Rise of Rurik

After arriving at the bear hunting home, Rurik met his cousin Arik again. The two brothers' adventures were not over yet. They exchanged some adventure information with each other. Especially when the accompanying scribe took out a solid action log, the "map fog" gradually dissipated. , the land of Eastern Europe has become cleaner.

Even if the real main channel of the Volga River has not been found, finding the source of the Musta River is undoubtedly a great feat.

Lake Villier, where the Bear Hunting House is located, is actually connected to a certain extent by Lake Valdai in the north, which prompted Rurik to go against the adventure journey of the fishermen and go to Valdeskoye to have a look.

The two large lakes are connected by streams and small lakes.

"Perhaps there is no way to build a canal between the two lakes."

Seeing people trying to drag the boat through the mud, Rurik, who was riding a horse, was embarrassed for a while. Letting the young warriors drag the ship forward with ropes is actually reviewing the old tradition of the Russians.

Rurik and Bejahir rode horses at a faster speed through the area between the two lakes, and he finally arrived for the first time at Valdeskoye, the first settlement of his kingdom in the east.

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Bear skin, squirrel skin, ferret skin, fox skin, all kinds of wonderful leathers are available here.

The large amount of grouse and wild ducks caught during his cousin's expedition to the East provided a large amount of feathers, and the abundance of materials for making arrow feathers also opened Rurik's eyes.

But whether it was the Bear Hunting House or Valdeskoye, the people who hunted and fished here did not get anything more wonderful.

Everyone's hunting activities will come to an end during the autumn harvest period. People who make a fortune from leather must transport it to the nearest trading city, Novgorod, and cash it in. At the same time, as the strong labor force of the family, they must participate in the autumn harvest.

In the golden autumn of early August, the autumn harvest in Novgorod is three weeks earlier than usual in the Mälaren region of Sweden.

Oats are the first to mature, followed by rye and buckwheat, and finally wheat.

This year, people are full of expectations for the widespread sowing of peas, and things have indeed developed further in the direction people expected. At first the seedlings grow vigorously, and then they bloom with beautiful little flowers. After the flowers fade, seed pods are born. The seed pods get bigger and bigger. Finally, the swollen seed pods are opened and peas are peeled off.

Just as Queen Svetlana announced, boil these green beans, pound them into a pulp with a wooden stick, and sprinkle a little salt to make an extremely soft and delicious meal.

Ordinary people have never eaten this. Once they eat it for the first time, they will never forget the wonderful feeling of sticking between teeth.

The horizontal sword was immediately in the city of Valdeskoye, and Rurik faced the huge Valdai Lake. He knew that there were many more lakes near this lake, that the highlands were close at hand, that the horses' hooves trampled the watershed of the Eastern European plains.

Hunters who have harvested a lot are returning home one after another, and many have even gone back to participate in the autumn harvest.

"I...it's time to go home."

Rurik rested by the lake for two days. Like many hunters, he ate the extremely smelly bear meat, drank bear oil, and even licked the extremely bitter bear bile.

Anyway, the mighty expedition team towed the ship to the Valdai Lake in the north. From here, passing through the well-established and familiar waterway, they could enter the more familiar Musta River, and from there they started to go down the river. , everyone’s destination is their homeland - Mstisk and Novgorod.

The cavalry and fleet assembled at Valdeskoye dock. Rurik's expedition merged with that of his cousin Arik, and was accompanied by explorers who wanted to leave together.

The little nephew Gil was pulled on the back of the horse by Liuli. The boy playfully pulled his uncle's beard and laughed so hard that he looked extremely energetic.

The assembled warriors were talking and laughing, and a large amount of leather was piled on the long boats.

"If this continues, the price of leather will plummet. You are fishing out of the river again. Next year...are you guys going to rush to the source of the Musta River to continue plundering? It would be a good thing if the main channel of the Volga River is discovered through this. ." Rurik couldn't help but smile as he thought about this.

Suddenly, a majestic shout came from the dock.

"Rurik! Are you leaving now?" The speaker was his cousin Arik.

Rurik looked left and right again, "Then let's go!"

So the trumpet sounded loudly, and the cavalry and the fleet rushed forward by water to the main channel of the Musta River not far away.

The largest wave of returns to Lake Valdai is now. Perhaps thousands of young people and young adults have missed the busiest time of the autumn harvest, so that the women in the family have to go to work in person and spend money to hire some Slavs. work.

The explorers are very smart. Faced with a shipload of fur goods, they can earn more by selling them directly to New Roseburg before winter. No matter how you think about it, getting profits is much better than simply farming. In the eyes of many ordinary people, it is enough to have a certain amount of food surplus at home, and more wealth should be kept in the form of gold and silver coins.

