A lot has happened in the Western world in just a few months. Otto couldn't help but lament that the once peaceful and ordinary days had become turbulent.
Since all this is fate, the Russian ship must ride the waves, and there is no way out for everyone.
At least God said that he was favoring the people of Ross. Just like New Rossburg, there was no trouble in the past year, and the population and wealth were also increasing rapidly.
Otto felt that the visit of Rurik and Arik was to make everyone more vigilant. Now, it has become very important to erect the wooden wall as soon as possible before the first snowfall.
This night, Rurik, tired from the voyage, slept next to his father. He was forced to do this to relieve an old man's anxiety.
No, this old guy Otto keeps stroking Rurik’s silky hair, just like stroking an orange cat.
It was Otto’s snoring that tortured the exhausted Rurik into falling asleep.
New Roseburg was born in the mist in the morning. This place has water, dense forests and flat terrain. The water nourishes this northern land. The small alluvial plain at the mouth of the river is a good place to build a city.
There are few good places in Northeast Europe. The Neva Estuary is one of them, and it is also an estuary. Peter the Great built this place desperately for its strategic value.
The thick, humid fog in autumn fills the earth. When the fog dissipates, the pleasant autumn sunshine shines on the world.
The earth has not become warmer. No, everyone who works outdoors has put on thick clothes.
Standing outdoors, Rurik could easily tell who were Russian immigrants and who were Slavic immigrants.
Look, those women wearing blue-gray linen headscarves and thick aprons woven with colorful hemp ropes hanging around their waists are Slavs. The men of this ethnic group also mostly wear linen, and all wear trousers (their ancestors encountered nomadic forces when they desperately immigrated eastward from the Vistula and Po plains, so they learned from the prairie people), using a thick hemp rope. As a belt.
What the Russians have always praised is the Novgorod people’s high level of shoe manufacturing. This is a matter of course, or because of the encounter with the steppe people on the immigration road, there are many bootmakers in Novgorod who sew leather boots, felt boots, or boots that mix a variety of materials.
The Russians are inferior to Novgorod in all tailoring skills. In fact, the tailoring level of the entire alliance lags behind that of Europe at the same time.
Russian people's clothing is mainly leather, so in terms of temperament, they naturally appear tough and rough.
However, once they got used to wearing clothes woven with soft linen threads, eating porridge and baking soft big ribs, and adapted to this more comfortable life, the immigrant Russians began to spontaneously Slavification.
Now, no one in Russia thinks this is wrong. Making life more comfortable is everyone’s instinctive pursuit.
Two groups live together, almost all of them have signed a tax payment agreement with Otto. At least in terms of tax payment obligations, all immigrants are equal.
At the beginning, those Russian immigrants looked down upon the Novgorod immigrants, claiming that they were a group of cowards and defeated generals. However, in daily close contact, as mutual understanding deepens, a group of immigrants have completed intermarriage in New Roseburg, and the past barriers are quickly dissipating.
When the Novgorod immigrants show excellent farming skills, even for food, the arrogant Rus must still need their help. The barren and cold Rossburg has caused a large number of Ross people to forget how to grow wheat.
Rurik had to stay in New Roseburg until the day of departure, which was not far away.
"My dear, you can stay in a warm room and someone will take care of your daily life." Otto really didn't want his son to be cold outdoors.
"That's not okay. I haven't fully appreciated this city yet." Rurik retorted without thinking.
"Didn't you see it yesterday?"
"Huh? That counts? Just squint with the corners of your eyes. Before setting off, I want to walk around the settlement. I still want to go to the farmland to see.”
The determined look on Otto’s son’s face probably wouldn’t convince him. "We won't go back for another two or three days. The brothers your cousin brought are really great. I'm going to organize them to build the wall right away. Who will accompany you?"
" Then... myself. Let my mercenaries accompany you."
"Then let Conuson, let that old guy accompany you. Maybe you have many opinions about our new home. Just tell that man."
Rurik thought, "That's it."
After a while, Conuson came to see him. He has no objection to the next task. Isn't it an honor to be able to personally take the future leader to appreciate the future main city?
"Dear Rurik, if you have any opinions, please raise them and I will take my brothers to solve them." Konuson knelt down on one knee, and his obedience made Otto very happy.
In fact, Konuson wished he could kneel down with his family in order to get a promise of stable power in the future from Rurik. In short, Cornuson knew that now that Ross had become bigger, wouldn't his family be the hereditary leader of a corner of the country?
Knusson happily accepted this task, and in a moment, as a tour guide, he took Rurik and his mercenary entourage straight to the dock on the Neva River.
