Those Mellaren serfs who arrived at Fort Ross, these guys are not just sitting around for free.
The strong laborers among them were instructed by Rurik to log trees in distant places, or they could form teams, dragging sleds and carrying manuscript axes to dig ore in the mountains. Naturally, the women among them were not suitable for such hard labor, so they were thrown to Fisk's mother Broma by Rurik and asked to do some work such as tailoring.
Rurik picked a young woman from these serfs. She seemed to be sixteen or seventeen years old? His face and body look even more childish.
"It's not my thing anyway..."
Rurik shook his head and directly ordered her to no longer be the Duke's slave, but a man's wife.
Is there such a good thing in the world? When the grateful woman heard this order, she immediately knelt down and crawled to Rurik's feet to kiss his boots.
So what’s the price? The price is that John Invall must become a man early.
The obedient John was pulled to the front of the temple by Rurik, where a group of Russians gathered to cheer and cheer. John endured the discomfort and passed this barbarian ritual.
This seems to be a wedding? Indeed.
"If this is not the realm of God, but a place blessed by Odin, I..." John Invall, his belief is not pious, and the woman in front of him is desperately trying to seduce him, so as a A real man, in order to cut himself off from the humiliation of the past, pounced on him after a final psychological struggle...
He is no longer a toy that can be played with, and even puts his past Humiliation was imposed on this woman.
The woman was beaten by John until the corner of her mouth bleeds. There were bursts of wailing from John's residence at night, and witnesses saw that the woman had difficulty walking when fetching water after daylight.
John's humiliation was vented in a violent way. When he cleared his mind and looked at what he had done, a sense of guilt came back to him. He tried to comfort the woman, but the woman covered her face and cried bitterly. After a moment, she looked into his eyes and smiled stupidly, saying thank you.
John Invar, with extremely complicated emotions, accepted Rurik's summons again and explained Latin on the third floor of the palace.
He had just climbed the stairs to arrive, and Rurik was already waiting with a cheerful smile.
"Well done! This is what a true Dane should do. You are a wolf of the north, not a Frankish sheep." Rurik clapped his hands and said.
John knew exactly what Rurik said, so he hurried over and reported his affairs truthfully, his words full of guilt.
"So, will God punish you?"
"This...will definitely happen."
"But Odin will think you are a good person Warrior. What do you think of her?" Rurik asked deliberately.
"Very good."
"Okay, she was a slave, a plaything. Maybe you can treat her kindly. ”
“Of course! John hurriedly said yes: "I will take care of this poor lamb." "
"So, is she a woman? ”
“Already. ”
“Well done, then we can be considered brothers. I like you very much! Mainly I like your command of Latin. I have basically learned it, but I want to popularize it in my territory. "
"Ah! This..."
Rurik looked directly into his eyes and continued: "Many young brothers lack knowledge. I want them to all understand Latin and even use Latin in daily life. comminicate. Maybe you're worried about your future job, and this is your future job. This place is far away from the Holy See, and no force can threaten my power. I don't want to listen to the nonsense of those priests. As long as I can understand these scriptures, I can make my own understanding. Come over here, I want to learn something new..."
Unexpectedly, this docile sheep is still a wolf at heart, and many witnesses will develop what they saw into Rossburg's favorite talking points.< /p>
Brothers look down on cowards the most, and now that John Ingvar is no longer a coward, no one will criticize him
In the December days, low temperatures and extreme daylight kept eroding Ross. Fort, the time people can work is decreasing every day, and when night falls, there is nothing left to do.
Rossburg, protected by wooden walls, naturally falls into silence.
Not necessarily.
Nowadays, every household has more supplies than ever before, and it is no problem to survive the cold winter. Families naturally launch the torpedoes that are succumbed to instinct, but it is the people who are covered up by the wind. Moaning, and the sudden crying of babies
It can be expected that there will be another baby boom in Roseburg next fall, when the people living in this settlement alone will give birth to another thousand children. Babies are actually normal.
But Rumia's belly is getting bigger every day, and a new life is not far away.
On the vernal equinox, she is fully grown. The woman who met Rurik. Rurik counted the time and found that the due date was around January 10 in the Julian calendar. She was already in the third trimester of pregnancy.
She could still hold the light. Festival sacrifice?
