Chapter 335： Disaster for the Uppsala

(The Rise of Rurik( Find the latest chapter!

The group of people can be regarded as ending the swaying of the market, but they have to walk again along the old road on their way home.

Now that the news of the "strange Norwegian businessman" has spread, the drama has to continue.

Mercenaries will carry some tools with them, such as knives, axes, and fine hemp rope for binding things. Rurik didn't know what happened to Uppsala, a tribe that was clearly far from war. Anyway, a group of children fled to the Mälaren bazaar to find a way to survive.

The children were tied their hands one after another, and Rurik and his party also played the role of slave traders. They swaggered through the market and attracted many people's character. It was not the slaves they controlled, but their costumes.

The news had spread, and the Norwegian in the burqa almost got into a fight with the leader. Are there some bold Norwegians who dare to challenge the leader of Mälaren?

The market merchants said that they were brave men. Unexpectedly, shortly after Rurik and his party left, the whole market jumped up.

Without him, the leader of Olekin brought his private soldiers to collect the so-called tax. The news had already spread, and anyone who didn't pay could be beaten up.

At the pier, Gould had sent a long boat. Thinking that Rurik might purchase a lot of things, this boat was bigger in size.

The sailor who had been ordered to pick up the crew was taken aback by the return of Rurik. They landed with only a dozen people, and now they have become a behemoth with more than forty people.

A large number of ragged children boarded the boat with their hands tied up. There was no fear in their eyes, only a strong sense of anticipation for the legendary Gould Island and Roseburg.

Sailors are self-aware, they don’t ask anything, they just control the sails, while the mercenaries of Rürik and even Arik are all working as oarsmen, just for the ship to return to Gould Island as soon as possible, brothers Can eat barbecue.

"Now, untie their rope!"

Rurik's order was immediately implemented. The mercenary pulled the rope a few times, and the rope on the children's wrists was loosened.

Yes, the mercenaries **** are live buckles, which also confirms that swaggering through the market is just an act.

The children were released from all restraints, and they all held a little dried fish in their hands and ate on their own, and even sucked the fish bones again.

The sky was dim, the cold lake breeze swept across the waters, and the wheat fields that were doing their best to ears were rustling in the wind.

Some obscure fishing boats on the lake lit the torches that lure fish, and the big fish net has sunk in the water, waiting for the perfect opportunity to catch the perch.

The huge Lake Mälaren has a huge resource of freshwater fish, among which the deliberate perch is the largest, and every autumn, salmon that inhabit a wide range of seas begin to return to their inherent spawning grounds, and a considerable number of perch must enter first Lake Mälaren, and then into the small river deep into the cradle-like swamp.

The vast lake area is almost all the fishing grounds of the Merlaren fishermen. Another group of bold fishermen entered the sea and faced the northern Ross people who had been competing with them for marine fishing grounds in the past two years. They dared not say anything.

As usual, the Gould family is not involved in lake fishing. They and many commercial families occupying the islands in the lake have a very professional ethics, that is, they only do business and never rob the Merlaren people for basic survival resources.

At least the merchants will not threaten the roots of the tribe. The leader of Mellaren has always asked them to pay tribute when they go ashore to do business, except for all freedom. Even the merchants need to spend money to buy food if they want to raise a group of family members, and their consumption makes life easier for the fishermen in Mälaren.

In general, the Mellaren tribe has more supplies and is more capable of resisting natural disasters and shortages of supplies.

However, for those tribes living in the inland areas, the geographical location of the Uppsala determines that they can hardly grab some resources from the fertile Lake Mälaren. Their farmland is also naturally barren, and even the food they can get is grown. There are really not many warm years. They are also actively raising livestock for wool and milk, which can raise more people.

However, the autumn of 831 came too early.

A large long rowing boat full of people docked at the pier on Gould Island.

Rurik and his mercenaries took the lead to step down the landing plank and stand on the trestle bridge.

"You all come down, children of Uppsala, this is your home for the time being."

