Rise of Rurik

"I am willing to sell the entire Lyingau to you. You will be the owner from now on, and there is no need to consider Ludwig's attitude." Robert's attitude was very firm.

It was indeed as if he had placed a piece of fat and oily meat on the table. The question was whether he actually cut it up and ate it. Blue Fox and Black Fox had to think about it. To be fair, Robert's promise was really tempting.

"Your family is going to the south of Frank, and you want to borrow our ship, of course there is no problem. It is okay to help you. By the way, we can also go to the south to see the situation, and maybe explore all new business opportunities. You know how we are different from others The Normans are different. My king Rurik prefers trade, and my brother and I are businessmen." Blue Fox Chariot said one thing after another. He made Robert relax his guard, and also made the Countess Al prompted deeper thinking.

Putting aside the issue of the land sale price for the time being, Countess Alder asked her husband another question: "If we had trade relations with each other, would we avoid being attacked. I heard that you have made deals with Cologne and Flanders. You make sure they no longer have to worry about piracy.”

"Of course. Smart madam, as you can see, who would be willing to be a pirate as long as they can make steady money through trade?"

"That's good." The countess nodded with a relaxed expression: "In fact, this is how we arrange our future itinerary."

"how?"

"In any case, we will leave next year. After this winter, our family will arrive in Nassau next spring, and we will borrow your boat to leave. After the boat reaches the endless sea, just go south along the coastline, and finally reach Tour of my family. Since you want to do business, everything is easy to talk about. You have a strong army, and my father has financial resources but has been facing military threats from the north. We can make an agreement and both sides will benefit. "

Countess Al is no ordinary person, she is indeed more calculating than Robert himself.

Lan Hu felt that when things had developed to this point, it was no longer as simple as just thinking about how much money to collect from Yingao. The Countess offers great possibilities, and the south of the Frankish world is a blind spot for today's Rus' and almost all Vikings. No! it's not true.

"Please wait a moment. Compared with your dictation, if you can describe it in detail on the map, it will be easier for me to understand." Blue Fox said.

"map?"

Al and Robert were a little confused, and as Blue Fox left for the time being, they quickly walked up to the attic room with their beautifully decorated leather bags.

He took out the documents from the bag and spread them out, then nailed two small thumbtacks into the small holes reserved at the two corners of the drawing. A simple map of Europe was spread out, its area was large, and its content was drawn as detailed as possible.

"What is this? A map?" The countess couldn't help but cover her mouth.

"It's a map, our known world." Blue Fox pointed to a point: "Up north, down south, left, west, right, east. This is a treasure drawn by my king himself. The paper carrying the map may also be a magical thing to you, but The information in it is extremely critical to my business. This point is Nassau, which is where we are now. Looking at this black line, it is the basic flow direction of the River Inn, and finally we will reach the endless sea."

The blue fox kept gesticulating. He no longer considered Robert's ideas, and was now clearly discussing in detail with the clever countess. He thought that if this lady was really smart, she would be able to figure out the logic quickly and abstractly understand where she was on the map.

Indeed, the territory of the Rus' Kingdom marked on the map is vast, and the settlements are all spelled out in Latin letters. The more important the city, the larger the letters marked. Countess Ayre was amazed at what she saw. She was indeed a smart person, and she realized the complexity of the Normans in her surprise.

The Frankish Kingdom did not have the ability to redraw the map of Europe, but the Roman Empire had already mapped what they considered the known world. The maps drawn on parchment survived the destruction of the empire because they were preserved in large numbers in large churches. Frank directly inherited the old Roman maps. With the help of the maps, Charlemagne was able to conquer the east and west more smoothly, and the military operations further proved the accuracy of these maps.

"Can you understand?" Blue Fox asked the Countess who was staring straight ahead.

Al nodded reluctantly: "Maybe... I understand."

"Okay. Maybe you can point out the location of your father's fiefdom on the map. Please come forward and tell me directly."

"I try my best."

Elle didn't think much about it. She hoped that the family would leave the desperate Lai Yingao as soon as possible and first return to her natal home in Tube. She even completely ignored that since these Russians regard long-distance voyages as easy as eating and drinking water, and they can easily complete the expedition, it is not just as simple as doing business. They are powerful warriors who can come and go quickly. Once they launch an attack, Tur will not be able to resist them.

However, Al knew his hometown. In the past years, the Earl of Tours had never been attacked by the Normans. Instead, the Brittany from the north frequently attacked the fief villages.

She saw clearly that the protruding area was where Brittany was located.

