The flame tower burned for three days and three nights, until the first day of the Julian calendar year 838.
The four giant trees supporting the main structure of the wooden tower finally collapsed, leaving behind a pool of bluish-white ashes at the site of the fire tower. The central area was still smoldering at high temperatures, and the heat was enough to burn mud into pottery.
The afterglow of the festival has not yet faded, and the ashes are still burning hot on the beach.
Thanks to the huge fire tower, the surrounding generals have undergone tremendous changes.
It is like an artificial sun, a scorching lighthouse, which instantly scorches the snow in a large number of areas. Even the area facing the Fire Tower in New Roseburg has returned to a snow-free appearance, and the snow on the walls in this area has been lost. After the fire tower disappeared, the snow melted and the mud refroze, making it impossible for sleds to operate in such an area, which caused a little trouble for the people.
Kagan especially remembers how people sang and danced in the tower when the fire tower burst into flames.
The whole city was bright and warm for three consecutive nights. He had never had such an experience in his hometown. Now his life in the royal city of the Russians was like a dream.
Once upon a time, in his world view, the world existed around a grassland, with forests to the north and the sea to the south. The forest is the territory of the Slavs, the sea is controlled by the Romans, and the vast grasslands are filled with strong players from all walks of life. The Pecheneg Alliance is not weak, but it cannot become a strong one.
Unexpectedly, the people of the forest still have a world of ice and snow, with a frozen ocean. The people here lived a different kind of wonderful life. What particularly shocked him was the abundant iron supplies and low prices.
Centered at the mouth of the Neva River, there is no iron ore in a radius of 100 kilometers, not even mountains. The geographically nearest overland stone mine is somewhere in the Karelian Isthmus, nearly 200 kilometers away from here. That area has not even been touched by the various hunters in the principality, and even the Finns have not discovered it.
Theoretically, the Principality of Rus conquered all of the "Eastern Lands" and expanded its territory to the shores of the Arctic Ocean. There is a serious lack of knowledge about what is in the territory. The huge area needs to be explored urgently, but this bitter cold land naturally excludes explorers. If possible, the Rus would be more willing to go south to find land more suitable for farming and warm hunting grounds.
It is in this bad land that the small group of people chasing reindeer tracks always stand out. All deer herders are legally citizens under the duchy. Registered deer herders pay tribute every autumn, mainly taxes on deer skins and live deer to the Governor of Ironburg in the far north, and Ironware and salt were purchased locally using deerskin as a special currency.
If they could purchase urgently needed necessities peacefully, the scattered deer herder clans would completely give up their resistance. They don't care about their home and country. They herd reindeer in the vast tundra and forests without any worries. When attacked by strong men, they run away from home until they find themselves unable to escape.
Even the deer-herder clans who have gone to the Kola Peninsula are moving west. As long as they pay taxes, they can get a small flag. With this Rus flag, they have the power to trade, and in principle, Rus hunters from all walks of life dare to attack them. , Ross hunters who commit legal crimes will be severely punished for murdering tribesmen according to its regulations. According to general principles, wild and unruly hunters are all blond and strong men, and they simply look down on a group of nomadic dwarfs in the wilderness. I didn’t expect that attacking these nomadic clans would now become a serious crime. This was not the case before!
The history books of the principality clearly record that the immigrant Ross ancestors annihilated the deer herders living in the fjord and established Rossburg.
Why does the prince demand mercy from the people? Is it just because of the high priest's background?
This is not the case. As a monarch, which monarch would kill his own tax source group without any trouble? What's more, the principality sells ironware to free deer farmers, and the price is far higher than the principality's market price. The industrial and agricultural scissors here are frantically exploiting a group of free people in a matrilineal clan society.
The rise of the Principality of Rus is certainly due to its own efforts, but also due to the huge dividends of a long-term bet on the fate of the country-style war. The principality has already emerged as an industrial pioneer, and the sensitive Rurik noticed the rise of industrial capital in the principality. In this regard, despite his exemplary policies, industrial capital would inevitably rise even if he did not intervene. The emergence of the Hanseatic League was a historical necessity. The business groups in the cities around the Baltic Sea were not really second-rate dealers. Most of them were also doers. In order to make more wealth, they had to step up the production of materials and then trade across the ocean.
Even if there is no ore in Novorosberg at the mouth of the Neva River, it is theoretically not suitable for the development of the metallurgical industry. However, there are inexhaustible timber resources here, and it is home to a decent northern port. It is the hub of the east and west regions of the principality. A large number of people have gathered here, which means that a large number of people have a strong willingness to work. Increase income and improve life.
