In Novoostara Ryurik learned about some situations further south. It is said that the Lovady River leading to Smolensk goes straight south. The Ostarans conducted some exploration and found out that I hunted some squirrels and otters and found nothing new.
Men were responsible for pioneering, but their hometowns in Northern Europe were all professional farmers. Their exploration did not extend too far, and no merchants from the south were found.
The forest is quiet, and the presence of birds and animals accentuates the silence here. It seems that a large area to the south is no man's land.
"It seems that this is the southern border of the Principality, and some defensive measures should be taken to prevent unexpected events."
Rurik felt that his speculation was correct, since the waterway can always Extending to Smolensk, it would be best for the other side to remain peaceful. If there is hostility, the other side can flow down the river, and then New Ostara will sadly become a battlefield again.
This speculation surprised Carlotta. She once again thought of the horror dominated by the tragedy of corpses in her hometown. As for how to deal with the crisis, she naturally needed the military protection of the Prince of Rus. In addition, the city of New Ostara must also be fortressed.
Rurik was very happy that the cattle and sheep here had the potential to thrive, but his hope of drinking milk and eating cheese was in vain.
The fleet circled around Lake Ilmen, and all the surrendered farms were inspected by the prince.
Rurik made a very important harvest. He saw those farmlands with his own eyes and compared the wheat growth of different farms. It was obvious that Novgorod and Msti completely adopted drill technology. In Sk, the layout of wheat is very regular and the effect of ear emergence is also better.
The drilling technology of seeds not only brings the ultimate year-on-year high yield, but also saves labor during the harvest period.
The wheat harvest season is finally around the corner!
Rurik’s fleet had just returned to Mstisk when a light rain came unexpectedly.
The rain came untimely, as if the gods were playing a trick on people. The climate in Eastern Europe is always like this. Summer rainfall is always accompanied by severe cooling, especially the rain in August. Even the drizzle makes people feel full of autumn.
Fortunately, this is just rainfall caused by fluctuations in airflow. If there is an arctic cold current going south crazily, it will cause severe frost disasters and almost destroy this year's autumn harvest. The erosion of cold currents often occurs in September, although the possibility of appearing in August is not high. Once the crops mature, no one dares to go against the gods, and the autumn harvest will never be delayed until September.
The local Slavs are preparing long-handled scythes for the farm, and they are also assisted by a number of short-handled scythes.
The method of autumn harvest is like this. Facing the large fields of the farm, the labor force of the entire farm, both men and women, gathers together.
The strong men all operate the long-handled scythe. They can be divided into multiple groups, and each group takes turns operating the scythe to achieve the effect of always harvesting with the scythe. The scythe circulates in the farmlandDrawing a semicircle again, this process is very dangerous. The wheat stalks are cut down frantically. If there is a person standing in front of him, the scythe will cut off the calf of the person in front of him in one fell swoop.
The chopped wheat stalks and the drooping ears of oats were pushed to both sides by the scythe. Women and children followed closely with hemp ropes and straw ropes, bundling the loose wheat stalks and throwing them onto the double wheels. On the trolley, or directly against walking.
Some flat land will be pounded in advance, and stones and wooden piles will be pounded out to create a hard ground that is rare in the local area and used as a threshing ground.
Bales of wheat straw were unloaded here and were pounded continuously by people holding wooden chains.
The farms that have the conditions will also perform pre-processing, that is, the guillotine will cut off the wheat ears of the bundles of wheat straw, and the flail will only beat the densely gathered wheat ears.
Because every grain of European oats is densely wrapped in bran, breaking out the grains is a manual job and requires a large number of farm laborers.
Although oats have its disadvantages in harvesting and processing, local people have no choice in their long-term lives. People on the shores of Lake Ilmen traditionally grew only oats, with rye as a supplement.
The people of Novgorod City are also preparing for the extremely traditional autumn harvest. They do not have more advanced wheat harvesting tools, and Rurik currently has no intention of building any more harvesting machinery. Wheat harvesting is still a labor-intensive job, and the advantages of having more people at this time are most vividly displayed.
