Rise of Rurik

White Tree Manor is the second richest. After all, it has a population of 2,000 people, even in an era when the level of material production was low. The natural village of so many people, united by the blood of a common ancestor, can still produce some surplus of wealth.

They should have used the surplus of these wealth to make their own lives better, or to use these materials to raise more children.

The Rus came with their axes and swords.

White Tree Manor is like a sheep, all the wool that has grown up is cut off by the Rus.

In this regard, the village chief Rigus has no choice.

The Rus people come twice a year, but the people from Pine Needle Manor can see each other every three to five times.

If it weren't for the oppression of Pine Needle Manor, how could White Tree Manor go to settle in a place that is still seven kilometers away from Lake Ilmen?

In fact, the fertile and fertile fields by the lake were occupied by the people of Pine Needle Manor. With its own strength, White Tree Manor could not reverse the disadvantage in the competition.

The current White Tree Manor not only has to pay tribute to the Rus people twice a year. This routine of collecting tribute was also learned by Pine Needle Manor.

Pine Needle Manor learned from the Rus people and played the tribute strategy. They are numerous and powerful, and they are the main targets of the Rus people. In order to recover the loss, after the Rus people left, it was the turn of the Pine Needle Tribe to circle around Lake Ilmen to collect. tribute. This tribute to Pine Needle Manor is not much, and to them, White Tree Manor has always felt a strong insult.

Each family in the White Tree Manor provides a fortune, and finally the family of the manor chief is responsible for the statistics, and finally it is handed over to the Rus.

Regus, the head of the manor, is a tax collector who serves the Rus in the real sense.

What the Rus people loot is not the wealth of the family of the manor chief, but the wealth of the entire manor's residents.

The most powerful manor family has inherited the position of manor chief since ancient times, and there are also direct descendants of the manor chief who inherit this position, and other manor members are branches. They all think that the head of the manor family is a noble person, and life is like this every day. Now it can be said that what the head of the manor wants them to do, ordinary people do.

As for the head of the manor who took the tribute from other families and then packed it up and handed it over to the Rus people, but he didn't hand in a single copper coin. Ordinary families either didn't have such a concept, or because they had nowhere to vent their dissatisfaction, they simply chose to ignore it.

Each manor is probably developing continuously like this, and the family of the manor head of each manor has truly become a nobleman.

So what are the Rus? Of course the nobles among the nobles!

It is such a factor that a large number of ordinary people choose to hide is the correct choice.

The bad news of the arrival of the Russ reached the ears of the head of the manor, Rigus. This "old man", who was a few years younger than Otto, suddenly stood up from his bearskin seat, and his aging body seemed to fall apart.

"Where are they?!"

"The Russ have taken to the streets," one of his nephews replied cautiously.

"That's awful. You go and tell Medwit to come to me. The others go and get ready, and come with me to meet the Rus. Oh! I wish the Rus would loot a little less."

After a while, a man in his thirties named Medwit stood in front of Rigus, the head of the manor. This man was Rigus' eldest son and the head of the next generation.

Rigus has many children, only this son is the eldest son. By now, Rigus does not feel that he can live past the age of sixty smoothly. Perhaps it is the right choice to transfer the power to manage the entire manor to his eldest son early.

Rigus still has a lot of appeal, but he must personally participate in any major event.

Especially with the Rus people, for at least ten years, the great chief named Otto came twice a year. Ordinary people believe that it is the correct negotiation of the manor chief Rigus that has prevented the White Tree Manor from suffering a bloody disaster for more than ten years.

The old Rigus was fifty years old, and his figure was already a little rickety, and he usually walked around with a walking stick.

He also lost a lot of teeth,

The old chin has been unable to refuse the dry and hard Lieba. On weekdays, he can only eat some boiled wheat porridge and quietly wait for the end of his life.

Now, the big leader of the Rus has suddenly arrived!

He quickly put on his proper clothes. Considering that it was still a little cold outside, he had to put a big bearskin hat on his head and a black bearskin coat on his body.

Clothes in bear skins can make a man look very conscientious, but unfortunately, wearing this good clothes on an aging person really doesn't show much.

The people of the core family of the manor gathered behind Rigus, including the children of the family.

Seeing that the head of the manor's family walked out of their well-built wooden house, others also came out of their houses.

There were dark clouds again in the evening, and Otto really didn't like this bad ghost weather.

But in the eyes of the people at White Tree Manor, the dark clouds these days are indeed a bad omen!

No, the army of Rus people who searched for wealth came with the dark clouds.

The Rus people held their own swords and shields, and everyone wore iron helmets covering half of their faces.

Their tall images are the most terrifying. Whenever he sees such a large army stepping on the dirt roads of White Tree Manor, Rigus himself is always very afraid.

Because as long as the Rus people are willing, they can easily wipe out the entire manor, and finally burn down all the houses.

