Ch39.1 - Takeaway Slaves (Part One)

The Northumberland trade team was composed of ten knights and thirty knight attendants. The leading knight was Raymond, who proclaimed that their whole team should catch thieves to farm for the Lord. That’s why he was promoted. This time, when they journeyed out, he was the captain of the team.

Raymond was so honoured to be the captain. He was very helpful and encouraged everyone to move along to their first stop, Abruzzburg, as soon as possible.

There, they would visit the Lord of the Abruzzburg. Presumably, it was expected that they would be unable to access the castle. No castle would let in that many outsiders. After all, the castle was designed as a stronghold.

According to Joseph’s records, a considerable amount of buckwheat was sown in Abruzzburg’s fief. This was a plant from the distant East, and the Lord placed a maximum priority on it. This type of crop was wary of the cold and would die if the temperature fell below zero degrees. However, this was not considered a big issue. This plant might be easily sown in the winter. 

Buckwheat, like oats, were considered as coarse grains. In Joseph’s narration, the yield of buckwheat was not very high, but Cui QiChao knew that buckwheat liked moisture. Northumberland had water conservation systems in place, and buckwheat was also extremely sensitive to fertilizers. If one gave it some fertilizer, it would return with a plethora of seeds and flowers. Northumberland was the continent’s sole fief that used fertilizers.

Anyway, it was quite suitable for enriching the crops in Northumberland and to use it as one of the crops for the alternative cropping system. The Lord ordered that this must be accrued.

After five days of travel, the temperature dropped below zero and snow began to fall. Fortunately, Raymond and others were dressed in thick “Cui Family’s Subordinates” sweaters and cloaks, with their legs encased in wool socks and cow leather boots. This was sufficient for them to withstand the wind, snow, and cold.

Maybe it was because of the snow, but the next day, the trade team met the first group of thieves. Surprisingly, they met the thieves of the lands of Northumberland.

The thieves had awful judgement. What fell into their vision was the sight of the trade team eating the toast, but they didn’t pay attention to the weapons and armor stacked next to the horses. The trade team easily subdued a small gang of fifteen thieves.

As they went forth, within ten days, they captured three more gangs of thieves!

They were all thieves. Raymond interrogated them and discovered that most of them were farmers from other territories who couldn’t survive the winter and decided to take the risk of robbing others.

“What’s going on this year?” Raymond smacked his tongue. Under the management of the Lord, everyone merely felt that they enjoyed good weather this year, had all kinds of harvests, and even the turnips grew bigger. 

However, outside of Northumberland, farmers in neighboring villages appeared to be plagued by insect infestations. Many of these thieves were even citizens. It was clear that the productivity drop caused by pests was more severe than they had anticipated. Furthermore, there was a lot of rain this year, but owing to a lack of drainage, the parched area was suddenly flooded with water…

At this time, the knights realized how fortunate they were. Their fief, Northumberland, was only under the rule of a male Baron. It wasn’t particularly large, but the happiness index was so high. And because Northumberland was unobtrusive, it had not been subjected to too much thievery.

Throughout their journey, they fed these thieves with wild peas, but as the days passed by they wouldn’t be able to suppress the thieves for much longer. They wasted time hunting for those dried beans in the snow mounds, but it was merely a waste of time, and the rewards for going after these thieves weren’t great.

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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They lit a fire to toast and heat up the bread. The sausages on it were sizzling and emitting oil, and the thieves who ate shrivelled beans looked over at them, envy reflected in their eyes.

Raymond felt that this could not go on. After reaching an agreement with the other knights, he stood up and said, “We didn’t kill you because there are still many arable lands in our territory that need manpower. Well, if all of you are willing, I’ll send an attendant to take you to Northumberland. As long as you are willing to take refuge, the Lord will keep you and give you a meal.”

These bandits, who were born farmers, sported a look of mistrust in their eyes. How could they have food while there was famine everywhere and so many serfs died of starvation?

——It had nothing to do with one’s social standing, whether slave or serf. Even people born as freemen, like them, might go hungry. Who wouldn’t want to be a slave if they could eat their fill? 

“Look at our bread!” Raymond had to show off his wealth and he showed their food to the hillbillies. “Have you ever seen a nobleman with sausage in his bread? Look clearly, this is not pork sausage made with offal. It’s pure pork!”

The fat and thin strips of pork meat were clearly visible!

The thieves felt tempted. Anyway, they were at the ends of their tethers. They would die, no matter where they head to now. What if there was food in their territory?

Raymond tied the serfs to a rope and sent an attendant to take them back. 

Next day, the soldiers were divided into two routes. The attendants took the direction of where they came from to send the thieves back, and the others continued to Abruzzburg.

Because of what Raymond said, the newbie thieves who were holding high expectations did not make trouble and followed the attendants obediently.

