Chapter 1134 The Returning Eastern Expedition and Arik's Wrath
At the beginning of the period, the expedition led by Novgorod Governor Medvet personally headed eastward. He was ordered to find all the "people hiding in the forest", and they suddenly came across the Valdai Lake, which means "a lot of water".
No one really wants to live in the forest as a fisher or hunter. Any areas that can be developed into farmland should be transformed into permanent settlements as much as possible.
The geographical environment of Lake Valdai seems similar to Lake Inelmen, with villages turning into towns.
A new Eastern expedition started after the spring plowing in 841. This operation was led by Arik, who had made great achievements.
He led a team of more than 500 people, flanked by surveying and mapping personnel sent by Rurik. Starting from the Msta River that emptied into the Yin Ermen Lake, the Viking longships arranged in a long snake formation went on an expedition in the reverse direction, and completely determined the
Head straight to the waterways of Lake Valdai.
Lake Valdai was discovered many years ago. The bass in the lake and the small animals in the nearby forest are all living treasures.
"The Volga River? Only he knows that this river exists. How should I find it? Is there a correct waterway in this lake area that is actually the Volga River?" Arik's mind was a little confused.
If Rurik had not described or even roughly drawn the possible river route on the map, as well as the Pecheneg people's description of the mouth of the Volga River (thinking that the Caspian Sea is the ocean), Arik would have been willing to believe that this river was real.
It’s just that the world is so big and there are many rivers such as Valdai Lake. Which one is the right way?
What's more, this lake is clearly not the real upper reaches of the Musta River. The Musta River is still wide, maybe it is the correct river channel leading to the Volga River?
What is even more surprising is that when the team arrived in the town of Valdai, they dispersed to start their own fishing and hunting businesses. Some people formed small teams and headed south, trying to find the true southern shoreline of Lake Valdai among the dense water plants.
The team had completely dispersed, and when someone came back carrying a mink that had not yet grown its winter pure white fur, it further stimulated the Ross hunters' desire to explore.
Who are these people? Old Rus', New Rus' from various Swedish tribes, Slavic hunters, and even Finnish Suomi hunters. Arik has a mixed team.
Who cares about poetry and the distance? The brothers came to this undeveloped land to plunder animal skins. Unless all the precious little beasts in this area are captured, they should consider changing places to continue.
The scribes sent by Rurik were different. The two young men sat on the long boat heading south, accompanying the hunters.
The scribe wrote and drew on the paper. Based on the basic sketching skills taught by Rurik himself, he tried his best to sketch the environment of the scene he saw, and then described what he saw with words.
The nerd-like guy is looked down upon by the hunter. Considering that these two are the king's "house slaves", they must be provided with enough food and taken care of so that they don't get sick or injured.
The hunted mink, fox, and squirrel were skinned and their meat was skewered and grilled.
The young scribes had been struggling outside for three full months, and the expedition team they followed had long lost contact with their fellow villagers in the north of the lake. The scribes were unkempt and unkempt, and the wheat the team had brought with them had been eaten up. On weekdays, everyone could just catch fish.
They lived on the meat of sea bass and small animals. However, it was really bad to eat this kind of food, which lacked fat and was almost pure protein, for a period of time. Until they hunted the bears who were hunting crazily to survive the winter.
No one cares about the extreme smell of male bear meat anymore.
"Hey, you two young people really don't know our past days. We still eat shark meat, which is more disgusting than urine, but we don't eat this bear meat? And this bear oil, eat more to make you feel better."
The leader of the hunter is also a ruthless man who kills enemies in battle. This time he is carrying a torque slingshot for hunting big beasts.
He scolded the young people who had never experienced hardship for being picky. Fortunately, when the bear meat was roasted until it was sizzling with oil, and a handful of coarse salt was sprinkled on it, the extremely hungry people would naturally come to drink the oil.
All the scribes who serve under the king are brightly dressed. They now live like savages, or they have become pure Viking hunters.
