Ch41.1 - The Lord’s Technique (Part One)

Northumberland’s ditches were first dug around the saline alkali land. At that time, the people were full of distrust toward the Lord. However, it was these simple ditches with perfect drainage and irrigation systems that drained and stored the water needed to remove the salt from the soil.

Coupled with the improvement of the soil structure due to fertilizers, these moderate saline alkali lands had become less saline than even mild saline alkali lands over the past year.

The agricultural official returned in a daze. When he met the serf and greeted them, he had to confirm with the other. “Was the white soil at the back very white before?”

The serf nodded weakly. 

The agricultural official said, “Didn’t you go look at it? Do you know what it looks like now?”

On normal days, these condescending bigwigs would not chat with them. Though, what they were doing now didn’t seem like chatting either. The serf whispered, “It’s not as if my piece of land is around that area.”

The task of repairing the ditches was thrown to the slaves who had come later. Who would go look at the white soil during winter for no reason? Now that spring had arrived, the serfs had begun farming, but they hadn’t ploughed the field on that side yet.

However, because of the words of the agricultural official, the serfs grew curious and went to take a look at the white soil together. There, it was found that the white soil, which was previously too white to grow crops on, was only slightly white now. It resembled the slightly white soil that could grow oats and kale!

Speaking of which, the slightly white soil hadn’t been visible back when green manure was mixed in it. Now, as everyone clambered to look at it, they saw that the soil had turned into completely normal land. It even looked slightly fertile…

Everyone had the same reaction as the agricultural official. They thought it was a blessing from God and discussed it for a long time. The planting conditions of wheat were very stringent. Now, not only was there more land that could grow sugar beets, but there was also more land that could grow wheat. This was news so thrilling that everyone spread the word about it!

——Less oats and kale could be planted, and that green manure could also be used as cattle and horse feed.

After the agricultural official returned, the agricultural official thought for a long time before dubiously asking Cui QiChao, “My Lord, the white soil has become farmland. Could it be because of you…” 

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.

Lf tjv ageis kjcafv ab atjcx atf ubvr, yea atf wbgf tf atbeuta jybea la, atf wbgf tf ofia atja atlr kjr lcmbggfma.

Ktf qfbqif bo Rbgatewyfgijcv tjv wjlcajlcfv atflg ojlat lc atf mtegmt obg remt j ibcu alwf jigfjvs, jcv sfa atflg kffvr vlv cba vlrjqqfjg. Ktf ktlaf rbli kjr ralii ktlaf, abb. Yc atf mbcagjgs, atf ktlaf rbli ugjvejiis yfmjwf ifrr ktlaf joafg atf Obgv bgvfgfv atf qfbqif ab vlu vlamtfr.

Cui QiChao said faintly, “There is actually a very simple principle behind it. To wash the white parts of the soil with water.”

He didn’t explain that this was saline alkali land. Otherwise, he had to explain to the agricultural official why the soil contained salt, a precious commodity during this period. 

Hearing this, the agricultural official was puzzled for a long time. How did such a mysterious occurrence become a simple, logical, and mundane matter after the Lord explained it?

“Oh… Oh…” Then the agricultural official asked again, “The… the soil is still a little white. Can beets still be planted on it?”

“Yes,” Cui QiChao replied with certainty.

Sugar beet was a salt-tolerant crop. To elaborate, the salt content of mild salinized land was 0.1-0.2%, that of moderate salinized land was 0.4-0.6, and that of severe salinized land was more than 0.6. The salt tolerance threshold of sugar beet was 0.33-0.65, so in theory, it could grow perfectly fine on light and medium salinized land. 

However, the salt resistance of sugar beets was low during its seedling period. In later eras, people would either mulch them with plastic film or plant the sugar beets on normal land first before transplanting them to saline alkali land once their salt and alkali resistance strengthened.

They didn’t have to think about using plastic film here. It was also impossible to transplant sugar beets. They didn’t have enough farmland in Northumberland to accomplish such a task, so sugar beet could only be planted on slightly salinized cultivated land with low chloride concentration.

Of course, in the future, regardless of whether it was severe or moderate salt content, once the saline alkali land had returned to normal, they could plant whatever they wanted to.

The agricultural official was convinced of Cui QiChao’s words and immediately arranged for people to learn beet planting methods. 

