Rise of Rurik

The lathe is the "industrial mother machine". Even if it is very simple, it can greatly improve the work efficiency of craftsmen.

The historical trend of Europe as recognized by Rurik, in that plane, several severe plagues led to the loss of a large number of European populations, millions of people died, and those who survived still had to live with difficulty. As a large number of prime-age workers died of disease, the remaining people had the capital to negotiate a price with their employers.

In this way, Europeans began to greatly enhance the mechanical knowledge they had learned from the techniques of building towering defensive castles, and they turned that knowledge into new types of mechanical tools to enhance their productivity. The mill, which was supposed to be animal-powered and human-powered, turned into waterwheels and windmills.

Especially the steel and steel industries in Germany and Milan, because of the existence of hydraulic forging, their efficiency has been greatly improved, and they have become the material basis for a large number of plate armor knights war situations.

It can be said that the Rus tribe under Rurik faced a very similar situation.

As a highly anticipated leader who is bound to make a difference, Rurik must find a way to increase the strength of his clan. The population of the tribe is indeed growing, and a large number of foreign women who have been married and captured have almost all become "Mothers of Ross", and a large number of babies are being born one after another at an unprecedented rate.

A large number of children are about to be born, which means that the demand for living materials for the entire tribe will surge on a large scale in the next year!

The way to avoid material shortages, Rurik thought of was to exchange economic commodities for life-saving materials such as grain and flax in the south through a trade surplus that was beneficial to the Rus. Another means is to hope that the tribe's settlements will be provided with excellent production tools, especially better iron tools for agriculture-based Novgorod and Novgorod, so that they can seize more food. to fill a potential food shortage in the home city of Roseburg.

After all, the only way to avoid these crises for a long time is to increase productivity!

The huge roulette wheel that the waterwheel keeps spinning, just like the wheel of history, can leave the wild and backward far behind!

Now, the first industrial master machine has entered the stage of manufacturing core components.

As long as the waterwheel can drive a wooden shaft to rotate, Rurik believes that he will soon be able to build an industrial mother machine, that is, a wooden lathe driven by the waterwheel.

The wooden lathe drives a piece of wood to rotate, even if it shakes a little at first, and finally Rurik will use the "turning tool" in his hand to machine it into an unprecedented standard cylinder. This cylinder is not only the first industrial lathe to make It can also replace the previous material, so that the hydraulic woodworking lathe has a more stable rotation.

Let Rick hold back these thoughts for a while,

He supervises the mercenaries, installing a standard diameter of two stika (196cm) wooden spokes and plank nails on the wooden shaft, making "wheels" made of improvised small nails. There are also paddles that are half as long as stikas on the "wheels", so that the core of the waterwheel becomes a behemoth with a diameter of three stikas.

It took a lot of labor to install this huge period, and there is no capped wood carving, so it is not too troublesome to carry it.

So, does a waterwheel have a bearing system? It actually does.

In fact, it was Kawei who took out his own hammer, and at the very beginning, he knocked a circle of easily shaped wrought iron on the wooden shaft.

The ball bearing system is good, but it can't be done. The roller bearing is also good, the same can't be done.

Rurik had no choice. In line with the principle of being forced to make do with it, he used the so-called "sliding bearings" of wrought iron with huge tolerances. Compared with the wear and tear of wood, wrought iron is more wear-resistant. . In order to reduce its friction, Rurik had to pour grease into the hard-contact bearings,

The wooden shaft of the waterwheel is temporarily locked firmly, and it is placed on a wooden platform on the woodcut corrugated wood floor. Three additional iron rings were hammered on the bearing, and each iron ring had a large polished protrusion, which was a kind of "pluck".

The peg, which rotates with the wooden shaft, can continuously move the wooden stick of the hammer, just like the principle of a seesaw.

Things were going the way Rurik had hoped.

On the sixth day, a simple wooden shelter for wind and rain was installed on the waterwheel by the waterway. Now, Rurik can finally say that his plan has come true!

The waterwheel is complete! Then look at its strength!

Fortunately, the sky was beautiful these days. There was only a very weak drizzle in the area for some time, and the weather quickly cleared up after the rain. The weather did not interfere with all the activities of the Rus, making the construction of the waterwheel very smooth.

Rurik was thankful that he had not encountered any trouble, and now the waterwheel he longed for, the pine wood bearing was already creaky and spinning.

