Chapter 1,349 Rurik in Nianzhuang

The continuous march did not dull the warrior's experience anymore, because the river was gradually widening and everything was getting better.

Even the snow showers stopped, the sun, which had disappeared for many days, reappeared, and the soldiers had to put on their sunglasses again.

Finally, what greeted the Ross army was a wide river!

Rurik jumped off the sled and took off his sunglasses. He looked at the right bank from the left bank of the river, estimated its width by feel, and couldn't help but sigh: "Unbelievable, this is the Velikaya River? It feels as wide as the Rhine River."

"This is Velikaya, it is a long river," Orafin added.

Olafin was also extremely excited. The river was basically running north-south. His big hand pointed north: "We will continue walking and we will eventually reach the big city of Pskov." His big hand pointed south again: "If we go south, We also encountered multiple small Krivic settlements."

"Krivich?"

"That's them."

"Sure enough, there are them everywhere." Rurik couldn't help pinching his beard. So far, he has a deep understanding of the power of the Krivic tribe - it seems that they are the only ones who are the main force of the Slavs blooming everywhere in Eastern Europe.

He thought again: "So, is our current position downstream...or upstream?"

"This is already downstream. Your Majesty, if we continue to go south, we will soon encounter villages." Olafin pointed out.

"The village, if we leave now, can we arrive today?"

"No. It will be tomorrow at the earliest."

Rurik felt that this guy was just bored when he was traveling, and he seemed to be joking when he spoke. "What do you mean soon? Don't we have to walk for another day?"

Ora

Fen could see that King Ross was suppressing a smile, and he smiled kindly and said: "That's true. But it's not a big deal to meet a village in a day's journey. Besides, haven't we been exploring in no-man's land in the past few days? Your Majesty. But take my word for it.”

"Okay. Huge Pskov..." Rurik looked north again and couldn't help but murmured to himself: "It seems that you and I quickly understood two different things. The density of your villages here is too high. Scattered! Far less densely populated than my king’s Lake Ilmen.”

Orafin's ears were pricked up like a rabbit's, and he could really hear King Ross's murmur. "I know there is an existence called Ilmen. Since the king mentioned it and said it was the king's lake, maybe I should look for an opportunity to take a look for myself."

"Oh? Have you really heard of it?" Rurik turned around with a look of joy on his face: "Could it be said that you Pskov ladies have been to Lake Ilmen in the past? Strange, if you have really been there, more than ten years ago How come I don’t know the year?”

"I'm telling the truth. I just heard it." Orafin answered simply.

The world of Eastern Europe is vast and empty, and every settlement is valuable. It is precisely because settlements are relatively rare that people have to build settlements that are far apart along the rivers. Each settlement serves as the center, and there is another settlement. A group of small villages exist like planets surrounding each other, forming a larger settlement.

According to Olafin's self-report, the Pskovs learned about a group of Ilmen in the north through the people of Riga, Polotsk and Smolensk.

The local Slavs in Pskov have some feelings for those Ilmen people.

From the description of the Smolensk people: A group of rebellious tribesmen fled with their entire village. They were Krivich people, but they lived with the locals of Lake Ilmen.

Orafin recounted these past experiences and couldn't help but ask: "Your Majesty, are there people in your great lake?"

"Yes. Of course there is." Rurik almost laughed out loud, casually reading a few obviously Slavic male names to the cavalrymen who tied their horses to the sleigh.

Most of them were soldiers who had been ordered to leave the temporary camp where the army rested, and stood in front of Rurik.

"Look," he said to Orafin, "these are the people whom I love. They are the descendants of the northern Creviches you heard about. The chiefs of their villages are all sons of Boyars. They will also inherit the title of Boyar in the future."

"Ah?! In other words, I will be marching with them these days?" Orafen did not expect that this could be the case.

"That's exactly it." Rurik said proudly, and then asked these people to step back and rest.

He looked at Olafen's face again: "Let's talk about everything during the break tonight. Now you just need to tell me, if our army goes down the river, will the village we encounter accept our arrival? I mean , I’m worried that they will instinctively run away when they see the army.”

