In early October, the autumn harvest in the three northern provinces was coming to an end. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

The first windmill was built in the village of Mist, but the simple thresher that could be operated side-by-side by two people did not make much of a difference, not because the machine was not easy to use, but because the villagers were reluctant to spend money on renting it, and even though Wesley privately subsidized the Jimmys to use the thresher first, there were few followers.

The vast majority of the villagers have become accustomed to working day and night during the autumn harvest, and they only have disgust and contempt for Jimmy's family's "spending money and being lazy", without the slightest envy.

Just before the end of the autumn harvest, Wesley saw Jimmy's sullen appearance and thought that he blamed himself for the unfavorable implementation of the work, and when he asked, he realized that this was not the case.

It turns out that Jimmy had bought good farm tools for Danny's family before the autumn harvest began, but Danny and Dia's father not only didn't appreciate it, but also blasted him out - in the eyes of this stubborn old man, Danny was deceived by Jimmy, so he was reluctant to return to farming.

In the days when Jimmy was pushing everyone to buy farm tools and rent windmills, this old man actually married Dia to an honest fellow villager because he couldn't get used to Jimmy's practice of "helping the noble lord deceive his fellow villagers" and their family's lazy behavior. In this way, Jimmy is tantamount to "falling out of love".

Wesley listened to Jimmy's statement, and he didn't feel anything to regret about this broken love - he had seen Dia, the mediocre-looking country girl, and there was a vulgarity in her bones, and it was hard to imagine that she would be Danny's sister.

Wesley, however, had a concrete feeling about the "old ideas" that Donner had said: these farmers had been tied to the land for generations, and even now that they own the land, they would naturally resent anything that seemed "unethical."

Thinking of this, he asked Jimmy, "How many farmers have rented windmills?"

"Including our family, there are four families in total. Jimmy replied honestly.

"Do you, like the farmers, think that the new tools and windmill threshers are of little use?" asked Wesley.

Jimmy hesitated for a moment and whispered, "It's a lot faster, but ...... We finished our work early, and there was nothing else to do, and they insisted that we were lazy...... It's not for nothing. ”

Downer once said that in the case of limited land area and a blank labor market, farmers who were early adopters of new technologies did not benefit much more than reduce their labor intensity—because they needed money to buy farm tools and rent windmills, so they lost a little financially.

In Wesley's view, the solution to this contradiction is extremely simple.

"H......mm," he nodded, "You can help me promulgate two policies now: first, in the next ten days, purchase grain in Misty Village at a price two percent higher than the market price; ”

In the past, after the peasant households were busy all year round, after paying the grain to the nobles, it was good to be able to barely satisfy some of the rations left in the pitiful Baba, and it was unthinkable to sell the grain at market prices.

Even though Jimmy was more well-informed than the farmers, he instinctively feared Wesley when he said he wanted to buy grain, as if he had seen the famine during the war seven years ago.

So, the second policy that Wesley said, he didn't listen to at all.

"What's wrong?" Wesley looked at him quizzically, "Don't you understand what I mean?"

"Your Excellency...... Do you really ...... You want to harvest all the food?" Jimmy's voice trembled a little, and he suddenly felt that maybe Danny's father's words were right, and the nobles were indeed the same.

Wesley immediately understood the misunderstanding, stood up with a smile, and patted Jimmy on the shoulder, "Jimmy, Jimmy, what are you thinking?

"Aren't you going to take it all?" Jimmy almost broke out in a cold sweat.

"Of course not!" Wesley said, "Jimmy, you've done something in Fog City, you don't know the price of food, right?"

Jimmy shook his head blankly, he really didn't know.

"All right......," Wesley laughed, "wait until you figure that out before you decide whether or not to sell the grain, but again, everything is done voluntarily!"

Jimmy finally laughed, scratching his head a little embarrassed, "My lord, you just said that there are two policies......"

Wesley had no choice but to say it again: "There is a building to be built in Misty Town, and from today onwards, we will start recruiting laborers, and the salary will be fifty copper per day." ”

"Fifty coppers?" Jimmy could barely believe his ears, "You mean fifty coppers a day?"

"You heard you right. Wesley sat back down.

"But Lord Earl, now the whole village has now finished harvesting grain for the four of us, and there is still a lot of wheat in the fields of the other families...... I'm afraid I won't be able to recruit many people in a short period of time......" Jimmy was embarrassed.

"Stupid! It's because there are few people now that I have to pay 50 coppers, and when there are more people, my salary will fall to 50 coppers. Wesley laughed, "Don't you understand what I mean, I'm just going to reward those who try new tools, and better let the old ones regret their bowels!"

