A new city appeared at the mouth of the Neva River.
In the beginning, it was just a simple cold-proof shack built by 20 people of rammed wood and earth. With the arrival of the new spring, urban development began to rush forward.
Brand-new agricultural tools began to be used to reclaim wasteland. The sturdy and cleverly designed curved shaft plow reclaimed the land covered with grass with unprecedented efficiency.
The Russians who immigrated here had already opened up fertile farmland in the fertile riverside area.
In the first year, the immigrants set fire to the wastelands brought by the city lord Conuson in preparation for farming. In the spring of the second year, they began to be transported by the mother city of Roseburg on the banks of the dark river soaked by melting snow. The Quyuan plow began to reclaim land quickly and efficiently. .
Otto came with new immigrants and a large amount of supplies, and a larger-scale pioneering operation began.
A large amount of grassland was burned, and then the land was reclaimed by human-pulled curved plows, and a large number of oat grains were randomly thrown down.
Until now, the Russians who work in agriculture do not know how to cultivate their fields well. They naturally think that farming is nothing more than spreading seeds into the soil, burning and plowing, and then a new field is completed. Does it require careful management? No one had experience, or no one felt that further work would be superfluous.
They don't know how to irrigate or fertilize.
But heaven is not kind to them either.
The water flow of the Neva River is very large, which results in a large area on both sides being naturally infiltrated. There is no permafrost here and the soil is relatively moist. It can be said that the Russians farm in this area and naturally do not need to worry too much about irrigation issues.
As for fertilizers, they have no concept of using farmyard manure. Also because of traditional habits, they are willing to seal all human and animal excrement underground.
All Russian immigrants, with a married man as a small family, made an agreement with the big leader Otto.
Immigrants stand in the field of hope. Even if spring comes late in a few years, don't the wheat seedlings still thrive?
The land is moist, and the occasional drizzle makes all the riverside farmland even moister.
According to the agreement, each family must pay a tax to the leader during the harvest season. For 200 pounds of wheat per household, farmers who have some knowledge of farming estimate that the tax rate is about 10%. No one thinks that the tax rate is relatively high, and immigrants generally think that the leader is kind and reasonable.
Various farm tools on hand, a large amount of wheat provided in advance, even some poultry and livestock to be bred, 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.
They could not make a living by farming in their hometown of Roseburg, they could make a living by fishing and they did not have their own boats, and the weapons they had when going out to fight were poor. Only in New Roseburg did they find a future.
Originally, the earliest settlement on the Neva River in history was just a small trading stronghold of the Varangians. Hundreds of years later, the Kingdom of Sweden established a fortress here. After the Great Northern War, the Russians built a lot of construction here, and it became her heart for a long time.
The Russians could not imagine what their descendants would do, but what they are doing now is completely to make a historical fact appear in advance.
Otto wanted to run Novorosberg as the core area of the Russian people in the future. Based on this psychological consideration, he should have withdrawn directly to Rossburg in July with the tributes he collected from Novgorod. This summer I simply stayed on the banks of the Neva River and never left.
The warm summer is always so short. Taking advantage of the pleasant weather, Otto personally led the people to speed up the construction of our city.
More and more wooden houses are appearing on both sides of the river, especially at the mouth of the river.
A group of residents of the Novgorod area had to obey Otto's order, take their families on a Russian ship, and arrive at the "distant" New Rossburg to settle down.
The vast world had room for Russian and Slavic pioneers.
Otto forcibly took away a group of Slavs to open up wasteland for the purpose of collecting taxes in the future. He felt that these guys were mixed with the Russians. They could no longer obey the orders of the owner of the manor in their hometown, but only obeyed the dispatch of Cornuson who was ordered to govern the local area. They had been separated from the past and they were already a new kind of people. Russians - tax payers.
After all, the large and small Slavic estates surrounding Lake Ilmen are not monolithic.
Because Pine Needle Manor took the lead in the resistance, it was the most harmed by the Russians. The other manors were obedient and were not plundered crazily. The average manor owner envied the Rigus of the White Tree Manor, which was originally a manor that was excluded from the "Farming Area around Lake Ilmen". Unexpectedly, not only did they happily become the dogs of the Varyag people, It also wagged its tail happily.
Now, those guys are already using brand new plows and huge amounts of iron tools to start felling trees and reclaiming wasteland.
The manor owners envied Ligus as a dog, but they did not dare to flatter him outright due to practical reasons. After all, the Ross people come here two or three times a year, but we see Pine Needle Manor every day!
Even after suffering a blow, the balance of strength and weakness among the manors in the Ilmen region has not fundamentally changed.
