Maybe some of them are still alive, Rurik certainly hopes so, but the possibility of their survival is indeed slim.
The Russians lost the opportunity to seize wealth in Denmark. In addition, the biggest loss was the missing blue fox.
When Rurik calmed down and regained his senses, he thought carefully about his loss and comforted himself that the loss was not big.
The loss is indeed not big, but it is very insulting.
In Novgorod and Novorosberg, people in various principality settlements are still immersed in the joy of this autumn's harvest.
The prince has openly stated his attitude - revenge must be taken.
The prince chose to use war to vent his anger, and Rus will declare war on Denmark.
Since almost all the immigrants in Ross were around Lake Ilmen, Rurik decided to hold a general meeting first.
In the city of Novgorod, the reserved open space is shared. People are still wielding flails to thresh wheat. There are also children holding branches to scare away the eyeing sparrows to prevent the hard-earned food from being eaten by the birds. .
In the longhouse of the Rosduma Parliament in the city, all the wooden windows were opened, and the benches inside were filled with people.
Everyone is in a good mood. The attitude of the elites and the general public is the same. When the initial anger dissipates, what is left is more of a desire for war.
If you think about it carefully, what does it matter if a group of mercenaries died and the businessman's son Blue Fox died? Maybe this is fate.
At least there must be a reason to launch a large-scale war against Denmark, otherwise it will be difficult to gather momentum just by gathering an army.
Of course Rurik did not use this meeting to declare war on Denmark.
The attitude of starting a war has long been clear. He needs the people who escaped from the "shop attack" incident to describe what they saw and heard in person, so that all the Ross elites can know what happened in the distant place.
Old Eric was born in Denmark. Even if he joined Rus and became a new Rus, the majority of people in Rus would have no idea about him.
In the bright long house, pairs of eyes stared at the old guy wearing a fox fur hat, listening to him tearfully describe what a disaster Ross's shop had experienced in Haideby.
"According to reliable information, a large army entered Denmark. Its leader was Horik Klarsson. He easily mistaken the king of the entire Denmark, and then sent troops to take over the free Hedeby. The Danish king sent to We demanded huge tributes and then expelled us! The King of Denmark said that the Russians were not qualified to do business in Denmark..."
Old Eric said a lot more, and everything he said was true.
He didn't even need to invent some unreasonable demands from his enemies to increase everyone's anger, because just the last so-called "order" was enough to make everyone furious.
The angry bullfighters stared with anger, and everyone was holding their breath.
Then everyone roared angrily, shouting that a war would begin immediately.
Rurik sat on the most noble podium and watched their anger, and also watched as they gradually became quiet.
Suddenly, the unruly Arik stood up again: "A reckless villain calls himself the King of Denmark, and dares to ban our trade. We brought goods to Denmark to do business because we looked up to them, but we didn't expect them. "I don't appreciate it."
"It's me who thinks highly of them!" Rurik shouted in shock, and deliberately blamed himself: "I was responsible for the death of Blue Fox. I naively thought that I just wanted to be quiet. No one will interfere with me when doing business, especially in Heideby, the Borderlands."
The prince is guilty of his own sin, even though many people think it is unreliable to open up the market in Denmark. , now no one dares to stand up and act with the benefit of hindsight.
Rurik’s self-blame was indeed sincere. He also considered the presence of Gould, an old father, to appease his emotions.
Arik took over the conversation carelessly: "So, when will we start the war?!"
"This matter should be considered in the long term. Today, we all have to listen to old Eric's description , you will all face the Danish army in person in Denmark, and we will all have to learn more about our enemy, and finally use our means to achieve an unprecedented victory at a very small cost."
Another beautiful moment. Everyone's ears were filled with calluses from the scene.
Many people whispered that the prince was still too conservative and it was better to restore tradition. Brothers, use this winter to sharpen your knives. Next year, the whole army will go over and see the Danes, kill them all and burn them all!
Old Eric was ordered to continue describing. In his words, Hedeby was indeed a free city, so free that bandits were rampant. The business atmosphere there is indeed strong. Due to banditry, some wealthy merchants are doing business with swords.
The relationship between the Hedebe merchants and the Ross merchants was not hostile, but they still tried their best to make deals.
But the sudden appearance of new forces changed everything!
"So, the man named Horik is the source of all evil?" Arik asked angrily.
"It's him!" Old Eric lowered his head and glanced at Arik, his emotions full of grief and anger. "We should have continued to do business safely, but that man ruined everything."
"Oh? Is that man's army stronger than Hafgen who was killed by us?"
"Indeed. They have cavalry and armored warriors. Their There may be a lot of troops, maybe there is support from the Franks behind them." "Franks? People from the far south?" Arik shook his head and was too lazy to listen, and followed the shouts of his brothers. The atmosphere was arrogant and he shouted: "I will chop off my head anyway!"
