Ostara tribe? War refugees? And two beautiful...girls.
"Oh, my child, you will also have more wives. Those two Ostara girls will be your wives." At night, Otto introduced the good things that will inevitably happen tomorrow in front of his son. News, at the same time, this old guy was really happy from ear to ear.
The source of Otto's happiness was certainly not the matter of choosing two more wives for his son, and he actually did not take it too seriously.
Rurik took it seriously: "Dad, are you serious? I already have it..."
"That Svetlana? You plan to have only one wife in your life."
"I..." To be fair, Rurik was indeed against three wives and four concubines. However, as a man, he felt that he would not be able to maintain self-discipline even after he gained power in the future. If a monarch in this era did not have three wives and four concubines, his subjects would question the monarch for not being a real man, instead of praising the monarch for his so-called loyalty.
"It's better to listen to your father." Mother Niya came over and her words were really meaningful.
"Mom, even you..."
"Of course I don't object, you will become the strongest man. Listen, every strong man has a group of wives and concubines around him. Our family's population is already sparse. Your two brothers died early, and your father is too old. , hope falls on your shoulders." Niya continued.
Otto was very satisfied with his wife's words: "That's what I mean. Rurik, you must have prosperous descendants."
A small hand covered his delicate face, Rurik felt that this was his destiny.
Anyway, this is the custom of the Ross tribe.
Treating them all as wives, the ultimate goal is actually to bring more people to the tribe?
In other words, is it to rely on the leader's own efforts to expand the royal population for the future kingdom?
If you want to maintain the stability of a kingdom, you really need the support of the king. This is true. It is crazy to maintain an ancient kingdom with only one king trying his best to manage a huge territory. It is more reliable to canonize a group of sons as lords.
Rurik is more anxious and hopeful about tomorrow.
Otto was very happy, and his excitement came more from the huge supplies brought by those merchants. What he is most worried about is the preparation of winter supplies in Novorosberg. If he cannot buy enough goods from merchants, he really needs to go to Novgorod and intensify his search, which will cause local problems. Violent resistance from people is not good.
There is only one loyal dog enough, and that is the loyal White Tree Manor. The rest of the manor is a herd of cows.
This is what Otto thought. If he plundered too hard and the cows starved to death, he would lose more than he gained.
Now it seems that the problem will be greatly alleviated because merchants bring large amounts of food.
food! Must buy food! Buy a lot of food! He even bought the grain transported by Gould immediately.
After all, it was a happy thing. Otto fiddled with the glass bottle containing spirits in his hand. He had already drank one bottle in the morning, and tonight, he forced his son to get another bottle for fun.
"Dad, you shouldn't. We have an appointment first." Rurik was very reluctant.
"You can take it if you are told."
"Why? Even if you are the leader."
"Hurry up!" Otto suddenly became irritable. He slammed the wooden table, causing the oil lamp on the table to splash a small puddle of seal oil.
Rurik was not afraid. He knew that his father was just trying to scare him: "I think you should not drink. Keep a good spirit. The fleet will arrive tomorrow. By then, you are our leader but you are sleeping soundly. Is it possible to let him go?" I, my child, will pick them up?"
Otto smiled naively and continued tapping the table with his fingers: "What's wrong? You are smarter than me. If you weren't still a child, I would give up my seat to you now. You are going to be the leader anyway. Yes, there is no problem if you go to meet him as the leader tomorrow. By the way, tomorrow you go to Gould's house first. The eldest son Snoleva and the fat man who looks like Gould will be waiting for you. You and Ha After Luo Zuosen met, he went to the beach and waited. If I have a clear head tomorrow, I will go too. "
"That's ridiculous! Are you throwing important things to me?" Rurik was actually a little happy after saying this.
Is it possible that this old guy still wants to be a "Taiwan Emperor" who drinks every day?
"It's better to give me the wine. Now I can enjoy this drink. If you give me the wine, I will discuss important matters with you again."
"About women again? Dad, you really want to treat me like an April bull."
