Lady of the Lord From the East

Wei Wei wrote a simple plan, then took this to Felix and told him about the benefits of the business.

It is said that women and children are the best earners. Take Wei Wei as an example. The money she eats on maintenance and makeup accounts for two-thirds of her monthly living expenses. Beauty-loving women are for their face and body. It's really cost-effective.

"Now is the season for many flowers to bloom, this year we can make small-scale production first, and then sell these essential oils to the noble circles - preferably the noble circles of the royal capital - as long as they can prove their efficacy, I think those noble ladies would be very willing to exchange gold coins for beauty."

As the saying goes, people live for wealth and birds die for food. In the face of absolute interests, there are only a few people who are unmoved.

Felix is ​​no exception, otherwise he would not have sold both the deworming water and the fire dung.

Felix was really tempted when Wei Wei proposed to cooperate.

After hearing her plan, Felix thought it over and finally decided it would work.

As the owner of the castle, of course, Wei Wei knows the details of the transactions between Wei Wei and those noble ladies. From the fact that she can sell the essential oil, it can be seen that women's pursuit of beauty, as long as they are sure of the effectiveness of the essential oil , then these ladies who have bought essential oils will eventually become her regular customers.

Looking at the pricing proposed by Wei Wei, two gold coins are a bottle of essential oil, and a bottle is only 30 milliliters.

"I heard that the price you sold to those ladies was one gold coin?"

"Yes."

"Then why is it raised to two gold coins now?"

Wei Wei shrugged her shoulders in a less ladylike manner, with an innocent look on her face: "Those ladies and young ladies think that my price is too low and stupid, so of course I can't let them be stupid, and this is a business we are cooperating with, of course, on the surface. It will be your business, and if you sell it at the previous price, those people either think you are stupid, or they will react that they have been fooled, so in order to prevent this situation, we will of course increase the price."

And Wei Wei's words continued: "At present, I only use the simplest extraction method. The concentration of essential oil produced by this method is not high and it is more laborious. When I find an alchemist to use a distiller to extract the essential oil, although the cost rises However, the purity of the essential oils has also risen, and there is absolutely no problem in selling the same bottle of essential oils for ten gold coins, of course, we can also dilute them and sell them at the current price.”

"And we also have to take into account the cost of transportation and manpower. If we want to start this business, it is not enough to just find a few people to do it. No matter what, we have to build a suitable factory, and there must be no shortage of workers, especially in terms of transportation. Be careful."

At this age, knights can be robbers, and security measures must be done well.

Felix agrees with this point. He used to be a knight. Although the king would not let his knights become robbers, there are many cases where he encounters enemies when he is on a mission. Felix has seen a lot of blood in his hands. .

Wei Wei said it so clearly, how could Felix disagree? He nodded immediately and said, "Okay, we'll do this!"

Wei Wei smiled: "Then let's discuss the cooperation plan."

Wei Wei means that she provides the technology and half of the funds, and Felix is ​​in charge of the staff and the other half of the funds, and the two sides are divided into three and seven.

The reason for choosing 37% is not because Wei Wei wants to let Felix take advantage of it in vain.

They want to do the essential oil business, but in a short period of time, it is good to say that the expansion of production in the future will inevitably require a lot of workers, and the people recruited in Sardinson County are all Felix's citizens. If they go to work as workers, it will inevitably lead to Fewer farmers in Sardinson County, affecting food production.

At the same time, if you want to sell the essential oil without causing trouble, you need Felix's noble status to escort. At the same time, as a knight who once fought in the capital, and now the count, Felix can be said to be the capital at present. and the act of returning the fief won the king's favor. If he can rely on the king's relationship to make essential oils a must for the royal family, then this business will be done without worries.

Moreover, when Wei Wei was helping Felix settle the accounts, he found that the Williams family actually had a shop in the capital. Although the business of the shop was very ordinary from the book, I heard that the location was very good, and Felix Lix also agreed to use the store.

So, in fact, Wei Wei felt that she accounted for 30% of the profit a bit too much.

And this share is more appropriate, and Felix didn't propose to share her more because of his feelings for Wei Wei.

If he really did this, it would make Wei Wei doubt his decision. An emotional person is not a qualified partner no matter what.

They were both satisfied with this distribution of benefits. Before signing the contract, both parties agreed to invest 500 gold coins each as the starting capital, but Wei Wei really took out the gold coins, and Felix used land instead.

