Rise of Rurik

In the open space outside Novgorod, a group of prairie people's wooden sheds and tents were built here.

Kagan was afraid of any disputes between his own people and the local residents, so he ordered his men not to enter the city without permission.

The Pechenegs were, after all, strangers in Rus, and Kagan knew what to do and what not to do. With a large number of horses, they let their horses eat grass in the wasteland. Under the leadership of Kagan, they also collectively entered the city market to continue purchasing supplies.

The people of the steppes do things in a measured manner, so the residents of Novgorod naturally treat them with less caution. But it would be too difficult for all Slavs to feel completely at ease with him and feel like one family.

The Ermen Slavs knew very well that even the horsemen from Kiev were not allowed to live in the city collectively. They were not really of the same race, and their languages ​​​​were obviously very close to each other.

Because the city of Novgorod has become saturated, although there is no concept of real estate business here, the people already have the awareness that every inch of land is valuable. What's more, this city was expanded on the basis of Baishu Manor, so they were naturally a little xenophobic.

As a noble, Kagan can naturally enter and leave the city freely. He has to wait for Rurik to finish some things before leaving. He was not in any hurry, and guided the people who saw the end of spring plowing to resume various kinds of work. They were producing various small items that the grassland needed. Linen and wool spinning were fully restored, and brand-new cloth began to be sold to the outside world.

The quality of the linen was very good, and the property rights belonged to King Rurik. Even though they were related by marriage, Kagan still had to spend cash to buy new cloth. This was not a problem. The transaction was fair and he owed no favors. Moreover, the work of selling horse hides and slaves was very profitable. The more good cloth you bought, the better.

Of course, he would rather be with his biological sister, and he especially dotes on his brown-haired nephew Hazal.

This kid loves to laugh and has amazing grasping skills with his little hands.

"A future marksman." He hugged his nephew and let the boy caress his hair.

"He is very strong. And he must be taller than you." Beyathil laughed.

"That's fine. What does Rurik want this kid to do in the future?"

"Captain of the Cavalry."

"Very good. I am this boy's uncle, so I should give him a gift. I happen to be stranded here, so everything will be easy to handle."

Kagan then found a blacksmith in the city, took out some silver coins, melted them down, and finally made a sterling silver pendant for the pony as a way of caring for his nephew. This child has two pony pendants, and the sterling silver cross pendant inevitably attracted Kagan's special attention.

He played with the cross gently: "I know this. The Romans also had similar amulets."

"It's Frankish."

"Those far away guys? What's the use of such a pendant? Will the gods over there bless him?"

"It must be possible." Mentioning this matter, Bayahir's attitude suddenly became serious and determined, "This kid was born in the extremely cold west, and no evil spirits harmed him. Maybe the Frankish god blessed him."

"Absurd." Kagan shook his head, "This kid was blessed by Odin and Tengger. What does it have to do with the Western Gods? Anyway, my nephew is indeed blessed by the gods. Ah... Now let's wait for Rurik to sort things out. Done, I want to have a good chat with him."

Kagan is still not in a hurry. He has a lot of horses, and at worst he can even rent them from Ostara. The Kiev cavalry has left, and Pecheneg can organize a larger cavalry to return to his home at the mouth of the Volga River with more goods. After all, it would be difficult for him to come back once he leaves.

"I can't bear to part with you. But, you are our Khan." Beiyashir murmured.

"This is my destiny. Don't worry, I will send my clan brothers to continue trading."

"Our clan brother? Which one?"

Kagan shrugged: "I will choose when I get back."

The successor chosen by Kagan is a clan brother, who is also a clan brother of Beyathil. It's a pity that the relationship between the brothers and sisters is not as close as that of Rurik and Arik.

Beyathil was more in awe of his brother. He was already a khan and was unconditionally recognized by the Kingdom of Rus and all members of the Northern Alliance.

Kagan still doesn't know what the "Northern Alliance" means. Pecheneg is not strong now and is always facing threats from the Bulgars (Volga) and Khazars. One more friend means one more possibility. The more the better.

