Chapter 589 New Expedition to Britain
Rebirth starfruit
After a daunting trek, the Russian army unit led by Helliger escorted the large amount of confiscated goods and more than two thousand prisoners, and finally arrived at Lake Oulu, a brand new activity area for the Ross fishermen.
What is the source of the water in the East, now quite a Rus people have figured out, the original hinterland there is the entire lake area, year after year to send fresh water to the distant ocean.
Lake Oulu seems to be very large, but it is far less than the mountains and lakes in the traditional territory of the Tavastia people. It is just a gathering point of water flowing into the Haihe River.
Faced with the brothers who suddenly appeared, the fishermen were surprised and rejoiced.
After arriving at Lake Oulu, the rest of the formation does not need to rely on walking.
The fisherman’s boats began to transport the crowds, charging a small amount of reward for this, such as the axe spearhead and some leather captured from the enemy. They even asked for some captured women, because these women were all marked as tattoos by the soldiers and had to give up.
But suddenly two thousand women will join the Duchy of Ross, and the male and female fishermen are really worried about the future.
They are a group of short and black-haired women. If they all become new Rose women, are the remaining children still pure Roses? Maybe it should be counted, after all, the high priest Lumia who was ordered to Odin also looked like this.
A large group of people all arrived in Covenstad, and then took a boat back to Roseburg on the other side of the bay. It will take some time.
Prior to this, five hundred Suomi girls had their new homes, and the men in the camp had fallen into joy.
Those young and most energetic men become their husbands, and similarly, these men are also the mainstays of the Ross army at this stage.
Can they fight another battle? Can their energy still guarantee an expedition?
Rurik couldn't help but hesitate, but he couldn't change the goals he had set during the winter.
When he released a new war mobilization, the swordsman pointed directly at the British Isle of Britain in the west, and the men in Roseburg were actively responding.
Especially the young fighters of the First Banner, who have recently stepped on the east to beat Tavastia, and the blood of the enemy on the steel sword is still left behind. They are obviously the most active group of people.
"This group of guys just married a new woman, and there will be a group of women coming back soon. Do you still like to fight with women?!" Rurik was very happy but also speechless.
The fierce atmosphere of Roseburg can be felt by fools. All men from childhood to old age are chanting war, looting wheat, cloth and money.
It was a sunny morning, and the warm south wind poured warmth into the entire fjord.
The women were busy taking care of their children and washing clothes. Craftsmen from all walks of life stepped up to work in such good weather. The men who hoped to fight, they were busy polishing their swords and spearheads, and smearing new lines on their shields.
Although the Duke has not yet announced a formal expedition plan, it is clear that after this morning's meeting of the adults, the formal plan will be announced, so launching a new expedition by boat is only a matter of the next few days.
Rurik sat in the most central position on the first floor of the palace.
He sits cross-legged on a bear skin, and the bear head hanging on the wall is even more majestic.
Old Otto sat beside him with his braided hair and beard. He was already the de facto Duke, an old guy who wanted to support his life. There are still many old guys like him, everyone is the elite of the Ross tribe, and the era that belonged to them has inevitably passed away.
The young people in front of him are the pillars of Ross, and the children held, bred, and pulled by the 5,000 women, they represent a bright future.
The Ross Principality currently has two purely Ross flag teams at the core, ten centurions and two flag captains are here.
In addition, Fleiser, the captain of several flexible shooting flag teams, and Glendr, who has the Raven Shield, who brought his brothers to surrender, were also fortunate to participate in the meeting.
Another example is the heroes of the Balmerks, the Bijuni brothers. Not only are they present as VIPs of the alliance, people with a discerning eye can see that the Balmerks must do their best to conquer Britain in the next step.
All the people present got the news, and everyone waited for Rurik to release the expedition plan, but the brothers hurried to implement it.
Rurik said twice. Seeing that the time was right, he solemnly said: "The plan for the expedition to Britain was formulated since last winter. This plan must not be interfered with by various external forces. Perhaps some of you will think that it is already here. It’s June, is it appropriate to go to such a distant place to conquer the enemy? Yes, it’s a bit risky, but we have to do it.”
In fact, he still misjudged everyone's ideas. The people present are not afraid of war, let alone give up because of the many difficulties they may face. There is no dovish here at all.
Rurik said: "We must conquer Britain, we must looting a lot of wheat. Brothers, do you know that we are facing a huge difficulty now?"
Duke Rurik put the question here, everyone staring at it, and they didn't know how to answer the question for a while.
As his cousin, Arik grinned and said: "What about difficulties? We are extraordinary, and now the Danes who are considered powerful have died under our sword. Brother, you are the one who killed the King of Denmark, you He actually said that there are any difficulties."
After Arik finished speaking, he laughed, and the others also laughed because they were immersed in the feats of the past.
They laughed enough, and Rurik shrugged and had no choice but to point out the difficulty and entanglement.
He knocked on the wooden floor and said: "The problem is that we are crowded! It is not that there are many people now, but that there will be an astonishing number of people in the future."
