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Rise of Rurik - Chapter 359

Published at 21st of September 2022 05:58:55 AM


Chapter 359: Granary and fields

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A lot of things have happened in the western world in just a few months. Otto can't help feeling that the once peaceful and ordinary days are becoming turbulent.

Since all this is destiny, the big ship of the Ross people must ride the wind and waves in the waves, and there is no retreat for everyone.

At least the gods said that favoring the Ross people is like the fact that Shilla Fort did not have any troubles in the past year, and the population and wealth are also increasing rapidly.

Otto felt that the visit of Liurik and Arik was to make everyone more vigilant. Now, it is very important to erect the wooden wall as soon as possible before the first snowfall.

For this night, Rurik, who had been sailing, slept beside his father. He was forced to do this to ease the anxiety of an old man.

No, Otto, the old guy, kept running Rick's smooth hair like an orange cat.

It was Otto's snoring that was tormented by Rurik, who was struggling to fall asleep.

The early morning of Fort Shilla was born in the fog. There is plenty of water, dense forests and flat terrain. The water nourishes this northern land. The small alluvial plain at the mouth of the river is a good place to build a city.

There are few good places in Eastern Europe. The mouth of the Neva River is one, and it is also an entrance to the sea. Peter the Great worked hard to build this place because of its strategic value.

Damp and thick fog pervades the earth in autumn, and when the fog disperses, the pleasant autumn sun shines all over the world.

The earth has not become warm. No, all the people who work outdoors have put on thick clothes.

Standing outdoors, Rurik can easily recognize who is a Ross immigrant and who is a Slavic immigrant.

Look at the women who wear turquoise linen headscarves and thick aprons woven with colorful hemp ropes at their waists. They are Slavs. Men of this ethnic group also wear linen cloth, and they all wear pants (their ancestors ran into nomadic forces when they desperately immigrated to the east from the Vistula and Po plains, so they learned about the prairie people), using a thick hemp rope As a trouser belt.

What the Rus people have always praised is the high level of shoe manufacturing by the Novgorod people. This is a matter of course, or because of the experience of the emigration road and the prairie people, sewing leather boots, felt boots, or boots of mixed materials, there are many such bootmakers in Novgorod.

The Russians are inferior to Novgorod in all tailoring skills. In fact, the tailoring level of the entire Union is lagging behind Europe in the same period.

The Ross people's clothing is mainly leather, so in terms of temperament, they are naturally tough and rough.

But once they got used to wearing clothes woven with soft linen, eating porridge and baking soft big liba, and adapted to this more comfortable life, the immigrant Russ had begun to spontaneously Slavic.

Now, no one in Roth feels that this is wrong. It is the instinct of everyone to make life more comfortable.

The two ethnic groups live together. Almost all of them have signed a tax payment agreement with Otto. At least in terms of tax payment obligations, all immigrants are equal.

In the beginning, the Ross immigrants just looked down on the Novgorod immigrants, claiming that they were a group of cowards and defeated men. However, in daily close contact, as mutual understanding deepened, a group of immigrants completed their intermarriage in Shilla Fort, and the barriers of the past are quickly dissipating.

When the Novgorod immigrants showed excellent farming skills, even for food, even the arrogant Russians must need their help. The barren and cold Roseburg has made a large number of Ross people forget how to grow wheat.

Rurik had to stay in Shilla Fort until the day of departure, it was not far away.

"My dear, you can stay in a warm room, and someone will take care of your daily life." Otto really didn't want his son to be cold and frozen outside.

"That's not okay, I haven't really appreciated the city yet." Rurik retorted without even thinking about it.

"Didn't you see it yesterday?"

"Huh? That counts? It's just squinting at the corner of my eye. Before I set off, I have to go around the settlement, and I have to go to the farmland."

Otto looked at his son's determined face, and it was estimated that he could not be convinced. "It will be two or three days before we go back. The brothers your cousin brought are really great. I will organize them to build the fence soon. You said, who will accompany you?"

"Then... myself. Let my mercenaries be with me."

"Then let Cornuzon, let the old guy accompany you. Maybe you have a lot of opinions about our new home, just tell that man."

Rurik's mind turned, "Just do it."

After a while, Cornuzon, who was ordered, came to meet him. He has no resistance to the next task, is it not an honor to be able to personally lead the future leader to admire the future main city?

"Dear Leurik, if you have any comments, please bring them up, and I will take my brothers to solve them." Konuzon knelt on one knee, his obedience made Otto very happy.

In fact, Conusson wanted to bring his family down on his knees, hoping to reap the promise of a stable power in the future from Lurik. In short, Conusson knew that now that Rose has grown, wouldn't the leader of his family's hereditary corner of the land be stunned?