Coins can be used to buy various daily necessities, tools, and weapons.

Because the boys in the family are growing up and the girls are approaching the age of marriage. It is the obligation of parents to buy weapons for their sons, and it is also their obligation to prepare gorgeous clothes for their daughters before they get married. They do not know the concept of imported inflation. They only know that compared with ten years ago, they currently hold a large amount of silver coins but can no longer afford it. Shop for more in bustling New Roseburg.

Expenditures are required in all aspects, and reality really forces people to find ways to increase their income.

As a man, you can either continue hunting in the East in order to catch rare animals and skin them in exchange for money.

Or use the Russians' tried and tested method - launch a plundering war.

The people who were still stranded by the lake clearly wanted to hunt again before the rainy season in early autumn. Most of these people did not worry about farming at home, or in other words, they did not have much extravagant hopes for farming.

The large-scale immigration of the entire Ross tribe is expected by everyone. It is unrealistic to think that all fishermen will become farmers in the warm new world. Some people just like the fishing and hunting life since ancient times. They rent the land to the Slavs or the Russians of the same race, and receive a part of the wheat during harvest, but do not care about anything else.

Everyone has their own pursuits. When everything started, the land annexation situation had quietly appeared. But now it is just a small matter, and it is still a lease that can be negotiated and negotiated between the same clan. Everything is different from the lease in my hometown in Northern Europe. There is no essential difference in matters.

If anyone is the largest landowner in the kingdom, it is Rurik himself.

This year, like previous years, Rurik outsourced the work from sowing to harvesting, and even the irrigation operations in the interim, to farmers at the White Tree Manor in Novgorod.

They were all the queen's natal family, and they were the first Slavs to surrender. With this relationship, he believed that these people would do a good job. In exchange, Mai Ke received his share of the grain in proportion to the contract after the busy season of spring plowing and autumn harvest.

The royal family's land is used to support the standing army, and part of it is provided to the school in Novgorod to provide educated children with one free meal a day.

However, the added value generated by these agricultural income is too low. What can really cope with the normal operation of the royal family and the state machine is still the transaction of various handicrafts, salt, and metal utensils.

It is a natural thing to rely on the industrial and agricultural scissors to exchange surplus grain from ordinary farmers.

The royal paper mill, printing factory, garment factory, large iron factory, three major shipyards, blacksmith complex, northern stone mine, northern iron mine, brewery, glass factory, soap factory, reindeer breeding complex, these highly profitable The institution was under Rurik's control. The cronies who are equivalent to the existence of "professional managers" are either distant relatives of the same clan, direct mail, or relatives and blood relatives who are in control.

Nepotism is by no means a problem in this era. It is precisely relying on blood and marriage as ties that Rurik has established a pyramid-shaped management structure that is responsible for all of this. It is fair to say that this management system is very crude based on the current era. At least the management framework has been established, and it seems that there will be no major problems. Any minor problems can be discussed and repaired at the Ross Duma meeting.

While these various industrial complexes support a large number of people, factories require more raw materials and create more jobs. People are plundering clay mud, wood, lime, and especially the plundering of wood has created one piece of wasteland after another.

Because when the fall harvest begins, everyone should seriously consider the issue of fuel for the winter.

Before lignite was excavated, wood was the only heating fuel. The chimney-style wood carvings popularized by Ross made every household have a fireplace, further promoting the use of wood.

As a result, more and more people rely on logging and cracking firewood to sell finished firewood.

The people who did this work were either Slavs or Suomis from Finland.

This year, during the autumn harvest season of AD 842, a longship like this left Herminki, a trading port in the Finnish county.

That was a large number of traditional rowing long boats ordered by the Finns from the shipbuilders of Neulusburg, as well as specially ordered standard cargo ships.

The County of Finland is an important customer of the shipyards in New Rossburg and Old Rossberg. The Sea Monarch ordered by the royal family is currently undergoing sea trials, and everything is normal. After the kingdom has defeated all the invincible opponents in the Baltic Sea, the kingdom does not need to spend huge sums of money to purchase new ships.

Even though the hard-working Aurora is covered in scars, as the original battleship, she is still cruising in the Baltic Sea as a naval training ship.

Unlike the warm seas in the south, there are very few barnacles, shipworms, and shellfish that can survive in the Baltic Sea where the water is very cold and the climate is too cold. The problem of parasites on the bottom of ships does not need to be considered at present, making the early construction time a bit hasty. ships can still sail.

The Count of Finland ordered rowing boats and cargo ships. These ships were warships and troop carriers during the war, but now they are all cargo ships.

