It seemed that the courage that Brudne finally mustered up was finally trampled down by his own Russian army.
Otto put away his sword and said completely in a ruler's tone: "You are very smart. Now I still have a request, and you must complete it unconditionally."
"A woman? I want to organize some girls to marry into your tribe?" Brudne asked knowingly, but at the same time, her whole body started to get hairy.
"Smart answer. Yes!" Otto pointed to his own men casually, "This is my great army. You should be glad that your girls can marry these strong warriors as wives instead of marrying poor peasant women."
A life of poverty.”
"So...how many people do you need?" Brudne asked weakly.
"Fifty, at least fifty." Otto insisted, "If you can't take it out, I will still regard it as your disloyalty."
"I will send people to do it immediately. Your people need to wait, because most of the residents have...already gone to the woods to summon the hidden girls and their families back. I need time."
"This is your problem. I'll give you one day." Otto did not give the other party any face, "If our soldiers cannot have wives in your manor, we will take revenge."
"but……"
Suddenly, Otto thought of something: "It seems that you are still hesitant? Are you worried that you still can't bring back the girl I need? You have three daughters, and they are not married yet. Now hand them over and marry them."
my people."
"Ah?" Brudne felt that she heard wrongly, and quickly asked: "Could it be my daughters?"
Otto smiled deliberately and sinisterly: "Your three daughters must marry my people, right now. I want them to complete the wedding today. You have no choice."
"Ah!" Brudne suddenly sat on the ground and couldn't calm down for a long time.
At this time, Vadim, who was ordered to kneel, stood up quickly and hurried to his father's side.
Vadim threw himself on his father. He raised his head and looked at Otto angrily, his deep eyes full of grief and anger at the barbaric behavior of the Russians.
Vadim, he grew up in humiliation, with eyes longing for revenge...
Otto's sword was still pointed at Brudne, who was lying on his back: "Hand over your daughter, the one who married me, or I will start attacking now."
It seems that there is no room for bargaining now.
Brudne really couldn't figure out what was going on with the Russians this year. How could the wealth they wanted in the past be as outrageous as this year?
For the sake of the manor, he could only do as he was told.
"Okay...I will do it immediately." Brudne gasped and stood up, ordering his men who were about to pee with fear: "You...you go and call all my daughters out, go quickly."
After receiving the order, the servant dropped the short spear in his hand and hurried back to the wooden door.
After a while, Brudne's family walked out of the room one after another, including his old wife, three young daughters, and the cowardly eldest son.
Facing the massive Russian army, they hugged each other subconsciously, praying in their hearts that someone could save the crisis.
In terms of preference alone, Otto did not think Brudne's three daughters were very beautiful. Looking at their father's behavior, Otto really had no interest in them.
After all, they are young women, and youth is a kind of beauty.
Although their looks did not make Otto happy and made other young Russian men eager to take possession of them, there was of course no problem.
The three sisters quickly understood everything. What was completely different from Lilia in White Tree Manor was that when the three of them learned about their future fate, they burst into tears for a moment.
They hugged each other tightly, and Brudne said helplessly: "You go, for the safety of our manor."
"No! Dad, they are hateful Russians. We would rather commit suicide than..." The eldest daughter cried bitterly, her trembling eyes full of despair.
"Go quickly, otherwise we will all die!" The sad Brudny raised his head.
The three sisters remained indifferent, their heads leaning against each other, their clothes wet with tears.
Facing a painful scene, Otto remained indifferent and even became more and more impatient.
He stuck his sword on the ground, stretched out his right hand slightly, and said to his subordinates: "Which of you would like to have these three women as wives? Go and get them yourself now."
Cherish the beauty? No.
When young Russians see young girls crying, they will indeed develop a desire for protection. However, their crying highlights their own beauty and attracts a strong possessive desire among these young people of their own age.
Several young Russians hung their axes back on their belts, rolled up their sleeves and walked over aggressively.
They forcibly separated the three sisters and violently broke off the hands they held tightly to each other. But they were too weak. Who could compete with a strong man with arms as thick as legs and who could continue paddling during the day?
Three young Russians got their own beauties. From now on, they have got their own wives. They are completely different from the girls crying and frightened. The only thing on the faces of the Russians is a happy smile.
