Rurik didn't hate wine at all. He actually knew that the people brewed ale that was very low-grade. It had a mellow taste and was quite bitter. If hops are added, ale is upgraded to beer. In an era when beverages were extremely scarce, ale became a very important beverage compared to tasteless pure water.
Still under eight years old, he still enjoyed the so-called mead this winter.
There are two types of mead in Russia. One is honey diluted and then fermented. Its taste is like syrup.
The other is a concoction of bitter ale mixed with honey. Ale wine has a slightly higher alcohol content than fermented mead, but not everyone likes the bitterness. Adding honey makes a big difference.
In particular, at the mass wedding of Novgorod women, the drink that the newlyweds quoted was actually ale mixed with honey.
There is even a saying here that life always coexists with bitterness and sweetness.
Of course, people in the southern European world can also get a large amount of wine as a delicacy. Some wealthy people and nobles who are addicted to wine have not developed alcoholic liver disease, but have developed diabetes in advance!
Rurik took his father's hand and headed to Gould's seaside cabin. He also brought his servant Rumia with him. Firstly, he showed that he was dignified, and secondly, he also allowed her to see the world, who would have to bear important responsibilities in the future. .
The day was still short, and when the soft light of the setting sun shone on the ice on the entire beach, Rurik saw the black shadows shaking on the sea. Needless to say, those guys were still catching seals.
Human damage to nature is still limited. The Russians have captured all the wild reindeer in the area, and seals are still easy to capture.
The population of Arctic seals is very large. In the Baltic Sea alone, the seal population in this region is still close to half a million. After all, they are a kind of mammal, and their special fur blocks the erosion of salt water. They are similar to fresh water and sea water, so there are still traces of Baltic seals in Lake Ladoga and even some rivers further inland.
Rurik knew that after purification, seal oil is a slightly yellowish transparent oil, and after it solidifies, it is almost pure white. At present, all soaps are made from it, and seal oil does not have a serious odor. If it were not for the brown color of the plant ash solution, the soap made by myself should be translucent white!
Just now in the soap warehouse, Rurik learned that Gould's excitement about soap came partly from the color of the soap. In this time and space, people are extremely short of all consumer goods. Anything with bright colors can move people. Businessmen naturally see business opportunities at the first opportunity with their keen eyes.
After a while, Rurik stood in front of Gould's so-called mansion.
It is said to be a mansion, but its appearance is not outstanding. Unlike other houses, Gould had ordered his entourage to clear away all the snow on the roof, revealing its rows of wooden planks. The herringbone formed by this plate alone does show different architectural features from the Ross tribe.
"Let's go, great leader. I had the house renovated last year. I hope you won't mind how messy it is."
Messy? Gould actually spoke with great humility. Ryuri took Rumia's slender arm and followed his father Otto into the house.
This is a huge warm long house. It still has no floor, but the sand and gravel on the ground have obviously been processed, that is, they have been tamped flat by heavy objects.
What Gould called messiness didn't exist at all. It was obviously beautifully decorated and the overall layout looked very neat.
In fact, it is still an integrated longhouse, with wooden boards dividing the interior into a living room, a servants' living room, and the master's bedroom.
There are some shields hanging on the wooden walls, as well as axes with gold patterns that are both decorative and practical. There are also some raised wooden supports holding bronze oil lamps.
Compared with other houses, Gould's long house is better waterproof because its roof is made of multi-layer wooden boards. Although there are no ceramic rainproof tiles here, Gould still achieved the effect of tiles by using hard oak planks arranged at random intervals.
Standing in the middle of the hall of the house, Rurik looked up and could only see the largest wooden beam in the longhouse.
The wooden beam is the structural key of the entire longhouse. It can be imagined that if this wooden beam is used as the keel of the ship, it will not be a problem to build a thirty-meter-long transport ship.
Three iron cables hung down a large bronze chandelier. The chandelier held up to thirty-two oil lamps, which were arranged in a radial pattern with a mathematical beauty. Thanks to this large matrix of oil lamps, the entire house did not need a bonfire, and it looked quite impressive. for bright.
All the oil lamps on the walls were lit, and with the largest chandelier, the whole house was very warm.
After a while, Gould clapped his hands and called his entourage to the living room.
There were four warriors, two young maids, and a man wearing a linen robe.