After the rain comes a sunny day, and the pleasant sunset brings a great sense of security to the Russian immigrants. As the temperature rises, the process of wheat earing and yellowing is greatly accelerated.
When the drooping ears of wheat become withered and yellow, they should be harvested with a sickle.
Even if this is the first time for immigrants from Ross proper to plant wheat on a large scale, everyone still knows how to judge the timing of wheat harvest.
They will personally break open the dense bran of oats and judge whether the grains are mature by chewing them.
After waiting throughout the warm period, Rurik stood here with his army. All the conditions have been mature, and the oats sown first have reached the harvest season!
The entire workforce (including children) that can be mobilized in Mstisk amounts to 4,000 people.
Rurik had no time to care about the wheat harvest in Novgorod, not far away. He focused on the work in the main grain-producing areas that he could firmly control, especially those belonging to own land and wealth.
The wheat ears are also heading, and the ears are still dark green. Their appearance makes the people quite curious, which is naturally not uncommon for Rurik. On the contrary, there were oats everywhere. This situation made Rurik feel strange and regretful that low-yielding oats were planted in the fields.
In Rurik's concept, the change of wheat ears from dark green to withered yellow is a very rapid process. Maybe the early oats are harvested and the wheat can be harvested.
Nothing is more important now than the wheat harvest.
This is aOn a clear morning, the sunshine in early August was still warm. The morning fog that filled the entire lake gradually dissipated, and the people who were ordered to assemble stood on the flat ground near the lakeside dock outside Mstisk city. The comprehensive unloading yard for ship supplies reserved here is now the most ideal gathering place for personnel.
In front of four thousand men, women and children, Rurik rolled up cardboard into the shape of a trumpet, stood on a tilted trolley, and held up the paper trumpet to preach to his tribe.
“Our immigration work is over! You are all the Russians who immigrated to the Novgorod region! The land under your feet was conquered by you with the sword and ax of Russia. You sowed the seeds, Now the wheat is ripe! Odin protects us, now we harvest the wheat, we must complete it successfully in two weeks!"
He repeated similar words, at first a few people cheered, and gradually It turned into a crowd.
Look at these people! The men among them carry scythes on their shoulders in large numbers. The Russians, who have huge iron resources, can use carbon steel tools unscrupulously. A batch of comprehensive scythes made in their homeland now have a wonderful use. .
Strictly speaking, oats, wheat and rye are all derived from miscanthus grasses similar to foxtail grass. Their essence is grass. The so-called autumn harvest crops and the collection of forage for livestock work in much the same way. .
The whole of Europe used to use scythes to harvest crops. This is directly related to the agricultural technology radiation of the Roman Empire a long time ago. Many barbarians converted from fishing and hunting to farming, and they were the first to learn Roman agriculture. They were originally Slavs who lived in the northern border area of Rome. Even if they immigrated to the distant Lake Ilmen, they could not lose the Roman skills they learned. As for several large Germanic tribes, such as the Franks, who had long been mercenaries for the Roman Empire, the expansion of the Franks also spread agricultural technology to the north.
Even though Roman agriculture was not very sophisticated and was constantly lost in the process of spreading northward, the two crafts of harvesting wheat with scythes and beating and shelling with flails can be said to be the most important skills of northern Germanic, Slavic, and Baltic people. All three groups inherited it.
There are more than a hundred scythes here in Mstisk. At critical moments, they also made magical modifications to their steel swords, because the hilts are mostly made of wood with an iron core sandwiched between them. Hemp ropes and tendons were wound in circles, the hilt was dismantled, and the sword was tied horizontally to the wooden pole, and a simple scythe was born.
