The army of "Northern Hunting" returned to Rossburg at the end of February. The official status of the hunted Kovin people was Rurik's slaves. This was recognized by all Ross people. It is precisely based on this, that is, No one dared to disturb the "property" belonging to the chief's family.
Although they were slaves, their lives were not like those of bullied and precarious slaves.
The Gray Squirrel tribe's population shrunk to barely two hundred people, and they temporarily lived in Fort Ross as slaves.
After the war and the long journey, all the old and weak people died, and some women were taken away by the Russians and became women of Russian warriors and accidentally got rid of their slave status.
It seems that life is better as Rurik's slave than as a woman who is a warrior.
Yes, life is like this, can it get worse?
The leader of the tribe, Mechasta, is still the leader of the tribe to this day. Since both his young children have received Rurik's attention, it is obvious that the future of the gray squirrel tribe will not be bad.
Everyone knew their true destiny in the future - to go north.
"Woima Kashad, this is really unexpected. The mine you discovered with your brothers has brought disaster to the tribe. Soon, the entire tribe will move there to settle. It seems to be a good thing for the tribe."
When he thought of this, Mechasta always put down the ax given by the Russians. He stood in the woods and looked towards the north.
Yes, after setting up the tents where they lived, these tribesmen began to build a number of cold-proof wooden houses covered with soil and withered grass. Rurik lent them a batch of iron axes for felling wood, scrapers for cutting wood strips, and even drafts and shovels for digging the ground.
These are just wrought iron tools that have been quenched. They are stronger and more durable than pure wrought iron tools in other areas, but they are somewhat out of date compared to the mild steel tools that the Rus began to popularize.
In fact, as long as it is heated red and then carburized, a large number of iron tools owned by the Russians can be turned into carbon steel tools.
But judging from the actual use effect, the iron ax is completely sufficient for just logging work. Rather than cutting down a tree with an iron ax, it is better to say that the tree was broken by a less-sharp axe.
The Gray Squirrel tribe must relocate to the mines to the north and rebuild the tribe there, permanently under the control of the Ross tribe, or the Ross chief family.
Legally speaking, the Gray Squirrel Tribe is already Rurik's private property, as are all the tribesmen. He can do whatever he wants with them, and he will not encounter criticism from others.
Rurik had no intention of mistreating them and even gave them preferential treatment.
He made a verbal promise with Mechasta that he would give the tribesmen food, and the tribesmen would pay for it by felling wood for the Rus.
The people of the Gray Squirrel tribe began to cut down pine and oak trees, and then used scrapers to remove the bark. Afterwards, Rurik sold them to the tribal shipbuilders who worked all night in exchange for some silver coins, and used the money to buy some dry oats from Gould. And buy fish from tribesmen who insist on digging ice for winter fishing. He gave grains and catches to the gray squirrel tribesmen, thus completing a closed loop of trade.
In this circular transaction, all parties have earned a little bit of the labor value of the gray squirrel tribesmen.
As for the tribesmen, they really feel that the Rus are not as bad as they once appeared.
Many people even think that the real leader of the tribe is obviously Rurik from Russia, even if he is a child.
That is a noble boy. Since you can get food and safety as long as you do things for him, why not do it?
The Burakumin worked harder and harder, and some of them had special skills that began to show up gradually.
After all, those men who surrendered on the battlefield were hunters themselves. They were allowed to re-equip their bows and arrows and swore not to point their arrows at any Russian on pain of death.
They used carefully selected elastic oak branches to re-make their own short wooden bows, borrowed iron clusters from the Ross people to make the highest quality arrows, and began hunting around the mountains near Rossburg.
They set out dragging a small sled, claiming they would not run away.
The hunters really have no intention of fleeing. After all, there are still a large number of tribal people staying in the territory of the Ross people to serve as hostages!
The hunters of the gray squirrel tribe shoot all the prey they find near the hills. Compared with the Ross hunters who like to set traps such as trip wires, these Corvin people prefer to shoot directly with bows.
