"Whew, it's finally built," Valin said, letting out a sigh of relief as he watched the last nail hammered into the wooden wall in front of him.
The tower had already been completed, and he and his wife had moved in; digging the moat and building the wooden wall were the final steps.
For him, the completion of this construction held significant meaning; this standing fortress marked the establishment of his power.
The fortress was very simple: a two-story wooden tower, a wooden palisade, a moat, three large wooden houses for soldiers and servants, and a fish pond. With these, the fortress was complete.
The layout of this fortress was arranged by the Moscow Prince's subordinates. Valin heard that all newly built fortresses followed this layout, and that this layout was even personally designed by the Moscow Prince. The architects' main purpose was to ensure adaptability to local conditions.
The fortress could accommodate very few people; the lord's family and their dozen or so servants and soldiers were the limit, but this was the norm for a low-ranking chieftain.
Although the completion of the fortress filled Valin with immense joy, his head immediately started to ache because the farmers he had hired from nearby were now clamoring for their severance pay.
Logically, these people were his subordinate farmers, and serving him for half a month of corvée labor each year was their due obligation. However, these farmers, who were still free men not long ago, barely obeyed the Moscow Prince, so how could they possibly obey a small chieftain like him?
There was no other way but to pay them. Fortunately, these farmers didn't ask for much; after all, they also knew not to be too excessive. A few grivna of silver were enough to send them all away.
Watching the farmers leave happily with their money, Valin couldn't help but sigh. He had a premonition that being a chieftain in Northeast Rus' would be very tiring.
However, he had no complaints about this. Being able to become a chieftain was already a blessing, so what more could he complain about?
Valin was once a farmer in the swamps outside Kiev. Later, he joined Rostislav's army and served as a guide for the Prince in the swamps during the war against the Polovtsy, which earned him a generous reward.
Valin could have retired from the army then; the money he received was enough for him to settle down comfortably in Kiev, acquire a decent family business, and become the Kiev citizen he had always wanted to be.
But after seeing Rostislav's achievements, he decided to follow this young Prince whose martial renown was already widely known. He believed that by following him, he could gain much more.
And his investment indeed paid off. After coming to Northeast Rus', Rostislav granted him a piece of land and its population, making him a chieftain who owned a fortress.
In return for owning the fortress, Valin had to pay taxes to the Prince promptly and be able to organize a force of twenty warriors at any time to answer a summons, which must include two well-equipped knights.
And if he brought three or even four, the Prince would provide corresponding subsidies as a reward.
However, although the Prince made him a chieftain, he still had to build the fortress himself and tame the local populace himself. All he could rely on was his own armor and the twenty serfs granted by the Prince, whose purpose was to serve as servants and soldiers, as the manpower he could depend on.
Initially, Valin had no fear of taming the communes; in his view, everything would fall into place naturally. But upon arrival, he found that the communes, which should have obeyed him, barely paid him any mind.
Valin wanted to force them but had no means to do so. He only had twenty farmers under him, plus himself, an old soldier. The few communes alone could muster nearly a hundred able-bodied men, and who knew if the leaders within those communes had weapons and armor at home? If a fight broke out, he wouldn't even have the advantage of his armor.
Although the Prince's patrol team would also conduct weekly inspections to ensure his tenure was normal, that was all. They could only ensure he remained in office; everything else depended on him.
Having no other choice, Valin opted for a roundabout approach. He first married the daughter of a rich farmer from the largest commune under his rule, then went door-to-door in the villages, negotiating with them, drinking and chatting with them, and, when necessary, adding the threat of force from the Prince.
After all this effort, he finally made these communes submit, expressing their willingness to pay taxes and perform corvée labor.
During this period, his practice of his own duties was also very important; it could be said that this precisely facilitated the communes' submission. He arbitrated cases in the villages, helped villagers hunt wild beasts, and sometimes even personally worked in the fields—after all, he was also a swamp farmer, and he hadn't lost these skills.
Moscow provided him with considerable support in grain and tools, which were meant for him to win over the populace and provided no small amount of help.
But the communes' submission was discounted. For example, now, he had to pay the villagers for performing their due corvée labor. Although the money wasn't much, it still felt awkward.
Valin knew that some powerful nobles and knights simply did not compromise with farmers. It seemed some even colluded with local magnates to suppress farmers; if farmers dared to disobey, their family knights would directly enter the village and slaughter them, beheading those who dared to lead, and then no one else would dare to cause trouble.
But that was something he couldn't learn, and most newly appointed chieftains couldn't learn it either. Those knights had at least five or six armored warriors, plus dozens of battle-hardened veterans. Suppressing and intimidating communes was too simple for them; they had the military power to do it.
I guess it will take until my descendants grow up for these farmers to recognize my status as a ruler. In that case, I might as well go dig for silver.
Valin thought somewhat dejectedly. Of course, he knew about the Kashin affair, but since he was already a lord here, how could he abandon his territory to become a miner?
However, his heart immediately warmed at the thought. From descendants, he thought of his newlywed wife's delicate body. Valin was an old bachelor; due to long-term residence in the swamp, with no women around, he could only resort to self-satisfaction.
It wasn't until he came to Northeast Rus' that he got married, and once he tasted the pleasures, the old man became filled with desire for his wife's body; even a small thought could arouse his lust.
Don't think so much; hurry up and make a baby. Having a descendant to pass all this down is the most important thing.
Valin looked at his wife with lustful eyes, making the 16-year-old girl's cheeks flush red, and then, amidst the laughter of servants and soldiers, he pulled his wife into the tower.
Seeing their lord act this way, the others went about their work. There were already some wooden houses and fields near the fortress.
One part of these belonged to the serfs who had followed him, while the other part belonged to locals who wanted to leave their communes or were simply driven out, seeking to start new lives under the lord's fortress.
And such scenes were everywhere in the areas under Rostislav's influence: fortresses either being built or already standing.
With their appearance, the social ecology of Northeast Rus' was undergoing slow but irreversible changes—a change that the current Moscow Prince yearned for. However, to achieve the effect he desired, it would still take many, many years, even generations of cultivation.
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