He encircled a piece of wasteland in the territory, which will be used to build factories and cultivate flower fields in the near future. Wei Wei has already asked the gardener to determine that according to the weather in Sardinson County, a batch of lavender can be planted in September. Lavender is a perennial drought-tolerant plant and one of the most common essential oil plants. They can fully withstand the test of winter in Sardinson, and several gardeners in the castle are very experienced in growing lavender. Put them in charge of field management.

As for the factory building, there is no rush. At this stage, there are still too few raw materials. Distillation equipment - Wei Wei has already told Felix that if you still can't find a suitable alchemist, then you can spend money to buy the equipment and come back and study it yourself - - No, not yet to the extent that a factory building is needed.

Of course, the most important thing is that now is the time to harvest grain in the fields. Everyone is busy rushing to harvest the grain. Where can there be extra manpower to do these things?

At this time, food is the most important thing, and everything else has to make way for the harvest, including business that can bring greater benefits.

Not all wheat is grown in Lord Earl's territory. In addition to wheat, there are rye, barley, and oats. The main crops are wheat, followed by barley and rye, and oats are the least.

Unlike the spring-sown wheat that Wei Wei planted in the garden, the wheat and rye in Europe during this period were planted every autumn, and the winter varieties that matured in July and August of the following year could only be harvested once a year.

Barley and oats are spring crops, and the growth period only takes three months, especially oats, which can be planted on any land. It should be the most popular food, but in fact oats are the least cultivated by people. , because it not only yields less than several other crops, but also is difficult to thresh and grind, and the bread it makes cannot be soaked at all. Only those who keep livestock at home will plant some to be used as reserve grain for livestock in winter.

So in previous years, July and August were the busiest time for the lords. They had to harvest four kinds of food in these two months, and they had to harvest for the lord before they could harvest their own. If the weather was bad, the loss would be It's big, so everyone is basically busy in the fields every day from morning to night.

This year, because of the use of fire dung, the wheat and rye unexpectedly matured about half a month earlier than before, giving them more time to harvest the grain.

Moreover, the experienced locals can infer that this year's harvest is definitely better than before just by looking at the heavy wheat grains in the fields that have bent the straw.

So although the work was very tiring, the joy on everyone's face could not be stopped.

And after entering June, the daytime temperature in Sardinson County has risen to 30 degrees, which is already very hot. It is easy for people to suffer from heat stroke when exposed to the scorching sun. Wei Wei taught the maids to make herbal tea to relieve the heat. And the recipe was publicized. Now many serfs don’t have to drink beer to quench their thirst when they are busy in the fields. Instead, they choose herbal tea that women boil and cool. Although the taste is a bit strange, there are several herbs in it that are sweet. Yes, this made the serfs who rarely had the chance to eat sweet quickly accepted it.

And after drinking herbal tea and then working, people are indeed much more comfortable than before.

Wei Wei also went to see her own land. Her serfs took their families to work in the fields because Wei Wei provided them with sickles. These people harvested much faster than others and became other serfs. The target of envy, after all, many serfs can't afford the iron tools like sickles. When they want to use them, they need to apply to the steward of the farmland, and they have to pay the usage fee, which often requires queuing up to use it by themselves.

Unlike the four families of serfs under Wei Wei, each of them had a sickle, the men harvested in the field, the women brought the cut straw to the field, and the older children also helped along, and the younger took it. He followed behind his father with a pocket to pick up fallen grains of wheat.

Wei Wei ran to take a look on the first day of harvesting, and specifically asked them how to thresh the grain afterward, and turned to the carpenter.

The carpenter who made furniture for Wei Wei is also busy with his business, because Wei Wei always gives him new and strange things, which causes him to never finish his original work. Now that he has to increase the workload, he has to be embarrassed. Wei Wei said that she really can't do that much.

Wei Wei: "It's okay, you can make a sample for me, it won't take much time."

Wei Wei just wanted her to help with flails and rakes. It really didn't take much time to put together a few pieces of wood. The carpenter took a look and found that this thing only consisted of a long handle and a set of horizontal wooden strips. The center is fixed with wooden strips, so that the row of wooden strips can be rotated 360 degrees. It is really simple to do. He found some scraps and finished it in three or two.

In fact, Wei Wei also wants to make samarium and foot thresher tools that can improve the harvesting speed. She has drawn all the drawings, but the former of these two tools is woven from bamboo skin and is used with a fixed sickle blade of a certain size. , the latter not only needs a lot of iron, but also has requirements for craftsmanship, requiring the cooperation of carpenters and blacksmiths, and she has neither bamboo nor iron now, so she can only talk about it later.

