The village roads along the river are chaotic, and many weeds grow near the simple wooden houses.
Evlo swallowed and approached the first wooden house softly.
"Brothers, be careful." He whispered.
Behind them, there are a group of Ross troops ready for battle. Until the scouts are sure of safety, Arik doesn't want everyone to take risks.
The concealed wooden door was opened, and I saw that it was actually a half-crypted wooden house.
The light in the room was dim, and as the wooden door opened, Jevlo could see the structure inside.
"Strange, as if someone just left?" The internal space is so big, is there any danger?
He walked in and used a steel sword to stir the black spot which was obviously a bonfire, even if it was covered by soil.
There was a scorching atmosphere in the house. He peeled away the soil and saw some charcoal pieces slowly burning at the bottom. The dark red carbon proved everything.
Suddenly, his hair exploded, and he ran out of the house with a steel sword, shouting to the guys who were still searching: "Brothers, they just left. Be careful, this village is not abandoned."
Without him speaking at all, all the mercenaries found traces of human activity.
For the time being, everyone did not find a clear footprint, but found a large number of rough hidden fires, and even a few broken black pottery urns.
Some people even found scattered grains of wheat.
Everyone became bold. They kicked one house after another, hoping to find something good. Sure enough, someone really found a sack with a locked mouth. With a sharp jab with the sword, I saw brown oatmeal grains flowing out of the bloodletting trough of the steel sword.
Is there anything more happier than finding fresh wheat in the wilderness?
The mercenaries were seen everywhere. They held their little linen pockets and poured some wheat into them as their trophies. Mercenaries are different from Ross warriors, but for this kind of private loot, it's okay if Rurik doesn't blame it.
The village is not big, and Jeflo and his guys inspected almost every wooden house and came to a very simple conclusion.
He took someone back to report, facing Arik who was on guard.
Arik was already impatient: "Did you find anything unusual?"
"There are some."
"Huh? What is it?"
"There are people living here and they ran away. I think it's probably the fishing boat that escaped. The fisherman told his people that we are coming."
"Are they Gotlanders?"
Jeflo directly denied: "If it is those people, we should be fighting now. Maybe they are Baltic people."
"Damn! A bunch of stupid Baltic people?" Arik stomped his feet with anger. "I should have been paddling as hard as I knew this. Now we are late. By the way, have you found any baby?"
"Baby?" Jevlo thought about it, and decided to tell the truth: "There is some wheat, not much. I guess they shouldn't run far when they escape. There are still some footprints on the soil, some people and sheep. As for the silver coins. Or copper coins, not found."
Arik was convinced by Evlo's words: "So, the villagers ran away with a lot of things? They must not run far, they are in this woods."
"Huh? Are you going to chase?"
Arik categorically denied: "No! We came to this ghost place as a temporary motive. Since we can find some wheat and inexhaustible fresh water, it would be better for us to replenish it here."
After that, he turned around, pointed his sword at the village, and yelled at the eager brothers: "Brothers, a bunch of cowards left their wealth and ran away. Now, you are the masters of this village! Charge me in. , Take away everything you find with your ability. Remember, don’t fight between brothers, we all have a share. Only me, don’t need a copper coin!"
After the talk, the group is enthusiastic!
Arik is such a person. He consciously has a lot of personal wealth, and he and his family have long been well prepared. Both his biological parents are dead, and Arik has no more worries. He has a strong vengeance anger in his heart. In the battle of revenge, his growing popularity has allowed him to find the meaning of life and personal value.
He is a "war chief" played out of iron and blood. In order to maintain his power, he must serve his supporters well. Arik has realized many things, such as the importance of not being greedy.
Loot based on your ability, and whoever robs will own it.
The Ross warrior, who was already full, burst out like a tiger and wolf. Holding up their swords and axes, they rushed to one wooden house after another, looking for everything useful.
During the whole looting, only the mercenaries were restrained by their masters.
Yevlo was a little unwilling: "My lord, you just watch your cousin's people looting?"
"Yes, just watching."
"You don't want to get something?"
"What else? You secretly fished a little wheat, I know. This place also has a little wheat, I don't take it seriously. Listen, let's rest here and let them wreak havoc."
What followed was a feast for the Ross people, not to mention, they really found some cellar entrances.
