Chapter 126： From Aland Islands to Courland

There are actually only 70 boats belonging to the Ross tribe, which sounds like a small number, and they are mostly small boats for 30 people to paddle. Taking into account the limitations of this era, the Franks and Britons, and even the Iberians, lack the technology to build such a large ship. Eastern Rome was able to build even larger ships, because they now only had indirect trade with the Rus, and the patronage of the legendary missionaries.

Such a fleet suddenly appeared, the Danes must also be shaken up and burnt.

Behind them is a larger fleet!

That is a pure commercial fleet composed of merchants.

After all, when a person is on the ocean, it is difficult for others to interfere with anything that happens, or even completely unknown.

Up to now, the great merchant Gould can finally take the two maids who served him for a winter and the samurai who defended his safety to go straight to the Anklas tribe where he was. He just wanted to follow Otto's fleet to get shelter.

This year, because he was carrying extremely valuable goods, Gould even hired a warrior from the Roth tribe for this purpose. As an armed escort, he had to pay a larger commission for this.

And other merchants with much smaller strength, they watched the actions of the big merchant Gould and followed his example. Only then can there be a larger commercial fleet with almost no leading warships and mainly flat-top transport ships.

Because of the so-called fishermen, of course, fishermen mainly fish, that is, when they see a boat sailing alone, they will always have evil intentions. As long as the means are clean enough, people die, wealth is taken away, and finally the ship is scuttled, who knows the vast ocean?

Fishermen belonging to the Mellaren tribe once attacked Gould's caravan, which made him very angry, but unfortunately he did not have enough evidence. Although it was a loss, the business with the Melaren people still needs to be done. After all, in the entire tribal alliance, everyone knows that the Melaren people are richer, and all kinds of valuable things in the sea world can be found in Melaren. Appeared at the bazaar.

Gould, who had been eating for a long time and gaining wisdom, postponed the sailing time for some time, in order to follow the action of the leader of the Russ and get a refuge. Not to mention, the voyage in the past few years has been really calm.

It is temporary for the three fleets with different purposes to gather together to sail.

Whether it is a businessman such as Otto, Arik or Gould, everyone knows that when everyone sees a string of islands appearing in the distance, that is the moment when everyone parted ways.

Only in the afternoon of the second day after sailing, the mighty army had already seen the pivotal Peugeot Åland Islands.

The flagship at the head of the fleet, Otto made an ideological struggle, and still ordered a reduction in speed.

Slowly, the flagship approached the crusade group of ships and approached the command ship of the "war leader".

The distance between Otto and Arik was less than ten meters, and Pelavina immediately waved to her husband when she saw her husband.

Otto wanted to say goodbye to Arik, he shouted: "Arik, you go to prove yourself, don't forget everything because of revenge, listen to Haroldoson!"

Did Arik hear it?

He whispered in response: "I will win! Dad!"

He called himself father again!

Otto heard it warmly, if his eldest son did not die early, he would have been stronger than Arik.

The warmth in his heart was not directly expressed, Otto kept as deep as possible, and then looking at the face of his nephew in the distance, he waved his hand and ordered to turn the rudder.

The fleet does not mean to dock in the Aland Islands, even if there are a group of fishermen belonging to the Merlaren tribe living on this island.

Otto kept going. Of course, he wasn't worried about being attacked by such a group of people, he simply didn't want to waste time.

However, the fishermen on the island really saw a mighty army passing through the strait, and there were many dragon-head warships among them!

Suddenly, an ominous premonition came to the minds of these fishermen. They chose to hibernate, worried that the Ross people from the north were planning to attack their allies? Simply this army continues to go south, it seems that the Rus people are still going to collect taxes in the east, but how come there are so many leading warships this year? And what happened to the merchant ships that followed? Why are there so many? !

The fishermen maintain a high level of alert, and all the Ross ships have no interest in this area. As in the past, Otto’s feeling for this island is just a good place for fishing. Although it is a good place, the fishing grounds are also controlled by the Melalen tribe.

Because the entrance of Lake Mälaren is facing the Aland Islands. The large number of islands at the mouth of the sea form a checkpoint with the entire Åland archipelago, which just controls the throat of the entire sea area extending to the Gulf of Bothnia. The commercial value of this area will only develop further with the frequent trade.

Now, there are only a handful of tiny villages on the tiny islands at the estuary of Lake Mälaren. As long as it continues to develop, it will be Stockholm.

The merchants were well escorted, and their ships began to sail westward suddenly. In order to show his identity, Gould ordered the attached ships to display the Peugeot flag of the Ankras tribe.

