With the return of a large number of laborers, the originally difficult spring plowing work was immediately improved.
The war lasted for a whole year, and a large number of capable laborers were no longer in the agricultural areas. The women and children left behind had to face difficult problems in farming.
Women and children are not as strong as mature men, and they need to spend more time to complete sowing and harvesting.
But they have already enjoyed the economic dividends of Ross's expansion. The new and old Ross families who immigrated to the Lake Ilmen area have accumulated a lot of cash wealth. They have not forgotten how to get rich through hard work, but out of human instinct, they desire to reduce labor but can
More income. Any innovation in agricultural tools is for this purpose, but it really lacks enough power for spring plowing and autumn harvest.
As a result, the women, whose husbands stayed away from home and stayed at home, made money by doing handicrafts. During the autumn harvest, not only did they start working with their children and scythes, but they also hired local Slavs to work and paid wheat as wages.
remuneration.
In this way, the employment relationship emerges naturally and both parties are satisfied.
As with autumn harvest, you can also hire people to plant seeds in spring plowing.
Even if the people from the expedition do not come, half of the farmland in the entire Ilmen Lake area has been sown. Some smart old Russian women discovered that the most important sowing and harvesting of the year do not require their own work at all, and they can pay for it with silver coins or real money.
In exchange for real food, Slavs can be easily recruited to work.
Some mean-spirited women would take their children and supervise on the side, while some kind-hearted women would prepare clean water and dry food to provide logistics for the working men.
The old and new Russian families who received land due to the victory of the war have tended to become landowners. This was first of all to ensure food production when the family's strong laborers were away. Now, the returned men reunited with their families and discussed the greatness of the war.
Apart from work, farming matters are also a source of conversation.
The men were concerned about whether their wheat fields had been sown. As a result, when they came back, some of them were surprised to find that the fields were either completely sown or half sown. They did have to work in time for the farming season, but they were not as likely as they were when they were wandering on the ocean.
So different.
Smart people are keenly aware of this situation.
"Why should my family be exhausted during the sowing and harvesting periods? Just spend some money and let those Slavs handle it. Give them a sum of money and they will be very happy."
Because it was nearly 400 years ago that the various Viking tribes entered the agricultural age. Before the expansion of the Ross tribe, there was no planting industry. The Viking tribes knew about rough agriculture and were very interested in sowing and harvesting. They had no idea about watering and fertilizing. Autumn harvest
The output is regarded as a gift from the gods, so in terms of sacrifices, more sacrifices should be made to the god Frey who is in charge of wealth.
It has only been more than ten years since the Rus tribe expanded from a small tribe into a kingdom. Although the old Rus people have the highest social status in the country, they do not have the same obsession with farmland as the Slavs. Even if there is no farmland, rowing a boat
Go fishing, catch fish, or even trawl, fishing is the ancestral method.
It is not a problem to outsource the sowing and harvesting of farmland to Slavs.
Of course, the Ilmenslavs, who make a living by farming, are just as rough when it comes to farming. Their technology is only a little more advanced than the Russians who have just learned farming. At most, they know how to weed weeds and collect some lake mud and throw it away.
Just in the fields.
In Rurik's opinion, the agricultural level of both parties was comparable to that of a dragon and a phoenix. He provided brand-new agricultural tools and advanced sowing technology to match the agricultural tools.
However, the transformation of agricultural planting awareness does not happen overnight.
Even the Slavs still don't apply a lot of farmyard manure, and they still don't bother to dig canals for irrigation.
For the old and new Russians, if they have a hectare of wheat field at home, they can usually produce more than two thousand pounds of wheat during the autumn harvest. This is actually a very crazy output. After paying the tax, the family can have a lot of surplus grain. Because they
They were Vikings, and it was customary to catch fish and eat meat. Wheat was considered an important supplement. It was best to have a lot of wheat. There was nothing to complain about living on fishing without it.
Many people are easily satisfied. All the old and new Russians have solved their food and clothing problems and every family has a balance. Even if they are trying their best to have children, their family wealth has not been diluted.
This is the fundamental reason why they firmly support King Rurik. Everyone believes that if they accept the king's leadership, their wealth will only increase.
As a result, classes began to appear in the agricultural area around Lake Ilmen.
The labor force of the Slavic farms at the lowest level would sow seeds on their own farms, and after harvesting, they would bring their own tools to work on the Varyag farmland to earn wages.
The New and Old Rus's are the Varangians in the local narrow sense. Most of them have to sow and harvest by themselves. With the obvious benefits of hiring Slavs to work, employment will only become more and more common. However, the New and Old Rus' generally do not
After enjoying the benefits, even women will do more value-added work, especially the leather processing industry that the old Russians are best at, and other handicrafts. They are on the same level as the White Tree Manor, which was the earliest from the dragon.
