Chapter 480 Welcome to the Winter of 831

"The Rise of Rurik ()"

A protracted war appears to have come to an end.

Rurik was a little worried about the future, and it was undeniable that the Rus army had indeed launched a massacre on Gotland. From the very beginning, the army did not want to fight the rout, and it turned and left without asking for a ransom.

Adhering to the idea of ​​Clausewitz, Gotland Island has been washed like a swarm by the Ross Army, and the population of the island is not much, and now it is almost a no-man’s land.

Not necessarily, a new batch of immigrants lived in the ruins of Visby. Survivors of the old Gotland escape into the woods, and Mellaren settlers take up the living space.

The huge Ross fleet left Gould Island almost in extreme cold.

On the lake full of thin ice floes, a group of large ships gathered, and the huge jibs raised showed the military might of the Rus.

Every cargo ship was packed to the brim, and the Russ purchased unprecedented grain and vegetables. With a population of over 10,000, they will surely have a very comfortable winter.

Some people are happy and some people are worried. For the ordinary people of the Melalen tribe, they have been full of joy in the past year, looking forward to a bumper harvest, and hoping to share some dividends in the victory of the war.

They died in battle, the wheat was taken away by the powerful, they were empty of money and money, and the emotions of sadness and anger continued to ferment in the cold wind. But King Carl was not in a good mood at all. He stood on the shore and watched the huge Rus fleet leave, and with extreme anxiety watched a group of local businessmen who followed the Rus.

"Such a powerful fleet. Avlora, such a big ship! Unfortunately, if I also have such a fleet, I don't have to worry about who dares to covet my throne. I can go south and destroy the Danish army..."

Very realistically, organizing such a fleet requires a lot of money.

The war throughout the warm season, the Russ became the big winners. They had made a lot of money from trade in previous years, and now they have looted and become richer.

He sighed and didn't care too much, just because of the rebellious strength within the tribe, the emerging Bjorn, had become the most deadly threat. The Danes are unlikely to hit Lake Mälaren in one go, but Bjorn and others have the ability to assemble a group of armed farmers and overturn their wooden walls.

"Have to find a way to get rid of them! I have to do it first."

The Rus' fleet grew farther and farther, disappearing into the tens of thousands of small islands and sandbars at the mouth of the lake.

Cold as a knife, Karl greeted his incompetent entourage back with a pathetic mood.

He is brewing a plan, a plan similar to the Hongmen Banquet, to behead the leaders of those big families, and use this violent method to kill all the doubters. It seems that only this can ensure the stability of his identity as a king.

...

The Ross fleet arrived at Tombstone Island, and some of the supplies were unloaded, especially the key wheat, which ensured the stability of this stronghold through the long winter.

Not long ago, the Åland Islands were a no-man’s land, fraught with danger by the abundance of offshore reefs.

The Rus occupied it, and a trading post and military fortress rose from the ground to become a sea pass into the Gulf of Bothnia.

After Tombstone Island is the huge Gulf of Bothnia, even if the cold wind blows, there are still a group of herring fishing boats scattered on the sea.

There were Ross fishing boats everywhere, and the soldiers temporarily took away the armored soldiers and resumed their active work for the fishermen. They tie blue and white strips of cloth to the tops of fishing boats' masts to identify themselves.

The huge Ross fleet is back!

The great Avlora is the pride of the people, she leads all the ships, and rides against the wind in the north wind on the turbulent waves.

She is an unsinkable warrior in the ice sea, an elegant Valkyrie, and the Ross flag fluttering on the mast attracts nearby fishing boats to approach.

The voyage was in Rurik's hands, and although the waves had grown rough, any fully loaded vessel would rise and fall in the surf.

The cargo ship is extremely solidly constructed, and the deck is designed to block most of the water splashing in.

It was a group of people in the cabin, those Melalen women and children who were passive immigrants, who were tossed to the point of "dying" in the non-stop vomiting.

The multi-day voyage came to fruition. A stone mound appeared in the distance. As the fleet approached, the stone mound turned into a rock mountain.

Roseburg is in the fjord under this stone mountain. The boulders block most of the cold wind, and the fjord is the best haven.

