Chapter 100: 101. Busy Days

The banquet at Shanlin Castle was very simple, consisting of nothing more than eating and drinking. Unlike some nobles who had music and dancing, there were only big men here who couldn't dance, so they could only put their efforts into eating, drinking, and bragging.

For this, Luoning paid out one pig, six sheep, over a dozen chickens and ducks, and an unknown number of fish.

Fortunately, the militiamen only took some grain and went back to their own homes; if they had also participated, Luoning would have been eaten into poverty.

Oh right, Chahaer had complained more than once about the alcohol situation in the castle; several barrels of sour beer had been drunk dry, and there were less than a hundred bottles of medium-grade beer left.

The territory urgently needed to be equipped with a brewer; otherwise, if a few more groups of guests came or a few more banquets were held, the castle would have to spend money to buy wine from outside.

Facing Chahaer's grievances, Luoning could only agree, though it was a pity that he himself was not very interested in alcohol, otherwise he would have remembered this matter when he went to Muma City last time.

After the banquet ended, Luoning took a comfortable bath in several barrels; he hadn't washed properly in the ten-plus days since leaving Shanlin Town, so it felt incredibly refreshing.

Changing into loose, soft clothing, Luoning returned to the study and saw Ailin sitting in a chair to the side, holding a book and reading intently.

Luoning glanced at the title of the book, hurried over in two or three steps, and slammed the book shut, which gave Ailin, who was focused on reading, a fright.

However, upon seeing who it was, Ailin smiled with pleasant surprise, "Brother Luoning, you're finished~"

"Mm, finished."

Luoning responded with a smile, while calmly taking the book back into his hands and placing it back on the bookshelf, "This book isn't very suitable for you to read; I'll pick one that suits you."

Although the plot of this novel, titled "Princess Fena's Secret Garden," was passable, the male and female leads were constantly kissing, and the descriptions were quite deep, making it unsuitable for a young girl to read.

Luoning picked a history book from the shelf and handed it to Ailin, "Read this 'Brief History of the Empire' more; it will broaden your knowledge."

The "Brief History of the Empire" recorded matters of the Orland Empire, but unlike traditional history books, most of what was recorded inside were miscellaneous affairs of the royal family and nobles, and even arguments between two great nobles were recorded.

Although there wasn't much valuable information, it was at least more suitable for a girl to read than the previous knight novel.

Ailin took the book with skepticism, her mind still lingering on the previous book.

She asked in confusion, "Why is that book not suitable for me to read? Knight Yiwen is dueling someone for Princess Fena; will he win?"

"Of course he will win, and in the end, he will live with the princess forever."

Luoning smiled and gave a spoiler, "Alright Ailin, Beila has already prepared a room for you, and she is waiting for you outside; don't keep her waiting too long."

Only then did Ailin's attention pull back from the book, "Alright, then goodnight, Brother."

After saying this, she quickly left the study.

Luoning shook his head helplessly, then began to review the documents submitted by Chahaer and Wilson on the table.

These included the production status of each squad, the autumn harvest results of each village, and the grain statistics of Shanlin Town, among other things.

He focused on the latter two.

The total amount of barley harvested this time was about 830,000 jin, about the same as in previous years.

Excluding the seeds reserved for the coming year, and calculating based on each person consuming one jin of staple food per day, it could support the people of Shanlin Town for nearly ten and a half months.

However, in reality, the staple food consumed by the serfs did not reach one jin, and it was often mixed with other "black technologies," and things like wild vegetables were considered good.

That is to say, this much barley could fully support the people of Shanlin Town to live until next year's wheat and barley harvest, and there would be no problem getting through the year.

Once there was fertilizer next year, and planting techniques were promoted, along with the newly reclaimed fields, there would be even less of a problem with grain.

The next morning, after having breakfast, Luoning began his inspection while riding his Tayunjv.

With his achievements and the attribute points accumulated from signing in over the past few days all consumed, he had now entered the Level 3 Transcendent stage.

【Level】: 3-Advanced Knight (30/300); 3-Advanced Mage (0/400)

Looking at the entire Shanlin Town, Luoning's strength could already rank in the top three. Now, he didn't need guards when going out at all, at most taking along Chahaer, who was in charge of the Manure Collection Squad, Jialun, who ran errands, and Ailin, who wanted to follow along to tour Shanlin Town.

The first stop of this inspection for Luoning was the Fertilizer Base.

This base had been planned when Luoning established the Manure Collection Squad, and the location was chosen in the woodland near the pasture on the northwest side, Along distance away from the living area of the territory's residents, and it also avoided the water source.

