In Lake Malaren, bad things are brewing.
The army from the expedition is back, but they are so depraved that they don’t look like a big army!
The coalition of various tribes in the Kingdom of Sweden gained a lot from the early battles. Although most of the looted treasures and a small number of prisoners belonged to the wealthy, those who joined the army had some considerable spoils.
Maybe the enemy is not as powerful as the legend says, and maybe looting can make you rich faster than farming.
Many tribes returned to repair their warriors and put their little war dividends at home, which showed that the Qian family members also forgot about the casualties of the war. Because almost all farmers are short of money, they don't know that the reason for their poverty is largely due to the exploitation of the rich. Now everyone has to fight for the glory of the rich.
The society around Lake Malaren is developing rapidly. They have been excluded by Denmark and Norway for a long time. In other words, they are not Vikings in the narrow sense.
Their development is gradually involution, and the internal gap between rich and poor continues to widen.
Husbands are more willing to believe in the gods Frey and Freya, who bring wealth and fertility, especially farmers and fishermen. They increasingly worship the sun god Sora and the earth god Umber.
The simple prayers of the earth and the sun led to the establishment of the Uppsala Temple. Of course, people also believed in Odin, but Odin did not give everyone victory this time.
A huge army has been rushing to the legendary Silver Castle in the south. King Olegin vowed to rob the Danes of Silver Mountain. Under the lofty words, the entire Lake Malaren is boiling. Every man is eager to participate in the war and make money. After all, only the strongest warriors have the right to fight.
A group of the strongest laborers rushed to the battlefield. It was the end of August. Although the entire farmland around the lake was enjoying a bumper harvest this year, and there was almost no rainfall during the harvest season, a large number of able-bodied men were temporarily lost. It hurts the people left behind.
The women and children of the family shoulder the heaviest work of harvesting, threshing, shelling, and drying.
To make matters worse, most of them have to repay past debts.
Maybe the situation is not so bad. Wouldn’t it be better to repay the money that the husband got? The wheat that survives is yours.
The farmland along the lake in most areas always enjoys moisture. Farmers do not need irrigation at all, and they do not expect to fertilize the fields with feces and lake mud. They relied entirely on rugged agricultural methods and ushered in a rare harvest of 150 kilograms per mu!
Just as they were working hard to process wheat and taste the harvest, the army came back.
The army did not have the same vigor as when it went on an expedition, the number of ships became smaller, and the men on board showed signs of fatigue.
Hundreds of farmers and fishermen from Mälaren have returned. They were full of confidence when they set out, but now they come back almost empty-handed. They were first blamed by their families, and as they recounted their harrowing experiences in the South, emotions of fear and loss spread.
King Olliegold! The old leader of Mellaren! He actually died in battle!
And Carl! That Karl directly became king?
In the Melalen tribe, Karl’s reputation is not good. He was an arrogant man, like a bull in April. His eyes were fixed on all the beautiful women in the tribe, hoping to take them for himself. His notoriety is probably this, but it has not endangered the people's core interests.
What the dead King Olegin did last year to get food was barbaric. Fortunately, this man led everyone to bravely conquer the Danes. He sacrificed himself for the war, and the people could not say anything else.
Everyone is just a regular person, hoping that the new king Carl will be more kind than his father.
However, the attitude of all the large landowners in Melalen is even more ambiguous.
On a dark and windy night, in a secret long room, there was a meeting behind Karl's back.
There are as many as twenty wealthy landowning families in the entire Melalen tribe gathered here. Either the patriarch of each family came in person, or the sons of their families came on orders. What everyone wants to discuss is just one thing, that is, whether to recognize Karl as the new leader.
The young family members are gearing up. Who doesn’t like power? But if you gain power without being recognized by the internal elite, power will be meaningless.
A "highly respected" old man presided over this meeting.
He was an old man with buried eyebrows named Sven. Facing the richly dressed men sitting on the ground, he leaned on an oak cane inlaid with countless ambers and rubies and spoke hoarsely. Make a comment.
"Now... Origen is finally dead. This damn villain is dead, along with his army. Next, is our time."
Si Halfway through Wen's words, someone muttered: "So, we shouldn't recognize Karl as the new leader."
"Yes, why. Can he be the king if he takes the crown?"
"When Olegin was alive, he had five hundred black-clad warriors supporting his power, and now he is dead! What does his family mean? Why should we kowtow to his sons anymore."
Suddenly someone shouted again: "Everyone, we are all old friends who live together. No one is superior. In my opinion, we should restore the ancient tradition! Just like the Norwegians, elect a leader that everyone agrees with. This person He's not arrogant or arrogant, he's just a representative of the brothers. If something big happens, the brothers should discuss it."
