Chapter 1118： New Rose Fort is worthy of being the economic center of the Rus Kingdom

In Eastern Europe, the Principality of Ostara was authorized to expand the territory for Rus, and a new situation developed completely unexpectedly in Rurik.

The Frankish civil war entered a new situation, and the Rus forces took advantage of the opportunity to fish in troubled waters, and even made significant progress.

The small Great Isle of Great Britain is not a big deal. The malicious large-scale looting of King Ragnar of Denmark completely disrupted Wessex's plan to encroach on northern Mercia.

On the other hand, in the entire Baltic Sea region, most of the regions are calm, and the situation of peaceful trade is fully opened. It seems that everyone is heading for a prosperous era.

Rurik himself could not understand the great changes in Eastern Europe and the Frankish world in real time, and the geographical barriers forced him to appoint trusted nobles to break new ground.

He took his most important wives and concubines, and embraced Prince Osborn, and arrived at New Roseburg in a large circle with a newly opened inland river route.

He set a very ambitious mission for himself. The capital city first deliberately went around the ring road with a showy parade to announce the arrival of the king to thousands of people, and then he was busy with his own affairs.

The autumn wind swept the world, and the New Roseburg port area is still developing her prosperity.

In the dry dock outside the city, the Sea Sovereign, the largest sailing ship in Ross' history, is still decking. The mast base of the battleship has already been constructed. Since the ship is so large that the main mast must be installed by splicing, the masts placed outdoors have to be installed layer by layer in the way of stacking Arhats. This will be a laborious and laborious work. big project.

For this big ship, Rurik has invested a huge amount of money successively, and will continue to invest in the future. She is a big gold hog, and as she is launched in the spring of 842, she will immediately become the new flagship of the kingdom, and can immediately perform military and commercial tasks.

This ship is the epitome of the glory of the entire Ross shipbuilding industry. Currently, only the Hotra family has been improving shipbuilding capabilities due to the acceptance of one high-spec order after another. Building sailing cargo ships was the family's forte, and now this ability has reached new heights.

But the family's old business has never been thrown away, only the family's shipyard in the capital strategically abandoned the plan to build small boats. Stein Hortra is in charge of the capital's success, and he and the entire team have made a lot of money from the construction costs of this big ship alone. Even though a large part of his apprentices belonged to the king's direct slaves, he was worried that this group of apprentices belonging to the royal family would be alone in the future, fearing that the church apprentices would starve their masters to death.

Slaves don't necessarily mean pain.

These apprentice slaves are all the king's close ministers, and they can all become characters in the future.

An open secret is that King Rurik's earliest male slave Kamne, this person is already in charge of the royal smelting factory in the capital.

Kamne was originally a Slav, and his brown hair was unique enough in the "Golden Hair World" of Northern Europe. His arms were as thick and hard as stones, and he was even stronger than his legs. He has a very peculiar shape in the upper part and lower part, because he has a strong upper body because of regular exercise. He is as strong as a bear, and has a happy family. With a large salary, he has indeed brought a significant output of metal utensils, and he has worked diligently to ensure the stable income of the royal family.

The shipbuilding industry in the entire Rus is prospering day by day, and the peaceful situation in the Baltic Sea makes people from all walks of life go to the ocean.

There is a demand in the market and the environment is full of available shipbuilding materials.

The tides of the Gulf of Finland washed the sandbars of the Kronstadt anchorage day after day, and many folk shipbuilding workshops were placed on the sandbars (now Vasily Island).

Folk shipbuilders are adhering to the traditional Viking shipbuilding skills, and even Danish shipbuilders have set up shop in Novi Rosberg, taking advantage of the time window of the tax holiday to set up the stall first, relying on the shipbuilding craftsmanship to quickly make a few bucks, and then Live a good life here.

