Rise of Rurik

The huge flame tower burned for three days and three nights until the first day of 838 AD on the Julian calendar.

The four giant woods supporting the main structure of the wooden pagoda finally collapsed. The fire pagoda site left a pool of bluish-white ashes. The central area was still smoldering at high temperature, and the heat was enough to burn the mud into pottery.

The aftermath of the festival has not faded, and the ashes on the beach are still hot.

Thanks to the huge fire tower, the change of generals around has indeed undergone tremendous changes.

It is like an artificial sun, a scorching beacon. It is stunned to roast a large number of areas of snow to evaporate, and even the area of ​​the Shilla Fortress facing the fire tower is restored to a snow-free appearance, and the snow on the walls in this area is lost. When the fire tower disappeared, it was roasted to melt snow and the mud was re-frozen, so that the sledge could not run in such an area, but it caused a little trouble to the people.

Kagan especially remembers the appearance of people singing and dancing on the tower when the fire tower exploded.

The whole city was bright and warm for three consecutive nights. He had never had such an experience in his hometown. Now his life in the Royal City of the Rus is like a dream.

Once upon a time, in his view of the world, the world existed around a grassland, with the north being the forest and the south being the sea. The forest is the territory of the Slavs, the sea is controlled by the Romans, and the vast grasslands are strong from all walks of life. I will appear on the stage. The Pechenegg alliance is not weak, but it cannot be a strong one.

Unexpectedly, there is a world of ice and snow in the forest generation, with a frozen ocean. The people here live a different kind of wonderful life, and he is particularly surprised by the abundant ironware and low prices here.

With the Neva River estuary as the center, there is no iron ore in a radius of 100 kilometers, not even mountains. The geographically nearest land quarry is somewhere in the Karelia Isthmus, which is nearly 200 kilometers away. That area is not even involved by hunters in the Principality, and even the Finns have never discovered it.

In theory, the Principality of Ross conquered all the "Eastern Land" and its territory expanded to the shore of the Arctic Ocean. There is a serious lack of knowledge about what is in the territory. A huge area needs to be explored. However, this bitter cold land naturally excludes explorers. If they can, the Ross people are more willing to go south, looking for more suitable land and warm hunting grounds.

It is this rotten land where a small group of people chasing reindeer tracks are always mavericks. All deer breeders have become citizens under the rule of the duchy in legal theory. The deer breeders pay tribute every autumn, and mainly pay taxes mainly on deer skins and live deer to the Governor of Fort Elon in the far north. Use deerskin as a special currency to buy ironware and salt on the spot.

If the urgent needs of life can be purchased peacefully, the deer-raising clans in the diaspora have completely given up resistance. They have no concern for their homeland and country. The so-called carefree grazing of reindeer in the vast tundra and forest, when attacked by the strong, they run away at home, knowing that they have found that they have no escape.

Even the deer-raising clan who ran to the Kola Peninsula moved westward. As long as they paid taxes, they could get a small flag. Based on the Ross flag, they got the right to trade, and in principle, all Ross hunters dared to attack them. , The Ross Hunter who committed the crime legally was severely punished for the crime of murdering the family members according to its regulations. According to the general truth, wild hunters are blond and brawny, and they look down upon a group of nomadic dwarves in the wilderness. Unexpectedly, attacking these nomadic clans now has become a felony, which was not the case before!

The history books of the duchy clearly record that the ancestors of Ross who emigrated annihilated the deer breeders who lived in the fjord, thus establishing Fort Ross.

Why does the prince ask the people for mercy? Is it just because of the origin of the high priest?

This is not the case. As a monarch, which monarch will kill his tax source group without trouble? What's more, the principality sells ironware to free deer breeders, and the price is far higher than the market price of the principality. The industrial and agricultural scissors here are frantically exploiting a group of free people in a matriarchal society.

The rise of the Principality of Rus certainly has its own efforts, but also lies in the huge dividends of the extremely long gambling-style war. Industrial pioneers have already appeared in the Principality, and the sensitive Rurik noticed the rise of industrial capital in the Principality. In this regard, there is certainly his exemplary policy until, even if he does not intervene, industrial capital will inevitably rise. The emergence of the Hanseatic League is a historical inevitability. The commercial groups in the cities around the Baltic Sea are not really second-hand dealers. Most of them are also doers. For more wealth, they must step up production of materials and then cross the sea to trade.

