king of ros

Chapter 110
"Huh, it's finally built."

Valin finally breathed a sigh of relief as he watched the last nail on the wooden wall in front of him being driven in.

The tower had already been completed, he and his wife had lived in it, and the trenching and wooden walls were the last steps.

For him, the completion of this building is of great significance, and this standing city wall can be regarded as his establishment of power.

The Walled City is very simple, with a two-story wooden tower, a wooden wall and trenches, three large wooden houses for soldiers and servants, and a fish pond, the Walled City is completed in this way.

The layout of this walled city was arranged by the subordinates of the princes from Moscow. Valin heard that the layout of the newly built walled cities is like this. The layout was designed by the princes of Moscow himself. The purpose of these architects is mainly to ensure that measures are adapted to local conditions.

The walled city can accommodate very few people, the lord's family and their dozens of servants and soldiers is the limit, but this is the normal state of the bottom walled city owners.

Although the completion of the walled city made Valin extremely happy, he immediately had a headache again, because the farmers he hired from nearby to work were clamoring for him to send out his rent.

Logically speaking, these people are farmers attached to him, and it is their duty to serve themselves half a month of corvee every year, but these farmers who were free not long ago did not even serve the princes in Moscow very much, and How could it be possible to subdue him, a small city walled lord.

I have no choice but to send money. Fortunately, these farmers don’t ask for much. After all, they also know that they can’t go too far, and they can only spend the gold and silver in towns. It’s pointless to take too much. Funer Silver sent them all away.

Watching the farmer take the money and leave happily, Valin couldn't help sighing. He had a premonition that he would be very tired as the walled lord in Northeast Ross.

However, he has no complaints about it. Being a walled city master is already a gift, so what else does he complain about?

Varin used to be a farmer in the swamp outside Kyiv, and later he joined the Rostislav army. During the war with the Polovets, he once guided the prince in the swamp, and he was rewarded handsomely.

Originally, Varin could just quit the army like this. The money he got was enough to live and work in Kyiv, buy a good family business, and become the Kyiv citizen he always wanted to be.

But after seeing Rostislav's exploits, he decided to follow this young but well-known prince. He thought that following him he could gain more.

And his investment has indeed paid off for him. After coming to Northeast Ross, Rostislav granted him a piece of land and the population on it, making him a walled city owner.

In return for sitting on the city wall, Valin must pay taxes to the prince in time, and can organize a team of twenty warriors to respond to the call at any time, among which there must be two well-equipped warriors.

And if you bring three or even four, the prince will give corresponding subsidies as a reward.

However, although the prince made him the owner of the city wall, he had to repair the city wall by himself, and the people there had to tame it by himself, and all he could rely on was his own armor and the twenty qinong given by the prince. His existence is as a servant and soldier, as a hand upon which he can rely.

In the beginning, Valin didn't have any fear of taming the village community. In his opinion, everything would come naturally, but when he arrived, he realized that those village communities that should obey him didn't pay much attention to him.

Valin couldn't do anything even if he wanted to force them. There were only [-] farmers under his command, plus a veteran himself. Those village communities had nearly a hundred strong men, and it was impossible to say who the leaders in those village communities were. The brains still have weapons and armor at home, and when the time comes to fight, they will lose even the advantage of armor.

Although the prince's inspection team will also conduct weekly inspections to ensure that his inauguration is normal, but that's all. They can only ensure that he is in office, and the rest depends on himself.

There was no other way, so Valin had no choice but to take a roundabout route. He first married the daughter of a rich farmer in the largest village under his rule as his wife, and then he negotiated door to door in the village, drinking and chatting with them, and he could add some support from the prince when necessary. threat of force.

After all this tossing, he finally got these villages to surrender, expressing his willingness to pay taxes and submit to corvee.

During this period, his practice of his own obligations was also very important. It can be said that this contributed to the obedience of the village community. He adjudicated cases in the village, helped the villagers hunt wild animals, and sometimes even went to work in the fields himself—he was also a swamp farmer anyway. , these craftsmanship have not been lost yet.

Moscow gave him a lot of support with food and tools, these things were for him to bribe the people, which played a big role.

But the obedience of the village commune is discounted. For example, now, he makes the villagers serve their due corvee and still has to pay. Although the money is not a lot, it still feels awkward.

Valin knew that some powerful nobles and warriors did not compromise with the peasants at all. It seemed that some people colluded with the local dignitaries to suppress the peasants. If the peasants dared not accept them, they directly drove the family warriors into the village to kill them. Those who dared to take the lead were chopped off. No one dares to make trouble.

But that's something he can't learn, and it's also something that most new walled city masters can't learn. They have at least five or six armored warriors, and there are dozens of veterans who have experienced the battlefield. It's too simple to suppress and intimidate the village. This kind of force can do it.

It is estimated that these farmers can only recognize my status as a ruler when my descendants grow up. If this is the case, I might as well dig for silver.

Valin thought a little frustrated, of course he knew about Kashin, but since he is already a lord here, how could he abandon his territory to become an excavator?

But when he thought about it, his heart became hot, and he thought of the delicate body of his new wife from his offspring, and Valin was an old bachelor.

I didn't get married until I came to Northeast Ross,
Seeing the lord like this, the others went to work, and there were already some wooden houses and fields near the walled city.

This part belonged to the Qinong who followed him, and the other part belonged to the locals who wanted to leave the village or were simply driven away. They wanted to start a new life under the lord's walled city.

And such scenes are everywhere in the areas where the Rostislav forces can reach, and the fortresses are either under construction or have already stood.

With their appearance, the social ecology of Northeast Rus is undergoing slow but irreversible changes, a change that the current king of Moscow desires, but it will take many, many years, or even generations, to achieve the effect he wants hard work.

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(End of this chapter)