Rurik didn't hate wine at all. He actually knew that the ale brewed by his tribe was a very low-grade ale. It had a mellow taste and was quite bitter. If hops were added, the ale would be upgraded to beer. At the extreme end of the drink
In times of scarcity, ale has become a very important drink compared to tasteless pure water.
He was still less than eight years old, and he still enjoyed the so-called mead this winter.
There are two types of mead in Russia. One is honey diluted and then fermented. Its taste is like syrup.
The other is a concoction, which is made by blending bitter ale with honey. Ale wine has a slightly higher alcohol content than fermented mead, but not everyone likes the bitterness. Adding honey makes a big difference.
Including the story about Novgorod women’s collective wedding, the wine that the newlyweds quoted as a drink was actually ale mixed with honey.
There is even a saying here that life is always bitter and sweet coexisting.
Of course, people in the southern European world can still get a lot of delicious wine, and even some wealthy people and nobles who are addicted to wine have not developed alcoholic liver disease, but have developed diabetes in advance!
Rurik took his father's hand and went to Gould's seaside cabin. He also brought his servant Rumia with him, firstly to show that he was dignified, and secondly to let her, who would have to bear important responsibilities in the future, see the world.
.
The day was still short, and when the soft light of the setting sun shone on the ice on the entire beach, Rurik saw the black shadows shaking on the sea. Needless to say, those guys were still catching seals.
Human damage to nature is still limited. The Russians have captured all the wild reindeer in the area, and seals are still easy to capture.
The population of Arctic seals is very large. In the Baltic Sea alone, the seal population in this area is still close to 500,000. After all, they are a kind of mammal, and their special fur blocks the erosion of salt water. For them, fresh water and sea water are the same.
, so there are still traces of Baltic seals in Lake Ladoga and even some rivers further inland.
Rurik knew that after purification, seal oil is a slightly yellowish transparent oil, and after solidification, it is almost pure white. Soaps at this stage are all made from it, and seal oil does not have a serious odor.
It's not because the plant ash solution is brown, the soap I made should be translucent white!
Just now in the soap warehouse, Rurik learned that Gould's excitement about soap came to a certain extent from the color of soap. In this time and space, people are extremely scarce in all consumer goods, and anything with bright colors can be given to people.
Moved, businessmen naturally saw business opportunities with their keen eyesight for the first time.
After a while, Rurik stood in front of Gould's so-called mansion.
It is said to be a mansion, but its appearance is actually not outstanding. Unlike other houses, Gould has ordered his followers to clear away all the snow on the roof, revealing its row upon row of wooden planks. The herringbone shape formed by this plank alone is indeed
It shows different architectural features from the Ross tribe.
"Let's go, great leader. I had the house renovated last year. I hope you won't mind how messy it is."
Messy? Gould was actually very humble when he spoke. Ryuri took Rumia's slender arm and followed his father Otto into the house.
This is a huge warm long house. It still has no floor, but the sand and gravel on the ground have obviously been processed, that is, they have been tamped with heavy objects to make it quite smooth.
What Gould calls messiness does not exist at all. It is obviously decorated beautifully and the overall layout appears to be very neat.
In fact, it is still an integrated longhouse, with wooden boards dividing the interior into a living room, a servants' living room, and the master's bedroom.
There are some shields hanging on the wooden walls, as well as axes inlaid with gold patterns that are both decorative and practical. There are also some raised wooden supports holding bronze oil lamps.
Compared with other houses, Gould's long house has better waterproof performance because its roof is made of multi-layer wooden boards. Although there are no ceramic rainproof tiles here, Gould uses staggeredly arranged solid
The oak board still achieves the effect of tiles.
Standing in the middle of the hall of the house, Rurik looked up and could only see the largest wooden beam in the longhouse.
The wooden beam is the structural key of the entire longhouse. It can be imagined that if this wooden beam is used as the keel of the ship, it will not be a problem to build a thirty-meter-long transport ship.
Three iron cables hung down a large bronze chandelier. The chandelier held up to thirty-two oil lamps, which were arranged in a radial pattern with mathematical beauty. Thanks to this large matrix of oil lamps, the entire house did not need a bonfire, and it also looked quite impressive.
To be bright.
All the oil lamps on the walls were lit, and with the addition of the largest chandelier, the whole house was very warm.
After a moment, Gould clapped his hands and called his entourage to the living room.
