Chapter 731： Slavs tax

Maybe they still have someone alive, and Rurik hopes so, but the chances of their survival are indeed slim.

The Ross people lost the opportunity to grab their wealth in Denmark. In addition to the biggest loss, the blue fox was missing.

When Rurik's emotions settled down and he recovered his sense of reason, he thought about his loss carefully, and he could comfort himself that the loss was not large.

The loss is indeed not big, but it is very insulting.

The people of Novgorod and Shilla Fort, the settlements of the various principalities are still immersed in the joy of this autumn harvest.

The prince has openly stated his attitude-revenge is necessary.

The prince chooses to vent his anger by means of war, and Rose will declare war on Denmark.

Almost all the immigrants from Ross's headquarters were around Lake Ilmen, and Rurik decided to hold a meeting first.

In the city of Novgorod, the reserved space is shared. The people are still waving the yoke to beat the wheat, and there are also children holding branches to disperse the eye-catching sparrows to avoid the hard-earned food from being eaten by the birds.

In the longhouse of the Roseduma Council in the city, all the wooden windows are open, and the benches inside are full of people.

Everyone is in a good mood. The attitudes of the elites and the general public are the same. When the initial anger dissipates, the rest is more longing for war.

Think about it carefully, a group of mercenaries have died, and what is the death of Blue Fox, the son of a merchant? Maybe this is fate.

At least there must be a reason to launch a large-scale war against Denmark, otherwise it will be difficult to gather momentum just by gathering the army.

Rürik certainly did not use this meeting to declare war on Denmark as simple as that.

The attitude of the war has long been clear. He needs the parties who escaped from the "shop attack" incident to personally describe what they saw and heard, so that all the Ross elites can know what happened in the distant place.

The elder Eric was born in Denmark. Even if he joined Ross to become a new Ross citizen, the majority of the Ross people would have no feeling for him.

Inside the bright long room, a pair of eyes stared at the old guy wearing a fox fur hat, and he tearfully described the disaster the Ross Store had experienced in Hazeby.

"According to reliable information, a large army entered Denmark. Its leader was Horrick Klarsson. He easily mistaken the king of Denmark and sent troops to take over the free Hezeby. The King of Denmark asked us for a huge tribute and expelled it. We! The King of Denmark said that the Ross people are not qualified to do business in Denmark..."

Old Eric said a lot, and all he said were facts.

He doesn't even need to make up some unreasonable demands from the enemy to increase everyone's anger, because just the last so-called "command" is enough to arouse everyone's anger.

The angry bullfighters were full of anger, and everyone was holding a breath.

Then everyone yelled furiously, yelling that there was going to be war immediately.

Sitting on the noblest podium, Rurik watched their anger and gradually calmed down.

Suddenly, the rebellious Arik stood up again: "A reckless villain claims to be the king of Denmark and dares to forbid our trade. We take the goods to Denmark to do business because we look down on them, but I never thought they would not appreciate it."

"I look up to them!" Rurik shouted in shock, and deliberately blamed himself: "I am responsible for the death of the blue fox. I naively think that as long as I do business quietly, especially in the sea of ​​no owner. When Zeby is doing business, no one will interfere with me."

The prince is sinning himself, and even though many people feel that it is unreasonable to open up the market in Denmark, no one dares to stand up and do it afterwards.

Rurik's self-blame really had a sincere element. He also took into account the presence of Gould, his old father, to calm his emotions.

Arik took the stubbornly grinningly: "So, when will we go to war?!"

"This matter should be considered in the long term. Today, we all listen to the description of the old Eric. You will all face the Danish army personally in Denmark. All of us must learn more about our enemy, and finally use very little means. The price is an unprecedented victory."

It's another beautiful scene, everyone can hear it.

Many people whispered that the prince is still too conservative. It is better to restore the tradition. Brothers use this winter to sharpen their swords. Next year, the whole army will be killed and the Danes will be seen, killing and burning everything!

Old Eric was ordered to continue to describe, in his mouth, Hezeby is indeed the City of Freedom, free to the extent of banditry rampage. The business atmosphere there is indeed strong, and because of banditry, some wealthy merchants are sword-wielding merchants.

The relationship between the Hezeby merchants and the Ross merchants is not only not hostile, but they are still trying to make deals.

But the sudden emergence of new forces changed everything!

"So, that man named Horrick is the root of all evil?" Arik asked angrily.

"It's him!" Old Eric lowered his head and glanced at Arik, his emotions were full of grief and anger, "We should have continued to do business in peace, and that man ruined everything."

"Oh? Could that man's army be stronger than the Hafgen we killed?"

"That's true. They have cavalry and armored warriors. Their strength may be very large, maybe they have the support of the Franks behind them."

