Wood castle in the valley, in a single-yard hut.
Att sat on an armchair in the room and wiped the knight's sword on the table with a piece of greased linen cloth. The fine lines on the dark gray sword were still as clear, but the dark red blood stains were deeper. These blood marks penetrated into the sword body and could never be erased.
The linen cloth soaked in hot oil restored the metallic luster of the knight's sword. Art put the wiped long sword into its scabbard, and then arranged the white smock in the wooden box. The smock printed with the red Holy Cross could not withstand the experience of the years, and the pure white color began to gradually turn gray and yellow.
After fighting nervously for more than half a year, Art's spirit was highly concentrated every day. After returning to the wooden castle in the valley, Art felt extremely relaxed after entering the single-yard hut. After sorting out the things, Art felt sleepy. After putting away the wooden box and lying on the bed, he started snoring soon...
On the night of the army's triumphant return, a lively celebration banquet was held in the wooden castle in the valley. This banquet was held without internal or external troubles, so everyone ate a lot of food and drank a lot of wine.
The person in charge of the kitchen in the wooden castle is Ron's mother Emma. Spencer, the army's baggage officer, has also led several military servants to help in the kitchen these days.
Emma, a woman who was once thin and thin, actually started to gain weight after living in the wooden castle for more than a year. Now in the wooden castle in the valley, Emma's family is the richest. Scott is the steward of the wooden castle and receives the salary of the leader of the combat team. Ron is the captain of the sentry team and is treated as a squad leader. Emma is in charge of the kitchen in the wooden castle. She and Camille The wooden castle provided all the food every day, and the family hardly spent a penny on food and drink. In her spare time, this hard-working woman often took the women and children in the wooden castle to the mountains to pick wild fruits and make fruit wine and preserved fruits. The wine and preserved fruits she brewed at home were then sold to soldiers and peasant soldiers who had extra money and nothing to spend.
Over the past year, her family's house has changed from a thatched house to a wooden house, and this has become the only place in the entire wooden castle where money can be spent. At first, Cooper was worried that Emma would use the food and supplies in the wooden castle to make fruit wine. After leaving the wooden castle, Cooper obtained Art's consent and directly gave the woman a batch of salt, cooking utensils, daily necessities and a small amount of agricultural tools, asking her to use these things to exchange for money and grain from soldiers and farmers before returning them to the wooden castle. Of course, Emma would also earn some small money from them.
Gradually, Emma's house became a grocery store in the wooden fort. In addition to the paid soldiers (peasants), the farmers who were the first to be allocated arable land to harvest food also occasionally came here to exchange their grain for iron pots and cooking utensils, pottery and wooden bowls, salt and other goods, or to rent some shovels, axes and other farm tools and ironware.
"Camille, don't just indulge in gluttony. Go and bring a bowl of hot soup to your father and brother, and tell them not to drink too much." Emma scooped up two bowls of broth from the big clay pot and handed it to Camille to deliver to her husband and son who were exchanging cups with the officers and soldiers.
Camille held a mutton rib with the meat removed in her mouth, holding a bowl of broth in each hand and walked towards Scott and Ron who were making a fuss with everyone at a long table in the wooden castle.
The granddaughter of the old carpenter Bud and Giles' two children stood beside the long wooden table holding wooden bowls filled with minced meat and wheat porridge, biting into a few pieces of bones with shredded meat that the kind-hearted soldiers rewarded them.
Around the bonfire at the end of the long table, several soldiers who were good at singing and dancing were twisting their strong bodies in the warm cheers and roaring noisy songs.
篝火的另一边靠近独院的地方单独升起了一小堆篝火，亚特正在和安格斯奥多巴斯卡扎克等人仰起脖子灌下杯中果酒麦酒，他们的脸色在篝火的照映下更加红润……
…………
一场欢宴下来亚特喝了不少杂酒，以至于第二日直到日上山头他才醒来。
Out of the wooden house, Ron had already saddled several people in the stable of the single courtyard, and Angus was also cleaning the hooves and combing the temples of his war horse.
