Rise of Rurik

With the autumn harvest completed, classes resumed at Rus' school in Novgorod.

The school only teaches cultural knowledge to enrolled students for two academic years, and one academic year only refers to the period after spring plowing and before autumn harvest. Because all children, even if they are only five years old, are still a small labor force in the family. When a small workforce suspends production to study, it is a good thing for everyone in the long run, but it is a short-term trouble for the children's families.

Therefore, all enrolled students enjoy free meals, and the expenses are borne by the king.

Of course, these children don’t just learn and do nothing. They only study knowledge in the morning, and must work voluntarily in the afternoon, exchanging the fruits of their labor for food in their stomachs.

Child labor is a common occurrence in this era. In other words, anyone who cannot work will be disliked by fellow villagers and even close relatives.

Most of the boys will arrange physical work, such as carrying an ax and a two-man saw to learn the orthodox "Viking-style directional lodging logging technique", cracking flax fibers into fine hemp ropes, and peeling off trees with knives and hand axes. Then, the tree trunks are made into a large number of small vertical wooden sticks to be used as arrow shafts. Those children who show great potential for strength at a young age are sent directly to the city's blacksmith shops to serve as apprentices. Such children will then be stereotyped in the future - a popular blacksmith.

Girls are often assigned to work as apprentices in state-run paper workshops and garment factories, and are even required to wear water-soaked cloth masks and participate in the work of tanning leather in a smelly environment.

They are mainly descendants of the Old Rus's, followed by the descendants of the New Rus' from the Viking line, and finally the Slavic children from the White Tree Manor.

The education currently promoted by Rurik can only benefit its core population. As for other Slavic farms, except for the children of the Boyar nobles who have been recruited, the rest of the children can almost only repeat the traditional life of their ancestors for thousands of years.

As a result, a noble ethnic group has expanded from the beginning. They can come from multiple tribes, even from Slavs, and now they all call themselves "Russians".

During the War of 840, the cavalry in the kingdom's standing army was always granted the privilege of independent action. Rurik did not give them a very clear mission. Instead, after setting a general direction, the commanders were free to fight happily, and the cavalry became a surprise force.

The standing cavalry also suffered a lot of losses, but the parents of those who died in the battle had already received a large amount of wealth and glory that their sacrificed son had gained for the family. At the same time, a vacancy for a cavalryman appeared. The younger brother of the deceased in battle could inherit his elder brother's position in the military, or the parents of the deceased in battle could designate a relative to take over if there was no suitable son to replace him.

The First Cavalry was quickly resurrected. After all, there were many cubs who wanted to become noble cavalry.

Should we ignore the long-cherished wishes of the squealing cubs?

No! Ross's cavalry must be expanded to meet the kingdom's needs for activities in the eastern forests and grasslands.

The most lively period in Novgorod is temporarily over. Some warriors are exploring eastward, and some ruthless people are going south to build new settlements.

The area around Yin'ermen Lake has entered a period of "mass production for all," but farmers adhere to the pattern of working from sunrise to sunset. Even though the daylight hours are now very long, their overall pace of life is still extremely slow. They have huge potential that needs to be tapped. Rurik is not in a hurry to exploit it, because the current economic chain of the kingdom does not require the entire population to produce various materials.

In the past, local Slavic farmers were trapped in extremely backward agriculture and had to struggle with hunger and hunger while paying tribute to the conqueror Rus.

Now that everything is getting better, every household's warehouse has finally begun to have surplus grain. Farmers are finally qualified to accumulate wealth. Based on the king's tax exemption for newly reclaimed land in the next year and tax exemption for three years, a little calculation shows that a piece of newly reclaimed farmland has a tax exemption policy for a total of five years. Even if taxes began to be collected in the future, it would be the kingdom's scribes who would determine the grade of the acres after the land was allocated and collect grain in corresponding proportions according to the grade. How to calculate: As long as a farmer family chooses to cultivate wasteland, they will make more and more money in the long run.

Extremely smart people noticed a loophole in the policy - no taxes were paid on growing vegetables. So until the king adjusts the tax policy, a variety of dishes is profitable.

Any child who reaches the age of twelve is considered an adult, and the Slavs are no exception. They have begun to find wives for their adult sons, and families with daughters are also trying to marry off their adult daughters as soon as possible.

Naturally, there is another problem here. Ordinary families on the surrendered farms really hope that their daughters can marry a boy with the blood of the old Ross.

In recent days, farmers have rowed boats to Mstisk and Novgorod to sell their daughters to the locals. Of course, those beautiful girls were snapped up and became the daughters-in-law of the old Russians, and their parents were given considerable gifts.

This is a normal intermarriage, and Rurik and everyone else are very clear about the purpose of the marriage between those farmers. Rurik liked this situation very much. As long as the people spontaneously made the relationship entangled due to marriage, it would ultimately be beneficial to his rule.