He then pointed at the experienced young people present: "In the past, there were fewer women in the Ross tribe than men, but now it’s completely reversed. Which one of you is not two women in your family? Which one of them is not holding one in your arms? , One is conceived in the belly? Soon, we Ross people have 10,000 children, and then 20,000, 50,000, and even 100,000! As long as twelve years, the boy can take up arms, and another fifteen years, swaddling Girls in China can become new mothers. I fully trust your strength, just as I have seventeen women. I also fully trust the power of the women we shelter. I dare say that when I arrive In the years when the beard is white, the population of our Ross people will exceed 500,000!"
Half a million people? ! Rurik uses five hundred and one thousand to describe here.
Seeing that everyone was a little confused, he deliberately said: "A flag team has 500 troops. At that time, we can rely on a population of 500,000 and organize 200 flag teams composed entirely of strong men! Think about it, that's what it is. Our true strength. But to feed so many people, we need a lot of wheat!"
"Sure enough, there are only looting Britons?" The quiet old Otto coughed.
Rurik turned his head slightly: "Yes, at least for now. We are still pioneering in the east. Before the newly reclaimed farmland can produce enough wheat to feed everyone, we must keep attacking him for the next ten years. Otherwise, we must be hungry. Not only will we attack Britain this year, I am afraid this will become the norm in the future."
"So, this is the reason you are determined to keep the war?" Arik smiled again after he said, "Very well, I like it. I think my brothers like it very much."
When Arik said so, everyone present raised their fists in response.
He also said: "Brother, no one refuses the war. The brothers are eager to kill the enemy. Say! When will the troops be raised? What is the strength of the troops? Brothers should also hurry to prepare."
This is the end of the matter, no matter how much time it takes, it will be a waste of time!
Rurik stood up abruptly, standing like a giant, and began to give orders.
"Listen! Brothers..."
Regarding how to send troops, according to the original plan, the Russian army dispatched a thousand soldiers to expedition to Britain. The attacking spearhead was still to hit Northumbria, which is a soft persimmon. Even this expedition did not necessarily involve a decisive battle with them.
Rülik estimated that the broken-armed king named Ernred would take into account the strength of the Viking army, and either hide in the fortress to survive and die, or send envoys to seek a peace plan.
Any war must have a purpose. If it is to fight for the sake of war, how is it different from bandits?
Therefore, the first and foremost strategic goal of fighting against the Duchy of Ross is to use all the initiative to grab wheat.
At the same time, together with the Allied forces of Balmerk, formally sign a treaty with Northumbria to split a piece of land from its territory and become a territory shared by Balmerk and Ross. Then the kingdom must pay a lump sum each year. Tribute to meet the needs of the northern army.
The latter’s plan is actually more to complete all the Balmerks in the port of Narvik. They can manage the territory cut off from Northumbria. In this way, the Ross people also have a free port in the Western world. .
Therefore, where to become the long-term control area of the northern army, it is natural that Lindisfarne and Bamburgh were the key targets of the expedition last year. There should be a new castle for the northerners, which is called Newcastle. To put it bluntly, Newcastle itself is a military fort built by the Normans of Viking descent, and its geographical location is near the current Bamburgh.
In fact, everyone who listened attentively understood that this expedition was also largely helping allies. Today, no one thinks that the Bijuni brothers and their Balmerk fighters are outsiders. This is not the first time that everyone has worked together. Even though they are half-parents, the friendship cultivated on the battlefield is already brothers. .
It would be a good thing to let Northumbria succumb to the tribute if it can put on a strong army.
Of course, when the militant Arik understood this idea of the brother, he immediately questioned it.
Rurik's casual explanation made the cousin have to think again: "We now have the ability to directly hit York and destroy the Kingdom of Northumbria. But if we do this, other nearby kingdoms will be swallowed like vultures. The corpses of the war dead, so we will have to fight endlessly with them, and it will be impossible to continuously get wheat and other tributes."
Keep a weak Northumbria, let the warriors of the north split a territory, use their land to grow their own wheat and herd their own sheep, and when they are strong enough, they will naturally destroy the kingdom and replace it.
The strategic plan is so, how much is the best way to send troops?
Of course, the first thing Rurik thought of was the young people of the First Banner. They had some losses in the previous wars, and now the essence is still there, and the loss of troops is also very weak.
He was a little hesitant. These young people had just finished their two-month Oriental campaign, and they were afraid that they had been hollowed out by the newly acquired women in the past few days. Since Arik and the five centurions under him were all alive and well, Rurik also put his worries aside.
Think about it again, maybe I shouldn't have any concerns. The advanced fleet of the Russian army can drift along the coastline all the way to Balmerk. As long as it does not take the initiative to provoke a war with possible enemies, it will be possible to reach Narvik Port in as fast as 16 days. During this period of time, they were enough to cultivate their bodies on the boat, no entanglement with women, this recovery speed should be faster.
There are already less than 500 soldiers in the First Banner, so remove some experienced old guys from the Second Banner to add!
In addition, the shooting flag team is essentially a hodgepodge of various people, and it still has to fight as a hodgepodge.
