Rise of Rurik - Chapter 750

[Chapter 751]

When the lake ice becomes brittle, all farmers should prepare for the new year’s spring plowing.

The frozen Ilmen Lake was the first to thaw, and the fish that had been suffocating all winter began to poke their heads out, swim to the surface of the water to get more oxygen, and even jumped out of the water.

The snow that covered the entire world then melted, and a large amount of snowmelt soaked the land, and the muddy situation everywhere made it difficult for people to move.

In New Ostara, the southernmost settlement of the Principality of Ross, the snow here melts first. As soon as the ice and snow disappear, the grass seeds in the mud can’t wait to germinate. The cattle, sheep and deer that have endured the winter become thinner, and the livestock wait for the grass to germinate. Gnawing desperately, people are also anxiously waiting for the cattle and sheep to be full so that people’s lives can be improved.

Undoubtedly, Carlotta knew that his men organized an army to attack Karelia again. Due to the distance factor, when the messenger delivered the message, he had already lost the opportunity to raise his troops.

The New Ostara settlement has been fortified, and although the stables where the livestock are placed are all outside, if there is a serious war, the safety of the livestock will naturally be surrendered to others, and everyone will retreat to the fortress to persist in resistance.

Regarding the town of Bear Sacrifice, a settlement on the northern shore of Lake Ladoga, and the large-scale war that accompanied it, when Carlotta learned about this, she had to think about whether her fortress could stand firm if it encountered the same situation.

The strategic value of New Ostara is important, and the Principality of Ross has a high probability of encountering merchants from the Krivich Slavs in the south in this direction.

Peaceful trade is acceptable, even if those Krivichs find it profitable and will aggressively invade along the Lovati River.

It is impossible for Lake Ilmen’s contact with the Krivich people in the south to be cut off because of the conquest of Lake Ilmen by the Principality of Ross.

The Lovati River has thawed, and the snowmelt in spring has turned into floods, making the otherwise calm river violent.

Five flat-bottomed paddle boats were drifting on the turbulent river. Obviously, the current river water was icy cold. Once someone fell into the river and splashed for a while, he would be frozen to death. The businessman would rather take risks for profit.

A trading gang of a dozen leather-clad men was transporting an important commodity that was likely to be popular with the people of the North—horses.

Their boats were not big, and in order to avoid people from being left behind and to ensure the stability of the boats, the boats were simply connected with ropes and formed a long snake array on the river.

They were just selling ten horses, two stallions and eight mares.

Compared with the horses in the hands of the people in the north, what they sell are real Turkic horses bought from the Pechenegs. The merchants are pure Krivichs, but the source is not Smolensk community, but the more southern Kyiv community.

The news about a group of Varyag people named Rus who established a powerful power in the far north spread like wildfire. It’s all unknown.

Although it is unknown, the biggest variable comes from the description of the Ross people by a group of fugitives and free mercenaries.

“The people of Ross have a lot of wealth, and they have very good iron tools. You can exchange for some good things with the right goods.”

Businessmen in the Kyiv community would have such an attitude, but the Smolensk community felt more about the military pressure of the so-called Principality of Rus and the fertile land controlled by the other party.

At least the leader of the alliance in Smolensk took in a refugee from the north like Vadim, and listened to his description that while coveting the northern land, he also ordered the tribe and other alliance tribes to exercise restraint. The so-called greatest restraint is to cut off trade with the north contacts.

Smolensk adopted a “trade blockade” to the north, and the Krivichs in Kyiv were forced to dare not be too aggressive.

Because Kyiv itself is a “big altar of blood” standing on the riverside, this is the original intention of Kyiv, and also the original intention of the Krivich people.

The people living near the altar faced a more complicated international situation. They exchanged a batch of horses from the Pechenegs, but they could not buy ironware of acceptable quality from Eastern Rome, nor could they buy good salt.

Eastern Rome’s attitude towards all Slavic merchants is subjectively repulsive. One reason is the difference in beliefs, and the other is the most important reason. The hostility of the Slavs.

Even the Slavic immigrants who surrendered to the emperor in Eastern Rome imposed many restrictions. The Greeks and Romans were relocated to various cities by the Roman emperor, and the poor countryside was thrown to the Slavic immigrants. The empire squeezed the wealth of the peasants to let the city The Romans here, especially those in Constantinople, continued to live in prosperity.

A Krivich Slav businessman from Kyiv named Sakyi decided to try it out. He took his brother and some friends and rowed north with the horses he had purchased.

In winter, there is no ice in the center of the main channel of the upper reaches of the Dnieper River. They did not dare to enter the city of Smolensk, so they found a small river covered with thin ice and plunged in.

They moved forward by feeling the ice and mud in the frozen swamp of Valdai. For commercial interests, they would rather take the risk of freezing their legs and freezing their toes, and forcibly found the upper reaches of the West Dvina River.

An important cargo was the horses, which now began to pull ships across the ice and snow.

It was a rather difficult journey. Thanks to the fact that the season was the end of winter, they towed the boat on the snow-covered swamp for nearly 50 kilometers and successfully found the upper reaches of the Lovati River.

