Rise of Rurik

The ceremony to pay tribute to the deceased is more like the groundbreaking ceremony for the settlement of the Kewen people.

The Iron Squirrel Tribe was officially settled, and large-scale settlement construction began immediately.

A road leading from the town to the mine began to open, and a large number of people with axe entered the forest. They were heading towards the mine to cut a path in the dense forest in the cold zone!

A large number of felled pine trees were pulled to the construction site, and each tree with relatively slender trunks was cut out of the conical end and buried directly in a properly excavated pit, and then buried in the soil and pebbles in the river to hold it in place. .

The Kewen people are building a new annular wall, which is the barrier of the new mountain fort. What is completely different from the past is that the Ross warriors are involved in the construction of the mountain fort.

In just five days, the settlement was named Fort Aron Orava, and its town walls were already scaled. It was a large number of frame structures, and a large number of towering tree stumps surrounded the settlement, forming a large circle with a semi-diameter of nearly four hundred meters.

In fact, such an area is only equivalent to the area of ​​a small residential area more than a thousand years later, but for this era, it is already considered a considerable "city" in Europe. Oh, if the locals really wanted to call it a city.

From Rurik's point of view, the permanent settlement he asked to build was still a village, and even if it had a wall, it was still a small village.

For a long time, Kewen people have used building materials according to local conditions when building their own mountain fort.

They know how to make pottery but they don't have the luxury of firing clay bricks to build a house. They built buildings with readily available trees, used it to form walls, and then piled up soil and rammed it until it was firm.

When it comes to a brand new world, they still use their own routines to build.

Rurik had his own thoughts on this.

"Building with wood is fast, but the biggest problem is that it doesn't last long."

Rurik pondered for a while, and he gave Mechasta a new task: "Your people should not just be busy cutting wood and driving stakes, and don't think that just making a wooden fence will fulfill my request. I ask the wall to be more Strong! You must reinforce it with stones."

At this, Mechasta was taken aback: "Huh? We use our hands? Are we really going to do this? As for?"

"You are questioning me? This is my order, do what I say."

Rurik didn't want to explain anything.

Seeing the master's resolute attitude, Mechasta and his people had nothing to say.

When it comes to building houses out of stone, the Rus have a knack for it.

Building a wall with stones is more time consuming than simply using wood. Up to now, it is quite easy to obtain stones, just to obtain large stones, the only good source of stone is in the mine not far away.

The construction of pure wood engraved walls, and the construction of walls mixed with wood and stone, the heavy manual labor is the responsibility of the Rus soldiers and the Kowen tribesmen. Like the group of children under Rurik's command, they were also assigned tasks within their ability, such as acting as "donkeys" to carry ore.

Rather than overseeing their construction, Rurik's energies after settling down shifted almost entirely to the smelting of ore.

After all, he Rurik insisted on running north, which is to mine this big mine in the future.

Everything was a strong coincidence. It was Kavey who discovered that the ore on the mine had a distinctive color, which caused the high sensitivity of Rurik's spirit.

If it is just iron smelting and using the ore from the hills near Roseburg, it can already fulfill its own needs very well.

Rurik had taken a good look at the local ore. It was dark throughout. When he took a closer look, he saw that there were dense shiny objects on the surface of the ore, and this was the ore itself.

His soul was telling his mind that there must be something else in this ore.

In fact, Rurik is still not sure what the extra metal in the ore is. Or manganese, or chromium, or even zirconium. In fact, he prefers that the extra substance is manganese, so that theoretically he can make more elastic steel, so as to make a more powerful steel-arm crossbow, making himself more and more virtuous.

The relatively primitive smelting method of the Ross tribe made him worry about the future of smelting.

However, the experienced and confident blacksmith completely ignored Rurik's concerns.

Kawei is going to build his brand new blacksmith shop by the river, and in the built small furnace, smelt the ore into iron, and then repeat the forging routine of smelting steel.