Cornusson happily led this task, and as soon as it was a tour guide, he took Rurik and his mercenaries and went straight to the pier on the Neva River.

"Wait? Let's go to the dock? Do we want to roam by boat?" Rurik wondered.

Conusson is most proud of the construction of the wharf. There is no such thing as a large and stable wharf. How can the Sorgon fleet dock for supplies? "My lord, do you have other plans?"

"Go to the granary first. Listen, the key to survival is never to starve."

"Okay, let's go."

"That's right." Rurik's mind was excited, "Where did you build the granary?"

"At the heart of the settlement, I hope you are satisfied."

"not bad."

Rurik quickly came to lack an understanding of the ancient granary system. It seemed that all he needed to do was to build a special house to pile grain, check moisture regularly, and eliminate rodents.

A group of people walked through the chaotically arranged wooden houses. What made Rurik was relieved was that the houses were separated by Jiaotong University. Some open areas were trampled on roads, and the places where few people stayed were full of withered grass, a small amount of it. The sheep with their necks gnawed boringly, and occasionally three or two skinny chickens hurried past. There are still some trivial empty fields in the settlement, which are obviously suppressed by some heavy objects, or simply rammed, and the gray-black land appears flat and solid. What do they do?

Rurik couldn't feel the pastoral, even if it was wrapped in a wooden wall, it was still a big village. In this "village", the traditional Viking longhouse built with wood, soil and thatch is rare, and the Slavic woodcut is the mainstream.

"Maybe Novgorod is like this. Yes! It must be like this. Many immigrants come from there."

Rurik thought so, presumably even the granary should be Novgorod style.

A number of special longhouses are where the Granary of Shilla Fortress is located. Those settlers from Novgorod transplanted their more advanced storage technology to their new homes.

The granaries are all fence-like long-house-shaped buildings. The interior should be rectangular. The large number of columns under the wooden floor are much higher than the wood-carved ones. They are all built on a higher ground to prevent the erosion of heavy rains and sea tides, taking into account the fire prevention. Because of the necessity, the granaries are relatively far apart.

Compared with residential buildings, these granaries are arranged more orderly. They are similar to a matrix arrangement, and all warehouses add up to thirty.

Rurik looked around inside the granary area, and immediately asked, "Cornuzon, so many houses are full of wheat?"

"In addition to wheat, there are some cabbage, they are soaked in Tao Weng. You know, everyone can make sauerkraut. There are also some houses with dried meat."

"Then I want to see."

Hurrying food is a means of life-saving for humans, so storing seeds is a more advanced means of life-saving.

No, Rurik got into the granary and saw the sack piled up into a wall, which was naturally full of grain.

Cornuzon explained that part of the grain is a tax paid, and they are about to be shipped to the ship. The other food is the rations of the residents, as well as the extremely precious crops.

The current settlers in Shilla Fort, men and women, old and young, are just over 800 people, and it is not difficult to manage them.

It is natural to form associations in difficult places, so when the grain is received, most of the grain is thrown into the shared granary by the residents. The running-in period of more than a year has passed, and the Rus and Novgorods have actually become a community with a shared future.

This alliance made Rurik secretly refreshed. Perhaps this is the fate. The Russ who colonized Eastern Europe were not simply conquerors, but helped the Eastern Slavs to do groundbreaking things. Everything began with the fusion of blood.

Rurik's excitement has no direct manifestation.

For the parties involved, this alliance has a realistic need, and the essence of the alliance is to hold a group for warmth.

Because they used the quyuan plough to open up wild land, they used up all the grain they had originally brought. They have used limited agricultural technology in the cold years to reach the limit of output.

Cornusson gave an estimated number of 100 stika (slightly less than one hectare) in the vertical and horizontal fields, and the harvest was about 1,500 pounds of wheat.

Rurik felt that the harvest was equivalent to ninety catties per mu.

It seems to be very weak, I am afraid this is already due to the nourishment of the Neva River, the high value of grain production in the Shilla Fort area. If you encounter an extremely warm and humid year, with some farm manure, it is very possible that the yield per mu can reach 150.

After getting off the granary and listening to Cornuson's endless introduction, Rurik was completely in the attitude of a leader listening to the report.

An old guy can't stop talking to a beautiful little boy, and the scene is a bit funny.

After all, Rurik was an adult mentally. He could have committed naivety on the issue of war, and he would have seen it go through bloodshed. In Mellaren, he understood the bottomless pursuit of interests by snobs. In any nation and era, snobs are always the same and unsympathetic.

