Rise of Rurik

Huotra knew that the gold master was here to see the goods, and it would be superfluous to say more in this situation. He ordered his men to drop the rope ladder: "Sir, come up and take a look. We can chat in the cabin if we have something to do, I hope you like it."

cabin? That's really fun.

With a flick of his neck, Rurik took Yevlo and the others, carrying a strange saw, and cautiously climbed the rope ladder and stood inside the deckless cabin.

Really standing inside, Rurik really and clearly saw the internal structure of this imitation Caravel's ship, and she really met her expectations.

Its side is originally low (even if the low keel reaches the side of the ship, it is nearly three meters high), and the bow and stern appear quite high because of the space for living.

Standing inside, Rurik could clearly chop down a single oak rib, and only the bottom planks were selected, and Rurik could realize that they were all oak.

"Oak! Do we have so much oak?" Rurik was surprised, and Hortra, who had been waiting for a long time, was eager to explain.

"My lord, we did use a lot of oak. Those houses that were demolished had a lot of oak material, and I bought them to build boats for you. You can rest assured that since those woods ensured that the houses will not collapse for ten years, they will also guarantee our boats. Very sturdy."

Rurik knew the habit of local shipbuilders in Rus, and the best oak was used for the construction of the hull, and the best of them must be used for the keel. Like the mast of a ship, it can be replaced by pine wood. The various ships that must cruise through the Baltic Sea in this time and space have very low requirements on the strength of the mast.

However, the oars of the Rus' longships are mostly made of oak.

Rurik crouched down, and he smelled the thick resin of the hull. His fingers tried to squeeze the gap in the hull, but no, the pine resin between the fingers was clearly visible.

"Huh? Hortra, you can use turpentine for the gaps in the plank of this ship? I'm really afraid that it will leak."

Hortra laughed, and he laughed wildly: "Sir, you can rest assured that this is the only one! After the pine glue was applied to these boards, I sent someone to pour water on them, and the boards were all swelled, so it wouldn't leak. You are also completely Don't worry, the plank will expand further when the ship enters the sea. Are you worried about the barrel leaking, my lord?"

Rurik nodded, still somewhat worried.

He is a real layman in shipbuilding, and he only knows a little bit of knowledge, and Rurik thinks that he doesn't have to work again.

Rurik is a little strange,

Does this ship need to brush tung oil on the bottom of the ship?

Wait a minute! Tung oil?

Suddenly, Rurik realized that Westerners had no concept of brushing tung oil for a long time, and they should not even know what tung oil is.

The fact is that it is simple and crude, even if the boat is upgraded to a Galen, they just don't put a protective coating on the bottom of the boat. When they realized that the application of waterproof paint was effective against seawater erosion, it was the age of iron ships.

In fact, don't worry too much, the oak board is really hard, and it is naturally resistant to seawater, so the maintenance cost behind the continuous voyage of large wooden boats is completely acceptable.

The seawater of the Baltic Sea and the Atlantic Ocean is very different, especially in the hinterland of the Gulf of Bothnia. The salinity of the seawater is several times lower than that of the Atlantic Ocean. The erosion of seawater on ships has not been considered by the Rus.

Although the oak is very hard, Rurik knew that the oak plank of the Galen Gallen could resist the impact of a solid bullet with a small charge. It was really hard!

Is this hardness enough to ignore possible reefs?

Rurik saw that these guys had no plans to make watertight compartments in any form. They certainly didn't think it was unnecessary, just because they didn't realize it.

He was surprised to see that at the center of the keel of the ship, a unique platform was reserved here, which must be the base for installing the mast!

Rurik clapped his hands and stood up, in some ways he was powerless to complain. Look at this ship again! Not to mention that its interior is really big, with a thirty-meter long keel and stretched ribs, but it creates a big, chunky cabin. The core load-bearing components are all oak, and the construction method is exactly the same as that of a cargo ship. It is her cargo capacity. Rurik estimates that it must be equivalent to three cargo ships!

The belly of this boat is so stuffy that Rurik thinks that she is a little bit like a flat-bottomed boat. She must not have a deep draft, which means that she naturally needs some ballast so that she can become a "Tumbler" in the sea.

"Sir, what do you think?" Hortra, who was standing at the bottom of the boat, asked complimentably.

"Very good, I'm satisfied. Have you seen the wood outside?"

"Yes! My lord, thank you so much for the wood, especially the wood for the masts. It's really nice that they have been air-dried!"

"Then let's build it quickly! I'll give you an order! In the next ten days, lay the deck for me, and build me the mast! By the way, I also need a foremast, and I'm going to install it at the bow. A sail. Can you do it?"