"Sergeant, are you not drunk?" Art said to Angus next to the stable as he tied the sword belt around his waist.
"Why are you not drunk? It's just that you said yesterday that you would take me to patrol the valley today, so you had to get up earlier, but I didn't expect you to sleep for so long. I got bored of waiting and had to follow Ron to clean up the horses." Angus replied.
At this time, Art felt a little ashamed. He was really in a relaxed mood last night and drank too much ale and beer, so he slept soundly until noon. Art rubbed his hands in embarrassment and said, "That's because I kept you two waiting. Ron, call Cooper and your father. Let's go to the valley."
“Sir, the old steward and my father rode green mules to the valley in the morning. The sergeant major and I stayed here to wait for you.” Ron replied.
"Okay, let's set off too!"
Ron pulled out a riding horse and handed the reins to Art, and then pulled out two other ordinary riding horses from the stable. The three of them got on the horses and ran towards the valley to the south...
Because they were riding horses, although the road was not wide and inconvenient to travel on, it took the three of them less than an hour to reach the valley outside the mouth of the canyon.
Just after leaving the mouth of the canyon, Angus's eyes lit up. A river rushing out of the canyon divided a large area of the valley land into two pieces. Both sides of the river near the mouth of the valley were full of leveled ripe land. Dozens of farmers were plowing the fertile soil on the land after the snow had melted, making final preparations before spring plowing.
On the gentle slope on the right side of the valley entrance, there are more than a dozen thatched shacks surrounded by a fence made of miscellaneous trees and branches. Several peasant women and their children are carrying buckets of water from the river down the gentle slope to go home for cooking. Gray-white smoke rises from the roofs of several thatched shacks.
The peasant woman fetching water saw the Art and three people coming out of the valley mouth, and quickly ran back to the gentle slope to notify Scott and Cooper. Soon, Cooper and Scott Linn came out of the fence to greet the Art and people who came to inspect.
"Master, you are here. I guess you are arriving soon. I have asked Lawrence's wife to prepare food for you. After you have lunch, we will go to the valley to have a look." Cooper came forward and took the reins from Art's hand, leading the three of them into the settlement on the gentle slope.
Walking into the fence, the first thing you see are two wooden-walled thatched-roof houses, which were rebuilt from the original two large shacks. One of the two wooden houses is occupied by about twenty refugees who have just been deployed to the valley. The other house is occupied by people from the valley. The public house doubles as a warehouse; the two wooden-walled thatched-roof houses are flanked by a dozen or so small thatched houses built spontaneously in the past few months, especially by the first batch of farmers who had a surplus of grain after last year's autumn harvest. These thatched houses were built under the guidance of the old carpenter Bud. Although the shack is small and simple in structure, it is built with great care and is very strong and durable. In the open space in the middle of the settlement is a barn and a small kitchen. The barn stores rations for the new refugees (captive laborers) in the valley. There is a deep barrel and cauldron in the kitchen. and several stacks of pottery plates and wooden bowls; at the far end of the settlement there is a livestock shed and farm tool house, where dozens of oxen, horses, green mules and donkeys from the valley are kept. The farm tool house next to it is also filled with various farm tools such as plowshares, shovels, flails, iron hoes, and sickles. There are several thatched houses being built on the inside of the wall near the peak.
Cooper, who accompanied Art, introduced: "Sir, these livestock farm tools all belong to the wooden castle. The first batch of farmers who harvested grain need to pay a certain amount of grain as rent and tax for using these farm tools and animals, but the rent and tax are very low and are within the affordability of the farmers. The new farmers can temporarily use these livestock tools for free before harvesting grain, but what they reclaim needs to be uniformly distributed by the wooden castle. Most of the farmers who have land now have built their own shacks, and they all manage their own food. Our kitchen only provides food for the new farmers. Now Lawrence's wife is managing the kitchen and barn, and Linn's wife occasionally helps in the kitchen. "
"Lawrence goes out with the caravan, and his wife also works in the kitchen, so who will cultivate his land?" Art asked.
