Chapter 237 There Must Be a Plow

Rurik did not say that he was here to discuss making an iron plow, nor did he show anyone the planks he had.

He sat beside Lilia obediently and asked many stories about Novgorod.

Lilia had thought the child would ask about Svetlana, and she really meant to introduce her cute and clingy sister.

Unexpectedly, Rurik was particularly concerned about farmers farming.

"You ask me how people in my hometown farm? How else can I farm? Turn over the field with a wooden stick tied with stone chips, and then sprinkle with wheat, isn't that enough?"

"Did you just spill the seeds?" Rurik demanded.

"Probably... just casually. When I see my clansmen, they all sow seeds while walking."

"and then?"

Lilia thought for a moment: "Then press the soil again. Press all the seeds in the soil."

"Is that all right?"

"Okay, otherwise what else can I do? I'm not a peasant woman who farms." Lilia was a little unhappy. She just told what she had seen and heard, it didn't mean she was a peasant woman. It is even said that Lilia despises farmers in her heart. As the eldest daughter of the manor head, she is relatively pampered, and in her concept, the most intelligent person is the blacksmith.

Now, she has become the blacksmith's wife, even if the blacksmith shop is dirty, she doesn't mind. She even urged her husband to create a batch of iron and bronze farm implement accessories, such as hoes and shovels with holes, so-called gifts for her parents. In exchange, Kawi will be rewarded with a great deal. Because Lilia has decided that she must go back to her hometown this fall to see her family and report the good news of her pregnancy.

Hearing Lilia's detailed description, Rurik's mind sketched a scene where the Novgorods were farming.

Just reclaim a piece of land, sprinkle some seeds, there is no irrigation system, wait for the wheat to be harvested in autumn, and rely solely on the sky for food?

It seems that their so-called peasants still live a life of slash-and-burn farming, and their farming and intensive farming do not take up any part of it.

Rurik continued: "So, what are your tools for turning the ground? A piece of stone?"

Lilia stopped what she was doing and immediately gestured.

so,

Rurik understood that the local people had three tools for turning the soil, such as a shovel-like farm tool, a hoe for digging the soil, and a wooden plow.

Yes, the wooden plow.

Rurik learned of an Old Slavic word that apparently meant "wood plow". The residents of Novgorod made it out of hard oak with specific twists and turns, and the plow was steered by strong men and supported by women behind. There is nothing magical about the style of this object, it seems that every farming nation has a similar style of reclamation utensils.

It is a plough, and it can basically only dig a dent in the ground that is almost a branch line. Its role seems to be limited to making the ground softer, and then sowing seeds.

Until this time, Rurik suddenly showed his plank and pointed to the pattern on it: "Sister, I'm here for the plow you said. Look at my picture, I'm going to make a good plow."

"Plough?" Lilia looked at the picture, but she couldn't understand it at all.

Lilia's brain is good, and the only reason why she can't read Rurik's pictures is that she lacks a certain knowledge of geometry. She couldn't imagine what the plow looked like from Rurik's drawings. Besides, Lilia has no idea what this so-called plow looks like.

Of course, the girl's temporary ignorance is not entirely to blame here, as Rurik's drawings describe the plough pattern that does not exist in all of Europe.

Because it is a curved plough with a ploughshare, which can turn the soil aside, and plans to make an all-metal ploughshare.

The plow that combines these technical essentials can be described as high-tech.

What is the current state of farm implements in Western Europe? Is there a better word for it than to describe it with sourness?

Even the most critical component, the ploughshare, was only owned by a very small number of Frankish lords. The vast majority of farmers and serfs still use strangely shaped hard branches as wooden plows. It is conceivable that the so-called wooden plow should be thrown away the last time it is used, and poor agricultural tools are also one of the main culprits in restricting grain production.

Now Rurik wants to try an agricultural revolution in the farming areas his tribe can control.

First of all, a pair of curved ploughs will bring a leap in farming! Even, from ploughing, sowing and even leveling the soil, a comprehensive change is required to bid farewell to primitive agriculture forever.

The day of the leader's departure is getting closer and closer, and now, the people who are selected to participate in the Sorgon voyage, their purpose is no longer limited to catching some living materials.

Some women will get on ships that go on voyages. They are natives of Novgorod. They married Russians in the summer. With the permission of the leader, they can follow their husbands to their hometown.

Moreover, Otto has no intention of interfering in such family visits. It can be said that Rurik is constantly changing his thoughts on foreigners.

Of course, women will not leave empty-handed. They are generally pregnant. In addition to the good news when visiting relatives in autumn, they also have a little treasure provided by their husbands to their parents. For example, a handaxe, some clay pots.

The most precious of them all is salt!

Marriage is a means of mutual benefit. When the Novgorods solve the youth marriage problem of the Rus, they will receive gifts of metal tools and salt. Similarly, the locals will give their sons-in-law and daughters more wheat. , in addition to the element of caring for her daughter, it is also a hidden more appeal to her son-in-law.