Even if the Fort Shilla at the mouth of the Neva River wants ore without ore, theoretically it is not suitable for the development of the metallurgical industry. But here is an inexhaustible timber resource, and it sits on a good northern port that can be made-up. It is the hub of the east and west regions of the Principality. A large number of people have gathered here, which means that a large number of people have a strong willingness to work. Increase income and improve life.

In an open space in the city of Shilla Fort, some special factories have been erected long ago.

When stone and cement began to be put into urban construction, the workshops in this area immediately began "stone innovation". Because the workmanship here is quite special, it is more alert to the possibility of fire than other buildings.

The big iron factory in Shilla Fort is here. It does not smelt ore but can make steel. There is no earth blast furnace here, but there are twenty furnaces based on traditional improvements in the ostentatious matrix. The refractory bricks fired with mixed iron ore make the inside of the furnace stronger and the service life is greatly increased.

Because the two large ironworks in Elronburg and Roseburg’s blast furnace town alone cannot digest their own pig iron. Both of the two large iron plants are adjacent to mines. With the use of blast furnace technology, molten iron smelting is completed every day and a batch of pig iron slugs are cast. If you just cast axe, hammer and shovel, you can put it into production and life after casting. However, they can only be used as production tools, and the quality is not high, so the price is not high.

As long as they are processed into steel, the price can skyrocket!

A large number of pig iron ingots cannot be digested by the large northern iron factories, unless there are more laborers in the local area, but a large number of people rush to the south. The lack of labor is in stark contradiction with more output. Then it becomes very necessary to transport the pig iron ingots to the new large iron factory in the south for finishing.

The shipyard in Roseburg’s homeland made every effort to produce light, standard cargo ships, and sent pig iron ingots to Shilla Fort during the warm period.

In line with the principle of maximizing profit, the two large iron plants in the north are doing their best to smelt iron ore. The so-called labor force responsible for steelmaking is mainly used for mining ore. When the sea was frozen, the North Iron Works changed its strategy to take into account the work of mining, molten iron and steelmaking.

There are three large iron factories in the Principality. Legally speaking, they are the assets of the Principality, as well as the assets of Rurik himself as the monarch. After all, it was a factory built by him himself, and a group of workers were trained by him, because the union of blacksmiths within the principality signed the contract. The iron family of the Principality is a complete alliance with the royal family, so the heads of the big iron factories in various places must unconditionally listen to the decline of the production capacity of the princes.

Therefore, the labor force of the two major iron factories in the north supports their families through labor remuneration, and their consumption also drives the lives of other people in the two settlements.

In the "post-immigrant era" after the capital moved to the Principality, Roseburg and Elronburg found their key new positioning-a large iron factory.

Roseburg is more complex, and it is also the location of the Northern Leather Trade Center and Northern Shipyard. Elronburg also has its own characteristics. It guards two northern rivers and is the herring fishing center of the Principality. It is also the activity center for hunters and deer people in the north. It is even the largest land trade route with Narvik Port in the north. Inn.

The pig iron ingots from the north have a variety of shapes. They are piled up in mountains and placed outdoors indifferently, so that large areas of iron on the surface are rusted into red things.

Rust doesn't get in the way. The iron with excessive carbon content is smashed into pieces by a strong man, and it is stir-fried in the stove.

The Principality fully uses the steel-frying method to smelt iron ingots into low-carbon steel. Based on the intuitive experience of the craftsmen, try to reduce the carbon content of the semi-finished products to a certain range, and then continue processing.

The young but strong boy became the director of the Shilla Fortress Iron Works.

He is no one else, but the poor Kamnier whose parents were killed by the bear.

Those bitter things have long been in the past, and now this kid has not only succeeded in his career, but also won a wife, and even just became a father.

There are traces of young boys everywhere in the Shilla Fortress. They are the first batch of young blacksmiths trained by Rurik. Their identities are generally of Slavic ethnicity, and most of them come from Novgorod, with no loyalty. Doubt.

Camney, who has grown into a strong man and looks like a Viking, is most pleased that the prince personally visited it. This time he personally served as a tour guide to introduce the prince to the current capacity problems of the big iron factory.

Although it is a big iron factory, there are no more than 20 furnaces here. The furnace can naturally be expanded, but based on the current supply of iron ingots, twenty furnaces that work throughout the year can eat them.

Although from the perspective of ordinary people and professional blacksmiths, the pig iron produced every year in the Principality can be called huge! But it is not even five tons when calculated accurately.

Is this also worthy of claiming to have huge production capacity? ! According to the iron output per capita, the data of the Duchy of Rus did approach the peak per capita during the Western Han Dynasty. Of course, even the smelting process of the Rusians was imitated the Western Han Dynasty. Perhaps this is the limit that the process can reach.

