Chapter 475: Liuli's Design Draws Salary to the Melalen People
Gold and silver could not be used as food. The returning Russian army was still waiting for their leader to distribute the treasure. Their hunger forced them to immediately rush to the sea and row their fishing boats to start fishing.
During the war, we couldn’t expect the women at the rear to row boats into the sea and catch a lot of fish. The people at the rear did catch some fish. Even if they fished hard, they didn’t catch much.
Not only because they are women who are naturally weaker in physical fitness, but also because there are too few labor forces in the rear.
When the army returned, it was already mid-September, and the migrating salmon began to rush to the rivers where they were born.
Ross's men are already gearing up. They have obtained extremely critical intelligence from Covin's allies, and are waiting to rush north after getting their own war dividends.
No one expects the merchants from the Lake Mälaren region to provide materials. They are a group of migratory bird-like residents. They come in winter not to sell agricultural products, but to process and purchase the leather obtained by the Russians for profit.
A group of businessmen have arrived and brought good news of a bumper harvest in the farmland on the shores of Lake Mälaren.
Once upon a time, all kinds of fishes fed the people of Ross, but now the scarce wheat is no longer expensive. In other words, it is because the people have more money.
The men of Ross are warriors, hunters and fishermen. Of course, they also naturally become pirates on the sea.
Pure plundering wars cannot sustain a large tribe stably, and the risk of relying on trade for the future of life is huge. They must engage in production operations, which means desperately fishing and even hunting giant beasts in winter.
The men are going to the north, to the far north Ross town of Elon-Olawa Castle, to catch the migrating salmon mercilessly. Some of the men have also made plans to stay here throughout the winter.
Take advantage of the opportunity to continue heading north in winter and hunt rare small animals to obtain precious leather.
Of course, there will be a "northern hunt" this winter, but Rurik suspects that those caravan explorers from Narvik Port will still come back and even spend the winter in Ironburg.
The Northern Hunt is still in the future, and Rurik urgently needs to solve the current material distribution problem, and then organizes a huge fleet to head for Lake Mälaren.
Take your principal and interest, which is one of eight hundred thousand pounds of wheat.
Spending huge sums of money to purchase various supplies is the second.
Winning over local men and immigrating with their families is the third step.
Because problems that can be solved with money are not problems at all. Rurik hatched a plan to drain the salary of the Malaren people, which is to use profits as bait to move the Malaren people to New Roseburg. By then, their group of immigrants will
No longer a Mellarenian.
A few days before the army returned, almost all men, women, and children from the entire tribe gathered on the beach of the Rus.
A grand gathering to distribute the spoils was held!
Here Otto and all his old cronies were dressed in gorgeous clothes, took a hot bath, washed their hair with soap, and took a sauna in the steam room.
The Russian flag was flying, and many people were still wearing the blue and white Russian robes.
Everyone was very neat. They fastened their belts and hung their steel swords on their waists. They talked and laughed with each other and waited for the Duke's reward.
Anyone who goes on an expedition, regardless of whether they die in battle or not, will receive the most basic reward, which is one hundred silver coins.
In addition, each of the brave flag troops who kill the enemy will receive fifty silver coins.
For those who died in battle, their legal wives would enjoy all the above, plus a pension of up to 200 silver coins.
How many enemies did he kill in the war against Gotland? Rurik calculated it as 10,000 enemies, so he took out 10,000 silver coins and distributed them evenly among the brothers as "enemy bonuses."
There are also some people who have worked hard and made great achievements, such as soldiers wearing heavy armor. No matter they are dead or alive, they will all enjoy the "Desperate Award" of fifty silver coins.
Those warriors who started the expedition in June will each receive an additional bonus of one hundred silver coins.
There are also some of the craziest warriors, those who followed Arik to explore and kill from the east coast of the island to the west coast. Only a small number of these fifty people returned to their hometown alive, but their almost crazy bravery, and the ability to detect
The important information about the enemy is worthy of a very high reward. The person or the family of the deceased will receive an additional reward of two hundred silver coins.
In this way, it is completely acceptable for a strong warrior who has worked hard and achieved great success to receive more than 300 silver coins, that is, three pounds of silver today.
However, those who can only enjoy the spoils of war are the two warrior flags, the Malaren flag, and even some adult men in the shooter flag. Although many people participated in the war, they either could not enjoy the war dividends, or enjoyed them partially.
