Chapter 69: 69. Incentive Plan

Early the next morning, just as Luoning had gotten up and put on his clothes, Aierlong was already waiting outside the room, offering up two successfully crafted Healing Spell Scrolls.

Facing such a diligent and hardworking Magician, Luoning couldn't help but give him a thumbs-up and invited him to have breakfast together.

Upon learning that he had failed twice, Luoning didn't say much. After all, this was a very normal occurrence; hadn't he himself failed once last night?

As the saying goes, failure is the mother of success; without the experience accumulated from failure, how could Aierlong have achieved two consecutive successes afterward?

However, Luoning noticed that he had exhausted all his Magic power early in the morning and couldn't help but offer a reminder.

Although producing Spell Scrolls was one of the territory's main financial means, both Aierlong and Luoning himself had to reserve a certain amount of Magic power to guard against emergencies.

For example, if someone were suddenly seriously injured and needed Aierlong's Healing Spell, but the latter had exhausted his power making Spell Scrolls, causing the injured person to lose their life, the loss would be immense.

According to Aierlong's current Magic power status, as well as the existing quantities of Spell Ink and Magic Beast Leather, it was sufficient for Aierlong to produce one Healing Spell Scroll per day.

While eating, Luoning received the salary statement from Steward Chahaer, on which the remuneration amounts for everyone were clearly written. While eating breakfast, Luoning randomly checked a few to calculate them, and after finding no discrepancies, he began preparing to distribute the wages.

In this world, a month has twenty-eight days; Maiken and Chahaer had been with him the longest, a total of twenty days, followed by the group of Guards, who had been with him for twenty-five days.

Maiken's strength was Primary for two days, Intermediate for nineteen days, and Advanced for six days; adding the 20 copper coin daily subsidy for serving as Guard Officer, his salary this month reached a staggering 2 gold, 3 silver, and 40 copper coins.

Chahaer had served as a manservant for twelve days and as Steward for fifteen days, totaling 160 copper coins.

The salaries of the ordinary Guards were easy to calculate: 58 copper coins each, totaling 1682 copper coins; the ten thousand copper coins given by the Gelin Family were still there, so they could be taken out to pay them.

Dawei's calculation was more troublesome: six days as an ordinary Guard, nineteen days as a Primary Knight, totaling 582 copper coins.

There were also Tangmu, the castle servants, Administrator Wilson, and the newly joined Ruidar; everyone was paid, one by one.

After a series of calculations, Luoning needed to distribute a total of 9 gold and 47 copper coins today.

Although this amount of money was nothing compared to what was spent in Muma City, when truly calculated, it would still exceed a hundred gold coins a year, which was indeed a burden for an average Baron Territory.

Paying these wages with Luoning's 120 gold coin savings was naturally a drop in the bucket; he felt absolutely nothing.

But for the Guards, castle servants, and even Maiken and the others who received the money, this was an extremely happy event.

After all, what could be happier than receiving a paycheck?

Seeing his subordinates happy, Luoning was naturally happy too; as long as they did the things he entrusted to them well, this money was worth spending.

After distributing the wages, Luoning met with the four Village Chiefs and sixteen Group Leaders in the hall of the Outer Castle.

When these fellows learned from Wilson yesterday that the Lord was going to summon them personally, they were so excited they couldn't sleep.

Some with better family backgrounds even took out linen coats they hadn't worn in years; although they had patches, they were slightly more formal than the rags they usually wore.

Those with poorer backgrounds also washed their faces and combed their hair, trying their best to look spirited so the Lord wouldn't think they were inadequate.

They looked serious and earnest, but the bodies of some who were trembling from nervousness betrayed their state of mind.

Luoning didn't pay much attention to their attire; Shanlin Town was just like that, and it was already very good that everyone could wear complete Linen Cloth clothes.

He just treated the people below as beggars who had washed their faces; of course, he himself was the Beggar Sect Leader.

