Six Hundred and Twentieth IX Grinding Notes

Do those copper coins in the warehouse have any value given Roseburg's economic status quo?

A large number of copper coins should have been the most common currency in circulation, but now it has largely given way to silver coins.

Copper coins are placed in warehouses, and the dry and cold climate makes them extremely difficult to corrode. However, the Roman copper coins were only placed in the warehouse, which is really a waste of metal.

Copper coins can be cast into arrow clusters, armor pieces and other tools and weapons, and Rurikben is also doing this intentionally, such as casting a lot of lamp holders.

There are copper veins in the mountainous area of ​​Roseburg. Its scale is far less than that of iron mines. It is still meaningful to develop local copper resources.

Because there is no need for a blast furnace to smelt bronze.

There are as many as eight traditional furnaces where copper coins and tin lumps are mixed into eight crucibles of extremely hot molten metal water.

After the special clay mold is fired, the special flat parts are carefully polished.

They were ground to a smooth finish, and finally came the moment of casting.

After the blacksmiths smashed the hot and dry mold with a hammer, the golden bronze casting was completed!

Two sets of bronze millstone assemblies were completed under bronze water joint casting of eight crucibles.

Rurik consumed a large amount of copper coins for the grinding disc. Some people said that this was a manifestation of the duke's extravagance, and some speculated why the duke insisted on ordering the blacksmith to cast rare large bronze pieces.

Most people don't know about it at all, and everyone's mind is full of summer expeditions to Karelia. It is said that it is an unknown and brave enemy, so everyone polished their weapons and waited for a battle.

It was Rurik's young blacksmith who was in charge of casting the large piece, and Kamnier supervised it, and when the casting was completed, he gave a sum of money to all those involved.

The sun shines on the bronze millstone that reveals its true face, and the golden light is almost blinding.

Cam, you half covered your face with your rough hands: "My lord, you said this is a mill? It looks weird, can you really quickly grind wheat into powder?"

"Of course, it was designed by me, it must be done on purpose!" Rurik pinched his waist and said.

Obviously already preparing for the big event to go to Balmerk, Rurik seems to have deliberately taken the time to order these things to be cast.

A lot of blacksmiths and servants came to the casting site to watch,

Some unlucky ones were so excited that they accidentally fell from a high place.

Old Clavasen said nothing, but Kawei struggled to hold up the cooled bronze millstone.

"Ah! What kind of weight is this? Rurik, you..." Kawei gritted his teeth, forced the round millstone to stand up, and then fell down heavily.

He twisted his arms panting: "This thing is too heavy."

"It's only half a stika (about half a meter) in diameter, so you are tired? Have you become weak?" Rurik deliberately teased.

Kawei wiped his sweat: "Forgive me. You must know the weight of this thing better than me."

"Then continue to do things as I want, and find a strong man to move to the palace for me."

"Okay. I wish it could grind a lot of flour."

Most of the Ross people's concept of grinding is a stone grinding rod, as for the rotary stone mill, it originated from Asia, and it was the Romans who brought this oriental technology to Britain and northern Europe. It's just that it is a high technology for many Germanic tribes, and many barbarians only began to cultivate wasteland as farmers after the collapse of Western Rome, so they had a reason to use mills.

Rurik also had no way of knowing whether the rotating stone mill really came from the Far East, perhaps it was first invented in the ancient Mesopotamia. However, he strongly believed that the technology of the heavy stone roller must have come from the Far East. Two heavy tools for processing grain into powder work on different principles, but the results are similar. It's just that the rotating grinding disc can grind finer powder, and the rotating stone grinding is more efficient.

Maybe it makes more sense to make heavy-duty rollers. Due to personal factors, Rurik still likes rotating metal mills. As for why he is obsessed with bronze mills, it is simply that this thing is easy to manufacture. If conditions permit, I will not hesitate to build heavy stainless steel mills.

Kawhi is not a warrior. He participated in the war and subconsciously studied the buildings and tools of the British residents. He knew about the rotating stone mill, but Master Rurik insisted on making a bronze rotating mill!

