A gentle spring rain falls on the earth, which greatly accelerates the melting rate of the remaining snow. Although it creates extreme muddy conditions in the entire region, people all know that after the rain ends, when the earth becomes dry, spring plowing will begin. Can be fully activated.
People are waiting at home for the last time. Each farmer has sorted out his own crops, the columbine used for sowing has been repaired properly, and the plows have been wiped to a shiny finish. They checked their shovels, hoes, and axes, checked their baskets and ropes, and washed the linen towels they used to wipe their sweat clean.
Rurik is also preparing for farming. Although the specific planting work is left to servants or even hired by some farmers, there is no doubt that it is important to prepare planting tools and animal resources. Possess excellent resources.
Almost all horses belong to him. Whether the horses are assigned as riding horses or pack horses, in principle, it all depends on his likes and dislikes.
Although in principle the purpose of riding a horse is and can only be used in war, it is best to use it to carry things or pull a curved shaft plow at critical moments.
Whether to use horses or oxen has never been a question for Ross.
Based on the current situation of Rus, or the current situation of Slav farming under Rus, due to economic and historical reasons, they rarely get cattle and only a small number of horses, let alone iron tools. All are extremely scarce. It was ten years ago that the Slavs around Lake Ilmen received large-scale iron exports from the Rus for the first time, and this was how they began to sow innovation.
They have completely evolved from fishing and hunting nomads on the Vistula River into settled farmers. At that time, they relied on human power to pull wooden plows to plow the soil in this way. There were actually very few nobles who could use horses to cultivate the land. .
The Quyuan Plow is one of the key products exported by the Principality of Ross in agricultural technology. Its core component is the metal plow. The plow made of pig iron became a mass-produced tool, including shovels and hoes, which were all cast mass-produced tools.
You can buy a shovel head for only three to five silver coins, and the farmer can make a wooden handle and fasten it tightly to become a shovel or shovel.
Because the curved shaft plow uses up to three shovel heads, as for the wooden structure on it, in principle, the farmer's family can make it themselves. Mass production drove down the price, and the finished plow was priced at one pound of silver coins by Rurik. For an ordinary small Slavic family, if the whole family took good care of the farmland during the warm period, actively worked as part-time handicraft workers for the prince during the slack period, and lived frugally, the year's output would have enough surplus to buy a curved shaft plow.
A group of farmers even modified the shovels they purchased, imitating the curved shaft plow and made their own wooden parts from fir, and finally inserted the shovel at an angle. This was a modification of their traditional wooden plow. Spontaneous personality, although the new plows forcibly transformed by each family have various shapes, they are result-oriented and don't care.
Farmer families at most raise some poultry and rabbits. The chickens they raise do not eat meat, but simply consume eggs. The rabbits they raise eat meat and, more importantly, stare at the rabbit skin.
He was thenOur productivity level is too low, and we must rely on dozens or hundreds of blood-related families to come together. The reclamation, sowing, and harvesting are actually all men, women, and children working together. Now each small family has private property and private land, and the basis of production means for realizing a small-scale peasant economy already exists. The transformation of traditional farms into a vast ocean of small-scale peasant economy is slowly proceeding.
But their productivity level is still too low
Even if they sit on the fertile acres of land on the shores of Lake Ilmen, the fertility of the land is still higher than that of the forest area. In terms of high fertility, the fields in the Kiev region have real black soil, and the climate is very good as it is adjacent to the Black Sea. Controlling the vast plains in the south is on the future road map for Russian conquest, but it is not something that can be done now, let alone in the next few years.
The vast majority of Slavic farmers still have to rely on manpower to cultivate, sow, and bury soil. At least these labor-intensive operations have been replaced by iron plows and columbuses, which are much easier than before.
But the real descendants of the old Rus, as the top ethnic group in the principality, enjoy the love of the prince, and their farming will fully use horses.