After sending Carlotta and Kagan to the south, Rurik joined the team by water, and also organized manpower in the city to complete the compilation and proofreading of all the current contents of "Rossaga".

In principle, it can be printed and mass-produced and then bound into books for sale.

A small trouble is that although Novgorod can print, there are too few wooden movable types in stock. This is not a capital city. Only New Roseburg has enough equipment for large-scale printing and mass production. Besides, wooden movable type is only a stopgap measure. The most cost-effective option under existing conditions is to use lead movable type. Where is the most lead? Naturally, it’s New Roseburg and Roseburg’s hometown in the north.

Some chapters of "Russian Saga" can be trial printed in Novgorod to see the effect. As for mass production, it still needs to be implemented in Novorossberg.

Rurik thought that he had an important agreement with the high priest Lumia. Looking at the current time, he probably would not be able to return before the summer solstice ceremony. At least he would have to arrive in the capital in July with all the manuscripts and a large amount of paper. . Because the capital city of New Rossburg is stuck in a unique geographical location. The east is the continent and the west is the ocean, especially the Baltic Sea in the west. The coast is full of people who believe in Odin. They can understand it if they get the "Loss Saga". I'm afraid this The books are the only "literary works" they can get. Various stories about gods and demons enrich ordinary life and greatly strengthen their belief in Odin. Rurik naturally also mixed in private goods, and always emphasized that the Ross royal family had indeed received a gift from Odin.

Other Vikings, such as the residents of Sweden and Denmark, must not be able to understand the Latinized Norse language, so Rurik thought of this and gave Ella a temporary task, which was to compile another edition written in traditional Rune script. books.

Her cheeks were as bulging as a frog with anger, but what could she do? I can only translate honestly. Another embarrassing problem is that Novgorod did not prepare rune wooden movable type, so they immediately began to carve out the mirror script of the letters. The essence of rune is that a knife is carved on a wooden board, so all the letters are just various characters. The combination of straight lines is much easier to handle than written Latin letters.

For this reason, Rurik had to postpone his return to the capital, but it did not mean that he would be idle in the next time.

Because what was promised to the fighting hero Brody, now is the opportunity to implement it.

"Bald" Fisk, captain of the 1st Cavalry, led some of the cavalry south to assist Carlotta in building Lukiholm, and there are still a group of them resting in the rear.

All standing cavalry have experienced brutal wars and have sufficient combat experience. In principle, each of them can serve as a junior officer.

The selection of the 2nd Cavalry was held outside the city of Novgorod. All boys who had received a complete two years of education in school and were over the age of twelve were eligible to sign up.

This time Rurik intends to recruit another 300 people, who will join the 2nd Cavalry, and the captain appoints Brody, who has performed meritorious services.

Originally, adding new blood to the standing army was in Rurik's plan. The standing army will no longer set up new infantry units. The current infantry unit, so-called bear-headed berserkers, will not be expanded temporarily after the personnel is designated. However, there are also new recruits who will take over the places of those who died in the war.

The Second Cavalry is the only expansion force. Joining it means that you can get a salary all the time. Of course, you will definitely face tough battles in the future. As the saying goes, those who are afraid of death are cowards, but the descendants of old Ross are brave and fearless. What sounds good is that "a true warrior can charge with an iron horse". In fact, if you join the cavalry, you will have the opportunity to grab the most loot. If an elder brother dies in battle, his younger brother will take over, and if his father dies in battle, his son will take over. The family behind the cavalry will always have a standing cavalryman. Get benefits.

Of course the king would not feed Kong Xiang's waste. Since the young cubs have received cultural knowledge, they also learned basic fighting skills during their school days.

Selecting the best through "competition" was the method used by Old Ross to select chiefs in the past. It was the kind of competition where warriors competed with each other and punched to the bone. It was not surprising that people were killed in the competition. The written "competition" test is a test in a general sense, which determines which children can learn deeper cultural knowledge, and then determines which children can work as scribes and receive salaries.

Competing in martial arts is the easiest "competition" for the old Russians to understand. Children naturally don't fight with wooden swords and shields, and their competition is very harmonious.

The first priority of a cavalryman is not to be afraid of horses, and the second priority is understanding.

They had not yet received riding training, but Rurik found "coach horses" that he considered extremely docile. In this way, the horse understands the slogan, and it will perform movements such as sprinting, sudden stops, and sharp turns under the command of a real standing army. As long as the child grasps the reins and rides firmly in the saddle without being thrown out, it is qualified.

On the day of the "competition", thousands of people came to the open space outside the city to watch the show. In addition to Novgorod and Mstisk, boyars from several farms heard the news and brought their other cubs to try their luck. Everyone knows that the King has a contemptuous attitude towards ordinary farms, but the King will not show his contempt or discrimination publicly. In this way, the king actually acquiesced that all brave men could participate in the "competition", so the second, third and even fourth sons in the family would have the opportunity to find a good job in the Second Cavalry.