She must host it, no matter how difficult it is
Because on the eve of Hanukkah, a major project will be completed.
A large reindeer sleigh team returned from the north. There were more than 200 of them, including professional loggers and hunters who had returned early. The most important European spruce logs were transported back and placed outdoors. The work of installing the masts of the two large ships filled up the entire time of the Hotla family. Even if there was very little daylight, even if they were holding a torch to light the bonfire, they still had to process the logs into usable masts.
Freshly cut trees can also be used as masts? The water inside is almost frozen into ice crystals.
It’s actually not bad in this regard.The Vikings were not too picky. The so-called wood will eventually become dry, and the slow-growing spruce is perfectly suitable for masts.
A group of craftsmen used a variety of tools to hammer spruce logs outdoors and build them into masts.
In the indoor dock, a destroyer with one-third of its hull completed was being supervised by Rurik, who was beginning to install the propeller mechanism.
This is a complicated job, so complicated that Huotra, leaning on crutches, said that he had never taken on such a complicated job in his long life.
He complained to Rurik: "Sir, is this necessarily the case? Don't you feel the difficulty?"
"It is indeed possible, but it is too difficult to give up because of this. It’s stupid.”
Hotela didn’t want to say that this mechanism might be redundant. Since his children liked it, he would continue to do it.
The craftsmen continued to drill holes in the wooden shell and install the roller bearings and the highest rotating rod. It took a whole day to install this.
Every part of the ship's hull was covered and installed with white lines drawn by chalk clods. Rurik felt that he must be too worried about this.
After observing for too long, Rurik sipped the autumn chrysanthemum tea that his craftsmen drank, sat cross-legged on a leather cushion, and naturally talked about money with Hotla.
"When these four ships are launched next spring, six hundred pounds of silver coins will be carried to you. How do you plan to use them?"
"This..." Hotla was a little surprised. , this kid has never asked this before.
"Just tell the truth, I need to know where my money ends up."
"Yes. The workers must be paid, and all the servants' money must be paid."
"So, how much can you earn?"
Hearing this, Hotela hesitated immediately. He made some considerations and muttered cautiously: "About half."
"That's three hundred pounds of silver coins. It's really a lot, so the taxes I collected from you last year will increase a bit."
"Ah! This... This is not appropriate." Huotra was in a hurry, and she was a little bit embarrassed when she spoke. He complained very much that he was so stupid that he didn't know how to say less when he opened his mouth.
Rurik shrugged and looked at the ship: "You don't need much wealth at all, or you already have great wealth now. All of this comes from me and us Russians. ”
“Yes.”
“Now, besides smelting steel, I am proud of you shipbuilders. Next year, I will collect money from you. It’s useless if you ask for too much money.”
Hotela sighed, neither refusing nor agreeing. Sighing was tantamount to acquiescence.
“Two hundred pounds is a lot for you to really earn, enough for you and your relatives and friends to live a comfortable life. Now let’s talk about this boat! Two boats outdoors, before Hanukkah Installing the mast, any questions?”
“No problem at all. "Hotra's words were decisive.
"Very good. Let me tell you frankly, of these two big ships, I sold one to the Balmoks, and we use the other for our own use. I have also thought of the name of the ship. "
"The name of the ship? ”
“Let’s call it the Duke of Ostara and build it into the Oostara.” ”
Hearing this name, Hotla understood everything at once. The people of Roseburg admired their Duke very much. Rurik was young and promising, and while bringing happiness to the people, he also had a The Ross army fought gloriously.
These days, people are saying that the female leader of Ostara has become a woman and will give birth to a new son for Lord Rurik at a young age, thus completely destroying her. Resurrection of the Ostara tribe, and Ostara will naturally become a vassal of Ross.
Thinking of this, Hotla laughed out loud: "Are you giving a gift to your Carlotta? ”
“Yes. She has served me very well recently. "
"Serve? "Looking at Rurik beside him, Hotla continued to laugh: "What a young man. It's good to be young, but it's a pity that I am old. When I was young, I didn't have the qualifications to spend as much as you did. I still suggest you be more restrained. Now everyone knows that you have seventeen wives! You have too many women. This must be a gift from Odin, but you..."