The most traditional Viking longships still have a huge market. After all, most of the buyers are ordinary farmers. They have no plans to trade in bulk commodities in the ocean. Fishing is the right way to transport some goods by the way. Traditional longships perfectly meet the demand. The difference from the past is that the new longships are still assembled using the tenon-and-mortise structure as a whole, and iron nails have been used in non-essential areas. Even the cables that stabilize the mast, the most critical ones were simply replaced with chains.

This is true of the capital shipbuilding industry, and the inland Novgorod shipbuilding industry has a new twist.

There are still traditional long boats for living, and there are different markets for miniature boats suitable for fishing in Jinghu Lake and barges made of assembled long boats. Even human-powered water ships that rely on pedals to drive large water wheels are also being manufactured.

People in the industry understand that to make the life of the boat as long as possible, the oak keel and rib that have been dried in the shade for ten years are the key.

Even if there is a lot of hunting for cutting down oak (oak) for drying in the shade, it will not wait ten years for a very long life.

That's why Ross's original big ship, the Avrora, had to be retired after ten years of use. She can only serve as a training ship now. This old ship is no longer useful.

Even the largest ship under construction, the Sea Sovereign, was born with problems in this regard.

Rurik is not heartless and really expects this new ship to be domineering for fifty years. She has ten years of life. The Sea Sovereign is Ross's first Galen ship. It is very important to build her to accumulate shipbuilding experience. So far, there have been no major problems.

The prosperity of the shipbuilding industry led to the prosperity of the material market. Logging, textiles, hemp planting, metal processing, and anything that helped shipbuilding flourished like never before. The people have something to do, and the capital gave birth to a group of industrial populations who were separated from agricultural production. Even if most of them are engaged in handicraft, the value generated can be better than farming and fishing too much.

They make money and spend it immediately, and the consumer goods market is growing.

What Rurik can see now is that the capital is developing every day, and the commercial atmosphere here is strong. Because it is a free seaport, all ethnic groups in the kingdom can do business here. The three-year tax holiday granted by the royal family even attracted people from Pus Cove's guest.

The capital has reached a considerable scale, although the written clockwork has been promulgated, the core terms are still standing in the square. All this is not enough.

It's like what I said to the queen when I stood on the top of the palace attic and had a bird's-eye view of the entire capital and harbor.

Although Rurik reveled in the prosperity and prosperity of the capital he had created with his own hands, he was also very worried that it would become increasingly difficult for him to control this prosperity.

Perhaps his greatest fears would be completely dispelled with the publication of Roth Saga, he hoped.

"Rossaga" is the myths and legends of the Viking world that Ella has tried so hard to collect and rectify. Finally, Rurik personally reviewed, revised, and even added some new content. Its target is the various Gospels, making "Rossaga" a classic of the kingdom and unifying thoughts for the kingdom.

Here there are heroes, courage, sacrifice, love, and the beginning of all things with Ragnarok. Rurik deliberately made up a wonderful Asgard and defined who could go to this soul's destination.

There is always a lack of entertainment in daily life, and a book is a treasure that everyone is eager to pass the time.

The crux of the problem is how to turn the manuscript into a real book. This was a problem and not a problem, Rurik knew that what he wanted to do was to create an organization, the Royal Printing Office.

Wood type printing technology was born at the same time as paper technology, and they had to show their strong strategic value.

In the capital city, the equipment used for printing is made by the royal blacksmith shop. Kamne, who has a strong back, is in charge, and his main job is to be responsible for the smelting and forging of various iron tools.

In the past few years, there were only printing workshops in the capital, and there were no major orders. The workshops printed some vulgar jokes and posted them on the public map, and then printed some so-called newspapers. Outdated news, limited sales of this information to make a little profit. The printing workshop was managed by the Governor Conusson, but the Governor was unable to cope with the expanding capital. Rurik, who had returned, noticed that even if he printed some meat jokes, the printing workshop had not been done recently, and a few workers had paid their salary. Idle feet.

A few workers are on empty pay, and they are not wrong. The crux of the problem is that the workshop is just a workshop, and the managers who do not have a person in charge are currently unclear.

