Chapter 124： General Arik prepares for action

On the night of April 20th in the Julian calendar, on a clear night, the Rus tribe was surging.

More than fifty of the most elite fighters of the tribe gathered in the simple shed called the chairperson's room to discuss the next major event.

At this moment, Otto looked solemn. He looked at the brothers he had gathered and said calmly: "Now the problem is very clear. Some people are going to Novgorod, and some are planning to attack Gotland. People. I have no objection to your decision. Now, we need to discuss specific matters. Things can't be messed up."

As he said, Otto, who was sitting on the floor, widened his eyes, then took a closer look at his own person, and continued: "You are all the best, who is going to the South."

They have been discussing many things for at least a month, and today's recollection is just to determine the specific arrangements for action.

At this time, Harozuosen volunteered to raise his head: "I'm going to the south!"

"You? I thought you were going to follow me to Novgorod again."

Arik suddenly vulgarly snatched words: "Boss, I will also go to the south, I want to avenge my father! I want to kill those Gotland people without leaving a piece of armour."

"You keep quiet." Otto scolded, and he looked at other people again, "Anything else? Those who intend to go south for revenge, raise your hand."

For a time, at least thirty people raised their hands.

Otto sighed. The facts were very clear. They were more willing to attack the Gotlanders than to go to Novgorod to collect taxes.

Young people are mostly eager to make contributions at a young age and get a large amount of gold and silver.

Young people are also the most capable of fighting. They have no family members of their own, and they have no scruples in the battle. They urgently need to prove their bravery on the battlefield in order to gain the recognition and respect of the people.

Half of the fifty people sitting here are less than thirty years old.

However, it has been a long time since the Ross people took the initiative to attack on a large scale.

Otto consciously must explain his worries: "Brothers, we must take revenge. Young people are also willing to prove themselves on the battlefield. I heard that many people are rushing to the legendary Golden Mountain. Please give up this absurd idea. Think. The Gotland people are indeed rich, but they are also very powerful."

"Is it because they are strong, we won't attack?" The young Arik was not afraid of tigers. He relied on his identity as the leader's nephew, and his words were the most radical.

"You are brave, Arik." Otto slowly said, "I hope you will always maintain this bravery on the battlefield. However, bravery is one of the elements of victory. If you young people who desire wealth and glory, so Attacking with a messy posture will definitely suffer."

"Uncle, do you mean that the Gotland people are very strong?" Arik asked.

"Otherwise? Do you think they are stupid?"

"Aren't they stupid? My father was killed by their despicable sneak attack, but that time, you took your brothers and hacked them to death two hundred people. Although we lost some people, two of them died. Hundreds of people! Could this not prove their stupidity."

Arik's words caused Otto's painful memories, even if eight years have passed, the pain is still uncomfortable in retrospect.

Regarding feelings, Otto felt that there must be greater revenge to remove his hatred.

In terms of rationality, revenge is not as simple as holding an axe and driving a long ship aggressively and slashing overdue.

"Arik, you are too young. You and other young people, never think of your enemies stupidly! You will suffer a lot from your arrogance. Okay! I will tell you the details of that battle. We Russ are simply Instead of fighting those people upright, we suddenly attacked while they were pushing the boat. Besides, we were also seven hundred against them two hundred. How can there be invincible truth in this?"

"This..." Arik hadn't really thought about it that way, but after a second thought, an average of seven people suddenly attacked two people, and victory is not difficult.

Otto continued: "This time it’s not trivial! As the leader, I know that our entire tribe has at most 2,000 warriors. It is not a crisis and it is impossible to dispatch all of them. Some people want to follow me to Novgorod in order to build. A new stronghold. Some people are doing daily fishing and doing business with southerners. The rest are those of you who are eager for revenge. Arik, you are very prestigious among young people, you think you can gather How many people attacked?"

"About four hundred people, uncle. Actually, we've already discussed it. The reason is that four hundred people went south to fight."

"Is this true?" Otto was busy preparing for the trip to Novgorod these days, and didn't have the time to pay attention to the connection of young people.

He looked at everyone's eyes, and many people gave affirmative answers.

"There are only four hundred people. You dare to attack the island of 20,000 people. You are really brave."

Otto’s words clearly revealed a negative view of this action. After all, he is in his fifties. At this age, he is somewhat lacking enterprising. He intends to develop steadily, not to block fate by the young man’s life.

Arik didn't feel his uncle's negativity at all. He argued with reason: "We can move quietly. We already know that we should attack from the south of the island."

"That Gould taught you?" Otto asked deliberately.

"Yes, that's him. Gould made it clear that day. We rowed at night and suddenly attacked. We evacuated after grabbing the gold. What do you think."

Otto nodded, "This is indeed the only possibility for your victory. If you move slowly, they will catch up with you, with disastrous consequences."