Rurik wants to sort out this complicated and complicated thing. What is this called? This is called clear reward and punishment!
In fact, compared to the gold and silver treasures plundered, what Rurik took out was only a small part.
How much treasure equivalent to silver coins did the Russians put in the "principal treasury"? The most rough estimate is more than 10,000 pounds of silver coins, and this is just the plunder of gold and silver.
But no one complained that the Duke gave too little. Compared with the previous spoils, each small Ross family received unprecedented wealth. Even families whose husbands died and their lives were suddenly difficult, the wives took the pensions given by the Duke.
, as well as the war dividends due to her husband who died in the battle, life for herself and her children is not difficult. Because the Duke guarantees his honor and power, as long as there is food in the warehouse, every native resident of the Ross tribe, regardless of gender, old or young, can
One silver coin was exchanged for ten pounds of wheat, and ten pounds of wheat was enough for a woman to survive for a month.
Wait a minute! Duke of Rus, the great Rurik is indeed a saint! Her husband died in the war, and the future living expenses of the children have been contracted by the Duke. The children will be trained and receive a life-saving meal every day.
They fight for the Ross tribe and are by no means ordinary mercenaries who only care about money.
They got the huge sum of money they deserved while laughing loudly. The woman who received the money on behalf of her husband and son who died in the battle cried with joy while holding a heavy linen bag. She even knelt down on one knee to Otto and Rurik.
Her husband performed the warrior salute.
The soldiers received dividends, and the families of the fallen soldiers had no worries.
The sailors who participated in the war, the elite mercenaries, the soldiers of the Mellaren Banner, and the allies of the Corvin deer herders all received rewards to varying degrees.
At least they all received the huge reward of one hundred silver coins. As for the Merlaren flag soldiers, they even received their own commission of only twenty silver coins, which is nothing compared to the bonus.
The happiness of the Mellaren mercenaries does not stop there, because they have become Russians.
The dividend meeting finally reached its peak of enthusiasm.
A batch of extremely special treasures are waiting to be distributed. As treasures, they have been waiting for a long time!
Yes, a select group of twelve hundred captured Gotlandic women, waiting to be assigned their new men.
Those women who were captured early and tattooed have been taken away by their new husbands who returned. Rurik sent people to screen out the women who were not old enough and put them into the "Valkyrie Legion", and the rest were removed from the older ones.
The woman's final possessions will be distributed regardless of whether she has given birth or whether the children are with her.
Of course, this distribution is free of charge, or in other words, they are equivalent to a currency.
Rurik was not willing to set up a slave market on the beach in accordance with Viking tradition. He didn't really like this idea, although it was reasonable based on this era.
Rurik hoped for a bit of humanity, denying that these captives were slaves in name only. In name only.
The captives were divided into different grades based on their age, orientation, and whether they had children, and they were all sorted by the Russians within a day.
So the last "ninth class" were separated by the newly joined Melalen people. They were grateful in their hearts because it was difficult for them to get wives in their hometown. In the past few months, they had lived and died for the Russians, and they had money.
He also has a wife, and everyone has a bright future, the wise and powerful family of the Duke of Tsicuaros.
They took away their new woman, and the night was filled with joy...
The Ross tribe seems to have completely digested all the seizures, and the population has increased as a result. But have these women really integrated into the new life?
Rurik was a little worried, but fortunately winter was coming, and they would adapt to their new life well during the long winter.
The most critical event seemed to be over. A large number of fishing boats rushed north. With Covin as their guide, they carried a variety of fishing gear to plunder salmon and bass.
For example, the Ellon River (the Kemi River), where the Elon-Olawa Fort is located, has a large lake in its upper reaches. Ross explorers have determined that there are quite abundant freshwater fish resources here. The lake is not like the sea;
It is calm. And before the exploration of the Ross explorers, this lake was as pure as a girl. It has not been developed in any way. The resources in the lake are like a gift from the gods to the Ross people.
Nearly a hundred boats left first, and Rurik was also actively preparing to go to Lake Mälaren.
It is already late September.
A bad rain came and the whole world became extremely cold.
No one likes rain. If something must fall from the sky, it would be better to have snow. Has the autumn rain season begun? The drizzle continued until the 28th of September. The only thing that made the Russians happy was that there was no strong wind.
, the situation is not too bad.
It was hazy and wet, and Rurik was in an inexplicably bad mood.