The only cows in the Principality of Rus are dairy cows. The purpose of raising cows is to obtain milk to make storable cheese and butter. Their breed is not the Holstein cows with amazing milk production. In essence, it is still the initial domestication of the European aurochs. Those cows have huge horns that point straight forward. If such domesticated cows are frightened, they can spread their hooves and charge wildly. It is not inappropriate to become a tool for killing enemies.
Ross's cattle were not that docile, and Ross's controlled horses were much better overall.
The war horses transformed into plow horses. When they completed the spring plowing, they entered the breeding period of the herd. At that time, all the mares entered the summer training period and fertility period. Ross also takes the opportunity to get some mare's milk.
Mare milk can make wine, but there is no relevant process for making mare kumiss. But mare’s milk can be drunk, and as a special diet, Rurik himself is willing to taste it.
Spring rain nourishes the world, and people of all kinds around Lake Ilmen and Fort New Rose are preparing for spring plowing.
The majority of businessmen simply have to wait for the spring rain to end, because the ice sea has thawed, and all the ships pushed ashore must enter the sea. The goods stored in the warehouse can be transported away as soon as possible. As for whether they can be transported generously to Mälaren, Sweden, or whether they can be transported quietly to Denmark at the risk of being killed, it all depends on the merchant's own wishes.
Russ has been a fur supplier in this area for the past hundred years. Now, Ross's leather industry, or the entire handmade textile and leather industry, has achieved dominance.
Some merchants are no longer transporting simply tanned leather, but finished linen clothes, leather clothes, leather boots, hats, gloves, belts, linen pockets, and even backpacks. After processing once, the price of the finished goods will naturally increase. Merchants are very willing to spend more money to buy it. As second-tier dealers, they can earn more as long as they successfully sell it again.
How Rurik let goAs businessmen from all walks of life plundered their own interests, the finished leather and linen textile products were exported to the West by the Gould family. Since they had to satisfy Ross's own consumption first, the number of products exported to Sweden was not large, and the prices were not set at extremes. , at least the peasant women of the Melalen people can afford it.
Only bear skin, mink skin and fox skin are the best leathers. For example, the price of deer skin has never been able to go up because the supply is too high, while the output of squirrel skin is too extreme, and they have become absolute leather. cheap stuff.
Every settlement is agitated, and every day there are people personally exploring whether the land is still muddy after the rain.
The Slavs need to sacrifice to the God of Spring. The principle is that beautiful girls collect newly grown wild flowers to make corollas, present bouquets to the wood carvings of the gods, pray for warmth, and then offer wheat seeds to pray to the gods for a good harvest. Now that Rus rules here, the rituals of farming have added "bloody" rituals as always.
After all, this year is different from previous years. It can be said that three generations of Russian princes gathered in Novgorod. There is no big temple in this city, but at least there is a stone ship altar made of granite.
The high priest himself was in New Roseburg, so Rurik took up the priest's job as a matter of course.
Although the land is not completely dry, there is mud all over your hands when you hit it with a hoe. The opportunity is fully ripe for worship before spring plowing.
The prince issued a notice to hold sacrificial activities, and thousands of people flocked to the altar outside the city. People dressed in spring clothes dragged their families with them, making the sacrificial scene crowded.
The young and extremely beautiful girl is dressed in a plain white robe, with a corolla made of young pine buds and wild flowers on her head. In order to increase the gorgeousness, some glass beads are also hung on the corolla.
Old Otto never wanted others to see his age-related decline. Anyway, his face was white, so he smeared a small amount of chalk mud powder on his old face to try to cover up some age spots. He has a strange braided beard, a leather helmet inlaid with gold on his head, a bear skin on his body, and a long sword slung at his waist. He used a halberd as a wooden staff, without any support from his entourage, and sat in the posture of an old general to supervise the normal sacrifice.
And Queen Svetlana is holding Osborne Slav with big light blue eyes. In principle, this boy is the first heir to the third generation prince. The queen took the prince to participate in the priesthood before spring plowing, just to give the Slavs, the largest number in the region, a good look.
A stag was killed by Rurik himself as a sacrifice, and the earth was moistened with its blood as a sacrifice to the god of spring and wealth in Rus. The ceremony continues with the presentation of flowers and wheat seeds to the Slavic god of spring.
