Chapter 844: When 4 Standard Cargo Ships Are Launched

A gentle spring rain falls on the earth, which greatly accelerates the melting rate of the remaining snow. Although it creates extreme muddy conditions in the entire region, people know that after this rain ends, when the earth becomes dry, spring plowing can be fully started. .

People are waiting at home for the last time. Each farmer has sorted out his own crops, the columbine used for sowing has been properly repaired, and the plows have been polished to a shiny finish. They checked their shovels, hoes, and axes, checked their baskets and ropes, and washed the linen towels they used to wipe their sweat clean.

Rurik is also preparing for farming. Although the specific planting work is left to slaves or even hired by some farmers, it undoubtedly has excellent resources in the preparation of planting tools and animal power resources.

Almost all horses belong to him, and whether the horses are assigned as riding horses or pack horses is in principle based on his likes and dislikes.

Although in principle the purpose of riding a horse is and can only be used in battles, it is best to use it to carry things or pull a plow at critical moments.

Whether to plow by horses or by oxen was never a question for Ross.

Based on the current situation in Ross, or the current situation of Slav farming under Ross, due to economic and historical reasons, they rarely get cattle and only a small number of horses, not to mention that they are extremely short of iron tools. It was ten years ago that the Slavs around Lake Ilmen received large-scale iron exports from the Rus for the first time, and this was how they began to sow innovation.

They had completely evolved from fishing and hunting nomads on the Vistula River into settled farmers. At that time, they relied on human power to pull wooden plows to plow the soil, and only a handful of nobles could use horses to cultivate the land.

The Quyuan Plow is one of the key products exported by the Principality of Ross in agricultural technology, and its core component is the metal plow. The plow made of pig iron became a mass-produced tool, including shovels and hoes, which were all cast mass-produced tools.

You can buy a shovel head for only three to five silver coins, and the farmer can make a wooden handle and fasten it tightly to become a shovel or shovel.

Because the curved shaft plow uses up to three shovel heads, as for the wooden structure on it, in principle, the farmer's family can make it themselves. Mass production drove down the price, and the finished plow was priced at one pound of silver coins by Rurik. For an ordinary small Slavic family, if the whole family took good care of the farmland during the warm period, actively worked as part-time handicraft workers for the prince during the slack period, and lived frugally, the year's output would have enough surplus to buy a curved shaft plow.

A group of farmers even modified the shovels they purchased, imitating the curved shaft plow and made their own wooden parts from fir, and finally inserted the shovel at an angle. This was a spontaneous twist on their traditional wooden plow. Of course, every family The forcibly transformed new plows come in all shapes and sizes, and they are indifferent to them as they are results-oriented.

At most, farmer families raise some poultry and rabbits. The chickens they raise do not eat meat, but simply consume eggs. The rabbits they raise eat meat, and more importantly, they keep an eye on the rabbit skin.

At that time, their productivity level was too low, and they had to rely on dozens or hundreds of blood-related families to work together. Men, women, old and young all worked together to cultivate, sow and harvest. Now each small family has private property and private land, and the basis of production means for realizing the small-scale peasant economy already exists. The transformation of traditional farms into the vast ocean of small-scale peasant economy is slowly proceeding.

But their productivity levels are still too low!

Even if it sits on the fertile acres of land on the shores of Lake Ilmen, the fertility of the land is still higher than that of the forest area. In terms of high fertility, the fields in the Kiev region have real black soil, and the climate is very good as it is adjacent to the Black Sea. Controlling the vast plains in the south is on the future road map for Russian conquest, but it is not something that can be done now, let alone in the next few years.

The vast majority of Slavic farmers still had to rely on manpower to cultivate, sow, and bury soil. At least these labor-intensive operations were replaced by iron plows and columbuses, which made it much easier than before.

But the real descendants of the old Rus, as the top ethnic group in the principality, enjoy the love of the prince, and their farming will fully use horses.

