In the open space outside Novgorod, a group of prairie people's wooden sheds and tents were built here.
Kagan was afraid of any disputes between his own people and the local residents, so he ordered his men not to enter the city without permission.
After all, the Pechenegs were guests in Rus, and Kagan knew what to do and what not to do. With a large number of horses, they allowed their mounts to eat grass in the wasteland, and they also entered collectively under the leadership of Kagan.
The market in the city continues to purchase supplies.
The people of the steppe are very measured in their actions, so the residents of Novgorod naturally treat them with less caution. But it is too difficult for all Slavs to feel completely at ease with them and become like one family.
The Ilmenslavs knew very well that even the horsemen from Kiev were not allowed to live in the city collectively. They were not really of the same race, and their languages were obviously very close to each other.
Because the city of Novgorod has become saturated, although there is no concept of real estate business here, the people already have the awareness that every inch of land is valuable. What's more, the city was expanded on the basis of the White Tree Manor, so they are naturally a little xenophobic.
As a noble, Kagan can naturally enter and leave the city freely. He has to wait for Rurik to finish some things before leaving. He is not in a hurry and guides the people who see the end of spring plowing to resume various kinds of work. They are producing grasslands that are in great need.
Various small items, linen, and wool textiles were fully restored, and brand-new cloth began to be sold to the outside world.
The quality of the linen was very good, and the property rights belonged to King Rurik. Even though they were related by marriage, Kagan still had to spend cash to buy new cloth. This was not a problem. The transaction was fair and he owed no favors, let alone selling horse skins.
Working with slaves is very profitable, so the more you buy, the better.
Of course, he would rather be with his biological sister, and he especially dotes on his brown-haired eldest nephew Hazal.
This kid loves to laugh and has amazing grasping skills with his little hands.
"A future marksman." He hugged his nephew and let the boy caress his hair.
"He is very strong. And he must be taller than you." Beyathil laughed.
"That's fine. What does Rurik want this kid to do in the future?"
"Captain of Cavalry."
"Very good. I am this boy's uncle, so I should give him a gift. I happen to be stranded here, so everything will be easy to handle."
Kagansui found a blacksmith in the city, took out some silver coins, melted them, and finally made a sterling silver pendant for the pony, as a way of caring for his nephew. In this way, the child had two pony pendants, and the sterling silver cross pendant was inevitable.
It attracted Kagan's special attention.
He played with the cross gently: "I know this, the Romans also had similar amulets."
"It belongs to the Franks."
"Those far away guys? What's the use of such a pendant? Will the gods over there bless him?"
"Definitely." Mentioning this matter, Bayahir's attitude suddenly became serious and determined, "This kid was born in the extremely cold west, and no evil spirits harmed him. Maybe the Frankish god blessed him."
"Absurd." Kagan shook his head, "This kid was blessed by Odin and Tengger. What does it have to do with the Western Gods? Anyway, my nephew is indeed blessed by the gods. Ah... Now let's wait for Rurik to sort things out.
Once it’s done, I want to have a good chat with him.”
Kagan is still not in a hurry. He has a lot of horses. At worst, he can even rent some from Ostara. The Kiev cavalry has left. Pecheneg can organize a larger cavalry and return to the Volga River with more goods.
His hometown in Haikou. After all, it would be difficult for him to come back once he leaves.
"I can't bear to part with you. But, you are our Khan." Beiyashir murmured.
"This is my destiny. Don't worry, I will send my clan brothers to continue trading."
"Our clan brother? Which one?"
Kagan shrugged: "I will choose when I get back."
The successor chosen by Kagan is a clan brother, who is also a clan brother of Beyathil. Unfortunately, the relationship between the brothers and the clan brothers is not as close as that of Rurik and Arik.
Beyathil was more in awe of his brother. He was already a khan and was 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 strong now and is always facing threats from the Bulgars (Volga) and Khazars. One more friend means one more possibility. The more the better.
