Rise of Rurik

Just after the sacrifice, Rurik personally gave Gould a new and detailed task, and he ordered him to personally organize a cargo ship to go to Lake Mälaren. What Gould did this trip was still a transaction, and the object of the transaction became the recruitment of mercenaries and the purchase of a large amount of linen.

Isn't there a large number of young people in the Melalen tribe? Aren't they eager to make a fortune in the war? Didn't they have the right to join the expedition under the command of Olegin for various reasons?

Gould carried a pine plank full of words, a memorandum of orders. According to Rurik's instructions, he would recruit at least 500 Melalen men who were not afraid of death. Of course, the targets of his recruitment were for various tribes in the entire Swedish kingdom.

The Rus people only plan to give these people a small amount of mercenary remuneration. For a group of men who are not very strong, they can earn silver coins and provide food for the Duke of Ross during the battle. It was to conquer the pesky Gotlanders, so that the act of mercenary became a great thing.

Rurik had personally infiltrated the Melalen market. He had a lot of knowledge and experience, and there were a lot of Melalen elements in his mercenaries.

Both he and Gould figured out this idea of ​​young Mellaren, especially those fourteen or fifteen-year-olds, who were eager to prove themselves as men, eager to get rid of poverty in the first war.

He has strong confidence in the "widespread recruitment of mercenaries" implemented by Gould, so that in future wars, the Ross Army will have a mercenary team that can be sacrificed if necessary without worrying about losses. ,

So, why buy a lot of cloth?

Without him, Rurik took into account the problem of identifying the enemy and the enemy on the battlefield. All the soldiers of the Rus army, no matter what source they came from, were all in the same camp. In order to avoid accidental injuries, they had to keep their clothes as uniform as possible.

Giving every fighter in a large army the same style of clothes is ridiculous, at least not at the current level of production. Rurik could only make a compromise and make some markers on the warrior's clothes.

Most importantly, Rurik needed to use newly bought cloth to stitch together a flag that symbolized Ross, that is, the huge, ancestral "cross oars" sewn to the sail of the Avlora. flag.

"Maybe in this battle, I should define this flag as the real King of the Rus. No! Not only that, the flag and the horn, it is me who see my warriors in the ever-changing battlefield and accurately pass on the new order. the best way.”

Although some of the ideas were absurd, Rurik wanted to hang a small flag on the backs of some warriors, doing the work of a centurion, so that ordinary warriors could follow the flag bearers and act accurately.

Rurik waited for Gould to return with a large force and bundles of sackcloth,

Oh, it's best to bring another batch of local souvenirs and leather products to expand the Rus' army.

In the south, calm Lake Mälaren made waves.

Gould sent men in the name of merchants to recruit troops in the market and residential areas of Mellaren.

The recruiting target is very broad, from fifteen-year-old teenagers to forty-year-old "old guys" can sign up to participate.

It's just that according to the tradition of mercenaries, working for businessmen must be cut off from the current life.

There are many poor people in the huge Lake Mälaren area. The second and third sons of the family cannot inherit the family business as usual. They have to start their own business. This so-called "starting a business" is easier said than done? Their destiny is not to be servants to others, or to be thugs to powerful people.

A group of very young, elderly men followed Gould's troopers away from their homeland, leaving with their bare hands, effectively cutting the Meralen tribe.

The parents of the young man only knew that their son had found a job as a mercenary for a merchant. As for the future, they had no idea.

What's more, they just sneaked out of the house. Such boys just want to get some money, they just want to try their best to live, and when they earn enough money, they can start a fishing boat and a woman, and the days will be over. Go on like this. Being a mercenary will certainly face danger. If you die, then die, and life is at least better than it is now.

A large number of people gathered on Gould Island, and only when they landed on the island did they realize that things had become very strange.

Where do you all make mercenaries for businessmen, and how can a businessman be so crazy that he wants to support 500 mercenaries?

Gould gave some rewards to the subordinates who were doing the work, and also ordered the subordinates to take care of this group of thin cubs and old guys to prevent them from having any plans to escape, and rewarded them with some fish only for food.

Hundreds of people are like squatting in the wooden castle on Gould Island. Until this time, Gould has no intention of revealing substantive information to them, or that these people who are destined to fight against the Rus people, he is afraid of this. After the group learned the facts, they fled on a large scale or caused chaos.

If they were really strong, they would have been taken away by Oleksin for the first time.

They are obviously weak, how can Gould look up to them? The existence value of this group may only be in future battles to reduce the loss of Russ personnel.

After the rain, the production in the Melalen area continued. The women hurry up to produce cloth. After the rain, they collected anthocyanin-containing grasses such as isatis and dyed the sackcloth, but they have not yet discovered the medicinal properties of the roots of these bluegrass. The value (that is, the European version of Banlangen) is used as a raw material for dyes. These are all the tasks of the gold master. Gould spread the news of collecting cloth, and he can also give a gratifying price. The local women did their best.

