Chapter Eighty-Six: Construction

My grandfather once said, "The farmer will consolidate the land, and the artisan will expand it." ()

His father did not run a farm, but this was not an unfamiliar business for him, and the rich agricultural life in the White Pigeon Valley was still fresh in his father's memory, and most of his father's dozens of soldiers were born as farmers.

It's a good feeling to be back in the field, and you can forget a lot of troubles after an afternoon of hard work. After living in the barracks for a long time, the farm life was almost a rest. Although I am still very tired, there is no irregular emergency assembly, no night guard that cannot move, and no long-distance training and long-distance running.

Stay in the field, when you are tired, you can find a grassy beach to rest, until the sky is dark, the red sun is dark, and then slowly return to the house, eat coarse food, drink warm pine nut wine, talk about future plans, and a quiet life is like this.

While waiting for Sam, my father led a group of people to carefully inspect the more than 700 acres of land. Unlike other places where wheat is simply cultivated, there is a considerable amount of rice grown near the river beach, which is a crop from the oasis wetlands of Salander, which yields much more than wheat and can be harvested three times a year or even twice a year, which allows the estate to quickly stock up large quantities of grain.

The soldiers were a little unaccustomed to eating this plant, and felt that it was not fruity. In particular, rice can't be made into bread, which makes these people a little dissatisfied. He liked it very much, and when he was in Salander, he used to eat rice, where rice and wheat are equally important foods, and he comforted the people around him: "As long as you get used to it, it is actually very delicious food." ”

You measured the surrounding land, and then reported that the direct cultivated area is more than 400 mu, and if all of it is used to grow rice, according to the situation of three harvests in two years, each mu of land can harvest more than 500 catties of rice in a year, and if you plant wheat, it is enough to choke even 300 catties per mu. You strongly advocated that all rice should be planted, and the extra grain could be exchanged for wheat, so there was no worry about running out of bread to eat, but this caused strong opposition from the soldiers around them, who felt that what they ate in their mouths, how could they trust what others had grown, or that they could eat it themselves.

This controversy did not last long, and finally my father decided to grow rice on low-lying and easily irrigated land, and wheat on high-lying land.

More than 60 baskets of apples can be produced in the apple orchard every year, a small number of which are eaten fresh, and most of them are made into preserved fruits, canned fruits, etc., for sale or storage. There is also a kind of cider, but the taste is very light, women and children like to drink that kind of thing, my father drank it once, I don't know if it is a problem with koji, that kind of wine tastes sour, but it is also quite refreshing.

The manservant said that the orchard was originally taken care of by a camel, but when a recruiter came, the camel was fascinated, threw away the big scissors and followed the family, and the orchard was left unattended. The manservant admits that he is not good at pruning and guarding the forest at all, but if necessary, he can introduce one of his nephews to come here to watch the yard, but the manservant also admits that his nephew has some unclean hands and feet, and he is afraid that the time will come and make it difficult for the owner, so it is better not to recruit that guy.

The shepherds were assigned to another officer's estate, which also had a flock of sheep, larger than the father's estate. But the shepherd could still put more sheep, and the family only had one meal for the shepherd, and the stupid maid said that if his father could give the little shepherd a piece of wheat bread and a litre of milk every day, he would come and herd the sheep, and cook him a dozen eggs every time he laid the lambs.

You think this little rabbit cub is quite interesting: "Can he separate the sheep?" The two flocks of sheep are going back to the circle at night, how can he divide them? ”

The stupid maid stuck out her tongue: "That thief's eyes are bright, he can tell clearly, he is very good at hitting stones, pointing where to hit." He's a Wikibian, and he was passed on to a pair of Wikibian eyes, like an eagle. As long as he has seen it once, he can remember which sheep belonged to which flock. ”

"Oh", Yu nodded, "then call him." ”

"How old is that kid?" Father asked suddenly.

"** years old, I don't know, he's an orphan, I can't tell it myself", the maid heard the kettle ringing, and ran to clean up the place.

You saw his father in a daze, and after a while, he asked, "Do you miss the young master?" ”

"Well," said my father, "the same age as Timmy." ”

"Hehe", You said with a smile, "It's okay, let this little rabbit cub meet the young master in a few years, and in Sunuo, let the young master take a look at the children in the east." ”

"Well, I don't know how long it will take."

There is also a piece of land in the manor, which is flooded, there are more than 100 acres, usually you can only touch the fish or something, and in the summer, the swamp is full of mosquitoes, and the old cow is still afraid when he goes in, and it is useless to wrap himself in mud, and when he shakes his tail, there is a blood mark on his buttocks.

