Compared with other forces, the Russians do have extremely strong mobility.
This is not because they have some profound belief that transcends others. To a large extent, their passion for action lies in wealth.
After discussing the countermeasures with the blacksmiths, Rurik hurriedly counted his money.
A large number of wooden boxes and leather boxes were piled up in the well-defended house, which contained only gold, silver and copper coins obtained through various means. Among them, the largest number of silver coins came from old Rome and Frank. Not only money, but also a large amount of physical supplies are the solid backing for his executive order.
That's food!
A large amount of grains have literally piled up like mountains. The population directly controlled by the Principality of Ross is much larger than before, and the number of people including infants and young children has exceeded 20,000.
However, the permanent settlements of Tombstone Island, Ironburg, Fiskburg, Kovenstad, and New Roseburg are completely self-sufficient, and the consumption of local people is far lower than their economic output.
The largest settlement in the Principality of Ross is Rossburg. Although Rurik had long wanted to completely move the capital to New Rossburg at the mouth of the Neva River, due to practical factors, he found that he still needed to vigorously develop Rossburg, a place of great prosperity.
Rossburg has the largest population and is also the industrial, commercial and cultural center of the Principality. The strongest fighting force of the Principality is also located here.
The city can still develop further. Since the environment of the fjord once hindered development, it can open up new land by logging on the spot. Of course, this is only one of the ways. The other way is to pile up mountains of grain and coins in the warehouse.
Do the people of Roseburg really want to spend most of their time fishing, hunting and other food production, as they did in the past seventy or eighty years? Enough grain for everyone to eat for a whole year is in the warehouse. Although it is close to the sea, the overall dry and cold environment naturally brings advantages to grain storage. The people of Roseburg do not need to produce food. All people living here do high economic value-added jobs. Blood transfusions from other regions are enough to solve the food problem.
Looking at the amazing food and wealth, Rurik was full of confidence!
Now that it's December, the daylight hours in Roseburg have actually plummeted to just four hours. Everyone knows how short the day is, and the extreme cold at night makes people reluctant to go out.
If you want to build a small town in such an environment and organize a large number of people to dig for ore, it is really a joke on human lives.
Time is always precious, and the blast furnace that keeps burning cannot stop suddenly. The first two furnaces must continue to swallow ore.
Furthermore, even if the severe winter period is not suitable for building a new earthen blast furnace in a new area, at least the woods must be cut down and a basic blacksmith shed built.
Despite the difficulties, Rurik was unwilling to wait any longer.
Because Hanukkah for the Russians and the entire Nordic world is not far away.
On December 10th of the Julian calendar, the men and women staying in Roseburg relied on the news that had gone viral before. They walked out of their homes one after another and moved towards the Duke's three-story mansion.
Most of the able-bodied men went to the north, especially to settle in Ironburg, using it as a "base" to carry out winter hunting with supplies in search of precious furs.
Most of the people who stayed in Roseburg were men, women, young and old, and even quite a few outsiders. When it comes to a strong labor force, there is naturally a strong workforce, namely the mercenaries that Rurik valued, as well as Herriger and his permanent residents of the Melalen people.
Even those Tavastian women who were allowed to leave the warehouse. They have become much healthier due to the continuous good food. Now they all put on the leather clothes they were given. With doubts and caution, they were surrounded by the crowd one by one and stood. In front of the huge Duke's Palace.
Thousands of people of all kinds gathered, and the crowd also attracted many foreign businessmen. News about building a new town and encouraging logging and mining have made many ordinary people itchy in their hearts and hands even more.
People have heard a lot of news. Based on Mr. Rurik's past, any promises made by Mr. Rurik will be implemented afterwards. It must be inevitable this time.
Some people have questioned this. After all, by inciting so many people to work, the Duke is bound to bleed financially. The adults should remunerate all participants, which is not much.
The harsh winter still makes many people so bored that they can only stay at home.
In the past, most Russians were poor, and this poverty was directly reflected in the thinness of their clothing. Nowadays, men and women are all wearing leather clothes, and they are all furry. Keeping warm is no longer a problem, but lack of money is a big problem.
The rumbling sounds outside started before the sun rose. Rurik was in a happy mood, but his wives and concubines were complaining endlessly.
He simply ate some dried meat and ordered his wives and concubines to change into neat and decent leather clothes immediately.
The Ross elite gathered on the rare and solid concrete floor of the Duke's mansion.
When Harold Zosen saw old Otto, he hugged him like a brother, with a face as warm as a holiday.
"Brother, the whole Roseburg is boiling. Everyone is waiting to make a sum of money. Rurik should be completely trustworthy."
"Of course." Otto was still a little dazed from the strong drink yesterday. He picked off the fur again, and a gust of cold hit him, and he was full of energy. "Rurik will come out in a while. You and a group of brothers will quickly build a stage for me. He will give another speech."