The gentle call slightly dispelled the children's worries. They were still very vigilant overall. When the first boy tentatively stepped out of the plank, the subsequent children followed carefully and finally all stepped onto the trestle.

"Very good. Let me go now, and I will give you food."

The time was in the evening, the setting sun was casting the last rays of glow on the lake, and the eastern world was already shining with galaxies.

The whole island is filled with the smell of food. As usual, people on the island eat thick vegetable soup and a lot of grilled fish. Before the oats were harvested, Gould sent people to buy food and brought back fresh fish and vegetables.

Almost everyone is eating, but there is no canteen here, and Gould has no plans in this regard.

The core area of ​​the island is surrounded by a wooden wall. While playing a defensive role, it also serves as a key to protect against the cold.

A large number of people were holding wooden bowls in one hand and a few grilled fish skewers in the other. They sat on the wood that was deliberately crossed at the base of the wall to feast on.

The most ordinary people can only eat the most ordinary food, including the beggars from multiple tribes who were gathered early by Gould, who have been eating surimi soup for a long time. Although the food is lacklustre, no one will be hungry.

As for the mercenaries, it was naturally a meal of beef, mutton and fish.

As for Gould himself, the greedy habit of others becomes more and more serious in his later years.

He deliberately left a little bit of spirits and blended it with ale or wine to drink. Of course, there is barbecue for eating. If the food is satisfied, the beauty will naturally have it.

Gould, of course, had fun in time and wanted to enjoy the rest of his life in his old age, so he was not confused.

As usual, he and his eldest son Snoreva gathered for dinner, accompanied by the newest maid. Perhaps the only drawback is the lack of actors and actresses.

Under the dim and pulsating chandelier, the two people holding knives and cutting barbecues are really a bit hideous. Gould, the old guy, deliberately inserted meat with a dagger, and delivered it to the maid beside him. He also said some promises, and he was moved to tears when he saw the meat-eating servant, and he smiled completely literally. Of the three hundred catties fat man, his round blue eyes narrowed into a gap.

The two men of the Gould family were enjoying their dinner, and they seemed to have forgotten Master Rurik's landing at the Mellaren Bazaar.

Finally, mercenaries hurriedly rushed into the dining scene.

"My lord, Chief Rurik is back."

"He's finally back?! Oh!" Gould slapped his forehead vigorously, then pushed the two beauties around him away. He glanced at the eldest son: "Let's go, welcome him in, it seems that the dinner party is about to add people."

Gould got up almost with the help of the slave girl. He drank some strong alcohol and wandered around.

At this moment, Rurik had just walked under the wooden wall with the children who had just been conquered.

The wooden door creaked open, and a crowd of people entered the wooden castle in the core area of ​​Gould Island.

For those children, they were surprised to see a large number of people carrying rice bowls, and soon as the wooden door was closed, they were afraid of getting together subconsciously, and because they smelled the aroma of food, they couldn't help but drool.

After a while, Rurik finally saw Gould who was full of alcohol.

"you've been drinking?"

"Oh, my little master, I can only say that Ross Vodka is really delicious."

"But it's not as profitable as I thought." Rurik didn't want to talk about the wine anymore, so he turned and pointed at the children who had gathered into a group of shadows, "I'm ashore. You see, this is me." The children found at the Mellaren Bazaar. Gould, you are guilty!"

Gould was taken aback: "Huh? I'm guilty?" He couldn't see how unhappy Rurik was. He didn't know what the kid meant.

He squinted and saw a group of trembling and pitiful children in the dim light, and he couldn't help feeling strange.

"You are guilty. Have you seen these children?"

"I see, they..."

"I thought you gathered the beggars from the entire Mellaren Bazaar. As a result, I met so many people today. Why? You can explain it to me."

"This...wonderful!" Gould screamed outrightly, but he couldn't say anything when a new group of children appeared in front of him. "Maybe, another group of foreign children have fled here recently?"

"Huh?" Rurik suddenly narrowed his eyes, and inadvertently he felt that Gould had told a big secret. He didn't want to linger: "I asked, these children are all Uppsala, maybe you know what Uppsala has gone through?"

