Chapter 23: Serfs
Chapter 23 Serfs
Owen brought enough of these goods to exchange for one hundred and fifty serfs, which shows how cheap serfs are.
This is mainly because the serfs don’t cost much at all, as long as they come alive to the border of the Northland is earned, so Viscount Mara also thoughtfully gifted three hundred grass cakes.
Palm-sized grass cake is the main food of the serfs, made of grass seeds, bark and a small amount of coarse grains, the finished product is hard like dirt, but eating will bring a strong sense of satiety, and difficult to digest, many frail young and old is dead in this kind of grass cake.
The serfs were deeply impressed by the grass cake, full of both resentment and desire, because it was their hope of survival, even if it was only a false hope.
Because eating this stuff can’t satisfy the needs of the human body at all, except for fooling around with the stomach, the daily activities are still relying more on their own reserves, so the physically thin and weak can’t even make it to the Northland alive, and even if they do, their bodies should almost collapse and fall into a lot of illnesses, that’s why the Lords of the Northland treat the serfs as expendable, because the cost of letting them feed their bodies is too high, and it’s much better to consume it and then replenish a batch of them to save them the trouble.
As for cruelty or inhumanity and other issues, this is not a civilized society, again, whether the empire or Owen’s past life, the difference only lies in a bloody tear, one is processed and then served on the table, in addition to the eating style has become more elegant, the essence is not very different.
Directly point out one hundred and fifty serfs, Owen did not stay in the town of Mala, like driving sheep with serfs left the town of Mala, the next time to come back is estimated to be next year.
Because the serfs’ bodies were too weak, dragging down the speed of the team, they didn’t go far even after half a day.
Owen expected this, let follow the farmers set up pots and fires.
Once the water was opened, the whole bag of coarse flour was poured into the pot, sprinkled with a handful of salt, and then stirred hard with a randomly picked stick, while the wild vegetables collected on the road were all thrown in, so that the original monotonous color of the soup became colorful.
Although the color was weird and the taste was unacceptable, for the serfs it was a long awaited delicacy, because only every time before they went on the road they were able to eat something that could barely be called food.
Holding the wooden bowls issued to them, they lined up to receive a bowl of thick soup under the soldier’s whip and found a random place to sit down.
At this moment, the bowl of wild vegetable soup in their hands was like the whole world in the eyes of the serfs, there was nothing else, they ate so seriously, so carefully, fully chewing every bitter wild vegetable, their looks were so greedy, letting Owen have a creepy feeling when he looked at it, and at the same time, he understood why the empire would continuously forcefully drive the stragglers from the empire to the northern land to die, because these lowly looking serfs, once they gathered together, were not conspicuous, and they would not be able to eat. Once these insignificant serfs gathered, they would be like sparks that would completely ignite the empire that had long been decaying inside, hence the decision to treat the symptoms but not the root cause, I just don’t know how long this would last.
However, this has nothing to do with Owen, his territory is a hundred thousand miles away from the core of the empire, how can he have the leisure to do so.
After resting for the night, another bowl of wild vegetable thick soup in the morning brought a trace of blood to the serf’s face.
This Owen did not much surprise, this world’s human life force is very vigorous, otherwise how could they migrate hundreds of miles just by eating grass, in the lack of food and clothing in the situation of spending a winter in the ground hole but did not die out.
In order to take care of these weak serfs, Owen deliberately slowed down his pace, three times a day wild vegetables soup, slowly fill these serfs to the point of emptiness of the body, but every day he will take the cavalry out, each time will bring some things, so when they return to the castle, the caravan is not only once again full of loads, in the team there are also six more scouts cavalry and ten head of oxen. Choose to increase the scout cavalry, rather than cost-effective chest armor cavalry, mainly because the scout cavalry although not much combat power, but used to patrol to explore the road is really good, coupled with the territory is so large, but also need to take into account the magic horn forest, Owen specially expanded the number of scout cavalry, now ten scout cavalry just to meet the territory’s daily patrol needs.
As for the plow ox, is an important production tool, even if the exchange price is not cheap, Owen still specially exchange some, convenient for better spring plowing.
After sending the carriage to the castle and handing it over to Maya, Owen ordered the soldiers to bring the newly arrived serfs to the village.
When the village was first built, Owen specially built it a bit bigger, reserving enough open space, enough to accommodate the newly arrived serfs, and after seeing the village and the straw huts, these serfs’ originally numb expressions also gained a few more points of hope, because it meant that they would no longer be treated as cheap consumables, although they couldn’t become civilians yet, at least they saw a glimmer of hope, so they worked very hard, not to mention that their first job was to work in the village. Their first job was to build themselves a straw hut in the open space in the village, and before winter came, they would also have a simple but cozy straw hut.
It was a matter of survival, no one would be lazy, so Owen was relieved to leave things here to the soldiers to manage, anyway, he only needed to watch them labor.
In the castle, Maya was responsible for registering the goods brought by Owen, and then transported them to the warehouse for storage or immediately distributed them, and this was something Owen had difficulty dealing with in a timely manner, because he lacked management skills and could not always prioritize, so he simply handed all these things over to Maya, and she did a great job as well.
Now Maya has figured out some of Ram’s abilities, such as timekeeping, recording, calculating, etc., as if she carries a computer with her, which greatly improves her efficiency, so she carries it with her wherever she goes, and Owen is happy to see it happen, after all, the mechanical puppet maid can also be a means of prevention for him to prevent Maya.
Shower, change clothes, eat, sleep Owen once again fell into a state of inactivity, because Maya has already done everything that can be done now, and even made the mission plan to three months later.
Maya had organized things in such a way that Owen didn’t have the heart to add to the chaos, so he unknowingly came to the cellar again.
Every man dreams of having a secret base, and Owen is naturally no exception, so when he has the ability and time, he puts a lot of energy into this place.
The first floor of the cellar has undergone some remodeling, more suitable for ninja life and training, at the same time, in order to facilitate the patrol of the castle, Owen also exchanged for some dungeon secret passage, this kind of hidden secret passage perfectly integrated into the castle, so that ninjas become even more mysterious, but also allows Owen to have a lot more retreat.
As for the second level of the dungeon secret room, it had been expanded to three rooms, a whole three hundred square feet, and after being illuminated by more lantern grasses, this three-meter-high space didn’t seem stifling, but instead appeared to be very spacious.
Now the whole space was divided into three areas by Owen, respectively the working area, the testing area and the living area, which was also the reason why he stayed here for a winter.
(End of chapter)