"When...of course!"

Although Hotra was a little timid, when he thought of doing this work himself, it was a nomination for the leader of Ross. He and his family could only succeed. Even if the requirements of the leader of Ross were too harsh, they had to overcome and succeed.

"Then, let's sit down and talk." Rurik pinched his waist with his hands in front of him, twisting his waist, as if he was going to fight.

"Sir, you..."

"Let's talk about it first." Rurik calmed down and said solemnly: "I have provided you with a batch of excellent materials, so the remuneration for you will be reduced."

Once money was mentioned, the Hortra family all stopped working and listened vigilantly.

Hortra was nervous and asked tentatively, "The question of money, maybe..."

"This is my harbour, this is my site, you don't want me to choose. I have provided you with a large amount of building materials, and I will deduct two pounds of your ten pounds of silver. Do the math, whether you are really Is there a loss? Besides, I have decided now that I will take people and build this ship with you."

The development of the matter was completely beyond Hortra's expectations. He said that the good shipbuilding was completed by his own family. He never thought that the Lord of Gold had decided to do it himself.

A layman also comes to build a ship?

Let's think about money first.

Excellent shipbuilders are more sensitive to mathematical calculations than others. Hortra is wily. He closed his eyes and did some mental calculations, and realized that the northern hardwood provided by Rurik was of great value. After careful calculation, the so-called reduction of two pounds, the shipbuilders still made a profit.

Besides, there is no need to personally log the wood or hire a lumberjack, and the materials are delivered to the door of the house by the gold owner, so what else do you have to complain about?

It seems that this Rurik is going to roll up his sleeves and become a small shipbuilder himself?

He had to ask carefully: "Sir, are you in a hurry?"

"Of course! I am very anxious! Ten days! I have ten days to lay the deck and erect the mast. Tell me, do you have enough people?"

"This... is probably enough. My lord, maybe we can't think about reaching the sky in one step. Ten days is too short, and my men are limited."

Rurik twisted his neck, feeling slightly unhappy: "You claimed to be able to finish it soon when you were in Melalen, but now you have broken your promise?"

"Now and then, my lord. I thought it only took two cargo ships to complete it. Even in your absence, we were working hard to build it, but the more the construction progressed, the slower it was. She is our The biggest ship the family has ever built, and we lacked some experience."

"Lack of experience? Or manpower? Or materials?" Rurik asked.

"It's all missing."

"It's all missing? I didn't come here to listen to your nonsense. I think the main body of this ship has been completed, and the details are time-consuming?"

"Yes." There is a saying, who should be afraid of someone who lives in their sixties. Hotra is almost sixty years old. He is not afraid of the leader of Melalen, and naturally he is not afraid of the leader of Ross. It's just because of money issues, he has to maintain a respectful attitude. . "The ten-day period is too short. Just to install the mast, I have to do some preliminary preparations, which may take ten days."

"That's because you have few people. Listen, I'll tell you my attitude. In ten days, I have to see this ship complete the deck and the mast. You say I'm too impatient, I say more people are more powerful. How many shipbuilders do you think can do it in ten days?"

"This..." Hotra felt that things had become too complicated, so he casually said the number: "Two hundred people, at least two hundred people who know the carpenter's man."

"That's it? I'll send a thousand! I'll gather the carpenters of the entire tribe and work together to build this ship. I'll also be involved myself, at least to carry some lumber."

Rurik himself was moved by his own words, but what Hortra felt was a threat to his wealth.

"Sir, you... convene a thousand people, you will spend a lot of money, right? Are you really in such a hurry? We people work slowly, and when the ice and snow melts, the boat can still be launched."

"Just getting into the water is enough?" Rurik shook his head, "I want it to be able to sail, and I want to ride her to Melalen to show it off. Do you think from the beginning, as long as the boat can only float on the water, it will be done. Mission?"

Hotra didn't know what his financial master had gone through. He could now see that the child had sacrificed himself to get a big ship. Rurik was obviously willing to get the boat at any cost, so what about his own family's reward?

"Then, our silver coins..."

"Don't worry, you guys are indispensable. I don't want to talk about money here. I just want to plan a progress. I will complete all the construction progress at any cost. Now let's sit down and have a good talk..."

Since seeing Veria's extremely old appearance, people are bound to die, and Rurik sincerely hopes that before her death, she can see the sailing of the largest ship that the Rus can have.

After all, the extremely cold winter is abnormal, this spring must be normal, and the sea will thaw in early April.

Take time! Take time with nature! Rival time with Willia's end!

It is best to drag the fully built Avrora all the way to the ice surface with deeper sea water before the ice and snow melt, so that the ship can be launched naturally after the sea ice melts.