All the cargo ships docked smoothly at the trestle pier, and the people on the shore hurriedly took over the cables and fixed the ships firmly, and then they moved the goods in a tense and orderly manner.

The merchant ships that followed, as usual, rushed directly to the sandy beach and deliberately ran aground. The people on the boat disembarked with the cables, and knocked down wooden stakes on the sandy ground to tie the cables to firmly fix the long boat.

For the natives of Roseburg, the return of the huge commercial fleet meant the end of the warm period.

The north wind seemed to be getting stronger every day, like a knife, forcing the people working outdoors to cover their bodies with leather.

To the great relief of the people, as a large amount of grain was transported to the warehouse, the Duke soon set up the yard and publicly sold the latest wheat.

It’s still the old rule. The Ross people bring the stamped wooden vouchers and silver coins issued in advance to buy wheat. They have to be restricted by the purchase restriction order. When the purchased wheat is completely eaten, they can only wait until the next month. Open, continue to buy cheap food from the Duke.

Rurik set the "grain-based constitution" of the Duchy of Ross, and at least in Rossburg, this policy must be implemented stably for a long time. A silver coin for ten pounds of wheat is always the same price in good years and bad years.

Rurik, who illustrated his nobility and the legitimacy of his rule with mythological stories, used the most basic economic measures to stabilize people's hearts.

The Rusian warriors were civilians in peacetime, and the rope-cuffed backpacks made from the burlap they used to fight are now excellent grain pockets.

They happily carried a sack of wheat back home, so that the newly married wives and concubines could share a meal of wheat porridge that night.

Silver coins are only meaningful when they are exchanged for the most needed living materials for the soldiers. For the most ordinary soldiers, participating in the war is equivalent to meritorious service, and meritorious service means getting a lot of silver coins, and everyone can exchange silver coins for wheat. The Duke is fair, and the amount of wheat each person can exchange per month is limited. Holding the freshly boiled porridge in the clay bowl, they were looking forward to the Duke's new war order.

Otto finally enjoyed the long-lost peace. He lay on his warm bed, thinking that he had completely defeated the Gotlanders and his life was complete.

He turned into a puddle of mud for a while, and was extremely looking forward to the continuous distillation of the newly arrived ordinary malt wine into spirits, and then he could enjoy it beautifully by himself.

But son Rurik, there seems to be no limit to the energy of this brat!

The days are getting shorter and shorter, and the temperature continues to drop. The north wind blew the sky deep blue, and in this cold state, Rurik did not let his young men idle.

The boys and girls who went on the expedition told their friends who stayed in their hometown about the battle, and the victory stimulated them to scream.

They don't seem to know the horror of war, only the joy of victory?

Rurik doesn't matter anymore, because most of these kids are damned people. What is human nature? Giving the weak a bite to eat and a piece of clothing to keep out the cold is the greatest humanity in this barbaric era.

The vast majority of them are conservative wars, or have lost their parents due to natural disasters.

They were also lucky. Rurik considered himself to be a good man, who not only provided them with food and clothing, but also promised them a bright future.

Those Melalen children who got off the boat immediately joined the group, and the current number of boys and girls over the age of six and under twelve in Roseburg directly exceeded a thousand people.

Facts have proved that ten years later, a thousand children will definitely become the brave soldiers of the Principality of Rus. People are naturally skeptical about the strength of female fighters, but no one will deny that their participation in the war will bring about a very positive effect.

It's just that before they grow up, the cost of support is almost paid by the Duke of Ross!

And this is just the beginning!

Because those Slavic women married in previous years, as well as women obtained through other channels, their fertility is equivalent to completely becoming a Rus people recognized by the tribe. This group plus the local women of Rus people, with the increase of living conditions. In order to improve, they are desperately giving birth.

There are almost no automatic machines in this era, the operation of the country is completely dependent on manpower, and the size of the population greatly determines the upper limit of the strength of a power.

Rurik, who had returned to his hometown, was indeed very busy in Otto's eyes, and he must have an estimate of the population under the direct control of the Duchy of Rus. He hasn't done a detailed census yet, but he has basically figured out the population structure of the principality.

