Rise of Rurik

A brand new city appeared at the mouth of the Neva.

In the beginning, it was just a simple shack made of rammed wood and mud to keep out the cold. With the arrival of the new spring, the urban development began to run wild.

Brand-new agricultural tools began to be used for land reclamation. The sturdy and ingeniously designed curved plough reclaimed the grass-covered land with unprecedented efficiency.

Immigrants and the Rus have long since established fertile land on the fertile riverside.

In the first year, the immigrants set fire to prepare for farming at the lord of the city, Conuson, and in the second spring, on the dark river bank soaked by melting snow, they began to transport from the mother city of Roseburg. The curved plough began to reclaim the land quickly and efficiently. .

Otto came with new immigrants and a lot of supplies, and a larger-scale pioneering operation began.

A large number of grasslands were burned, and then the land was reclaimed by the curved plough pulled by manpower, and then a large number of oat grains were thrown down at will.

Until now, the Rus people who are farming do not know how to plant the fields well. They naturally feel that farming is nothing more than spreading seeds into the soil, burning and cultivating, and a new field is completed. Does it need careful management? No one has experience, or everyone feels that further work is superfluous.

They don't know how to irrigate, they don't know how to fertilize.

But the sky is not kind to them either.

The flow of the Neva River is very large, which has resulted in a large area on both sides of the river being naturally infiltrated. There is no permafrost here, and the soil is moist. It can be said that the Rus people cultivate in this area, and naturally do not need to care too much about irrigation.

As for fertilizers, they have no concept such as using farmyard manure. Also because of traditional habits, they are very willing to seal all human and animal excrement underground.

All the Rus immigrants, with a married man as a small family, made an agreement with the big leader Otto.

Immigrants stand on the field of hope. Even if spring comes a few years later, won't the wheat seedlings still thrive?

The land was wet, and the occasional drizzle made all the riverside farmland even more wet.

According to the agreement, each family must pay a tax to the chief during the harvest season. A farmer who has some knowledge of farming estimates that the tax rate is about 10% for each household of 200 pounds of wheat. No one thought the tax rate was higher, and immigrants generally even thought the chief was benevolent and reasonable.

All kinds of farm tools at hand, a large amount of wheat provided in advance,

Even some poultry and livestock to be reproduced, and even some building materials. Such materials are all provided by the chief family, and the price for obtaining them is to pay taxes to the chief family from generation to generation.

In their hometown of Roseburg, they could not rely on farming to live, and they lived fishing without their own boats, and went out to fight with bad weapons. Only in New Roseburg did they find a future.

Originally, the earliest settlement on the Neva River in history was just a tiny trading post for the Varyag people. Hundreds of years later, the Kingdom of Sweden built a fort here. After the end of the Great Northern War, the Rus talent built a lot here, and it has long been her heart.

The Rus people can't think of what the younger generation will do, but what they are doing now is to present a historical fact in advance.

Otto wants to operate Novgorod as the core area of ​​the future Rus people. Based on this psychological consideration, he should have withdrawn directly to Rosburg with the tribute he had obtained from Novgorod in July. This summer Simply live on the Neva River and do not leave.

The warm summer is always so short, and taking advantage of the pleasant weather, Otto personally led the tribes to step up the construction of everyone's city.

More and more wooden houses appear on both sides of the river, especially the houses at the mouth of the river.

A group of residents of the Novgorod region had to obey Otto's order, took their families on a boat of the Rus, and arrived in the "distant" Novorossburg to settle down.

The vast world could fully accommodate Rus and Slav pioneers.

Otto forcibly took away a group of Slavs to pioneer the land, in order to facilitate the collection of taxes in the future. He felt that these guys lived with the Rus. They couldn't obey the orders of the manor owners in their hometown, but only obeyed the orders of Conuson, who was instructed to govern the local area. They have cut off from the past, and they are a new kind of Rus - taxpayer.

After all, the large and small Slav manors around Lake Ilmen are not monolithic.

Because the Pine Needle Manor took the lead in the resistance, it was the most murdered by the Rus, and the rest of the manor expressed obedience and was not looted wildly. The average-strength manor owners envy the Ligus of the White Tree Manor, which was originally a manor that was excluded from the "Agricultural Area around Ilmen Lake", but they were not only happy to be the dogs of the Varangians, He wagged his tail happily.

Now, those guys are using brand new plows and massive iron tools to start logging and clearing the land.

The manor owners envied Rigus, who was a dog, but they dared not flatter him outright due to practical factors. After all, the Russ people come two or three times a year, and the Pine Needle Manor is seen every day!

Even if there was a blow, there was no essential change in the strengths and weaknesses of the various manors in the Ilmen area.

