Chapter 209: Accidental Injury

Starting from January, the entire Wubei Territory began preparing for spring plowing.

By early April, after these few months of hard work, of the 100,000 mu of land reclaimed in Wubei Territory, aside from the more than 30,000 mu planted with vegetables, flax, and other crops, the remaining 70,000-plus mu were all planted with barley and wheat, two food crops.

After the sowing was completed, it should have entered a relatively slack farming period.

However, Luoning had long since made plans, and the commoners could not stay idle.

Administrative Chief Wilson organized reclamation squads by village in Shanlin Town, Swamp Town, Black Earth Village, and other places, beginning the full-swing work of reclaiming new land.

Now, in addition to being equipped with Curved Plows and iron farm tools, every village had many Black Water Buffaloes from Swamp Town distributed to the Village Chiefs.

With these things, compared to previous years, the difficulty of reclaiming new farmland this year decreased somewhat, and the speed naturally increased quite a bit.

On this basis, Luoning also formulated a reward and punishment plan:

As of early July, every family in the top three villages for reclaimed farmland area would receive a reward, and the Village Chiefs and Group Leaders in charge of the reclamation would receive even more.

These rewards included land allocation, food subsidies, permission for house expansion, monetary rewards for individual capable people, and even making exceptions for high-performing Slaves to directly shed their Slave status, and so on.

There were rewards, and there were punishments.

For the village with the lowest reclamation data that was more than 3,000 mu behind the one in front of it, the Village Chief and Group Leader had to resign in disgrace, and the taxes for every household would be increased depending on the situation.

With a carrot in one hand and a stick in the other, under the dual motivation, every village entered the full-swing reclamation cause, and they even occasionally sent "spies" to check on the reclamation progress of other villages, as a competitive mood had clearly emerged.

Heavy labor naturally meant consuming more food.

However, Luoning was not panicked; he still had 3,000 gold coins on hand, so even if he bought another 300,000 jin of grain, it would be no problem at all.

From the lord down to the Slaves, everyone in Wubei Territory was busy, but the external environment was very peaceful.

No special situations occurred in the territory, and the border of Wushan Territory was surprisingly quiet; he wondered if the Bolante Bandit Group and the Black Gold Brotherhood were also busy with spring plowing and thus not causing trouble?

In two months, Luoning's progress in Magician cultivation had already exceeded one thousand, and in just three more weeks, he would be able to become a Silver Knight and Chief Mage.

It was fortunate that he had this Attribute Panel that allowed him to add points; otherwise, Luoning would have to invest a large amount of time in cultivation every day and would have no energy to travel back and forth between the several territories.

He had already merged Qingzhu Village, Ziguo Village, and Huitu Village into "Sanfang Town";

Black Earth Village already had over a thousand commoners, and later six hundred Slaves were allocated there; with a population approaching two thousand, Luoning renamed this place Heitu Town.

"My Lord, this plot of land has already been fully planted with mulberry seedlings."

In the mulberry field of Ziguo Village, Huoen was accompanying Luoning to inspect the mulberry field.

Luoning felt a bit emotional; he had originally only planned ten mu of land for planting Mulberry Trees, but now it seemed that was too little.

But there was no helping it; how could he have known back then that he would take down Swamp Town and become the master of Wubei Territory in such a short time?

"How is the survival rate?"

Luoning squatted in front of a ridge, observing the small mulberry seedlings in front of him. Although they were currently only about twenty-centimeter cuttings, the three leaves on them were very full of vitality, clearly indicating that this small mulberry seedling had successfully survived.

"I have checked. Although there were quite a few that did not survive, according to the Layering Method and cutting method you mentioned, we made sufficient preparations and have already dug up all the ones that did not survive and replaced them with new seedlings. Now, the small mulberry seedlings in these ten mu of land have basically all survived."

Huoen felt a bit moved; using the cutting method and Layering Method to propagate Mulberry Trees was much more convenient than using Mulberry seeds.

"Very good!"

Luoning laughed: "Next, pay attention to watering these small mulberry seedlings, and apply fertilizer once more after thirty days."

"Rest assured, My Lord. Regarding the fertilizer, I have already had people compost it according to Chahaer's method; if it's not enough, we will transport some more fertilizer over from Swamp Town."

As one of the only three Intermediate Knights in Wubei Territory, Huoen's combat power was below that of Kelami and Babulin.

Compared to improving his strength, he seemed more willing to devote himself to the breeding industry.

"This year is the first year of sericulture. Although it is mainly for experimentation and accumulating experience, it is also very important. You must select people who are meticulous, obedient, and patient."

Luoning exhorted: "Later, I will have Liya bring her apprentices here to settle down, and the Loom manufacturing site will also be moved to Ziguo Village. You have people prepare the houses."

Ziguo Village would be the future sericulture base; arranging industries like spinning and Loom manufacturing here would save the trouble of moving things like cocoons back and forth.

The cotton opening, silk reeling, and weaving were naturally left to Ms. Liya; after all, she not only had experience but had also successfully woven a Silk scarf that Luoning took as a gift for Lulansi.

As long as the cocoons were produced, even if Master Dan's Looms could not be put into operation, under Liya's leadership, they could still weave Silk; it would just be slower, more taxing, and rougher.

After inspecting the mulberry field, Luoning and Huoen turned back.

On the way, he continued to impart his experience in sericulture to the other.

For example, controlling indoor temperature and light, needing to cut the mulberry leaves into pieces for feeding during the first and second instar stages, wiping the moisture off the mulberry leaves, regularly checking for diseased silkworms, regularly cleaning the silkworm room to remove silkworm feces, and so on.

After all, he had truly done this before, so he was much more confident and detailed when explaining it.

In these two months, Luoning began to explore Papermaking.

The tree bark fibers that were already soaking over at Shanlin Town were estimated to be almost softened; after he went back this time, he could continue to try the subsequent steps of crushing, stirring, etc. He believed the difficulty of producing paper should not be great.

Once he had sufficient paper, Luoning could write books on sericulture, leaving his experience behind.

Even if he had something to do and left Wubei Territory later, Huoen and the others would be able to refer to and learn from them.

Along the country path, the two returned to the village.

Luoning was just preparing to ride his Tayunjv back to Shanlin Town while the sky was still early, but he did not expect the sound of rapid hoofbeats to come from outside the village.

He and Huoen could not help but look over.

"It's Tangmu, who followed the commander to sweep."

Tangmu had good potential; having followed Maiken or Ruidar for Along time, he had learned quite a lot.

After the matter in Swamp Town came to an end, he was pulled into his clearing squad by Ruidar, traveling through the mountains and forests every day.

Luoning frowned slightly; the other's appearance seemed somewhat disheveled and panicked.

"My Lord!"

Tangmu tightened the reins, stopped in front of Luoning, hurriedly dismounted, knelt on one knee, and reported: "My Lord, the commander is injured!"

Luoning's heart jumped violently, his expression changed, and Huoen beside him also revealed an expression of disbelief.

In the current Shanlin Town, the Silver Grade Knight Ruidar could be called the top combat power.

He was only carrying out a sweeping mission; how could he be injured?

Could it be that they encountered a powerful Magic Beast during the sweep?

Luoning could only think of this possibility, yet he felt it was not very reasonable.

Because Ruidar was responsible for the northern Shanlin, not the Wushan Magical Beast Mountain Range to the west of the Ironwood Workshop, which was the responsibility of Maiken's squad.

By comparison, the probability of Maiken's squad encountering a powerful Magic Beast should be higher.

"What exactly is going on?" Luoning asked in a deep voice. (End of this chapter)