Lady of the Lord From the East

Just as Wei Wei thought, the children in the church were very excited when they heard that the Countess had arranged for them to work.

This is a group of precocious children who have long known the hardships of life. Perhaps some of them have been infected with some bad habits that they should not have, but those who are really lazy and lazy will not live as big as them.

Since the girls will be sold by their family members, and even after being sold, they are reluctant to let them stay at home for one more day, thinking that it will waste the food they have acquired, then it is impossible for them to be much favored at home. Naturally, since childhood Do all kinds of housework.

The same is true for the rare boys. Those who have family are not favored, and those who do not have family can only rely on themselves. If they don't work hard, they won't survive now.

And now, although they stay in Sardinson as serfs, they are well fed and clothed and even taught and studied. This kind of life is not like what a serf should have, but more like those wealthy families. Children in the middle can enjoy.

So they cherish this opportunity very much. If they are not given jobs, maybe some of these people will gradually change their attitudes and take it for granted, but now they are only a few days away from their arrival, and everyone is still in a state of unease. Having a job will give them peace of mind.

Because it was Wei Wei's order, Qin, who took turns with Father Matthew to teach the children every day, organized the children after lunch and took them to the castle.

The things have already been prepared over there. Washing vegetables in winter is not a good job. The new water is piercingly cold. If you change to other adults who are used to doing this, Wei Wei may not care too much, at most Provide them with some hand ointment after work, to ensure that these people's hands will not hurt too much, and cooling their hands is unavoidable, but she is inevitably a little soft-hearted after changing children, and specifically asked the kitchen to help burn them Hot water, mixed with well water to wash the beets for them, although the temperature of the mixed water will not be too high, but it will not freeze your hands.

After finding that the water temperature is not low, the cleaning work is handed over to the younger children, and the older girls are responsible for cutting the vegetables, and they are not required to cut them well, as long as they are not too thick.

The children work very seriously. More than 200 children gather in the open space behind the kitchen. They can even cut several thousand kilograms of shredded beets with hard work in one afternoon, but there are not many slaves and stoves for making sugar. There was no way they could even handle that many beets, so they only worked for two hours and could rest after finishing the number of beets they ordered today.

The children who had finished their work originally thought they were going to go back to church, but they didn't want to get Qin, who was instructed to bring out a high pile of plates from the sugar cooking room.

"Everyone line up, everyone comes over to get a piece."

On the plate were beet sugar cubes, but unlike the sugar cubes to be given to the local people, these sugar cubes were cut into small pieces, about the size of modern Wangcai toffee.

This group of children of all ages are very obedient, and they are used to queuing, so Qin shouted, and everyone consciously lined up.

Standing at the front was a little girl of about ten years old. She took a dark brown candy cube from the plate according to Qin's words, but she didn't know what it was. She only felt that it smelled sweet. When passing by the bakery, the smell is just as sweet.

The little girl held the piece of candy and couldn't help licking it. Sweetness is the most popular taste among humans. Even if some people don't like sweets, it may just be a disgust formed after eating too much. When it comes to the taste, I am afraid that no one will not like it.

Just licked it, and when the taste buds felt the sweetness of the sweetness, a huge sense of happiness welled up.

The little girl couldn't help showing a happy smile: "Mr. Qin, what is this? It's so sweet."

Really sweet, sweeter than the ripe berries she'd had in the harvest season.

"This is candy, a reward from the Countess, is it delicious?"

"Delicious! Fragrant and sweet! The best!" The little girl nodded vigorously.

The children who heard their conversation in the back were all agitated. It was candy. They had never eaten it, but they always knew its delicious candy from the mouths of adults!

The next child couldn't wait to take a piece and licked it like the previous one. It was really sweet!

For children, sweetness is their favorite taste, and no child can resist the temptation of sugar.

The children in the queue received their own piece of candy one by one. Some impatient children put it directly in their mouths, but some children were reluctant. Eat slowly.

The winter weather made these sugar cubes not easily melted, but Jin still reminded them aloud: "These sugars will melt after preheating, so if you don't eat them now, don't put them in a place that is too hot, you know."

Hearing the words, the child who wanted to stuff the candy into his clothes quickly took it out.

Qin added: "It doesn't matter if you finish eating today, the Countess said that you can get a piece of candy every day you come to help."

