I Love Farming

Not surprisingly, Raymond ran out and sent several groups of thieves to his family. There were also knights, that is, robbers from other territories.This kind of temptation, which is unlikely to be used, is not good for revealing wealth, so he is directly tied back forcibly.

It's funny to say that when Raymond saw that the opponent was fully equipped, he knew it was a knight and thief. They were not afraid. They had cavalry and rattan armored soldiers as infantry and archers. After a pounding, the weapon stained with poison ivy cuts the opponent's skin, and soon they will have dizziness and vomiting symptoms, and they will be unable to fight back, and all the equipment will be confiscated.

How wonderful, I have already got so many weapons before changing to iron, and I can equip some rattan armor soldiers.

The knights and thieves thought for a long time, but they couldn't figure out where such a brave warrior came from.

Until Raymond said: "Send these guys back to the baron."

Baron, how can a baron raise such elite soldiers?The dozens of people here should be the soldiers who are close to all the baronies, right?

The knights and thieves said with a dead face: "Warrior, I don't know which baron you are following. Are you interested in following a brave and skilled viscount?"

Raymond: "No."

"Wait," I didn't expect him to refuse so decisively, the leader hurriedly said, "To tell you the truth, we are the vassals of a viscount. He is not only good at fighting, but also generous. He gave me my sword , if there is a warrior like you who seeks refuge, he will definitely get more rewards. I am very familiar with the surroundings, and when the time comes, I will take you there...hehehe..."

Not only Raymond, even the serfs showed disdain, generosity?How generous?With the Baron of Northumberland?

This disdain was too obvious, and the leader immediately said: "I am not lying, you can open my bag and see if there is a honey baked apple in it, this is the one that the viscount asked the cook to bake for me before I came out. Yes, it's fragrant and sweet, and I'm not willing to eat it all at once."

When the word "sweet" was mentioned, all the members of the trade team present twitched their throats, feeling a little tired.

The leader thought they were moved, and described it in an exaggerated tone: "This apple baked with honey has almost no sour taste, and the golden honey juice penetrates into the pulp, making it taste sweet. Yes, every bite can feel the sweet and rich taste..."

"Don't say it, don't say it!" Raymond rubbed his throat uncomfortably. He thought that the apples were boiled in brown sugar, and the apple flesh was soaked. The bowl was full of sugar water, and the hiccups smelled sweet after eating .

Others also somewhat recalled the Sugar Feast. It was not long after that, and the memory was still fresh, and their appetite had not yet fully recovered.

The man was dumbfounded, and only then could he see that the expressions of these people were disgusted.

What's the situation? In the past, when he encountered similar situations, whether he was successful or not, he could always get some saliva sounds when he described food. Why do these people look disgusted instead? Is there something wrong with their brains?

"Shut his mouth and stop telling him to talk nonsense." Raymond said impatiently.

Immediately, someone sealed the other's mouth tightly with a rag, and no one wanted to hear him describe how sweet and delicious the honey was.

They gathered together, whispering insults at the foolish knight, and showing off sweeteners to the Northumberlanders.

Look, when this fool is sent back to dig out dung, he will know that he can't use honey to lure the Northumberland trade team. Even the rattan soldiers who were born as serfs with the lowest status in the trade team have eaten a full stomach of sugar.

……

The poor knights and thieves began to sigh when they were escorted into Northumberland and walked across the plow to the castle. No wonder the knights refused to accept the temptation.

Although Northumberland is only a barony, the wheat is tall and strong, the fruits on the fruit trees are huge, and even the cabbage is bigger than they have ever seen.

Almost all the serfs in the field have farm tools instead of using their hands. More importantly, there are ditches beside the fields, which seem to be connected to the river not far away. Through these criss-cross ditches, the water flows directly into the fields , no further effort is required.

...This barony seems to be very rich.

The lord did not see these knights and thieves, and did not intend to demand a ransom from their lords. Northumberland was short of manpower, and they were directly taken to live with slaves, not in the hut outside the castle, but in the corner of the corridor.

Which knight is willing to fall into the slave class at once, and originally wanted to talk sweetly in front of the baron, but now that he has no chance, he intends to provoke the slaves here.

Unfortunately, people are very content with the status quo.As usual, the newcomers starved a few meals first, and the slaves rested and slept after finishing their work. Facing the nagging of the newcomers, they were basically in a state of shielding.With this time, they might as well show off more and strive to live in the hut as well.

