~： The 377th Zhang, Take away the 40-meter-long spruce

A group of people wearing thick furs stood inside the walls of Fort Elon. Why didn't they sigh for the sudden appearance of the settlement?

Arska, the leader of the deer breeder, would never have imagined that the place where he had been enslaved was actually here.

From the beginning of the design, the Elronburg planned to house a thousand people, so the space inside it is actually very large.

A group of reindeer was forced to be driven into the wall, together with a large number of sleds dragged, under the aurora and starlight, a rather interesting situation was formed.

Visitors lit torches one after another, and night watchmen lit a large number of bonfires.

More than 30 deer breeders of different males and females were in a daze with amazement. The Ross people who joined each other talked and laughed, and began to unload a large amount of cargo. Especially Jeflo and his mercenaries, they and other mercenary brothers completed the reconciliation, and immediately began to move the wheat belonging to Rurik.

Even some very special goods-some special tree trunks.

After receiving the emergency report, Rurik hurriedly changed his clothes. After being severely stimulated by the cold night, his spirits rose.

Under the shining of torches and bonfires, a large group of furry people appeared inside the wooden wall, as well as an extremely large herd of reindeer.

A familiar guy was walking towards him, it was Arska.

"It seems that all of you arrived safely. You have completed the chief's entrustment." Lurik said in the language of the deer breeder.

Arska immediately bowed: "We are your servants. Now, we will graze for you in winter."

"Very good. But you don't have to go too far. Well, what do you think of this town?"

"It...really great."

Alska and his people are nothing but nomads in the snowy field. Their concept of the town is vague, and naturally they lack the rhetoric to evaluate it.

Rurik didn’t intend to continue to ask, so he pointed to the wooden wall and said, “My wall is tall and reinforced, and can resist the most violent snowstorms. You take the men to herd and leave the women and children behind. The wooden wall will protect them. Safety. Rest assured, as the owner, I will ensure their safety and daily food."

Arska gritted his teeth, he was very uncomfortable, but he didn't have any authority to say a word.

"Okay, I will take care of the adults' deer."

Rurik nodded: "In exchange, I will also take care of your women and children."

Do you want to continue talking to the deer breeder? To show them a strong castle? Rurik didn't think it was necessary.

After all, they are deer breeders. I am afraid that they have liked to live alone in the snowy field as a small clan since ancient times and even in the future. Rurik vaguely remembered that in another time and space, what he learned about the life of the Sami people from film and television was nothing more than a quiet and peaceful snowfield. There lived a Sami family in a few wooden houses, and the family they raised. Hundreds of deer, and rely on receiving tourists and selling deer products to make a living.

The stability of the Sami people a thousand years later is not the result of their use of force to fight for it, it is entirely due to the alms of the Swedes. Just because of that era, the Swedes advocated love and peace, as well as environmental protection. They are quite supportive of the Sami people's pursuit of the original ecological life since ancient times.

The current era has serious limitations. A wise man puts forward the slogan of fraternity. Does an audience exist?

Rurik wanted to treat these deer-keepers kindly, and was afraid that they would be allowed to graze freely. Maybe he drove the deer to Murmansk all at once, and the cost of finding them in the vast ice and snow world was crazy.

In order to avoid this disgusting situation, Rurik had to detain their wives and children.

They are human beings after all, so they wouldn't even want their wives and children to defect, right?

The people from Roseburg broke the tranquility of Elronburg.

As the night time becomes longer and longer, it is impossible for people to sleep all the time. Everyone is always full of energy, and is infected by the noise of visitors, and the inhabitants of the entire Elronburg have emerged from their houses.

It was a good thing that the sleepy laborers went out one after another. Rurik easily deployed the labor, unloaded all the linen bags from the sledge, and stuffed them into several vacant wooden houses used as warehouses.