Only the record books they cherish and keep are clean and tidy.
During the wet season, Lake Valdai is connected to several lakes in the south by streams. Most of these streams can be passed by long boats with shallow drafts. When encountering difficult-to-pass places, hunters will join forces, and even scribes will have to
Pulling on the cable, everyone worked together to pull the ship south.
Where is the real south shore of Lake Valdai? I'm afraid the south shore has been found and passed by. The problem is no longer there. They have discovered a brand new lake, which seems to be larger than Lake Valdai.
If they weren't worried that the expedition would be too far and delay their return, they would have to stay here to build a wooden house and spend the winter directly. After staying in the newly found lake for a while, the hunter team officially returned.
This was an adventure that made great progress, and the scribe successfully returned to the town of Valdai at the end of August with drawn and handwritten information about his experiences.
When they returned, they learned that some self-satisfied hunters had rowed their own boats into the Musta River and went down the river to go home. They went back early just to catch the autumn harvest.
There are still many people stranded in Valdai. They either lack land, or their families have hired wheat cutters. These people calculate for themselves, if the income from hunting furs exceeds the investment of hiring wheat cutters, out of profit
It is best to consider staying in Valdai for a while longer.
Arik was willing to stay for a while. Like the other stayers, he was delighted to hear that the fellows who had explored the south came back to watch their harvest. When he saw the long ship full of fur goods, he was first shocked, then jealous and regretful.
"Damn it, if I had known there were more good things south of the lake, why would I have stayed in the north?" Many people have this attitude.
There were already Slavic settlers in the town of Valdai, and the village leader confiscated the boyar nobles. Although their strength in all aspects was very poor, they tried their best to explore the surrounding areas. They shot small animals directly, and even chased small animals such as bears.
They can't hunt down the murderer, and they can lay traps and other tricks.
There are not many small game resources in the north of the lake, unlike in the south where the real squirrels run wild, so that the large-scale hunters equipped with crossbows suddenly turned into sharpshooters, chasing squirrels and killing them randomly. There were piles of squirrels in the cabin.
Most of them are squirrel skins that have been preliminarily tanned with alkaline water boiled with plant ash. Tanning with plant ash is far less effective than using Glauber's salt, but there are really a lot of leather goods, and they stay in the south for a long time. This is the only way to avoid the accumulation of leather goods and rot.
Squirrel skin is a common leather product on the market in the Kingdom of Rus. It is hunted in large quantities, making the price of a single piece of leather very low, making it affordable for ordinary Slavic farmers. This kind of leather is more suitable for making hats and gloves.
Many so-called squirrel fur coats made of a mixture of leather and linen are not good in keeping out the cold, but they are a good choice when made into mattresses.
As long as there are leather goods, Novgorod's state-owned textile factories and numerous tailor women can do well.
Relying on their absolute numerical superiority, the hunter team exploring the south was recognized to have made a fortune.
The gathering of autumn rain forced those who were still stranded to hide in many newly built wooden houses in the town. They tried their best to keep their fur goods dry. A common method was to pack a large amount of plant ash with linen cloth, and then put the linen bag with the leather goods.
They were mixed together to become special moisture-proof bags. When they decided to leave, these linen bags discarded all the plant ash, and the fur goods were packed as much as possible.
So when Rurik and his party took shelter from the autumn rain on Tombstone Island, this cooling appeared as a cold, continuous drizzle in the Valdai Lake region deep in Eastern Europe.
It lasted for nearly ten days, and after the rain stopped, the ground became muddy.
The local Slavic residents were busy stocking up on food for the winter. They harvested wheat and stocked some fish, and even obtained the meat of small animals from many hunters.
The brothers only wanted leather, and a large amount of squirrel meat was given to the locals for free. The meat of the small animals that the hunters could not finish was processed into almost completely dehydrated bacon by the locals with a smile, and then hoarded as food storage.