The highest level is the royal family. Rurik has a huge area of royal land, which cannot be handled by the emperor himself.
It was Rurik who was the first to hire Slavic labor to sow and harvest his huge fields, and others simply followed suit. When Rurik led his army on an expedition, the Supreme King Otto controlled the entire lake area like a god and Buddha to ensure that order remained.
.The work of taking care of the Wang Tian was nominally handed over to Queen Svetlana, but it was the local Slavs who finally implemented it.
So far, Rurik has only determined the food tax system, but not the corvee system.
No one is willing to sow and harvest Wang Tian for free unless they are given money.
This is the case for Svetlana. As the queen, she has the right to use internal funds to hire labor. After all, she is the second lady of the White Tree Manor. The labor she hires is to recruit strong and young young men from her own family to work, and the rewards given are also very young.
People are satisfied.
The current management system of Russia is still simple and rough, and there is no clear distinction between internal funds and public funds in the treasury. Although the bureaucracy has begun to be established, management is still highly dependent on feudal nobles, squire boyars, governors and the army.
A group of young bureaucrats have been born. They all come from good families among the old and new Russians, as well as simple boys from the White Tree Manor. They are inherently weaker in physical fitness and are considered less suitable to take up arms as soldiers.
In the past, such people were considered cowards and looked down upon by traditional society.
It is different now. They are the first people to receive cultural education. They have accepted tests and assessments. They are excellent in mathematics and Latin. They can master calculation and writing skillfully, and can further learn more advanced knowledge.
They were the earliest technocrats, numbering more than fifty in number. They were willing to serve the king and receive regular salaries, and all were under the management of the top scribe, Ella.
These people are busiest during the tax collection period after the autumn harvest. At other times, they also serve as teachers, teaching extremely important mathematical knowledge to younger children, and educating the children according to the textbooks compiled by Rurik himself.
When the spring plowing is over, the school in Novgorod will start classes again.
To universalize compulsory education for all subjects, even if it is only two years of compulsory education, Rurik cannot do it despite his great ambitions and the current shortage of teaching staff.
At present, only Novorosberg and Novgorod have established schools. Among them, the school in Novgorod is the largest, with 4,000 children receiving education at the same time.
They need to learn language and writing, know how to pronounce the Latin alphabet, learn Cyrillic and Norse, and Latin. All language learning is mainly aimed at daily language, there is not much content to learn, and it is not difficult to master.
The most difficult thing is mathematics. It was Ross who first used the Arabic alphabet in Europe, and it is already very mature. It is far better than the Roman alphabet that has been used for a long time. Students must be familiar with the multiplication table and be proficient in addition and subtraction.
Multiplication and division operations, including the process of operation. For ordinary students, this is a mathematics education, in which the smart ones will stand out in the test and receive more advanced knowledge, and such people will have a high probability of being selected as scribes, bureaucrats in the city who receive salaries.
It was Rurik's method to select smart people from people's children as bureaucrats through mathematics. After all, he needed to implement a large number of calculations and written records, which required such smart people to work.
The smartest among them is undoubtedly one of his concubines, Ella.
Now, Ella must solve a fundamental problem for Ross - establishing the national myth of the Kingdom of Ross.
It turned out that the spacious wooden house located in the city was Ella's office. Even though she was pregnant, she had to continue working on paperwork. Now that the child had just been weaned, she had to continue her job, especially when the king returned, she had to perform well.
On this day, Rurik, who was in a good mood, specially arranged to be alone with Ella.
Even Queen Svetlana had to take the prince to avoid it for the time being. She felt that this was the king's whim, and he wanted to favor sister Ella and have a baby in the future. She felt a little disappointed, obviously she was the one...
Svetlana, who has been away for a long time rather than newly married, has pestered the returning Rurik several times. She wants her man to fill the emptiness in her heart, and she also hopes to give birth to a prince or princess to continue to consolidate the status of the royal family. After all, she is the queen.
, and became more feminine as he got older, Rurik was happy and satisfied with it.
Forget it, Carlotta also screamed and joined in. Duchess of Ostara is not an ordinary person. For this feudal official who guards the southern gate of the kingdom, Rurik feels that he must satisfy her when it comes to giving birth to more sons.
.
The "April Bull" was very busy. Kagan, who was staying in Novgorod, wanted to have a good talk with Brother Rurik, but he never thought that this guy would come back and run to his wives and concubines...
Anyway, as long as he ensures to return to his hometown before autumn, Kagan can board for a few more days and have a good meeting with Rurik.
In other words, Kagan also needs some time to gather information. All the returning warriors are describing the scale of the war, and unheard news is spreading everywhere. Those Pecheneg warriors who are no longer cavalry slaves and have joined the Ross cavalry are very important to them.
Kagan still has feelings for their former master. They are very happy to tell their old master about their experiences in the distant western world, and many of the things they describe are surprising.