"The king is worried, but I can act as a lobbyist to reassure them. And the king...maybe he should do what he did with Riga, and the army would camp in the open space outside the village."

Rurik nodded: "I won't disturb the birds in the forest, so the villagers can rest assured. By the way, what's the name of the village?"

"Pokrutishe."

"What a tongue-twisting name.

what for? "

"It's just...twisting multiple twine threads into one thread. The locals grow flax and are good at making ropes."

After hearing Olafin's description, Rurik thought to himself: "Twisting twine into rope is an important craft! Their village is Nianzhuang."

Rurik gave the stage goal a concise and concise name - Nianzhuang.

Or in Nordic parlance, it is directly called the "rope village".

"Could it be that those villagers make a living by making ropes?"

"Of course they also farm." Orafin hurriedly added, "How can you survive just by making ropes." He suddenly thought that since King Ross asked about this, he was afraid that he might have some plans for the village: "So, Your Majesty plans to get the rope from the locals?"

"It's not a bad idea. Besides, my expedition does require a lot of rope. I don't care who produces it. As long as it can be made and owned by me, this kind of person should be rewarded."

Olafen was revealed at one point and immediately beat his chest: "Don't worry, Your Majesty, please appoint me as your envoy. I will persuade the village of Poklutisie to surrender to you. Moreover, I will also persuade them to sell all the ropes to Ross." .”

"Very well, let's see."

Because for navigation activities, cables are extremely important consumables. Thin cables are woven into a large net, and a giant net bag can be made into a trawl fishing operation. This is one of the most efficient means of catching Baltic cod in today's era.

Countless materials and products need to be bundled with ropes, and the hoisting sails of ships need it to be realized. Sailors sleep in sleeping bags made of ropes at night, hanging like silkworm cocoons. Even it is

Part of the weapons of war! Because the torque slingshot, the most commonly used heavy equipment of the Russian army, its power comes from the torque of the hemp rope.

In every large-scale battle, the Russian army must consume a large amount of rope.

Although in the Ilmen Lake area, some boyars led the people in their territories to cultivate flax extensively, and all villages in the lake area also started to plant flax, all people of insight realized that the flax produced in Ross could not satisfy the needs of the people. own needs.

In particular, linen production capacity could not fully meet the needs of the army.

Thanks to the leather skills of the Kingdom of Rus since ancient times, the Slavs, the most populous people, did not tend to favor linen textiles in making clothes. The cutting of wool textiles and leather has greatly alleviated the shortage of linen supply in the garment industry.

As long as Ross continues to develop the Ilmen Lake area, flax, which does not have high soil requirements, can grow wildly, and time will heal all kinds of troubles.

It’s just that times wait for no one.

"I don't know how much inventory that Niuzhuang can have. I treat them with a peaceful transaction attitude. Those villagers should not be afraid of my army. Anyway, these people will accept my rule in the future. They will not show any obvious I have no reason to use force against them if they have a hostile attitude." Rurik had such a mentality.

Adhering to this mentality, when the army camped on a flat riverside in the evening, he recruited the captains of each banner under his command to the bonfire where he was warming himself, and declared his "king's claim" to his beloved generals.

From the flag captains to the lower-ranking officers, they are all young talents educated and promoted by King Rus. From being educated as children to serving the king now, they

They grew up eating the wealth of the country. Whatever the King of Rus ordered them to do, the brothers just listened and followed the instructions.

Everyone swore: "We will never act recklessly, and we will never enter the village without the king's order. Anyone who violates this will be willing to die!"

The generals spoke with certainty, and Orafin was shocked to be able to continue to stay by Rurik's side as a guide. Logically speaking, an undefended village can be robbed wherever the army comes. What does King Rus mean? You actually have to spend money to trade with the villagers?

Although Orafin won the request of King Rus, he had no ill intentions towards the village and knew the situation of the local villagers well-the villagers were all loyal to the boss of Pskov, Gower, and relied on the support of the local Danish immigrant community. Military force protection.

However, if there is a war crisis, will Boss Gower really lead his brothers to stand up for a small village?

In the past era, we had never heard of an army attacking a village. The first thing the villagers did was to prepare some weapons to fight the bears that sneaked into the village to steal food and attack people. In addition, a batch of grain and rope are prepared as tributes to Boss Gore every year.

