Rise of Rurik - Chapter 737

[Chapter 738 To South Francia]

Under normal circumstances, an earl in a border area should not leave his fief.

Earl Robert decided to make an exception, because he felt that the stability of the border was more like the calm before the storm. Based on his understanding of the Danes, even if the other party launched a sudden attack, they would definitely not find fault in winter.

He felt that there was an extremely critical time window, and he used the winter period to go to Regensburg in the south to explain the situation to Prince Ludwig and seek military assistance.

As for the business problems of the Ross people, these are completely dispensable small problems.

Blue Fox was not sure that he could convince the earl with a single mouth, and that a gift of a steel sword would attract the earl’s absolute attention.

In the city of Hamburg, the count finally made a decision after three days of deliberation.

He took out a quiet Sunday afternoon, and the next day was naturally Sunday. After the morning ceremony, he had a very simple conversation with Eskil and Joseph Blue Fox on business issues in the Hamburg Abbey.

The monastery is a sacred place, and it seems that any secular things should not be talked about.

The earl did it on purpose, and he hoped that the seriousness of the place would allow the converted Ross man Joseph Blue Fox to fulfill the agreement.

“Russian merchant ships can enter Hamburg. Once you enter the Elbe, merchant ships cannot go further when they reach Hamburg. You can only provide me with leather, iron and precious stones, and I will only provide you with rye. Your merchants and sailors must Everyone must wear the cross, and must hang the flag with the cross, and my flag, otherwise it is illegal. Even if your merchants come, you are not allowed to enter the city, but you are only allowed to camp by the river. If I learn that your people have attacked My village, future trade will be interrupted.”

The Earl of Hamburg was not so simple as to easily listen to what Blue Fox said, that the Ross people were peaceful merchants.

Viking pirates, this group of nasty sea wolves have been attacking Frank for a long time.

The entire Frankish Kingdom has a population of 10 million, but it is distributed in an extremely wide area.

Most of the area has not been developed, and the people basically rely on small lords like barons and viscounts to build villages to protect themselves, and even build settlements along the river, but the “bad wolf” is also sneaking along the waterway.

The Earls of Hamburg, Flanders, and Bremen who protruded from the northern border have fully understood what Vikings are. These “wolves” are almost all bandits from Denmark.

Is there any difference between the Russians and the Danes?

Probably no different.

It’s just that the Ross people are in the farther north. Because the distance is too far, it will cost more for those guys to rob Frank, so they open up trade as peaceful merchants.

If it is true that peaceful trade is possible, it would be even better if they converted one after another.

The Earl of Hamburg mainly considered St. Eskil’s face, and also accepted the gift from Blue Fox.

He has placed restrictions on trade with each other, and caution must be exercised until the Rus are truly peaceful merchants.

The two brand-new parchments were filled with words, all of which were written in Latin.

The earl could only understand part of it, but fortunately the priests were all clear.

Strict and important contract documents should be written and signed in Latin. In this way, the earl tried to prove that he was a civilized person and that Frank was indeed the only heir to the great Roman Empire.

Unexpectedly, the fat man from Ross recited the document quite skillfully.

“You? You know Latin? You’re so proficient.” Such a phrase couldn’t be translated by Esquier, and Earl Robert opened his mouth.

Blue Fox’s performance was amazing, and he replied: “In the Principality of Ross, many people know Latin, especially my prince is the most proficient.”

The earl was speechless for a moment, and he was embarrassed when he wanted to show off.

Thinking about it again, this is a good thing.

The Earl was a Frankish aristocrat with upright roots. At one time, there were barbarians in the northwest and east, including the land under his feet, which was once the territory of the Saxon barbarians.

Time has passed, and many barbarians have become civilized (referring to conversion), but the Danes, Obertlidites, and Pomeranians are stubborn.

The Ross people seem to have shown their positive attitude. Perhaps it is as St. Eskil described, and it is already one step away from converting the Ross people to conversion. As long as they win over the prince of the Ross people, everything will be easy to handle.

The two parties signed a contract document in duplicate. Frank, as the most typical feudal country, did a very procedural way of signing the document.

The earl was a little surprised that the Ross man, Blue Fox, was very smooth about signing the contract. He also learned that the so-called Principality of Ross, like the Frankish Kingdom, pays attention to correct procedures in signing contracts, and more importantly, it pays attention to proper implementation and despises unilateral tearing up of contracts.

Blue Fox became the de jure unofficial and de facto first diplomat of the Principality of Ross.

He agreed to many of the Earl’s seemingly unreasonable demands, especially the visiting sailors and merchants must dress as if they were converted, but in terms of beliefs, the merchants in the north have never believed in anything.