In this poor European world, the Duchy of Ross, with a nominal population of one hundred thousand, produces five tons of iron per year, which is already comparable to the entire Frankish kingdom. At least the Principality of Russ was unable to consume so much iron production. Selling ironware to the outside world was a great way to make money. Therefore, the destruction of the local Rus shops by the King of Denmark meant that the use of a knife to pierce the arteries of the Rus people.

Realistically speaking, if it were not for the Ross people to guard the best iron ore veins in Northern Europe, and the extremely high iron content in the ore, or even the blast furnace technology, this would not be possible.

A large amount of iron exists in the market as tools cast from pig iron, such as the heavy cast iron pots used for daily life. This also includes the iron woks and frying pans of the royal family and wealthy merchants.

Only part of the pig iron will be refined into steel, but the latter's output only accounts for 20% of the total production capacity.

In fact, even if steel is made by the frying method, it cannot change the reality that the work of steelmaking is time-consuming and laborious.

Rose man-made steel is almost used in weapons, such as forged swords, forged spears, forged steel piercing arrows, forged steel axes, and forged crossbow arms.

And even some special tools, such as the damping reeds of special carriages, curved ploughs, and even the elastic reeds of woodworking lathes.

The steelmaking workshops of all major iron plants are dedicated to these tasks, while the major iron plant in Shilla Fort currently only undertakes the work of processing iron ingots into steel.

The factory area keeps the sound of ding ding dong dong all the year round, and even artisans are beating at night.

The young craftsmen are deeply graced by the emperor. They are all ordinary poor peasant children. In principle, they are now the prince’s private iron slaves, but they have a good life that they dare not imagine in the past. The brothers usually eat well, dress well and sleep well. After a long period of forging work, each of them has practiced with thicker arms than legs and full of tendons. It is because there are bonuses for working more, which urges them to spare time as much as possible to forge steel weapons.

This time the prince came again.

Camney grew a beard, wore a coarse and loose coat, rolled up his sleeves and was not afraid of the cold outside.

Indeed, even if the windows were opened for ventilation in the entire ironmaking workshop, twenty furnaces were arranged in a matrix to form a huge group of people, and Rurik even saw some blacksmiths working bareback.

"Prince, your visit must have important arrangements..." Kamnier said with a silly smile.

"clever."

After that, Rurik motioned to his men to bring a cloth bag, and took out one of them.

"What is this?" Kamnier was a little puzzled.

"This? It's horse shoes."

"Horse's iron shoes? Very strange."

"Not surprising." Rurik decisively handed it over to Kamnier: "You can imitate it immediately according to my arrangement. I know your strength, now I need 500, and you must build it quickly."

"Huh?!" Kamnier was taken aback.

"Why? Are you unwilling?"

"I don't dare. Duke, how come I can't see how it fits on the hooves of a horse...horse."

"That's natural. It has to be nailed to the horseshoe."

"Ah?! The horses won't hurt to die like that. That's your horse, your cavalry."

Only then did Rurik think, and his little brother didn't know horseshoes? He hurriedly explained the whole story, and then he barely made the clever Kamnier understand.

Nail the horseshoe into the horse's hoof. Even so, the horse doesn't feel pain? It is said that this can prevent the wear of the hoof.

As for the horseshoe that Rurik took out, it was unloaded from the hoof of a horse~www.readwn.com~ It is made of wrought iron by the Pecheneg people, and the quality is naturally inferior to the steel parts of the Ross people. Because it was too damaged, it took advantage of the cavalry assembly and Shilla Fort, the Ross people just completed the imitation of the horseshoes and quickly installed them for all horses.

Rurik issued a death order: "Suspend all smelting orders, and all the weapon forging tasks I have placed are moved back seven days. You take your brothers to imitate horseshoes with all your strength, and take out five hundred in seven days. After completing the task, you will all Get a generous reward."

Kamni readily agreed, and looked at the ironware in his hand, he unexpectedly showed a trace of contempt. He is young, he has been a blacksmith for many years, and it is rare to take a break from work for a year. The high-intensity work makes him rich in experience.

"Who made this ironware? The quality is indeed not good. It's my turn to imitate. Naturally, all of them are made of excellent steel, and the horseshoes will be completely flat."

"Who else can be our Pechenegg friend." Rurik shrugged and pointed out: "Don't be an absolute plane. The side that touches the ground has some dents. I want to increase my grip. You know the mechanics knowledge handed over to you."

"Yes, I will organize a meeting for my brothers..."