The countess is very nice.

Thinking of the young lady who had only met once, all the children couldn't help but think so, and had even more longing and admiration for their mistress.

And the countess, who was thought to be very good, actually felt a guilty conscience when she saw the bunch of busy children in the open space in the back kitchen.

It is illegal to employ child labor, although there is no such law now.

Wei Wei, who had a guilty conscience, watched silently from the upstairs at first, and determined that the children were all working in a similar manner, so she turned her head to Felix's study and helped him with the official documents.

There are indeed a lot of official business piled up for a winter, especially this winter, Sardinson County is still engaged in development, road construction, construction of factories, production in various workshops and transactions of foreign merchants, all of which need to be checked by Felix himself. .

Especially since the new planting season is coming in March, before that, Felix has to determine the crops that need to be planted on the arable land in his territory this year.

If it was in the past, Felix could have let the stewards farm according to their previous habits, but this year is different. Various emerging industries in Sardinson County need sufficient raw materials. Adequate, adjustment of the type of cultivation is a must.

Fortunately, since last year, after the irrigation of fertilizers, the land that should have been fallow can continue to be used, which has increased the area of ​​​​the land they need to cultivate this year by one-third. There are many more harvests, and there is actually a large undeveloped wasteland in Sardinson, and these wastelands belong to the Williams family, who can encourage wasteland if needed.

What Wei Wei shared with Felix was the official duties of farming, which was suitable for her, not only because she knew more about farming than Felix, but also because the crops that needed to be cultivated this year included those new varieties she brought. People know this better than she does.

Of course, Wei Wei doesn't have many seeds on hand, and the land to be used is limited, so the adjustment of cultivation will not be too big. Generally speaking, the cultivation of wheat is the main thing.

But as the area of ​​usable arable land increases, another pressing problem arises.

"We don't have that many people to farm these lands."

Although the cultivation time of various crops is different, they can arrange labor according to the different sowing time, but the land rented by serfs and freemen is already the largest mu they can afford, and there is really no way to increase it.

"The new serfs can still afford some, but it's still limited." Wei Wei wrote and drew on the paper, calculating the maximum number of fields these people could rent," Dingle and two other townspeople said It’s also not appropriate, these people have their own land, and now they work in the pasta factory and the meat sauce factory, obviously they can’t share the field work, so, have there been people who have migrated from other areas recently?”

"Not yet." Felix read the documents all morning, and somewhat understood the current foreign population problem: "The road construction team has indeed brought a lot of young laborers, but they mainly follow the road construction team. Those who make money have no intention of moving to Sardinson yet, let alone foreign businessmen, who may be willing to open a shop in Sardinson in the future, but they cannot be counted on for farming.”

"That is to say, there is no way to replenish the labor force?"

Felix nodded: "Well, there is no way for it for the time being, the weather in winter hinders the flow of information. I am afraid that most people outside now do not know that we are recruiting people, even if there are businessmen to help pass the news, some people want to come here People who make a living basically don’t come here during this season, so if there are really free people who want to move, I’m afraid it will be after spring.”

Of course, it is more likely that no one will come, because spring is the season for farming. If you miss this time, you will delay the harvest of the year, so basically people who have land during this time period are busy farming and migrating. Less likely.

So don't get your hopes up too much.

Wei Wei nodded helplessly: "Since there is no way to replenish the labor force, it can only be saved by cultivating crops."

It is absolutely impossible to plant nothing on empty land, but if you plant some plants that do not require too much time and experience to take care of, it is still possible.

Such as vegetables with a short cycle and fruit trees with a long cycle.

Felix added: "It doesn't mean that it is impossible to add manpower. I have contacted many slave traders before, and they should bring some people after the spring."

"I don't care about this kind of uncertainty for the time being. I still plan according to the existing staff." Wei Wei wrote with her head lowered: "In addition, not only oats and barley will be planted in March, but also the winter wheat previously planted. It will enter the period of rejuvenation and need to be fertilized again. The workload will be very large. If possible, you can talk to the people in the road construction team, if you can let them temporarily stop work, come and give us a short-term job, and the wages are still calculated according to the price of road construction. ."