On July 10th, a huge cargo fleet set sail from Gould Island.

Each cargo ship literally squeezed into a hundred people, they were wearing simple clothes, and their heads were covered with a linen cloth. At first glance, it was obvious that the ship had hit a lot of cargo.

A group of Melalen men are goods. They already know that they are going to Ross in the north. It is this battle. It seems that everyone is not going to be a mercenary for the Ross, but to be a slave.

There are indeed people who are extremely afraid of a tragic future. Such people have been beaten, and the rest are honest.

There are eight cargo ships carrying a full six hundred people. If time were more generous, Gould could get more people and transport more people.

The fleet departed from Gould Island. Before that, the merchants were doing normal summer trade under the banner of the Rus people. They did purchase a variety of goods of great weight. It really required a huge fleet to transport them back to the north.

The Melalen people were busy doing business, and few of them paid attention to the departure of some clansmen.

Just as they don't care about the refugees who are fleeing, they acquiesce to beggars as thieves, and they have no intention of helping the destitute.

Maybe Olegin is still sitting in his hometown and will be furious at the Rus people's digging, but this guy's mind has been completely attracted by the "Silver Castle" further south.

There are three cargo ships, all of which are loaded with dyed burlap, which has been washed with alum to fix the color, and it is difficult to fade.

There are probably only three colors of linen, plain white, sky blue and earthy yellow. Of course, toner and cinnabar powder can also be used to provide new colors, but such linen clothing is really rare.

When the fleet left Lake Mälaren and entered the sea, the fleet of fifteen cargo ships started a two-day, non-stop voyage enjoying the warm southerly wind.

On July 12, after a short dark night, a huge fleet appeared in the eyes of fishermen who were actively working at sea near Roseburg.

This is the ship of the Gould family. Look at the big one. The sails are stitched with the words "GULD" in rune letters.

Soon the fleet arrived at Ross Pier, and the hundreds of people on board finally saw the light of day.

It can be said that this is the biggest good news that Rurik has encountered in a period of time. He rushed to the dock with a group of mercenaries in high spirits.

In the same way, hearing that a new force from the Melalen tribe who was going to fight for the Rus arrived in Hong Kong, Otto also brought a group of old men with a smile to see the group hired by Rurik. Whether the fighters are strong. At least in Otto's mind, he admired the bravery of the Meralen warriors fighting in the south.

They had high expectations, but standing on the pier, the place smells sour!

Look at the people who came down from the boat one after another. They are all men, even if they are physically fit, they look like beggars who have been hungry for a while.

They were ragged and smelly, even worse than the clothes of slaves bound by ropes.

"That's it?" Otto's eyelids couldn't help trembling, and his big hands covered Rurik's head: "This is the mercenary you paid for? It's a bunch of animals."

"Damn, something must have happened."

Those who disembarked left the trestle one after another, and then sat on the ground on a large scale, and some people retched on the spot.

Rurik approached Gould, who was embarrassed, and suddenly drew his sword and pointed at the people sitting on the ground.

"What's going on? I asked you to recruit warriors, it doesn't matter if you are weaker, who asked you to recruit these people?!"

Gould, who felt guilty, tried hard to justify: "Yeah, I brought them to my island, and the situation is not so bad."

"They're so stinky!"

"Oh, that's because I've been sailing, and these people's feces and urine have been dealt with on the boat. I'll send someone to clean the boat immediately. As for these people..."

"It's okay." Rurik really didn't want to say anything, and immediately ordered his subordinate Yevlo to send a group of mercenaries to kick the new guys one by one and make them stand up.

Soon, people who were suffering from the long voyage got up one after another. Due to the hypoglycemia of hunger, they subconsciously shook their bodies, as if they could not stand at all.

Rurik ordered Yevro to squat down, and he rode on his neck to visually measure the number of newcomers. He had an idea, so he looked down at Gould: "It looks like there are really five hundred people? You at least To get me so many people."

"It's six hundred people, if there is more time..."

"Enough is enough!" Rurik patted Yevlo on the head, he was let down, and immediately ordered: "Take all these guys with you, and give each of them a piece of smoked dried fish. They eat When they are done, they will be driven to the sea by me, and they will be washed clean by the sea water. As for their tattered clothes, they will all be burned.”

The request of the sponsor is probably fine. Yevro asked, "Although their clothes are very smelly, they can still be worn after washing. If they are really burned, what are they wearing?"

Rurik shook his head: "Burn it! It is to force them to say goodbye to the past. Tonight I will only give them a little rags to cover their shame. They will spend the night in those vacant wooden houses, and I will give them new clothes tomorrow."

Yevluo knew that he needed to say more, so he took the gathering of more than fifty old mercenaries and drove the stinky people away.

