Rise of Rurik

Rurik really wanted his men to grow up in an instant, even if they could quickly grow strong and tall enough.

He saw the huge economic and political benefits brought about by the expansion of the Rus people in the past year, and he also realized that behind this sudden prosperity, there were major worries about the existence of the tribe.

The strong prey on the weak is the political ecology of Northern Europe in this time and space. Of course, various tribes can form alliances, and the powers of the parties that conclude the alliance are of course unequal.

A tribe that lacks strength either actively attaches itself to a more powerful tribe, or is defeated and annexed by the opponent.

The strength of the Rus people lies in the fact that they have been shrinking all year round, so that the tribe has a large number of strong men, and they are the key to supporting the fighting power of the tribe.

Those elites have already lost something, so to make up for it, Rurik had to step up the training of his young men.

Times roll on like a torrent, and some things have to change, especially the way the Rus treat other non-confederate tribes that speak other languages, and the two sides must build a new covenant.

When the Kewen people came, so did a group of deer breeders.

enslave them? Do not! If it is to revitalize Rus and establish a strong regional power, the act of enslavement can be called digging a grave for its own destruction in advance.

Following the example of the Svia Tribal Alliance?

The Melalen tribe is entirely due to its large population, its dual capabilities of doing business and farming, and its unique geographical environment. Their prosperity comes from these necessary conditions, thus becoming the leader of the alliance.

If it is only because of its large population and relatively strong comprehensive strength, it can be used as an alliance leader, why can't the Rus replace it?

Rurik felt that he could not really enslave the Kewen people and deer breeders. Since the purpose was to gain greater benefits, he could use more advanced and efficient means to make them particularly happy to work hard.

Because they are all human beings with a desire to make life more prosperous.

To give them a pact, that surrender is not shameful, and cooperation brings prosperity. As the person who controls the power, he must also abide by this contract.

Although the children of the Ross tribe were somewhat resistant to the foreign boys who suddenly appeared, after all, these children dreamed of becoming those battlefield heroes and excellent fighters.

How far can a hunter with a bow play with a short wooden bow?

Telavis at the boys' training ground,

He used the short bow made by the Rus himself, and hit a target far away forty stika (about 39 meters) with three iron cluster arrows, that is, a small piece of tattered leather the size of a snow rabbit.

It wasn't luck that the arrows hit. Telavis shot ten arrows in a row, each of which hit the target.

The most amazing thing is that one arrow hit the tail of the other, splitting it into two pieces.

"robin hood!" Rurik held his head in exclamation for a while.

The boys and girls onlookers were all screaming and booing because of their experience. Rurik really covered his head with his hands, and his whole body couldn't help shaking.

He was a little scared. Maybe at that time, the child could aim more precisely and run slower. Could it be that he was injured?

Relying entirely on the skill of archery, Telavis established himself among boys, including his sister Cypolava, who also gained the respect of girls through precise archery performances.

Are all the children of the Kewen people good at archery? When he thought of the fact that during the siege battle, the chain and leather armor of the Ross army was once covered with arrows of the enemy, Rurik felt that his judgment was completely correct.

Just three days later, the relatively settled Kewen tribe of gray squirrels, and the small group of deer keepers, Rurik ordered them to hand over their children, boys and girls, between the ages of six and ten.

At first, Mechasta of the Grey Squirrel Tribe and Arsaka, the head of the deer breeder, felt that there was a conspiracy in this order. How can the estrangement disappear in an instant?

Although the Rus people provided a lot of resources, it cannot be said that this is a huge favor, and they need to do everything unconditionally and willingly.

More than two dozen boys and girls accepted Rurik's call. They were a mix of deer breeders and Kowen people. After all, they were all "ancient Finns", and there was no real language barrier between them.

Terravis naturally became the commander of the boys, and Seporava became the commander of the girls.

The Kewen, the deer breeders, and even the Finns are relatively short races by nature. Perhaps this relative shortness cannot be changed by eating a lot of meat and milk. Small has a small advantage. Since they are not suitable to be on the front line, and other Viking tribes are facing difficulties, their best position on the battlefield is to provide fire support and long-range output in the rear.

Rurik's biggest request to Telavis and Cyberavi is very simple: "You bring your own people to shoot arrows seriously, and I want your people to be able to be Robin Hood."

Yes, Rurik gave "a flying arrow splits the arrow in front of it in half", Rurik gave this unique skill a clear word Robin Hood, they don't understand the cultural characteristics behind the word, they think it's just reserved One of many new words Rick invented.

On the contrary, it is difficult to complete such a skill if it is not for long-term training and billions of talents.

