Chapter 1,260 Novopolotsk City and Historic Integration

On a warm summer day, after many days of continuous rain, Polotsk ushered in a new era.

The Rus' army demolished the old chief's residence, cleared all the fallen timber, and eventually turned it into firewood and burned it all.

The buildings that symbolized the rule of Polotsk's own people disappeared, leaving only a huge open space next to the village square.

Then a wooden longhouse with a strong northern style was built under the order of the conqueror Carlotta Ostara.

The conquered Polotsk people had to prove their surrender with practical actions. Men and women were commanded. They were ordered to cut down wood, process the wood, and build new houses according to the conqueror's preferences.

The first step of the construction was to dig a large hole in the soft soil and bury a large number of wooden piles. This was unheard of by the locals.

Is it possible to refuse?

The conquerors controlled the public granaries, and they controlled the distribution of food. What can be comforted is that the conquerors distributed a small number of axes and even two pairs of magical special iron tools called "two-man saws". It was promised that when the task was completed, these tools would belong to the locals. How to distribute them does not matter to the conqueror.

It is good to get brand new tools, but it is impossible for the Polotsk people to completely accept the rule of the Rus Kingdom in a short time.

In Carlotta's view, there are actually two ways to bring the people back.

One: Treat them as your own and give them metal utensils, salt, and food for production and living.

Second: Lead them to conquer others, unite each other with the memory of fighting side by side, and allow them to get the spoils of war.

Rather than conquering others, the top priority is to use gentle methods and ignore them. Carlotta thinks so...

She implemented a rationing system for the people, especially the local villagers who worked for themselves, and they would definitely get food, even if the food belonged to the villagers themselves.

This alone surprised the people of Polotsk.

"Conquistador, why do you want to give us food? But food is food, and it only makes sense to eat it in your own belly."

If the Ross-Ostara army existed like parasites without any work, it would become a simple horse bandit group.

At first, this was what all ten Polotsk villages thought.

We all fought hard, but unfortunately we were defeated even though we tried our best. The defeated bear all the burdens of the conquerors. Perhaps they will overthrow their rule one day and regain their lost power.

The controlled people think about the problem in an extremely pessimistic way, but this is not consistent with reality.

The Ros-Ostara army herded horses in the undeveloped wasteland, and the young warriors carried axes and sawed with two men to cut wood in the nearby forests. While the local peasants were building houses for the Duchess, the conquistadors themselves were setting up camp in the open fields near the largest village.

There were shirtless men cutting wood everywhere, their fair skin covered with golden hairs, and the bodies of the warriors began to be tanned by the scorching summer sun. These strong men from Northern Europe often work together to carry the wood to the "wood processing yard".

Just like the construction of Ostara, a brand new city walled from the beginning is being built at the confluence of the Polota River and the West Dvina River.

There was no need to give the new town a name, it was Novopolotsk, replacing the old settlement.

As the local farmers watched, the fresh pine wood began to turn into walls. Inside the walls were a group of longhouses built in an orderly manner.

All buildings are fundamentally different from local residences. Although they are all wooden buildings, they all have wooden floors, making them waterproof and moisture-proof. Of course, the roof also has a herringbone structure, and the house was deliberately built to be very long. A huge pine tree was cut into long strips and was forcibly transported to the top of the house by a simple human crane.

Nordic-style houses are thicker and wider. Currently, Carlotta is building the city of Novopolotsk with the attitude of building a large military camp.

An easy-to-defend but difficult-to-attack military camp stood on the riverside. The defenders stared at the wide West Dvina River on the one hand, and the villages arranged like a string of pearls along the Polota River on the other.

The city-building move is more of a military deterrent and is not enough to win over people's hearts.

The farmland in the largest village that was left vacant due to population loss was immediately vacant by the conquerors and turned into the private property of Carlotta's ruling family.

She let her horses graze on the grass, and then took the time to sow peas.

It is difficult to get the locals to immediately accept peas, a brand-new crop. After all, this is the first time the Principality of Ostara has come into contact with pea cultivation.

Compared with the Lake Ring in the north, based on the knowledge Carlotta has learned, the so-called lower dimension here should be warmer, and the peas will grow better. But she also knows that any crops should be sown in the spring. Is it too late now that it's summer?

I heard that you can eat this thing even if it just grows pods. There is nothing wrong with stewing the pods as a cabbage-like vegetable, but you won't be able to get the seeds for next year's sowing.

Only God knows what the fall will bring.

