Vikings: Nordic women

Chapter 55: Millennium City That Never Sleeps Plan

Old Yar nodded slowly, with a hint of helplessness and awe in his voice: “Okay, I am willing to submit to you and your family.

I hope you can keep your promise and protect my family's status."

He gently took Margaret's hand, knelt on one knee, and solemnly kissed her vow ring: "It is my honor to meet a great king like you in my lifetime.

May I ask your name, my lord? I, Florent, hereby swear allegiance to you."

Margaret's voice was firm and powerful as she declared her dominance: "I am Margaret Robertsonduti, the co-ruler of Gotland!"

The soldiers on both sides were shocked by this scene. They whispered to each other and talked a lot, especially the soldiers from the Old Yar Territory. They could hardly believe their eyes.

I didn’t expect that old Yar would give in so easily?

Margaret smiled and said to Florent: "Very good, Florent, you go back now, take your soldiers, board your warship, and join my team.

Together we will travel to Eastern Europe, where there are warmer winters, more fertile land, more people and more treasure.

I promised you the territory, and I will fulfill it there."

She watched Florent return in the boat, then returned to the fleet with Ralph.

While waiting for old Florent to return, Margaret was not idle. She found parchment and a quill and began to write and draw on it seriously.

What she was conceiving was the design of the new royal city.

Although the conditions were simple and she could only draw a sketch, she had already planned to find craftsmen to discuss and improve the design later.

In her grand plan, the new coastal town would be located three kilometers along the coastline, leaving enough space for residential areas around it while also facilitating maritime trade and defense.

She also had an even more daring plan: to artificially build a mountain, and the palace would stand on the top of the mountain.

In this way, the palace can overlook the entire town and also symbolize supreme power.

However, this design also brought a significant drawback, that is, the water problem. Once the royal city was besieged by the enemy, the royal palace located on the mountain would face a serious shortage of drinking water.

Margaret already had some preliminary ideas about this issue.

She considered collecting rainwater and then filtering or condensing it to get clean drinking water. Of course, these require further research and experiments.

However, she also understood that if the royal city was truly surrounded in depth by the enemy, then the country would not be far from being destroyed.

By then, resistance may have lost its meaning.

Therefore, what she is more concerned about now is how to build and develop this new royal city and make it a powerful trade center in Northern Europe and even the entire Eastern Europe.

Margaret's palace design was full of vision and creativity.

She plans to design four spacious avenues on the mountain, which are symmetrically distributed in the directions of east, south, west and north. They are not only beautiful but also practical.

She also planned to establish friendly relations with the distant Tang Dynasty through the Silk Road, hoping to persuade the Tang court to help her find the rare "luminous tree" and "lantern tree".

However, she was also well aware that in this era, the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty would not usually agree to such a request easily, because China held a contemptuous attitude towards other countries.

Even beggars, influenced by this national self-confidence, think it is a humiliation to accept charity from foreigners.

Although Margaret came from later generations, she could also understand the national self-confidence that her ancestors had during the prosperous Tang Dynasty.

This is probably the mentality of "a lean camel is bigger than a dog". If you look down on someone, you will look down on him, even if you become a beggar.

The luminous tree is mainly distributed in northern Africa and the Jinggangshan area of Jiangxi Province, China. The phosphorus in its leaves reacts with oxygen in the air at night to emit cold light, making the night scenery extra bright.

Another plant she longed for, the "Queen of the Night (Black Tulip)", grows in Cuba in South America. Its stamens are rich in phosphorus and flash like fireflies at night.

Margaret felt a little conflicted about South America.

Although geographically the land in South America was richer than that in Eastern Europe, the population was sparse at the time and the region was closed, making it quite difficult and costly to conquer it.

Even if it was given for free, she would not be willing to develop such a place.

Margaret envisions a town that will be beautiful because of its unique luminescent plants. She plans to look for fluorescent mushrooms that grow in Southeast Asia, the Caribbean and South America. These mushrooms emit green light at night and are known as "green land jellyfish."

By using fertilizer containing large amounts of biological bone meal, she hopes to create a glowing town full of mysterious colors.

However, she also considered that if the phosphorus content in the soil was too high, a large amount of phosphorus fire might be produced. Would this make the town look a little gloomy, like a real version of the underworld?
The thought made her laugh.

In addition to the fluorescent mushrooms, she also plans to look for a fungus called "star chrysanthemum", which has also been found in Australian grasslands and Brazilian tropical forests in later generations, and its mycelium glows at night.

These plants create unique light and shadow effects at night through special chemicals they contain, such as phosphorus or fluorescein.

Although there were always ghostly will-o'-the-wisps in her mind, she believed that as long as she controlled the amount of bone meal used, there shouldn't be any problem.

She looked down at the sketch in her hand and decided to refine the details later.

Margaret imagined that Gothic-style architecture could bring a little bit of ancient shock to future generations.

She thought excitedly that perhaps one day in the future, the future royal city that existed in her mind would be listed as one of the ancient architectural wonders along with the world-famous Egyptian pyramids and the Great Wall.

Margaret knew that time was her greatest ally, and that she could realize her grand vision bit by bit, like Yugong moving mountains.

Even if she only laid one brick a day, her continued reincarnation would allow her to eventually build a magnificent town.

She even imagined using precious metals to cast a palace, and she would have enough time to plunder the wealth of the entire world.

By then, her wealth would probably make camels of later generations pale in comparison.

While Margaret was immersed in her beautiful fantasy, old Florent's fleet had set sail to join hers.

She frowned and found that the number of people brought by old Florent seemed a little small, probably no less than four hundred.

She speculated that perhaps because the incident happened suddenly, soldiers from other villages on the Faroe Islands had not yet gathered.

However, she did not intend to delay her journey, so she decided not to wait any longer and ordered the fleet to separate and set sail.

She stood on the boat, holding the sail rope with her left hand, and the sea breeze blew her hair, making it flutter backwards.

She declared confidently in her heart: "Eastern European settlements, prepare to welcome your future leader!"

Margaret's declaration is not only an unrealistic expression of a spirited little sister's middle school syndrome, but also a display of a leader's and a king's ambition for the future.

Her status and strength make her declaration seem solemn and powerful, which is fundamentally different from the lofty words of ordinary people. Just like "Lao Wang" and "Wang Lao" both have the surname Wang, but the former is more like a joke.

The Curonian tribe in Eastern Europe was an important group active along the Baltic coast.

They had close ties with the Scandinavians, from whom they borrowed Viking behavior patterns.

Between the late seventh and tenth centuries, they began to form a group relationship mainly engaged in plunder and trade.

This gang relationship gradually developed into a social structure in the ninth century and reached its maturity in the tenth and eleventh centuries, becoming a group with important social influence.

However, the social structure of the Curonians is not stable.

Although they formed a tribal alliance, they did not form a unified country or a powerful monarchy.

The nature of this tribal alliance made them vulnerable to external threats, such as their conquest by the Teutonic Knights in the 12th century.

This is also why Margaret thinks they are vulnerable.

In her opinion, pirates without the fighting power of Nordic beliefs are just pirates after all.

She believed that in the face of her powerful military strength, the Kuronians would submit to her just like the founder of Kievan Rus, the ancestor of the Bear People, Grand Duke Rurik, who voluntarily requested submission in later generations.

Margaret also planned to bring the faith of the gods to the Curonians, completely destroy their Druid sect's belief in nature, change the Curonians' faith, and completely assimilate them.

In this way, she was able not only to consolidate her own rule, but also to enhance the fighting capacity of the Curonians, allowing them to play a greater role in future conquests and expansions.

(End of this chapter)