Rurik finally finished the important work at hand, and smelled the smell of boiled wool and went straight to the state-owned textile factory. He listened to detailed reports from Vodgen and Bloma, and was greatly determined to change the production strategy to fully produce woolen sweaters.
Appreciate.
The king cordially expressed condolences to the people of the Stonewall tribe of Denmark who continued to work, announced to them again that Ragnar had become the deserving King of Denmark, and announced the order from the King of Denmark on behalf of Ragnar.
"All of your guest lives in Ross are over. This year you will all take a boat to return to your hometown."
Rurik really imagined that this group of people would roar and cheer and return to their homeland, but in the end he saw resistance on their faces. This is easy to understand, as the survivors and their families have lived a stable life in Rus for many years.
They have no worries at all about being invaded by foreign enemies. Their stable production and life have enabled various families in distress to recover to varying degrees. In this era, a stable life is precious, and it seems that only Ross can provide them with real security for this group of refugees. Just like now.
As long as they continue to do their job, the reward will be indispensable, 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, so losing a lot of them all at once would be an economic loss for Rurik himself. In his heart, he does not want these workers to leave, but the matter has been classified as a political and diplomatic category between the two countries.
Rurik negotiated with them and made certain concessions. All Danish workers could continue to work until the autumn harvest. In this way, both men and women could use their accumulated wealth to buy a large amount of supplies and sell the thin fields they had cultivated with their own hands.
They decided to bring a large amount of goods home to provide protection for their new life in the future.
As soon as all the workers leave, they can be replenished. Rurik won’t have a problem with this matter. As long as he announces the recruitment, many women will be eager to try. The only problem is that the newly recruited people are mostly seasonal workers, and they will also be affected by family problems.
I often ask for leave from work, and during the busy farming period twice a year, all the workers are basically gone. In the end, only a handful of slave workers are still working. This is really inappropriate. State-owned garment factories need to continue
Stable output.
Rurik set the tone for production and life this year, which is to accumulate wealth, just like a skinny sheep gnawing grass desperately to ensure that it is fat and strong and has good hair.
The lambs brought from Flanders survived the long voyage and were raised in captivity in Novgorod. They were first fed a large amount of wheat to make them strong quickly. They are all breeding sheep.
If you feed well this year, you can breed them on a large scale next year.
Similarly, the pea seeds brought from Flanders and Saxony have been handed over by Rurik to Queen Svetlana, who has chosen a small open space in the city for trial planting.
It is very embarrassing to say that the frost-free period in summer in most parts of Northeast Europe is enough time for peas to complete the growth cycle. However, because no one has delivered qualified seeds, they have not been planted in the Lake Ilmen area. The queen found these strange green seeds very novel, they have
Some of the folds on her body are indeed round.
The seedlings grew quickly after the seeds were sown. All that was left was to pour some manure water on a small area and water more, and let it grow slowly. According to Rurik's plan, as long as the peas are properly planted and successfully planted, the yield in the first year will be
Except for a small portion for the royal family to taste themselves, the rest of the beans were stored and expanded planting would begin next year.
Finally, the appointed day arrived.
Rurik was in good spirits, and there were three other people sitting in the reception room he chose, Carlotta, Kagan and Bejahir, all of whom were full of energy.
Just like a few years ago, Kagan is still a short man with a round face and black hair. He has a very standard prairie flat face. His face is rounder than before, and his eyes appear smaller.
It was such a man, and Rurik had already heard about his new situation.
"Brother Kagan, you haven't left yet. I heard you were waiting for me. I'm really sorry for keeping you waiting. As you know, I have some things that need to be resolved when I return from my expedition."
Kagan nodded, he heard such polite words in his heart, and sighed: "I will meet my fate. It is indeed a blessing for you and my brother to stay here today."
"Is it about you returning to your hometown to succeed the Khan? I have heard about it! Congratulations to you."