At least the Polotsk people farmed as much oats and rye as they could, and according to last year's treaty the Russian conquerors had the right to take as much as two hundred thousand pounds of grain as tribute!

"But. Two hundred thousand pounds of oats. Is it too serious to ask for this group of defeated people? Anyway, all this food will be in my hands in the end. Rurik doesn't want this food, so I don't need to get it from him. Li Suo asked. He also saved a lot of money by not helping me..."

Carlotta must consider her future.

"The key is, what exactly do I want? A group of starving people? Or a group of farmers loyal to me, Ostara." She had to think carefully.

For the Polotsk community, like other ethnic groups living in this area, the summer solstice, the longest day of the year, is also a major sacrificial festival.

People worship the sun god on this day, and young people also regard this day as their wedding day.

In Polotsk, which was occupied by the conquerors, life continued, and the worship of the sun god could not be interrupted.

Carlotta saw a scene here that was quite similar to that in the north - local people made giant torches by building piles of wood and burned sacrifices in the fire.

A poor-looking cow was taken out of the shed and sacrificed to ashes to please the sun god they believed in.

The Kingdom of Rus naturally has its own way of offering sacrifices, but Carlotta and Fisk did not bring any priests with them when they went south on the expedition. They all gathered together to burn the newly caught European seabass on the summer solstice.

The conquerors did not interfere with the priestly activities of the locals, and the beautifully dressed priestesses danced around the bonfire without being disturbed.

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But this year's collective wedding of young men and women was completely controlled by the conquerors.

Especially young men, they were killed on a large scale in last year's war, and young women also suffered a lot. Overall, the male-to-female ratio in Polotsk is very unbalanced, and there are a large number of fertile women.

Carlotta is only twenty-three years old as a ruler, but she has experienced so much that she has almost become an old man mentally, hundreds of times stronger than a bunch of ignorant village girls.

But she is still a young woman, and she knows very well how many hardships a lonely woman will go through in life in such an era. She also wanted to dress the young soldiers under her command, so she organized a collective wedding herself.

A mass wedding requires some time to prepare, and this process took until late July.

The girl's parents need time to come to terms with it, and the panicked young woman needs to overcome her fear of the Ostara youth.

How could most girls marry conquerors so easily? They resist instinctively. After all, not everyone has the power to choose like Sorkina.

Besides, that girl is a traitor. Since she was adopted by the conqueror, the female devil, as her adopted daughter and only son's fiancée, she has transformed into a Varangian woman, wearing their clothes and eating their food, which has completely betrayed her tribe.

From the perspective of an ordinary Polotsk girl, Sorkina is indeed a traitor.

But now things fall on me...

Some girls were appointed after crying bitterly, and some actually ran away and were later captured by their parents.

Some brave women chose to hang themselves from the rafters, preferring to die rather than marry the conqueror.

The woman who committed suicide was wrapped in a coarse cloth by her family, and her body was placed on a cart. Weeping relatives escorted her to the village cemetery.

They made a lot of noise, no matter what, just so that the conquerors could see it.

The news soon reached Carlotta's ears.

Naturally, there are villagers here who are willing to obey for the sake of the Kingdom of Rus, in order to be rewarded with enough food and salt for their families to live comfortably.

This kind of person is called a traitor by the villagers, but he is loyal in Carlotta's eyes.

A bald, smooth-tongued man entered the city of Novopolotsk, which was under construction, and half-knelt in front of the duchess Carlotta and the young master Karl.

Even Sorkina is sitting next to Karl. The little girl has accepted her new identity. Although it still feels very awkward, her adoptive mother does take good care of her in life. Her fiancé and brother Karl are also very good boys.

Sorkina Vyacheslavina is a benchmark. After all, she is the granddaughter of the former leader, which makes a group of people who take the initiative to naturalize completely free of psychological burden.

The kneeling old guy is called Smirono, which means brave. Of course Sorkina knows this old uncle, but I am afraid that in the eyes of others, it would be more appropriate to change his name to "Coward".

But Sorkina has completely observed all this from a bystander's attitude. She has no independent opinions and no requirements for the future.

The smooth-tongued Smirono explained the sudden funeral in the village...

"Oh? They made so much noise that I thought someone was taking the lead in resisting, but they just thought a woman had committed suicide?" Carlotta simply stood up.

