The preparation time given to the army for the expedition was very short. The soldiers took their money and made purchases at the market in Fort Ross.
They flocked to the blacksmiths' stalls to buy new mass-produced hand axes and spearheads to add to their weapons, and they also asked the women at home to do their best to make dry food.
In the morning market, a magical stall suddenly attracted hundreds of people to look at it with saliva.
It was a booth composed of more than a dozen simple wooden tables, all covered with gray coarse cloth.
There are a large number of disc-shaped objects on display. Their yellow and white color and the permeating aroma of wheat fully prove the essence of their sesame cakes!
Many women wearing coarse cloth headscarves shouted: "One silver coin and four pounds of wheat cake."
They kept shouting, but the price of this cake was really expensive .
The men poked their heads around to watch, chattering and whispering to each other.
Finally, someone who really coveted it came forward, took out the silver coins and shouted cheerfully: "Five silver coins, I want twenty pounds!"
"Okay!" The woman After getting the money happily, he ordered the waiter to immediately get a scale to weigh the cake.
The young warrior did not worry at all about the accuracy of the stall's scale. He had a big appetite and naturally wanted to eat more. It was not appropriate to rely on the food provided by the Duke for future expeditions, so he had to Do stock up on ready-to-eat meals to stuff into your backpack for emergencies.
Compared with the past bread made from pure oats, it cannot be made larger than a palm. Oatmeal cakes lack stickiness and are very brittle after being ground into powder, kneaded and baked.
But this wheat cake is clearly as big as three palms side by side. How can such a big cake be quite tough in the hand?
The soldier took a bite happily in full view of everyone.
Is that nibbling? It was clearly biting, like tearing the meat from the deer leg bone.
The soldier feasted in public, his eyes as wide as copper bells. He was eager to say something. After swallowing with all his strength, he hurriedly shouted: "Sweet! This pancake is so sweet!"
< p>Sweet? People looked at each other and took out their money out of curiosity.This wheat cake stall belongs to Aslaqi's mill. The slightly crude mill was completed twenty days ago. Since its completion, the processing of grain has begun. As for how to grind the flour, it is really a secret.
Asraqi herself is not here, but fortunately she was very smart and showed her husband Arik's banner at the very right time.
She is Aric's little wife, a Gotland woman. The men who were watching all knew this. They thought it was the flag captain's wife's mill, and she had to support her. Now that the brothers had tasted a delicious food, how could they not happily buy the pie with their money?
The wheat cakes prepared by Aslaqi are selling out quickly, and this is all based on her prediction.
Now, she herself stays in her mill and is inspected by Rurik.
The three granite slabs have been polished very flat, and they look very solid standing on the stone piers.
Big holes were drilled into the stone slabs, and a hard iron rod was inserted inside.
Rurik saw two stone wheels made of granite on the stone slabs and pillars in front of him, with oak shafts inserted into the metal holes in the center. The oak shaft has obviously been reworked, and is covered with a layer of bronze skin. The same is true for the center hole of the stone wheel, thus forming a hard-contact bearing that relies on seal grease for lubrication.
This axle system is like a wheel standing on a stone slab. The specially treated oak axle is the shaft, which is fixed by a bronze component and protrudes from a bronze collar, which is set on the stone slab. The raised iron rod.
Rurik was surprised, and his ears were full of Aslaqi's explanation with great interest.
After receiving the Duke’s mission, she told the guests in quite detail how she selected stones, hired workers to process parts, hired workers, how much wheat she used from the Duke’s granary, and even how much she bought with her own money. Rick.
"You...really finished it! Better than I expected! These are stone grinders, and the effect is no worse than a rotating millstone. It seems that I should dismantle the bronze millstones and give them to you now." "
Asilaqi was waiting for this praise, so she said: "Since you have promised, give me the golden millstone."
"Okay! I'll make three stone mills soon, and I'll give you four bronze millstones soon." "Actually, I only need one set," Yaslaqi Qing said. Qing said: "I plan to use it as a souvenir. As for the remaining three, it can obviously be made into more weapons or daily necessities. Sir, we must win the new war safely. In my opinion, you can use it as a souvenir." They were melted and cast into arrow clusters."
"You..." Rurik stared into her eyes, feeling calmly embarrassed for a while, and then he slowly smiled. "Okay, it's up to you. Haha, you are so worried about the revival of your family! You just said some inspiring words to me. I like to hear them, and I am also touched by your actual actions."
"Originally served Ross." Aslaqi immediately complimented.
Rurik looked at these stone rollers again. Aslaqi completed them according to the structure of the wheel shaft. In terms of structure, it is a little different from the Eastern stone rollers, but the efficiency of use is obviously acceptable.