This is the case with Blue Fox. He is willing to believe that the Lord protected him before he escaped from birth. Since it worked once, he can continue to believe in it in the future.

After all, who knows the twists and turns of sailing from the core of Ross to this cramped Frankish Hamburg?

The blue fox was authorized by the earl to move freely in Hamburg. Even so, his activities were firmly controlled by the monastery.

He wanted to take a good look at the life of the local people, estimate the purchasing power of the local people, and report to the prince after returning to Ross.

Any diplomat will report the situation of the country’s head of state on a routine basis. Collecting intelligence is not only a matter of convenience, but also a must.

The timing of Blue Fox’s arrival in Hamburg is quite subtle. Although he really wanted to go back to Ross to tell the prince what he had seen and heard, especially to testify that he was safe by appearing in person.

He also wants to enter the south of Frank and explore this “super-large kingdom” beyond his concept, not only to satisfy the desire for exploration, but also to discover business opportunities.

He can’t leave, and only when Eskil and Earl Robert decide to leave, can he follow him as a follower.

As for whether he can meet Prince Ludwig, the highest nobleman in East Franks, this is unknown.

Eskil does not leave until the great festival ceremony is complete.

As the real Archbishop of Hamburg, when the people from all over the world learned of the return of such a great saint, they began to inquire about the reliability of the news. gradually increased.

Even some lower-level viscounts, barons, and even the lowest-level riders, as long as they have the ability, they will bring their followers and family members to participate in the festival, and they must witness Saint Eskil himself, hoping to get his blessing.

September 8th of the Julian calendar, Feast of Our Lady of Christmas.

Lan Huxiang took a good look at the lives of the people here, and his wish was finally fulfilled on this festival.

He put on the priest’s clothes and appeared in the parade, and was ordered to move forward with his head hooked.

A team composed of priests will circle the city. The stronger priest is carrying a large blackened cross, and the other two are holding a painting of the Virgin Mary painted on a wooden board. This portrait is extremely abstract. .

There are also priests who hold a pure gold shrine containing the remains of a noble priest of the past.

If a Buddhist relic is placed in a tower of an oriental Buddhist temple, the entire temple will have divine power, the monks firmly believe.

A similar thing happened in Frank, the deceased priest who was canonized also had divine power, such as a finger bone, a lock of hair, placed inside a gilt shrine, a “golden apple”, a golden cross, thereby bringing the monastery closer to the Lord.

Eskil can be sure that when he dies, many parts of his body, mainly hair and fingers and toes, will be taken by many monasteries.

He didn’t feel panicked, everything was after death, he thought very openly, because his soul would reach heaven, and the mortal body would no longer matter.

The festive Eskil put on a gorgeous dress, a white cloth gown with gold stitching, and a tall hat on his head.

He would dress like this only for important ceremonies, and he would naturally dress like an ascetic monk on weekdays.

The priest’s team gave the gathered civilians a sense of solemnity and sanctity. The priest holding the golden urn followed Eskil, and saw the saint holding a newly picked bud of Cypress dipped in holy water and sprinkled it on the kneeling people on both sides.

The priests sang hymns to the Virgin, and their footsteps moved slowly with the singing.

As long as the holy water is splashed on the body, the patient will recover, the bad luck will be eliminated, and normal people will be blessed with happiness. When pregnant women get this holy water, the child will be born safely.

Even the earl’s family was unavoidable. His retinue and personal guards were waiting for the priests to pass by him to receive the holy blessing.

The parade is an important part of the ceremony. Taking this opportunity, Blue Fox finally got a clear view of the ordinary local farmers.

In his opinion, the peasants here are not significantly different from the Slavic peasants in the far east. They all wear simple coarse linen clothes, and their faces are generally yellow and thin.

These people really have the ability to buy Ross goods?

wait!

Blue Fox suddenly realized that his major clients were simply a group of nobles, and the “currency” they could produce was rye. If the “currency” was insufficient, it would not be a problem, and it would be fine to tax these peasants at that time.

Life must be bad for the peasants, and it doesn’t look like the Earl cares about them.

The work of caring for the common people is the work of the priests, so is the priest doing a good job?

Obviously not.

“It is said that the saints Moses and Jesus a long time ago cared for their people very much, as described in the book. Rurik, it should be another real saint…” Blue Fox kept his words in his heart.

The festival lasted into the night and ended with the singing of the boys in the choir.

The festivals of the Franks seem dull, there is no carnival at night, and even the evening food is the same sour black bread, and some salty soup made of cabbage, carrots and snow peas.

Indeed, yellow root carrots and snow peas are native products of Flanders and Hamburg.

After finishing the festival, one of Eskil’s wishes came to fruition.