Unlike the flail, it is really simple, given her materials, Wei Wei can make it herself.

Wei Wei gave the prepared flail to the steward George, and after telling him how to use it, let him send it to the field.

"If anyone asks, explain the usage and let them find the materials themselves."

George nodded in agreement. They had served Wei Wei for a long time. They all knew that she was a kind-hearted young lady. She was not stingy in sharing, and her attitude towards the lower class was also rare among nobles. , The people have had a much better life this year, which makes her very prestigious among the people of Sardinsonburg, and people are willing to do things according to her orders.

Sure enough, almost every serf in the territory had a flail in their hands, and this simple threshing tool proved to be really useful. In the past, serfs had to queue up to use oxen to pull the stone to the wheat. Threshing, or threshing by yourself, with the flail, not only the speed of threshing is faster, but also easier for people, it is really very easy to use.

But Wei Wei was not satisfied with this. She drew a lot of drawings of the farm tools she found and handed them over to Felix, asking him to find someone to test which of these tools were more suitable for use in Sardinson County.

"After the test, we will promote the ones that are easy to use. We will need a lot of manpower in the future, so we must free the people from the heavy work."

Felix, who was busy cleaning up the beasts in the surrounding forest, looked at the stack of parchment and felt that Wei Wei was more like a qualified lord than him.

At the same time, he was also secretly delighted, thinking that Wei Wei had helped him like this, does that mean that she has completely accepted her in her heart?

So can he think about proposing?

Wei Wei didn't know what Felix had in mind. She gave Felix the blueprints, determined that he would find someone to test it, and then she started to dump the shopkeeper and plunged into the garden.

The corn is almost ripe, not only corn, but also many other plants are ready to harvest and save the seeds.

However, before other crops mature, the alfalfa in the interplanted corn field is ready to harvest the first crop. Alfalfa is a perennial herb, and it will continue to grow after a crop is cut. Harvest at least seven or eight times.

When the seeds were harvested for the first time, the seeds were also grown, and they were taken out and dried, and new alfalfa fields could be cultivated.

The first batch of alfalfa was not much, and Wei Wei left it for her horse to eat. Jade Lion and Felix's dark horse were in the same stable, so the latter also got the opportunity to add meals.

After harvesting the alfalfa, the field, which smells from the wooden fence, is truly in the season of harvest.

In the staple food, only corn and potatoes are ripe, and the fruit is only strawberry, but there are many kinds of vegetables, such as cowpea, eggplant, pepper, green pepper, loofah, cabbage, water spinach, etc., all of which are ready to eat.

Of course, not all the plants that are planted grow well. Some plants that are really not suitable for the weather in Sardinson will grow out, but they are basically leggy, neither flowering nor fruiting. If this continues, eventually only Luckily, this situation is rare, probably because the system knows that her crossing location is the initial stage of the Little Ice Age, so the seeds it transforms for Wei Wei are all varieties that can adapt to such temperatures.

"I can pick strawberries for you too!"

The strawberries that Wei Wei planted also attracted the children of the gardener's family who worked for Wei Wei, but they were very well-behaved and would not steal strawberries. Little bird, every early strawberry will be picked by them as soon as possible and sent to Wei Wei.

Wei Wei's reward for this was to give them some fresh strawberries when there were enough strawberries, and to give them a few strawberry seedlings.

Strawberries are propagated by stolons, so Wei Wei doesn't need to save the seeds. In the past few months, she has multiplied the number of strawberry seedlings by relying on stolons. The children watched her busy all the way, so she got strawberry seedlings. After that, I happily planted them in small flower pots, hoping that they would bear fruit as soon as possible.

In the strawberry field, the strawberries are ripe in large areas, and when others are busy harvesting in the field, Wei Wei can only ask the children to help pick strawberries.

The kids were very happy because after picking each of them they could get some strawberries in return, and just thinking about the taste made my mouth water.

And after Dolores heard about it, she didn't even bother to do the baby clothes, and she was very positive that she could also help.

Dolores fell in love with this bright red fruit after eating the strawberries that Wei Wei brought her before. Since then, she will take a look at the strawberry field every day she walks. Now she knows that the strawberries are about to be picked. Of course she wanted to participate too.

Wei Wei thought it was a good thing for children to be more active, so she nodded in agreement. She asked the maid to find a small apron for Dolores, put on her sleeves and straw hat, and put on a small basket. Let her go into the strawberry field with the other gardener children.