Not to mention, she doesn't seem to be spinning slowly, but her strength is amazing!

The three protruding pegs on the wooden shaft correspond to the three blacksmith's benches in the woodcut Lengli. These blacksmith benches use chrome iron hammers and chrome iron platforms, which are obtained by smelting and forging local ores.

During the construction of the waterwheel, a large number of people from the settlements came to watch. They didn't know what it was for a while. After all, when the onlookers saw with their own eyes, the strange iron hammer actually started to forge automatically. They suddenly felt this. It was a kind of divine power that caused a large number of people to suspend the work at hand and spewed out.

Kawei and Rurik were standing inside the turpentine-filled waterwheel, and the three blacksmiths' benches were already at full force!

Because the most time-consuming work is to forge the sponge iron into iron sheets, and the sponge iron state of the chrome iron is more rigid, the troubled blacksmith must work harder.

The powerful force of the waterwheel drives the tireless forging of the three hammers. Also, because the hammers are fixed by pins, the hammer can be removed at once by pulling out the pins, so Kawei can accurately control the number of blacksmiths' work.

"Hey hey! That's great, as long as I hold the poker, it'll keep forging for me. Rurik, you're a genius."

Kawei's praise has made Rurik's ears callous, "Forget it, I am indeed a god, and you don't have to praise me any more. Just forging sponge iron doesn't need you to come forward and hand it over to the mercenaries. Or those boys."

"They? They're only eight or nine years old."

"Don't worry, just forge this, they can. My Kamne, absolutely! The other mercenaries should put in more important work."

Kawi also wanted to continue to play in the hydraulic forging. When he thought that the purpose of himself and Rurik was to make more tools, the final plastic hammering work was his priority.

Finally, on the seventh day, the waterwheel forging workshop, which has already been built, Kamne and his ten blacksmiths, took over the most basic work of forging sponge iron into iron nails. The transmission of the waterwheel does not stop unless it is in the dry season, or the water inlet of the small river is artificially closed in the winter. It keeps turning, and workers can keep forging.

Everyone is human. Even in this era, many people realize the power of the "infinite beating" of the waterwheel. Some people think of pounding wheat to make flour, while others think about pounding bones to make bone meal, or even pounding the purchased ones. The flax rods were beaten fluffy.

For the time being, this waterwheel is dedicated to the forging of metals.

And Kawei, his work has become the appearance of further plasticizing the iron ingot into a tool, and the iron chrome axe that people need most has finally begun to be mass-produced.

Only on the eighth day, that is, the whole day of the second day after the waterwheel was put into use, Kawei was stunned to create as many as fifty chrome iron axes that could be used directly by inserting wooden sticks. It only underwent quenching and heat treatment. , not carburized at all. However, just as a lumberjack, it is fully qualified!

As for the mercenaries, Rurik arranged for them to smelt the sponge iron and then take it out of the hot stove.

The Kewen people were not idle either, and those who knew how to burn charcoal were immediately organized, and they set up charcoal-burning workshops in the settlements. As the mass production of charcoal blocks began, the shortage of fuel for large stoves and many small stoves gradually became a problem. long-term relief.

Time, quietly entered into June, Aaron Olava finally became like Rurik hoped.

She is a city that exists by smelting steel, and its positioning is exactly the same as the Finnish city Kemi, a Finnish city built here in another plane, and its economic status for a country is exactly the same.

Some Kewen men were also ordered by Kawei to participate in the final forging. The Kewen men began to build the axes and spearheads they needed according to their own preferences. Compared with the beginning, the skills of these people have gradually improved. At least in Mechasta's view, his tribe suddenly has more than ten blacksmiths!

Mechasta saw that the Rus people were still building more hydraulic forging workshops. A month later, the shortage of production tools miraculously disappeared, and there was even an increasing surplus.

As the "City Lord" of a settlement that has been empowered, Mechasta unexpectedly faced a problem - the master Rurik's improved iron production efficiency, while the efficiency of his own transportation and mining of ore, has lagged behind!

By the beginning of June, Rurik had as many as three hundred ferrochromium axes on hand, which had only been hardened, and were still very strong even without the "performance carburizing" process.

Rurik finally began to use it as a reward for the fishermen who transported their catch. He set the price of the axe to ten silver coins. It can be said that this price is not high, but its super cost-effectiveness makes fishermen flock to it.