The rest of the journey finally became smooth. When people saw the river that could sail and extend northward, they all cried out for joy.

Sakey knelt on the snowy ground and washed his face with ice water. Regardless of the cold mud on his body, he yelled at the men: “Push the boat into the river, so that we can float to the territory of the Ross and the Ilmen.”

The five boats formed a line, the river in front of them became wider and the current became more turbulent.

There are extremely dense forests on both sides of the strait, and people are always on guard, for fear of waking bears, and beware of crushed pine trees smashing sailing boats.

After all, this is the first time that the Kyiv community has taken the initiative to do business with the Rus. Some of them are full of unknowns, and their actions have not been officially authorized.

This is a tentative trade, if the middle way is obstructed by force majeure, everything will be over.

Suddenly, the world he was going to was clear, and it was clear that a huge body of water appeared in front of him.

“What is that? A huge camp?” A guy squinted and shouted.

The vigilant Sakye looked up, and it was clearly a wooden fortress, just like the large altar surrounded by wooden walls in his hometown of Kyiv.

Someone asked excitedly, “Is that the village of the Ross people? No matter how bad it is, it is also the village of the Ilmen people.”

“It should be. Brothers, we have marched for a long time. We should be able to get hospitality when we contact them.” Sakey is on guard, but everyone is too short of supplies, and they are willing to buy some supplies peacefully from the hands of the locals.

But as the voyage continued, they not only saw the city clearly, but also noticed several boats cruising on the lake.

The bow and stern are turned up, and there is a mast in the middle.

That is a peculiar ship of the Varyags!

This is indeed the stronghold of the Rus!

A fleet of ships drifted down from the south, and they carried some large livestock?

The Ostara people who are very good at raising cattle are keenly aware that the horses standing on the boat are actually horses, and looking at the sailors, they have nothing to do with hostile forces.

Carlotta now has a big belly, and theoretically her baby will be born in April.

Rurik gave Carlota the right to name the child, and for this reason the woman thought of all kinds of names, but was still unable to make up her mind.

Her physical fitness is very good, otherwise she would not have been able to escape with her younger sister suffering from a leg disorder many years ago.

It was also that disaster. Her knees have always been suffering from old diseases, and she can’t see anything on weekdays, but now she has a surprisingly big belly and needs a wooden stick to help her walk.

A strange group of people landed on the docks outside the city with their horses?

There are already men controlling those guys?

“Probably a businessman. Pass my word and tell the men quickly to hold off and I want to meet them in person!”

Carlota was holding a wooden stick with her stomach upright. She put on a fat polar bear robe and white fox fur to show her bravery and magnificence, and also to cover her belly.

She arrived at the pier under the escort of a group of women, speaking in Norse with an old Swedish accent.

Apparently, these languages were not understood by Sakye and his group.

The visitors danced and gestured, and spoke some incomprehensible Slavic languages.

It is indeed a Slavic language, and there are some discrepancies with the Ilmen dialect.

There is no real language gap between the two sides. Some local Slavs temporarily live in New Ostara for business purposes. The necessary exchanges between the two sides make the locals also learn some Norse.

Finally, Carlotta frowned and probably understood something from the translator’s description.

“Kyiv? A city in the far south? You come to Ross to do business? Do you think my place is the territory of the Ross?”

These things cannot be explained clearly in a few words. Carlota simply refused to explain, and ordered the translator who understood their language to send a message: “Show your products, show your gold coins and silver coins, and I can trade with you.”

They sailed and walked, and traveled thousands of kilometers across the land of Eastern Europe for the purpose of trading.

Sakey hurriedly showed his most precious horse. As for the price, he glanced at the people here with clever eyes, suddenly changed his tone, and asked very politely: “Young and smart female leader, what would you offer?” at what price can I buy my horses?”

This question stopped Carlota.

She said casually, “A pound of silver for a horse, no more.”

“Ah? Where are you entertaining me?”

“What? The price is too high? Here a good milking cow is worth a pound of silver. Are your horses worth more than your cows?”

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“That’s natural. If cows are used as a measure, according to the habits of our Kyiv people, a horse is worth ten cows!” Sakye’s words were decisive, and his eyes were full of determination, reflecting the pride of a businessman.

Can businessmen still be rebellious?

Carlotta was not intimidated by this performance, but one thing she was sure of was that foreign merchants cared about their horses.

“I want to see the horse first.”

After all, Carlotta simply checked the horses.

She examines these horses with her family’s experience in raising cattle and sheep, and strokes the delicate velvet caps and long manes of the horses’ necks. The delicate touch proves the health of the horses.

What surprised her was that these horses were all tall, and the stallions among them were even more astonishingly tall at the shoulder.

Speaking of height, Carlotta is not short. She is a pure Nordic blonde woman. She lived in the top aristocratic circle of the Ross people and entered adolescence. After eating and drinking for so many years, her body has actually reached a height of 175cm .

And look at these horses, including the mares, are close to the height of their shoulders, and the horses look taller with their heads raised.

