A thin and long spring rain fell shortly after the spring plowing. The Slavs hailed this as a sign of a good harvest, but the Russians did not take it seriously.
The spring rains forced the Rus and other Varyag people to adjust their traditional fishing activities. People stayed at home to take shelter from the rain, and even those horse riders who planned to go back to Kiev had to postpone their plans.
Saki and other horse riders turned into leather merchants.
Fur coats made of polar bear skin, beautiful hats made of ferret skin, and even a small amount of glassware and iron tools. The cargo will be loaded on the small boat they came in. Since all the ice and snow have melted, it is completely unrealistic to expect the ship to be towed across the Valdai swamp on the ice and snow. We must cross the swamp, which is also the entire north-south water transportation line. Bad obstacles, so summer counterparts can't load too much cargo.
The goods they plan to take away are not much, but the value is extremely high! Especially those glassware, if sold to the leader of the Pecheneg people, they will definitely be able to exchange for many horses.
"The small crystal cups of the Russians only cost ten silver coins, and the crystal plates cost twenty. I will sell these vessels (only ten in total) when they are shipped to the south. One small cup will be replaced by ten horses! The horses will be transported Come to the Russians. Haha, fifty times the profit every time you come and go!" Sakhi was dreaming. Although the trade profits would not be so outrageous, the real situation would definitely be a huge profit.
The huge profits directly eliminate businessmen's worries about risks. They are willing to take risks, and now they just hope that the damn rain will stop.
On the other hand, a distinguished woman holds on to the cloth stuffed in her mouth, and with the help of more than a dozen women, she strives to accomplish a feat that only she can accomplish.
A more distinguished old lady simply knelt on the ground and spoke words of encouragement.
"Hard! It's already opened..."
"Try harder and the head will come out soon."
…
After a while, there was a child's sharp cry, and the mother who was on the verge of collapse finally lay down with relief and happiness, and took a deep breath.
Rurik, who was waiting for the good news outside the door, heard the cry, pushed away the thick people and rushed into the room. He slid to his woman and held her hand tightly: "You... are okay. Bar."
But she saw the mother of the child with happy tears on her face. She watched her man try to sit up, but was stopped by Rurik: "Don't be impulsive, you have to rest."
Finally, Carlotta got her wish and became a mother.
She lay on her back and asked Niya, who was busy cleaning the child: "Is it a boy or a girl?"
"It's a boy. You guys..." As the Queen Mother of the Principality, Niya is quite experienced as a midwife. The baby's umbilical cord was cut and a pine clamp was placed around the navel.
While she was washing the blood and filth from the red, crying and moving baby, she deliberately muttered with dissatisfaction: "You are a woman who cared about you as soon as you walked in, and you didn't even come to see your second child." son."
Rurik smiled naively, that was indeed his child, but Carlotta was unique.
He slowly helped Carlotta, a first-time mother, up. After the child was quickly cleaned, Niya gently wrapped it in soft linen and handed it to the child's mother.
The crying child suddenly calmed down. Facing his own flesh and blood, Carlotta smiled broadly and hurriedly lifted the linen cloth.
She had to be sure it was a boy, as the title of Ostara required a male heir.
Just like Niya described, this is a boy.
Tears welled up in her eyes and she subconsciously kissed her son.
The child just lay in his mother's arms with his eyes closed and kept quiet, gently playing with his two transparent little hands, pouting his little mouth and wanting to slurp something.
"He is very cute. Carlotta, have you finally decided on the child's name?" Rurik asked happily.
"Just call him Carl."
"Karl? Is it appropriate?"
"It's a good fit. Ostara needs a male duke, and only Karl is the most worthy of his name."
"That's fine."
Rurik didn't ask any more questions. She was probably a little inferior to herself as a woman. The feminine pronunciation of "Karl" is "Carlotta". It seems that she regarded her son as her male counterpart, so she asked the people. As promised, the Ostara people welcomed a male noble, and everything was normal from then on.
Rurik's estimation was partly correct, but in fact, Carlotta's choice of this name for her son was simple and crude. Ten names were written on the ten wooden blocks, because she firmly believed that the child she conceived must be a son, and all ten names were masculine. When she felt severe pain, she closed her eyes and drew lots, and the name she picked was Karl.
Everything is Odin's will! The name of the child is God's choice, and so is the gender.
Odin issued a decree, and Odin called for the restoration of Ostara, thus choosing a male heir.
She was willing to call her son Karl I, Duke of Ostara, and even whispered into Rurik's ear for the first time: "I would rather give up the title of duchess immediately and hand it over to him. There must be a male in my principality. Duke, it is up to you to decide this matter."
