Chapter Five Hundred and Thirteen There Is a Tragic Name: One Step Away From Victory and Retreat Due to Cowardice

The bare-backed men changed into common clothes, and they girded their waists with hemp ropes, on which hung axes and daggers.

A large number of short spears were thrown on the ship, many of which were high-end spearheads bought from the Rus.

As a whole, the army of the Balmers is at best a group of armed fishermen and herdsmen. As for the comprehensive combat effectiveness, Rurik cannot have too high expectations for them. worse existence.

If every soldier in this large army across the sea lacks defense and only uses melee weapons, the team will suffer in battle.

What is the current situation in the British Isles? Are those kingdoms already in the bow and arrow of habit?

The cautious Rurik called on the leaders of the clan who intend to take their own men on an expedition, and asked them to properly rectify their warriors, and at the same time asked them to bring as many wooden bows as possible, even if they were of average quality.

They probably made preparations on the eve of their departure, and the results were basically within Rurik's expectations.

Near the fjord where the Balmers are located, there are large prey that can be hunted, that is, the seals that land on the shore to rest, and the big beasts on land have long been hunted. For hunting seals, the best weapons are spears and harpoons, so the soldiers in the army, some people's spears are simply improved harpoons.

They lacked the opportunity to use bows, and at last Rurik did an inventory, only to know that he could only muster fifty archers.

"It's ironic, there are only fifty bow hunters in such a large tribe?"

The departure is imminent, facing the enthusiastic warriors, he can only bravely meet the North Sea in summer.

The Avlora unloaded most of the cargo, and the ballast stones placed in the cabin and the fresh water in the loaded barrels were not much.

The big boat can be described as a relaxed one. She completely leads the more than 30 follow-up rowing longboats with the attitude of the flagship, and embarks on an unknown journey.

Only a few dare to explore for themselves, because they don't know the way forward and dare not take their own lives for fun. Maybe the baby is close at hand, and the huge sense of fear is forcing the trembling body to shake the paddle in the opposite direction.

But this time, everything has changed!

A thousand men gathered together, and if they were more than one, they would embolden each other. Anyone who evacuated easily would be regarded as a traitor by their friends at the first time, or even thrown into the sea by their family leader to be executed.

There is no coward among them, and it is precisely because of their boldness that they have the right to join this huge exploratory expedition.

They are full of confidence in the road ahead.

Because the big ship of the Rus was sailing backwards, the white and blue-striped flag flying on the top of the mast was a signal to everyone. As long as you follow Rurik, the Rus, and as long as the ships remain in convoy state, everything is going well.

Now they don't even worry about the sea becoming violent. A storm has just ended. The Balmers sacrificed Odin's blood. Will the gods continue to be angry?

The fleet successfully left the huge Narvik Fjord in one day, and everyone was already floating in the vast sea.

All the ships followed the track of the Avlora, the big ship went straight to the ocean, and the rest of the ships also reluctantly looked at the drifting coastline and continued to row their oars.

They were sailing against the wind, and the Avrora had to accommodate the "turtle speed" of the entire fleet. The fleet actually sailed slowly at a speed of three knots per hour, but Rurik had to admire the strength of this group of fishermen, who could row from sunrise to close to sunset!

When night fell, the boats were strung together with ropes, and the ropes were finally tied to the big boat.

People have no time to enjoy the nightlife, and their enthusiasm for sailing is quickly diluted by the long row of paddles. As soon as they got a chance to breathe, they immediately went over the leather, or had no bedding, and fell asleep after eating some pickled fish.

Perhaps only Rurik slept best each night.

The Avlora, like her going to the Balmer's Harbor, has no change in the people on board, but it also represents the strongest combat capability of the entire fleet.

If the leader Magnut intends to go on an expedition, it is understandable, but he has been training his eldest son Biyonni, hoping that this brave young man will win one honor after another in a short period of time, so that he will be elected as the next one at the meeting. leader. Heads of families need a popular doer, not a son of a former head. He knew better than Jonny about the mission he shouldered.

How to make the tribe believe in themselves? Biyonny has his own means.

In a nutshell: spot your enemies, kill them mercilessly, and achieve your own blood-stained glory in the corpses of your enemies.

However, after a five-day voyage, there is still no land, even if it is an island! Unfortunately, nothing.

It was another quiet night, the stars and rivers in the sky were bright, and the magnificent scenery seemed to Biyonni to be mocked by the gods in the sky. The so-called fleet would dare to claim to conquer the sea?

He and Rurik lay on the forecastle deck of the big ship, looking up at the sky with their arms resting on their heads.

"Rurik, it's the sixth day. I'm a firm believer in your decision these days. Ah! Our route...should be correct?"

"Are you doubting me?" Rurik asked, slightly angrily.