A little boy passed by slowly, squatting in front of them and looking at them curiously. They were born as knights and were much taller than ordinary slaves, and their temperament was also different.

"...Hehe, kid," the bound knight and thief smiled at him, "what's your name? Do you live here?"

The little boy looked at them with cupped faces, "My name is Aaron, and my mother is the cook in the castle."

While the other slaves were sleeping, the guards also went to drink water, and the leader of the knights and thieves whispered: "We also just came to the castle, but they forgot to untie our rope, or you put my Untie the rope, and I will play with you."

Aaron blinked his brown eyes, "No, I'm going to play with Lance."

The knight thief hurriedly said: "Then let me go, I will give you candy, do you know candy? It is sweet, like honey." I don't know if this child has seen candy, he should know it if he lives in the castle Bar.

"Oh..." Aaron said slowly, "Is that what you mean?"

He took out a piece of sugar cake from his bag, which was given to Lance by the lord, and Lance distributed it to him.And as a cook's child, he has seen honey, brown sugar, and all kinds of sweet food.His mother's hands smelled of brown sugar.

other side:"……"

Aaron licked two sugar cookies and said, "I don't need it, it's a little greasy."

other side:"………………"

greasy?greasy? ?It's ridiculous when sugar can make people sick.

But look at such a big piece of nut pie in their hands, in their castle, even the son of the lord can't carry such a big piece in his bag and eat it on the go!

Northumberland is terrible. It doesn't seem to be rich here, but it is very rich.

This point was even more affirmed after discovering that Northumberland had also implemented national military training, and completely gave up the idea of ​​fleeing.

……

Cui Qichao had long wanted to move out of the castle. Taking advantage of his wealth and a new group of people, he began to think about repairing the house.

The castle is always dark and humid no matter day or night, summer or winter, especially Fei Chai in winter.Cui Qichao was thinking about building a yard on the land near the church. Generally speaking, the second best land in the territory was where the priest lived and the church.In view of the so-called best consideration of defense, Cui Qichao felt that it was better for the priest to live.

At the beginning, he only said that he would build a yard downstairs and treat it as a vacation, and the stewards didn't think much about it.This kind of thing is not only labor-intensive, but it is common enough for their lord's temperament.

But the stewards are not pure fools. Cui Qichao's requirements are getting more and more detailed, and they feel that something is wrong. The master often says that it is strangely cold in the castle, don't you want to move out?

This time they really wanted to remonstrate, our castle is a bit cold, but it is safe, there is a moat outside, and the stone walls are so hard, it is not a problem for a dozen people to hide food inside for half a year.Looking at the entire continent, wars are frequent and thieves are rampant. How can a lord live in a castle.

"That's what I said, but the cottage has already become our line of defense, and the plan to turn all people into soldiers is progressing steadily. By then, the invaders will be subdued before they reach the pasture. If there is an emergency, break through the line of defense, and we will retreat Isn't it okay to go to the castle?" Cui Qichao pointed to them.

Those peasants were probably the last ones who wanted anything to happen to Cui Qichao. Even though they had never been out of Northumberland, they knew that no lord could give candy to the serfs.

Now life in Northumberland is getting better and better, how can the serfs hope that the enemy's iron hooves will come.

"Master, think again!"

Hearing their mournful cries, Cui Qichao felt like a tyrant, but he was still unmoved, "I want to sit north and face south, and the layout is just like a courtyard house, with a variety of flowers and plants, and a variety of vegetables. Come in the yard..."

Now in Northumberland, Cui Qichao basically said what he said. As soon as he said that he wanted to build a house, the prisoners of war were immediately sent to move stones and chop wood.

As the residence of the lord, the house must be made of the best materials, piled with ashlar, the roof is covered with shale slabs, and the interior must also be paved with slates. The windows cannot be like castles, just open a window hole, and the windows must be made of wooden strips .

The most important thing is that even if it is built on this flat land, it cannot be done according to what the master says. It will be defended by peasant soldiers without any reinforcement at all.The outer circle of the old man’s courtyard, it’s fine to dig a trench, but it’s necessary to build a wall, and we have to spread thorns at the non-exit to see who dares to climb.

