Chapter 1127 Forest cat, sled dog and the route to the north
The real Qiu Yu gathering has finally begun.
After the Autumn Festival, when Rurik returned to Stockholm to prepare for the next phase of inspection work, a strong and biting north wind brought a cold rain to the entire world.
The low temperature is not enough to cause freezing rain. People at the dock are busy moving goods to shelter from the rain, and there is no one in the streets that are gradually becoming muddy.
The prosperous commercial port city seemed to be deserted, and the whole city came to a standstill. Every household closed its doors and windows, and even sealed the gaps with rags and scraps of leather to prevent the cold air from entering.
Only the tall chimneys spewed out smoke in the rain, and every family with the conditions lit a fireplace to use the heat brought by burning wood to dispel the humidity in the room.
Everything is peaceful in the Governor's Mansion. Due to the bad current situation, Rurik does not want his people to get sick due to the cold and rain, although some brave guys claim to ignore this problem.
The continuous rain interfered with Bai Hu's plan to deliver supplies. He also had a preparation plan. As long as the damn rain didn't last for two weeks, everything would be fine.
If it really rains continuously until mid-October, then the plan to transport supplies to the capital this year can significantly reduce the transportation volume.
There is only one thing that everyone is most worried about. As long as the time is delayed until October, Lake Mälaren, the Gulf of Bothnia and most of the Gulf of Finland will begin to freeze. When the waters begin to freeze, there will be ice for up to half a year.
Expect.
Now that the ice has completely cut off traffic, all parties will organize reindeer sleighs to continue to maintain trade. However, the transport capacity of its trade has plummeted and the overall cost has also increased sharply. In this way, trade will tilt towards high value-added commodities, and the transactions will no longer be in bulk.
Grain, but salt, walrus tusks, precious bones and precious small animal skins, mainly mink.
Staying at the Governor's Palace in Rurik will not be boring.
The fortress-like Gould Island has long been a fortress, and the warehouses inside usually accumulate large amounts of grain and flax rods. The Governor's Palace warehouse in Stockholm also accumulates such bulk goods, because the capacity of Gould Island is limited.
With grain piled up like a mountain, Governor Bai Hu decisively ordered some pottery urns to open an ale brewing workshop. This was his family's business, and he also used his own grain assets. He just borrowed the Ross Winery belonging to the royal family to sell it to external parties to earn higher profits.
The more food there is, the more important it is to ensure its safety. No, granaries everywhere have reached the point where they have to keep cats.
Once upon a time, wild Nordic forest cats were hunted by hunters just for their fluffy and warm fur. Their ability to control rats was discovered, and raising some forest cats to catch rats and ensure food security was a very cost-effective option.
Velika had nothing to do, holding the cat of the Governor's Palace as a pet and playing with it. She often put her face against the thick fur and laughed at the cat.
Osborne, who has reached the age where he likes to run around the most, also simply chases the cat, often making the cat scream regardless of the severity, and once made the cat scream very loudly.
Once the cat screams, the queen rushes over. Cats have become a normal domestic beast in Novgorod. The number of families raising cats is gradually increasing. They have to use cats to protect their small granaries, but they also have to ensure that cats do not
Will eat his own poultry.
Even if a cat is small and cute, it is still a little beast that is good at catching mice.
She chased her son, picked her up, and scolded her harshly, ordering him not to toy with the cat until he was scratched, and then slapped him on the butt a few times as a deterrent, which again made his son cry.
After all, the family atmosphere is really strong.
Bai Hu's sons and daughters have all started their own families. He himself is getting old, and his blond hair has naturally fallen out a lot from his fat head. If you look closely, you can see that part of his hair has turned silver.
Rurik enjoyed the noise very much. He met the queen who was holding her son hard and asked her to put down little Osborne.
"This kid! What should I do if my hand bleeds after being scratched by a cat?"
