It has been many days since the battle on Vysingse Island ended, and the Russian soldiers who were exhausted from the fierce battle were able to take a good rest.

As for the future of the entire Lake Wettern, including this island, according to the vision of the Hjärmalen army in the Allied Forces, they have now defeated the overlord of the lake, "Crazy Bear" Karl, massacred the locals and kidnapped thousands.

Prisoners of war, the locals in this lake area will never again threaten the north.

The Hjärmalen people, the Swedish force closest to this lake, should expand their sphere of influence southwards.

The Hjärmalen people's idea immediately gained support from a group of small tribes, and the biggest opposition was naturally the Mälaren tribe, the most powerful tribe in Sweden.

However, no matter what their wishes are, everything still needs to be decided by their shared monarch, King Rurik of Rus.

Rurik himself took a boat to Jönköping, the southernmost point of the lake. He stayed there for many days and seemed to fall in love with it.

If the king does not return, the troops remaining on the island will continue to camp and live their lives.

The army had prepared wheat and dried meat for several months. Since it always sailed along rivers and lakes, the special way of traveling made it possible to consume very little supplies during the journey. Even the rich fish resources in the huge Lake Wettern made it difficult for them to meet Ross.

The army's trawl fishing method immediately replenished a batch of seabass for the stopped army.

For the Yelmalens and other tribal leaders (dukes), their goal is quite short-term - just drive away the Jotalan enemies in the south.

Even if King Rurik intends to take over the entire Jotaland, it would be too radical to achieve his goal before this winter.

Longstall, Duke of Hjärmalen, led his own tribal militia to the end of the battle. He witnessed the powerful rain of arrows from the army of the Rus' Principality, a direct descendant of Rurik.

The wheat ears were even denser, and under the arrow feathers were the enemy corpses scattered everywhere.

He did not lose any of his soldiers, and a few of the injured seemed to eventually die of fever. As a result, the Russian special personnel treated the wounds with strong wine and honey, and sutured the cracks with linen thread. The injured recovered well, and fever did not occur. This

It shows that the gods love warriors who serve King Rurik, otherwise such a miracle cannot be explained.

The eyes of the nobles are sharp. Some of the injuries that were considered fatal in the past, after rescue, most of the wounded soldiers were fine.

After all, it was difficult for the wounded soldiers to make it to the next battle, and there happened to be a large amount of loot to be transported back.

The hearts of the people on the island are floating. A large number of Swedish Allied soldiers were dragged over to fight by their lords and nobles for various reasons. Now that the war should be over, it is time to return to their hometown with the spoils and prisoners. After all, the wheat harvest is not far away.

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The restlessness of the soldiers directly made the nobles eager to return home. If it were not a sin to leave without saying goodbye, some small nobles would actually evacuate with their people.

They are waiting for Rurik's return. There are already different opinions in the army about the future actions, and everyone urgently needs Rurik's return to give an explanation.

Finally, the army returned to the king.

What was once the mansion of Karl the "Crazy Bear" is now the military meeting room, where Rurik convened all nobles and officers to hold a military meeting.

The fleet transporting loot, prisoners, and wounded people has returned, but there are still 6,000 troops left on the island.

Many nobles bluntly stated that they wanted to retreat. Upon seeing this, Longstall repeated his demands from the previous days.

For a time, the discussion room was abuzz with divergent opinions.

"Shut up!" Rurik frowned and shouted: "Retreat? Monopolize the lake? You can't even think of retreating! Moreover, this lake cannot be exclusive to any tribe."

A corner to hold everyone in check, Rurik now does not allow others to argue.

He traveled among the people and persuaded them to agree with his new ideas.

"We must conquer the entire Götaland! You all know that I stayed in Jöntöping for many days. The locals have wanted me to surrender and gave me some important information. I already know the situation in Götaland very well, and I still have

There are two forces that need to be conquered. As long as this final conquest is completed, the entire Götaland region will belong to us. Is this... a difficult problem? "

Rurik deliberately kept quiet, looked at everyone's eyes, and suddenly asked: "Langstall, is the small victory now worth your retreat? You are in the prime of life... will you be satisfied by kidnapping a hundred slaves?

?I don’t want to create greater achievements.”

If he insists on retreating, he will become a coward in the eyes of the nobles! But considering his own situation, Longstall really does not want to continue the expedition with his tribal army.

It was at this time that a man mocked disdainfully: "Some fish don't dare to swim too far. They are afraid of being eaten by big fish outside their own ponds. How cowardly! We Malaren people are afraid of being eaten by big fish outside."

Otherwise, although I don't like Olegin and Karl, these two men led us Malarens to the Danish Silver Castle, which was further south than the current location. It is said that as long as we sail a while

We can burn it all the way to Jutland.”

"You..." Rurik looked at Bjorn who was speaking.

"Your messenger claims that you want to attack Gothenburg. Then fight! We Mellaren people will follow you." Bjorn emphasized.

"Well said." Rurik stamped his foot fiercely, "I tell you clearly that I stayed in Jönköping for many days, and I also sent some additional troops there. In the south, the cavalry and infantry were mixed into one force.

