Rise of Rurik

Perhaps some of them were alive, Rurik hoped so, but the chances of them surviving were slim indeed.

The Rus lost their chance to seize wealth in Denmark, and the biggest loss was the missing blue fox.

When Rurik's mood calmed down and he regained his senses, he thought about his loss carefully, and he could comfort himself that the loss was not big.

The loss is really not big, but it is very insulting.

Novgorod and Novgorod, the settlements of the various principalities are also immersed in the joy of this autumn harvest.

The prince has publicly stated his attitude - he must take revenge.

The prince chose to vent his anger by means of war, and Ross would declare war on Denmark.

Since almost all the settlers from Rossburn were around Lake Ilmen, Rurik decided to convene a convention first.

In Novgorod City, the reserved open space is shared, and people are still waving flails to beat the wheat, and some children are holding branches to disperse the coveting sparrows, so as to avoid the hard-earned food being eaten by the birds.

The long house of the Roth Duma parliament in the city, all the wooden windows are open, and the benches inside are full of people.

Everyone was in a good mood, the elites had the same attitude as the general public, and when the initial anger dissipated, what remained was more of a desire for war.

Think about it carefully, what is the death of a group of mercenaries and the death of the businessman's son Lanhu? Maybe this is fate.

To launch a large-scale war against Denmark, at least there must be a reason to take action, otherwise it will be difficult to gather momentum just by assembling a large army.

Rurik certainly did not use this meeting to declare war on Denmark so simply.

The attitude of starting the war has already been made clear. He needs the parties who escaped from the "shop attack" incident to personally describe what they saw and heard, so that all the Rus elites know what happened in the faraway places.

The old Eric was born in Denmark. Even if he joined Ross to become a new Ross, the majority of the people of the Ross native had no sense of it.

In the bright longhouse, a pair of eyes stared at the old guy in the fox fur hat, listening to him tearfully describe what disaster the Ross store had experienced in Hazelby.

"According to reliable information, a large army entered Denmark, headed by Horrick Klarsson, who easily mistaken the king of the whole of Denmark, and then sent troops to take over the free Hazelby. The king of Denmark demanded a huge tribute from us, and then expelled Us! The King of Denmark says that the Rus are not qualified to do business in Denmark..."

Old Eric said a lot more,

Everything he said is true.

He didn't even need to invent some unreasonable demands of the enemy to increase everyone's anger, because just the last so-called "order" was enough to make everyone angry.

The angry bullfighting people were full of anger, and everyone was holding back their anger.

Then everyone roared furiously, shouting that they were going to fight immediately.

Rurik watched their anger from the most noble rostrum, and watched them gradually quieten down.

Suddenly, the rebellious Arik stood up again: "A scoundrel who doesn't know what to do is calling himself the King of Denmark, and he dares to forbid us from trading. We take goods to Denmark to do business because we look down on them, but they don't appreciate it."

"It's me who thinks highly of them!" Rurik shouted in shock, and then deliberately blamed himself: "I am responsible for the death of the blue fox, and I naively thought that as long as I did business quietly, especially in the sea of ​​Borderlands Zeby does business and no one will interfere with me."

The prince is guilty of his own fault, and even though many people think that developing the market in Denmark is unreliable, no one dares to stand up and do hindsight now.

Rurik's self-blame was genuine, and he also took into account the presence of Gould, the old father, to soothe his emotions.

Arik took it carelessly: "So, when will we start a war?!"

"This matter should be considered in the long run. Today, we will all listen to old Eric's description. You will all face the Danish army in Denmark. All of us need to learn more about our great enemy, and finally use the means to minimize An unprecedented victory at a price.”

It was another beautiful scene, and everyone heard calluses.

Many people whispered that the prince is still too conservative, it is better to restore the tradition, brothers use this winter to sharpen their knives, next year, the whole army will kill the Danes and see them, kill and burn everything!

Old Eric was instructed to continue to describe, in his mouth, Hazelby is indeed the city of freedom, free to the point where bandits are rampant. The business atmosphere there is indeed strong, because of the robbers, some wealthy merchants are all sword-wielding merchants.

Far from being hostile, those Hazelby merchants and Ross merchants managed to make deals.

But the sudden appearance of a new force changed everything!

"So, that man named Horrick is the root of all evil?" Arik asked angrily.

"It's him!" Old Eric lowered his head and glanced at Arik, full of grief and anger, "We should have continued to do business safely, that man ruined everything."

"Oh? Could that man's army be stronger than the Hafgen we killed?"

"Indeed. They have cavalry, they have armoured warriors. They may be very large, and maybe they have Frankish support behind them."