In addition to a few captured Northumbrian women, her mill was worked by local women who were hired. She also bought reindeer to use as draft animals to pull the wooden poles.
Manpower and animal power alternately push the wooden poles to realize the stone wheel crushing the wheat, especially the working women, who were ordered to perform how to work in front of the Duke.
Rurik saw that oats and wheat were mixed together and crushed over and over again by two stone wheels until they were crushed into powder.
As a miller, Asilaqi will not waste any of the whole wheat flour made from the mixture of these two types of wheat.Even a pinch of wheat bran.
Rurik touched the whole wheat flour that had just been crushed and asked again: "You have processed a lot, so you should have made a lot of scones! I know, you have opened up the market and are doing it. Selling, since it is the wheat you purchased yourself for processing and baking, I won’t ask more. I just want to know what has become of the large amount of wheat I authorized you to take from my warehouse. "Bread?"
"It's bread, a lot of bread." Aslaqi's mood was very eager, and her eyebrows were about to fly, obviously she wanted to show off some interesting treasure.
"Is it in your warehouse? Take me there quickly!"
In a moment, a newly built wooden ridge standing on dozens of wooden piles was what Aslaqi called Bread warehouse.
Rurik noticed that the waterproofing measures of this building were better than other buildings. Look at its gabled roof, which was paved with stone tiles and terracotta tiles. "This woman is really willing to spend money to buy these things. Arik, you will definitely give your beautiful little wife a lot of money."
Rurik's guess is absolutely correct. Aslaqi is a combination of beauty, A woman who combines wisdom and skills, she is much better than the simple Novgorod village girl Peravina. He loved his little wife, and felt deeply guilty when he thought that her heirs could not inherit his family property. Now giving her a huge sum of money was Arik's compensation, and he also hoped that his little wife could start a business of her own.
Of course Arik knows better that by helping his young wife Asraqi, he is actually helping his younger brother Rurik. More importantly, if the mill is a success, it will be a great thing for all the Ross brothers.
The closed door of the warehouse was opened, and Aslaqi personally lit the oil lamp placed at the door.
Rurik straightened his nose, and the first thing that hit his face was the refreshing smell of rosin, and lurking in this breath was the thick fragrance of wheat.
Through the dim light, he saw that there were many shelves made of wooden strips in the long warehouse room, and the things placed on them were...
" They’re all big bread!”
He walked up and touched them, subconsciously shouting the Slavic word “hleba”.
Aslaki was startled: "You... actually said the same word as my sister (Pelavina)."
Rurik ignored her for the time being. He continued to touch the bread that was as dry as a stone in front of him with his hands.
Coincidentally, the pronunciation of bread among various Slavic tribes is basically hleba. The pronunciation of the word "life" by various Viking forces is basically libe.
Though they have the same origin, two ethnic groups that have been separated for thousands of years have become incommunicable in language, but they are reunited here in the Principality of Rus.
Bread is life. Two words, almost the same idea.
This is what the real Da Lieba looks like, or this is the baking style of traditional medieval European bread. It's huge, and it's baked like this on purpose! According to Rurik, it is almost halfMeters long, it's almost as big as it can be held in one's arms, and its weight is amazing.
Under the dim light, Asraqi looked at Rurik with a smile as he played with the bread. She knew that her mission had been successfully completed, and her plan to seize the Duke of Ross for a better future had been more than half successful. .
"Sir, are you satisfied?"
Rurik still did not answer directly, but asked again: "Tell me the ingredients you used to bake the bread, how to bake it and Baking time, tell me all the work you have done during this time! Damn it, the smell of these breads is so comforting, but they are as hard as rocks."
The Duke asked, Aslaqi. Let’s talk about it this time.
It turns out that the stone mill, mill building, clay oven and warehouse longhouse were built at the same time. With the huge sum of money provided by Arik, she easily recruited a group of relatively idle people in Fort Ross to work for her.
Many local women in Ross are driven crazy just by taking care of the new children in the family. But with many children in the family, they must find ways to find money to buy grain and meat to make ends meet. Practical reasons force them not to work far away, but even if they stay at home and work as tailors, the work in this area is already saturated. Hearing that Arik's young wife had received the Duke's order to build a mill, and the reward she gave was good, the sisters naturally came one after another.
Men and women have created all this for Aslaqi, and the struggle of the women of Rus has highlighted its great value.
It is unrealistic to expect women to do heavy physical work. They are arranged to first grind the dough with a traditional stone mill to make flour, and then mix the flour from wheat and oats, add a little water and work hard to knead it into a large dough. , and finally the dough was weighed on a scale to be five pounds each, waiting to be baked collectively. In fact, this work was not easy at all. It was too comfortable to cut down and transport wood.
