Chapter 513： There is a sad name one step away from victory and because of timidity...

Those with naked backs put on cloths, they tied their waists with hemp rope, and hung hand axes and daggers on the ropes.

A large number of short spears were thrown onto the ship, many of which were high-quality spearheads bought from the Ruths.

On the whole, the Balmerks consist of an army. They are at best a group of armed fishermen and herders. As for the overall combat effectiveness, Rurik cannot have too high expectations for them. He only asks for the troops in the British area that he may encounter. Worse existence.

If every soldier in this army crossing the sea lacks defense and only holds melee weapons, the team will suffer a loss in combat.

What is the situation in the British Isles now? Are those kingdoms already in the habit of bows and arrows?

Remaining cautious, Rurik called on the family leaders who intend to take their own people on the expedition, asking them to properly rectify their warriors, and at the same time asking them to bring as many wooden bows as possible, even if the quality is mediocre.

They were probably prepared on the eve of departure, and the result was basically within Rurik's expectation.

Near the fjord where the Balmerks are located, there are large preys that can be hunted, that is, the seals that land on the shore to rest, and the big beasts on the land have long been hunted. The best weapon for hunting seals is the spear and the harpoon. Therefore, the spears of some soldiers in the army are simply improved harpoons.

They lacked the opportunity to use the bow, and finally Rurik made an inventory, knowing that he could only gather a mere fifty archers.

"It's really ironic, there are only fifty bow hunters in the huge tribe?"

Set off soon, facing the enthusiastic soldiers, he can only bravely welcome the summer North Sea.

The Aphrora unloaded most of the cargo, and the ballast stones placed in the cabin and the fresh water in the wooden barrels were not large enough.

The big ship is really relaxed, she completely led the follow-up more than 30 long rowing boats with the attitude of flagship, embarking on an unknown journey.

Only a few people dared to explore for themselves, because they didn't know the way forward and didn't dare to make jokes about their lives. Maybe the baby is close at hand, and the huge sense of fear finally forces the trembling body to shake the oar in the opposite direction.

But this time, everything has changed!

A thousand men gathered together, and a large number of them was just for courage to each other. Anyone who evacuated lightly would be regarded as a traitor by friends for the first time, and would even be thrown into the sea by the head of his family and executed.

There are no cowardly among them, and it is precisely to make them bold that they have the right to join this huge expedition.

They are full of confidence in the way ahead, because the big Rus ship is sailing retrograde, and the white and blue flag flying on the top of the mast is a signal to everyone. As long as you follow the Rurik, as long as the ships maintain the state of the group, everything will be smooth.

Now they no longer even worry about the sea becoming violent. A storm has just ended, and the Balmerks sacrificed Odin to blood. Will God continue to be angry?

The fleet successfully left the huge Narvik Fjord in one day, and everyone was already floating in the vast ocean.

The ships followed the track of the Aphrora, the big ship went straight to the ocean, and the rest of the ships looked at the fading coastline and continued to shake their oars vigorously.

They were sailing against the wind, and the Aphrora had to accommodate the "turtle speed" of the entire fleet. The fleet actually sails slowly at a speed of three knots per hour, but Rurik also has to admire the powerful strength of these fishermen, who can row from sunrise to close to sunset!

When night fell, people tied the boats together with ropes, and finally the ropes were tied to the big boat.

People have no time to enjoy the nightlife, and their enthusiasm when sailing is quickly diminished by the long rowing oars. As soon as they got a respite, they immediately went over leather or had no bedding, and fell asleep after eating some pickled fish.

Perhaps only Rurik sleeps best every night.

Just like she went to Balmerk Harbor, the people on the Aphrodite were completely unchanged, but it also represented the strongest combat effectiveness of the entire fleet.

It is understandable if the leader Magnut intends to expedition, but he has been cultivating his eldest son Bijuni, hoping that this brave young man will win one honor after another in a short time, and be elected as the next one at the meeting. leader. The leader of each family needs a popular doer, not the son of the former leader to be the leader. Bijuni couldn't be more clear about his mission.

How to make the people believe in themselves? Bijuni has his own means.

In a nutshell: Find the enemy, kill the enemy mercilessly, and achieve your blood-stained glory in the enemy's corpse.

However, after a five-day voyage, there is still no land in sight, even if it is an island! Unfortunately, there is nothing.

It was a quiet night again, the stars in the sky were shining, and the magnificent scenery seemed to Biyuni, as if the gods were mocking in the sky. The so-called fleet would dare to claim to conquer the sea?

He and Rurik lay on the bow deck of the big ship, looking at the sky with their arms folded.

"Rurik, it's already the sixth day. These days I firmly believe in your decision. Ah! Our route...should be correct?"

"Are you suspicious of me?" Rurik asked angrily.