At present, there is a group of children with a population of 2,000 people in the four strongholds of Roseburg, Elronborg, New Roseburg and Tombstone Island under the Principality of Ross. If you look at it for a long time, this group will still be in the next ten years. will expand rapidly.

After all, in the battle of Gotland, most of the middle-aged men of Ross got at least two young women. Based on his understanding of men, Rurik was completely convinced that these women would have big belly in the spring of next year.

Having given birth to boys and girls, Rurik planned to give a small reward, an emotional sign of the Duke's importance.

When these children grow up, they can no longer be kept as they were in the past. They must be taken care of by the elites of the Principality, both men and women, who must be disciplined in their daily lives and educated.

The distant stronghold of Rurik cannot be well controlled for the time being, such as Conuson, who is in charge of the construction of the city of New Roseburg, whose behavior is simply the "Governor of New Roseburg".

Rurik gave his children a very simple order, that is, to go to remote places for large-scale logging, and to organize a group of self-proclaimed strong boys to dig iron ore in the stone mountain.

How much food does a child need for a day? Rurik reckons that half a pound of oats and a pound of fish a day is enough for a long-bodied boy, and a little less for a girl. He is so prescriptive, actually? Just such an extreme level of food is much better than before!

Rurik asked himself whether the children of the Ross tribe were not hungry and full, and even he was forced to eat very unpalatable shark meat to survive. There is no way, the Rus people in the past ate everything, and until now their living conditions have improved, they are qualified to say no to some strange foods.

Even if it was three thousand children, Rurik could raise them to the so-called twelve-year-old adulthood with his own financial resources.

This era itself does not have the concept of "children", and some only have "non-adults". No matter how young children are, they are a kind of labor, and Rurik needs them to do what they can.

Just exercise in logging and mining! Practice your martial arts while hunting in the woods!

It was the end of October, the clear sky was gone, and a blanket of dark clouds enveloped the world.

In fact, at this time, the fjord where Roseburg is located has been covered with a thin layer of ice, and those who go out to fish have completely finished their work.

In particular, the people who went to the Elrond (Kemi) and Oulu rivers desperate for salmon, most of them have returned with boat after boat of stick-frozen salmon and bass.

Everyone knows that it is going to snow, and the world will change completely after this snowfall.

Before the snowfall, the whole world had fallen below freezing point, and people no longer had to worry that the food they had stored would spoil. Outside the fisherman's house, a large number of frozen fish that had been gutted were piled into a wall like bricks. Indoors, thick wood-cut storage hangs an abundance of cured meats, bacon, and limited-edition vegetables and wheat from the Duke.

They don't have to worry about the lack of firewood for their fireplace, because the children under Rurik's command completely destroyed a pine forest not far from Roseburg with axes and double saws! Even children can become the craziest loggers when they master new tools. They made a lot of firewood, which was used as heating fuel for their dormitories, and sold to Ross families to earn a small sum of money to subsidize their living.

Even when a large number of people rushed into Roseburg, the inherently varied buildings can indeed accommodate so many people, that is, everyone must be crowded for daily rest.

Snow has finally fallen!

At first it was Yukiko, then there were endless snowflakes. Large clusters of snowflakes quickly cling to everything in the north wind, and although everyone dislikes it, a bad blizzard hits the entire Nordic world!

A cold snap from the North Pole penetrated through the geographical gap between the Scandinavian central mountains and the Murmansk highlands. It swept directly across the Rus's Elon Orava Fort, then swept through the Ross Fort, and then It was the entire Gulf of Bothnia, Lake Mälaren, the entire Svealan plain, and finally rushed directly to the Rhine, and its aftermath was blocked by the towering Alps.

Trapped in the blizzard, Rurik was naturally worried about the safety of other residents of Roseburg. Unfortunately, the outdoor wind was like a tomahawk, and the air was so cold that it seemed to freeze everything.

"Maybe the temperature at night is already minus 20 degrees. The Nordic world is cold, but fortunately the woodcut is really warm." Rurik can only hope that the large-scale civil engineering projects that have arisen in the entire Roseburg in the past few years will rise from the ground. A large number of wood carvings can replace the traditional mud wood longhouse to bring the ultimate warmth.

