I Love Farming

The weapons of the knights were smeared with the juice of insecticidal vines, and some thieves were injured, and they almost had an attack within the time of a meal, showing symptoms of vomiting.

The thieves were already hungry, and there was nothing in their stomachs, so it was fine if they didn't have anything to eat, and all they spit out were acidic water.

Although everyone had finished eating at this time, they still made disgusting sounds. The attendants dragged the thieves out of the hall like dead pigs, and poured cold water into their stomachs to relieve the poison.

The master said, these people cannot be hanged, he wants to stay as a coolie.

What most transforms a person?Labor can most transform people.

The maids cleaned the places where the thieves had been lying. Since the baron loves cleanliness, urinating and spitting are not allowed in the castle, and all garbage must be cleaned up.All domestic waste is pulled to the compost heap every day.

The thieves were lying on the ground dying, and everything was taken away. Of course, the people of Northumberland would not give the thieves food. After everyone was full, they happily collected their dishes.

These thieves have not been able to talk to the lord from beginning to end. In the past, at least the lord wanted to show off the force of his territory.

They all thought that what awaited them would probably be hanged tomorrow, and then hung outside the window for public display.

This is the last night of my life, cold and hungry, full of water...

The slaves led the thieves, who had recovered a lot after drinking the water, to the barn.

The thieves were shocked.

Sleeping in a barn is by no means an insult to non-nobles in the Middle Ages. On the contrary, it is a guarantee for them to survive this cold night!

People who are going to die sooner or later, why do they care about their life and death this night?Could it be that for tomorrow, a nest of thieves will be punished neatly?

Although they had only one night to live, the thieves curled up close to the animals, taking advantage of their warm bodies to keep warm.And the cattle didn't care about whether the visitors were locals or thieves, and they didn't reject anyone who came, and kept warm together.

In the early morning of the next day, the thieves were dragged awake.

"Get up, you bastard thieves!" said a slave, dressed in sackcloth and holding a spear in his hand, pointing at the bound thieves, ordering them to go with him.

This is death, the thieves thought.

Walking out of the shed, the slave conveniently put back on the woolen clothes he had hung outside to dry.

The thief leader Joseph looked at him twice, and the way to judge slaves was that besides their work, they usually wore clothes. This man looked like a slave just now, but now he looked like a farmer after wearing a woolen coat.

But then, Joseph was amazed. Last night in the hall, he couldn't distinguish the group of people eating from group to group, but today, everyone performed their duties, so he could tell.If there were no slaves in Northumberland, even slaves here could wear woolen clothes.

No matter what kind of speculation, it is too scary.

The thieves were driven to the latrines, and the slaves kicked the buckets, ordering them to collect the excrement.It turned out that the slaves were the lowest in the castle, and they were the ones who did all these jobs. Now that there are captives, it's different.It stands to reason that besides dying, it is natural for the defeated to become slaves, and only the victor has the right to speak.

Thief: "..."

They didn't quite understand what this place was, why there was so much excrement... Speaking of which, although they noticed it when they were imprisoned yesterday, they didn't have the time to think about it.It turns out that they are all here. What kind of habit is this? Does everyone have a fixed place to defecate?

By the way, now they have to collect the feces in the vat, what does that mean? ?

"Hurry up, you lazy pigs!" The slave finally had a chance to scold others, so he couldn't be happier. Together with a few others, he untied the ropes of the thieves, leaving his feet still, but he was free to move forward. distance, the spear points towards them.

In fact, even without the threat of spears, these thieves would not be able to resist. They were all dizzy with hunger.

No matter how dizzy or dizzy, you still have to work.

In winter, there is not much farm work, but manure needs to be accumulated, water conservancy projects need to be maintained, and fruit trees can also be pruned at this time. After careful calculation, it is enough to transform these thieves.

Not to mention that the excrement and garbage in the toilet have to be removed, and they have to be transported to the manor, to the compost point, and the manure has to be disposed of, and the other compost has to be stirred. This is every one or two weeks. It is done so that the manure can aerate.

The faces of the thieves were turning green, and they were forced to constantly stir the feces, and the smell made them even more dizzy.

"No, no, I'm going to fall in!" Joseph shouted.

The slave said contemptuously: "Then you can try it."

There is no intention of relaxing in the treatment of captives.

Joseph's face turned dark. Is this going to starve to death, exhaust them to death, or smoke them to death?