Otto led the army into the Gulf of Finland.

Only the old guy Haroldoson led the crusaders to bite the bullet and continued southward, and everyone was relaxed and nervous.

Harrodsson is nearly half a hundred years old. He knows how to get to Gotland and fully understands how to avoid the eyes of those people.

Want not to be noticed by the Gotlanders? Then it can only be roundabout.

Seeing that the fleet led by Uncle's father went further and further, and gradually disappeared from his vision, Arik suddenly felt confused. He held his sword tightly, seemingly ready to fight at any time, and there was no lack of worry about the unknown in his heart.

Many people are exactly the same. They are young and eager to make contributions. The barbaric games on weekdays have caused many people to be injured, so they are not afraid of blood at all. They just lack experience, none of the young people have set foot in this sea area, and they don’t know anything about meteorology, hydrology, etc.!

This is why Otto must arrange for them a group of elders.

Twenty standard dragon-head warships carry 450 soldiers at this moment, most of whom are young people.

According to the concept of the Ross people, the so-called "young people" probably refer to boys between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five. It seems that the older they are, the people appear to be a little old.

Although they are young people, most boys start to grow beards from around eleven years old. Many people have thick beards by the age of fifteen. By the age of twenty-five, their beards can be braided into a large number of braids. .

Harrodsson knows the meteorology and hydrology of this area, as well as the special geographical conditions nearby.

If the northern part of Gotland is difficult to attack, its southern part must be weakly defensive.

Arik couldn't help his inner anxiety and excitement, and asked Harrodsson: "Next, why don't we go straight to Gotland? We must continue south?"

"Of course." Harrodsson replied casually, who was also paddling.

"Maybe... we suddenly turned to launch an attack, and we could catch the enemy by surprise."

"Oh, roar, maybe we can succeed, but it's easy to encounter their counterattack. Listening to Arik, we want revenge, but we don't want to kill the Gotlanders all at once. We don't have the strength, let alone the plan. Remember, Look for gold as much as possible, and other useful things."

Arik tried his best to speak up: "Actually, I still long for a real battle. You know, I need to be a real man."

"Oh? Then you just shut up and obey my command. You will get the battle you want. Before that, I will take everyone and land safely."

The ships form an elliptical array, with a light blue cloth hung on the top of Harrodsson’s flagship mast, and other ships just need to follow it.

In the era when there was no compass or compass in the West, even the Vikings used their experience to navigate.

At night that day, the fleet floated on the sea. Harrodsson ordered his subordinates not to light fires, except for a few people who took turns to watch, and the others slept on the deck wrapped in fur.

When the blue began to be put on that day, everyone ate their own dried fish and a small amount of oatmeal, and then began to paddle again.

Although the ocean currents caused them to have a significant displacement during the dormant night, Harrodsson still found the correct south after waking up.

Another boring paddling, whether people can only sing ancient folk songs to pass the time, or discuss the so-called revenge action, how many treasures they can grab.

Suddenly, the land that appeared ahead interrupted everyone's discussion!

"Ah! Is it land?!"

"It must be Gotland, we are here."

"Let's continue to paddle over and kill all those people, and we will move that golden mountain away."

...

Everyone is too focused on the final destination, Gotland. As long as there is a large land in front of you, isn't it the final goal?

At this moment, Harrodsson really poured cold water on the excited Arik.

He scolded Arik who was happily talking with his peers about arriving at the so-called destination: "Idiot! Don't get excited, it's Semelia!"

"Sermelia? Where is that? Isn't it Gotland?" Arik only found it very novel, and it was the first time he heard this word.

Harrodsson replied straightforwardly: "It is an island, a paradise for all fugitives. Those who have left the alliance are happy to run here, and there are even a few Gotlanders."

"What? They are actually our enemies?" As he said, Arik was holding the oar with his left hand, and his right hand was already deeply holding the hilt of the sword.

"Child, don't be nervous, they are just ordinary people. They are not our enemies, but they are not our friends. Don't think that you can easily conquer them. If you don't provoke them, they won't provoke you. "

Arik still doesn't quite understand, it's not a friend, it's an enemy, isn't the relationship in the world like this?

At this moment, Harrodsson had no intention of landing on Semelia Island, and he knew clearly that there must be a settlement on the southeast side of the island.

war? Do not! That is impossible.

Because some of the spontaneous immigrants of the Ross people must have come here, and Semelia itself is a colony of the Viking tribes. Many people who insist on leaving the crowded hometown to make a living out of the country have established a settlement on this island in a cooperative relationship.