From this point of view, the house will definitely not be able to be built for a while, Cui Qichao will not stop doing two things, let these people spend half of the time to repair the roads and bridges in the manor, and abolish miscellaneous taxes such as the bridge tax Yes, peasants have to pay taxes when crossing the master's bridge.This will only be the first step. In the future, the tax will be less and less, while the income will be more and more.

The farmers rejoiced, picked up good stones and gave them away when they saw good stones, and tried their best to support the lord to build a house.They all heard a little bit of wind, it is said that the house was built by the lord and lived in.If the lord moved out of the castle and came here, wouldn't it be closer to everyone, and it would be more convenient for them to worship the lord.

In addition, Cui Qichao also asked people to level a piece of land where the cottages were concentrated, pave it with stones, make a pit for burning firewood in the middle, and surround it with long logs for people to rest.

This is the earliest public amusement facility in Northumberland, where the villagers can gather at leisure, and when the sun is good, the women are not in their narrow huts, but all sit here to do housework.

Any announcements in the manor will be posted here.

Later, this "square" became the market place of Northumberland. Every once in a while, people from the manor and people from villages a little further away came here to take out the surplus materials for production. exchange.

At night, people who already had a carefree life and still had enough energy could still sing and dance here, and tell stories.

·

·

When the Northumberland trade party returned, it was close to the cotton bolling period.

This time, they mainly exchanged various spices and ironware, which were very expensive items. Fortunately...the brown sugar they brought was more expensive, so they returned with a full load.

Raymond was thinking about the lord's hobbies. Apart from this, he also collected some seeds, most of which were various vegetables, especially tubers—beets were in front, and he always thought, who knows if there will be any seeds here? There will also be sugar crops.

Most of the iron is made into agricultural tools, and a small part is used as weapons. Of course, the former can also be used as the latter in critical situations, especially in Northumberland, where most of the armed forces are farmers.

Prior to this, Northumberland craftsmen and slaves who learned crafts made a large number of wooden farm tools, all of which were made by Cui Qichao according to the farm tools used in China at about the same time. liberated from the ground.

Replacing these wooden farm tools with iron parts will undoubtedly bring efficiency to another level.

It can be said that no lord would collect so many iron farm tools. They don't have candy to exchange for iron, and they don't think it is necessary. Wouldn't it be better to have more weapons and flatten other territories?

Cui Qichao also found many magical uses in the seeds brought back by Raymond, such as new natural pesticides, neem seeds of the insecticidal plant, which were brought back from the Far East.

The extract of neem is harmless to humans and animals, but it can slowly kill insects and inhibit spawning and reproduction. The disadvantage is that it will make the plant a little unpalatable.However, in the current situation, this is not a big flaw.

It's a pity that Cui Qichao seems to have no good luck. When he finds high-yielding crops such as corn and potatoes, he doesn't know when he will see them. Maybe he won't find them before he leaves. can appear here.

Raymond also told Cui Qichao the news that he passed by the city where the beets were traded before, and found that their beets were bought by the church at a very low price, and those growers were still complacent and felt that they had taken advantage of it.

There is nothing unusual about this.

Raymond said: "The church's arable land should also be used to grow beets. By then, our brown sugar may not be able to exchange for so many things."

"I know, but even if the price has been lowered a little in recent years, the supply will definitely be in short supply. Moreover, one will go up and the other will go up." Cui Qichao said, "The church uses part of the land to produce beets, and their grain and even grapes will decrease."

Northumberland will have a good harvest of grain and grapes, but the grapes will be harvested late, and the grapes planted by cuttings will not bear fruit in the first year. They will have to wait for two to three years, and then they will be able to produce continuously.

After calculating the time for sugar production, Cui Qichao began to write to the Archbishop.

He is going to suggest that the Archbishop set up a trade zone in the parish, and call nobles from all over the place to buy brown sugar here, and at the same time, they can trade with each other.There is a church in town, so you don’t have to worry. Like Northumberland, every time you go to other places to change things, you will always be suspected as an intruder, and you are also afraid of being hacked.

For the church, it saves the time of selling one by one, and can also collect trade taxes.

For Northumberland, such a big move has better shielded them and made it easier for everyone. The future trading will not need to be so hard.Manors that live independently and are self-produced and sold in pieces take this opportunity to increase transactions and information exchanges.

Suggested to the archbishop, whether it can be adopted or not depends on how he acts.

Cui Qichao didn't care so much after writing the letter, and began to focus on the work in the territory. The cotton was ripe and ready to be harvested.

