It was in the evening, and the soldiers who had been walking all afternoon were lucky that the calves of both male and female soldiers were bandaged to avoid muscle soreness. Everyone was still tired, so they started to move from the wagons and deer carts filled with supplies. A large iron pot is unloaded, placed on a pottery mound, and the stove is used to cook thick porridge mixed with wheat and vegetables. They also began to cut down trees to collect branches and build field tents on the spot.
This move undoubtedly surprised the villagers who had just built a few wooden sheds.
The Rus conqueror of the Varangians is around. The king of the conquerors is a young boy. The king's warriors are both male and female and are very young.
Not only did the conquerors have no ill intentions towards everyone, they even rewarded them with salt and iron tools.
The prince is such a good man. The children in the whole village got some strange food, which seemed to be made from wheat and was really delicious...
The kind act won the hearts of the people, and the village chief His attitude changed drastically. He was eager to serve Prince Rurik in exchange for reward, and he quickly thrust his little daughter into the prince's arms.
The villagers are simple and full of passion. It is entirely because their lives in the past were too poor. A Varyag king who can speak Slavic has already used practical actions to swear that he will lead his subjects to live a better life. In good times, villagers vote with their feet.
The village was named "Village Eleven", and the village chief who hurriedly sent his daughter off was also remembered by Rurik.
The Ross army spent the night mingling with the villagers, and the sailors also went ashore to rest, and brought a batch of bass caught in the trawl for everyone to grill.
The entire daytime "peace parade" was suspended, but it had just begun.
The bonfires on the lakeside here are as dense as stars. They can probably be seen from far away places, right?
Many people were already lying in the tents, fast asleep, and Rurik was willing to stand by the lake and stay for a while longer.
Aric tapped his brother on the shoulder: "What are you thinking? You...this year is completely your show."
"I'm looking at the South, those Aosta Pull people."
"I'm thinking of your Carlotta."
"Yes. I also want to see how the new Ostara is being built over there. Tomorrow I plan to get on the boat and cruise to the villages behind. We will spend the night in New Ostara, hoping that Carlotta can provide us with some yogurt and cheese."
"She. Can we get enough cows?" Arik yawned and shrugged, "It's better to go to bed early."
Rurik surrendered in Xinjin. A new image was created among the Slavic people. The Varyags are a collective term for a group of people. Although the Rus are one of them, they are more reasonable than other Varyags and are building a stable order. These people are willing to surrender to a monarch who helps and protects them. They don't care whether Prince Rurik is really the "son of God." As long as the prince fulfills his promise, then he is the "son of God."
This is true for new subjects, and it is also true for old subjects who have surrendered.
However, Rurik will no longer give physical rewards to those old subjects. Of course, they can still get a batch of advanced production supplies, provided that they exchange the grain.
Lake Ilmen is a large lake in the interior of Eastern Europe. The eleven villages of the new subjects are relatively close to the Russian settlement of Mstisk. The next voyage is completely Rurik. An inspection of old subjects.
The fleet suddenly appeared, and all the people in the manors along the way watched.
The boat was released, and Rurik landed with a group of warriors. Accompanied respectfully by the boyar of the farm, the prince visited the rapidly-earling wheat fields. Based on the statistics of the fields, he reiterated the taxes that the manor should pay this year and the specific time for tax collection. The prince further pointed out the relationship between the monarch and his subjects, focusing on the fact that Mstisk in the north of Hubei is the de facto largest Russian settlement in the region, and welcomed the villagers to bring their production surplus products to trade for useful supplies .
Facing the absolute might of the Russian army, thousands of people in any farm would bow their heads.
Each surrendered old farm has its own unique business. The fleet has entered the southern shore of the Great Lake. The farms here focus more on raising sheep and growing flax, and they also raise more black-haired cattle.
Rurik’s fleet has drifted to the so-called flax manor in the south. People here are planting flax in addition to wheat. This year's flax stalks have been harvested, and when Rurik arrived, a strange smell filled the village.
Check it out! Two thousand men, women, and children in the entire farm are working to cook the jute. Those strange smells are emitted by the jute tumbling in the boiling water. The thick fiber of the dry jute is disintegrating into filaments and is being boiled. The decolorization of the hemp stalks was also done at the same time.