"Don't worry! Uncle!" Arik beat his chest fiercely with confidence, "They are just a bunch of idiots! We can easily win."

"Stupid!" Otto, who was forced to be quiet, suddenly broke out, "Arik, you big fool! You are too young to think you can be a little leader, as if going to Gotland is a trip?

Do you think they are stupid? But you don't know that their elites are all on the island. The big merchants of the Gotland have their own elite guards, and they need hundreds of people to protect their treasures. Those people are not ordinary fishermen, but warriors in chain mail. To live is to protect the rich man's gold. How do you get gold if you don't hack them to death? "

"This... is this true?" Arik asked cautiously, his eyes also revealing worry.

"Well, it's actually not that I want to scare you. Arik, you remember, those young brothers who told you. You can only get some salted fish if you rob the fishermen. If you want everyone to return with a box of gold, just Those armored warriors must be slashed. Young people don’t understand, but we old guys do. If you go to avenge, you must be led by the old guy and you can’t let you mess around.

Here, Otto criticized the so-called newborn calves that are not afraid of tigers, and his eyes drifted to Harrodsson deliberately.

"Harrodsson, you are also happy to go south. That's great! As the leader of the young people, you will direct them to fight, supervise them to sort out their profits, and order them to complete the plan and then withdraw."

"Okay!" In fact, Harrodsson has always wanted this.

Otto looked at the others again: "Brothers, I arranged for Harrodsson to be the combat leader, do you all support it?"

Everyone looked at each other, silently talked about their routines, and expressed their support.

After all, in the war eight years ago, Harrodsson killed at least ten enemies by himself. When he was young, like Arik now, he was eager to win with a battle axe.

The fact is that when he was young, Haro Zossen was leading people in a boat and robbed several fishing boats in Gotland. With a heroic figure of war and triumph, he was focused on by the young Otto.

Later, in the martial arts competition where the leaders of the tribes competed, Haro Zuosen was a strong contender, but he still lost to Otto.

It is important for a person to know himself. Haro Zuosen has long lost the desire to compete for a position. This time, following the leader, he can easily obtain a lot of wealth. Why should he be competitive anymore?

It is impossible for the leader to lead his men to do everything himself. The forthcoming raid is completely contrary to the arrangement planned by Otto last year, but public opinion cannot be violated.

The concept of "war leader" exists in the Rus tribe. It is not a tribal leader, and its meaning is completely equivalent to a simple military general, an army.

Now, Haro Zossen has justified the status of "General of Gotland".

Since Arik is around twenty years old, young people who are in desperate need of making contributions have a huge reputation here.

Arik also obtained a temporary status of "the leader of the Second War" and was recognized by everyone.

In this way, the commander system is so determined, as for the grassroots...

Grassroots warriors don't need to worry too much, because of wars, everyone knows what to do since they were young.

They naturally understand a lot of tactics, and they will not fight individually on the battlefield. The elderly teach the young people. The battlefield is not a competition. It is necessary to ensure that the local area is more and less.

It is said that his back is protected by his brothers, a shield wall is organized to overthrow the enemy, and a group of people work together to hack and kill.

At this point, Otto felt that his only son, Rurik, was just trying to develop the old tactics of the Ross tribe to the extreme.

It was too extreme. The child threw at the training tribe's children under ten years old, forcing them to walk, block, and push the shield in exactly the same way.

After these children grew up, they all fought with steel swords, fearing that the warriors of the rich Gotland people who made them cautious became fools who could be quickly defeated.

The meeting did not last long, and the meeting also determined two things.

The start of the crusade in the south and tax collection in the east was on the 22nd of April in the Julian calendar, which was the morning after the meeting.

By then, the entire tribe will undergo tremendous changes.

In the morning of that day, the army heading to Novgorod was bound to set sail, and the army that went south to crusade against the Gotland must also act.

Moreover, the new operation is destined to be on a larger scale than in the past, and the most elite forces of the Ross tribe will be dispatched. For this reason, more than a thousand male warriors have left the tribe.

My colleague, a large number of visitors have already begun to trade south, the merchant Gould has the most goods, and he is waiting for the army of the Roths to set sail, and he will follow.

Some families, they are willing to accept the leader's request, that is, with all kinds of soft, dragging the family to the Ladoga Lake, they became the first residents of the new settlement at the mouth of the sea.

To this end, Otto actually has deeper arrangements.

The Ross tribe must have lost more than half of its people. And when the personnel returned, the population of Roseburg was not the size it is now. Because the settlements in Ladoga will inevitably divert a group of people, there will be more people leaving the crowded Roseburg Fjord in the future. In the New World, more and more Novgorod women will have more children. With a larger population, the scale of settlements will also grow larger.

Otto, he doesn't know what economy is. He simply believes that the limitations of the narrow place have restricted the development of the tribe. If you don't want to be sleepy, go out and build Shilla Fort. In the past few years of tax collection in the East, he has been thinking about establishing new settlements and trying to find a reliable location.