In an open space in New Roseburg, some special factories have long since been built.
When stone and cement began to be used in urban construction, factories in the area immediately began to "renovate stone materials." Because the workmanship here is quite special, you are more alert to the possibility of fire than other buildings.
The great iron works of New Roseburg were located here. It did not smelt ore but could make steel. There is no earthen blast furnace here, but there are twenty furnaces based on traditional improvements in a grand matrix. Refractory bricks mixed with iron ore make the interior of the furnace stronger and greatly extend its service life.
Because the two large ironworks in Ellenburg and Roseburg Blast Furnace Town alone cannot digest the pig iron they produce. The two large ironworks are both adjacent to the mines. With the application of blast furnace technology, molten iron is smelted every day and a batch of pig iron is cast. If you only cast axes, hammers and shovels, they can be cast and put into production. However, they can only be used as production tools, and the quality is not high, so the selling price cannot be high.
Just process them into steel and the price will skyrocket!
The large amount of pig iron ingots cannot be digested by the large iron factories in the north unless there are more local workers. However, a large number of people are rushing to the south. The lack of labor force and more output form a sharp contradiction. Then it became very necessary to transport the pig iron ingots to the new large iron plants in the south for finishing.
The shipyards in Roseburg's hometown were fully engaged in the production of light and fast standard cargo ships, and took advantage of the warm period to frantically transport pig iron ingots to New Roseburg.
In line with the principle of maximizing profits, the two large iron plants in the north devoted all their efforts to smelting iron ore. The so-called labor force responsible for steelmaking was mainly used to dig ore. When the sea froze, the large northern ironworks changed their strategies and took into account mining, molten iron and steelmaking.
The principality currently has three large iron works. Legally, they are the assets of the principality and the assets of Rurik himself as the monarch. After all, he spent his own money to build the factory, and he also trained a group of workers because the blacksmith alliance within the principality signed a contract. The blacksmithing families in the entire duchy are in complete alliance with the prince's family, so the heads of the large iron factories in various places must unconditionally obey the prince's decline in production capacity.
Therefore, the labor force of the two major iron factories in the north supports their families through labor remuneration, and their consumption also affects the lives of other people in the two settlements.
In the "post-immigration era" after the principality moved its capital, Rossburg and Ellenborg found their key new position - large ironworks.
Roseburg is more complex. It is also the center of the northern leather trade and the location of the northern shipyard. Ironborg also has its own characteristics. It guards two northern rivers. It is the herring fishing center of the principality. It is also the activity center of northern hunters and registered deer farmers. It is even the largest land trade route with the port of Narvik in the north. Station.
Pig iron ingots from the north come in all shapes and sizes and are piled up in mountains and left out indifferently, so that large areas of the surface of the iron ingots must have rusted and turned red.
Rust is no problem at all. The iron with excessive carbon content was smashed into pieces by the strong man and then stir-fried in the furnace.
The principality fully uses the fried steel method to smelt iron ingots into low-carbon steel. Based on the intuitive feelings of the craftsmen, the carbon content of the semi-finished products is reduced to a certain range before continuing to process.
A young and rather strong boy became the director of the New Roseburg Iron Works.
He was none other than poor Kamne whose parents were killed by an evil bear.
Those painful things were long gone, and now this boy not only had a successful career, but also found a wife, and even just became a father.
The Novorosberg Iron Works is full of traces of young boys. They are the first batch of young blacksmiths trained by Rurik. They are generally of Slavic origin, and most of them are from Novgorod. There is no need for loyalty. doubt.
Kamne, who has grown into a strong man and looks like a Viking, is most happy that the prince comes to visit in person. This time, he acts as a tour guide and introduces the prince to the current production capacity of the large iron factory.
Although it is a large ironworks, there are only twenty furnaces here. The furnace can naturally be expanded, but based on the current supply of iron ingots, twenty furnaces that work all year round can completely eat them up.
Although from the perspective of ordinary people and professional blacksmiths, the pig iron produced by the principality every year can be said to be huge! But according to accurate calculation, it is not even five tons.
Is this enough to claim to have huge production capacity? ! According to per capita iron production, the data of the Principality of Rus is indeed close to the per capita peak of the Western Han Dynasty. Of course, the people of Rus also imitated the smelting process of the Western Han Dynasty. Perhaps this is the limit that this process can reach.