This is not the end yet. A fire tower will still be lit at night. There is no special reason, but Rurik himself likes it.
At night, the fire tower lit up. Although it was not large, it attracted a lot of people to watch. People all worship fire, so the prince's insistence on lighting the fire tower naturally had his own intention. Flame represents power, burning fireSeedlings are also like a starting signal.
The next day was a perfect sunny day
The time had already entered April in the Julian calendar. Although Rurik himself was not in New Roseburg, he was sure that the businessmen there had already started. Take action. Because here in Novgorod, many forces are ready to move.
Kagan and Maksakye urged the Russians to quickly start spring plowing. They took the opportunity to lend horses to farmers for plowing, and took the opportunity to earn some supplies. After that, they organized horse teams to go south with a large amount of goods home. .
The mood of King Bjorn of Sweden is extremely complicated. He is not really willing to give up the throne, but the current situation forces him to give up the throne. Rurik of Rus gave himself a decent enough opportunity. He knew that he could not delay the time, but it was already April. The Prince of Rus himself would come to Lake Mälaren and be crowned King of Sweden at the Great Temple of Uppsala. .
The mentality of other nobles was surprisingly consistent. They wanted Rurik to arrive at Lake Malaren quickly to complete his enthronement, and they wanted to take the boat back now.
The Swedish nobles and noble envoys all arrived in the hinterland of the far east on the Ross ship. They all clearly noticed that the people here were preparing for spring plowing with great fanfare, which suddenly made them very nervous, for fear of being far away in the west. In their own territory, their own clansmen cannot do spring plowing.
These same people are expecting another thing to order a big ship.
The Hortra family built two new shipbuilding workshops in the east. The second eldest son of the family, Karl and the third eldest son, Stein, managed New Rus' under the arrangement and funding of Rurik himself respectively. There are two shipbuilding workshops in Fort and Novgorod.
In Novgorod, Lao Sanstein, who is in charge of the local shipbuilding business, due to industrial structural arrangements, he mainly manufactures traditional rowing long boats in the inner lake area, and this winter He has already built a standard armed cargo ship and fishing boat based on the copied design drawings.
As many as four large ships are hidden in the large, airtight wooden factory. Thanks to the inexhaustible supply of giant fir trees in the area, the factory can still be built huge with wooden materials.
Rurik was the first to announce the sale of a standard cargo ship to old Swedish friends, one for one hundred pounds of silver coins. He had very flexible standards and doubled the price on the pretext of a snowstorm.
Look at these nobles. They are scrambling to see how the boats they have built for a winter are doing. Rurik's deliberate price increase did not dissuade them from buying the boats at all.
Spring plowing will inevitably begin in full force in the next two or three days. For Ross's inland shipyards, as the ground becomes dry enough, key work will also be carried out.
The Swedish nobles, who have been looking forward to the big ship for a long time, have been asked not to spy on the construction progress of the shipyard, but they still quietly sent spies to gather information, and they were convinced that the Russians were building ships at an extremely fast speed. Big ships, the Melalen tribe will indeed be able to get the five ships they ordered at a huge cost this year.
The nobles all received the invitation, oneThe two arrived outside the shipyard under the guidance of Rurik.
"I saw you laid a lot of pine wood. What is this?" Bjorn couldn't help but ask.
Rurik secretly wondered why this guy has never seen the world. He pointed to the rows of peeled pine trees, "This is the track. They will push out the hull of the big ship in a while." "
Bjorn was a curious baby, and pointed to another wooden pole and a huge staircase assembled on the side of hemp rope. "What is that?"
"It is the place where the mast is installed. "King of Sweden, don't ask any more questions, just watch with peace of mind." Bjorn was more talkative, and Prince Kagan and Maksakye of Pecheneg were also watching. I was surprisingly curious watching the process of Ross building the big ship, because he didn’t understand it at all, so he just couldn’t talk about it.
