Chapter 379： Welcome to 831

Regardless of whether they are the Russ or the Corvins, they are in the special geographical conditions of the region, and they naturally regard the complete polar night of the winter solstice as the end of the year, and the first light to break the dark east as the beginning of the whole year. .

When the sun squeezed out of the horizon lazily, it sprinkled precious sunlight to the world for a very short time like alms.

In this way, time has essentially entered 831 AD.

In the Frankish kingdom in the far south, the highest-ranking nobles were confronted with the issue of inheritance rights, and their contradictions were so acute that they were on the verge of civil war. The devout Louis made his eldest son the co-emperor, and his second and third sons were given to Aquitaine and Bavaria. The empire was already divided into three signs, and the nephew of the king in northern Italy took the lead in raising the flag of rebellion.

The old emperor was haggard, and saw that the three sons had begun to attack each other. He tried to bridge the civil war between his sons and decided to take some major measures this year.

The Frankish kingdom was busy rebuilding the civil war and internal affairs, but a large food fleet stationed in the emptied Sicily and began development.

The Franks had no time to expel these foreign invaders, just like their northern region, which was often attacked by the Danes and the Pomeranians of Wunderslavia. The northern part of the kingdom has never been peaceful. The princes of the north respect the emperor and make no secret of their pursuit of the fur, oats and wool of the Pomeranian region. Similarly, the infiltration of the Danes from the land direction also made them miserable.

Perhaps the only advantage is that the military power of the northern princes is stronger than that of the south.

Of course, it's just a little stronger.

Because of the Flanders region of the bottom, it has long been targeted by the Danes. Some Danish tribes have germinated a long-term idea of ​​occupation and rule, planting their own wheat and raising their own sheep, instead of simply plundering in the past.

There is a Danish baby boy who was born in the fall of 830. Because he was born weak and his body was soft like a ball of clay, he was thrown into the small woods near the tribe by his biological father. It's like the Russ once abandoned their baby girls violently, and it's the same in Denmark.

Baby boys and girls who are not seen by their parents are discarded in this way, while limiting their population, objectively enabling the baby with the best physical condition to survive.

But the child cried all night in the woods, and he was neither frozen to death nor taken away by the wild beasts.

When his father deliberately checked, he was shocked that the child, who was identified by the priest as a "person without bones," was still crying in a faint voice. In this situation, who can't be moved?

The boy survived hard, he was indeed frail, but he also experienced his first Hanukkah in Denmark.

"Perhaps, he was favored by God." The boy's father asked his father.

"If his body is weak and he is favored by God, he might get some favor. Raise him, but don't expect him to be a great warrior." The boy's grandfather was pessimistic, and he was older, but he didn't want him. The first grandson was a "boneless". "You must continue to find the right woman, give me a few strong children, and inherit my power."

No one could predict that a Danish warrior was born in this way.

Of course, the overlord of Denmark in this era, Hafgen, the lion who lives in the northern part of the peninsula, cannot predict the future, such as who will take over his power.

Fortunately, Hafgen is very young and strong. His terrible deeds on the territory of the Northern Alliance have established himself prestige. He has won the support of many Norwegians and Gotlanders, but he has also established enemies in his homeland.

It's all because of this guy's pleasure in revenge, completely breaking everyone's customary rules of war.

Because those captured women will be assigned by the various tribes in the exhibition according to their merits. They will become the tribesmen of the victors and will continue to live. However, in order to vent their anger, Hafgen actually killed them.

The leaders of the Danish tribes expressed their respect on the face, and secretly abused the leader as a "stupid butcher." If you curse, the tribes will not form a coalition to destroy the tribe of the leader, because this is unnecessary. After all, the tribes are complaining that in the last war against the north, they did not get enough benefits. They have not suffered any real losses themselves, and they still have to live on.

Some turbulent changes are quietly taking place in Europe, which seem to have no effect on the residents of the Svealand Plain in the northern Baltic Sea.

The Svia tribe alliance lived their own lives. They were only slowly integrating tribal power and spontaneously upgrading to a feudal country.

That is, the Mellaren tribe, with the strongest population, military, and economic capabilities, is expected to become the leader of the new country, and its power is still increasing.

There are obviously huge variables in this.

The Russ are rising rapidly. Rus’ rulers have built multiple colonial settlements and upgraded their governance methods. The power of the tribes is rapidly concentrating on the chief family, and a centralized feudal country is almost ready to emerge.

However, Rurik and Otto, the two incumbents, especially Rurik, are currently actively exploring new conquered areas. Regarding the fight for the highest power within the alliance, Rurik does not want to go everywhere now. Promote the ambition of the Ross people.

