Rise of Rurik - Chapter 687

[Chapter 688 When the Perch Flies Out of the Ice Cave]

The Slavic people around Lake Ilmen fell into poverty and boredom when they finished their annual busy farming season.

The climate in this area is naturally far worse than that of the Ukrainian steppes in the far south, and at least slightly better than the fragile agriculture in northern Europe.

However, the primitive agriculture made it difficult for the small-scale peasant economy to exist. All farmers could only build collective farms and rely on each other to help each other take care of the large-scale farmland.

Now that there is paper made of birch bark, transcribing the information written on the wooden board onto paper is the major follow-up work of Rurik and his wives and concubines.

The transcription work was carried out in an orderly manner, and the special problem of land ownership was exposed.

Because there are no small farmers in the full sense here, even in White Tree Manor, there are some areas that belong to “all of us”.

It is everyone’s land, it is public land, and everyone should cultivate it together, so that no matter whether the harvest is good or bad, the families participating in the farming will get an average output.

As for the ownership of the freely developed land, the farmer’s family has to be responsible for its own profits and losses, and if it cannot continue to operate, it will be sold.

Therefore, out of the consideration of maximizing profits, the farmers of Baishu Manor planted private land as well as public land.

The primitive communal agriculture is disintegrating spontaneously, and the small peasant economy is developing.

But is the vast forest area in northern Eastern Europe suitable for small farmers?

In other words, any agricultural economic activity is formed by the influence of realistic geographical factors, and people are selfish. Isn’t it because farmers have limited benefits and huge risks because they go out alone to keep warm?

The land of Eastern Europe that Rurik knew, the agricultural reform carried out by Tsar Alexander II was to dismantle the old farm system and turn it into overwhelming small farmers, so that the Tsar could directly collect taxes on farmers.

In theory this was progress, and the result was a host of new landowners, and thousands of bankrupts.

Millions of bankrupts have lost everything, forming another torrent…

“The farm system cannot be changed. Letting them work alone is to let them die. They must be reunited with each other. At worst, I will organize a production team for them, give them farm tools, and let them choose their own leaders. Every year, according to their farmland area, Taxes are collected in proportion to the average yield per mu.”

Rurik breathed a sigh of relief, he really didn’t go to the field to count the statistics himself, he took it for granted that they were the most small farmers, but in fact, White Tree Manor was still a primitive commune, and the situation in other farms was similar.

Those enshrined large groups of boyar nobles may not really be far superior to other people on the farm when it comes to wealth.

The farms are more of a mutual help system, but some nobles have already been born, they are already stronger than ordinary farmers, and they can only become stronger in the future.

“Is this a good thing? It would be a good thing if they could get the farm to pay me rent and taxes.”

If each farm divides public land and private land, a statistical distinction must be made.

Now that paper exists, there is no need to worry about storage when recording these contents. The cut paper changes from about the size of A3 paper to A4 paper, which is reduced in half and is more dexterous in the hand.

The size of the paper is only smaller, because Rurik ordered his wives and concubines to write down the information in a small enough size, and only one side of a piece of paper is enough to record an astonishing amount of information than before.

Textual information is recorded in classical Latin, and a large number of numbers are in Arabic letters.

Why do we have to use Latin? Rurik can look at these things from the perspective of a long history, just like the official script in the East can keep the writing style and meaning unchanged for two thousand years, and the classical Latin in the West can keep the meaning for two thousand years.

Classical Latin is not dead. It is the writing system used within the priesthood. The scriptures transcribed by it have been confirmed by Emperor Constantine. In order to ensure the purity of faith, the priests of all ages have guaranteed the spelling and meaning of phrases in this language. Not drifting.

The wives and concubines have experienced the whole winter of last year. They have learned the use of common vocabulary in classical Latin from John Invar. enough.

What’s more, John Ingvar, a young man, has been dragged to Novgorod. He happens to be a linguistics consultant, and Rurik is also very willing to keep the future official documents of the Principality of Ross in classical Latin.

He firmly believes that as long as this is done, the paper documents will be kept forever, and even if the documents are really decayed and damaged, they will continue to be copied in Latin, so that they can be preserved for thousands of years, so that distant generations can know their ancestors.

Because these documents, even if they are only the initial “Field Survey Report”, are extremely critical historical materials.

They are the documents that constitute the soul of the Ross state.

The Western Empire has been dead for four hundred years, and the Eastern Empire is still holding on.

Just like there is no Rome in the world after 1453, just like Rome is everywhere in the world after 1453.

If the classical Latin of Rome is fully revived in the elite aristocratic circles of the Duchy of Ross, Rome is not resurrected in Northern Europe, but it is equivalent to a certain kind of resurrection.

Why didn’t the Romans do this spiritual behavior?

In the long run, as long as Latin is popularized, the descendants of the Principality will have cheap information communication tools.

Whether it is the Vikings from various tribes in Northern Europe (including the Ross tribe), the Pan-Slavs everywhere, and the Pan-Finns with a limited population, everyone speaks as many as three languages, including their own dialects. What a mess?