Faced with the fact that his three sisters were snatched away by these savages, Vadim sat on the ground dumbfounded. Looking at the stunned eldest brother Kapok in reality, he turned out to be a coward. Vadim longed for revenge and stabbed him with a sword.
Break the neck of the Ross leader, and then chop off the heads of all the Ross people with unparalleled divine power.
Fantasy is just fantasy after all.
Recognize the reality!
He looked at the group of Russians with sad and angry eyes, grinning to show his anger.
What kind of trouble can a child make? This brat is not a miracle like his own son Rurik. Vadim's eyes clearly said "I will definitely take revenge." Otto didn't take it seriously. A strong man went to beat him.
A child would be ridiculed by his own people. Otto was too lazy to do so, and his men were too lazy to break away from the team and kick the kid a few more times.
Overall, Otto is quite satisfied with the current situation.
"Brudne, you have finally become smarter now." Otto said arrogantly.
"Yes. You took away my daughters and they became your slaves. You should be satisfied with this."
"Slaves? No." Otto smiled, "They are the wives of my subordinates. If they are just slaves, we will destroy your manor and kill all your resisters. The remaining children and women will become slaves."
.We won’t do this, and I won’t explain anything to you anymore. Do you remember the order I just gave you?”
"It's... double the tribute, and there are fifty women."
Otto nodded: "I'll give you some more time. Before the sun sets tomorrow, I want you to pile all the tributes on the river beach, as well as those women. Now you go and gather those who fled and ask them to come back and put out the fire.
Collect tributes”
"Yes." Brudne stood obediently, with his head raised and not daring to wipe the dirt on his body.
"This is your final order, we are leaving now. You stupid guys, you know what to do."
After that, Otto turned around and started walking swaggeringly. Many of his subordinates took their respective captures and happily followed behind him towards his longship.
Even Kawei got a sack of wheat and two large balls of linen in this extra robbery. The linen is a good thing. He took it home and asked his mother to tailor it into thick gloves, which would be good for smelting iron.
Protect your hands.
Because any blacksmithing work will cause serious wear and tear on gloves, blacksmiths need gloves that are a mixture of leather and linen.
He couldn't help but fantasize that maybe his new wife had more exquisite skills.
The long boats of the Rus were pushed into the Volkhov River one after another. What they did at Pine Needle Manor in the morning naturally caused panic in a large number of small estates along the lake.
They had already learned the news of the arrival of the Russians. Considering their past experiences, as long as they prepared the tributes as usual, the Russians would just take them and leave.
During the winter, there were legends everywhere, such as the manor living in the birch forest in the northernmost part of the Great Lakes. They provided wheat and a group of women, and in the end they were rewarded with a batch of amber from the Russians.
The woodcutter at White Tree Manor claimed that the woman was married to a Russian.
However, the most powerful Pine Needle Manor denied this statement, claiming that the Russians were exactly the same as the Varyag bandits in the past. They were just pretending to be civilized on the surface. The so-called marrying a wife was still hunting slaves.
Amidst the anxiety, a large number of small estates were wary of the arrival of the Russians.
When they saw the fire burning at Pine Needle Manor and a large number of canoes escaping on the lake, fear immediately spread among the fishermen in Lake Ilmen who were fishing on the lake.
Are you still in the mood for fishing? Bah! It’s important to run away for your life.
They rowed their boats straight to their homes, hoping that the elders of the manor could say something about the scene that was like a forest fire.
Some manors believe that not only have the Rosses come, but they have eradicated Pine Needle Manor for some reason, and they can't help but worry about their own situation.
In most manors, they have prepared two tributes.
One copy is placed in the house on the ground floor, waiting for the Russians to pick it up. The other copy is hidden in the cellar, waiting for the Russians to move it out, and then give it to the powerful Pine Needle Manor.
Some manors are very happy to see fires ignited in the hateful Pine Needle Manor. They have always been very respectful to the Russians and have never paid less tribute. Now they will not be killed by the Russians.
If Pine Needle Manor is eradicated, what does that have to do with me? It might even be a good thing. In this way, at least one less tribute will be paid.
A large number of dragon-headed longships towing transport ships appeared on the vast Lake Ilmen.
Otto immediately ordered his troops to divide into two groups, and his men began to march continuously along the shorelines on both sides of the estuary.
The largest and best-located Pine Needle Manor in the world, there are still as many as ten larger manors living on the lakeside.