It is very interesting that when the Novgorods can get the salt from the Rus at a relatively cheap price, they can't afford to exchange the high price of the salt from the Black Sea with the Smolensk. In addition to benefiting themselves, the saved materials can also benefit the Russ.

Almost every man who married a woman in Novgorod, immersed in the good news of his wife's pregnancy, naturally prepared some gifts.

As the eldest daughter of White Tree Manor, Lilia has the most generous gift!

There are more and more exquisite glassware made by her own hands, and there are iron tools that her husband recycles. She even made some loose pieces of smooth glass and stringed twine through the reserved holes.

The earliest glassware was women's jewelry, and Lilia discovered its essence with a woman's intuition. She put on a necklace made of more amber and glass blocks, and also prepared one for her sister and one for her mother.

But what exactly is Rurik's so-called special plow?

If it really helps the people in the hometown to farm, it is really a good thing.

The next afternoon, Rurik arrived as promised.

Kawie, who had already received the news, deliberately stayed at the blacksmith shop, as well as Kravasen and Kamne. Everyone sat on the leather cushions in the inner hall and listened to Rurik's instructions.

For a time, the blacksmith shop was full of academic atmosphere.

"Now we have to make a tool that can easily plough the land, which is a plow, but not just a plow. It has to have a metal ploughshare, it has to have a curved neck..."

Rurik tried to describe the so-called curved plough in words they could understand.

Clavasson was at a loss. Although Lilia had some concepts about wooden plows, she couldn't understand Rurik's utensil concept at all.

In metallurgy and crafting tools, Klavathon can be described as the top master of the Ross tribe. His top is of course relative, he has a lot of practical experience, and he has his own opinions on making tools, but these experiences have not become a system at all.

Rurik wanted to use his education in mechanics to make the two experts, Clavasson and Kavey, understand that the curved plough is really a weapon for breaking ground. torque? direction of force? What is power?

Very embarrassingly, Clavasson hadn't even seen a wooden plow!

The Ross tribe also farmed, of course, but a handful of hardy Nordic onions. Plough? nonexistent. The farmer just rammed the ground with a hoe and axe, and then planted onion roots. The southern allies, of course, used wooden plows to plough the fields, and Kravassen didn't care about those peasants. He didn't even have the time to go to the South, so naturally he didn't understand.

Although he didn't know anything about the plow and how it worked, there were no technical obstacles in building a so-called plough under the supervision of the child, following the patterns Rurik provided engraved on the planks.

Klavassen looked at the board for a long time, and said solemnly: "I can make it according to the picture. Rurik, you need it very much?"

"Of course, I need a lot."

"Huh? Is it just for the Novgorods to farm? If it's a good thing, why don't we use it ourselves?"

Clavasson's question was meaningless. Rurik raised his chest and said in a commanding tone: "This is not only my decision, but also the decision of the great leader. The leader has given you an order, you must make ten pieces before you set off. You have to finish."

"Ah? So much?!" Cravathan was taken aback. "You know, I still have a job making steel swords, and even some axes..."

"Those will come later. You have to make the plow I want. Because, it's about the reclamation of our New Roseburg settlement next year. Listen! Our tribe is about to start farming!"

"So it's like this? Let's get started." Klarvassen stood up and made a very positive statement, "Rurik, what exactly do you want, at least give it a name."

"Name? Just kra."

Rurik coined a word, which was actually a combination of "bending" and "earth-breaking tool" in his tribe's Norse dialect, and he decided to describe the curved plough.

Next, the production and processing began.

Cravatson's job is to hand forge the most crucial ploughshare.

A piece of wrought iron began to be forged, it became flatter and flatter, and was beaten into the shape of a Norse forest axe. Then came the very crucial operation. On the other side, the iron plate of this special shape is bent, and finally a curly arc is formed.

Is it any good? In Rurik's words, the thing was chiseled into the soil, it kept moving forward, and the soil was brought out along the curled groove, leaving a gully where seeds could be sown. After the farmers sow the seeds, they are precisely sprinkled in the ravines.

Kravason basically didn't understand the remarks, but Lilia understood the subtlety of it.

Kawei is in charge of the processing of the wood, and Kamne is the one who started it.

But who would have thought that Rurik, who seemed to be just reciting the "wisdom of Odin", was a downright doer.

Rurik really didn't know much about woodworking, but when wood and steel are used as structural materials, is there really a big gap between each other? Rurik used a dagger to personally chisel marks on the block of wood, the so-called position of the chisel. He precisely determined the length of each wooden part, and also personally instructed the processing of Kawei.

The European-style scraper processes a naturally bent oak branch at a relatively slow speed, which is the curved shaft of the plough, and the rest of the components are processed and manufactured around this curved device.

Artifacts such as the Quyuan Plough appeared in the Tang Dynasty. In 829 AD, the East was still the Tang Dynasty. In this era, no nation should have had more advanced farming tools than Tang, but Rurik quietly completed a study of Tang in the faraway northern Europe, in the Poros Sea.

Of course it's not learning. Does copying your own also count as learning?