There are only two disc assemblies to start with, and there are two more to be cast.

In the cement courtyard of the Duke of Ross's palace, a house with a stone and wood structure has been built. It has a large area and is extremely empty inside, and some stone piers placed inside appear abrupt.

The quiet house became lively, and Rurik's female relatives were all on the window sills on the third floor, watching the people carrying the huge gold blocks downstairs, almost fainting in shock.

That's gold!

Indeed, the bronze color cast by the special material ratio really looks like gold to these girls.

Gold is brighter, bronze is much duller.

The grinding disc and the base are smooth as a whole, but there are a large number of very special grooves inside. These grooves are the most important thing. Their special shape ensures that the ground wheat particles are constantly pushed out. The workers only need to carefully collect the flour. That's it.

It is a very traditional oriental millstone shape, with a simple structure and a material better than stone.

The strong man lifted up the gleaming golden grinding disc vigorously, and it snapped into the bearing of the bronze base.

Its practical experiment was carried out at the first time. Onlookers watched Rurik pour wheat grains into the funnel of the feeding port himself, and then a strong man pushed the wooden pole to turn the millstone.

It has no ball bearings, much less roller bearings. It's a hard-contact bearing that relies on grease to lubricate it so that it doesn't take too much effort to spin.

It looks bulky, but it's actually okay, and it quickly displayed its powerful abilities.

Because, the coarse whole wheat flour that has been ground to a fine level has been continuously pushed out by the millstone!

Rurik stuffed the yellow-white semolina into his mouth and tasted it. He was not overly happy, but the people watching were already chatting lively with smiling faces.

The two bronze millstones were completed in a relatively low-key manner. It was a great innovation for the Rus people, but whether it is great or not will only be truly felt when people can eat a lot of bread and fine dough.

Why treat a strong man like a donkey? Two tame reindeer were pulled to the shed, where they replaced the donkey, and Rurik had no doubts about the stamina of these large animals. In fact, he has no choice. The animal power that can be used here in Roseburg is either reindeer or pony.

A maid from Britain was quickly given the job of running the mill. They know about mills and whirlwinds, but...

Shocked, they embrace it when they learn that taking care of the reindeer puller will provide them with a daily supply of toast or flatbread.

At least in terms of eating and drinking, the Duke is much more merciful than those nobles in his hometown.

This is nothing more than an opportunity to show the strength of the Ross people. The old priest from Lindsay, and all the maids who were taken captive from Britain, visited the "golden millstone" under Rurik's order.

"This is gold! How great this is! The rich duke used gold as a millstone." The old priest Lindsay clutched his heart, he had to admit Rose's wealth.

As for the maids, since they came to Rose, they have bought meat every day. As for their food, they were pleasantly surprised by the kindness of the conqueror, and wondered why the conqueror didn't grind flour. Now, they realize their innocence.

Then some women muttered: "Maybe their hoes are also gold."

Rurik didn't regard the completion of the bronze mill as a good thing to praise, but his family was late for the first time.

Noodle? Do not.

Rurik's female relatives were forced to learn to use chopsticks, even Queen Mary, after rigorous practice, she felt that her right hand was already extremely flexible. As for eating with hands, Marie thought that was the most shameful vulgarity while being bewildered.

They subconsciously connected "wheat" and "rope", and gave the noodles an appropriate combination of "wheat rope".

Rurik didn't take it seriously, looking at the hot stewed lo mein in his bowl, he felt a sense of dislocation in time and space.

The whole family gets together, and the top nobles of Rose are on the second floor of the palace, enjoying the very common and boring lo mein of the oriental people a thousand years later.

But for them, this is better than everything else!

The flour is sifted, and the delicate noodles made of European high-gluten wheat are even more springy. As for the marinade, it is a thick sauce made of onion, seal meat, carrot cubes, salt and last year's picked thyme.

They eat noodles like orientals, and once they feel that the taste is excellent, they all become coyotes.

Otto was surprised, he still didn't know how to use chopsticks, but fortunately, his son prepared a sterling silver fork for himself, and it was wonderful to eat this kind of "wheat rope" with the fork.

