It was in the evening, and the soldiers who had been walking all afternoon were thankful that the calves of the male and female soldiers were bandaged to greatly avoid muscle soreness. Everyone was still tired, so they began to unload the wagons and deer carts filled with supplies.
A large iron pot was placed on a pottery pier, and the stove was buried to cook a thick porridge mixed with wheat and vegetables. They also began to cut down trees and get branches to build field tents on the spot.
This move undoubtedly surprised the villagers who had just built a few wooden sheds.
The Rus conqueror of the Varangians is around. The king of the conquerors is a young boy. The king's warriors are both male and female and are very young.
Not only did the conqueror have no ill will towards everyone, he even rewarded them with salt and iron tools.
The prince is such a good man, and all the children in the village got some strange food, which seemed to be made from wheat and was really delicious...
This kind act won the hearts of the people, and the village chief's attitude changed drastically. He was eager to serve Prince Rurik in exchange for reward, and he also quickly put his little daughter into the prince's arms.
The villagers are simple, simple and full of desire. It is entirely because their lives in the past were too poor. A Varyag king who can speak Slavic has already used practical actions to swear that he will lead his subjects to live a good life. The villagers are using their feet.
vote.
The village was named "Village Eleven", and the village chief who hurriedly sent his daughter off was also remembered by Rurik.
The Ross army spent the night mingling with the villagers, and the sailors also went ashore to rest. They also brought a batch of bass caught in the trawl net for everyone to grill and eat.
The entire daytime "peace parade" was suspended, but it had just begun.
The bonfires on the lakeside here are as dense as stars. They can probably be seen from far away places, right?
Many people were already lying in the tents, fast asleep, and Rurik was willing to stand by the lake and stay for a while longer.
Arik patted his brother on the shoulder: "What are you thinking about? You...this year is completely your performance."
"I'm looking south, those Ostarans."
"I think I miss you Carlotta."
"Yes. I also want to see how the construction of New Ostara over there is going. Tomorrow I plan to get on the boat and cruise the villages behind. We will spend the night in New Ostara again. I hope Carlo
Tata can provide us with some yogurt and cheese."
"Can she get enough cows?" Arik yawned and shrugged, "It's better to go to bed early."
"That's fine."
Rurik created a new image among the newly surrendered Slavic people. The Varangians are a collective name for a group of people. Although the Rus are one of them, they are more reasonable than other Varangians.
They are also building a stable order. These people are willing to surrender to a monarch who helps and protects them. They don't care whether Prince Rurik is really the "Son of God". As long as the Prince fulfills his promise, then he is the "Son of God".
This is true for new subjects, and it is also true for old subjects who have surrendered.
However, Rurik will no longer give physical rewards to those old subjects. Of course, they can still get a batch of advanced production supplies, provided that they exchange the grain.
Lake Ilmen is a large lake in the interior of Eastern Europe. The eleven villages of the new subjects are relatively close to the Russian settlement of Mstisk. The subsequent voyage became Rurik's inspection of the old subjects.
.
The fleet suddenly appeared, and all the people in the manor along the way watched.
The boat was released, and Rurik landed with a group of warriors. Accompanied by the manor Boyar respectfully, the prince visited the rapidly-earling wheat fields. Based on the statistics of the fields, he reiterated the taxes that the manor should pay this year, as well as the tax collection.
The specific time. The prince further pointed out the relationship between the monarch and his subjects, focusing on the fact that Mstisk in the north of Hubei is the de facto largest Russian settlement in the region, and welcomed the villagers to bring their own production surplus products to the country.
Go and trade useful supplies.
Facing the absolute might of the Russian army, thousands of people in any farm would bow their heads.
Each surrendered old farm has its own unique business. The fleet has entered the southern shore of the Great Lake. The farms here focus more on raising sheep and growing flax, and they also raise more black-haired cattle.
Rurik's fleet has drifted to the so-called flax manor in the south. People here are planting flax in addition to wheat. This year's flax stalks have been harvested. When Rurik arrived, the strange smell was
Diffuse in the village.
Take a look! Two thousand men, women, and children in the entire farm are working to cook the jute. Those strange smells are emitted by the jute tumbling in the boiling water. The thick fibers of the dry jute are disintegrating into fine threads.
, the decolorization of the sesame stalks during boiling was also done at the same time.