To be fair, the curved plough is not a complex instrument in terms of structure. The magic of it is that it lowers the force position, which not only saves effort, but also makes the movement of the dragged object more stable. There is also a recessed ploughshare designed for it, as well as sharp plough arrows that slant into the ground.

These designs can be described as treasures made by applying a lot of mechanical knowledge.

When Rurik explained his design plan in public, only one day later, in the afternoon of the next day, the first curved plow made by the Rus tribe was born.

"Rurik, what do you think? It can really easily reclaim the land?" Klavathon was a little skeptical.

The curved plough, assembled with various parts, is placed in the shed of the blacksmith shop.

But Rurik also reproduced this treasure through his own cognition. Is it really easy to use? Undoubtedly, practice is the only criterion for testing truth.

"It should be excellent. Kravason, we'll try it now," Rurik said.

"To reclaim? Then you have to find a wasteland."

"No need." Rurik shook his head, and his little finger pointed to the very smooth and firm sandy ground at the door of the blacksmith shop. "Just try it at the door. If it can even reclaim here, the effect can only be better when it encounters ordinary wasteland."

Clavasson shrugged and ordered Kamne: "Go! Bring the twine."

Maybe Europeans will never be able to use cattle well, especially in today's era, even if some families and manors have wooden plows, the driving force is the farmers themselves.

In the Ross tribe, the "cow" that drags the curved plough is the strong Kawei.

As for Clavasson, he stood behind the curved plough, holding the handle in both hands, so-called controlling the direction of travel and making sure that the plough would not tip over.

What a weird scene!

Rurik stood aside and watched with interest, while Kamne and Lilia, the two Novgorodians, only stared in astonishment.

Because the plowshares are moving!

Driven by the "cow", the sharpest plough arrows of the ploughshare slanted into the sand and gravel, and finally the whole ploughshare sank into the ground.

Kawi is twenty years old. He started doing chores for his father when he was less than ten years old. Today, he is a powerful young talent covered in tendons. He didn't even breathe from exhaustion, and the curved plough manipulated by Kravasen easily traveled at least ten meters away!

All that was left of the ploughshare were deep indentations and unusually soft sand. Under the sun, those tiny pebbles that were not supposed to see the sun were already reflecting light.

The two men even had fun plowing the ground.

The curved plough suddenly turned 180°, and Kravason didn't think there was any trouble with the turn. However, it was this dexterous turn that was its third advantage.

What are all the advantages? Once a hoe or draft was used to dig a little bit of loose ground, now it is only necessary for a strong man to pull a curved plough, and the kra tool is enough. Behind the strong man is the land that has been reclaimed.

Lilia and Kamne were fully aware of what was going on, and they worshipped Rurik's wisdom, and now Rurik has become the "God of Agriculture".

Everything is in joy!

Soon, many people in the tribe began to comment on the large dent at the door of the Kravasen blacksmith shop. Some good people even made up stories. The so-called terrible sea planarian came ashore, and the monster was afraid of the god Rurik. The identity of the son, leave scratches and return to the sea.

The ghost knows whether this remark is a story, or if the good people want to curry favor with the leader's family.

In short, because there were no outsiders watching when I experimented with the Quyuan Plough, and those who knew the inside story were busy increasing production, this remark naturally fermented in the tribe, and who benefited in the end? Of course Rurik.

The plowshares are carburized and then heat treated for case hardening. The plowshare became a sharp and hard being. It was stuck on a special wooden pole. In order to make it more stable, Klavassen tried to use turpentine that glued the seam of the boat as an adhesive. It is not known whether it will work.

The rest of the wood is oak, and those small oaks that might grow into the keel of a ship were cut down by Kawai, and they became accessories.

With the success of the first piece, the manufacture of the remaining products becomes rapid.

Before I knew it, the day of Otto's departure was finally coming, and Kravason and Kawei had seen the power of the Quyuan Plough, and they made twenty sets! That is, the body of the curved plough and the hemp rope for traction, it has become a high value-added agricultural machinery that was originally empty.

It's time to give it a value!

How to price it? The Clavassons still couldn't understand its value, and the iron for the ploughshare was enough to make two steel swords.

Kravatson never worked as a blacksmith for the purpose of making money, he was eager to make better tools to make life more comfortable. The production of the Quyuan plow can be said to be in line with his temperament.

Of course, the money had to be collected, and he could have asked Rurik to pay him 2,000 silver coins. He chose a major concession, and Rurik readily spent five hundred silver coins, and the twenty sets of curved ploughs officially became Rurik's property.

Well now, with the appearance of these production tools and the demonstration in Roseburg, Otto was taken aback and instantly realized that this thing would definitely help his tribesmen who settled in the East to reclaim the land. And their ownership belonged to Rurik, and Rurik was not a good man who traded at a loss.

The curved plough will be handed over to the people of New Roseburg and Whitetree Manor, just like any other utensil, and they will have to pay in the future! The so-called reward will accompany them all their lives, and even their descendants. The chief family will also benefit forever.

What is this called? That's tax, that's tax.

And it is a means of "feeding sheep and cutting wool". Otto can't wait to send these utensils over!