Those craftsmen who have been rewarded and made money for military service, they follow the trend of building new houses. The thick logs are stacked tenon and tenon, and the exterior is covered with a layer of moss soil, and then another layer of logs is stacked. The matching stone fireplace and stone chimney make heating comfortable.

It took a lot of effort to build this kind of house. Fortunately, the Rus people help each other in a simple way. The most sturdy men, their houses have been completely renovated.

As for those who still live in the old house, they...

As cruel as this is, a group of poor and infirm may well die in their sleep on a cold night. They are all old people. Rurik asked these old people to work hard and get a little reward for their life in the warm period. Now he is really helpless in the blizzard.

No one will complain, or even regret, because of this.

Thunder is Thor's divine power, so the blizzard is the test of Odin! Those who cannot stand the test will naturally freeze to death.

The cold wind outside brought a whistle, and the snow had already covered the thick doors. A large number of people wrapped in animal skins were crammed into the wood carvings. Before the blizzard was over, they could only go on.

This snow can't last a month, can it?

Rurik believed that it was already November in the Julian calendar when the snow stopped, and a brace was very likely in the blizzard.

In a warm and calm interior, Rurik gathered with his family and his closest women.

Rumia, Carlotta, Ella, and Seporava surrounded Rurik, and they sat around the square table in front of the fireplace with Otto and Nia.

Like hiding in a safe cave, they have forgotten about time. Life became extremely boring, and Rurik had to do something about mathematics to let his women develop IQ.

Of course, this year is the same as in previous years, and some very critical matters still need to be discussed.

In the warm home, Rurik and Otto have negotiated the formal placement of the captured people.

It is necessary to increase the number of immigrants to New Roseburg, and some of the native men must move to the warmer New Roseburg with their families to open up new farmland to settle down.

Especially those debt slaves, the Duke of Ross controls the debt and has the right to arrange their future. Almost all of those debt slaves were women with their children, and they all had to immigrate to New Roseburg. As for marrying a new husband, Rurik remembered a group of 400 Slavic men who had betrayed their farms and moved to Novi Rosberg. They were all meritorious in the war, and maybe they only rewarded a few silver coins and iron tools. , wouldn't it be nice to reward them with a group of Varyag women as wives?

But the price was the generational payment of agricultural taxes and the obligation to accept conscription.

Otto did not object to these plans in Rurik, but he did not explicitly support them. It was just because Otto was quite agitated now, and it was clear that the spirits were still being distilled.

Otto was still thinking about one thing: "Rurik, we have to go to Elrond when the snow stops."

"Winter hunting, I get it! We'll make a fortune on it, and the wood."

"Not just that. There are also Balmerk merchants, maybe they're already in the warm houses of Elrond."

Balmers? ! Rurik slapped his forehead and suddenly remembered the business trips of the Balmerk tribe, the Norwegian visitors from Narvik Port.

"Their salt is very good, and we should trade with them fully. There is also a new batch of wood for the mast, the northern fir is of excellent quality. I was worried that the mast of the Avlora was fragile, and now it seems that I am more Think about it. There are still two large ships with their hulls finished, and there is only one mast left!"

Otto smiled: "I do care a lot about this. Haha, we will have three Avroras next year."

"No! One of them has been named the Gouldot, and she was built at Gould's expense. The name of the other is to be determined."

"Oh, when the time comes, you can think of a good name." Otto subconsciously looked at the closed damper again and patted his old face, which was heated by the bonfire: "The Kewen people of Elronborg, and the Kewen people of the Oulu River. Literati, they've all done their tribute. I just want to go bear hunting now. Listen, the bearskin scares Karl, looks like we need to organize a bearskin Berserker."

"It's not difficult." Rurik shrugged, he was woken up by his father, and a strong idea of ​​hunting bears emerged in his heart.

And the blizzard also ended on November 3 in the Julian calendar, so it has ravaged Roseburg for more than a week!

The world changed because the waters of the Gulf of Bothnia had completely frozen, and ice packs bulging due to the tension of the sea surface appeared.

In 831, a new winter came.