The Suomi tribe lives in the southern swampland, which is extremely fragmented by countless lakes, puddles, and rivers. No iron ore was found there, but Count Jevro found the most suitable goods for trading: squirrel skins and wood.

The "ash tree" or the Nordic tree was transplanted near Helminki many years ago after being discovered in large numbers on Gogland Island in the Gulf of Finland.

Completely different from other woods, for this kind of tree Yavlo waits for four or five years before ordering its forest to be cut down. The "Ash Forest" is the private property of the earl family, and the only use of the wood is to make bows. It can make longbows with a long range, and it is the most cost-effective bow arm material for wooden arm crossbows.

A tree is cut into multiple pieces, and the bark is peeled off and dried directly in the shade.

The "Ash Forest" was actually transplanted artificially in 836. The Finns attach great importance to the growth of saplings and continue to explore the distant forests. Whenever they find an "Ash Tree", they try to move it to the Earl's Forest.

Now, the strategic value of "Ash Forest" has already emerged and continues to increase in value.

In the autumn of 842, this Finnish transport ship, organized by as many as twenty ships of various types, rushed to New Roseburg under the escort of the slightly older Javlo himself. Just this spring, he sent away the leader of the tribe and his eldest son, hoping that the Finns would make great contributions in the attack on Aachen.

The eldest son is fighting in another world, while Jevro has to work hard personally for his people and family power.

He knew very well the length of the arm of the wooden-arm crossbow standard in the Russian army: one stika. This length was half the arm span of a Finnish man and one hand longer, so Javlo ordered the trunk to be cut to this length.

In the end, as many as 500 "ash tree poles" of basically the same length were bundled with hemp rope. It was the prototype of a bow. If it was not used as the arm of a crossbow, it alone could be quickly made into a short wooden bow.

However, any wooden arm bow has the problem of weight loss. When the durability reaches a certain level, it becomes a fire stick, and senior hunters have to replace their weapons regularly.

Hunters from the Rus and other ethnic groups have an insatiable need for bows. Now that they are traveling in groups to explore the unknown east, the Finnish Counties respond to their growing demand for equipment.

This time Yevro was full of confidence. After all, each of the 500 wooden bow prototypes could make a small profit.

However, other wood materials are too simple. A large number of pine and fir trees were cut, cut and bundled. They are just wood for burning fires. Trafficking in this fuel is very profitable, as there are endless trees in the Suomi living area of ​​Finland and easy-to-use water transportation, so the wood is easy to transport.

Their own lumber needs were easily met, but the new and prosperous New Roseburg was a different story.

Gevro took his wife, who was as fat as a ball, and his young son Satuli, and led the ships piled with firewood and fur goods to the Kronstadt mooring where the main fleet was moored.

The Sea Monarch, which is as big as a mountain, is parked here, making other ships look like sampans.

The farmland near New Roseburg is now in full harvest, and the Finns arrived just in time for this opportunity.

New Roseburg already has a Finnish settlement community, and a large number of people sell their labor in the capital all year round. They gather in autumn and winter before the Gulf of Finland freezes, and happily return to their hometown in Suomi with all kinds of daily necessities purchased with labor remuneration.

Jevro's personal visit this year is in line with the needs of the tribe. The proceeds from this transaction will basically be turned into the private property of the count family, allowing him to upgrade equipment for the count's limited standing army and give a sum of materials to each village. If the leader strengthens his rule, his family's life will be better.

Of course, the Gulf of Finland doesn’t freeze until November. He could sponsor him in the capital, and after King Rurik had finished handling his affairs in Novgorod in the south, he could meet the king in the capital.

In addition, he also has a small personal long-cherished wish - to visit Gould's grave.

After all, he was an old master who was kind to me, even though that was all thirty years ago.

More than ten shiploads of wood from Finland were snapped up by the public as soon as they landed. Just because Javlo didn't know much about this year's wood market, he didn't bother to ask, so he offered a price lower than the market price. Within two days, Although it was sold out by the people of New Roseburg.

If it was just to make a living, the Finns would stop hunting enough squirrels and peel off the leather to make leather goods that would satisfy their families. After all, no matter how many squirrels were caught at that time, it would be meaningless if the leather could not be sold.

The forest pine trees seemed to be inexhaustible. At the same time as the Finns suddenly visited, more and more transport ships from Novgorod floated up the Neva River to Novorossberg. These people brought hunting animals from the Valdai Lake area in the east. Various leathers obtained.

Together with the Eastern explorers, the Finns greatly stimulated the prosperity of the leather industry in the capital, but as a result, the price of leather goods this year was extremely low.

