Rise of Rurik - Chapter 728

[Chapter 729 The Wheat of Mstisk]

In Novostara Rurik learned something further south, and the Lovati River, which was said to lead to Smolensk, went straight south. The Ostara explored, but hunted Other than some squirrels and otters, nothing new was found.

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The men were in charge of pioneering, but their homeland in northern Europe were professional farmers, and the footsteps of exploration did not extend too far, nor did they find merchants from the south.

The forest is quiet, and the presence of birds and beasts further sets off the silence here. It seems that a large area to the south is a no-man’s land.

“It seems that the principality is the southern border, and some defensive measures should be taken to prevent accidents.”

Rurik felt that his guess was correct. Since the waterway can extend all the way to Smolensk, it is best for the other party to keep peace. If there is hostility, the other party can go down the river, so New Ostara is very sad. once again became a battlefield.

Such speculation surprised Carlotta.

She once again thought of the horror of being dominated by the tragedy of corpses in her hometown. As for how to deal with the crisis, the military protection of Prince Ross was first of all needed. In addition, the city of New Ostara must also be fortified.

Rurik is very happy that the cattle and sheep here have the potential to thrive, but his hope of drinking milk and eating cheese has come to nothing.

The fleet circled Lake Ilmen, and all the surrendered farms were inspected by the prince.

Rurik had a very important harvest. He saw those farmlands with his own eyes. Comparing the growth of wheat in different farms, it is obvious that the layout of the wheat in Novgorod and Mstiysk, which completely adopt the drill technology, is very regular. At the same time, the effect of earing is also better.

The seed drill technology not only brings the ultimate year-on-year high yield, but also saves labor during the harvest period.

The wheat harvest season is finally around the corner!

Rurik’s fleet had just returned to Mstisk when a light rain came unexpectedly.

The rain came untimely, as if the gods were playing a joke on people.

The climate in Eastern Europe is always like this. The summer rain is always accompanied by severe cooling, especially the rain in August. Even the light rain makes people feel full of autumn.

Fortunately, this is only the fluctuation of the air flow causing the rain. If there is a frenzied arctic current moving southward, it will cause severe frost disasters, which will almost destroy this year’s autumn harvest.

The erosion of the cold current usually occurs in September, although the possibility of appearing in August is not high. Once the season of crop maturity comes, no one dares to fight against the gods, and the autumn harvest will definitely not be delayed until September.

The local Slavs are preparing scythes for the farm, and there are also a batch of small scythes with short handles.

The method of harvesting in autumn is like this. Facing the large fields of the farm, the labor force of the whole farm, regardless of gender, gathers.

The middle-aged men all use the long-handled scythe, and they can be divided into multiple groups, and each group controls the scythe in rotation, so as to achieve the effect of the scythe always harvesting.

The scythe draws a semicircle back and forth across the farmland. This process is very dangerous. The straw is cut down crazily. If there is a person standing in front of him, the scythe will cut off the calf of the predecessor with a swing by the man.

The severed wheat stalks and the drooping ears of oats were pushed to the sides by the scythe. Women and children followed closely with hemp ropes and straw ropes, bundled the loose straws and threw them on the two-wheeled carts, or directly Resist directly.

Some flat ground will be rammed in advance, and stones and wooden stakes will be rammed to create a hard ground that is rare in the local area as a threshing ground.

Bundles of straw were unloaded here to be rammed incessantly by men with wooden flails.

Conditional farms will also carry out pre-processing, that is, the guillotine will cut off the ears of the bundled wheat stalks, and only the densely gathered ears of wheat will be rammed with the flail.

Because each grain of European oats is densely covered by bran, beating out the grains is a manual task, and it also requires a large number of laborers from the farm.

Although oats have disadvantages in harvesting and processing, the local people have no choice in their long-term lives.

The people of Lake Ilmen traditionally grow only oats, with rye as a supplement.

The people of Novgorod City are also preparing for the extremely traditional autumn harvest. They do not have more advanced wheat harvesting tools, and Rurik currently has no intention of making any more harvesting machines.