Otto chuckled: "If only you were a bull in April! By then you would have grown a beard and could row the heaviest oars. Oh..." As he said this, Otto glanced at Lu sitting in the corner. Mia: "Don't be idle, your high priest. I will give you a son when the time comes. The descendants of this son will be high priests from generation to generation. Haha, the priest is also a member of our family."
Otto was speaking freely, but when he said these words, Rumia was so shocked that she almost fell to the ground.
The truth is, by the time Rurik started growing a beard, Rumia had already grown into an adult. Now she really wanted to find a secluded place to escape and express her secret happiness.
Rurik did not criticize his father's lack of tone: "Tell me what the important thing is."
"Very important! I really need your advice. It is a major matter related to the development of our tribe. Only you can make the right decision."
"Is it really that important?!"
Rurik was shaken. He actually took out a glass bottle from the locked box and placed it on the table.
Looking at this crystal clear bottle with cork plugged into the mouth, Otto couldn't help but sigh: "Times have really changed."
"If you want to drink, just drink. It doesn't matter if you are fast asleep. Lend me your sword, and I will take it with me to meet the merchants."
Rurik's words were probing, and Otto didn't find his son's words offensive at all, and was even very happy. He immediately took off the "Destroyer" hanging from his waist and suddenly threw it on the table.
"Then get me two more bottles, and you can go to the beach tomorrow with your sword."
Rurik never expected that his father was serious about this. Is Otto delegating power? Let’s treat ourselves as a tool for the time being.
Because according to past tradition, when a large-scale merchant fleet arrives, the leader should go to meet it to show the sincerity of the Russian people.
The sword is placed here. This is the sword that my family wants to inherit!
Although Rurik felt that this Damascus steel sword, which was full of patterns, was not as useful as the hundred-forged steel sword that he arranged for Klavasen to forge with the world's top Swedish iron ore.
Rurik looked at a sword, and saw with eager eyes that his father had already very skillfully pulled out the cork, and poured about four ounces of strong liquor into the glass bottle. He had no choice but to give it to his father again. Have some bottles. .
Then Otto opened another bottle with great enthusiasm.
Instead of this bottle, Otto poured it into a delicate glass and let the aroma of the wine begin to flourish.
"Ah! This wine is really good. How much do you think it should be sold for?"
Seeing his father drinking so indulgently, Rurik was amazed that his father already understood the ways of an alcoholic.
Whatever! After all, he is from Russia.
Rurik said with a cold face: "At least one hundred silver coins. I will depend on the situation. This bottle of wine can also be sold for two hundred silver coins."
"So how many bottles do you have now?"
"You still want to drink?" Rurik became alert. He did not answer his father's words at all, but urged: "Tell me what you want to say quickly."
"Okay. Because Gould, he completely exceeded the quota for the slaves, mercenaries, and other strange things you needed. My child, you made a big promise to him!"
"You're buying wheat at twice the market price, right? I know." Rurik nodded: "I hope he comes back now."
"His eldest son came first. The fat man should have seen you immediately. Now it's dark and we'll discuss the matter tomorrow. The man told me that Gould has shipped 230,000 pounds of wheat. Do you want to buy it? "
"Ah?! So many!" Rurik was really shocked.
Regarding the weight of the Roman pound, Rurik's best reference is the weight of the British pound of later generations. After all, the Roman pound weighs less than one pound (500g), so it must be much higher than half a pound. Another intuitive assessment is that one pound of wheat is enough for a house builder to not go hungry. Here, of course, there is a slight difference between not being hungry and having a full meal.
The reality is that a strong man who sells his physical labor to build a house may consume 3,000 calories a day. One Roman pound of oats was optimistically estimated to provide him with sixteen hundred calories. The missing part is immediately made up with fish meat. What's more, on ordinary days, everyone generally eats fish.
In fact, the strong men of the Russian people are all big eaters of fish. A strong man would consume 1,600 calories by eating four herrings!
