It was in the evening. Fortunately, the soldiers who had been walking all afternoon were wearing bandages on their calves to avoid muscle soreness. Everyone was still tired and began to unload the wagons and deer carts filled with supplies. A large iron pot is placed on a pottery ridge, and the stove is used to cook thick porridge mixed with wheat and vegetables. They also began to cut down trees to obtain branches and build field tents on the spot.
This move undoubtedly surprised the villagers who had just built a few wooden sheds.
The Rus conqueror of the Varangians is around. The king of the conquerors is a young boy. The king's warriors are both male and female and are very young.
Not only did the conqueror have no ill intentions towards everyone, he even rewarded them with salt and iron tools.
The prince is such a good man, and all the children in the village got some strange food, which seemed to be made from wheat and was really delicious...
The kind act won the hearts of the people, and the village chief's attitude changed drastically. He was eager to work for Prince Rurik in exchange for reward, and he also hurriedly put his little daughter into the prince's arms.
The villagers are simple, simple and full of desire. It is entirely because their lives in the past were too poor. A Varyag king who can speak Slavic has already used practical actions to swear that he will lead his subjects to live a good life. The villagers are using their feet to vote.
The village was named "Village Eleven", and the village chief who hurriedly sent his daughter off was also remembered by Rurik.
The Ross army spent the night mingling with the villagers, and the sailors also went ashore to rest, and brought a batch of bass caught in the trawl for everyone to grill.
The entire daytime "peace parade" was suspended, but it had just begun.
The bonfires on the lakeside here are as dense as stars. They can probably be seen from far away places, right?
Many people were already lying in their tents, fast asleep, and Rurik was willing to stand by the lake and stay for a while longer.
Arik patted his brother on the shoulder: "What are you thinking about? You...this year is completely your performance."
"I'm looking south, those Ostarans."
"I miss you Carlotta."
"Yes. I also want to see how the construction of New Ostara over there is going. Tomorrow I plan to get on the boat and cruise the villages behind. We will spend the night in New Ostara again. I hope Carlo Tata can provide us with some yogurt and cheese."
"Can she get enough cows?" Arik yawned and shrugged, "It's better to rest early."
"That's fine."
Rurik created a new image among the newly surrendered Slavic people. The Varyags are a collective term for a group of people. Although the Rus are one of them, they are more reasonable than other Varyags and are building a stable order. These people are willing to surrender to a monarch who helps and protects them. They do not care whether Prince Rurik is really the "Son of God." As long as the Prince fulfills his promise, then he is the "Son of God."
This is true for new subjects, and it is also true for old subjects who have surrendered.
However, Rurik will no longer give physical rewards to those old subjects. Of course, they can still get a batch of advanced production supplies, provided that they exchange the grain.
Lake Ilmen is a large lake in the interior of Eastern Europe. The eleven villages of the new subjects are relatively close to the Russian settlement of Mstisk. The subsequent voyage became Rurik's inspection of the old subjects. .
The fleet suddenly appeared, and all the people in the manor along the way watched.
The boat was released, and Rurik landed with a group of warriors. Accompanied respectfully by the boyar of the farm, the prince visited the rapidly-earling wheat fields. Based on the statistics of the fields, he reiterated the taxes that the manor should pay this year and the specific time for tax collection. The prince further pointed out the relationship between the monarch and his subjects, focusing on the fact that Mstisk in the north of Hubei is the de facto largest Russian settlement in the region, and welcomed the villagers to bring their production surplus products to trade for useful supplies .
Faced with the absolute might of the Russian army, thousands of people in any farm would obey.
Each surrendered old farm has its own unique business. The fleet has entered the southern shore of the Great Lake. The farms here focus more on raising sheep and growing flax, and they also raise more black-haired cattle.
Rurik's fleet has drifted to the so-called flax estate in the far south. People here are planting flax in addition to wheat. This year's flax stalks have been harvested, and when Rurik arrived, a strange smell filled the village.
Let's see! Two thousand men, women, and children in the entire farm are working to cook the jute stalks. Those strange smells are emitted by the hemp stalks tumbling in the boiling water in the pottery urns. The thick fibers of the dry jute stalks are disintegrating into filaments and are being boiled. The decolorization of the hemp stalks was also done at the same time.