The Earl of Tours was a great nobleman in southwestern France. In the era of unified kingdom, the Earl of Tours took the Loire Valley as the core of its territory, and the city of Tours was the Earl's royal residence. At the same time, the count also held the fiefdom of Alsace and some trivial fiefdoms at the foot of the Pyrenees. Tour is a great nobleman in the south. As the saying goes, the mountains are high and the emperor is far away. He himself also faces some attacks from foreign races. In the old days when Charlemagne was still alive, the country naturally had to keep its tail between its legs when faced with the king's 150,000 standing army. now? forget it.

As the daughter of a noble noble, Al received a noble education. She knew some Latin and had read some treasured books and documents in the church.

She easily recognized Strasbourg and was very surprised that these place names were drawn by the King of Rus himself. Everything seemed like a miracle. She saw Rome and Sicily clearly marked on the map.

This is not the most important thing. The reason why she can easily recognize Brittany is simply because the protruding part is directly labeled "Brittany". Apparently, Rurik, the victor of the war whom he had never met, knew the exact location of Brittany.

Many Frankish cities have been marked, but of course large areas of the southern region are blank, which proves the Russians' limited knowledge of the Frankish south.

Now, Robert has been pushed aside, and his wife, Al, is more like a count. She is discussing the map with Blue Fox in person, and the conversation between them has simply changed to Latin.

Blue Fox heard a lot, he could understand many of the other party's emotions, and he could even think about the Frankish Civil War from the perspective of Count Tour, who didn't understand it at all.

The civil war was a reshuffle of the nobility, and this civil war deeply hurt the Count of Tours. Alsace was confiscated by Lothair, and its location was very close to the area at the height of the recent civil war. And judging from the map, if the Ross fleet launches a surprise attack on the Rhine River, it can indeed attack Strasbourg or even the Alsace region.

The biggest threat to the Earl of Tours was still the Bretons in the north, while the local nobles in Paris, Troyes, and Champagne all turned to King Lothair due to their own problems. So much so that it can be seen on the map that the north of Count Tour is full of hostile forces.

Mrs. Elle thinks long-term, because her husband’s family has many branches in the southern world, and the family can still live a life without worries about food and clothing by escaping to the south. but!

After losing their fiefdom and financial resources, even if they have a noble status, they only have one status. A nobleman has no money or soldiers and is only as valuable as a mascot. As a husband, he doesn't have many plans for the future. He just wants to take it one step at a time.

Mrs. Al was not the case. She thought that since this group of Normans named Ross could take the initiative to convert to God, they were really helping King Ludwig in the East fight the war. Ludwig had the ability to hire these ruthless northerners, so why couldn't he? As for the commission...how much is the entire county of Leingau worth?

Today's conversation with Joseph Blue Fox made her feel comfortable, and the other person was also a count with a large army. The older Al was afraid of him in terms of status.

Today's matter is a negotiation after all. Lai Yingao's side has never come up with its own conditions because there are too many terms.

Countess Ayre became the absolute think tank, and she was responsible for all the detailed negotiations.

Finally, she felt the time had come.

The Countess made these conditions:

1. The entire count of Lyingau was sold to the Baron of Nassau.

Second, the Baron of Nassau and the Earl of Gothenburg in the north sent people to escort the Robert family to Tours.

Third, the Count of Gothenburg can send troops to the mouth of the Loire River, take out a territory from the Bretons as a controlled area, and build shops in order to trade with the Count of Tours. In exchange, the Earl of Tours could act as an intermediary and recommend meetings and negotiations with King Charles of the Western Kingdom.

Fourth, arrange for some converted Normans to serve as mercenaries for Robert, with a strength of no less than two hundred.

Rather than considering how much money to spend to buy Yingao, the Blue Fox is most concerned about the following terms. The Loire River is over there, and establishing a controlled area at the mouth of the local river has greatly expanded the Russian people's horizons and added countless possibilities. As for sending more troops to serve as mercenaries for the Robert family who have lost their power, it is not a problem. The Götalanders in Gothenburg are too poor, and they would be really happy if they could make money as mercenaries. Moreover, when the Franks captured a controlled area in the south, it was self-evident who was the local master.

Accepting these negotiation conditions means that the Black Fox will legally swallow up the entire Leingau, and the Blue Fox will gain the right to directly contact the Count of Tours and the Western Kingdom.

Of course, the biggest problem here is that Nassau only gets Leingau legally. Even if it was only legal and nominal, Ludwig would definitely not approve it.

small book booth

Let the defeated guy go to hell! Lyingau must be taken by his younger brother.

