Chapter 9: The First Experience of Life in Medieval Europe

After using the [Costume Camera] to put on the clothes of medieval Europe, relying on the efforts of the current owners of the manor, Li Wei and his wife, Wang Qiu and Doraemon, a group of visitors from another world, were finally able to openly appear in the manor and wander around with curious eyes.

-- At the time of the Black Death, everyone in Marseille was quickly overwhelmed by the fear of death. Even the most suspicious and trouble-loving people in the past have become discouraged, like the walking dead, and have become much more unresponsive.

Therefore, the servants only nodded numbly to indicate that they knew about such trivial matters as "there was an extra group of strangers around their master for some reason", and asked if they wanted to prepare breakfast and a place to stay for them, and after receiving an affirmative answer from Young Master and Mrs. Levi, they said nothing more. The old butler, who might have been suspicious and tentatively interrogated, as well as the personal clerk of the late old master, Monsieur Diderot, and another senior clerk of the Knights Hospitaller, who had just been sent from Rhodes, had all been summoned by the Lord to heaven last month.

In this way, at present, this seaside manor with an octagonal white cross flag fluttering on a red background has temporarily become a hall of words for Knight Levi, which greatly facilitates the activities of Wang Qiu and Doraemon and others...... Early the next morning, when the sky was just dawning, Mr. and Mrs. Levi, who were so excited that they had not slept all night, took Wang Qiu, Doraemon and others to visit their home, the "Mujahideen Manor" under the name of the Knights Hospitaller

On the whole, although the place is nominally a manor, it is actually a small castle in terms of defense, at least comparable to the earthen enclosures of the rural landlords in the troubled times of China - and the exterior walls made of stone at all costs.

The estate sits on a small peninsula jutting south into the Mediterranean, surrounded on three sides by water, with trenches dug on one side of the six lots, a small private pier and a sturdy breakwater. Outside the estate are vast fields and pastures, with several small villages scattered. These places once belonged to the Bacon family, which was inherited by the lord of the manor, the Knight of Levi, but now they have long been taken away by other nobles due to various complicating factors such as war, politics and family infighting, leaving only a small area near the Mujahideen Manor for the Bacon family to survive.

Although the Bacon family had long since they joined the Knights Hospitaller, participated in the maritime trade, and were generously rewarded by veterans who were never short of money and whose gold and silver could be measured in cubic meters, the Bacon family had long since turned over in wealth, but the lost land could not be regained for a while.

Due to the small size of the Mujahideen Manor and its inconvenient expansion, a considerable number of its subordinate workshops, mills, dockyards, and the charitable hospital run by the Knights Hospitaller could only be built not far from the manor, on the side of the road leading to the city of Marseille.

Within the walls of the manor, there are more than a dozen houses of different heights, the highest of which is four floors, but most of them are bungalows. Some of them were decent brick houses, some were still using shabby thatched roofs, and a considerable number of them were barracks, stables, and weapons depots for the overseas dispatch and recruits of the Knights Hospitaller, and there was a modest combat training ground in between. The other part is a commercial warehouse that is connected to a private dock by the sea. In addition, there are ancillary facilities such as cattle sheds, granaries, agricultural tool stores, blacksmith shops and wells.

Finally, on the highest and most scenic spot, sat the cottage where the master of the manor lived, a four-storey building of pillars and beams, with the hall and servants' quarters on the ground floor, the living rooms on the second and third floors, and the attic and cellar for the storerooms.

The décor of the hall was simple, in a completely medieval rough style, far less luxurious than the future of an English manor: rough bluestone floors, large oak tables and chairs, walls decorated with flags and a tapestry, a few pieces of armor, a few shields, and a low kitchen cabinet for the clay plates and wooden bowls used at the daily dining table - Oriental porcelain was a priceless collector's item in the Western world at this time, and even princes and nobles were rarely willing to eat porcelain; Six crude terracotta oil lamps were chained to the wall, and an empty silver candlestick was placed in the center of the table – candles were also very expensive in this era. Even those who can afford to light lamps are willing to use smoking, pungent oil lamps in normal times. Candles made of beeswax are generally only used in churches and ceremonies.

It can be seen that the "candlelight dinner" thing in the Middle Ages definitely meant not only romance, but also luxury: if it weren't for the hard money to chase the girl, where would the average man be willing to spend so much money to burn candles at dinner?

