Rurik said solemnly: "It would be best if you kill all the enemies with bows and arrows in the battle formation, but the key to the battle is still the close combat of warriors."
"Huh? Still more? Making steel swords and steel axes?" Klavason couldn't bear it anymore and begged: "We are blacksmiths, not Thor! How can we make thousands of steel swords? It would be great if all the blacksmiths could make five hundred a year!"
"How could I not know? Your production capacity is indeed limited, but..." Rurik patted his chest: "In battle, you can use wooden sticks to crush the enemy in front of you. In order to avoid being crushed to death by the enemy, you need armor!"
"Chain armor? Oh, no, no, no..." Klavasen Still refused, "Unless it's to tailor-make a pair of chain armor for you, and you want me to make a large number of them in a short time, I don't have the ability."
Rurik also shook his head: "Why? Chain armor? Haven't you seen fish scales?"
"You..."
"Let the warrior wear a special armor, which is made of iron plates. Fish scales. Did you know that chainmail is completely useless against the enemy's spearheads? The heavy losses of our allies' armies are all due to this. This time it is our turn to start a war, and we are bound to face these situations. < /p>
Listen, every soldier is important to our tribe. I can’t bear the death of a large number of soldiers. I... really need your efforts.”
Rurik already! Having made his words very clear, Klavasen sat upright: "Are you satisfied just by hanging the iron piece on the chainmail?"
"Yes."
< p>"How many do you want?""About, one hundred sets. Note that the armor I want, the armor pieces must cover the entire torso of the warrior, only the shoulders and arms, which can be omitted."< /p>
Klavason nodded. From what Rurik said, he could conclude that the production of the so-called fish scale armor would cost him too much, if it was just to hang "fish scales" on the chest and back of the warrior. , the workload has been reduced.
But with the quantity of one hundred sets, this is a task that Klavasen alone cannot complete. He didn't want to back down, so he frowned and asked: "A hundred sets? Which elite warriors are you going to equip? Berserkers? Those should be shirtless madmen, they don't bother to wear armor at all."
" No. Those are people who go crazy after eating red mushrooms and a large glass of ale. They are not real berserkers. My berserkers must have the best armor so that they will not be hurt when facing ten times the enemy. Can kill with all his strength?"
"Like a pile of iron ingots?" Klavasen couldn't help but wonder: "Such a warrior is too big to be out of breath after walking a hundred steps. They can do it. ”
“So I will select a group of strong men to wear this kind of fish scale armor. When the battle becomes chaotic, I will send these one hundred men to break into the enemy’s formation and fight.”
p>The so-called berserkers generally use this tactic, RurikThis is understandable. In this case, in order to create more serious and lasting chaos, the berserker must of course have an indestructible body.
At this point Klavason has understood everything. He is not surprised that Rurik has such a strange idea. If he is allowed to judge for himself, although he wears the strongest armor, he has lost some. Vitality, but in battle, the side with the higher armor penetration rate basically seals the victory.
Battles in this era seem to follow an iron law, that is, the one with the largest number of people and excellent equipment and equipment will be victorious.
Personal brute force has a great use, so a warrior should be as strong as a bear and wear armor as hard as stone.
In this matter, even if Klavasen wanted to shirk it, Rurik would force him to do it. Since Duoduo was obviously supportive, he could explain the details smoothly.
The so-called fish scale armor is more like an "iron shirt" in Rurik's plan. There should be twenty iron plates arranged in a matrix on the chest, the same on the back, and four on each side of the ribs.
Really expecting Klavason to unite all the blacksmith families and order them to come up with 100 sets of upgraded armors within three weeks is also reluctant.
Why bother with the number "one hundred"? It was entirely because of Rurik's tactics.
There will be one hundred warriors as berserkers, rushing to the most dangerous front in the battle. They will try their best to show their personal bravery. Since there is no support from their comrades in the battle, they must rely on the strength of their own armor. It is precisely these strong men who can wear heavy armor and fight fiercely.
They are heavy infantry in the true sense, and Rurik deliberately trained such a trump card.
The thick smoke from the blast furnace next to the blacksmith shop has never dissipated.
Clavason closed his eyes and thought about Rurik's plan. He suddenly opened his eyes and pulled his son Kawei hard.
"Dad, you mean...we can really do it?"
"If we use that big stove, we should be able to do it. However, I want you to take the children and make your own decisions. There are many small stoves, and I..." Klavasen stood up and patted his legs vigorously: "It seems that I should take action now and call those guys for a meeting." After that, he gave Rurik another blow. Remember the wink: "My dear, this battle is related to the rise and fall of our tribe, the honor and disgrace. I'll call all those old guys here and give you the task. Even if there are difficulties, we will work together to complete it."
One In an instant, Rurik felt his nose suddenly sore, and tears almost flowed, feeling that this old guy was Ross's most loyal minister.
Clavason is indeed self-aware. His family's wealth comes from Rurik's favor. Sometimes he does feel that he is powerless, but the rise and fall of the principality will depend on this battle. He does not dare to insult his ancestors, let alone Insulting one's benefactor, and not daring to dishonor one's own glory.