Wheat harvesting is still a labor-intensive job, and the advantage of having a large number of people is fully displayed at this time.

After the rain, it is sunny, and the pleasant sunset brings a great sense of security to the immigrant Ross people. As the temperature rises, the process of earing and yellowing of wheat is greatly accelerated.

The drooping ears of wheat become withered and yellow, and they should be harvested with a scythe.

Even though it was the first time for the immigrants from Ross Town to plant wheat on a large scale, everyone knew when to judge the harvest.

They will personally break the dense bran of oats and judge whether the grains are ripe by chewing.

After waiting for the entire warm period, Rurik stood here with his army. All the conditions were ripe, and the first oats sown were harvested!

All the mobilizable labor force (including children) in Mstiysk is as many as 4,000 people.

Rurik didn’t have time to take care of the wheat harvest in Novgorod not far away. He focused on the work in the main grain-producing areas that he could firmly control, especially the wealth of his own acres.

Those wheat ears were also earing, and the ears were still dark green. Their appearance aroused the curiosity of the public, which was naturally not uncommon in Rurik.

On the contrary, there were oats everywhere, which surprised Rurik, and regretted that the fields were planted with low-yielding oats.

In Rurik’s concept, it is a very rapid process for wheat ears to turn from dark green to withered yellow.

Perhaps the first oats are harvested and the wheat can be harvested.

Nothing is more important than the wheat harvest right now.

It was a clear morning, the sun was still warm in early August, and the morning mist that permeated the entire lake gradually dissipated. The people who were ordered to gather stood on the flat ground of the lakeside wharf outside Mstiysk one after another.

The comprehensive unloading yard for ship materials reserved here is now the most ideal gathering place for people.

Facing four thousand men, women, old and children issuing government orders, Rurik rolled hard paper into the shape of a trumpet, stood on a slanted trolley, and held up the paper trumpet to preach to his people.

“Our emigration is over! You are all Rus who emigrated to the Novgorod region! The land under your feet you conquered with Rus’ sword and axe, you sowed the seed, and now the wheat is ripe! Odin Bless us, now that we are harvesting the wheat, we must complete it victoriously within two weeks!”

He repeated similar words. At first, there were sporadic people cheering, which gradually turned into a crowd.

Just look at these people!

The men among them carried scythes on a large scale. The Ross people, who possessed a huge amount of iron resources, could use carbon steel tools without any scruples.

Strictly speaking, oats, wheat, and rye are all derived from green grass similar to foxtail. They are grass in nature. The so-called autumn harvest crops and the collection of pasture for livestock work in similar ways.

The whole of Europe is accustomed to harvesting crops with long-handled scythes, which is directly related to the radiation of agricultural technology in the Roman Empire a long time ago. Many barbarians converted from fishing and hunting to farming, and the first thing to bear the brunt was to learn Roman agriculture.

They were originally Slavs living in the northern border area of Rome. Even if they immigrated to the remote Lake Ilmen, the Roman skills they learned would not be lost.

And several large Germanic tribes who had been serving as mercenaries to the Roman Empire for a long time, such as Frank, the expansion of Frank spread agricultural technology to the north by the way.

Even though Rome’s agronomy was not very good and was lost in the process of spreading northward, the two crafts of harvesting wheat with a scythe and ramming and shelling with a flail can be said to have been inherited by the three ethnic groups in the north, Germanic, Slavic, and Baltic.

There are more than one hundred scythes here in Mstisk. At the critical moment, they also modified their steel sabers, because the hilts are mostly made of wood with a core of iron sandwiched by hemp rope and tendons. The circle is wound, the hilt is disassembled, and the sword is tied horizontally to the wooden pole, and a simple scythe is born.

The warriors of the First Banner Squad have already started to split up, and they took their wives and children to their fields.

A man manipulating a scythe to cut wheat is like killing an enemy, and the feeling of cutting everything is so refreshing.