Everyone wants to sell the leather quickly and make money. Now Jevlo realizes that he sent people to set traps in the forest to catch squirrels, but in the end he did not get a high profit.

"Rurik once said that any price fluctuation is controlled by an invisible hand. It is the natural regulation of the market? Who knows? It should be Frey, the god of wealth in Ross, who is doing the regulation, right? It seems I should go The Great Temple prays to the god Frey.”

Indeed, compared to the ever-growing Finnish port of Herminki, the capital of Rus, Novorosberg is the real big city.

As Count of Finland, Javlo had his own small mansion in the capital for him to live in when he was a guest. Around this mansion outside the city, a Finnish-dominated community was built.

He took his wife and son to eat and drink in the capital. It is said that a large amount of inexpensive wine from Nassau will arrive in the capital this year. Just like others, Yevlo also wanted to bring enough money. Just buy a few barrels and take them home to enjoy.

He still has to wait. If the goods from Nassau arrive in the capital, it should mean that the expeditionary army has returned, and the eldest son and Finnish warriors sent out should also return in triumph with all kinds of Frankish trophies, right? !

Instead, Jevro took the money he earned from selling goods and took out a pound of silver coins as a gift to God Frey. He personally entered the glass-encrusted First Temple and knelt down before the gold-plated statue of God Frey to pray for wealth.

is that useful? Maybe he won't get rich this year, but his country has been following the development of the Kingdom of Ross. The gods bless Ross, and his country should be able to make a lot of money and live a good life in the future.

So, he went to Gould's grave with strong liquor to visit his grave, and lived in the capital to inquire about strange stories. Pure Russians from Novgorod brought important information about Rurik. The so-called King of Rus personally organized an expedition to the East and made a lot of discoveries.

And some trivial news about the Principality of Ostara.

The so-called travelers from Kiev and Pecheneg this year have not yet arrived in Rus', while the Ostara people, with the permission of the king and the support of sending troops, almost all rushed to the far south.

"Carlotta, the disability of your right leg does not affect your thoughts at all. You are indeed a Valkyrie living in the world."

What else can be said? Jevro could only describe the duchess, who had gone through many hardships in her childhood, as "Valkyrie".

On the other hand, I am already forty years old. I am afraid that I only have twenty years left in my life.

"Unless I am blessed by the gods of Rus because of my loyalty to the Rurik clan. Just like Otto, maybe the gods intend to let him live to be eighty years old. They can also grant me a long life."

In fact, just as Jevro guessed, most of the Rus people and later immigrants believed that it was not a miracle that Otto, the old leader of the Rus tribe and the Supreme King, lived to be seventy years old, and that everything was arranged by the gods.

When Yavlo took his family for a comfortable vacation in Novorosberg, chatting and reminiscing with the governor Konuson the Younger and the high priest Rumia, he led the cavalry back to Novgorod by walking along the Musta River. Rurik, after a brief inspection of the grain harvest that went smoothly this year, decisively returned to the Novgorod Palace.

Dad is obviously older, but mother's condition is much better.

After seeing a large group of children running or crawling towards him, as their father, it is really difficult for Rurik to determine the name of each child.

Fortunately, he can easily distinguish the children's mothers.

In the palace, Svetlana, as the head wife, must be the most favored. For this reason, the prairie princess Beyahil, who had accompanied Rurik all the way on the expedition, had no choice but to stand aside while stroking her belly.

Beyathil was satisfied enough. Here she hugged her son Hazal who had been carefully raised here. She also believed that through the "sweet adventure" in the past, she should be able to give birth to another child for Rurik. child. "Maybe a daughter would be better."

But she was still a little disappointed.

She saw with her own eyes that Rurik, who was as tall as a bear, could easily hold Queen Svetlana in his arms and spin around in circles. The queen's gorgeous skirt was swaying wantonly, and the two of them were laughing and running hand in hand towards the palace. What could happen? It is self-evident.

"Alas. You are the real couple..."

Regret is regret, as a prairie princess, this is my fate.

At least in this expedition, I had a new identity without an identity - Countess Demyansk, controlling a waterway leading to the east, a stone mine that could make a fortune in the future.

The Hafen River where Demyansk is located is a completely barren land. Even if there are conditions for building a settlement, his eldest son will grow up when the settlement is built on a certain scale.

Beyathil is not a fool. It is true that he has a title and a fief. In fact, he passively left the center of power of the Kingdom of Ross because of this status.

In this way, as the king's third-level wives and concubines, he was completely unable to interfere with the power of Queen Svetlana. Although she never wanted to get involved.