Chapter 633： Snow-covered icy road

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A light snow came unexpectedly, and its power seemed to only make the temperature slightly colder.

The essence of spring has arrived, and the Mediterranean in the south is blooming with flowers. The northern Gulf of Bothnia and the pure Arctic Circle are still covered with ice and snow.

The location of Fort Elon is already in the Arctic Circle, and the port of Narvik is simply deeper.

The gloomy world kept dropping dense ice crystals, which added a trace of worry to the team that was about to travel.

Rurik slept in and ate local grilled salmon at about noon.

The fish was offered by Mezzasta, and he himself entered the palace of Arrival.

"My lord, did you sleep well yesterday?" he asked flatly.

"It's really comfortable. My woman Nolan hasn't gotten up yet."

"Then this meal..."

"It doesn't get in the way." Rurik waved his hand. "There is basically no chance of restful sleep for some time in the future. Metzasta, how did you get your work done?"

"I organized people overnight to carry the reserve of dead grass for you. The bundles of grass have been placed on the new sleigh, but the grass may not be enough for the deer to eat. Worse, it snowed outside."

"I know it's snowing, it doesn't matter. By the way, my Tavastia women, how are they?"

"They are very good, I have ordered, my people dare not provoke them at all. But there is another thing I want to report to you."

"Is it a good thing?" Rurik asked.

"It's a good thing."

"But it doesn't matter."

"It's about free deer breeders. Some people are temporarily staying in our Elronburg. You may have known about this for a long time. They are here to do business, since they are all your servants..."

Rurik was already full of my head to Balmerk, and suddenly remembered it: "Let's go and see."

After a while, a handful of dwarfs in ragged clothes stood in front of him.

That was Lumia's extremely distant uncle. At this person's order, a crowd of "dwarves" knelt on the ground.

Are they all so-called free deer breeders? indeed so. Hear that they speak the Old Finnish dialect and speak to Lumia with an accent.

They kept talking about seeing their master.

But, how can they be so submissive? It must be an attempt to wealth.

"You all get up." Rurik flattened his body in the same language, standing on a high place with his arms open, showing his broad mind.

"I am indeed your master! Your life is protected by Rose, but doing business in my territory must give tribute."

They again claimed that they had "handed over a few reindeer as tribute, and this was the only thing they could do.

They are deer breeders, that is, Lapp people or Sami people.

The “wooden clerk” owned by the Ross people can be remembered very clearly. Ross has had a deep connection with them since ancient times, and ruling them is really a destiny.

Perhaps the attitude towards them was a bit rough at first, but seeing them so submissive today, Rurique can be described as a long face and joy.

He casually ordered Jeflo: "Bring the money bag."

After a while, Rurik threw some silver coins at them.

There are not many shiny silver coins, so why are they dazzling on the snow? !

Lu Mia's old uncle was very active, and immediately shouted: "Guys, what are you still doing in a daze? Thank you Duke Ross for his kindness!"

They immediately got down to pick up the silver coin, and happily praised the duke as a good man.

This may be an insult and a means of showing power.

"These guys... Canglin knows the etiquette. You are really poor, but you are very smart. You know that you are committed to a strong one." Rurik thought.

Up to now, Ross's policy against deer breeders who live freely from the depths of the Gulf of Bothnia to the Kola Peninsula in the west is basically a deterrent.

As long as they pay physical tributes, they can trade in Elronburg and be protected, and securely buy useful things, which was impossible in the past.

Is there a more high-pressure governance for them? The population of free deer breeders is still too small, and the Kra peninsula alone is an extremely huge place. Although they are powerless to resist, they still have the ability to run away desperately under pressure.

Conquering the area where the deer keeper is located has been considered a success, but the deer keeper itself is dispensable to Ross. Let's make good use of them! For example, they come uninvited year after year and trade reindeer, so that Rose’s own reindeer population will not fall into the abyss of inbreeding.

Even, in some extreme situations in the future, free deer breeders can be males to be the sled masters of the Russian army.

Rurik didn't intend to pay attention to them anymore. He checked the ten new sleighs and forty new deer, just like huge snails standing on the snow!

These reindeer sleighs provided by Mezzasta are positioned as heavy trucks for mines! The deer are not randomly selected. They are all bucks deliberately castrated. In this way, they maintain their physique and avoid the mania in April and May. In this regard, the Finnish ethnic groups such as the Kowenmen are well versed in this. On the contrary, Rurik, his sled team, pulls almost all unconceived, thin female deer. The reason for this choice is the ease of management.

The bobsled team got bigger! Metzasta also dispatched his men.