Women and children are busy harvesting wheat, and everyone dare not take more rest. This is related to the major issue of livelihood for the whole year next year. Even if you are so tired that you almost cough up blood, you must continue to struggle.

Rurik is holding a long-handled wooden flail, and the top of this thing is a three-section stick tied with rope.

Relying on the whipping effect, he swung the flail and lashed hard on the oat stalks piled up in a hillock.

The prince was making a show to his people, and he was doing it for a show, and it wasn’t exactly a show, because the pile of oats was legally the property of his cousin.

He was a prince at that time, but now he is more willing to help his cousin with farm work as a younger brother.

He was sweating profusely, and he had to use great force in the process of ramming.

The accumulated exhaustion has made him unwilling to speak, he just repeated the ramming action, and endured the exhaustion of his arms until night.

The moon rose, and Rurik, who was sweating profusely, sat quietly by a bonfire.

He is accompanied by a group of old buddies, these are all the young boys under his command, everyone has been busy for the first day, and now they have a rest, no one is talking poorly.

Everyone was sweating profusely, and the old clothes had just been washed by the women, and they were being baked by the campfire in pieces.

Everyone changed into spare clothes, and all of them sweated their entire lives in one day because of their weakness.

Fisk felt chills all over his body, and his three wives and concubines sat beside him warming the fire, feeling the same chill.

“Rurik…” Or was he the one who started the conversation first, “We will help them harvest the wheat, and when we reach the City of Youth…they will help too?”

“Hey, they are all from Ross, you are actually worried about this? As long as I give an order, the soldiers must obey.”

Arik saw the work of Rose’s young boys, and followed his brother’s words to promise: “Fisk, you can rest assured that I will not only help you, but also help you build the city.”

“Oh! That’s really nice. Thank you very much…”

“No need to thank you! Boy, your father and my father fought side by side, and died for Ross in the same battle. You are now the flag captain of the Sixth Banner Team, and you will have a bright future in the future. I am also your elder brother, and I should help you. ”

But how can Fiske Hod become brothers and sisters with Arik?

On the contrary, the other party’s words are very heartwarming, more comfortable than this flame.

The iron pot and pottery urn are cooking freshly crushed oatmeal. Some yellow root carrots and locally collected vegetables are added to the oatmeal to increase the nutrition, and then a lot of salt is poured in crazily.

The way the Principality of Ross obtains salt has never been to rely on the supply from the Balmerks in the port of Narvik facing the Atlantic Ocean. The Balmerks provide the best salt, and the price of buying these salts is not high, just the time cost of logistics Ridiculously high.

No matter how low the salinity of the seawater in the Gulf of Finland is, it is still seawater. Even if you have to pay more for firewood, New Roseburg has been doing the work of taking seawater to cook salt locally. Fortunately, there are inexhaustible wood resources in the local area. Salt is just adding firewood to the job.

In this Novgorod region, no one eats salt more recklessly than the Rus.

People who were forced to rest at night made great achievements on the first day of autumn harvest. For the time being, everyone didn’t want to talk too much because of exhaustion. When the hot salty wheat porridge was cooked and everyone recovered their strength after eating, it was time for the popular bonfire to talk about the mountains. link.

Men boast about how many acres of wheat they have cut this year, and estimate their wealth in wheat.

They show off their strong arms and brag that one person can cut hectares of wheat without knowing what it means to be tired.

They finished bragging about their strength, and then started talking about women.

Where there are people, there are always comparisons. They show off their first wives and concubines, boasting that they can give birth to children that cannot be counted with hands.

At this point in the conversation, some people began to tease their own princes. Couldn’t the so-called more than ten wives and concubines be able to give birth to a total of one hundred children?

They did not doubt Prince Rurik’s ability. First of all, the “April Bull” was tireless, not to mention that he was the son of God, and of course he was different from ordinary people.

Rurik laughed off some of the comments about himself.

He was gratified that they could talk about desperately trying to have children with their wives.

