Rise of Rurik

At the beginning of the period, the expedition headed eastward by Medvet, the governor of Novgorod, was ordered to find all the "people hiding in the forest", and they suddenly came across the Valdai Lake, which means "a lot of water".

No one really wants to live in the forest as a fisher or hunter. Any areas that can be developed into farmland should be transformed into permanent settlements as much as possible.

The geography of Lake Valdai seems similar to Lake Inelmen, with villages turning into towns.

A new Eastern expedition began after the spring plowing in 841. This operation was led by Arik, who had made great achievements.

He led a team of more than 500 people, flanked by surveying and mapping personnel sent by Rurik. Starting from the Msta River that emptied into Yin Ermen Lake, the Viking longships arranged in a long snake formation explored in retrograde and completely determined the Head straight to the waterways of Lake Valdai.

Lake Valdai was discovered many years ago. The bass in the lake and the small animals in the nearby forest are all living treasures.

"The Volga River? Only he knows that this river exists. How should I find it? Is there a correct waterway in this lake area that is actually the Volga River?" Arik's mind was a little confused.

If Rurik had not described or even roughly drawn the possible river route on the map, as well as the Pecheneg people's description of the mouth of the Volga River (thinking that the Caspian Sea is the ocean), Arik would have been willing to believe that this river was real. It’s just that the world is so big and there are many rivers such as Valdai Lake. Which one is the right way?

Besides, this lake is clearly not the real upper reaches of the Musta River. The Musta River is still wide, maybe it is the right channel to the Volga River?

What is even more surprising is that when the team arrived in the town of Valdai, they dispersed to start their own fishing and hunting businesses. Some people formed small teams and headed south, trying to find the true southern shoreline of Lake Valdai among the dense water plants.

The team had completely dispersed, and when someone came back carrying a mink that had not yet grown its winter pure white fur, it further stimulated the Ross hunters' desire to explore.

Who are these people? Old Rus', New Rus' from various Swedish tribes, Slavic hunters, and even Finnish Suomi hunters. Arik has a mixed team.

Who cares about poetry and distance? The brothers came to this undeveloped land to plunder animal skins. Unless all the precious animals in this area are captured, they should consider changing places to continue.

The scribes sent by Rurik were different. The two young men sat on the long boat heading south, accompanying the hunters.

The scribe wrote and drew on the paper. Based on the basic sketching skills taught by Rurik himself, he tried his best to sketch the environment of the scene he saw, and then described what he saw with words.

The nerd-like guy is looked down upon by the hunter. Considering that these two are the king's "house slaves", they must be provided with enough food and taken care of so that they don't get sick or injured.

The hunted minks, foxes, and squirrels had their hides peeled off and their meat skewered and grilled.

The young scribes had been struggling outside for three full months, and the expedition team they followed had long since lost contact with their fellow villagers north of the lake. The scribes were disheveled from the work, and the wheat the team had brought with them had been eaten up. On weekdays, everyone lived on the fish they caught and the meat of small animals. However, it is really bad to eat this kind of meal that lacks fat and is almost pure protein for a period of time. Until they hunted the bears that were hunting like crazy for the winter.

No one cares about the extreme smell of male bear meat anymore.

"Hey, you two young people really don't know our past days. We still eat shark meat, which is more disgusting than urine, but we don't eat this bear meat? And this bear oil, eat more to make you feel better."

The leader of the hunter is also a ruthless man who kills enemies in battle. This time he is carrying a torque slingshot for hunting big beasts.

He scolded the young people who had never experienced hardship for being picky. Fortunately, when the bear meat was roasted until it was sizzling with oil, and a handful of coarse salt was sprinkled on it, the hungry people would naturally come over to drink the oil.

All the scribes who served under the king were well-dressed. They now live like savages, or have become pure Viking hunters.

Only the record books they cherish and keep are clean and tidy.