Rurik personally inspected the goods contained in the linen, mainly oats. Because the wheat grains purchased from Mellaren generally don't have the opportunity to be refurbished, if the weather is wet, they are likely to rot. Fortunately, when the cold season comes, these wheat Rurik estimates that it will be difficult to germinate when planted in spring. They are destroyed by the low temperature. It is the low temperature. They are immortal and can even be stored in the Arctic Circle for 50 years.

The other foods are all vegetables, with yellow root carrots and onions as the main ingredients. Because of the low temperature, they all froze into icy lumps. Those purple-skinned onions have become ice balls.

During this night, visitors were temporarily living in wooden houses, and those vacant wooden houses were all used for important purposes.

Almost all of Rurik’s mercenaries gathered in Elronburg. They were equipped with hand axes and steel daggers, and even twenty crossbows, making this team of nearly a hundred people possess super combat effectiveness. .

Rurik believed that Mechasta, the Corvin, had completely surrendered, and he was afraid that a few thorns would suddenly pop out of ordinary tribesmen to instigate things that would be detrimental to him. Although this kind of thing seems impossible, routine vigilance is necessary.

Besides, Fort Elon is essentially a northern city, and it must have the most basic urban defense facilities.

All the mercenaries are here. They eat the gold master's wheat and wear the gold master's leather clothes. They are Rurik's reliable minions. These people have a clear interest in Rurik, and they are more reliable than the real Ross fishermen who settled in Ayron, and they are naturally more reliable than the Corvins.

Nearly a hundred mercenaries, in essence, took on the city defense work of Elronburg and further consolidated Rurik's power here.

The next day, a brief daylight began with the eastern red sunrise.

Even if the day is very short, the temperature is surprisingly not so cold and pressing. In the short daytime, various projects of Elonburg’s winter daily life have to be implemented quickly. For example, women have to pick up firewood and men have to cut down some small trees.

Alska, the leader of the deer breeder, and his guys, everyone and the Corvin's steel squirrel tribe, reconciled in Roseburg half a year ago. Nowadays, seeing the Covinians is living well, Alska envied them. He still likes to graze on the snowy field.

As long as he guards a large herd of deer, he feels embracing the graceful wealth. Although he has been reduced to the deer slave of Rurik.

To be fair, he thinks the current life is actually okay. At least he was a slave to Rurik. He didn't feel any substantive harm to his people. As long as he helped his owner raise the deer, he would be able to get a good security guarantee. Does he need to pursue more?

A new day, a new beginning.

Arska took the brothers whom he could count with both hands, left his wife and children, brought more than two hundred deer, some iron weapons for self-defense, sleighs and leather tents for lodging and other camping supplies, and they ran towards The vast snowfields in the north. Among the supplies they carried, there was a small packet of oats and a little salt. These two can be regarded as "carrots" for the deer breeders to relieve their wives and children being detained.

Arska also accidentally received a request from Rurik: "You can find other deer breeders by the way, tell them, submit to me, pay me some leather every year, you can get the military protection of the Rus people. Obtained trade permit."

Alska agreed to this request, and he had to consider one thing. He saw the strength of the Rus and his ambition to conquer the known world. If everything is destiny and all deer breeders will be ruled by them, then try to fight for the opportunity to avoid conflict as much as possible. By providing them with some from your own deer, you can guarantee that you will not be attacked by them. This "trading" is accounted for.

But Rurik's other request surprised him.

"Go to the sea at the end of the world? Looking for a special river, looking for a bay that never freezes?" Alska was not very clear about this.

He still accepted the request because Rurik refused his doubts.

In fact, Rurik hopes that these deer breeders who can be active in the entire north, specifically the Second Murmansk region of Lapland, can find the Murmansk Gulf and provide a way to go there. Snow expeditions are of course to be done, and Rurik feels that this aspect is still experienced in deer-raising.

Arsk’s winter grazing has a certain nature of expedition significance. They took away more than two hundred deer, so what about the other two hundred?

The rest of the deer were all left in Fort Elon, either the fawn among them, or the most robust stag among them.

