Chapter 1034： Great Luckey

In the open space outside Novgorod, a group of shacks and tents for steppe people were built here.

Kagan was afraid of any disputes between his own people and the local residents, so he ordered his subordinates not to enter the city without permission.

The Pechenegs were visitors in Ross after all, and Kagan knew what to do and what not to do. Sitting on a large number of horses, they let their mounts nibble on grass in the wasteland, and under the leadership of Kagan, they collectively entered the market in the city to continue purchasing supplies.

The steppe people do things in a measured way, and the residents of Novgorod naturally treat them less cautiously. But it would be too difficult to make all the Slavs completely reassured and close to them.

The Yinlmenslavs were very clear, and even horses from Kyiv could not enter the city collectively to live in the city.

Because the interior of the city of Novgorod has become saturated, although there is no real estate business concept, the people who are aware of an inch of land and money already have it. What's more, the city was expanded on the basis of White Tree Manor, and they were naturally a little exclusive.

As a nobleman, Kagan was naturally free to enter and leave the city, and he had to wait for Rurik to finish some affairs before leaving. He was in no hurry, and guided the people who saw the end of the spring ploughing to resume all kinds of work, and they were producing all kinds of small items that the grasslands needed very much. Linen and wool textiles were fully restored, and brand new fabrics began to be sold.

The linen was in good condition, and the property was owned by King Rurik. Even with in-laws, Kagan still has to spend cash to buy new cloth. This is not a problem. He does not owe favors for fair trade, not to mention that the work of selling horse hides and slaves is very profitable. The more good cloth you buy, the better.

Of course, he prefers to be with his own sister, and especially spoils his eldest nephew, Hazael, with brown hair.

This kid loves to laugh and has amazing grasping ability with his little hands.

"A future sharpshooter." He hugged his nephew, letting the kid go by his own hair.

"He is very strong. And he must be taller than you." Bejahir smiled.

"Alright. What is Rurik going to do with this kid in the future?"

"Captain of the cavalry."

"Very good. I'm this kid's uncle, and I should also give him a present. It just so happens that I'm stuck here, and everything will be easy."

Kagansui found a blacksmith in the city, took out some silver coins and melted them down, and finally made a sterling silver pendant for the foal as a consideration for his nephew. So this child has two foal pendants, and the sterling silver cross pendant inevitably attracts Kagan's special attention.

He played with the cross lightly: "I know this, the Romans have similar amulets."

"It's Frankish."

"Those distant ones? What's the use of such a pendant? Will the **** over there bless him?"

"Definitely." Speaking of this, Bejahir's attitude was suddenly serious and determined, "This kid was born in the extremely cold west, and no demons have harmed him. Maybe the gods of the Franks have blessed him."

"Ridiculous." Kagan shook his head, "This kid was blessed by Odin and Tengri, what does it have to do with the Western gods? Well, my nephew is indeed blessed by the gods. Ah... Now let Rurik get things done. Well, I want to have a good chat with him."

Kagan is still in no hurry. He has a lot of horses in his hands, and he can still rent the Ostara people. The Kyiv horse team has left, and Pecheneg can organize a larger horse team to return to his hometown at the mouth of the Volga River with more goods. After all, it's not easy for him to come back once he's gone.

"I really miss you. But, you are our khan." Bejahir murmured.

"This is my destiny. Don't worry, I will send my clan brother to continue the trade."

"Our clan brother? Which one?"

Kagan shrugged: "I'll choose when I go back."

The successor chosen by Kagan is the younger brother of the family, and he is also the younger brother of Bejahir. It is a pity that the relationship between the brothers and sisters is not as close as that of Rurik and Arik.

Bejahir is more in awe of his brother, he is already a khan, and is unconditionally recognized by the Kingdom of Rus and all members of the Northern Alliance.

Kagan still doesn't know what the "Northern Alliance" means. Pecheneg is not powerful now, and is always facing the threat of the Bulgars (Volga) and Khazars. One more friend means one more possibility. The more the better.

Rurik finally got done with the important work at hand. He smelled the smell of boiled wool and went straight to the state textile mill. He listened to Verdegen and Bromma's detailed report, and praised their determination to change their production strategy and make wool sweaters.

The king cordially condoled to the people of the Danish Stonewall tribe who continued to work, and once again announced to them that Ragnar had become the deserving king of Denmark, and announced the order from the Danish king on behalf of Ragnar.

Reading at zero

"All of your guest lives in Ross are over, and this year, all of you will return to your hometown by boat."

Rurik really imagined that this group of people would be able to go back to their homeland with a roar of cheers, but in the end, he saw the resistance in their faces. This is very understandable. The survivors have lived a stable life in Ross for many years. They are not at all worried about being attacked by foreign enemies, and their stable production and life have enabled various families in distress to recover to varying degrees. A stable life is precious in this day and age, and it seems that only Ross can give them real security for this group of victims. Just like their job now, as long as they continue to do it, they will be paid, and they are willing to do so forever.

The good life must come to an end.