The so-called cellar is a dark hole, and the cold cellar can freeze with water. Some soldiers got in boldly, not to mention, some cold sacks were really moved out. Untie the twine and see that it is full of wheat.
Many people are eager to get some leather and linen, but they did find some useless rags. The villagers raised sheep and chickens because there was livestock manure on the ground, but they were gone.
A batch of wheat was moved to the ground, and their size was actually not much compared to a hundred Ross fighters.
When Arik was excited, he also squeezed his chin and murmured: "Strange, they expect this little wheat to pass a year? Obviously they just finished the autumn harvest."
Rurik stepped forward: "Maybe they have another granary. It must not be here. Oh, maybe they ran with wheat on their backs when they ran away."
"Forget it, they may have a second granary. Or there are even bigger villages. We are too few. When I will kill with 400 people and 500 people next time, I will bring a lot of empty ships. Go home full of loads." Arik is not just talking, he really has plans in this regard.
An empty village happens to be everyone's rest point tonight.
A large amount of wheat has been seized, and everyone can eat to their heart's content and drink the sweet river water. After all, the wheat was thrown on the boat to take them away, and the long boat was also seriously overloaded.
The load limit of a larger long ship can reach four tons, which is even comparable to some cargo ships. With such a load, it basically can't stand any storms. As long as the waves are slightly larger, the ship will be heavily flooded. When the wave reached two meters, the overloaded long ship capsized directly.
Since you can't take it all away, eat it hard! At least everyone has to eat hard.
The Ross Warriors used the found stone milling sticks to process the fresh oats into coarse flour on the milling pan. They must spend some experience deep processing the wheat grains, so that everyone can store some dry food for a long time on the next journey.
Is the invention of cookies really made by the survivors of the wrecked sailing ship, using flour soaked in sea water and stones burned by a campfire?
Rurik thinks these are all nonsense. In his opinion, the inventors of biscuits are Vikings from all walks of life. The so-called graham crackers are one of their staple foods.
It takes a while for the oats to be cooked thoroughly. Just as the grains of wheat in the pottery urn were tossing under the boiling water, some pebbles in the river were picked up, and they became a platform for baking oatmeal.
Rurik is a bit strange, I saw that the world is clearly lush and lush, the surrounding terrain is very flat, the ground where his feet are walking is obviously blackened (proving fertile) soil, the soothing river should be full of silt, how can there be Some big pebbles? All he could guess was that the river also had summer floods. Whenever the floods are flooded, some rocks upstream will be pushed here.
But the problem came again. Rurik never remembers any mountains in Estonia, this country is obviously very low.
"Could it be that I was wrong? This place is not Estonia? We strayed?"
Rurik patted his face vigorously, and he felt that the situation was actually very good. Look at their own people, they have already celebrated their harvest in other people's villages.
There were still some strange things that made Rurik settle down. He held a piece of crispy granola and chewed it beautifully. Although there is no sugar, it really tastes better the more you chew.
Taking advantage of the joyous atmosphere, Arik stretched out his face that was glowing red and warm by the bonfire, and mumbled to his brother: "We will stay here for the night. We will leave tomorrow morning."
"Very well, the village is not ours after all. We don't even know who those people are until now."
Rurik’s words seem to reveal caution, and Arik is of course fearless: "I don’t care who they are, they appear to die. They go away, we will take the rest of the food tomorrow. Oh, yes, here. Before leaving, this village must be burned."
By the end of the matter, Rurik's heart was only touched, and his mind had not become violent, but it had really become rational.
Yes, regardless of his unknown villagers, he deliberately set fire to make Rurik feel unnecessary.
"It's better to save some effort. Let's continue sailing with food. Burning a house is a waste of time."
"That won't work." Arik insisted, "The house must be burned! They don't even want to take up arms to protect their homes, why should I respect them? Remember, if the enemy is a coward or despise you, you have to double your return. anger."
"Well, you make sense, I won't say anything."
Rurik continued to bury his head in his meal, and after all he ate a perch he had caught from the river. He skillfully spit out the thorns of the grilled fish, and ate two pieces of wheat cakes in a row, Rurik was completely full.
The body of a child is easy to fill the stomach, but other strong men are not.
