Ch33.1 - The Craziest Lord (Part One)

Northumberland was not much different from other territories. Thousands of families called this place their home. Aside from the nobles and knights, the serfs, freemen, and slaves made up the majority of the population.

Serfs utilized their labor, goods, and money to pay agricultural rent and various taxes. Despite owning a little plot of land, they were unable to leave the Lord’s territory and were severely limited in their activities.

The word “freemen” was broad. Freemen were commonly referred to as self-employed homesteaders in Northumberland. Homesteaders farm on their own lands, yet they must pay rent for farmland and farming to the Lord. In addition to these freemen, there were handicrafts men and craftsmen who made a livelihood through their crafts. The living circumstances of these individuals were far superior to those of serfs. 

The slaves, on the other hand, were the most miserable. They had neither a share of the land nor the rights to freedom. They were the Lord’s personal belongings. They didn’t own anything. No matter how hard they worked, they would receive nothing in exchange for their efforts.

If a person owed the Lord money, he may or may not be converted into a slave. If one stole, one might end up as a slave. Or, if you accomplished nothing but a noble happened to violently seize your territory, you’d be forced to become a slave.

Northumberland had about a hundred such slaves. They would have to do whatever the Lord said. They were pummeled every day and had no hopes of continuing to live.

Of course, their lives improved following the arrival of the new Lord, because the Lord disliked beating people. He was mainly interested in beating cats. They reasoned that their numb shouts couldn’t possibly bring delight to the Lord.

Recently, the shepherd dogs that were introduced to Northumberland were already used to working here; several slaves who were in charge of cattle and herding were freed. They expected to be entrusted with collecting oats, but instead the Lord summoned them all to the castle hall to teach them manual labor.

All slaves doubted what their ears heard.

The craftsmen were people who were better off than some of the less affluent homesteaders, while they were just slaves. How could they learn handicrafts?

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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The Lord, on the other hand, requested the knights to intimidate them by pointing their swords at them, and they had to agree. Later, the Lord said that if they taught these slaves, they would be paid a small wage from the expense of renting out slave-made farming tools.

Therefore, they were all sitting here together now, teaching the slaves to make a horse harness.

The Lord Baron said that the ox harness used on the horses had caused the horses’ necks to be strained and needed to be tilted upwards. It seemed as if the yoke had been placed on the horse in order to strangle them.

They had to replace the horse harness with a leather shoulder harness and make a crossbar in the front to tie the harness, making it more convenient for many of the horses to pull the cart and plough together. 

Even though the Lord had threatened them with their lives, forcing them to make this, this harness was so convenient. It wasn’t known if they misconceived it, but with this, the horses seemed to have more strength to work.

The Lord Baron also prepared a lot of raw materials for them to practice. He stood on the steps and said, “If anyone is the first to produce a complete and usable horse harness, I will reward him.”

He looked around, and all the slaves were staring at him. The best reward they could think of was a full meal.

However, the Lord Baron said, “After the harness is produced, I will reward the slave with a share of the property. When the harness is rented out, the slave can own half of the rent received.” 

Cui QiChao carefully considered the receptiveness of the slaves towards the reward. He didn’t say that I have released you from being my slave and you will be my serf. Instead, he said that I would give you a specific property.

Though it didn’t matter to Cui QiChao to offer them property as a reward, it caught the slaves off guard, and they couldn’t recover for a long time.

They could obtain a piece of the Lord’s property? This was what they usually dare not even think about! All the slaves’ property belonged to the Lord, half of the income of a horse harness’s rent… As they thought about it, the slaves’ faces turned red. Looking at the model of the harness, their eyes glowed, and they wanted to carve its appearance into their hearts.

Under the enticement of such a great reward, the slaves studied with all their hearts. Although it was difficult for them to commence replicating it since they had never even seen how it was made, let alone touch it. Cui QiChao felt that there would always be someone who could be enlightened and would encourage them to learn the skills on how to produce the crafts. 

And at this time, it was time for the wheat harvesting season. The yield of wheat was higher than that of oats. It might be because the crops were fed water for more days, and the soil wasn’t the saline alkali soil, so the effect was more obvious.

Of course, the effects were still limited to the wheat in the Lord’s field. The other people’s wheat still remained the same.