Rurik decided to select three hundred people to join the war, two hundred mercenaries under his command, and one hundred Suomi servants. He wanted to choose the Heliger and Merlaren flag teams, and he also wanted to bring the useful Cowen archers, but those people are still on the journey back.
There should be 800 soldiers in the Russ Army landing operations, and the number of auxiliary sailors (actually a group of elderly fishermen and professional sailors) would be 200.
The total number of the Russian army is enough to dispatch a thousand people, and it does not look like a large army at first glance.
Do not! This is a big army!
Because, for this expedition, Rurik is determined to mobilize the current main force of the Russian navy, not to mention, but also with twelve armed cargo ships to build a large fleet of as many as twenty ships!
This was the plan for the expedition to Britain. At least the Russ were planning to fill their ships with the spoils. Another function of such a large fleet is to discourage all Danes from passing through the strait controlled by the Danes and try their best to avoid unnecessary fighting. Yes, Rurik had no intention of launching any attack even on Bornholm Island.
The plan has been drawn up, and the start of the expedition will be determined by Rurik on the twentieth day of June in the Julian calendar.
In fact, this time is not over. The so-called when the army first spent some twists and turns to arrive at the hometown of the Balmerks in Narvik Port, and then organized a huge fleet to arrive in Britain, it was only August. Rurik knew very well about the day when the British people were harvesting spring oats. We arrived in early August just in time for the locals to complete the dehulling of the wheat kernels. It was indeed the right time to get the ready-made goods.
There were still a few days before the planned time. When the order was issued, Roseburg turned around and began to allocate food and prepare for military supplies.
As a result, the merchants immediately began to sell their **** wood carvings at lower prices, in order to buy them for good luck by soldiers and their families in desperate need of expedition.
Four sail cruisers, Aphrola, Spellosville, Duke of Ostara, and Balmerk, and four cruisers, Mercury, Venus, Mona, and Mas Sail destroyers, and twelve armed merchant ships marked with hull numbers, all of them began to increase their weapons.
Regarding weapons, Rülik did not need to bother too much. He went out to fight, but the military production in the rear never ceased.
The older Kravassen is still a busy man. Although he is too lazy to strike iron himself, he is directing his blacksmith apprentices to make metal parts for the torsion slingshot. He cooperates with carpenters and leathersmiths to quickly make the torsion slingshot!
All sail cruisers have five torsion slingshots on each side, while sail destroyers are reduced to six on each side. All armed cargo ships still have only one torsion slingshot. What's more amazing is that these torsion slingshots can be disassembled and can be installed on two-wheeled carts to become a land warfare weapon.
For the long rowing boats of this era, torsion slingshots, which were originally not powerful weapons, can also show terrible destructive power.
Although it cost a lot to add so much weaponry, Liurik, so what's this? When the looted materials are shipped back, the wheat and leather are sold, which is another powerful "big silver coin recycling".
Soon, another piece of good news came. A hurried ship reported the good news from the East!
The Russian detachment finally returned to Covenstad one after another on the fourth day after Rurik returned. On the sixth day, the day after Rurik ended the military meeting, the news arrived at Roseburg.
Good news was spreading wildly. Upon receiving this news, Rurik gave an order, and the eight large ships headed by the Aphrola immediately set off for Covenstad in the east, trying to get the people back at once.
As Rurik expected, the big ships showed their swift carrying capacity and the high speed in the high-carrying state. The handling of follow-up matters was really embarrassing.
Although the people boarded the ship, it was a day and night drifting on the sea and miraculously arrived at Roseburg. It was a horrible scene of crowds. Although it was not enough to cause suffocation due to lack of air, the environment inside was really uncomfortable~www.novelhall. com~ Mainly there is a smell of urine and even vomit...
The ship had to be cleaned again. Fortunately, the soldiers from the Russian Army detachment from the east, the captured Tavastia woman and the child in his arms, accumulated as many as 2,500 people who were transported by these hundreds of ships. come back. It was really crowded, but Yelurik also tested the manning capacity of his ships. It can even be further improved, after all, the cabin can be packed with people, and the deck can also be full.
Maybe Aphrora can transport five hundred people in one ship? That is only a total of 35 tons of weight at most. According to her design, it is fine for Rurik until she loads 100 tons of cargo.
At least I don’t have to face such embarrassment in my expedition. Even if there are more than 200 Balmerks (war-damaged) on board, 20 large ships carry 1,300 people, and one ship carries 60 people. What a trouble.
The expedition was imminent, and the men in Roseburg divided the captured Tavastia women into a clean one. Most men found the women they marked according to their "tattoos", which was considered a "family reunion."
How about it? The young fighters of the selected First Banner Team were too lazy to entangle with women anymore, and now only a new great victory can satisfy their restless hearts.
In the same way, they are also aware of the diligent intentions of Lord Duke as never before. Facing his two or more wives, a man felt a heavy burden on his shoulders, which drove him to do everything he could in this expedition. Can get trophies, especially wheat.
Otherwise, your own women and children will really have to live through a hard winter.
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