Rise of Rurik

Whether it is the Rus people or the Kewen people, because of the special geographical conditions in the region they live in, they naturally regard the complete polar night of the winter solstice as the end of the year, and the first light in the east that breaks the darkness as the beginning of the year .

When the sun lazily squeezes out of the horizon, it sheds precious sunlight on the world for a very short time like a charity.

In this way, time has essentially entered the year 831 AD.

In the Frankish kingdom in the far south, the highest-ranking nobles were at odds with each other over the issue of inheritance, to the point of being on the verge of civil war. The devout Louis made his eldest son co-emperor, and his second and third sons got Aquitaine and Bavaria. The empire has already been divided into three signs, and the king's nephew in northern Italy took the lead in raising the flag of rebellion.

The old emperor was haggard, and he saw that his three sons had already started to attack each other. Trying to heal the civil war between his sons, he decided to take some big steps during the year.

The Frankish kingdom was busy with the civil war and the recasting of its internal affairs, but a large food fleet entered the garrisoned Sicily and began to develop.

The Franks had no time to expel these foreign invaders, as their northern lands were constantly attacked by the Danes and the Pomeranians of Wendeslav. The north of the kingdom was never peaceful, and the princes of the north revered the emperor and made no secret of their quest for furs, oats and wool in the Pomeranian region. Likewise, the infiltration of the Danes from the overland direction made them miserable.

Perhaps the only benefit is that the military power of the northern princes is a bit stronger than that of the south.

Of course, just a little bit stronger.

Because of the Flanders area of ​​the bottom, it has long been targeted by the Danes. Some Danish tribes have conceived the idea of ​​long-term occupation, growing their own wheat and raising their own sheep, rather than simply plundering.

There was a Danish baby boy who was born in the autumn of 830. Because he was born weak and his body was as soft as a lump of clay, he was thrown into the woods near the tribe by his biological father. Just as the Rus once dumped their baby girls, so in Denmark.

Baby boys and girls who are not welcomed by their parents are discarded in such a way that, while limiting their population, the babies in the best physical condition are objectively kept alive.

But the child cried all night in the woods, he was not frozen to death, nor was he carried away by wild animals.

When his father deliberately went to check, he was shocked that this child, who was identified by the priest as a "boneless person", was still crying in a weak voice. In this situation, who can't be emotional?

The boy survived with difficulty. He was indeed frail, but he also experienced his first Hanukkah in Denmark.

"Maybe,

He is favored by God. ' the boy's father asked his father.

"If the body is naturally weak and blessed by God, he may get some favors. Raise him, but don't expect him to be a great warrior." The boy's grandfather was pessimistic, and he was old, but he didn't want him The first grandson was a "boneless". "You have to continue to find the right woman, give me a few strong children, and inherit my power."

No one could have predicted that a Danish warrior was born in this way.

Of course, the hegemon of Denmark in this era, Havgen the Lion, who lives in the northern part of the peninsula, cannot predict the future, such as who will succeed him.

Fortunately, Hafgen was young and strong. His terrible actions on the territory of the Northern Alliance established his prestige and won the support of many Norwegians and Gotlanders, but he also established enemies on the mainland.

It is entirely because this guy completely broke the rules of war that everyone agreed upon for the thrill of revenge.

Because those captured women will be distributed according to their merits by the participating tribes, they will become the victor's tribe and will continue to live. However, Hafgen killed them in order to vent his anger.

The tribal leaders of Denmark expressed respect on the surface, but behind their backs, they were scolding the leader of the alliance as a "stupid butcher". Cursing and cursing, the tribes will not form a coalition to overthrow the tribe of the leader, because it is unnecessary. After all, the tribes are complaining that they didn't get enough benefits from the last crusade against the North. They have not suffered any real losses themselves, and life has to go on.

Europe is quietly undergoing some turbulent changes, which seem to have no impact on the residents of the Svealan Plain in the north of the Baltic Sea.

The Svia Tribal Alliance lived its own life. They were only slowly integrating the power of the tribes, and spontaneously upgraded to a feudal country.

That is to say, the Melalen tribe with the most powerful population, military and economic capabilities is expected to become the leader of the new country, and its power is still increasing.

There are obviously huge variables here.

The Rus people are rising rapidly, and the rulers of Rus have built a number of colonial settlements and upgraded their internal governance methods. The power of the tribe is rapidly concentrating on the chief family, a centralized feudal country, almost to the extent that it is ready to emerge.

However, the two rulers, Rurik and Otto, especially Rurik, his current action is to actively open up new conquered areas. Rurik does not want to go everywhere now to compete for the highest power within the alliance. Promote the ambitions of the Rus.

