The wheat harvest brings extreme prosperity to the Lake Malaren economic circle!
Compared to other tribes, Melalen's territory is close to the Great Lake, and the climate in its location is milder, and the soil here is also relatively fertile.
The farmers of Mälaren cultivated farmland on a large scale along the lakeside. However, due to the physical strength of the farmers, each farmer can cultivate an area of about one hectare. Compared with the farmers in Novgorod in the far east, the farmers in Mälaren really have an advantage in farm tools.
The people of Malaren still do not know that human and animal excrement can be used as fertilizer, nor do they know deep plowing technology and advanced sowing techniques.
They were people who plowed the fields with iron plows and then spread the seeds on a large scale without any clear purpose. The next time, it was really just relying on the sky to make a living.
Generally speaking, the climate of the Svealand Plain is relatively stable due to the existence of the vast Baltic Sea, and the climate regulation effect of the ocean is there. However, the latitude here is too high, and the sunlight cannot give oats and rye enough energy. The temperature Also bad for all crops.
But it is completely different from the barrenness of Roseburg. Roseburg in the north can only grow some cold-resistant varieties of onions, and the yield is not high.
The food harvest in Melalen has begun, or in other words, the food harvest in the entire Siiya Tribe Alliance has begun.
From the westernmost Ankaras to the most powerful Melalen, wheat everywhere has entered the harvest period. The men of each tribe took action, the women all participated in the logistics work, and the children also went to the fields to pick up scattered ears of wheat.
The so-called "Death Scythe" is the wheat-cutting artifact of the European people who smelted iron throughout the lake.
The long-handled sickle was in the hands of the strong man and instantly swept down the large pieces of yellow wheat, which were gathered aside by the sickle. Next, women and children gather the wheat. Either carry it on your shoulders, or load it into your own two-wheeled cart, pull it to your own threshing floor, and then operate a huge flail to thresh wheat.
Later, the giant scythe used to harvest wheat was described as a symbol of death. The flail used for threshing millet also became a weapon for warriors.
Oats shake off from the ears of wheat. After a farmer repays his debt with grain, the remaining grain is not only the family's ration for the next year, but also a medium for trading other daily necessities.
Ordinary farmers do not know basic business knowledge.
When they saw other farmers selling wheat, they fell into a panic, and they also started selling their own wheat. Another reason that forced them to sell their grain quickly was that they did not have good grain storage technology.
Large households can build excellent granaries to minimize accidental losses during grain storage. The ability of ordinary farmers is really limited, so it is more effective to turn it into money.
All the farmers were selling wheat kernels, and naturally it became a carnival for businessmen.
The price of dried oat kernels in ordinary years is often stable at the level of ten pounds for one silver coin.
In order to make more money, farmers turned the flat land of Mälaren into drying grounds during this period. It's really a blessing from God. The sunny weather for many days has made the grain drying work very good.
One acre of oats of the Melalen people can yield a harvest of one hundred pounds (after drying), and the yield per acre is more than that of the farmers of their allies. This is also the key to the strength of the Melalen people.
Mälaren ushered in a bumper harvest, and the farmers' faces were filled with the joy of harvest.
But everyone was selling off wheat, and the purchase price quickly plummeted to the point where one silver coin could buy fifteen pounds, and the price war even intensified.
As usual, Gould did not need to talk to farmers, because the pricing power actually rested in the hands of businessmen.
The merchants did not form a business organization among themselves. They were all controlled by the "invisible hand." Seeing that there was a lot of wheat on the market, the farmers tried their best to get rid of the rich wheat, and the merchants took the opportunity to lower the price. The price has gradually reached a level that is more acceptable to everyone.
Gould also followed the crowd. As a veteran, he understood the rules of the market.
In Mellaren, he acted according to the market price, which finally plummeted to the price of seventeen pounds of oats for one silver coin.
A large amount of wheat was put into sacks, and sack after sack of oats was carried to Gould Island, so that they piled up into a hill.
Gould was actually somewhat worried about the financial resources of the Russians, and did not overestimate his own financial resources.
In fact, Gould sold all the soap and the gross profit was more than 20,000 silver coins.
Including his other income, he roughly estimated that his net profit reached 30,000 silver coins. Three hundred pounds of pure silver.