"Frank? People from the far south over there?" Arik shook his head and was too lazy to listen, and shouted arrogantly in the atmosphere of the commotion of his brothers: "I'll cut off my head anyway!"

Old Eric did say a lot, but it wasn't enough.

This meeting did give the elites of the Principality of Ross a deeper understanding of the enemy. As for when Rurik would start the war, he did not come up with a clear time point, so he simply suspended the meeting with a "reconsideration".

Normal life has returned to Novgorod, and large quantities of wheat have been transported to their own barns by the people.

Revenge is a must, then as a more organized group of countries, it is time for the Principality of Ross to stock up on materials for the war against Denmark, and the first thing to do is military rations.

The autumn harvest is finally over, and even the so-called fertile fields still yield around 2,000 pounds per hectare. Without the aid of fertilizers and irrigation systems, even though technological innovations in sowing have only increased efficiency, yield gains have not been appreciably achieved.

However, the farmland in various places has made great harvests because of the scale effect.

For the Slavs who have lived by the lake for generations, they are happy with the current living conditions, because the Rus people started farming on their own, so they didn't have to frantically exploit and demand tribute, and in disguise they had more surplus food in their hands.

It was September, and a rain in late August disrupted the tax collection in Rurik.

This rainfall is the so-called "autumn rain", which is characterized by a long period of time, and the rainy weather lasted for up to ten days!

When the sun reappeared, the entire climate changed.

The taxation work in Rurik began. Others were in Novgorod. Taxation was a major task of the Governor Medvet. This was the first time to collect agricultural tax in the Slavs living area. The first time was of great significance. start by themselves.

The empty Ross fleet is moored at Lake Ilmen, and the fleet's work around the lake has officially started!

Rurik has the data of all the fields of the surrendered farms. The data are all on paper, and the area of ​​fertile fields and bad fields is very clearly recorded.

Although the Principality pursued eleven taxes, with a stroke of his pen, Rurik set the tax rate per hectare: 200 pounds for good fields, 150 pounds for middle fields, and 100 pounds for bad fields.

Except for the newly opened fields this year, the whole area of ​​fields around Ilmen Lake exceeds 40,000 hectares. In the foreseeable future, the total number of acres in the prime areas surrounding the lake will continue to skyrocket.

However, the current immigrant Rosborne and other Varyags control only 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.

The output of Rurik's own farmland went into the treasury, and the rest of the farmland was the grain tax base of the region.

Times have changed, and there is no more nefarious business in Pine Needle Manor, and Ross does not need to exploit the local Slavs twice.

The Principality got nearly four million pounds of grain tax at a low rate!

What a crazy concept is this?

If there were a full ten thousand people in Roth's headquarters, everyone could eat an average of one pound of oats a day until next year's tax time.

Maharaja Ross personally oversees the taxation work, which farm dares to refuse? Among them, the most taxed is the White Tree Manor of the main inhabitants of Novgorod, who are already the most populous Slavic population group in the region.

Up to now, all the submissive manors could not hide the population and fields. The female scribes of the principality investigated the farms separately. They all worked diligently and hoped that after achieving real results, they would be favored by the prince, and then get the opportunity to get close. In order not to suffer losses for their own power, the men of White Tree Manor also assisted the scribes to do their best to thoroughly investigate the exact number of acres of neighboring farms.

Just at the moment of taxation, it is a very scientific and efficient measure to collect taxation according to the statistical data and the drawn "fish scale book", and it can also highlight the fairness of the contract to all the taxed farms. Not random. From this work, Rurik also understood that the Rus people were still too conservative in looting local materials in the past, and even learned that the productivity of the local Slavs in the past was severely limited by poor agricultural tools.

The granary of the principality in Novgorod is full, and Mstisk is also building a new granary to prepare a huge amount of surplus grain.

The largest granary in the Principality was in Novo Rosburgh, and Rurik faced a very crucial task—carrying over at least two million pounds of oats.

The taxation work around Lake Ilmen has come to an end, and Rurik has also received a huge amount of wheat on his own property. Only those who know the clear data can realize how amazing the food assets of the Rus people are now. Ordinary people can only describe in general terms that they can live a good life of eating porridge.

Today, only in terms of per capita food availability, the subjects of the Principality have reached an outrageous level, and they are definitely ahead of a big country like the Franks.

Because the population of the Principality is not large, most small families hold a lot of food wealth, but they have very few children.

How to vent your post-harvest ecstasy? In addition to the people spontaneously offering sacrifices to the gods and eating a lot, it is the thing that couples love and hear - giving birth.

The Rosbon people who picked up the shovel and sickle naturally understood the true meaning of agricultural life the moment they became farmers.