Seeing the samurai, Otto almost instinctively grasped the hilt of his sword.
Seeing this, Gould waved quickly, and the fat on his face trembled: "My leader, don't be nervous. You see, these are my people, and some of them live in another longhouse."
Otto relaxed a little and teased: "Gould, it seems that your life is very nourishing. You still need young women to serve you, but does this make some of your other women disgusted?"
"You mean my maids? Hehe, they are just humble slaves. Have you noticed their reddish hair? These are two Britons. My leader, maybe you don't know well, those Danes have recently In recent years, we have always captured some slaves from the island called Britain in the west, and even we can buy some for some money."
"This...I have heard something, but we don't need those servants."
"But you have also made changes." Gould glanced at Rumia next to Rurik and pointed out: "You also chose a maid for your son. You are indeed different. I also think you are You plan to make this humble deer herder the wife of your son. I have found out the truth. You are really a little strange. The treatment you give to your servants is too high!"
"Don't mention this matter any more." Otto waved his hand, "You ask for the blanket, I want to have a rest. And bring your good wine and meat, I want to see what you say. What is wine?”
"Okay!" Gould slapped his thigh and asked the skinny man to bring the food. It turns out this man is just a chef.
He called to the chef to bring over the food that had been prepared, along with leather blankets and low wooden tables.
Many tribal people have no table to eat at all, just because there is no urgent need. Otto would also sit cross-legged during meals on weekdays, pick up the meat in the pottery basin and eat it, or drink the soup with a spoon while holding a set of bowls.
Gould's life was so particular that Otto actually felt a little uncomfortable facing the cold barbecue on the table.
The barbecues are all cold, and what is served is actually beef with a thin layer of butter attached to it. Rurik received exactly the same care as his father, but poor Rumia could only sit aside and watch obediently because of her status as a servant.
Dinner was cold beef and some rye bread. There is also a little dried cranberry as a side dish, and the sweet taste is precious.
As wealthy as Gould, he did not feel that this reception was inappropriate for the great chief of the Rus people, because he also ate these foods on weekdays.
The most important thing about this dinner is the wine!
"Great leader, please wait a moment and I will get you my treasure."
Gould stood up and walked into his bedroom. After a while, he came out carrying three transparent bottles.
He was actually holding a transparent bottle!
Rurik was bored, holding a meat-cutting knife, trying to cut the cold roast beef into pieces. He felt that he could not destroy such a large pile of Rumia that was given to him no matter what. The two children could always kill it.
He saw the three glass bottles that Gould was only holding. Their almost transparent appearance was really shocking.
It is as if these bottles did not come from the ninth century AD at all, as if some time traveler deliberately left them in the cracks of history. In the end, the extremely cheap bottles, which cost only a dime, became Gould's treasures.
But that's not really a bottle from a thousand years later.
Gould proudly placed the three pancakes on his low table. The liquids of different colors in them were still shaking, and Rurik even saw the bubbles in them.
The heights of the pancakes vary, as do the details of their shapes, and in some places they have a crooked texture.
After looking closely, Rurik relaxed his mood and made sure that she was not from the future, but rather from this era and was created by some magical craftsmen.
Rurik had already made an estimate in his mind about the origin of the bottles. Perhaps they came from Eastern Rome or Persia. As for glass, it was given the name "glass" to the East because it was produced in Persia.
Gould proudly faced the astonished leader Otto and boasted: "Great leader, maybe compared to wine, these three bottles of mine are the greatest treasures."
"Yes...I...I know. This is a crystal bottle. You actually have such a treasure."
When Rurik heard his father's words, the hairs all over his body stood up for a moment. The words crystal and bottle were spoken twice in Norse and became a combined word. The co-author's father knew the concept of crystal bottle and also knew its value.
Gould shook his head: "No. It is not a crystal bottle, and it is not as precious as a crystal bottle. It may come from Rome, or it may come from further east. In short, I spent a lot of time to get these three bottles. That’s a lot of money. Come to think of it, I paid twenty gold pieces for each bottle.”
"So expensive? Only people like you can sell a bottle for the price of a ship." Otto praised with envy.
"Now you can too!" Gould boasted, "Your son has made a huge fortune for you, I know this very well. You see, those soaps have now made the lovely Rurik very rich. .”