Finally, like the traditional Western living room, there is a huge fireplace that flickers all day long, and even during the day, this firelight provides most of the illumination, because the small windows are not glass, but oil-soaked parchment—glassware is not particularly rare in the Western world these days, but large pieces of flat glass are still rare and expensive. Unless it's the kind of cathedral that doesn't take money seriously, it's rare for a house to have every window covered with pane glass...... Because it was still February, it was still very cold in the empty hall despite the fireplace being lit, so Wang Qiu and the others took a few glances and went back upstairs.

What they didn't notice was that, though the hall was simply decorated and there was nothing worth seeing, it was at least clean, and there wasn't even a single pile of excrement by the fireplace, in the corners of the walls, and under the tables...... This seems to be a matter of course in the modern world, but in medieval Europe, it was already a terrible fetish of cleanliness - should it be said that this is the place where a group of time-travelers lived for several years?

Compared to the humble ground floor hall, the second and third floors are much more comfortable and luxurious because they are the quarters of the travelers, with soft Persian carpets on the floor, plaster walls, and windows of the same color, making the interior look very bright.

Among them, the largest bedroom on the second floor was the residence of the late old master Diderot the day before yesterday. As for the remaining many bedrooms, they were originally allocated to the reincarnations of the main gods of the original handsome team (according to the main gods, they are members sent by the Knights Hospitaller). However, during the Battle of Cressie, almost all of the Shuai Du team was wiped out, and only Levi and his wife ran back, so most of the rooms were empty at the moment, and only one room on the third floor was occupied by Levi and his wife. In addition to this, there is a small dining room and two offices on the second floor. Out of curiosity about Western mansions, the Doraemon five-member group enthusiastically looked at room by room, but the result was a big disappointment for these elementary school students.

“…… It looks really shabby, the walls are bare, there is not even an oil painting, the carpet pattern is very monotonous, and it is a little fluffy and faded. There is also no decoration on the furniture, and some of the cabinets are not even painted, so you can't feel the golden atmosphere at all."

Kofu Guchuan smacked his lips in dissatisfaction, "...... It's completely different from what I saw in the movies "Gone with the Wind" and "Pride and Prejudice."

- He seems to have completely forgotten that both Western films are set in the modern 18th and 19th centuries, and that it was only 1348......

But in any case, even the bedroom where the owners of the manor slept in the Levi couple was very difficult and simple in the eyes of modern people: in the center of the room was a large bed eight feet long and seven feet wide, which looked quite magnificent, but when I reached out and touched it, I found that the mattress was actually stuffed with wheat straw and grass Because cotton has not yet been used on a large scale in the West, the bed sheets are made of coarse linen, which cannot be compared with modern cotton sheets, and the quilt does not exist zài, so you can only use blankets to keep out the cold, and even the pillows are made of leatherAt first glance, I thought it was a leather bag for boxing training

From a modern point of view, such a bed is almost the standard of a prison. But in the Middle Ages, it was already very good - in those days, just being able to sleep in a bed was already a symbol of the rich, and most of the lower class people and even poor knights could only sleep on the grass piles all their lives, such as the places where the servants at the bottom slept

In addition to the queen bed, there is no wardrobe, no mirror, no dresser, and no separate bathroom, only a table, two chairs, and a chest stuffed with old clothes, and the workmanship is very rough, without patterns and carvings. Horizontal poles hung from the walls of the Livys' clothes and skirts—but they were gorgeous at first sight, with velvet dyed purple, brocade embroidered with gold thread, and robes of mink. Finally, there is a more delicate bronze oil lamp, which is also hung on the wall with a chain.

In the eyes of modern people, this house is at most the standard of a remote village, but by the standards of the Middle Ages, it is already a poor luxury.

Therefore, after walking around this manor, Wang Qiu and Doraemon's mood was both cool and cool - the dignified and powerful lord's house was shabby like this, only a few good clothes were not bad, and there was no gold, silver and jewelry, so how poor should the other citizens be? How do you have to knock on the bones and steal the marrow and make a lot of money to raise tens of billions of yen in such a place to pay off Doraemon's debts?

As for how to save this world that is on the verge of ruin, how to help Knight Levi earn points to redeem himself and return home...... Sorry, they haven't thought about it yet.

While they were in all their minds and frowning, a servant dressed in dusty linen came up and politely told them that breakfast was ready, and invited the distinguished guests to dine in the hall on the ground floor.