"I came from Mellaren and I found that the fields over there are not as good as ours."

"Oh, it must be because this is where the Ross people entered. Odin looks at your face, Sir, and bestows us favors."

"Enough!" Rurik waved his hand, and he couldn't stand it. "In my opinion, this place has just been developed. The land is fertile, and the production of grain will be reduced if it continues to grow."

"Huh? There is such a thing?" Conuson felt incredible.

"It's true."

"If this is the case, we can only open up new farmland."

"You!" Rurik grinned suddenly, "Are you really ignorant or stupid?"

"Ok?"

"Your people can't..." Rurik had something to say, suddenly thinking that these guys didn't know how to fertilize at all.

I really can't criticize them for this, but they haven't had the consciousness of fertilizing, or that they have never logically contrasted such filthy things as manure with the growth of seedlings.

Rurik knew the frontier theory from another time and space, that is, the end of land agriculture is not far away. The nutrients of the land itself will be quickly absorbed and cleaned by the crops, for which desperately spreading chemical fertilizers is not a long-term solution. People at present are not yet qualified to consider those things. All the residents living in Shilla Fort, Rurik does not expect them to do more. He just wants to gather all the manure of himself and the livestock and poultry instead of the past. Or dig pits and bury them directly, throw them into the Neva River, but sprinkle them on the farmland to fertilize the fields.

"You can use the whole winter to collect human and animal manure, and before spring plowing, you can sprinkle them like fields. Then when the harvest season comes, you will get more food. Oh, by the way, don’t let the charcoal ashes for heating and cooking wheat and toasts casually. Throwing them away and sprinkling them into the fields can also increase yields."

Listening to Rurik's words, Conusson really didn't know the causal relationship between the ashes of the dung and the high yield of food. Taking into account the technical level of the residents, collecting plant ash and manure is the only way to obtain nitrogen and potash fertilizers for wheat, although the efficiency of fertilizers is far less than that of later chemical fertilizers.

"My lord, can this work?"

"It can do it! It must do it! You just have to remember that the chief's order for you is to pay a tax of 200 pounds of wheat per household. The rest of the grain is yours. You have absolute autonomy. I will propose to you. To increase production, you can try or do nothing. You remember that the increased production of grain is your own wealth."

Even if Cornuzon doesn't understand the whole story, he also understands the importance of increasing production.

A sturdy farmer has limited physical strength, and a family with a small number of people can manage the field at the limit of 200 stikas vertically and horizontally.

Generally speaking, Lurik's attitude towards the granary is good.

He slapped his hands vigorously to get rid of the ashes: "Just collect the feces, don't be afraid of the dirt. Soap is also shipped, and you can wash your hands with it frequently to wash away all kinds of filth. As for this granary, you should take good care of it. Never catch fire."

"Yes, we must protect it properly." Cornuzon asked with compliments: "My lord, where do you want to go to see next?"

"Oh. For you, nothing is more important than farming. Let's go and take me to the fields."

Reurik's quick arrival did not have any wonderful expectations of the land that the Rus people could cultivate.

When it comes to intensive farming, the farming nations in the East still have skills. In other words, the intensive cultivation of the Eastern peoples is forced out by the natural environment. Since the fields given by the heavens are naturally arid, in order to survive, they desperately take care of the fields. If there is water shortage, build an irrigation system. When the land is barren, manure is collected for fertilizer, and it has even been developed to use the dregs of grinding tofu as nitrogen fertilizer.

Really stood in the ridge of the Ross people, and Rick couldn't conclude that it was really farmland for a while.

There are no irrigation ditches in the fields, even if it is to bring in Neva river water, it is a trivial matter of digging a diversion canal.

The fields are set with some boundaries, that is, the raised low mounds, which are so low to distinguish the fields of each household, but they can’t tell if they are not confident~www.novelhall.com~ he can. I saw some sparse wheat stubble and a small amount of dead grass. Looking at the density of these wheat stubbles, it is a fact that the yield per mu is less than 100 catties.

Suddenly, a northerly wind hit him tightly in his leather jacket, and the feeling of desolation really made him feel uncomfortable.

Conusson didn't think there was any problem. He introduced the fields enthusiastically, describing the beauty of the oats heading, as well as the whole settlement of the residents of the settlement cutting wheat and their families, and even all the residents were working on the threshing floor at the same time.

Wait, threshing floor? !

"Your threshing floor? Where is it?" Rurik asked.

"Just within the fence, there are many open spaces." Conuson introduced.

"Huh? I just saw some hard land, could it be..."

"Hey, that's our threshing field and drying field."

"Go, go to the threshing floor and see."




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