"Frank? Someone from the far south over there?" Arik shook his head and was too lazy to listen. Following the roaring atmosphere of the brothers, he yelled arrogantly: "I will have my head cut off anyway!"

Old Eric did say a lot, but these were not enough.

This meeting did allow the elites of the Rus Principality to have a deeper understanding of the enemy. As for when to start the war, Leurik did not come up with a clear time point, and simply a "reconsideration" suspended the meeting.

Novgorod has resumed normal life, and a large amount of wheat has been transported to their barn by the people.

Revenge is necessary, so as a more organized group of nations, it is time for the Principality of Ross to stock up on supplies for the war against Denmark. The first is the military rations.

The autumn harvest has finally come to an end. Even the so-called fertile land still yields about two thousand pounds per hectare. Without the assistance of fertilizers and irrigation systems, even if the technological innovation at planting only improves efficiency, the increase in production has not been realized.

However, the farmland in various places has made great gains because of the scale effect.

For the Slavs who have lived by the lake for generations, they are pleased with the current living conditions, because the Rus people start farming on their own and don't have to madly exploit and demand tribute. In disguise, they have more surplus food in their hands.

It was September, and a rain at the end of August interfered with Rurik’s tax collection.

This rain is the so-called "autumn rain", which is characterized by long duration, and the rainy weather lasted as long as ten days!

When the sun reappeared, the entire climate changed.

Rurik’s taxation work began. Others were in Novgorod. Taxation was a major task for Governor Medvete. This was the first time that agricultural taxes were collected in the Slavs’ living quarters. The first time it was of great significance, he acted as a supervisor. The person got started personally.

The empty Ross fleet is anchored at Lake Ilmen, and the fleet's work around the lake has officially started!

Rurik has data on all the acres of the surrender farm. The data are all on paper, and the area of ​​good and bad fields is very clearly recorded.

Although the Principality pursued an eleven tax, with a stroke of Rurik, the imperative tax rate per hectare was set at 200 pounds for fertile land, 150 pounds for Nakata, and 100 pounds for poor land.

Except for the newly reclaimed acres this year, the entire area around Lake Ilmen is more than 40,000 hectares. In the foreseeable future, the total number of acres in the privileged areas surrounding the lake will continue to soar.

However, the current immigrants of the Roths and other Varangans only control 10,000 hectares of it. For this part of the land, the tax rate is completely different, and there is even a time-limited tax exemption.

All of Rurik's own farmland output went into the treasury without any trouble, and the remaining acres were the grain tax base of the region.

Times have changed, and there is no longer a horror at Pine Needle Manor, and Ross does not need to exploit the local Slavs a second time.

The Principality received nearly 4 million pounds of food tax at a low tax rate!

What a crazy concept is this?

If there are a total of 10,000 people in Ross's headquarters, everyone can eat an average of one pound of oats a day until the moment of tax next year.

Prince Ross personally supervises the taxation work. Which farm dare to refuse? Among them, the most tax-paying is the White Tree Manor of the main residents of Novgorod. They are already the most populous Slavic population group in the region.

Now that all the surrendered manors are unable to conceal the population and fields, the female scholars of the Principality separately investigated the farms. They all worked diligently, hoping to get the favor of the prince after achieving real results, and then get the opportunity to get close. The men of White Tree Manor did not suffer a loss for their own power, and also assisted the scholars to do their best to thoroughly investigate the precise number of acres of neighboring farms.

At the moment of taxation, it is a very scientific and efficient measure to collect taxes based on statistical data and drawn "fish scales". It can also highlight the fairness of a contract to all taxed farms. After all, taxes are indeed. It was not collected randomly. From this work, Rurik also understood that the Russ were too conservative in the local material search in the past, and even learned that the productivity of the local Slavs was severely restricted by poor farming tools in the past.

The granary of the Duchy of Novgorod is full, and Mstisk is also building a new granary to store a huge amount of surplus grain.

The largest granary in the Principality was in Fort Shilla, and a very critical task was placed in front of Rurik—to transport at least two million pounds of oats.

The taxation work of Lake Ilmen came to an end, and Lurik also received a huge amount of wheat on his own property. Only those who understand the clear data can realize how amazing the food assets of the Ross people are now. Ordinary people can only describe in general terms that they can live a good life of eating porridge.

Today, only in terms of per capita food consumption, the subjects of the principality have reached a rather outrageous degree, and they are absolutely ahead of a big country like Frank.

Because the population of the Principality is not large, most small families have a large amount of food wealth, but the number of their own children is very small.

How to vent the ecstasy after the harvest? Apart from the people spontaneously offering sacrifices to gods and eating special foods, this is something that couples love to hear and hear-giving birth.