He felt that one of the strategies of the Rus people for the next two to three years was to absorb the forces of the Cowen people. To let them know that following the leader of the Rus would benefit them, then continuing to build Fort Elrond would have a positive demonstration effect.

The Julian calendar officially enters January, and the increase in daytime is clearly felt by people.

Still in Roseburg, Hanukkah's offerings are like a prelude to the new year's winter hunt.

Due to the great success of the previous winter hunting, 10,000 squirrel skins entered the leather production, processing and sales market in Roseburg. The strong commercial interests deeply stimulated the nerves of young people.

All the Kovins surrendered, and after the Rus who plundered them were captured, they would be condemned as "heinous crimes" by the leader.

Ordinary people understand that those Kewen people surrendered to the chief family, and they would not touch this evil head. They were looking at the forests owned by the Cowens, where there were plenty of squirrels, ferrets, owls, and even bears and wild boars.

The once mysterious "Eastern Land" has been thoroughly explored by the leader and 200 brothers, and there are a lot of untapped resources there!

What's more, this time the tribe has Elrond Castle!

No, Otto issued an edict, and there were more than 500 strong men who decided to bring their own weapons, dragging their newly made sleigh, carrying some jerky and wheat cakes, and followed the leader's footsteps to the north. Among them are a group of young people who are hunting for the first time.

They don't need to fear the cold, because Elrond Castle is a huge settlement, and its towering wooden walls will protect everyone from the terrible wind and snow. In the future hunting, everyone can get the blessing of Elrond Castle. It is said that if there is a blizzard, everyone can have an absolutely safe refuge.

The hunters had no worries, and there was the settlement of Elronborg, and some fur traders followed.

More than five hundred people decided to walk on the ice and head north to chase their dreams of wealth. There are also more than 20 merchant families, with a total of nearly 100 people joining the team, including the Gould family. Gould sent one of his sons, with more than 30 domestic servants, to the north in six reindeer carriages. They are not only buying fur at a low price in the origin of the fur for the first time, but also trying to explore new business opportunities.

The first light of dawn fell on Roseburg, and a huge army marched towards the east facing the rising sun. After stepping out of the frozen fjord, this dark team gathered and continued northward along the coastline.

Finally, the team led by Otto himself arrived near Fort Elrond on January 2 and night of the Julian calendar. When everyone saw the flames lit in the distance, they realized that their long journey had come to an end.

Many Rus, who have never seen towering wooden walls, have a vague concept of "city".

Roseburg is a densely populated city, but unfortunately the internal buildings are disorganized, and there is no city defense system.

Seeing the huge wooden wall, the mottled snow blocks on the wooden slats, and the thick snowdrifts under the wall, the young warrior not only sighed that it was impossible to capture this place by force.

At the frozen pier, the long ships that were frozen on the shore were obvious, and the towering masts seemed to be frozen and integrated with the earth.

Even on the shore, there are still a large number of logs that have been obviously processed, all of which have been stripped of their bark and neatly stacked together to form a number of more peculiar wooden walls. What are these logs for? The first thing many people think of is building a house.

Don't you build a house?

There were six extremely long logs lying on the ground, and they were all stripped of their bark. The white and extremely thick cores received the sunlight of the winter, and they were slowly drying in the dry snow. Rurik deliberately placed them so that they would naturally air dry and the moisture inside would sublimate as much as possible, making them easier to use when actually processing the mast.

Some old hunters are very knowledgeable and know that this object is actually fir, as for other woods, it is mostly pine. Fir can grow very long, but as the main beam of the house, it is still inferior to oak.

Very long oak is hard to find, very long fir looks easy to get?

In general, the situation of Elronborg is beyond imagination, especially after entering the wooden wall, the Rus people looking around have to feel that this city is so rich and orderly. For example, the houses inside, they are all carved out of the same mold. At the same time, the chimneys stacked with stones have been smoking green smoke, and the air in the wooden walls seems to be intoxicating.

After all, it was a sudden visit of more than 600 people, and with the group that came before, the population of Elronborg temporarily exceeded 1,200 people.

And this basically reached the limit of the current carrying capacity of the settlement.

A batch of open space reserved for the settlement is temporarily filled with tents set up by Ross hunters. Some of the vacant premises were owned by Rurik himself, and he did not hesitate to rent the premises to merchants who came from afar and charged a higher rent.

Merchants can also set up tents, but where's the comfort of a log cabin with a fireplace and thick wood walls, even the beds are made of leather? Rurik also directly issued an order, requiring the merchants to either rent the house or withdraw to Roseburg with a sleigh, and to evict them by force if they didn't pay the money and deliberately kept it.

withdraw? Come here, why leave?

