A long and bitter night, spent in tossing and turning.

I had a lot of nightmares, intermittently intertwined into messy fragments.

I saw a lot of people walking blindly with their eyes without pupils.

Calling out the names of his loved ones, he crawled in front of me with his hands and feet.

The strange scene pulled me up from my dream, and I was startled into a cold sweat, and after the air drying, it was cold to the bones from the depths of the pores, and the nightmare kraft candy grabbed my already tense nerves, and I enjoyed the painful moaning of the lamb in my hand, and I finally realized that I was an ordinary person who could not see crying, and compared with those high aristocrats, I took on the heavy responsibility on my shoulders, firm but faltering.

The vigorous morning sun rises as usual, without hesitation to spread its brilliance to all things in the world, looking at the golden sunshine, everything seems to be full of vigorous vitality, trying to stretch their bones in the future, the heaven and earth are filled with a rejuvenating atmosphere, and the haze of yesterday is washed away by the fresh joy of spring.

I walked to the castle window, took a deep breath of fresh air, filled my lungs with positive oxygen, and watched the sun rise over the pine tops of the distant hillside, and my mood could not help but brighten like a fully charged light bulb.

After three and a half months of sleeping in the wind and rain, I suddenly missed the castle chef very much, and I used to hate the same black bean paste, and all kinds of soups that I couldn't see the ingredients, people are sometimes so nostalgic, so after I ate the whole five plates of black bean paste in one go, I still touched my stomach and asked for more rice, Wangcai was cramped and didn't know what to say, because the paste prepared in the kitchen was almost eaten up by me alone.

After I had eaten and drunk, I began my day's work, as every lord does, first of all, to inspect my territory on horseback, to inspect the preparations for spring ploughing in the territory, to receive respectful worship from the people, and to check the resettlement of the bereaved family members by the way.

The bull followed me with five cavalrymen to carry the flag and defend it, and Kohler was left in the castle to entertain the priests I had brought all the way from Italy, as well as some engineering and construction technicians, to familiarize everyone with the living conditions in the future.

We followed the fairly wide road in front of the castle, and headed in the direction of the patchwork of farmland in the distance, where there were already some emerald colors that were not seen up close, and the hazy was very cute.

Near the castle gate, there were a number of densely populated commercial buildings, known in technical terms as castle towns, which concentrated the entire territory and were important to the peasants.

It's like a blacksmith shop that's always in full swing......

Grocery stores that are open irregularly......

A tavern with cheap ales and a variety of gossip......

and a brothel for the day-to-day guards who were tired of defending the city......

Arranged unevenly!

The neighborhood that has been dirty for many years has at least looked much cleaner on the surface under my renovation, and I can no longer see chickens, ducks, geese and dogs scurrying around the streets, or steaming human and animal feces appearing in the middle of the road.

From time to time, there are old people who carry backpacks to pick up dung, bending over, conscientiously doing their work, and the road leveled with pebbles and fine sand looks very clean, so that the low and dilapidated small board houses on both sides also seem tall and tall.

"You've done a great job! Packing up like this, it feels comfortable to walk on it. ”

I slowly lowered the reins of my horse, steered my mount forward slowly, as if admiring my own masterpiece, bowed slightly to the peasants or merchants who were bending down on the side of the road, and said to Wangcai, who was following me:

"After the spring ploughing is over, we must organize everyone to consolidate the foundation, replace all the main streets in the territory with stone roads, renovate those crumbling shanty houses, and re-plan the houses on both sides, and distribute them reasonably according to different functions, so that they echo each other without causing interference, such as the brothel, which is not suitable for blatantly placed on the side of the street, and the beating of the blacksmith shop and the black smoke in the chimney destroy the surrounding environment."

Wangcai listened respectfully to the words, a long time of territorial management, so that his cognitive level has improved rapidly, and he has developed a strong administrative ability, now he is not only a respected old man in the village, but also does a thorough job in the handling of details, so that I am more and more inseparable from this rigorous old man.

Although he had no culture, and even Isaac's accounts could not be understood, he filled these gaps with loyalty and meticulousness, and he could often be seen busy counting and arranging trivial things in the middle of the night, and doing his best to fulfill his tasks.

Wangcai has an important place in my heart, and he is about to become the chief minister of the future earl's court, even if he is a commoner with no culture and no good background.

"It's all the wisdom of adults, compared to the neat and clean now, we used to live in a pigsty, crawling with fleas and bed bugs every day, and no nobleman ever really cared about this, they thought we were just talking tools."

Wangcai said to me movingly, the corners of his wrinkled eyes were slightly moist: "It is you who give us the hope and dignity to live, so everyone will follow you without hesitation to fight and willingly sacrifice their lives, because they know that even if they die, their families will not fall into an embarrassing life situation because of their departure, and you give them a sense of belonging and a leader worthy of loyalty." ”

I reined in my horse and looked at an old man with a dung basket on his back, clumsily hiding on the side of the road, carefully covering the mouth of the basket to prevent the stench of filth inside from smoking the noble lord, with a serious expression as if what an important thing he was doing, a little ordinary but touching:

"You have the right to live happier, even without noble blood and a long family tree, it is God's will!"