It is fair to say that these workers are already skilled workers, and losing a lot at once would be an economic loss to Rurik himself. He also does not want these workers to leave in his heart, but this matter has been classified as the scope of political diplomacy between the two countries.

Rurik negotiated with them, and he made certain concessions that all Danish workers could continue to work until the autumn harvest. In this way, both men and women can buy a lot of materials with their accumulated wealth, and sell the thin fields that they have created with their own hands.

They are determined to bring home a large amount of goods to provide security for their new lives in the future.

If all the workers have to leave, they can add another batch. This will not cause Rick to have a headache. As long as he announces the recruitment, many women will be eager to try. The only problem is that most of the newly recruited people are seasonal workers, and they often take time off because of family affairs. When the twice-a-year busy farming season comes, the workers basically run away, and in the end, only those who are still working are left. A handful of slave laborers. This is really inappropriate. State-owned garment factories need continuous and stable output.

Rurik set the tone of production and life for this year to accumulate wealth, like a skinny sheep gnawing on grass to ensure that it is fat and strong and has good hair.

Lambs plucked from the Flanders region have survived the long voyage, and they were brought into captivity in Novgorod, first fed a large amount of wheat to make them strong quickly. They are all breeding sheep among sheep, and they can be bred on a large scale next year if they are fed well this year.

In the same way, the pea seeds brought from Flanders and Saxony have been handed over by Rurik to Queen Svetlana, who will select a small open space in the city for trial planting.

I am ashamed to say that the frost-free period in summer in most parts of Northeast Europe is long enough for peas to complete the growth cycle. The queen thought the strange green seeds were very novel, some of them were wrinkled and some were really round.

After the seeds are sown, the seedlings will grow quickly, and the rest is to pour some manure water in the small area and water more, and let it grow slowly. According to Rurik's plan, as long as the peas are properly planted, the first year's output will be used for the royal family's own tasting, and the rest of the beans will be stored and expanded next year.

Finally, the appointed day has come.

Rurik was in good spirits. There were three other people sitting in the meeting room he had chosen, Carlotta, Kagan, and Bejahir, all of whom were full of energy.

Just like a few years ago, Kagan is still a small, round-faced, black-haired man. He has a very standard prairie flat face, which is rounder than before, with smaller eyes.

Such a man, Rurik had heard of his new situation.

"Brother Kagan, you haven't left yet. I heard that it was all to wait for me. I'm really sorry for making you wait for a long time. You know, I have some things that need to be resolved when I return from the expedition."

Kagan nodded, he listened to the polite words in his heart, and sighed: "I will meet my destiny. It is indeed a blessing for you and my brother to stay here today."

"It's about you going back to your hometown to inherit the khan? I've heard that! Congratulations."

"Thank you. Let's have a good chat today. But..." Kagan glanced at Carlotta, "Maybe our sister Carlotta has something more important to say."

"Let's talk about it. It's really weird." Rurik shrugged, "There's really something important, you can tell me as soon as possible."

"There's a lot going on," she said.

"About the cavalry's looting in the south? Ella told me a lot, and I heard a lot." Rurik looked at the two and had to praise them: "I was worried that the Smolensk people would follow They attacked us on the Lovady River. I didn't expect them to be a bunch of cowards. You have done a great job in the south, and I have learned that many of the captives have been slaves. You know, Ross needs labor."

These words were full of praise, and Carlotta felt extremely comfortable in her heart, with a smile on her face and deliberately teasing: "Even so, I still have more than 200 slaves in my hands."

"There's so much more? You really can hide. Why didn't I know."

"Even in Novgorod!" Kagan echoed.

"Is there such a thing? Oh! I see. You brought these slaves to the market in the north, intending to choose a good time to sell them all. Carlotta, you tell me this now, I probably Guess what you're thinking. You..." Rurik stared straight at his woman and laughed maliciously.

Carlotta responded with the same whisper, like the tacit cooperation of the two conspirators.

"As you might have guessed," she said, "those slaves need a big buyer, and I'm waiting for you to pay for it. I'll also state the fact that good slaves would have been sold long ago. Those men and women Not great."

"Ah? It can't be a group of old, weak, sick and disabled? I ask you to arrest slaves, but don't arrest them indiscriminately."

"It's all ugly women, mostly young. And the male slaves, many of them older. The Slavic farms don't bother to buy them, and I don't need them either. Rurik, What do you think?"

"This..." Rurik hesitated, holding his chin, unwilling to look at his wife. Carlotta, on the other hand, stared at Rurik's face with wide blue eyes, and kept urging with his eyes: "Buy now."

"Okay! It's hard to be kind!" Rurik shook his head. "You've done a good job, and I'll commend you. Even if these slaves are of poor quality, let's trade according to the agreement in the past."

"Is this really good?" The grinning Carlotta was startled, "I plan to sell you half a pound of silver coins."

"According to what was negotiated before, I will buy one for one pound of silver and pay you with the equivalent amount of food."

"Ah! Don't I owe you a favor?"

"Bullshit." Rurik just thought it was too funny to say the words out of her mouth, "You are my woman, what kind of inhumanity do we have. The supplies of the Ostara tribe for you are not for my tribe. ."