"Where do I dare, we have gone through more than 20 days of sailing, and your decision has never been wrong. But those brothers are following you, no one knows this route except you."

"Then see with your eyes, and feel with your heart. Remember our sailing, so that you will be able to expedition alone in the future."

"That's the case, but our voyage is too far away after all..."

"No way." Rurik slowly got up. He didn't want to tell his Bijuni brothers that about the route from the Narvik Fjord to the British Isles, he was largely taking his luck.

He thought for a while, and then said: "I can only say that your location is too remote. You have seen the map I drew."

"Yes, I have taken it to heart."

"Then don't question it anymore. Your fjord is in the north of the peninsula, but Bergen is in the south. It is easier for the people of Bergen to reach the British Isles, and it will take us some time. Believe me, we run Toward the southwest, at least some islands can be found first, and the destination can be found naturally along the islands."

What can Biyuni say? He can only show his support.

With continued sailing, the morale of the fleet has been declining. The only thing that made everyone interested was that people with fishing nets successfully caught a batch of herring.

They never reject eating herring raw. Fish meat brings energy and important fresh water.

Compared with previous voyages, due to Lurik’s emphasis on logistics, there is absolutely no shortage of fresh water in the entire fleet, and there is no need to worry about food because the fish can be directly caught.

The voyage has been going on for a week, and Rurik is convinced that he has been on the right voyage.

Actually? His route is indeed very correct.

Rurik used the sun as his navigation, and he deliberately led the fleet to think about sailing southwest. If this were the case, his course would have been fatally skewed.

However, the warm Atlantic current has created a maritime miracle!

The warm current travels along the plate to the North Pole, forming a large number of swirling vortices near Scandinavia. The overall velocity of the ocean currents is slow, and those vortices take the entire fleet slowly towards the European continent, objectively constantly correcting Rurik’s yaw.

In this way, the continuous voyage went on for twelve days!

I don't know who started, and the long boats that followed, the people who rowed the oars finally couldn't hold it back!

They gradually paused the paddling, took up the hand axe and kept beating the shield. The abnormal behavior immediately shocked Rurik who was resting.

Before long, a sailor ran to the captain's lounge.

"My lord! Those people are picking things up."

"Absurd!" Rurik got up, and Biyunni and Frocky hurriedly followed up.

The three of them ran to the **** and saw that all the subsequent fleet stopped moving forward.

Rurik, who was holding the railing, stared at the group of lazy people with anger and stomped his feet: "Damn! We ordered one step away from success. What are these guys doing?"

"I don't think they can stand it anymore."

Rurik glared at Biyuni: "Your family has the most troops. Could it be that they also betrayed your commander-in-chief?"

"No! Someone must be provoked. We must turn back."

"Also."

The sailor swiftly manipulated the rope, and the Aphrola performed an exaggerated sharp turn in front of the next thousand people who were lazy. Then, with the help of the south wind, the ship's bow set off a big wave, like a sea monster, pounced on the ship. team.

Those people rushed to a strong fear, and they started paddling again, all to avoid being hit.

But Rurik only deliberately deterred them, and the big ship circled around the stagnant group of ships.

Rurik took off his hat and stood at the bow and pointed his sword at the people on the long ship.

"Why are you slack?"

At this moment, someone was already yelling, and as more and more yelling, Rurik deserved to order the torsion slingshot to launch into the sea.

The waves hit by the projectile made people calm down.

"I know what you think!" Rurik yelled with his already somewhat changed voice: "You are afraid of sailing! You even began to question me! I obviously want to take you to victory and obtain great wealth. You are actually questioning Me! You are not afraid of the enemy, you are actually afraid of the sea."

Thinking of coming to a wide area without a loudspeaker, and his speech is ultimately lacking in penetration, Rurik changed his breath again.

"Hey! The heads of the families! You all followed me on the big ship, let's study it carefully..."

Rurik really has no time to talk nonsense with ordinary fighters. He believes that this group of common people lacks independent opinions. Now that the people who retreat must also be individual family leaders. Therefore, to win the support of these leaders, this sudden mutiny will also stop it. Up.

Those chiefs had a variety of thoughts, a total of eleven people just got on the ship, and they were immediately controlled by armed men.

For these people, Rurik did not intend to come to any gentle persuasion.

He just stood on a high place, looking at the people on the center deck and ordered: "I don't care what you think, I will continue to sail. You people don't get off my big ship until you find the land."

Isn't this detained?

They bared their teeth and cast angrily gazes at Bijuni who was standing next to Rurik.

Someone yelled: "Biyunni, what are you doing? You are not the leader, you can't do this to us."

"But Rurik is our commander! You are guilty of questioning him."

"Why do you want to do this?" The man continued to yell, "Brothers can't stand the boring sailing. What have we gotten for more than ten days except for some fish? We are walking on a road of no return, Rurik of Ross! You are joking about our lives!"