You can also do business along the way while cruising. Salt is a better currency than silver in this lake area. He took out a pound of salt and easily exchanged it for a large amount of roughly processed twine.
Making fine twine into cables is a specialty of the Russians. In other words, all Viking tribes are good at doing this, but everyone lacks the opportunity to obtain flax on ordinary days.
The Flax Manor originally produced crude flax for its own use, and then sold the surplus products to other tribes. In the past, the largest buyer was the Pine Needle Manor, but now the consumers of that manor have turned into bones under the mud. It seems that it has lost a big buyer.
What we got now was Prince Rus, an even crazier buyer.
"You should continue to open up wasteland and plant flax for me. The flax you produce can replace oats as taxes. I also order you to sell all the surplus goods to me every year. Oh! I changed my mind! You can use flax to deduct taxes this year.
, pay ten times the tax weight of oats.”
The boyar of the farm and the general public fully welcomed the prince's request for tribute, and all this was indeed in line with the previous contract. The prince did not accept death and only regarded wheat as a tax, and any equivalent could be used as a tax burden.
They could keep a large amount of rations, and according to the contract, they paid a batch of crude flax as tax, so no one lost much.
Not only that, since the prince revealed that the principality has a huge demand for flax, Boyar and the villagers immediately reached a consensus that except for the flax used for making cloth this year, the rest should be kept for himself, regardless of whether it was processed or not, while the prince's fleet was stationary.
At the lakeside, they were all sold. The people also received salt and a batch of new iron tools, especially a curved shaft plow, which would have a huge positive effect on the reclamation of wasteland next year.
Now that we've reached the Flax Manor, heading south should be New Ostara.
The Lovati River, the West Dvina River and the Dnieper River originate from the same swamp.
As long as you follow the Lovaj River upstream and go south to its source, the second broad river that explorers find must be the West Dvina River, and its mouth is the Gulf of Riga, which is the traditional territory of Latvians and Lithuanians.
If explorers find a third broad river further south, there is no need to doubt that it is the Dnieper River. As long as you sail along the river for a short distance, a huge settlement will be in front of you. That is the Slovak River built by a group of Krivich people.
Molensk.
In any case, Carlotta and her people are Vikings at heart. When they arrive in a new territory, exploration becomes an urgent task.
She was carrying a prince's child, and no one dared to oppose her power.
She is also a very ambitious duchess. She was not like this at the beginning, but the current situation forced this young woman to become a hero.
The Ostara people are also Varangians. They are part of the Principality of Rus. The female leader is also one of the wives of the prince, and the son in her belly is also the prince's cub. The nearby farms respect the Ostara people, even though their population is small.
At most, there are 700 people.
In terms of technological development, the people of Ostara are still better than the nearby farms, but they are far behind in terms of farming skills.
But the Ostara people hardly farmed any land in Scandinavia back then, even though wheat could be grown on the shores of the Grand Lake they controlled at that time.
The people of Ostara focused almost all their technology trees on raising large livestock and making dairy products. When they immigrated to the new world, Carlotta's first thought was to buy cattle and sheep from nearby farms. She decisively took tough measures and brought them to the new world.
A small group of armed soldiers forcibly bought cattle, especially cows and calves.
How dare those farms resist, so they had to hand over a group of cattle and sheep. However, the money Carlotta gave them greatly alleviated the anger of the people who lost their cattle and sheep.
This was an era when calico cows did not exist, and the European aurochs was not yet extinct.
Even domestic cattle still have some wild nature. Both males and females are mostly pure black in color. The sharp horns of the bulls go straight forward. If they are frightened or aroused by anger, the bulls will charge with brute force, even if they are used on the battlefield.
A powerful fighting tool.
But the Ostara people are the best at herding. Even though the old Ostara tribe had only a hundred women left after the war, the tribe's production and life experience was basically controlled by women, and the tribe's technology of raising calves and making dairy products has not been lost at all.
.They deliberately kept a small number of bulls. Because they did not understand cattle farming techniques, most of the bulls were bound to be eaten during the calf stage. All the cows would be kept, and they would be continuously bred and recycled in colostrum.
As life improved, settlements rose from the ground. A walled and docked town next to the river and lake stood at the mouth of the Lovati River.
Now is the breeding season for cattle. Carlotta currently has 60 cows in her hands, but only ten bulls. Among the cows, there are another 40 that can be bred immediately. They must survive the winter safely and wait until
The calf will be born in early summer next year, and only during that period can the people of Ostara make yoghurt cheese.