Rurik finally finished the important work at hand and went straight to the state-owned textile factory smelling the smell of boiled wool. He listened to detailed reports from Vodgen and Bloma and greatly appreciated their decision to change their production strategy to fully produce woolen sweaters.

The king cordially expressed condolences to the people of the Danish Stonewall tribe who continued to work, and once again announced to them that Ragnar had become the deserving King of Denmark, and announced the order from the King of Denmark on behalf of Ragnar.

"All of your guest lives in Ross are over. This year you will all sail back to your hometown."

Rurik really imagined that this group of people would roar and cheer and return to their homeland, but in the end he saw resistance on their faces. This is easy to understand. The survivors and their families have lived a stable life in Rus for many years. They have no worries about being invaded by foreign enemies, and their stable production and life have enabled families in distress to recover to varying degrees. In this era, a stable life is precious, and it seems that only Ross can give them real safety to this group of refugees. Just like their current job, as long as they continue to do it, the reward will be indispensable, and they are willing to do so forever.

The good life must come to an end.

To be fair, these workers are already skilled workers. Losing many at once would be an economic loss for Rurik himself. In his heart, he doesn't want these workers to leave, but the matter has been classified as a political and diplomatic issue between the two countries.

Rurik negotiated with them, and he made certain concessions, and all Danish workers could continue to work until the autumn harvest. In this way, both men and women could use their accumulated wealth to buy a large amount of supplies and sell the Susukada they had cultivated with their own hands.

They decided to bring a large amount of goods home to provide security for their new life in the future.

When all the workers want to leave, they can add a new batch. Rurik will not have a headache about this matter. As long as he announces the recruitment of workers, many women will be eager to try. The only problem is that most of the newly recruited people are seasonal workers, and they often ask for leave due to family matters. When the busy farming period comes twice a year, the workers basically disappear, and in the end only those who are still working are left. A handful of slave laborers. This is really inappropriate. State-owned garment factories need sustained and stable output.

Rurik set the tone for production and life this year, which is to accumulate wealth, just like a skinny sheep gnawing grass desperately to ensure that it is fat and strong and has good hair.

The lambs brought from Flanders survived the long voyage and were raised in captivity in Novgorod. They were first fed a large amount of wheat to make them strong quickly. They are all breeding sheep among sheep. If they are well fed this year, they can be bred on a large scale next year.

Similarly, the pea seeds brought from Flanders and Saxony have been handed over by Rurik to Queen Svetlana, who will choose a small open space in the city for trial planting.

It is very embarrassing to say that the summer frost-free period in most parts of Northeast Europe is enough time for peas to complete the growth cycle. However, because no one delivers qualified seeds, there has been no planting in the Yinlemen Lake area. The queen found these strange green seeds very novel. Some of them were wrinkled and some were really round.

The seedlings will grow quickly after the seeds are sown. All that is left is to splash some manure water in a small area and water more, and let it grow slowly. According to Rurik's plan, as long as the peas are suitable for planting and successful, except for a small part of the first year's output for the royal family to taste, the rest of the beans will be stored and expanded planting will begin next year.

Finally, the appointed day arrived.

Rurik was in good spirits, and there were three other people sitting in the reception room he chose, Carlotta, Kagan and Bejahir, all of whom were full of energy.

Just like a few years ago, Kagan is still a short man with a round face and black hair. He has a very standard prairie flat face. His face is rounder than before, and his eyes appear to be smaller.

It was such a man, and Rurik had already heard about his new situation.

"Brother Kagan, you haven't left yet. I heard it was all because you were waiting for me. I'm really sorry for keeping you waiting. You know, I have some things that need to be resolved after I come back from the expedition."

Kagan nodded. He listened to such polite words in his heart and sighed: "I will meet my fate. It is indeed a blessing for you and my brother to stay here today."

"Is it about you returning to your hometown to succeed the Khan? I've heard about it! Congratulations to you."