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. The first thing they think about is how to survive.
Most people are afraid of the Russians and feel that their promises are just to trick everyone into becoming slaves. Where can such a good thing happen in the world? Agricultural tools will be distributed for land reclamation, but the right to use them will still be indefinite? The most important thing is that only two hundred pounds of wheat are collected as tribute every year, which is a tax.
There are always some farmers who feel that they cannot survive and decide to take risks. They announce their separation from their former members and board the Russian ship amid cynicism and even curses from their relatives and friends. Now, the large areas of farmland opened by these people are about to bear fruit.
New Roseburg has been under construction at a rapid pace.
A small group of people went all out to cut down trees and build houses, while others hunted the active cave rabbits, clever snow hares and other wild animals on a large scale.
After the chickens brought from Novgorod spent the entire winter, the poultry began to reproduce rapidly, so that after a full year, the chickens that were first transported had multiplied into such a large population that immigrants Every household is raising twenty or thirty free-range animals, and the number is still increasing in value. You just can't expect these turkeys to be fat, because the white-feathered chickens with the highest feed conversion rate were born in the 20th century.
It was still mid-August, and in the fields that were first cleared and sown, the oats were showing signs of heading.
It has to be said that the climate conditions in New Roseburg are better than those in Lake Mälaren, so the wheat harvest period here is earlier.
After all, it has been a bit cold this year, and all the newly planted crops in New Roseburg have experienced varying degrees of reduced yields. This serious reduction in agricultural production, of course, also occurred in Novgorod.
It was God who sent disasters that reduced agricultural production.
The Slavs of Lake Ilmen made sacrifices, hoping to get help from the lake god to tide over the difficulties.
However, they did not wait for the Lake God, but killed the Ross army who came back to plunder food.
Otto can't control that much. Each manor must pay not less than a grain of grain, as well as a batch of leather and a batch of honey, which must be paid.
Except White Tree Manor.
It is strange to say that when Otto saw Svetlana, the youngest daughter of the owner of White Tree Manor, she became more beautiful after not seeing her for three months. She was so smart and so affectionate towards him that it really warmed Otto's heart. She is his son's destined wife, and she is the most important one.
Otto reduced the tribute from White Tree Manor, almost to the point where he only had to pay a small token amount.
The owner of the manor, Rigus, felt that this was a strategy of the Ross people, and he still wanted to cultivate a fan who was extremely loyal to the Ross people in the Ilmen area.
The result was destined to be this way, but the cause was not what he thought at all. It was entirely because of Svetlana, a beautiful woman, that Otto was so elated that he fell in love with her, so he simply reduced the pressure on the residents of the White Tree Manor to pay tribute.
It's a pity that the girl is only eight years old, and according to tradition, she will be engaged to her son Rurik in at least four years. Oh, if according to Slavic tradition, it is not an engagement, but a consummation of marriage.
What did the girl's old father think? Ligus wished that his younger daughter would marry that Rurik now. He had already reaped huge benefits for his manor through his eldest daughter's marriage. If the younger daughter...
Otto could more or less predict what Rigus was thinking. When he was preparing to open up the new Roseburg with a large amount of looted supplies and the captured Slavs, he gave Rigus a strange order. : "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 New Rossburg smoothly, and the entire fleet simply docked on the Neva River. After they unloaded a batch of supplies, they carried out the autumn harvest under Otto's leadership.
The wheat and a batch of vegetables were 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 postponed until October.
Looking at the prosperous scene of New Roseburg, he admired his own vision. The terrain of this place was flat and the land was fertile. He even felt a little regretful as to why he had not led his tribe to pioneer here a few years earlier.
Otto was still sitting in New Roseburg, urging his men to complete the statistics of wheat tax collection and the statistics of various types of leather. At the same time, he was also conducting inspections of the entire settlement and surrounding areas.
Still in September, one day a north wind suddenly blew, and the raging cold wind swept across the flat land. 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 the settlement needs to be built with a wall to keep out the wind!"
There was no pressing need for a wooden wall in New Roseburg.
Just like the city of Moscow, which was the first city in Russian history to build a wooden wall defense system, the local nobles built the wall to guard against attacks from neighboring powers. They called it the "Kremlin." Sure enough, only half a year after the wooden wall was built, the Lithuanian army reached the gates of Moscow. Relying on the defense of the wooden wall, the Muscovites persevered in the battle until the end.
But in today's era, on both sides of the Neva River and in no-man's land, the only thing that can really threaten the safety of New Roseburg is bears. As for the closest force, the Karelias, due to some chance, the Russians did not meet this group of people living on the north shore of Lake Ladoga, and the two sides knew nothing about each other's existence.