The noodles were heavily stained with thick sauce, and Otto opened his mouth with a lot of teeth missing. He was pleasantly surprised by the springiness of the noodles and the softness after chewing.

I don't know how many kinds of sensations acted on the mind, completely turned into the desire to eat.

Happiness overflowed on Otto's wrinkled face!

Rurik knew that his father had a big appetite, and he was used to it in this life, so eating noodles must be fierce. Who would have thought that Otto finished a bowl of lo mein in a short time.

"Are you so hungry?" Niya scolded with a smile, and Otto burped back randomly, making everyone laugh.

Even the little baby Verika laughed.

"It's a hundred times better than boiled wheat!" Otto took the silver bowl, went to the wooden barrel to get another bowl for himself, poured marinade on it and continued to eat.

Rurik looked strange, and his father's appearance even made him puzzled.

Otto, how are you so proficient?

"I will eat this every day from now on." Otto finally stuffed his stomach with high-concentration carbohydrates. This is the first time in his life that he has such a special sense of comfort, the feeling of soaring blood sugar. Can't understand.

Otto, with the attitude of an old urchin, clamored to share the good meal with the old man, and to eat it all the time.

"Is that enough?" Rurik deliberately asked back.

"Do you have other tricks?"

"Of course. We're going to be making a lot of toast and kofta."

The essence of baking bread is fermentation, and while high-quality yeast is hard to come by, baking soda is readily available.

At first there were two bronze mills, and soon there were four. They seem to be limited in number, and their combat effectiveness cannot be underestimated.

A large amount of semolina was made overnight, and Rurik ordered the servants from Britain to work all night, even if the milling reindeer rested, let them do it.

Rurik set a demanding task for them, and he felt that his measures were not inappropriate. Because, Ross must reserve enough high-quality dry food for a difficult winter expedition!

The technology of baking bread was first invented in Mesopotamia in 10,000 BC. At that time, baking was just a hard dough. When the technology spread to Egypt, the fermentation technology of Egypt left bread Get a qualitative change in taste.

It was passed to Rome, and along with a complete set of flour grinding, kneading, fermenting and baking techniques, it was passed on to the barbarians everywhere, and even to the people on the Baltic coast and in the dense forests of Northeast Europe.

The Slavic women on Lake Ilmen who married into Roseburg generally knew how to use a stone mill to push wheat grains to make flour. Although the coldness of Novgorod is more suitable for growing oats, once wheat was imported from Smolensk in the south, they made bread without hesitation.

They all have the concept that oatmeal cannot be made into bread. If you are grinding oat flour, its loose starch structure is indeed difficult to bind into a dough.

As for oatmeal, Rurik really knows its other name in the East, which is oatmeal.

Although oats have disadvantages in this respect, if they are mixed with wheat, the problem of difficult travel will be solved.

Oats are easier to store and less perishable than wheat. The two kinds of grains are mixed together and ground into a mixed powder by four bronze mills overnight.

The grinding efficiency of a bronze mill with one revolution is better than that of a woman who holds a stone mill and grinds it a hundred times on a stone slab.

Even if it was a woman pushing the wooden pole to turn the millstone in the middle of the night, the efficiency would be useless.

The four bronze mills went into battle, and it didn't take much time to grind a hundred pounds of wheat into semolina. Rurik was glad that he got a lot of flour very quickly.

It is food for ordinary people, and the germ and bran are not worth sifting out with a linen gauze.

When the starch inside the wheat can be fully bonded, even if a large amount of bran is mixed, there will be no other problems except that the overall taste of the bread will be rough.

Ordinary people are not qualified to be picky eaters. Men and women earn wealth through hard work and then awaken the Duke to buy food. This was impossible in the past. Wheat is still very precious. They make their own bread to make noodles, and even the bread crumbs have to be picked up and eaten.

Even, some rotten bread is processed like pickled sauerkraut.

No, when the Rossburg Slavic daughters-in-law really started making bread, many of them were clever women who deliberately performed a special wine-making stunt in front of their Ross husbands.