There were four warriors, two young maids, and a man wearing a linen robe.
Seeing the samurai, Otto almost instinctively grasped the hilt of his sword.
Seeing this, Gould waved quickly, and the fat on his face trembled: "My leader, don't be nervous. You see, these are my people, and some of them live in another longhouse."
Otto relaxed a little and joked: "Gould, it seems that your life is very nourishing. You still need young women to serve you, but does this make some of your other women disgusted?"
"You mean my maids? Hehe, they are just humble slaves. Have you noticed their reddish hair? These are two Britons. My leader, maybe you don't know clearly, those Danes have recently
In recent years, we have always captured some slaves from the island called Britain in the west, and even we can spend some money to buy some."
"This...I have heard something, but we don't need those servants."
"But you have also made changes." Gould glanced at Rumia next to Rurik and pointed out: "You also chose a maid for your son. You are indeed different. I still think you are
You plan to make this humble deer herder your son's wife. I have found out the truth. You are really a little strange. The treatment you give to your servants is too high!"
"Don't mention this matter any more." Otto waved his hand, "You ask for the blanket, I want to have a rest. And bring your good wine and meat, I want to see what you say.
What is wine?”
"Okay!" Gould slapped his thigh and asked the skinny man to bring the food. It turned out that this man was just a chef.
He called to the chef to bring over the food that had been prepared, along with leather blankets and low wooden tables.
Many tribal people have no table to eat at all, just because there is no urgent need. Otto also sits cross-legged when eating on weekdays, picking up the meat in the pottery pot to nibble, or holding a set of bowls and drinking with a spoon.
Soup.
Gould's life was so particular that Otto actually felt a little uncomfortable when facing the cold barbecue on the table.
The barbecues were all cold, and what was served was actually beef, with a thin layer of butter attached to it. Rurik received exactly the same care as his father, but poor Rumia was saved by a servant.
Because of his identity, he could only sit aside and watch obediently.
Dinner was cold beef and some rye bread. There was also some dried cranberries as a side dish, and the sweet taste was precious.
As wealthy as Gould, he did not feel that this reception was inappropriate for the great chief of the Rus people, because he also ate these foods on weekdays.
The most important thing about this dinner is the wine!
"Great leader, please wait a moment and I will get you my treasure."
Gould stood up and walked into his bedroom. After a while, he came out carrying three transparent bottles with a big belly.
He was actually holding a transparent bottle!
Rurik was bored, holding a meat-cutting knife, trying to cut the cold roast beef into pieces. He felt that he could not destroy such a large lump of Rumia in any way, and gave him endless amounts of Rumia, two
A kid can always kill it.
He saw the three glass bottles that Gould was only holding. Their almost transparent appearance was really shocking.
It is as if these bottles did not come from the ninth century AD at all, as if some time traveler deliberately left them in the cracks of history. In the end, the extremely cheap bottles, which cost only a dime, became Gould's treasures.
But that's not really a bottle from a thousand years later.
Gould proudly placed the three pancakes on his low table. The liquids of different colors in them were still shaking, and Rurik even saw the bubbles in them.
The heights of the pancakes vary, as do the details of their shapes, and in some places they have a crooked texture.
After looking closely, Rurik relaxed his mood and confirmed that she was not from the future, but rather from this era and was created by some magical craftsmen.
Rurik had already made an estimate in his mind about the origin of the bottles. Perhaps they came from Eastern Rome or Persia. As for glass, it was only because it was produced in Persia that the name "glass" was given to the East.
Gould proudly faced the astonished leader Otto and boasted: "Great leader, perhaps compared to wine, these three bottles of mine are the greatest treasures."
"Yes...I...I know. This is a crystal bottle. You actually have such a treasure."
When Rurik heard his father's words, the hairs all over his body stood up for a moment. The words "crystal" and "bottle" were spoken twice in Norse and became a combined word. His father knew the concept of "crystal bottle" and also knew how precious it was.
Gould shook his head: "No. It is not a crystal bottle, and it is not as precious as a crystal bottle. It may come from Rome, or it may come from further east. In short, I spent a lot of time to get these three bottles.
That’s a lot of money. Let me think about it, I paid twenty gold coins for each bottle.”
"So expensive? Only people like you can sell a bottle for the price of a ship." Otto praised with envy.