These men Rurik could not be more familiar, they all kindly called Rurik the most noble adult. Rurik would also be simply called by their title, that is, "veteran warrior".

During the war, these men were longbowmen, and now they take part in the work of Yufu. However, they carried the "Grey Tree Longbow" and shot them directly at a long distance from the so-called beasts wandering in the snowfield.

Once mastered advanced long-range weapons, no one would refuse to shoot polar bears. They want to get precious bear skins, and even make scary helmets with bear heads that have been dug out of their brains.

A visit to Elronburg was really the right choice. Lurik not only got a more adequate material reserve, but also took advantage of his clear mind to inspect the snow city.

The frozen Airon River made all the hydraulic workshops lie down. They were unable to perform free forging, nor were they able to pound the oats into digestible crumbs.

Nolen first took a bath and sauna last night, it was the ultimate enjoyment, and his body became soft and weak. After a break, it was already the afternoon of the next day when he woke up.

She ate some cold fish, and took Rurik's arm to see the giant by the river.

In the house adjacent to the diversion channel, the huge water drain is trapped in the ice.

In the past two years of living in Ross, she has learned a lot of Ross people's knowledge of machinery, and she has also been instilled some knowledge of so-called Newtonian mechanics, gears, and mathematics by her man Rurik in her daily study.

Of course she couldn't learn too much, but she still learned a lot after all. But I am a woman, learning to recite mantras is very deliberate, learning gears and mechanics, is this a craftsman?

She at least understood the connection between the water drain and the free forging sledge hammer. After some association, she immediately remembered the gold grinding discs in Roseburg's house.

She pointed to the huge bearing introduced into the cold house by the water drain, and said: "Liurik, since it can drive the hammer to forge, if it follows the new gear, it can also drive the millstone to rotate."

"You..." Rurik was stunned on the spot.

"Rurik, what's the matter with you?"

"You actually understand this?"

"Of course I understand, and you didn't teach it all." After that, she laughed again.

Mezzasta himself is here, and since even Nolan knows that the huge impeller of the water discharge can drive the grinding disc, it is really inappropriate not to arrange what his subordinates do.

After a while, he ran to a workshop dedicated to pounding oat grains and ordered Mezzasta to immediately carve a cylindrical roller with stone, and even a flat stone slab. If you ask what is the use of this thing, Lurik’s answer is very simple: "Just turn the stone roller with the power of water, and then crush the wheat."

It took some time and effort. Metzasta had never seen a stone mill, so he had to take the job according to Rurik's description and a brief sketch.

The women of the Corvin Grey Squirrel Tribe who picked up the Rose species generally hold their mixed-race children. They not only do not reject mixed-race, but also hope that their offspring will be as magnificent as the Roses. There are few people in Elronburg, but the number of children being raised is also staggering. Fortunately, this area has only been developed in recent years, and the extremely sufficient fishery resources can fully cope with the rapid expansion of the local population.

For example, Rurik added a batch of salted salmon jerky, and the special muscle texture of the salmon is still obvious. After eating high-salt foods, people's blood becomes thicker, and people's ability to resist severe cold is improved.

On the agreed new day, Rurik's supply, inspection, and research in Elronburg ended successfully.

The people enthusiastically sent off the Duke's long journey, and many people were also thankful that the disliked Tavastia finally left.

This is what everyone saw, the Duke’s huge sled team actually went west along the coastline. Is that direction correct?

Rurik's move was indeed a detour, and his detour had good reasons.

In fact, first walk the frozen Airon River north to Fort Fisk by the lake, and then find the Torna River in the forest to the west.

There are already seven hundred people on the seventy sleds and three hundred reindeer in the team. This large force is advancing in the gray world where the snow is constantly on, so Rurik chose a conservative route.

No one criticized this conservative choice.

They set off early in the morning and arrived at the icy mouth of the Torna River before night fell.

The snow is still there, and people camp in the woods by the river.

Compared with many people's worries about the future, Rurik is still as confident as ever in Nolan's view.

Even if it snowed, people still lit bonfires to make the cold night no longer terrible.

People slept in sleighs spontaneously. The reindeer gathered to report to the group to keep warm. Only the guards carried weapons and kept throwing hard-frozen branches into the bonfire.

"When does the snow stop?" Noren murmured, who was nestling next to Rurik.

"how could I know."

"I'm afraid the wind and snow will become lingering."

"No problem, I am very familiar with this place."

"Very familiar? Here?"

