The talks ended within one day, and Rurik returned to Gould Island with the wooden board engraved with the contract.
It seems that now, Rurik and his guys just have to wait for the approaching harvest season.
But the problem may not be that simple.
After all, a big deal was finalized, and the entire Gould Island fell into happiness. In order to celebrate the joy, several old sheep bought from the market were slaughtered, and the sheepskins were cut off as usual. Even though these were the poorest old sheepskins, they could be kept as protection against the cold.
The thin and lean old mutton is a reward for ordinary people, like Rurik. He is at the Gould family's dinner party. As the most distinguished guest, he naturally has to feast on the most beautiful delicacies.
While drinking and drinking, the sufferings of the Melalen people naturally have nothing to do with all the Russians on the island.
Gould was slightly drunk, and Arik was also blushing.
"This time, we finally finalized the business. Haha, we don't have to worry about anything anymore, we just wait for them to transport the food."
Rurik's thinking moment Staying awake: "Gould, do you really believe them? I think..."
"Are you a little worried? Are you worried that the food will not be in place?"
"Yes! After all, it’s half a million pounds, which is twice the amount of grain we transported last year. The situation in the farmland is really bad this year.”
“Are you worried about that guy Olegin?” Haha. He laughed stupidly for a while and drank another glass of strong wine. "That man will try to raise food for his own face. You didn't even give him a deposit. If he really defaults on the bill, what will we lose?" "
"That's true."
"But!" Gould suddenly straightened his serious face emotionally: "He will exploit his own people and force them to do so. Give him the food. Rurik, do you know about this?"
Do you know? Although Rurik had never seen it, based on his understanding of the concept of "landlord", he could certainly guess what extreme measures Olegin, as a super landowner, might take.
"I can think of it. Although the farmers have suffered, we Russians don't have to go hungry anyway. One silver coin is exchanged for eleven pounds of wheat, and we don't lose."
"Hehe , we still made some money, at least saving nearly 6,000 silver coins. Liurik, you did a good job, and you managed to bargain with him."
Liuri was flattered by Gould. A sense of joy naturally arises in Ke's heart.
Rurik said with a sullen face: "I don't like that Karl, a stupid man."
"Oh, you mean him?" Gould said hey again Class: "A guy who likes women. To be honest, I envy him. It's a pity that I'm old. It's not wrong to like women, but it's stupid to humiliate allies." Here, Gould had his own intention to criticize Arick, considering When it comes to Arik's noble status, he just wants to stop there.
GouldHe held the glass high in his right hand: "Brave Arik, I salute you."
Arik blushed and filled another glass for himself, and the two men drank from it.
After drinking one glass after another, Rurik learned that Gould’s police were stationed at the market again. There were farmers selling home-brewed ale. The ale was immediately bought with the wine and barrels. , so far there are no less than a hundred barrels accumulated in the warehouse on the island.
However, these wines seem to be a lot, but they are actually distilled to obtain flammable spirits. Each barrel is filled into up to seven small blown glass bottles. Based on businessman's intuition, Gould estimated the spending power of the wealthy people in Mälaren. Melalen is indeed the largest tribe in the alliance, with a population of about 30,000, which is already a giant in everyone's minds. But for businessmen, this population only maintains a very narrow market.
I’m afraid you won’t be able to make much money by brewing and selling spirits on a large scale. But wine is wine. Why should the people of Mälaren be the first to enjoy such a rare delicacy in the world? Of course, the Russians themselves will enjoy it.
Gould can no longer live without spirits. He always saves his inventory and only drinks a few drinks every day.
I saw that Arik finally couldn't bear the alcohol, and coupled with the physical and mental things he experienced during the day, he simply lay down on the animal hide and fell unconscious while snoring.
The confused Gould put down his glass, shook his head, and asked listlessly: "Rurik, there are some things you...should prepare for."
"What? Something?"
"About the leather coat maker, and the shipbuilding master"
"Oh, it's them!" The sleepy Rurik cheered up. .
"I will...send people to tell them in the near future that the son of the great leader of the Russians is going to meet them. Haha, I have already sent people to tell them what we Russians want. What do you think they think?"
"What do you think?"
Gould smiled stupidly for a while: "They are businessmen themselves just like me. They said that as long as the price is high enough, they will , If becoming a Rusian... can bring greater benefits, they don't mind anything."
"Wow! That's great. I want to meet them, and I can recognize them on behalf of the leader. As my master. You know, I prefer all kinds of skilled people to be used by me."
"I will arrange it, at least not today. ." As soon as Gould finished speaking, the wine glass in his hand fell to the ground. He was like a fat pig that had eaten its fill, lying on the leather and sleeping soundly.
What else can Rurik say? He looked at Carlotta, who was eating dried fruit out of boredom, and the two of them smiled.
Three days later, more wheat entered the heading state.
Farmers have been busy for a year (in fact, they did not spend much time taking care of their farmland), just waiting for the autumn harvest. For them, they usually fish and cut trees,They are all just trying to survive. Only after harvesting wheat and selling the surplus grain in the market can they get cash that is very important to the family.