The two large clay ovens placed in the wooden shed were successfully completed. The inside of the oven formed a low-temperature baking environment. Each oven can bake twenty doughs at the same time. Since the oven was built, The baking begins. At the beginning of the period, because the amount of flour processed by the traditional stone mill was too small, the stove could not bake much bread at one time. With the completion of the three stone mills, flour production has increased dramatically, and the ovens have recently had to be put into operation around the clock.
They are like clay ovens for baking naan. The big bread is naturally larger than the sesame cakes, and because it needs a period of fermentation before baking, it takes some time to bake the bread, but as long as The stove is always running and the baking efficiency is still amazing.
Basically, a batch of coarse flour has just been crushed, and then sent to the other side to be kneaded into dough and then weighed. It is placed in a wooden basin to wait for natural fermentation and then sent to the stove.
This one-stop service is served by nearly fifty servants and helpers, and Aslaqi can proudly say that her current task is to monitor everyone's work.
The two ovens can bake a total of nearly 200 pounds of bread at one time. Theoretically, it can be baked around the clock and 25 ovens can be baked in a day.
Aslaki’s mill and bakeryThe bakery was still working at full capacity, and the inventory in this warehouse, Aslaqi made it clear, was close to 30,000 pounds of bread.
Wouldn’t thirty thousand Roman pounds be equivalent to just over a ton? This sounds like a huge number, but when divided equally among a thousand warriors, each person received only one kilogram of bread.
What is this? Thousands of years later, the Soviet and German armies' wartime rations on paper required nearly one kilogram of bread, biscuits and other grain products every day. Only in this way could they cope with a soldier's daily calorie consumption of 4,000 calories.
Those are the most brutal war conditions, and it is still unclear whether the food rations on paper can be implemented.
It is only the ninth century now. Rurik does not think that his warriors will really have the chance to consume 4,000 calories one day. Moreover, due to the special factors of this space-time war, the real war will only be one or two. The outcome of the battle will be decided within a few days.
Even so, the reserve of bread is still too small. Think about it again, this is only the result of Aslaqi Mill, which has just been opened for a month. It is just two ovens and three stone mills. If In time she could do better.
Compared to thin-wheat bread, a major problem with whole-wheat bread is that it dries out too easily, causing it to be as hard as wood. In other words, this is a good thing. Because of its natural dehydration, such bread has become an extremely shelf-stable emergency food. Looking at the dark and dry environment again, Rurik estimated that all this was done intentionally by Aslaqi.
Before eating these dry and hard breads, you obviously need to use a saw to cut them into thin slices. It's okay to even beat it into crumbs. After all, when bread and wheat cakes enter the stomach, they will inevitably turn into a ball of paste and be absorbed by the body.
In this dark warehouse, Rurik announced directly: "All the bread ingredients are my wheat, and what you pay is labor force. Yaslaqi, I will give it to you according to the previous agreement. You pay me, let's talk business, I will give you the money immediately."
"Thank you," Yaslaqi said happily.
"You're welcome. I have full confidence in you now. It seems that you should build another mill in New Roseburg. How about we go to Roseburg together on this trip?"
"Okay, I've had this intention for a long time. Especially since it is my desire to build a new mill in New Roseburg where my father lives, it just so happens that I can bring little Gustav there."
Rurik nodded: "Then make preparations quickly. You arrange for capable men to continue the mill's operations. Excellent mills must not stop production. I will also sell you additional grain. The bread that will be made in the future will be given priority to the army. Acquisition."
"Yes!"
"That's right." Rurik thought about the wheat pancakes: "I'll take the cake. I just learned that you offered a very expensive price. Even if it was roasted from the wheat you purchased, why is it so expensive?”
“Exactly! I still need to sell it.” Silaqi smiled and arranged for someone to bring the warm pancake to him.In Rurik's hands.
This cake is baked on an iron plate, with a slightly charcoal-black puff pastry underneath.
Compared to bread as hard as stone, this pancake was indeed very soft. He smelled the smell and opened his mouth...
Rurik closed his eyes and chewed silently, and then his whole body trembling.
"Sweet! Did you put honey in it?"
"You discovered it. It's honey, and only a little bit was put in each cake." Yaslaqi covered it up. He smiled and said: "In this case, you won't think it's strange that I raised the price."
"It's not surprising! It's really good. I accepted this cake. It seems that I will have to order you to make more in the future." Plenty of honey-filled scones. The brothers are fighting outside, so having delicious food is also the key to victory."
"Honey is hard to come by," she said.
"It doesn't matter. Novgorod people always pay tribute to honey. In the future, if the beekeeping industry develops there, everything will be fine. It's time for me to leave." Rurik patted his clothes and held the towel in his hand. Clutching the honey pancake, "I'm going to see how the new slingshots and trebuchets made by the carpenters are doing. Those guys have to be worthy of the money I gave them!"