Rise of Rurik

Gotland is a large island of 130 kilometers from east to west, and it is less than 50 kilometers at its widest point.

Its geographical location is unique, and it is surrounded by huge fishing grounds. The prosperous fishing industry makes the island once carried a huge population of 20,000 people.

Fishermen and merchants from all walks of life gather here, and the fish they produce are sold far away.

Gotland Island has a large population, and people from all over the world gather here. There is no powerful tribe with common roots, only more than ten large settled families and more than ten small fishing villages.

Without the war, life in Gotland would have been relatively peaceful.

Over the years, only Gotland fishermen have attacked outsiders who broke into the fishing grounds, and their attacks have frequently succeeded. It was the conflict with the Rus ten years ago, and they tasted the taste of failure.

At that time, Otto led the Ross fleet. Because the fleet was lost in the fog, it accidentally broke into the Gotland fishing grounds.

The unruly fishermen took it for granted that it was a fishing competitor from the north, or simply an attacker.

At least ten years ago, Gotland announced that it had seceded from the Svealan Union, and the elders of the major families voted to cooperate with the Danes. To be fair, Gotland is naturally quick to do business with Jutland, and they turned their backs on the alliance for the greater good, and Liang Zi was settled.

Since the Gotlanders turned their backs on the alliance, the Rus, who were members of the alliance, was equivalent to having a privateer's license. The far-flung Rus were fed up to attack the Gotlanders, but the lost fleet was attacked, and the leader's brother died.

After that, Otto turned his back on his old accounts, and the Rus suddenly became the most active in the attack on Gotland.

In recent years, the incessant attacks of the Rus have caused the Gotlanders to vomit three liters of blood.

The islanders are gathered from all directions, and if there is a crisis that cannot be overcome, the big deal is to evacuate the island.

However, not many big families are really willing to give up the business that they have been running for more than ten years and decades. Visby has become a city, and it should not be abandoned.

Many islanders have already chosen to evacuate. They cannot go fishing in the rich waters in the north of the island. Going to the Ore fishing grounds in the south is catching fish with Danish fishermen, which is a contradictory move.

Perhaps the carrying capacity of the island has reached its limit, and the tragic situation of the settlements in the south of the island being sacked by the Rus has put other settlements in danger.

There are currently two major settlements on the island, Visby on the west coast of the island, and Witset in a fjord on the north of the island.

Visby, the original meaning of "Sacrificial Hill", is the most densely populated because of its special status.

Witset, the original meaning of "white sand", just because this fjord is full of white sea sand.

The port of White Sands has been in decline for almost three years, with a large population migrating to Visby. So far, the population of Visby has swelled to nearly 10,000!

Serious population pressure forced a large number of natives to leave Gotland. No, some went to Kalmar, to the Danes, and even to Oslo, to Scandinavia, which faces the Atlantic Ocean. a bay.

Just as the Rus people launched a full-scale war, Gotland has already appeared strong on the outside, and the major families inside have quietly become suspicious of each other, and their nostalgia for the island is also declining.

Yes, on an island where you can't get great wealth, why should a real businessman continue to settle for a long time?

The population of the island has dropped sharply to less than 15,000 people, many strong men have been lost, and the remaining people are even more scattered.

The setbacks forced people to stay away from the military threat of the Rus, and people living near the sea were worried that a fleet would suddenly arrive and strike.

Their fears have finally become reality!

Arik, like a long-boat army of wolves, directly caught up with the four fishing boats that were desperately escaping.

He didn't have any dawdlings. First, his soldiers completed the accurate shooting with the crossbow (he is a veteran who has been focusing on sea shooting for more than two years), and then the ship took over the ship to complete the final blow.

The Warriors No. 1 flag team had no intention of fighting, and they fought furiously and rushed forward. Their aura like a broken bamboo had already frightened the fishermen on the shore to flee.

The man grabbed the hand of the woman and the child and started to run away with almost nothing.

Some people also decided to take some self-protection tools, as well as the entanglement at home.

Arik was too quick, however, and his warriors in uniform, a sort of white-shirted warrior, jumped off the boat, lit up with blue stripes of their classic Rus-proprietary letter X, holding bright white oiled steel swords and Shield, thinking of scaring stupid people to rush.

The fisherman roared in horror: "It's the Rus! The damn Rus is calling!"

Then, there were the screams of men and women, and the howling of children.

"Damn, how dare you scold me?" Arik heard those vigilant scoldings, and he unceremoniously ordered: "Brothers, kill me! Kill all those who dare to resist!"

This battle is just unreasonable, the well-equipped warrior flag team, the number of warriors is more than the population of this fishing village!

Those who tried to resist were directly beheaded, including a group of soldiers who were kneeling and begging for mercy, and the red-eyed warriors who were also killed had their heads turned over.