"Now that Shanlin Town is divided into four villages, Village Chief De'erlin of Fuqiang Village, Village Chief Lade of Qianjin Village, Village Chief Heseba of Qinfen Village, and Village Chief Ha'en of Jingye Village, you four come forward so I can get to know you."

Luoning had little interest in dealing with these people, but for the Village Chiefs, being singled out by the Lord to be recognized was also an honorable thing.

The four walked out excitedly, stating their names while offering greetings to the Lord.

Luoning nodded in acknowledgment, then patiently listened as the four introduced the four Group Leaders of their respective villages, which could be considered a first meeting with everyone below.

Although he couldn't remember their faces, these people could clearly remember his appearance.

Although Luoning specifically emphasized that both Village Chiefs and Group Leaders only had supervisory power and no law enforcement power, these people being treated specially by the Lord, in a sense, elevated their status among the territory's residents.

In order to maintain such a status, they would do everything in their power to complete the tasks the Lord entrusted to them.

Perhaps for some, the monthly subsidy of two copper coins and two jin of barley didn't matter; whether they could be a Group Leader was what some cared about most.

At this meeting, Luoning gave instructions on the two most important things for the four villages next:

The first was the autumn harvest; it was now September 6th, and the barley in the wheat fields had successively entered the time for harvest. Luoning required the Village Chiefs to take an active lead to ensure that the barley in every village was harvested as much as possible, and not a single ear of wheat could be left in the fields.

The second was the planting issue after the autumn harvest.

Luoning had consulted Wilson; Shanlin Town did not plant winter wheat. Generally, after harvesting barley, the farmers would be busy rushing to harvest carrots, then plant vegetables like cabbage and cauliflower.

After doing this, the farmers would be relatively free; some would sell their labor to the Lord in exchange for some wood to repair their houses in preparation for winter, some would take this time to maintain their various farm tools, and some would devote more energy to the feeding and care of livestock.

After the winter snow passed, the farmers would have to get busy again to prepare for spring plowing.

In view of this, Luoning prepared to take this time to promote his Ridge Tillage Method, starting with the experiment of planting cabbage and cauliflower; it just so happened they could be harvested in December, allowing the farmers to learn this method before spring plowing.

Thus, Luoning let the four Village Chiefs pick a piece of land for him, and he would personally direct the manpower, and even personally go down to operate it.

Nobles working in the fields was something they had never heard of; today was the first time they had seen it. Not to mention that Chahaer felt it was inappropriate, even Wilson wanted to raise an objection.

Luoning didn't care; doing this would allow the residents to see his emphasis on this new farming method, so it could be better promoted.

Besides this, Luoning also handed the hoes and shovels purchased from Muma City to Wilson to be distributed in the name of the villages.

Of course, these things were prioritized for the Serfs to use; if Free Tenant Farmers wanted to use them, they still had to pay a price, such as handing over a little more grain when paying land rent.

Besides this, to stimulate everyone's enthusiasm for farming, Luoning had Wilson calculate the annual yield of grain, vegetables, linen, and other crops for each village.

For the top three villages in total volume, Luoning would give the Village Chief a reward of 1 gold, 5 silver, and 1 silver coin, give the Group Leaders a reward of 3 silver, 1 silver, and 50 copper coins, and at the same time give the farmers who participated in the labor a certain amount of grain reward.

Upon hearing this, the eyes of all the Village Chiefs and Group Leaders lit up; these rewards were higher than their annual salaries, and a light of determination to win them flickered in their eyes.

However, Luoning soon said again that if the total yield was ranked last for two consecutive years, and there was no outstanding performance in any crop, he would replace everyone from the Village Chief to the Group Leaders, leaving none, and let new people come up to serve!

With rewards, there were naturally punishments; Luoning didn't want to keep any slacking Village Chiefs and Group Leaders who were just coasting; only those who could exert effectiveness could stay.

The people below looked at each other, their eyes revealing worry; they didn't want the status they had accidentally obtained to be stripped away just like that.

However, they all had the same thought in their hearts—with four villages, how could it possibly be their village that ranked last?

(End of this chapter)