The warriors of the First Flag Team have already begun to split up, taking their wives and children towards their fields. A man operating a scythe to cut wheat is like killing an enemy. It feels so satisfying to cut everything off. Women and children are busy gathering wheat, and no one dares to rest more. This is a major issue related to the livelihood of the whole next year. Even if they are so tired that they almost cough up blood, they must continue to fight.
Rurik is holding a long-handled wooden flail, and the top of this object is a three-section stick tied with a rope. Relying on the whipping effect, he swung the flail and struck hard on the oat stalks piled into hills.
The prince is showing off to his people. He is just putting on a show, but not completely.It was a show, because legally the pile of oats belonged to his cousin's property. He was a prince at that time, but now he is more willing to help his cousin with farm work as a younger brother.
He was sweating profusely and had to use great force during the beating. The accumulating fatigue has made him have no intention of speaking. He just repeats the pounding action and endures the fatigue of his arms until night.
The moon rose, and Rurik, who was sweating a lot, sat quietly by a bonfire. He was accompanied by a group of old guys, all of whom were young men under his command. Everyone had been busy during the first day, but now that they had rest, no one was talking.
Everyone was sweating a lot, and the old clothes had just been handed over to the women for cleaning, and were being placed in pieces by the bonfire to bake. Everyone put on spare clothes, and everyone felt like they had sweated out a lifetime in just one day because of their weakness.
Fisk felt chilled all over. His three wives and concubines sat beside him to warm themselves by the fire, feeling the same chill.
"Rurik..." It was he who started the conversation first, "We will help them harvest wheat, and when our Youth City... they will also help?"
"Hehe, We are all from Russia, and you are actually worried about this? As long as I give an order, the soldiers must obey it.”
Aric saw the work of the young men of Russia, and he followed his brother’s instructions this time. Words guarantee: "Fisk, you can rest assured that I will not only help you, but also help you build the city."
"Oh! That's great. Thank you so much..."
"No need to thank you! Boy, your father and my father fought side by side and died for Ross in the same battle. You are now the flag captain of the Sixth Flag Team and have a bright future in the future. I am also your brother, help you It should be."
But how can Fisker and Arik be brothers? But the other party's words were very heart-warming and more comforting than the flames.
The iron pot and pottery urn are cooking freshly beaten oats. Some yellow root carrots and locally collected fresh oats are put into the cooked oatmeal to increase nutrition, and then a large amount of frantically poured in Salt.
The way for the Principality of Rus to obtain salt has never been to rely on the supply of the Balmoks in the Port of Narvik facing the Atlantic Ocean. The Balmoks provide the best salt, and the price for purchasing these salts is not high. High, but the time cost of logistics is ridiculously high.
No matter how low the salt content of the seawater in the Gulf of Finland is, it is still seawater. Even if it costs more for firewood, New Roseburg has been doing the work of boiling salt from seawater locally. Fortunately, it is used locally. There are endless wood resources, and obtaining salt is just a matter of adding more firewood.
In this Novgorod region, no one eats salt more unscrupulously than the Russians.
People who were forced to rest at night achieved great results on the first day of the autumn harvest. Everyone did not want to talk much because of exhaustion. After the hot salty wheat porridge was cooked, everyone regained their strength after feasting. It’s time again for the much-loved part of the campfire to talk about the mountains.
Men praiseShow off the area of wheat you harvested this year and estimate your wheat wealth. They show off their strong arms and boast that one person can cut several hectares of wheat without knowing what fatigue is.
After they finished bragging about their strength, they started talking about women.
Wherever there are people, there is always comparison. They show off their wives and concubines, and brag that they can give birth to more children than they can count on both hands. At this point, some people began to tease their own princes. Couldn't more than ten wives and concubines be able to give birth to a total of one hundred children? They did not doubt Prince Rurik's ability. First of all, the "April Bull" was tireless, not to mention that he was the son of God, and of course he was different from mortals.
Rurik laughed when he heard some comments about himself.