In a sense, Boss Gower treated the village like a sheep whose wool was cut regularly.

Olafin didn't feel sorry for the village of Poklutishe. What did the good or bad life of those people have to do with traveling merchants like himself? He had no idea that the King of Rus could use his military power to force the locals to pay a tribute, but it would be too merciful to spend money to buy it now.

This kindness was not even the king's personal attitude; the entire army was forced to be merciful. "Have all of King Rus' men become kind and good people? It is said that they were just here in Sri Lanka.

Did Molensk commit a brutal massacre? I really don’t understand…” Orafen doesn’t understand, and has no intention of understanding it now.

Now the whole army is camping and resting as usual. The soldiers have become extremely skilled and can quickly set up personal tents, and can quickly dismantle and pack them when leaving. He was very happy that the Rus warriors had set up tents for him and his companions, and that there were big pots to cook fragrant wheat porridge for them.

You don’t have to do anything by yourself, and you can live a comfortable travel life with everything you need to eat.

And the price... is just to tell King Rus' travelers everything they know about Pskov.

Olafin noticed that the Rus' king was particularly interested in finding out what settlements were located around the Velikaya River, the mother river of the Pskov people, and its main tributaries.

As a result, Orafin listed the names of several settlements upstream of the river where the Russian army was currently camping.

Ostrova, a village built on an island in the river.

Freif, a village established on the top of the hills on the right side of the river on the upper reaches of the river.

Ville, a riverside village at the end of an upstream tributary.

Rurik also wanted Olafin to explain more villages, but the old guy could only explain these three.

"Isn't there more? Or...are you deliberately keeping something?"

Faced with the question of King Rus, Orafin had to swear: "These are the villages upstream that I know. Perhaps when the king's army reaches the head of the Velikaya River, you will find more villages. And over there I've never been."

Rurik doesn't embarrass this man. I'm afraid he really doesn't know. After all, this man

The main business of the guys is the salt business in Riga. If this group of people were hunting, they would have the motivation to dig into the dense river forest.

Perhaps, the upper reaches should be less visited.

Furthermore, according to Olafin, the vast majority of Pskov people live in cities by the lake, where there is a large area of ​​fertile grassland washed out by two large rivers. Over the years, they have not worried about the flooding of the lake and damage to the site. A large number of villages have sprung up on the flat road.

This explanation is very sufficient. A flat and fertile agricultural reclamation area near the lake is the most fertile farmland that the Slavs in Northeast Europe can find in this era.

A new day comes in peace.

The climate is still cold, but it is no longer as biting as before. Everyone can feel that some kind of change is happening in the earth, as if spring is coming.

In fact, spring in Northeast Europe will not arrive for another two months.

Counting the days, it is indeed the end of January of the Julian calendar.

The long overland movement, even if the reindeer army ran wildly on various frozen rivers, still wasted too much time, which was far less enjoyable than the boat ride in the warm period.

The Russian army kept running at a constant speed towards the Pokrutishe village that Rurik had learned about, which he jokingly called Nianzhuang.

Orafin and his men took the lead and rushed into the village on their reindeer sleigh.

There were only about 400 people in this village, and in this era the Pskov region was already considered a "large settlement".

Since ancient times, the villagers' attitude towards winter has been to stay at home and stay warm as much as possible. This is because they are Cliffic immigrants and have an obsession with building wooden houses. However, due to the inferior production tools, they are obsessed with building wooden houses.

Due to their poor quality, the wooden houses they built were too leaky. People used moss, dead grass and even broken linen rope ends to plug the gaps. However, because they were not good at making chimneys, they always made a mess when cooking wheat and freezing fish in winter. The house was smoky.

The villagers have long adapted to this kind of life. They do not know that locals in places like Novorosberg and Novgorod live in nice houses with wooden floors and fireplaces. What they know is that they live in Pskov The powerful man named Gower also lived in the large longhouse that the Varangians used to live in.

Maybe the gods treat everyone equally, even the noble boss Gore usually has to sleep on the ground.

