left behind. I have a huge hunch that we don't care about other people for the time being, as long as 20 of us continue to move northeast, we will meet those people."

The so-called "those people" are undoubtedly the Sami people who raise deer.

Otto always had a feeling, since I don’t know how far to the northeast, encountering those people is almost dictated by fate.