If Rurik was present, he would have ordered his subordinates to restrain their actions and stop the senseless killing of those who had given up resistance after witnessing such a tragedy.

However, now Aric is not so much killing in the name of avenging his father, but he has witnessed the blood, and the bestiality that erupted in his soul has gotten out of control.

The Rus had lost control and the battle had become one-sided.

Oh, this is no longer a battle, it's a classic Viking raid.

The person who was able to escape at the first time had already taken his family in a frenzy and ran towards the north. They threw away all kinds of unwanted objects, just to escape faster. They only had one belief. They ran to the nearest Baisha port, turned with the locals and reported the news of the Rus' landing, and then everyone armed themselves to fight the invaders and drive them out.

As for those who escaped slowly, they were all overtaken by the Rus, and then slashed and slaughtered.

The blood dripping from the sword and the axe can only make the eyes of the beast even more scarlet!

As expected, the soldiers' white gowns were stained with the blood of the enemy, and a strong bright red was added to the blue-white tone.

They dragged the captive woman by the hair and did it in broad daylight. No one blames this in the slightest, on the contrary, they are victors, conquerors, and they claim that they can do whatever they want with the losers!

Those women had lost their husbands and children, endured the insults with empty eyes, and their souls were dead.

There were also women who fought back, but unfortunately the axes they wielded were so weak that they were immediately killed by the irascible warriors.

A fishing village of less than 400 people was conquered in an instant, more than 100 people managed to escape, and most of the rest were killed.

When the Ross army started to use this as a landing point to land one after another, Rurik covered his mouth and saw that what his army had done was no different from what the Mellaren people had done more than a month ago.

There is no law to restrict these warriors, except that they will not use force against their own people, others are enemies, and they are killed by the most barbaric means and then humiliated.

Seeing that the duke, brother, and others all landed on the shore, Arik, who was blood-stained, came with a mad smile carrying his blood-stained double swords.

"Look, duke, I am victorious."

"I've seen it all." Otto's deep eyes stared at the mess on the ground. His emotions didn't seem to fluctuate, but he was a little dissatisfied.

"How do you think I'm doing?"

"You won the first battle, well done!"

Otto remained sullen, his behavior really surprised Arik, he turned his head and patted his chest and asked his brother: "Rurik, look at me! I'm a real warrior! This battle was won easily. What do you think? Compared to those Mellarens?"

"Why even kill those women, look at what you've done."

For a moment, Arik was stunned, and then said, "Oh, this kind of thing will inevitably happen in battle."

"So what about those?" Rurik's ears were filled with men's cunning laughter and women's wailing, and he pointed at a miserable woman.

"That." Arik twisted his body indifferently: "The brothers are suffocated on the island, and they won't be attacked by their own people, but they can't be reunited with their wives. Anyway, these guys are enemies, let the brothers feel comfortable. Wouldn't it be nice for a moment?"

"Stop it! Let them stop it." Rurik said righteously.

Arik suddenly changed his face: "Why? We are conquerors, we can do whatever we want."

"Listen to my orders!"

Rurik held his hands behind his back and stood behind him with a resolute face, obviously supporting him.

Arik is also not good at contradicting the Duke's meaning, it is worth grabbing the hilt of the sword and hurriedly stopping his subordinates.

Only more than 40 women and more than 20 children were still alive. This should have been an ordinary morning, but the fishing village suffered a terrible blow.

These people gathered together in ragged clothes and cried in terror. Facing the crowd of white-robed Russ warriors surrounding them, many of them fainted.

Arik wiped his face and leaned beside his brother: "I don't understand. Do you want to be kind to these enemies? I advise you not to do this. Being kind to them means hurting your brothers."

"No! I understand the truth, but you've gone too far! I still have to catch a group of prisoners and bring them back. You're better. By default, everyone is an enemy."

"Isn't it?" Arik asked deliberately.

"I want to conquer them, but I can't allow you to kill them all. I am the commander, and you must support my decision. Otherwise, I will let you and your people rest now."

"You! You can't..." Arik suddenly became angry, and now looking at his cute little brother, he was already a little unlovable. Is this the so-called growth?

"I can. This is the power given to me by the Duke. If you don't listen to my command and let the soldiers mess around, I'll let you stay at the landing site to rest."

"Alright alright……"

The woman whose clothes were torn, Rurik rewarded with some rags to cover her shame. He also sent people to grab a few women who seemed to be emotionally stable and asked about the truth of the settlement.

Those who were still alive were promised that as long as they cooperated, their lives would be guaranteed, and they would be sheltered by the Rus when the battle was over. In fact, it was announced that they would soon have a Russ husband, and the surviving children could continue to be raised.