Has the Ross people changed? When each man has a lot of wheat, a couple will bid farewell to the past life. They no longer have to selectively cultivate offspring because of limited resources, but have the desire to reproduce unscrupulously. capital.

Besides, this autumn harvest very realistically shows the fact that the number of people determines the efficiency of autumn harvest.

If the weather is cloudy and rainy, it is necessary to rush to harvest the wheat. The weather is rare now, but everyone is completely immersed in the joy of the harvest. In line with the good habit of the Ross people to store wealth, every family can only wait for two or three days. The fields are harvested clean, and finally stuffed into the granary of the family, and then take out one-tenth of it to pay taxes to the prince.

Ross strong men are generally a head taller than traditional Slavic farmers in this area, and their bodies are stronger, which is reflected in their greater efficiency in wheat harvesting.

The earliest sown oats were harvested in just three days. All the grains were husked, shoveled into coarse sacks with wooden shovels, and sent home in bags.

As early as six years ago, the Russians began to improve their houses, and Rurik played a huge role in this regard. He made some improvements to the traditional woodcarving of the Slavs, and added closet facilities to enhance winter heating. The wooden floor above the ground avoids moisture to a great extent.

This kind of woodcut can be directly used as a granary. Of course, everyone will also face the problem of rats, which is completely a small problem.

In this era, the Rus people even used mice as a kind of food. It is a kind of meat like squirrels and minks, but the leather of mice is useless.

In the past, under difficult circumstances, the people of Ross naturally ate whatever they had, including rotten fish. No one cared about diarrhea and other diseases.

The problem of rodent infestation that cannot be eradicated by primitive storage technology is a problem, but Rurik has not thought about eliminating the problems of food loss caused by moisture and rodent infestation.

He needs the people to stuff the harvested wheat into their homes quickly, and then continue to sweep the remaining fields.

People wanted to harvest the remaining wheat for the prince of Ross, for which the prince provided only free food during the harvest period.

The men did not complain, because everyone knew how the princes used wheat in the past few years. It seemed that they were harvesting wheat for the princes, which was indeed the case, but in the end it was the general public who benefited.

The prince still owns an astonishing amount of fields, and now the wheat here has reached the point where it can be harvested. The promise of the prince remains unchanged. Every month, a batch of wheat will be sold to the public. Its price will remain constant regardless of bad or good years. Everyone can buy a batch of wheat every month, and then make delicious soft scones at home, which is not possible with oats.

The Duchy of Ross implements a grain-based policy in fact. The princes prohibit runs, and also stipulate the amount and price of wheat sold each month in the form of laws. The purchasing power of each silver coin is fixed, that is, ten pounds of oat black Wheat or nine pounds of wheat, and the price of salt is also anchored on wheat.

To ensure the economic stability of the Principality of Ross, it is necessary to ensure that a large amount of wheat is stuffed into the prince’s “National Granary” in Novgorod, Novorosburg and Roseburg’s hometown.

The people’s ideological awareness is not so high, and their vision is not very long-term.

They are more aware of the fact that when the princes call the army to fight, each soldier does not need to bring his own dry food in theory, and the food and fodder of the army will be paid by the state granary.

Now the wheat is also mature, completely different from the drooping ears of oats. The whole ear of wheat is straight up like a spearhead, and the density of wheat grains is obviously higher than that of oats.

Of course, the ears of wheat here are not so dense that they cannot be planted. Without chemical fertilizers or even farmyard manure, the yield of wheat fields will not be high. Even so, it is stronger than oats visible to the naked eye. There can be as many as 20 grains growing on the ears, and everyone has to admire a British cold-resistant variety of wheat that is naturally high-yielding!

The men lined up like battle formations, and the scythes were swung across, and the wheat stalks were cut down in pieces. This was the first time that wheat was planted on a large scale on the land of Novgorod, and the experimental planting was visible to the naked eye. The huge results have made Rurik firm in a decision-to plant wheat in the spring of next year, so that Novgorod, Mstiysk and Youth City can grow wheat as a career.

[End of this Chapter]