You can also do business while cruising. Salt is a better currency than silver in this lake area. He took out a pound of salt and easily exchanged it for a large amount of roughly processed twine.
Making fine twine into cables is a specialty of the Russians. In other words, all Viking tribes are good at doing this, but everyone lacks the opportunity to obtain flax.
The Flax Manor originally produced crude flax for its own use and then sold the surplus to other tribes. The largest buyer in the past was the Pine Needle Manor, but now the consumers of that manor have turned into dry bones in the mud. It seemed that they had lost a big buyer, but now they got an even crazier buyer, Prince Ross.
"You should continue to open up wasteland and plant flax for me. The flax you produce can replace oats as taxes, and I also order you to sell all your surplus goods to me every year. Oh! I changed my mind! You will use flax to offset the tax this year and pay ten times the weight of the oat tax."
Farm Boyar and the general public fully welcome the prince's tribute request, and all this is indeed in line with the previous contract. The prince did not accept death and only regarded wheat as a tax. Any equivalent could be used as a tax burden.
They can keep a lot of mouthsGrain, and according to the contract, a batch of crude flax was paid as tax, so everyone did not lose much.
Not only that, since the prince revealed that the principality has a huge demand for flax, Boyar and the villagers immediately reached a consensus that except for the flax used for making cloth this year, the rest will not be processed. , while the prince's fleet was parked by the lake, he sold them all. The people also received salt and a batch of new iron tools, especially a curved shaft plow, which would have a huge positive effect on reclamation next year.
Now that we have reached the Flax Manor, we should go to New Ostara further south.
The Lovati River, the West Dvina River and the Dnieper River originate from the same swamp.
As long as you follow the Lovaj River upstream and enter the source, the second broad river that the explorer found must be the West Dvina River, and its mouth is the Gulf of Riga, the Latvian and traditional territory of the Lithuanians.
If explorers find a third broad river further south, there is no need to doubt that it is the Dnieper River. As long as you sail a short distance along the river, a huge settlement will be in front of you. That is Smolensk built by the Kriviches.
No matter what, Carlotta and her people are Vikings at heart. When they arrive in a new territory, exploration becomes an urgent task.
She is carrying a prince's child, and no one dares to oppose her power.
She is also a very ambitious duchess. She was not like this at the beginning, but the current situation forced this young woman to become a hero.
The Ostara people are also Varyag people. They are part of the Rus Principality. The female leader is also one of the wives of the prince, and the son in her belly is also the prince's cub. Nearby farmsteads respect the Ostarans, even though their population is no more than seven hundred.
In terms of technological development, the people of Ostara are still better than the nearby farms, but they are far behind in terms of farming skills.
But the Ostara people hardly farmed any land in Scandinavia back then, even though wheat could be grown on the shores of the Grand Lake they controlled at that time.
The Ostara people focused almost all of their technology trees on raising large livestock and making dairy products. When they immigrated to the new world, Carlotta's first thought was to buy cattle and sheep from nearby farms. She decisively took tough measures and led a small group of armed warriors to forcibly buy cattle, especially cow calves, which were the most prized.
How dare those farms resist? They had to hand over a group of cattle and sheep. However, the money Carlotta gave them greatly alleviated the anger of the people who lost their cattle and sheep.
This was a time when calico cows did not exist and the aurochs were not yet extinct.
Even domesticated cattle still have some wild nature. Most of them, both male and female, have pure black fur. The sharp horns of the bulls go straight forward. If they are frightened or angered, the bulls will charge with brute force. , if used on the battlefield, it is also a powerful combat tool.
But the people of Ostara are the most relaxedEven though the old Ostara tribe had only a hundred women left after the war, the tribe's production and life experience was basically controlled by women, and the tribe's skills in raising calves and making dairy products were not lost at all. They deliberately kept a small number of bulls, but because they did not understand the techniques of cattle farming, most of the bulls must have been eaten during the calf stage. All cows will be retained and they will be cycled through gestation and colostrum.
As life improved, settlements rose from the ground. A walled and docked town next to the river and lake stood at the mouth of the Lovaj River.
Now is the breeding season for cattle. Carlotta currently has sixty cows in her hands, but only ten bulls. There are another forty cows that can be bred immediately. They must survive the winter safely until the calf is born in early summer next year. Only during that period can the people of Ostara make yoghurt cheese.
