During the busiest period of surveying and mapping farmland, boyar nobles from various farms around the lake arrived in Novgorod in small boats or carriages.
They all saw what happened in the farmland, and they immediately understood that Prince Ross was actually personally implementing his decision.
Now, the task of measuring the acres of Baishu Manor will fall on me sooner or later.
They had no choice but to face it with all their might, unaware that the situation was good or bad. It had already happened and they were powerless to change it.
When all the boyars gathered, Rurik washed off the dust on his body and put on gorgeous clothes to restore the nobility of the duke.
A wooden house was designed as a venue for the parliament. It is currently quite simple, but as the highest nobleman, Rurik intends to entertain these local nobles who have been delayed for a long time.
People like Uski and Tori who had participated in the counter-insurgency war thought highly of themselves and accepted the invitation very happily.
The other manor owners, the boyars, still remain wary and suspicious of the Russian conquerors.
A group of people gathered in this simple wooden house. They were all wearing fox furs and fox fur hats. There were some holes in the hats, and some mottled feathers could be inserted into them for decoration.
Many boyars are furs made of bearskin. Obviously wearing it to a party is a kind of courting death.
Who can wear bearskin clothing? Rus warriors are entitled and deserve it.
Although the house is simple, there are a number of deerskin cushions placed inside, and square tables are placed in front of the cushions. What does this mean? Could it be that the prince also needs to arrange catering?
When they were bored, they chatted with each other. The only exception among the boyars was the old man Ligus. They all exchanged the information they had found out, and even some rumors.
"Hey, have you all heard? I heard that the prince brought all his women here this time, but I don't know if the young man's body can bear it. Haha, maybe he can."
"Of course he can. Friends, I heard that Ligus's little daughter is pregnant. After a baby is born, that baby will become our master."
"So what can I do? Do you want me to complain?" Someone murmured regretfully, "That guy Ligus is a conspirator, and he succeeded. My daughter is obviously more beautiful than his daughter, but it's a pity..."
"Let's talk about serious things!" Uski interrupted the conversation of a group of old guys.
"What is serious business? Farm affairs?"
"Exactly. I dare say that the prince summoned us to explain this. Have you thought about it? Then we will have to hand over wheat or other things according to this. I don't believe that the Russians will really be merciful. Pine Needle Manor is finished , the rest of us are just a bunch of poor cows, and the Russians can squeeze as much milk as they like."
People looked at each other, and no one said anything to them for a long time.
Finally, someone waited for the table in front of them and whispered: "In the past, Pine Needle Manor was our master. At that time, we had to pay tribute to them and the Russians. Now we only serve the Russians, so the situation can't be bad." They are coming now, and it is obvious that they have defeated the enemies of the Northern Great Lakes. As you all saw, there is not a single person alive in the entire Pine Needle Manor! Let’s not keep complaining and worry about the consequences of angering the Ross people."
This person was already trembling with fear at the end of his words, and many people's eyes were inadvertently directed at Ning Wang Uski and Tori, simply because they were also participants in the killing.
Tori was not happy about this. He raised his head: "What do you think I am doing? That Vadim is a fool. If you follow him, you will die. I followed the Russians to get where I am today. You should touch your conscience. If you had led troops to follow him earlier, The Russians can also be allocated acres of land. Are you actually afraid of the Russian raids? In my opinion, Grand Duke Rurik is a good man."
They were whispering to each other and talking.
Finally, there was a commotion outside, and the seated boyars stood up one after another.
I saw what I thought was a capable young man with his head held high, wearing a furry white bear fur robe, holding a sword hilt, walking towards him with arrogant steps.
Lord Rurik, Prince of Rus, has arrived!
Numerous Russian warriors wearing iron-reinforced chainmail guarded his left and right sides. They no longer covered their armor with robes, clearly proving to the witnesses that they were indeed made of iron and were indescribably powerful.
He was also followed by two people, one of whom was Governor Medved. One of them was a tall and strong man. This guy had been close to the Ross people for many years, and his whole person became like Ross.
The other young man was slim and handsome, his clothes were neat and slightly close-fitting, with a sword hanging from his waist and a velvet hat on his head. who is he?
When the prince arrived, the people who had been chatting just now all expressed their greetings with smiles.
"You all sit down." Rurik said casually in Slavic: "I summoned you, and I saw you all coming. Very good! I don't want to hear any polite words, and you have no right to ask. You can only listen. I am qualified to preach, now sit down."
After eating the meal, the boyars had to sit down obediently.
They all knew that Old Otto had been staying in the city of Novgorod. When they entered the city for a meeting, everyone glanced at the dock and saw those familiar ships docking quietly. The Duke's ship was actually firmly fixed? ! Apparently the Duke planned to spend the winter here.
Rurik sat cross-legged, Medved sat down with a sullen face, but saw the handsome young man beside him sitting sideways, standing up and slowly taking off his hat.