"Thank you. We should take advantage of today's opportunity to have a good chat. But..." Kagan glanced at Carlotta, "Maybe our sister Carlotta has something more important to say."

"Then let's talk. It's really strange." Rurik shrugged, "If there's something really big, you can tell me as soon as possible."

"There's a lot going on," she said.

"About the cavalry going south to plunder? Ella told me a lot, and I heard a lot." Rurik looked at the two people again and had to praise: "I was worried that the Smolensk people would follow They attacked us along the Lovati River. I didn’t expect them to be a bunch of cowards. You did a great job in the south. I learned that many of the captives have been made slaves. You know, Rus is in great need of labor."

These words were full of praise, and Carlotta felt extremely comfortable hearing them. Her face was full of smiles and she deliberately teased: "Even so, I still have more than two hundred slaves in my hands."

"There are so many more? You are really good at hiding them. Why didn't I know?"

"Even in the city of Novgorod!" Kagan agreed.

"Is this happening? Oh! I understand. You brought these slaves to the market in the north, intending to choose a good time to sell them all. Carlotta, if you tell me this now, I will probably I guessed what you were thinking. You..." Rurik stared directly at his woman and laughed maliciously.

Carlotta responded with the same low voice, as if there was a tacit cooperation between the two conspirators.

"As you can guess," she said, "Those slaves need a big buyer, and I'm waiting for you to pay for them. I also want to explain the fact that if they were high-quality slaves, they would have been sold long ago. Those men and women Not excellent.”

"Huh? It can't be a group of old, weak, sick and disabled people? I ask you to capture slaves, but don't do it indiscriminately."

"They are all unattractive women, generally young. There are also those male slaves, many of whom are older. Those Slavic farms don't bother to buy such slaves, and I have no use for them either. Rurik, What do you think?"

"This..." Rurik hesitated. He pinched his chin and refused to look at his wife. Carlotta, on the other hand, just stared at Rurik's face with her wide blue eyes, and kept urging with her eyes: "Buy quickly."

"Okay! It's hard to refuse such kindness!" Rurik shook his head, "You have made great contributions, and I want to commend you. Even if the quality of these slaves is not good, let's trade them according to the past agreement."

"Is this really okay?" Carlotta, who was smiling, was suddenly startled. "I plan to sell you half a pound of silver coins each."

"As agreed before, if I buy one for one pound of silver coins, I will pay you the same price in grain."

"Ah! Doesn't this mean I owe you a favor?"

"Nonsense." Rurik felt that the words coming out of her mouth were too funny, "You are my woman, what kind of kindness can we have? The supplies given to your Ostara people are not meant for my people." .”

"That's fine. You...make me happy. I brought our son here this time, and little Carl longs for your hug. Also, this is a rare time for me to come here. We...I...at least allow me to use a woman's Way to thank you.”

"sure."

Carlotta wanted to be more straightforward, but considering that there were other women here, she deliberately kept it subtle.

Now Rurik verbally announced that he would accept all the unsaleable slaves in Carlotta's inventory. His mind was running wildly for a short time, and he basically thought of how to arrange these guys.

Any slave, including male slaves, was at risk of rebellion. If these male slaves were from the Viking tribe, Rurik, which unified the Viking world in Norway except Oslo and Bergen, could directly recruit such slaves and make them free after working for a few years, or even some time in the future. The war requires him to fight first, and then directly regain his freedom after meritorious service.

Considering that the slave metal came from the Smolensk region, which was disliked by everyone, the rebel Vadim was harbored by the locals. Rurik was angry about this and turned his anger on the slaves from there.

All male slaves were transported by sea to Blast Furnace Town, the hometown of Fort Ross, and to Ironburg further north. They transformed themselves into miners and iron smelting slaves, participating in the one-stop work of smelting iron ore, providing high value-added labor to the kingdom. Those jobs are almost all manual labor, and it doesn't matter if the male slaves continue to work as they age.

