Rise of Rurik

A group of small but strong boys assembled at Rurik's order, and they stood in the empty field outside the blacksmith's workshop area in Kravasen to be inspected by Rurik.

Rurik, with his hands behind his back, examined them one by one.

These ten-year-old boys, all destined to be farmers in Novgorod, lived a short and mediocre life in poverty, and even died prematurely due to malnutrition.

Now, everything has changed.

They were stronger in size than Rurik, and because of the regular physical labor, everyone could see obvious muscle texture on the sleeves rolled up, even if they were only ten years old.

They ate meat every day, and for the past six months, there must have been a pound of oatmeal every day.

Such a high-nutrient, high-calorie diet is not fattening. They are instructed to work hard, and each has become a good little blacksmith. These children are just short and small. They are already strong now, but will they still have it in the future? Isn't it strong enough to chop down a pine tree with a big axe?

These Slavic boys can basically be on their own. Although they are not as efficient as the young and strong Kawi, their future is bright.

Kamne rushed to report, "Boss, everyone is here. Arrange the task, and we will finish it even if we don't sleep."

"Okay! Very spirited. Then according to my order, I will let you build a new type of weapon."

There is no need for Rurik to go into details. After all, these children are all involved in the direct manufacture of torsion slingshots and weapons. These children are very skilled.

How could it be possible for a man with a grizzled beard to make such a large number of weapons? Behind the large number of "Scorpion Crossbow"-style torsion slingshots, wooden arms and steel arm crossbows that Ross ships are equipped with, it is the efforts of this group of blacksmiths.

Without such success, Rurik would not have dared to assemble them for the task.

The wild ass catapult, the so-called strong torque-driven lever, throws the stone at the same time, and the inertia also drives the whole machine to jump up, just like a stubborn donkey.

The best way to keep it from jumping is to install a counterweight at the end.

These children, who are being trained by Rurik as "all-round craftsmen", are young miners, metallurgists, cement workers, and promising carpenters.

Clavasson was busy forging the steel sword himself,

He has been enjoying it. Kawei and his recruits, still guarding the blast furnace, continued to produce iron utensils.

The children were not protected by skilled craftsmen, but Rurik himself was their best teacher.

The warmer waters from the southern seas have invaded the Gulf of Bothnia. The sea has basically thawed, and the sea is not slowing down with large and small ice floes, and even some giant icebergs.

The fjord where Roseburg is located is still frozen, but the public has noticed that the stream upstream is getting turbulent, and the freezing of the fjord will collapse within a few days.

Summer is late this year, and the snow on the ground is melting massively, only to freeze again at night. Everyone had to use various tools to knock off the amazing ice edges on their eaves every morning.

After five busy days, the six "wild donkey catapults" planned by Rurik were literally completed by his young men!

There are no wild donkeys in northern Europe, all the donkeys in the world come from Central Asia, and there are no donkeys from Western Europe to Northern Europe today.

If the weapon was to be described as an animal's slaughter, Rurik didn't hesitate to think of the bull.

Ten "bull trebuchets", they can be described as standardized products.

Its site is a frame with a length of one stika and a width of half a stika, which is about one meter and one and a half meters. One end of the weapon has a reinforced wooden post with up to five layers of buffered deerskin strapped to it.

The source of its torque is twine, baleen and rubber band strips, dipped in grease to further enhance the willfulness.

It is essentially a highly adaptable tactical machine with a very simple overall structure. Of course, it is far less accurate than a crossbow-type torsion slingshot.

Lord Rurik has invented a new weapon!

The people who are looking forward to the thawing of the sea are getting more and more anxious these days, and they need something interesting to ease their mood.

Rurik sent some strong men, each of whom easily carried the finished "bull catapult" and placed it outside the wooden wall that was still under construction. Ten trebuchets face the sea in unison, waiting to be manipulated.

Thousands of people came to watch, and the newly built wooden scaffolding was also full of people, not to mention a group of guys standing on the roof.

Most of them have guessed that the function of these weapons is to launch stones, even if each of them is not big, how effective can they be?

It was reasonable to speculate that Rurik had the skill and ability to build a larger torsional trebuchet, but lacked the time.

These small items with a total length of one meter and a torque lever of one meter are weapons that can be obtained in a short period of time.

Everyone is looking forward to the amazing performance of the new weapon in their hearts. Pairs of eyes are looking at the frozen sea that can still walk for you, expecting to see the water splashed by the stones in the distance.

Otto watched silently. When he saw the real thing under construction, he knew the usefulness of this weapon and even the tactical effect it could bring.