The price of fish at the Roseburg Fish Market can often buy thirty pounds of herring or forty pounds of cod for one silver coin. Whale meat is very expensive. For a strong man who simply sells his physical labor, three silver coins can ensure that he can eat three pounds of herring every day for a month and get two thousand calories.
But there are no proletarians here who simply sell their physical strength. Most Russians are fishermen and hunters. Their ability to hunt and catch fish has made the main consumers of fish and meat for a long time, businessmen who live there. Most of the people in the Ross tribe have always eaten a lot of fish, so it is natural that there are a group of strong men in the tribe!
So Rurik entertained his men to eat meat every day. Everyone was very willing to eat delicious herring. Perhaps the most fundamental reason is that the calorie content of two Roman pounds of herring has exceeded 1,200 calories. The physical exertion of an eight or nine-year-old boy was reduced.
Herring is a cold-water fish with a very large population in the Baltic Sea and extremely high caloric value. Two pounds of herring have as many calories as a pound of oats.
Rurik could not calculate accurately at all, and he did not make good predictions.
The fact is that if he can really make the Russians, who are masters of fish eating, have the opportunity to eat a lot of wheat, the result will be that the diet of the Russians has reached the level of Swedish fat people in the 21st century in the ninth century. By then, I am afraid that Russians will face another dilemma, that is, they will begin to be qualified to care about obesity.
Rurik calculated in his head that this amount of wheat would be enough for a thousand strong men to eat for two hundred and thirty days. The population of the Ross tribe has now exceeded 4,000 due to the addition of foreign women.
As for the issue of food, the Russians certainly don't have to consider the opinions of merchants and residents. They can think of their own way to eat for thousands of people. Rurik only needs to consider the lives of his own people.
Now, the Russians' traditional skills of demanding tribute from Novgorod are being used again. Can you bring back 100,000 pounds of wheat this time? In theory it's possible.
Rurik believed that the force exerted by his father had deterred the rebellion there, and all that was left was the search in autumn.
Optimistically, it is reasonable to estimate that a total of 100,000 pounds of grain were taken away from various manor houses, and there may even be more.
Fortunately, now, Rurik finally understood that encouraging merchants to traffic in food was actually more effective than using his own tribe's fleet to plunder.
Of course, businessmen can't afford to do it early without profit, and to encourage them to do things, buyers have to pay considerable sums of money.
But when it comes to solving the tribe's food problem, Rurik has an account in mind.
That is the population of the Ross tribe. How much food does it need in a year?
Rurik made an order-of-magnitude assessment, that is, based on the standard of four thousand strong men, 1.5 million pounds would be needed throughout the year. This value is still a huge overestimation. After all, fish, especially herring, accounts for a large proportion in the Russian diet.
Of course, if wheat could be eaten, everyone would love it very much.
Just like after the leader tried hard liquor, he became a very skilled bottle blower in less than ten days.
As everyone eats wheat cakes, bread and wheat porridge every day, they may not be able to accept the hard days of relying on surimi or simply eating raw herring. We have lived this kind of life for generations, and of course we don’t think it is a hard life. But once you get used to eating bread every day, the past days are defined as hard days that you must try your best to return to.
In the Ross tribe, there are not many people who need to eat a pound of wheat every day, maybe only a thousand people. Rurik conservatively estimated that the entire tribe’s annual food consumption would only require one million pounds at this stage.
What kind of concept is this?
Rurik estimated that if he bought the grain trafficked by Gould, plus the grain his father led people to search for in Novgorod. I'm afraid there are other merchants who brought some of the grain and tried to sell it.
This winter, the Russians are likely to stock up on as much as 400,000 pounds of wheat!
Rossburg has never had such a large amount of food stored before!
Otto suppressed his gradually turning red face and said seriously: "Kid, that big cash box you set up should come in handy now! I need your advice!"
"Use! You must use it. That's what that big cash box is for!"
"Are you sure? Maybe you shouldn't insist on buying food at double the price. You should understand that it is a huge amount of money! We are also doing a loss-making business."
"Of course I know, but a good man must be honest, right? I have made a promise and I will do it. Two hundred and thirty thousand pounds of grain is 46,000 silver coins. With this money, we... "Rurik gritted his teeth: "We can afford it!"