"Just outside the yard? How about building it out of snow?"
"Okay, go ahead and do it."
Otto's old guys hurriedly built a podium for Rurik. When the winter sunshine completely shone on the frozen Roseburg, Rurik stood on the makeshift podium for him, covered in fur.
In front of him were the enthusiastic smiles of thousands of people.
He stretched out his hands to gradually calm down the commotion of the people, then looked around with his head, and kept repeating a simple sentence in a voice that was changing.
"Build a town! Work! Get money! Everyone! Every day! One silver coin! I'll give you food, but you get the money!"
He just kept barking these very short phrases. The statement is so simple and the content is so tempting!
Yelling a lot of tirade? In this era where there are no loudspeakers and the art of papermaking has not yet been invented, government orders announced in public should be concise and to the point.
Rurik felt that he had to desperately rely on a few words and phrases to express his orders, and it turned out that he succeeded again.
In building a new town for the blacksmiths, only some able-bodied people are eligible to participate. The people who gathered here knew about this in advance. Those old Russian men who are not too old and even some strong women are the labor force that needs to be used, and they are all eligible to receive one silver coin per day!
The reward is so generous? The Duke also promised that he would provide food and pay on a daily basis.
In this way, wouldn't the money earned by any worker for one day's work be enough to buy ten pounds of oats and nine pounds of wheat? On a normal day, this kind of food would be enough for a person to live for half a month.
Although a large amount of silver coins flowed into Russia, causing the prices of many consumer goods to skyrocket, the prices of wheat and meat were still low. They did not understand what economic macro-control was. In fact, Rurik also lacked knowledge in this area. However, Rurik controlled the only granary and the only treasury in Roseburg, and he only had very low guidance on the materials for the national economy and the people's livelihood. Especially in salt and iron, Rurik actually achieved a monopoly. These are the core things related to the survival of the principality. He has the remaining things in his hands and throws them to the market, allowing all kinds of businessmen and producers to coordinate among themselves.
How could this not be an opportunity to make a lot of money? If the construction of a town takes a hundred days, the strong men who participate in it will not only get a hundred days of free food, but also get a pound of silver coins in their hands.
This pound of silver alone was enough for me, my wife, and my children to live happily for a year.
They completely lacked economic knowledge, but their arithmetic skills were all talents. Adhering to the traditional Viking arithmetic skills, they immediately discovered the huge benefits. Men and women were uttering Viking war cries, praising the Duke's mercy.
This was the sound of cheers. The powerful sound deeply shocked the heart of Queen Mary, and also shocked Rurik's other wives and concubines again.
In fact, the person who was most deeply touched by this gathering was Mary. What she saw with her naked eyes was that in the hometown of the Vikings, a heroic king was supported by countless people.
This incident alone is only a legend in my hometown of Mercia. It seems that the old King of Mercia two hundred years ago had such support from the people for a short time. Unfortunately, his cheap father Wiglaf was clearly a fool.
She unconsciously held her stomach and stared at Rurik who was standing on the snowdrift and continued to give orders. She didn't know whether to talk about a big thing or not.
Because Princess Mary has not seen her menstrual period for more than two months, and the only man who has been close to her since her last menstrual period was Rurik.
Perhaps at most 1,500 people were involved in building the infrastructure of Blast Furnace Town. How long is the construction period? It may take two months, or even continue due to the short duration of the daylight hours.
He also knew that there would be some jokesters sneaking in, and there would also be workers taking advantage of the situation.
It is of course necessary to arrange a small group of supervisors for them, but some unnecessary losses also need to be tolerated.
Compared with the future when Blast Furnace Town is completed and begins production, what is the money paid now? Even the focus is not on building towns at all, but on how much ore the mobilized Russian people can dig in the mountains.
Rurik is not worried at all that the ore will be exhausted one day. If so, it will be in thousands of years!
It is an iron ore vein that stretches from Denmark to the Arctic Ocean. It is the best iron ore vein in Europe. It is a vein that cannot be dug for tens of thousands of years simply by relying on hammers, chisels and thermal expansion and contraction.
People chatted lively about silver coins and food issues, and the rumbling sound continued for a while.
Rurik waited for them to gradually quiet down, and then began to officially announce the mining matter.
The new speech is still extremely simple in language and more penetrating.
"Anyone! Mining! I will buy it at the market price!"
Rurik's constant repetition of these phrases struck like arrows into the hearts of all men, women and children.
What is generosity? This is the greatest generosity!
Rurik's declaration confirmed all the previous rumors. Now everyone in Rossburg who can hold a hammer and pickaxe is qualified to make money from mining.
So, when does the work start?
It’s December 12th, roughly!
Rurik deliberately chose this day for no special reason, just because "Double Twelve" can be interpreted as a good fortune in a literal sense.
However, when Rurik made all the declarations, all the people gathered ran away.