Rurik sighed slightly: "When I left Roseburg for the first time to participate in our winter hunting at the age of seven, I camped on the riverside. I told you about my past. For the past six years, we Rose has been out there. Expansion, all this is my effort!"

It sounds incredible, Noren knew that what Rurik said was true.

"Then next, we will go against the pace of my people and return to my hometown. I... never thought I could travel this far."

"What's this?" Rurik laughed boldly: "One day we will go to see the Roman capital and see if the huge wall of Constantinople is real. Noren ...Don't think about it, go to sleep."

Noren twisted his body, like a cat burrowing into Rurik's body, hoping to get more wonderful warmth...

The world at night is the darkness of pure meaning, and the vigilant sentry discovered the green fluorescence flickering in the forest on a snowy night.

Those are the eyes of the Arctic wolf!

It was a pack of wolves. The pack of wolves looking forward to food rushed towards the Rus's deer pack, but the wolves that did not escape in time were shot by the crossbow.

It is this bold beast that everyone carries weapons to guard against, and the beast also contributes its meat, giving the men the opportunity to sacrifice their teeth.

For three consecutive days, the work of the sled team was endless rushing. Everyone was not worried about getting lost. All the Balmerks had exactly the same caliber. The so-called even though the trip was a long way, the glacier went straight to the destination.

They were advancing on the snow-covered ice road, and the sled team was still advancing at an even speed, maintaining a speed of about 60 kilometers per day.

It is not difficult to count how far the journey has been. Reindeer is a peculiar animal. The time for them to go to the toilet is almost constant. From this, the deer breeder and the husband can guess how far they have moved day by day.

Until three days later, the snowfall process has ended, and people can move forward in the sunshine again.

Yes, the sun is so shining that it almost brightens the eyes of the blind.

The huge eyelashes of the reindeer became natural shutters, and Rurik's men all wore wooden framed sunglasses.

Liurik, who put on the sunglasses, was very angry, and Noren also showed a hint of coldness when she put on her.

Everyone's eyes have been protected, and their long journey has entered the stage of high-speed rushing.

Originally, Lurik was worried that when the team arrived in the majestic Scandinavian central mountain range, there would be a very sad process of going up the mountain. At that time, will the team get out of the ice and sledding all together, slowly climbing the mountain?

It turns out that Rurik was wrong, ridiculously wrong.

It was as if he didn't know the true face of Mount Lu, and he was only in this mountain. His team had already entered the central mountain range. Only by careful observation can the clue be found. Because the team has been marching on a soothing big uphill these days, which is difficult for everyone to notice.

Twelve days have passed since the entrance of the Torna River to the sea, and the reindeer sled team has demonstrated the ability to continue running, which is extremely rare in this era. As a price, Rurik’s reserves of grain and grass were also consumed.

There are mountains in front of them, and they don't look very tall. The mountain is not high, and the sled team is at an altitude of 500 meters.

The Torna River has become much narrower, but the glacier is still strong. Rurik actually noticed the presence of pebbles under the ice and knew that it was already a mountainous area, but the smoothness of the ice road and the soothing environment around him made him afraid to jump to conclusions.

Until this night, people lit a lot of bonfires, and all the Balmerks' mercenaries were talking about coming home soon.

"Coming soon?" Rurik heard Jeflo's report and swept away the boredom of these days.

The boring way of playing seems to be listening to Nuo Lun sing the community. She has her own temper. She is unwilling to play flute and sing small songs to a group of rough people of the same race, but tonight is very special.

Because many men are yelling, all they yell at is one thing-they will arrive at the ice lake tomorrow.

Lake of frozen hills? Are we actually on the hill now?

To be honest, Rurik did not take a good look at his geographic location in recent days until the next day, the morning light illuminates the whole world, he looks to the east, ignoring the dense pine forests on both sides of the river. Vaguely feel the emptiness of the Eastern world.

It is said that they must go to the ice lake today, and the team that is marching again is high-spirited, and even the reindeer herd is dragging the sleigh driven by the whip and starting to run wildly.

Rurik didn't wait long, even before noon, the team had already arrived at the Great Lakes.

Seeing that people were already cheering, the sound seemed to be able to crack the ice. Even Nolen was screaming, because when he arrived at the westernmost side of the lake, he would soon be able to see the vast sea!

The valley below the mountain leads directly to the Narvik Fjord, and in the depths of the bay is Balmerk.

The long journey was basically within Rurik's expectation. He spent seventeen days standing on this ice lake (Lake Torna).

For the whole team, there is only one remaining Tiger going down the mountain.

Rurik gave an order: "Brothers, let's go red! Give the Balmerks a surprise!"