Chapter 1039： We probably found the 2nd line leading to Novgorod...

The many people in front of them are short, and the weapons in their hands are almost all bone spears. These people are extremely lacking in iron tools visible to the naked eye, and poverty is basically written on their faces.

The explorer Carl, still on alert, disembarked his wife and children, taking another "gift" from the ship.

A small cloth bag was grasped by Carl, who pulled the cord at the bout to reveal the white fluffy velvet inside.

The old leader of the village looked at the white thing, and his aging eyes suddenly glowed.

"Ah! Is this really salt?"

"I'll give it to you." After saying that, Karl handed over the whole cloth bag.

The old leader personally tasted it, and it was salty with bitterness. After all, this is crude sea salt, and there are still a lot of impurities such as magnesium chloride that have not been removed.

It doesn't matter if there are impurities. Many people have forgotten the taste of salt in this small village hidden in the forest and lake. But just taste the taste of salt out of instinct, and it will shock the whole head like an electric shock.

The old leader actually burst into tears: "You... come from a distant sea? You brought such treasures."

Carl smiled, he was about to explain and then suddenly shut up.

sea? Is it really far?

It has only been seven days since the five families entered the estuary of the river. This is not because they were so desperate to travel, but the fleet stopped and stopped for a long time and was busy hunting birds and beasts. Trying to hurry, Carl estimates that he will be able to rush to this village in three days.

Can't the people in the village build rafts? Can't you cook salt yourself without leaving the village and going to the ocean? Even if the seawater in the Gulf of Finland is extremely low in salinity, it is better than tears of surprise today.

He estimated that the people in this village had an inexplicable fear of the sea, or were comfortable living in this small area by the forest lake.

Carl displayed iron hand axes and daggers, and even a double-tipped long-handled iron harpoon for fishing.

He claims that these are all gifts, although of course there is a price to be paid to get them.

"I'd like to exchange with you, you... is there anything you can exchange with me?"

In the entire village, only the old leader has ancient memories. The village is indeed isolated from the world. The last time a foreigner arrived, the leader was very young. There are few elderly people in the village, in other words, people here are short-lived. The people with the bone spears put down their weapons and waited for the leader's judgment.

"We, have some hides from forest beasts. And some jerky."

"Beast of the forest? What is that?"

The leader can send someone to fetch it, and in a short while there is a small boar hide that has not yet been bristled off.

Wild boar skins are not popular in Ross at all, because wild boars always like to build a hard mud shell to make their skin as hard as iron. It is too troublesome to hunt wild boars to obtain pig skins, and hunters can even collect tusks and bristles. In the past, no one had a choice. Wild boar was too savage, so one had to endure the smell and roast it. Now, there are clearly more choices. In terms of selling money, catching bears or catching wild deer is more economical. Ross hunters who had to enter the forest didn't want to risk a deadly fight with wild boars.

The people of this village may not have a choice either. It may be difficult to hunt a bear with their poor weapons. Many people with spears will probably have no problem hunting a small wild boar.

So, what's the use of Roth's explorers for boar skins?

Carl couldn't hide his embarrassment: "This is a wild boar skin. What else do you have besides this?"

The leader and his close friends looked at each other in dismay, but in fact the answer was ready to come out.

The most valuable thing a village has is people. It seems acceptable to them to trade some children as goods in exchange for important means of production.

They quickly discussed the results, and the leader replied flatly: "I can give you some children. I know that you will not hurt these children. They can be your slaves and do things for you."

Such a reply was something that Carl never thought of. He did indeed move to conquer the village and kidnap the entire population as slaves in order to claim credit to the king. If he had the strength, he would definitely do so. As for whether the king will pardon the status of the villagers' slaves, it is not something he should consider.

Carl decided to report today's news to the Governor of New Roseburg, and then the messenger reported the matter to the king. In the end, the entire village is highly likely to be incorporated, and those who live in a closed life will eventually come out of the cage and contact people outside.

"You guys, how many children can you give me." He asked back.

"One at most. I…want your goodies."

"Alright."