It happened to be during this bad rain period that the Sorgon fleet led by Arik returned.
Arik successfully completed the acceptance of wheat, and he even used force to extort more wheat from Novgorod Pine Needle Manor. Because the men of White Tree Manor returned home with a large amount of iron tools, and every day
Everyone also carried a captured round shield. After living with the Rus for several months and being trained as Varyag warriors, the men of White Tree Manor were completely transformed. When hundreds of them got off the longship and gathered together
, the leader of the manor, Rigus, could not recognize them for a while. Until the group of people laughed and shouted in Slavic.
With the support of hundreds of warriors out of thin air, Arik's search went particularly smoothly.
He plundered nearly three hundred thousand pounds of wheat in Novgorod, and obtained a batch of agricultural taxes belonging to the Duke of Rus in Novgorod. Compared with the former, the so-called agricultural taxes (tributes repaid to Rurik according to the contract)
The number is much less. In terms of population, the population of the Slavs living around Lake Ilmen is larger than that of the Melalen tribe. And in terms of their ability to forage wheat, the Melalen people are clearly better.
One chip.
It rained during the transportation, and the Russians, who were shivering from the cold, carried the partially soaked wheat to the shore and stuffed it into the Gould family's well-waterproof warehouse.
Arik returned home with his Asraqi, and he excitedly introduced his new woman to his wife Peravina, and a family dispute began...
After fighting and fighting, the two women still have to get along.
Arik, he finally tasted the trouble of marrying two women. Fortunately, the two women finally made a rule, that is, Peravina will be the main wife, and the eldest son Askard will inherit everything of Arik. As for Asra
Qi and the children she may have in the future will only inherit Arik's bloodline, not even a single copper coin.
So on the twenty-eighth day after the rain stopped, the elites of the Rus tribe gathered in the Rus people's meeting hall.
This meeting house has existed for a long time. It was originally a wooden shed and was rebuilt during last year's major construction projects. I have only seen the Gotland people's large meeting house. Is the Russian one too small?
It is really small, but the excellent design of its fireplace keeps everyone immersed in the warmth of their hometown when discussing matters. The brothers can talk about important matters without any scruples, and then serve them with meat and strong wine.
It's a pity that now there is only dried meat and no strong liquor at all.
Otto presided over the tribal meeting as usual, which was the so-called Viking Nordic meeting. The elites attending the meeting naturally had the right to express their opinions, but Rurik in the Principality of Rus had essentially controlled military power, financial power, administrative power, theological power, and even
Rurik was the one who made the decision and became the well-deserved center of attention.
Having experienced an unprecedented victory, the Russians are prouder than ever.
Otto just opened the meeting, but in the end it became Rurik's speech.
Everyone was chatting and laughing about things during the war and the women who joined the tribe. The conversation turned to Arik, who had done a great job in transporting tributes.
Harold Zuosen said happily: "You kid, you are like a bear of war on the battlefield. You brought the food back and you really solved our big trouble. Now my family no longer has to worry about food."
Everyone was praising Arik for his promptness. After all, it was 300,000 pounds of wheat! This was a huge food reserve that was extremely rare in the past.
Arik, who was praised, was extremely arrogant, but Harold Johnson joked again: "I heard that the two women in your family once fought with each other? This is not good, you must control your women."
Everyone laughed out loud and started to give advice to Arik, and then some people took Rurik as an example: "My Rurik, he already has more than ten women, he is really a role model for us."
"It will take a lot of effort to prevent them from quarreling in the future." Aric pouted and complained.
Rurik responded with a wry smile, he didn't necessarily have to have so many women, it was just...
He knew that he could no longer escape this fate, and he was afraid that there would be more women in the future.
Everyone is talking about their women. They are all wild men. Their nature is to want to have more wives and more children. They also claim to be good people, for example, they give formal birth certificates to captured female slaves.
His family status and the children he gave birth to are all Russians. Such high moral character is the highest in the entire Swedish kingdom.
The meeting room was filled with a cheerful atmosphere.
Taking advantage of this joy, Rurik clapped his hands to stop everyone from talking.
"Three hundred thousand pounds of wheat have been crushed from Novgorod, which is more than we expected. But we have to get more from the Melalens. Now you all obey my orders! Especially you, Gu
Morde!"
Rurik began to lay out his plan.
First: Organize a huge transport fleet, headed by the flagship Aurora, and rush to Gould Island in Mälaren. Organize an army of 500 strong men to go to Mälaren to get the belongings belonging to Mälaren.