Harvesting crops was a long-term job. After all, they had a small labor force.

During this period, before plowing the land they would use to sow seeds in the autumn, a serf named Harry completely crafted a usable horse harness. 

Cui QiChao fulfilled his promise and asked the storekeeper of the farming tools to write it down in front of everyone. Harry was given half of the income of this horse harness.

Harry fainted on the spot. Of course, there was no lack of reasons why he fainted, but it might be because his stomach wasn’t filled all year round. But everyone in the fief who mentioned the incident merely focused on describing his joy.

In Northumberland, it was not that there never had been slaves who couldn’t please the Lord. However, it never crossed the previous Lords’ minds to really give his human tools a reward.

To reward the others who equally worked hard, Cui QiChao also encouraged them, “The next person who could make a horse harness can get half a bowl of oat paste and exchange it on the spot.” 

So, when everyone began to plow on their fallow lands, there were more than enough horse harnesses, and the people in the castle stood beside the field, watching the eight horses plowing together.

This was a private land belonging to the Lord, which was different from the barren farmlands in other places. Because of sufficient irrigation and because they cultivated a season of green manure, the soil was finally blackening.

Generally speaking, people preferred to use cattle and horses to pull the plow. Cui QiChao used an entire horse line-up, with slaves setting an hourglass on one side. When only horses plowed the field together, the time elapsed was at least 20% faster than when cattle and horses pulled together and when they used the cattle harness! And at this time, the horses had not even warmed up their bodies!

Luckily, this year, there were more oat grasses, and there were green manure grasses to feed the horses, otherwise the consumption of these crops would really be too big. 

The agricultural official also said with ecstasy, “Lord, with these harnesses, when you use the horses to pull up some wheat back to the warehouse, the horses could also carry more weight. The weight they could carry is quadrupled.”

The horses wouldn’t be choked by their harnesses. Therefore, obviously, the horses were able to use more of their strength. In this way, to transport the original amount of wheat, it would only take the horses four trips to finish carrying everything. With this, a lot of time could be saved. After all, time equates to grains.

“Have you stored all the seeds?” Cui QiChao asked again when he heard the agricultural official talking about them pulling the wheat back.

He found that these people did not know how to properly preserve the seeds, and often half of the wheats must be left behind as seeds. This was because the germination rate was too low the next year when they farmed. Other than the soil being a reason for low harvest, the seeds also weren’t properly preserved, and the vitality of the seeds was lost. 

Were they joking with Cui QiChao? They wanted to plant 15 to 20 kg of seeds per mu?

According to Cui QiChao, 4kg of seeds were enough for growing oats in one mu, and 6 to 15 kg of seeds were needed for wheat in one mu. After all, the germination rate of high-quality and active seeds was more than 90%.

Although the conditions in the middle-ages were poor, the germination rate had to be kept at more than half for him. No matter what, he wouldn’t need to use 15 kg of oats in a mu to have a good harvest.

Cui QiChao, of course, did not say these words to the agricultural official for the time being in order not to scare the agricultural official. 

In terms of seed preservation, Cui QiChao told the agricultural official to first spread the seeds on sunny days, and keep turning them as they tan in the sun. It would remove 80% of the water, and next, he would have to pile them up. The warehouse must be dried; otherwise, the seeds would absorb moisture and their attempts to tan the seeds would be in vain.

Now, the agricultural official was very obedient to Cui QiChao. In order to finish what the Lord ordered, he personally guarded the edge of the place where he tanned the seeds, tested the temperature with his hands, and stared at the serfs turning the wheat. The warehouse was also prepared by him after he had wiped out the insects.

So now, the agricultural official could claim with pride, “Don’t worry, I’ll make proper arrangements for the storage of the grains!”

“Very good.” Cui QiChao praised casually, “Go ahead and have a look at the plowed land.” 

When they stepped forward, they saw that some of the blackened farmland was loose, while some of the others were wet and soft, and the soil wasn’t as hard as many of the other farmlands. These lands had soil that was like a pile of hard soil even after plowing the fields.

If any medieval farmer saw this, they would know that this was a piece of arable land with strong fertility!

Although this was a fallow area, as everyone knows, a fallow land half a year ago could never have reached such a high quality.