"It's absolutely true, I swear on my life. Oh, that poor woman, she doesn't know the kindness of our Lord. Marrying the brave Russian... oh no, it's an Ostara, it's obviously her glory! "

"Well said." Carlotta smiled with satisfaction and added: "Pay attention to your wording. I am the wife of King Ross, and Ostara is a part of Ross. We cannot separate each other."

"It was my negligence. I was at fault." After saying that, Smirono hurriedly slapped himself in the face.

"That's it! Stop your poor performance." Carlotta scolded.

"As commanded."

"Very good. Your report should be comfortable. Maybe I should relax my guard appropriately. But... this may be an opportunity." Carlotta thought for a while, what would he do if Rurik was present? She especially remembered that during the large-scale marriage between the Ross tribe and the White Tree Manor, Ross gave the locals a large amount of daily necessities as betrothal gifts, and also canceled all tributes from the White Tree Manor.

It was because they were given huge benefits and in exchange for thousands of people from the White Tree Manor "collectively joining" that Novgorod became what it is today.

"Rurik gave me an example that I should probably follow."

Carlotta wanted to understand and pulled two children, a boy and a girl, out of the meeting hall in her new city.

"Ready your horse!" she said to the guards present: "Follow me to their cemetery!"

While more than 200 villagers were holding a funeral for the woman who committed suicide, a group of cavalry suddenly rushed to the scene.

The flags of Rus and Ostara were flying here, and the cavalry in armor were majestic. In the eyes of the people, the conquerors wanted to ruin this pitiful funeral.

But they saw the Duchess riding a war horse and moving in front of the crowd. No one knew what she was going to do. But everyone instinctively felt that something was definitely not good.

"Don't be afraid!" she said, "I mean no harm! Do you want to refuse me to give the deceased a final gift?"

She dismounted quickly and ordered all the soldiers to dismount and stand at attention.

Everyone saw the boy named Karl, the next generation of Dukes, and the little girl Sorkina, whom everyone in the village knew.

"You...are here with the soldiers to attend the funeral?" The old priestess, covered in feathers and wearing a characteristic floral robe, approached Carlotta very boldly.

"Priest. Continue your work. I know why she died. I will pray to the deceased...in the way of the Northmen."

Here, warriors with horns were ordered to play low and melodious tunes with sad emotions, which were elegy for the deceased.

The deceased wrapped in coarse cloth had just been placed in the grave. The woman was extremely ordinary, and her relatives could not give her any precious burial objects. The only precious thing was an ax made of wood.

Regardless of whether the deceased is male or female, there is often an ax as a funerary object. It was originally a real axe, but later became ritualized and used a wooden ax as a tool for the underworld. After all, the people of Polotsk are also deeply influenced by the "stone ax culture" that has been spread throughout the region since ancient times.

Under the surprised eyes of the local farmers, Carlotta ordered a brand new linen robe to be handed over to the feathered priestess.

"My lord. What does this mean?"

"Put it on for the dead. Listen, she didn't deserve to die. A warrior who marries me will have a wonderful future, but she just can't figure it out. These are my clothes. You put them on her."

"This..." The priestess's eyes widened, and her old hands could feel that this was precious fine cloth.

"Is it disrespectful to dress the dead again?" Carlotta asked again.

"No. It's a huge favor."

Carlotta nodded and motioned to his subordinates to bring another real steel hand axe: "The ax here will be used as a burial object to replace the wooden toys you gave to the deceased. Do as I say, and I will make all male warriors avoid."

So, the priestess jumped into the tomb and personally put a new cloth robe on the hanged woman. The deceased's limp hands finally held the Ross steel ax, and finally covered his body with coarse cloth.

Carlotta just wants to show off, and she must seize the opportunity to show off.

The locals used wooden shovels to fill the dead bodies with earth, but she was different.

Carlotta patted little Carl on the back and handed him a heavier cast shovel: "You work with them to bury this pit."

"Me? Want to be buried by someone you don't know?" Karl held the shovel in both hands and turned around in embarrassment.

"No. You are the next generation of Duke, and you are burying your dead people. Go quickly. And you!" Carlotta pushed Sorkina forward again.

Even if you just put in a shovelful of effort, you have done your best. The people saw it in their eyes. Of course, they would not be moved to tears. This moment also changed the attitude of the conquerors.

The grave was quickly filled and the funeral was supposed to be over.

However, because the cavalry gathered in the village cemetery, the move attracted so many villagers to watch that Fisk was so shocked that he had to bring more cavalry to control the scene.

A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity created proactively, isn’t it?