Rurik's subordinates increased, and the training directions of the personnel also began to differentiate.

He kept his promises and followed through with the rules he set. Even if the ice and snow have not melted, since the training has resumed, the cafeteria has basically ended its existence as a temporary classroom.

Those sturdy wooden buildings are often steeped in the aroma of food.

More than 300 children have their own seats, not to mention their own wooden bowls, wooden spoons and wooden forks, and many others imitate their "boss" Rurik with two wooden sticks as extensions of his hands. They use the use of chopsticks as a toy to pass the time. When they can manipulate a wooden stick to pick up a stone, the child will take the initiative to show it off.

From the beginning, Rurik had high demands on hygiene. He ordered his subordinates to clean their bodies regularly. Among the clothes distributed, linen clothes need to be washed with soap regularly, and individuals need to wipe their bodies regularly.

Wash your hands before meals, wash your clothes after training, and wash your face and hair diligently. Rurik will take the opportunity of the review to punish the filth among them. The method is very simple and straightforward, that is, to cancel today's free lunch.

Likewise, it was considered a mistake to touch food directly with your hands while eating, and Rurik asked his men to supervise each other.

This strict pre- and post-meal requirement has a completely ritualized feeling. The children always feel that it is unnecessary, but they cannot fully understand Rurik's good intentions.

Every year, the Ross tribe loses a group of very young children. Most of these children die from colds and diarrhea. Even though many families had bought soap and used it in their daily lives, expecting everyone to wash their hands with it, Rurik knew he was overestimating his people. Soap is still precious, and people use it cautiously. Washing hands with soap is a luxury, but washing clothes with a strong sour smell has become a must.

Rurik's men have always been very healthy, and few have even fallen ill.

No one really paid attention to this matter, or that they all had an attitude of taking it easy with them towards disease and death.

Oh! When a person dies, it must be his destiny, that's all.

No one associates disease with poor hygiene. Rurik can only build a ritualized hygiene work and let his subordinates passively develop a hygiene concept called "cleanliness" compared to most people. .

The Telavis brothers and sisters were shocked by the wealth of the Rus, because they and their sister had eaten wheat porridge and vegetable soup for many times, as well as large mouthfuls of seal meat and fish meat. He originally thought that the first time he ate this kind of food was a gift from Rurik, but he never imagined that all the children were eating such high-quality food.

Gradually, he felt that this was the normal life of the Rus people. Since children can eat so well, isn't it better for the elderly?

A sense of inferiority deeply accompanied Telavis. He was a strong man, and what he felt was the backwardness of the Kewen people.

How to correct the name of Kewen people? That is to do one's own thing well and impress the people of Rus. He thought so, eager to make the Rus people praise the Kewen people by making great contributions.

It's still winter, and Roseburg is thriving!

Almost everyone is preparing for the upcoming trade season. Due to the influx of huge amounts of fur, the entire tribe of leather craftsmen went into battle and started all-weather struggles.

The merchants even took advantage of this opportunity to find ways to get the goods.

Most of the merchants spend the winter in the colder Roseburg every year, in order to fish for the fur to be second-hand dealers to earn the difference. In essence, these people are porters, and their work lacks technical thresholds.

Those very few businessmen with large financial resources can be regarded as entrepreneurs in a sense.

Rurik easily understood that the great merchant Gould was concentrating on those things.

The cold is still there, and it can't interfere with Gould's ambitions, even if this guy feels that life is like a sunset. He wants to make a lot of money in the last stage of his life, while accumulating more wealth for his family, and making the rest of his life happier!

This old guy always likes young girls, but he has no right to marry another girl from the Ross tribe.

Otto and Rurik believed that the girls of their tribe were a special kind of "strategic material", and baby girls who could avoid being "thrown into the woods to fend for themselves" were engaged when they were twelve years old, and the younger girls were all Join the Valkyrie Legion in Rurik.

But Gould, as an old sex embryo, is like a tireless shrew when it comes to producing more wealth heirs. This is the second greatest joy in his life after making money.

He married his eighth wife, who was also the daughter of a foreign guest. Just because he asked Gould for cash flow problems, he sacrificed his daughter to reach a loan deal.

His eldest son, Snowreva, was indeed Gould's own son, and he also married the daughter of a guest merchant of the Melalen tribe, becoming his second wife. To put it bluntly, he felt that only more marriages would have a greater chance of having a son.

After all, in the huge Gould family, only men have the absolute right to inherit. As the eldest son, Snowleva shoulders a great responsibility.