"Thank you. Let's take advantage of today's opportunity to have a good chat. But..." Kagan glanced at Carlotta, "Maybe our sister Carlotta has something more important to say."
"Then let's talk. It's really strange." Rurik shrugged, "If there's something really big, you can tell me as soon as possible."
"There are indeed many things," she said.
"About the cavalry going south to plunder? Ella told me a lot, and I heard a lot." Rurik looked at the two of them again and had to praise: "I was worried that the Smolensk people would follow the plan.
They attacked us along the Lovati River. I didn’t expect them to be a bunch of cowards. You did a great job in the south. I learned that many of the captives have become slaves. You know, Rus is in great need of labor."
These words were full of praise, and Carlotta felt extremely comfortable when she heard them. Her face was full of smiles and she deliberately teased: "Even so, I still have more than two hundred slaves in my hands."
"There are so many more? You are really good at hiding them. Why didn't I know?"
"Even in the city of Novgorod!" Kagan agreed.
"Is this happening? Oh! I understand. You brought these slaves to the market in the north, intending to choose a good time to sell them all. Carlotta, if you tell me this now, I will probably
I guessed what you were thinking. You..." Rurik stared directly at his woman and laughed maliciously.
Carlotta responded with the same low voice, as if the two conspirators were cooperating tacitly.
"As you can guess," she said, "Those slaves need a big buyer, and I'm waiting for you to pay for them. I also want to explain the fact that if they were high-quality slaves, they would have been sold long ago. Those men and women
Not excellent.”
"Ah? It can't be a group of old, weak, sick and disabled people? I ask you to capture slaves, but don't do it indiscriminately."
"They are all unattractive women, generally young. And the male slaves, many of them are older. Those Slavic farms don't bother to buy such slaves, and I have no use for them either. Rurik,
What do you think?"
"This..." Rurik hesitated. He pinched his chin and refused to look at his wife. Carlotta, on the other hand, just widened her blue eyes and stared straight at Rurik's face.
Keep urging with eyes: "Buy quickly."
"Okay! It's hard to refuse such kindness!" Rurik shook his head, "You have made great contributions, and I want to commend you. Even if the quality of these slaves is not good, let's trade them according to the past agreement."
"Is this really okay?" The smiling Carlotta was suddenly startled, "I plan to sell you half a pound of silver coins each."
"As agreed before, if I buy one for one pound of silver coins, I will pay you the equivalent price in grain."
"Ah! Doesn't this mean I owe you a favor?"
"Nonsense." Rurik felt that the words coming out of her mouth were too funny, "You are my woman, why should we be merciless? The supplies we give to your Ostara tribe are for my tribe, right?"
."
"That's fine. You...make me happy. I brought our son here this time. Little Carl longs for your hug. Also, this is a rare time for me to come here. We...I...at least allow me to use a woman's
Way to thank you.”
"sure."
Carlotta wanted to be more straightforward, but considering that there were other women here, she deliberately kept it subtle.
Now Rurik verbally announced that he would accept all the unsaleable slaves in Carlotta's inventory. His mind was running wildly for a short time, and he basically thought of how to arrange these guys.
Any slave, including male slaves, has the risk of resistance. If these male slaves are from the Viking tribe, Rurik, which unified the Viking world in Norway except Oslo and Bergen, can directly incorporate such slaves, so that
He regained his freedom after working for a few years, and even if he was ordered to fight in a certain war in the future, he would regain his freedom directly after making meritorious service.
Considering that the slave metal came from the Smolensk area, which was disliked by everyone, the rebel Vadim was harbored by the locals. Rurik was angry about this, and he also vented his anger on the slaves from there.
All male slaves were transported by sea to Blast Furnace Town, the hometown of Roseburg, and Ironburg further north. They transformed themselves into miners and iron smelting slaves, participating in the one-stop work of iron ore smelting, providing high value-added labor to the kingdom.