A country should have a language that everyone can recognize each other accurately, even if the largest population still speaks their own language, at least everyone in the upper circles should speak Latin.

If everyone learns it, the governance output of the principality will also plummet.

It even cut off the possibility of the separation of the three ethnic groups from the root.

With his oriental thinking, Rurik just doesn’t like the structure of a small country with few people.

He had wanted to do this for a long time, but last year he only implemented it among his wives and concubines, and the results began to manifest perfectly this year.

They are writing the official documents and archives of the Principality of Ross in Latin, which is tantamount to further deepening the memory.

The offspring they bore must inherit it all, and the children and grandchildren have to pass it on.

Even Noren of Narvik Port picked up a quill to write Latin. She lacked knowledge of Rome and was too lazy to understand it. However, she leaned on the table and wrote curved letters on the light paper of the oil lamp. This feeling is really wonderful.

This is the official job of the scribes. It is exciting to think about the beautiful girl named Noren in the distant past to record the information and pass it on for a thousand years, so that future generations will remember.

The work of transcribing didn’t take too long, after all, the information they got from surveying and mapping was not as huge as imagined, at least for now.

Before the paper was used up, the information was transcribed, and those wooden boards could probably be burned as firewood.

“Burn it? Is it necessary? We have put in a lot of effort.” Svetlana dissuaded everyone on behalf of everyone with a puzzled mood.

“Apart from taking up the space of the entire room, is there any need for them to exist?” Rurik asked.

“However, we transport them so carefully…”

“Yes. But we have better paper, and these wooden boards can be destroyed. Including those wooden boards that record ancient stories stored in our hometown of Ross, you need to copy them on lightweight paper. After the snow melts, we have to For further surveying and mapping, we need a huge amount of paper, and new papermaking work is about to start!”

With paper, the possibilities are endless!

This is not just as simple as recording and disseminating knowledge, but also requires manpower and material resources to make it, and it provides job opportunities to local Slavs who are bored after the busy farming season.

A new round of snowfall occurred in the first ten days of December in the Julian calendar. This time it did not last long, but the snowfall was more serious.

Lake Ilmen is not too small. When the forest was covered with snow, the snow on the frozen lake was blown away by the severe north wind.

In the past, local residents lacked the ability and willingness to dig ice and fish.

The Ross people are different. When they spend the winter here for the first time, they carry a big ax to dig a big hole in the ice half a meter behind.

Rurik allowed the mercenaries he had brought to do this, and old Otto ordered some of his old buddies to do the same.

The Russians reproduced the winter fishing work in the depths of the Gulf of Bothnia in the frozen lakes of Eastern Europe. A number of large holes were dug out to stir the lake surface slightly, which gave a strong stimulus to the bass under the lake.

Fish under the ice in winter are generally a little hypoxic, and they are keenly aware of the breath of fresh oxygen, although fish will swarm when the ice breaks.

No, the frenzied perch even jumped out of the hole, and the ice-cutter Ross laughed out loud and waited for the fish.

In such a situation, the local onlookers of the Slavs were dumbfounded, or the Russians have the supernatural power to make fish jump out by themselves, or it has nothing to do with supernatural power but has a direct relationship with strength.

If there is someone who is the first to eat crabs, he can be sure that digging ice to catch fish is amazing. Even if digging ice is a very heavy physical work, the local Slavs are willing to do it.

They are not as strong as the burly Ross people like bears. They cherish limited iron tools more, and they are afraid of the cold and dare not leave the farm too far. They even have poor fishing techniques in warm periods, which leads to the misconception that there are not many fish in this lake. Know.

Many factors led them to see the winter catching miracle performed by the Ross people.

Actually?

After the crusade against the rebel Pine Needle Manor, the regular troops from the Duchy of Ross’s hometown swept the lake area with advanced trawlers, which proved that the lake was surrounded by a group of farms, and the Great Lake was almost undeveloped.

After the heavy snow in December, the city of Novgorod protected by the wall began to smell the smell of grilled fish.

The Ross people have not invented the “Chagan Lake style” winter fishing technique. Although Rurik knows this method, he only knows the surface. It may be unnecessary to study and implement it, because fishing with traditional fishing methods has achieved remarkable results.

A special city wall appeared in the city of Novgorod, and its bricks were frozen fish.

Grilled fish is the most traditional way of eating. People from various Viking tribes have to go out on their way. When they meet a pond, they fish out the fish, pinch the head, remove the tail, dissect the internal organs, put them on the branches, sprinkle salt, roast and gnaw the fish meat, and they will become an authentic dish. Viking picnic.

The same is true for the Russians, but the local Slavs’ method is to stew fish.

Due to the environment, the local people guard the almost infinitely broad forest and have more time to pick mushrooms throughout the year, especially in the forest after the rain in September. Men and women from all farms are willing to pick mushrooms.

The most common oyster mushrooms are rare and delicious chanterelle mushrooms, truffles, pine milk mushrooms, and so on.