"My son is too young."
"No! I can see that he must be a business genius. A great leader and future leader. I am eager to cooperate further with you."
Taking advantage of this dinner, Gould frantically unleashed his kindness. Rurik could hear this man's flattery. Youdao means you can't wait until there is no profit. The reason why a senior businessman can say a series of flattery words must be that the businessman feels that in-depth cooperation means huge business opportunities.
Since the other party showed strong goodwill, Rurik, who kept silent, directly expressed his decision.
"Gould, I like these bottles of yours very much. You don't have new ones yet? I have a lot of money now, and if I can, I hope to buy them from you. I will give you a price that satisfies you."
"Really?" Gould's mind was spinning wildly when he sensed a business opportunity. He immediately responded respectfully, "I'm sorry, my little master, these are the three here. I can't bear to part with them. But I will try it in the south. Luck, if I can buy it at the market, I will offer it to me when I come back in the autumn."
"Well, you'd better find out whether they come from Rome or the more eastern world." Rurik was very interested in this, and for a moment he began to think about the possibility of making it himself.
Many ethnic groups around the world know how to carve a piece of natural crystal into a cup. During China's Spring and Autumn Period, kings such as Chu State already had their own World Cup. In the Tang Dynasty, such cups were called "luminous cups", and poems about luminous cups of grape wine have been circulated.
More ancient ones include the pharaohs of ancient Egypt. In the tombs of the temples, there were not only crystal cups, but also weapons made of meteorite.
Rurik felt that these glass bottles came from Persia. The big food merchants trafficked them to Eastern Rome and then resold them to Gould. The merchants had to make money every time they resold them. The so-called twenty silver coins were A fifth of a Roman pound of gold! It's a huge sum of money!
He knew very well that the main component of glass is silica, so the most critical raw material for making glass is quartz sand. For example, if you crush a large piece of beautiful crystal crystal column, melt it and re-plasticize it, can you create something that can Where's the glass that makes do?
Rurik thought of the high-temperature gelatinous slag flowing out of the blacksmith's furnace. When the slag cools naturally, it has a glass-like texture.
Perhaps when the Persians were smelting iron or making pottery, they discovered that ores and pottery clay containing a lot of quartz sand would become special after heating. This was the creative way to directly burn quartz sand, and some chance coincidence created an almost transparent cooling object.
By adding some lead soil, the so-called lead dioxide, a by-product of smelting silver, and calcium oxide, which is widely available in mountainous areas, practical glass can be made. But it is not pure, and impurities that are difficult to remove cannot guarantee absolute transparency, so it is more appropriately called colored glaze.
After sorting out the knowledge in his mind, Rurik felt that there seemed to be no problem with the craftsmanship of using sand from the coast and lead from the blacksmith shop to create a glass container in the remote Roseburg.
Look at these three glass bottles. They are obviously blown bottles. It can be seen that their makers already have very mature "bottle blowing" technology.
Cheap glass bottles were actually produced efficiently during the era of great industrial development in the 20th century. Even in the 19th century, bottles were all blown out by craftsmen. Even so, in the 21st century, there is still a huge market for professional bottle blowing craftsmen.
The reason for the magical physical properties of glass still does not have a very reasonable scientific explanation, and it still puzzles people in the 21st century. This mass of calcium silica and lead-based material has extremely strong plasticity after heating, and craftsmen since ancient times have been able to make it into a variety of shapes.
In addition to becoming daily necessities, they can even be transformed into weapons, such as using glass as arrows or other things.
Let’s look at the three bottles of wine Gould laid out. If one bottle contains pure “water of life”, that is, a spirit purified to 97%, it is no longer considered wine. This makes the glass bottle perfect as a fragile container for an incendiary weapon.
liquor? Pure wine?
Rurik had immediately figured out how to make glass in his mind, and even came up with a great money-making plan to talk about it with the blacksmith Klavasen and put it into practice.
His attention suddenly shifted to the three bottles of wine on Gould's desk.
Of these three glass bottles, the left bottle is dark red and should be wine. The color of the middle bottle is yellowish, which may be honey fermented wine or ale. As for the bottle on the right, it can’t be filled with plain water!
Gould kept saying that they were all wine. Could it be that the bottle on the far right contained...
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Chapter 116 Glass Bottles from the Ninth Century
