Those eager and impatient people struggled to get out of the crowd. They lifted up their warm robes and showed off their white-on-blue-striped jerseys.
The First Flag Team showed their bravery here. They first gathered into a group and drew a line with other onlookers, and then lined up neatly under Arik's order.
A flag regiment is divided into four squadrons, which are actually four centuries.
The centurion restrained his men. The group of blue-dyed feathers inserted into the leather helmets on the heads of the four men became the most eye-catching feature. Not only did his men see clearly that they were lined up neatly, but it also made Rurik see clearly.
The originally quiet scene became a little noisy. Rurik stretched out his hands to signal everyone to be quiet.
How can orders be conveyed accurately to those gathered?
With a dull face, Rurik asked his wife to step back, and he stood alone on the platform, letting the wind blow his ponytail.
He pointed at Connuson and ordered him to come to power.
What can Conuson do? I couldn't keep my face off if things were not done well, so when I saw the Duke, I apologized: "Sir, I didn't expect that all the residents of the city came here, and I let you see the chaos. I am guilty."
"It's true that you didn't do your job well. You went to call on the idle people to go home. You came to command some men and asked them to persuade others to leave. Tell the people that today's incident only has something to do with the First Flag Team."
"yes!"
Konuson retreated, and Rurik pointed accurately at Carlotta, who was obviously coming to watch a show.
The girl hurriedly walked up to the stage with a smile on her face and wanted to talk, but what she didn't expect was a stern reprimand from the man she loved.
"Did I...let you come? All the people who brought you back! Hurry!"
"Ah? I..." Carlotta was at a loss for a moment and reluctantly explained: "I told the people about it. Everyone praised you as the greatest person, and they came here specifically to admire your face."
"The little mouth is covered with honey." Rurik's mood eased slightly, "Are you all satisfied now? Let them retreat and stop staying in the cold outdoors. Be careful of diseases."
Rurik didn't want to get entangled with other people, because a signing site inside the palace had already been set up, and it was already guarded by temporary maids and personal guards.
He watched Carlotta return to the ranks of the Ostarans, and watched those people leave reluctantly.
Now that a group of people had left, the other spectators felt bored, and because of Conuson's persuasion, some people began to go home one after another.
Many people's faces were filled with disappointment. Women sternly scolded their running children and went home, while some complained about why their elderly husbands were cowardly enough to go to war. There are also the New Rus from Sweden and the Slavs from the south who have joined the group in recent years. They really regret the different treatment by the princes, but what can they do? This is the territory of the Principality of Rus. The old Rus are the most noble, nobler than other Varyags, and the young warriors among the old Rus are the noblest among the nobles.
The sun was rising high, and most of the early morning chill was gone. There is still no sign of snow melting in the whole world, and the city of New Roseburg is also completely white. As a result, the soldiers of the First Flag Team have put on wooden-framed sunglasses. Combined with their jerseys, it is indeed a beautiful scenery, and even a little more Bizarre.
The rest of the crowd retreated, and Rurik reiterated his opinion.
"Brothers! I will fulfill my agreement! Every one of you! One by one, you are entitled to a farmland of 100 stika in length and width! You all have the right to grow wheat on your own land, and you all have the right to live with your family. It was a good day to eat wheat every year..." Everyone already knows these things, and now the prince is preaching it again, which is to confirm it again.
"Brothers! I will sign a contract with each of you! Everyone will enter my palace and sign a written contract with me face to face. This sacred contract will be recognized by Odin, and your future good days will also be blessed. .Attention centurions! First Centurion of the First Banner Corps! Take your men into the palace. Others, don’t be anxious, everyone’s contract will be signed before noon!”
The people burst out in astonishing shouts. The contract has not been signed yet, and their own land has not even been stepped on. Their faces are already filled with the joy of the harvest.
The once chaotic scene was restored to order, and the soldiers of the First Flag Team majestically entered the prince's "Winter Palace" for the first time.
A table was placed in the rather spacious hall, and a large number of contract documents were piled up. The dancing flames of dozens of oil lamps made the entire hall extremely bright and at the same time brought a comfortable warmth. The 100th team entered here, and the soldiers looked left and right.