The servant said that there was an embankment upstream to keep the water out, but it had to be repaired every year, and then a war started, and if it was not repaired in time, the dam collapsed, and then the water overflowed. The people of the lord's family came to take a look and found that the cost of work was too high, and the matter of repairing the dam was not over.

My father went to see it and found that the land was a good place. And he soon discovered the reason why the dam was so easily damaged: when it blocked the water, there was always water blocking the surroundings, and if it wasn't drained away, it would gradually break down. It's okay to let the dam block the water during the flood, but the maintenance cost will be high all year round. If a ditch could be built to bring water to the estate, and a pond could be dug to store the water, the damage of water to the dam would be greatly reduced.

Simply blocking the flow of water will not solve the problem, if it can be dredged, the land can be restored into fertile land, and the water in the estate can be made easier, although digging a pond and opening a canal will cost more manpower and material resources than maintaining a dam.

During the days of waiting for Sam, my father and a soldier carefully observed the terrain on the riverbank, and he was ready to take advantage of this break to put the manor in place.

He didn't know that at this time, in Dehrim City, the conflict between various forces had reached a situation where water and fire were incompatible, and all the officers who remained in the center of power were nervously watching every little change. People who are still generals in the morning and prisoners in the evening abound. There are only a few people like my father who think about how to maintain the manor, which is a blessing or a misfortune.

Separated from the house is a threshing barn that shades a large area of land like a roof. Under the oak tree, there was a swing set by the children of the lord's family in the past, and then the lord's family found a better house to spend the summer, and gradually stopped coming here, and the swing slowly broke down.

In order to please the stupid maid, several soldiers built a new swing. Then she was called, and the fat maid sat down with a grin, and several soldiers were screaming and pushing the maid's ass in the back, rubbing the oil by the way. Later, the fat maid flew higher and higher, and finally flew out like a stone, and the soldiers were frightened, and hurriedly chased after them to save people, but they saw the fat maid walking out of a pile of dead leaves unscathed, and as she walked, she took off the leaves and wood chips on her hair, and shouted: "It's so interesting, it's so interesting", and the soldiers were silent.

Beneath the oak forest, there is a flower garden that is used to supply the lord's house. In the past, there was a pharmacist who would use nectar with queen water, but after he died, no one did, he didn't take in apprentices, he only recorded some strange and messy recipes, and no one could copy those potions. You found the recipes, but they were all written in Chanda characters, and he couldn't read them. My father could read it, but he didn't have time to translate. You had no choice but to put the recipe away and save it for later.

You built a hut by the flower bed in the oak grove, and one of his notes recorded: "I built a hut in the woods, and put up a hedge under the secluded woods. Out of the cottage there is an orchard with flowers open to the window, and a threshing floor outside the woods. From under the eaves I could see the plains in the distance, and there were several acres of land in the manor that were used to grow rice and wheat, and more than ten acres of land where flax was used for clothing. In a few days there will be some maids hired to weave the strongest cloth; And the lord's subordinates are very strong, and it will not be difficult to reclaim new land. ”

"Brewing costs a lot of food, but that's fine. The sheep herder brings a few large bags of goat's milk every day, and I suspect that this little thing must have been filled with a lot of it, and that the stupid maid will have to take care of milking it in the future, and I have a recipe for making milk wine, and I would love to try it. ”

"The cook raised more than a dozen chickens, and the soldiers ate eight of them a few days ago, and one of them was a hen that could lay eggs. The cook was sad, so she had to take a basket and go to the neighboring manor, and exchanged five croissants for a dozen chicks. A dozen fluffy chicks are quite fun, but they are noisy. I grabbed one of them and grabbed me by the hand, which was disgusting. ”

"I was going to open a bean field in a few days, and I got the seeds from an old man from the next manor, and it cost me a small bag of tea. Right on the edge of that sunflower field, I've chosen a place. It is said that when these two plants grow together, they can grow better. ”

"Life here is really good, I really want to stay here all year round."

Just when You was feeling the peace of life in the manor, his father's manor ushered in Sam and his party.

When the babbling people arrived at the manor, there was a great commotion, because more than forty people, including the soldiers, were stationed at the manor at once. Sam received instructions from his father and stayed for a few more days, this time bringing with him a carpenter, a joiner, a lacquerer, a blacksmith, a leatherman, nine sharecroppers, two Vicchian snow slaves, a man and a woman, and three maids and a tailor.

He was a little puzzled: "What are you bringing so many craftsmen for?" The land is so small, it can't support so many people. ”

"'The farmer can consolidate the land, and the craftsman can expand the land,'" the father smiled, "and that's why the White Pigeon Valley is prosperous." ”

You suddenly saw in his father the blood of the lords on the other side of the mountain, as if it were their fate: to run an industry, create a better world within their means, in short, let more people live a better life

The construction of the estate began.