"Okay. You… make me happy. I'm here with our son, and little Carl wants you to hug. Also, it's rare for me to come here, and we… I… at least allow me to thank you in a woman's way. ."

"sure."

Carlotta wanted to be more straightforward, but considering that there were other women here, he deliberately kept it subtle.

Now Rurik verbally announced that he would accept all the unsalable slaves in Carlota's inventory, and his brain was running wildly for a short time, and he basically thought of how to arrange these guys.

Any slave, male slave among them, is at risk of resistance. If these male slaves were born into Viking tribes and unified Rurik, who unified the Viking world except Oslo and Bergen Norway, they could directly recruit such slaves and make them free after working for a few years, or even sometime in the future. The war ordered him to fight first, and after he made meritorious deeds, he returned to freedom directly.

Considering that the slave metal came from the Smolensk region, which was not seen by everyone, the rebel Vadim was harboured by the locals. Rurik was angry about this, and he also took out his anger at the slaves from there.

All male slaves were transported by sea to Blast Furnace, the hometown of Roseburg, and Elronborg further north. They are incarnated as miners and iron smelting slaves, and participate in the continuous work of iron ore smelting, providing high value-added labor for the kingdom. Those jobs were almost all manual work, even if the male slaves got older and continued to work it was fine.

All female slaves had a more definite destination - state-run garment factories.

They work in this city of Novgorod, and work 24/7 after handing out labor tools. In exchange, these female slaves can get warm accommodation, stable and well-fed meals, and even the promise of returning to freedom after a working time. If Carlotta can take out a hundred female slaves, the garment factory will not be shut down during the busy farming season, and the efficiency of garment production will plummet and at least continue to operate.

Of course, Carlota has been stranded in Novgorod for some time, and she is not idle with her son.

She had already negotiated something new with Kagan, who had been promoted to Khan, and had chatted with Queen Svetlana and Governor Medvedt entirely in her capacity as Duchess of Ostara. Everyone has their own identities, and the same thing is that they are all a community of interests linked by intricate in-law relationships. Rurik is everyone's past, but in the past, he led a large army on expeditions, and the production and life in the rear can still operate stably. This is largely due to the supervision of the country by the nobles in the rear.

Even if Rurik did not come up with new ideas for expansion, the Inlmen Slavs who were fully integrated with the Rus people called themselves "noble people", and they were called "Slavine" in the local language, and they were also expanding spontaneously.

The so-called Khiva Road actually consists of multiple Eastern European lines of communication connecting the Baltic Sea, the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea. Today, the Rus Kingdom has developed such a pathway: the Gulf of Finland → Ladoga Lake → Volkhov River → Yinermen Lake → Lovady River → Valdai Big Swamp (different from the Valdai Lake District in the east) → Dnieper River → Kyiv → Eastern Steppe → Volga River estuary.

Such a road is actually quite tortuous, and it has to go through a long voyage, but the river is completely interrupted at key nodes, and it has to rely on the horse team for communication. The fact is that Yinermen Lake has never actively dispatched a business group in recent years, but waited in their hometown for the horse teams from Kyiv and Pecheneg to bring their goods north. each family.

Now it is different. Following the looting of Smolensk, people in the north have greatly expanded their knowledge of the southern region, especially along the Lovady River all the way to the source of her Everglades.

Carlotta and Kagan decided to take this opportunity to inform each other of their good plans.

"I plan to build a settlement at the source of the Lovady River as much as possible. As the southernmost settlement of our kingdom, it will be developed into a river port, a fortress outpost, and a rest stop for business travelers. What do you think? ?" Carlotta said solemnly.

Her words were serious, and UU Reading such a plan coincided with Rurik's thoughts in his heart.

"Okay!" Rurik slapped his thigh, "Isn't this your whim?"

"I also agree completely." Kagan echoed with a smile: "In this way, our Pecheneg horse team can be well supplied during the journey. Moreover, your woman can place a cavalry team there, and she can do whatever she wants. Attack the villages of the Smolensk people and capture a steady stream of slaves. Besides, if the enemy launches an attack, the southern outpost can find out in advance, which is good for you."

There are countless reasons why this decision was wise, and it was Ross's inevitable choice for southern expansion.

"Then it's decided. Carlotta, since it's what you strongly demanded, your cavalry has also made an in-depth investigation. The new settlement... is up to you to build, how about it?"

"It would be great to have your approval. I'll start soon. Oh no! I'm going to build a simple outpost this year."

"Okay. Have you established a name yet?"

"It's really even the right place. It's a soothing river bay area, with forests nearby. There's a large grassland in the bay area, which is very suitable for us Ostarans to develop into pastures. Even building a fortress, haha. According to the Slavs here, the place is called Luki (Luki, which means the big bend in the river)."

"Lucky?" For a moment, Rurik felt that the name was a little familiar. "Just called Luckey?"

"After all, I have a lot of Slavs in my cavalry, and that's the name they gave them," she said.

"Well, on the principle of whoever finds out, I can accept it." Rurik shrugged again, "Add a suffix, let's call it Lukiholm."

(Lucky, is the big Lucky.)