Raymond was relieved he made this decision, since on the journey ahead, they saw many waves of robbers who were robbing to make a livelihood. If he allowed the number of thieves in their squad to grow, perhaps these various groups of thieves would band together to attack them!

He picked up people all the way, and because they captured so many people, these soldiers from the trading team returned to Northumberland three times to transfer the slaves. Raymond felt that his words had been heard by God, so God wanted to fulfil his wishes, to allow him to catch serfs for the Lord. 

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So, at Northumberland, Cui QiChao, who was making barley cakes, received the “takeaway” from the knights.

It was also snowing in Northumberland, so people were less active. Cui QiChao spent the entire day in the castle. He was so bored that he devised a task for himself to accomplish.

The cuisine was very boring throughout the winter. Cui QiChao devised a plan to have the craftsmen construct a frying plate out of stones and heat it until it was boiling hot enough to spread pancakes on. 

Everyone in the kitchen foolishly watched Cui QiChao commanding people to bake stones. Everyone thought, can stones become delicious with the Lord’s magical skills?

Facts proved that their brains couldn’t be compared with the Lord. After the frying plate was heated, Cui QiChao took out the barley flour paste.

Cui QiChao asked Lily to grind it ahead of time. He spooned some onto the greased stone frying plate. It was burning, and the fragrance of wheat was wafting through the air. He had to spread out some of the flour paste into a batter the size of a basin. Spread an egg on top, then top with shredded veggies and sausage.

As everyone watched him preparing the pancakes, everyone began to drool. They had never tasted the taste of pancakes, but everyone knew that eggs and sausage were delicious! 

Even XiaoBai began to circle around Cui QiChao’s feet. Cui QiChao must not forget it.

Cui QiChao’s skill to regulate the temperature and time under such minimal apparatus, as well as his ability to turn over the pancakes in time, resulted in fragrant pancakes when they were eventually taken out. The skin was a little crunchy, and the interior was filled with eggs. It was also used to wrap vegetables and broken sausages within. It smelled wonderful and fluffy at the same time.

Cui QiChao spread a few cakes on the primitive frying pan. Later, the cooked pancakes were stacked in a wooden pan, steaming. The aroma of the pancakes was so rich that it not only permeated the entire kitchen. The odor spread outdoors as well.

When the servant who had been summoned came, he followed the fragrance inside. He swallowed his saliva and said, “The attendant Bernard brought back more than 40 people. They are outside the castle, and they are now beseeching you on how they should deal with these people.” 

Cui QiChao recalled that Bernard was a member of the trade team. For this reason, he also confirmed, “Is he that red haired Bernard?”

“Yes, Lord.”

Because everyone in the middle ages didn’t have a surname and there were so many people, it was inevitable that there was a duplicate name. At this time, people were distinguished by their characteristics. The old one, the small one, the one with acne on his face and so on.

When it was determined that it was red haired Bernard, Cui QiChao walked out with pancakes and asked, “How long has the trade team been gone, how did he come back, and what kind of people are the 40 over people?” 

As Cui QiChao walked around, the servants led by the cook behind him couldn’t help following him out step by step, and their eyes were still lingering at the pancakes…

“Those were thieves captured by them on the road. It is said that most of them came out to rob because of the poor harvest in other territories this year and they were starving to death.”

“These are prisoners?” Cui QiChao’s eyes brightened. “I didn’t judge Raymond, this lad, inaccurately. He sent back more than 40 people only after he went out for a short period.”

Cui QiChao thought that if he had known the situation of other territories, he would have sent someone out to gather those people. They experienced no famine in Northumberland. It was good for them to gather people here to develop the wasteland! 

His territory had a population of barely a few thousand people. As a result, a few dozen people were not insignificant to him. If Raymond captures additional groups of dozens of individuals, they would have a massive workforce.

“Bring these people in. They’re all hungry. What can possibly happen?” Cui QiChao sent several knights to pick up these people. He sat at the table and ate pancakes.

XiaoBai scratched his legs. It wanted to eat, wanted to eat.

Cui QiChao gently stepped on its feet and motioned for it to wait. There were still things waiting to be resolved by him. And everyone was still staring at him. It wasn’t nice for Cui QiChao to head back, or deliberately drop a piece for XiaoBai, like he did previously. 

So, when the newly captured thieves were brought in, they saw a noble master eating fragrant food.

It was not dinner time yet!

And this man was eating what appeared to be bread. It didn’t appear like a pie and was rather thin. Inside were veggies, sausages, and eggs. Everyone stared at him, chewing every time he bit into it.

Looking at how easily he bit down on it, everyone knew that the flour must have been finely sieved, and there was no gluten in it. The pancakes were fragrant, soft and slightly crisp. Judging from the steam in the air, this must be freshly cooked. 