Seeing these viscous things, Joseph held back his nausea and continued to stir, but he continued to curse: "People in Northumberland are wrong. They make themselves dung beetles and force others to be dung beetles too. See Come on, the plague will definitely grow in the dung..."

"Shut up!" The slave hit Joseph with a stick. If he hadn't grabbed his companion, he would have fallen into the fat pit.

And the slave was still contemptuously saying: "You guys know nothing!"

These are holy fertilizers that are recognized by even gods, and can make crops grow faster—everyone has automatically punished gods for fertilizer stealers and gods since the incident of "Hellfire" happened. equal sign.Besides, Monsieur the Priest has no objections.

Only these ignorant hillbilly thieves would say such ridiculous things.

Under the threat of spears and sticks, the thieves worked precariously, and finally stirred up a large pile of excrement. At this time, half a day had passed, and they were covered with sweat and stench.

The feces and household garbage produced by all the livestock in the entire manor is not a small amount.

The slaves carefully evaluated the state of the thieves, compared them with their own in the past, and confirmed that they were really unable to do anything, so they stepped forward reservedly, tied their hands and feet again, and... took out the beans.

"Open your mouth," said the slave.

"...What are you doing?" Joseph looked at him warily.They were poisoned yesterday, so there must be poison here too.

But Joseph's subordinates had already opened their mouths wide and swallowed the beans in one gulp, so he couldn't control so much, and he wanted to be a stuffed ghost to death.

No one had an attack, so they completely believed that they had really been fed a meal of beans.

God, aren't they really dreaming?

After feeding, the slaves led the thieves to the river to repair the dam.

After working like this for a whole day, they ate beans twice in total, which is about the amount of a meal for slaves, but for the thieves who wandered around without food and clothing, this was already considered rare.

On the way, they encountered serfs repairing houses, and the slaves asked them to stop to help the serfs repair the roof.

So half hungry, working every day, so tired that they went to sleep until the next day, how could these thieves have anything else to think about.

Joseph also planned to escape several times, hiding under the belly of the cow and whispering to everyone how to escape while accumulating manure, but unfortunately, he was rejected by his subordinates.

"Boss, although there is a lot of work every day, there are always beans. If we run away, we may not be able to eat beans every day." The thieves thought very clearly, "And, haven't you seen these days, What is the life of the slaves in this castle?"

What a day, it’s a day in heaven, with woolen clothes to wear, food to eat (occasionally there are leftovers, oil and meat), and some people are even learning how to make farm tools—when those slaves came to try the harnesses on cows and horses, they See and hear!

Joseph was silent.

It is running freely in the forest, coming and going like the wind, wandering around various castles to plunder.

Or stay and be a bean prisoner, with garbage and excrement as companions all day long.

……

"My lord, I beg you! Please accept us as your private slaves! We will work for you voluntarily, and we will never run away again!" Joseph said loudly, lying on the ground.

After only a few days of labor reform, he voluntarily served the exploiting class. Cui Qichao looked at Joseph a few times.

These thieves still had strength, and their physique was much stronger than his slaves. After all, although they had been unlucky recently, they had gained something from being able to get away with it for so long before, and they ate everything by themselves.

However, Cui Qichao would not believe them so easily, he said lightly: "Look at your performance, you have attacked castles before."

Joseph wondered in his heart, if he had known this was the end, or if he had known that the Northumberlands were so rich that even the slaves would occasionally have enough to eat, they might as well have come directly to seek refuge.

In order to express his sincerity, Joseph even whispered on the ground: "Master, I have a map. I have looted and learned from various places over the years, and I drew it myself. I hid it in the forest."

The map contains all kinds of information that Joseph has learned in depth, some of which Joseph has snatched, and some that he feels are not suitable for the time being after understanding, and so on.Lords big and small in this era all want to annex each other and seize resources. There is such a map, or an information sheet, which can be said to be an attack guide.

Joseph even said that he could take the lead and help the master lead the way to attack other castles.In his view, with the quality of life and fighting standards of the Northumberland knights, it is completely possible to invade other territories in a fair manner.

Joseph didn't even think that the lord would refuse. Wasn't it just for fighting that he spent so much food to feed the knights?

When Cui Qichao heard Joseph's words, his eyes really lit up, and he stared at him: "You have been to many territories, and you know their situation?"