These medieval sugar beets had multiple seeds, so their growth period was longer than that of the single-seed beets in later eras. It takes about five months for them to grow, and the amount of water and fertilizers they need is greater. But that was fine because Northumberland had a lot of fertilizer.

When sowing, one should maintain a distance of about 50 cm within a row and a distance of 25 cm between adjacent plants. Then, one should carefully flatten the ground before planting.

In addition, what was more important to the agricultural official was the grape field.

He cared more about the vineyard than the beet field and often urged the serfs to tidy up the vineyard. Seeds would be sown on a part of the farmland. When the grape branches were ready, they would be trimmed. 

After fertilizing, insecticide would also be sprinkled on them, and the ridge would be inserted, following which the crops would instantly be watered.

Because the agricultural official meticulously tended to the grapes, Cui QiChao also personally demonstrated to him how to take care of the grapes. Under the frightened eyes of the agricultural official, he personally inserted a ridge. The onlookers were also silent.

These serfs were specially selected to take care of the vineyard. After all, grapes were different from other crops. Northumberland had never grown such a crop, and it was impossible to teach everyone how to farm grapes.

Who would have thought that the Lord, a Baron, not only had rich theoretical knowledge but also practical experience? The Lord had previously only moved his mouth and never his hands. Even the agricultural official had thought he only possessed theoretical knowledge regarding farming 

But when he started planting, he did it so neatly that it felt inconceivable to the agricultural official. The Lord was still dressed in noble clothes, not a bit of emotion on his handsome face. However, his movements were as nimble as a noble’s most practiced swordsmanship…

Cui QiChao had demonstrated this technique in the 21st century plane. But in the middle ages, this was the first time he had done it. The heavens knew that even the ordinary matter of him flipping a pancake would cause the servants to privately discuss it for a month.

The spacing between each cutting was incredibly accurate, as if the Lord had used a ruler to measure the distance. He inserted two rows in each ridge, with the cuttings tilted 45° to the north. As such, they also appeared to be arranged quite neatly. After the cutting, water was immediately irrigated, and the top bud was covered with soil.

His actions were swift and accurate. Standing on the ridge with their gazes cast on the Lord, they felt like the cuttings that the Lord had planted were like the guards of honor among regular soldiers. The agricultural official strangely thought of the militia trained by the Lord. Setting aside the matter of how and when the Lord was able to be so skilled in planting, did the Lord have a special preference for tidiness? Whether it was people or crops, must everything be arranged neatly and uniformly? 

The serfs’ eyes almost popped out from staring. If one had to comment without any regard for the social hierarchy, if there was one thing the serfs were more skilled at than the nobles, it must be farming.

But now, their great Lord had demonstrated skill in farming himself. No, the Lord’s farming skills were even better than everyone else’s!

The serfs, the serfs’ fathers, and the serfs’ fathers’ fathers, had never heard of anyone possessing such accuracy and precision, let alone think that they themselves were capable of reaching such a level in farming. This was not something that could have happened in the legends. This was a technique that did not exist in the legends.

Of course, this was because agriculture was too underdeveloped in the middle ages. Prior to this period, their most advanced technique was to have someone sow seeds at the front while women buried their heads at the back. Then after burying, they simply watered the fields. 

“Alright, just follow these planting standards.” Cui QiChao clapped his hands and said, “If you plant well, you will be rewarded.”

Reward, they would be rewarded again. The Lord adopted a completely different management system from other nobles. Other nobles whipped them when they were slow, but he rewarded them when they did something well within a short period of time.

Everyone gulped because the reward was usually food.

The only thing that made everyone feel embarrassed was that the Lord had planted the crops too beautifully. When they started sowing crops next to what the Lord had planted, they weren’t as neat as the Lord’s. They were really inferior. 

.

After Cui QiChao left, the serfs gossiped with the other serfs upon their return about how the Lord personally cut grapes, seeming to be describing a miracle. “You didn’t see how the Lord just squatted down and moved his hands. Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh. Then the grape cuttings just appeared there as if God had decreed the cutting to be planted there. They looked so perfect and tidy.”

“The position of the top bud was exactly the same as well. My God, why are the Lord’s hands so different from ours? How did he come to possess such a pair of hands?”

Those listening would gain a distorted expression on their faces. It was an expression containing a complex mix of emotions such as disbelief, doubt, and questioning as they wondered whether the other had lost their wits. 