Those jobs were almost all manual labor, and it didn't matter if the male slaves continued to work as they got older.
All female slaves had a clearer destination - the state-owned garment factory.
They work in the city of Novgorod, and work around the clock after being given labor tools. In exchange, these female slaves can get warm accommodation, stable and adequate food, and even the promise of returning to freedom after one working hour. If Carlo
If Ta can take out a hundred female slaves, the garment factory will not come to a standstill during the busy farming period, and the garment manufacturing efficiency will plummet, but at least it can continue to operate.
Of course, Carlotta has been stranded in Novgorod for some time, and she is not sitting idle with her son.
She has discussed some brand-new things with Kagan, who has been upgraded to Khan, and also chatted with Queen Svetlana and Governor Medvet as Duchess of Ostara. Everyone has their own identity,
The similarity is that they are a community of interests connected by intricate marriage relationships. Rurik is everyone's past, but he led the army on expeditions in the past, and the production and life in the rear area can still operate stably. This is largely due to the nobles in the rear area.
of the supervisory state.
Even if Rurik does not come up with new ideas for expansion, the entire Ilmen Slavs who have fully integrated with the Rus call themselves "noble people" and are called "Slavinje" in their local language, and they are also expanding spontaneously.
The so-called Khiva Road actually consists of a number of Eastern European transportation lines connecting the Baltic Sea, the Black Sea, and the Caspian Sea. Today, the Kingdom of Rus has developed such a route: Gulf of Finland → Lake Ladoga → Volkhov River → Lake Ilmen
→ Lovati River → Valdai Swamp (different from the Valdai Lake area in the east) → Dnieper River → Kiev → Eastern Steppes → Volga River Estuary.
Such a road is actually quite tortuous, requiring long-distance navigation, but the river is completely cut off at key nodes, and we have to rely on horse teams for communication. The fact is that Lake Ilmen has never actively dispatched trade groups in recent years, but instead sent business delegations to their hometown.
Waiting for Kiev, Pecheneg's horse team took the goods northward in person. In the end, they led the horses and walked along the river, returning to their homes in the swamps and grasslands.
Things are different now. After the looting of Smolensk, the people in the north greatly expanded their knowledge of the southern region, especially along the Lovady River to the source of her great swamp.
Carlotta and Kagan decided to take this opportunity to communicate their strategic ideas to each other.
"I plan to build a settlement at the source of the Lovati River. As the southernmost settlement of our kingdom, it will be developed into a river port, an outpost and fortress, and a rest stop for business travelers. What do you think?
?" Carlotta said solemnly.
Her words were serious, and this plan coincided with Rurik's hidden thoughts.
"Okay!" Rurik slapped his thigh, "Isn't this your whim?"
"I completely agree." Kagan agreed 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 do whatever she wants.
Attack the Smolensk villages and capture slaves one after another. Besides, if the enemy launches an attack, the southern outpost can detect it in advance, which is a good thing for you."
There are countless reasons to prove that this decision is wise, and it is Ross' inevitable choice for southern expansion.
"Then it's decided. Carlotta, since the matter is what you strongly requested, your cavalry has also conducted an in-depth investigation. The matter of the new settlement... will be built by you, how about it?"
"It would be great if you approve it. I will start soon. Oh no! I will build a simple outpost this year."
"Okay. Have you confirmed the name?"
"We have basically figured out the suitable location. It is a soothing river bend area with a forest nearby. There is a large grassland in the river bend area, which is very suitable for us Ostara people to develop into a pasture. We can even build a fortress, haha
.According to the Slavic people here, that place is called luki (Luki, which means the big bend in the river)."
"Luki?" Rurik felt in a daze that the name seemed a bit familiar. "Is it called Luki?"
"After all, there are many Slavs in my cavalry, and this is the name they gave me." she said.
"Okay, based on the principle of whoever discovers it, I can accept it." Rurik shrugged again, "Add a suffix and call it lukiholm."