Ostara tribe? War refugees? And two beautiful...girls.
"Oh, my child, you will also have more wives. Those two Ostara girls will be your wives." At night, Otto introduced in front of his son Looking at the good news that will definitely happen tomorrow, this old guy is really happy from ear to ear.
The source of Otto's happiness was certainly not the matter of choosing two more wives for his son, and he actually did not take it too seriously.
Rurik took it seriously: "Dad, are you serious? Didn't I already have..."
"That Svetlana? Do you plan to have only one in your life?" One wife."
"I..." To be fair, Rurik is indeed against three wives and four concubines. However, as a man, he felt that he would not be able to remain self-disciplined after he took control of the power in the future. If a monarch in this era did not have three wives and four concubines, his subjects would question the monarch as not being a real man, instead of praising the monarch for his so-called loyalty.
"It's better to listen to your father." Mother Niya came over and her words were really meaningful.
"Mom, even you..."
"Of course I don't object, you will become the strongest man. Listen, every strong man has a group of people around him Wife and concubine, our family is already sparse, your two brothers died early, and your father is too old, so hope falls on your shoulders." Niya continued.
Otto was very satisfied with his wife's words: "That's what I mean. Rurik, you must have prosperous descendants."
A small hand covered his delicate little face, Rurik I feel like this is my destiny.
Forget it, this is the custom of the Ross tribe.
Think of them all as wives, but the ultimate goal is to bring more people to the tribe?
In other words, is it to rely on the leader’s own efforts to expand the royal population for the future kingdom?
If you want to maintain the stability of a kingdom, you really need the support of the king. This is true. It is crazy to maintain an ancient kingdom with only one king trying his best to manage a huge territory. It is more reliable to canonize a group of sons as lords.
Rurik is more anxious and hopeful about tomorrow.
Otto was very happy, and his excitement came more from the huge supplies brought by the merchants. What he is most worried about is the preparation of winter supplies in Novorosberg. If he cannot buy enough goods from merchants, he really needs to go to Novgorod and intensify his search, which will cause local problems. Violent resistance from people is not good.
There is only one loyal dog enough, and that is the loyal White Tree Manor. The rest of the manor is a herd of cows.
This is what Otto thought. If he plundered too hard and the cows starved to death, he would lose more than he gained.
Now it seems that because the merchants have brought a large amount of food, the problem will be greatly alleviated.
Food! Must buy food! buy a lot of food! He even bought the grain transported by Gould immediately.
It was a happy thing after all. Otto fiddled with the glass bottle containing spirits in his hand. He had already drank one bottle in the morning, and tonight, he forced his son to get another bottle for fun.
"Dad, you shouldn't. We have an appointment first." Rurik was very reluctant.
"You can take it if you are told to take it."
"Why? Even if you are the leader."
"Hurry up!" Otto suddenly became Irritated, he slammed the wooden table, causing the oil lamp on the desk to splash a small puddle of seal oil.
Rurik was not afraid. He knew that his father was just trying to scare him: "I think you should not drink. Keep a good spirit. The fleet will arrive tomorrow, and you will be our leader by then. Hu Dasheng, is it possible for me, a child, to take care of them?"
Otto smiled naively and continued tapping the table with his fingers: "What's wrong with that? You are smarter than me, if not? You are still a child now, so I will give up my seat to you now. You are going to be the leader anyway. There is no problem if you go as the leader in advance tomorrow. By the way, you go to Gould's house first. , the eldest son Snoleva, the fat man who looks like Gould, will wait for you. After you meet Harold Johnson, I will go to the beach tomorrow. ”
“ How ridiculous! Are you leaving this important matter to me?" Rurik felt a little relieved.
Is it possible that this old guy still wants to be a "Taiwan Emperor" who drinks every day?
"Give me the wine, now I'm good with this one. If you give me the wine, I'll discuss important things with you again."
"It's about women again. ? Dad, you really want to think of me as a bull in April."