"Snowlassonde (talker)!" Bijuni pointed, "I urge you to respect my brother Rurik."

"This is not fair! Many brothers no longer want to leave. You have to listen to your brothers' opinions. We have to vote on whether to go or withdraw!"

Listening to this nonsense, Rurik slammed hard, and a molar tooth was literally bit off. Before long, the people on the center deck below saw Rurik's bleeding mouth.

As if a little devil showed the mouth of a blood basin?

Rurik reached out his hand to buckle off his bloodied deciduous teeth. At this moment, he could no longer care about the pain.

He denounced: "This is the sea! There is the law of the sea above the sea! Put away your set of Nordic (Nordic Commonwealth Council), we are going to implement a cross-sea expedition, you actually have to negotiate terms with the commander. It seems, I want to kill a few traitors!"

"No! Just no! Rules can't be broken!" Snowlasson still yelled.

Now Rurik is very convinced that the culprit of the mutiny is this guy.

However, the development of the matter was completely beyond Rurik's expectation.

In an instant, Biyuni picked up the steel-armed crossbow that he regarded as a treasure. He quickly picked it up and pulled the trigger at the target.

In an instant, people saw the most clamoring Snowlasund with a thick arrow tail on his forehead. The noisy man closed his mouth and slumped to the ground with staring eyes.

"What are you doing? You are crazy! That's your Balmerk tribe!" Rurik was shocked and beat Biyunni hard.

But Biyuni was calmer than anyone else.

When everyone was shocked, Bijuni held up the crossbow solemnly: "This is Havdic (the rules of the sea)! What we want is a triumphant expedition, not a cowardly retreat. We want to show the people of our hometown. Let us return with a full load instead of becoming cowards they scolded."

At this moment, even the little bald head of Froggy stood up and shouted to the heads of the families: "Imagine that the sea has never been violent these days! Those brothers who gave their lives are asking God for us now. Peace of peace. If you return to the voyage, you will be punished by God, and the huge waves and sea monsters will eat you up!"

Rurik looked at the Biyuni brothers, thinking that these two bald heads, one big and one small, were really natural fierce men.

"Biyunni, you are too ruthless, killing yourself so mercilessly? Why didn't I notice that you were so cruel before..." The words in my heart were held in my heart, and Rurik gently pushed the two away. At this moment, he was already Don't want to talk nonsense.

Facing the remaining leaders, Rurik had only one arrangement: "Continue with us, and dare to retreat lightly, kill!"

Look at the current situation. The people on the center deck instantly became staunch fans of the expedition.

Rurik really had to admit that when the army was distracted, he killed a group of deserters who made the most trouble, and even without any eleventh smash, it was able to deter others.

Asking himself, Rurik didn't want to personally execute a retiring leader for this reason. Although the two clans were an alliance, he didn't know whether doing so would have an adverse effect on his allied clans.

This is "dark work", fortunately, Bijuni helped himself to do it cleanly.

It is difficult for Rurik to be thankful, he can really see Bijuni's ambition-Bijuni will be the most powerful dictator of Balmerk!

It was natural to think of this kind of thing, and Rurik didn't find it strange. A tribe of nearly 20,000 people is still scattered in the sand, isn't it looking for death in this complicated world? If they want to survive, they must transform into a kingdom. As for who is the king, Rurik doesn't want Bijuni, at least not him in the future.

The leaders were all placed in the cabin, and their personal weapons were confiscated, and they were effectively placed under house arrest. They did not dare to make any abuse, for fear that they would be executed again, and in the end they would end up with a traitor's infamy, which would spread forever among the tribe. Traitors, naturally, they cannot convince the clan members, and the clan association does not hesitate to elect another person as the patriarch.

As for the rest of the long ship, what else can the thousands of soldiers on board do? A long ship continued to follow the Aphrora, which continued to sail, and the storm was quickly settled.

But for the vast number of soldiers they still don't know what the way forward. The only thing they know is that any retreat is a shameful betrayal, and that big ship will launch a crusade without hesitation.

Not only that, Froggy is a small man, and his theory of "God's grace and punishment" spread quickly. Now people have to worry about the cost of escape, that is, even if they escape the sanctions of the commander, they will eventually be sanctioned by the sea monsters instructed by Odin.

They can only be brave.

And the wonderful thing happened the next day.

Everything is as Rurik said, there is a sad and hateful thing, that is, a step away from success, because of timidity and shameful retreat.

On a new day, the fleet continued to sail for fourteen days. So far, people have never seen another fishing boat on the sea. However, this morning, a miracle happened.

The sailor lying on the mast saw the ships floating on the sea, and the good news horrified all the ailing people.

That is definitely a fishing boat! The fishing boat can only mean one thing, its home port is nearby!