During the wet season, Lake Valdai is connected to several lakes in the south by streams, most of which can be passed by long boats with shallow drafts. When encountering difficult-to-pass areas, the hunters joined forces, and even the scribes had to hold on to the cables, and everyone worked together to pull the ship southward.

Where is the real southern shore of Lake Valdai? I'm afraid the south bank has been found and passed. The problem is no longer there. They have discovered a brand new lake, which seems to be larger than Lake Valdai.

If they weren't worried that the expedition would be too far and delay their return, they would have to stay here to build a wooden house and spend the winter directly. After staying in the newly found lake for a while, the hunter team officially returned.

This was an adventure that made great progress, and the scribe successfully returned to the town of Valdai at the end of August with drawn and handwritten information about his experiences.

When they returned, they learned that some self-satisfied hunters had rowed their own boats into the Musta River and headed home down the river. They went back early just to catch the autumn harvest.

There are still many people stranded in Valdai. They either lack land or their families have hired wheat cutters. These people calculated for themselves. If the income from hunting furs exceeded the investment of hiring wheat cutters, they would stay in Valdai for a while for the sake of maximizing profits.

Arik was willing to stay for a while. Like the other stayers, he was delighted to hear that the guys who had explored the south came back to watch their harvest. When he saw the long boats filled with fur goods, he was first shocked, then jealous and regretful.

"Damn it, if I had known there were more good things south of the lake, why would I have stayed in the north?" Many people have this attitude.

There were already Slavic settlers in the town of Valdai, and the village chiefs collected boyar nobles. Although their strength in all aspects is very poor, they try their best to explore the surrounding areas. It's impossible to directly shoot small animals or even hunt down killers such as bears. It's no problem to set up traps and other tricks.

There are not many resources for small animals in the north of the lake. Unlike in the south, where squirrels really run wild, hunters equipped with crossbows on a large scale suddenly turned into sharpshooters, chasing squirrels and killing them. There were piles of squirrels in the cabin. Most of them are squirrel skins that have been initially tanned with alkaline water boiled with plant ash. Tanning with plant ash is far less effective than using Glauber's salt, but there are really a lot of leather goods, and they stay in the south for a long time. This is the only way to prevent the accumulation of leather goods from rotting.

Squirrel skin is a common leather product on the market in the Rus Kingdom. It is hunted in huge quantities, making the price of a single piece of leather very low, making it affordable for ordinary Slavic farmers. This kind of leather is more suitable for making hats and gloves. Many so-called squirrel fur coats made of mixed leather and linen are not good in keeping out the cold, but they are a good choice for making mattresses.

As long as there are leather goods, Novgorod's state-owned textile factories and numerous tailors and women can do something good.

Relying on their absolute numerical superiority, the hunter team exploring the south was recognized to have made a fortune.

The gathering of autumn rain forced the people who were still stranded to hide in many newly built wooden houses in the town. They tried their best to keep their fur goods dry. A common method was to pack a large amount of plant ash with linen cloth, and then put the linen bag with the leather goods. Mixed together to form a special moisture-proof bag. When they decided to leave, they threw away all the plant ashes in these linen bags and packed them with fur goods as much as possible.

So when Rurik and his party took shelter from the autumn rain on Tombstone Island, this cooling manifested itself as a cold, continuous drizzle in the Valdai Lake region deep in Eastern Europe.

It lasted nearly ten days, and after the rain stopped the ground became muddy.

The local Slavic residents were busy stocking up on food for the winter. They harvested wheat and stocked some fish, and even obtained the meat of small animals from many hunters.

The brothers only wanted leather, and a large amount of squirrel meat was given to the locals for free. The small animal meat that the hunters couldn't finish was processed into almost completely dehydrated bacon by the locals with a smile, and then hoarded as food storage.

"It's time to go home! Go back to Novgorod! Sell the leather goods and make a lot of money!" Arik gave the order, and everyone in the assembled fleet looked up to the sky and shouted.

