Rise of Rurik

Rurik tried to establish a "compulsory education" system in his core control area, but after all, this was an ambitious undertaking, and he could not accomplish it overnight without being separated from the many current challenges and difficulties.

For the children of Old Ross and White Tree Manor, all the children should be gathered together and concentrated on basic cultural, physical and military education. These children are the descendants of the highest-ranking people in the kingdom. Through education, they are made loyal to the king, inheriting and strengthening Ross's sense of pioneering and enterprising.

Reading with rice balls

Based on national strength, this is all Rurik can do. The school's teaching staff can accommodate at most five thousand people studying at the same time, and the teaching quality cannot meet his expectations.

Ordinary children only have two school years of cultural education. The focus is on mastering the use of the Latin alphabet to ensure that they can understand the Norse and Slavic languages ​​spelled with this alphabet. In just two years, it was very difficult for them to become proficient in Latin, especially the serious "ecclesiastical Latin". Learning basic spoken language was not difficult in this era when the number of names was not abundant.

Secondly, there is mathematics.

The so-called Vikings' overall high level of mathematics is due to their sheer illiteracy compared to the majority of Western European farmers. Business, especially the work of designing and lending money, was considered by the church to be a blasphemy against the faith.

Western popes fantasize about an idyllic life, in which common people and nobles abide by it, so that the world that fell into darkness after the fall of Rome can rebuild the tranquility of the Yidian years.

So there is a bizarre contradiction here.

People engaged in business must reap benefits from this behavior, and the behavior of obtaining benefits is defined as a kind of gain for nothing. However, the lives of nobles and churches require merchants to provide a large amount of supplies, and even church groups in various places have evolved into big business owners.

Amid this contradiction, Western European society developed slowly and gradually established a life different from that of the Roman era.

Their commercial trade is not as frequent as in the northern world. The Vikings of all walks of life are just accustomed to doing business and have developed very good mental arithmetic skills in their daily lives.

Confirming the transaction in the form of a written contract will inevitably involve a very precise digital conversion of the goods. When it comes to numbers alone, the runes in the northern world directly spell out the words describing numbers with letters, while the Western European world uses inherent Roman numerals.

In terms of numbers, both sides can be described as a bunch of crouching dragons and phoenixes, both of whom have the same crotch.

Rurik had already popularized mature Arabic numerals in his kingdom, and it was impossible for him to make the entire population proficient in using it in a short period of time. This alphabet system is taught among children, and proficiency in using the four arithmetic operations and the multiplication table is an important assessment model.

An eight or nine-year-old child can skillfully use this number system in a short period of time through cramming. Even in Norse, the multiplication table can be mastered very well.

The child's parents began to be surprised that their child had exaggerated mental arithmetic abilities, as if they had given birth to a little genius.

Among thousands of children, some elite sons are bound to receive higher education.

Vodgen, who was hired as the director of a state-owned garment factory, had his children of all ages perfected the numerical system.

After all, Fodegen was getting old. He spent half his life wandering around as a traveling merchant, and only really settled down after joining the Ross tribe.

He had a son of his own, Harald Vodgensen, who was ten years old. This child was not destined to become a warrior, but his old father paid great attention to him.

The son will inherit everything from his father. As long as nothing happens, the child can inherit the factory director's job.

This matter was tacitly approved by Rurik.

Rurik did not know Harald Vodgensen, or Little Vodgensen. A ten-year-old child has not yet had the opportunity to stand alone, so this "little golden retriever" follows his old father almost as a secretary. A ten-year-old child has already completed cultural courses at school. Little Fordegen's mathematics level far exceeds that of his father. Running a huge clothing workshop seriously challenges his management skills. This kid still needs many years of study and experience.

Among his many sons, Fo Degen also selected the most capable. Harald was more talented than his other brothers, so he was specially trained. Fordegen was convinced that only people with this kind of talent would be hired by the king.

Rurik's state-owned factory also has another technical director - Bloma, the mother of bald Fisk.

That was the battle of the Principality of Rus against Gotland in 832, which was part of the entire Swedish-Danish war. The Russian army captured many prisoners of war, and Fisk also captured a pair of twins who became his two wives. In the subsequent Tavastia tribal war against Finland, a local girl became Fisk's third wife.

In today's war of 840, Astrid, the daughter of a Jönköping merchant, is his fourth wife.

Astrid is pregnant, and Fisk has already become a father. He has three lively children, and he wants to have a good time with his wives when he returns. Fisk's family has a certain blood relationship with the royal family. During the war, he proved what it means to be truly loyal. The large number of children born in such a loyal family is of great benefit to the royal family.

No matter what their ethnicity is, Fisk's four wives are counted among the old Russians if they marry an old Russian. Even though most of them were victims of Russia's war of conquest, when their status changed to the wives of the victors, even if they were sad about their past experiences, they could not give up their current comfortable life.

Even pregnant Astrid was given a job by her mother-in-law Broma.