Suddenly wanting to work with her little master, several gardener's children are very cautious, but fortunately, Dolores is used to Wei Wei's attitude towards them and does not reject them, and both sides slowly let go Now, when Wei Wei, who was picking vegetables on the other side, came over to look at it, she found that Dolores was able to chat and laugh with the other two girls.

After she was relieved, Wei Wei went back to pick vegetables.

It's not that she didn't want to harvest the corn and potatoes first, but Felix was looking forward to harvesting the corn after knowing the yield of the corn last time, and repeatedly told her to harvest it when she was there. , Felix took people out yesterday, so he has to wait for him to come back before moving the cornfield.

So when there is nothing to do, Wei Wei will carry a basket to pass the time in the vegetable field. She plans to send the first batch of vegetables except peppers to the kitchen for everyone to taste, and she can wait until later when saving seeds.

The vegetables that Wei Wei picked with the maids were quite a lot, so the servants in the whole castle could taste some of them. Although everyone liked meat more, the vegetables they had never seen before still attracted everyone's expectations. Their taste really lived up to everyone's expectations.

Everyone even got a strawberry, the ones the kids picked today.

Fresh strawberries can't be stored for too long. To make strawberry jam that can be stored for a long time requires a lot of sugar. It's too extravagant to make. Wei Wei didn't want to waste so much, so she just divided the strawberries. Of course, she didn't forget to save some for the fee. Lix, according to her findings, the Count seems to be a sweet tooth.

But also, in the era when the nobles were rarely able to eat sugar, probably everyone would become a sweet tooth.

Speaking of which, the barley has been harvested recently, and there is a field of barley in her field... Wei Wei licked the corner of her mouth, she felt a little craving for maltose, and when the harvested barley was almost dry, she started to make it Check it out.

When Felix came back the next day, after knowing what Wei Wei had done yesterday, he looked at her sadly and silently accused her of why she didn't wait for him to come back and try new vegetables.

"You don't like vegetables, what are you waiting for?" Wei Wei put a small bowl of washed strawberries in front of him: "The strawberries picked yesterday were specially reserved for you."

Felix said righteously while eating strawberries: "Although I don't like vegetables very much, maybe I like the ones you grow."

"Understood, I'll pick some more for you today." Wei Wei didn't bother with this question too much, and asked him instead, "Are you free today?"

Felix said, "I'm free if you invite me."

"Then you and I go to collect corn and potatoes. I have wanted to collect them for a long time."

As soon as he heard that he was going to collect corn, Felix nodded in agreement immediately, he had been looking forward to this day for a long time.

As for what a potato was, Felix had no idea at all.

Originally, Wei Wei felt that she needed to find a few helpers. Although she didn't have much corn and potatoes, harvesting was also very tiring. At most, she could break the corn cobs, chop corn stalks, and dig potatoes. Wei Wei wasn't quite sure she could do the job with a **** on her waist.

What if you go down with a **** and all the potatoes are dug up?

But when things like that happened before, Wei Wei thought about the potatoes that were still underground and didn't know how they looked. She didn't dare to add more staff, at most, let the two maids be busy with them.

Sometimes she felt a little sorry for Jyn and Penny, and if they weren't serving her, they wouldn't be digging dirt after trying to become a high-ranking maid.

But apparently Qin and Penny didn't think much of it. They felt that since Wei Wei and Lord Earl were going to work in the fields themselves, their servants would naturally follow.

And they were asked to participate in the harvesting of corn, obviously they were trusted by the owners.

Also with honor is Butler Patton.

Felix probably didn't expect Wei Wei to do any heavy work. He not only wanted to help himself, but also called Butler Patton to help. Compared with others, it was obvious that this Mr. Butler, who had served the Williams family for a lifetime, was more capable. Trusted by Felix.

Five people harvested two plots of land. Obviously, the number of people has been exceeded, so the harvesting time will be shorter.

The cornfield was handed over to two maids, who were required to be fully armed, otherwise the sharp corn leaves would cut their skin, and those ears of corn would make their skin itch.

Wei Wei, on the other hand, took two big men to the potato field on the side to dig potatoes. Felix felt that a **** should not be used by a lady, and even a lady should not dig soil, but Wei Wei disagreed with him and argued In the end, he and Butler Patton were responsible for wielding the hoe, and Wei Wei did the job of picking potatoes.

At first, everyone disapproved of this potato field with only leaves. They thought that the crops under this green plant should be the same as carrots, a small one that can only be eaten as a vegetable.

But by the time Felix's first **** went down and dug out the large chunks of dirt and the oval stems mixed in, the indifference on his face was all gone.