The return journey was uneventful, as everyone just needed to control the rudder to avoid collisions between boats on the Musta River.

In fact, in a large sense, the lake found by the southern expedition team with the participation of scribes was essentially one of the water sources of the Volga River.

Who is the source of the Volga River? If it is defined solely by the longest tributary as the water source, it is a hill in the west of the lake group containing Lake Valdai. This extremely trivial lake area as a whole is the largest water source of the Volga River.

Although the water source is large, the terrain here is too flat and lacks large geographical differences. The channel of the Volga River drawn from it is too narrow and the water velocity is not high.

The lake group looks like a coiled snake on a macro scale. The expedition team could only see a small part of it and was unable to explore the entire lake. It was impossible to find the correct river channel.

The king never expected to complete the feat of exploration in one go. The scribe, who brought a large amount of geographical information, felt that he had completed the task well and was waiting to meet the queen to receive the reward.

What is a reward? money? status?

The scribes all wanted it and were sure they could get it. What is geography? The original meaning is to survey and map the earth. The two men rushed to the summer solstice and used the sun shadow method taught by the king to more accurately measure the dimensions of Lake Valdai. Even when they were exploring the southernmost point, they used some calculations to estimate the new dimensions using the sun shadow method. . After further calculations, the two of them calculated the dimensional difference between the farthest distance reached by the southern expedition and the town of Valdai Lake, and they were able to estimate the straight-line distance.

These geographic mapping data are worth their weight in gold. The two felt that since they had stopped such a clerk, they were better at it than other scribes. Presumably, after reporting their duties to the king, the two of them became the persons in charge of geographical surveying and mapping of Russia, and could also be promoted to a kind of senior scribe. This means real money and social status, a stable and prosperous life, and some interesting challenges.

Arik returned happily, rested for a while in Mstisk, and then led his men to haul a huge amount of Eastern fur goods to Novgorod.

The guys from the Eastern expedition who had returned first had already sold off their leather goods. For old guys like Fordegen, who managed the state-owned garment factories, they had to buy at low prices because of the poor quality of the leather.

The hunter was indeed at a loss. Good leather should be tanned with Glauber's salt. This was the specialty of the old Russians. Of course, the quality of tanned leather with alkaline water mixed with plant ash was not that good.

Fo Degen's words are reasonable, but they also conceal the essence of his deliberate lowering of prices. Novgorod is indeed a large city in Rus, but the number of people engaged in the leather processing industry is limited. When it comes to where there are the most people engaged in this industry, it is the capital city.

Why bother bringing the furs to the capital? It’s such a season now. If I go to the capital now, I basically have to wait until next spring to come back.

The Russians, who had already harvested their wheat, just wanted to cash in their fur goods as soon as possible, and then live a leisurely life with their wives and children on the hot bed.

Now, Arik has returned with an even bigger piece of leather, and the price of leather in Novgorod has once again plummeted. Squirrel skins became too cheap, and taupe mink skins were no longer expensive. What can the hunters do? They don't understand the invisible rules of the market, and they know that if they set a high price, the largest buyer, Fordegen, won't buy it.

In fact, Aric angrily grabbed the old man by the collar: "You just give us such a low price? If you are not running errands for the king, I will twist your head off."

Ford was not timid at all, and did not quarrel with the king's cousin, and even motioned for all his people to stand down.

"Young man, let go of your hand. You have set the price very high, but the price offered by others is not high. If I buy yours, what will others do? Besides, I have limited funds, so I will buy you at a high price. , other brothers can’t sell it. You actually lack a choice, because I am the biggest buyer of fur goods in Novgorod.”

"You...coerced me?"

"I don't dare. I'm just a businessman. How about you go to the capital, where there are the most people doing fur business. But even if you go there, your squirrel skins still won't be worth the price."

"Why?" Arik still didn't let go.