Otto thought of the great battle at Gotland Road. If he could launch a large number of stones at that time, a large number of stones that fell from the sky would have smashed the Gotland army into blood from a distance.

Suddenly, he was surprised to see that it was a group of children who were manipulating the machine!

Rurik just arranged for the strong men to carry them, and the operators were the little blacksmiths who built them.

"Brothers, are you all ready? Act as we agreed!"

Without any dawdling, it was necessary to incite the emotions of the onlookers, Rurik simply gave the order, the children still turned the ratchet winch, and the lever was lowered little by little.

Ten bull trebuchets are finally ready.

"Hjutra!"

Rurik gave the order, and ten children simultaneously pulled on the rope tied to the bayonet.

The bull trebuchets were full of power, and their levers suddenly activated, pulling the leather pockets that wrapped the rocks on the seashore, and forcibly threw the leather pockets out.

Because angular momentum is conserved. The lever spun violently to the peak, it hit the cushioning pad, and almost all the angular momentum was given to the pocket hung by the hemp rope.

A pebble the size of an adult man's fist flew up! Being slammed by such a stone, a helmet can't save a life.

People raised their heads one after another, watching their distant shadows, which gradually blurred and became indistinguishable, and finally set off ten water columns in the extreme distance.

No cheers! Really no cheers!

People weren't even shocked, or they didn't know what was going on. Thousands of onlookers hummed violently, all discussing each other.

On the contrary, Rurik was taken aback. He always felt that the range was at least 300 meters.

This is an extremely amazing distance, a range that most bows and arrows cannot match.

Rurik noticed from a distance that the stones were placed in a relatively concentrated place.

"Not enough! Do it again!"

After hearing the order, the children continued to work. After the lever was quickly returned to its position, the stone was installed and inserted into the bayonet.

A new round of salvos began soon, and everything was as it was for the first time.

"Great, do it again!"

Rurik kept ordering, and each catapult was fired ten times. One hundred rounds of prepared pebbles were all used for "special ice cutting", not to mention that the ice layer in the distance was indeed penetrated.

It seems that the experiment should end here?

Rurik finally patted Kamne on the shoulder and handed him the length of hemp rope.

It was a hemp rope with a total length of 100 stikas. It was a tool used to calculate the range of the crossbow back then, and it was also used to calculate the range of various long-range weapons.

It is knotted every ten stikas, each of which is painted with a blue road.

Kamne is a child, he doesn't have to worry about crushing the ice. However, when he kept measuring with the rope and completed the second length of hemp rope (about 200 meters in total), he suddenly felt guilty.

The weapon throws the stone so far?

Moving on, he noticed something very startling. There were cracks in the ice on the sea! He was still biting his head to measure, and after the 280th stika, he finally did not dare to continue.

He still hasn't reached the dense falling point of the stones, but the ice layer in front of him has been cracked in a large area.

He returned in a hurry, helplessly reporting truthfully.

Rurik squinted his eyes to listen, and couldn't help but sigh: "Did the rocks smash the ice? 280 stikas are still not the place to fall."

Rurik stopped talking nonsense, and he immediately moved to the land test site.

A forest, now only bare tree trunks remain. There is absolutely no stone in this generation. If it is found after the experiment that the stone with the size of a fist must be a stone bullet.

The Russ people followed in Rurik's footsteps and continued to watch, and this time there were even more spectators.

Everything was going well in a very safe state, and Rurik had an encouraging result in front of him.

Rurik, he started the experiment in the morning and continued into the evening. He counted a lot of data, clarified the maximum range of the bull catapult, and how to control the torque for different distances.

Rurik, he is the greatest scientist in the entire Rus Principality, and the knowledge of advanced mathematics he masters directly affects the calculation of ballistics. And the optical knowledge he has mastered is based on people as a reference. The size of the figure can be seen by the naked eye at different distances, and the scale is directly chiseled on the wooden sight.

He does not require this kind of rock-throwing machine to be accurate every time. The so-called large-scale use relies on probability throwing, and it will achieve excellent results against the dense formation of the enemy.

At night, everything seems to be calm.

Those who participated in the bloody battle gradually realized the terribleness of this weapon and began to share their insights with their family and friends.

In the duke's mansion, Rurik and his family gathered for dinner as usual, but Niya knew that the scene of such a neat crowd would end temporarily.

Otto drank a bottle of strong wine, and his heart seemed to complain to his son inexplicably, and his emotions became more and more intense.

"Rurik! Why don't you invent this kind of weapon. If you...that's 330 stikas at the most! We can obviously kill those Visby guys slowly, without killing hundreds of brothers. Won."