Otto decided to build a wall to protect the tribesmen from the cold and to prevent wild beasts from sneaking into the settlement at night. After all, life is no better than before. Even if the weather is bad, the Russian immigrants still harvest a batch of wheat. Protecting the grain from being destroyed by wild beasts and rats has become an important task for them during the winter.
While the wooden wall was being gradually constructed under Otto's supervision, the appearance of three longships caused a large number of people to become instinctively vigilant.
"What? Three ships came? Could it be our ship? Could it be a messenger?" When Otto learned this information, he felt that something was strange.
He stopped inspecting the construction site and took more than 30 people straight to the sandbank at the mouth of the sea.
Sure enough, three longships were approaching quickly.
"Brothers, it may be a messenger sent from my hometown, or it may be another friend. We will wait here for them to dock."
Many people are instinctively worried. In this world, any unknown person, ordinary Russian immigrants default to that is the enemy.
Otto, who had experienced many battles, had full confidence. He clasped his hands and stood like a sculpture, as if Odin had descended to earth.
His majestic appearance has already been seen by the Rurik brothers.
"Well, if there are oars on my sails, they will know that their companions are coming." Arik felt a little regretful.
The cousin's words really reminded Rurik, especially since the "stone island" he just passed was actually Kotlin Island. It is said that if the Russians want to build a Baltic fleet, then the current location of the fleet belongs to the port area. Of course, a fleet must have a unified flag, first to distinguish between friends and foes in war, and secondly for honor.
If the education level of the tribe is high enough, then by hanging various colorful flags representing letters on the cable, a greeting can be pieced together, and the two parties can negotiate from a very long distance.
Thinking too much is wishful thinking.
But at this juncture, Rurik has already started a shipbuilding plan this winter, so it is really important to specify a style of flag.
"St. Andre's naval flag? Oh, how come that flag is similar to our crossed oars? Is this a coincidence? Yes! Let's just do it. The diagonally crossed horizontal bars, The oar that represents the Russian people." Thinking of this, Rurik smiled slightly.
Rurik had already thought about what to say to his father after the ship docked, and now the ship was about to land.
The sturdy longship crashed directly onto the soft sandbar. Otto on the shore was overjoyed and surprised at the same time. How could there be about a hundred soldiers from his hometown landing on the shore?
Otto had a reason for this judgment, because he knew some of the faces.
Suddenly, two more particularly familiar figures miraculously appeared.
"Rurik! Arik! You guys?! Am I dreaming?"
In his desperation, Otto didn't care about the majesty of the leader. He was as happy as a 200-pound fat man. He ran over and lifted up his precious son. Rurik was also shocked by this "sudden rise to the sky." "The operation shocked me.
"My dear, why are you here?" Otto put down his son and asked with a smile.
"Yes, I'm here, I just came to see you." Rurik lied immediately. "The high priest is right. Dad, you are indeed here."
"Is it Villya? She is really resourceful, but I will be sailing back in a few days. Rurik, you couldn't be more concerned about me and come to me in person?" Otto longed for a touching answer from his son.
"Yes, I just miss you, and I also came to see our New Roseburg. Ah, she is not far away." Rurik had already seen part of the erected wall.
Arik's appearance was also very strange. Standing in front of his uncle, he had to express himself more. With a whistle, his companion dropped some wheat and put it in his pocket.
"Ah, this is it?" Otto asked, pointing.
"It's wheat."
"Huh? Are you going to transport supplies here? By the way, the Mailaren people have harvested their wheat."
"No! This was snatched from the hands of the Baltic people, the big leader. We met those people on the road and we defeated them. Haha, we won again."
Otto had never heard of this matter. He made some inquiries and got Rurik's confirmation.
"Oh, things have become amazing. The difficult Baltic people were easily defeated by you? I am very happy that you are here. Let's go, let your ship continue to go up, our dock at New Roseburg has been built long ago Okay. Tonight we... By the way, rabbits are everywhere here. Let's nibble on rabbits tonight. I hope your little teeth can still move."
Hearing this, Rurik couldn't help but pinch one of his shaky front teeth and other teeth that were beginning to loosen. He was afraid that his teeth would become chipped early if he chewed the meat too hard. He had no dental problems, especially because he ate too much meat in his life, and Rurik didn't even have cavities.
It is entirely due to the faster development of this Nordic body that nine-year-old Rurik has entered the tooth loss stage. The permanent teeth buried in his lower jaw are like their owner's ambition, ready to come out.