The Ostara people have to wait. Their cattle and sheep are like a kind of walking, long-lived farmland. The harvest will be next year. Now they must rely on fishing and buying wheat from nearby farms to survive the winter.
Of course, Carlotta firmly believed that her men would definitely cross the lake and deliver enough food for the people to survive the winter.
Her body has undergone very obvious changes, and her enlarged belly can be covered up with clothes for the time being. She was not willing to hide it, and her belly that was growing day by day was simply an oath of power.
It hasn’t been long since she showed her pregnancy. The women are planning a big day for their duchess. It will probably wait until next year’s spring sacrifice, when a male Duke of Ostara will be born. By then, her status will be completely Unable to shake. Everyone is looking forward to the birth of this child. The birth of a boy means the rebirth of Ostara.
Women weave cloth with purchased linen, make wooden furniture with knives and axes, and chop firewood outdoors to build "wooden walls" to store heating fuel in winter. A large number of reeds were cut and piled into haystacks. Based on past experience, the women holding scythes now began to store food for cattle and sheep for the winter.
There are also a large number of wooden stakes erected in the city of New Ostara. Densely scaled bass are hung on the pulled hemp ropes. They are naturally dried and become one of the people's staple food in winter. one.
Men contributed a lot when building cities. They were busy logging and did not have much time to cultivate wasteland. Only a small amount of wasteland has been plowed, and wheat seeds will not be sown until next spring. However, these lands have already produced some crops-yellow root carrots.
There is a fishing boat belonging to Ostara cruising on the lake. They are traditional long boats. The boss of the boat calls on ten fishermen to work together to control the large net for trawling. They fished under the order of the Duchess, and all the catch should be shared by the entire clan. There were five more fishing boats cruising in this way.
A fleet was approaching in the distance. The fishermen squinted and paused their work to look at it. They all guessed who it was until they saw the flags flying on the masts clearly, and they all smiled.
"Brothers put the cow headThe flag is up, the Russians are coming! "The boss of the ship ordered.
Rurik had noticed the long ship a long time ago. They hung familiar flags to prove their identity. He stood on the bow and looked around again. The dark green in front of him On the shore of the lake reflected in the forest, a city with wooden walls suddenly appeared!
The fishing boat met the fleet, and soon the prince's patrol army arrived at the most important rest stop on their journey.
Considering that the small dock in New Ostara City is not enough to dock the fleet, all the big ships anchored near the shore. After releasing the small boats, everyone landed like this.
Carlotta is a strong woman, and she can still jump. Running around, she heard that Rurik had arrived in person. How did this unexpected good thing make her want to continue taking a lunch break to nurse the baby?
Under her leadership, the people in the city went to greet the guests, especially It was she who ran all the way and finally hugged Rurik in her arms
But Rurik was taller and stronger.
"I said. . He looked at his woman lovingly, "I have completed the immigration work, and then I will come to see your new Ostara." "
Because she was so excited, Carlotta was already in tears: "That's great. Everyone has come to this warm new world, I..."
"You cried. There is no need to cry, even if you are very happy. I'll stay here for at least a whole day and I'll keep you company. Let you taste what it's like to be a woman..."
Rurik's meaning was already very obvious. Carlotta slightly tilted her head shyly and grabbed Rurik's right arm with one hand. , slowly brought it under his robe.
Rurik just touched it lightly, and then he was stunned with excitement.
"Sure enough... you finally succeeded. . "
"The women all said that the child will be born next spring. This is your son. ”
“I know everything. "Rurik was too lazy to say anything. He suddenly exerted his strength and directly held his woman and the child in her belly like a princess in his arms.
Carlotta is very young after all. Even though she has a square shape, Her beautiful cheeks and overall youthful appearance were enough to attract Rurik, not to mention that she was legally a girl adopted by Otto, the first Duke of Ross, and was Rurik’s sister.
O. On the one hand, Tuo's move was well-intentioned, and on the other hand, it also had a strong political purpose. The resurgent Ostara people are indeed strong supporters of the Ross Principality, and they essentially guard the southernmost area under the principality's current control. , holding the Duchess of Ostara in his arms, Rurik heard the shouts of "Long live the Prince of Russia".
Obviously, the people who immigrated here not only welcomed the prince, but also made it clear. Fact: Everyone is a subject of the Prince of Rus first, and a subject of the Duchess secondly.