The first snow finally stopped, and the whole world changed its appearance.
Winter has officially arrived in Eastern Europe. Residents of the Novgorod area who have been dormant for many days walked out of their houses. They had no intention of admiring the silvery light. They just wanted to come out early and remove the snow from the roofs.
The fragmented cities of the Principality of Ross were all covered with thick snow after the widespread snowfall, and the snow on the roofs was pushed down one after another. It was also a busy matter to transport them out of the settlements.
After Brauryulik gave the order, the residents of Novgorod immediately took action spontaneously. A large number of cone-shaped snowdrifts appeared within the walls, and some people were already building snowmen with great interest.
The winter here is shorter than the Nordic home of the Russians, but the limited production capacity forces the local Slavs to not run around in the snowy winter. When the snow is almost cleared, the residents stay at home and do some
A de facto hibernation.
Do they want to lie dormant like this until the lakes and rivers thaw?
A true Varangian will not waste the opportunity of winter.
In Novorosberg on the Neva River, the young and powerful men of the First Banner Corps were plundering leather in the forest and snowfields under the leadership of Arik. The hunters wore sunglasses and held crossbows in their hands. Many people did not even need to set traps.
When their alert eyes detect prey in the distance, they can use their crossbows to shoot. Their skills in weapon manipulation have become increasingly sophisticated, and the silent arrows have killed the vigilant red squirrels.
They were even hunting polar bears that came into sight. The more ferocious steel-armed crossbows made hunting bears a piece of cake.
The "Northern Hunting" operation of the Principality of Ross has begun. This time they have no expert organization. However, due to the hunting logistics bases such as Ironburg, Fiskburg, Murmansk, and Novorosberg, the hunting operation has become even crazier.
.
Especially in Murmansk, Spuyot and his men began to run wildly on sleds on the glacier in order to plunder resources in this substantial seasonal settlement as early as possible.
Every winter, any hunter who dares to brave the ice and snow and brings enough logistical supplies can definitely make a fortune in leather. Not only leather, but also if you get a lot of animal fat, you can also make a fortune.
Because the territory of the Principality of Ross is very scattered, it is only connected in name. In fact, all the settlements are far away from each other, separated by vast seas and forests. A very small population faces a huge land, and any hunter can hunt as long as he is willing to hunt.
All can make a fortune, and Rose is still opening up new areas to gain wealth under the leadership of her heroic duke.
The "hibernation" of the Slavs is a kind of helplessness. How can they find a job in the snowy world other than hunting in distant places? They are also willing to work hard.
Rurik felt that he had taught his wives and concubines enough geographical knowledge. They must have a greater understanding of the world they live in. With their horizons broadened, they would seek more knowledge.
They must learn new skills! Because they are not people who are pampered and do not eat fireworks, they are all doers.
On a clear and cold morning, the girls who had already felt it gathered together.
Rurik was dressed like a little polar bear, and so were their outfits.
The closed wooden windows were propped up, and Rurik let the cold wind blow into the house, thus cheering everyone up.
"Can you guess my purpose in asking you to gather now?" Rurik asked deliberately.
The girls stared at Svetlana, and she spoke on their behalf: "Continue to calculate the data on those wooden boards? Or, let's walk through the snow to a distant farm to survey the land."
"So, do you dare?"
Rurik spoke with a smile, and his joking attitude was equivalent to denying Lana's guess.
"Of course we have to do surveying and mapping." He continued, "Doing this on a snowy day is a kind of courting death. This is a job that requires a lot of physical labor. If you are exhausted, you will definitely get seriously ill. It is too dangerous.
."
"So what about those tree barks? What are you finally going to do? It's called..." Lana pinched her chin, "Is it called a cork board?"
She was indeed smart. Although she had been busy compiling data, she was still very thoughtful and focused on the large pile of birch bark that her elder brother Medved and his brothers had chopped and peeled off.
Rurik only mentioned a few times that he planned to make paper, because measuring the acres was more important than anything else, and he never thought that Lanna would keep looking at it.
He quickly clapped his hands and said, "That's it. Lana, you are very smart. You actually connected the bark of the tree with the cork board. Shouldn't they be unrelated to each other?"
"How come there is no contact?" Svetlana smiled and said: "I discovered that when you have a new determination, you will implement some new tasks in advance. I know that birch bark and peeled bark can
Dip in ink and write words. It is indeed soft, but it is also very brittle."
Hearing this, Rurik's eyes widened in surprise: "Oh? You actually thought of this."
