Vikings: Lords of the Ice Sea

Chapter 37 Territory
It takes a whole day to walk from Tynburg to the downstream estuary; Vig estimates it to be at least twenty kilometers.

“Three beacon towers were set up at five-kilometer intervals. Once an unfamiliar fleet was spotted, ‘smoke signals’ made of animal dung were lit during the day, and piles of firewood were lit at night.”

Regarding the personnel deployment, Vig plans to assign four people to each beacon tower, with three people rotating in eight-hour shifts and the remaining person as a redundancy.

“A total of twelve people, plus the cost of building the beacon towers.” He muttered to himself as he rode on horseback, deciding to spread the expense among the manors and villages under his jurisdiction. This early warning system would benefit all settlements, and there was no reason for the lord to bear the cost alone.

Having made up his mind, Vig summoned the village chief and gentry. Thanks to the reputation he had built up last time, no one dared to refuse his invitation.

After a brief discussion, the guests agreed to take turns guarding the beacon tower. Their lives were at stake, and they weren't as calculating as one might expect.

"By the way, there's one more thing."

Vig led his men to the riverbank, where three water-powered workshops were being built: one for washing wool fabrics, one for grinding flour, and the last for cutting timber.

"After the wool is sheared, it needs to be combed, spun, and rinsed. Rinsing the fabric requires workers to tread on it with their feet, which is time-consuming and laborious. I plan to build a water-powered rinsing workshop, and you are all welcome to come and use it."

The portly country gentleman, Harry, asked, "How much will it cost?"

"After completion, fees will be charged based on the specific usage effect, with a maximum of five percent."

This percentage was based on the milling fee for grinding grain into flour. Generally, when farmers borrowed a lord's mill, they had to pay 5% to 8% of their flour each time. Lord Vig, being kind-hearted, decided to set both the milling fee and the washing fee at five percent, barely enough to earn himself a living.

After serving the group a simple lunch of fish soup and bread, Vig sent them away and focused all his energy on building the workshop.

In terms of technical difficulty, the rinsing workshop is the least difficult. The fabric is placed in a water tank filled with clean water and bleaching clay, and a water wheel drives a wooden mallet to repeatedly beat it, thereby removing the grease attached to the surface of the textile.

In comparison, the sawmill is the most difficult and costly, especially the core component—the long iron saw. Kader said that the processing difficulty of this thing is far beyond imagination, and he needs to ask his father to help.

"Really? Hurry up and ask him for help. Money is no problem." Vig instructed the other man to go to the stables and pick out a mount, telling him to go and come back quickly so as not to delay the construction of the remaining two workshops.

Leaving the riverbank, Vig yawned as he headed towards his bedroom, only to be harassed by the Crow Whisperer along the way.

"My lord, I have chosen a plot of land to build a temple to worship the gods. Could you provide me with some financial assistance?"

“Not for now.” Vig frowned and raised a thought-provoking question. “I’ve heard that in southern Denmark, the local lords are abandoning their traditions and converting to Roman Catholicism. Why? Go back and think about it. Come back to me when you’ve figured it out.”

As it turned out, the ravens were far more intelligent than ordinary Vikings, and after thinking all night, they came to the conclusion—writing.

“My lord, our runic script is unsuitable for lengthy writing; messages can only be conveyed through spoken language. Its accuracy depends on the memory of the person involved, and as time passes, generations grow old, fall ill, and die, most experience and wisdom are lost. To handle government affairs more efficiently, lords tend to rely on missionaries fluent in Latin, using them to collect taxes, process paper documents, and record history, eventually converting to their gods.” “That’s right. Are there any other answers?”

Finding the raven whisperer silent, Vig rose from his seat and paced back and forth in the hall. "Besides the lack of written language," he said, "your rituals are far too bloody. Killing cattle and sheep at the drop of a hat is enough to frighten children. Remember to change the ritual content in the future, eat fewer hallucinogenic mushrooms, and don't dress too sinisterly; just be dignified and simple."

They chattered on for a long time until the Crow Whisperer promised to accept all the suggestions. Vig nodded, gave him a plot of land, two pounds of silver as funding, and a booklet filled with characters.

The original runic script was complex, and Vig spent time adjusting it (referencing the 21st-century English alphabet). Since the Raven Speakers were willing to reform Norse polytheism, Vig passed on this writing system to them.

After more than twenty days of hard work, the two finally released Rune Text version 1.0 and decided to use it on a small scale.

"Adults don't have time to learn, so you can recruit a group of children and teach them runes and arithmetic. Use the money sparingly, and come back to me when you've used it up."

Vig planned to cultivate talent from scratch, and one day, to seize the lands of the Picts in the north (the Scottish region), he needed a group of qualified administrators to assist in governance.

With the matter of the Crow Whisperer settled, Vig refocused his energy on the waterworks. Kader's father, a skilled craftsman, sent over four saw blades.

Tests have shown that a single saw blade is eight times more efficient at cutting wood than a human. The sawmill currently has three saw blades available, which, if put into full production, would be equivalent to about twenty-four adult laborers.

"Very good, this is the wages I promised you."

With the three workshops gradually coming online, Vig summoned Micham to review the accounts, which totaled seven pounds of silver. Furthermore, the extensive use of labor during construction had drawn considerable resentment from residents in the surrounding area; if labor costs were included, the total expenditure was estimated at fifteen pounds.

"Seven pounds of silver is enough to buy a vast manor. The initial investment in the workshop was too large. I hope to recoup the investment as soon as possible."

After a few words of praise, Vig patted Kader on the shoulder, "Well done, young man. Have you considered training a few apprentices to help you?"

"Huh?" Kader instinctively wanted to curse, but considering the other party's status, he could only swallow the profanity.

The saying "the apprentice teaches, the master starves" was common knowledge among medieval artisans. With a fixed total number of orders, the more artisans there were, the less profit each individual earned. To prevent unhealthy competition, guilds in various cities implemented measures to strictly limit the number of apprentices they could recruit.

Seeing Kader's flushed face, Vig quickly realized that he had seemingly touched on the man's core interests.

“That makes sense,” he thought to himself. “Orders in one area can only support one blacksmith, leatherworker, or barber. If an apprentice graduates, in most cases, the master will give him a set of tools and let him find work in other areas. If the apprentice insists on staying and competing for business, one of the master and apprentice will definitely go bankrupt.”

Vig's response was to offer more money, promising to pay each apprentice a pound of silver for each successful apprentice they trained. Faced with the temptation of such a large sum, Kader said he needed time to consider before giving a reply.

(End of this chapter)