There are only cows in the Principality of Rus, and cows are raised to obtain milk to make storable cheese and butter. Their breed is not the Holstein cows with amazing milk production. In essence, it is still the initial domestication of the European aurochs. Those cows have huge horns that point straight forward. If such domesticated cows are frightened, they can spread their hooves and charge wildly. It is not inappropriate to become a tool for killing enemies.

Ross's cattle were not as docile, and Ross's horses were much better controlled overall.

The war horses transformed into plow horses. When they completed the spring plowing, they entered the breeding period of the herd. At that time, all the mares entered the summer training period and fertility period. Ross also takes the opportunity to get some mare's milk.

Mare's milk can make wine, but there is no relevant process for making mare's milk rosé. But mare’s milk can be drunk, and as a special diet, Rurik himself is willing to taste it.

The spring rain nourishes the world, and people of all colors around Lake Ilmen and New Roseburg are preparing for spring plowing.

The majority of merchants simply have to wait for the spring rain to end, because the ice sea has thawed, and all ships pushed ashore must enter the sea. The goods stored in the warehouse can be transported away as soon as possible. As for whether they can be transported generously to Mälaren, Sweden, or whether they can be transported quietly to Denmark at the risk of being killed, it all depends on the merchant's own wishes.

Ross has been a fur supplier in this area for the past hundred years. Now Ross's leather industry, or the entire handmade textile and leather industry, has achieved dominance.

Some merchants are no longer transporting simply tanned leather, but finished linen clothes, leather clothes, leather boots, hats, gloves, belts, linen pockets, and even backpacks. After processing once, the price of the finished goods will naturally increase. Merchants are very willing to spend more money to buy it. As second-tier dealers, they can earn more as long as they successfully sell it again.

How did Rurik allow various businessmen to plunder his own interests? The finished leather and linen textile products are exported to the West by the Gould family. Since Ross's own consumption must be satisfied first, the number of products exported to Sweden is not very large, and the prices are not extreme, at least for the peasant women of the Mälaren people. Can afford it.

Only bear skin, mink skin and fox skin are the best leathers. For example, deer skin has been unable to rise in price due to the high supply, while squirrel skin has become an absolute bargain due to the extreme production volume.

Various settlements are agitated, and every day people are personally exploring whether the land is still muddy after the rain.

The Slavs need to sacrifice to the God of Spring. The principle is that beautiful girls collect newly grown wild flowers to make corollas, present bouquets to the wood carvings of the gods, pray for warmth, and then offer wheat seeds to pray to the gods for a good harvest. Now that Rus rules here, the rituals of farming have added "bloody" rituals as always.

After all, this year is different from previous years. It can be said that three generations of Russian princes gathered in Novgorod. There is no big temple in this city, but at least there is a stone ship altar made of granite.

The high priest himself was in New Roseburg, and Rurik took up the priest's job as a matter of course.

Although the land is not completely dry, there is mud all over your hands when you put the hoe down, so the opportunity is fully ripe for worship before spring plowing.

The prince issued a notice to hold the sacrificial activities, and thousands of people flocked to the altar outside the city. People dressed in spring clothes dragged their families with them, making the sacrificial scene crowded.

The young and extremely beautiful girl is dressed in a plain white robe, with a corolla made of young pine buds and wild flowers on her head. In order to increase the gorgeousness, some glass beads are also hung on the corolla.

Old Otto never wanted others to see the decline of his age. Anyway, his face was white, so he smeared a small amount of chalk mud powder on his old face to try to cover up some age spots. He has a strange braided beard, a leather helmet inlaid with gold on his head, a bear skin on his body, and a long sword on his waist. He used a halberd as a wooden staff, and without any support from his entourage, he sat down and supervised the normal sacrifice like an old general.

Queen Svetlana is holding Osborne Slav with big light blue eyes. In principle, this boy is the first heir to the third generation of princes. The queen took the prince to participate in the priesthood before spring plowing, just to give the Slavs, the largest number in the region, a good look.

A stag was killed by Rurik himself as a sacrifice, and the earth was moistened with its blood as a sacrifice to the god of spring and wealth in Rus. The ceremony continues with the presentation of flowers and wheat seeds to the Slavic god of spring.