He feels that one of the strategies of the Ross people in the next two to three years is to absorb the influence of the Corvins, and to let them know that following the leader of Ross can get the benefits, then continue to build Elonburg will have a positive demonstration effect.

The Julian calendar officially enters January, and the increase in daylight hours can be clearly felt.

Still in Roseburg, the festival of Hanukkah is like a prelude to the winter hunting operation of the new year.

Due to the great success of winter hunting the previous year, and 10,000 squirrel skins entered the leather production, processing and sales market in Roseburg, the strong commercial interests have deeply stimulated the nerves of young people.

All the Corvins surrendered, and the Ruth who robbed them would be judged by the leader as "heinous crime" after being captured.

Ordinary people understand that those Kewen people surrendered to the leader family, and they would not touch this mold. What they are eyeing is the mountain forest owned by the Corvin, where there are a large number of squirrels, ferrets, owls, and even bears and wild boars.

The once mysterious "Land of the East" has been explored quite carefully by the leader and two hundred brothers. There are a lot of uningested resources there!

What's more, this time the tribe owns Fort Elron!

No, Otto issued an edict. There were more than 500 strong men who decided to take their own weapons, drag their newly made sleigh, carry some dried meat and wheat cakes, and follow the leader's footsteps to the north. There are many young people who participated in hunting for the first time.

They don't need to fear the severe cold, because Elronburg is a huge settlement, and the towering wooden walls will withstand the terrible wind and snow and protect everyone. In the future hunting, everyone can get the blessing of Elronburg. It is said that if there is a blizzard, everyone can have an absolutely safe refuge.

The hunters had no worries about the future, and there was a settlement in Elronburg, and some fur traders were ready to move with them.

More than 500 people decided to walk north on the ice to chase their dreams of wealth. There are also more than 20 merchant families, with a total of nearly a hundred people joining the team, including the Gould family. Gould sent one of his own sons and took more than 30 domestic servants to the north in six reindeer carriages. They are not only buying furs at low prices in the fur origin region for the first time, but also trying to explore new business opportunities.

The first ray of light was on Roseburg, and a huge army headed east toward the sun. After exiting the frozen fjord, the black and heavy team gathered together and continued north along the coastline.

Finally, the team led by Otto himself arrived near Fort Elon on the night of January 2nd of the Julian calendar. When everyone saw the flames lit up in the distance, they realized that their long journey had come to an end.

Many Ross people have never seen the towering wooden walls at all, and they are very vague about the concept of "city".

Roseburg is a densely populated city, but it is a pity that the internal buildings are distributed in a disorderly manner, and there is no urban defense system.

The young soldier saw the huge wooden wall, the mottled snow on the wooden slats, and the thick snowdrifts under the wall, not only lamented that it is really impossible to attack here by force.

At the frozen pier, the long ships frozen on the shore are obvious, and the towering masts seem to be frozen into one body with the earth.

It is that there are still a large number of obviously processed logs stacked on the shore, all of which have been stripped of bark and placed neatly together to form a number of more peculiar wooden walls. What is the use of these logs? The first thing many people think of is building a house.

Isn't it building a house?

Six extremely long logs were lying on the ground. They were all stripped of their bark. The white and extremely thick wood cores received the winter sun. They were slowly drying out in the dry snow. Rurik deliberately placed them so that they can be air-dried naturally, and the internal moisture will be sublimated as much as possible, making it easier to use when actually processing the mast.

Some old hunters are very knowledgeable, knowing that this is actually fir, but most of the other wood is pine. Fir can grow very long, but as the main beam of the house, it is still inferior to oak.

Very long oak is hard to find, but very long fir seems to be easy to obtain?

In general, the condition of Elronburg was beyond imagination, especially after entering the wooden wall, the Ross people who looked around had to sigh with emotion that the city is so rich and orderly. For example, the houses inside, they are all carved out of a mold. At the same time they are regular, the chimneys built by stones are always emitting green smoke, and the air in the wooden walls seems to be intoxicating.

After all, it was more than 600 people who came to visit suddenly, plus the previous wave, the population of Elronburg temporarily exceeded 1,200 people.

And this basically reached the limit of the current carrying capacity of the settlement.

A batch of open spaces reserved in the settlement are temporarily filled with tents erected by Ross hunters. The ownership of some vacant houses belonged to Rurik himself. He did not hesitate to rent out the houses to merchants who came from afar and charge a higher rent.

Businessmen can also set up tents, but where is there a comfortable wooden house with a fireplace and thick solid wood walls, even the beds are covered with leather? Rülik also directly issued an order requiring the merchants to either rent a house or withdraw to Roseburg with a sled, and to expel them by force without paying the money or deliberately keeping them.

withdraw? It's all here, why do you want to withdraw?