"It's a good idea."
"Yes. We don't need a king to rule us. Besides, Odin obviously didn't bless Olegin and Karl."
The rich and wealthy landowners are all talking. They hope to restore the ancient NORDIC. It is a parliament of tribal elites, and the so-called leader does not have much real power.
The old Swain also agreed with this.
But this old man is more profound and does not think that the "young people" sitting here are radical.Good for Mellaren.
He urgently said hoarsely: "The news has spread. Who would have thought that the Rus people who left the lake and went to the north were so strong that they conquered the entire Gotland Island by themselves?"
"What? It's just them?" Someone suddenly raised his head, "Didn't it come down to us by our coalition forces?"
"Woland, do you really believe Karl's lies? Don't you? The losses of our coalition forces were caused by the fierce fighting with the Gotlanders?"
"Oh, that's true."
They had another discussion, and everyone's attitude became more general. Unification, that is, it was indeed the Rus' who permanently defeated the Gotlanders, but it is also an indisputable fact that some Melalen farmers colonized the ruins of Gotland. At least what happened next was what Karl tried his best to advertise, so-called trying to save the face of defeat.
The big family began to discuss the development of Gotland again. Compared with the limited flat land on the shores of Lake Mälaren, which is becoming increasingly crowded, Gotland is located in the south and is warmer. The old Gotland The Lan people can make a fortune from this island, and the new immigrants from Mälaren will naturally inherit this wealth when they arrive.
People make no secret of their coveting for wealth, and what they are discussing is completely beside the point.
"Let's put these things on hold!" Sven banged his wooden stick; "The most important thing is whether we support Karl."
Everyone looked at each other, and everyone's attitude was very clear. .
However, Swain muttered against everyone's attitude: "But if King Karl is abolished, we will face a chaos."
"Chaos? Why?" someone questioned .
"Because of Karl, he controlled the most wealth in the early war. He currently lacks the protection of private soldiers, and his brothers have deposed him from the throne. Will Karl use the money to recruit an army and then establish himself as king? ?"
"Just attack him! This hateful man once had an idea for my sister. I don't like him at all." The speaker's name was Bjorn, a young landowner. , sometimes considers himself a warrior, although he is not yet thirty years old.
"Don't be impulsive, young man." Sven coughed twice: "No one likes Karl, but someone must be a leader. If Karl dies, who will be the leader, is it you?"< /p>
Bjorn became excited when he heard this: "It's not a bad idea. If I were the leader, I would listen to everyone's opinions on everything. I am not a willful person. My family and I are everyone's friends." ."
The elderly Woland also took the opportunity to mutter: "As Bjorn said, the brothers need a leader who represents everyone's opinions."
"But not now. "I don't want to cause trouble." Swain shook his head and explained his opinion: "I still admit Karl is the king for the time being, of course."
Sven tried his best to disagree. For an old guy, everyone is willing to listen to his words more, that is, for everyone to truly agree with Karl, which is simply impossible.
Unless Karl is willingShare the gold and silver he got.
Sven was unable to explain anything, "You just need to pretend to agree immediately. We unite and ask Karl to spend a huge sum of money to buy our temporary approval. He will continue to be his king, and we will ? Each of our families can use this money to hire a private army. As long as there is enough private army, no matter how tough Karl is, he is just our puppet."
This is also a safe plan. , after everyone discussed it, two plans were established.
First: Carl is willing to buy everyone’s approval with money, and everyone is happy.
Second: If Karl refuses, destroy him. Everyone restores the old system and elects a peaceful person as leader. By then, there will be no king in Sweden, only the leader of the alliance.
How many silver coins did Karl control? Without the silver mountain, and the terrible consumption during the war, it is believed that the money in his hands is less than 2,000 pounds.
This looks like a huge sum of money.
As a king, he cannot convince the public with only such a small amount of money, so the families do not expect much money to be extorted from Karl.
We all want to make a lot of money, how can we make money quickly? Selling food!
Who will buy food? Of course the Russians.
In the past few years, the Russian people have become more and more aggressive in buying food. Before the war, they simply thought that this was a huge profit, but now they fully understand it. The reason why the Russians are desperately selling food is that they really have a large population to feed.
Businessmen all say that the Russian fjords are a bitterly cold place, where only a very small amount of onions can be produced, and wheat sowing is destined to fail. The Russians sell strange products as well as high-quality leather and ironware. They have indeed made a lot of money in recent years, but the money is used to buy food...
Since the Russians have money, every family is willing to sell.
