Chapter 45： Quiet changes in Europe

Lurik borrowed the rope ruler smoothly. He felt that as long as he had this, everything would become simpler.

In fact, from a purely theoretical point of view, as long as a standard length unit is clarified, many things can be measured.

Because there are many things that are constant, such as the pi, such as the inclination of the earth.

Winter time A child has a lot of time to kill, and Lurik did use a short time to basically figure out the knowledge on the board.

His attitude towards the large number of Nordic myths and stories that Veria has mastered, made it clear that he didn't care about them.

It is not so much a myth, as it is a bedtime story of a mother coaxing a child to sleep.

The era is the ninth century, and European society is undergoing changes quietly.

What is driving change?

is climate change, forcing people to work hard to get more food.

is the pursuit of wealth, forcing powerful people or ethnic groups to desire greater power through various means.

The strength of the Frankish Empire is slowly declining. Her huge territory depends on the control of local lords. Objectively, this huge empire has the possibility of becoming multiple sections. And this trend has already happened, Frank had to lead a large army to counter the rebellion in the past.

The empire is no longer stable, and the land looting by the Danes southward has become more frequent. And in the process, the Danes have begun to learn horse riding and cavalry training!

The abundance of Britain is slowly developing towards reunification. The Danes and Norwegians begin to harass them on a large scale, and the pace of reunification of Britain will accelerate as a result.

The power of Eastern Rome is also weakening, which has led to the emerging Bolgarians growing bigger.

Central Europe is still the territory of Slavic tribes, large and small, and they are still exploring the east spontaneously.

is like the Novgorod people who paid tribute to the Rus tribe. This "giant village" was originally formed by the fusion of a group of migrating Slav tribes. They are certainly not the inherent masters of this land, but a large number of Slavic tribes who moved eastward in the seventh century AD. They continued to drive the indigenous Finns to Finland and the more bitter Ural mountains.

It can be said that Novgorod itself is already the northern border of the Slavic tribe cluster.

Slavic tribes have their own titles. In the ninth century, they have formed settlements with a population of more than 100,000 in different regions. In a sense, they are away from becoming a real country, and what they lack is probably the canonization of Eastern Rome. Or the bold can unite all the tribes in the area and become the king.

God belongs to God, Caesar belongs to Caesar.

But in this era, God's belongs to the church, and Caesar's belongs to the church. Whether it is from the East or the West, they tried to gain greater power until they gained power over Augustus.

In Western Europe, the foundation of the huge Frankish empire is unstable. Only a common belief can sustain this "super-state", and the power of the Holy See in Rome is naturally increasing.

In Eastern Rome, the Eastern Holy See’s plan to seize power was defeated by the emperor’s tempestuous iron-fist measures. The long-term "destruction of the iconostasis" was an action carried out by the emperor to confiscate the wealth of the church, but it also objectively defended the secularity of Eastern Rome.

However, in this long-term movement, the Eastern Holy See was severely hit, and Eastern Rome itself was also hit hard.

The Slavic people who are developing south have crossed the northern defense line of Eastern Rome, and Eastern Rome has been undergoing strategic contraction, which gives the Slavs a greater opportunity.

The city of Constantinople is beautiful and prosperous, and the neighboring Thrace region provides the main wealth of the heart of the empire. The Romans in the city gradually embarked on the old roads of Western Rome like Rome and Ravenna. The Romans were indulging in pleasure, and the population of the city gradually declined.

This is a long process, so Romans living in the Peloponnese or the Aegean islands are happy to settle in their capital, because there can be more wealth and opportunities for promotion to the social class. .

However, Roman law quite restricted the settlement of aliens in the city. Those Slavic merchants, the Varyag merchants who came occasionally, and even the Frankish merchants who came from afar were heavily taxed.

The emperor and ministers seem to have not noticed that the glorious East Rome is hollowing out. When the scattered Romans gradually moved into the key Thrace areas and capitals, those abandoned areas were naturally taken over by the Slavs.

The Slavs who went south, they became citizens of Eastern Rome. They began to speak Greek, learned the Greco-Roman life, and gradually became Romans.

So that when the purple empire came to an end, there were not many real Romans in the huge Constantinople, replaced by tens of thousands of Eastern Romanized Slavic descendants, defending their Roman identity.

Compared to the Frankish Empire in Western Europe, the emperor of Eastern Rome attacked the church and the imperial power was consolidated.

However, Western European societies increasingly need the Holy See to mediate the struggles of various kingdoms. The religious power overrides the monarchy, which is also a historical necessity.