When the agricultural official saw the land, he thought of his own land. Because he followed what the Lord did, it was almost in the same state. It was very fertile. He said happily, “Now the serfs are fighting for the land. Under the starry skies, they would continue working, and dig ditches beside their own fields.” 

Only by imitating the Lord could they achieve the same, excellent land.

Lord Cui was still dissatisfied with the land he owned. Most parts of this land was still in an earthy yellow color with a slight blackness. It had softer soil as compared to the soil in the other lands, but it was not loose enough that it would clump into small spheres. The soil was still clotting seriously. The states of the soil represent its drainage, aeration, moisture retention, and fertility.

In Cui QiChao’s opinion, this land was not up to the standard, but for others, it was already a rare good land. Coupled with the news of the horses having ample strength, today was really a day that was full of good news.

Ch33.2 - The Craziest Lord (Part Two)

Because of the bumper harvest this year, the church successfully received its taxes. In previous years, the church was never able to collect the full amount of taxes due to some sort of disaster falling onto the land or some other reasons.

It was also at this time that Cui QiChao began writing to his relative, the archbishop, sending the tax revenue alongside the letter.

In the letter, he claimed that he had been experimenting with eastern farming methods on his lands and that to his surprise, they were just as effective here. He also included his discovery that the soil in the East and here in the West were the same, as well as attached some of the crops they had cultivated this year on the letter. 

He called the technique he used to kill insects and fertilize crops herbalism, symbolizing that he was curing the land.

Few people had ever been to the country where Cui QiChao had visited. However, the technique he invented and the seeds he attached as evidence made them believe in his words.

The archbishop couldn’t wait to experiment on the church’s land. At the same time, he wrote to his nephew, telling him to keep his method on being able to maintain crops fertility a secret. He also asked him to seal the people’s mouths in the fief, keep a close eye on every passer-by in his territory, and not let any of them see or hear the techniques behind that method. The archbishop also advised him not to tell anyone else about this. Otherwise, thieves might visit his territory.

Cui QiChao thought, “If someone doesn’t offend me, then I won’t offend them.” Then, “But if someone offends me, then I’ll have the craftsmen make weapons instead of farming tools…”

Now that there was more food in the warehouse, Cui QiChao’s confidence on this matter grew. Everyone knew that the most important things in a battle were the weaponry and the soldiers’ physiques. The knights had the weapons, but the fief didn’t have enough food to feed all of them.

He was probably the most generous Lord. After all, his love for the people made him want to feed even the slaves.

In addition to intercropping the crops, some green manure should be used as base fertilizer before planting crops. Currently, ditches were being dug in most of the fief, so that more water could be poured, which would enable the green manure to decompose more quickly.

Of course, they should also pay attention to how they stored seeds. If they wanted to keep some grass seeds for planting later on in the field, they should first harvest the grass, knock out the seeds, take back the stems and roots, and press down on them. 

These grass seeds should then be carefully placed in the same warehouse as the grain seeds. A layer of quicklime was placed underneath the storage container and isolated by fine cloth, before the seeds were stored inside. A piece of fine cloth was put on the top, and plant ash was laid beneath. In this manner, everything would be covered. One must be meticulous when carrying out the entire process.

The slaves who were assigned to accomplish this work had questions in their minds: wasn’t quicklime usually used to build houses? Why were they placing quicklime on top of the seeds? Could the Lord be intending to build a barrier over the seeds?

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.

In a sense, they were right.

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However, ordinary people consumed the bread straightaway without even soaking it. Although even nobles inevitably had to eat some black bread, the texture of their black bread would be finer than that of the commoners. If one wanted to lead an exquisite lifestyle or was rich, one might be willing to let their servants sift the wheat flour to make white bread.

However, even the white bread would be too tough to swallow for someone who lived in a later era. In any case, after Cui QiChao arrived in this plane, he ate very little bread. For the first time, he missed rice so much.

Anyway, the people who used the mill had to pay rent to the Lord.

The good news was that this year, because of proper pest control and favorable weather, the serfs’ lands saw an increase in their crop yield. Although the yield had not increased as much as the harvest in the Lord’s field, it was still passable. In particular, because the Lord wanted to quickly build dams and ditches, he used mush as motivation to improve everyone’s work speed instead of using sticks and whips. Therefore, on every working day, the serfs who participated in the construction were able to have an extra meal and save up some rations. Because of this, paying rent wouldn’t be too much of a headache for them. 

