Rise of Rurik

This is actually a big city in the extreme north!

Eskil, he thought the Birka fair in Melalen, was already the largest city in the north.

Reims, Hamburg and Bremen, these important Frankish cities are densely populated with wooden walls.

A city with tens of thousands of people, or even 5,000 people, is densely populated in his heart.

Although the Birka of Melalen, the local people have a barbaric belief, and even kill people for sacrifice. He could not deny that in terms of population alone, it was already a big city.

What can you see and hear when you go to the far north home of the Rus people? Can Rurik, who is interested in sacred faith, be converted into a saint? Even if that's not realistic, are there potential lambs for the locals?

But Roseburg stands on the waterfront beneath the hills.

Tall wooden walls, as well as the duke's palace as high as a hill, and even the altar and granary surrounded by walls. The dense and densely arranged docks and trestle bridges, a surprising number of ships are arranged in random order.

Especially the returning ship full of various materials, he saw that the Rus people were using a combination of levers and nets to quickly unload the materials on board, and they were either shouldering or pushing the two-wheeled cart to move the materials to the warehouse.

This is Roseburg! Agate of the North!

When he landed, he was surprised to see a continuous thick smoke billowing from one side.

what is that? Afraid of a fire? But not like ah.

When he first came to Ross, Eskil received courtesy from Rurik, and the old guy was very smart and kept a low profile. The important thing to spread the sacred belief is to act in a timely manner. If the Duke is disgusted, I am afraid that my life will be lost.

Here he and his two entourages enjoyed a small, warm room, where he was able to wipe himself clean with the scented soap, then soak in a bucket for a hot bath, and even plunge into hell. like a sauna.

At first he said he resisted, thinking that it was the devil's lair! However, once you accept the feeling of being surrounded by thousands of steam, it is really refreshing.

He wanted to have a good chat with the Duke early, and took the opportunity to reveal his intention to be at the Rosegate Monastery, but the Duke did not summon him, and he was allowed to observe the entire Rose on the waiting day.

Maybe that's a good thing too.

a clear morning,

A slave girl came to Esquil's current residence with a wooden box.

Compared with the previous days, he didn't get food until it was close to noon. Today's situation really surprised him.

What surprised him even more was that it was a woman.

He wanted to avoid it, so he ordered the accompanying little priest to pick up the meal.

After a while, the little priest hurried back to the dormitory.

"Padar, the woman who delivered the meal, she..."

"What's the matter?" Esquil pretended to be angry and put on a serious face. "Get the wheat out. You know, I like this a lot now."

"It's... that woman. That's a godly lamb."

"Alas?"

This time Esquil jumped up, "Quick! Quickly let her in!"

The woman who delivered the meal knelt down as soon as she entered the room, her heart was beating wildly, and her whole body was shaking. Hot tears flowed from her eyes, and with trembling hands, she placed the wooden box full of wheat and rice on the ground.

"Padar, even here, we have not forgotten our faith. You are here, it must be that God heard our prayers."

Esquil saw the cross on the woman's chest at a glance. Again, the accent sounds like Saxon? It seems not.

wrong! This woman also has this orange hair.

"Get up! My child, you can understand my language."

The woman hurriedly stood up: "Padar, I want to repent to you."

"Is it right here? It's inappropriate. Confession is to be in the convent."

"Ah! The monastery. Yes! We have the monastery."

The monastery, pronounced "Christini" in the whole European context, originally meant the temple.

This sentence was like a thunderbolt smashing his skull.

"The monastery? Ross already has a monastery! Quick! Quickly take me there!"

"But Padar, your meal."

"Go to the monastery!" Eskil revealed again, with tears streaming down his face full of ravines, "I didn't know that Chief Ross had already approved a monastery. Which friend came here to spread the word? sacred……"

With his entourage, led by this woman, he went straight to the prayer room of Breton's servant in Rurik.

And all of this was at Rurik's behest.

Rurik even arranged for the servants to deliver meals, and he himself stood on the third floor of the palace, watching what Eskil was doing not far away. Everything is in Rurik's control.

Esquil hurried to the servants' prayer room, where ten people had gathered.

They are all women, their hair color is either gold or red, showing the astonishment of the ethnic group, but they are all lambs.

Eskil came, and the arrival of a black-robed high priest shocked them to ecstasy.

They all knelt down, begging the high priest to give a mass immediately, and then listen to everyone's repentance.

"Get up, children, you have not forgotten your sacred beliefs in this extreme northern land. You are all the most pious."

After all, he ordered the little priest to bring out the manuscript Gospels that he must carry.