They also figured that these witnesses had probably gone crazy from farming too much. Why would they even use such a way to flatter the Lord? Why would it be miraculous for a Lord to farm? It was more realistic to say that the Lord had rewarded them with white bread… Yes, could these people have gone crazy because they were rewarded with something wonderful?

It was just that the consistency of their words caused people to doubt what had really happened. Due to the repeated and exaggerated descriptions from the grape farmers, the farmers’ curiosity gradually grew. One by one, they ran to visit the grape fields.

The grape farmers didn’t even have to point it out. They recognized at first sight which areas that the Lord had farmed on!

If the Lord’s farming technique was truly superior, one could judge from the two rows of neatly planted grapes, the spacing between plants, and how much they had been tilted. Therefore, these grape branches must have definitely been planted by the Lord. 

Even without the grape farmers’ exaggeration, everyone knew such a farming technique was too godly. Everyone’s scalp felt numb.

At this time, when they thought about the commands and planting techniques disseminated from the castle, the serfs felt slightly scared. How awesome was their Lord? In the hearts of these farmers, he was undoubtedly a superb person for him to be good at farming.

After a long time, someone said, “Heavens, I didn’t take the opportunity to touch the edge of the Lord’s clothes when the Lord had held a banquet last time. Maybe I would have been stained by some good luck if I did.”

“Yes, let’s touch the soil here. Will that be useful?” 

The superstitious medieval people soon talked about how to rub off some of the Lord’s ability onto them. They touched the land farmed by the Lord. Maybe when they went back, their farming techniques would also improve and cause a higher crop survival rate and higher yield… All of sudden, they realized that all this had already been achieved by the Lord last year. As such, they couldn’t help but become more convinced about their beliefs regarding the Lord.

Ch41.2 - The Lord’s Technique (Part Two)

Cui QiChao’s status seemed to have elevated into a koi in Northumberland, as if just saying one word to someone or stopping at someone’s place would increase production. The superstitious beliefs were spreading around privately, but kept silent from his ears.

He was very concerned about the growth of new crops, so Cui QiChao also increased the frequency of planting in the field. Since it was the first time they planted it, it is inevitable that not everyone is skilled in farming grapes, cotton, sugar beets, buckwheat and cucumber.

As soon as Cui QiChao went out, he was surrounded by fiery eyes. He merely thought it was pure admiration.

He went to the vineyard with XiaoBai. The vineyard itself was reclaimed land that lay beside the forest. He was looking to see if the grape branches survived when he suddenly heard a burst of exclamation. 

After he turned around, he found that it was some free-range pigs running after a child. The child was five or six years old. He was running wildly towards the vineyard.

The agricultural official’s expression changed and he scolded, “Where are you going? Don’t lead it here!”

There is a fence in the vineyard, but with many pigs colliding onto the fence, the impact of the collision may cause the fence to break. Worst of all, what if the grape seedlings were destroyed?

Although these pigs are small, they have tusks and a wild personality. Many people in the past had been injured and killed by the pigs.

In the mind of the agricultural official, the grapes were certainly more important than the children of the serfs.

Cui QiChao frowned, “Where’s the pig herder? Ask someone to bring the child away.”

Hearing what Cui QiChao said, the agricultural official couldn’t help but let two serfs climb over the fence. One led the pig away and the other ran with the child who was almost caught up by the pigs.

No one knew that the pigs were very smart. They are also divided into two groups. They hit the serfs’ legs at once, and the serfs fell down. After a while, the serfs quickly stood up and limped forward. 

Fortunately, Cui QiChao was also smart. He picked up some acorns and hit them with it. The pig stopped chasing the humans and buried itself in foraging food.

Cui QiChao looked down at the cat at his feet.

XiaoBai: “……”

Although the serf was hit, he was not seriously injured. But he inevitably looked sad, “You brat, didn’t you go to the forest to pick up branches? How did you make those pigs angry?” 

The child was also frightened and cried, “I didn’t mean to. I only fed the pigs acorns.”

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.

Ca atlr alwf, atf qlu tfgvfg ribkis jgglnfv ijaf jcv yeggbkfv bea ogbw atf obgfra. Lf kjr lwwfvljafis ugjyyfv jcv rmbivfv ys atf juglmeiaegji boolmlji, jcv atf boolmlji lcafggbujafv tlw, jrxlcu tlw kts tf kjr cba tfgf pera cbk.