Gould squeezed his chin: "They are all Uppsalas? There are also Uppsalas among the children who gathered before. They claim that they don't have enough food, and they were driven out by their parents to fend for themselves. Could it be that these people ..."

"Maybe so?"

Rurik intended to let these children eat and change into new clothes. It is best to wash their bodies again, or even get a good night's sleep, and ask them about their experiences tomorrow. Now that everyone has arrived at Gould Island, just ask now.

Food, clothing, shelter, and a stable future life, Rurik made these four promises in exchange for the immediate surrender of these Uppsala children. They are all simple, hunger and cold stimulate their survival instinct, as long as they can survive, they are willing to anything.

The children talked about their past. After all, they are real children. Their pure heart leaves them with no reservations. One or the other is to tell the new master about everything they have encountered on the road to escape.

The problem quickly became clear, but the scene described by the children was simply described as "there is nothing to eat".

It turns out that the Uppsala tribe is experiencing a serious agricultural crisis!

The Uppsala tribe, which is in the northeast of the Mälaren tribe, also experienced a long winter this year. The planting season was forced to lag behind, and the local farmers still planted the crops, praying for the **** of harvest Frey and Odin, the incarnation of the sun, to give everyone a hot summer, so that the autumn harvest will not be too bad.

However, their food is destined to be completely unavailable.

Correct! Completely unacceptable!

They only planted the seeds near May. The low temperature caused many seeds to be buried in the soil, but they did not germinate. When the seedlings finally grew up, they did not grow well.

The temperature throughout the summer was not as warm as the Uppsala people hoped, and the seedlings did not grow quickly. Of course, there is also no fertilization at all, and the reason why watering depends entirely on rainfall.

After a rain that lasted for many days, autumn had arrived, but there was no sign of heading in all the farmland.

The autumn equinox is approaching. In the hearts of locals, after the average day and night of autumn, the first snow will soon come.

During the short frost-free period, they had no harvest. To make matters worse, most Uppsala people could not catch enough fish in the river, and carried boats to the beach for offshore fishing, and the profit was not high. The annual "battle" to store supplies for the winter has begun, and a very serious question is before the entire tribe-a famine is destined to come, what will happen in the future?

There is a saying that the disaster is approaching. The wealthy people in the Uppsala tribe generally own a large amount of farmland, and a group of tenant farmers are taking care of the land for them.

There is no harvest of farmland pellets, but the tenant farmers still have to pay the rent.

The wealthy knew that their tenant farmers could not produce a large amount of oats and rye, and they did not even have the ability to catch fish for rent. The so-called tenant farmers are farmers who have cultivated their land. The natural disasters have caused them to gradually lose their land and become people who "work" for the wealthy tribes.

Now, the most tragic agricultural harvest is coming. The tenant farmers who have no income are completely in a state of extreme poverty, that is, all their assets cannot offset the debts they owe.

In fact, they have the last asset, and that is themselves.

It can be said that the stratification of the Ross tribe is relatively late compared to the entire tribal alliance. The various tribes living near Lake Mälaren have almost completed the evolution from tribe to state. To a certain extent, the Uppsala tribe Has become a slavery city-state.

Those who can only sell themselves to repay the agricultural debts of the wealthy, in order to survive, they really can only serve as slaves, so-called serfs.

In this way, wealthy people who own land, their lives will suffer a certain loss due to this disaster, but because they have acquired a group of slaves, they may begin the most thorough exploitation next year. After all, for serfs, they must farm the land throughout the year, and the rewards given to them are only food that will not starve to death.

In this state, the wealthy of Uppsala, the slaves they no longer care about are actually their own clan.

mercy? why? The leader of the Melalen tribe has already done this, and the leader himself does not matter. Many ordinary people have become serfs of the powerful, and even the leader has become very powerful because of this.

The family became serfs, men and women were forced to face a sad fate, but there was one last hope in their hearts.