Ross warrior, or Ross's professional fisherman. Whether it’s warfare or fishing work, or long-term paddle sailing, they are forced to develop a big appetite. Now they don’t have to pay any price to get a lot of wheat, and they start eating frantically, a strong man. It is very normal to eat two pounds of oatmeal tonight.
This night, they were tortured by hardships, and because they ate too much carbohydrates, it was inevitable that they would be a little less energetic after the meal. To put it bluntly, they are the sudden strong secretion of insulin in the body's stress response, causing massive postprandial hypoglycemia and letting down.
Rurik could guess this for the first time. He saw his people gradually lose the spirit of the past, showing a faint look by the bonfire. Many people simply curled up indifferently and snored.
Of course, they can live directly in the wooden house in the village because of the consideration of sheltering the wind. They are really not used to living in a half-crypted house, because it makes people feel like a rat burrowing on the ground, a symbol of cowardice, and even a tomb.
They slept curled up in leather and linen by the campfire, and only the toilets ran to the village house.
Since the half-crypt house is regarded as a symbol of a tomb, the Ruth people with abdominal pain naturally use this as a place to hide dirt. After all, whether in Roseburg or Mälaren, the toilets of all tribes are like this. There will be one The big soil pit carries all kinds of dirt.
Although the people of the tribe were asleep, their swords and shields did not leave their hands.
Is this even defensive? Rurik really couldn't stand his cousin who didn't even arrange a sentry, so he set up camp in the enemy's house like this.
He tried to tell his cousin who was so tired that he could hardly lift his eyes: "Brother! I'm afraid the villagers will recapture their village at night. It's really too dangerous for us to spend the night in the village like this."
"Forget it." As he said, Arik gave a deep yawn: "They are cowards during the day, and they dare not come at night."
I heard that Rurik secretly criticized his brother as a reckless man. He does have some wisdom. Is it because after eating and drinking tonight, the whole person's intelligence has declined and become a great ape?
Rurik stomped his feet: "Just go to sleep, remember to sleep with your sword. Don't worry, I will send mercenaries as sentry. If the enemy attacks, you can get up and fight immediately."
Arik waved his hand, this perfunctory appearance was obviously a disdain for Rurik's advice.
What should I do then? Rurik had no choice but to arrange for his own hands to work.
The mercenaries were divided into two groups. They were ordered to use the bows and arrows of the Rus people to spread out behind some large trees hiding in the periphery of the village, guarding against any disturbances.
When one group is on alert, the other rests. According to the stars, especially the Big Dipper, according to the Rus people, they are the "seven Valkyries", and they judge the shift time based on the position of the stars.
Under Jevlo's personal escort, Rurik was wrapped in thick leather and slept against a campfire.
It seems that the Ross people have fallen completely into silence?
Actually otherwise, the figures sitting under the big dark trees are always on guard.
The quiet time passed away in one minute and one second, and it seemed that no danger would happen in this night.
So, is this really the case?
Really safe. In the morning, when the Russ finished their breakfast, they burned the village and left?
Lurik had long expected that the situation shouldn't and couldn't be that simple. He didn't believe that there would really be villagers who opened up acres, and because they saw a few boats and uninvited guests, they would be so scared that they would never show up again.
When Fang Liang started that day, the situation finally appeared abnormal.
A sentry noticed the strange footsteps. The sentry was already in the third round of rotation. He was in good spirits. Hearing the strange noise, he held the bow and suddenly popped out of God. The scene in front of him shocked him~www .novelhall.com~In the dim forest, those tree trunks obstructed people's vision, and some dark shadows moved cautiously.
Is it a monster? Or something terrible?
wrong! It's the enemy!
The sentry drew his bow and shot an arrow, and soon there was a man's painful wailing.
"Well, it's an enemy."
The sentry suddenly drew his bow and shot another arrow, then ran away.
He was running wildly, and the dark shadows followed suit. Fortunately, all the mercenaries had undergone strict physical training under Rurik's request. Their endurance and explosive power were excellent, and the speed of running wild was amazing.
One sentry sent an alarm, and the others responded gradually. It's not that the sentries communicated with each other, it's just that all the sentries noticed the danger!
Now, before running back to the camp, the sentry has begun to use various means to try to wake up his sleeping companions.