How will it be in the future? This was the fundamental reason why Rurik had to bring the "highest scribe" Ella.

Ella would not be this director, and the group of lower-level clerks she had trained had come to a point where they had to be on their own. When she came this time, the two followers who endorsed the manuscript fell into Rurik's eyes.

Don't waste the two of them. One is a full-time post and the other is a deputy. After that, they took root in the capital to marry a wife and have children. Their job is to manage the Royal Printing Bureau, so that everything can be formalized and become a real printing and publishing department.

The vision is wonderful, and Rurik is rolling up his sleeves and really starting to implement it.

First, low-cost wood and clay type had to be replaced by durable lead type, and the production of standard-style lead type had to be carried out by blacksmiths loyal to the royal family.

The sturdy Kamne knelt down on one knee to salute the inspecting King Rurik, and the blacksmiths were also of the same size. They were all shirtless and wearing one-piece suspenders, with a large, sturdy, hairless piece hanging on their chests. With deerskin as protection, the arms that were supposed to have thick fine hair were already bare. Obviously, the hair follicles were burned to death on the hairy arms due to the long-term ironing in a hot environment.

These guys are loyal to themselves, and Rurik is very at ease with them. After all, most of them are legally their slaves.

The iron slaves have high living conditions. When they were taken in, they were all a group of skinny little boys. Now they are all as strong as bears, and their biceps are too thick.

Rurik had promised them a long time ago that the faithful and obedient would get wives when they grew up.

He has already implemented it. The first batch of iron slaves have already married wives and have children, and the people who are backward are also full of hope. Their descendants will receive cultural and military education, and then continue to work for the king by inheriting their father's line of work. But it's not just blacksmithing. Once there is a war in the kingdom, these technical talents will immediately participate in the war as engineering soldiers. Such technical arms are always better. After all, just look at their extremely strong arms. This kind of person wears heavy armor, carries two iron hammers, and rushes into the enemy line. It is the unparalleled Berserker.

Kamne arrived at the king's life. It was originally used as a smelting additive for lead, but now he makes a lot of movable type alone. Making movable type is to smelt specific bar-shaped lead ingots. Kamne has done this in the past, and now it is to make more to meet the needs of large-scale use in the future. Therefore, it is not a change from zero to one, but an expansion from one to one hundred.

The Rus obtained lead purely as a by-product of northern mining, with iron being the most important mineral, followed by copper. Then came thenardite, lime, and lead. The production capacity of lead is the smallest, unless silver ore can be found in the north. After all, silver ore is often associated with lead ore, and the associated situation of other minerals lead is really unsatisfactory.

Lead acetate has a pleasing sweetness, and no one in the North really wants to make this. Kingdom has a better choice - honey. Honey from Novgorod, the production of which is more than a year. This is also due to the strategic layout of Rurik many years ago. Those villages living along the lake need to increase their income and also need large customers to buy their own agricultural products. Beekeeping in tree holes is a traditional business in the area around Lake Yinermen, and because of the kingdom's growing demand and real cash, every Slavic farm has begun to expand it wherever they can.

Beekeeping in tree holes does not require the full attention of professional beekeepers. The hibernation of bee colonies in winter seems to have never existed, and in spring, swarms of bees are active in the forest. The wheat harvest season is also the honey-picking season. The Slavic farmers, all covered in gauze, went to the marked tree holes and wooden boxes to collect honey and kept a part of it. Most of them were sold in Novgorod. In the end, most of the honey was in The city gathers.

Ships transporting pig iron ingots from the north are steadily transporting them, and yes, the blacksmith shop in the capital is always full of people.

At least ironware is absolutely state-owned, and it is difficult to stop the people from mining and smelting iron without permission, but the large-scale smelting institutions are all under the control of Rurik, relying on the absolute scale advantage, private private blacksmiths do not have the advantage.