"Are you very persistent? Has it changed?!" Otto continued to ask,
"Yes! It hasn't changed."
Otto couldn't help but let out a long sigh: "I thought you would back down! That's close to 50,000 silver coins, and you are so straightforward. It seems that your vision is not limited to this amount of money."
"Of course!" Rurik could hear that this was a compliment, so he boasted: "I want to build a great cause. I am a man who has been favored by God. If I am blinded by some money in the world, I will fall. In the final analysis, the money in the big money box is for us Russians and our servants, not for my personal enjoyment. Besides, even if it is for enjoyment, I have better toys."
Otto was happy in his heart and now returned to the original topic. He fiddled with the wine bottle in his hand: "I once thought your crystal cups were shocking. Now it seems that you can make many in a short time, and each one can be sold for a high price. In my opinion, you can use these wines to pay for The sum of those silver coins.”
"Oh? Dad, these are the vodka I prepared for you."
Hearing this, Otto felt even more happy. But Otto was not a real alcoholic. While his mind was still clear, he suggested: "Sell it to Gould, you can offer a more favorable price. Listen, the crystal cup contains flammable wine, what do you think? It’s all a miracle. Tell me! How many bottles of wine have you prepared?”
"To be honest, there are a hundred bottles. As long as you provide me with more ale, dad, I can make more."
"One hundred bottles? Each bottle sells for two hundred silver coins. Twenty thousand silver coins is no problem. Don't you still have soap?"
"Yes. My little maids, they are already very good soap craftsmen."
"Sell soap to Gould, too, just like you did in the spring."
Rurik nodded: "Dad, I can handle this myself."
Otto smiled, like a two-hundred-pound elephant seal. Excited, he pulled out the cork again, and then stared at the mouth of the bottle: "I'm so stupid, I was worried that you would be reluctant to part with money. I didn't expect that you are the biggest businessman. Ah! What a beautiful wine. A bottle costs two pounds of silver, Valha It’s a holy thing, so I ended up enjoying three bottles today. I’m so extravagant.”
"You also know how extravagant you are?! Others only have three silver coins a month, how about you? You drank six hundred silver coins." Niya listened for a long time, then she smiled and took it upon herself to put the unopened envelope on the table. She took the bottle away, and her pride could not be concealed in her words: "Listen, leave some goods for your son, we still need this to make money."
"Ah! Okay. Rurik, I'll leave tomorrow's affairs to you! The key is here." Otto put the key to the bronze lock in the small room of the priest's longhouse on the table, and then drank the strong drink. , and immediately lay down on the ground. He looked at the wooden beams of his longhouse, feeling more and more dizzy, feeling that everything was gradually becoming dreamy, and slowly he started to snore...
A new day arrives in peace. As the news that a large fleet is about to enter the port has spread throughout Roseburg, people are excited!
Rurik suspended today's training, and he really couldn't train.
The merchants returned to their nests in Rossburg like a flock of migratory birds. The Ross people must have gathered on the beach with men, women, and children, bringing coins with them in order to make a big purchase.
Sure enough, Otto was hungover again. Thanks to the temporary delegation of power last night, Rurik took over Otto's task.
It cannot be said that Otto deliberately neglected the businessmen. In fact, Otto really felt that he needed to retire. This idea came to him when he saw the miracle that wine could actually burn in the blacksmith shop, and even brought a wine bottle with him to replicate the miracle anywhere.
It is really a good thing to let my son experience it.
But of course Otto didn't know that his precious son had the ability to stand alone from the beginning. Even though Rurik was naive at first, his temperament has been quietly changing since his face was stained with deer blood.
After all, Rurik, or Liu Li, was already a man who deliberately pursued power.
Today he brought the leader's sword, coupled with the special nature of his work today.
It can be said that the only thing left for Rurik to become the leader is to kneel in the stone ship altar and undergo a ceremony.
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Chapter 228 Anyway, sooner or later you will be the leader
