The Rise of Rurik

Chapter 45: The Quiet Changes In Europe

Chapter 45: The Quiet Changes In Europe

Rurik borrowed the rope ruler very smoothly, and he felt that as long as he had this, everything would become easier.

In fact, purely theoretically, as long as a standard length unit is specified, many things can be measured.

Because there are many things that are constant, such as pi, such as the inclination of the earth.

In winter, a child has a lot of time to spend, and Rurik did basically understand the knowledge on the board in a short time.

His attitude towards the large number of Norse myths and stories mastered by Veria made it clear that he did not care about them.

It's not so much a myth as it is a bedtime story of a mother coaxing her child to sleep.

The era is the ninth century AD, and European society is quietly changing.

What forces are driving change?

It's climate change that is forcing people to work hard to get more food.

It is the pursuit of wealth that compels powerful people or groups to desire greater power by various means.

The strength of the Frankish Empire is slowly declining. Her huge territory is controlled by local lords. Objectively, this huge empire has the possibility of becoming multiple plates. And this trend has already happened, Frank's past had to lead the army to fight the rebellion everywhere.

The empire was no longer stable, and the Danes went south to land raids with increasing frequency. And in the process, the Danes have begun to learn how to ride horses and train cavalry!

Prosperous Britain is slowly developing towards unification, and the Danes and Norwegians begin to harass them on a large scale, and the pace of British unification will accelerate accordingly.

The glory of Eastern Rome is also weakening, which has led to the continuous expansion of the emerging Bulgars.

Central Europe is still the territory of large and small Slavic tribes, and they are still spontaneously and continuously exploring the east.

Like the Novgorods who paid tribute to the Rus tribe, this "giant village" was originally a fusion of migrating Slavic tribes. Of course, they are not the inherent owners of this land, but in the seventh century AD, a large number of Slavic tribes moved eastward, and they continued to drive the indigenous Finns to Finland and the more bitter Ural Mountains.

It can be said that Novgorod itself is already the northern border of the Slavic tribal cluster.

Each Slavic tribe has its own appellation. In the ninth century, they have formed settlements with a population of more than 100,000 people in different regions. In a sense, they are far from becoming a real country, and what they lack is probably the canonization of Eastern Rome. Or the daring can unite all the tribes in the region and become their own king.

God's to God, Caesar's to Caesar.

But in this era, God's belongings belong to the church, and Caesar's belong to the church. Both Eastern and Western, they tried to gain more power until they gained power over Augustus.

In Western Europe, the foundation of the huge Frankish Empire was unstable, and only a common belief could maintain this "super country", and the power of the Holy See in Rome was naturally growing.

In Eastern Rome, the Eastern Holy See's plan to seize power was overwhelmed by the emperor's stormy, iron-fisted means. The long-term "Destroy Icon Movement" was an action launched by the emperor to confiscate the church's wealth, but it also objectively defended the secularity of Eastern Rome.

However, in this long-term movement, the Eastern Holy See was severely hit, and the strength of Eastern Rome itself was also severely damaged.

The Slavic populace developing south has crossed the northern defense line of Eastern Rome, and Eastern Rome has also been undergoing a strategic contraction, which gave the Slavs a greater chance.

The city of Constantinople was beautiful and rich, and the neighboring Thracian region supplied the heart of the empire with its major wealth. The Romans in the city gradually embarked on the old road of Western Rome like Rome and Ravenna. The Romans indulged in pleasure, and the population of the city gradually declined.

It's a long process,

Therefore, the Romans living in the Peloponnese or the Aegean Islands were happy to settle in their capitals, because they could gain more wealth and opportunities to advance to the social hierarchy.However, Roman law somewhat restricted aliens from settling in the city. Those Slavic merchants, Varyag merchants who came occasionally, and even Frankish merchants who came from afar, were heavily taxed.

Emperors and ministers do not seem to have noticed yet, the splendid Eastern Rome is hollowing out. As scattered Romans gradually moved into key Thracian regions and capitals, those abandoned areas were naturally taken over by the Slavs.

The Slavs who went south, they became citizens of Eastern Rome, they began to speak Greek, learned Greco-Roman life, and gradually became Romans.

So much so that when the Purple Empire came to an end, there were not many real Romans in the sprawling Constantinople, replaced by tens of thousands of Eastern Romanized Slavic descendants, defending their Roman identity.

Compared with the Frankish Empire in Western Europe, the emperor of Eastern Rome attacked the church, and the imperial power was consolidated.

However, Western European society increasingly needs the Holy See to mediate the struggles of various kingdoms, and it is also a historical necessity that religious power overrides monarchical power.