Old Eric did say a lot, but these were not enough.
This meeting did allow the elites of the Principality of Ross to have a deeper understanding of the enemy. As for when the war would begin, Rurik did not come up with a clear time point, and simply suspended the meeting with a "reconsideration".
Novgorod has returned to normal lifeLive, a large amount of wheat has been transported by people to their own barns.
Revenge is necessary, so as a more organized national group, it is time for the Principality of Ross to stock up on supplies for the war against Dan, and the first to bear the brunt is military rations.
The autumn harvest has finally come to an end. Even in the so-called fertile fields, the output per hectare is still around two thousand pounds. Without the assistance of fertilizers and irrigation systems, even if technological innovations in sowing only improve efficiency, the increase in yield has not been significantly achieved.
However, farmland in various places has still achieved huge harvests due to economies of scale.
The Slavs who have lived by the lake for generations are happy with their current living conditions. Because the Rus began to farm their own fields, they no longer had to exploit them wildly and demand tribute, which in turn gave them more surplus grain.
It was September, and a rain at the end of August interfered with Rurik's tax collection operations.
This rainfall is the so-called "autumn rain". It is characterized by long, rainy weather that lasted for up to ten days!
When the sun reappeared, the entire climate changed.
Rurik's taxation work began. Others were in Novgorod. Taxation was originally a major task of Governor Medvet. This was the first time that agricultural taxes were collected in the Slavic living area. It was of great significance, so he took action personally as a supervisor.
The empty Ross fleet is anchored in Lake Ilmen, and the fleet’s work around the lake has officially started!
Rurik has data on the acres of all surrendered farms. The data is all on paper, and the area of fertile farmland and poor farmland is recorded very clearly.
Although the principality followed a tithe tax, Rurik set a tax rate per hectare with a stroke of his pen: a tax of 200 pounds for good land, a tax of 150 pounds for middle land, and a tax of 100 pounds for poor land.
Excluding the newly opened acres this year, the entire area around Lake Ilmen exceeds 40,000 hectares. In the foreseeable future, the total number of acres in the prime areas around the lake will continue to increase dramatically.
However, the Ross natives and other Varyag people who have immigrated here currently only control 10,000 hectares of it. For this part of the land, the tax rate is completely different, and there is even a time-limited tax exemption.
Rurik’s own farmland output all went into the state treasury, and the remaining acres became the region’s grain tax base.
Times have changed. Pine Needle Manor no longer acts as a local swindler, and Ross does not need to exploit the local Slavs again.
The Principality received nearly four million pounds of food tax at a low tax rate!
What a crazy concept is this?
If there are 10,000 people in Ross, everyone can eat an average of one pound of oats a day until tax time next year.
The Prince of Rus personally supervises the taxation work. Which farm dares to refuse? Among them, those who paid the most taxes were the White Tree Estates of Novgorod's main residents, who were already the largest Slavic population group in the region.
As of now, all the surrendered manors cannot hide their population and fields. The female scribes of the principality investigated each farm separately.Work diligently, hoping to gain the favor of the prince after achieving real results, and then get the chance to get close to him. In order not to suffer from their own power, the men of White Tree Manor also assisted the clerks in thoroughly investigating the precise number of acres of neighboring farms.
At the time of taxation, collecting taxes based on statistical data and the drawn "fish scale book" is a very scientific and efficient measure, and it can also highlight the importance of taxation to all taxed farms. The fairness of the contract, after all, the tax is indeed not collected randomly. From this work, Rurik also understood that the Russians were too conservative in plundering local materials in the past, and even learned that the productivity of the local Slavs was severely limited by poor agricultural tools in the past.
The principal granaries in Novgorod are full, and Mstisk is also building new granaries to store huge amounts of surplus grain.
The largest granary in the principality is in New Roseburg, so a very critical task is faced by Rurik - transporting at least two million pounds of oats there.
The taxation work around Lake Ilmen has come to an end, and Rurik has also received a huge amount of wheat from his property rights. Only those who know clear data can realize how amazing the food assets of the Russian people are now. Ordinary people can only generally describe that they can live a good life of eating wheat porridge.
Today, in terms of per capita grain possessions, the subjects of the principality have reached a rather outrageous level, and are absolutely ahead of a big country like Frank.
Because the population of the principality is not large, most small families have a large amount of food wealth, but they have very few children.
How to express the ecstasy after the harvest? In addition to people spontaneously offering sacrifices to gods and eating extravagantly, couples also do something they love to hear and see - giving birth.
The Ross natives who picked up shovels and sickles naturally understood the true meaning of agricultural life the moment they became farmers.
