For the Barony of the Valley, summer brings not only hot weather, but also a busy atmosphere every day.
The winter wheat sown last winter has come to the harvest season. Taking advantage of the fine weather, District Officer Scott directed the farmers to harvest grain from the land.
Farmers who have not sub-leased their land or have not sown winter wheat at home have also been dispatched to the wheat fields to wield sickles to harvest grain. In return for their hard work, their employer would provide them with food for the day and give them a pound of pumpernickel bread to take home after dinner.
In the valley village south of Mubao, the civil affairs team headed by Cooper was accompanying Lord Art to inspect the territory.
The Valley Village has become a wealthy settlement next to Mubao. The residents here are the earliest residents. Not only do they rent the most fertile land, but many of their relatives receive a salary in the military or civil affairs. Even if no one in the family is paid, they can barely feed themselves on the mature soil they rent.
· Gujiandi Village is no longer the simple shack area it was at the beginning. Many farmers have built new houses on the original site. Although most of them are just wooden houses with thatched roofs, they are already considered luxurious compared to the previous shacks. Even the slightly poorer farmers have at least renovated their original shacks that were well ventilated.
The village is equipped with mills, barns, stables, bakeries, blacksmiths, etc. Although the so-called blacksmith shop is just an old man with a gray beard and his young apprentice repairing farm tools, beating sickles, and mending iron pots for farmers in exchange for some food; although the so-called mill only has a stone mill driven by human power; although the bakery is just a sideline business of Lawrence's wife after farming...
Although the sparrow is small, it has all the internal organs.
"...Dear Sir, as you can see, we basically have everything we should have here, but the only thing we lack is a small church, even just a small wooden house. The villagers have to go to the wooden castle church every week, which is very inconvenient, so the villagers asked me to make a request to you, hoping that you can allow us to build a small church by ourselves." A middle-aged man following behind said respectfully to Art, who was patrolling the outer village.
This middle-aged man is the newly appointed head of Gujiandi Village. His name is Ruben. He is about thirty years old and was once a patrolman under Art. This unlucky guy lost one of his feet in the battle to recapture Alsburg two years ago. After being injured and retired from the patrol, he was placed in the valley and became an ordinary farmer with a disability.
This middle-aged man was down-to-earth and hard-working. He begged the old carpenter Bud to make him a prosthetic foot to put on his leg. Then he worked hard every day with one real and one fake foot. After two years, he lived a good life and gained some reputation in the village.
After the valley became a barony, the civil affairs officer selected a reliable person in each of the three villages to be the village chief to manage the daily affairs of the village. Reuben was selected by Cooper because he was from the army and was hard-working.
Matt also had a good impression of this "veteran" from the patrol period. When he heard Ruben mention his request to build a church in the village, he thought for a moment and replied: "Ruben, your request is not excessive. I cannot refuse the believers' request to obtain God's blessing."
After speaking, Art turned to Cooper and ordered: "Cooper, when you go back, discuss with Father Hamish to see if you can build a small church in each of the villages under my jurisdiction. It doesn't need to be too big, it can accommodate a dozen people to worship and pray."
"Sir, there are not many problems in building a chapel, but what we lack is not a chapel, but the priest who presides over the church. The citizens have requested this more than once before, but we are unable to build a new church due to the lack of clergy." Cooper replied helplessly.
Matt did not want to introduce too many clergy in the valley. Hamish and Robert could admit that Art had absolute power over the clergy in the valley barony, but others could not guarantee it, so he has not made a request to the Tyniec County Church for more clergy.
However, as the number of territorial residents continues to increase, this will be an unavoidable problem.
"Cooper, you ordered each village to build a small church first. Remember, the church in the village should not be too big. As for the church priest, I have discussed it with Father Hamish. He will select a few of the most pious and suitable churches from the valley. Disciples go to the parish school to receive theological education. After completing theological education, Father Hamish will grant them the position of deacon and assist Father Hamish in managing those chapels. "
"But deacons do not have the authority to confirm, hear confession, preside over the priests, or anoint the sick."