Rigus calmed down, motioned his eldest son to take care of other family Cheng Yan calmly, and then walked forward with firm eyes, intending to face the leader of the Rus in person. A follower who knew some Norse language followed.

People are indeed different, and Ligus can't imagine that the leader of the Rus people is actually older than himself. He felt that he was about to die of old age. The other party was the same as last autumn. He was still a tall, straight and strong person. He had strong arms and a gray beard to prove his aging.

Rigus quivered his mouth and slowly raised his head: "The great leader of Ross, we welcome you."

Some of the respectful words spoken in the Norse language were well understood by Rigus, and Otto was satisfied with his respect.

"Rygus, I thought you were going to die of old age. After a winter, you are still alive!" Otto said deliberately contemptuously.

The entourage hurriedly translated Otto's words. This remark made Rigus quite disgusted, so what can be done?

Rigus deliberately complimented: "It must be the will of God to allow me to continue to live, just to continue to serve the great Rus."

"Haha! You are very talkative! Now show me the way, I want to go to your place and talk to you about this year."

"Yes, great leader."

Rigus turned around and wanted to lead the way, but was hurriedly stopped by Otto.

"Hold on! There's one thing you must fix for me now."

"As ordered, my leader." Rigus muttered in his heart, but he was still extremely respectful on the bright side.

"Very well, I want you to place my people. We will all stay at your manor tonight."

"Ah?!" Rigus was stunned subconsciously, and the stick also fell to the ground.

The servant quickly picked up the stick and stuffed it into Ligus' trembling hand.

"Aren't you happy? Or..." As he said, Otto's eyes showed a sinister look, he held the right hand of the hilt, and quietly pulled out a blade as a threat.

"I do! We all do, but I'm worried..."

"Put away your worries, I won't embarrass your people too much." Otto's sword was scabbard, and his face became kind again. "Compared to other manors, you are the most cooperative. White Tree Manor is a tamed dog, and other manors are only half domesticated. In this way, give us some vacant wooden houses, and my people will live in them. You can also see Come, this bad weather is about to rain, if my people get wet, you will be responsible."

Rigus quickly understood, nodding his head like garlic, and he quickly explained: "We have some vacant barns, and I hope the great Rus can honor them. I will also provide the food your people need, if you need women to serve , I will also...will try to satisfy as much as possible."

The servile appearance of this old fellow made Otto look down upon him, but to be fair, this old fellow did a good job of saving the lives of his clansmen.

Otto nodded: "You are a loyal dog, and I want you to give my men a pound of bread at once. As for women, we need women, this is very important, and I will give it myself in a moment. you explain."

People are the knives and I am the fish, and Rigus is so servile to ensure the existence of the manor.

Of course, his humiliating image made some young men of White Tree Manor quite dissatisfied.

Fight back? forget it. After weighing the stone hammer and stone spear in his hand, dare to attack the Rus? To provoke them is to bring destruction.

In this regard, Otto certainly knew the fears of these weaklings.

The sword-and-axe deterrence can come to an end, and now some sweet reassurance is needed.

Otto clapped his hands, and the Russ crowd quickly gave way. Some fully-armed young men from the Rus tribe led their pregnant wives out.

Among them was Peravina, who approached Otto very wisely.

"Look, Rigus, we keep our promises. These are your Whitetree Manor women who are already pregnant with our Rus children. We treated them well!"

"Yes..." Rigus was really surprised at this moment, and also those onlookers who were also surprised.

It is not surprising that a woman is pregnant, it seems that it just changes from a thin woman to a thin woman with a big belly.

These pregnant women are really different. They have all gained a lot of weight, and their faces are rarely rosy.

The parents of some women were in the crowd. They recognized their married daughters at a glance, and they were full of relief.

Those young men from the Ross tribe who had to pay huge chips to get married, they were beautiful and became fathers after paying a small amount of silver coins. Of course such a man would not treat his wife badly! They will give their wives the fatty livers of the big fish they have caught, and try their best to provide their wives with the fat and large pieces of fresh meat from the seals.

This kind of diet is completely different from Novgorod. What a farmer lacks most is fat. After marrying the Rus tribe, they have eaten more salt and fat than they have eaten in the past ten years. . They were basically ordered by their husbands to stay in a warm home, waiting for the cold winter to pass.

A winter has passed, and there must be fat in the diet every year. How can they not be fat? !

In this era, a chubby body is recognized as a proof of a good life.

Seeing the sisters of the same race that they married, some women from the manor stuck their heads out in the crowd, showing envious expressions!

Darkness soon shrouded the main land, and at dawn, bad news about the arrival of the Rus people had begun to spread in the various manors of Novgorod.

