The Rise of Rurik

Chapter 35: New Winter Begins

The weather is getting colder and colder, and the daily fishing operations with the Ross tribe in the sea are also forced to suspend fishing due to the cold.

For them, whose food is mainly fish, when the temperature is still acceptable, the fishermen of the tribe dare to sweep the entire Gulf of Bothnia. They were reluctant to go to the waters of the south, because there were not only the fishing grounds of their allies, but also the hostile Danes.

Even with the participation of some Novgorod women, the inhabitants of Rosburg were only 7,000 to 8,000 people.

Every year, some people take their wives and children to leave the tribe forever and go to the south to integrate into those allied tribes for a better life. Combined with deaths from all causes and babies born each year, the tribal population has remained at this level.

The tribe is still dominated by males and females.

Because, compared with the southern allies, the Ross tribe did not have to bear the huge fighting pressure of those allies, and only the southern tribes competed with the Danes for the front line of pasture farmland. To put it bluntly, because the probability of conflict is low, fewer able bodied men die in war.

On the contrary, it is the women of the tribe, whose childbirth is the gate of hell.

The medical technology of the Ross tribe is extremely bad. There are no pure healers here. Only the priests of the tribe have mastered the skill of brewing herbs. If you encounter a sick person with a serious illness, you can only pray for Odin's mercy. As a result, "Odin's Mercy" is extremely rare.

The locals were also very relieved. According to Veria's romantic interpretation, the dead men and women were recruited to Valhalla.

Such an explanation slightly soothes people's grief, because life goes on.

Based on these completely witch doctor like medical techniques, any birth completely depends on the physical fitness of the expectant mother. It is best to give birth to a baby safely. Dystocia means death!

The reality is that only if the women of the tribe have no worries and develop medical technology, can the tribe thrive.

This problem has actually been plaguing all ancient nations. Because of the more extreme living environment, the problems of the residents of Rossburg are even more extreme.

After all, the population of the tribe is still developing slowly, but they simply cannot afford a large population loss in a battle. After a defeat, the clan is bound to fall into disrepair.

The Ross tribe is so fragile, and the leader Otto sees this clearly.

Therefore, in the Svealan area a hundred kilometers away (this level of land distance is already very elite), the tribal alliance of the Thinkians there, due to the increasing military pressure of the Danes, strategically clung to a group.

They have long criticized their brother tribe, the Rus, in the extreme north, saying that "The Ross are simply fishermen in the Gulf of Bothnia with peace of mind until Ragnarok".

In their longhouses, the rest of the fishermen sit together and mend their nets woven with hemp ropes.

In ancient times, the most cost effective fishing net material available to ordinary fishermen was probably only flax rope, which is basically the same as the nets used in casting nets around the world.

Throughout the long winter, fishermen have plenty of time to mend their nets and make spare nets.

Weaving is often done by the family's wives and daughters, who take on the important logistics of the fishing industry.

The women of the Ross tribe had to learn the craft of weaving flax and sewing hides. They know how to weave themselves, and it is easier to weave fishing nets than to weave cloth.

Except for long distance activities such as the viking voyage, the men of the tribe spend most of their time fishing and hunting. The Gulf of Bothnia is rich in gifts, and fishing alone is enough to make ends meet.

But for the excavation of land resources, the Ross tribe never gave up.

The location of Rossburg has a large number of mountain hills and rivers in the mountain streams. The hills are always overgrown with pines and oaks, as well as small moors in some areas.

Nordic caribou's life has not been disturbed excessively by humans,

They still roam all over Scandinavia. They breed throughout the warm season, and into winter they push through the snow and continue to graze on the ground hay. The Ross tribe, who migrated to the Rossberg Fjord, has been killing the caribou near their homeland for decades.

The tribesmen are good at throwing short spears for hunting and making traps.

The entire Ross tribe is severely lacking in bows and arrows, so only a few people use bows and arrows to hunt.

Even the entire Viking population was lacking in bows and arrows, because there was no yew for making bows and arrows locally! The tribe only has more than 20 shabby bows, but it is not too much to use various kinds of wood for arrows. The number of bows is very small, and they are all bought at high prices through the trade network and the hands of allies in the south.

Because the Danes had early contact with the Franks further south, in various trade and conflicts, the yew bows lost by the Franks were immediately in the hands of the Danes.

Or because of the conflict, the Swedes Tribal Alliance can always get some yew bows that have been turned three-handed, and the defective ones are sold to the Ross tribe in the north, so the Ross people are really bad four-handed goods. , then don't think about how high quality it is.

Fortunately, spear throwing is also a way of playing among boys. When they grow up, some elites can become excellent spear throwing hunters.

In terms of power, short spears are always more ferocious than arrows, but if they hit a reindeer, they can basically complete the hunt.

The men of the Ross tribe decided to go to the far north to hunt a group of large beasts before it became colder, and the time course of this action was very short.

It seems that after completing the tribal mass wedding, Otto's life is to stay in his Rossburg residential area, like a groundhog hiding in a burrow, waiting for the weather to warm up again.

Of course not!

The nephew will become a real adult after the wedding, and the nephew's wife will quickly become pregnant. By now, he no longer has to worry about his nephew's future, Arik has become a talent.

What Otto needs to focus on now is his own son Rurik, but the situation has changed now.

He didn't know whether to be happy or worried. Recently, Rurik was obviously getting too close to those priests!

In terms of performance, Rurik was willing to go to Veria to learn some knowledge. Otto was particularly worried that because of these studies, Rurik would not be able to become a real fight under Veria's "careful teaching". A warrior in the middle, but turned into a rare male priest of the tribe? !

Completely because of the limitations of the concept, Otto does not want his son to have too much knowledge, because the tribe advocates the power of men, what is the use of so much knowledge? An excellent leader must have excellent fighting ability, and only in this way can he convince the crowd most quickly.

It is because of this that Otto declined the stay of the still relatively young squire Willia after he had learned some knowledge thirty years ago. He hopes to cultivate a set of excellent fighting skills as soon as possible in order to win the competition for the leader position and gain everyone's recognition.

After all, no matter how many ambitions and ideas he has, he becomes a loser in the arena, and all ideals become empty talk.

Otto certainly understands his son's lofty ambitions, and the amazing dominance he is now displaying. Dozens of children have identified him as the leader. All the children are only seven or eight years old. They are all too weak.

Otto was a wise man, and now he buried his concerns in his heart, and did not rudely order his son not to study at Veria.