“If you need these ceremonies, just ask Father Hamish. Now that the simple carriage road from the wooden castle to the valley has been built, I will equip the wooden castle church with a two-wheeled donkey cart. It will also be convenient for Father Hamish to come to the valley..."
… .........
After inspecting Gujiandi Village, Art and his party continued southbound, following the newly built carriage road, passing through Kutim and the newly built villages in the south, and arrived at the gentle slope at the bend of the river six miles away from Gujiandi Village.
This is already the southernmost inhabited end of the Valley Barony. A small horse farm was built on a large flat land on the north side of the gentle slope. There are no fences around the horse farm. Near the gentle slope there is a small wooden house for the shepherds (herd slaves). Next to the wooden house is a row of extremely simple stables. Fifteen military horses are snorting and eating grass in the stables.
On the south side of the gentle slope, the river turns here and suddenly narrows, and the river flow speed increases in vain.
A row of three large wooden houses have been built along the river bank. A large group of people by the river are installing several water hammers and water wheels in place.
Yes, this is the workshop area planned by Art. Currently, two water-driven hammers used by weapons (blacksmith) workshops and a water-driven mill used by mills have been transported here.
Weapons craftsman Dim and tool craftsman Luca are directing the war slaves (prisoners) under the construction officer to install the hydraulic equipment step by step.
Dim and Luca have now fully adapted to life in the valley. Due to their status as craftsmen and superb skills, they are the most popular and respected people here, so after more than a year, they have come to like it here.
After the promotion of civil affairs in the valley, Old Bard, the original head of the craftsmanship workshop, felt unable to take charge of the entire valley workshop and took the initiative to resign. Art retained Old Bard's salary as a steward, promoted Swabian craftsmen Dim and Luca to industrial adjutants, and promoted clerk Neil to steward. The three of them took charge of the entire valley's craftsmanship workshops.
Matt looked at the shirtless men who were carrying heavy equipment to the river with wooden poles, and asked the construction adjutant Geer: "Geer, are these slaves and prisoners who are building the workshop area?"
Gerle stepped forward and replied: "Sir, after receiving the urgent mission from you, we transferred all the war slaves responsible for the construction here. However, after several selections by the army, we only have thirty-three war slaves and prisoners left. Even the six peasant soldiers who guarded the war slaves personally went to the battle to help, but there are still insufficient manpower."
hh "So with the consent of the old housekeeper, we recruited more than thirty landless people from the nearest newly built village to help build the workshop area. We provided them with two meals of food every day, and took a pound of grain with them when they were off work, just like they were hired to harvest grain."
hh "Are there any signs of the war slaves escaping or resisting?" Art asked.
Geer replied: "When we were building the Beiguan Army Fort last year, two guys couldn't stand the hard work. We caught and beheaded them after stealing food and trying to escape. Since then, no one has dared to escape. Moreover, I have planted ears and eyes among the war slaves. Any disturbance will be noticed by us..." Those war slaves who were captured during the war should be treated a little more kindly. As long as they work hard and accept the transformation, we must also give them a certain degree of dignity, and we should not lack their food supply on weekdays. After all, these people may still join the army. "
"However, if there are those who do not want to repent, or even have evil intentions, they will be severely punished. If there are those who dare to openly defy, rebel and abscond, they will be killed directly!"
“Yes!” Geer responded loudly.
Matt calmed down his anger and walked towards the first wooden workshop.
This is the weapons workshop, and it is also the largest wooden house in the entire workshop area. There are two furnaces, a blower and three special large anvils. The weapon craftsman Dim is debugging the water-driven hammer installed on the large anvil by the craftsmen.
The walls around the wooden house are covered with a variety of tools, ranging from hammers, punches, chisels, steel files, steel chisels, clamps to charcoal and firewood.
Seeing Art enter the house, Dim pulled away and came to Art, bowed and saluted, and said: "Dear Baron, welcome to the weapons workshop for inspection."