In addition, there are more settlements hidden in the dense forests of this vast area.
Considering the limited time and energy, Otto has no intention of going deep into the dense forest along the small waterway to collect the tributes of the scattered people. Those people are still too small and cannot accumulate much wealth at all.
The people living along the lake are quite different. They are indeed richer.
Of course, wealth is relative. They can produce more food, but they have no ability to produce salt. Even the reward given to White Tree Manor does not include salt. Specifically, Otto and the entire Ross tribe have not yet done a good job.
I thought about making huge profits by boiling salt in seawater on a large scale to produce crude sea salt.
In fact, Otto can really sell a large amount of salt, even if it is inferior sea salt mixed with a lot of bitter magnesium chloride, he can still make huge profits from Novgorod and get the support of more people. After all, agriculture can be produced by oneself.
Wheat, farmers cannot live without salt.
Nowadays, Novgorod residents either get a small amount of salt from grain and game, or they spend a lot of money to import salt from Smolensk. The residents of Smolensk do not produce their own salt, they also go deep into the south and import salt from Smolensk.
The Eastern Romans bought salt from their hands. The end of the long salt transportation line reached as far as Novgorod. At this point, the cheap sea salt was enough for a Novgorod farmer to pay a quarter of his annual labor income in exchange for
Enough salt for the family for a year.
Otto led his team and quickly approached a manor along the lake. After contacting the head of the manor, he had an idea and immediately pointed to the land where smoke was still billowing in the distance and ordered: "This year will be different. From now on you
You have to pay double the tribute every year. I know that after we left, Pine Needle Manor came back and asked you for another payment. Now, they no longer dare. But your tribute still has to be doubled."
In response to this blackmail, the wise head of the manor did not dare to object hastily, but immediately put forward conditions.
Otto is a smart man. Since the other party wants to negotiate, okay, let's talk.
He released a compromise plan: "I'll give you another plan. Hand over your manor to a young unmarried girl who marries me. My boy will give the girl's family at least a few silver coins and even rough amber stones. You only need to do this
, there is no such thing as double tribute."
The carrot was given, followed by a club. Otto still pointed at the thick smoke: "Pine Needles Manor thinks that I am your master! I am your master. I taught them a lesson for you. And because Pine Needle Manor is determined
If you oppose my plan, their houses have been set on fire. You must choose one of the two plans. If you still object, I will have no choice but to kill."
The two choices were the lesser of two evils. The manor had no choice but to choose the latter, and quickly selected ten girls.
Otto did not hesitate. The young men under his command also walked out of the team, took away the girl he had fallen in love with and looked dazed, and then put a stack of silver coins into the hands of their parents, facing the complicated expressions of the girl's parents.
, the boy promised that after the girl gave birth, he would take the child to visit her every year.
Although it was a promise for the future, it somewhat comforted the family who suddenly lost their daughter. The silver coins in their hands at least solved the family's problem of food rations for a year.
The routine achieved initial success, and Otto's team gained a batch of tributes and ten more girls.
He moved on to the next manor and achieved success again within a short period of time.
Finally, two teams of soldiers collected the tributes from the manor along the lake, and their team not only had a large number of transport ships filled with goods, but also had eighty young girls.
This is already a very scary number! After all, Otto only wanted to marry one hundred young men under his command during this trip. The other young boys in the team basically wanted to gain knowledge as their biggest purpose in this trip, in order to understand the world.
broad.
To get married, you must at least have some silver coins or a large bag of copper coins. There are also a group of fifteen or sixteen-year-old boys who have just grown beards in the team. How can they have such financial resources?
Things have really changed.
After the fleet reunited, Otto clearly realized that he was facing such a great thing.
Young boys who can help the tribe get married one after another, and the prestige of him and his family will surely increase unprecedentedly.
This afternoon, eighty girls boarded a Russian ship.
In addition, White Tree Manor has already provided thirty people, and Pine Needle Manor must also provide fifty people. Overall, one hundred and sixty Novgorod girls will become the mothers of the next generation of Russians during this trip.
If most of the young men of the tribe had a Novgorod wife, Otto would not have cared at all.
He felt that life could still go on normally.
But I never thought that when the Rus tribe was filled with a large number of Novgorod people, would they be the same as before?
Will the new generation of Russians only consider themselves Russians?