Even so, Karl wouldn't fully trust the village, so only one boat docked, and the other continued to watch.

Only the Carl family brought their many hunting tools ashore to display, and after a while, the other party really brought ten ignorant children.

There are boys and girls, all of them have dirty faces, and their clothes are casually sewn with coarse cloth and leather. To make matters worse, these children still have small white **** in their hair, which are actually worm eggs.

In this era, cats can be raised to eliminate rodent infestation. Forest cats, which were once regarded as the source of cherished leather, have become small mouse-hunting beasts kept at home, and gradually have pet value.

Fleas such as lice are difficult to avoid, and the way to deal with parasites is to wash and wash clothes with soap.

The sophisticated Ross family no longer has to hunt around for fleas, but Chukar, who was tortured by parasites, still remembers it.

If you really want to take in these little slaves, you have to quickly change their clothes and shave their hair full of eggs. In any case, the main cities of Rus do not have any slave markets. The king's personal attitude is inherently dislike of slavery, and it is openly realized that he neither supports nor opposes it, unless the slaves are from enemy prisoners of war, which is full support.

There are other factors that are both up and down. After all, the old king Otto chose ten maids for Rurik, which caused a sensation in the entire fjord in Ross in the tribal era. Now those servants have long since left their status as slaves, and all of them have become female nobles because they married the current king Rurik.

Carl himself is getting old, and he doesn't expect to become a noble at all. As a person from old Ross, his family has long lived a comfortable life in the kingdom society, so this expedition is fully equipped.

He put forward new conditions: "I only want girls, it doesn't matter if they are younger."

"This... why is this?"

Carl smiled, and hurriedly pulled his little blond son, who was also quite ignorant, over, holding on to his thin shoulders and raising his chin proudly: "My noble son needs some maids, and these maids will regenerate my son in the future. Son. How? Please remember our identities! We! But Ross from the North World, we are very strong. I advise you to do as I ask."

The old leader felt threatened, and the whole village belonged to him. He was well-informed. He remembered that a long time ago, an outsider arrived here in a similar boat, exchanged a few things, and left. At that time, there were more explorers, and if there was a fight, the village would definitely suffer.

The new explorers only had two boats, and the old leader also saw the blonde-haired woman and child for the first time.

Although the old leader lacked understanding of the world outside the forest, he also knew that the outside world was terrifying. This Savok village has ancient legends because they are essentially a group of Finnish people fleeing Karelian attacks. Several forces are all of Finnish ethnicity, and they are constantly fighting each other. Before Ross wiped out the Karelia forces in one fell swoop, the forces had already completed the upgrade from the chiefdom to the tribal alliance, and it was not impossible to even upgrade to a feudal kingdom.

Some Savoks were forced to surrender to Karelia, while a few walked across the frozen Neva and finally hid in the dense forests of the southern Gulf of Finland. The history of being persecuted has been turned into a legend, so that the wizards of the village keep hypnotizing themselves that there are many monsters outside the forest, scaring the whole village to dare not go too far from the settlement.

If you attack the "blond outsider" in front of you with the villagers, you can basically win, then the boats floating on the lake will leave. Young people may have nothing to fear, but the old leader may have a clear understanding, for fear that the other party's companion will make a big report after the incident.

The transaction was carried out immediately. After all, the hand axe, which is already in the state of low carbon steel, has undergone quenching treatment. It is really **** the outside and soft on the inside, and it is extremely easy to handle wood. Carl finally used a bag of salt, five hand axes, and a harpoon to exchange for ten girls on the spot, basically taking away all the girls in the five- or six-year-old age group of the entire village.

The essence of the Savok village is an armed immigrant group formed by many families who fled together a long time ago. Even if they settled here and lived a stable life, the high mortality rate of children forced each family to live a long life. They are not going to marry close relatives. Based on this situation, a child is not a problem for the family. After all, the probability of him growing to ten years old is not high. Exactly so, the overall size of the entire village is still maintained at only 200 people. It is not that they did it deliberately. It is really the harsh life that forced them to fail to expand the population.