Compared to Rurik, Kawi just believed that there were other mysterious substances in the ore. But so what? As long as you burn the ore into sponge iron, you can make iron ingots with good plasticity with your own forging, and it doesn't matter if you want to have more materials. Because he has seen the strange smelting of his father Kravason, which is to burn copper ore, iron ore, and tin ingots together to see what results can be obtained.

As a result, the iron ore actually melted in the clay crucible, but the quality of the final tool was not outstanding. Adding a small amount of iron ore makes the new tin bronze a bit harder, but still not as good as wrought iron. Kravason didn't study it any further, and it wouldn't help if he added more iron ore. Only a very small amount of iron would melt into the molten tin-bronze molten metal at the smelting temperatures that the current Rus can achieve.

In the final analysis, the biggest obstacle to metal smelting in any era is that the temperature does not meet the standard.

If it weren't for the lack of temperature, the ancients would not have adopted the routine of burning and forging sponge iron to make ironware.

Although Dongfang invented the blast furnace technology, its extreme high temperature can only reach 1400 ℃ and cannot last for a long time. It can generally be stabilized at a level close to 1300 ℃, thus producing molten iron in large quantities, but it is impossible to melt wrought iron ingots.

It is also for this reason that the blast furnace before the birth of gas furnace technology could not directly smelt molten ferrochromium alloy water, and it is even more impossible to smelt ferromanganese alloy liquid.

However, if these special metals exist in iron ore on a small scale, their existence does not affect the blacksmith's burning of sponge iron and subsequent forging.

Fortunately, the iron ore occupied by the Rus is not extremely rich in chromium.

Rurik dispatched thirty boys and ordered them to carry their own small sacks to carry the ore mined from the top of the mountain, which Kawi identified as concentrate. Together with the ten blacksmith apprentices under Kawei's command, as well as the experienced little blacksmiths like Kamne, they all became porters.

A child who can carry one or two kilograms and walk continuously for five or six kilometers at noon is really a feat for a child.

Behind their feats are the high-quality physical qualities brought about by their long-term physical training, and the strong stamina provided by a large number of high-quality food. They also have this fiery heart that shows loyalty to their master and "big brother".

Other children also have their own jobs, just like the ten named little maids from the Novgorod White Tree Manor in Rurik, their current jobs are really playing in the mud.

They are all playing with mud, this mud is really not fun.

They hunted for clay in the forest, and they had to poke through thick pine needles and dig deep into the earth, instead of using the sand-rich, meaningless soil on the riverbanks.

Clay is of course widely distributed, and it takes a bit of luck to find good ones.

They didn't find very good quality, only some deep black soils, but they were still sticky and malleable.

The girls' job is to build a smelting furnace that Kawi needs.

With their blackened hands, they used the water of the river to knead the mud balls in their hands, and piled them up like building blocks, so that they grew higher and higher into the shape of a stove. That's not enough, of course, Kawhi asked for the top of the tandoor to be more abrupt, and the height of the stove to be raised.

A brand new tandoor was made higher and higher, and in the end, these short girls all had to raise their arms to pile up the mud.

On the sixth day after arriving at the mine for the second time, the "great work" of the girls finally came to Kaway's satisfaction.

They still don't know what this stove can bring. After all, they are a girl, and they have completed the important task assigned by the master, and everyone is very happy.

It was a quiet evening, with smoke billowing from the large settlement.

A large-scale wooden fence, some places have begun to be piled up with pebbles in the river, and they are simply reinforced with shovels. It was another busy day, and only at this time did the men stop to eat the steaming porridge and plenty of freshly grilled fish.

The material supply situation in the settlements has undergone a huge improvement, and those fishing boats returning to Roseburg, they soon brought the support of materials and technical personnel from their hometowns.

A group of excellent carpenters went to a desolate, bitter and cold place with the mentality of striving for more wealth, and even obtaining political wealth for themselves and their children and grandchildren by Rurik's side.

Large quantities of oats and even larger catches were transported to Fort Elrond on a large scale. The working people not only have no worries, but some Kewen people are also actively using the animal resources in the region to obtain more meat through hunting.