Coupled with all the family's savings, Gould's wealth barely reached the level of one hundred thousand silver coins.
Although he has such a large amount of wealth, it is not really rich compared to those big families in Gotland.
The question is who to compare with. Compared to the Danes' alliance, the Siaya Alliance is indeed poor.
Gould's budget for purchasing grain was as high as 10,000 silver coins. Specifically, he would spend this much money to buy grain from the people of Melalen.
For the clansmen in his hometown, he also spent five thousand silver coins to buy them at a high price as a last gift before leaving. From then on, he left Onkras and became a Rus.
In this regard, the leader of Angkras, Angreve, did not regret that a powerful businessman was gone. Even the businessman did not forget to give up profits on the issue of food purchase before leaving. In his view, the Gould family's relocation is the best of both worlds.
How much grain did Gould buy?
He bought 170,000 Roman pounds in Malaren, equivalent to 66 tons of new dried oats.
He bought sixty thousand Roman pounds, another twenty-four tons, in his native city of Oncras.
The two together amounted to ninety tons of wheat. How could they not pile up into a hill?
So, what is the order of magnitude of the food production of the powerful Melalen people? The land cultivated by the Malaren people reached a scale of 8,000 hectares. In a sense, the boundaries between the Malaren people and the Vikings gradually disappeared. Although the Melalen people would also do some robbery, in fact there was no urgent need at all.
The geographical environment of Lake Malaren determines that the people living here become more and more reserved. If you can live a comfortable life just by farming, why risk death by robbing? Besides, the Danes are not easy to mess with, and the Gotlanders are not weak either.
Based on this economic situation, it is understandable that the leader of Mälaren, Olegin, chose to be strategically conservative. He couldn't lead his people south to seek revenge against the Gotlanders and Danes and ruin his harvest season. He also believed that the main reason why the Danes did not expand the war was that the Danes did not dare to foolishly ruin their harvest season.
In August, the most ferocious pirates would suspend their business of killing people, return to their hometowns to cut the wheat, and then stay in their homes to face the entire winter.
The annual output of oats and rye in Malaren can reach 6,000 tons. In addition, there is a large amount of dedicated farmland for growing vegetables, among which yellow-root carrots and onions are particularly abundant. They don't know the concept of vitamins, they only know that vegetables are food.
Everyone's favorite thing is wheat, and it is impossible for the people of Mellaren to consume so much wheat. Merchants from all walks of life often start taking action immediately after purchasing wheat kernels, and rush to transport them to tribes in the alliance that are short of wheat before winter.
A "grain route" that transports wheat to the Russians has always existed, but the market price of grain in this world is always low.
The Russians are not Kaizi. Who would spend one silver coin to buy only ten pounds of wheat in August and September? It was normal for the new wheat shipped to Roseburg to sell for twelve pounds for one silver coin. Only in the spring did the price stabilize at ten pounds a silver coin.
He spent 15,000 silver coins to buy 230,000 pounds of wheat, plus the remaining old wheat. Gould laughed when he saw the mountains of grain.
The Russians should keep their promise! Then he will get a huge sum of thirty thousand silver coins.
There were also a large number of Ostara refugees and various people that he had gathered. Gould thought that he would also have to earn 10,000 silver coins in this regard.
He felt that he was also doing the work of a slave trader, but he always believed that because all the people who were collected were taken care of, they would most likely be accepted as tribesmen by the Rus people, and they would always receive good care. Then he would Not really a slave trader, but a good man.
If you make a huge fortune, you can also gain reputation, and even the future security of your family.
Gould could wake up laughing just thinking about these dreams!
The problem now is that the day of departure is coming.
Gould knew very well that in September, the Russians would start the "Sorgon Voyage" again. The grain harvest date in Novgorod is later than that in the Lake Mälaren area. Even though Novgorod is located on the shores of Lake Ilmen, it is an inland area after all, and the locals suffer from the disadvantage of its geographical location.
Ever since Gould came into contact with the Russians, he knew that the Russians had a traditional skill twice a year - searching for Novgorod people.
Times have really changed, and the Russians have a strong tendency to annex Novgorod.
He set the departure date for August 20th, but it must be said that the time was set really late.