Unsurprisingly, this time the purpose of the Rus people is still to collect tribute, and at most marry a few women. In order to achieve completeness, it is obviously necessary to reluctantly cut the flesh.

The various estates have begun the final inventory to buy the peace tribute from the Rus.

And here at White Tree Manor, the situation tonight is truly unique.

After all, it's spring, and many barns that were once full have turned into empty wooden houses. There are a lot of wheat fields near the manor. In the agricultural concept of Novgorod, the wheat seedlings are still growing. As long as you continue to wait until the end of August in the Julian calendar, you can harvest the wheat.

Many Russ who had rowed the oars for a long time, now wishing to have a good rest, quickly poured into the barns provided by Whitetree Manor, and then lay scattered on the wooden floor.

Completely different from the Rus, the Novgorod region has more water network structures. In winter, this area is basically frozen, and in spring and summer, the frozen soil becomes muddy again.

All the houses in White Tree Manor were constructed by laying down a large number of wooden piles, then laying wooden floors and building wooden walls.

They also slept on their own wooden beds, often laying some yellow and dry reeds for comfort, and then the family slept on a wooden bed with clothes on.

Ordinary families are like this, the most powerful family of Rigus, he has the financial resources to build a real manor for himself. For security, there is also a circle of wooden fences for protection!

The wooden wall is not to keep out the Rus or any other enemy, it is to keep out the wild animals.

Even White Tree Manor, a large settlement with 2,000 people, was thrown back to encounter wolves and bears.

Most of Otto's subordinates stayed in the barn resting, and they began to eat the dried fish they had with them, and soon the women of Whitetree Manor came with a lot of bread crumbs, and they threw down the rye bread. The sacks ran away quickly, as if they would catch them if they ran late, and it was unpredictable after that.

Most of the young people have no attitude towards a group of older local women, many of them really want to choose a woman in Novgorod as a wife, to choose a wife, of course, to choose young and beautiful!

As for the pregnant White Tree Manor women who returned, they did not hesitate to bring their Russ husbands back to their parents' homes.

Novgorod has its own wedding and funeral culture, and so does the Rus. Even though Rus' culture has a lot of emphasis on fighting and expansion, they still love to love and be loved.

When they returned to their wife's house, they felt like they were coming home. The brothers and sisters of the father-in-law and the wife's mother-in-law had zero-distance contact with a Rusian son-in-law, and the grudges in their hearts quickly dissipated.

And when they took out one or two pieces of amber of not very good quality as a gift, they could immediately exchange the joy of their parents-in-law.

Their joy was justified.

The Russ son-in-law took out a little amber in poor condition as a subsistence for his wife's family.

Let’s look at this amber, sell it cheaply in Smolensk in the south, and make a lot of money, and then exchange it for some rations necessary for life locally. The value of the estate's tribute allotment apportioned to all the families is well below a piece or two of amber.

Some families even rush to sell their young daughters to their sons-in-law, hoping to set up a marriage soon. In addition to the fact that the daughters can indeed get a very good future, it is also that marrying daughters seems to be able to last for a long time. of benefit.

The offering was fifty pounds of rye or oats.

Compared with the poor agricultural conditions here in Novgorod, with an acre of 15 meters by 15 meters, the harvested wheat generally can only reach about 100 pounds, which is the so-called 80 catties. The Novgorods do not fertilize their fields, but at most use primitive irrigation systems to irrigate lakes in dry years. As for how much wheat can be harvested, everything is random.

And to reach that hundred pounds, they still need to put in thirty pounds of wheat seed.

A family will serve its own fields of up to 20 acres, because only the wooden plow gnaws out the grooves, and a large number of seeds are sprinkled at will, and the children in the family will use the wooden rake to level the grooves, and the planting will be over.

After sowing the seeds, they hardly care anymore, and the long slack period is nothing more than raising sheep and chickens to subsidize the family.

Farming in such a rugged way, it is incredible to expect a good harvest.

But their kind of agriculture is enough to hold on to their own lives, except for the annual tribute of 100 pounds of wheat to the Rus, and the sown grains, on average, the family's daily ration can barely exceed three pounds, save it, and add wild vegetables And mushrooms, drink some goat milk, milk and eggs, and even fish, life is not too hard.

This night, the Rus had three different situations.

The people who lived in the dry barns slept in hides soon after eating their bread. They didn't feel any embarrassment to sleep like this, because in their hometown, their wooden houses didn't even have wooden floors.

Those Rus people who lived in their wives' parents' homes, because of the gifts they took out, immediately won the support of their parents-in-law's family as if they were heroes.

And Otto, he and several of his important subordinates, entered the "mansion" enclosed by the wooden walls of Rigus completely as the master, and sat in the discussion hall lit by oil lamps in the White Tree Manor.

After Otto performed five bites in public and finished cooking the chicken, he burped and explained his request for tribute from the White Tree Manor.