The people in Ross who picked up the shovel and sickle naturally understood the true meaning of agricultural life when they became farmers.

They must have as many children as possible, not only because the family can raise more children, but also because the children are labor. As long as there are more boys, it is more strong labor. A family with many boys will desperately expand into the forest and cut down the forest to create new farmland. The more farmland, the more wealth it belongs to. This is a business that will never lose money!

The Rus and other Varangans are still excellent fishermen. They are different from the Slavic farmers. For example, it is not suitable for land reclamation when it is cold today. A large number of fishing boats and hot fresh fish trading markets have begun to appear on Lake Ilmen and Lake Ladoga. Appearing in Novgorod, everything is like the former place of Roseburg, but the fish market here is the most common bass and catfish in accordance with local conditions.

The Ross people cannot lose the ocean, and Fort Shilla is also the central point of the Principality’s political and economic liaison between the East and the West.

The most food needs to be stored in the capital city, where the large granary needs to store 10,000 people to eat a whole year's rations, so you can really feel at ease. This standard is actually 4 million pounds of oats. The temporary goal cannot be achieved. At the speed of the Principality’s opening up of fields in the Eastern European plains, it will eventually be achieved within a few years.

The grain fleet was loaded with two million pounds of oats and one hundred thousand pounds of wheat. The former is a strategic reserve, while the latter is bread for daily consumption.

At the beginning of October, under a bad but rainless cold current, the fleet finally reached the mouth of the Neva River.

Rurik is willing to call the sea area that enters the sea Kronstadt. This place is indeed a natural military hub and is most suitable for mooring a fleet.

Compared with the Gulf of Bothnia, the entire Gulf of Finland also needs to be frozen in winter. According to the experience of previous years, the period of freezing at the mouth of the Neva River is probably from the end of November to the end of March of the following year. All right.

All the large ships in the fleet were anchored and pulled with a large number of cables, which were tied to wooden stakes on the shore. Most of the paddling boats have been pulled to the shore, nailed down the stakes and firmly fixed.

Under the cold current, some people have noticed that the water stored in the Tao Weng outdoors has formed thin ice overnight, and there are few people walking around in the cold and whistling outdoors. Most of the cattle and sheep raised were driven back to the pens, and some reindeer were still gnawing on the already yellow-white grasses on the Neva River because they were fearless of the cold.

The biggest task of Ruriklai is to **** grain into the warehouse, and the second is to pay attention to the construction of the Great Temple of the Principality.

Affected by the bad sea conditions, the work of collecting hard granite on Gogran Island has been suspended, and the Slavic people who are eager to dig for money can only give up.

However, the workshop that burned the clay was still operating, and the blue-gray bricks of reasonable quality were still being produced, until the clay and charcoal fuel stored in the workshop were temporarily exhausted.

The Great Temple will use granite to pave a hard foundation. The stones will be combined with clay to form a hard wall. The cement powder and river sand from the homeland of Roseburg will be used as a binder to ensure the wall is strong.

The construction of the Great Temple takes enough time, but now the wind is like a knife, and the outdoor haze is desolate. Men and women who desire to sell their physical energy to make money can only stay in warm homes to accompany their children.

Rurik is the same as the prince. The palace has become a real palace. He accompanies the high priest Lumia in the palace. There are no other wives and concubines beside her.

The outdoor wind became more and more bitter, it seemed that it was just windy, and the blizzard did not appear.

Lumia was forced to suspend all sacrificial work, and the little priests recruited by surprise (all young girls selected from the local area) were also ordered to go home first, and talk about etiquette training later.

In the cold night, Liurik lay calmly, his tired body could finally rest, but he was not sleepy at all.

Lumia snuggled over, and she still had a lot to tell her man, especially about the construction of the great temple, Rurik also listened to her.

"Do you know? I still have a worry now." Rurik's sudden opening made Lumia's body startled.

"What's wrong? What else can you... worry about? It will never be the war against Denmark? Don't worry, I will hold a ceremony to bless all the soldiers."

"Oh not this!"

"what exactly is it?"

"Spute."

"Our great explorer? Yes, he hasn't come back yet."

"Ah! I'm just worried that he will be at risk at sea. I asked them to go to Britain for food, but they encountered this **** storm on the return trip!"

"Don't worry, don't worry about anything." Lumia couldn't help holding her man tightly: "They are your warriors. They will expedition to the end of the north and will overcome all difficulties."

What else can Rurik say? Even if he has confidence in the big ships of the principality, the Caravel-type sailboats are still small under the power of nature.

Maybe a storm will really destroy them.

Liurik had no choice but to pray that the Spuyute group would arrive at Fort Shilla with the British wheat safely, and everything would soon be clear.

Because if they can’t enter the port before the sea freezes in November, they don’t have to dream about it.