Over the past many days, the construction squad had set up simple sheds here; although they looked rough, they could shelter from rain and would not hinder the organic fertilizer underneath that was in the decomposition stage.

Facing the Lord personally coming to the Fertilizer Base for inspection, the ten slaves who were turning the piles stood to the side in fear and trepidation; besides greeting the Lord at the beginning, they didn't know what else to say.

It was the manservant Jialun who kept urging Luoning to leave this place quickly; after all, as a noble, coming to this stinking place personally was really beneath his status.

Ailin had long been pinching her nose; if it weren't for seeing that Brother Luoning hadn't left, she would have turned around and run away long ago.

The Manure Collection Squad had been picking up poop for so many days, and it was all transported to this place, so the smell was naturally very unpleasant; if he could, Luoning wouldn't want to come over either.

But this composting technique was still in the initial stage and required him to come and guide it personally.

"My Lord, according to your instructions, we have mixed useless hay, tree leaves, wheat straw, and such things with the manure and piled them together, and now we turn these manure piles once every three days."

Chahaer reported respectfully; he didn't like doing this work either, but he still carried out Luoning's instructions meticulously.

Luoning looked at the dozen piles of organic fertilizer that were decomposing inside the Fertilizer Base and nodded slightly, "When composting, remember to spread hay on top to keep it moist."

Generally speaking, they needed to prepare straw mats or cloth, but these two things were too wasteful to use here, so using hay to cover it for now was still acceptable.

He walked to a fertilizer pile and brought his hand slightly closer; the temperature was still quite high, indicating it was still in the fermentation stage.

Without a catalyst, the duration of this natural fermentation process would be a bit longer, lasting about 1 to 3 months.

Once the temperature of the fertilizer pile stabilized and the stench dissipated, such fertilizer could be used.

Luoning chatted with Chahaer and the members of the Manure Collection Squad about problems encountered in their work; besides Chahaer who could say a few things, most of the slaves dared not express themselves, and only a female slave named Maxin raised a few questions.

From Chahaer, he learned that this woman worked seriously, paid attention to details, and her strength was not inferior to the men's.

So Luoning appointed her as the second person in charge of the Fertilizer Base, reporting to Chahaer, which could be considered as reducing some burden on the Steward.

After all, just the matter of grain storage in the castle required a lot of energy to handle, and later he would have to coordinate the grain distribution with the three villages outside.

Someone like Chahaer, who was literate and had good calculation skills, naturally had to exert greater value.

After inspecting the Fertilizer Base, Luoning went to William's Ironwood Workshop and Kalesi's Blacksmith Shop to check on the production of Iron-wood Equipment and the forging of the Curved Plow, respectively.

This time, returning from Huitu Village, Luoning brought back two carpenter slaves; the skilled Mutaer was arranged in the Ironwood Workshop, mainly responsible for the production of Ironwood Lamellar Armor;

The less skilled one was sent to help Kalesi and his son make the Plow Body for the Curved Plow, striving to forge more Curved Plows for each village before the spring plowing.

In the next few days, Luoning inspected the situation of each production squad while having the Administrator Wilson organize the people during the slack farming season to cut down trees in the north, to open up a road to Qingzhu Village as soon as possible.

Luoning didn't need to pay these people for participating in the labor, but unlike in the past, to stimulate their enthusiasm, Luoning allowed them to take half of the wood they cut home to repair their houses or store firewood to prepare for winter; he didn't want any residents to freeze to death in winter.

Besides this, Luoning also made a special trip to the tailor shop of Tom's mother, Liya, to observe her Spinning Wheel and Loom, and based on this, he made a modified design drawing, letting Pi'er make a small spinning wheel for reeling silk according to the pattern.

As for looms, most of the ones here are waist looms.

Luoning wanted to build a treadle-operated loom, which still required more detailed design and experimentation; he only explained the principles and a simple structural diagram to William, Pi'er, and his slave Mu-erta, letting the latter try it out on his own first.

There were still many trivial matters within the territory, such as conflicts between some serfs that required him to arrange for mediation or judgment, and some men and women of marriageable age who wanted to marry and needed Luoning's nod of approval, while also having to collect a marriage tax...

Luoning directly abolished the marriage tax, as this thing was not conducive to population growth, and replaced it with one day of free labor.

After being busy for several days in a row, he finally finished making all the arrangements.

On October 8th, Luoning took a few guards, traveled light, and stepping on the morning sunlight, embarked on the journey back to Wushan Castle.

(End of this chapter)