"Wait? Are we going to the dock now? Do we want to go on a boat trip?" Rurik was puzzled.
Connusson is most proud of the dock construction. If there is not even a stable large-scale dock, how can Sorgon's fleet dock for supplies? "Sir, do you have other plans?"
"Go to the granary first. Listen, the key to survival is never to starve."
"Okay, let's go ."
"That's right." Rurik's mind was spinning., "Where did you build the granary?"
"At the core of the settlement, I hope you are satisfied."
"Not bad."
Stay Rick Sulai lacked understanding of the ancient granary system, and it seemed that all he needed to do was build a special house to stack grain, and regularly check for moisture and eliminate rats.
A group of people walked through the wooden houses arranged in an irregular manner. What made Rurik happy was that the houses were all separated by large distances. Some open spaces were trampled into roads, and there were few places where people stayed. It was dry yellow grass, and a small number of sheep with their necks tied around their necks were gnawing boredly. Occasionally, three or two skinny chickens scurried past. There are also some trivial empty spaces in the settlement. They are obviously suppressed by some heavy objects, or simply pounded. The gray-black land appears flat and hard. What do they do?
Rurik does not feel pastoral. Even if it is surrounded by wooden walls, it is still a large village. It is in this "village" that traditional Viking longhouses built with wood, mud and thatch are rare, and Slavic woodcuts are the mainstream.
"Maybe Novgorod is like this. Yes! It must be like this. Many immigrants come from there."
Rurik thought so, and it was estimated that Even the granary should be in Novgorod style.
A group of special longhouses are where the granaries of Novorosberg are located. The settlers from Novgorod transplanted their more advanced storage technology to their new home.
The granaries are all fence-style longhouse-type buildings. The interior is supposed to be rectangular. The large number of columns under the wooden floor are much higher than the wooden ones. They are built on higher ground to prevent heavy rain and Due to the erosion of the sea tide, considering the necessity of fire prevention, the granaries are relatively far apart.
Compared with residential buildings, these granaries are arranged in a more orderly manner. They are arranged in an approximate matrix, and there are thirty warehouses in total.
Rurik looked around inside the granary area and immediately asked, "Kanusson, so many houses are filled with wheat?"
"In addition to wheat, there are also some Cabbage, they are soaked in pottery. You know, everyone can make sauerkraut. There are also some houses with dried meat."
"I want to see that."
p>Scurrying food is a life-saving means for human beings, then warehousing seeds is a more advanced means of life-saving.
No, Rurik got into the granary and saw the sacks piled up into a wall, which were naturally full of grain.
Knusson introduced that part of the grain was paid as tax and would be shipped to the ship soon. The other grains are residents' rations and particularly precious seed grains.
The current settlers in New Roseburg, totaling just over 800 men, women, old and children, it is not difficult to manage them.
It is natural to form associations in difficult places, so when the food is received, most of the food is thrown into the shared granary by the residents. The running-in period of more than a year has passed, and the Russians and Novgorod people here have actually become a community of destiny.
This alliance makes Rurik secretly happy. Perhaps this is fate. The Russians who colonized Eastern Europe were not simply conquerors, but helped the East Slavs to do groundbreaking things. Everything started from Bloodline fusion.
Rurik’s excitement was not intuitively expressed.
For the parties involved, this alliance has a practical need. The essence of the alliance is to stay together for warmth.
Because they used curved shaft plows to open up fields wildly, they all used up the grain they originally brought. They have reached the limit of their output with limited agricultural technology in the cold years.
Knusson gave an estimate. Across 100 stika fields (slightly less than one hectare), the harvest would be about 1,500 pounds of wheat.
Rurik calculated in his mind that the harvest was equivalent to ninety kilograms per mu.
It seems very weak, but I am afraid that this is due to the nourishment of the Neva River and the high value of grain production in the New Roseburg area. If we encounter an extremely warm and humid year and add some farmyard manure, it is very possible to achieve a yield of 150 per mu.
After getting off the granary and listening to Konuson's eloquent introduction, Rurik acted like a leader listening to the report.
The scene is a bit funny when an old guy talks endlessly to a beautiful little boy.
After all, Rurik is an adult mentally. He may have been childish about the war, but he will look past it after actually experiencing bloodshed. In Mellaren, he saw clearly the bottomless pursuit of interests by snobs. In any nation and in any era, snobs are always the same unkind people.
"I came from Mellaren, and I found that the fields over there are not as good as ours."