The top-dressing of winter wheat is generally based on nitrogen fertilizer, and they do not have nitrogen fertilizer synthesized by chemical industry. However, the manure collected and fermented since last year also contains nitrogen and other elements required by various plants, so the manure can be used directly.

Now the serfs in Sardinson Castle have already accepted the manure, and even other nobles and free people in the county know the function of excrement and fertilizer. Now walking in Sardinson County, there is no excretion at all on the roadside. Some of them will be taken away immediately. The barons of those barons do not even allow the serfs to collect them themselves, but must hand them over and give priority to their private plots.

Fort Sardinson is much better. Although it is also given priority to the earl's private land, they will spend money to buy it like a serf, and then sell the composted fertilizer to the serf at a suitable price. Generally speaking, both sides There is no loss or profit, but everyone has fertilizer to use.

"This should be no problem. I'll just have to talk to Nissen." If it's the same as the salary, it's not doing it, not to mention, it's more tiring to build a road.

"But the fertilizer thing will probably flow out."

Wei Wei said indifferently: "This kind of thing can't be kept secret in the first place, and it will flow out when it flows out. We don't rely on this to make money, and if the per-mu yield of wheat in the surrounding territories increases, the purchase price may be lower in the future. And it’s okay to increase the number of acquisitions.”

Anyway, it is impossible to fully supply the consumption of the pasta factory with the wheat output of Sardinson County, and the acquisition must be acquired.

That's true, Felix nodded, not bothering about this issue any more.

In order to write the farming plan, Wei Wei went out the next day, and took a carriage to read all the land belonging to their family.

Regarding the appearance of the Countess, these people were frightened, worried that they had done something bad and were found out. Fortunately, Wei Wei only asked about things in the field. After discovering this, the stewards calmed down and answered her questions seriously. problem.

By the time she's done running all the places, the new plan will be almost finished.

The cultivation of most of the arable land is still the same as before, with beans, barley and oats as the main ones. The specifics are still in accordance with the previous ratio, but the land that was originally rested will also be cultivated together this year. If there are rented residents who cannot take care of it, It was returned to the Williams family, which seemed to be leased to others or returned as private land.

If it is private land, the crops will be planted according to Wei Wei's plan, but this can only be implemented after determining the number of fields to be returned, so the first problem to be solved is the rotation of land.

The new changes were quickly written as an announcement and posted, and the serfs also received a notice from the steward. Most of the lords who had rented the fields of the Count Lord chose to return some of the fields that were on vacation according to their own circumstances. Of course, It's not a full refund, but only the part that is determined not to be planted. So overall, this year, each household is still farming more land than before.

And the freedmen who did not rent the farmland of the Earl also ran to the castle to apply for the lease after hearing the news. Surprisingly, many of these freedmen did not originally live near Sardinson Castle. Residents from other baronies in Sardinsonshire.

It seems that although they did not attract freemen from other areas, they still attracted the labor force in the county that did not belong to them.

However, this is also reasonable. The Williams family has always treated its citizens better than other barons. In the past, there was no extra land. The local free people naturally had to choose to rent land from other nobles, but now The Count has more land, so of course they rushed over in a hurry, even if they had to go through a busy moving house, but these free people are just good names, and they don't have their own land. It's not too much trouble for them. Even if it is to build a house, how long does it take to build a new thatched hut? Compared with Fort Sardinson, they can still arrive during the slack farming season. It is much better than those baronies to work as a day laborer nearby.

There was already a shortage of people, and these laborers were brought to the door by themselves. Felix had no reason not to accept them. Naturally, he immediately agreed to their application, rented out the land, and even demarcated a piece of wasteland unsuitable for farming for these people. , allowing them to build houses on it.

He even forfeited the land fee for their future residence.

After all, they were the first group of free people who took the initiative to seek refuge, and some of the benefits they deserved were still to be given.

As soon as this benefit came out, not only those freedmen who had decided to move were ecstatic and grateful to him, but other freedmen who were hesitant but did not take action could not sit still, and came to the castle one after another to ask if they would come too. If so, is it possible to get a free homestead too?

The steward who was inquired had been instructed by the Earl beforehand, and took the trouble to tell the freedmen: "Yes, we will divide the homestead according to the situation of the freedmen's family, but it must be within the scope of the Earl's division, and private choice is not allowed. Homestead."