If the children are controlled by the leader, they will also be regarded as debts to be paid off, and the children will also be slaves for life.

The completely bankrupt Uppsala farmers drove their children in extreme grief and ordered them to "run away from home" and flee to the Mellaren Bazaar to become beggars. Theoretically, the parents of their children can drag their families to become refugees. This is just a theory, because the powerful families of the Mellaren will also select and even capture the refugees as slaves.

They would rather let their children go to Mellaren to try their luck, and stay in their hometown.

Because some rumors are circulating among the various tribes, that is, there are some merchants with unknown motives in Mellaren who are gathering children. It is rumored that boys will be trained as private soldiers, girls or servants, and even trained. The concubine Ji who became the master, in short, the situation of the child will never be worse than it is now.

Almost overnight, hundreds of children with little food ventured towards the core territory of the Mellaren people in the southwest.

They were either weak or dead, or were killed by wolves along the way. More than sixty people left fled to the Mellaren Bazaar.

The children are all accusing them of being cruelly driven away by their parents, but they don't know that their parents will face a more tragic fate of life-long slavery.

In fact, they were controlled by Rurik and faced a similar fate.

Hearing about "parents maliciously abandoning" children, now Rurik is not surprised at all. He is not surprised at all. It is like a small forest called "baby cemetery" near Roseburg, which can not feed babies. Will be abandoned here. Who would abandon a newborn child whenever there is food to eat?

In just two years for the Ross people, Rurik was convinced that the entire tribe had basically solved the problem of food and clothing throughout the year, and the abandonment of the baby had ended. Of course, there was also a death order issued by the leader Otto to restrain it.

Some of the children who spoke clearly explained their miserable experience, and Rurik felt chills all over his body.

He sighed deeply: "Oh, I really can't expect most of the parents to be kind."

"Benevolence? The Uppsala people have no food. Without food, the men will take up weapons to rob. I don’t think Uppsala can rob anyone. They dare not attack the Mellaren, let alone Ability to organize a fleet to attack the Gotlanders. Do you attack the Ross people in the north? Attack us? They dare to looting, I think if you are strong, you will easily kill them." Gould said coldly.

"Of course!" Rurik didn't change his face: "If the Mellaren army comes to hit me, it will be my merciless killing that awaits them. You know, our crossbow is invincible."

Hearing, Gould suddenly heard the murderous intention hidden in these words. war? Mellaren attacked the Rus when they were full? But Rick said this.

Gould asked in a low voice, "Did you encounter anything on the shore, Rurik?"

"Yes. I met Olegin. He is really a hateful guy. He actually killed people in front of me, so he is still a leader? He is a child killer at all, hateful!"

Gould didn’t know how angry Rurik was to make such an overly benevolent child angry. That would have to be...

Because of surprise, Gould, who was slightly drunk, came to his senses: "Ah? You mean, leader Olekin, he...he provoke you? Ah! Did you go to him yourself?!"

"It's just a chance encounter." Rurik stretched his head, "he dared to kill my servant. Sooner or later, he will lose his position as the leader."

Rurik has long had the ambition to become the new leader, and even his ambition is even greater, just like the great existence of the legendary Roman emperor.

Ambition returns to ambition. Gould knew that his little master was actually a very pragmatic man by nature.

"Oh! I don't know what happened to you and him but we still have to do business with him."

"It's only now." Rurik bared his teeth.

"Okay." Gould shrugged, "I have sent a messenger, and the messenger has not yet returned. It will be fine if you come back, and then you will have a good rest on the island. As for these children..."

"According to the old rules." Rurik put a commanding tone: "When we go back, I want all the Uppsala children to live. You arrange their lives as usual, and treat them to healthy children if they are sick. Tell them what to do."

"I understand." Gould nodded deeply. "They are already the new Roths."

"Of course! I want all the beggars expelled by the leader, especially the Olekin!" Ruriek continued to bark his teeth, "Sooner or later, the child who survived his persecution will become my soldier. Mela The Lun people will pay for their prejudice and arrogance!"

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