Ch29.1 - All-natural Insecticides (Part One)

Cui QiChao rolled and wrapped up a piece of roasted mutton, which had been cut into a palatable size, with a cabbage leaf before putting it into his mouth. Although some spices had been added, the gamey taste of mutton hadn’t been completely removed, and it wasn’t as salty as before. But as a whole, the meat’s taste was still tolerable. And although the cabbage leaves had been blanched in water, they still retained their slight bitterness. Fortunately, they were eaten with the roasted mutton, so the bitterness wasn’t very obvious.

The raw ingredients were somewhat unsatisfactory in some respects, but this was the best they could achieve in terms of taste during this era. Cui QiChao strictly controlled the proportion of seasonings, the temperature used to roast the meat, and also the degree of doneness of the cooked meat. As a result, the lamb chop was especially tender.

Maybe it was due to Cui QiChao’s previous meal, but his requirements for dishes had drastically dropped, and he was no longer picky about the small details. After eating until he was 70% full, he found that there was still some meat left.

“Barbecue more for the stewards and the priest. In addition,” said Cui QiChao to the cook, cutting off a piece. “Eat this piece. Remember the taste and the amount of each ingredient used just now.” 

As if she had been hit by a pie from the sky, the cook jumped to take the meat. But afterward, she merely sucked on the meat. Under Cui QiChao’s suspicion-filled eyes, she said weakly, “Lord, I want to give the rest to my son.”

Her confidence in her cooking already wasn’t very great. This was the most delicious barbecue she had ever had. Still, she did nothing more than suck on the meat. It had been with great perseverance that she was able to take it out.

“…Whatever.” Cui QiChao didn’t show too much emotion.

.

The priest, William, was just as surprised as the other stewards when he received roasted lamb from the Baron.

At that instant, William’s mindset was that he didn’t want to eat any more food. After all, it hadn’t been long since he had his last meal. He would feel ashamed if he acted so greedy for food. But the aroma emanating from the roasted mutton was so tempting that William’s gaze was basically lured toward it and he couldn’t say no.

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

The servant respectfully said, “The Lord said this was his favorite barbecue. Please taste it. You don’t have to go to the hall to eat. You can eat it here yourself. He doesn’t mind.”

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Ignoring the cabbage leaves, William directly picked up the meat and took a bite. The oily and steaming roasted mutton was a bit burnt on the outside but tender on the inside. As soon as he started chewing on the meat, juices flowed out from it. There were also small sections of glistening fatty meat, which carried a tinge of honey’s sweetness. Overall, the meat wasn’t too greasy.

The taste of the lightly sprinkled salt and the aroma of cardamom and pepper made this barbecued meat taste more sumptuous. While it was true that not as many spices were used in this dish that would cause someone to be impressed, the amounts added were definitely generous enough. For the first time, it made him feel that spices used were ‘just right’. It was unlike one manner in which nobles would show off their wealth. For example, they would serve food so spicy that the guests couldn’t even speak. 

William’s lips were incredibly greasy but he hardly had the mind to pay heed to his appearance. It was no wonder, no wonder the Baron was unhappy when he ate that meal after staying in the East for a long time. William had never tasted such delicious food even in his dreams.

The meat quality of this barbecued meat was different from what William was familiar with, but he didn’t quite understand why. It must be because of a mysterious recipe from the East. In fact, if he wanted to know, he could have asked the people in the kitchen. The reason for this was that the mutton was very fresh. It hadn’t been hung for many days to make the meat tender, and there was none of those flavors brought about by this era’s immature “aged meat” technique.

This piece of roasted mutton was soon finished up by William. Without much hesitation, he rolled up the cabbage leaf, which was covered with oil and maybe some broken pieces of meat, before stuffing it into his mouth. He noticed that the cabbage leaf seemed to have been scalded, which wasn’t in line with the normal way of eating. However, he couldn’t care less about it. Even if the food was cooked in an unordinary manner, it tasted quite alright. It wasn’t a problem to eat unhealthily sometimes.

After eating his fill, William carefully licked the oil around his lips, wiped his mouth, and started to reflect on his gluttony. 