Otto chuckled: "It would be better if you were a bull in April! You will have a beard by then and can paddle. The heaviest oar. Oh..." As he spoke, Otto suddenly glanced at Rumia sitting in the corner: "Your high priest should not be idle. I will give you a son when the time comes, and the descendants of this son will be alive in the future. He has been a high priest for generations. Haha, the priest is also a member of our family.”
Otto was speaking freely, but when he said this, Rumia fell to the ground in shock.
The fact is that by the time Rurik started growing a beard, Rumia had already grown into an adult. Now she really wanted to find a secluded place to escape and express her secret happiness.
Rurik did not criticize his father's inconsistency: "Tell me, what is the important matter."
"It's very important! I really need your advice, it's about Only you can make the right decision about the development of our tribe."
"Is it really that important?"
Rurik was really shaken. He took out a glass bottle from the box and placed it on the table.
Looking at this crystal clear bottle with cork plugged into the mouth, Otto couldn’t help but sigh: “Times have really changed."
"If you want to drink, just drink, it doesn't matter if you are fast asleep. Lend me your sword, and I will take it with me to meet the merchants. "
Rurik's words were probing. Otto didn't feel any offense at all about his son's words and was even very happy. He immediately took off the "Destroyer" hanging around his waist and suddenly Fell on the table
“Then get me two more bottles, and you can go to the beach with your sword tomorrow. "
Rurik never expected that his father was serious. Is Otto delegating power? Or is he treating himself as a tool for the time being.
Because according to the past According to tradition, when a merchant fleet arrives in large numbers, the leader should go and greet them to show the sincerity of the Russian people.
The sword is placed here. This is the sword that the family wants to inherit!
Although Rurik felt that this Damascus steel sword, which was full of patterns, was not as useful as the hundred-smelted steel sword that he arranged for Klavasen to forge with the world's top Swedish iron ore.
Rurik looked at a sword, and saw with eager eyes that his father had already pulled out the cork very skillfully, and poured about four ounces of strong liquor into the glass bottle. He had no choice but to give his father any more I brought a few bottles...
Then Otto opened another bottle with great enthusiasm.
Otto poured it into a delicate glass. Let the aroma of wine begin to flourish.
“Ah! This is really good wine. How much do you think this should be sold for? ”
Seeing his father drinking so much, Rurik was amazed that his father already knew the ways of an alcoholic.
Forget it! He is a Russian after all.
Rurik said with a cold face: "At least a hundred silver coins. I will depend on the situation. This bottle of wine can also be sold for two hundred silver coins. "
"So how many bottles do you have now? "
"You still want to drink? "Rurik became alert. He did not answer his father's words at all, but urged: "Tell me what you want to say quickly. ”
“Okay. Because Gould, he has completely exceeded the quota for the slaves, mercenaries, and other strange things you need. My child, you made a big promise to him! ”
“Purchasing wheat at twice the market price, right? I know. Rurik nodded: "I wish he would come back now." "
"His eldest son came first. The fat man should have seen you as soon as possible. Now that it is dark, we will discuss the matter tomorrow. That person told me that Gould has shipped 230,000 pounds of wheat. Do you want to buy it? "
"Huh? ! so much! "Rurik was really shocked.
As for the weight of the Roman pound, Rurik's best reference is the weight of the British pound in later generations. After all, the Roman pound weighed less than one catty (500g). It must be much higher than half a pound. Another intuitive evaluation is that one pound of wheat is enough for a house builder to not go hungry. There is of course a slight difference between not being hungry and having a full meal.
The reality is that a strong man who builds a house and sells his physical laborHan, he probably consumes three thousand calories a day. One Roman pound of oats was optimistically estimated to provide him with sixteen hundred calories. The missing part is immediately made up with fish meat. What's more, on ordinary days, everyone generally eats fish.
In fact, the strong men of the Russian people are all big eaters of fish. A strong man would consume 1,600 calories by eating four herrings!