The difference is that the villagers sleep on thatch and linen blankets, while Gore sleeps on leather blankets.

The villagers are quite familiar with Olafion and his gang, or in other words, they are familiar with all the traveling merchants.

Bringing a batch of iron axes, spearheads, and even a pack of iron arrow clusters (broken arrows from previous wars) that King Rus planned to reward, as well as silver coins weighing about one pound (the quality was not good), Olafin, in order to ensure the success of the operation, He took the lead and took about five pounds of salt with him into the undefended village.

At the beginning of the period, some villagers working in winter were wary of the sudden appearance of reindeer sleighs. Seeing a familiar face immediately turned vigilance into happiness.

The village of Poklutisie is the result of many small families of villagers holding together for warmth. There is no village chief family with real power here. Every matter is resolved by one person from each household, and everyone sits together to discuss it.

"Hey! Isn't this Nightcrawler Orafin? You didn't go to the distant world in the west to buy salt. Why did you come back in winter?"

"How do you

Sledding? Where did you get the reindeer? Where is your boat? "

"Did something happen in the West? You seem to be in a hurry."

"Brothers, stop making things difficult for him. Hey! Brother Olafine, what good things have you brought this time? How much can we buy?"

…

After hearing the news, the villagers who came there left their residences one after another and surrounded Olafen, who entered the village with a batch of supplies. This old guy did hide a lot of things from Rurik. The so-called villages he could accurately mention were the ones he had personally visited.

In this empty world, the villages would not be stupid enough to attack traveling merchants carrying goods for business. They would especially exchange large amounts of local products in exchange for salt. From the villagers' point of view, they are eager for businessmen to frequent their remote villages.

Olafen's relationship with these villagers was just an ordinary house buying and selling relationship, but the simple villagers did not regard this lucky star as an outsider.

However, when the old guy mentioned that the huge army was already outside Chen Bing Village, the villagers were undoubtedly shocked.

Since they had never seen a war, all the villagers could think of was that a group of so-called more powerful Varyags were coming, and they would demand tribute like Boss Gore. The damn thing is that everyone has already paid a batch of tributes in the autumn. Do we still need to give a batch of tributes to the new foreign strongman?

Facing the increasingly pessimistic discussions, Olafin stood on the sled and appealed to all the villagers: "Don't panic. You are facing the conqueror of the northern world, King Rus of Varyag! Rus! The king is benevolent, so his army is stationed outside the village. The king swore to the gods not to enter your village and never to infringe on your life.

you

Let’s see! The things I have here are all gifts from King Ross to you! Lord Rus is very fond of you, and you can get them if you swear loyalty to Lord Rus. Let's see! There are iron axes, spearheads, arrow clusters, and salt. There's even money! "

Orafin showed off the items he had brought, one after another, emphasizing "This is a gift" with each item.

Every time he performs, the crowd will exclaim. The initial atmosphere of surprise gradually disappears and is replaced by cheers.

"However, you still have to pay a batch of tribute to prove that you sincerely surrender to King Rus. What the King wants is very simple, and that is a rope! Anyway, you have to sell the rope to Pskov in the spring. As long as you hold the rope in your hand Bring them all to the Ross army camp, and King Ross will give you more good things. My friends! For the sake of our many years of doing business, please believe me once. As long as you surrender to King Ross, everything will be better. "

For a village that is extremely short of iron tools, no one knows the significance of iron axes and iron spearheads better than them. These two items alone are extremely heavy gifts. For this reason, some families are willing to sell their own flesh and blood in order to obtain an axe.

After all, in the eyes of the villagers, raising a new child means consuming more food, and a good ax can turn countless big trees into firewood and protect the family from freezing to death in winter. They think this kind of deal is a good deal.

However, the number of iron tools displayed by Orafin exceeded the imagination of the villagers - it seemed that every family could get a piece of the pie, and the price was just to swear submission to King Rus and hand over the worthless rope to the king.

This is a great thing

! The villagers had no doubts, so they immediately named the village chief mentioned in the previous picture as the speaker, and ordered him to follow the old traveling merchant Olafin to the Ross army camp not far upstream on behalf of the whole village to swear allegiance to King Ross.