Most of the girls who pick mushrooms have picked edible mushrooms. As for the existence of poisonous mushrooms, there is a small probability of eating poisonous mushrooms.

Unlike the Viking tribes, there are cases where they deliberately eat poisonous mushrooms in order to have hallucinations and communicate with the ancestors living in Asgard.

They use sun-dried and dried mushrooms to stew with fish. The most commonly caught sea bass in Lake Ilmen is delicious and tender, and the guanylic acid and glutamic acid contained in sun-dried mushrooms make the umami more delicious. Up to a higher level, thus making up for the long-term regret that local people have difficulty obtaining salt due to geographical limitations.

The Ross people have come, and the Ross people want to settle down, and the problem of salt supply has been greatly improved!

Stewed sea bass with mushrooms, put more salt to cope with the severe cold, served with onions brought from home and dried thyme picked locally, this pot of soup can be described as a delicacy of this era.

Nobles are able to enjoy this kind of delicious meal, and the people living in the White Tree Manor in Novgorod are not at a loss. Rurik sold a batch of salt, and now he simply recruited a group of farmers who are not in the field to serve them with salt as a reward. Continue to make paper by yourself.

These farmers were none other than soldiers of the Slavic flag team. Rurik’s move was to give his soldiers a chance to gain benefits.

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The big men who boiled hemp were all used, and the potters in the farm also smelled the breath of profit, and new big men began to make.

All these measures required logging and charcoal making, which further stimulated the enthusiasm of the forced idlers.

Logging wears out the axes, and the locals, whose skills Kawi had taught them, began clumsily making a living as blacksmiths.

The so-called blacksmiths are still unable to turn ore into tools, at least there is no problem in repairing worn axes.

As for the locals seeing the Ross people using a two-man saw to simply and roughly saw off the big tree, that was another kind of shock.

It was almost Hanukkah among the Rus, and it was also a great festival for the Slavic people around Lake Ilmen.

The Eastern Slavs are composed of multiple tribal alliances, and the group in Lake Ilmen is the northeast ethnic group.

In this colder region, they worshiped the god of fire, Peron, and for example, the Radmitch tribe who lived near the Pripet swamp, and they had to offer sacrifices to the swamp god Cherno to avoid disasters.

Of course the Peron God of the local people should be respected, but the men of the entire White Tree Manor fought many vicious battles for the Duchy of Ross, and made great contributions with their blood. The dead were finally cremated with the etiquette of the Ross people. The so-called souls have gone Asgard and even the Temple of Valhalla.

They are already Odin’s warriors in the real sense, and they have the right and must participate in the sacrifice to Odin!

Indo-European tribes living in different regions will have a grand day on the day of the winter solstice.

The reason for the coincidence is not only that they have a common ancestor, but also that this day is too characteristic.

On this day, the daylight is extremely short, and people at high latitudes can most notice it.

People can even feel that the daytime will get longer and longer after this day. Such a unique day must be arranged by God, and it is really unreasonable if it is not sacrificed.

What’s more, this year is indeed extraordinary. Rurik’s presence made the few local priests who are good at smearing their faces with chalk mud quietly retreat.

Which blind fool dares to compete with the Duke for divine power?

The priests also noticed the change in the mentality of the people. The men regarded themselves as New Ross people, and so did their family members. The originally boring winter was suddenly full of excitement. See tangible benefits, such as exciting salt and silver coins.

Rose’s army easily destroyed Pine Needle Manor, and Lord Rurik has the final say on the sacrificial offerings at White Tree Manor this year?

Coincidentally, the winter solstice on December 28 of the Julian calendar is approaching, and Rurik already knows a lot about the rituals of the Slavs from his beloved wife Svetlana. If he becomes the high priest himself, he will Can complete the work, after all, I have done this kind of thing as a priest too many times at the stone boat altar in Fort Rose.

wait!

Stone Ship Altar?

Novgorod lacks a stone boat altar here!

Is this worth it?

Build one now.

Since the local granite is scarce, we use wooden piles to piece together one.

Also consider the feelings of the local Slavs, a wooden tower should be erected and then set ablaze!

In this way, a cow was sacrificed to Odin at the “wooden boat altar”, and then the fire tower was lit to sacrifice to Peron of the Slavs.

As for the priests, his wives and concubines already acted as priests. This year, there is only one less priest here, Rumia.

“It doesn’t matter. Roseburg will become a pure iron smelting and shipbuilding city sooner or later. New Roseburg is the capital of a country. A permanent and larger temple will be built in New Roseburg, and the golden statue of the temple in Roseburg will be built. Move here, let Lumia sit in charge, this matter will be done next year.”

Rurik had already made up his mind, and Rigus could only welcome it, and he and his son Medved did give their full support.

What’s more, the princess of the principality, the future high priest Vilia, she is the gift of winter, and the grand sacrifice of Hanukkah on the winter solstice is also her birthday.

How could this sacrifice be without her?

Rurik planned to let his daughter show off at the sacrificial event.

And another piece of good news came along with a woman’s painful cry…

[End of this Chapter]