Joseph nodded vigorously.

"Very good, now you take someone to the forest and get the map back," Cui Qichao said.

Joseph was overjoyed. He felt that if he had done meritorious service, he might not even need to be a slave. Immediately under escort, he went to the place where he hid before to find the map.At the same time, there are some belongings of the thieves here, because the Northumberlanders did not interrogate them, let alone seize the private belongings of the prisoners of war.

"These are all dedicated to the master." Joseph said respectfully.In fact, it was just some tattered clothes, a little bit of food, tools, etc., but somehow it showed his sincerity.

In this era, business is extremely declining. Imagine a barony, even a barony, under his rule, there are animal husbandry, planting, people, food, drink, clothing, and housing, and they can be completely self-sufficient.The buying and selling that everyone talks about is basically a matter of the aristocratic class.

For example, spices such as pepper, high-grade fabrics, etc. are sold by merchants. The distance is far away, and the frequency of appearance is rare. There are also many bandits like Joseph who will try to trick them, and the society generally does not think highly of merchants.

Sometimes people in two adjacent territories exchange some things, even if it is a very laborious transaction. After all, apart from the inconvenient transportation, serfs are subject to personal restrictions, and self-cultivating farmers are not allowed to come and go at will. Very few people can go out, usually the lord. Order to send someone out.

Originally, people in the territory didn't go out much, trade activities were few and monotonous, and the external information obtained was extremely insufficient, which affected the dissemination and promotion of crops.

Like the knights of Northumberland, it was impossible to go to a particularly far place when fighting in the past.

After Cui Qichao got the map, he looked carefully. Joseph had indeed traveled to many places, almost approaching the north. He knew more about certain information than the businessman. After all, it was forced. Cui Qichao showed a joyful expression. "Very well, you do one thing for me. If you do it well, I can consider pardoning some of your crimes."

Joseph immediately said: "Give me a horse, and I can fight to the death."

"What kind of horse is the horse, the horse still needs to be kept to pull the plow." Cui Qichao said casually, "Come on, you can recall carefully, the food you robbed in every granary you robbed, or in other people's territories unfamiliar crops that I have seen in the

Joseph: "??"

Cui Qichao: "Hurry up!"

The lord's imposing manner was astonishing, he didn't look like a baron at all. As soon as he frowned, Joseph hurriedly responded, and began to describe the things in his memory with barren words.He thought to himself, it's normal to consider what other people have first when grabbing things.

Cui Qichao personally took the pen, ink and hemp paper to record - this was found out with great difficulty. The lords and knights didn't need to write and draw, they usually only wanted to fight.As far as Cui Qichao drew a picture of the crops that Joseph described on paper, everyone still felt that he was worthy of being the archbishop's nephew, that is, he was educated.Thinking about the "Cui family class" on him, the lord master has even learned some oriental characters.

At present, there are too few crops in the territory. First, Cui Qichao wants to enrich the crops. Second, it is not good if the grain seeds are not replaced for a long time.

He listened to Joseph's description, there must be grapes, which were not grown in Northumberland, and Northumberland's wine was bought from merchants.Wine is a luxury item. Because the church highly recommends wine, many monasteries will also study grape growing and wine making, which can earn them a lot of wealth.

Growing grapes is undoubtedly a good way to get rich, but not every manor knows how to plant and make wine. Some people grow grapes, but they still don’t bear fruit.

In Joseph's description, Cui Qichao also vaguely identified some crops, such as buckwheat, sugar beets, walnuts, cucumbers, etc., which he was more interested in.

Last year's bumper harvest gave Cui Qichao some capital, which he could exchange for some crops.Even without Joseph, he would have to consider entrusting them to investigate when the merchants came again, which saved a lot of effort now.

After recording, Cui Qichao called the housekeeper and told Joseph his idea in front of Joseph.

The steward only heard one important point, "Sir, do you want to grow grapes?? Can you grow grapes???"

There are not many vineyards, but there are not many vineyards. If you really want to grow grapes, you can still learn the skills of growing grapes in various ways, such as fighting... However, the best quality grapes basically come from the vineyards of monasteries in various places.Who dares to challenge the power of the church.

Because of the knowledge Cui Qichao showed before, the housekeeper thought of those huge and high-quality vegetables, and subconsciously thought that if the lord grows grapes, then the grapes will grow too!when!good!

Of course, it is.

