Rise of Rurik

When Otto returned to his hometown of Roseburg, only on the surface, the hometown has a new look.

When he returned, he summoned many people and went to the long priest's house to see the aging high priest.

As for the ten Balmerk travelers who, according to his son, came from the other side of the mountain, Otto accepted the warrior salute from them as a king for the time being, and promised to have a good chat with them in a few days.

The soothing gravel-filled beach now has a number of wooden trestle bridges.

In the old Roseburg, a large number of ships were pulled directly to the gravel beach, and some were pulled directly to the large wooden shed, and shipbuilders and carpenters would repair them in winter. In winter, few boat owners would allow their boats to be frozen on the shore by sea ice winds.

Times have quietly changed!

Look at those trestle bridges, they are the property of the Gould family and the real wharf of the Ross tribe.

Both sides of the trestle are full of large and honest cargo ships.

They were so heavy that it seemed impossible and unnecessary to push them to the shore. Their sturdy bodies have been completely submerged in the sea, withstanding the pressure of sea ice.

Compared with the past, the total number of ships in Roseburg was unprecedented, and the coast seemed to grow a gray-white forest, which was all towering masts and tucked sails attached to them.

After all, it's already October, and everyone wants to believe that the sun is still shining brightly, and the first snow will always come suddenly.

Tribes have migrated to the fjords of Roseburg for more than half a century, and the locals know very well how the climate and hydrology are here.

After the first snow, the whole world changes. Even if the sea does not freeze in an instant, and the land is likely to be covered with knee-deep snow, the way of life of the Rus will be completely changed.

On a bright and cold start, Otto awoke from his comfortable bed, gently pushing away his aging wife who was sleeping beside him, and undoubtedly disturbing the sleeping children in the other two rooms. The only son Rurik experienced a thrilling and meaningful summer, and a child is showing his father what a born strong man is!

He stood in the empty hall, filled the fireplace with a few pieces of charcoal, pushed open the thick wooden door, and a fragrant cold hit his face.

It was the Breton maids, who were already cooking the morning porridge as usual.

After a while, the entire family woke up.

The wooden table against the wooden wall was put down, and the tiny family that used to have only three members has now become quite large.

Rurik was surrounded by four girls of the same age as Rumia, Carlota, Ella, and Seporava. They were destined to be Rurik's women, and naturally they were also part of the leader's family. .

A large wooden bowl was filled with boiled wheat, which had been salted to suit Otto's appetite.

Before long, a pottery urn was brought to the table by the two maids together, and it was full of stews such as yellow-rooted carrots, cabbage and onions.

Now that he has returned to his hometown, a bottle of spirits has completely become the standard for the leader's meal.

Is this breakfast? Not only. Ross people often have breakfast and lunch together, and Otto is relieved to eat this hearty meal full of grains, but he has to formally inspect the current situation of Rossburg.

After drinking half a bottle of wine and eating half a bowl of wheat, Otto was really excited.

"Rurik, you did a good job."

"Huh?" Rurik raised his head while patronizing the grain of wheat with chopsticks, and the other girls also put down the chopsticks in their hands.

With regard to cutlery, Otto never felt that his son, or even the subordinates he had trained, were trying their best to replace the role of a spoon with two wooden sticks. Do children have very flexible hands? If you look at your rough hands, you can't do anything delicate, such as manipulating two small wooden sticks. Of course, he can handle two big wooden sticks with ease, and that is the oars!

Otto took the "chopsticks" as a kind of alienated oar without hesitation in his heart, and he could manipulate it dexterously, indicating that his son did not forget his roots, and those children from various tribes were really active in becoming Rus people. .

Otto was relieved to see it, and I would like to say a few more words here.

"I asked, and the Gould's warehouse is indeed full of wheat now. There are several large wooden sheds built by the sea, and there are slides that have been put together from pine wood. I know that those boat builders are already in our home. Settled down. Many talents have joined us, and this is a good thing you have done."

This compliment Rurik was a little self-satisfied, and he said modestly: "Dad, you haven't gone to the Oulu River to the east to collect taxes from those Kewen people. And me, I should also go north to Elronborg. Take the tribute from the locals."

"Soon, I will organize a fleet to complete the last Sorgon this year. You don't have to worry about this. I just thought, are you serious? The word has been spread, and starting tomorrow, you will deliberately sell a batch of grain. ?"

"I made an agreement with Gould." Rurik raised his face solemnly, "You complain that I am too expensive, which has caused our family's silver coins to shrink drastically. I will sell a sum of food, a batch of silver coins in the hands of the clan. It will come back to us again. Dad, you know my attitude. Those silver coins are only silver coins, and it is not silver coins that can warm people's hearts in cold winter, but the food bought with silver coins. In my opinion, only for our tribe , you and I never have to worry about silver coins. In the past, when our tribes were short of silver coins and copper coins, life was still the same. Dad, can you understand?"