To find an area with more waterways and a milder climate, there must be a lot of trees around, and there is the possibility of setting up settlements around Lake Ladoga and even the mouth of the river.

After some consideration, he finalized the location of the entrance to the sea and made full use of the resources of the several islands in the sea entrance. He even noticed a stone island on the periphery of the river's entrance to the sea. It has a tortuous coastline, and its existence also wraps a small sea area at the entrance of the sea into a natural port.

Undoubtedly, Otto’s so-called "stone island" is Kronstadt, and he is aware of its value as a port.

There is only one full day until the day of departure. The good news of the upcoming expedition spread quickly to the entire tribe. All warriors of all ages who are determined to participate will all step up their knives at the last minute and intensify their preparations for dry food and drinking water!

Together with all the hunters who have bows and arrows, they are also sorting out the arrows they have made recently. These people deliberately followed Arik to the south, intending to treat the enemy as a wild deer, and ruthlessly shoot them, thus proving to the rest of the tribe that even though the archers do not participate in close combat, there are still ways to go at least fifty steps apart. Distance, easily kills the enemy, this is another kind of bravery, not a so-called coward!

Everyone is not in a hurry. The army of crusades going south has spontaneously connected in series. The meeting has decided to crusade the generals. As long as they bring food and water, they can theoretically set off immediately.

The trip to Novgorod and the establishment of new settlements have already been prepared, a large number of construction tools, and more than one hundred immigrants have already been prepared.

All everyone has to do is to say goodbye to the people who stay behind tomorrow, have a big meal together, and then rush to their unknown "travel."

They have already begun to say goodbye!

If nothing else happened on April 21, it would be an ordinary day. For many Ross people, tomorrow they will have a fresh start.

The nephew of Arikgui as the leader made the steel sword order he gave to the blacksmith the first to complete, even if he still had part of the money on credit.

Early in the morning, he wiped his shiny steel sword with a linen cloth, and even tried to touch its sharp blade with his fingers, his face looked like he couldn't put it down.

His wife, Peravina, is now stubbornly tidying up the luggage of the two "traveling".

From the corner of the woman's eyes, she glanced at her husband's act of playing with a sharp sword, and the words in her heart could no longer be suppressed.

"Aric, you promised to accompany me back, but I was the only one to go back alone to visit relatives..."

Arik was still playing with his steel sword, unconsciously waving it in the air, as if hacking a transparent enemy. "What do you know? I must avenge my father."

"Oh...you promised me." Pausing her work, Peravina leaned on her waist and stood up straight, looking at her husband with regret.

Arik did not appreciate at all, still playing with his flexible and beautiful steel sword, and could not notice his wife's melancholy at all.

"Aric, you...you go get revenge. I will follow your leader back, and I will tell my parents that I'm doing well with you Ross people. That's what I hope. After a while, I will take my children. Give birth to health. You...you want to..." Peravina didn't say any more.

At this moment, Arik, who seemed to have never heard her, suddenly stopped the sword in his hand and quickly returned the sword to the wooden scabbard.

Arik looked back at his wife: "Are you worried about me? Afraid of me?"

"I…"

Unlucky things, how can Peravina say it? To be honest, she likes her current destiny, and she knows that the current good life is based entirely on her husband's health. If possible, she just hopes that her husband will not attack those enemies, but this is impossible.

"You still worry about my accident. It's really stupid!" Arik strode closer to his wife, his face full of confidence, and a trace of relief in his heart. Seeing his wife's stomach slightly hooked, he felt even more compassionate.

Arik stroked his wife’s blonde hair and leaned close to her ear: "Do you want gold jewelry? My brother actually made a set of silver jewelry for his servant. I am destined not to be a big leader like him. Now I Become a war leader, and bring my brothers to fight those sinners. I will get some gold for this. I will make you a gold necklace and put a gold pendant on your ears. I will also pay for it. You make a furry coat made of ferret fur. Do you want to get it? Then support me."

It is impossible to say that Peravina is not material, and she was moved by her husband's promise.

But reason quickly took over again. She suddenly grabbed her husband's sturdy arm and looked up imploringly: "Promise me, don't get into trouble!"

"Something happened? What's the matter? You are really a woman, shut up!" Arik knew that his wife was worried about his safety, but this worry was too unlucky. He continued with a harsh tone: "You continue to do things, prepare the bacon that I need, and those you need. You will listen to the leader in the future, don't trouble the leader, and do your own part. Thing."

As he said, Arik paused again: "Listen, don't worry about me. When you come back from Novgorod, I have already gone home, and you will see a lot of gold."

"you promise?!"

"I promise! I will do something for this. You continue to do things, and in the evening, I will take you to my father's grave to have a look. Understand?"

Peravina nodded, everything was clear.

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