The Rise of Rurik

Chapter 53: The Hunter On The Snow Field

Pure Nordic snow, the world turned white. A large number of black woods were covered with snow, and in the gaps in the woods, a team of dragging sleds marched forward.

The skis helped Otto and his party to have a fast speed. Even if they entered the so called unknown territory, they were still pursuing the fastest speed possible.

The team is advancing, and the members are also observing the changes in the surrounding scenery with wide eyes, trying their best to find and record special reference objects along the way, so as to avoid possible getting lost when returning.

They speeded up during the brief day, and kept going even after dark.

Everyone dragged multiple sleds, one for carrying luggage, and the other for carrying prey. The long term paddling life in the warm period has made these strong men more powerful, and they also have enough dry food, so they have a strong endurance in the snow.

Those reindeer are the elves of the snowfields, they are the most sturdy animals, but they are not human opponents.

Every time the team advanced for a while, someone started to build snow blocks in the snowfield, so that one snow tower was long ago.

After all, there are too few unique things in this area. Use snow to build some markers, and then set up some wooden poles with sackcloth as guides.

For two full days, they had actually traveled a great distance on the snowfield.

In the ninth century AD, all of Europe was desperately short of roads.

In addition, the farming level of Western European farmers is really bad, and long-distance travel is bound to consume precious food. The peasants are reluctant to travel too far. Even if they have to travel far, they face the weedy wilderness with limited dry food, and they must carry a club to drive wild animals in their hands.

They can walk up to ten miles a day in the wilderness, basically that's the limit, or they'll burn out and die.

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Even the infantry of the Frankish Kingdom's army usually marched this distance every day. Moreover, after marching and then fighting, it often takes a day of rest in the middle.

The Vikings who began to frequently harass the Frankish kingdom were indeed strong only in their mobility.

Not only were they good at rowing, but the Viking tribes were also excellent at walking.

When snow covered the earth and the invention of skiing advanced the Vikings, they had better speed on the snow.

Otto didn't know how far he could go in a day. The so-called when everyone in the team was shouting tired, he ordered the camp to rest.

The Ross people are also professional hunters. Their physical fitness is very good, and the dry food they carry is very sufficient. On the contrary, the assistance of the skis enables them to have a faster speed than pure dry roads.

They were actually moving at a speed of 30 kilometers a day, so Otto and his party walked northeast for two days, and actually moved up to 60 kilometers.

When night falls again, Aurora shines in the sky.

After the team walked some distance, they settled down in a grove.

Some pine trees are cut down and smashed into small pieces, and the wet wood cannot live immediately.

Fortunately, the Ross people have their own set of methods. They bring their own special flammable dry wood, and then use bow drills to make fire. As long as one person's bonfire is lit, the camp will soon be lit up.

It can be seen that everyone has basically set up the tent and started to eat dry food around the bonfire.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, Otto gave an order: "Just come here. We will camp here, and this will be the camp for a period of time in the future. We will take this place as the center, brothers, we are free to explore. After ten days, whatever How much harvest we leave together."

Everyone agrees with the leader's order, and now there is only one question that needs to be solved urgently - who will come to see the house.

Otto clapped his hands again to attract everyone's attention: "We have to choose some people to stay. According to our tradition, those who stay in the camp will be compensated a little bit."

Everything is done as usual. Now, who of you would like to stay? Because we are in an unknown field, since we have already arrived, it is the most correct to explore deeply.

But because it is an unknown area, the potential threats are also unpredictable. Hunters act in groups to fully protect each other, and they also need a large camp as a backer in the wilderness.

After some discussion, the team of 200 people finally had 20 seniors selected to stay behind. Also ordered to stay, there are nearly 20 children.

Too old or too young, hunting in the wilderness for a long time is indeed a huge test for them, especially those children, don't expect them to have any chance of winning against white bears or wolves.

Besides, hunting is really a technical job.

Otto gave everyone ten days of hunting time, which included the time to lay traps.

Even capturing large reindeer or small ferrets, they are very vigilant animals, and the success rate of direct hunting by throwing spears is not very high. In terms of what is the most efficient, it is the setting of traps. Among them, setting ropes is the most efficient. practical.

At this point, four full days after leaving Roseburg, the hunting operation officially began.

All the hunters dispersed in an instant. They stepped into the snowfields and forests with their essential supplies. They began to lay traps, and some people simply took the initiative to attack.

The Ross tribe only has twenty single bows, and they are all imported from their allies in the south. After all, the Ross tribe does not have bow making experience at this stage.

However, the bows kept by the tribe are all devoted to hunting, and they follow their masters and become the power to kill and wound small animals.

A single bow to shoot a reindeer in the distance?

Just don't expect it to be okay. Because they were all low-pound oak bows, the bowstrings were also twisted from hemp rope, and the shafts of the arrows used were barely straight.

Even bows of poor quality can still be great weapons in the hands of a good hunter.

So on the first day of hunting, someone had already shot a ferret, and they stripped the fur directly in the wilderness, and the meat of the ferret was not thrown away. Under the extreme cold, the ferret meat immediately turned into a lump of ice, and it seemed that the only way to deal with it was to barbecue.

The ferret is the most prized fur in the Arctic, and its pure white, extremely soft and silky undercoat is a natural luxury. In particular, the wealthy Eastern Roman aristocrats yearned for nothing more than wearing silk and satin originating from the East in summer and a pure white mink velvet coat in winter.

One ferret is equal to three full-grown reindeer hides.

Otto and his 20 cronies simply formed a small hunting group. They were actually childhood playmates, a back-to-back friendship cultivated in the usual wrestling fights. And this kind of friendship makes them naturally have a strong sense of teamwork.

Together, they are a powerful hunter group. On the battlefield, they are naturally more organized and disciplined than the large number of armed peasants temporarily recruited by the Franks.

Among them, Otto was older than all of them. When he was a child, he was the king of children, and now he is a respected leader.

Aside from these statuses, Otto himself is also an excellent hunter.

After two consecutive days of hunting, 20 people caught only three ferrets, and found an arctic fox cave, where they caught all the big and small beasts.

Although they are willing to let go of small beasts, they are mainly aimed at large reindeer. For the arctic fox with pure white fluffy down, it is really invaluable, and it is naturally found under the temptation of huge wealth.

In close harmony with nature? None of the Viking tribes thought about it. First of all, they want to make their lives better, and they have no concept of protecting the environment, even if the people of Roseburg have swept away large beasts within a radius of 50 kilometers from their homes.

Large scale beasts that can be hunted have become scarce, and the solution is to wait for the deer to migrate from the rabbits, or to go to the unknown places in the far northeast as this winter.

Although Otto was a noble leader, his subordinates were willing to dedicate a portion of their prey to him.

It is almost a human instinct to be diligent in important tasks to benefit yourself or your family in the future.

Otto shook his head and refused. He did not come up with any "Great" reasons to prove his selflessness. His explanation was really full of mystery.

"It's better to stay and give to those left behind. I have a huge hunch that we don't care about other people for the time being. As long as the twenty of us continue to move northeast, we will meet those people."

The so called "Those people" are undoubtedly the Sami people who keep deers.

Otto always had a feeling that since he had gone far northeast, it was almost fate to encounter those people.