Manor owners have to consider some regional political factors when choosing who to follow.

Ordinary people don't have the heart to think so much. Their first thought is how to live.

Most people fear the Rus and feel that their promises are nothing more than tricking everyone into being slaves. Where in the world is there such a good thing? Farm tools are returned to the farmland, but the right to use is still indefinite? Most crucially, only two hundred pounds of wheat were collected as a tribute, or tax, each year.

There are always some farmers who feel that they can't survive and decide to take risks. They announce that they will leave the former villagers, and get on the boat of the Russians amid the cynicism and even cursing of their relatives and friends. Now, the large areas of farmland that these people have opened up are about to bear fruit.

New Roseburg has been under rapid construction.

A small group of people went all out to log and build houses, and some people hunted wild animals such as the active hole rabbit and even the clever snow rabbit on a large scale.

The chickens brought from Novgorod, after the winter, the poultry began to multiply so fast that after a whole year, the first chickens had grown into such large populations that the immigrants Every household is raising 20 or 30 of them, and the number is still increasing. Just can't expect how plump these firewood turkeys are, because the white-feather chicken with the highest feed conversion rate was born in the 20th century.

The time was still in mid-August, and in those fields that were first cleared and sown, there were signs of oats heading.

It has to be said that the climate in New Roseburg is better than Lake Mälaren, so the wheat harvest here is earlier.

After all, it is cold this year, and various crops newly planted in New Roseburg have encountered varying degrees of reduced yields and poor harvests. This severe drop in agricultural production is of course also happening in Novgorod.

It was God who brought disasters that reduced agricultural production.

The Slavs of Lake Ilmen made sacrifices, eager to get the help of the lake god to tide over the difficulties.

However, instead of waiting for the Lake God, they fought back the army of Rus who plundered food.

Otto can't manage that much. Each manor must pay not less than one grain of grain, as well as a batch of leather and a batch of honey, all of which must be paid.

Except for White Tree Manor.

It's amazing to say that when Otto saw Svetlana, the youngest daughter of the owner of the White Tree Manor again, she became prettier after not seeing this girl for three months. She was smart and very close to herself, which really warmed Otto's heart. She was his son's destined wife, and the most important one.

Otto reduced the tribute from Whitetree Manor, almost to the point of only paying a nominal amount.

The owner of the manor, Rigus, felt that this was a plan of the Rus, and he still wanted to cultivate a fan who was extremely loyal to the Rus in the Ilmen area.

The result was destined to be so, but the cause was not at all what he thought. It was entirely because Svetlana, a beautiful embryo, made Otto's heart flutter, and loved the house and Wu, so he simply let the residents of the entire White Tree Manor reduce the pressure of tribute.

It is a pity that the girl is only eight years old, and at least according to tradition, she will be engaged to her son Rurik after four years. Oh, if according to the Slavic tradition, it is not an engagement, but a marriage.

What did the girl's old father think? Rigus can't wait for his youngest daughter to marry that Rurik now. He has already obtained great benefits for his manor from the marriage of his eldest daughter. If the youngest daughter...

Rigus's mind Otto can somewhat predict that he gave Rigus a strange order when he was preparing to open with a large amount of looted materials and the Slavs who were ordered to reclaim in New Roseburg. : "Educate your little daughter well and train her to be an excellent wife so that she can be worthy of my son."

Otto's fleet returned to Novi Rosesburg smoothly, and the entire fleet simply stopped at the Neva River. After they unloaded a batch of supplies, they started the autumn harvest under the leadership of Otto.

The wheat and a batch of vegetables have been harvested, and Otto also began to count the various leathers obtained by the immigrants. It takes time to go back and forth. When will the work be completed? I'm afraid it will be delayed until October.

Looking at the thriving scene of New Rose Fort, he admired his vision. This place is flat and fertile, and it is even a little regretful that he didn't bring his clan to pioneer here a few years earlier?

Otto was still sitting in the town of New Roseburg, urging his subordinates to complete the statistics of the collection of wheat taxes and the statistics of various leathers. At the same time, he was also investigating the entire settlement and surrounding areas.

Still in September, a north wind suddenly blew, and the raging cold wind swept across the flat earth. At this time, there was some haze in the sky, and the extreme cold suddenly made him feel very bad.

"It's damn cold! At least build a wind wall for the settlement!"

There was no immediate need to build a wooden wall in New Roseburg.

Just like the city of Moscow, which was the first to build a wooden wall defense system in the history of Rus, the reason for the local nobles to build the wall is to guard against the attack of the neighboring power, which they call the "Kremlin". Sure enough, only half a year after the wooden wall was built, the Lithuanian army was killed under the city of Moscow. Relying on the defense of the wooden wall, the Muscovites persisted to the end in the battle.