Therefore, the Holy See holds its own scriptures and believes that it is the law of everything, and they are especially sure that the world is flat.

This is the attitude of the Western Holy See, and the attitude of the Eastern Holy See is similar.

However, in Eastern Rome, the commercial activities here are very developed, and a large number of classics from the ancient Greek period have not been lost. All business people are doers. They don't fully believe in the description of the world in the scriptures. They believe in the results of their own exploration. After all, they can only lead them to make trade by proving the true map by themselves.

In the folks of Eastern Rome, there are many people who believe that the world is a ball. Only the Eastern Holy See still clings to the scripture theory that the world is a plane.

But not all priests are monolithic. After all, they can see a lot of ancient documents, and they always have their own understanding of science.

After all, this kind of priest's universe model makes them feel the greatness of the Lord. The so-called human beings live in a huge ball, all stars and even the sun are revolving around this ball, there is a day and night alternation. For this reason, they did not hesitate to praise the greatness of the Lord.

The advancement of the wheel of history cannot be stopped!

After all, the emperor of Eastern Rome always tried to suppress the Eastern Holy See. Of course, the emperor must ensure his own powerful power, which also led to the protection of a large number of secular forces. Therefore, the folk exploration of natural philosophy did not stop, but it did not receive the imperial government's encouragement. .

Through the observation of astronomy and geography, as well as the practice of traditional Mediterranean sea trade, isn’t the world a sphere?

With the destruction of Eastern Rome, a large number of unemployed scholars brought their well-preserved books and poured into Venice, their former business partner, on a large scale, and the dawn of the Renaissance was born in northern Italy.

However, until the Renaissance, and even Portugal discovered the Indian route, Spain discovered the American continent, the only remaining Western Holy See still determined that the world is the plane created by God!

But Portugal has falsified some of the contents of the scriptures. The so-called south along the African coastline will not fall into the **** at the end of the ocean, but the wealthy Indian route! For this reason, Portugal has made a fortune and has quickly become a powerful country from a barren border country.

In the end, the Holy See recognized that the world is a ball, not only because the Magellan fleet completed its voyage around the world, but also because according to the treaty a hundred years ago, the former Pope mediated the struggle between Portugal and Spain. Portugal has the wealth of the East and the sea, and Spain has the West. The wealth of the ocean.

As a result, the two countries explored in different directions, and finally war broke out in Borneo. In order to bridge the contradiction between the two countries, the Holy See must not only recognize the truth of the earth, but also draw a clear precision based on astronomy to delimit the sphere of influence of the two teeth.

But these are already seven hundred years later.

In 828 AD, there were only a handful of people on the entire earth. I am afraid that there are fewer than 500 people who believe that the world is a big ball. People in Western Europe and Eastern Rome were very worried that they would go too far to the end of the world and fall into the abyss inadvertently.

The Vikings around the Baltic Sea are also generally worried about entering the vast western seas, whether they will be destroyed by earthly pythons or giant sea snails, or they will escape from the "land of mankind" and fall into the endless darkness beyond the world tree. .

All of these are human beings’ fear of the unknown world is derived from the self-preservation instinct of human beings as life. But human beings are also very curious, and exploring outward is also their own instinct.

Lurik got the rope ruler, and he had already begun to act for the first time.

The time has approached December in the Julian calendar. After all, the errors of the Julian calendar change every year, and some of its self-repairing calendar settings can no longer remain accurate after all.

Fortunately, the age is only the ninth century, and the situation is not so bad.

In Rurik's mind, he took it for granted that December 22 was Dongzhi. In fact, it doesn't matter whether this day is or not. As long as you observe for a month, and count the daily changes in the shadow of a wooden pole standing outdoors, it is possible to outline a function curve.

After all, the earth has a definite law around the sun, and the change of the sun's shadow is a special manifestation of the change of the earth's revolution position.

Lurik believes that the universe can be explained by mathematics, and the laws of mathematics are the foundation of everything.

On November 28, the weather was relatively clear.

All preparations are complete!

He used a traditional spirit level to measure whether the ship was level (in fact, it is a wooden board with grooves, and the grooves are filled with water to determine whether the measured object is parallel to the ground). Transformed a piece of flat ground.

He also prepared some scraps of wooden boards for repairing ships, as writing and calculating tools. Since there was no real pen, he used a dagger to chisel the board into a similar appearance, as writing work.

Wei Lia saw all the strange behaviors in her eyes, she just watched quietly, and even offered a lot of help.

She really didn't understand what the child was going to do, at least it was not about measuring the shadow of the sun.