Soon, the heads of the five traditional blacksmith families in the tribe gathered next to the blast furnace of the Klavasen family.
The serious situation requires one voteThe old guy's blood was boiling, and he even felt unbearably hot with his back against the blast furnace.
They immediately expressed their great interest in the production of weapons and armor. The reason is really obvious - they can make a lot of money by producing these.
Rurik will not take away the value of their labor in vain. Since both parties have urgent needs, it is perfect to make an appointment here.
Five blacksmith families worked together to transform one hundred pairs of chain armor into fish scale armor. The most critical part was the armor plates. Each set of nails requires forty-eight pieces of nail, and each piece of nail is designed to be a rectangle the size of an adult man's hand. The nail plate should be as thick as a man's little finger (relatively sparing iron) and made of malleable carbon steel.
Rurik's technical requirements are actually relatively high. There are 4,800 pieces of carbon steel armor in total. To be honest, each piece of armor can be transformed into a very good hand ax or shovel, which is actually a luxury. Armor piece!
This is indeed very luxurious, and unimaginable madness in the past era.
Just when some blacksmiths were doubtful, Rurik pointed to the towering blast furnace with a smile: "Why do you think I gathered you here? This is our largest furnace, which produces molten iron. , is the fastest way for us to make only armor pieces. When the cast iron pieces are completed, you return them to the furnace and burn off the excess carbon, and you get the armor pieces you need!"
"Wonderful! Ah!" A blacksmith immediately slapped his thigh, "I thought I had to start with burning iron ingots." "That's completely unnecessary," Rurik vowed, "We'll just start with this. method, and you are fully capable of making more. The war is coming, and your orders for steel swords are temporarily put on hold. Follow our orders to produce armor plates and reproduce spearheads. Each family must make twenty pairs. Take it out on July 20th. If you continue to produce carbon steel spearheads, I will buy them at the price of three silver coins each."
Rurik was born into a noble family, and the purchase price he proposed, the blacksmith present. Do you dare to question or object?
The price seems low indeed, but Rurik prides himself on being very merciful.
Because the Ross tribe’s method of smelting iron is already ahead of the entire European world, the blacksmith families present here swear not to betray the Ross tribe, nor the “Blacksmith Alliance” (leaving the tribe without permission is tantamount to betrayal) ), they also knew more or less the secrets of blast furnaces and smelting pig iron. Although the blast furnace iron smelting method is all about casting molten pig iron, all blacksmiths can already turn pig iron into carbon steel quite scientifically.
For blacksmith families, in theory, they don’t need to use their own small furnaces to bake sponge iron and then work hard to make wrought iron ingots.
They were already working in reverse on a small scale, burning pig iron with the strongest flames until it became forgeable. It was indeed Kawei who unexpectedly figured out the method of frying steel. He did not need Rurik to teach him personally, and the technology had already become popular among the "Blacksmith Alliance" within the tribe.
Rurik has always been their biggest buyer and also the one who controlsThat important contract, that is, he himself has the right to take the amount of the blacksmith's profit, is a fusion of "consumption tax" and "value-added tax". In addition, Rurik has begun to collect commercial taxes from the blacksmiths, and they have no right to refuse.
A piece of armor can be transformed into the value of a spearhead, and including the labor cost, each pair of fish scale armor must have a total price of at least one hundred and fifty silver coins. In this way, the price of one hundred pairs of armor is already a terrifying one hundred and fifty pounds of silver! This money is enough for Rurik to build another Aurora.
And this is just to meet Rurik's basic needs to build an "Iron Man Army".
He believed that this astonishing expenditure was worth it, but for the time being, the Russian people's big cash boxes didn't have a lot of money left.
A considerable amount of silver coins were used as payment for the goods sold by the Russians this year, and they were stranded on a large scale in Gouldburg in Lake Mälaren.
Rurik could not immediately spend money to buy the blacksmith's goods, but the blacksmiths were not in a hurry at all because they trusted the credibility of their leader. Rurik didn't want to owe a favor. With a wave of his hand, he simply handed over the payment for these goods to the blacksmiths and asked for half of the tax.
The leader of Ross has been promoted to a duke, and his method of making money has become more advanced. In the past, the method of making money relied almost exclusively on plundering and plundering, but now the Duke used taxes to get money out of the hands of his own people.
This model can be said to be the foundation for the operation of a principality. Rurik cannot expect his descendants to remain humble, pragmatic and benevolent. At least for him, under his actual rule, taxes are high. Received.
Worried about opponents, he himself would rather take coercive measures. Rurik could not bear to kill people in the tribe simply for influence, but he fully supported expelling those who did not pay taxes.
"His plan is very good. We still made a lot of money this way." Klavasen laughed. He looked at the guys present and watched their attitudes.
The blacksmiths are also businessmen at heart. They have done some mental calculations and know that they will definitely not lose money, but there is no reason to slack off.
