Anno Domini 830, October-5-21
"We have secured control and for the most part we have the full cooperation of the majority of the large Slavic tribes through several political marriages that seek to create deeper ties between them and us, so for now we have full control of the Carpathian plains." Hjalmar said while we rode toward the general area where the gold and silver mines of the region could be.
"What about the census? Was it completed?" I asked while watching the road, considering that it was becoming much more difficult to travel due to the hills and the obstructions along the way.
"Completed. It took four months, but the census that was requested was thorough, with ages and divided into their respective towns and cities, so we now have a more accurate control of the population… but…" Hjalmar said, staring at me.
"But?" I said raising an eyebrow, stopping my horse to look at him directly.
"It turns out another group of Varangians arrived… Danes…" Hjalmar said with some displeasure in his voice. "And well, it is complicated, since they are certainly our blood… unfortunately… but several jarls arrived in large numbers in the region, and they mostly settled in the north of Carpathia, ruining the census of the area." Hjalmar said while running a knuckle across his nose.
"Well, that is to be expected. The invitation is open to anyone who obeys Rome, so it is possible that soon, if everything goes well, we will allow more Slavic tribes to pass through in order to have more men, since the frontier is large and many workers and soldiers are needed to defend it properly, so that does not concern me. I am more interested in knowing what we actually have in our hands."
"1.1 million Slavs are the largest cultural group if we take them as a whole, since if we go by their tribal differences there would be thousands of tribes and languages." Hjalmar said while urging his horse forward again. "450 thousand Vlachs, the second largest and most uniform cultural group… they have caused us the most trouble…" he said seriously.
"What do you mean trouble? Why have I not been informed that they caused problems? What about Dragomir?" I said turning abruptly, looking directly at the Varangian governor.
"They tried to contact the basileus rhomaion. They wanted their own thema and did not want to obey your orders. They did not receive the answer they wanted, so we began to apply your plan of eliminating the voivodes gradually, forcing them to give up their properties, starting with the most rebellious ones. Ketil has made sure that many of their properties have been confiscated." Hjalmar replied.
"And Dragomir?" I asked with interest.
"Everything is fine with him. He organized the local thing quite well and several of the Vlachs joined him out of fear of being next, so he has full control of the region and they remain obedient, but we gave him some of the properties of the Vlach voivodes and their men-at-arms, so now he is the strongest voivode in the region, and we placed him guarding the trade route through the Carpathians." Hjalmar replied.
"Good… continue then." I said nodding.
"247 thousand Rhomaioi are the third largest group. We coordinated their thing as well and there was not as much trouble with them, but it took time before they organized themselves. Then we have the Avars, 200 thousand. For now we have not had conflicts, aside from distributing them among Slavic areas. Us, the sons of the north, 97 thousand Varangians from several waves of migration, and Franks, 34 thousand, mostly men, captured soldiers who are distributed among all the Vlach and Rhomaioi settlements as labor… what they call serfs." Hjalmar replied.
"So a population of around 2 million… what about recruitment?" I asked as we began to climb some hills and I started to dismount, since it was a good place to establish a camp and begin searching for the gold and silver rich areas.
"It is feasible to recruit 1% of the population as requested, as a permanent defensive force divided among the four governorships. Of course we still lack the blacksmithing capacity to equip them all, but ideally I would prefer that our own people fill those numbers." Hjalmar said as he dismounted and ordered the group of workers following us to do the same.
"If you want a well armed Varangian force, good… but keep in mind that we have a large frontier to protect and we cannot depend on more arrivals, so try to have for me a group of 15,000 Varangians and 15,000 men from the other groups, since first in case of invasion, and second to have a pool to recruit from, since the emperor, with all the recent expansions, has almost no men available to send, since they are more valuable occupying the new lands." I replied while my tent was being set up and the group of Varangians listened attentively.
"Good. For now we have 7,000 Varangian warriors equipped as well as possible. Ketil has control of them while he guards the entrances to Carpathia from the north and the Danube, along with around 3,000 Slavic riders, so we are not far from what was requested, while around 5,000 Vlachs protect the Carolingian frontier occupying the fortresses, so we are close to fulfilling it… we would need to sell the harvests to have the funds." the Varangian governor replied.
"Oh yes… how were the harvests? How did they turn out?" I asked while driving the stakes of my tent into the ground.
"Abundant… a lot of grain. Wheat, barley, oats, large quantities of legumes, just as we agreed to do in Crete, but of course making some changes for the colder climate. Irrigation canals were created, not all that we wanted due to the lack of workers, but a large part of the areas near the Danube and the other rivers in the region were used to create an irrigation system where the Slavs were taught the techniques. The granaries are full, I simply preferred not to sell immediately, only to keep reserves, since the merchants were offering garbage in exchange for the wheat." Hjalmar said.