The Duke's 800,000 pounds of wheat. If King Karl refused, the Ross army directly attacked Karl's mansion and announced that they would not engage in fierce fighting with other families of the Melalen tribe.
Second: Prepare a large amount of money to purchase various supplies in Mälaren and surrounding tribes, mainly agricultural products. In particular, try to negotiate with the local large landowning families and induce them to give out more at a higher purchase price.
wheat.
Third: Use money to redeem the debt slaves of the big landowners, and use money to induce the farmers, fishermen, and craftsmen of the Melalen tribe to immigrate.
Gould and his eldest son Snoleva, who are sitting here, are completely convinced of Rurik's first plan and the first half of the second plan based on business intuition. Almost all the money plundered from the enemy belongs to Rurik.
Rick, how he wants to use it is of course up to his personal preference.
But Gould couldn't understand what happened next.
"Lord Rurik, I have something unclear."
"What's up?"
"We are businessmen, and businessmen should try to get the maximum benefit with the minimum amount of money. Why do you want to increase the purchase price of grain? Wouldn't this enrich the big landowners and farmers?"
"Ah! Are you talking about this?" Rurik shrugged and asked, "Do you really not understand?"
"Me? I don't understand..."
None of the people present really understood, or in other words, they were still unable to realize Rurik's deepest intention.
"The people present are all the elites of Rus. There will be no traitors among us. I might as well tell you. Me!" Rurik patted his chest: "The purpose is to make the Melalen people decline, so we must first let their rich people become
To get richer, at least give them a chance to get rich suddenly."
These words are still puzzling to everyone.
Seeing that people were curious, Rurik did not bother to speak obscurely, so he spoke in plain language: "I plan to discuss only with the big family of Melalen and agree with them on a high internal price for grain purchase. They will do it in order to get from
When I get money in my hand, I will try my best to sell the grain in my hand, and this is just the beginning. They will try their best to get grain from ordinary farmers and sell it to us. In this way, although the Melalen tribe has a bumper harvest, for those who
Ordinary farmers are having a harder time than last year. The big landowners have made a fortune and received a lot of silver coins, while the farmers are destitute. Will farmers who feel that they cannot survive will find a way to leave?"
Otto pinched his beard and looked stern, because he really didn't understand.
Gould and Snoleva suddenly understood, and they slapped their thighs vigorously. The fat on the faces of the father and son, who were as fat as seals, also swayed. Their excited smiles almost squeezed their eyes until they disappeared into the fat.
.
"That's why you came up with the third plan?" Gould asked excitedly.
Rurik nodded with satisfaction: "It seems you have understood."
"But, would those big landowners really do this?!"
"Yes, because their desire for wealth has no end. Tell me, would you refuse a mountain of gold and silver? In order to plunder a legendary mountain of silver, the Kingdom of Sweden organized a large army! This year, the self-proclaimed king
Olegin launched the final decisive battle for a silver mountain and finally lost his life."
At this point, Rurik sighed: "Olegin at least pays attention to his credit, Karl... I have to be careful about his breach of contract. I plan to get at least another million pounds of wheat and bring back a group of immigrants. As for
I don't care at all about the future of the Melalen tribe. I only care about whether our Principality of Rus can quickly become stronger with the help of the huge wealth looted. High Priest Vilia told me that a few decades ago we could only survive. We were robbed by Melalen.
People drove them away! Are they allies? No. Listen!"
Rurik suddenly had an impulse, and he stood up: "Vilia will leave, and she will look at us every winter as the Valkyrie Speros, because this is Odin's order. Odin is the one who protects us.
Ours, only we are real warriors, the Melalen people are not. God is encouraging me to take revenge on behalf of the people of a hundred years ago. I will use this brand new war, a bloodless war to disintegrate Melalen.
The power of the Swedish people. What kind of second voice is just me in Visby to stabilize the rhetoric of the leaders. In the end, I am the king of Sweden. Oh, by that time, there will be no Kingdom of Sweden, only the Kingdom of Russia."
"Ah, then I will praise you now, King Ross!" Gould immediately praised the situation, causing everyone to stupidly clap along with the atmosphere.
The departure day was chosen on the first day of October in the Julian calendar, and it was planned to arrive at Gould Island before the fourth day.
The residents near Lake Mälaren are impatiently waiting for the big Russian seller.