——Since cotton began to be spun, those cotton fields have become a famous tourist attraction in Northumberland. The well-informed nobles thought that the source of cotton was the sheep growing on the wool tree, not to mention the serfs.

The serfs vaguely heard that it was a wool tree, but they didn’t see anything unusual before it matured, and they didn’t know how the sheep grew. The tree was not tall, so how could it hold the sheep?

It wasn't until the white cotton slowly appeared that everyone's cognition was refreshed: wool trees don't grow sheep, wool grows directly!Lumpy!Snow white snow white!

Pieces of white cotton are blooming in one place. From a distance, they really look like flocks of sheep, except that they don't move.

Not to mention the serfs, even all the stewards, knights, and priests couldn't help wandering around the field, bowing their heads to study the wool.

Priest William studied for a long time and said: "This should also be a miracle. On the continent where the wool tree originally grew, the environment was harsh and not suitable for sheep to survive. Therefore, the benevolent God took pity on their experience and gave them the wool tree so that the wool could grow This way it grows straight out."

The onlookers nodded one after another, thinking it made sense, it turned out to be the case.God is so merciful, this is better than long sheep, there is no need to feed the sheep, and there is no need to work hard to pick and deal with the wool.

Cui Qichao: "..."

Since the baron is the highest status here, William naturally looked at him after speaking his opinion, seeking feedback.

Cui Qichao slowly nodded in agreement: "You are right, this is a blessing from God. It is also God's favor that it can grow safely in Northumberland. I will donate part of this cotton...wool to the church."

William was delighted, he liked the baron's generosity, and here, he never had to worry about not being able to pay tithes.It is said that Northumberland is small and partial, but since the baron took office, his life here is no worse than that of the bishops in the great aristocratic territories.

He was embarrassed to report to the church that he really wanted to refuse gluttony in his heart, and he also refused to eat meat during fasting with strong willpower.But during the non-fasting period, he really couldn't refuse the delicious food sent by His Excellency, and he was full for every meal... Cough.Fortunately, there were not many people in the church in Northumberland, so he could still control the situation. He also believed that this was a tacit secret between himself and the baron.

Without the help of machinery, the cotton can only be harvested by hand. Groups of snow-white cotton bolls are picked, and the cotton and cotton seeds are separated by the new cotton gin made by the craftsmen.Baskets of pure white cotton were transported to the master's warehouse, where they were about to be processed into various cotton fabrics.

The baron had already figured out how to use it, except instead of wool, he himself requested that cotton be spun into cotton cloth to make underwear. Wool is warm but it is too itchy to wear next to the skin.

Moreover, these medieval people didn't wear underwear at all. Cui Qichao had endured it for a long time, and he needed close-fitting clothing.

In addition, Cui Qichao also asked people to make cotton bedding. Previously, he used fur blankets, wool blankets, and pillows filled with grain.

The people in the castle were envious when they saw it, and the master really enjoyed it, seeing how the fluffy cotton feels so good, and it doesn't itch when touched close to the body.Unlike wool fabrics, you have to use other fabrics as a base first.The quilt is a bit heavy, but in everyone's heart, they still secretly feel that this is the only way to have an identity.

In any case, rare things are more expensive. Cotton fabrics are relatively rare in the whole continent, and most of them are in the north. I have never seen a quilt like the master did.Everyone can't help but imagine that when the cotton production increases, will there be a cotton castle just like the sugar banquet...

From soft cotton pads to fluffy cotton quilts, and bulging cotton pillows, put them on the bed after being exposed to the sun, adding some warmth to this dark room.

The moment Xiaobai saw the quilt, before Cui Qichao said "no", he swished onto the bed, and the whole cat fell into the thick quilt.

Cui Qichao: "..."

Xiaobai rolled comfortably before climbing out of bed, with a face of "you can't say no", anyway, it knows that Cui Qichao can't let him sleep on the bed, it is better to die or be bitten off the cat's head. Enjoy it.

It can only be said that Xiaobai, who is familiar with the way of being a cat, is now more and more able to take advantage of loopholes.

At this time, Lily knocked on the door and came in, holding a few thick cotton cushions in her arms, piled high, she tilted her head to reveal her face, and smiled softly: "Master, three pillows... no, the cat bed is too. It’s done, and I embroidered different marks as you said.”

noob:"………………"

Cui Qichao said slowly, "No, it's a pillow and two cat litters."