Today Rurik is in casual clothes, but he still does not forget his golden crown.
Ella has handed over her infant son to the nanny. She is plainly dressed and has a gentle face but is also shy. Because her brave sister Carlotta had some whispers with her before, and now that the king is here in person, she has to take advantage of it.
Live the opportunity.
She saw the opportunity and took the king's arm first, boldly approached him, and said a few more words with a blushing face.
"Oh? Then I will tell the attendants that I will not go to the palace tonight. I can have a good look at our son, the lovely Amberman, and you. I hope the bed in your residence can be big."
"This... I will arrange for someone to make the bed bigger now." She muttered.
"Okay. But I have something important to do today, and you know what it is."
Ella nodded and whispered softly: "I have been actively editing."
"Don't worry, I will still help you compile it. This year, you and I will spend more time together."
The last words made Ella very happy. She knew that the king actually needed her talents very much, so she could not let him down. The second step was to solve her own personal problems.
Ella's office is very large. It is actually a complete and independent wooden house, divided into a living room, office and bedroom, and has a separate toilet.
Rurik gently pushed open the wooden door and was greeted by the smell of ink.
He now looked at the living room and commented: "Not bad, you have decorated it again."
"Yes." Ella replied with joy: "If my place is shabby... I will embarrass you."
"Then there's no need to hang an ax and a buckler on the wooden wall. You're not a warrior."
"Hehe, just to look good."
"Go inside and have a look." After saying that, Rurik took off his coat and hung it on a nail on the wall.
Coming here was like going home. He knew that a large number of documents were stored in this large wooden engraving room. Ella's office had essentially become the archives of the Kingdom of Rus.
The key to archives is the information they preserve. When the information carrier becomes paper, it becomes easier to preserve and can be stored in large quantities in a small space.
As they entered the real office, the place was filled with a stronger smell of ink, and Ella was already used to it. She pushed open the wooden window with glass panels to let some air in, and then began to introduce the organized tax-related documents.
Rurik then brought a wooden chair and sat down, reviewing some documents to clarify the results of last autumn's tax harvest.
The autumn of 840 was a very normal year. Grain production in Novgorod had increased, and the tax situation was normal. But my order last year was to be tax-free throughout the year. When the messenger arrived in Novgorod with the order, the agricultural tax had been
Collection is completed.
"Very good! Very good." Rurik simply scanned the document without looking at the details at all.
Ella thought it was perfunctory, so she could only laugh along with the embarrassment and didn't dare to ask any more questions.
Rurik cleared his throat: "I originally intended to be tax-free last year. Since the tax has been completed due to some things, it will be tax-free this year. You and the scribes will not be very busy in the golden autumn."
This was a good thing. Ella's embarrassed face immediately turned into joy, and she answered quietly but happily: "This way I don't have to be very tired."
"Do you want to relax?" Rurik listened intently and turned his head to look at her face: "You still have a lot of writing work to do. I will not take the initiative to start a war this year, but I will do a lot of things internally. I
Need you very much."
Rurik's eyes were bright, and he stared into Ella's eyes. The young woman was moved, and she couldn't help but tremble. Although she didn't know what a big thing Rurik was going to do, since she had to do something well, she had to do it.
good.
"Yes! Leave it to me! You can leave everything to me!" Her eyes were firm and full of expectations for the future.
"Very good." Rurik nodded, "What are your results with the mythological stories I asked you to sort out? There are also Ross's past historical records."
"I've done my best to sort it out. I'm just waiting for your inspection."
Ella's eyes were shining with confidence when she said this.
"Then show it to me quickly."
"As you command!"
That's all. In the meantime, Ella ran as fast as I did. After a while of rummaging through boxes and cabinets, she pulled out the wooden box from under the bed, picked up a stack of documents strung with twine, and delivered it to Rurik herself.
"That's it? It's quite thick. And..." Rurik glanced at it and admired the woman's beautiful handwriting. He briefly flipped through it and confirmed that this stack of documents was indeed a collection of various mythological stories.
"It's already a book!"
"How...did I do?" Ella asked cautiously in a soft whisper.
"Very good, I have to read it carefully, haha. I believe people will like the story in it. This is an object that I care about very much, and I will also add some content to it in my writing. It's time to give it a name.
This is our Russian classic "Russian Saga", it will be the core of our faith and our strongest weapon."
Ella basically didn't understand Rurik's explanations. She only saw that her man was very satisfied, so her work in the past two years was very worthwhile.
Rurik stood up slowly and brought over a wooden chair. "Sit down too. Let's read the content of the book together. I'm like a student, and you, as the writer, have to explain it to me."
Ella tidied her hair and sat down next to Rurik virtuously, with a serious attitude: "Okay. Let's start from the beginning, Thor and Jormungandr..."