Is that winemaking? Do not! Some baked bread and unleavened rough bread were crushed into crumbs, as if brewing traditional Viking ale, and they began to brew a unique Slavic alcoholic drink - kvass.

At this time, Rurik only recently found out. Because the original kvass produced in Roseburg has been taken to the dining table of their own homes by some Slavic wives. Its taste is not like bitter and slightly sweet ale, but it smells sour and tastes completely light sweet. This life without drinks immediately brings new pleasure.

These were the dramatic changes brought about by the arrival of large quantities of wheat from Britain into Roseburg.

But the biggest change is that the Duke of Ross actually started baking bread!

The potter received a dime from the duke and a reward in kind of semolina.

Flour is not just a payment, it is a test product for them.

Fermenting the dough naturally is a skill known in ancient Egypt. In fact, most Rus people know this, but they suffer from the fact that wheat is an absolute delicacy in the past and it is difficult to bake bread.

But Arik's second wife, Aslaqi, is a master at baking bread!

A boy was born successfully. He was named Gustav, the son of Asraqi and Arik's second son, and he has learned to walk now.

But Asuraki was not willing to be an ordinary woman at all, and her bread-baking skills were immediately revealed.

The pottery craftsman made a batch of large bread, which had a strange taste and appearance.

And Asraqi, who was not expected by Rurik, took her servants and her husband Arik, wrapped a big ball in coarse cloth, and brought this precious bump to the Duke in the evening.

The mill was still creaking, and the British servants wearing hoods sat casually, eating bread and talking and laughing, and avoided people who came suddenly.

"Let's go and see what my brother is eating. Ah, it's so delicious here, I'm hungry."

Asuraki is only twenty years old now, and as a Nordic woman, she is in her most beautiful years.

The thing she held in her arms was also fragrant, and the pottery in the servant's hand, the brown pulpy liquid inside was a Slavic delicacy made by Peravina. Peravina is only because she is too ordinary and the fact that she is pregnant with a second child, she is more willing to continue to take care of the children at home.

Arik came very suddenly, but he saw his brother, uncle and the feast on the women's table just as suddenly.

"It's all wheat rope (noodles)?"

Otto just drank some spirits, his old face was flushed and he gave his elder nephew a casual look, muttering: "If you want to come, tell us early, let's have dinner together. Oh! Did you bring a gift? "

"Yes, my lord." With a smile, Asuraki lifted the sackcloth herself, and took out a huge loaf of brown and white bread.

Rurik was taken aback. He saw at a glance that the bread was ten thousand times better than the potter who made the oven!

"Sister, sit down quickly." Rurik slapped the table excitedly.

Asuraki nodded, and displayed the pottery urn again, and then pulled out the cork, a strange sour smell spread out.

No, there is still sweetness in it.

Rurik stood up suddenly, his DNA moved: "kwas!"

"Oh. You know? It was made by Peravina." Asuraki was also taken aback.

"Yes! She is a Slavic woman. Come on, put the bread and pot on the table. Is this a gift for me? I want to taste it."

Asuraki nodded. She and Arik were indeed here as a gift, and also as greetings from relatives.

Of course, she noticed that Roseburg was making flour on a large scale, and noticed that Lord Rurik was instructing his subordinates to make large-scale flour bread for the first time and buy it, as well as the fact that they began to make bread in large quantities.

These are all for taking the ice and snow road and crossing the iceberg to Balmerk to make the final dry food preparations.

that's it? Asraki is the daughter of a great merchant, and she has a very long-term vision.

"If my family is favored by the Duke of Ross for being good at making bread, my children will continue to be honored. I have to develop my skills, build my own mill, and..."

Asuraki wanted to show off her skills in front of Rurik, and one of her main goals was to have the qualification to supply high-quality food to Ross's army.

She has the soul of a businessman, and she clearly sees the huge benefits in it, hoping to take a shortcut to restore and expand the power of the family.

Her children have no right to inherit Arik's fortune, and Gustav Jr. will inherit his grandfather's family name. The old Harald family will be revived by a woman who is good at making bread. must!