——When living in poverty, these farmers were very glad to have a little bit of affluence.

August and September were the best months of the year, warm and comfortable. Moreover, before finishing this season’s work and the next season’s sowing, the Lord of Northumberland must entertain everyone in his territory and reward them for their efforts, as was the custom. This was also to show that their territory had received a good harvest.

The dishes served in this banquet depended on the Lord’s generosity. In some places, one might only be given a few cabbage leaves or beans. But the quality of the food didn’t really make much of a difference. They were usually given to the village head, whose task was to distribute them to the villagers. Only, it was very likely for the village head to embezzle and keep everything for himself.

If things were according to their yield, such a banquet was in line with the norm. 

But this year, the banquet was different.

This was the first banquet that the new Lord Baron had ever hosted. He moved the kitchen to the grass fields and asked the women in the castle to help out. Men, on the other hand, had to head to the woods to catch pigs.

In the middle ages, the social status of farm animals was higher than slaves. This applied to cattle, horses, sheep, pigs, chickens, and ducks.

When the men were catching pigs, the serfs had no thoughts of being able to eat pork themselves. They didn’t think about it at all. 

In the face of the stewards’ opposition, Cui QiChao brutally suppressed it. He arrogantly said, “I have told my uncle about our harvest. Perhaps I will have more territory and cattle and sheep in the future. No, it’s not just a possibility. This is for certain. ”

The stewards were speechless and choked on their words. No wonder the Lord was a bit extravagant even in ordinary times. For the sake of increasing the speed of the construction, he gave the serfs mush to eat. And now, because he was so happy, he decided to kill some pigs to provide pork for the serfs.

Their Lord Baron must be the craziest Lord in the south.

Cui QiChao was afraid that they would chatter again. He stabbed a duck to death with his sword on the spot and said, “My stewards and soldiers have worked hard too. The serfs have broth to drink, so all of you will enjoy the most delicious barbecue.” 

On one hand, it wasn’t too abnormal to give the serfs broth. On the other hand, since the serfs couldn’t eat meat all year round, Cui QiChao couldn’t feed them luxurious meats as soon as he came here. Besides the broth, there were other vegetables provided for them.

A moment of silence reigned inside the castle, followed by a roar of cheers. Who cares?! Who would care if someone gave them meat to eat?! Only a fool wouldn’t eat the meat the Lord gave them!

.

Cattle and horses couldn’t be casually eaten. Cui QiChao asked someone to kill pigs and sheep. But how could one cook meat without oil? Because the cook had complained, Cui QiChao did not ask her to use olive oil. Instead, he said, “Refine some lard.” 

In the middle ages, people used all kinds of vegetable oil. The aristocracy especially loved olive oil. After all, livestock was rare, so meat oil was not popular.

The cook didn’t know how to make lard at all. It was Cui QiChao who guided her.

The butchers killed pigs, while the women in the castle cleaned up after them. At this moment, they still believed that the meat was prepared for the knights and stewards since  they would also attend the banquet.

There was no difference between these pigs and wild boars. The fat on their bodies was only one-sixth to one-seventh of that of modern pigs. The women cleaned the fat, cut it into large pieces, threw the pieces into a pot, and then boiled them over low heat. 

In the beginning, the only thing seeping out of the fat was water. But slowly, the lard began to tighten and seep oil. A meaty smell wafted in the air, causing the women to swallow their saliva.

Most of the people who worked here were serfs. Black bread was already a rare delicacy for them, not to mention meat.

“Scoop out the oil.” As per Cui QiChao’s orders, the cook ladled the emerging lard oil into a jar. There were still some impurities in it, but this era did not possess the conditions to filter it. As such, there was no need to filter it out.

This process continued until the lard turned into pieces of golden and crispy pork lard. This meant that they had finished frying the lard. Silence descended at this moment. The dirty-faced peasant women were staring at the lard residue, their faces looking like blocks of wood. 