"It's time to go home! Go back to Novgorod! Sell the leather goods and make a lot of money!" Arik gave the order, and everyone in the assembled fleet looked up to the sky and shouted.
The return trip was uneventful, as everyone just had to control the rudder to avoid collisions between boats on the Musta River.
In fact, in a large sense, the lake found by the southern expedition team with the participation of scribes is essentially one of the water sources of the Volga River.
Who is the source of the Volga River? If the longest tributary is used as the source of water, it is located on a hill in the west of the lake group including Valdai Lake. This extremely trivial lake area as a whole is the Volga River.
The largest water source.
Although the water source is large, the terrain here is too flat and lacks large geographical differences. The resulting Volga River channel is too narrow and the water velocity is not high.
The lake group looks like a coiled snake on a macro scale. The expedition team could only see a small part of it and was unable to explore the entire lake. It was impossible to find the correct river channel.
The king never expected to complete the feat of exploration in one go. The scribe, who brought a large amount of geographical information, felt that he had completed the task well and was waiting to meet the queen to receive the reward.
What is a reward? Money? Status?
The scribes all wanted it and were sure they could get it. The original meaning of geography was to survey and map the earth. On the summer solstice, these two used the sun shadow method taught by the king to measure the dimensions of Lake Valdai more accurately, and even at the end of the expedition
At the southern end, through some calculations, they still used the sun shadow method to estimate the new dimension. After further calculations, the two of them calculated the distance difference between the furthest distance reached by the southern expedition team and the town of Valdai Lake.
Further, we can estimate the straight-line distance.
These geographical surveying and mapping data are worth as much as gold. The two of them felt that since they had stopped such a clerk, they were better than other scribes. Presumably, after reporting their duties to the king, the two of them became the persons in charge of the geographical surveying and mapping of Russia.
, can also be promoted to a high-level scribe. This means real money and social status, a stable and prosperous life, and some interesting challenges.
Arik returned happily, rested for a while in Mstisk, and then led his men to haul a huge amount of Eastern fur goods to Novgorod.
The guys from the Eastern expedition who had returned first had already sold off their leather goods. For old guys like Fordegen, who managed the state-owned garment factories, they had to buy at low prices because of the poor quality of the leather.
The hunter is indeed wrong. Good leather must be tanned with Glauber's salt. This is the specialty of the old Russians. Of course, the quality of tanning with alkaline water mixed with plant ash is not that good.
Vodgen's words are reasonable, but they also cover up the nature of his deliberate price reduction. Novgorod is indeed a big city in Russia, but the number of people engaged in the leather processing industry is limited. When it comes to where the most people are in this industry,
Nothing better than the capital city.
Why bother bringing the fur cargo to the capital? It’s such a season now. If you go to the capital now, you basically have to wait until you come back next spring.
The Russians, who had already harvested their wheat, just wanted to cash in their fur goods quickly, and then live a leisurely life with their wives and children on the hot bed.
Now, Arik has returned with a bigger load of leather, and the price of leather in Novgorod has once again plummeted. Squirrel skin has become too cheap, and gray-brown mink skin is no longer expensive. What can the hunters do? They
He doesn't understand the invisible rules of the market, so he knows that if he sets a high price, the largest buyer, Fordegen, won't buy it.
In fact, Arik angrily grabbed the old man by the collar: "You just give us such a low price? If you are not running errands for the king, I will twist your head off."
Ford was not timid at all and did not quarrel with the king's cousin. He also signaled for all his people to stand down.
"Young man, let go of your hand. You have set the price very high, and the prices offered by others are not high. If I buy yours, what will others do? Besides, I have limited funds, so I will buy you at a high price.
, other brothers cannot sell it. You actually lack a choice, because I am the largest buyer of fur goods in Novgorod."
"You...coerced me?"
"I don't dare. I'm just a businessman. How about you go to the capital, where there are the most people doing fur business. But even if you go there, your squirrel skins still won't be worth the price."
"Why?" Arik still didn't let go.
