Three months have passed since the silver mine was discovered in Kashin, and in these three months, the once rather rudimentary prospecting camp in Kashin has transformed into a burgeoning mining town.
Once the news spread and was confirmed, many powerful figures in Northeast Rus' immediately dispatched their teams, hoping to join the feast and get a share.
This was a silver mine, not some worthless junk from the wilderness!
Rostislav was very pleased with their participation; his plan was to bring in as many people as possible to accelerate the development of the silver mine and to make potential schemers wary.
While developing the silver mine, the Prince also leveraged the favors owed to him by various powerful figures to assemble an army from the cities of Northeast Rus'. He used this army to launch an expedition against the Vesi, successfully reclaiming Beloye Lake and capturing a large number of Vesi slaves.
After severely striking the Vesi tribes, the Kashin region finally stabilized, which allowed the subsequent construction to proceed even more rapidly.
Besides the powerful figures, many farmers, citizens, and even tribal people came to this place; they were either bankrupt or speculators, arriving with a desire to get rich, and Rostislav never refused them, as these were exactly the kind of people he needed.
The original wooden walls of Kashin have been dismantled, and larger, taller wooden walls are being built outside, while inside the wooden walls are full of tents, shacks, a few simple wooden houses, and several blast furnaces for refining silver into grivnas.
The blast furnaces are surrounded by various mining waste, which are by-products of silver refining. Most of these are lead ores, which can be used as auxiliary materials for making stained glass, so they are also collected.
Some artisans were curious why so much lead ore was produced, but no one really cared; after all, silver ore was still being produced, and this was just casual conversation after meals, no one took it seriously.
The ore vein has been opened into a mine pit, and over a thousand miners are working here non-stop; some are Rus' people, some are Finn slaves, but all must work without pause, their picks striking continuously, and the mined ore is then sent out of the mine.
The military strength guarding this place is also very impressive; the Prince has a full two hundred personal guards stationed here, and with other miscellaneous armed forces combined, there are over four hundred armored soldiers alone. If all able-bodied men were mobilized, nearly two thousand could be raised.
Rus' soldiers are visible everywhere here; they are vigilant against all possible enemies and inspect the miners to prevent them from pilfering ore. The silver mine is of great importance, and everyone is well aware of this, so no one dares to relax.
Outside Northeast Rus', over these three months, the news of the silver mine discovery in Northeast Rus' spread like a whirlwind throughout Rus' and even beyond, with astonishing speed.
This was mainly because Rostislav sent envoys to inform all his relatives of this news, not just his three uncles, but even Harald, the Norwegian King, Kazimierz, the King of Poland, Andrew, the King of Hungary, and Henry, the King of France. He invited these relatives to participate in this development.
This was Rostislav's method for keeping the silver mine under his control; since someone might cause trouble, he would thoroughly muddy the waters, bringing in so many forces that those people would be too wary to act, and he would also gain more strength in the face of any struggle for the silver mine.
Moreover, Rostislav directly revealed the scale of the silver mine, which he knew from his memories of later generations, to strengthen the confidence of the Princes and nobles in joining the silver mine's development.
His uncles all expressed their blessings to Rostislav, as this represented an increase in the power of the Yaroslavich, and they promised to send people to help develop the silver mine.
The congratulations from his eldest uncle and third uncle were sincere; they believed that Rostislav's strength would make the entire family even stronger. They still viewed the family as a whole, and since it was a whole, the strength of a part would inevitably contribute to the strength of the whole.
As for his second uncle, even if he had other intentions, he could only go with the flow.
His uncles acted very swiftly, directly dispatching a group of miners from their territories to join the development of the mine pit, and Rostislav naturally promised his uncles a corresponding share of the output in return.
"God, why are you so kind to that boy?"
Under the cross in the Chernigov church, Sviatoslav spoke with a melancholic heart.
He felt incredibly bad; Vladimir's child was so lucky. If what the child's envoy said was true, then the scale of this silver mine was enough to make him the most powerful Prince in Rus'.
In contrast, he had only managed to secure the loyalty of the nobles within his territory, while that boy discovered a silver mine, which made him feel unbalanced.
Moreover, this boy acted flawlessly, just as Rostislav had arranged; the Moscow Prince's decision to bring in a large number of forces meant that his second uncle could not interfere at all.
If Rostislav had done it alone, his second uncle could have used the excuse of being the closest elder to "help" Rostislav, but now that he had brought in all the elders, there was nothing he could do.
However, his second uncle was not someone who couldn't think of a solution. After adjusting his mood, he called out a servant.
"Take this letter and information to the great city of Volga."
"Yes."
Besides the three uncles, the reactions of the remaining relatives varied.
Some reacted indifferently, such as Henry of France. France was simply too far from Eastern Europe. After reading it, Henry went hunting in Fontainebleau. Aunt Anna, however, sent her nephew a rather gentle letter, along with a few dispensable gold and silver ornaments, to congratulate him on his discovery.
Some reacted with excitement, such as Harald of Norway. The Ruthless One received the news on the battlefield, and he was very happy about Rostislav's discovery. This King immediately set about dispatching people to give his nephew more help.
At the same time, it was also to dig for silver; Harald's war had been going on for so long, and silver was always the more the merrier.
Some simply sent people to get a share, these were Kazimierz of Poland and Andrew of Hungary, but this dispatch was not only to gain benefits, they also needed to send away some troubles in the court.
Thus, Northeast Rus' suddenly became the center of a vortex, with forces from all sides pouring into this land. This land, once ignored, has now become the center of various situations due to the discovery of the silver mine.
And behind all this, an Eastern figure was observing the situation, weighing the gains and losses, wondering whether to use the most ruthless methods, even if it meant becoming an enemy of all nations...
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