Then, the moment Wang Qiu and Doraemon walked to the dining table, their eyes suddenly sparkled

Well, it's not that this European medieval-style breakfast is so hearty and delicious, full of flavor and flavor, that the cat is so happy that he forgets the debt pressure, the real key is the food utensils on the table - all of which he meows are shiny silverware

In good conscience, the 14th-century handmade silverware is already quite exquisite, some with geometric patterns, some with elegant carvings of flowers and plants, and some even inlaid with precious stones, which will definitely sell even in modern craft shops

Wang Qiu silently estimated the value of these silverware on the table, and now if they are added together, they can at least be sold for tens of thousands of yuan

From this point of view, it seems that there is still a little bit of oil and water in this place, at least it will not be a trip to volunteer.

As soon as he thought of this, Doraemon exchanged glances with Wang Qiu, and his mood seemed to become happy.

The food in these shiny silverware was lackluster by comparison—bread, cheese, boil-boiled eggs and broth, wine and milk to accompany the meal, and unfortunately there was no fruit and vegetable salad due to the cold of winter......

A breakfast with so many dishes and variety, by the standard of living in medieval Europe, was absolutely extravagant and degenerate, and it could have been used for a banquet in a middle-class home. But in the eyes of modern people, there is still almost no place to put your mouth open.

For example, poor Nobita almost broke his teeth when he took a curious bite of the bread on the silver platter—it was still a "high-end" white bread, not a black bread mixed with bran and sawdust but still like a stone

There is no way, there is no leavening agent on the earth in these days, and even the use of edible yeast has not been promoted, so the bread eaten by Europeans in the Middle Ages is not the same thing as the fluffy bread of modern people that has been fermented and added with white sugar and cream, but is similar to a kind of unleavened cake that is compressed and chewed, and it is as hard and knocking as teeth, and it is as astringent as wood, whether it is black bread or white bread......

Therefore, the correct way to eat this kind of hard bread, which can be used as a brick to knock people to death, is actually to break it up and soak it in soup, just like mutton steamed buns, instead of directly fighting it with your teeth...... However, when Karukawa laughs at Nobita's gaffe and breaks off a small piece of bread and throws it in the soup bowl according to Doraemon's instructions, until it finally softens and then puts it in his mouth, his face also turns green.

- Because he didn't put salt in this broth

Well, it seems that until the 21st century, some Western countries, especially the United Kingdom, still retained such a custom, the food is served as it is cooked, and a qiē of salt, sugar, sauce, vinegar, and pepper must be added by themselves. When someone held a social gathering with Western European students at university, he had the privilege of tasting mashed potatoes without salt...... This was especially true in the Middle Ages, when condiments such as salt were expensive.

Luckily, there were fine silver salt shakers and expensive pepper on the table, and it was in the middle of the table.

After Fat Tiger unceremoniously poured a lot of salt and pepper into the soup pot, and even made the manservants standing behind him show distressed expressions, everyone finally felt that the soup and the bread soaked in the soup were barely able to eat - at least not to vomit out of it.

On top of that, the cheese on the table is even more intimidating - because there is no clear pasteurization method to remove bacteria from the clean cheese, most of the cheeses of the Middle Ages are not the modern yellowish solids, but a lump of paste with green or blue markings, and a strong yeast smell...... Although the Chinese here occasionally eat stinky tofu, and the Japanese here are also accustomed to eating natto for breakfast, the unique and sour taste of this medieval cheese with bacteria still makes everyone almost vomit with nausea.

Even the fresh milk in the clay pot that has just been squeezed out today has a taste that is a little strange to modern people who are used to drinking pasteurized boxed milk - to be honest, the so-called "natural and pollution-free" green food is often not as good as some people think.

In the end, several picky ladies just ate a boiled egg each, frowned and barely drank a few mouthfuls of broth, then pushed away the plate, refusing to eat these damn things again. And Wang Qiu and other men only nibbled on a few more bites of "Western-style mutton steamed buns", and they couldn't swallow it anymore.

At the same time, while the travelers were sitting at the long table in the hall on the ground floor, chewing wax and tasting "pure European medieval flavor pure natural and pollution-free green food", and full of criticism for this, Mr. and Mrs. Levi, who had been in medieval Europe for five years, were also happily tasting the long-lost industrial age food rich in various additives and preservatives in the small restaurant upstairs......

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