Therefore, under the hood, all the merchants endured the problem of payment tribes and tried every means to expand their transactions.

The Rus people have provided too many goods this year. They are the producers of materials in the north. Compared with last year, the economic activity this year is so prosperous that the limited economic market of the Rus tribe has caused the strange phenomenon of currency tribes.

Obviously, the Rus people looted more than 200,000 silver coins, and a large number of copper coins with small purchasing power flowed into the market.

Lack of money is a real thing, and things get a little magical!

After all, they are Rus people. At this stage, the main body of the Rus people is pure Vikings. As Vikings, hoarding silver is really normal.

There are only two people who have the craziest silver coins here, Rurik and Gould.

In order to fight against the huge hard expenditure, Rurik's first thought was to return the coins to the "big money box", which is the tribal "treasury" in a realistic sense.

The free lunch launched by the tribal leaders is aimed at Rurik's subordinates. There are more than 300 mouths waiting to be fed. To feed them, the monthly expenditure is more than 600 silver coins.

Rurik recruited the women of the tribe to work as tailors, so that each of them had a decent outfit. One thing to say, this clothing is a high investment in the beginning, and it is basically some sewing work in the later stage.

Even if it is to hire clansmen as construction workers and cooks, these salary expenses are not much. What's more, for those mercenaries and slaves, Rurik can reasonably ask them to work more with only a small payment.

Of all the expenses, there are also two of the largest scales, that is, the cost of raw materials for Rurik's own handicraft workshop, such as a large amount of seal grease and charcoal blocks.

And a lot of grain and vegetables bought from Gould.

A lot of coins actually went into Gould's pockets, and Gould, in turn, had to spend money to buy soap, glassware, and brand new spirits from Rurik.

So this trade has reached a magical closed loop. If the Ross tribe wants to count GDP, then the transaction between Rurik and Gould must account for half of the GDP.

Of course, the wealthy households in the third place, they are a newly rising family, and they also represent a new power of artisans, and they may also account for one-fifth of the GDP.

After the blacksmith Kravason signed an agreement with his colleagues, they shared the skills of refining steel. He also monopolized the glassware manufacturing of the Ross tribe. Now a large number of children of the Kewen tribe have become full-time blacksmith apprentices. Stay on Rick's military training call-up list.

The Cravatsen family is on the rise, and the Cravatsen father and son have made huge fortunes from their blacksmithing work. By March, they have more than 20,000 silver coins under their control!

With so few coins, Cravasen naturally set up a sturdy room to store his huge amount of silver coins in the Novgorod-style woodcut that he had already built.

There is no bank in this era, and everyone's wealth can only be protected by their own way. Even if the Rus people have long stipulated that stealing their clan's money should be punished by cutting off their fingers, beating their backs, or even beheading, how can the theft be eradicated?

It's not that people's hearts are not simple enough, but it's entirely because they are born to be greedy for wealth, which makes some people take risks. After sitting on a huge amount of wealth, the risk of being targeted by thieves and robbers is even greater.

Clavasson was sitting on a huge amount of money that he never thought could be controlled by his family. He was so precious that he didn't even think about spending it. Instead, he began to drive a large number of new children to become so-called miners, and ordered Kawei and Kamnee to lead them. , sat on a hired reindeer sleigh, and went to the distant mountains to dig iron ore to complete a large number of orders.

They are more focused on producing more metal products, especially fulfilling orders for more steel-armed crossbows in Rurik, and steel swords for the young men of the tribe.

10% of the silver coin income was returned to Rurik's money box in a tax-like manner, and even so, the Cravatsen family's wealth continued to grow rapidly.

In this way, the two big and one small gold-sucking masters objectively have a very necessary economic connection with each other, which somewhat curbs the free trade and economics of the Rus.

Small businessmen have some lack of liquidity on hand, and ordinary Ross families generally lack funds.

But the future of trade this year is really wonderful. Since there is a lack of liquidity, even if it is barter, the transaction must continue. Anything of value can be used as a medium of transaction, even the marriage rights of their daughters. In order to make a lot of money, those businessmen feel that they have seized the opportunity to make a fortune and have completely risked it.

Rurik, how could he have noticed this situation so early? Perhaps it is only because the core population of the Ross clan in today's era has swelled to the size of 5,000 people, including a large number of newborns. Those Kewen people who surrendered can only be regarded as allies with a very special relationship, and the number of deer breeders they control is only ten.

free market? Is it enough for so many people? Rurik felt that it would be better to control all the small families by himself, as if building a medium-sized enterprise with a population of four or five thousand including family members. To manage so many people, it does not need too complicated organizational structure. .