The deadline is already a political task.

Rurik and the shipbuilders did it, and the atmosphere of the conversation just now was a bit tense. All the shipbuilders in the Hotra family were also convinced, and they had never seen a client so urge them to build a ship before in their careers.

So they are really hardworking.

Compared with other craftsmen, they are serious, but they don't spend all their time building boats. In winter, the days are always short, and it is impossible for them to continue to work under the extremely dim light of the oil lamps. If the oil lamps are not well cared for, there is also the danger that the entire factory will be set ablaze.

In fact, they work less than eight hours a day. Although they have been building the ship for more than three months, they are passively dozing off for a considerable amount of time. Anyway, the construction period requested by the leader of Ross

So long, why bother? Besides, the material of the mast has always bothered everyone.

Really sat down, and Hotra was willing to have a good heart-to-heart with this energetic gold master.

"Originally, the problem of the mast bothered us. The local pine trees are not good enough. I stupidly planned to use the technology of splicing the mast. Since you came with spruce wood, this problem was finally solved."

"Of course, I stayed in the north for so long, mainly to solve this problem. Don't worry, I don't know anything about ships." Rurik boasted, in fact, he really only knew a little about shipbuilding.

Hortra sighed and looked left and right: "Look, this is God's will. Although there is a lot of time lag, we still got the mast material."

"How's it going? Is it alright to stand the mast? I see the perforated pedestal made of wood blocks in the center of the cabin."

"There's no problem standing the mast, I'll use the unique technique of our Melalen shipbuilders, the spruce integration you've provided. Oh, it would be better if it were longer."

Having said that, Rurik suddenly felt that he was wrong in cutting the spruce wood.

Rurik hurriedly asked: "Isn't ten stika enough?"

Hortra looked embarrassed: "If it's an ordinary cargo ship, of course it's fine, that is, this ship is too big, it should have a higher mast. It's also too thick, as a mast, we don't need half The diameter of a stika." Having said that, Huotra had a major question in his heart, and he had to ask the gold master: "My lord, I am very curious, it is extremely heavy wood, do you also know some methods... ... put it on the sled?"

"Of course! We used a crane."

"crane?"

Rurik said that rare word again, yes, the Hortra family and other shipbuilders, they only know the use of levers, and they have never seen high-tech equipment.

"Hey." Rurik sighed slightly, "I will build a crane in Roseburg. I don't know what method you use to install the mast on the ship. When my crane is built, it can easily lift various weights of wood. , the job of installing the mast will be easier.”

"Oh, that's wonderful."

Hortra couldn't express his expectation of something more unheard of, and his words were full of perfunctory.

Rurik didn't blame him either, so Yevlo took out the double saw that was still ready to show the wonder of this thing.

The saw was already big, and it had long been exposed to all eyes, but no shipbuilder knew what it was.

"Ah?! This thing can actually replace a scraper and an axe and break wood quickly?" Hortra's face was full of disbelief, and everyone else stretched their heads in doubt.

Rurik's immature face squeezed out a wicked smile: "I knew you didn't believe it. Yevro, show them with your brother."

A group of people were in a large factory building, and useless wooden blocks were scattered everywhere on the cold sand and gravel floor. The mercenaries are really not white long muscles, Rurik felt that they sawed off a dry pine in just twenty seconds.

The flat section shocked all the experienced boat builders, who passed the double saw and quickly understood all of it.

The long and thin piece of iron is unusual. There are clearly countless tiny "axes" on it. If a piece of wood is chopped a hundred times by an axe in an instant, wouldn't it be broken in an instant? Even if the axe is extremely small.

This is what Hotra thought, and he instantly realized the true meaning of the saw.

They finally showed an expression of admiration, and Rurik did not forget to put gold on his face: "This is a new tool I invented in Elrond in our north, with which two children can knock down a large tree. Trees. I know you've been using scrapers, planers, and axes with all kinds of wood. Enough is enough, this thing is called a saw, and you'll be much more productive with it."

Compared with other tools, the craftsmen present can see the so-called saw, its structure is indeed quite complicated, that is, the processing efficiency and effect are very good.

"It's here for you, and we'll make more saws in the future. Listen, your shipbuilding tools should also be replaced with the best ones. You'll also have to spend money on new saws in the future, but this one doesn't have to be."

Hortra was overjoyed: "Is this really possible? It... I'm afraid it's the most amazing tool I've ever seen."

"Take it! Now I've given you the best tools, and I'll get the strongest men involved. I repeat, in ten days we have to erect the mast, tell me if you're in trouble, and I'll do whatever it takes finish it."