"Yes, that is normal… merchants always offer low prices at this time, trying to maximize their profits… my own merchants do it to sell it later in the year, when there is more scarcity… so there is no need to sell, so stay calm… and set up your tent, we may be here for a long time." I said while observing the landscape full of steep hills.
"Understood." Hjalmar said, and quickly his men began to organize the camp.
The temperature in the region was already low, but most of the people who had come were Slavs and Varangians, and with the agricultural work finished and much of the construction positions already filled, there was some available labor.
So I had brought around 12,000 people to begin this mission of searching for gold in the region, although I had no idea where to look. I only knew that the Kingdom of Hungary had one of the largest gold mines of the medieval period, which supplied all the gold of the kingdom at that time, sustaining its finances.
The mine was somewhere in the area of Slovakia, exactly where we were. Now we had to find it by any means to begin this extraction work and return to Crete with full hands, since paying for everyone's food and the construction materials for these cities had left my coffers quite empty. Not counting the payment of salaries for my personal forces, so I needed that injection of capital as soon as possible.
Something I did know, and that would be a good indicator of whether we would be lucky or not, were the rivers. Gold is a very heavy and dense mineral, so if we started by searching in the rivers, taking soil from the riverbeds, we could try to determine if there were gold deposits in the area.
So thousands of men, once the process of setting up the camp was finished, began to go to the nearby rivers with shovels and buckets, with some pans that we had forged for the work. We did not take long to begin the process of examining the river soil in search of gold.
Thus, day after day, patrols departed every day carrying out the search for the valuable mineral, checking all the nearby rivers in the area. There was more hope in some sectors.
There were days where only one or two gold nuggets were found, and other days where nothing was found. It was simply a matter of luck while we tried to find the mineral.
While that was happening, a large amount of mining equipment that was produced in the forges of the capital of Carpathia was being made every day. The moment the first gold vein was found, we would begin its extraction immediately.
While we continued working in the area, we finally had a stronger lead. We were finding more and more gold nuggets during the searches.
"Strategos." someone said while I was inspecting the work.
I looked around and noticed that some Varangian workers had found something.
"What is it?" I said as I approached them, looking at their pan and noticing that there was a large amount of gold.
"This is much more than we have found… and we were told that if we found something like this we should inform you." the Varangian said, looking at the pan and running his fingers through the gold that was present in large quantities.
"Let me see… it looks like it settled here… so it must be coming down from somewhere… over there." I said pointing to a hill that looked like it had once been part of some kind of river before it dried. It could also be a stream that formed after the snow.
With a group of Varangians we began to follow the dirt path, which was a dry channel. As we climbed, I noticed that there was quartz, so we kept moving forward.
"Here." I said pointing with my finger. "Dig and extract the soil and rock." I said looking at the workers.
They quickly began to do as I said. With shovels they dug into the ground and placed it into buckets. The shovel struck something hard, and we noticed that there was more quartz.
"Water." I said as I crouched, and someone poured water over the quartz, cleaning the soil that prevented me from seeing clearly.
"Holy shit…" I said, noticing the shine of the gold. "A pickaxe, quickly." I said extending my hand, and someone placed the tool in it. I began to strike with force.
I struck hard and extracted a large piece of quartz, separating the fragment that had gold.
As I broke it into a manageable size, I extracted the quartz and noticed that not only was there gold ore. There seemed to be something else. I remembered something I had seen in that silver mine. The quartz had gold and some pieces of silver.
"Bring everyone, we found what we were looking for." I said washing the piece of quartz and observing its color.
"At your orders, strategos." the workers said, and they descended the hill.
The place quickly filled with Slavs and Varangians. They flooded the area and began to extract all the quartz that was present.
In a short time the hill filled with picks and shovels. They began to extract everything we found.
In little time we extracted a large amount of ore. I quickly began to organize the guard. The most important thing was to ensure that the gold did not end up in the hands or pockets of the miners. It was necessary to place well paid and loyal guards watching the area.
So the entire nearby area became a fortified military camp. I also ordered that multiple fortresses be built to control all the access points of the region.
Days passed and more workers began to arrive. Many construction materials were diverted. An enormous pile of quartz with the extracted minerals began to form. Permanent settlements were raised, and multiple forges began to be built to process the ore. I brought some goldsmiths from my ranks to take care of processing the gold and silver, separating them from the waste minerals.
I also placed 1,000 Varangian guards to watch the area. From one moment to the next, that land which had been almost empty began to fill with settlers. I immediately offered a generous wage for the miners to reduce the possibility of theft.
Few times had I been this anxious, and this was one of them. In front of me I had an enormous deposit that kept growing larger. More and more workers continued extracting the mineral while preparations were being made to process it into ingots.
It seemed I was going to recover everything invested here. And with interest.
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