After all, moving is no small matter, and now it seems that the small Gould Island can barely hold people and goods.
Now the Gould family only has a small number of mercenaries and a small amount of property left in their hometown, watching the empty old house. A fleet of more than 30 ships carries people and supplies from the hometown, swaying Arrive at Gould Island.
Through hiring, Gould hired ten more transport ships. Together with the left and right ships, he organized a huge fleet - one hundred and forty ships of various types, and hired as many as a thousand oarsmen. Five hundred!
For this reason, Gould had to pay the oarsmen two silver coins each to sail to Fort Ross, and the sponsor also needed to provide a ration of no less than one pound of wheat per day. The final statistics on employment expenses also surprised him. Who would have thought that a job of moving and transporting goods would actually become horribly expensive. At the same time, all mercenaries, as well as their own family members and Ostara refugees, must participate in the rowing, so-called cost-saving.
August 19th, a night with warm lake breeze.
Under the cool breeze, Gould Island is bustling all night long.
Carlotta and Ella adapted to their new life on Gould Island. During this period, they landed on the trading island of Verdegen and saw their separated tribesmen. At that meeting, everyone cried when they recalled their own suffering.
It is precisely because of this that the identity of the granddaughter of the two female leaders was confirmed by all the refugees. The refugees also fully accepted Carlotta as the female leader. Everyone was somewhat uneasy about the whole family moving to the territory of the Rus, but they were also somewhat uneasy. There are no good options.
Late at night, in a sophisticated wooden house, Carlotta lay quietly with only a huge dark red scar left on her leg injury. She was surrounded by her dear sister, and the two girls were wrapped in a soft sheepskin blanket. They were not sleepy, it was just that they were too excited to sleep.
"Sister, we will set off tomorrow. The Ross people, will they be really nice to us...?"
"Do you believe it?" Carlotta stroked her sister's braid.
"I...I don't know. I'm just scared."
"Believe them, we can only believe now."
"Trust Rurik, that man is a child too. Just like us."
"No, he is different." Carlotta breathed a sigh of relief. She really had very high expectations for Rurik.
During this period of time, Carlotta pestered Gould to learn a lot about Rurik out of curiosity and intelligence. As she learned more, Carlotta felt more and more bizarre. Perhaps she could only be described as a "child blessed by Odin".
A person blessed by God must be a good person.
"Ella, sleep peacefully..."
"All right."
Late at night, under the faint moonlight, Carlotta still had her eyes open. Her sister finally fell asleep, and her own mind was still thinking about too many things.
After all, they are children. Even if they are already the leader of the Ostara tribe, they can basically not help Gould at the moment. Instead, all the tribesmen need Gould's continued help.
Fortunately, this old guy is also a man of action, and the fat all over his body has not affected his mobility.
Among the one hundred and forty ships, there are also more than thirty ships provided by Vodgen, on which are all the Ostara refugees, as many as three hundred sets of coats sewn from cowhide, and one hundred There were many pairs of leather gloves carefully sewn with leftover materials, and even more than fifty black leather hats that covered most of the head.
Flax is also harvested in July and August. Gould has been busy collecting food, while Vodgen seized the opportunity and collected nearly five tons of roughly processed flax. As for the weaving work, it is the work of the Russians. thing.
Of the ships here, thirty carry oats and ten carry vegetables. There are also more than forty ships carrying a variety of daily necessities and even the most precious treasures of the Gould family.
There was even ale in it that Gould bought twenty oak barrels. Winter is not a good time to make wine, but life cannot be without wine, and the long winter requires it even more!
Family members, hired Malaren oarsmen, mercenaries, gathered beggars, Briton slaves, and even people from friendly merchants, all together formed a giant of 1,900 people.
To describe it in one word, it’s crazy.
Gould's massive fleet shocked even the leader of Mellaren.
The leader and the main military generals under his command subconsciously believed that this group of people was going to seek revenge on the Danes. After some investigation, it turned out that they were heading to Roseburg.
Gould's actions set a benchmark. He vigorously promoted his intention to immigrate to Rossburg and become a Rossite, which attracted the attention of many businessmen.
Originally, more than a thousand people from the Melalen tribe alone would come to Rossburg to "overwinter" like migratory birds every year. The number of people from various tribes who go north often reaches 3,000, and among them there are many small businessmen belonging to the Melalen tribe.