This wooden house is small and rudimentary, but the sacred belief also requires that the devout should not indulge in the glitz of the world, and the devout should live a simple life.

It would be nice to have a monastery decorated with gold and silver, but even a poor house would be fine.

The meaning of the existence of this wooden house goes far beyond itself! Although it is very small and very leaky, and even the cross is a simple piece of wood, it is a monastery.

Eskil immediately went to work, throwing a surprise Mass, while listening carefully to the confessions of the imprisoned believers.

When he finished the work, the wheat rice had already become cold.

The mind seems to have been purified, these bought slaves, they began to work at noon...

The cabin became cool, and Esquil ate his cold meal, standing outside and sighing in the sky.

"What more can I ask of the Duke of Ross? There is clearly a monastery here! Rurik, no wonder you are interested in our sacred belief..."

"Padar, but this is just a simple wooden house," said one of the attendants.

"It's a hut, that's enough. The convent needs a priest. You, John, stay here."

"Me?" The young servant was taken aback, "This is a barren land."

"Yes, no. Child..." Esquil fondly stroked the back of the boy's neck, and the boy trembled subconsciously.

"Padar, do you want to be in such a place..."

"God doesn't dwell on this kind of thing, it's our secret and it's time to end. I love you so you're here to stay. The future priest of Ross Parish."

Young John has mixed tastes, because he is a lowly slave waiting to be sold in the market of Hazelby, and he is attracted by the preacher Esquier because of his good looks.

Eskill had many servants, and he purposely trained the slaves he bought to become preachers. These little Saxons or Danes should be the most determined ones.

But John, who was given the Christian name, was most moved by the fact that he could eat enough food. As time went on, his inner ambition was also sprouting.

He was even willing to be a "rabbit", so that he could become a bishop himself, being continuously loved by the future archbishop of a certain place, Eskil. A slave becomes a master! He was willing to lift his robes to do what Esquill thought.

But to open up wasteland in this savage land?

John didn't say no, maybe that's fate.

Esquille strategized for future moves because of the morning's adventure.

"Perhaps Rosburg can become a holy place in the north compared to Birka. Rus people are good at architecture. If I finally influence Rurik, Duke of Rus, he will build a magnificent monastery for me?"

However, the summoning order from Duke Ross has not yet come, and he does not dare to forcefully ask for an appointment, not to mention that the monastery exists in reality, and he has no particularly urgent needs.

Leaning on a stick, Esquill began to wander all over Roseburg.

He walked to Rose's altar and saw the golden god standing inside from a distance, subconsciously thinking it was gold.

In fact, it is indeed gold, and all the statues are plated with a very thin layer of gold.

He saw the mass gathering of the people of Ross at the opening of the altar. They lined up as much as possible under the management of the soldiers, and saw them holding silver coins and copper coins, stuffing them into a wooden box under the watchful eyes of the maiden priest, and hurriedly entered the altar after hearing the clanging sound.

Ruth's followers kneel before their gods, or pray with fists and eyes closed, and even raise their hands in strange gestures.

"This is useless witchcraft, what's the point of worshiping false gods..." Esquil murmured secretly, and slapped John on the back again, "Child, you have to make them give up this barbaric behavior, they are all lambs, can be influenced.”

John nodded, "I will."

Will it be? John had no idea in his heart, and was even very afraid.

Another day, Esquill and his entourage woke up in the noise. They went to find out, and were surprised to see the Russ gathering again.

I haven't seen Rurik and his face even more handsome than a noble lady for many days. See Rurik again, the boy is standing with his father, the real Duke of Ross, and at their feet there are fields of wheat!

"Are you actually selling wheat?"

I saw that the Rus people lined up again in the maintenance order of the soldiers. They took wooden boxes or sacks of sackcloth, and went to the great scales with money, and traded wheat from the duke.

And this kind of behavior of trading wheat? Unheard of!

It seemed that all the men from Roseburg were running, mixed with women.

Of course, there are noisy people and queue jumpers, but these people are all soldiers who maintain order and are pulled aside and then dragged to the end of the queue.

The raucous work of trading grain went on all day.

It wasn't until evening that Esquil understood what Duke Ross meant - to be as fair as possible.

"Rurik, are you already using the Bible as a standard to learn what kindness and justice are? If your duchy fully accepts our faith, I'm afraid the Pope will canonize you as a saint in the north."

The Rus people have a market that is comparable to that of Birka, which is located in the easternmost part of the city near the sea.

A large number of merchants and fishermen sell their own things, mostly fish, seal meat, and even a very small amount of live chickens.