Heavens, they might have really come to a place where there was no famine.

The noble Lord whispered a few words to the servants. While eating the cakes comfortably, he asked them, “Did you do farm work previously? Would you like to remain here?”

——The man held up a piece of cake and asked if people wanted to stay. Who could say no? Besides, Raymond had already revealed to them some information about the territory.

Cui QiChao looked at the thieves who were nodding wildly and said, “Alright, then drag them to the barn and let them work with Joseph and the others.” 

With Cui QiChao’s command, without asking more questions, the servants dragged these people to the barn. Upon seeing this scene, people who weren’t aware would think that the servants were dragging them to be executed.

The people who came to Northumberland after a long journey were taken to the barn. There was already a group of people resting here, led by Joseph.

Due to his meritorious contribution, although he had not yet completely obtained his freedom, he had risen a lot in the ranks and could squat together and chat with the slaves who took care of them. His other companions sprawled on the ground in a relaxed posture, and at first glance, one could tell that they treated the barn as like their homes.

Most of these new groups of thieves were freemen previously. They had never been slaves. They were unfamiliar with the scene in front of them and didn’t know how to interact with the people here. 

Although Joseph did not know where they all came from, that did not prevent him from recognizing that they were all new slaves. A moment later, he warmly greeted them, “New slaves? Come, just find a place to rest. I’m going to trim the fruit trees in a while. When it’s before dark, we will be able to eat some mush. Everyone, bring out your best!”

The new slaves slowly opened their mouths: Before dark, we could eat mush?

Ch39.2 - Takeaway Slaves (Part Two)

After Cui QiChao sent the slaves away, he returned to his room with the rest of the pancakes.

As Cui QiChao’s prestige in Northumberland grew higher and higher, he became more and more unscrupulous. Look, he could even cook food during non-mealtimes. He could be called a very absurd and extravagant lord in an era when gluttony should be something to be ashamed of.

Cui QiChao broke the pancakes into small pieces and fed them to the cats. Due to the limitations of the current era, he couldn’t cook for the cats during their every meal. During this era, everyone casually ate whatever they could find to survive.

DaBai stared at the pancakes, feeling so anxious that it stood up and placed its legs on Cui QiChao’s legs. 

Before Cui QiChao could scold him, XiaoBai slapped DaBai on its head, causing DaBai to jump away three meters.

XiaoBai shot Cui QiChao a careful look. Did it use too much force? It was afraid that Cui QiChao would take out something else to scare it again.

Cui QiChao fed the pancakes bit by bit to the cats. When Lily later came to take the plate away, there were still some left, so Cui QiChao let her eat the rest.

Lily was in her puberty phase. During her stay in the castle, she not only grew taller, but her cheeks also appeared plumper and much healthier because she was given enough food compared to in the past.

Lily sat on the carpet inhaling the pancakes, while DaBai and DaJu walked around her. Although they were already a little cold, their unique texture of being crispy on the outside and tender on the inside still made Lily feel happy.

“My Lord, my mother sent me a message to return home and see them once I’m free,” Lily said spiritlessly.

She knew that her parents must think that working in the castle’s kitchen could grant her some advantages. After all, the Lord was so generous that he allowed people without clothes to rent his woollen clothes.

But Lily was not happy. When she had been caught and trialled, her parents didn’t utter a word of protest, so Lily complained to Cui QiChao, “But even if you allow me to do so, I don’t even want to go home after spring, let alone right now. My Lord, can you just keep me here?” 

This was what she was really looking forward to, and not taking some time off to head home.

Cui QiChao gazed at her for a while and calmly said, “If you hadn’t been born in this era, maybe you could all have different choices. However, I allow you to not go home for the time being and work in the kitchen. Your rent and tax will be offset by your own work.”

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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Lily looked at it with regret. XiaoBai had always been a cat that didn’t allow people to get close to it. Meanwhile, DaBai and DaJu usually didn’t act that averse to her after finishing their meals.

After Lily left, Cui QiChao picked up XiaoBai. Its face was tilted upwards, resting on his legs. “What’s the matter with a little girl giving you a hug? It’s not as if you showered more times than she did, right?”

XiaoBai: “…..” 

Cui QiChao really wasn’t ashamed to say this. As if Cui QiChao was the one who prevented him from doing so in the first place.

“Shouldn’t cats like gentle women?” Cui QiChao cupped XiaoBai’s face and gazed at it. His eyes then slipped down to a small area under XiaoBai’s abdomen. “Such a little fella, why do you act so differently…”

XiaoBai: “……”

Cui QiChao merely took a brief glance before calmly averting his eyes. He really didn’t mean anything else. He was simply thinking, what kind of creature was XiaoBai? After briefly threatening it, it really didn’t go into heat. Did it just not have the need to do so? 