The boyars of the manor all sent their children to school. Their move was first to show their loyalty to the king and secondly to the interests of the family. It is not luck that they became boyars. Their family has long enjoyed power on the farm, largely because the family pays more attention to wisdom than others. Even if it's through plunder or speculation, the more property they have in the farm, the more say they will have, and now they have to go to Ross to find this huge backer.

The boyars brought their sons to "compete", which of course pleased Rurik who was watching.

For example, the die-hard Calf Manor and the Fisherman Manor actually joined forces with the Rus-White Tree coalition and formed a larger coalition due to the special geographical location (very close to Novgorod). This is already ten years. Years ago. Or because of their geographical proximity, the two farms provide agricultural products to Novgorod nearby. Rather than being completely economically tied, their lives are getting better and better.

Ten years have passed, and the youngest son in the Boyar family has grown up, and Boyar has multiple daughters and sons in the two manor houses. The two manors originally had a small population. After the good times came, every family was trying their best to have children. It was not surprising that a family had five or six children, and the probability of living until the age of twelve was much higher.

Boyartori and Uski are also getting older. They have begun to have large areas of gray hair, and the wrinkles on their faces are no longer noticeable.

The two wore beautiful hats and took their young son with them to bow deeply to Rurik, who was supervising the competition.

"Your Majesty, this is my little son." Tori said.

"These are my third and fourth sons. They are old enough to serve the king." Uski said quickly.

Rurik glanced at the corner of his mouth: "Needless to say, I understand where you are coming from. You are loyal ministers, and your youngest sons can become cavalry. However, they have to go through the same trials as everyone else. After all, they have to go through the same trials. On the battlefield, the enemy doesn’t care whether you are noble or not.”

The two boyars looked at each other and hurriedly recommended their sons, claiming that the boys were brave enough.

"Brave? Maybe. Pass the riding test first. Be careful, you might die if you fall off the horse suddenly."

Rurik was not joking, even though the test site he chose had soft grass and had been trampled by horses. In this way, the rotten ground has a natural buffer, but if the impact is too strong, you will break your legs, and if you fall on your head, you may die suddenly.

This kind of "competition" may lead to death, so any child participating must swear to accept any unknown fate, which is equivalent to signing a life and death certificate.

The children's parents tried to wrap them up as tightly as possible, and even though it was the warmest period, each child actually put on winter clothes.

Such a move is wise, after all, even a docile horse can easily throw the rider off when accelerating and suddenly stopping and decelerating. At first, some riders fell off their horses and rolled on the muddy ground. They struggled to get up and cried in pain, while others stood up stubbornly. No one died, but they all suffered internal injuries after falling from the horse, and the thick clothes wrapped around their bodies were also full of mud. They are all losers, and those who reach the finish line on horseback will advance to the next stage.

It's a pity that Uski and Tori's youngest son all fell into the mud.

"This is fate. They are born with a lack of understanding of riding horses. Maybe after more training, they will know how to ride horses, but I need elites now. I want to ensure that the most elite warriors fight cruel battles."

Rurik's words were very tactful, and the two of them had no reason to complain, so they had no choice but to bring their dirty little son to pay tribute to the king.

More than 400 people passed the riding selection, and such a unique "competition" suddenly became the talk of the town in Novgorod.

The children who passed the competition were given a feast, and they competed in archery competition and lumberjack competition the next day.

In archery, select the person with the best archery skills, four hundred and fifty will advance to three hundred and fifty.

For logging, select those who are strongest and good at chopping. Three hundred and fifty will make three hundred.

After a competition, no one can say it is unfair. It was the king who gave the participants the greatest fairness. Even if the parents of the participants were blond boys from the old Ross tribe, they still had to compete with other children and stand out through their superior strength.

This competition selected 300 good seedlings worth cultivating. They were very young and were only twelve years old. They were quickly assigned their own mounts, which were also young horses that were only two to three years old. Both rider and mount are very young and have had enough time to develop feelings for each other.

In the end, Rurik, wearing a golden crown and riding a horse, gave a grand lecture to these new cavalry.

He wants to make a show by holding the flagpole in his hand and the Ross flag flying in the wind.

Brody was standing by on horseback with a solemn expression, constantly paying attention to the group of children in front of him. For the time being, they were still simply arranged in a matrix, but there were no horses yet. Everyone was uniformly dressed, and their young cheeks ranged from green to ferocious.

After some Kang's speeches, Rurik raised the flag high in his right hand and turned his horse's head to face Brody.

"This flag is handed over to you! The Second Cavalry is now established, and you are the captain of the cavalry! Brody, I don't give you much time. You must train these children in the shortest possible time, at least ensure that they can Horse riding, followed by training in mounted archery, thrusting, and slashing.”

"Yes!" Brody took the flag, so that the king had completely fulfilled his promise. The moment he took the flag, he was so excited that he almost cried.