The army, they have rushed further south to conquer the village alliance called Växjö. I have launched the next action. The next step is to attack Gothenburg with the main force of our army. Those of you who are willing to follow me can come. Those who are not willing,

If you want to withdraw, this is an offense to the king. If so, you should consider how you will be punished."

As the saying goes, punishment is unpredictable and power is unpredictable, Rurik's threat forced Longstall to change his face.

Some small groups formed around Duke Langstall of Hjärmalen. In other words, because these nobles have lived in the southern part of traditional Sweden for a long time, they have always had demands for controlling Lake Vettern in the south. Instead, they wanted to control Lake Mälaren in the north.

There is nothing extravagant about the area along the coast.

These nobles and people simply wanted to give up as they pleased. As Duke Longstall, he was actually elected as a talker by his own tribe, not a dictator. He had to listen to the attitude of his tribe's warriors.

But it was completely against the king's wishes.

The arm could not twist the thigh, and the restless mentality in the army was suppressed by Rurik. Whether they wanted it or not, the expedition would still go on.

There was nothing more to talk about in the council chamber, and Rurik ended the meeting, giving the entire army one last full day and night to rest.

But this incident also reminded him that the Swedish Allied Forces were all short-sighted.

But if you think about it carefully, their short-sightedness has its own reasons.

Bjorn's army is either debt slaves or mercenaries and servants. In addition, Bjorn is an abdicated king after all, so even if he is weak, he still has appeal. These troops are forced to fight with Bjorn for various reasons.

They will be good assistants to the Russian army, but after the "good assistants" solve the Jotalan problem with the army, they will definitely not want to continue to expand the war.

The other tribal armies are purely composed of tribal people, and they have shown their willingness to stop here. For the time being, they can be forced to fight for a while, but in the long run they will mutiny or flee.

There is a key time point to grasp. This time is in mid-July. The Swedish Allied Forces have 2,000 people. A large number of people have to rush to harvest wheat during the harvest season. If it takes too long, they will miss the farming season.

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Naturally, the Russian soldiers have no such concerns. There is sufficient labor force in the Russian rear, so there is no need to worry about harvesting wheat.

…

The day of march is today! Early in the morning, the whole army began to board the ship one after another.

In fact, the day before, all the heavy equipment was disassembled and transported back to the ship, and some unused supplies were also stuffed into the cabin.

The troops on the island were all lightly armed, and even the tents for the night were packed and packed on boats. The soldiers huddled around the campfire all night, and boarded the boats one after another the next morning when the morning fog cleared.

On the last day of rest, Rurik bypassed the allied armies, and only the officers of the Russian army gathered together to hold a secret military meeting.

There are some things that there is no need to tell those allies, and only these senior personnel know what Rurik said that day.

How ambitious can a king be? Those who understood what Rurik meant were astonished.

Because capturing Gothenburg and Växjö is only a phased goal, the Russian army will eventually get rid of those allies and the army will directly enter Denmark.

The layout of previous years must be implemented in advance!

A brand new Danish Kingdom, close to Rus, will be established with the support of Rus.

As long as this can be accomplished, Ross will take advantage of the strong morale and directly invade the territory of the Frankish Kingdom to plunder. After all, although this expedition will not empty the treasury, it will also cause Rurik's treasury to bleed heavily. Someone needs to

To pay for this expedition, perhaps the Franks could pay for the military supplies.

Everyone was shocked by Rurik's ambition, and after a brief surprise, everyone became excited again.

This is another military operation gambling on the fate of the country. The difference is that the Russian army has mobilized five thousand domestic troops, and its logistics supplies are quite abundant. When the military strength reaches a huge scale, the risk of failure of the operation is also extremely reduced.

Low.

Thus, a mixed army formed two attitudes.

One side hopes that the war will continue to expand, and it is best if it really comes to the territory of the Frankish Kingdom this year or in the next few years, and the Russian army will loot and make a fortune.

One side is eager to give up as soon as it gets better, and quickly expands settlements in the newly controlled territory.

Regardless of their attitude, the army had already entered the correct waterway, led by a guide composed of Jönköping locals who had surrendered to Rus. The huge Rus-Swedish-Finnish fleet drifted northwest on the highland lake of Götaland.

After a day's sailing, the narrow waterway ended, and there was a huge stretch of water ahead that could not be seen to the end.

Is it a lake or a sea?

As long as you taste the water, you will know that it is fresh water. This body of water is nowhere else but Lake Vänern, which is three times larger than Lake Vättern!

Lake Vänern has a very special meaning to the Götalanders, the Danes, and the Norwegians in Oslo.

It is a sacred lake, and legend has it that this is where the Vanir Gods live.

According to the words of nearby residents, noble gods such as Frey and Freya came from this Lake Venarn. There is a secret place in the lake called Vanaheim, which is the home of the gods.

However, these explanations are all beautiful legends. The origin of the name of Lake Vänern is very simple - wind.

Unlike the root word of Lake Werternsee which is water, the root word of Wernern is wind.

And according to what the Jönköping guide said, Rurik learned of such a thing.

Gothenburg is not a city, but a region.

The suffix "burg" did clearly mean "walled and sheltered town" in the Frankish Kingdom, but in northern Scandinavia, it just meant the original "enclosed area". In this regard, Rurik should obviously
To be continued...