Because of the matter with the barbecued meat, when the agricultural official sought the Baron again after tasting this rare delicacy, he became more respectful. In his monotonous and poor life, its taste was sufficient to make him yearn for those flavors for several years.

Cui QiChao searched for crops he wanted to use among the pile of existing plants in his territory. After a careful search, he found several crops that he could use: the golden chrysanthemums from the garden, the vetches from the bushes, and the clovers from the roadside.

Seeing Cui QiChao pick these crops, the agricultural official grew even more puzzled. The golden chrysanthemum was a seed from someone else’s territory. They managed to obtain some when their territory had exchanged goods with them. They were planted in the garden simply for aesthetic purposes. Meanwhile, the vetch, known as a wild bean to them, was only eaten by the poor, and the clover was even less impressive.

Cui QiChao thought to himself, he needed to wait a few months for the vetch to be suitable for sowing, but it was now the right time to plant clovers… 

These plants could actually be considered fertilizers, green manure crops, compositae, and leguminosae. They could improve the soil fertility and were also quite cheap.

Saline soil required these fertilizers. Oats, cabbage and green manure crops could be intercropped on lightly saline alkali soil. Moreover, the nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium contents within green manure crops were very high. These chemical elements were not only needed in saline alkali soil but also in other cultivated land.

Nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium were the most needed elements for plants, but they wouldn’t naturally return to the land any time soon after they were taken away. And when the nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium within the soil were insufficient, the crop yield would decrease in the next harvest. Moreover, the cultivated crops would look yellow and short. This was due to the lacking soil fertility.

In the middle ages, no artificial fertilizer had yet to be invented, but green manure crops also contained chemical elements such as nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium, etc. In particular, leguminosae had the highest nitrogen content among them, almost the same as that of pig manure. They could greatly improve soil fertility and facilitate crop cultivation. Even after the emergence of artificial fertilizer, they were still used. 

Not to mention, some green manure crops could be used as forage.

Aside from heavily saline alkali soil, all fallow land can also be planted with green manure crops. Cultivated plots of sown land were intercropped with them, just like with lightly saline alkali soil in order to maintain the land’s fertility.

Fallow is a farming technique in which arable land is left to rest for one or more vegetable cycles in order to allow the land to recover.

After listening to Cui QiChao’s request, the agricultural official was stunned. What kind of strange idea was this? To plant weeds on perfectly fine land? Was this some strange oriental farming technique? 

Cui QiChao had no way of explaining to the agricultural official what nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium were, while the agricultural official felt that he couldn’t explain his difficulties to the master. After a while, he boldly said, “I’m afraid the farmers… dare not…”

In their minds, weeds would only compete with the crops for soil nutrients!

“Who said this task was going to be given to them?” Cui QiChao’s expression didn’t change as he said, “The number of grass seeds given out must be restricted. After this time’s harvest, we must give priority to them when it comes to planting on my land. As for them, we’ll talk about it again next time.”

To the medieval farmers who had yet to learn how to apply fertilizer and only depended on fallowing, the concept of fertilizer would be hard for them to understand. 

Cui QiChao also planned to ask the agricultural officials to collect human and animal manure and wheat straw to make compost and also purify the environment. Compost was more fertile than green manure, but it took months for it to decompose.

Cui QiChao believed that by the time the compost decomposed, his people would have gained more trust in him and would allow him to irrigate their fields with fertilizer. But now, there was no need to think about it. In their hearts, compost was something that would breed rats and insects.

When the agricultural official heard Cui QiChao’s words, he had some doubts in his heart. Was this really a good way to cultivate crops?

It was true that the land belonged to the Lord. Those serfs had to pay a high rent for their share of land, but the private property belonged to the Lord. Everyone knew which side was given priority for the better things. 

However, even if this was not a good way and the Lord only wanted to go crazy, the agricultural official could only acquiesce to it.

In his mind, the official thought about whether there would be enough food in the warehouse in case of yield reduction this year. In any case, they wouldn’t be planting these weeds on the serf’s farmland. Worst-case scenario, they could exploit the peasants if a yield reduction were to occur.

Aside from this, Cui QiChao also had to think about the heavily saline soil.

Because of their salinization, these lands were kept idle. If this predicament could be improved, they would have a new large area of arable land! 