Although the words were very abrupt, Rurik realized the true meaning in an instant.
The Principality of Ostara is indeed not on the same level as the Principality of Ross. They are no longer even a vassal group, but are within the jurisdiction of the Principality of Ross. Prince Rus has the right to appoint the great nobles of the only duchy under his rule, which is equivalent to saying that the Principality of Ostara only has a famous name, and its political status is only that of a count.
Carlotta's move cannot be said to be hasty, but must be the result of careful consideration.
Rurik thought for a while and simply followed her wishes: "Okay. He is Karl I, Duke of Ostara." He gently touched his second son's smiling face with his finger, and said gently: "My son, Your name is Karl Leurikosson Ostara. I hope you will grow up to become a good warrior and a good man, and become a solid backing for the principality."
The child didn't cry, he just twisted his body and made a humming sound.
"Look." Ryuri was happy, "He is responding to us."
The reason why Rurik cared about Carlotta as soon as he entered the house was because he had witnessed the death of the princess Mary. He did not want his other woman to suffer the same fate. Fortunately, everything went smoothly as if by divine help.
Everything went very smoothly. Carlotta began to feed the child herself that day. The women involved in the midwifery were shocked by how smoothly things went. The good news was delivered in Novgorod despite the rainy weather.
The hazy weather of the spring rain was good, and Carlotta had a lot of time to stay indoors and recuperate. Rurik ordered her to stay in confinement and provide her with good food and drink, but she was not allowed to leave the room and wander around.
Omelette, stew, grilled fish, high-protein meals ordered by Ruric were constantly delivered to Carlotta's mouth. Firstly, it helped her recovery, and secondly, it also helped with breastfeeding.
Carlotta couldn't care less. She was so obsessed with her current happiness that she didn't want to run around outdoors even if the weather was fine.
Such care was simply too much, making Svetlana unbearably jealous, and humbly complained to her man that the so-called care for Carlotta was too outrageous.
"Are you jealous? When our child is born, I will make you stay indoors for a month and feed you the best meals to turn you into a fat seal. If that's what you want."
When Rurik said this, Lana shut up.
She still likes her current slender and agile posture, turning into a seal-like figure, which is really unattractive.
The spring rain did not last long, and the earth fully recovered after the rain.
All the grass seeds have sprouted, and the riverbanks and fields are full of wildly growing green grasses, especially rushes with slender leaves. They are all excellent pastures, and all kinds of breeding livestock in the Principality of Ross have been driven into the wild, allowing them to crazily eat the endless green grass.
Although there were no new war operations in the principality, expansion continued in another way.
A group of people from Narvik Port arrived at Roseburg at the end of winter. They came with salt and walrus tusks, and took a sailing ship bound for New Roseburg, planning to sell their products in exchange for better food and linen. , leather jackets, etc.
Hunters traveling around will not let go of spring time, they are still hunting.
Driven by interests, they ignore the principle of fishing for the best, or in other words, under the new situation, there is no need to exercise restraint. The expansion of the principality has greatly expanded the public's undertakings. The so-called human world Misgard is a small world is no longer credible. Everyone has found the northern end of the ocean (Arctic Ocean). The end of the land does not seem to exist. So life on endless land There are endless animals, running leather everywhere, and there is no end to it.
The Rus and other Viking ethnic groups continue the fishing and hunting tradition that everyone is accustomed to. They leave the fields after spring plowing. The results of the wheat growth depend on God's will. Based on everyone's experience, the wheat harvest season will not have any bad results. Lake Ilmen, Lake Ladoga and the Gulf of Finland are all sea areas that they can plunder to their heart's content, and the forest areas near the lakes must be plundered crazily.
However, the Slavic people are in another way. In a sense, the closed environment they live in has restricted some of their ambitions for expansion. As they have long given up their fishing and hunting life and become pure farmers, they have become the main hired workers in Rurik.
Both Novorosberg and Novgorod had major urban construction projects that required large amounts of labor, and even state-run workshops were no longer limited to paper and garment factories.
For example, here in Novgorod, there is no stone but there is a large amount of clay mines. The firing of pottery and bricks has successfully become a necessary industry for development. In order to cooperate with these industries, charcoal-burning kilns must also be built on a large scale. It happens that the local wood resources are inexhaustible to provide raw materials for charcoal-burning.
As for the logging work, Rurik didn't need to worry about it at all.