The people of Ostara have to wait. Their cattle and sheep are like walking, long-lived farmland. The harvest will be next year. Now they must rely on fishing and buying wheat from nearby farms for the winter.
Of course, Carlotta firmly believed that her men would definitely cross the lake and deliver enough food for the people to survive the winter.
Her body has undergone very obvious changes, and her enlarged belly can be covered up with clothes for the time being. She is not willing to hide it, and the belly that is getting bigger day by day is simply an oath of power.
It hadn't been long since she was pregnant, and the women were planning a big day for their duchess. Probably by next year's spring festival, a male Duke of Ostara would be born, and her status would be completely unshakable by then. Everyone expected that
Looking forward to the birth of this child, the birth of a boy means the rebirth of Ostara.
Women used the purchased linen to weave cloth, and used knives and axes to make wooden furniture. They also chopped firewood outdoors and piled it into "wooden walls" to store heating fuel in winter. A large number of reeds were harvested and piled into haystacks. According to the past,
With the experience, the women holding scythes now began to store food for cattle and sheep for the winter.
There are also a large number of wooden stakes erected in the city of New Ostara, and densely packed scaled bass are hung on the pulled hemp ropes. They are naturally dried and become one of the people's staple food in winter.
Men contributed a lot when building the city. They were busy logging and did not have much time to cultivate wasteland. Only a small amount of wasteland was cultivated, and wheat seeds would only be sown in the spring of next year. However, these lands have already produced some
Crop - yellow root carrot.
There was a fishing boat belonging to Ostara cruising on the lake. They were traditional long boats. The boss of the boat asked ten fishermen to work together to control the large net to carry out trawl fishing. They fished on the order of the Duchess, and all the catch should be shared by the entire clan.
, there are five more fishing boats cruising like this.
A fleet was approaching in the distance. The fishermen squinted and paused their work to look at it. They all guessed who it was until they saw the flags flying on the masts clearly, and they all smiled.
"Brothers, hang up the bull-headed flag, the Russians are coming!" the ship's boss ordered.
Rurik had already noticed the long ship. They had hung familiar flags to prove their identity. He stood on the bow of the ship and looked around again. On the lakeside reflected in the dark green forest in front, a city with wooden walls stood out.
Appear!
The fishing boat met the fleet, and soon the prince's patrolling army arrived at the most important rest stop of their journey.
Considering that the small dock in New Ostara City is not enough to dock the fleet, all the large ships anchored near the shore, and everyone landed like this after releasing the small ships.
Carlotta is a strong woman. She can still jump and run around. When she heard that Rurik came in person, how could this sudden good thing make her want to continue taking a lunch break to nurse the baby?
The people in the city all went to greet the guests under her leadership, especially when she ran all the way and finally hugged Rurik tightly in her arms.
But Rurik was taller and stronger.
"As I said." He looked at his woman lovingly, "I have completed the immigration work, and then I will come to see your new Ostara."
Because she was so excited, Carlotta was already in tears: "It's great. Everyone has come to this warm new world, I..."
"You are crying. There is no need to cry, even if you are very happy. I will stay here for at least a whole day, and I will accompany you well. Then I will let you taste the taste of being a woman..."
Rurik's meaning was already very obvious. Carlotta tilted her head slightly with shyness, grabbed Rurik's right arm with one hand, and slowly brought it under her robe.
Rurik just touched it lightly, and then he was stunned with excitement.
"Sure enough... you finally succeeded."
"The women say the baby will be born next spring. This is your son."
"I know everything." Rurik was too lazy to say anything. He suddenly exerted his strength and directly held his woman and the child in her belly like a princess in his arms.
Carlotta is very young after all. Even though she has square cheeks, her overall youthful appearance is enough to attract Rurik. Moreover, she is legally a girl adopted by Otto, the first Duke of Ross. Rurik can
Called sister.
Otto's move was firstly out of goodwill, and secondly, it also had a strong political purpose. The resurgent Ostara people are indeed strong supporters of the Ross Principality, and they essentially guard the last part of the principality's existing control area.
In the south, holding the Duchess of Ostara in his arms, Rurik heard shouts of "Long live the Prince of Rus" in his ears.
Obviously, the people who immigrated here not only welcomed the prince, but also made it clear that everyone was the subject of the prince of Rus first, and the duchess second.