The track began to be smeared with a mixture of whale oil and seal oil by craftsmen carrying wooden barrels. Behind it, after opening the wooden door, two rows of strong men walked out. More than 30 people pulled some cables reasonably to lift the inner parts. The hull of the ship was pulled out with force.
The waterline length of a standard cargo ship is also equivalent to thirty meters. It is quite slender, especially after it is pulled outdoors. The main mast, a small tail mast, and a narwhal-like mast are required to be replaced. forward mast. Even for a standard cargo ship, improvements to it have never been heard of. The hull itself will not change. The objects added to the hull are just the imagination of the shipbuilder.
The process of installing the mast is very exciting. For the Hotla family, this is just a laborious job. The brothers and hired men are all very skilled.
It was only the morning, and the four ships that were pushed out had all completed the installation and fixation of their masts, and even the mainmast's jib was hung up.
The four boats entered and were pushed to the lakeside in full view of everyone. Each boat stood on a very delicate platform. It was obvious that if the four cables pulling the big boat were broken, each boat could turn sideways and follow the lake. The high-incline slide slides into the lake.
The boat launching process is another wonderful thing.
Each industry believes in its own patron saint. Even if Rurik, who has been blessed by God, is present, Steinhotlasson is adhering to the tradition of his family and industry. If he builds a boat, he doesn’t need to pay too much attention to it. Building any large ship with a deck requires some care.
Instead of Rus’ customary sacrifice of deer, the Hotla family sacrificed fresh fish.
They sacrificed fish and prayed to the river gods, lake gods, and sea gods. After that, people holding torches rushed to the ships and burned the cables directly.
Rurik never paid much attention to this kind of thing. He didn't expect that they would use this method to break the rope. Obviously this is the professionalism of masters in the shipbuilding industry, so he watched the whole process with interest.
The cable caught fire and slowly began to tear and be torn off. A large ship suddenly slid into the water and splashed violently. Although the hull shook very violently, it swayed left and right for a while and then stabilized. Come down.
The four boats fell asleep one after another, and the onlookers cheered when they witnessed this grand occasion.
Bjorn's nervous face finally showed a smile. He approached Rurik, completely ignoring the attitudes of other nobles and envoys, pointing to the four boats launched into the water, "I bought you five boats, these four are It belongs to me and you have to help me lead it back to Melalen."
"Yes. But the money"
"I will pay it in August. I guarantee it with my honor. You can chop off my head. As for other things," Bjorn said seriously and winked hard.
"I know, you don't need to remind me."
It would be better for Bjorn to be the king, but it is difficult for Rus to directly rule Melalen, and he still has to support an agent to manage it. There is no doubt that the person is still Bjorn. This is a secret political deal between Rurik and this guy.
Four boats were launched, and in fact, thousands of people watched the process. For the big boat to be as steady as water, the onlookers thought this was a good sign.
Spring plowing activities have finally begun. All along the shores of Lake Ilmen, regardless of men, women, old or young, or high or low status, almost everyone is involved in spring plowing work.
As a monarch, Rurik deliberately put on a show. In the eyes of the people, he and Queen Svetlana worked together to control the horse-drawn plow to sow wheat in the prince's private fields.
He symbolically did the work for the first time, and then articles praising the hard work of the prince and his wife were printed on paper and posted everywhere. What the prince did with his private land was up to him and the people had no interest in it, but they were happy that the prince showed an emphasis on farming.
Horses are used as much as possible for spring plowing. Due to the abundant labor force, spring plowing work is carried out in Novgorod, Mstisk, Youth City, and the three core control areas of the Rus on Lake Ilmen. It will be completely over within ten days, and the people have seemingly entered a slack period. Rurik is not willing to let everyone be idle.
He also issued another order to gather the brave men in the principality, organize an army, and take the main force of the fleet directly to Lake Mälaren to obtain the throne of Sweden belonging to Rurik.
In this way, the old Russians, Vikings and Slavs from all walks of life are excited about it. Everyone hopes that they can win this honor and witness the promotion of Rurik's title from prince to king. ,Please remember:,Free fastest update No anti-theft No anti-theft