However, in today's era of the Neva River and no-man's land, the only people who can really threaten the safety of New Roseburg are bears. As for the most recent force, the Karelians, because of some coincidence, the Rus did not meet this group of people living on the northern shore of Lake Ladoga, and the two sides were ignorant of each other's existence.

Otto decided to build a wall to keep the people from the wind and cold, and by the way, to prevent the beasts from sneaking into the settlement at night. After all, the days are not as good as before. Even if the years are bad, the Ross immigrants still harvested a batch of wheat, and guarding the grain from being destroyed by the beasts and rats has become an important task for them during the winter.

Just as the wooden wall was gradually being built under the supervision of Otto, the appearance of three long ships aroused the instinctual vigilance of a large number of people.

"What? Three ships came? Maybe it's ours? Could it be a messenger?" When Otto learned this information, he felt that the past was strange.

He stopped inspecting the construction site, and went straight to the sandbar at the mouth of the sea with more than 30 people.

Sure enough, there were really three long ships approaching quickly.

"Brothers, it may be a messenger from my hometown, or it may be another friend. We are here to wait for them to dock."

Originally, many people were instinctively worried. In this area, any unidentified person, ordinary Rus immigrants defaulted to being the enemy.

The battle-hardened Otto had full confidence, so he clasped his hands together and stood like a statue, as if Odin had descended to earth.

His stalwart heroism has long been seen by the Rurik brothers.

"Well, if I had the Peugeot of the oars on my sails too, they'd know it was a companion." Arik felt a little regretful.

The cousin's words really reminded Rurik, especially the "stone island" he just passed by was actually Kotlin Island. The so-called if the Rus people want to build a Baltic fleet, then the fleet's current location belongs to the port area. Of course, a fleet must have a unified flag, firstly to distinguish friends and foes in war, and secondly for honor.

If the education level of the tribe is high enough, then hanging various colorful flags representing letters on the cable can piece together a greeting, and the two sides can negotiate over a great distance.

Thinking too much is delusional.

But at this juncture, Rurik already has a plan to start shipbuilding this winter, so it is really important to specify a style of flag.

"St. Andrew's navy flag? Oh, how does that flag resemble the coat of arms we cross? Is it a coincidence? Yes! Just do it. The diagonal bars, just The oar representing the Rus." Thinking of this, Rurik smiled slightly.

Rurik had already figured out what to say to his father after the ship docked, and now the ship was about to land.

The sturdy longboat rushed directly on the soft sandbar. Otto on the shore was overjoyed, and at the same time surprised, how could there be about a hundred soldiers from his hometown ashore?

Otto had a reason for making this judgment, because he knew some faces.

Suddenly, two more familiar figures miraculously appeared.

"Rurik! Arik! You?! Am I dreaming?"

In his panic, Otto couldn't care about the majesty of the leader. He was as happy as a fat man of 200 pounds. Hahaha Zhong ran over and lifted his precious son up. Rurik was also struck by this "sudden heaven". " was taken aback.

"Dear, why are you here?" Otto asked with a smile, putting down his son.

"Yes, I'm here, I just came to see you." Rurik immediately lied. "The high priest is right. Dad, you are indeed here."

"It's Veria? She's really clever, but I'm leaving in a few days. Rurik, don't you miss me coming to me in person?" Otto longed for a touching answer from his son.

"Yes, I just miss you, and I came to see our new Rosberg. Ah, she's not far away." Rurik had already seen part of the standing wall.

Arik's appearance is also very strange. Standing in front of his uncle, he has to express himself a little bit. This is just a whistle, and a partner throws some wheat in his pocket.

"Ah, this is?" Otto asked, pointing.

"It's wheat."

"Huh? Are you going to transport supplies here? By the way, the wheat of the Mellarens has been harvested."

"No! This was snatched from the Baltic people, the big leader. We met those people on the way, we defeated them, haha, we won again."

This was something Otto had never heard of, and he inquired a little and got Rurik's proof.

"Oh, things have become wonderful. How easy is it for you to defeat the difficult Baltic? I am glad you are here. Come on, let your boats keep going, our new Rosberg dock has been built long ago. Okay. Tonight we... By the way, there are rabbits everywhere, tonight we gnaw on rabbits, I hope your little teeth still move."

Hearing it, Rurik couldn't help pinching one of his crumbling front teeth, as well as the other teeth that were starting to loosen. He doesn't have any dental problems, especially since he eats too much meat in his life, Rurik doesn't even suffer from dental caries.

It is entirely because this northern European body has a faster development. The nine-year-old Rurik has entered the period of tooth loss, and the permanent teeth buried in the lower jaw, just like their master's wild vision, are ready to come out.