Rurik himself was dumbfounded. He was silent for a while and then laughed out loud.
"Damn it, what did these guys do? During the war, they couldn't run as fast as they do today." Otto snarled.
Rurik descended the snow hill quickly, feeling refreshed but feeling dry in his throat.
"Everyone has finished running away, what do you think?" Otto asked immediately.
"It's nothing. They are all busy going home to pick up tools and go mining in the mountains." Rurik spoke with a smile. As a father, Otto kept a straight face this time.
Otto also instinctively knew that Rurik's troubles would result in a huge loss of wealth. It was because this kid had a huge amount of money that he was qualified to squander it. Otto simply said that it was inappropriate and went straight to the point to explain his doubts.
What else can Rurik do? He shrugged: "They can make money, and I won't lose money. Just wait and see, we will be stronger at this moment next year."
After hearing this, Otto stopped saying anything.
Rurik's judgment was absolutely correct, and as promised, the people quickly rushed towards the mountains with tools and pulling their own sleds. Most people claim to know what an iron mine looks like, but the number of women sent out is astonishing, and many people are obviously following it blindly.
Old people, teenagers, young women, and even all old women, they stopped the weaving men in their hands and rushed towards the mountains with their tools.
To be fair, Rurik was indeed shocked by the enthusiasm of such a group of blind movers. The chaos that his father pointed out was a fact, but this chaos will soon stabilize.
It is entirely because you need to be hard-working to make iron. They are rushed in by the trend of interests. Only some people can actually dig up the iron ore and successfully bring it back.
Rurik also explained that the ore must be sold according to the market price. To put it bluntly, this price was actually set by him and the blacksmith alliance together, and he controlled the pricing power. This was the sharp sickle that secretly harvested the labor force.
What's more, do the entire people of Roseburg understand real iron ore? If what is excavated is ordinary granite, naturally it cannot pay the high price of iron ore.
Rurik predicted many things, which all came true in the short daylight of the next day.
In fact, many people were afraid of the cold at night and simply gave up mining to avoid freezing to death. One or two of them retreated home that night and started working as weavers. At least I can hide in a warm home and light an oil lamp to weave. I will make a lot less money and at least I won’t freeze to death.
Those who simply set up shacks in the mountains for the night did eventually bring back a batch of ore. Unfortunately, the blacksmiths only took away the real ore after sorting, and the granite was only paid at the price of ordinary stone.
Even for iron ore, which is purchased by the Blacksmiths Union at market prices, its price has plummeted by half. There are a lot of vigilante miners who are very angry, so what does it matter? No one is forcing everyone to mine. If you can’t stand this low price, don’t do it.
However, the large group of Tevastian women were all pulled by Rurik to mine. Even if women were indeed not suitable for holding axes and chisels to cut ore, their current status was that of slave labor. Earn silver coins by mining and transporting ore? Don't even think about it! However, their accommodation, food, and clothing are all provided by the Duke of Ross. Their labor is the price for obtaining these materials, and they have no ability to bargain.
Even though this group of women had not been taken away to mine, Rurik once again reiterated their destination in a language they could understand on December 11th of the Julian calendar: "You will all be Balmokhs." Women, you will not be slaves! You must work for me in exchange for the food, clothing and shelter I give you. When the weather becomes warmer, I will lead you to distant places. Tavastia has perished, you The disaster of the old leader's wrong decision will be borne by you, but I am not a bad person. You will eventually have a stable life, as long as you work for me honestly now."
Each one of them is free now. In fact, they are completely able to escape, but no one dares to do so. Where can I go to escape? Fall prey to wild beasts on the ice? Tavastia is indeed dead, where is home.
They still don't understand what a good future is. At least for now, they can only get food by working according to the conqueror's orders. Smart people naturally live by taking one step at a time.
It was on this night that after careful counting, a total of 450 young women from Tavastia were distributed with small axes and chisels, and some who were obviously strong-armed were even given long-handled draft axes. A group of mining women are scheduled to set off tomorrow.
This night, many men and women are also preparing. Even if the "invisible hand" has screened out those who are not suitable for mining in Roseburg, there are still many people who still plan to work hard to mine ore and make money, even if they dig it by mistake. granite.
Except for those who were engaged in fishing, sealing, soap making, Parla and others, those who were busy with weaving, leather manufacturing and garment manufacturing, as well as other people who had their own jobs, any idle labor force in Roseburg was mobilized.
No, on December 12 of the Julian calendar, only young children, mothers who couldn't escape, and the truly infirm were not involved. Every single one of Roseburg's labor force was mobilized.
Even Rumia was ordered to make sacrifices to the statue of Thor alone, and to encourage the people on a spiritual level.
The noisy people, carrying tools and sleds, walked toward the west of Fort Ross.
An unknown worker also laid the first wooden stake for Blast Furnace Town...