At the end of August every year, a large number of ships loaded with supplies leave Lake Mälaren, and their destination is Rossburg.
For the leader of Melalen, this was already normal, and the leader Olegin had never regarded the Russians as any magical beings.
But this year, he felt an inexplicable threat - something must have happened to the Russians.
Otherwise, how could the fleet heading north be so large as never before? !
No, the leader sent his cronies, and Qiao Zhuang dressed up as an ordinary businessman and mingled with the team going north. The leader's intention was very simple. He did not want his subordinates to contact the leader of the Ross people in the name of the leader of Melalen. He ordered his cronies to do ordinary business as ordinary businessmen, and by the way, he went deep into the lives of the local people to conduct investigations to verify what happened. What attracted a big businessman to move home, or even move with a huge amount of food?
Gould, he didn't care whether the leader of Mellaren had any intentions. He only cared that the unprecedentedly large fleet he mobilized could safely reach the fjord of Fort Ross.
On August 20th, Carlotta and Ella stood on the platform of Gould Island and stepped on the boarding board to enter the large cargo ship.
The two children wore white fox fur hats on their heads, and they were also covered in white fox fur coats. This set of clothes is actually the clothes of Gould's granddaughter. Since the girls have become playmates (something Gould is particularly happy to see), Carlotta feels at ease wearing it.
In the end, Fodegen did not return the amber. Carlotta did not feel that she was at a disadvantage. She stood on the bow of the ship and would soon lead her people to start a new life.
In front of her were ships covering the lake, and she couldn't help but think of the terrifying scene of Danish warships covering the entire Blow Bay to attack Ostara.
But these ships are all gentle. They are just cargo ships with wide bellies. None of the ships are decorated with terrible dragon heads. Some are just horizontal bars lying flat on the bow of the ship, which serve as the fulcrum of the cable.
"Look no further," Carlotta, Gould of the El**** ship said loudly and panting, dragging his robe.
Carlotta immediately turned her head: "Sir, are we leaving now?"
"Soon. When I hoist the sails, my flagship leads all ships in action."
"Is it time?"
"It's about time." Gould didn't hesitate any longer. He didn't even bother to perform sacrifices before sailing. Because he felt that since he had been entrusted by Rurik, and now he had clearly exceeded the task, would God still bring disaster? It should be a blessing, right?
He even thought that God would suddenly send down a gust of south wind, so that the fleet could go all the way north and reach its destination unimpeded.
However, many of the accompanying oarsmen jointly invited the priests of Melalen to sacrifice a cow on the shore for safe navigation.
The scale sail was lowered, and the excellent oarsmen controlled the direction of the sail. The ship moved slowly. Then the oarsmen sat down and began to row hard.
The flagship moved, and the rest of the ships got wind of the situation and set sail.
Gould's fleet of one hundred and forty ships formed a mighty army, and the cargo they carried was staggering.
If there was anything more astonishing, it was the ships trailing behind. It was a large number of merchant ships, like migratory birds. When thousands of people heard about Gould's move, they all gave up their determination to go north freely. This time everyone followed Gould's move, and the scale was spectacular.
As a result, a "big army" consisting of as many as 400 ships of all kinds rushed towards the entrance of the lake in a formation that shocked the leader of Mälaren, Olegin, and all the residents of Mälaren.
But Gould never imagined that the "mighty army" he led would soon hit a Russian ship wandering around the current location of Stockholm.
Those were the Ross men stationed at the Tombstone Island stronghold.
Gould felt that he had truly received God's protection. In the final analysis, it was the happiness brought by Rurik.
The Ross people built a stronghold, and now the people in the stronghold have become their own navigators to Fort Ross.
The Russians were certainly more surprised.
Who would have thought that the residents who returned to Roseburg this fall would actually be a behemoth of four hundred ships. The size of the fleet frightened the Russians. They cautiously boarded the ship for inspection and laughed happily.
The wandering Ross ships were very willing to serve as pilot ships and even volunteered to provide armed escort.
Because no one refuses merchants carrying huge amounts of goods.
When the merchant fleet arrives, the people of Fort Ross will cheer for them, and this cheer will turn into a carnival.