The reason is simple. Will the deer who are only a few months old die outside? Although the wild reindeer herd migrates year after year, there should be a batch of young deer die.

Rurik didn't want these fawns in captivity to make any mistakes. It was a great feat that they could walk to Fort Elon. They would eat grass around the settlement in the future.

As for those sturdy bucks, they will come in great use!

Those lost forests are not really "lushen" anymore. The ground was full of large pine trees that collapsed, and their branches were chopped off and burned for firewood. As a result, a lot of straight trunks were left.

There are plenty of twine ropes in the Elronburg. The tree trunks are **** with twine ropes, and they are pulled out by manpower, and all of them are transported to the ice-bound pier. How much manpower will it consume? Manpower is obviously so precious, animal power is different.

The selected stags were originally enlisted carefully trained by other Kewen tribes. They were docile masters of pulling sledges, and naturally they could easily pull the trunks out of the "forest ruins."

No, the reindeer started to work in the first day.

Rurik didn't even pay attention to the backs of the deer breeders and the herd, but took a group of mercenaries to the ruins of the forest to deal with the big trees.

A large number of pine trees were wrapped with twine, and the other end of the rope was hung around the neck of the deer. The reality is often that two deer drag a log. People find it strenuous, but the reindeer don't seem to feel tired.

Rurik didn't care so much, until the short daylight quickly arrived in the evening, and he found that some stags were already panting and walking a little wobbly. Even so, the reindeer was beaten and continued to drag the logs towards the frozen dock.

At this moment, on the snowy ground of the pier, the Corvin people holding double saws have already processed the logs twice under the leadership of Mezzasta, that is, sawed into the length of about 2 stikas for better use. Used as a ship's material, and even convenient for transportation.

Mezzasta and his people undertook the crucial task of stacking wood. Logs with the same length, which are mostly thick thighs of strong men, are stacked in an adult shape. Two hundred reindeer, driven by the detained women of the deer breeders, the women of the Corvin tribe, and even the mercenaries of Rurik and the Ross fishermen, a transportation line was formed on the snowy ground with deer and people. The place to walk has become a hard and slippery road.

Finally, just in the evening, an extremely important transportation process finally took place in Rurik’s ardent prayers for the transportation process to be carried out at the end of the day.

Jeflo, the brave mercenary captain, personally presided over this extremely important escort.

Twenty mercenaries and five men from Kewen tribesmen, they just drove ten sturdy stags to drag a very special huge log.

It is a very tall spruce, and it also stands out in the forest.

Rurik also learned from Mezzasta that at the beginning of September, the Ross fishermen who settled here stood on the mine and saw the existence of several outstanding flocks in the distant pine forest.

Those are some tall spruces. From a distance, I don’t think they are particularly tall. You can only know what towering is by standing under them.

The Ross fishermen used classic Viking logging techniques to cut down the tree. Of course, when it collapsed, it not only broke some small pine trees, but also caused a tiny earthquake.

After preliminary measurements, after all the branches were cut off, the remaining trunk actually reached 40 stikas. This is the material of the ship mast that Rurik dreams of. It is straight and extremely tall. Although 40stika, which is 40 meters in length, is really crazy for a Caravel ship. It is more suitable for use as a Galen ship. Mast.

Relying only on the dragging of ten bucks, Jeflo gritted his teeth and felt the difficulty of the deer. In the end, all the men joined the towing army, and together with the Bucks, pulled the heavy wooden pole away.

At first, Rurik didn't think this was extremely difficult.

Until he saw Jeflo's blushing face holding on to the twine, and the reindeer panting wildly...

Rurik saw clearly the trunk that had been dragged out of the forest forcibly, and it had been dragged to the flat snow. With smooth snow, is it really so hard to tow big tree trunks?

The fact is so extreme.

