Chapter 100 Busy Days
Chapter 100 Busy Days
The banquet at the Hillwood Castle was very simple, nothing more than eating and drinking. Unlike some noble places where there was music and dancing, here there were only men who could not dance, so they could only focus on eating, drinking, and bragging.
Luo Ning paid for a pig, six sheep, more than a dozen chickens and ducks, and an unknown number of fish.
Fortunately, the militiamen only took some food and went home. If they had joined in, Roning would have gone bankrupt.
Oh, by the way, Chahar has complained about the problem of alcohol in the castle more than once. Several barrels of sour beer have been drunk, and less than a hundred bottles of medium beer are left.
The territory urgently needs a winemaker; otherwise, if there are more guests or more banquets, the castle will have to go out and buy wine.
Faced with Chahar's complaint, Luo Ning had to agree. It was a pity that he was not very interested in wine; otherwise, he would have remembered this matter the last time he had gone to Muma City.
After the banquet, Luo Ning took several comfortable baths. He hadn't taken a serious bath in the past ten days since leaving Shanlin Town, so he felt comfortable.
After changing into soft clothes, Roning returned to the study and saw Irene sitting in a chair beside him, intently reading a book.
Luo Ning glanced at the book's title, quickly walked over, and closed the book, which scared Irene, who was reading attentively.
But after seeing the person coming, Irene smiled in surprise, "Brother Luo Ning, you are done~."
"Well, it's over."
Luo Ning responded with a smile, calmly taking the book back and putting it back on the bookshelf, "This book is unsuitable for you. I will pick out a suitable one for you."
Although the plot of this novel, Princess Fina's Secret Garden, is acceptable, the hero and heroine keep quarreling with each other, and the descriptions are quite in-depth, so it is not suitable for little girls.
Roning picked up a history book from the bookshelf and handed it to Irene. "Read this 'A Brief History of the Empire' to broaden your horizons."
"A Brief History of the Empire" records the events of the Orlant Empire. Still, unlike traditional history books, most records here are miscellaneous events of royal nobles, and even the quarrels between two great nobles are recorded.
Although it does not contain much valuable information, it is at least more suitable for girls to read than the Knight novel right now.
Irene took the book doubtfully, her mind still on the previous book.
She confusedly asked, "Why is that book not suitable for me to read? Knight Ivan is fighting a duel with Princess Fina. Will he win?"
"Of course, he wins, and in the end, he lives with the princess forever."
Roning smiled and gave a spoiler, "Okay, Irene, Bella has prepared a room for you. She's waiting for you outside. Don't keep her waiting for too long."
Irene's attention was finally drawn back from the book. "Okay, good night, brother."
After saying that, he quickly left the study.
Luo Ning shook his head helplessly and then began to review the documents submitted by Chahar and Wilson on the table.
This includes each team's production situation, each village's autumn harvest results, and Shanlin Town's grain statistics.
He looked at the latter two in particular.
This time, the total amount of barley harvested was about 830,000 kilograms, similar to previous years.
In addition to reserving seeds for next year, based on the calculation that each person consumes one kilogram of staple food per day, it can support the people of Shanlin Town for nearly ten and a half months.
However, in reality, the staple food consumed by serfs was less than one kilogram, and other "black technologies" were often mixed in. Things like wild vegetables were considered good.
In other words, this amount of barley is more than enough to sustain the people of Shanlin Town until the following wheat and barley harvest, so they should have no problem getting through the year.
By the time fertilizers are available next year, planting techniques will be promoted, and much new land will be reclaimed, so food will no longer be a problem.
After breakfast the following day, Luo Ning began his inspection of his Treading Cloud Horse.
With his achievements and the attribute points accumulated from signing in in recent days, he has now entered the third-level extraordinary stage.
[Level]: 3-Advanced Knight (30/300); 3-Advanced Magician (0/400)
Looking at Shanlin Town, Roning's strength is already among the top three. Now, he no longer needs any guards when he travels. At most, he can bring Chahar, who is in charge of the dung collection team, Galen, who runs errands, and Irene, who wants to tour Shanlin Town.
The first stop of Luo Ning's inspection was the fertilizer base.
This base was planned when Roning established the manure collection team. The address was chosen to be in the woods near the pasture in the northwest, far away from the residents' living area and water sources.