All female slaves had a clearer destination - the state-owned garment factory.

They work in the city of Novgorod and work around the clock after being given labor tools. In exchange, these female slaves could receive a warm place to live, a steady supply of food, and even the promise of a working day to regain their freedom. If Carlotta could provide a hundred female slaves, the garment factory would not be shut down during busy farming periods, and the efficiency of garment manufacturing would plummet, or at least it could continue to operate.

Of course, Carlotta has been stranded in Novgorod for some time, and she is not sitting idle with her son.

She has discussed some brand new things with Kagan, who has been upgraded to Khan, and has also chatted with Queen Svetlana and Governor Medvet in her full capacity as Duchess of Ostara. Everyone has their own identity, but the same thing is that they are a community of interests connected by intricate marriage relationships. Rurik is everyone's past, but he led the army on expeditions in the past, and the production and life in the rear area can still operate stably. This is largely due to the supervision of the nobles in the rear area.

Even if Rurik does not come up with new ideas for expansion, all the Yilmen Slavs who have fully integrated with the Russians call themselves "noble people" and call them "Slavinje" in their local language, and they are also expanding spontaneously.

The so-called Khiva Road actually consists of a number of Eastern European transportation lines connecting the Baltic Sea, the Black Sea, and the Caspian Sea. Today, the Rus Kingdom has developed such a passage: Gulf of Finland → Lake Ladoga → Volkhov River → Lake Yin Ermen → Lovaj River → Valdai Swamp (different from the Valdai Lake area in the east) → Dnieper River → Kiev → Eastern Steppes → Volga River Estuary.

Such a road is actually quite tortuous, requiring long-distance navigation, but the river is completely cut off at key nodes, and we have to rely on horse teams for communication. The fact is that Yin Ermen Lake has never taken the initiative to send business groups in these years. Instead, they waited for the horse teams from Kiev and Pecheneg to carry the goods northward in their hometown. In the end, they led the horses and walked around the river, swamps and grasslands. Each family.

Things are different now. After the looting of Smolensk, the people in the north greatly expanded their knowledge of the southern region, especially along the Lovady River to the source of her great swamp.

Carlotta and Kagan decided to take this opportunity to communicate their strategic ideas to each other.

"I plan to build a settlement at the source of the Lovati River. It will be the southernmost settlement of our kingdom. It will be developed into a river port, an outpost and fortress, and a rest stop for traveling merchants. What do you think? ?" Carlotta said solemnly.

Her words were serious, and such a plan coincided with Rurik's hidden thoughts.

"Okay!" Rurik slapped his thigh, "Isn't this your whim?"

"I completely agree." Kagan agreed with a smile: "In this way, our Pecheneg horse team can be well supplied during the journey. Moreover, your woman can place a cavalry team there and do whatever she wants. Attack the Smolensk villages and capture slaves one after another. Besides, if the enemy launches an attack, the southern outpost can detect it in advance, which is a good thing for you."

There are countless reasons to prove that this decision is wise, and it is Ross' inevitable choice for southern expansion.

"Then it's decided. Carlotta, since the matter is what you strongly requested, your cavalry has also conducted an in-depth investigation. The matter of the new settlement... is to be built by you, how about it?"

"It would be great if you approve it. I will start soon. Oh no! I will build a simple outpost this year."

"Okay. Have you confirmed the name?"

"We have basically figured out the suitable location. It is a soothing river bend area with a forest nearby. There is a large grassland in the river bend area, which is very suitable for us Ostara people to develop into pastures. We can even build a fortress, haha .According to the Slavs here, that place is called Luki (meaning the big bend in the river)."

"Lucki?" For a moment, Rurik felt that the name seemed familiar. "Just called Lucky?"

"After all, there were many Slavs in my cavalry, and that was the name they gave me," she said.

"Okay, based on the principle of whoever discovers it, I can accept it." Rurik shrugged again, "Add a suffix and call it Lukiholm."

(Lucky is Big Lucky.)