Rurik collected a decent rent for the first time, and the total amount was more than a thousand silver coins. That is to say, a merchant charges half a pound of silver coins, and the renting period is three months, which is the theoretical maximum sustainable time of winter hunting.

They may not be able to put out the money in the first time, the accounts are owed, and those who do not have the first time to get the rental money will have to make up in the future. Rurik sees this as a special kind of business tax. These merchants learned of the wonderful shelter of Elronburg, and they went to the far north for the first time. They can pay a very low price. They have enjoyed a lot of purchases at a price, and naturally they have to pay the price of money.

Ten pounds of silver was easily collected by Rurik, which surprised Otto who came here again.

The hunting operation has not yet officially started, and everyone will now settle in Fort Elon.

On a rather lively night, a group of tribal women who have not yet found a suitable man are looking for the fledgling young hunters among the new Ross people. To put it bluntly, this is the obvious seduction. They are looking for young and energetic men, so that they can give birth to healthier children through their youth.

Otto doesn't care about these things anymore. At the moment, in the dimly lit meeting room of the Chief's Mansion, the linen cloth spread on the floor is covered with a large number of silver coins reflecting strong metallic luster.

"You got a new tax so easily? You kid, it's greed!" Otto said in surprise, "We arrived at Elronburg, two days less!"

Rurik laughed out: "Dad, I let all my mercenaries move out of those wooden houses. Now they are all businessmen living in. This is the rent they provide, not tax. We will have to pay for it in the future. Collecting their business tax will not be underpaid just because of today's affairs."

Otto's mind hadn't thought that he could make money by renting a lot of houses, and Metzasta was also shocked.

Especially Mezzasta, he couldn't imagine that Rurik could easily get so many precious silver coins. In his opinion, every silver coin is precious, but in Rurik's eyes, the value of the silver coin circulating in the Roseburg system has actually shrunk, and it is no longer precious to domestic silver coins.

Gold and silver coins are naturally deflationary due to the wear and tear of trading and the trouble of recasting. Roseburg's economic system has become complicated. The copper coins that were once the most widely circulated are no longer so strong. Silver coins have become common in daily transactions. This is entirely because ordinary people in Ross still have a large number of silver coins in their hands. To put it bluntly, Rurik was using various means to get the tribe's silver coins into his hands, and finally used him to buy the tribe's labor.

It was the large-scale purchase of food from the Mellaren people, which caused a serious outflow of silver coins. Those lost silver coins will have to be earned back sooner or later. For example, at the moment, there are merchants renting houses from Mellaren! Rent collection is a means of collecting silver coins.

The thousand silver coins of the rent is a small amount of money after all. This time the father and son are reunited, the two did not bother to sing the family love, and it was unnecessary. Two powerful men sat together, supposedly talking about real affairs.

Otto quickly learned of the major events that happened in Fort Elon during his absence.

Some big things are obvious, that is, a large area of ​​forest that has disappeared, and a large amount of wood piled up at the dock.

Mezzasta was also anxious to show off the saw and longbow he had, and once again vowed his loyalty.

Can a longbow as tall as a man shoot a lighter arrow beyond 200 stikas? It sounds tempting, but it's strange that Otto didn't take it very seriously.

Otto knew that his son was looking for ways to build a big ship, and one of the purposes of staying in Fort Elon was to find excellent ship materials.

There is a reasonable explanation for the wood placed on the dock.

Otto subconsciously stroked his beard, and under the dim oil lamp, he became more and more scheming: "Those fir may be a good material, they look too long, and they must be very heavy. Rurik, how do you plan to put them Ship it back."

"Use a sled." Rurik responded with a smile, his face full of confidence.

Otto subconsciously felt that this was not appropriate: "The wood is extremely heavy to me, how do you carry it to the sled. The longest wood, you plan to use it as a mast, can that work?"

"It's all possible!"

"You...you just believe in the power of soldiers?" Of course, Otto didn't understand He pinched his beard, "Those masts are too heavy for wood. I can organize a hundred people, and I should be able to work together. It hugs it up."

Saying Otto suddenly patted his head: "Oh, why do you have to put it on the sledge. You just use the reindeer herd to pull the wood and slide on the ice. You should understand that the frozen sea is stable. the way."

It sounds like this is a good solution, but Rurik still refuses.

"Why? Are you so upright?"

Rurik simply clenched his fists, making a bang, gearing his hands clearly to do a big thing: "Dad, just look at me. I will make a brand new... thing. I call it. Crane, you can carry heavy wood onto the sled. This thing will have many exciting effects in the future."

Otto shook his head. He didn't know what it was. He looked at his son full of thoughts. He still said, "As long as what you do is good, I will support it. Let's talk about how many fighters you need, I Organize for you..."