In fact, the situation this year is very special.
Olegin and Rurik signed this year's food agreement. He has already passed the news of collecting a huge amount of food and issued orders to the tribe through his private army system. This is a big deal! A group of businessmen who are waiting for new wheat to come on the market and gather together to plan this year's grain prices, what else can they do?
What merchants who purchase grain do is buy it at a low price during the harvest season, and then sell it at a high price after the spring famine, in order to make big profits. This year's harvest is destined to be bad, but they have a lot of silver coins! Farmers and merchants are naturally competing for pricing power. The farmers of Melalen are scattered, and the merchants have not formed a grain merchants' guild. If the price is set too low, farmers will not squeeze out their rations in exchange for money; if the price is set too high, grain merchants will lose money.
As a result, the Russian order was like a bolt from the blue, giving grain merchants a heavy blow, but it also gave ordinary farmers who did not know the specific content a glimmer of hope. Those farmers who own acres of land are willing to believe that their leader will offer a very good purchase price. Although their harvest is bad, they can still get a sum of money from selling grain. After all, they always need to reserve a sum of silver and copper coins for emergencies.
The farmers had hope, and the entire tribe had a limited number of professional craftsmen, but they saw the malice contained in it.
Potters, carpenters, blacksmiths and even shipbuilders have become pure craftsmen. At most, they use their own fishing boats to catch some fish occasionally. They spend most of the year taking orders and selling their products to make money. They represent the industrial and commercial practitioners of the Melalen tribe. In today's era, they are really more vulnerable than farmers.
What conclusions did some craftsmen draw from the information revealed by the leader?
First of all, the Ross leaders began to actively participate in Lake Malaren's own trading system as never before. They would no longer retreat behind the scenes and be represented by their own businessmen as before.
Secondly, the Ross leaders are very wealthy. After they get involved, they will definitely make Lake Malaren turbid. It is not something ordinary businessmen can do if they want to fish in muddy waters.
Third. This is a crisis and an opportunity. Since the Russians are also recruiting talents, if you are willing to accept the most critical conditions they propose, just join them.
After a real inspection, Fo Degen was fully prepared to immigrate.
On the island he controls, the slaves and servants have been ordered to stop working.
A very interesting thing, this guy Fodegen is really an active person in buying slaves. Different from those wealthy households, they can live a comfortable life relying on a large amount of land and the rent paid by tenant farmers. The purpose of purchasing slaves is mainly to serve as slaves for cultivating the land and as maids to serve in daily life.
Fordgen was not like this. He was fond of the Britton slaves brought over by the Norwegians, and he paid special attention to the female slaves. This is not about focusing on the beauty of women. In fact, he deliberately chooses some women with worse looks first, so that the purchase price can be kept as low as possible.
What he needed was the slave's tailoring ability. After some contact, he figured out the identities of the female slaves he had raised for many years, and even the number of new female slaves who were slowly increasing every year. .
When the female slaves began to understand Norse, they began to mention some small place names and even larger place names.
Northumbria? Bamburgh? Kent? West Saxony?
A rare female slave with orange-red hair is describing a Pictish title.
Fordgen doesn’t matter, these are probably the names of tribes on that distant island. He did notice that these women were carving some wooden blocks into intertwined shapes and making them into necklaces to hang on their chests. Every morning, these women would gather together and read some strange words in the language of their hometown.
This is their belief, which is the belief spread by the legendary men in black from Rome.
If they say something to make them settle down and work, Fo Degen will naturally say nothing.
Anyway, these abducted women were peasant women in their hometown. In addition to cutting wood and fetching water, they also assisted men in farming. Their greatest abilities were spinning and sewing. They sewed. The experience is extremely rich.
To this day, Vodgen's weaving workshop is not only continuing to improve the work of purchasing leather and sewing leather clothes, but also training female slaves to complete the tasks of pounding flax rods to punch out fibers, weaving linen cloth, and tailoring linen clothes. Dragon work.
What he paid the most to the slaves was to ensure that they had enough food. The slaves ate more than they did in their hometown. This is not because of Ford's compassion. He is really a calculating person. A businessman knows how to get more high-quality output if his slaves are hungry?
After experiencing the horrific encounter in the south last summer and the field trip to Fort Ross in the winter, it was necessary to move. As Gould’s old friend sent another messenger, delivering the message to the son of Chief Ross. He was fully prepared for the formal summons.
The wheat harvest will only happen in the next three or four days. Although there is no possibility of a large amount of wheat heading, the wheat that is heading is turning yellow quickly. A small number of oats have genetic mutations that make them more cold-tolerant. The farmers in Mälaren have no concept of this at all. They can only passively collect the earing wheat and save part of it for planting grain. This is a passive "scientific selection", so that year after year, the Nordic oat varieties can only become more and more cold-resistant.