They must have as many children as possible, not only because the family can raise more children, but also because children are labor force, and as long as there are more boys, there is more strong labor force. A family with many boys will desperately expand into the forest and cut down the forest to create new farmland. The more farmland there is, the more wealth they will have. This is a business that is sure to make money!
Russians and other Varangians are still excellent fishermen. They are different from Slavic farmers. Now it is too cold to open up wasteland. A large number of fishing boats have begun to appear on Lake Ilmen and Lake Ladoga. , a popular fresh fish trading market appeared in Novgorod. Everything was just like the hometown of Roseburg, except that the fish market here adapted to local conditions. The most popular fish markets were bass and catfish.
The Russians cannot lose the ocean, and New Rossburg is also the central point of political and economic communication between the east and the west of the principality.
The largest amount of food must be stored in the capital, and the large granary there must store enough food for 10,000 people for a whole year before Rurik would really feel at ease. This standard is actually four million pounds of oats. The temporary goal cannot be achieved. At the current speed of the principality's land development in the Eastern European plains, it will eventually be achieved within a few years.
The grain fleet carried two million pounds of oats and one hundred thousand pounds of wheat. The former is a strategic reserve, while the latter is bread for daily consumption.
At the beginning of October, eroded by a bad but rainless cold current, the fleet finally arrived at the mouth of the Neva River.
Rurik is willing to call the sea area at the mouth of the sea Kronstadt. This place is indeed a natural military stronghold, most suitable for anchoring a fleet.
Compared with the Gulf of Bothnia, the entire Gulf of Finland also freezes in winter. According to previous experience, the freezing period at the mouth of the Neva River is generally from the end of November to the end of March of the following year. , it would be better if it encounters a warm winter.
All the large ships in the fleet were anchored and pulled with a large number of cables, which were tied to wooden piles on the shore. Most of the rowing boats have been pulled to the shore and fixed with wooden stakes.
Under the cold current, some people have noticed that the water in the outdoor pottery has frozen over overnight, and few people are walking around in the freezing cold outdoors. Most of the cattle and sheep raised were driven back to their pens, and some reindeer were not afraid of the cold and were still gnawing on the yellow-white grass on the banks of the Neva River in the harsh cold weather.
Rurik's biggest task when he came to the capital was to escort grain into the warehouse, and the second was to pay attention to the construction of the principal temple.
Affected by the bad sea conditions, the work of collecting hard granite on Gogland Island has been suspended, and Slavic people who are eager to make money digging stones have no choice but to give up.
However, the clay-burning workshop was still in operation, and green-gray bricks of acceptable quality were still produced until the clay and charcoal fuel reserves in the workshop were temporarily exhausted.
The Grand Temple will use granite to lay a hard foundation. The stones will be combined with clay to form a hard wall. Cement powder and river sand from the hometown of Fort Ross will be used as adhesives to ensure that the wall is strong.
The construction of the big temple requires enough time, but now the wind is like a knife, and the haze outdoors makes people feel desolate. Men and women who are eager to sell their physical strength to make money can only stay in their warm homes to accompany their children.
The same goes for Rurik as a prince. The palace became a real palace. He accompanied the high priest Rumia in the palace. Apart from her, there were no other wives or concubines around him.
The wind outside became more and more fierce and fierce. It seemed that it was just wind and there was no snowstorm.
Rumia was forced to suspend all sacrificial work, and the little priests recruited unexpectedly (all young girls selected from the local area) were also ordered to go home first and train etiquette later.
Rurik lay calmly in the cold night. His tired body could finally rest, but he was not sleepy at all.
Rumia leaned over. She still had a lot to say to her man, especially about building the great temple, and Rurik just listened to her talk.
"You know what? I have another worry now." Rurik's sudden start made Rumia startled.
"What's wrong? What else can you worry about? You will never pay it backA war against Denmark? Don't worry, I will hold a ceremony to bless all warriors. "
"Oh, not this! "
"What exactly is it? "
"Spuyot. "
"Our great explorer? Yes, he hasn't come back yet. "
"Ah! I'm just worried about him being in danger at sea. I asked them to go to Britain to get food, but they encountered this damn storm on their way back! "
"Don't worry, don't worry about anything. Rumia couldn't help hugging her man tightly: "They are your warriors. They will march to the end of the north and overcome all difficulties." "
What else can Rurik say? Even if he is very confident in the principality's big ship, the imitation Caravel-type sailing ship is still small under the power of nature.
Maybe a storm will really destroy them.
Rurik has no choice but to pray that Spyot and his gang arrive at New Roseburg safely with the British wheat, and everything will come to an end soon.
Because if they can't get into port before the sea freezes in November, there's no need to fantasize.