This is the palace of the prince. It is not spacious and even a little simple. This is very different from the description in the legend. The prince's palace should be decorated with bear heads, decorated with a lot of gold and silver, and there should be a throne studded with precious stones, but there is none here.
There are bear heads, but there are not many of them, and they are almost the only thing that shows the nobility of the prince.
Indeed, the "Winter Palace" in New Roseburg is currently Rurik's palace. Rurik likes this location, but does not like this retro longhouse-style building. Since Rus already had the capability to build three-story buildings with wood, stone, and cement, the prince's palace had reason to be built tall, preferably as the first building in the new Fort of Rus, so that her monarch could overlook the entire city.
Princes need splendid palaces to show their majesty. Maybe it is extravagant and wasteful, but the current palaces are indeed simple.
Putting aside the pending construction work here, Rurik has been daydreaming these days, that in this autumn, he can walk in the endless wheat fields, watch the wind blow the wheat waves, and touch the wheat ears with his own hands.
Dreams can come true, and it starts with today’s “Big Contract”.
When they saw the paper and the densely written words on it for the first time, the soldiers did not show shock. They were happy and obsessed. Who is not curious about rare things? This cloth-like and wood-like thing completely surpassed their imagination. Everyone was mentally prepared to take away the wooden board full of words. Unexpectedly, there was no wooden board here, only neatly stacked things called paper.
Paper can be circled and tied with rope, and it can be folded without being damaged. Its only disadvantage is that it is afraid of water. No problem, fear of water is just a minor annoyance. Besides, if the charcoal ink is written on the wooden board, it will fade if it is stained with a lot of water. It is necessary to protect the wooden board of the contract from getting wet, so this paper must not get wet, otherwise it will not be able to use the runes neatly written on it.
Both the rune alphabet and the Roman alphabet are derived from the ancient Greek alphabet. There is even a parallel relationship between the two, and they can be transcribed almost without any obstacles. Therefore, in theory, those Russians who understand traditional writing can accept Roman letters in a short time.
As long as you can speak and understand the pronunciation of the corresponding letters, you can spell the Western Pinyin script with almost the same accuracy. If the monarch further regulates the spelling method, a script will be completed.
Each soldier of the 100th Team of the First Flag was given a contract document.
Ryuri asked them to read the few terms, and stated that since this was a reward, the recipients had no right to argue. After reading it, they felt that the terms were acceptable and they would come and sign a contract with him one-on-one.
He did not force his men. This contract was not mandatory from the beginning. After signing the contract, you must pay the tithe tax every year. It doesn't matter if you don't sign, you can just continue to live your old life as a fisherman.
They were able to weigh the pros and cons, and the land the Duke was rewarded all came from the rebellious Pine Needle Manor that had been conquered. This group of people directly participated in the war, and they knew best that those fields were completely fertile!
One of the main goals of the old Russian people when they walked out of the narrow fjord was to find warm and fertile farming land for two days. Before they knew about the fertile black soil of Ukraine, the old land of Novgorod's Pine Needle Manor was the best fertile land!
After a short discussion, the First Hundred team signed one-on-one contracts with Rurik.
The soldiers used beautiful mallard feathers to write their names, their father's names, and their flag centurions on the paper.
Rurik also wrote his full name here: Rurik Ottoson Principoulos.
Almost all people in the Principality of Russia have no surnames, or attributive names at the end of their names. Surnames are necessary for small ethnic groups within to strengthen their status after an ethnic group develops to an advanced stage.
As they signed their names, the issue was highlighted once again.
Just like the surveying of fields in Novgorod and taking a census, the Slavs of the White Tree Estate had the same problem with their names. At least some Russians will use something to strengthen their uniqueness and play a role similar to a surname. What's more, some large families are already using real surnames.
Ordering people to give themselves a surname across the board seems to be something that cannot be rushed for the time being.
Rurik could not ask these warriors to invent a surname for themselves immediately, so he asked them to write down their identity information in more detail, preferably including their nicknames.
No, they were just like Rurik expected, a batch of domineering nicknames appeared on the paper.
"The skull-cracker", "the stone-crushing hand", "the one the Gotlanders fear", "the whale hunter"...
Every traditional Russian man has a nickname. Rurik disdains to give himself some weird names. He only has one name, which is "Princip", the only prince in Russia.