Rurik talked a lot with great interest, how could the slightly drunk Otto understand? Besides, Rurik's remarks are really profound.

"In my opinion, silver coins, copper coins and gold coins are not that important. We really need them, but we can't rely on them. In my opinion, the most important materials to maintain the stability of our tribe are two, food. And clothes. The most important thing is food! As leaders, we must store a lot of food and jerky, just like the immigrants in New Roseburg to the east did..."

What Rurik wanted to describe was that in the Rus tribe under his rule, the core of economic operation should be the grain standard.

Grain standard, this grain refers to all kinds of storable food, so that it can perform a certain monetary function.

Now, the warehouse that can store up to 800,000 pounds of grain is really only owned by the Gould family. Is it risky to store food there? Rurik felt that was extremely safe.

Gould himself is like a sub-wolf who shows his soft belly to the first wolf to give his loyalty. This old guy who claims to have less than ten years of life is frantically giving his sons to his children, in order to get along under the new Ross leader. A noble position, and even a brighter future.

A big businessman like Gould has the motivation to build a larger warehouse in order to hoard that huge amount of materials.

The Ross tribe is essentially a thriving economy. In the final analysis, everyone is fighting for food. However, the medium of trade in this world is gold and silver that will not decay. If the trade is only trapped within the tribe, is the currency system composed of gold, silver and copper still so indestructible?

The entire clan did not find out that the commercial transactions of the Rus people have relied heavily on silver coins in recent years. Since visiting the Melalen clan and hearing about other deficiencies, Rurik felt that the current situation in Rosburg was extremely abnormal.

The root of the anomaly is that up to now, a large number of Ross families still maintain a large amount of silver coins. After all, the victory looting a year ago, plus the usual trade, the amount of silver coins that finally circulated in the Ross tribe approached a terrifying 200,000 coins!

Its specific form is that the Rus people suddenly became rich! The clansmen intend to spend a lot, and labor costs such as shipbuilding, charcoal burning, and pottery burning have all risen sharply. Knowing that it was time to pay taxes when they came to Rosburg to do business, a large number of southern businessmen still came, vowing to make a lot of money from the Russians.

The merchants did make a lot of money, but they also loved the very high-quality ironwork that the Rus began to mass-produce, including the steel swords they ordered. For these tools, they are willing to spend a lot of money.

What is the result of this? !

A large number of silver coins are still circulating in the small world of Roseburg, but the economy based on silver is extremely fragile. Silver coins are not credit banknotes. There are almost only two ways to obtain them, trade and war. Both methods contain great uncertainty. Rurik's understanding of history is that countries that rely heavily on silver capital, once An abnormal supply of silver, or its replacement by another monetary medium, will inevitably encounter a serious social crisis.

Although the signs of the crisis in Rosberg did not exist at all, Rurik had to think about his future, saying that it was unfounded, and a plan B had to be established.

Since the price of wheat is fixed at ten pounds of oats to a silver coin, oats must have certain monetary properties.

If there is a silver shortage, the Russ will have to organize an army to go south to loot the Gotlanders who like to bury silver. How much they can grab is really a matter of luck.

This is not the case with food, which is much easier to obtain than silver coins.

The dining table is no longer quiet, and Rurik eloquently expresses the importance of his "food standard".

Although I couldn't understand it, how could Otto not feel the great wisdom of his son?

When the meal was over, Otto put on his majestic clothes, and followed by a troop of entourages, and even Rurik himself, visited the entire Roseburg in the attitude of a monarch.

He first came to the dock area. More than 20 cargo ships with very similar styles were docked in a quiet and orderly manner. This scene was shocking.

Along some other trestle bridges, there are a large number of long boats lined up horizontally. The bows without any sculptures extending from the keels are fastened by a thick hemp rope.

How many ships are parked here? Otto didn't need anyone to tell him, he personally reached out to count and came to an astonishing conclusion - more than a hundred ships.

"Huh? Are these ships all yours?" Otto, who was in shock, hurriedly asked Gould, the dock owner who was eager to say something.

"Not all. The big chief, along with twenty of Rurik's ships, are docked here. You see, those ships have hull numbers. And some of the ships of the tribe, who paid a little money, docked here. "

Another surprising news.

Otto stroked his son's small head: "Your ship? You sent twenty ships in one summer?!"

"A ship of the Gotlanders that Aric plundered," Rurik answered truthfully. "But I've got some of the best boat builders in the area in Mellaren. Dad, what do you think those rush buildings on the beach are for?"

Otto, who was quite sensitive, stomped his foot: "Building a ship?"

"Yes! There is an old man named Hotra. Dad, look at these cargo ships, almost all of them are from the old man's family."

The sturdy cargo ship does give people a sense of security. The huge mast that soars into the sky makes the whole ship completely overwhelm the long ship. Otto has to admire its majesty when looking at it so closely. What Otto saw was the largest cargo ship in Gould's hands, and the largest ship that existed in Roseburg.