All four wives worked in the state-owned garment factory and were appointed by Bloma as supervisors. They did not have to work themselves but received a salary. This kind of work is far from leisure. They also crammed in mathematics and had to do statistics for Bloma and Fordegen.

Of course, after the identity change, Fisk's first three wives eventually became arrogant. They completely forgot that they were prisoners of war and began to boss around the slaves.

They only have the guts to do this to the slave workers in the garment factory. There are more female workers with the status of Old Rose, and they still have to be polite. Especially for working Danish women, they had to be ordered to be polite.

Because those Danish women were already direct descendants of the King of Denmark, and no one dared to damage the relationship between the Kingdom of Rus and the Kingdom of Denmark.

Reindeer carts pulled a large number of sacks to the factories in the city one after another. Some strong men were paid commissions to carry the sacks on their shoulders.

Facing the increasing number of sacks on the empty field, Fo Degen felt a fire in his heart.

He asked all the workers to suspend their work and come out of the factory to take a look.

No, women of different ages, hair colors, and heights raised their hands, staring at the piled burlap bags with their eyes, discussing what was stuffed inside.

Most people estimate that the linen is flax, while some knowledgeable people estimate that it is wool. Whether it is linen or wool, it is the raw material for textiles. Just looking at the sacks, some women were already elated. Raw materials mean finished products, and output means more wages.

Forde is still capable despite his age. He climbed onto the pile of sacks with a smile, feeling the power of the thick wool, and announced to all the workers from a high place.

"These are the trophies brought by the king. All you see is wool! This is the first time we have received so much wool raw material. The king ordered us to process it into wool and knit it into sweaters in large quantities."

Just after saying these words, the crowd of female workers gathered around, and the roar of discussion was like wild bees dancing wildly.

Fo Degen could clearly see their cheerful smiling faces and eyes filled with the desire to get rich.

Because spring plowing has ended, a shortcut for women who want to continue making money to support their families is to work in a garment factory. The women of Old Rus rowed boats from Mstisk to Novgorod with their children. Their children went to school directly and enjoyed free room and board, and they worked in garment factories.

They are not worried about their husbands and their eldest son, who must be over ten years old.

Arik, the war hero and cousin of the king, received a new mission assigned by the king, which is to lead Jianyong and the ambitious young men to the east to continue exploring. An armed expedition fleet was about to set off along the Msti River to explore its source, and a large number of men were about to launch a new expedition. Only God knows how many mink skins or other good things the husband and son can get. What is certain is that as long as you are qualified to work in a state-owned garment factory, this piece-rate job of processing supplied materials will definitely make money. deficit.

After all, state-run factories have reopened after a pause during the spring plowing period, and the flax reserves stored in last autumn were basically exhausted before spring plowing.

There is no need to question their desire to make money. No one knows what the textile industry in the Yin Ermen Lake area is like better than Fordegen and Bloma.

Standing on the pile of wool, Fodegen waved to everyone to be quiet, and then announced loudly: "The King asked us to try our best to make wool into clothes, and the King will solve all sales problems! So! Our task is to complete it as soon as possible! You guys It must be realized that our flax will be finished before the autumn wheat harvest. All of you will be very busy after the autumn harvest if you are willing to continue working in the factory. We must complete all wool processing before the flax harvest. It’s going to be hard work.”

"But we are not afraid of fatigue!" Bromma, standing in the crowd, said loudly. This move was to echo Fodegen's words and to cheer for the female workers.

So Broma continued to shout: "Women! We need more wool and more linen. We can do any tailoring work. We don't want to be idle! We! Desire to make a lot of money through labor!"

The female workers responded with their own Viking war cry. There was no distinction between ethnic groups at this moment. They hoped to prove their worth through labor, and even saw that it was completely feasible to make money and raise children through labor. As long as you have money, you can buy better decorations, daily necessities, and enough food to feed yourself and your children. Your status in the family will skyrocket, and you no longer have to give in to your husband's various demands.

Once they grasp the opportunity to make money, they can't go back...

The labor-intensive textile industry could still operate without heavy equipment, steam engines or electrical equipment.

All the products of the state-owned textile factory in Novgorod have no worries about marketability. It has essentially become a factory for the royal family. The products are first purchased by the royal family, and secondly, they are directly supplied to the army and schools.

Flax is grown in various Slavic farms in the Ermen Lake area, among which the "Flax Manor" at the southern end of the lake, near the city of New Ostara, is one of the best. The soil in the area where hundreds of people live on this farm is too wet and is not suitable for growing oats, but there is no problem growing flax. The village was unable to digest its own flax output. They used to live by selling linen cloth in exchange for food. Since the transactions were with other farms, their economic levels were about the same, so the flax farm had to make do.

The kingdom's state-run factories seemed to have unlimited demand for raw materials, and flax farms began to open up land for flax, and other villages were also doing the same. After all, compared to opening up qualified crop fields, the technical cost of transforming wasteland into flax fields is very low, and flax looks like reeds by the water at first glance. It does not need to be taken care of and allowed to grow wildly. After sowing, the four Just harvest it every month.