"Oh, it must be because this is the land of the Rus, Odin sees For your sake, sir, give us a favor."
"Enough!" Rurik waved his hand, he couldn't stand the disgusting words, "In my opinion, this place has just been developed, and the land is fertile. Continuing to grow food will reduce the yield. "Huh?" Konuson found it unbelievable.
"It's absolutely true."
"If this is the case, we can only open up new farmland."
"You!" Rurik grinned suddenly At the corner of his mouth, "Do you really not understand or are you stupid?"
"Huh?"
"Your people can't..." Rurik had something to say, suddenly Come to think of it, these guys don't know how to fertilize.
I really can’t criticize them for this, it’s just that they don’t have the awareness to fertilize, or that they have never made a logical contrast between filthy things like feces and the healthy growth of seedlings.
Rurik knew about the cutting-edge theory from another time and space, that is, the end of land agriculture was not far away. The land's own nutrients will be quickly absorbed by the crops, so desperately spreading chemical fertilizers is not a long-term solution. The current people are not qualified to consider those things. For all the residents living in New Roseburg, Rurik does not expect them to do anything greater. He just wants toCollect all the feces of yourself and your livestock and poultry, instead of digging pits and burying them directly or throwing them into the Neva River as in the past, you should spread them on the farmland to fertilize the fields.
“You can collect human and animal excrement throughout the winter and spread it on the fields before spring plowing. This way when the harvest season comes, you will have more food. Oh, and you will keep warm and cook wheat. Don’t throw away the charcoal ash from baking bread. Spreading it into the fields can also increase the yield.” Listening to Rurik’s words, Konuson really couldn’t figure out what ashes and feces were. Cause and effect relationship of high grain yield. Considering the technical level of the residents, collecting plant ash and dung was the only way to obtain nitrogen and potassium fertilizers for wheat, although the efficiency of fertilizers was far less than that of later generations of chemical fertilizers.
"Sir, is this possible?"
"It can be done! It must be possible! You just need to remember that the leader's order to you is to hand over two hundred pounds of wheat to each household. The rest of the grain is yours, and you have absolute autonomy. I will give you ways to increase production, and you can try or do nothing. Remember, the grain that is increased is yours. Wealth."
Even if Cornuson doesn't understand the reason, he understands the importance of increasing production.
A strong farmer with limited physical strength and a large family can manage only two hundred stikas vertically and horizontally.
Generally speaking, Rurik's attitude towards the granary is good.
He slapped his hands hard to get rid of the ashes: "Just collect the feces, don't be afraid of getting dirty. Soap is also here. If you wash your hands with it frequently, you can wash away all kinds of filth. As for this granary, You must take good care of it and never let it catch fire."
"Yes, we will take good care of it," Konuson asked flatteringly, "Sir, where do you want to visit next?" /p>
"Alas. For you, nothing is more important than farming. Let's go and take me to the fields to see."
Rurik comes quickly but the Russians can cultivate the land. What wonderful luxury does the land have?
When it comes to intensive farming, the farming nations in the East have skills. In other words, the intensive farming of Eastern peoples is forced by the natural environment. Since the fields given by heaven are naturally arid, in order to survive, they have to work hard to take care of this field. When water is scarce, an irrigation system is built. When the land is barren, manure is collected to fertilize the fields, and it has even developed to use the residue of grinding tofu as nitrogen fertilizer.
Standing in the Russian farmland, Rurik couldn’t tell for a moment that it was really farmland.
There are no irrigation ditches in the fields. Even bringing water from the Neva River is just a matter of digging a diversion canal.
The fields are set with some boundaries, which are convex areas. The low piles of soil are so low that they can distinguish the fields of each household, but I am not confident that I can't tell them apart.
He could see some sparse wheat stubble and a small amount of dead grass. Take a look at the density of these wheat stubbles, which completely confirms the current situation of less than 100 kilograms per mu.Reality.
Suddenly, a gust of north wind hit him and he wrapped himself tightly in his leather clothes. The desolate feeling really made his whole body uncomfortable.
Cornusson didn’t think there was any problem. He introduced the fields with great interest, describing the beautiful scenery of oats heading, and how the entire settlement residents cut wheat with their whole families, and even all the residents worked in the threshing floor at the same time. grand occasion.
Wait, threshing floor? !
"Your threshing floor? Where is it?" Rurik asked.
"Just within the wall, there are many open spaces." Konuson introduced.
"Huh? I just saw some solid land. Could it be that it..."
"Hey, that's our threshing floor and drying floor."
"Let's go to the threshing floor and have a look."