In this poor European world, the Principality of Rus, with a nominal population of 100,000 and an annual output of five tons of iron, is already comparable to the entire huge and infighting Frankish Kingdom. At least the Rus' Principality was simply unable to consume so much iron production. Selling iron to foreign countries was an important way to make money. Therefore, the Danish King's destruction of the local Rus' shops was tantamount to using a knife to stab the arteries of the Rus' people.
Realistically speaking, if the Russians had not guarded the best iron ore veins in Northern Europe, as well as the extremely high iron content in the ore, and even the blast furnace technology, they would not have been able to do this.
A large amount of iron exists in the market as tools cast from pig iron, such as heavy cast iron pots and basins used in daily life. This also includes iron woks and frying pans used by princely families and wealthy merchants.
Only a portion of the pig iron is refined into steel, but the latter accounts for only 20% of total production capacity.
In fact, even if the steel-frying method is used to make steel, it cannot change the fact that steelmaking is time-consuming and labor-intensive.
Rus' artificial steel is almost always used in weapons, such as forged swords, forged spears, forged steel armor-piercing arrows, forged steel axes, and forged crossbow arms.
Even some special tools, such as the vibration damping reeds of special carriages, curved shaft plows, and even the elastic reeds of woodworking lathes.
The steelmaking workshops of all large ironworks are dedicated to these tasks, while the large ironworks in New Roseburg are currently only responsible for processing iron ingots into steel.
The factory area keeps making tinkling sounds all year round, and even at night there are craftsmen hammering.
The young craftsmen are deeply affected by the emperor's favor. They are all ordinary poor farmers' children. In principle, they are now the prince's private blacksmith slaves, but they are living a good life that they could not imagine in the past. The brothers usually eat well, wear well, sleep well, and work hard for a long time. Each one of them has made his arms thicker than his legs and full of tendons. It is because there will be bonuses for working more, which drives them to try their best to find time to forge steel weapons.
This time the prince came again.
Kamni had a beard, wore a coarse and loose top, rolled up his sleeves and was not afraid of the cold outdoors.
Indeed, even if the windows of the entire blacksmithing factory were opened for ventilation, twenty furnaces were arranged in a matrix to form a huge crowd of people. Rurik even saw some blacksmiths working with bare backs.
"Prince, you must have important arrangements for your visit..." Kamni said with a naive smile.
"clever."
After saying that, Rurik motioned to his men to bring the cloth bag and took out one of the items.
"What is this?" Kamne was a little confused.
"These are the horse's shoes."
"Iron shoes for horses? Weird."
"It's not surprising." Rurik decisively handed it over to Kamne: "You can copy it immediately according to my arrangement. I know your strength, and now I need five hundred, and you must quickly complete it."
"Huh?!" Kamne was shocked.
"What? You're not happy?"
"I wouldn't dare. My lord, I can't see how it fits on a horse... a horse's hoof."
"That's natural. It's going to be nailed to the horseshoe."
"Huh?! That way the horse will hurt to death. That's your horse, your cavalry."
Only then did Rurik think that his little brother didn’t know about horseshoes? He hurriedly explained the whole story, and then he barely made the clever Kamni understand.
When a nail is driven into a horse's hoof, the horse doesn't feel any pain? On the contrary, it is said that doing this can prevent hoof wear.
As for the horseshoe Rurik took out, it was removed from a horse's hoof. It was made of wrought iron by the Pechenegs, and the quality was naturally not as good as the steel parts of the Russians. Because it was too damaged, they took advantage of the cavalry gathering at New Fort Ross. The Russians just completed the imitation of the horseshoe and quickly made it available to everyone. Horses install it.
Rurik issued a fatal order: "Stop all smelting orders, and all the weapon forging tasks I assigned will be postponed for seven days. You and your brothers will do your best to imitate horseshoes, and come up with 500 horseshoes in seven days. Once the task is completed, you will all Get paid handsomely.”
Kamne readily agreed, then looked at the iron in his hand, and he inadvertently revealed a trace of contempt. He is not very old and has been working as a blacksmith for many years, and rarely takes a break during the year. The high-intensity work makes him rich in experience.
"Who made this kind of iron tool? The quality is indeed not good. When it is my turn to imitate it, it will naturally be made of excellent steel. The horseshoe will be completely flat."
"Who else is our Pecheneg friend." Rurik shrugged and pointed out: "It's not an absolute flat surface. There are some dents on the side that touches the ground. I want to enhance the grip. You understand the mechanics given to you."
"As ordered, I will organize a meeting for the brothers..."