In fact, among the people, he already has a series of names such as "Son of God", "Wise Man", "Ruthless Butcher", "Conqueror of the Sea" and "Denmark".
If every name was turned into a medal, then Rurik would have a pair of extremely strong fish scale armor.
The smart man realizes the great value of signing this contract, that is, he and Rurik are a community of destiny in every sense.
It is the contractor's obligation to pay taxes to the prince, and the contractor is also obliged to join the army and fight for Rus.
The prince also has his obligation, which is to protect the life rights of the contractor and his family members at all times. Even if there is a disaster, he also ensures that the contractor and their family members will not die of hunger, illness or freezing.
Over the years, the prince has taken care of all the children of brothers who died in the war, and even most of the children in Rus' headquarters have been raised by the prince.
The prince was young and promising, his reputation was guaranteed, and their contract was signed happily.
The four centurions completed the signing at a very fast speed, which made Rurik worried that they did not read the terms carefully.
They do, but there's no need to look closely at the terms. There are not many terms written in black and white on the paper. The entire article is written in plain language. You can understand the meaning after just a few glances.
People who signed the contract were asked not to leave because the prince wanted to announce a decision that would benefit everyone.
Rurik deliberately kept it secret, which really whetted the appetite of the brothers.
The noisy hall finally quieted down, and a large number of contract documents were harvested. Rurik knew that he had also done a census of the soldiers of the First Flag Team.
Judging from the names alone, there are really many of his most capable subordinates named after Bjorn, Harold, Ivar, Karl, etc. It is no wonder that these complimentary terms are very popular, but they are too similar to each other. Fortunately, their nicknames are varied and even bizarre, and some of them have humorous elements.
They gathered outdoors and talked about it, but in fact many people had already learned the news.
The news was revealed by Arik, and the co-author prince wanted to buy the squirrel skins in everyone's hands.
By now, no one in the New Roseburg market wants to buy leather anymore, and the market here is saturated. It would be okay to force the leather to be sold. That kind of selling for almost no money can indeed get rid of all the leather on hand. But who would be stupid enough to do that? A silver coin cost fifteen or sixteen pieces. At this extremely low price, no one was willing to keep lowering the price.
Nowadays, the situation has become more serious. Many people’s original plan was to transport the leather to their hometown after the ice and snow melted, or to transport it to Tombstone Island and sell it directly to local merchants. Even if it was difficult to reach the price of one silver coin per skin, they would definitely not You will earn less.
But now that the contract with the prince has been signed, everyone cannot go to the west now. Moreover, the fathers of some brothers also signed another contract with the prince, so he could not leave.
There are many reasons why they cannot leave. The First Banner Troop is currently the backbone of the principality's combat force. Everyone has to go to Novgorod to cultivate their own land, and they must also accept calls at any time and wait for opportunities to attack the Karelia people.
If the prince buys everyone's leather for some reason and sells it at such a low price, many people will think it over and over again and feel that this is a helpless move.
Because many squirrel skins are simply peeled off from the meat, there is too much leather and the fat layer under the skin has no time to be scraped off. Such leather would begin to rot, smell, and become useless filth within a few days during the warm season. Fortunately, it was freezing cold now, and the leather was as hard as stone slabs. Objectively speaking, because the leather is frozen, it has a certain freeze-drying effect, and the leather loses water and becomes more durable.
New Roseburg lacks the processing conditions for tanning leather. The veterans who process leather are all in their hometown, and the necessary Glauber's salt is mined from the stone piles in the mountains of their hometown.
What is very bad is that the most lacking thing here in New Roseburg is stone. There is not even a mountain in the nearby area, only endless forests and endless squirrels.
Without Glauber's salt tanning, all leather becomes worthless as the weather warms.
All of this was actually part of Rurik's plan. He deliberately did not mention the purchase of leather before all the contracts were signed. According to the agreement, the brothers of the First Flag Team should pack their bags and ride on the reindeer sleigh to Novgo. Rod is waiting for spring plowing. Rurik promised them that since the large-scale immigration project will be carried out this year, their wives and children will board the fleet and fight from their hometown to reunite with their families in Novgorod. As husbands, they want to build a new home in Novgorod and welcome their families with their babies.