They hunted some of the long-legged snowshoe hares, wary ferrets, and even the occasional arctic fox. The meat of the prey was naturally shared among the hunters, the leg bones of the prey were made into bone clusters, and the leather was given to Rurik.
There are also some tribal people who are craftsmen who know how to make charcoal. The crooked branches of the oak were chopped off, and the relatively straight trunks were "tributed" to Rurik. Those branches were naturally processed into charcoal blocks.
There were only 200 surviving tribesmen. How could they use so many charcoal blocks? They "tributed" the excess burning carbon and prayed for more food.
Rurik was a little surprised by these changes, and naturally supported many of their reasonable requests.
Is this flattery? may be.
They do not desire preferential treatment, they just want a better life.
The Kovin people and even the deer herders, two ethnic groups with the same origin, joined the Rus' camp for different reasons and were so obedient. They obviously worked very hard for themselves. How to explain this? Rurik felt that it could only be explained by the so-called "weird fanaticism" mentality.
Compared to the Biros, they are all others, desperately trying to prove their worth in order to prove themselves useful to their new masters.
If they have this mentality, things will obviously be great!
Rurik admired the skilled craftsmen among this group of people, and centralized all the children among them for management.
In the end, the entire gray squirrel tribe will be completely absorbed by the Ross tribe, and their descendants will eventually consider themselves to be the real Ross people. Even now, Rurik consciously cannot declare that they are the "New Ross people". They are still a group of slaves, and the duty of a slave is to be obedient. If giving them some necessities of life can be exchanged for their obedience, Rurik would be happy to give them some things and gain greater benefits for himself in the foreseeable future.
Finally, in May, the people of Covin and the deer herders were shocked when they saw a spectacular sight.
More than five hundred ships of various sizes, old and new, covered the sea surface of the fjord, and their huge sails spread out covering the sky!
People whose concept of boats was limited to canoes were completely stunned by the sight before them.
After a short period of time, the Covin gray squirrel tribe, who had made some mental preparations, finally received the official order from their master - our expedition is about to begin!
The great businessman Gould personally led a huge commercial fleet south. He took away all the goods in stock and most of the geographical leaders.
The wharf built by Gould's family temporarily became deserted, but soon it suddenly became lively again.
Two young, fat boys, who were Gould's other sons, were ordered to manage the mansion after he left. They were also responsible for managing the family's relationship with the leader of Ross, and the family's life.
The two of them faced the noble Rurik with extreme humility, and they followed their old father's orders and met all Rurik's requirements without reservation.
It was good weather again, and it was this day that Rurik decided to set out for the expedition.
It’s May 20th on the Julian calendar, and all preparations are in place!
It was almost the summer solstice, a day when there was no night in Roseburg. The days are now very long and the entire fjord is immersed in the warmest period of the year.
But the sea water is still relatively cold, and only the brave guys dare to throw away their clothes and take a dip in the sea water. This is an act of brilliance. Most fishermen in Ross are unwilling to do this just because they are in awe of the sea.
In the morning, Rurik woke up, patted his smiling face with both hands, and got up from his mother's arms.
He felt a little pity for the mother who was lying on her side, because her only son was going to lead a group of tribesmen to the north for construction as a "war chief".
Although this matter has nothing to do with the war, after all, it is the pioneering of unknown territory. What mother wouldn't worry?
Niya has already finished giving the instructions she should have.
After she woke up as usual, she prepared some breakfast for the children who were about to leave, as if today was a normal day.
Rurik sat cross-legged near the dining table, gnawing on wheat cakes and dried meat, while keeping his eyes on his mother who was not thinking about food or tea.
He could understand the mother's mood.
"Mom, I know you are still worried. There is nothing to worry about. Just stay here and I will come back when I finish my work."
What does “getting the job done” mean? Niya didn't know, so she calmly pushed her wheat cake to Rurik: "Eat, eat more."
"okay."