In the hometown of Roseburg in the north, Elronborg, Rurik set a guide price for the purchase of pig iron ingots for local institutions. Naturally, the local area can also produce finished appliances of low carbon steel and wrought iron, and the prices of related products are also set.

If the pig iron ingots produced by the blast furnace in the northern soil could not be digested by local workers, they would not have to be shipped to the capital for secondary processing. Rough-processed iron ingots, or finished utensils, have to be transported to the capital with a layer of freight, so customers who want to buy finished utensils in the capital must be higher than the place of origin. The higher price is not much, and the transportation fleet also has a scale advantage in transportation capacity, which makes the private iron smelting products always lack price advantages.

The northern iron smelting agency delivered the goods to the capital, and the capital agency immediately paid for the complete delivery of the materials. After receiving the cash, the northern institutions will purchase the food, linen, etc. needed by the north on the spot.

The old Rus people left their hometown on a large scale, and the old town of Rosburg, which carried the centuries of life of the Rus people, has completely turned into a hot smelting center.

Prisoners of war and criminals worked here as slave laborers, while some nomadic deer breeders (Lapps) gathered here to work as miners, while others turned their summer settlements in the northernmost Murmansk into permanent settlements. point.

Different from the battles and adventures in the southern world, the depths of the Gulf of Bothnia in the north are peaceful. Ice, snow and heat are the themes here, and iron and leather are the specialties here.

Now, the narrow Swedish world is fully integrated into this commercial and trade map.

The stalls in the kingdom are huge, and labor is needed everywhere.

Those young Swedish people who were imprisoned in a small space, as the second and third sons of the family, were destined to leave Lake Mälaren to venture out. In the past, the way for such young people to rise was to directly participate in war and plunder. They now have a wealth of options, the daredevils can go straight to the Danish world, or even settle in Rotterstad at the mouth of the Inn. In pursuit of a safe and secure fortune, relying on all of his strength, he went to the northern mines to be a miner, an iron smelter, or to the New Rose Fort, the capital of Rus, to be a variety of clerks.

They needed jobs, and Rurik gave them the chance.

Iron smelting is used to produce a large number of high-quality iron ware. This is the basis for Rurik to grant the citizens three years of tax exemption. It controls almost all the steel production capacity in the northern world. It makes continuous contributions to the national treasury and provides a livelihood for all kinds of people. .

Smelting requires good carbon, and carbon is still the only smelting fuel without coking coal. With the support of the blower, the earth blast furnace can make charcoal to melt pig iron. It's not very efficient, but once the blast furnace is fired up, it can't be interrupted for no good reason. It's like a charcoal-eating beast that needs a steady supply of large amounts of charcoal.

Due to this rigid demand, the forests in the area around New Roseburg are disappearing. A group of charcoal-burning workshops appeared on the Neva River, and the loggers personally transported the newly cut wood to these workshops. Due to the real involution factor The market price of wood is not high, even so this is The easiest way for ordinary people to make money.

Even the remote Finnish tribes such as the Vips and Rudi, and even the populous Finnish Counties. They just have to wait for the sea and Ladoga to freeze and the land to be covered with snow again.

Dressed as thickly as bears, they could drive the reindeer they raised, drag the felled pine trees and slide on the snow and ice efficiently to the capital.

Among them, the most expensive is the oak tree, which is the easiest to find locally. The small ones are sold to the large shipbuilding factories of the Hortra family, and the small ones are sold to those self-employed shipbuilders. They will peel off the bark in advance, and the bark can be sold for a better price as a raw material for paper making, and the oak wood that has been peeled off the bark is more willing to buy from shipbuilding workshops.

Metallurgy, shipbuilding, and leather textiles are the three major economic pillars of New Roseburg, from which dozens of industries, large and small, have been derived.

With the continuous deforestation of forests, more farmland and grazing pastures appeared, which further stimulated the planting and animal husbandry industries in the capital.

New Rose Fort is worthy of being the economic center of the Rus Kingdom. It integrates the east, west, north and south of the kingdom, and its development is still going on.