If it was only mildly saline alkali soil, the land could be improved by planting oats, cabbage and some green manure on it. For heavily saline alkali land, modern people could use alkali fertilizer and so on. However, they had nothing of the sort in this era, so what could they do? In fact, there were also some farming methods that required manual labour.

For example, after deep ploughing, digging three feet deep into the ground, burying the heavily saline alkali soil in it, the land would turn into arable land. But he didn’t have that much manpower at his disposal. The farmers in his fief were so busy from morning to night that they might not even have enough time to plough their own land, not to mention ploughing heavily saline alkali land.

However, it was possible to complete a project that would take a much shorter time, and that was to improve the water diversion. Dig channels around the saline alkali land, divert water, store rainwater, wash away the salt, and then turn the saline alkali soil into fertile soil.

“Let them dig ditches next to the white soil where they can’t grow crops. Reduce the time they come to work in my field by the time they take to complete this task,” Cui QiChao said. 

In addition to working on their respective plots of land, the serfs also worked on the Lord’s private land and carried out all farming-related chores. They were overwhelmed with a huge amount of farm work, so Cui QiChao didn’t rush to squeeze labor from them.

“You are too kind.” The agricultural official bowed. Although he didn’t understand yet another whimsical idea proposed by the Lord or his command to reduce the time the serfs worked on his field in exchange for completing the task, at least the Lord knew they couldn’t strangle cattle and horses in singularity. This was even more important if he was having them carry out inexplicable tasks.

Ch29.2 - All-natural Insecticides (Part Two)

Dylan was a serf whose entire family had lived in Northumberland for generations. His father and his father’s father farmed here all their lives, and his sons would inherit his share of the land and all the work that came with it, beginning at sunrise and ending at sunset.

This was how it had always been, but today’s Dylan had fallen into endless darkness. He took his sons to his share of the land early in the morning and discovered many thieving bugs crawling in his land. His whole body went cold and he hurriedly took his sons to squat down to catch them all.

The light brown bugs were grown out of rubbish and filth, not born in the light but blooming during the night. Their life’s purpose was to harm and lay their eggs in fields, to the point where you would wake up and, all of a sudden, your field would be full of larvae devouring your crops with not a single leaf left intact.

It was never known which day in spring they would be born, but once they were, they would bite through wheat and vegetables. After eating all the crops in a piece of land, they would move onto the next. No one knows how to predict their patterns. 

“Crush them, crush them all!” Dylan pinched each of them to death, but the field was so big and they had only three men and six hands. When would they catch them all?

Pests would lead to production reduction… and that would lead to a failure to pay rent. The consequences lingered in Dylan’s head, weighing his feet down heavier and heavier.

At this time, the agricultural official gathered all of them and announced that from tomorrow onwards, when they went to work in the Lord’s field, they must plant some weeds and dig ditches beside the master’s white soil. The length of time that would be spent digging the canals was just as much as farming—basically, it was the equivalent of changing jobs for them.

Dylan built up his courage and went to the agricultural official. He asked the official if he could stay in the fields to catch insects instead of digging ditches.

The agricultural official only oversaw farming. He couldn’t care less where the insects grow, so instead of agreeing to it, he gave Dylan a beating and told him that it was the result of his laziness and filthiness that the insects grew in his land. After he finished scolding Dylan, the official told him to scram and catch the insects. If the pests spread, it would delay the collection of rent and he will be beaten up as punishment because of it.

Dylan still did not dare leave, and asked again, “Do I have to dig ditches tomorrow?”

The agricultural official was so angry at Dylan’s inability to understand his words that he gave him another hit with the rod, “You don’t have to go!!”

“Thank you, sir. Thank you, sir.” Dylan stumbled as he went back to his land. 

The agricultural official eventually gave him an extra day’s time. He must try his best to catch the insects before it ends.

On his way back, Dylan found that the people in the other pieces of land began to look at him in hatred, and he bowed his head in shame. He knew that this was because the insects might run to his neighbours after eating everything in his land, and no one wanted to have thieving bugs in their fields.

Dylan urged his sons to speed up, and his hands moved faster. His waist and neck bent for a long time, and they ached as if moaning in pain.