In just a few days, they were logging all the squirrels they found, using the bows and better arrows they had at hand.

They have killed more than 100 squirrels, the hunters have eaten roast meat, and the leather is naturally turned over to Rurik. The so-called tribute from the servants to the master means that the Kovins exchanged squirrel skins for Rurik's oats.

Young men were talking about the busy and fulfilling days of these days and the women of the Iron Squirrel tribe.

Rurik, he didn't want to get involved in the vulgar chatter of a large group of rough men, like talking to them about which tribal woman who carried firewood was more beautiful.

He, Kawei, and a group of loyal companions guarded the newly built mud stove, which was still damp, and the high-quality charcoal blocks brought from his hometown were piled next to the stove, and the children took great pains to carry them. Selected ore from.

A group of children, both men and women, gathered around the four campfires, holding wooden bowls and eating salty wheat porridge, whether they would take another bite of the grilled fish they made themselves. Compared with those vulgar strong men, the topics that children communicate are much simpler. As for the ten maids, they were either speaking in Slavic, talking about things that others couldn't understand.

Whatever the children were talking about, Rurik could hear it clearly. In the final analysis, everyone still wants to see what kind of results they have achieved after working hard for many days, making their hands dirty and even grinding out calluses.

Kawi sat casually on a flat tree trunk as a stool.

When he saw that Rurik had finished his porridge, he outputted the words in his stomach: "By now, I think I'm ready."

"Is it finally time to start?"

Kawi was a little surprised by Rurik's calm attitude, "Why, you're not looking forward to it? Yes, I can start now."

"Let's get started then! Hopefully...we can do it the old-fashioned way."

This statement made Kawhi a little stunned. traditional method? Why, is there something different than the "traditional method"?

In fact, Rurik's silence this time was only because he had some questions in his mind. He has been supervising his maids to build the soil, and even he himself has given some instructions, such as teaching them how to pile up and not collapse.

This tandoor is unusual. According to the rough measurement of the rope ruler, its height has exceeded a stika. In fact, its height has reached the level of 130cm. Compared to the furnaces of Kravason and other blacksmiths, this furnace is the highest.

After that, the inner chamber of the furnace was also finished, where iron ore was used as a refractory brick, and a layer of heat-resistant inner chamber was laid. Kawei calculated very clearly that when the smelting starts, the slag will be removed from the designed hole, and the iron ore in the inner chamber will also stick to each other. Due to the ash and slag, the sponge iron is basically unable to stick to the furnace, thus achieving a heat-resistant and stable crucible environment.

The dirt road had a hint of a blast furnace, and Rurik estimated that Kawi had figured out the correct way to increase the temperature in the furnace.

Want to make a real blast furnace?

Rurik recalled the knowledge in his head. Although he knew the principle of blast furnace smelting, it was really difficult to re-enact it completely relying on his own theoretical basis in this era. Of course, a blast furnace is necessary, and he does not expect to be able to reproduce the "ancient blast furnace" technology in a short time and let his tribal blacksmiths master it well.

Due to the current situation, the demand for iron tools by the Rus is not so great that it is necessary to develop blast furnace technology to mass-produce cast iron.

Rurik decided that tomorrow morning, everyone would not have to go straight to the mine to dig, but try to smelt on the river beach.

Before that, Kawhi stood up, and he had a very necessary job to do.

"Rurik, I am full of energy now. I don't have to wait until tomorrow, as long as this furnace meets my requirements, I will be able to smelt immediately. I have all the raw materials and tools I need. The only thing I lack is a dryer. stove."

Rurik understood as soon as he heard it, "Are you going to burn the furnace and let it solidify?"

"Yes!" Kawi said to himself, "It will take some time. In order to make my brand new stove last longer, I will do it now."

As a result, Kawi began to act.

He wants to burn the entire furnace until it becomes clay, and the ore in the furnace can be bonded to each other.

As long as his efforts are successful, then he can proudly tell his father Clavason: "I have a better furnace than you, and grandpa and other ancestors will make us proud."