They must have as many children as possible, not only because families can raise more children, but because children are labor, and as long as there are more boys, more strong labor. A family with many boys will desperately expand into the forest, cutting down the forest to create new farmland. The more farmland, the more wealth it belongs to. This is a business that is sure to make money!

The Rus and other Varyags are still excellent fishermen. They are different from the Slavic farmers. If it is cold today, it is not suitable for land reclamation. A large number of fishing boats have begun to appear on the lakes of Ilmen and Ladoga, and the fresh fish trading market is booming. Appearing in Novgorod, everything is like the old town of Rosberg, except that the fish market here is mostly perch and catfish.

The Rus people cannot lose the sea, and the New Rose Fort is also the central point of the Principality's political and economic connection between the East and the West.

The largest amount of grain must be stored in the capital, and the large granary there needs to store 10,000 people to eat for a whole year before Rurik can really feel at ease. This standard is actually four million pounds of oats. The temporary goal cannot be achieved yet. With the current speed of the Principality's development of land in the plains of Eastern Europe, it will eventually be achieved within a few years.

The grain fleet was loaded with two million pounds of oats and a hundred thousand pounds of wheat. The former is a strategic reserve, and the latter is bread for daily consumption.

Just at the beginning of October, eroded by a bad but rainless cold snap, the fleet finally reached the mouth of the Neva.

Rurik was willing to call the waters at the mouth of the sea Kronstadt, and this place was indeed a natural military hub, most suitable for anchoring a fleet.

Compared with the Gulf of Bothnia, the entire Gulf of Finland is also frozen in winter. According to the experience of previous years, the freezing period of the estuary of the Neva River is probably from the end of November to the end of March of the following year. All right.

All the large ships of the fleet were anchored and pulled with a large number of cables, which were tied to the stakes on the shore. Most of the paddling boats had been pulled ashore and staked down.

Under the cold current, some people have noticed that the water stored in the outdoor Tao Weng has formed thin ice overnight, and there are few people walking around in the cold outdoor. Most of the cattle and sheep raised were driven back to the pens, and some reindeer, fearless of the cold, were still gnawing on the yellow-white grass on the Neva River in the harsh cold weather.

The biggest task of Rurik came to the capital is to escort food into the warehouse, and the second is to pay attention to the construction of the great temple of the duchy.

Affected by the bad sea conditions, the work to collect hard granite on Gogran Island has been suspended, and the Slavic people who are eager to dig stones to make money can only give up.

On the contrary, the clay-burning workshop was still in operation, and the green-grey bricks of reasonable quality were still being produced, until the clay and charcoal fuel reserves in the workshop were temporarily exhausted.

The Great Temple will have a hard foundation with granite, and the stones will be combined with clay to form a hard wall. The cement powder and river sand from the homeland of Roseburg will be used as an adhesive to ensure the firmness of the wall.

The construction of the Great Temple needs enough time, but now the wind is like a knife, and the haze outdoors is desolate. Men and women who are eager to sell their physical strength to make money can only stay in a warm home to accompany their children.

It was the same for Rurik as a prince. The palace became a real palace. He accompanied Rumia, the high priest, in the palace. Apart from her, there were no other wives and concubines by his side.

The wind outside was getting more and more shrill, and it seemed that it was just windy, and there was no blizzard.

Lumia was forced to suspend all the ritual work, and the little priests (all young girls selected from the local area) who were recruited by surprise were also ordered to go home first, and the training of etiquette would be discussed later.

Rurik lay peacefully in the bleak night, his tired body could finally rest, but he was not sleepy at all.

Rumia snuggled up, she still had a lot to say to her man, especially about the construction of the Great Temple, and Rurik listened to her words.

"You know what? I have one more concern right now." Rurik's sudden start made Rumia's body startled.

"What's wrong? You...what else can you worry about? It will never be a war against Denmark? Rest assured, I will hold a ceremony to bless all the soldiers."

"Oops, not this one!"

"what exactly is it?"

"Speuter."

"Our great explorer? Yes, he hasn't come back yet."

"Ah! I was just worried that he would be at risk at sea. I sent them to Britain for food, but on the way back there was this damn storm!"

"Don't worry, don't worry about anything." Rumia couldn't help hugging her man tightly: "They are your warriors, they will go to the end of the north and will overcome all difficulties."

What more can Rurik say? Even though he was very confident in the Principality's big ships, the Caravel-like sailboat was still insignificant under the power of nature.

Maybe a storm will really destroy them.

Rurik had no choice but to pray that Spuyut and his group arrived at New Roseburg safely with British Wheat, and everything would be known soon.

Because if they can't get into port before the sea freezes in November, no more fantasies.