Ch 31: Procurement

After dividing the spoils of war, King Eric began building ships. More than eight hundred Vikings, carrying their wealth, returned with him to Northern Europe. The remaining twelve hundred chose to settle in Britain.

Bidding farewell to his comrades, Ragnar persuaded the nobles to stay in York for the winter.

“There are only twelve hundred of us in total. The number is too small, far from enough to control this vast land. Rash dispersal will only weaken us further.”

“Your Majesty is right,” said the vast majority of his subordinates as they returned to Northern Europe. Leonard was left with only eighty men. He would never be foolish enough to take over Mancunium with just these men.

Except for him, the other nobles had the same idea, planning to wait until the following spring, when a large number of Viking immigrants would flood into Britain, and then take over their respective fiefdoms.

Reaching a consensus, Ragnar ordered the repair of the city defenses and the restoration of order in the surrounding area of York. Hearing that Prince Aella was forming an army in the South, he personally led eight hundred warriors to attack him.

Faced with this poorly equipped and low-morale army, Ragnar undoubtedly achieved a great victory, forcing Prince Aella to barely escape with his life.

Watching the prince flee on horseback, Ragnar wanted to laugh at his plight, but as the words reached his lips, he suddenly felt a strange premonition, as if this man would cause him a great deal of trouble in the future.

For this reason, Ragnar spent the next month chasing him around. As the leaves gradually turned yellow, Aella received less and less support, eventually fleeing into Mercia.

Not until the first snow fell did Ragnar lead his troops back to York. Taking advantage of this precious free time, he began to learn Anglo-Saxon from Pascal.

Unexpectedly, His Majesty the King had excellent linguistic talent, his progress second only to Vig, the universally recognized genius.

“It seems I’m naturally gifted at learning foreign languages.”

In fact, learning Anglo-Saxon did not mean everything was settled. Currently, the prevalent written language in Western Europe was Latin. To fulfill the duties of a king, even if Ragnar mastered Anglo-Saxon, he still had to learn Latin and arithmetic. Studying from morning till night, he couldn’t help but lament that this life was much worse than he had imagined.

“Those who wish to wear the crown must bear its weight. This is only the beginning; you will have much to do in the future.”

Faced with his boss’s complaints, Vig responded calmly, then continued to practice the Anglo-Saxon words he had learned. Although he could speak English before his time travel, after a thousand years, the difference between Anglo-Saxon/Old English and modern English was so great that they were practically two different languages.

However, no matter how difficult, Vig had to persevere. If a ruler could not speak the language of the locals, he would inevitably be deceived by stewards, tax collectors, and other small groups. Then they would create false charges to exploit the lower classes, and in the end, the ruler himself would suffer a loss.

Winter passed and spring arrived, the ice and snow melting, and more and more Vikings arrived in Northumbria.

In early April, Vig successfully recruited one hundred raiders seeking wealth, and two hundred Vikings intending to settle, including Joren, his old neighbor from the countryside near Gothenburg.

Looking at twenty or so familiar faces, Vig learned that the winter of the previous year had been exceptionally severe, and many people had frozen to death. His fellow villagers simply could not endure it any longer, so they had come to Britain to start over.

“Thank you for your trust. Each family will receive thirty acres of land, and no taxes will be levied for two years.”

In the early fifth century AD, the last Roman army withdrew from Britain. The Anglo-Saxons migrated from the north of present-day Germany to Britain, conquering the original Celts. Due to the vast and sparsely populated land, each household could initially obtain 120 acres of land, called a “hide.”

As times changed, the average land area of peasant farmers became smaller and smaller. The wealthy farmer class owned 30 acres, called a “virgate”. Above them were the landowners, and below them were poor farmers, tenant farmers, and serfs struggling on the brink of subsistence.

According to the Domesday Book’s statistics, in the eleventh century, 90% of England’s population were serfs.

The two hundred Viking peasants were very satisfied with the conditions Vig offered. As for the raiders who only wanted money and not land, Vig promised them a sufficient harvest; otherwise, he would pay them compensation himself.

Having gathered enough manpower, he drew up a detailed list and applied for supplies from Ragnar’s newly appointed Court Steward, Gunnar.

“Old friend, I only have sixty pounds of silver. Please be lenient.”

“No problem. Take whatever you like; settle the account with me later.”

In the palace garden, filled with red camellias, Gunnar lay lazily in a reclining chair, receiving the attentive service of two Anglo-Saxon servant girls. He had no time to entertain Vig, but instead let him go to the storehouse to get the things himself.

Having failed to become a powerful noble, Gunnar had been in a bad mood for half a year, maintaining this indifferent attitude. When Leonard and Ulf and others had received supplies earlier, he had found fault with them and severely ridiculed them, and even when it was reported to Ragnar, he only gave a perfunctory reprimand.

“Thank you,” Vig did not want to provoke this ill-tempered fellow, and signaled to the newly recruited shield-bearers to follow him into the storehouse to move the things.

Regardless of their status, every Viking who went to sea would be equipped with a round shield and an iron axe. Vig did not lack close combat weapons; what he urgently needed was armor. Since he had recruited twenty shield-bearers, he naturally had to provide the corresponding equipment.

“Twenty sets of old iron scale armor, twenty iron helmets, fifty longbows, and two thousand arrows.”

Under the supervision of four Anglo-Saxon clerks, the shield-bearers went back and forth between the warehouse and the outside, piling the ordered supplies onto wagons. In addition to military supplies, Vig also purchased a batch of grain and iron farming tools for cultivated land.

After finishing, he found Gunnar, who was fooling around with a servant girl, and asked where the livestock were.

“They’re all kept in the East City,” Gunnar withdrew his right hand from the woman’s dress and casually assigned two clerks, “Settle the account first, then they will take you there.”

Leaving the reclining chair, Gunnar briefly checked the supplies on the wagon, “That’s all? A total of forty pounds of silver. Shouldn’t you prepare a little more?”

“My household is small, not as wealthy as Leonard’s,” Vig sighed, “Fifteen pounds are for buying livestock. The remaining five pounds cannot be touched; I promised those raiders that if the harvest does not meet expectations, I will have to compensate them myself.”

“Is that so?”

Seeing Vig’s embarrassment, Gunnar’s mood improved somewhat; it seemed that the life of a powerful noble wasn’t so good either. After a moment’s thought, he let Vig take some extra cloth, “You’ll need a banner at the front of your troops when you go north to take over your fiefdom. Consider this a gift from me.”

“Goodbye, brother,” Vig bid farewell to him and went to the East City pen to buy ten horses and forty oxen. With everything settled, he led his troops away from York.