Even if Swain is an old guy, he, like everyone else, has no need to care about the skinny appearance of ordinary Mellaren people. All he cares about is his own family, the families of his friends, and even the lives of the serfs and servants in the family. Ordinary yeoman farmers are nothing more than a group of dodders who have benefited from being parasitic on the Melalen tribe. They can leave at any time, for example, suddenly "rebellion" to become the Melalen people, or even run to the Uppsala Temple. settle down.
These yeoman farmers and ordinary fishermen occupy the land of the Melalen people, and they must pay a debt to purchase the security of the Melalen tribe.
Twenty families did not make any noise on the issue of food, and they even determined a unified purchase price.
Then, a key task was given to Bjorn, who claimed to be interested in doing something good. This young man represented each family and had a good talk with the Ross caravan, which was late but arrived. .
The secret meeting ended here, and soon, this group of people gathered at the door of Karl’s house.
Olegin died, and what happened after his death made Karl anxious.
My father left behind manyAs the eldest son and the owner of the crown, Karl did not hesitate to annul the inheritance rights of all his brothers.
Did all his brothers just give up?
Karl, who was afraid of losing power, took the only remaining private soldiers to carry out a horrific purge against his family.
As a king, sometimes you have to be a villain!
Although Karl had some lingering fears, he still became the Leng Nian killer and eliminated all competitors in the family. He felt that maybe this would strengthen his position.
The bloody incident was covered up, and he used a sum of money to recruit idle members of the tribe, and even gave a group of slaves who worked in the family the power to serve as private soldiers. He organized a private army of about 200 people. Of course, except for a dozen veterans who had survived the war, the rest of these private soldiers were just armed farmers.
Karl buried the murdered body secretly, and then secretly took all the women he had been romantically involved with and his illegitimate children home.
It seems that an era belonging to Karl has arrived!
Why are there a bunch of gorgeously dressed people at the door?
Karl put them into his home with anxiety, and the wealthiest families in the entire Melalen tribe gathered together.
Sven is still the same Sven. The old man approached the "King's Palace" with the support of many female servants.
The old man did not say any polite words, and did not even congratulate Karl on becoming king.
Sven's words were very simple: "Olegin is dead, and you have declared yourself king. If you want to be recognized by everyone, you must give out one hundred thousand silver coins."
As soon as these words came out, Karl was so shocked that he almost had brain congestion.
He suppressed his blush and asked why.
"Why? With strength! Karl, you don't have the reputation of your father, and everyone questions your throne. Some people say that you murdered your father, and others say that you murdered your father when you came back. All brothers, just because they are your competitors."
Sven said without changing his face, and Karl's face turned pale in shock. He suspected that there was a mole in the family. How could they know about something that was obviously a secret?
Karl asked with a cold face: "What do you...what do you want?"
"Twenty families, each family has five thousand silver coins. I know you have so many Money. Give money, otherwise you won’t get our support.”
Karl understands, these guys are here to blackmail. His face started to turn red again, and he cursed in his mind that these guys had kept quiet when his father was there, and now they have become greedy people.
It’s a pity that after looking at this formation, I refused, fearing that I would lose all my power today.
He bluntly said that he did not have this much money, and he gathered together to argue that this money was obtained at the expense of thousands of people, so why should a family that did not send troops ask for too much.
I have to say that what Karl said makes some sense, so the two groups negotiated and the money to buy support still had to be given, and the amount was reduced to threeThousands of silver coins.
On that day, the landowners left with 60,000 silver coins. To be honest, the money was not much. At least everyone was sure of one thing - in order to gain support, the arrogant Karl surrendered. soft.
And this is just the beginning.
The people are aware of the overt and covert struggles among the leaders of the Melalen tribe, and perhaps this will not affect them.
They are wrong.
Karl has all the family members, and they began to collect grain on a large scale. They used any reasonable or unreasonable means, such as forcibly buying farmers' grain at low prices. They lowered the price to one silver coin to buy twenty pounds of wheat. Although this year is a good year, the price of food on the market should not be low.
But Karl went even further. He realized that those big landowners were actually competing with him for food?
This is a huge blow that Karl cannot accept. Not only is this group of landowners rampant now, but he is still thinking about the security promise of the Russians. However, buying protection from the Russians would require 800,000 pounds of wheat!
Karl was short of money but had a group of private soldiers on hand. As a king, he ordered the people to pay taxes, and also sent private soldiers to buy food by force. His purchase price was as low as one silver coin for twenty-five pounds! In order to raise food quickly and cost-effectively, Karl became a complete villain.
In September, the Melalen tribe finally fell into a state of chaos.
Sven does not want this, but the big villain is Karl, and the people think Karl is a villain, so it will be okay.