However, in XiaoBai’s eyes, Cui QiChao’s actions had a different meaning!

What did he mean when he looked away after looking at his dong? Little fella, who’s the little fella?!

“Meow-ow!” The fierce XiaoBai struggled hard.

Huh, why did it suddenly go crazy? 

Cui QiChao pressed XiaoBai down with one hand. He wasn’t Lily. It was easy for an adult man (who had eaten his fill) to suppress a cat.

XiaoBai chaotically pedalled its feet for a while, but it still couldn’t break away. Its willy shot up, and it revealed an expression of shame.

Cui QiChao certainly couldn’t understand XiaoBai’s complex mood. He turned and poked his head out of the window hole, observing the land behind the castle.

On the highland where Northumberland fort was located lay some flat areas outside the trenches. Cui QiChao was looking at those places. 

Only a lord lived in Northumberland’s castle. There weren’t many rooms in the castle. The servants slept together, while the slaves slept in the barn.

However, most of the animals weren’t placed in the castle. The barn had limited capacity. Now that there were so many slaves, how could they all live together? According to how the people living in the castle usually thought, they felt that they could simply make do with sleeping on the ground. But Cui QiChao thought that they shouldn’t do this.

According to the information from Raymond, the harvest was generally bad this year, and the number of thieves were on the rise. It was uncertain whether the castle floor could fit more people in the future. With so many people changing careers to become thieves, even if he wasn’t worried about the situation himself, the stewards would be worried in his stead.

Therefore, Cui QiChao decided to build some houses on the flat area outside and place the slaves there. 

In winter, when everyone was doing housework, Cui QiChao mentioned this to the steward. The stewards who thought they were wholly prepared for any of the Lord’s words and deeds were still shocked.

“How can a slave have his own house?!”

“That’s still my house. It’s just for the sake of sheltering the slaves in some place.” Cui QiChao patted the table and said, “Our territory will have more and more slaves in the future, and they can’t all possibly stay on the castle floor. So where else can they stay? Near the farm? Then won’t I have to build some huts? Won’t I have to send someone down to guard them? As all of you have said, once the slaves have learned their crafts, we can’t give them a chance to escape.”

The stewards: “……” 

They felt so suffocated. The Lord’s reasoning always sounded so strange and hard to refute.

It wasn’t their first time breaking a rule in Northumberland. Even so, it was still shocking for them to build houses for the slaves to live in.

They made a final struggle, saying, “Then we just have to set up a high fence, and let the knights guard them. Otherwise, what will we do if some slaves run away…”

“That’s fine. Though, I think it’ll be silly of them to run away. Will anyone give them as much mush as me?” said Cui QiChao thoughtfully. “I don’t think so.” 

The stewards: “……”

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At first, the slaves didn’t know they were going to have a house. They were only ordered to plow the land behind the castle so that it was flatter. The hillside behind the castle was particularly steep, but it was not to the point of being a cliff. Still, it was basically difficult for them to move up and down its slope.

After tilling the land, the mud would be consolidated, and logging would then be carried out. Of course, the slaves’ house wasn’t of good quality. The wood was only used as a pillar, the middle was woven with rattan, and the gap was covered with mud. No lime was even used, and the gaps between the wooden roof pieces were paved with sundried thatch. 

As for the beds, they were naturally made of linen and straw.

Such a house was so simple that it could be mistaken for a barn if not for the walls around it. Thus, it only took a few days to complete the whole project. The house appeared almost the same as the residence of a cottage farmer in the fief, except some things were missing.

After the house was built, the steward came to check the house. He critically touched the wall and muttered that the Lord actually allowed them to cut hazel wood and straw from the forest. And so much straw was used too…

“Hmph, this is fine.” Then the steward said enigmatically, “You animals will live here in the future. Let me tell you, the knights will be keeping an eye on you all the time. Don’t try to make trouble.” 

For a moment, no one spoke.

This was because they couldn’t understand what the steward had just said. What did he mean that they would live here?

Who would build a (relatively) proper house for his tools? No one could react in time.

Unhappy, the steward repeated, “And this is why I tried to dissuade the Lord. He can’t possibly always spoil all of you. Look at you all. You act so indifferent to such a great gift. It’s a waste for all of you to live in such a proper hut. For you group of stupid pigs!” 

It was then that someone woke up from their stupor and asked in a trembling voice, “You mean, this is our house?”

“What do you mean yours?” The steward was furious. “This is the Lord’s!”

Yes, this was the Lord’s. In other words, the Lord wanted to give them a separate house to live in?

Those who were previously freemen or serfs but became slaves had slightly better reactions. But for those who inherited their status as slaves from their parents or their parents’ parents’ generation, they were completely stupefied, as tears poured out of their eyes. 

They, they could really live in such a house?