This is great! The warmer period came, and the fishermen began to increase their catches significantly. In order to obtain cost-effective iron tools, the Russian fishermen succumbed to their interests and began to transport materials to the northern settlements on a large scale.

Thanks to the cooperation of the fishermen, Rurik basically solved the problem of "insufficient food".

The situation has become very delicate. Since there are too many fishermen transporting their catch and people's appetite is limited, what can Rurik do? They came in exchange for fine ferrochrome tools, and Rurik immediately raised the price to twenty silver coins for an axe. The fishermen took out their catches, or silver coins, and completed the purchase.

So by June, Fort Aron Olava finally stopped being a big mouth for gold, and she finally started to generate real economic benefits!

The new settlements built by the huge wealth of investment throughout May, the initial "heavy industry" of the Rus, finally began to show its strong vitality in June!

Rurik himself is the owner of this mine! The Iron Squirrel tribe of the Kovins is the guardians of the mines at Rurik.

Their entire tribe has completed the most thorough transformation, and their economic activities have completely changed from a single capture of squirrels to an economic model supplemented by hunting, fishing, and logging in the iron and steel industry. It is precisely the steel industry that makes these gentle wealth also increase in value.

Rurik tacitly allowed them to accumulate their wealth, and Rurik himself hunted more from it.

Ferrochrome and chrome steel tools are being produced at a rate of close to a hundred a day, and the entire settlement is an ancient steel mill. Looking at Europe in this time and space except for the Eastern Roman control area, the current daily production capacity of Rurik's "steel plant" can be called the first.

Ah, in the era of Bilan, producing 100 handaxes with the size of an axe and the size of a fist is actually a great achievement.

The Kewen people who have made great contributions have received a small dividend, and it is this dividend that has made them not need to worry about hunger and cold. The men and women of Cowen are grateful to Rurik, that they have been settled, fed and clothed in the peace under the rule of Ross, and the future is full of sunshine.

Rurik is also full of hope for the future. He now hopes that the settlements can produce iron tools like crazy, so that in the harvest season, in exchange for a large number of grains transported by southern merchants, to ensure that thousands of people in the Ross tribe have enough oats and rye to eat for a whole year, and even a large amount of food. vegetable.

Oh, and a great deal of flax, and the women of the Rus, and the women of Corvin, the women of Ostara, with their dexterous and great hands, to weave a great deal for all the people of the Rus. The patterned fabrics make everyone wear warm and comfortable, and become beautiful and decent.

Time was approaching the summer solstice, and Rurik had been staying at Fort Elrond for over a month.

It is completely different from the situation in early May. After a lot of "pollution" by human activities, the desolate world has become different!

For example, the Kovins, armed with chrome-iron axes, cut a narrower path from the settlement to the mine. They didn't have time to clean the roots, and they didn't do much to clear the thick pine needles on the ground. A road was born anyway, which improved the handling efficiency of the team that transported ore.

Of course, some changes were made, and reindeer began to appear in the transport team.

Some reindeer were transported from Roseburg, and these deer were well trained for service, and they quickly adapted to their identities. They are draped in leather sacks, usually filled with two pieces of ore, and tended and driven by deer keepers who arrive by boat on orders.

Still in early June, Nia knew that her son Rurik had been fighting in the north. She stayed in her hometown and heard the messenger sent by her nephew Arik, reporting that the "Two Hundred Heroes of the Sea" had achieved a great victory, but she didn't. Get news from the husband and the army of Sorgon.

Her husband Otto is old, and Nia's heart is more and more focused on her precious son.

Finally, she couldn't bear the longing for her only son, coupled with her strong curiosity about the northern settlements. Nia finally boarded the Gould family's cargo ship heading north, and had to stay with a lot of fresh catch. Niya already knew the powerful power of the chrome steel axe, and her son had achieved success, so she needed to find out more!

Did your mother come to visit? !

The messenger who arrived first half-kneeled in front of Rurik to report the incident.

"She's here? Just herself, no other servants?"

The messenger replied: "There are a few Breton maids, no one else."

"Where's my Rumia?"

"She...the high priest is still teaching her homework and etiquette. Your lord, you know, it will be the summer solstice soon. Maybe then you will return to Roseburg to participate in the sacrifice."

"Let's talk about it later." Rurik shrugged. He welcomed Niya very much, and let her see the birth of "Iron City". At that time, he was throwing himself into her arms and dawdling to satisfy the old woman's thoughts. Heart.