Carlotta rode on the horse again, removed all the armor and stomach, and untied the ropes from her hair. At first glance, she looked very much like a local woman, especially since she spoke Slavic, and she looked even more like .

"What are you afraid of?!" she asked.

Then he shouted loudly: "Young women! My soldiers have never married, and you are the official wives after you marry! Your family will cancel the tribute because of your marriage! From now on, you will be completely protected by the army. In the future, you can still get Useful iron tools and lots of salt. Under my rule, you will gradually become rich..."

A pair of eyes stared at the aloof female noble.

So, Carlotta began to repeat a big principle: "Marry my warrior and you will be exempted from tribute! I swear to the gods that I will not break my promise!"

This is something that the people did not expect. After all, the autumn harvest is not far away, and every household does not have much food. People have begun to worry about whether the conquerors will go to every house to plunder food. As a result, the duchess claimed that as long as she married a daughter, she would be free of tribute? Can we continue to provide iron and salt in the future? Is this such a good thing?

At least the noblewoman gave her clothes as a gift to the deceased, and she personally made a statement.

People who were reluctant to deal with collective weddings changed their attitudes one after another. What happened in the largest village quickly spread throughout the entire village alliance. On the appointed day, those families who intended to marry their daughters dressed up their nobles as beautifully as possible. It was so beautiful and bright that it was sent to the city of Novopolotsk, which was already under construction.

In the open space outside the city, Carlotta simply followed the advice of the local priest and held the wedding according to local rules.

It is very strange to say that the Polotsk people and the Yilmen Slavs in the north have great similarities in their wedding arrangements - the newlyweds and the newlyweds join hands to cross a fire, which symbolizes the blessing of the Slavic God of Fire.

There are a large number of Slavs in the Ostara cavalry. Even though their lives have become Viking-like, they have not given up on the old traditions.

And this was something that the local Polotsk people did not expect. They thought that all the Varangians who came here were no different from those guys in the Gulf of Riga. However, they only discovered this group of brats when they actually came into contact with their young warriors. In essence, they are from the Yin'er family and are cousins!

The wedding was going on lively, and the young warriors chose the girl of their choice. In this process, based on local tradition, the woman had no right to choose. Of course it's unfair to the woman, but the woman's parents just want their daughter to get married quickly so that they don't have to pay tribute to the conqueror even if they harvest a grain of wheat this autumn.

What they didn't know was that Carlotta had access to the grain on a loan basis, for example.

And because of marriage, the locals could never see their daughters and sons-in-law go hungry. As strong laborers, the honest young Ostara warriors had to get wheat from the Polotsk people’s parents-in-law. In the end, it was still the locals who Feed the conqueror's army in many forms.

All the unmarried soldiers got their wives through this event, especially the one hundred boys from Velikiy Luki, who miraculously found their true love in Polotsk.

This is a new beginning!

For the Polotsk people, who had suffered huge population losses, they needed strong male laborers who could do farm work and defend their homes more than revenge.

What about revenge now? The conquerors destroyed and rebuilt, and the young men stood in every house. They looked like ordinary boys, and they could understand each other's words.

For the young warrior, who got married under the command of the duchess, he had to thank not only the Duke and the king, but also his wife's family. It is human nature to work for the parents-in-law's house. Armed with a steel sword and a steel ax, the soldier chopped firewood and cut wood for his wife's family, and even repaired the house.

The strained relationship is quickly easing.

Finally, this year’s autumn harvest season has arrived. The moment to prove the conqueror's final promise is now!

So under the command of Carlota, except for the troops stationed in Vitebsk, the army going south simply participated in the autumn harvest operation of the entire Polotsk community. Not only hundreds of strong laborers with advanced steel weapons participated in the harvest. Wheat and horses are also involved as powerful draft animals.

The autumn harvest in Polotsk in 842 showed strong efficiency.

As Carlotta had promised at the Summer Solstice, she did not openly demand tribute. But the supplies for the army's garrison had to be levied, so she changed the reason - leasing.

How much grain is rented? It must not be a huge amount of 200,000 pounds.

In fact, the required tribute was cut in half, and those families who did not marry their daughters bore all.

However, a group of married soldiers simply served as a garrison in Novopolotsk, and their parents-in-law provided their own supplies. In the end, Carlotta was still able to collect tributes from the local area that were close to the amount corresponding to the treaty, which is to say that it became very good...

So far this autumn, at least on the surface, the Polotsk community has completed its historic integration with the Rus’ Kingdom.