After speaking, I raised my right hand and pressed my forehead, bowed solemnly to the old man, and rode away in the eyes of everyone who were either moved or puzzled.

The fields on the outskirts were full of industrious people, who gathered together according to the division of labor of the mutual aid group, and used the lord's horse, which was used to plow the land deep in preparation for the spring ploughing that was to begin, for that was the whole expectation of the family's life for a year.

In this era of slash-and-burn farming, all farmers can do is toil day after day to get that little bit of output.

"Your Excellency, you see, the land close to the castle is all familiar land that has been reclaimed a long time ago, and now it is the original lord's cultivated land that is being ploughed, and after the establishment of the mutual aid group, the farmers can use the horses in the castle to farm, and the efficiency has increased several times."

Wangcai has worked all his life facing the loess with his back to the sky, and he can't help but be overjoyed when he looks at the thriving busy farming scene, and introduces me in a brisk tone.

I nodded, and put my hand on the pergola to observe the farmers who were harnessing the ploughshares, their farming methods were too backward, although I was a homebody who was not diligent in my previous life, but at least I knew some basic agricultural knowledge, so I frowned and put forward my opinion:

"How do you put a rope around a horse's neck? If this is too long, won't the animals be suffocated? The efficiency is low and the horses are damaged, and even if the plough is made of iron, it cannot be ploughed very deep, which is not conducive to sowing. ”

"But we have been using this method since ancient times, grandfathers pass it on to fathers, fathers to sons, and it has been passed down from generation to generation." Wangcai knew the disadvantages of strangulation, but he couldn't think of a better way, so he could only spread his hands and show that he couldn't do anything.

"Make a cover of leather and stick it on the horse's shoulder, so that the horse can exert strength without being strangled, and the land can be ploughed sufficiently, the plough wall is curved, and the plowshare head is downward, so that it can sink deep into the soil." I even explained to Wangcai the appearance of the common plough in later generations, hoping to change the backward production mode in front of me.

"Praise God! This is truly an unbeatable genius idea! ”

Wangcai's eyes lit up when he listened, and he seemed to be a little eager to go back and experiment with the method I said, horses and ploughshares can be used to the fullest, and I don't know how many people's autumn harvest can have such a handful of wheat, and when the green and yellow crops are not harvested, they can have food for the stomach.

As we walked away from the castle as far as the eye could see, families of men, women and children labored together on either side, and in the face of the sudden appearance of the lords, these good peasants hid aside in fear, and bowed down tremblingly, hoping that they had not desecrated the majesty of the nobles and knights, and were so humble that they were about to bend themselves into the dirt beneath their feet.

"Your Excellency, this side of the forest is full of newly cultivated land, most of which have been opened up by ownerless serfs who have successively defected to our territory since last year, and due to the limited time, they have simply cleared the vegetation above and leveled the land, and when the farmers of the mutual aid group finish plowing their land, they will immediately help the outsiders to take care of these raw lands, so that they can really own the industry and settle down here."

We stopped at the edge of the forest at the bend of the river, and Wangcai pointed to the fertile land on both sides and introduced me: "According to your request, we have kept a large area of woodland around the large area of cultivated land, and we may need to put more effort into the management of crop growth to prevent the crops from being destroyed by wild beasts." However, you said that you should not overdraft the land resources excessively, and that these vegetation are needed to conserve water and soil, although we ordinary people do not understand it, but as long as it is what you say, we will strictly enforce it. ”

I nodded, stood up on horseback, and carefully observed the land on both sides of the river, a flock of unnamed birds, fluttering out of the forest on the opposite bank, flapping their wings and flying farther and farther: "What is on the other side of the river, I have never been there." ”

"This small river eventually joins the Rhine, and on the other side of the river there are some small plots of cultivated land cultivated by the people, but when the spring flowers bloom, the river swells, and the water is so strong that people can't pass, so they can only wait until the end of spring to sow some crops with a short growing period, but they will be arched off a lot by wild boars in the forest, and the harvest is not optimistic."

As the head of my castle, Wangcai traveled to almost every corner of the territory and was ready to answer any questions, which made me smile with satisfaction at his dedication.

"Further southwest, is the fief of Baron Tyril of Lower Lorraine, a knight obsessed with conquest, and a large area of land to the west has just become your domain, with five villages and a small town, and their administrator has heard of your return, and is rushing to this side, but the river is difficult to cross because of the melting snow, so you can only go downstream to find a shallow water with a soothing flow to cross the river, and it will probably take a little more time."

"Hmmm! Very good! ”

I stroked the beard on my chin, not every lord had his own barber in this era, and I was one of them, the last time I was ordered to go to Venice, so now I have a fine beard on my chin.

"Looks like the artisans from Italy have something to do......"