It became very important to immediately turn the wealth obtained from hunting into silver coins that could be easily carried.
Rurik finally came out again. He ordered four centurions to form a matrix formation around the rammed earth platform in the square, so that his preaching could be accurately heard by everyone.
"I heard that you caught an amazing number of squirrels, but there are not enough buyers here. Now here I am, I'm here to buy all your squirrel skins and other leathers! I have ready-made silver coins in my hand now! Right here ! You bring the leather this afternoon and I will buy it at the price of fifteen pieces of silver coin!"
Rurik had no intention of saying anything else. Anyway, after the weather got warmer, these soldiers who could not go to the west would not be able to let the leather rot.
So Rurik really has a lot of cash on hand?
Of course not. The boxes containing a large number of silver coins are all in his hometown of Roseburg. Rurik does have a lot of wealth in New Roseburg, which is the abundant oats in the granary.
There is indeed someone who has a lot of wealth, and that is Aslaqi's family.
Her father Harald Sr. has been actively reviving the family, and Asraqi's mill business has brought new impetus to the family's revival. The largest leather buyer in New Roseburg is Old Harald. He was doing this kind of business in Gotland. Now he is just returning to his old business, but he has lost too much. Due to practical reasons, it is no longer possible to process a large amount in a short time. leather. Besides, the processed leather still has to be sold, and it is impossible for Old Harald to consume all the silver coins on hand to stud. Even though the price of leather was extremely low, he announced that he would stop buying because he ran out of Glauber's salt on hand, which further caused the market price to fall.
Their family still has silver coins, a lot of them.
Maybe the brothers still have 20,000 unsalable pieces of leather on hand? Rurik, in his capacity as a prince, ordered Aslaki to give out fifteen pounds of cash. He was indeed forcing his second sister-in-law to do this.
However, Aslaqi was not at a loss. Rurik paid the price by promising to provide fifteen thousand pounds of dry oatmeal, and another thousand pounds of oatmeal as extra interest.
The oats would be ready in a few days, but Rurik got the money on the same day.
In the afternoon, thousands of people gathered in Harvest Square again. They saw the warriors of the First Flag Team coming carrying wooden poles with an astonishing number of frozen squirrel skins tied to hemp ropes. Sled skins.
Handing over money and goods, everyone saw the great Prince of Rus purchasing leather on a large scale. The afternoon sun was very gentle. The onlookers saw with their own eyes the smiling faces of the warriors holding the silver coins, and the brilliant light reflected by the silver coins.
It's not like they just went hunting. There were many Slavic immigrants who came to the city in the early years. Everyone was human. After hanging out with the Rus for a long time, the hunting skills of this group of Slavs also improved.
By evening Rurik had already planned to close the stall, but more than a hundred Slavic men were dragging their sleds with some unsalable various leathers on them, begging the Duke to be merciful and buy them.
This incident was not within his expectation, and his guards also wanted to expel these people on behalf of their master.
If you really expel them, it will be harmful to your own prestige.
Rurik could ask in Slavic: "Would you be willing to give you oats? Ten pounds of oats are exchanged for one silver coin. The exchange principle I have established is fair and stable."
Everyone nodded one after another, hurriedly offered their leathers, and said with a smile, "The gods will always bless you."
Rurik expected to purchase 20,000 pieces of various small animal hides, but the results did not meet expectations, but in fact it was basically completed. The price was very low, and this and 18,000 pounds of oats were consumed overall.
If all these leathers were processed, wouldn't they be shipped to the Danes for two silver coins each? No! If a large amount of leather enters, the local leather market will be in chaos. They all have to sell it at a low price.
There is no harm in dumping. Even if the price drops to one silver coin for two pieces of leather, he will still make a huge profit.
Is this considered a prince acting as a profiteer? Rurik didn’t think so. Business was the Vikings’ specialty. He is well aware of the core reason why he can make a lot of money from it - the powerful Ross fleet has the best water transportation capability in Europe in this time and space.
The acquired leather will be transported back to its hometown with the entry of the Russian navy, where it can be tanned in a short time and will no longer decay during its lifetime, becoming cutable leather clothing materials.
The efficiency of logistics determines the success or failure of business and is equally applicable in this era.