"Have I...guessed it correctly?"
"Yes! You guessed it right, but not entirely. Basically you guessed it right."
After all, she is the head wife, and Svetalana is the head of the female family. She is indeed a smart woman, but this epiphany about tree bark comes from her life in this land. She is a native of White Tree Manor, and she is different.
For those ten sisters who were maids, she could live a life without labor. She could run around in the woods when she was young, and she happened to have a unique knowledge of birch bark.
But her knowledge ended here. Adults want wood, not bark. Birch does not have fir, the smell of pine is different, and the sap is slightly sweet, so Svetlana was also willing to peel off the fresh bark when she was young.
Take a lick, after all, it is difficult for people in this era to access sweet things at low cost.
Fresh bark can be spread out into a flat surface, and its inner wall is yellow-white. However, after dehydration and drying, it begins to turn yellow and becomes very brittle.
She knew exactly what her man meant by "cork board". Based on her understanding of Rurik, she estimated that it was the further processing of bark. After all, the Principality of Ross had done too many similar things, and she
It’s no longer rare and strange.
Rurik began to point out the matter: "She is right. We want to create a writing material as soft as cloth. It is made from a tree that is as soft as cloth. I call it a cork board. Its main material is bark.
In my opinion, the most useful bark among trees is birch bark. The time has finally come! I ordered people to peel off the bark and store it for a while. They should be dehydrated and dry. It is time to process them further."
The girls held their heads high, especially the ten maids. They were experts at making soap and the ones who could best understand Rurik's description.
Another example is Noren, Carlotta and other girls, they just know a little bit about it.
Then to the pregnant princess Mary, she was just listening to the book of heaven throughout the whole scene.
Break an object into small pieces and then process it into a new whole. This becomes something completely new!
"It's like smashing the ore and throwing it into the furnace, and finally pouring the hot substance into the mold to make a shovel for digging. It's like smashing the crystal river sand or the whole crystal into powder, throwing it into the furnace and being
It is burned into a sticky hot substance, and then blown into transparent bottles and crystal plates for you to eat. If you don't understand enough, think of the bread and cakes you eat! The wheat grains are ground by stones, kneaded into powder by stone mills, and mixed with
The water forms a ball, and after baking it is your delicious meal. Wheat is still wheat, but it has completely changed its form..."
Rurik made a few enumerations, and his wife and concubines, who were highly savvy, already understood.
Although Svetlana has not yet been taught the structure of life by Rurik himself, and she does not yet have a clear understanding of the fact that animals and plants are composed of tiny cells, she already understands what Rurik wants to do.
The bark will be ground into powder, and then the form will be reshaped. Although they don't know the specific principle, they have tried their best to think of the shape of the so-called cloth-like "cork board".
Rurik felt that they had reached a consensus with him in terms of theory, and they would not find it strange after the birth of paper.
He began to describe the paper-making process from beginning to end in public. Although it was his first time to do it manually, fortunately, there was no problem with the theory. The "instructions" for paper-making were in Rurik's mind, and he took his wives and concubines to do it himself.
That's it, even if it may take some detours, the papermaking operation with the ultimate goal of writing will definitely produce a good result.
The action has begun!
The door of the warehouse building was opened, and the scent of birch trees came to my face!
There is actually a strange sweetness in the air, as well as a light sourness.
It was the peeled bark of five hundred birch trees. The house was piled high, and there was no need to worry about keeping warm. The temperature in the house was always below freezing, which happened to have a certain degree of freeze-drying.
As a result, the bark is dehydrated and dried.
They were indeed dry. Rurik squatted down and examined the barks with the light coming from the open wooden door. They were already dry, and they had the texture of some paper when touched.
"That's right, come on, girls, take some of the bark outdoors. We'll boil it for three days and three nights, just like flax, until the bark becomes white!"
After giving the order, his wives and concubines began to work.
On the other hand, Medved was ordered to recruit a group of young and powerful men to work for Rurik.
Sir Rurik is indeed fair and just! His Excellency promised to give each worker a reward of silver coins, and he did manage one meal a day during the working period. This kind of good thing is earned.
The pottery urn where flax was boiled was stood outdoors, and the available clean snow was thrown in. A fire began to appear under the urn, and the entire urn began to be heated.
As many as four large pottery urns were boiling water, and the urn half as tall as a man finally began to boil after a long period of time.
At the same time, Rurik himself had taken his wife and concubines to drag a small sled and piled a batch of dry bark in the snow next to the urn.