They will indeed not lose money, or in other words, in order to ensure the production progress, Rurik will personally coordinate the most critical rough processing processes such as mining, smelting, mold burning, and charcoal making.
The blacksmiths are essentially engaged in complete finishing work in the Ross steel industry chain as never before.
Who will do the hardest work? Of course it is those cheap laborers with a large number of people.
It was the elderly people, women, and a large number of children in the tribe.
Only a handful of men over the age of fifty have a strong physique like Otto, and quite a few of them are already stooped, making it difficult to walk. They can do some simple work, such as processing clay to make clay embryos and firing them into molds for pig iron casting.
There are still more than 2,000 adults in the Ross tribe.Women, they themselves can do a lot of things that men can do. During the war, women who were extremely short of money income, Rurik of course unceremoniously wanted to buy their labor at a low price. For example, they were given jobs and the reward was only a silver coin. Even so, they must be rushing to work, because one silver coin is equivalent to ten pounds of wheat. If they eat sparingly, it is enough for a woman to survive for forty days.
Rurik deliberately planned for women to participate in mining, moving ore, logging and other tasks that seemed to be men's.
Those children who have gone through more than two years of military training, now it is time to show the future power of the Ross tribe!
A large part of the children must participate in this war. Rurik stubbornly needs their participation to form an army of three thousand, which is also their training. Because many children turn twelve at most in one year, according to tradition, they are an adult. Any adult man in Ross has the obligation to respond to the leader's war call. No one said it was inappropriate to bring him to the battlefield in advance for training.
Rurik patted his legs and said with a high head: "I will desperately mobilize the people to mine. I will mobilize every Russian, even all the servants and slaves. You don't have to worry at all, As long as you continue to process the smelted brittle pig iron, you will make a lot of money. Moreover, my promise is also for you, fifty pounds of wheat, your family, whether it is men, women, or children. Take it! You will definitely make great achievements, and I will give you more rewards appropriately."
Everyone stretched out their necks, sighing that there is such a good thing.
However, Rurik still had one last, bizarre request for the fish scale armor.
"You guys are going to make nails. I want each nail to be dipped in silver water, so that the nails will be the color of silver!"
As soon as these words came out, everyone stretched out their hands. His neck immediately retracted.
Klavason had no idea that Rurik had such "delusions". As a de facto silversmith, he was forced to doubt: "Rurik, are you really serious? Why. Do you want the enemy to think that we are so luxurious that we use silver to make armor? "Isn't this good? It will definitely scare the enemy, and it will also make the armored warriors proud." If it is well oiled and maintained, it will rust, but if it is covered with a layer of silver, it will be immortal."
Maybe Rurik only thought about immortality. Klavason slapped his head again: "Oh, that's right. How many silver coins did it cost, Rurik, is it really worth it?”
“It’s worth it! If we win the battle, we’ll get all the expenses back, and we’ll definitely win for everyone. Armor is plated with silver, I can afford it for the first time.”
If you want to make bright white carbon steel, it requires a lot of hard work by craftsmen.
Rurik knew very well what the armor he got would be, which was carbon steel with a large amount of carbon loss on the outside, and a piece of cast iron on the inside, which had been quenched.After fire treatment, the nail plate will become very hard and have a certain degree of toughness, but its color will definitely turn black overall. A horde of black warriors? That would be too lacking in shock value, and it would compete with the elite troops of the Mellaren people.
Of course, the Mellarens painted their chain mail with ink, and the linen lining was also intentionally dyed black with ink.
It’s not that Rurik has never thought about the gold plating operation, but if you think about it carefully, gold plating is the real cool operation. It is either impossible to perform, or the cost is too shocking.
Taken together, silver plating is the most cost-effective.
Just imagine, a group of warriors wearing silver scale breastplates, holding two axes high, rushing into the enemy camp with howling madly, they will definitely attract the attention of the enemy, as if they are dressed in silver, they must be more attractive to those who are greedy for money. The enemy is approaching. Attract the enemy as much as possible, and then be killed by Ross's heavily armored berserker, taking advantage of this to wear down the enemy's morale. This is what Rurik urgently needs, and is even as important as the bow and arrow!
Will this happen?
Afterwards, after making an appointment with the blacksmiths, Rurik couldn't help but think about it. The blacksmiths would never dare to neglect subjectively. They would make all the armor, spears and arrows they need for the sake of honor and money.
In this way, the Russians have the most powerful long-range weapons and the strongest armor in the Baltic Sea world. They use steel-arm crossbows to shoot fish scale armor. Who is the strongest?
I'm afraid this is not a conflicting issue, because other ethnic groups only have broken bows suitable only for hunting rabbits, and chain mail made of pure iron rings. Rurik saw clearly in actual combat that in the current war, these two types of weapons were out of date.
Only the Russians, who control blast furnace technology and the only chromite mine in Europe in the north, can produce the most extreme weapons in this time and space.
What is exciting is that the blacksmiths went back to their homes humming the tunes of their hometown. They immediately adjusted their work and started arms production just one day before the big sacrifice, ahead of the entire tribe.
They were given a full twenty-three days to deliver the goods.