You can also do business along the way while cruising. Salt is a better currency than silver in this lake area. He took out a pound of salt and easily exchanged it for a large amount of roughly processed twine.
Making fine twine into cables is a specialty of the Russians. In other words, all the Viking tribes are good at doing this, but everyone lacks the opportunity to obtain flax on ordinary days.
The flax manor originally produced crude flax for its own use and then sold the surplus to other tribes. The Pine Needle Manor, which used to be the largest buyer, is now reduced to dry bones in the mud. It seems that it has lost a big buyer, but now it is an even crazier buyer, Prince Ross.
"You should continue to open up wasteland and plant flax for me. The flax you produce can replace oats as taxes. I also order you to sell all the surplus goods to me every year. Oh! I changed my mind! You can use flax to deduct taxes this year. , to be paid at ten times the weight of the tax on oats.”
Farm Boyar and the general public fully welcomed the prince's tribute request, and all this was indeed in line with the previous contract. The prince did not accept death and only regarded wheat as a tax. Any equivalent could be used as a tax burden.
They could keep a large amount of rations, and according to the contract, they really paid a batch of crude flax as tax, so everyone didn't lose much.
Not only that, since the prince revealed that the principality has a huge demand for flax, Boyar and the villagers immediately reached a consensus that except for the flax used for making cloth this year, the rest should be kept for himself, regardless of whether it is processed or not, while the prince's fleet is stationary. By the lake, they were all sold out. The people also received salt and a batch of new iron tools, especially a curved shaft plow, which would have a huge positive effect on reclamation next year.
Now that we have reached the Flax Manor, further south we should reach New Ostara.
The Lovati, West Dvina and Dnieper rivers originate from the same swamp.
As long as you follow the Lovaj River upstream and enter its source, the second broad river that explorers find must be the West Dvina River, and its mouth is the Gulf of Riga, which is the traditional territory of Latvians and Lithuanians.
If explorers find a third broad river farther south, there is no need to doubt that it is the Dnieper River. As long as you sail along the river for a short distance, a huge settlement will be in front of you. That is Smolensk built by the Kriviches.
After all, Carlotta and her people are Vikings at heart, and when they arrive in a new territory, exploration becomes an urgent task.
She was carrying the prince's child, and no one dared to oppose her power.
She is also a very ambitious duchess. She was not like this at the beginning, but the current situation forced this young woman to become a hero.
The Ostara people are also Varangians. They are part of the Principality of Rus. The female leader is also one of the wives of the prince, and the son in her belly is also the prince's cub. Nearby farmsteads respect the Ostarans, even though their population is no more than seven hundred.
In terms of the level of technological development, the people of Ostara are still better than the nearby farms, but they are really lagging behind in terms of farming skills.
But the Ostara people hardly farmed any land in Scandinavia back then, even though wheat could be grown on the shores of the Grand Lake they controlled at that time.
The Ostara people focused almost all of their technology trees on raising large livestock and making dairy products. When they immigrated to the new world, Carlotta's first thought was to buy cattle and sheep from nearby farms. She decisively took tough measures and led a small group of armed warriors to forcibly buy cattle, especially cow calves, which were the most prized.
How dare those farms resist? They had to hand over a group of cattle and sheep. However, the money Carlotta gave them greatly alleviated the anger of the people who lost their cattle and sheep.
This was the era when calico cows did not exist and the aurochs were not yet extinct.
Even domestic cattle still have some wild nature. Both males and females are mostly pure black in color. The sharp horns of the bulls go straight forward. If they are frightened or aroused by anger, the bulls will charge with brute force, even if they are used on the battlefield. A powerful fighting tool.
But the Ostara people are the best at herding. Even though the old Ostara tribe had only a hundred women left after the war, the tribe’s production and life experience was basically controlled by women, and the tribe’s skills in raising calves and making dairy products were not lost at all. . They deliberately kept a small number of bulls, but because they did not understand the techniques of cattle farming, most of the bulls must have been eaten during the calf stage. All cows will be retained and they will be cycled through gestation and colostrum.
As life improved, settlements rose from the ground. A walled and docked town next to the river and lake stood at the mouth of the Lovati River.
Now is the breeding season for cattle. Carlotta currently has sixty cows in her hands, but only ten bulls. There are another forty cows that can be bred immediately. They must survive the winter safely until the calf is born in early summer next year. Only during that period can the people of Ostara make yoghurt cheese.