There were actually four children sitting in front of Niya. In addition to Rurik, they were Carlotta, Ella and Saipolava. The three girls are destined to be his wives and concubines, but he clearly hopes that his wives and concubines can become female warriors, not weaklings.
They ate in silence, and Niya stopped saying anything.
After a while, the outdoor world became lively.
Although it was agreed that the departure crowd would gather at the dock of the Gould family, Rurik's best friends such as Fisk and Kanuf, they gathered all the people, including themselves, who were selected to participate in the "expedition." "Fifty little warriors, carrying iron weapons issued by Rurik that only real adults can use, gathered at the door of the leader's house.
Also coming were the ten maids, from Anna to Yulia. They stopped making soap, picked up wooden bows and arrows, and came to see him as "Valkyrie Legion Soldiers" Commander Carlotta and his master Rurik.
Thirty mercenaries with iron swords and axes hanging on their waists and crossbows in their upper hands were also here. The leader of the mercenaries, due to the temporary departure of Evro, became the archery coach Fraser . At the same time, this Fraser still has to take on the management of all the children, just like daily training, and accept the supervision of his important task.
This time's "expedition" Rurik has a number of capable officers around him.
As a war chief, he had the power to mobilize hundreds of warriors to attack the enemy, but he could only mobilize a hundred pure-blooded Russian warriors excluding mercenaries. Despite the small number of these soldiers, they were veterans who had participated in the "Operation Northern Hunting" and had fought against the Kewen Tribe Alliance.
Originally, Rurik mobilized them simply because they had fought side by side, and because of this comradeship relationship, he could better handle them.
But in most people's eyes, this is just a little trick by Rurik.
Even if Rurik agrees that the Kovin slaves will not rebel, it seems to everyone that those Kovin people who can pick up iron axes and spears after receiving the gift are really full of possibility of rebellion, so they need strong Rus warriors. Suppress them with momentum.
After the meal, Rurik felt full of energy. He put on gorgeous clothes and appeared in front of the waiting people with high morale.
"Looks like you're all ready! I won't say anything, let's get started."
He made no high-spirited noise, but his little warriors responded to their war chief by roaring "wuraaaaaaah".
Rurik swaggered and led a group of people to the beach, hoping to meet the Covin people waiting to board the boat there.
He did not look back at his mother, but Niya was staring at her son's back and the golden ponytail that trembled under the snow fox hat as he walked, and then she also joined the team.
Rurik is going to take a group of people to the north to open up the legendary iron mine? It is said that the iron ore is of higher quality than the ore in the small hill near Rossburg? ! The blacksmiths of the tribe were all jealous of this resource, but Rurik specially selected Kawei to participate in the operation.
There is no other reason than that it was Kawei, a young man, who discovered the secret of the iron mine. Also going at the same time were Kamne and ten other blacksmith apprentices from the Salmon Lord Tribe of the Covin people who were all under ten years old. Interestingly, because he learned skills early, Kamne is the senior brother of these Kewen children.
In fact, after two months of around-the-clock study, even though the new boys did not have the strength to pick up a hammer and participate in blacksmithing, they all helped out as much as they could. They generally admire the work of blacksmiths, and while doing neat and helpful work, they observe the essentials of blacksmithing all day long.
It can be said that these children have been learning the one-stop skills from prospecting, mineral processing, smelting sponge iron, forging iron, carburizing, quenching and polishing from the very beginning. The Ross people are actually exporting technology to the Covin people. In the final analysis, they still want to cultivate a new group of blacksmiths for the Ross tribe that can be completely controlled.
After all, reality is a bit funny. The native Ross boys prefer to be brave warriors rather than blacksmiths who work hard all day long.
What can Rurik do? He could only arrange for obedient slaves or submissive people to learn how to be a blacksmith.
One day, the entire gray squirrel tribe must rely on iron smelting as their main livelihood occupation. Rurik arranged for his slaves to explore this kind of industry, which was also his primary purpose of developing mines.
Speaking more broadly, the future of the Russian people will be inseparable from the huge chromite mine in the north.