As soon as he was put down, the little guy hugged his father's thigh and hurriedly hid his body before revealing his big blue eyes.
Rurik held the queen's shoulders and persuaded her nicely: "If you are afraid of bleeding, you are not a real man. That's right. This kid has nothing to do with the cat. Just say a few words and don't do anything."
"No, I think this kid is getting more and more naughty. His food doesn't taste good, so I have to forcefully stuff it into his mouth with a spoon. No, I have to give him a beating."
Thanks to Velika, she ran over obediently, picked up her brother, hugged him and disappeared quickly. All that was left was Queen Svetlana sighing coquettishly as she was held in Rurik's arms.
The queen hoped that the prince she gave birth to would be calm enough. She couldn't stand the naughtiness of her own life. Little did she know that this naughtiness just proved the strength of her bloodline.
Because Lana was also a naughty and crazy girl at that time, Otto noticed this firepower, and after a few more years of observation, he chose her as his son's fiancée.
But it was said that Velika was holding her brother and hiding aside. After a while, the siblings were playing with the cat again. Being trapped indoors to avoid the cold and extreme cold outdoors, playing with the cat became the only exciting game.
After appeasing his wife, Rurik chatted with the governor who was watching the excitement.
"If you have a cat at home now, will you have a dog in the future?"
"Hounds? I don't need them for the time being." What the white fox said was true. He changed the topic and pointed his right hand as thick as a bear's paw to the north: "If there is demand, there will be a market. There are people here in Malaren who breed hounds and sell them. They
I thought it was profitable. The old Russians living in the north continued their specialty of hunting, especially hunting small animals. They took hounds with them for winter hunting. The hounds can not only pull sleds, but also catch ferrets directly. It’s really a good thing.
Woolen cloth."
"Oh? Are there many people buying from the north?!" Rurik was a little ignorant in this regard.
"More and more. In my opinion, this is a good market. But I don't think you can make much money by investing in it. Some of the nobles of Malaren are doing the breeding of hounds, and I don't want to get involved." After that,
, he winked at the king and smiled without saying a word.
"Why are you looking at me? I hope that the king will recruit some more people to set up a royal hunting dog breeding institution?"
"Oh! If the king is interested, this is not a problem."
The white fox gave a warning, and Rurik pinched his beard after thinking for a moment: "It's not impossible. You don't have to do this kind of thing just because it doesn't make money. You can try it. I think you can buy puppies after breeding them.
East. I think those Slavs really need hunting dogs to help them live (to look after their homes and homes). Now that they are getting richer, they should be willing to pay for them."
Dongfang? Hearing this word, White Fox couldn't help but feel numb. His family was restricted by the king to develop in the east. Could it be that... the king continued to raise hounds and announced that he would lift the ban?
Bai Hu tried his best to maintain his composure, showing that he was not surprised at all, as if he was indifferent to the matter, and said casually: "I'll just give it a try."
If a hunter raises hounds, he can only raise local ferocious dog breeds. Nordic hounds all have fluffy and thick fur, and the fur color is gray and white with black patches. Such fur is a perfect camouflage when exposed to the forest snow.
It has the reminder of a wolf, and has a naive look on its face. It can be commanded to hunt small animals, and its ferocity can also hunt small deer.
In the past, some people in the Ross tribe raised this kind of traditional Nordic hound. However, in that era when supplies were not abundant, hunters had to consider feeding their dogs fresh meat every day, and the cost of raising them was probably not worth the hunting output. This economic contradiction made
There are too few people raising hounds.
According to what Bai Hu said, the lives of residents in the north are getting better now, and a large number of people have enough assets to add a few special family members.
The long autumn rain that Rurik was most worried about did not come true, it finally stopped.
However, on the first night after the autumn rain, people were surprised to find that thin ice appeared in the water tank placed outdoors early in the morning.