"My lord, you see, all the urns are boiling. You...you want to boil the bark now." Medved was puzzled. He reported truthfully, and he also wanted to see what kind of feats the lord could do.
"Okay, let the brothers throw the bark in. Be careful, don't let the flames hurt the skin."
"Hello!"
The snow beside the urn had long been melted by the heat of the flames, revealing the blackened earth below. The strong man threw the bark into the pottery urn and began to cook it for three days and three nights.
"Does it really take three days to cook?" Medved asked Rurik who was watching in confusion.
"certainly."
"Is it really necessary? Even if it is boiled meat, any meat that is boiled for three days will become dregs. These urns are boiled flax stalks and stripped twine, and we can only cook it for half a day at most..."
"Are you worried that we will boil the bark into powder?" Rurik asked deliberately.
Medved looked suspicious but did not dare to question it directly. He could only whisper: "Sir, I'm just worried that if we don't do well, it will ruin your big event."
"It's okay. My goal is to boil the bark into dregs. If you can accomplish this, I will pay you more. Don't worry, just boil it for me. I don't think the bark can be boiled into powder."
."
"ah?"
"Listen carefully to my orders!" Rurik emphasized his voice: "For three days, I want these four pottery urns to be heated by the fire. Every other day, you can use a ladle to clean out the turbid water inside.
Then put in new snow cubes. On the fourth day, I will personally stand here and order you to put out the fire."
"As you command, I will strictly implement my decision."
Rurik knew deeply that one step in papermaking was to cook out the non-fibrous raw materials through long-term boiling.
After all, the technology of papermaking originated from the by-product of the silk reeling process in the silk textile industry, so the word "paper" is directly related to "silk". Of course, plant fibers can also do the same thing, and the hemp stalks of flax and ramie have a variety of uses.
Impurities, all people need is its fibers and regular weaving.
When it comes to the structure of matter, the difference between cloth and paper is probably just in the arrangement of cellulose. Cloth is extremely regular, while paper is completely the other way around.
When flax stalks are boiled, the pigments, colloids, fats and other impurities in them can be boiled out and dissolved into turbid water. After this processing, the flax can be stripped into silk threads for textile processing, and can be woven into plain
White linen.
It is true that every farm in Novgorod can make white linen, but everyone loves beauty. When a farm takes the lead in adopting dyed linen blending technology, people all turn to weaving striped fabrics.
White cloth was still available, and Rurik quickly ordered some in Novgorod.
The local Slavic women are very ingenious and almost every household has a textile loom. However, those ancient tools require people to sit down and operate them, and the weaving speed is too slow.
The local people did not want to weave extensively. Firstly, the production of flax was limited. Secondly, the peasant women were too lazy to make new ones after they had made enough cloth for their own use. The whole family put their greatest energy into spring plowing and autumn harvest.
Just like buying idle female labor in his hometown of Rosberg in exchange for the cloth they spun, paying real money and silver, Rurik did the same thing in Novgorod.
He ordered a special kind of cloth, or simply gauze.
Each employed woman has to weave a piece of gauze with one stika in length and width, and the threads are only as wide as one silk thread apart. They are all experts in weaving. When it comes to weaving, their dyeing technology is better than that of Russian women.
a lot of.
While the bark was being boiled in the pottery urn over there, the gauze requested by Rurik was quickly completed under the great enthusiasm of the women. It was gauze after all, and it didn't need to be woven airtight, so it didn't take a lot of time.
The water in the pottery urn is still boiling, and Rurik hired local carpenters to make enough wooden frames.
The wooden frame is spliced with a mortise and tenon structure. The size of the inner frame is also very particular, that is, the length is 0.4stika and the width is 0.3stika. The overall size is to produce A3 paper size paper.
Fresh gauze is cut, and the gauze is tightened by a small wooden frame on the outside.
The sieves were completed, and as many as fifty sets of sieves were completed, for which Rurik paid up to half a pound of silver coins. Rurik felt that it was worth the effort, and the Ottos felt that their son was a waste.
What Gus and his manor people saw was the generosity of Prince Rus.
In fact, Rurik didn't have a good idea. After the bark is processed, pure fibers will be left. The fibers are then mashed and ground into powder. Finally, they are attached to the screen and are pasted with a dense layer. This layer of fibers is
The wooden board was pressed to squeeze out most of the water, and the entire screen was placed in a dark room with a temperature higher than freezing point to dry in the shade. Rurik had already followed his own ideas to start the follow-up work...