"They're all gone now, and soon they'll be changing their faces." Rurik asked Gould, who responded slightly, "What about the large amount of cloth I want?"

"They're all here, and you see, those burlap sacks that are being carried, they're full of cloth."

"Bring me a pack and see. Remember, I want blue cloth!"

A khaki cloth pocket stuffed with blue sackcloth, easily recognisable by its blue stripe.

Seeing the cloth strips at the mouth, all the people who were watching were cheered up. Yes, whether men or women, everyone has a natural desire to be gorgeous. They want to get a variety of colors. At this moment, blue is very precious, and it is indeed expensive.

The cloth strip was pulled away, and Gould grinned and took out a soft blue fabric himself. He struggled to spread it out, and what was shown to everyone was a large sky-blue blue cloth.

Seeing it, the people present laughed happily.

Rurik touched its softness, and brought his nose closer, smelling a strange grassy smell, which was different in smell from the blue cloth dyed with blue moss, and the color was more comfortable.

"What about its price?"

Gould immediately pointed out: "The length and width are a blue cloth of stika, and the price is three silver coins."

"It's really expensive? How much did you buy?"

"There are twenty packs of blue cloth, and each pack contains five sheets. Look at this one, it is four stikas long and wide."

Rurik nodded. He always felt that the lengths of stika and meter were extremely close, so he simply acquiesced to the same. Therefore, about 80 square meters of blue cloth is stuffed into one pocket, and 20 packs are 1600 square meters!

Rurik was also surprised when he got such a result by mental arithmetic. Of course, for the blue linen, he had to pay nearly 5,000 silver coins.

Gould noticed that Rurik's brows were a little wrinkled, and immediately explained with a smile: "Haha, my friends, you know? This time I am targeting the entire Melalen tribe, and I also sent someone to Yerma nearby. The Lun tribe, they bought a clean cloth they produced this year. I asked them to dye cloth on a large scale, and now they have dug up the woad in the lake area. If we buy it next year, we can only Buy moss-dyed cloth, oh, that blue cloth I don't like."

"Huh? Could it be that twenty packs of blue cloth are the maximum production capacity of the Mellaren people?"

"Probably so. Unless you have a bigger need." Gould shrugged.

Thinking of last year, when Rurik entered the Melalen market, he did see some people selling cloth, but there were not many cloths sold. Perhaps this is the case. If there is no order, the local people will not take the initiative to produce. For things like cloth, they might not have the motivation to make more after meeting their own needs. Wouldn’t it be better to have extra time to take care of the wheat fields and fish in the lake? ! After all, the ordinary people of the Melalen tribe need to fill their stomachs even more.

"How much white cloth did you get besides the blue cloth?" Rurik continued.

"There are one hundred and twenty packs, and there are five sheets in one pack."

"Ah? Is it that much? All the cloth added together is the full production capacity of the Melalen this year?"

Gould raised his head and thought for a while: "No. There is still a part of flax that has not been harvested this year, but too much isatis and moss are used to make dyes. If adults still need it, when we sell food this year, we can still Get back a lot of flax rods."

"What is the price of ordinary white cloth and khaki cloth this year?"

"One silver coin for white cloth and half for khaki cloth. The price is higher than before. For these cloths, I spent ten thousand silver coins."

In the past, 10,000 silver coins were considered a huge sum of money. With the changes in the times, Rurik no longer felt that it was a waste. Because coins are ultimately consumed, and if they are really buried in the ground for a long time, that is miserable behavior.

Rurik put it aside for the time being. At present, 11,000 square meters of finished cloth have arrived in Roseburg.

Otto, who watched the big play for a while, got this amazing number just like he did mental calculations.

He approached Rurik: "My son, you bought so much cloth, which is something the tribe has never seen before. You... want to sell cloth to the tribe?"

"Forget it." Rurik sighed, raised his head again, and said: "We are Rus, different from others. Our army, every soldier must be proud to fight for Rus. I want to attack to make unity for the army. clothes, at least with uniform and very obvious markings.”

Otto immediately understood his son's intentions. "Huh? Like those black warriors from the Mellaren? A large group of people dressed exactly the same?"

"Yes! It's just their black attire, we have to be different. Just like what we wore when we were in the alliance, everyone wore white robes with blue stripes sewn on. Or something similar, this time at least our warriors Dressed like that."

The raw materials of those robes are white cloth and blue cloth. Otto stroked his beard. He was silent for a while and then laughed: "Okay! The melee is happening, at least our army will not accidentally hurt anyone."

"Is that all?" Rurik asked involuntarily.

"anything else?"

"They will feel honored. We Rus are honorable, so we are all well-dressed, while our enemies are dressed in different clothes. The enemy will be afraid, just because we are uniform. They start to fear, then we have half the victory."

"Oh, in that case." Otto turned around and looked back at the houses of the tribe: "It's time for all the women to be tailors! They must sew suitable clothes for the men of their family."