Rurik could hear it, and the wheat stew in the bowl suddenly became less fragrant.

"What did you say he did?" Nia pushed Otto in dissatisfaction.

Otto shivered: "We obviously have a chance to reduce the number of deaths."

Rurik was also helpless, his face was calm: "The situation of the new weapons is all in my estimation. No! I think it can hit a maximum of 200 stika, I really can't think of such a ferocious. Indeed, if we equip these earlier, it is better to have a large number of them. Using it, we can wipe out 10,000 Visby warriors without dying."

Otto took out another bottle of spirits, stared at the scorching oil lamp, stared at the crystal clear glass bottle, and smirked at the so-called Roman characters on it.

"They died well, the high priest is the Valkyrie, and their heroic spirits have gone to heaven. Rurik..."

"I am here."

"The ice cubes will melt soon. With these new weapons, I am completely assured of your voyage."

Niya let out a long sigh and subconsciously pushed a plate of meat in front of his son, "You may spend the whole summer here, eat it. Eat more."

"Okay! Well... I don't think there's any risk," Rurik muttered.

Niya sighed and murmured, "I just think of your two brothers, alas..."

"Unfortunate." Otto slapped the table violently, causing Rumia and the other female relatives to retreat in a hurry. "It's fulfilling the covenant, it's making a lot of money. And, mocking those proud Danes! Nia!"

Otto commanded his wife as a master, "Your task now is to take care of Rumia. She is not only a high priest now, she must be pregnant, you take care of her is to take care of our first. grandson."

Niya nodded and brought Rumia to his side.

Niya used to despise this little slave of the deer breeder very much, but now everything has changed. She put her arms around Rumia to show closeness, just like her own daughter. Indeed, in the days to come, girls such as Rumia, Carlotta, Ella, and Seporava will be her spiritual support.

Men go on expeditions to the sea, women stay in the home port to guard, the tribes feel that it is justified.

Niya did not dare to stop Rurik's voyage, she could only silently pray that God would continue to favor Rurik.

The sea finally thawed!

It's May, everyone's disillusioned, and this year has had a sadly short summer.

Smart people are already worried about this year's wheat harvest, and Rurik is very worried that he won't be able to get a lot of oats in the autumn, but he really can't care about that much now.

Change your mind! If they can get a lot of salt from the Balmers and bring them back through the summer, the Rus can make bacon on a large scale, and in terms of survival, eating bacon is at least better than eating spoiled meat.

A large amount of cargo was stuffed into the cabin of the Avrora, and her load was as high as ten tons.

Of course, this is nothing to her with a cargo capacity exceeding 50 tons and everything is normal.

After all, this trip is going to pass through the Danish control area. Rurik learned that the leader of the Danish alliance has high self-esteem, and he wants to jump repeatedly under the eyes of that guy. It can be described as a crazy provocation.

As many as ten torsion slingshots were installed in Class A, arranged in the first six and the last four.

The bull catapults were placed in a compact arrangement on the bow of the "captain's lounge" and moved out when necessary.

Rurik planned to traffic mainly leather, followed by 10,000 pounds of wheat. There are a hundred pig iron axes and hammers with both weapons and tools. Wouldn’t it be embarrassing if the other party couldn’t afford to transport too many goods? Rurik himself did not want to make a loss-making business, even if it was to sell the favor of his allies, it was enough.

So the most valuable things in the goods were a set of glassware, ten bottles of spirits, a pig iron cauldron for stewing meat, and a batch of soap. These things were given to Biyonni's parents, the leader of Balmerk, and they were also considered betrothal gifts to take away Noren.

In a very warm atmosphere, the Rus people completed the spring sacrifice, and all the ships were pushed into the sea.

During this period, Otto took his brothers to complete the taxation of the merchants. Gould was still the one who paid the most tax in public, and of course there was a part of the tax refund behind it.

The most lively is of course the entry of two large ships into the sea, and people cheered for it.

Gurdot! The Sperosville! Two large armed merchant ships became the new refugees of the Rus.

This is still a new beginning! Because people have seen the huge wooden workshop of the Huotra family's shipbuilding workshop, two keels have been laid again, and one of them is the beam of the old priest's long house!

Rurik finally embarked on his great voyage. The Avrora was carrying forty men, elite mercenaries such as Yevro, all Balmerk's guests, and Gould's most elite sailors.

Otto stood on the pier trestle, calmly watching the ship leave. Niya hugged her old husband, weeping and watching the big ship go away, until the big ship gradually disappeared from the sight of people in the fine ice floes, and everything was calm.