It was nothing but the hypocrisy of the conquerors, but they had no choice but to cooperate under the bloody axe of the Rus.

After all, this fishing village is also a gathering of people from different sources. They usually help each other. Now that disaster is approaching, aren't they running separately?

The woman gave the fishing village its name, Slithomn, which, though oddly pronounced, meant "lowland in the middle of the cracks".

Yes, this fishing village is indeed sandwiched between two mounds.

In addition, Rurik got two extremely critical pieces of information!

Go north along the gap between the mounds, and you will soon arrive at Baisha Harbor. If you go south along the dirt slope, go to the end of the dirt slope and keep going west, you will reach Visby.

In order to survive, women decisively explain everything they know. They were originally not of the same race as those in Baisha Port and Visby, and the large-scale offensive of the Rus was also related to the actions of the local big businessmen.

They could not effectively resist the extremely powerful Rus people, and they could see Rus ships everywhere in the small bay (they knew the symbols of Rus), especially some huge ships were really shocking, and these Rus people just showed the beast-like behavior. violent. They realized that even if the men from the entire island were assembled, Yue would not be able to defeat the Rus army.

They turned their anger on the businessmen who "started the war", especially the fat dudes in Visby.

They made small terms of cooperation.

Life is guaranteed, no more insults, and the dead are buried at sea.

These were little requests that Rurik didn't want to meet.

The Rus people suffered no losses in the first battle of Slitomo. Hundreds of fishermen were killed, and their bodies were piled up on some fishing boats. A large amount of firewood was put on top of some captured fish oil, and they were pushed into the sea and set on fire.

The large-scale landing of the Rus army began, but fortunately, Arik's men patronized and vented, before they were so mad that they set fire to the fishermen's residence.

Many soldiers who landed this time do not need to build their own shacks.

The Slavic flag team carried spears and landed in longboats.

The Meralon flag team landed peacefully with a variety of weapons, and for them, landing on the island of the Gotlanders was of great significance.

The flag-shooting team had the most complex personnel, with a group of boys and girls carrying crossbows and carrying quivers full of arrows to land. The battlefield between them was so terrifying, of course many people retreated. The feared are pushed forward by their companions, because now they have no cowardly power.

A large amount of food began to be carried, including the twenty reindeer, and all the deer breeders, who landed on a rare longboat.

Ten torsional slingshots mounted on two-wheeled trolleys completed the landing, accompanied by a large number of special arrows and projectiles.

The arrows needed for various crossbows were carried in bundles, and now they fell on the beach like a wall.

It was not until the sun block went down that Ross really finished carrying the supplies. Ships of all kinds occupied all the sands of the little bay, and the cargo ships, especially the Avlora, dropped their anchors and stuck to the sea.

Now Slitomo is really lively, but unfortunately this human brain has nothing to do with the locals.

More than 3,000 people gathered here. The fishermen's houses can only be used by elite soldiers and war commanders. Most people still have to build their own tents, shacks, or sleep directly on the boat.

Rurik performed a play for the captives. Before the deceased was mounted on the burning ship, Rumia first put on the antler helmet and prayed to the soul of the deceased. What is the qualification of the loser to enjoy sacrifice? Rumia's action was only to accept Rurik's orders, so-called to show the captives that the Russ also had humanistic concerns, although Rurik also felt that it was a little hypocritical and redundant.

It's already a full-scale war anyway, and it doesn't matter whether it's hypocritical or not.

It was true that the captured women were not harmed again, but Rurik had to consider the feelings of his soldiers, especially his elite troops. He gave women a free choice: "Find a husband right now, so you'll be protected from a man where I can't see it. We Rus won't hurt a brother's woman."

Can Rurik be believable when he looks like a teenager? Of course believable! All his decisions are endorsed by the old guy Otto.

The women made a compromise without hesitation, and their new man declared sovereignty over it that night, causing a group of Ross soldiers who were watching the play to patronize and speak slander.

After a long voyage, everyone finally landed on the island. Although they knew the way to Visby, the captured woman was willing to lead the way. The troops are currently unsteady, and rashly attacking may have bad results. The troops needed two or three days of recuperation and rectification, and the Russ also needed to give the enemy enough time to assemble the army for a decisive battle.

Rurik seemed to be delaying the fighter jets, but in reality, an improvised target was on the north of the island.

Port of White Sand, this settlement must be taken down!

However, maybe they will surrender when they see the military might of the Rus? It is also a good thing to be able to kill some strong men less, bring them to New Roseburg to open up new farmland for themselves, and then pay taxes from generation to generation. At least the incident where Arik condoned the hacking and killing of his subordinates should not happen again. This is not a matter of kindness, but because it is detrimental to the future interests of the Rus.