Over the past few days, the construction team has built a simple shed here. Although it looks rough, it can block rain and not interfere with the organic fertilizer below in the decomposition stage.
Facing the lord coming to inspect the fertilizer base in person, the ten slaves who were turning the piles stood aside in fear and trepidation. Apart from greeting the lord initially, they didn't know what to say.
However, the butler Galen kept urging Roning to leave this place immediately. After all, as a nobleman, it was really beneath his status to come to this noisy place in person.
Irene had been holding her nose. If she hadn't seen that Brother Luo Ning hadn't left, she would have turned around and run away.
The manure collection team has been picking up feces for many days and transporting them to this place. The smell is naturally very unpleasant. If possible, Roning would not want to come here.
But composting technology is still in its infancy and requires his guidance.
"Sir, according to your instructions, we have mixed useless hay, leaves, straw, and other things with the manure and piled them together. Now we turn the manure piles every three days."
Chahar reported respectfully. Although he didn't like doing this job, he still meticulously completed Roning's instructions.
Luo Ning looked at the dozen or so piles of organic fertilizer being decomposed in the fertilizer base and nodded slightly. "When composting, remember to spread hay on top to keep it moist."
Generally speaking, they need to prepare straw mats or cloth, but using these two things here is too wasteful, so it is okay to use hay for now.
He walked to a pile of manure and moved his hand a little closer. The temperature was still quite high, indicating that it was still in the fermentation stage.
Without a catalyst, the natural fermentation process will last about 1 to 3 months.
Once the compost pile's temperature stabilizes and the odor dissipates, the fertilizer can be used.
Luo Ning talked with Chahar and the members of the manure collection team about some problems encountered at work. Except for Chahar, who could say something, most slaves dared not speak. Only a female slave named Masin asked a few questions.
I learned from Chahar that this woman is serious about her work, pays attention to details, and is as strong as men.
So Luo Ning appointed him second in charge of the fertilizer base and reported to Chahar, which reduced the burden on the housekeeper.
After all, storing food in the castle takes a lot of effort, and then we have to coordinate the food distribution with the three villages outside.
People like Chahar, with good literacy and calculation skills, will naturally play a more significant role.
After inspecting the fertilizer base, Roning went to William's iron and wood workshop and Kales' blacksmith shop to check the production of iron and wood equipment and the forging of the curved plow.
This time, Roning brought back two carpenter slaves from Huitu Village. Mutar, who had better skills, was assigned to the ironwood workshop, mainly responsible for the production of ironwood hoes;
The one with lesser skills was asked to help Kalles and his son make the curved plow body and strive to build more curved plows for each village before the spring plowing.
In the next few days, Luo Ning inspected the situation of each production team while asking political officer Wilson to organize for farmers who were off-season to cut down trees in the north so as to open up a road to Qingzhu Village as soon as possible.
Roning did not need to pay these people for their work. Still, unlike before, to stimulate their enthusiasm, Roning allowed half of the wood that was mined to be taken home by the subjects to repair their houses or store dry firewood in preparation for the winter. He did not want his subjects to freeze to death in the winter.
In addition, Roning also went to Tom's mother, Leah's tailor shop to observe her spinning wheel and loom, modified the design based on it, and asked Pierre to make a small spinning wheel for drawing silk according to the design.
Most looms are waist looms.
If Ronin wanted to build a foot-operated loom, he needed more detailed design and experiments. He explained the principles and simple structural diagram to William, Pierre, and his slave Murta and asked the latter to try it on their own first.
There are still many trivial matters in the territory. For example, if there are conflicts between some people in the territory, he must arrange for people to mediate or judge them. If some men and women of marriageable age want to get married, they need Roning's approval and must also collect marriage taxes...
Luo Ning directly waived the marriage tax, which was not conducive to population growth, and replaced it with a free day's work.
After being busy for several days, he finally made all the arrangements.
On October 8th, Luo Ning took a few guards, traveled light, and traveled back to Wushan Fort in the early morning sunshine.
---------
Hey guys, VerseX here :)
If you want to support me and the work that I am doing, you can support me on pâtreon. It costs 1 dollar a month, and you get six chapters of early access, so three days' worth. I know that it isn't much of an advantage, but I would love your support.
Thank you for enjoying my translation and enjoy.
The link to my pâtreon is: https://www.pâtreon.com/VerseX
You just have to change the â to a