"Now you can do it too!" Gould boasted, "Your son has earned a huge fortune for you. I know this very well. You see, those soaps have now made the lovely Rurik very rich.
.”
"My son is too young."
"No! I can see that he must be a business genius. A great leader and future leader. I am eager to further cooperate with you."
Taking advantage of this dinner party, Gould frantically released his kindness. Rurik could hear this person's flattery. Youdao means you can't afford early benefits without benefit. This is why a senior businessman can say a series of flattery words.
It must be that businessmen feel that in-depth cooperation means huge business opportunities.
Since the other party showed strong goodwill, Rurik, who kept silent, directly expressed his decision.
"Gould, I like these bottles of yours very much. You don't have new ones yet? I have a lot of money now. If possible, I hope to buy them from you. I will give you a price that is satisfactory to you."
"Really?" Gould's mind was spinning wildly when he sensed the business opportunity. He immediately responded respectfully, "I'm sorry, my little master, these are the three here. I can't bear to part with them. But I will try it in the south.
Luck, if I can buy it at the market, I will offer it to me when I return in the autumn."
"Well, you'd better find out whether they come from Rome or the more eastern world." Rurik was very interested in this, and for a moment he began to think about the possibility of making it himself.
Many ethnic groups in the world know how to carve a piece of natural crystal into a cup. In the Spring and Autumn Period of China, kings such as the Chu State already had their own World Cup. The Tang Dynasty called such cups "luminous cups", and grape wine
The poem about the glow-in-the-dark cup is already circulating.
Even more ancient, such as the pharaohs of ancient Egypt. In the tombs of the temples, there were not only crystal cups, but also weapons made of meteorite.
Rurik felt that these glass bottles came from Persia, and were trafficked by food merchants to Eastern Rome, and then resold to Gould. The merchants had to make money every time they resold them. The so-called twenty silver coins were
One-fifth of a Roman pound of gold! What a huge sum!
He knew very well that the main component of glass is silica, so the most critical raw material for making glass is quartz sand. For example, if you crush a large piece of beautiful crystal crystal column, melt it and re-plasticize it, can you create something that can
Is there any glass that I can use?
Rurik thought of the high-temperature gelatinous slag flowing out of the blacksmith's furnace. When the slag cools naturally, it has a glass-like texture.
Perhaps when the Persians were smelting iron or making pottery, they discovered that ores and pottery clay with a high content of quartz sand would become special after heating. Then they creatively fired quartz sand directly, and some coincidences created an almost transparent cooling
things.
By adding some lead soil, also known as lead dioxide, a by-product of smelting silver, and calcium oxide, which is widely available in mountainous areas, you can create practical glass. But it is not pure, and impurities that are difficult to remove cannot guarantee absolute accuracy.
Transparent, it is more appropriately called colored glaze.
After sorting out the knowledge in his mind, Rurik felt that there seemed to be no problem in the craftsmanship of using sand from the coast and lead from the blacksmith shop to make glass containers in the remote Fort Ross.
Look at these three glass bottles. They are obviously blown bottles. It can be seen that their makers have very mature "bottle blowing" technology.
In fact, cheap glass bottles were produced efficiently in the era of great industrial development in the 20th century. Even in the 9th century, all bottles were blown by craftsmen. Even so, in the 2nd century, there was still a huge market for professional craftsmen who blew bottles.
The reason for the magical physical properties of glass still does not have a very reasonable scientific explanation, and it still puzzles people in the 2nd century. This substance, which is mainly composed of calcium silica and lead, has strong plasticity after heating. Craftsmen since ancient times have
It can be made into a variety of shapes.
In addition to becoming daily necessities, they can even be transformed into weapons, such as using glass as arrows or other things.
Let’s look at the three bottles of wine Gould laid out. If one bottle contains pure “water of life”, that is, spirits purified to 97%, it is no longer considered wine. In this way, the glass bottle can be used as a kind of burning wine.
Fragile containers for weapons.
Wine? Pure wine?
Rurik had immediately figured out how to make glass in his mind, and even came up with a great money-making plan to talk about it with the blacksmith Klavasen and put it into practice.
His attention suddenly shifted to the three bottles of wine on Gould's desk.
Of these three glass bottles, the left bottle is dark red and should be wine. The middle bottle is yellower in color, either honey fermented wine or ale. And the right bottle cannot be filled with white water!
Gould kept saying that they were all wine. Could it be that the bottle on the far right contains...