Cui Qichao: "Yes, there are also buckwheat, walnuts, cucumbers..."

The butler was crazy and couldn't listen. "Isn't it a good idea to use the woodland we reclaimed last year as a vineyard? Those prisoners of war can be taken to plow the land. It's a huge vineyard. You can make wine yourself or sell it to the church—"

Cui Qichao: "..."

Cui Qichao: "Calm down."

Speaking of the high interest in growing grapes, those who didn't know thought the housekeeper was the descendant of Shennong.

The housekeeper nodded, "Yes, then where shall we go to grab grapes?"

Even the butler, after seeing Joseph and thinking of the burly knights in his castle, the first plan that came to his mind was snatching.

"No," Cui Qichao gave him a surprised look. "Take a group of knights and go to a grape-growing territory of similar size to exchange wheat with them for seeds."

It would be great if the agriculture here is more developed. You can directly replace the fruit seedlings and come back. They will be planted just after the soil thaws in spring.It is a pity that at this time no one is cultivating fruit seedlings, and it takes about three years to start fruiting with seeds. Not to mention the time is too long, and the advantages of the original plants cannot be retained.

Cui Qichao thought about it, he could be more conservative, change part of the seeds, and part of the branches for cuttings, the former protects the latter, so as not to die on the way and pay for it.

What the lord master said was not very unexpected to the housekeeper. After all, he has not mentioned aggression in the past year since he came here. The so-called snatching is just a judgment made by himself.

Joseph looked puzzled, with such subordinates, how could he honestly make an exchange?Is this gentleman all right?

Cui Qichao didn't care about him, and said to himself: "The mountains are long and the rivers are far away. The knights circle around like this. I hope spring will come back, just in time for planting. Since you are going out, you must bring more venom for self-defense. You must protect me. Seed."

Do the math, when you arrive at the manor where the grapes are planted, if you cut off the branches, it can be regarded as pruning for them...

……

Cui Qichao selected a team of knights and their attendants to form a trade team, and explained to them the tasks of this line in detail, "Sausage bread, bacon, jam...all are ready for dry food, I hope you have a good life, but also I hope you take good care of my crops."

Knights, you look at me, I look at you, and they all responded loudly.To be honest, they are almost too idle to grow their hair, and finally they can go out to fight—even if the main purpose is to exchange seeds, they may meet a thief like Joseph who has no eyesight on the way, and they can show their talents.

Seeing that the knights agreed, Cui Qichao instructed, "I'll teach you how to identify good seeds. Don't be fooled by others. The returned seeds won't grow back then. You should also be careful when keeping grape branches. You have to prepare containers, river water and soil, and take care of them on the way.”

Cui Qichao knew that the knights didn't understand these things, so he opened the teaching, and everyone was only responsible for their own duties, from selecting cuttings, pruning and pruning to storing cuttings, maintaining temperature, etc., must do a good job in storage, Let the vines reach Northumberland Castle safely.

Now that the grapes have not yet sprouted new buds, we must choose mature and excellent branches with full buds, fill the containers with soil and sand, dig trenches and bury them.It just so happens that it is winter now, and it is estimated that there will be snow in a while, and the temperature around zero is suitable for storage.

Thinking that there will be vineyards in the manor in the future, and with the generosity of the lord, maybe everyone will be invited to eat grapes and drink wine in various ways, and the members of the trade team are excited!

Cui Qichao encouraged them, "If you encounter thieves on the road, be careful and protect yourself. As long as you come back safely, I will reward you."

Hearing the lord's promise, the knights said loudly:

"For the grapes of the lord, we will definitely work hard!"

"Don't worry, my lord, if you encounter thieves, we will catch them all and help you farm together!"

It seems that everyone also sees and remembers my usual hobbies.Suddenly, Cui Qichao felt warm in his heart, "I didn't expect you to have such a heart, come here, pour some wine to see these good guys off."

……

It is conceivable that when this episode was broadcast, the audience on the LJJ platform exploded:

[You don’t even need to type the map when it’s delivered to you, you know what to do if you know what to do! ! 】

[What's wrong with Master Cui, the descendants of Shennong wanting to plant some land?What's wrong?Is it not big or thick?Is it not delicious or can't you look fat?Are you so dissatisfied? 】

[…… Day, some viewers pay attention to their distorted mentality! 】

[Sister, don't talk like that, I'm afraid! 】