Rurik immediately charged a decent rent, which amounted to more than 1,000 silver coins. That is, a merchant charges half a pound of silver coins, and the rental period is three months, which is the theoretical maximum sustainable time for winter hunting.

They may not be able to take out the money immediately, the account is owed, and those who do not take out the rent immediately will have to make it up in the future. Rurik sees this as a special kind of commercial tax. These merchants learned about the wonderful shelter of Elrond Castle, and then they went to the extreme north for the first time. They can pay extremely low prices. The price is purchased, they enjoy a lot, and naturally they have to pay the price of money.

Ten pounds of silver was easily collected by Rurik, much to the surprise of Otto, who came here again.

The hunting operation has not yet officially started, and everyone needs to settle down in Elrond now.

On a lively night, a group of tribal women who had yet to find a suitable man were looking for the young hunters among the new Rus. To put it bluntly, this is an obvious seduction. They are looking for young and vigorous men in order to use their youth to give birth to healthier children.

Otto didn't care about these things anymore. At the moment, in the dimly lit conference room of the chief's mansion, the linen spread on the floor was filled with a large number of silver coins reflecting a strong metallic luster.

"You got a new tax so easily? You boy, this is greed!" Otto said in surprise, "We arrived at Elrond in less than two days!"

Rurik laughed out loud: "Dad, I let all my mercenaries move out of those wooden houses, and now all the people living in are businessmen. This is the rent they provide, not any tax. We will have to pay in the future. Collecting their business tax, they won't be charged less because of what happened today."

Otto's mind hadn't yet figured out that he could make money from massive house leases, and Mechasta was equally astounded.

Especially Mechasta, he could hardly imagine that Rurik could easily get so many precious silver coins. In his opinion, every silver coin is precious, but in Rurik's eyes, the value of the silver coins in circulation in the Rosberg system has shrunk substantially, and the silver coins are no longer precious internally.

Gold and silver coins are inherently deflationary due to the wear and tear of transactions and the hassle of recasting. The economic system of Rosburg has become complicated. The copper coins that used to be the most widely circulated are no longer so strong, and silver coins have become common in daily transactions. It is entirely because the ordinary people in Ross still hold a large number of silver coins. To put it bluntly, Rurik was using various means to get the silver coins of the tribe, and finally used him to buy the labor of the tribe.

It was the large-scale purchase of the food of the Melalen people, which brought about a serious outflow of silver coins. Those lost silver coins will have to be earned back sooner or later. For example, at the moment, some of the businessmen who rented houses were from Melalen! Collecting rent is a means of collecting silver coins.

One thousand silver coins for rent is a small amount of money after all. This time the father and son reunited, the two did not spend much time on the Acura family relationship, and it was unnecessary. Two powerful men sit together and are supposed to talk about real matters.

Otto soon learns of what happened to Elrond during his absence.

Some of the big things are obvious, the disappearance of a large forest, and the massive pile of wood at the dock.

Mechasta, too, was eager to show off the saw and longbow he had, and swore his allegiance again.

A longbow as tall as a man can hit a lighter arrow beyond 200 stika? As tempting as it sounds, Otto doesn't take it very seriously.

Otto knew that his son was trying to build a big ship, and the project stranded in Elrond was to find excellent ship materials.

There's a rationale for the wood that's been put on the docks.

Otto stroked his beard subconsciously, and under the dim oil lamp, he became more and more wily: "Those fir trees may be good materials, they look too long and must be very heavy. Rurik, how are you going to put them Ship it back."

"With a sled," Rurik responded with a smile, his face full of confidence.

Otto subconsciously felt that this was not right: "Those woods look extremely heavy to me. How do you carry them to the sled. Those longest woods, you plan to use them as masts, can that work?"

"It's all possible!"

"You...you believe in the power of warriors that much?" Of course Otto didn't understand, he pinched his beard, "Those masts are too heavy with wood, I can organize a hundred people, and they should be able to hold it together."

Saying that, Otto slapped his head suddenly: "Oh, why do you have to put it on a sled. You can just use a herd of reindeer to drag the wood and slide on the ice. You should understand that the frozen sea is stable. the way."

It sounded like a good solution, but Rurik refused.

"Why? Are you so upright?"

Rurik simply clenched his fists, making a rattling sound, clearly gearing up to do something big: "Dad, just look at me. I'll make a brand new...thing. I call it Crane, you can carry very heavy wood onto sleds. There will be a lot of exciting things about this thing in the future.”

Otto shook his head. He didn't know what this was. Looking at his son's full of thoughts, he still said: "As long as what you want to do is good, I will support it. Tell me, how many soldiers do you need, I will Organize for you..."