The Ilmenslavs had some horses, all of which were much smaller than these.

Carlotta’s eyes widened, she was full of thoughts.

First of all, my tribe is still in a difficult period after their life is stable, and they have no financial resources to buy these horses.

Secondly, these steeds have arrived in the Principality of Ross, and they must be digested and absorbed by the Principality!

The businessman explained that Carlotta already understood that these horses were not livestock for spring plowing, they were riding horses, and they were born war horses!

Not to mention that even the merchants rushed to sell the horses in March when the ice and snow had just melted, and they still sold two males and eight females!

The specific parts of the two stallions have undergone specific changes, and no one knows this better than Carlotta, who is good at livestock.

“April’s bull” is Norse slang to describe a man’s lust, and the stallion is the same in April.

The merchant is simply selling ten horses?

Is it a business to sell ten horses that are about to enter breeding season and most of them are adult females?

Carlotta had never seen such a situation.

There must be a huge secret in it, presumably the motives of these businessmen are not pure.

Carlotta backed away with her body on her back, casually summoned her cronies to whisper a few words, and in a short while more than a hundred men and women with spears surrounded the merchants with their goods and horses.

“Ah! What does this mean? We are peaceful businessmen, and we only want to sell horses.” Sakey insisted on explaining, although he felt that he might be stabbed to death by the other party and robbed of property.

The translator stuttered to describe the attitude of the Duchess of Ostara: “Your motives are very complicated, you will be detained, and your people and horses will be escorted to Novgorod in the north of the lake. The prince personally interrogated.”

Will he be imprisoned?

Do not!

Just house arrest.

Carlotta locked the merchants temporarily in a small warehouse, offering them dried fish, oatmeal, and even some ale with honey.

With such a meal, the smart businessmen immediately wake up from their initial fear.

The food was quite salty, which was only available during festivals in Kyiv’s hometown. They even provided sweet wine. Obviously, the young Varyag female leader who was clearly pregnant was not a villain.

Even if the horses are impounded, can they take good care of them?

When it comes to taking care of horses, there are horses in New Ostara, but they are some local soil horses, all of which are ponies with a shoulder height of 130 cm or less. Brought from Wahe’s hometown, the pony is still a pony even if it immigrates to Lake Ilmen.

The merchant’s horse will definitely be bought by the rich and powerful prince Rurik.

But the horse fell into his own hands, and Carlotta felt that he would suffer a big loss if he didn’t go for nothing.

Even among native ponies, mares go into breeding season when the ice melts.

The overall intelligence of the horses is very high. The ten horses were tossed all the way, and they did not eat well along the way. Naturally, even the desire to reproduce was wilted by hunger, and they all behaved obediently.

Carlotta picked up the baby, and the two stallions were immediately fed a large amount of oats. The weak stallion immediately became manic, and it took five or six people to pull the reins to barely control it.

When the stallion calmed down, knowing that the humans would provide food, the manic cues subsided.

How pleased Carlotta was to see the stallion so majestic!

The warm wooden shed was used as a temporary stable, and she happily signaled to her men: “Go! Bring all twelve of our mares here.”

New Ostara used local horses for spring breeding according to the original plan, and the arrival of extremely high-quality southern stallions was clearly a gift from the gods.

Excellent horses can be bred to better colts, which can greatly improve the quality of native horses.

All kinds of domestic animals reproduce in this way, and the Ostara people are already good at this, but they draw these conclusions based on experience, and the biological principles are not known.

Twelve mares moved in one after another, and now the stallion really couldn’t hold it anymore.

Under the watchful eyes of everyone, everyone witnessed the connection between horses and horses with laughter, and everyone was talking freely, looking forward to giving birth to high-quality foals in February next year.

Although February is still a very cold period, the risk of foals being born at this time is very high.

Everyone knows that the time that I can control two high-quality stallions for free is too short, and I can only wait until next year to take good care of the foals, and even pull them into a house where people live to protect them.

Carlotta’s goal was achieved in this way, and all the businessmen under house arrest were released.

Today’s climate has become warmer, the snow has entered a rapid period of melting, and spring plowing around Lake Ilmen is about to begin.

As the female leader, Carlotta knew that she was about to become a mother, and the father of the child would definitely be in Novgorod, so let the child be born beside the father.

A small Ostara fleet was put together, and the merchants would be brought in front of the supreme ruler of the Principality of Ross by the female leader. Only the supreme ruler had the right to decide on any commercial activities or other purposes.

People and horses are all floating on the lake, and it is a wonderful feeling to be in the same boat with the real Varyag.

After really getting in touch with them, Sakyi and other Kyiv businessmen increasingly felt that the Rus people were a little more rough, and they were still good trading partners, and they were even hospitable.

During the period of house arrest, they ate and drank well, and Sakye and his group did not pay even a single copper coin, even though they stuffed some Eastern Roman copper coins and Russian silver coins in their pockets.

In other words, Carlota has already collected the profits, and the mares she controls will breed taller horses. In theory, the people of Ostara can even train their own cavalry for this purpose, and this matter will not be too far away .

[End of this Chapter]