"Can't you indulge? I am very confident now! I believe that my body can easily conquer them, and I also believe that my sword can conquer a larger territory. Therefore, these ships must be built quickly. "
The topic returned to shipbuilding, and when the names of the ships were mentioned, Hotla asked casually: "Have you thought of a name for each of the eight destroyers? "
"Yes, just name it after the stars. ”
“Oh? I thought you would name them after your wives and concubines and let me build seventeen ships in a short time. "Hotra raised his right hand with a dry look, "What's the name of this ship that is installing the propeller? "
"Merkiori. "
"What's this name? "
"This...this is a long story. "Rurik is bored for the time being. He might as well tell this old guy Hotla about the wonderful world view.
The universe has no center, just like a sphere does not have a center point on its surface, so the sun is not The earth is not the center of the universe. But will it make people feel confused if they feel that they are not the chosen one?
Rurik bluntly said that the sun (Sarah) is the incarnation of Odin, and there are many. Small worlds revolve around it, and the human world is just one of them. All the worlds together form a branch of the World Tree, and the stars are one branch after another of small worlds called Mercury, just like the human world. The same thing revolves around the sun...
No matter whether Hotla wants to believe it or not, Rurik said this.
He even explained one thing: "There are some things, eyes.Just because you can't see it doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Just like we cannot see the faces of sailors standing on distant ships, nor can we find other small worlds that also revolve around the sun in the vast collection of stars. ”
Hotra was not in the mood to think about these illusory things, but when he heard Rurik’s naming of these small worlds, he was obviously well prepared, and it was not like he was making it up at all, considering all the signs. It shows that this child is indeed blessed by Odin, and his words are probably true.
“The eight ships are: Merkiori, Vinas, and Mona. , Mas, Jobiter, Seturn, Nepten, Uranos. ”
Rurik has selected clear names spelled in Latin letters for these ships, which will eventually be nailed to the side of the ship and even unique flags will be sewn.
In these The name Hotra means Mona, which is the Norse word for the moon after all.
“So, these eight ships are going to be equipped with your propeller mechanism? "
Rurik shook his head and pointed at the Mercury being built: "This is a great attempt, challenging the most difficult mechanical achievement of us Russians. If I succeed, I'll go ahead and replace all seven other ships. Improve if I fail. ”
“My lord, with all due respect. Even if you don't rely on this, it's totally fine to just rely on the sail. "
"No need to say more, I have made up my mind. ”
Everything was going on in an orderly manner, and on the day when the mast was installed, the people of Fort Ross came out in large numbers to watch.
Hotra’s shipbuilding dock is not high Within the wall, this circle of high walls has become an excellent viewing platform.
Scaffolding, wooden cranes, and the cooperation of hundreds of people, they sweated desperately and went shirtless in the ice and snow. Amid the cheers of the crowd, the mast stood at the preset position, and then the further fixing of the mast began.
In this grand scene, a young woman could not hide. There were tears on her face.
Carlotta was so excited that she cried because her Rurik claimed that this ship with its mast lowered was the symbol of the people of Ostara, and it was Ostara. The Duke. In the future, in addition to the "Oar Flag" with blue stripes on a white background, this ship should also fly the "Ostara Bull Flag" with a white background and a bull head totem.
The propeller mechanism of the Mercury is also completed, although the appearance makes Rurik feel too weird.
She is standing on the sleepers in the indoor dock, lying on the stern of the ship. No one stepped on the pedals together, and the two rotating rods on the left and right sides of the ship were indeed rotating. The propeller was like a fan, blowing air toward the bottom of the stern side of the ship. In terms of design, Rurik did not make too big a blade. The maximum diameter is less than half a meter, so it should be enough for a small boat.The next step is to install a wooden cover where the gear is located to try to keep the gear operation airtight.
The installation of other parts of the ship is also in progress. Compared with large ships like the Aurora, the Mercury is really a small ship, but it is also longer and taller than the cargo ship, but its width is relatively small. The proportion to the length makes the whole boat look slender.
The Hanukkah sacrifice is coming soon. The people of Fort Ross witnessed the whole process of installing the masts of the two large ships. They were amazed by the magnificent martial arts of their principality. Then, people were looking forward to the " "The darkest day", as well as the brightest Aurora in the dark night, and the first ray of sunshine in the new year that pierces the sea level...