"How dare I, we have gone through more than 20 days of sailing, and your decision has never been wrong. But those brothers are all following you, and no one knows this route except you."

"Then see with your eyes and feel with your heart. You remember our voyage, and it will be convenient for you to expedition alone in the future."

"That's the case, but our voyage is too far away after all..."

"There's no way." Rurik stood up slowly, he didn't want to tell his Biyonni brothers that about the route from the Narvik Fjord to the British Isle, he was largely lucky.

He thought for a while, then said, "I can only say that your location is too remote. You have seen the map I drew."

"Yes, I have it in my mind."

"Then don't question it. Your fjords are in the north of the peninsula, while Bergen is in the south. People from Bergen are easier to get to the British Isles, and we, it will take a while. Trust me, we will run To the southwest, at least some islands can be found first, and the destination can naturally be found along the islands.”

What more can be said than Jonny? He could only express his support.

Continued sailing, the morale of the fleet has been declining. The only thing that got everyone interested was that people with fishing nets managed to catch a batch of herring.

They never repelled eating raw herring, and the fish brought energy and important fresh water.

Compared with previous voyages, due to Rurik's emphasis on logistics, the entire fleet is definitely not lacking in fresh water, and there is no need to worry about food because the fish can be directly caught.

The voyage had been going on for a week, and Rurik was convinced that he had been on the right voyage.

Actually? His course is indeed very correct.

Rurik used the sun as his guide, and he deliberately led his fleet to the southwest, and if that were the case, his course would be fatally skewed.

However, the warm Atlantic current has created a marine miracle!

The warm current travels along the plate to the North Pole, forming a large number of swirling eddies near Scandinavia. The overall flow rate of the ocean current is slow, and those eddies are slowly deflecting the entire fleet towards the European continent, objectively constantly correcting Rurik's yaw.

In this way, the continuous voyage actually lasted as long as twelve days!

I don't know who started, and the long boats followed, and those who paddled finally couldn't hold back!

Gradually they paused their oars, took up their hand axes and kept pounding on their shields. Rurik, who was resting, was immediately surprised by the unusual behavior.

After a while, a sailor ran to the captain's lounge.

"My lord! Those people have given up."

"Ridiculous!" Rurik got up, and Biyonny and Floki hurriedly followed.

The three ran to the poop, only to see that the subsequent fleets all stopped.

Rurik, who was holding the railing, looked at the group of lazy people and stomped his feet in anger: "Damn! We ordered that we are one step away from success. What are these guys going to do?"

"I don't think they can take it anymore."

Rurik glared at Biyonni: "Your family sent the most troops. Could it be that they also betrayed you, the commander-in-chief?"

"No! There must be a traitor. We must turn back."

"Alright."

The sailors quickly maneuvered the cable, and the Avroola performed an exaggerated sharp turn in front of the following lazy thousand people, and then with the help of the south wind, the bow of the ship stepped on the big waves, like a sea monster. team.

The men rushed to a great fear, and they began to paddle again, all to avoid being sunk.

But Rurik was only trying to intimidate them, and the big ship circled around the stagnant convoy.

Rurik took off his hat and stood in the forecastle, pointing his sword at the people on the longboat.

"Why are you slacking off?"

At this moment, someone was already shouting, and with more and more shouting, Rurik deserved to order the Torsion Slingshot to be launched into the sea.

The waves hit by the projectile made people calm down.

"I know what you think!" Rurik roared in his voice, which had changed a bit: "You are afraid of voyages! You are even questioning me! I am obviously going to bring you victory and great wealth, but you are actually questioning Me! You are not afraid of the enemy, but you are afraid of the sea."

Thinking that there was no loudspeaker to come to a wide area, his speech lacked penetrating power after all, and Rurik changed his tone again.

"Hey! Leaders of the various families! You all follow me on the big ship, let's study it carefully..."

Rurik really has no time to talk nonsense with ordinary soldiers. He believes that this group of commoners lacks opinions, and the people who are quitting now must be individual family leaders. Therefore, to win the support of these leaders, this sudden mutiny will be stopped. .

Those leaders had a variety of thoughts, and a total of eleven people had just boarded the ship and were immediately controlled by the armed men.

Rurik did not intend to offer any gentle persuasion to these people.

He was standing high, looking at the people on the center deck and ordered: "I don't care what you think, I will continue to sail. You people don't get off my big boat until you find land."

Isn't this what a detention is?

They bared their teeth and cast angry glances at Biyonny, who was standing beside Rurik.

Someone shouted: "Byonni, what are you doing? You are not the leader, you can't do this to us."

"But Rurik is our commander-in-chief! You are guilty of questioning him."

"Why do this?" the man continued to shout, "brothers can't stand the boring voyage, what have we got for more than ten days but some fish? We are on a road of no return, Rurik of Ross! You are joking about our lives!"