He was gratified that they could talk about desperately trying to have children with his wife. The Russian people have changed after all. When each man has a large amount of wheat, a couple bids farewell to the past living conditions. They no longer have to selectively cultivate offspring because of limited resources, but have the capital to reproduce unscrupulously. . Besides, this autumn harvest very realistically shows the fact that the population determines the efficiency of the autumn harvest.
If you encounter rainy weather, you must rush to harvest wheat. The weather is rarely good now, but everyone is completely immersed in the joy of the harvest. In line with the good habit of the Russians to store wealth, every household is eager to have two crops. In three days, he harvested all his fields, stuffed them into his granary, and used tenth to pay taxes to the prince.
Russian strong men are generally a head taller and stronger than the traditional Slavic farmers in the region, which is reflected in their greater efficiency in wheat harvesting.
The oats that were first sown were all harvested in just three days. All the grains were shelled, shoveled into coarse sacks with wooden shovels, and packed into the home in packages.
Russians began to improve their homes as early as six years ago. Rurik set a great example in this regard. He made some improvements to the traditional Slavic woodcuts and added more Closet facilities enhance winter heating, while raised wooden floors minimize moisture. Such woodcuts can be directly used as granaries. Of course, we will still face the problem of rats, which is completely a minor problem.
In this era, the Russians even regarded rats as a kind of food. It was a kind of meat together with squirrels and minks, but the leather of rats was useless. In the past, under difficult circumstances, the people of Russia naturally ate whatever they had, including rotten fish and meat. No one cared about the diarrhea and other diseases caused.
The problem of rats that cannot be eliminated by primitive storage technology is a problem, but Rurik has not bothered to eliminate problems such as moisture and rats that cause food loss. He needed the people to quickly stuff the harvested wheat into their homes, and then continue to sweep through the remaining fields.
People have to harvest the remaining wheat for the Prince of Rus, and all the Prince provides is free food during the harvest period.
The men have no complaints, because everyone knows that in the past few years, WangHow does the prince use wheat? It seems that everyone is harvesting wheat for the prince, which is indeed the case, but in the end it is the general public who benefit. The prince still owns an astonishing area of acres, and now the wheat here has reached the point where it is yellow and can be harvested. The prince's promise remains unchanged. A batch of wheat will be sold to the public every month, and its price will be constant regardless of the bad year or the good year. Everyone can buy a batch of wheat every month and then make delicious soft and waxy scones at home, which is something oats can't do.
The Principality of Rus implements a de facto grain-based policy. The prince prohibits bank runs, and also stipulates the amount and price of wheat sold every month in the form of laws, and the purchasing power of each silver coin is determined. , which is ten pounds of oats, rye or nine pounds of wheat. The price of salt is also anchored by wheat.
To ensure the economic stability of the Rus' Principality, it is necessary to ensure that a large amount of wheat is stuffed into the prince's "national granary" located in Novgorod, Novorosberg and Russburg's hometown.
The people’s ideological consciousness is not that high, and their vision is not very long-term.
They are more aware of the fact that when a prince calls an army to fight, theoretically every soldier does not have to bring his own dry food. The army's food and fodder are all paid for by the national granary.
Now the wheat is also mature. It is completely different from the drooping ears of oats. The wheat ears are straight upward like spearheads, and the density of wheat grains is also significantly higher than that of oats. Of course, the wheat ears here are not so dense that you can't stand them. The yield of wheat fields without chemical fertilizers or even farmyard manure will never be high. Even so, it is visibly stronger than oats. The most striking feature is naturally the wheat ears. There can be as many as twenty grains growing on the ear, and everyone has to admire the British cold-resistant wheat variety that is naturally high-yielding!
The men lined up like a battle formation, swung their scythes across the field, and cut down the wheat stalks in pieces. This was the first large-scale planting of wheat on the land of Novgorod. It was experimental. The planting has produced huge results that are visible to the naked eye, which makes Rurik firmly decide to plant wheat in the spring next year, so that Novgorod, Mstisk and Youth City can make wheat farming their industry.