Even a five-year-old child is an important labor force. However, the production tools in Savok village are too backward, and even fishing is used to dig puddles to lure fish, block, drain, and catch fish, because there is a lack of fish for fishing. hook.

If you start using iron tools, everything will be fine. The children of the village do not only belong to their parents, but the property of the whole village. Children are always at the mercy of adults before they reach adulthood. In reality, children cannot be counted as "people" in the concept of Savok village. Trading out the children is a loss of ten laborers, which is not a problem, as long as the village has more children. But iron tools are really hard to come by!

The Carl family didn't want to stay on the shore any longer, and the ten dirty girls didn't know what would happen in the future, and were very obediently carried on the half-grounded ship.

As soon as they boarded the ship, Carl's wife could ask her youngest son: "Choose the two you like, and it will be your wife in the future."

The idea of ​​a golden retriever is quite simple. He is too young to be a maid. He just wants two playmates.

The reason why there were ten girls was precisely because the expedition consisted of five Ross families, and each family took two. Carl felt that his arrangement was very fair. Besides, even if he has already accumulated some wealth, his eldest son, who has already started a family, has already taken most of it. He wants to accumulate as much wealth as possible for his younger son, such as two maids.

The ten maids Carl's family can't afford to support, not to mention that if they do this, they will be pointed out by fellow villagers afterwards. The so-called "only the king can have ten maids at a time, what does your family want".

Salt and iron were left on the shore, and a very special gift was given to the old chief for free.

Carl specifically instructed: "When we see ships like us again, and people with robes like me, show this flag. If there are explorers coming in the future, we can still make some transactions."

The special gift is the flag of Ross. Carl has done it very well. Any small tribe that surrenders to Ross will have the flag given by Ross, and show it to prove that their surrender is the obligation of the surrenderer.

In this way, Karl can announce to his companions in a high-profile manner that if the village accepts the flag, it will surrender to Ross.

Brand watched the show and even waited impatiently, but he didn't expect old Carl to be a hero.

The exploration of the two long ships will continue, even if there are many little girls on board, it is not a problem for everyone. The problem came when they docked at night.

The fleet continued to search upstream along the slender lake, and sensitive people found that the lake was not pure water, proving that the source of the river was still far away.

They lit bonfires on the shore, ate the grilled fish in a group, and started to deal with the dirty children.

The old clothes were tattered and there were parasites, so the linen that was originally used as a tent was quickly cut down, and the hemp rope was roughly used to make robes for the ten children. It's a pity that these children have been crying for a while because their parasitic hair has been shaved clean by a sharp knife. Such a simple and rude method to solve the parasite problem, that is, all of them became bald, and they all behaved unhappy.

While the expedition is still searching for the source of the river, Karl and Brand are undaunted, having their own longship as if they have everything. They rely on fishing and hunting to maintain the consumption of supplies, but with more than ten mouths on the boat, the consumption of materials is indeed more.

Gradually, the river that points to the southeast gradually turned to the east, and then began to change to the northeast.

"Finally I can put the sail down." Karl, who was overjoyed, took the lead in raising the sail.

The scene of raising the sail shocked the little girls on the boat. They didn't know what the blond "giant" was doing. They saw that he untied some hemp ropes and manipulated a very thick cable, and a huge cloth appeared.

They hugged each other in shock, their mouths widened, and they sighed at the huge blue pattern on the white linen.

Compared with the traditional weight sail, the Latin-style jib has a certain wing-like ability, it can more easily create a pressure difference in the wind. Such a good structure is quickly popularized, but for the subsequent construction of large and small ships, the jib structure is absolutely mainstream.

So the two longships hoisted their jibs, a mix of textile fibers. The cost of spinning a giant sail in one piece is very high. For cost-effective reasons, even the sails of Ross's large battleships are stitched together, but a large number of stitches can only be seen with zero-distance contact.

Two huge, long strips of blue cloth were sewn on the sail, intertwined with each other. This is the eternal totem of old Ross. As the old Ross people with strong roots, Carl and Brand are very happy that their ship can represent Ross.