This is the first time he has presided over the Feast of Our Lady in Hamburg after serving as the jurisprudential bishop of Hamburg.

According to his previous conception, to go to Regensburg to send a letter to the prince is to go upstream along the Elbe River, and then take about three weeks to arrive by land.

Regarding this trip, Eskil has lost the right to speak and act. Taking advantage of the festival, the Earl of Hamburg convened a military meeting with the lower-level nobles who attended the meeting, that is, his vassals, to deal with the threat of the Danes, and announced that I will bring a group of guards to personally meet His Highness the Prince together with St. Esquil.

Sudden threat of war?

The vassals had no choice but to keep their hands on their territories, and then hoped that the prince’s personal soldiers could reinforce them.

Greetings to the prince, there are not many guards!

The count decided to travel lightly and try to reach Regensburg as quickly as possible, because the journey was slow both by water and by land.

Frank is too big, especially after the conquest of Saxony, the territory further expanded.

In the decisive battle between Charlie the Hammer and the enemy who crossed the Pyrenees in Bordeaux, Frank planned to gather an army of 150,000. As a result, the troops from all over the country took three months to march, and finally 70,000 people were assembled.

The Earl of Hamburg already had few soldiers, and his fief was not rich. Most of the soldiers had to stay and garrison. To put it bluntly, it was to guard against the winter offensive in Denmark, which had changed. May supply too many people expenses.

Only ten of the most capable soldiers were selected, and they were suddenly canonized as knights by the earl. From a subordinate soldier to the lowest-level nobleman, their fate has changed.

The Earl hoped that in this way, the ten of them would be absolutely loyal in order to deal with possible accidents during the journey.

Compared with the route proposed by Eskil to go retrograde on the Elbe River and then go overland, the earl directly denied it.

What else could Eskill do?

Can only agree with it.

On that day, the earl, who had prepared a batch of rye bread, dried meat and barreled ale, was ready to leave.

Also taking advantage of this opportunity, the blue fox clearly saw the Franks’ inland watercraft.

They are all rowing boats, and their length and width are far inferior to Viking’s leading longships.

Frank ships do not have a structure with both ends upturned. Although there are masts in the middle, the height is really worrying.

This kind of boat is not suitable for sailing at all, or it is suitable for drifting on the sea in low sea conditions, but this kind of small boat is very suitable for navigating inland rivers, and its maneuverability seems to be very good.

[To tell the truth, I have been using the source-changing app recently to read and update books, switch between sources, and read aloud with many timbres. www.huanyuanapp.com is available for both Android and Apple.

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A Frankish galley can seat ten people, but if there is a horse or a small carriage disassembled for parts, it can only seat six people.

The earl took his youngest son to meet the world, together with a group of twelve people who followed the knight.

Eskil has long been used to traveling alone. He is a seasoned man of action. Even if he goes to Regensburg alone, he still has confidence, even though he is getting old.

He only has two attendant priests, Blue Fox and Wadi. This trip is of great significance, so he does not bring any little priests to “enjoy”.

The earl has his own black material, which is illegally raising concubines and having an affair, and Esquier also has an ulterior and unclear intimate relationship with the little priest.

And this journey is risky, because the earl chose a special waterway. If the journey is dangerous, both Wadi and Blue Fox can come forward to participate in the battle, which is impossible for other priests!

Both had killed people and were vicious Vikings at heart, at least according to Eskill.

Because he had been in the Principality of Ross for half a year, he knew that no matter how polite and polite those guys were, they were all ruthless and murderous people.

If this fierceness is used in the right place, they will be the bravest guardians of the faith after they complete their conversion.

If the blue fox is still worried about killing the bandits, the Slavic Vadi is purely vicious.

Although the gem-studded dagger is the blue fox’s sword, it is a gift for the prince and a trick brick for meeting, so naturally it must be wrapped in leather.

There are short iron swords hidden under the robes of Blue Fox and Vardy. Under normal circumstances, priests should not do this. However, the journey is risky and there is basic self-defense ability. .

The route of the journey has been very clear. Leave Hamburg and enter the ocean downstream, follow the coastline and enter the mouth of the Weser River southward, go upstream to the source of the river and arrive at Frankfurt. After getting some supplies from the local Marquis, continue southward into the Rhine River tributary. Turn overland to a tributary of the Danube, and then go down the river to Regensburg.

This is the simplest and fastest path. As for Eskil’s set of paths, it is close to the territory of the Bohemians (Czechs), which is more risky.

After all, Saint-Esquil did not understand military affairs or marching, and the earl had no intention of criticizing him. It was not the first time he had taken the path he chose, so he knew it well.

A group of them has already started to act…

[End of this Chapter]