“Last year, Lawrence’s family was allocated five miles of cultivated land by the river. Before, Lawrence was busy with chores in the wooden castle, but now he went out with the caravan, so I arranged for four farmers to help them cultivate the land. Lawrence also received his own share of salary for working in the wooden castle, so he also gave those farmers some hard-earned money.” Scott explained.
Matt thought for a while and said to Scott: "Needless to say, the old steward, he will need to take care of everything in the valley from now on. He doesn't have time to cultivate the land next to the wooden castle, so I have told him a long time ago that I will not give him the land for the time being. Scott, you and Lawrence are the same. From now on, you will help me take care of the mountains." Gu, your family will be supported by the wooden castle, and your salary will not be less than you, so you have to make concessions when allocating the land. I will give you a symbolic acre of land, but you don’t have to rely on the land to make a living, so leave the land to those farmers who specialize in farming, how about it?”
"Sir, the old butler has told Lawrence and I about this. We are all willing. As long as our wife and children are not hungry, we will obey your arrangements." The Scott family is already the wealthiest castle residents in the valley. Now Ron is always with Art, and he also serves as the steward of the castle. Emma and Camille also spend their food in the castle. There is really no need to rely on the land for a living.
What Satisfied most about was that these stewards were quite obedient to his arrangements.
"Master, the food is ready, you can go and eat." Ron ran over and said.
At noon, Ate and the others simply ate some food in the settlement in the valley. After taking a short rest, they inspected the ripe land that had been harvested once and the newly cultivated wasteland in the valley under the leadership of Cooper and Scott.
"Sir, in the six months since your expedition, we have organized farmers to reclaim another two hundred acres of land. The newly opened land is mainly wasteland along both sides of the river that is easy to irrigate. The wasteland a little further from the river can be reclaimed to grow some fruits, vegetables and pasture black beans when food is sufficient in the future. The fruits and vegetables can be used to make dishes and fruit wine, and the pasture black beans can be used to raise military horses and livestock." Scott said.
Yate bent down and grabbed a handful of soil, pinched it in his hands and rubbed it a few times. The soil was dark black, and there were a few earthworms writhing in it. Art threw away the black soil in his hand, turned around and said to the stewards: "You decide on the farming matter, it's important. It is to satisfy the food of everyone in the valley. In addition, farmers must give priority to planting the ration farmland allocated to the army. You can take care of other things yourself." Art only set a big tone for the valley, and Cooper and a few stewards arranged the rest.
“Sir, I think we can adjust the amount of land allocation after clearing out enough wasteland. The fertility of these lands will decrease after one or two years of cultivation, so rotational farming and resting are needed, and the number of land allocated to each farmer also needs to be increased. In addition, if we want to increase food production, we also need to find ways to introduce water from the river into the cultivated land on both sides, especially the cultivated land far away from the river..." Cooper proposed a two-field farming method to maintain the fertility of the land.
"It's a bit difficult to divert water for irrigation. I think we can dig wells in the cultivated land, one irrigation well every fifty acres of land away from the river." Scott said.
"You can try digging wells first. These tasks will be completed by the tenants of the farmland around the wells. If there is not enough manpower, you can send captive laborers to help..."
After patrolling for an afternoon, Art inspected the cultivated land in the valley. He also had a simple conversation with the farmers working in the fields, encouraging everyone to work hard to produce more food and live a prosperous life soon...
In the evening, Art did not eat in the valley and hurried back to the wooden castle with Cooper and Angus.
"Ron, you will take people to the border outpost tomorrow and tell Simon to settle down at the outpost and then return to the wooden castle in the valley. After the caravan comes back in two days, we will convene everyone to discuss the future development of the valley..."
...