This wasn't the end yet, a fire tower was still lit at night, for no particular reason other than Rurik himself liked it.

At night, the fire tower lit up. Although it was not large, it attracted many people to watch. People all worship fire, so the prince's insistence on lighting the fire tower naturally had his own intention. Flame represents power, and the burning flame is also like a starting signal.

The next day, a perfect sunny day!

The time has entered April in the Julian calendar. Although Rurik himself is not in New Roseburg, he is sure that the businessmen there have already begun to take action. Because here in Novgorod, many forces are ready to move.

Kagan and Maksakye urged the Russians to start spring plowing as soon as possible. They took the opportunity to lend horses to farmers for plowing, and took the opportunity to earn some supplies, and then organized horse teams to go south home with a large amount of goods. valley

King Bjorn of Sweden was in extremely complicated mood. He was not really willing to give up the throne, but the current situation forced him to give up the throne. Rurik of Rus gave himself a decent enough opportunity. He knew that he could not delay the time, but it was already April. The Prince of Rus himself would come to Lake Mälaren and be crowned King of Sweden at the Great Temple of Uppsala. .

The mentality of other nobles was surprisingly consistent. They wanted Rurik to arrive at Lake Malaren as soon as possible to complete his enthronement, and they wanted to take the boat back now.

The Swedish nobles and noble envoys all arrived in the hinterland of the far east on the Ross ship. They all clearly noticed that the people here were preparing for spring plowing with great fanfare, which suddenly made them very nervous, fearing that their own territory in the far west, their own The tribesmen are not good at spring plowing.

These same people were looking forward to another thing - the big ship being ordered.

The Hortra family built two new shipbuilding workshops in the east. Karl, the second eldest son of the family, and Stein, the third eldest son of the family, managed Novorosberg and Novgorod respectively under the arrangement and funding of Rurik himself. Two shipbuilding workshops.

In Novgorod, Laosan Stein, who is in charge of the local shipbuilding business, mainly manufactures traditional rowing long boats in the inner lake area due to industrial structural arrangements, and this winter he has copied the design Drawings to manufacture standard armed cargo ships/fishing boats.

As many as four large ships are hidden in the large, airtight wooden factory. Thanks to the inexhaustible supply of giant fir trees in the area, the factory can be built huge even with wooden materials.

Rurik was the first to announce the sale of a standard cargo ship to old Swedish friends, with one hundred pounds of silver coins. He had very flexible standards and doubled the price on the pretext of a snowstorm.

Look at these nobles, they are scrambling to see how the boats that have been built for a winter are doing. Rurik's deliberate price increase does not dissuade them from buying the boats at all.

Spring plowing is bound to begin in full force over the next two or three days, for Ross's inland shipyards, as the ground becomes dry enough and critical work will be carried out.

The Swedish nobles, who have been looking forward to the big ship for a long time, have been asked not to spy on the construction progress of the shipyard, but they still quietly sent spies to gather information, and they were convinced that the Russians were building big ships at an extremely fast speed, and the Mellaren tribe was indeed We can get the five ships we ordered at huge sums of money this year.

The nobles all received the invitation, and one or two, led by Rurik, arrived outside the shipyard.

"I saw you laid a lot of pine wood? What is this?" Bjorn couldn't help but ask.

Rurik secretly wondered why this guy has never seen the world? He pointed to the rows of stripped pine trees: "This is the track. They will push out the hull of the big ship in a while."

Bjorn was a curious baby, and pointed to another wooden pole and hemp rope to assemble a huge staircase: "What is that?"

"It's the place where the mast is installed. King of Sweden, don't ask any more questions, just watch it with peace of mind."

Bjorn was more talkative, and the Pecheneg princes Kagan and Maksakye were also onlookers. They were surprisingly curious when they saw the process of Ross building the big ship, because they didn't understand it at all, so they just couldn't talk about it.