Why doesn’t Fordgen want to live a good life eating bread every day? He has saved enough capital, and he has not only 20,000 but also 18,000 silver coins on hand. This is all the wealth he has accumulated throughout his life. He can rely on thisThe money will last for the rest of his life, and now that he is old, he naturally has to consider what will happen after his death, as well as the prosperity of his children and grandchildren.
He had to think more. If the Ross people were as the messenger said, as long as they paid a tax every year, they could get the security promise of the Ross leader and even the military guarantee of the Ross warriors. Why would he have to wait for years? Why spend a lot of money to raise a group of private guards every year? After all, the cost of hiring mercenaries is a lot of money in a year, even higher than the so-called taxes.
In the final analysis, his change into a hard-core immigrant is mainly due to the pursuit of market and profit considerations.
However, a group of aspiring shipbuilders not only pursue profits, but also appreciate Rurik's ambitious goals. After all, as craftsmen, they yearn to create miracles in the shipbuilding industry throughout their lives.
They are eager to build big ships, and they are eager for their descendants to build big ships from generation to generation! They are admirers of Thor and crave a challenge.
In this way, the two groups of people landed on Gould Island on the eve of the wheat harvest on the agreed date provided by the messenger.
The visitors include the richly dressed Fo Degen, and as many as ten strong men of various ages dressed in simple and capable clothes. They do have one thing in common, that is, their beards are tied into various braids.
Yes, even for a man like Fordegen, he braided his short beard so that it would not get in the way when eating bread and soup. None of them have thought about cutting off their beards. Of course they have the tools to cut off their beards, just because they follow a very simple logic of doing things - it is difficult to do things with a hairless mouth.
What awaits these people is a feast under Rurik's instruction.
At this point, everything is under Rurik's calculation. Gould's suggestion is good. Those businessmen from all walks of life who are invited to pay homage are ultimately seeking wealth and stability.
In order for the Russians to stabilize these talents, they must put on a grand display in public so that their most fundamental demands can be satisfied immediately.
Gould Island was deliberately arranged to be busy. The hired sailors, slaves, and even the gathered children were all assigned work. In fact, it is just moving all kinds of goods packaged in wooden boxes around, and there is even nothing in the box. They deliberately move around the pier just to show visitors what a "busy pier" is.
For the mercenaries and Rus warriors, Ryuri ordered them to wear chainmail, with shields hanging on their backs, swords and axes on their waists, and a throwable short spear in their hands. In order to show the luxury, Gould also hung some white fluffy fox furs on their bodies, and temporarily decorated the gray goose flight feathers with rosin on the top of their helmets.
They were ruthless characters who fought wildly against the Gotland fishermen on the sea a few months ago. Everyone's eyes could show murderous intent. They had basically received formation training (Otto had ordered it). This time, they completely acted like a guard of honor for the Russians.
They formed a passage and went straight to the gate of the wooden fortress at the core of Gould Island..
The Rurik brothers, and even Carlotta, who were dressed in bright and gorgeous clothes, and the Goulds were waiting at the pier and saw several rowing boats coming.
"They are coming! Pay attention! Stay alert!" Rurik shouted, and the well-trained soldiers straightened their bodies.
After a while, three ships docked, and those in gorgeous clothes and those in simple clothes boarded the platform one after another. They were the invited ones.
However, when they saw the array of Hekhwulfs, they couldn't help but feel timid. Unbelievable? You have never seen such a warrior before! Is this the style of the Ross Warriors?
Vordegen quickly saw Rurik and Carlotta. Even though they were wearing gorgeous clothes and hats, they had grown a lot taller in the past six months, because they were once quite close. Upon contact, he recognized the two of them at a glance.
He doesn't feel comfortable having an acquaintance here. Those ten shipbuilders saw the Ross warriors for the first time. As for the two short, gorgeous children, should they be the sons of the legendary Ross leader? One of them must be Rurik!
The shipbuilder followed Vodgen cautiously, and saw him approaching a boy, taking off his hat and saluting: "My friend, I'm here."
"You Finally here. Have you thought about it?" Rurik asked with a smile.
"Of course! I will take all my family and slaves with you. I hope to be recognized by you as soon as I arrive in Rossburg, and I will also be a new Rossite."< /p>
Rurik nodded with satisfaction, and he was actually ecstatic in his heart, because this guy Vodgen is certainly a snobbery, but the people under him are all master tailors. "You will. On behalf of the leader, I can recognize your identity now."
"Oh! That's great."
Rurik was thinking about this The guy would kneel down half-kneeling to salute. Unexpectedly, he turned around and introduced his new friends with cautious faces with a smile.
Fordgen also changed his title instantly: "My leader, please allow me to introduce, these ten are the shipbuilders of Melalen. I can say that they are the best shipbuilders."
Actually, Voldegen was bragging, and Rurik didn't feel it at all. His eyes widened, and the joy in his heart could no longer be suppressed.
He rarely became emotional and suddenly stamped his feet: "Okay! Shipbuilder! Shipbuilder who can build big ships! I need you so much! Hurry! Come with me."