All those who could afford it wore furs, while the poor wore several layers of linen and low-quality leather jackets patchwork and stitched together with small animal skins. Everyone dressed up to have a bulky figure, and both men and women wore furry clothing to cover it up.
Hat with half face.
Rurik prepared huge white fox velvet hats for his two children, especially his prince Osborne. This boy was deliberately added with a golden ponytail and a huge white fox fur on his head. The white fox's big tail
It actually covers half of the back. The next guy puts on a fur coat made of polar bear skin, and he looks like a little bear.
It's not snowing yet, and the royal family is all wearing polar bear fur clothes. The overall white tone is eye-catching no matter where they go. The white clothes are mixed with blue stripes, which is the characteristic of old Ross. His navy is ready
A good winter coat, with a woolen coat and leather coat as the lining, and Ross's usual linen jersey as the outermost layer, with blue stripes on the chest and back, and a deerskin armed belt around the waist, which makes him really handsome.
The fleet will continue to go north to inspect the land of Longxing, Rossburg. This time Rurik will no longer have three ships. He will be followed by five armed cargo ships. This is the cargo fleet sent by White Fox.
Bai Hu himself also wants to lead a team to Tombstone Island. He knows that his father is dying, so he will try his best to take his family to guard Tombstone Island.
After inheriting almost all the family property, Bai Hu felt obliged to pay his last respects to his father. In particular, he had to take his old mother to wait on the island, and he had to convince her to stay calm first.
Gould, an old guy, still kept female slaves in his later years. Because these women gave birth to children, he gave them a dignity, and the children were freed from slavery. The white fox didn't know that his father had already applied to the king for these slaves, who were once ordinary Ross.
opportunity, and was approved.
Is Gould kind in this regard? But his head wife, the old lady who gave birth to "four little foxes", was so angry that she did not dare to directly criticize her husband. In recent years, she simply lived with her eldest son Bai Fox.
He took practical actions to protest, but this actually made Gould live in retirement even more comfortably.
The fleet entered the sea and could reach Tombstone Island by deviating slightly from the lane. Rurik did not want to waste time. The thin ice on the outdoor pottery urn was a dangerous signal. In this era without any weather forecast, people could only learn from some details.
When predicting the future weather, unnecessary signs are always magnified and interpreted. Rurik was afraid that this winter would be a cold one.
Eight boats sailed bravely northward against the wind with their triangular sails raised.
The bored people hid in the warm cabins. Along the way, the fleet encountered the northern fleet, which was using the north wind to rush south before the sea froze. Those armed cargo ships met Rurik's small fleet from a distance, and each other had different opinions.
There was a mission, so both sides had to hang pennants with special patterns on the cables and piece together phrases that could be interpreted. Then Goldlund could learn that the other party was the royal fleet who wanted to send urgent supplies to the capital, that is, his subordinates.
The strong winds made the sea conditions a bit bad, and Velica and Osborne were tortured to the point of not thinking about food. People suffered from the violent ups and downs of the sea waves. At certain points, the fleet felt like a roller coaster. Rurik even felt a little weightless.
.
He himself has experienced hundreds of battles, and his body is very adaptable to harsh sea conditions. This is a pain for his wife and children. Even if Svetlana wants to endure it, the seasickness will make her stomach churn and avoid the embarrassment again.
, she simply fasted tactically during the final voyage.
Finally, the familiar Roseburg Fjord appeared in front of the fleet!
The sea conditions are not good today, and the situation in the fjord is not bad. However, there are not many ships taking shelter in the harbor. This is because smart people have rowed their ships on a large scale to the northernmost Eron Castle and the eastern coastline of the Gulf of Bothnia.
Winstad Town. People have only one purpose. Just like the white bears and brown bears in Northern Europe who guard the river channels to wait for salmon in the autumn, people also do the work of bears.
The fishermen, mainly the old Russians who stayed behind, put a lot of effort into weaving a huge linen net. It was deliberately made narrow and long, so that several kings could temporarily put it together to block the river and catch all the migrating salmon.