The price of fish in the Roseburg Fish Market can often buy thirty pounds of herring or forty pounds of cod for one silver coin, and whale meat is very expensive. For a strong man who simply sells his physical labor, three silver coins can ensure that he can eat three pounds of herring every day for a month and get two thousand calories.
But there are no proletarians here who simply sell their physical strength. Most Russians are fishermen and hunters. Their ability to hunt and fish has made the main consumers of fish meat for a long time. Resident businessman. Most of the people in the Ross tribe have always eaten a lot of fish, so it is natural that there are a group of strong men in the tribe!
So Rurik entertains his men to eat meat every day, and everyone is very willing to eat delicious herring. Perhaps the most fundamental reason is that two Roman pounds of herring contain more than a thousand calories. Two hundred calories has exceeded the physical consumption of a **-year-old boy.
Herring is a cold-water fish with a very large population in the Baltic Sea and extremely high caloric value. Two pounds of herring have as many calories as a pound of oats.
Rurik could not calculate accurately at all, nor did he make a good prediction.
The fact is that if he can really make the Russians, who are experts in eating fish, have the opportunity to eat a lot of wheat, the result will be that the Russian people's diet has reached the level of the 21st century in the ninth century. Swedish level of fatness. By then, I am afraid that Russians will face another dilemma, that is, they will begin to be qualified to care about obesity.
Rurik calculated in his head that this amount of wheat would be enough for a thousand strong men to eat for two hundred and thirty days. The population of the Ross tribe has now exceeded 4,000 due to the addition of foreign women.
As for the issue of food, the Russians certainly don’t have to consider the opinions of merchants and residents. Thousands of them have to figure out how to eat by themselves. Rurik only needs to consider the lives of his own people.
Now, the Russians’ traditional skills of demanding tribute from Novgorod are being used again. Can you bring back 100,000 pounds of wheat this time? In theory it's possible.
Rurik believed that the force used by his father had deterred the rebellion there, and the rest was a search in the autumn.
An optimistic estimate would suggest that a total of 100,000 pounds of grain would be taken away from various manors, and there might even be more.
Good thing now, Rurik finally understood that encouraging merchants to traffic in food was actually more effective than using his own tribe’s fleet to plunder.
Of course, businessmen are too late to do anything without profit, and to encourage them to do things, buyers must pay considerable sums of money.
But when it comes to solving the tribe’s food problem, Rurik has one idea in mind.Account.
That is the population of the Ross tribe. How much food do they need in a year?
Rurik made an order-of-magnitude assessment, that is, based on the standard of four thousand strong men, 1.5 million pounds would be needed throughout the year. This value is still a huge overestimation. After all, fish, especially herring, accounts for a large proportion in the Russian diet.
Of course, if wheat can be eaten, everyone will like it very much.
Just like after the leader tried strong liquor, he became a very skilled bottle blower in less than ten days.
Everyone eats wheat cakes, bread and wheat porridge every day. I am afraid that they will not be able to accept the hard days of relying on surimi or simply eating raw herring. We have lived this kind of life for generations, and of course we don’t think it is a hard life. But once you get used to eating bread every day, the past days are defined as hard days that you must try your best to return to.
In the Ross tribe, there are not many people who need to eat a pound of wheat every day, maybe only a thousand people. Rurik conservatively estimated that the entire tribe’s annual food consumption would only require one million pounds at this stage.
What kind of concept is this?
Rurik estimated that if he bought the grain trafficked by Gould, plus the grain his father led people to search for in Novgorod. I'm afraid there are other merchants who brought some of the grain and tried to sell it.
This winter, the Russians are likely to stockpile as many as 400,000 pounds of wheat!
Rosberg has never had such a large amount of food stored before!
Otto's face gradually turned red and he said seriously: "My child, the big cash box you set up should come in use now! I need your advice!"
"Use! It must be used. That big money box is for this!"
"Are you sure? Maybe you shouldn't insist on paying double the price to buy food. You should understand that that is A huge amount of money! We are also making a loss."