For the first time, the Slavic people could use iron tools on a large scale. It happened that Rurik mainly sold them mass-produced hand axes. Even though the axes were not big, they could already chop down small trees quickly. Some large two-person hacksaws are no longer on sale, and the price is very expensive. The boyar nobles of various farms are not fools. They must buy this tool when they realize its cutting efficiency.
They cut down trees desperately to obtain the space necessary for survival in the forest, hoping to transform them into farmland. In addition to using the big trees for their own use, they could also make a fortune by selling them to the Duke.
Governor Medved also organized an army and continued to go deep into the dense forest to pull out more hidden people and transport them to the wasteland by the lake to open up wasteland for farming.
The various settlements in the Principality of Rus are all prosperous, with different lifestyles, but the same thing is that they are all producing wealth.
From the Gulf of Bothnia to the Gulf of Finland, Russian ships flying white flags with blue stripes and hoisting special triangular sails made friendships very frequently.
The Principality's Navy is not a mascot sitting at its anchorage in Kronshtadt, carrying out armed patrols and trawling duties without military operations. They would not go into the southern Baltic Sea, not even to the island of Saaremaa.
The principality must defend sea lines of communication and conduct regular patrols to ensure that any enemy intrusion is unlikely.
Only one ship reigns supreme in the southern Baltic Sea.
The Salmon Chief and the thirty or so bloodthirsty pirates on board, led by Captain Spout, have been attacking everywhere.
They were plundering under orders, and they had a "private robbery permit" issued by the kingdom. From the start of the operation in April to now in May, in one and a half months, fifty fishing boats and cargo ships have been recorded and sunk, including even simple combat longships.
Originally, the Russians did not have the habit of keeping sailing records. This was certainly not laziness, but the lack of conditions in the past era. In the floating environment of the sea, people will go crazy once they can't figure out the time and how long they have been floating on the sea.
Nowadays, the production of paper has entered the fast lane. The hard paper mainly made of birch bark material is soft and strong at the same time. A stack of thick paper is strung together with hemp rope and roughly bound into a book. On top of it, Spyut uses Nordic traditional runes. Letters record achievements and times.
From his description, the crew could determine how many ships they had sunk and roughly how many enemies they had killed.
The sacks hanging at the stern of the ship were really like human heads rolling in the physical sense. The enemy's heads were stinking, but they were blown away by the sea breeze to prevent the brothers from nauseating. Sometimes the wind direction changes slightly and the stench rushes over, making everyone feel uncomfortable.
It was a terrifying trophy, and it was a voucher for sending missions to the prince later. No one was willing to throw it away, and they had to endure it even if there was a stench.
In recent days, cruising on the sea has become boring. It seems that the Danes have become cowardly. Large ships cruise throughout the Denmark Strait. This is said to be the best place to attract firepower, but it does not deceive the enemy into encirclement and suppression. A number of ships were sunk, and in the days that followed the Danes seemed to disappear.
Everyone laughed at the cowardice of the Danes, and complained that if this continued, they should withdraw first for supplies.
"A good fisherman doesn't just throw out the bait and expect the big fish to take the bait right away. Let's wander around for another three days." Spuyut persuaded.
It was great to have a logbook. He could read aloud to his bored brothers the great achievements of everyone in the past, highlight the precise day of departure, and deduce how long the remaining supplies could support the battle.
Today, there are some useful trophies stuffed in the cabin. It turns out that Spuyut robbed a cargo ship, the enemy crew was annihilated, and the wool in the cargo ship was looted. The cargo ship had its sails removed and daily necessities taken away before being scuttled.
The wool is a great gift to the prince. They must have been cut in the spring in the pastoral areas of Jutland. After this season, it will be autumn.
The day after Spout made his bold statement, a small boat was slowly drifting along the coastline of the peninsula.
The big ship adjusted its direction and rushed forward like a tiger pouncing on its prey. The brothers thought that the small ship would run wildly toward the coast, but they never expected that they were still drifting.
"How can the Danes have such stupid people and still think that the losses in the past are not big?" Sipuyut felt offended.
Someone shouted arrogantly: "You are just stupid. Or are you begging us not to sink any more ships?"
"Pray? Our shop in Hedeby is completely peaceful. The Danes gave our brothers the opportunity to pray for peace. The big businessman's son Blue Fox was killed, and the prince still expected the fat man to make money. If he didn't die, we Brothers would not kill people in this sea area, and they would have made a fortune today."
Spuyut's words came from the bottom of his heart. He actually admired the fat man's courage, and actually dared to make money by openly trading in the hinterland of the Danes.
Since that boat is a group of stupid people, use a bronze ram to smash the boat to pieces!
As a result, shockingly, it happened!
