After dividing the spoils, King Eric began building ships. Over 800 Vikings returned to Northern Europe with their wealth, and the remaining 1,200 decided to settle in Britain.
Bidding farewell to his comrades, Ragnar convinced the nobles to stay in York for the winter.
"There are only 1,200 of them in all, which is too few to control this vast land. A thoughtless dispersal will only weaken us."
"Your Majesty is right," most of his men returned to Northern Europe, and Leonard was left with only 80 men. He would never be so foolish as to take Manchuria with only these men.
In addition to him, other nobles had the same idea, planning to wait until the beginning of the following spring, when a large number of Viking immigrants would pour into Britain, and then seize their respective fiefs.
Having reached a consensus, Ragnar ordered the men to repair the city's defenses and restore order around York City. Hearing that Prince Aella was forming an army in the south, he personally led 800 warriors to attack.
Faced with this poorly equipped and low-morale army, Ragnar undoubtedly won a great victory, and Prince Aella escaped.
Looking at the figure of the prince fleeing on horseback, Ragnar wanted to laugh at his embarrassment, but as the words came out of his mouth, he suddenly had a strange premonition in his heart, as if this man would cause him much trouble in the future.
For this reason, Ragnar pursued the other side everywhere for more than a month. As the leaves gradually turned yellow, Aella received less and less support and finally fled to Mercia.
Before the first snow fell, Ragnar led his troops back to York City and used this precious free time to learn English from Pascal.
Unexpectedly, His Majesty's talent for languages is superb, and his progress is second only to the acknowledged genius of the Whig.
"It seems that I was born to learn foreign languages."
In fact, learning English does not mean that everything will be fine. Currently, the popular written language in Western Europe is Latin. In order to carry out the various duties of the king, even if Ragnar masters English, he will still have to learn Latin and arithmetic. He studies from morning until night every day and cannot help but sigh that this life is much worse than expected.
"If you want to wear a crown, you must bear its burden. This is only the beginning. There are many things to do in the future."
When confronted by his boss's complaints, Wygh responded flippantly, then continued to practice the English he had learned. Although he could speak English before the conversion, after a thousand years the difference between Anglo (Old English) and Modern English is so great that they can almost be called two different languages.
However, no matter how difficult it is, Wygh must stick to it. If a ruler does not speak the language of the locals, he will inevitably be cheated by minority groups such as administrators and tax collectors. At that time, they will come up with excuses to squeeze benefits from the lower classes, and in the end, the ruler himself will suffer.
...
Winter has passed and spring has come, the ice and snow are melting, and more and more Vikings are arriving in Northumbria.
In early April, Vig successfully recruited 100 raiders looking for riches and 200 Vikings who were planning to settle, including his old neighbor Jorn, in the Gothenburg countryside.
Looking at more than 20 familiar faces, Vig learned that the previous winter had been extremely cold and many people had frozen to death. The villagers really couldn't stand it, so they came to Britain to start over.
"Thank you for trusting me. Each family will have 30 acres of land, and no taxes will be levied for two years."
In the early fifth century AD, the last Roman army left Britain. The Anglo-Saxons migrated from northern Germany to Britain and conquered the native Celts. Because of the vast lands and sparse population, each household was initially given 120 acres of land, called a hide.
Over time, the average amount of land owned by self-cultivating farmers became smaller and smaller. The rich peasant class owned 30 acres, called a virgata. Above them were the landowners, and below them were the poor farmers, tenants, and serfs struggling for food and clothing.
(According to the Domesday Book, 9% of England's population in the 11th century were serfs.)
The two hundred Viking farmers were very happy with the terms Vig had given them. As for those raiders who only wanted money and not land, Vig promised to give them enough crops or he would pay for them himself.
Having gathered enough labor, he made a detailed list and approached Gunnar, Ragnar's newly appointed court steward, for supplies.
"Old man, I have only 60 pounds of silver, please be generous."
"Very well, take whatever you want and come to me to pay the bill when you leave."
In the palace garden, full of red camellias, Gunnar lay lazily in a chair, being attended to attentively by two Anglo-Saxon maids. He had no time to entertain Vig, but he allowed the other party to go to the warehouse to collect their things.
Not having succeeded in becoming a powerful nobleman, Gunnar had been depressed for half a year, and had always been this dead pig who was not afraid of boiling water. When Leonard, Ulf, and the others gathered supplies, he found fault with them and cruelly ridiculed them. In the end, when they came to Ragnar, he only scolded them lightly.
"Thank you." Vig did not want to provoke this grumpy fellow, so he signaled for some of his newly recruited shield bearers to follow him to carry the things.
Regardless of their status, every Viking was always equipped with a round shield and an iron axe when he went to sea. Vik had no shortage of melee weapons, but he urgently needed armor. Since he had recruited twenty shield bearers, he naturally had to provide them with appropriate protective gear.
"Twenty suits of old iron scale armor, twenty iron helmets, fifty longbows, and two thousand feather arrows..."
Under the supervision of four English-speaking clerks, the shield bearers went back and forth between the warehouse and the outside world, loading the scheduled supplies onto a wagon. In addition to military equipment, Vik also bought a shipment of food and iron agricultural tools for farming.
When he was finished, he found Gunnar embracing a maid and asked where the cattle were.
"They're all being held in the east of the city," Gunnar pulled his right hand out of the woman's dress and randomly nominated two clerks, "First pay the bill, then have them take you there."
Standing up from his chair, Gunnar roughly checked the supplies in the carriage, "Is that all? Just 40 pounds of silver, nothing else to prepare?"
"We're a small family, not as rich as Leonard and his men," Vig sighed, "and 15 pounds go to buying livestock. The remaining five pounds can't be moved. I promised the robbers that if the harvest didn't live up to expectations, I'd have to compensate them with my own money." "
Really?"
Seeing Vig's embarrassment, Gunnar's mood brightened, as if life for powerful nobles hadn't gotten much better. After some thought, he asked the other party to take some extra pieces of cloth: "When going north to take a fief, the team must have a flag in front of them, consider it my gift to you." "
Farewell, brother." Wig said goodbye to the other party, went to the cattle pen on the east side of the city to buy ten horses and forty oxen, and all was ready, and led the team towards York.