However, the Kingdom of Rus does not have advanced spinning wheels, and women still work with very primitive sitting looms. The women sit on leather mats. One end of the so-called machine is stepped on by both feet and the other end is tied around the waist. Each time the thread is threaded, it is a sitting or lying position. Their waists were passively trained to be very flexible, and their weaving efficiency was really poor.

Even so, the entire Novgorod region has always had a huge demand for flax raw materials, and the current expansion of flax production capacity still cannot satisfy it.

However, the livestock industry in the area around the lake is rising rapidly, and the number of sheep breeding in New Ostara City is expanding rapidly. The end of spring plowing every year is the sheep shearing season. The amount of wool that the people of Ostara can process is limited, so the remaining wool will naturally be shipped to Novgorod by ship to the state-owned factory, and the proceeds will be used to extract grain from the treasury and take it home. After all, the Duchess of Ostara is the king's wife, and the economic relationship between the two parties is extremely close.

Even if the weaving speed of women in state-owned garment factories is low due to backward machines, the number of people working at the same time is large enough, so that the final output can be high.

For the Slavs on Lake Yin Ermen who had transformed into a pure farming nation, almost all of their clothes came from linen. Even though they knew very dazzling dyeing techniques, what they produced was still linen.

In the face of harsh winters, linen's ability to withstand the cold is far less than that of wool.

Regarding the craft of wool rolling and spinning, this is the traditional craft of various Viking tribes, including the Old Rus. Completely different from the processing mode of ordinary textile machines, they can knit a large number of sweaters with only two wooden needles and are extremely efficient. It is also possible to weave wool into a sail. Due to practical needs, Ross has been using multi-layer stitching of flax and hemp to make a durable hybrid canvas. For a very practical reason, canvas absorbs water without becoming too heavy, which wool does not.

This is the reason why most women’s eyes shine. Their labor remuneration depends on their personal talents. Based on the fundamental principle of more work, more gain, they have to use their personal abilities to carve out their own big piece of cake from a huge cake. share.

The wool that Rurik brought from Flanders was a great gift. At the same time, New Ostara at the southernmost point of the lake was entering their wool-cutting period, and soon a large amount of local wool would be shipped.

"Then let's get started! Let's knit sweaters with all our strength!"

Vodgen completely changed the labor plan of the entire factory. At this time, the factory had more than 1,000 workers at the same time. Managing such a large group of people is not difficult in Fordegen's view. Just as the king manages a large army through the modes of flag corps, centurions, "ship" teams and squads, factories are also implementing similar production team and workshop models.

As the saying goes, there is always something new under the sun. If you want to increase output, you must either recruit more workers, increase working hours, or pay more.

All three methods are being implemented by state-owned textile factories.

As if the heavy textile work could be thrown to the slaves, Rurik did not implement this system from the beginning. He still doesn't like slavery in his heart. On the one hand, he has deep-rooted cognitive problems, but more importantly, it is hindered by the current economic situation. Since the simplest purpose of opening a state-owned textile factory is to make the lives of people born in Old Rus better, job opportunities must of course be reserved for their own people.

Rus always killed too much in previous wars. Rurik liked to call him the King of Slaughter. The tribesmen thought this was extremely domineering. However, such wars also meant that the army did not capture many slaves at all. Currently, there are no fundamental conditions for the development of slavery in the kingdom. Secondly, in the face of the increasingly expanding population of the Old Ross ethnic group, it is an increasingly demanding problem to solve the work and life of the twelve-year-olds.

If young children do not have a legitimate livelihood, they will be taken on expeditions to fight. Once there is no war, they will become idle.

This is also one of the reasons why Rurik supports his eldest brother in taking Jianyong to explore the east. The so-called exploration of better eastern settlements means sending adult men and women there according to Viking tradition to develop towns.

In addition, the internal development of manufacturing, especially the recruitment of female workers, will definitely have a stabilizing effect on the entire kingdom.

A state-owned garment factory alone is not enough! There will be second, third and even more factories.

Whether it is plundered wool or locally produced, the wool has not undergone any processing and is mixed with a large amount of dead branches and dust. To process supplied materials, these raw materials must be processed from scratch, so the city of Novgorod began to be filled with a strange smell and a strong smoke of fireworks.

A large number of earthenware urns or iron pots were set up, and boiling soapy water was used to degrease the hair. After degreasing, the large pieces of white wool are air-dried and then rolled out. The wool is wound out using a wheel-type machine and wound into a yarn ball. In this way, the finished yarn is obtained, which can be spun immediately or dyed into a variety of colors. Of course, the Slavs in the Novgorod region had superb textile dyeing techniques, and what they could get were blue, yellow, red, black, and green mixed with blue and yellow. Color mixing is a technique of the local Slavs. They have been producing floral cloth since ancient times, and now they can also produce colorful sweaters.

The work of wool processing has officially begun, and many women feel that they can make a fortune this year by working in their current homes. This was unimaginable in the past!