In a practical sense, two old friends pulled three other friends together to form an expedition team of five families to go deep into this reed-rich river, which is the classic performance of the Vikings.

In order to gain wealth and explore, they also hope that they will ask the king for credit after the expedition has achieved results. After all, the essence of the royal pirate Speuter is a reused explorer, and that guy is a madman who is well known in the old clan era. The age of expansion has given people like Speuter enormous opportunities, and he has indeed accomplished enough feats for others to follow.

Today, that guy is no longer young but has control over the entire island of Saaremaa, has become a nobleman of the kingdom, and has the right to organize a fleet to enforce the law in the South Baltic Sea.

During the expedition, the five families couldn't help but think of the guy who was enjoying the good fortune in Spuut, and they discussed with each other that "the king should admit our great discovery, and this river must at least be called the Reed River".

With the wind, the two ships continued to push northeastward in the gradually narrowing channel. The surrounding environment is still lush with reeds by the river, and tall pine trees and other tree species mixed in on both sides.

Strangely, the forest gradually disappeared. Instead, large areas of plains appeared on the east bank of the river. Do not! It looked like a watery meadow, with wetlands sandwiched in between.

Even the cattle herders!

right! cattle herders.

Calvin never imagined that he could still see a living person in the distance. He subconsciously stood up and shouted at the seemingly small figure in the distance, shouting, "Come to me quickly."

Brand on the back boat was really speechless, and let out a word at his throat: "Are you stupid? Can that person understand you?"

"Maybe you understand? Look at it with confidence!" Carl smiled: "Look, that man is clearly driving towards us with the ox."

"Ah! It's a miracle." Brand was no longer talking nonsense, and simply threw the iron anchor on the ship directly, making the entire long ship temporarily set in the river.

The two boats were motionless, and the five families stared wide-eyed as the cattle herders approached. They all had a hunch that those who gradually approached could probably understand the Norse language.

The two little boys drove six cows of different sizes swaying forward. The horns of these cows were all chopped off. Each one probably ate too much grass and had a ridiculously round belly. The two children jumping and jumping have no meaning to be afraid at all. Karl saw that, unlike the black-haired villagers who spoke Finnish a few days ago, the two children had brown hair. a familiar feeling.

"Hey! Do you understand what I'm saying?" Carl continued to ask.

Only one child answered in a shrill voice: "I understand! How did you get here? You! You are not the one to explore the Sauron!"

The words in the reply were indeed Norse, but the pronunciation was a bit odd, especially with the nasality of Slavic. The most important thing is the content of the reply. Carl and the others heard it clearly, although the other party is two children, they must have dealt with Ross.

The children herding cows are not afraid at all. In their opinion, the raised sails and matching patterns mean that the person who suddenly emerges from this river is their own. They drove the cattle to the river bank, and a group of people on the boat watched with smiles.

Carl was more aware of the problem of the scene, so he asked a soul question: "Where is this place? Do you live nearby?"

"This is Novgorod. Strange, don't you know? You are really fools. Oh, we came from the calf manor, uncle, you see we are still herding cows." The boy's words were childish. The naughty, and the content must be true.

Hearing the content, Carl and the others simply dropped their jaws. UU reading

"Impossible...Impossible?!" Karl denied subconsciously, "How could this be Novgorod?"

The child pouted and looked disdainful: "Why don't you park the boat here and come with us now." After that, the child looked at the sun again: "We should have returned to the village, or you should come with us. Our Calf Manor has always been close to Whitetree Manor... oh no, it's Novgorod."

A slip of the tongue even exposed the information. Originally, Novgorod was defined by Old Ross as the entire area around Yinermen Lake. Now, with the expansion of White Tree Manor, Novgorod only refers to the city expanded by the manor. .

An answer has been forthcoming.

Karl looked at Brand, who was stunned, and shouted, "Hey, don't be stunned! I think we have probably found the second waterway leading to Novgorod."

"Really? It seems to be true?!"

"Why don't we just walk with the cowherd boy? I think we have to meet the king in person. The king is in Novgorod city. Haha, this is the time for the gods to bless us. It's time to take credit! Let's go ashore."