The braided hair fell down and his face became clear, which shocked all the boyars.
There are rumors that Gus's youngest daughter has become a pregnant woman. Everything is a fallacy. She is sitting here, clearly dressed as a young Rus warrior. If it weren't for this face, no one would dare to say that she is Svetlana.
Seeing the looks in the boyars' eyes, Rurik was the only one who was actually holding back his words. My time is very tight, and I have to carry out surveying and mapping at the Old Pine Needle Manor. I have no time to spend time with this group of boyars.
"My order has been issued long ago, and you all came too late. I know that the roads and waterways are not good, so I don't blame you. You must have seen it when you came to my Novgorod. I have already begun to pay attention to the land here. Take detailed measurements. I have completed calling you today to promote this."
He paused, not giving these boyars a chance to interrupt, and said: "You'd better prick up your ears like rabbits and listen carefully. This is my order."
(Rurik repeated what he had explained to Rigus before to these boyars...)
"Do you all understand now? The consequences of non-cooperation are very dangerous. You can rest assured that I am a just ruler. Whoever has more farmland and more livestock will have to pay more taxes. No matter you are Whether you live deep in a remote forest or around the city of Novgorod, the tax laws are the same. Those who pay taxes are protected by Rus, and those who do not pay taxes will be punished by Rus. As long as you pay taxes, you are protected by Rus. New Russians who recognize it can call themselves this.”
As long as you pay taxes, you have a Roth name? Zhong Boyar doesn't think this so-called honorary name actually has much effect.
Because they have been calling themselves Slavic, which is "glorious" itself, and they have been calling themselves the glorious clan.
The boyars are also smart. They are the best in the competition in their community, so they can control the status of the owners of the manor. Land is their lifeblood, and all matters related to land will arouse their extreme vigilance. Prince Rurik of Russia swore an oath this time. He swore to Odin, the main god of Varyag, and to Peron, the great Slavic god, that the agricultural tithe would be implemented and the tax rate would not be increased. The tax base for taxation is the area of farmland. The prince also ensures that only mature fields that have been developed for at least one year will be counted, and wasteland and newly reclaimed land will not be included. The area of farmland will also be recalculated every five years to revise the tax base.
The prince clarified two major principles: fairness and contract.
This is a meeting of fairness and contract, but until they are truly implemented, the boyars cannot really believe it, and now they can only face Rurik with a smile.
Rurik just wouldn't let them interrupt. As the highest nobleman on this issue, he must act arbitrarily.
After all, these native boyar nobles are a threat to the Principality of Ross itself. They should be purged. The Principality of Ross should directly rule every family around Lake Ilmen. This is not to destroy the inherent farm system, on the contrary, it is to build a farm that can be directly controlled by the principality. For example, one hundred peasant families are organized into a collective farm, and one person is elected as the village chief every few years, and the duke reviews the village leader and gives him administrative power. This kind of village chief is different from the boyar nobles. He has no foundation and no shackles. For the sake of personal prosperity and wealth, he must do things well for the duke. Even if a few Lindeng Wan might appear, it would be nothing more than a small fight. Unlike the collective rebellion of tens of thousands of people at Pine Needle Manor that had just occurred, the preparations for the conquest of Karelia ended in an anticlimactic situation after more than half a year. The biggest factor was the delay in financial and material resources in the counter-insurgency war.
From this, Rurik concluded that even if the local boyar nobles were very loyal in their generation, their descendants might still rebel because they had enough resources to rebel.
The establishment of a farm directly controlled by the duke, relying on layer-by-layer bureaucratic descending management, this model is more advanced than entrusting the boyar aristocracy to rule, but it is completely unsuitable for today's era.
Through several days of personal surveying and mapping activities at the grassroots level, Rurik has thoroughly felt the extreme backwardness of rural life in this era. Is this considered a rural area? Living people are like "apes who know how to farm." There is not even paper, and processed wooden boards are used to record information. As for the ink used, the Russians used technology learned from Rome a long time ago. Writing itself is not the problem, the carrier of writing is the big problem.
The carrier for recording information is a heavy wooden board, and there are only a handful of people in the entire Principality of Rus who can write and write. The absolute lack of talents and information carriers makes it impossible for the principality to accurately manage the people under its rule.
There is really no way to entrust these native boyars to act as agents.
There is even a question mark as to whether Medved, the governor appointed by himself, has always been loyal. After all, this person is a very substantial relative of the principality.
The lecture ended here, and Rurik believed that they all understood it. Due to the poor traffic conditions, it was not easy for the boyars to gather in Novgorod, the northernmost part of the lake, even though they were all residents of the lake. They should be entertained.
The long-prepared meal begins!
The fine wheat flour treasured by Rurik is mixed with butter and honey and baked into an extremely fragrant and soft meal.
Bread is placed in front of the boyars one after another, and as long as they smell the fragrant smell, their appetite will flow like a fountain.