Gould seized the opportunity to boast himself, but unexpectedly Rurik came back again: "Dad! What are these ships? I have made a promise with that Hotra that his family will spend the whole winter making more ships for us. Large cargo ships. Then, when you go to Novgorod to ask for tribute, you won't need too many ships to venture out at sea, or even rowers to work, it will be entirely dependent on the wind."

"Pure sails?" Otto didn't have that much confidence in this. "If sails are really easy to use, why don't I use them when I come back? Boy, are you sure you can do it? Some people can do it?"

"Certainly, because that's going to be a whole new sail, and the Goulds' trained sailors will have the ability to steer it."

Rurik deliberately betrayed him, and seeing his son's confident appearance, Otto didn't ask any more questions.

Now that everyone was paying attention to boats, Otto went straight to the shipyard that was being built on the coast.

Before entering here, the sound of ding ding dong dong attracted strong attention from Otto who was outdoors.

I saw a group of people approaching aggressively, and the small workers who carried the wood had already got into the wooden shed out of fear.

Soon, the men who lived with wooden sticks and a vote of shirtless shipbuilding men walked out of the shipbuilding shed they had built to welcome the arrival of the leader of Ross.

Otto had never seen Hotra, and out of instinct, he regarded a strong man with tendon flesh, sweaty arms, and golden chest hair as the so-called Hotra.

"You are Hortra? A shipbuilder? I think you are more suited to be a warrior with a warhammer and fight for me."

Otto was dressed gorgeously for this trip. In order to show his dignity and beauty, the amber necklace around his neck is now also mixed with some stained glass. Everyone knows Rurik, but if this kid calls him Dad, then he must be the head of Ross.

The real Hortra leaned on crutches and nodded slightly to Otto.

In this situation, Rurik was taken aback: "Hotra, are you... ill?"

"Maybe it's because I didn't adapt to Roseburg for the first time." Hotra raised his head immediately: "My honorable leader, I am Hotra. I am building a big ship for Ross, and everything is an agreement between me and your son. "

big ship? Haven't seen the shadow of the ship now?

Look at this old-fashioned man, who is actually the best shipbuilder? Otto couldn't believe it.

Otto quickly understood the whole story. Hotra himself has become the "chief engineer", and the men and women of the family are the craftsmen who really implement the design into the finished product.

Huge ship, it doesn't even have a shadow now!

Otto approached the dim wooden shed, which everywhere revealed that it was hastily built. The smell of pine trees in the house is very strong, which means that the trunks that make up the wooden shed are only recently felled pine trees.

Compared with other shipbuilding sheds, only this shed is the tallest.

Just thinking about the huge space inside, it's not just right for bigger boats. In the final analysis, the formula of shipbuilding is to build the hull first, then push it outdoors and then install the mast.

"Where's the boat? I see it's empty. What's your name? Hortra? The best shipbuilder in Melalen. Hasn't the big boat you built for us yet?"

"It's just the beginning. Everything starts from the keel." Saying that, Hortra used a walking stick to reach the extremely sturdy wooden pole on the ground. "My lord, this is the keel of the new ship."

"It? Are you kidding?!"

"I'm not joking." Hortra said very seriously.

Rurik immediately tugged at his father's clothes: "He really didn't lie."

Otto was still surprised, he pointed to the keel: "You call this a keel? Don't you think it's too strange? It's actually two pieces of wood... No!"

Otto suddenly realized that this tenon-and-mortise keel was actually made of rather dry wood.

Rurik simply told the truth: "Dad, many people demolished their old houses in the summer, and I bought that beam. You see, the beams of the two longhouses are put together, since they have been in the past few days. Ten years have proven themselves strong, and the ships built from them must also be strong."

Otto sighed slightly, "You boy, you really belong. It's..." Otto realized that something was wrong, and the more he thought about it, the more his heart trembled. "How long is the keel of your ship?"

"It's thirty stikas." Hotra proudly said.

"Ah! So long?!"

Although this length was a requirement revealed by Rurik as early as when he was in Melalen, it has been implemented now, and it is also challenging the shipbuilding level of Hotra. Since the gold owner thinks it is reliable, as a working person, what nonsense is there?

Rurik's presence is just emboldening himself! Hotra looked at the walking stick and said seriously: "It's so long! Great leader, the Ross tribe will have a big ship. I dare say that there is no second ship in the entire alliance stronger than her."

Hotra is so confident, and looking at his son Rurik's determined face, what else is Otto questioning? They were going to build the hull in a wooden shed all winter long. Even the cold wind and snow will not affect their progress.

Because Rurik had long planned a plan, that is, in the next trading season, to try to launch the big ship, put it into the new Sorgon voyage, and show the authority of the Rus people to the conquered people.