Art bowed slightly and smiled in return.
“Mr. Dim, thank you for your hard work.” Art also expressed a high degree of courtesy to this skilled Swabian weapon craftsman.
"This is what I should do. Lord Baron, the main part of this weapons workshop has been completed, and the water-driven hammer and forging equipment are now being debugged. The water-driven hammer Mr. Salt bought from outside does not match the size of the original forging hammer anvil in the valley craftsman's workshop. I am trying to modify it."
"Approximately how long will it take to start forging weapons and armor?"
Dim nodded and thought for a while, then raised his head and replied: "It can start operating within a week, but this weapon workshop has just been built, and there will definitely be various problems in the initial stage, so the workshop may be shut down frequently for maintenance. At present, the weapon workshop has only Lu and me. In addition to the cards, there are five weapon (iron) craftsmen and six laborers. After getting on track, they should be able to make more than ten sets of weapons (swords, hammers, axes and spears) or a set of simple half-body plate armor and an iron nose helmet every day. Once they are proficient, they should be able to make more weapons and armor."
"It doesn't matter, the initial run-in is necessary."
Dim didn't understand the meaning of the word "run-in", but he understood what Art meant, "Baron, once this hydraulic hammer workshop is built, we can mass-produce half-body plate armor. There are too many parts for full-body plate armor, and we don't have enough craftsmen, but we can try. In addition, we can make the swords, axes, spears and arrows you need according to the needs of your army."
"But you have to have your caravan provide sufficient pig iron raw materials for the weapons workshop. The pig iron for forging weapons is best sold from the east of Swabia, where the pig iron is more suitable for making weapons and armor."
Chapters captured on the battlefield are full of uncertainty, not to mention whether the battle can be won. Even if the battle is won, the weapons and armor captured are of different shapes, good and bad. Most of the weapons and armor purchased outside are expensive and the supply is unstable.
Now that the territory has an energy-producing weapons workshop, the problem of the army's armament can be half solved.
· The weapons workshop also serves as a blacksmith shop when building weapons for the army. In addition to its main business, the workshop will produce plows, hoes, sickles and other iron tools for civil affairs. These iron tools will be bought to the people of the territory and even sold out of the country through caravans to earn some money to maintain the daily operation of the workshop.
After chatting with the craftsmen and craftsmen for a while in the weapon workshop, Art then visited the textile workshop, brewery, and large mill downstream of the weapon workshop.
Establishing a textile workshop was not Yat's ultimate goal. In his vision, the textile workshop was only to lay the foundation for the mass production of "paper products" in the future. Because he found that many of the tools, equipment and processes in the textile workshop could be slightly improved to produce "paper products", so Yat was against all opinions and introduced textile workshops that were not suitable for the valley into the workshop area. He also asked the caravan to purchase raw materials from outside and recruit craftsmen to start production. Anyway, both the army and the people needed cloth and clothing.
The brewery is also a workshop that Yate focuses on cultivating. In the early days, it mainly produced beer and wine. Beer is rich in raw materials. After all, the valley can produce a large amount of high-quality wheat for beer processing, and the beer brewing technology is relatively mature. As long as there are enough hops, a skilled brewer with three to five laborers can brew five to six hundred pounds of beer in a day. There is absolutely no need to worry about sales of beer. The beer produced in the brewery It is absolutely impossible for wine to survive Beiguan Army Fort;
As for wine production, it has to be delayed, because the valley only started planting on the loose sandy soil on the gentle slopes on both sides of the valley last winter, and it is impossible to buy grapes from outside, so we have to wait until the territory's grapes are mass-produced before we can make wine.
Yate also envisions making distilled spirits in the future.
To the south of the brewery is a water-powered mill under construction, which will become the largest mill after its completion.
At present, Yate is short of money and lacks mature and reliable workshop talents, so these four small-scale workshops have been established in the workshop area for the time being. After the expansion is completed and the upcoming civil strife is successfully overcome, Yate will expand here again...