He wandered the market with great interest, comparing it with what he saw in Birka.

Food, firewood and charcoal blocks, iron, wood, pottery, cloth, hides, wooden crafts, and even finished clothes are also sold here.

There are also crystal vessels here! There are also strange crystals placed on the eyes!

There are people selling gems here, as well as colored crystals.

What shocked him most was that these were extremely expensive things that many Russ seemed to be able to afford.

But the biggest difference here, and what moved him the most, was that there were no slaves for sale in the Duke's market.

The market is lively and bustling, obviously more prosperous than Birka!

It was a new day, and driven by intense curiosity, Esquil decided to visit the "Land of the Smoke Forever".

It was what he saw at the market yesterday. He heard that the iron axe here was as cheap as five silver coins.

Of course, at this price in Frank, such as Reims, the place of origin, it would be difficult for an ordinary farmer to buy an axe with five silver coins, but a local blacksmith would also have to sell an axe for ten silver coins!

Five silver coins and an axe are more expensive than those in the Birka market, but the goods are not the same.

The iron axe of the Russ is more expensive and uses more materials! As far as logging is concerned, a larger blade is obviously better.

Esquil bought one with Coil, and he had Servant John make a new wooden cross with the Assault, and the axe's excellence was astounding just in use.

Now, Esquil has reached the "smoke place" in the northeastern part of the city.

Compared to other areas, it is really warm here.

He saw the red-backed strong man sweating all over. They carried the ore, stood on the high platform, and threw it into the fiery stove. Another person carried the black charcoal into a frame, walked onto the high platform and threw it in.

Esquil was a doer, an old preacher himself. If the lords were not easily influenced, he went deep into the people and preached among the farmers, shepherds, and blacksmiths.

He knew how those blacksmiths smelted iron, but in the Rus, the strange smelting method puzzled him.

"Padar, there's the heat of purgatory here. It's terrifying. Those who carry the materials will accidentally fall down..."

"John, stop talking."

"I want to be here..."

"It's your destiny." Esquil was so nervous that he squeezed John's neck vigorously.

Suddenly, a few men roared loudly, and then a blade held an iron rod to open the hole of the giant furnace, and strange red things flowed slowly. The prepared brawny man was splashed with sea water, and the fiery red things turned black and disintegrated in the steam, and were shoveled away with a shovel.

After a while, the strong man was roaring again.

At this moment, Esquil was surprised to see that the "water", which was as hot as running water and absolutely deadly, began to be accurately injected into the pottery box.

"What is that?" John asked.

"I don't know, but we'll find out soon enough."

Eskil is a good observer, he just sees and doesn't speak, and then understands everything.

Although it was incredible, the blacksmiths in Ross used a giant furnace to turn unburnable iron ore into molten iron.

They are casting axes, shovels in this way.

Esquill didn't look any further, even though there were obviously other stoves. He feared that he would be expelled or arrested for spying on things he shouldn't have seen.

He left in a hurry, sitting in his room sometimes praising and sighing.

He said to himself, "I have traveled to the territories of many lords, but I didn't know that the Russ were so powerful. I didn't even know they were real before."

"Padar, can they really be influenced?" John's eyes were full of fear, apparently frightened by the fire column spewing from Gaul.

"You'll make it. Ah...just don't know when Duke Ross will summon me."

Looking at the industrial area of ​​the "carbon-iron complex" of the Rus, Esquil felt for the first time a power called industry.

The next day, he rushed to the largest ship construction base of the Rus, and saw the large ship hull that had been built in the indoor dock from a distance.

Just building a ship would change his perception of how to build a ship.

The Rus people can produce iron tools and make giant ships, their cities are orderly, they produce strange things, their leaders are very rich, they are orderly, and their leaders are kind and fair to the people.

"Ah! If there is a cross on the top of the ducal palace, if the blue cross on the opposite corner of the Rus' flag becomes a blue cross, if the Rus removes the altar and builds a cross on the foundation, then it will be perfect, the Darth of the North. Es Salaam..."

Finally, on the tenth day of his arrival in Roseburg, Esquil finally received a summoning order from Rurik.

The reason why he hanged him for ten days was Rurik's arrangement. Eskil has been under surveillance these days, and Rurik knows where he went, what he saw, and what he did.

Now, this old missionary who has traveled almost all over Denmark should be able to understand the great strength and great potential of the Rus people.

He will surely spread his knowledge to others in Frank.

With understanding, there is the prospect of trade, the Russ can be sent to collect intelligence, and possible future military operations can be planned.

And this is the ultimate goal of Rurik. Show your muscles so far.