"My lord, will the earl really give us land?" The voices of the free people who asked were trembling.

The steward, known as the master, was happy because of the compliment from the other party, and was naturally willing to say more news: "Of course, the earl said that it will be divided according to the number of family members. The current standard is that family members within three people can be If you get a homestead of 70 square meters, it will be 90 square meters for a family of four, 100 square meters for five people, and 110 square meters for more than six people.”

This standard was set by Wei Wei after deleting and revising the standard for rural homesteads in later generations. Felix also agreed. After discovering that there was still labor available in their territory, they naturally had to be very active in bringing people all Get over, as for whether it will lose the interests of the barons, anyway, everyone is not of one mind, do they need to be scruples?

As soon as this benefit came out, all the freedmen who came to inquire about the news were gulping, as if a pie fell from the sky and hit them.

This is free land. Although they only have the right to live in these land, if they want to move away, these land will be reclaimed directly, but it is also free land. Listen to the area, it is bigger than the land originally owned by these free people. Big, after all, most of the free people only own the thatched cottage and a small piece of land around them, and there are even many free people who don’t even have that small piece of land.

The free people who originally thought of making a living in Fort Sardinson have already prepared to use the land rent to deduct the tax, and they have built a house for the emperor to live in the Count. Now the Count said that he would give them land to build a house for free. That is not a pie in the sky. what.

And the area of ​​land that the Count wants to give them, if you plan carefully, they can even set aside a vegetable field. Don't look at the wasteland, you can't grow food, you can still grow vegetables, and this one does not need to be paid for. tax.

They thought they were dreaming, but after asking again and again and the manager getting impatient, they believed it was true.

How could these free folks be able to hold on, and all of a sudden they crowded towards the steward in charge of registration: "Master steward, I want to rent land, you register it for me! There are six people in my family!"

"No, please register me first, I'll come first!"

"I'm the first to come! You should register me first!"

"Don't make any noise!" The steward was startled by their hideous appearance, and quickly reacted, picking up the wooden stick on the side and knocking it on the table: "All line up for me, whoever makes trouble will get out. , be quiet, be quiet!"

The registration place was on the square inside the castle gate. The knights who were in charge of training the soldiers in the distance saw that the place was in chaos, and immediately asked the soldiers to come to help maintain the order. With them around, how dare the free folks dare to mess up, and line up obediently one by one. Good team waiting to register.

There are a lot of free people. The steward sees that he may not be able to do it alone, so he quickly said to the knight who came to help: "Lord Knight, can I trouble you to send soldiers and ask Butler Patton to call a few more people to help?"

Originally, he was mainly responsible for publicizing the new policy of the Count here today. Naturally, there were no other assistants. He did not dare to trouble the Count, so he could only ask the housekeeper for help.

The knight, Kingsley, did not send anyone to find the housekeeper, but came to help with his attendants.

A person who can become a knight will naturally not be illiterate, and his attendant is also a future knight candidate. He has no problem with basic reading and writing, but it is not difficult to help him register.

And Kingsley discovered early in the morning that the steward was not using parchment, but a kind of white paper. He had seen this kind of paper. It was the paper the Countess used to carry around for writing. Specially made and more convenient than parchment.

Those papers were bound into thick books, and grids were drawn (printed) on them first, marking the content to be filled in each line, so they just needed to register the freedmen according to the above content.

Of course, in fact Kingsley was not so kind to help a steward he despised with this kind of registration work. The reason why he did so was just to take this opportunity to ask some questions about the freemen's lease of the Earl's land. Welfare.

The Kingsley family also has two sons, both of whom are about to come of age. The eldest son has been determined to succeed him in the future and continue to play for the Williams family, but the younger son does not have the talent to become a knight, nor does he do business. Talent, Kingsley has been thinking about how to make a living when he becomes an adult. Now that the Count is recruiting free people, and there are free homesteads to live in, Kingsley wonders if he can register his youngest son.

Of course, his youngest son is not the material for farming, but he can buy two young and strong slaves for him to work for him, so that even if he only relies on them to cultivate the land, his youngest son will not starving.

Of course, what Kingsley can do is limited to this, and there will be no more. The eldest son inherits the family, and other children make a living by themselves is a consistent European custom. A father like him who is willing to think of a way out for his son is already considered excellent. father.