Therefore, the Holy See takes its own scriptures and believes that it is the law of all, and they are especially sure that the world is flat.

This is the attitude of the Western Holy See, and the attitude of the Eastern Holy See is similar.

However, in Eastern Rome, commercial activities here are very developed, and a large number of classics from the ancient Greek period have not been lost. All businessmen are doers. They do not completely believe in the description of the world in the scriptures. They believe in the results of their own exploration. After all, only a map that proves the truth by themselves can lead them to make trade.

Among the folks of Eastern Rome, there are many people who believe that the world is a ball. Only the Holy See of the East still clings to the theory of scriptures that the world is a plane.

But not all priests are monolithic. After all, they can see a lot of ancient texts, and they always have their own understanding of science.

After all, the cosmic model of such priests makes them feel the greatness of the Lord. The so-called human beings live in a huge ball, and all the stars and even the sun revolve around this ball, and there is an alternation of day and night. For this reason, they did not hesitate to praise the greatness of the Lord.

The progress of the wheel of history cannot be stopped!

After all, the emperors of Eastern Rome have always worked hard to suppress the Holy See in the East. Of course, the emperor had to ensure his powerful power, which also led to the protection of a large number of secular forces. Therefore, the folk exploration of natural philosophy has not been suspended, but it has not received official encouragement from the empire. .

Isn't the world a sphere through observations of astronomy and geography, and the practice of traditional Mediterranean maritime trade?

With the destruction of Eastern Rome, a large number of unemployed scholars with their well-preserved books flooded into Venice, a former business partner, and the dawn of the Renaissance was born in northern Italy.

However, until the Renaissance, and even when Portugal discovered the Indian route, and Spain discovered the American continent, the only remaining Western Holy See still believed that the world was the plane created by God!

But Portugal has falsified part of the scriptures, saying that going south along the African coastline will not fall into the hell at the end of the ocean, but the rich Indian route! For this reason, Portugal has made a fortune, and has rapidly become a powerful country from a barren frontier country.

In the end, the Holy See recognized that the world is a ball, not only because the Magellan fleet completed the voyage around the world, but also because according to the treaty a hundred years ago, the two countries of Portugal and Spain, which were mediated and fought by the previous Pope, Portugal owned the wealth of the eastern ocean, and Spain owned the west. The wealth of the sea.

As a result, the two countries explored in different directions, and finally a war broke out in Borneo. In order to bridge the contradiction between the two countries, the Holy See must not only recognize the reality of the earth, but also draw a clear precision according to astronomy, and demarcate the sphere of influence of the two teeth.

But these are already seven hundred years later.

In 828 AD, there were only a very small number of people on the entire earth, probably less than 500 people, who believed that the world was a big ball. People in Western Europe and Eastern Rome were very worried about going too far to the end of the world and accidentally falling into the abyss.

The Vikings around the Baltic Sea were also generally worried about entering the vast western sea, either being destroyed by earthly pythons or giant sea snails, or leaving the "land of humans" and falling into the endless darkness outside the world tree. .

All of these are human fears of the unknown world stems from the self-preservation instinct of human beings as life. But human beings are also extremely curious, and it is also their own instinct to explore outward.

Rurik got the rope ruler, and he started to act immediately.

The time is approaching December of the Julian calendar. After all, the error of the Julian calendar changes every year, and some of its self-repairing calendar settings cannot be kept accurate again after all.

Fortunately, the era is the ninth century, and the situation is not so bad.

In Rurik's mind, he took it for granted that December 22 was the Eastern Arrival. In fact, it doesn't matter whether it is a day or not, as long as the observation is continued for a month, and the daily change of the shadow of a wooden pole standing outdoors is just a stika, it is possible to outline a function curve.

After all, the earth revolves around the sun with a definite law, and the change of the sun's shadow is a special manifestation of the change of the earth's orbital position.

What Rurik believed was that the universe could be explained mathematically, and that mathematical laws were the basis of everything.

On November 28, the weather was relatively sunny.

All preparations are complete!

In an open space next to the sacrificial longhouse, he used a traditional spirit level to measure the level of the boat (actually, a grooved wooden board, filled with water, and whether the water would flow out to determine whether the measured object was parallel to the earth) Transformed into a flat.

He also prepared some scraps of wooden boards for repairing ships, which were used as tools for writing and calculation. Since there was no real pen, he used a dagger to cut and chisel the wooden board into a similar shape as a writing job.

All the strange actions Veria saw in her eyes, she just watched quietly, and even offered a lot of help.

She really didn't understand what the child was going to do, at least it wasn't about measuring the shadow of the sun.