"Because those Suomi people are also busy selling squirrel skins. You have five hundred people, and they have fifty thousand people (casually). Aren't you and the Count of Finland old friends who fought side by side? How are their people? You Don’t you know better? Maybe they provide more squirrel skins, what should you do? Think about it carefully.”

Arik just couldn't bear to go to the trouble of hunting with his brothers. In the end, twenty pieces of good squirrel skins could be exchanged for one silver coin. This ridiculously low price exceeded his imagination.

Even in the capital city, there won’t be such low prices, right? !

He let go of his hand, and the offended old man Fodegen smiled and said nothing.

After all, Fo Degen really got an advantage. Even though this Arik was a blood relative of the king, he was not willing to suffer a loss in a purely business matter. Because the state-owned garment factory is his territory to a large extent, his family lives like a tax collector, and the net profit is shared with the royal family. Even if the share ratio of Vodgen's side is very small, as long as the base is large enough, it is still owned by the family. This is the reason why he deliberately proposed an excessively low price.

Led by Fo Degen, leather craftsmen all over Yin'ermen Lake heard the news.

As a result, a large number of leather goods were sold at too low prices.

The fact that Arik and his brothers were peddling fur goods carts in Novgorod had already attracted onlookers, but when he and Vordegen almost got involved, they attracted even larger crowds.

Even old Otto also learned about this. It was hard for him to say anything. After all, he had retired to live in retirement.

In any case, Fo Degen gave the money very happily, and after getting the money, Arik drank in a liquor store in the city.

But the atmosphere quickly became lively again. Even if the price was very low, due to the large amount of hunting, mink skins were still sold at a good price. People who had money drank together, and Arik, who was caught in a happy atmosphere, also The guys accompanying me laughed.

Ale blended with honey, or kvass, or even some specialty wines...

The wine shop in Novgorod is also run by the royal family, and the business model is similar to that of a state-owned garment factory. Even if the noble Arik comes, he still has to pay.

Essentially anyone in the city can build a liquor store, as long as they have the financial resources to keep up and pay the taxes.

The reality is that no one has the capital to manage this matter better than the royal family. Alcoholic beverages are still precious, and the royal family’s brewing and distilling workshops are unable to achieve huge production capacity. Over the years, they have also tried to expand their production capacity to meet the needs of wealthy people who can drink fine wine at any time. . In this way, the wine shop launches a special blended liquor, which is actually a base liquor distilled to 96°, blended with water, and then poured with honey, chrysanthemum water or pine needle water to create a low-alcohol blended liquor with a unique taste. The cost is not high and it can still be sold well. Price.

They were chatting in the tavern, imagining that they could catch more small beasts in the East next year, and criticized Fo Degen for being a greedy businessman.

Naturally, some people are also thinking: "The king just said that there will be no war this year, but I heard that the Ostara people are expanding in the south and fighting with foreign races. It seems that next year the king will send troops for an expedition."

"Yes! There is also a Smolensk problem." Someone immediately intervened: "I also heard that Vadim who ran away back then is not dead. He must be killed."

"Maybe the king will ask the Ostara people to go south to investigate. Since there are rumors that a fight has begun, maybe next year will be our expedition."

"Not necessarily. What if we still go to Frank? The guys over there are richer." Another person said.

There were different opinions for a while.

Everyone was concerned about the chance of war. Arik was so sensitive that he became so drunk that he even overturned the wooden table in a violent rage. Beat the chest again and shout to calm down all the drinking guys.

"Brothers! There will definitely be a war next year! We were deceived by that guy Fo Degen! Let him go to hell! Let's sharpen our swords this winter. There will be a new war next year. We kill the enemy and make a fortune. That's how we get the real deal. The shortcut to gold and silver!”

War fever stimulated this group of ruthless people. They knocked on the oak cups to make a lot of noise, and howled violently, as if they were about to jump on the long ship and start an expedition.

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