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

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“Tbe vfjv qlu.” Ktf juglmeiaegji boolmlji rmbivfv. Lf uba boo atf tbgrf jcv abbx bea j yju bo sfiibk gtlhbwfr.

Dylan didn’t know what was inside and decided not to pay attention to it. He felt that he had already done his best and showed some dead insects to the agricultural official.

“Alright, put that away.” The agricultural official threw down the yellow rhizomes and said, “Boil these in water for a while, and then sprinkle the water onto your field. It’s the Lord Baron’s order.”

He said it vaguely, not mentioning why Dylan should do it, but Dylan did not dare to ask. 

Previously, after the official gave Dylan a day’s time, he went back to the castle and was asked by the Baron about the current situation in the fields. He ended up telling the Baron that there was a serf who had bugs in his land and, therefore, could not dig ditches.

He didn’t expect the Lord Baron, after asking what kind of insect it was, would pick out one of the crops he had handed in, and ask him to dig out some rhizomes and boil it in water for the serfs to sprinkle it on the crops.

At that time, the agricultural official was stunned for quite a while. He only heard that people could eat herbs, but he never heard of crops that could eat herbs. What’s more, he can’t tell whether this plant has the properties of herbal medicine or not.

The agricultural official now had to look for a plant that had a lot of rhizomes. Unfortunately, when he went around to collect the crops, he couldn’t remember where the plant grew. Fortunately, they didn’t grow far away and he managed to find them in the woods nearby. 

Next, he had to boil it in water. The agricultural official looked at the sun and at the shadow on the ground. When he determined it was almost done due to the amount of time that had passed, he asked Dylan to take the pot down.

Dylan was very distressed about his firewood. He has brought porcelain pots and firewood from his house which he has painstakingly collected. He stopped catching insects to place more firewood here, but he didn’t know what the use of it was.

When the water coolled, Dylan sprinkles them all in the field. A can of water couldn’t sprinkle too many places. As Dylan walked back, he heard his son scream.

“Father, the bug, the bug is dead!” 

What?!

In an instant, Dylan’s slow movement suddenly became faster, and his son felt that he had never seen his father run so fast. He made a dash to the spot where the bugs died and leaned down to look.

It really was true—those damn bugs were dead, and some more resilient ones were also on the verge of dying while trying to escape his land. From the sight of them, they did not have much longer to live.

“My God, my God…” Dylan’s voice trembled. He looked at the seedlings they were devouring and suddenly thought of something. Then he went to the side and saw that the insects were living just fine in those places where the boiled rhizome water had not been sprinkled. 

Dylan suddenly understood that the rhizomes sent by the agricultural official from the Lord Baron were for the treatment of these insects! What kind of magic medicine can even cure the infestation of bugs?

“Thank you, Lord Baron, thank you, agricultural official!” Dylan’s voice was breaking with gratefulness. The people who heard him looked up from the ground and wondered what was going on. When Dylan had been boiling water, they felt that what he was doing was strange, but because the agricultural official had been the one to command him, they didn’t dare to stop what they were doing and speak their mind.

In fact, the agricultural official was also shocked at the results.

It turned out that what the Lord said was true. Crops can also consume herbal medicine, and after consuming it, there would be no more insects! 

He regretted his suspicion in the beginning—but could he be blamed? Such a method has never been seen in any of the other surrounding territories. In fact, it was completely unheard of!

The agricultural official had to look as if this result was as expected and said, “Our Lord Baron is the nephew of the archbishop, who has returned from his journey to the East, and he was kind enough to bestow this unto you. This medicine was specifically prepared by the Lord himself—after processing it through boiling water, it can cure the infestation of those thieving bugs. Since you all now know of this, any of you who also have bugs in your lands will come to the castle to buy this medicine.”

As he was speaking, he quickly put the rest of the rhizomes away, thinking it was very fortunate that he only took the rhizomes here. The type of plant that it came from was not easily recognizable, as only Dylan saw it and he was also fooled.

“Lord agricultural official, I haven’t spread the medicine in the other fields yet.” Dylan said pitifully. 

“Only this amount was kindly bestowed to you by the Lord, the rest of it must be bought. You understand? Use grain or promise to farm more days in order to buy it.” The official stressed it again, “I’ll take it back and make a medicine with a thicker concentration, you can head there to buy it.”