Rurik only knew its length and diameter, which was almost a little more than a stika, but did not calculate its weight. The reason is not to blame Rurik's inaction, it is entirely because he does not know the density of spruce logs.

So, what kind of figure is this?

Rurik regards the trunk as a special cone, and then uses a simple formula to calculate that its volume is about 10.5 cubic meters.

In fact, the density of spruce is 417kg/m3, and the huge spruce trunk they pulled out weighs four tons.

This is an extremely exaggerated weight. Only twenty-five people and ten bucks can work together and use the slippery snow to pull it out.

The huge weight directly melts some snow, and the towing work can be carried out in a smoother situation, but the weight of four tons is really no joke.

There is more than one tree of this length. Look at its dense growth rings that make people dizzy, Rurik dared to be sure, this tree is at least five thousand years old.

In fact, this is not an exaggeration. Nordic spruce, the life span of this special tree theoretically tends to be infinite, it is difficult to die naturally, and its death mainly comes from external causes, such as human felling.

For making masts, spruce may not be a good choice, but even if the Ross people get technical support from the shipbuilding industry of Mälaren, those master shipbuilders don’t understand, and there is no need to implement "mast splicing" on small boats. , Even if the Caravel is a boat, it is still a small boat. The density of red pine is higher, but it cannot grow as exaggerated as spruce.

Yevlo's blushing face seemed to drink a bottle of strong wine. Those people who were carrying ordinary logs saw that they suddenly came out to such a group of warriors, and couldn't help but gather to watch. They were shocked that these guys had successfully pulled the giant tree out, and they were worried about their bodies.

Yevlo is eager to make a positive statement to Rurik: "My lord, we are about to succeed."

"This... it's crazy, you really succeeded."

Rurik stroked the rough bark, and the man dragging the twine hurriedly sat down to rest. They had already taken off their leather hats, and this time they sat down and grabbed the snow a lot and stuffed them into their mouths.

"My lord, this tree is very heavy."

"Yes, I saw it all."

"So." Yevlo gasped boldly and demanded: "I hope you will gather all the brothers together, and we will use a hundred people to pull this big tree away. Just rely on..." Then, Yevlo was violent. Cough.

"You!" Rurik suddenly twisted his body and noticed the blood on Jeflo's mouth, instantly becoming very nervous. "You! Are you sick?"

"I'm tired. Your lord, my chest feels about to burst. I..." Jevlo coughed again, and there were some bright red bloodshot eyes in the protruding sputum.

Is it tuberculosis? It must be impossible. I am afraid this is a manifestation of extreme fatigue.

The fact is indeed the case. Jeflo must set an example He is very fierce, his lungs have been holding a breath, and many capillaries ruptured in a daze. He has already experienced obvious internal injuries, and he continues to make things more than worthwhile.

They are all strong men. Looking at this huge tree of exaggerated length, Rurik gritted his teeth and hurriedly ordered the mercenaries who drove the reindeer to assemble urgently. Also gathered were a group of busy Ross fishermen and Kowen tribesmen. .

In his excitement, Rurik drew out his short sword and agitated: "Brothers, this big tree will be the mast of our big ship! It is extremely heavy, but don't be afraid! We organize a hundred deer and a hundred people. , Work together to pull it away! Listen, finish this job, let's go back to dinner. All of you! Whether it is a Ross or Corvin or my mercenary brother, you have paid so much! Everyone can do it tonight Get three pounds of wheat!"

Hearing this promise, the tired guys all jumped up, and even taking Jeflo felt that they had recovered a lot of strength. wheat! It is delicious on earth, and Lurik is indeed capable of fulfilling this promise immediately.

Of course Rurik would fulfill his promise. After all, that was 70,000 pounds of wheat, and so much wheat was not evenly distributed to the residents of Fort Elon. They are all rewards to the strong men who have paid a lot of labor, and only it can supplement the strong men with nearly four thousand calories in a very short time, in the hope that they can jump up and go high the next day. Intensity and heavy physical labor.