Now, comes the most critical question – how much is Lyingau worth?

"All conditions are acceptable to us. So what's your offer?" Lan Hu finally asked seriously.

"A thousand pounds of silver."

"Too many. Too many." Blue Fox said this without any surprise on his face.

"That's a huge piece of land. Isn't it worth a thousand pounds? We even thought..."

"However, most of Leingau is still controlled by Ludwig. You keep selling it to us, but in the end we have to ask for it ourselves. A thousand pounds of silver coins is too expensive."

Indeed, Al hopes to ask for more money to help her husband quickly make a comeback in the south. One thousand pounds of silver coins is a huge amount of money. She estimates that the Russians who have made a lot of money through robbery can get it, and the range of Leyingau is real. big.

How old is Laingau? It reaches the town of Linden in the north and Wiesbaden in the south, with a depth of 70 kilometers from north to south. Moreover, Linden is a town on the banks of the Lan River, and most of the settlements on the banks of the Lan River do not belong to the Baron of Nassau. Now these towns will legally be sold to Nassau. North of Linden is the territory of Thuringia, and such a new Nassau can directly border it.

In the same way, Nassau merged with the entire Leingau and occupied Koblenz, which meant that the new west of Nassau and the diocese of Cologne, the north and the Thuringia, and the east and the diocese of Worms (Frankfurt) , borders the diocese of Trier to the south.

New Nassau will be directly upgraded to a county, but it will essentially belong to the Normans. The army will almost all be serious blond Nordics, and it will be economically integrated with the Kingdom of Rus.

Once this new Nassau is pieced together, it means that Rurik's strategic layout has achieved an epic victory and has taken root in the heart of Frank. All this is based on the internal emptiness during the Frankish Civil War. As long as the scale of their civil war continues to expand, the Russians will have more opportunities.

But it is still a pipe dream for New Nassau to really effectively control the entire Raiingau. In the end, it will have to negotiate with Ludwig to force the other party to admit that Nassau has indeed merged with Raiingau. If necessary, more troops may have to be sent to Nassau to use military deterrence to force Ludwig to agree.

In this way, it is really unreasonable to implement the plane according to Countess Al's plan to buy land for one thousand pounds of silver coins.

Blue Fox didn't want to say anything: "There's no need to give you money. At worst, we can just grab the whole Lai Yingao." Things can't be so barbaric. He must think long-term.

Blue Fox took a step back: "Five hundred pounds of silver coins! First, I will give you two hundred pounds of silver coins for emergency living, and then I will give you and your attendants two thousand pounds of wheat for the winter. Next year, I will deliver you another three hundred pounds of silver coins and escort you with a fleet. How about going to the south as a family?"

Al and Robert really don't have much bargaining chips, and Al wants to use the relationship between his mother's family and the diplomatic conditions to introduce the Ross people to meet with Charlie of the Western Kingdom as bargaining chips. However, none of these bargaining chips are real things. Most of them are They are all empty promises.

The blue fox and the black fox also knew that they were taking a very risky adventure, because the benefits were so huge that they were worth a try.

Lai Yingao was sold in this way, and both parties established a written agreement for this purpose.

The document on rough paper was made in duplicate, signed by the Blue Fox and the Black Fox respectively on behalf of Nassau and Gothenburg, and by Al and Robert on behalf of Tours and Leingau respectively.

The negotiations needed to establish clear documents. The two documents finally received an additional signature from Father Conrad of Nassau Monastery. Legally speaking, both parties are Catholic believers. The four people have a good background. The signature of the priest means that the clergy have become such. Being a witness to a transaction means that the transaction is approved by God.

All of this was naturally hidden from King Ludwig, but how much influence could Ludwig really have?

Ludwig was never a centralized monarch, but was just the leader of the princes in the eastern part of the kingdom. He could only firmly control Bavaria and Austria. As for controlling other nobles, he could only negotiate. Now, in fact, occupying the Earl of Leiingau's fiefdom was purely a red-eye act in the civil war. Robert was so angry and suffered from the fact that he had no capital to fight that he simply abandoned his job and ran away. Selling the land to the Russians was just laying landmines in revenge.

Now, Robert's family begged for a large amount of food and money, and the carriage he brought was fully loaded, and he happily returned to his palace at the foot of Taunus Mountain where he temporarily lived. This batch of money and food is enough for him to survive the winter, and next year, everything will be fine.