Ktf qlu tfgvfg kjr nfgs juuglfnfv. Ulu tfgvlcu kjr vloofgfca ogbw mjaaif jcv rtffq tfgvlcu. Lf tegglfvis rjlv, “P tjnf rfnfgji rbkr atja jgf jmalcu jycbgwjiis. P’w ibbxlcu ja ktja’r ublcu bc klat atfw.”

The agricultural official groaned and asked, “What’s going on?” 

The pig herder was embarrassed, “…I do not know what the problem is with those pigs yet.” He didn’t dare to lie and was afraid of being blamed. He bowed his head and said, “Those sows have been weaned, but when the boars went to mount them, they weren’t willing to do so. This caused the boars to be very irritated.”

Boar irritability? No wonder the boars went after the child.

This pig herder was also a profession inherited from generation to generation, but even so, there are still many things he doesn’t understand in the process of raising pigs.

For example, they could understand when the sows go into heat, but they don’t know why the sows wouldn’t let the boar ride it when they are in heat. They knew at what age sows can start breeding, but they didn’t know  why many sows who gave birth to their first piglets usually had stillbirths. They knew what the symptoms of sow dystocia are, but didn’t know how to deliver the piglets and didn’t understand postpartum care. 

Cui QiChao’s understanding of animal husbandry was mostly related to the feed of these animals. In fact, he doesn’t know much about the postpartum care of sows, but at least he knows more than the superstitious medieval people. “Go and drive the abnormal sows here for me to take a look.”

The pig herder ran back to the forest and led the sows. Although these sows were weaned, they still possessed a certain sense to protect their babies. The pig herders grabbed the piglets and the sows followed after.

Cui QiChao looked at the pigs and asked, “Why are these pigs so thin?”

Originally, the pigs in the middle ages were already very thin. These sows didn’t have much meat on both ribs. They didn’t look like pigs. 

The pig herder nodded and said, “Sigh, Milord, after the sows gave birth, they would all appear like this.”

Cui QiChao: “Did they not have a good appetite?”

The pig herder said blankly, “This, I don’t know…”

When livestock went to the field, wouldn’t they scavenge food by themselves? Why would the pig herder stare at each pig to keep an eye on how they ate? Besides, in this era, there was a lack of clothes and food, so the herder acquiesced that no matter people or animals, they would crazily bow at the sight of food. 

Cui QiChao shook his head. The animal husbandry techniques here were too primitive. It was completely equivalent to them raising the pigs free-range. Although he doesn’t know how the sows’ appetite was, he could tell that the sows were definitely lacking in nutrition. It was simply their instinct, since they consumed so much energy after the last pregnancy, they couldn’t immediately get pregnant again. Therefore, even if the time came for their heat, they wouldn’t go into it to protect themselves.

At this time, both the sow and the breeder should pay close attention to let it eat more. As long as it recovers, it will soon be able to reproduce again. The reason is very simple.

Cui QiChao mused, “Feed it some wet food.”

Pigs were different from cattle and sheep. Adding water to their food can promote digestion and absorption, and make the pigs grow faster. Of course, the pig herder doesn’t know this. They raised the pigs with very rough mannerisms and let them pick up fruits and eat by themselves. 

The pig herder guiltily asked, “Wet food…?”

As a pig herder, he doesn’t understand what the Lord was saying. Of course he would feel guilty.

“Get some eggshells, sweet potatoes, and wheat bran, mash them, add as much water as needed and feed them to the sows.” Cui QiChao said. At present, among all the food in Northumberland, these should be better absorbed by the sows.

For the first time in generations of pig herders, this was the first time they would be mixing the feed for pigs. Do pigs in the East enjoy such careful treatments? 

He found the items described by the Lord, made it into shredded pig feed, mixed it with water, let it sit for a while and gave it to the pigs. The sows ate with relish, snorting. Even the boars came to grab the feed.

When XiaoBai saw this scene, he became slightly anxious. At the beginning, he squatted at Cui QiChao’s foot. Now, he is several meters away from him. The rope was stretched to its limit, as far as the rope could.

Cui QiChao also misunderstood. He pulled the rope and whispered to comfort it: “Don’t be afraid, it wouldn’t slam into you.”