"Because those Suomi people are also busy selling squirrel skins. You have five hundred people, and they have fifty thousand people (just casually). Aren't you and the Count of Finland old friends who fought side by side? How are their people? You
Don’t you know better? Maybe they provide more squirrel skins, what should you do? Think about it carefully.”
Arik just couldn't bear to go to all the trouble of hunting with his brothers. In the end, twenty pieces of good squirrel skins could be exchanged for one silver coin. This ridiculously low price was beyond his imagination.
Even in the capital city, there won’t be such low prices, right?!
He let go of his hand, and the offended old man Fodegen smiled and said nothing.
After all, Fordegen really got a bargain. Even though this Arik was a blood relative of the king, he was not willing to suffer losses when it came to purely business matters. Because the state-owned garment factory was largely his territory, and his own family
He lives like a tax collector, and the net profit is shared with the royal family. Even if the share ratio of Vodgen's side is very small, as long as the base is large enough, it is a huge amount of money owned by the family. This is the reason why he deliberately proposed an excessively low price.
Taking the lead from Fo Degen, leather craftsmen all around Yin'ermen Lake heard the news and took action.
As a result, a large number of leather goods were sold at too low prices.
The fact that Arik led his brothers and peddled the leather goods loading cart in Novgorod had already attracted onlookers, but when he almost got involved with Vodegen, the crowd attracted even larger crowds.
Even old Otto learned about this, and he couldn't say anything because he had retired to live in retirement.
In any case, it was a pleasure for Fordegen to give him the money, and after receiving the money, Arik drank in a wine shop in the city.
But the atmosphere quickly became lively again. Even if the price was very low, due to the large amount of hunting, mink skins were still sold at a good price. People who had money drank together, and Arik, who was caught in a happy atmosphere, also
The guys accompanying me laughed.
Ale blended with honey, or kvass, or even some specialty wines...
The wine shop in Novgorod is also run by the royal family, and the business model is similar to that of a state-owned garment factory. Even if the noble Arik comes, he still has to pay.
Essentially anyone in the city can build a liquor store, as long as they have the financial resources to keep up and pay the taxes.
The reality is that no one has more capital to manage this matter than the royal family. Alcoholic beverages are still precious, and the royal family’s brewing and distilling workshops are unable to achieve huge production capacity. Over the years, they have also tried to expand their production capacity to meet the needs of wealthy people who can drink fine wine at any time.
.In this way, the wine shop launches a special blended liquor, which is actually a base liquor distilled to 96° and blended with water, and then poured with honey, chrysanthemum water or pine needle water to become a low-alcohol blended liquor with a unique taste. The cost is not high and can still be sold.
Good price.
They were chatting in the tavern, thinking about how they could catch more small beasts when they went to the East next year, and criticized Fo Degen for being a greedy businessman.
Naturally, some people are also thinking: "The king just said that there will be no war this year, but I heard that the Ostara people are expanding in the south and fighting with foreign races. It seems that the king will send troops for an expedition next year."
"Yes! There is also a Smolensk problem." Someone immediately intervened: "I also heard that Vadim who ran away back then is not dead. He must be killed."
"Maybe the king will ask the Ostara people to go south to investigate. Since there are rumors that a fight has begun, maybe next year will be our expedition."
"Not necessarily. What if we still go to Frank? The guys over there are richer." Another person said.
There were divergent opinions for a time.
Everyone was concerned about the chance of war. Arik was so sensitive that he became so drunk that he overturned the wooden table in a rage. He beat his chest violently and shouted to calm down all the drinking guys.
"Brothers! There will definitely be a war next year! We were deceived by that guy Fo Degen! Let him go to hell! Let's sharpen our swords this winter. There will be a new war next year. We kill the enemy and make a fortune. That's how we get the real deal.
The shortcut to gold and silver!”
War fever stimulated this group of ruthless people. They knocked on the oak cups to make a lot of noise and howled violently, as if they were about to jump on the long ship and start an expedition.