With those words, he quickly left, thoughts circling his head on how to persuade the Lord to let him manage the distribution of the boiled water himself. In this way, his family would be able to obtain another skill to make them more valuable, and it would be specially dedicated to killing insects in the Lord’s territory. The official was already imagining what would happen as a consequence of that.

Unfortunately, what he had forgotten in his daydreams was how he himself had described the Lord Baron in his mind: whimsical.

. 

The agricultural official went back to the castle and carefully boiled the rest of the rhizomes in the water without letting anyone see him do it. After, he ran to the Lord, panting as he gave his report.

Cui QiChao was not surprised at the news and flatly said, “Those rhizome skins are poisonous, so they could kill the insects. However, if people and livestock consume it, they will get sick. It has to be carefully preserved, there is more rain and insects this spring, so the farmers have to be careful about that.”

“I see, I see.” The agricultural official’s face was red and he rubbed his hands and said, “Lord, we shouldn’t give such miraculous medicine to the serfs for free, nor should we tell them how to make it. It is a craft bestowed by the Lord.”

Cui QiChao only had to take a cursory look at the official and already knew what kind of thoughts were in his mind. Since he would have a lot of time in the future to command this man, he decided to let him taste some sweetness first. “Of course, you are my agricultural official. You are responsible for killing insects. In the future, if a serf or Freeman’s land becomes infested with more thieving bugs, he will come to you for the medicine. When the rent is collected, he will also have to pay two bowls of wheat for each medicine at the same time.” 

If everything went as planned, two bowls of wheat would soon be no big burden to the serfs by the time rent is collected.

The agricultural official’s eyes were shining. From what the Lord was saying, whoever had insects crawling around in their land would have to ask him to kill them, including other officials. The official gave thanks in a high voice and felt the urge to kiss the Lord Baron’s feet in reverence.

Under the orders of the agricultural official, the servant handed the medicine over to Dylan, who agreed to hand over two more bowls of wheat when it came time for rent collection.

Compared to when the wheat had been gnawed away and there was no harvest, this was a good exchange, so Dylan bore the pain and agreed. After telling the other serfs that they would have to report any insect infestations, he forgot about the pain he experienced and said aloud how effective the Lord Baron’s herbs were. 

Cui QiChao explained the medicine carefully to the agricultural official. In addition to the thieving bugs, there are oriental armyworms, mulberry pests and so on, all of which can be killed. If one doesn’t have the living conditions to boil water, or if you don’t want to waste firewood, soak the roots all day, and the medicine will still be equally effective.

As a matter of fact, these yellow rhizomes belong to a type of Celastraceae and they have a plain appearance. They appear like flowers that can be seen everywhere. The locals didn’t have a name for them specially, and they just call them blue flower vine.

Cui QiChao was not sure about its scientific name in the Middle Ages, but several genera of Celastraceae are poisonous and can be used as medicine. Its close relatives grew in East Asia, named Tripterygium Wilfordii and Fabaceae. All these plants were natural insecticides for ancient farmers.

The agricultural official was even more ecstatic when he heard this. His eyes were very different when he looked at Cui QiChao. It seems that this respectable Lord Baron really learned true farming techniques when he was traveling in the East. 

“Meow…” As Cui QiChao was speaking, suddenly, a cat’s meow came from behind him, and even the agricultural official looked sideways at it.

Cui QiChao stopped for a moment and asked, “XiaoBai?”

A black cat came out from under the bed, “Meow.”

The agricultural official: “……” 

XiaoBai?? He doesn’t quite understand the name.

Cui QiChao went to take a look. XiaoBai’s two brothers were still sleeping. Only this greedy cat woke up, hungry. He fed XiaoBai some dry peas and water.

The agricultural official looked at the Lord Baron with strange eyes. It’s normal for old men to raise dogs, horses and feed them, but this is a cat.

Cui QiChao immediately made a gesture, as if he shot XiaoBai to death. XiaoBai angrily let go of the beans, fell to the ground and even spasmed. 

Cui QiChao had a cold smile and said, “I’m studying the dose and toxicity of the insecticide.”

The agricultural official shuddered and buried his head deeply in the ground.