"Snorasund (the one who speaks)!" said Biyonni with a big hand. "I urge you to respect my brother Rurik."

"It's not fair! Many brothers don't want to leave anymore. You have to listen to the opinions of the brothers. Whether to leave or withdraw, we have to vote!"

Hearing this nonsense, Rurik tried so hard that one of his molars was bitten off. For a moment, the people on the center deck below saw Rurik's bloody mouth.

As if a little devil showed a bloody mouth?

Rurik stretched out his hand to remove his bloody deciduous teeth, and at this moment he couldn't care about the pain.

He denounced: "This is the sea! Above the sea is the law of the sea! Put away your Nordic (Nordic people's assembly), we are going to carry out a cross-sea expedition, and you actually have to negotiate with the commander. It seems that, I'm going to kill a few traitors!"

"No! No! Rules can't be broken!" Snowrassonde still shouted.

Now Rurik is very convinced that the culprit of the mutiny is this guy.

However, the development of things completely unexpected Rurik.

In an instant, Biyonni picked up the steel-armed crossbow that he regarded as a treasure, he quickly picked it up, and pulled the trigger at the target.

In an instant, everyone saw that the most clamoring Snowrassund had a thick arrow tail on his forehead. The noisy man closed his mouth and fell heavily to the ground with his eyes wide open.

"What are you doing? You're crazy! That's your Balmer!" Rurik, startled, slapped Biyonni hard.

Of course he was calmer than anyone else.

When everyone was shocked, Biyonni raised his crossbow solemnly: "This is Havdic (the rules of the sea)! We want a victorious expedition, not a cowardly retreat. We want to show the people of our hometown to see Instead of being the cowards they reviled."

At this moment, even the little bald head of Floki stood up and shouted to the leaders of the various families: "Imagine our days, the sea has not been violent! Those brothers who sacrificed their lives are the ones who asked God for us now. Peace of mind. If you return, you will be punished by the gods, and the waves and sea monsters will eat you up!"

Rurik looked at the Biyonni brothers and thought that the two bald heads, one big and one small, were born fierce men.

"Biyonni, you are too ruthless. You are so ruthless when you kill your own people? Why didn't I notice that you were so ruthless before..." With the words in his heart, Rurik gently pushed the two away, at this moment he was already Don't want nonsense.

Facing the remaining leaders, Rurik had only one arrangement: "Continue to follow us, and if there are anyone who dares to retreat softly, kill them!"

Look at the current situation. The people on the center deck instantly became staunch supporters of the expedition.

Rurik really had to admit that when the army was in disarray, he killed a group of deserters who were the most troubled, and he didn't even need to kill the eleventh to deter others.

Asking himself, Rurik didn't want to personally execute a leader who retreated for this reason. Although the two tribes were an alliance, he didn't know if doing so would adversely affect his ally tribes.

This is "black work", but fortunately, Biyongni helped him do it cleanly.

Rurik can hardly say anything to thank him, he really sees Biyonny's ambition - Biyonny is to be the most powerful dictator in Balmerk!

Thinking of this kind of thing is also logical, Rurik doesn't find it strange. A tribe of nearly 20,000 people is still scattered, isn't it courting death in this chaotic world? If they want to survive, they must transform into a kingdom. As for who is the king, Rurik doesn't want Biyonni, at least not him in the future.

The various leaders were placed in the cabins, their personal weapons were confiscated, and they were effectively under house arrest. They didn't dare to swear, for fear that they would be executed again, and finally end up with the infamy of a traitor and spread it in the tribe forever. As a traitor, naturally he could not convince the clan members, and the clan would not hesitate to elect another person to be the patriarch.

As for the rest of the long ships, what else can the thousand warriors on it do? A long ship continued to follow the Avrora, which continued to sail, and the storm was quickly settled.

But for the vast number of fighters, they still don't know what the road ahead is. The only thing they know is that any retreat is a shameful betrayal, and the big ship will not hesitate to launch a crusade.

Not only that, but the Flokis were small, and his theory of "God's grace and punishment" spread quickly. Now people have to worry further about the cost of escaping. Even if they escape the punishment of the commander, they will eventually be punished by the sea monster instructed by Odin.

They can only be heroes.

And something amazing happened the next day.

Everything is as Rurik said, there is a kind of sad and hateful, that is, one step away from success, retreating because of cowardice and shame.

A new day, the fleet has been sailing for fourteen days. So far, people have never seen another fishing boat on the sea, but this morning, a miracle happened.

The sailors lying on the mast saw the boats floating on the sea, and the good news shocked everyone who was sluggish.

That's definitely a fishing boat! And a fishing boat can only mean one thing, its home port is nearby!