The track began to be smeared with a mixture of whale oil and seal oil by craftsmen carrying wooden barrels. Behind it, after opening the wooden door, two rows of strong men walked out. More than 30 people pulled some cables reasonably to pull out the inner hull.

The waterline length of a standard cargo ship is also equivalent to thirty meters, which is quite slender, especially after it is pulled outdoors. The main mast, a small stern mast, and a forward mast like a narwhal need to be installed when changing the hull. Even for a standard cargo ship, improvements to it have never been heard of. The hull itself will not change. The objects added to the hull are just the imagination of the shipbuilder.

The process of installing the mast is very exciting. For the Hotla family, this is just a laborious job. The brothers and hired men are all very skilled.

It was only in the morning, and the four ships that were pushed out had all completed the installation and fixation of their masts, and even the mainmast's jib was hung up.

The four boats entered and were pushed to the lakeside in full view of everyone. Each boat stood on a very delicate platform. Obviously, if the four cables pulling the big boat were broken, each boat could slide in sideways along the high-slope slide. In the lake.

The boat launching process is another wonderful thing.

Each industry believes in its own patron saint. Even if Rurik, who has been blessed by God, is present, Steinhotlasson is adhering to the tradition of his family and industry. If he builds a small boat, he can build any boat with a deck. Big ships have to be careful.

Instead of Rus' customary sacrifice of deer, the Hotla family sacrificed fresh fish.

They sacrificed fish and prayed to the river gods, lake gods, and sea gods. Afterwards, people holding torches rushed to the ships and burned the cables directly.

Rurik never paid much attention to this kind of thing. Who would have thought that they would break the rope in this way? Obviously this is the professionalism of masters in the shipbuilding industry, and I was very interested in watching the whole process.

The cable is on fire! Slowly it began to tear and be torn apart, and a large ship suddenly slid into the water with violent splashes. Although the hull shook very violently, it swayed left and right for a while and then stabilized.

The four boats fell asleep one after another, and the onlookers cheered when they witnessed this grand event.

Bjorn's nervous face finally showed a smile. He approached Rurik, completely ignoring the attitudes of other nobles and envoys, pointing to the four boats launched into the water: "I bought five of your boats, and these four are mine! You have to help me lead me back to Melalen!"

"Okay. But money..."

"I will pay in August, and I guarantee it with my honor. If I break my promise, you can chop off my head. As for other things..." Bjorn said it seriously and winked hard.

"I know, you don't need to remind me again."

It would be better for Bjorn to become king, but it would be difficult for Rus to directly rule Mellaren, and he would still have to support an agent to manage on his behalf. This person is undoubtedly Bjorn. This is a secret political deal between Rurik and this guy.

Four boats were launched, and in fact thousands of people watched the process. For the big boat to be as steady as water, the onlookers thought this was a good sign.

Spring plowing activities have finally begun. All along the shores of Lake Ilmen, regardless of men, women, old or young, or high or low status, almost everyone is involved in spring plowing-related work. Find Shuyuan www.zhaoshuyuan.com

As a monarch, Rurik deliberately put on a show, and worked with Queen Svetlana to control the horse-drawn plow to sow wheat in the prince's private fields in front of the public.

He worked symbolically for the first time, and articles praising the hard work of the prince and his wife were printed on paper and posted everywhere. What the prince did with his private land was up to him and the people had no interest in it, but they were happy that the prince showed an emphasis on farming.

Horses were used as much as possible for spring plowing. Due to the sufficient labor force, the spring plowing work in Novgorod, Mstisk, Youth City, and the three core areas controlled by the Rus on Lake Ilmen was completed within ten days. On the surface, it has entered a slack period, and Rurik is not willing to leave everyone idle.

He also issued another order to gather the brave men in the principality, organize an army, and take the main force of the fleet directly to Lake Mälaren to obtain the entire Swedish throne belonging to Rurik.

In this way, the old Russians, Vikings and Slavs from all walks of life were excited about it. Everyone hoped that they could win this honor and witness the upgrade of Rurik's title from prince (princep) to king (kuniag).

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