"Move all the timber over there, be careful!"
"Pile all the goods here, don't mess them up!"
"The group to the west encountered wolves! We need people to help!"
Inside the erected wooden houses, Rostislav was drawing a planning map for his city while listening to the various noises entering his ears.
To motivate all the people, Rostislav promised the slaves and serfs that if they completed their work well, their contracts might be lifted after five years. This greatly increased their motivation, making them work harder.
As for the freemen, the Prince promised that the precious tools lent to them did not need to be returned, achieving the same effect.
The Prince's hall was still under construction. Rostislav's hall was designed by scholars from the Imperial Capital, and the materials were bricks specially transported from Novgorod and Smolensk. The Prince did not want to live in a traditional wooden house; he preferred a brick house with a more civilized atmosphere, not hesitating to spend money to purchase materials from outside for this purpose.
It was now February 1054. Five months had passed since their departure in September. It took a full five months to migrate the tens of thousands of immigrants to Northeast Rus'. During this time, he divided the team into several sections, with one section advancing while the other rested. The concentration of management power actually improved efficiency.
They experienced many hardships along the way. In Smolensk, their weary team rested for three days before continuing. The road after Smolensk was very difficult, with more and more wild, uninhabited areas and increasing numbers of wild beasts. People kept leaving the immigrant team sporadically because they could not bear the hardship.
But fortunately, most people did not waver, and to achieve this result, Rostislav spent all the family property he inherited from his Father.
Rostislav finally chose Moscow, the future center of Russia, as his destination.
There were actually many suitable places to build cities in Northeast Rus', but the conditions were not significantly different. In the end, influenced by his future knowledge, the Rus' Princes still chose Moscow, deciding to build a city here and also naming this city, which was still a large construction site, Moscow.
Rostov was very enthusiastic about Rostislav's arrival. They promptly sent guides and supplies, tried their best to meet Rostislav's requests, and enthusiastically invited Rostislav to their city.
Considering that neither he nor his Father had close relationships with the powerful people in Rostov, Rostislav thought that their enthusiasm probably had only one possibility:
They needed something from him.
Rostislav also did not plan to foolishly run to Rostov to help these people. He needed to first know what problems these people had so that he could address them effectively, avoiding falling into a trap.
So he appointed Poleye as the Mayor of Rostov, letting the former Chiliarch manage the city in his place. Rostislav never doubted that Poleye could do this job well. When he was a Chiliarch in Kiev, he managed to keep the Kiev nobles in line, so managing a city much smaller than Kiev would naturally be effortless.
Of course, Rostislav did not forget to equip him with sufficient armed forces. In addition to his own Bodyguard Unit, the Prince also added many noble Bodyguard Units, giving him a total of over a hundred elite armored soldiers around him. Furthermore, Sogier's Norse mercenaries were also sent to that city. This Norse warrior had a total of five hundred men under his command.
As for the other Northeast Rus' cities, Rostislav was not as concerned. Those small cities only needed to express their loyalty to the Prince. His resources were limited, and he could not yet attend to all towns.
After dealing with the matters in Rostov, Rostislav's main concern was the construction of Moscow. For this, he personally selected the site, personally designed the city map, and personally traveled through mountains and rivers to measure the land.
On this large construction site named Moscow, the Rus' Princes had even more matters to deal with. Not only were there the constant trivial conflicts in the camp every day and the division of land for farmers, but there was also information from other Northeast Rus' towns, as well as matters concerning the city's construction and the development of various industries. Speaking of development, someone just arrived.
"Prince, good news! We've finished building the brick kiln by the Moscow River! This way we can reduce imports from now on."
A craftsman wearing coarse linen, an apron, and with hands full of calluses walked in very happily, subconsciously wiping his dirty hands on his apron.
"Continue to expand the scale of the brick kiln. My goal is to make Moscow a city of brick and tile, not a city of wood. You don't have to worry about manpower; I will provide you with everything. Go find Leo and have him allocate another thirty strong slaves to him."
"Yes! I will definitely complete your task!"
The craftsman responded with great enthusiasm. A good boss like Rostislav was rare; he was willing to give both people and money, so how could he not do a good job?
After the craftsman happily left, Rostislav asked the Captain of the Guard in the room.
"Do we still have enough grain? Have the farmers been allocated land?"
"There is enough grain to last until next year's harvest. As for the land, although the land has been allocated, there is still some time until the time to plant grain."
The Captain of the Guard answered methodically. This was not originally his job, but having followed Rostislav for a long time, he naturally became a human notebook.
"That's good, that's good. We've finally completed the first stage of things."
Rostislav breathed a sigh of relief and continued to be troubled by what to do in the future, wanting to cause trouble in Northeast Rus'.
He currently had two directions: one was to develop new industries like many transmigrators, and the other was to control farmers, exploit farmers, and squeeze farmers, paving the way for development with blood.
Subconsciously, Rostislav wanted to choose the first option, but he didn't know how to develop new industries. The things he could think of that could be done under the conditions of this era were either too demanding or had already been done by ancient people. There were some ideas for making luxury goods, but those were only enough to earn some pocket money.
However, after racking his brains, he did extract a piece of information from his somewhat blurred memories of his previous life:
There was a large silver mine in Kashin, Tver.
Yes, a large silver mine. He still remembered this information from browsing the Chinese Wikipedia in his previous life. This silver mine was once a key target of contention between the Grand Duchy of Moscow and the Grand Duchy of Tver, and Tver's strength also originated from it.
This silver mine was developed in the Middle Ages, and the technological level at that time was similar to now. Since it could be mined then, it could naturally be mined now.
If a silver mine were discovered, countless people from all over Rus' and even outside Rus' would come to pan for silver. At that time, there would be no need to worry about development - after all, this was gold and silver.
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