The cook scooped the crispy pork lard onto a wooden plate. Cui QiChao only dared to eat the dishes he had supervised. He took the wooden plate, picked one up, and put it in his mouth. Although no salt was sprinkled on them, the smell was very strong. It made a crunching sound in his mouth, as oil burst from it.

XiaoBai was hopping around near Cui QiChao’s foot. It obviously wanted to eat too.

It was fine if he fed the cat in moderation. But Cui QiChao couldn’t give the cat some food so blatantly, so he pretended that his hand shook and accidentally dropped a piece. XiaoBai immediately jumped up to catch it.

All the peasant women sighed in their hearts. This lucky cat… 

Cui QiChao handed the wooden plate to the cook and said, “You take a bite, too. Give every woman here a piece as well.”

What he said was beyond everyone’s expectations. The peasant women could not believe their ears.

The cook, who knew that she had to cook broth for the serfs today, was numb to the Lord’s command. She took the wooden plate, picked up two pieces of crispy pork lard, and put them in her mouth. The strong aroma of the lard made her reluctant to even swallow it, so she allowed the lard to stay on her tongue. Afterward, she approached every peasant woman and handed out the lard residue.

Everyone was still quiet, but their eyes were lit up. Their eyes darted in different directions, following the cook’s figure. But they didn’t dare fight over the crispy fried pork lard. They only dared to wait for the cook to distribute it. 

Everyone could only have one each. Like the cook, they placed it onto their tongue and sucked on it until it had completely softened and not even a bit of oil could be sucked out anymore. Only then did they swallow the fried lard. The fried pork lard’s rich aroma and soft texture dropped them into a pit of happiness.

Afterward, they shot a glance at the Lord, who was rubbing the cat with his feet as if nothing was out of the ordinary. What was with the way the Lord treated them? This implied that the Lord himself was giving them meat to eat!

Before the end of the year, even though everyone was able to drink broth later on, this didn’t stop the peasant women from frequently mentioning today’s experience in front of other people. They described the fried pork lard as if it was a delicious food that had descended from the skies.

Sometimes, whether a food was delicious to someone had nothing to do with the taste but with the mood. Just based on the extent that the peasant women welcomed the new food, one would have thought they just had the best food in the world. 

The last bit of crispy fried pork lard was the cook’s. Afterward, she would be busy.

The stewards were still enjoying their barbecue in the castle. Cui QiChao should have returned to join them in the castle, but he was afraid the broth would be embezzled, so he insisted on standing beside it. According to the stewards, he said he had to watch over the event with his own eyes.

After the mutton soup was cooked on the grassfield, the steward said to the serfs, “All of you can now return home.”

Although the steward didn’t feel that he was lacking meat to eat and convinced himself countless times that this was the Lord’s decision, when he saw the serfs’ ignorance and thought about how the serfs were about to enjoy the broth, the steward slightly itched with hatred. 

The serfs all relaxed. As they expected, they could go back after helping the Lord finish his work. At that time, maybe the village head would give everyone a bowl of oatmeal mush.

They lingered around the pots of soup. Those who were at the grassfields clearly saw how many real ingredients were used to cook the broth and personally experienced how fragrant it smelled and even how oily it was. The mutton had been stewed until it was soft and could almost disintegrate any second. A lot of herbs were added, too. Finally, the cook’s spoon pulled the meat away from the bone.

The leg bone, which was tilted within the soup, had some broken meat stuck to it. It was sticking out of the thick, white, and enticing soup. One cook could almost see the bone marrow in the middle of the bone that was cooked until soft. Carrying the delicious scent of mutton, the steaming heat travelled straight to everyone’s noses. They didn’t detect any stench from the mutton.

However, no one knew why the cook had put carrots into the mutton soup. Wouldn’t putting carrots in a soup cook the carrots? There were also some cabbage leaves in the soup, which had been cooked along with every ingredient and placed in a big pot. This way of eating food was novel to them. 

The serfs dragged their heavy feet and stared at the mutton soup. Just as they reluctantly prepared to leave—

The steward continued, “Bring the best containers in your house, and bring along all your kids to enjoy the dinner bestowed by the Lord Baron. This broth is for all of you.”

For a moment, silence permeated the entire grass field. No other sound could be heard other than the chirping of birds.

All the serfs’ expressions were frozen. What happened just now?