That's when Jimmy understood what Wesley meant. Even if a peasant household has only two laborers, he will have one gold coin for ten days of work! This is far more than the money to buy tools and rent a windmill.

"Your Excellency...... Isn't that too harsh for those farmers?" said Jimmy, worried.

"Jimmy," Wesley looked through the window, looking at the scene of the autumn harvest, and his face became rare and serious, "a new era is coming, either open your arms to meet it, or become the funerary object of the old era, there is no other choice!"

Jimmy faintly felt the power contained in these words, and his whole body couldn't help but tremble slightly.

......

On the same day, Wesley figured out the market price of grain, and this year the weather was good, and a hundred kilograms of wheat "only" could be sold for nine silver coins.

There are nearly 70 peasant households (nearly 300 people) in Miwu Village, because the land is not divided according to the number of people, but is evenly distributed, so each household has about four hectares of land (about ten acres), according to the local rather primitive rotation farming method, only half of them are planted every year, and two hectares of land can receive more than 2,300 kilograms of wheat -- converted to the unit that the Donner is familiar with, that is, the yield per mu is more than 100 catties, this figure is much lower than that of ancient China with intensive cultivation, and only slightly higher than that of ancient Rome.

In addition to paying about 1,000 kilograms of taxes, each peasant household removes about 600 kilograms of rations (which in previous years simply did not leave that much), and counting the more than 100 kilograms of wheat needed to keep seeds, the remaining 400 kilograms of harvest can be exchanged for about four gold coins.

In fact, after paying almost all of the grain recovered from the entire three northern provinces to the Faymont royal family at the end of last year, Downer has been rewarded with more than two million gold coins from the Faymont royal family in the past year—the only meaning of this reward for ordinary small and medium-sized nobles is to return to the Faemon royal family from the various magic academies after they pay the magic tax (i.e., the high tuition fees of the magic academies).

Donald even owns the Academy of Magic, and of course does not need to pay this part of the fee to the Faemon royal family. The royal family of Auston was quite wary of Duke Vaane, but did not dare to withhold this due reward.

It's just that Donner also knows that after he opens a closed loop of gold coin circulation between the royal family and the nobility, it will sooner or later have an impact on the prices of the empire, and he cares about Merkel to pay attention to prices, and he also has this consideration.

......

Wesley was unable to procure food in the Misty Village, not even a single piece of wheat.

The peasants had a natural obsession with keeping their grain, and apart from paying their taxes according to the regulations, they hid all their surplus like squirrels about to spend the winter, even when Wesley raised the price of twelve silver coins and a hundred kilograms.

Still, his recruitment policy provoked a huge reaction in the village.

The four farming households, including Jimmy's family, a total of fourteen laborers (excluding Jimmy), all went into battle and received their due wages from the construction site in Misty Town on the first day.

At this moment, the other farmers who were still harvesting grain in the fields immediately turned red, and someone approached Jimmy that night and offered to rent a windmill threshing machine.

Then, the farmers who paid for the windmill lined up, and finally even Danny's father came to Jimmy with a blushing face.

From midnight onwards, the windmills, which had been almost idle a while ago, became a sought-after commodity, and when the dwarf craftsmen made their routine inspections, the peasants were eager to drag them away alive in order to finish the wheat as soon as possible, so that they could earn the fifty copper a day's wages—it was impossible for them to leave the wheat alone and earn it first.

No more, no less, just ten days later, Wesley announced a reduction in wages to five coppers, and by this time only a small half of the village had completed all the autumn harvest by means of a windmill threshing.

As he expected, the farmers who didn't take advantage of the opportunity to get a vote were repentant.

During the entire autumn harvest in Misty Village, Danny's family was the most embarrassed. A sudden autumn rain in mid-October almost soaked hundreds of kilograms of wheat that the family still had left in the field.

In the half day when it was about to rain, the young man who had won the favor of Danny's father and married Dia because of his honesty, in order to harvest the last bit of wheat in his field, he kept Diya and beat her for it.

If it weren't for Jimmy's call back from the construction site in Misty to help Danny's family recover some of the wheat, Danny's father would have died of grief due to the huge loss.

However, the stubborn old man still didn't give Jimmy a good look. He felt that if Jimmy hadn't fooled Danny away, not only would the family not have been so embarrassed, but they would have been able to earn a few silver coins on the construction site in Misttown.

At this point, Jimmy finally saw that - perhaps as Count Borg had said: a new era was coming, and he could either open his arms to meet it, or become the burial object of the old one, and there was no other choice...... (To be continued.) )