Since then, the island where only a few Baltic people live has become the territory of the Viking pioneers. The new immigrants cultivated their own land, planted wheat to catch fish, built their own small docks, and traded spontaneously and further south to enter the mainland, and also traded with the native Livonians.

The immigrant population of the entire island is still less than a thousand people, and human activities here are still kept at a very low limit.

It has a huge potential for development. Over hundreds of years, the immigrants of various Viking tribes merged with Livonian tribes and gradually formed the Estonian nation.

There are only a handful of people on Semelia Island, and now there are many Viking settlements on the Livonian land. When they left their hometown, set foot on Livonian land and settled down, they were no longer Danes, no longer Gotlanders, no longer members of the Svealand tribe alliance, and no longer Ross people.

They all speak Gnostic, because they left alone and were abandoned by the tribe they once were. They frequently intermarried with Livonians and are actively building their own communities. A brand new force is being formed.

Young people don't know these things, and Harrodsson also knows a little bit. In short, landing on Semelia Island and even communicating with locals are completely out of the plan of action.

The heavily armed fleet approaching the island has only one very simple purpose-to find the most reasonable reference for the roundabout attack on Gotland.

The fleet marched along the coast, and they did not care about being witnessed by the locals.

They wandered like this for a whole day, until the evening came when the coastline to the east of the fleet suddenly changed its direction, and the south of the fleet turned into a vast sea.

Seeing this, everyone panicked for a while.

Fortunately, the elders in the team stabilized the young people's emotions. Upon seeing this, Haro Zuosen continued to order to go south, and the fleet had to move forward for a while in the dark.

As a result, they sturdily hit another piece of land, which was actually the land named Kulonia, also known as Korland, which was the main part of the later Latvian country.

Everyone has been on the ship boringly for many days. If you continue to stay away from the shore, your fighting will will inevitably deteriorate and you will land on Gotland in a terrible mental state? It's crazy.

Boats landed on a large scale, and people started to raise bonfires on a sandy beach. In this way, they spent the first night on shore in a few days.

The stable time was fleeting, and the next day, they embarked on the voyage again. Fortunately, on the new night, they still spend the night on the shore.

After two days of silly sailing, many young people saw a new land that they did not know. Their horizons were broadened. Even Arik could not have imagined that the so-called human world is so huge.

Therefore, Arik also has new questions. He personally heard the news of Harrogateson with a strong incomprehension: "Five days have passed, when will we launch an attack? Are we going further and further?"

Under the light of the campfire, Haroldoson looked at the young man's angry expression, conscious that there were things he couldn't hide.

He did not reply positively, but muttered: "Go and call everyone, I want to arrange something."

"About the offense?" Arik asked impatiently.

"Yes. Go ahead."

One reason for Haro Zossen's defeat in the leadership competition was his lack of charisma. He lacks a loud voice and a morale-boosting appeal.

This kind of person also has its own value Just like this action, Harrodsson's role as the general of the "War Chief" is perfect.

The young warriors who chewed on dried fish, braided all kinds of braids and beards, and wore leather armor all the time, gathered in the vicinity of Harrodsson. The gathering of hundreds of people was truly amazing.

Without any morale boost, Harrodsson didn't even raise his saber as a call to action.

He just tried his best to announce in a very straightforward voice: "Brothers, order us to start sailing west. It is expected that tomorrow night, we will wear it for another night. Sirius has reached the correct position. We are going to row in the night. Before sunrise the day after tomorrow, launch a surprise attack on the enemy."

Everyone understood. To be honest, Harrodsson made a straightforward narrative of what was supposed to be war mobilization.

It doesn't matter!

The fiery hearts of the young soldiers were suppressed for many days, suddenly boiling at this moment. All the previous depression, as well as the dissatisfaction with continuing to sail south, disappeared for a moment.

"Rua! rua! rua..."

They spontaneously roared the "Viking War Roar", which is a chant that people deliberately roar with rhythm when the shield wall advances. This momentum can scare the stupid enemy, and it is a good encouragement to myself and my brothers.

They roared on the lonely beach, and were extremely excited about it, and their morale was instantly maxed out.

No local people were aware of their existence, or the native indigenous people living in the inland areas, they dare not run to the seaside and be looted by the Vikings.

Harrodsson and others still maintain good secrecy, as long as the new day goes all the way west.

Soon, a new day arrived, and the shoal boats were pushed into the sea again. After one night of rest, everyone adjusted their mentality and fully understood the next tactics.