The people of Ostara have to wait. Their cattle and sheep are like walking, living farmland. The harvest will be next year. Now they must rely on fishing and buying wheat from neighboring farms for the winter.
Of course, Carlotta firmly believed that her men would definitely cross the lake and deliver enough food for the people to survive the winter.
Her body has undergone very obvious changes, and her enlarged belly can be covered up with clothes for the time being. She was not willing to hide it, and her belly, which was growing day by day, was simply an oath of power.
It didn't take long for her to show her pregnancy, and the women were planning a big day for their duchess. It would probably wait until next year's spring sacrifice, when a male Duke of Ostara would be born, and her status would be completely unshakable by then. Everyone is looking forward to the birth of this child. The birth of a boy means the rebirth of Ostara.
Women weave cloth with purchased linen, make wooden furniture with knives and axes, and chop firewood outdoors to build "wooden walls" to store heating fuel in winter. A large number of reeds were cut and piled into haystacks. Based on past experience, women holding scythes now began to store food for cattle and sheep for the winter.
There are also a large number of wooden stakes erected in the city of New Ostara, and densely packed fish with scales hung on the pulled hemp ropes. They are naturally dried and become one of the people's staple food in winter.
Men contributed a lot to building cities, and they were busy logging and did not have much time to cultivate wasteland. Only a small amount of wasteland has been plowed, and wheat seeds will not be sown until next spring. However, these lands have already produced some crops - yellow root carrots.
There was a fishing boat belonging to Ostara cruising on the lake. They were traditional long boats. The boss of the boat asked ten fishermen to work together to control the large net to perform trawl fishing. They fished under the order of the Duchess, and all the catch should be shared by the entire clan. There were five more fishing boats cruising in this way.
A fleet was approaching in the distance. The fishermen squinted and paused their work to look at it. They all guessed who it was until they saw the flags flying on the masts clearly, and they all smiled.
"Brothers, hang up the bull-headed flag, the Russians are coming!" the ship's boss ordered.
Rurik had noticed the longship a long time ago. They hung familiar flags to prove their identity. He stood on the bow of the ship and looked around again. On the lakeside reflected in the dark green forest in front, a city with wooden walls stood out. Appear!
The fishing boat met the fleet, and soon the prince's traveling army arrived at the most important rest stop of their journey.
Considering that the small dock in New Ostara City was not enough to dock the fleet, all the large ships anchored near the shore. After releasing the small ships, everyone landed like this.
Carlotta is a strong woman. She can still jump and run around. When she heard that Rurik came in person, how could this sudden good thing make her want to continue taking a lunch break to nurse the baby?
The people in the city all went to greet the guests under her leadership, especially when she ran all the way and finally put Rurik in a bear hug.
But Rurik was taller and stronger.
"I said it." He looked at his woman lovingly, "I have completed the immigration work, and then I will come to see your new Ostara."
Because she was so excited, Carlotta was already in tears: "It's great. Everyone has come to this warm new world, I..."
"You are crying. There is no need to cry, even if you are very happy. I will stay here for at least a whole day, and I will accompany you well. Then let you taste the taste of being a woman..."
Rurik's meaning was already very obvious. Carlotta tilted her head slightly shyly, grabbed Rurik's right arm with one hand, and slowly brought it under her robe.
Rurik just touched it lightly, and then he was stunned with excitement.
"Sure enough... you finally succeeded."
"The women say the baby will be born next spring. This is your son."
"I know everything." Rurik was too lazy to say anything more. He suddenly exerted his strength and directly held his woman and the child in her belly like a princess in his arms.
Carlotta is very young after all. Even though she has square cheeks, her overall youthful appearance is enough to attract Rurik. What's more, she is legally a girl adopted by Otto, the first Duke of Ross. Rurik can Called sister.
Otto's move was well-intentioned on the one hand, and it also had a strong political purpose on the other. The resurgent Ostara people are indeed strong supporters of the Principality of Rus. They essentially guard the southernmost part of the principality's existing control area. They are holding the Duchess of Ostara, and Rurik hears all this. Cries of "Long live the Prince of Rus".
Obviously, the people who immigrated here not only welcomed the prince, but also made it clear that everyone was the subject of the prince of Rus first, and the duchess second.