After a while, the aroma of wine filled the air again. The exquisite crystal cup had a strange shape. When the cork was removed, the perfect aroma of wine overflowed.
These two delicacies make the newly arrived barbecue no longer a delicacy. In fact, this was not the case. The boyars saw that all the dinner plates provided by Duke Rurik were crystal plates!
The tableware is actually glassware, and the wine bottles are also blown-cast. These utensils have now become mass-produced items.
Rigus came on crutches, and his son-in-law preached without saying a word. Now I saw these boyars studying the glassware for a long time, and looked at them with contemptuous eyes.
Because Rigus already knew the whole truth, although he didn't understand the principle, it was certain that most of the glassware on site was actually made by the eldest daughter who married Ross. The eldest daughter Lilia must have mastered magic, or the wisdom given by Odin.
The boyars did not go back empty-handed. They all drank a bottle of vodka and drank half a pound of spirits. Many of them were swaying and being helped away by their attendants. They ate up the sweet, pastry-like bread, and even licked the glass bottles clean with their tongues. The barbecue was also finished. Ryuri ordered his men to put more salt on the meat. He wanted to see how uncomfortable these people were eating salty food. He was just playing a prank to have fun. Unexpectedly, these guys ate them all. Clean.
How sodium-deficient must their bodies be? !
Rurik could understand after a moment's thought that the salt sold to them before was too little. Faced with the large market around Lake Ilmen, and even the unconquered free farms in the surrounding forests, this was a huge market. , salt and iron are a kind of hard currency.
They took away the glassware, and it is conceivable that these things will become the exclusive treasures of the boyars.
This is the meeting of all Novgorod boyar nobles in early winter. It is also the second meeting of all boyar nobles after the rebellion was put down. From now on, life will be back on track, and the autumn harvest season next year will be completed in accordance with the regulations of the principality. Grain taxation, a new peaceful life under Ross has arrived.
Just after the conference, Rurik threw away his gorgeous robe and showed off the simple and capable linen clothes underneath which were convenient for working in the fields.
The fur-covered boyars had all left, and he casually called Medved to come closer to him.
"Sir, do you have an important order?"
"Yes. My mother and daughter are coming soon. In the past few days, you should organize the flag team and let the soldiers dress up and look like real Varyag warriors. The old lady wants to see a mighty army. army."
"Yes." Medved smiled.
"Oh, one more thing. Send me someone to cut down five hundred birch trees. Remember, don't cut down small trees. When you're done, I'll peel off the bark of the trees."
"Peel the bark off the tree?" Medved heard it too freshly.
"You must be questioning something. Don't question it. Just follow my request. Also, try to find birch trees as far away as possible. I don't want to cut down all the birch trees outside the city in a short time. "
Only Ligus had something to say about this matter. The old guy coughed twice and interjected: "Sir, those birch trees have been planted by our generations. There is no need to worry about the disappearance of the birch forest. If a tree is cut down, We will replant one. The birch (white tree) is the symbol of our farm. We need these high-quality wood to live, and we are good at carrying these trees."
Rurik didn't know much about these things. What Ligus said shocked him: "That's great."
"Then my lord, can you tell me why you need that bark? Five hundred trees, you will get a lot of bark. What is it for?"
Since Ligus asked, Rurik might as well express the decision he had been holding back for a long time: "I will make a very soft board (referring to paper), which is as thin as cloth, can be folded like cloth, and can be used Ink writes eternal words. But it is also a special kind of board, and to make it you need bark. Since you are so fond of birch for daily use, birch bark would be the best cork board."
How can Rigus and Medved understand abstractly something they have never seen? Svetlana, who was dressed as a warrior, cheered and hugged her husband's neck enthusiastically: "Those heavy wooden boards are so annoying. If there were...cork boards as thin as cloth. Can we write a lot of things?" In this way, your carriage does not need to pull a lot of wooden boards, and a small box can carry these things for writing and recording."
"Of course." Rurik laughed out loud. He had already decided to make paper!
He believed in Medvet's ability to act, and the most readily available raw materials for papermaking, the Novgorod governor was about to take care of it for himself.
But before that, and before the first snow fell, Rurik also decided to summon all the surveying and mapping teams to concentrate manpower and material resources to win a "tough battle for surveying and mapping the acres of the old Pine Needle Manor."
Rurik and his men were already going all out.
Medved and his men had also received orders, carrying double saws and large axes, and went deep into the forest to cut down the white birches in the red pines, and the bark began to accumulate in a steady stream. As for the peeled tree trunks, no trace of them was wasted. The charcoal makers in the city began to take action, and the people of Baishu Farm were already making and storing charcoal blocks for winter heating.
Their actions also explain why this farm likes birch trees. The obvious reason is that pine trees and burning pine charcoal are accompanied by a very pungent smell. Who would like this? Then birch, which is abundant in quantity and has low burning smell, has become the most cost-effective material for heating.