If the Finnish Kovin tribe in the old days was still particular about not fishing all the way from the lake, Ross was completely on the contrary. Everyone just wanted to harvest on a large scale. No one cared about the fact that they had laid a tight and large net, which might make the salmon population become scarce.
The real problem faced all northern settlers - we wanted more food.
In mines, smelting workshops, cobbler workshops, and even large-scale hunting operations, workers involved in these industries need enough food, and the best supplement here is fishing. Autumn is an opportunity. As long as you catch some salmon like crazy, the suddenly cold
The air will quickly freeze these salmon, which are rich in fish eggs, to porcelain. They will deliberately collect the fatty fish eggs and pickle them. The fish meat will be cut open and placed next to the fire to dry.
Those salmon that had no time to deal with were simply frozen to a solid state, so they simply stacked on top of each other to form a "fish wall" and became a food reserve.
We asked ourselves that since the autumn of 839, we had regularly returned to issue conscription and war preparation orders to the people, and it was already the second anniversary since we came back this time.
A large number of technicians came out of their hometown in Fort Ross. They were excellent blacksmiths and were important ordnance repairmen in the war. They could repair worn individual swords and spears on the battlefield, and they were also responsible for repairing heavy equipment. Especially
In the latter, the torsion slingshot requires frequent maintenance, and damaged wooden parts can be made from local materials, which also requires professional craftsmen to deal with.
Most of the soldiers from Rossburg's hometown did not directly participate in the fighting, resulting in very small losses. On the contrary, they still received sufficient trophies, and the lives of the participants were greatly improved.
The king's arrival was unexpected, but on second thought it seemed normal.
In Fort Ross, no matter how noble the elders are, they have to give up their power to their backup.
Let's talk about Harold Zosen, who dreamed of becoming a great leader when he was young. He is now the governor of his hometown in Rossburg, and in fact he has achieved his wish. Legally, he still holds the power of the governor, but his age is basically the same as old Otto.
.When Otto, who was once as strong as a bear, faced the terrifying erosion called aging and gradually became thinner, Harold Zuosen's situation was not optimistic either.
His son Kanuf has replaced him.
The once bratty little boy Kanuf has grown into a strong man. His arms are thick and his chest is swollen. Under his thick clothes, there are huge muscles and thick fat that covers the muscles.
Canuf led his troops to participate in a series of wars in 840 and achieved military exploits. After earning a huge sum of money, he could not help but indulge in pleasure.
This guy took his four wives and as many as six children, big and small. He personally supported his father with a flowing beard to the dock to see the king's arrival.
Not only him, but another distinguished old man, the legendary blacksmith Clavarson, also came.
Klavathan was no longer able to lift his hammer, but he was pleased that his grandson Kusneslav had grown up. This mixed-race boy would not celebrate Hanukkah and would turn thirteen according to Viking tradition. Klavason was worried for a time
My grandson will not be strong enough because of his bloodline, so I am obviously worried now.
What's more, he is more than just a grandson. Daughter-in-law Lilia gave birth to another big fat boy. She is still young and can obviously have more children in the future.
The blacksmith family who believes in Thor, the god of thunder, loves flames and steel. They regard forging by the stove as a symbol of the man. As a result, the family is authorized to manage the largest iron smelting center in the kingdom, the satellite town of Roseburg, Blast Furnace Town, which produces
The ironware continued to meet the needs of the country and also brought abundant wealth. The miners gained wealth, and the Clavarson family gained glory, status and tangible gold, silver and gems.
Just like in the past, there are densely packed old Russian houses on the hillside. Although there are now many Balmoks from Norway, Mälaren from Sweden, Lapps and Kovin from Finland among the settlers, they are like
Based on the same old tradition, the old Russians all appeared on the beach and cheered for the fleet that docked.
Because the royal flag flying on the mast cannot lie.