XiaoBai: “……” 

Was it afraid of pigs? A pig?? Cui QiChao took the matter of the pig out again to talk about it. XiaoBai still wanted some of its face!

After pacifying XiaoBai, Cui QiChao stared at the pig and said, “Feed them some wet food from time to time. There are many sweet potatoes now, but don’t give too much. There is also straw powder and peas. And don’t exceed half of the wheat bran in the feed. You must add water.”

Currently, Northumberland has more food and since regular people could afford to eat oatmeal paste, they could finally afford to feed the pigs. In the past, it was normal to make bread with wheat bran. They didn’t even have enough peas to feed themselves, so who would use it to feed pigs? Of course, even now, Cui QiChao is sure that they can’t feed the pigs with beans often, but peas and sweet potato is enough.

However, Cui QiChao’s words may worry the pig herder to his death. He wrote the formula down and swept a look at the people around him. 

Heavens! Why did the Lord make the secret recipe public in public! Seeing how much the pigs enjoyed eating the feed, he knew that this secret recipe was no different from the secret recipe given by the Lord to the cook!

The pig herder stared at everyone with a look in the eye, as if everyone wanted to compete with him in this line of work. He didn’t dare to say to the Lord that you should keep your voice down, so he could only obediently agree to the Lord.

The agricultural official and the other people serving them were all numb. Now, they will not be surprised if Cui QiChao said he can grow golden peas.

Look at how hardworking these pigs were when eating. It was as if they wanted to plunge their whole head into the barrel. People around thought that the green manure grown by the Lord was also very popular amongst the cows and the sheep. The Lord’s feed was as great as his farming skills. 

The pig herder thought that, perhaps, the pigs would be able to grow to 50kg in the future!

Cui QiChao thought that if these pigs are properly raised, it should not be a problem for a few of the pigs to reach tens of kilograms. It was too pitiful for the pigs to only reach 40 kilograms. The larger-size dogs weigh even more than this.

If he had a chance in the future, he had to gradually let the pig herders stop free-range breeding. On one hand, it would completely prevent pigs from crashing and hurting people, and on the other hand, they would be able to get some good meat from the pigs. It’s best to castrate the pig. Now the stinky smell of the meat was too prominent, and thus had an awful taste. It’s fine if it was made into pickled meat. In the future, he would build an oven to make pig roast, stewed pig-ears, braised pork, braised pork belly, pot wrapped meat…

Therefore, everyone saw the compassionate look in the Lord’s eyes gradually became distorted. 

In the LJJ real-time commentary barrage:

[Every time this show broadcasted, it’s like gambling. I don’t know if it’s delicious food or fertilizer today]

[Gambling+1, I’ll prepare delicious food with me anyway]

[?? I can’t believe you trained serfs!] 

[Brothers, please stabilize your hearts! Never be fooled again! Maybe they are just trained for an art exhibition!]

[Past experience tells me that I can’t be happy too early. I will never be high just because Cui QiChao made rattan armor.]

[My heart is like a pool of water. I’m not happy at all]

[What the heck is an art exhibition? I think it’s more like a prelude to train people in their farming techniques, to centralize the techniques] 

[Do the Chinese have such farming techniques?]

[Guys, look. He planted the crops so neatly. It would be a must for those serfs to plant crops in a standardized way in the future, for them to butter up to Cui QiChao!]

[As a late-stage obsessive compulsive disorder patient, what should I do if I feel good watching this…]

[Just let him plant, let him plant. He planted so many grapes and beets that I am just waiting for his next-door neighbour to fuck him, hahahahaha] 

[The one on top, why are you so delighted? The next door neighbor would just come to send their heads here. Ah, no, it should be said they would be sending manpower. Wouldn’t that be interesting? You forgot that we still have a large area of heavily saline alkali land in the Cui territory.]

[Anyway, I think it’s great. I feel good to see the improvements of the saline alkali land and him feeding pigs. I like seeing Northumberland becoming rich and productive, the warehouse filled, and everyone has plenty of food and clothing.]

[There is no doubt that the person on top is a Chinese…]

[Look, the pigs have given XiaoBai a scare. Sending love to it!] 

[Eh, I vaguely think that the sight of the pigs eating looks very familiar. What’s going on…]