"Of course I know, but a good man must be honest, right? I have made a promise and will do it. Two hundred and thirty thousand pounds of grain is 46,000 silver coins. We..." Rurik gritted his teeth: "We can afford it!"
"You are very insistent? "Changed?" Otto continued to ask, "Yes! It hasn't changed." Otto couldn't help but sigh: "That's right!" The amount is close to 50,000 silver coins. It seems that your vision is not limited to this amount of money." Rurik could hear this as a compliment. He then started boasting: "I want to build a great cause. I am a man who has been favored by God. If I am blinded by some money in the world, I will fall. In the final analysis, the money in the big box is for us Russians." And our servants are not for my personal enjoyment. Besides, even if it is for enjoyment, I have better toys.. "
Otto was happy in his heart, and now he returned to the original topic. He fiddled with the wine bottle in his hand: "I thought your crystal cup was shocking. Nowadays, you can make a lot of them in a short time and sell them for a high price each. In my opinion, you can use the wine to pay for the silver coins. ”
“Oh? Dad, this is the vodka I prepared for you. "
Hearing this, Otto felt even better. But Otto was not a real alcoholic. While his mind was still clear, he suggested: "Sell it to Gould, you can propose a Comparative price. Listen, a crystal cup containing flammable wine is a miracle no matter how you think about it. explain! How many bottles of wine have you prepared? "
"To be honest, there are a hundred bottles. As long as you provide me with more ale, Dad, I can make more. "
"One hundred bottles? Each bottle sells for 200 silver coins, so 20,000 silver coins is no problem. Don’t you still have soap? ”
“Yes. My little maids, they are already very good soap makers. "
"Sell soap to Gould, too, just like you did in the spring. "
Rurik nodded: "Dad, I can handle these myself. "
Otto smiled, like a two-hundred-pound elephant seal. Excited, he pulled out the cork again, and then stared at the mouth of the bottle: "I'm so stupid, I was worried that you would be reluctant to part with it. Money, I never thought you were the biggest businessman. ah! What a fine wine. One bottle is two pounds of silver, the holy relic of Valhalla, and I ended up enjoying three bottles today. I'm so extravagant. ”
“You also know your luxury? ! Others only have three silver coins a month, how about you? You drank six hundred silver coins. "Niya listened for a long time, then she smiled and took the unopened bottle away from the table. Her pride could not be concealed in her words: "Listen, leave some goods for your son, we still need this to make money. . "
"Ah! All right. Rurik, I’ll leave tomorrow’s affairs to you! The key is here. "Otto put the key to the bronze lock of the small room in the priest's longhouse on the table, then drank a lot of strong wine, and immediately lay down on the ground. He looked at the wooden beams of his longhouse, feeling increasingly dizzy. I feel like everything is gradually becoming dreamy, and snoring slowly begins...
A new day arrives in peace. As the news that a large fleet is about to enter the port has spread throughout Roseburg, people are excited!
p>
Rurik suspended today's training, and he really couldn't train.
The merchants returned to their nests in Rossburg like a flock of migratory birds, and the Ross people must have brought men, women, and children with them. Gathering at the beach, they brought coins to make a big purchase.
As expected, Otto was hungover again. Thanks to the temporary delegation of power last night, Rurik took over Otto's task.
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It can’t be said that Otto deliberately neglected the merchants. In fact, Otto really felt that he needed to retire. When he saw the miracle of wine being able to burn in the blacksmith shop, he even brought it with him.Wine bottles can reproduce miracles anywhere, so he came up with this idea.
It is really a good thing to let my son experience it.
Of course Otto didn’t know that his precious son had the ability to stand alone from the beginning. Even though Rurik was naive at first, his temperament has been quietly changing since his face was stained with deer blood.
After all, Rurik, or Liu Li, is already a man who intentionally pursues power.
Today he brought the leader's sword, coupled with the special nature of his work today.
It can be said that the only thing left for Rurik to become the leader is to kneel in the stone ship altar and undergo a ceremony.