Chapter 38: Conversion of farmers

Chapter 38 Converting Farmers
“Come in.” Owen, who hadn’t slept all night, rubbed his eyes and yawned before calling Maya in.

Like two iron hammocks, the Teutonic warriors sidled up to let Maya in, though part of their energies remained focused on her, but they would not hesitate to hack each other to pieces if Maya made any move that they felt would pose a threat to their lord.

“What do you command, my lord?” As if feeling herself locked down, Maya, who entered the room, did not rashly lean ** her master, with whom she had interacted so much during the day, but kept a rather safe distance and did not mention the words of the Teutonic warriors with this building at all, clutching the work plan that she had put together last night and waiting for her master’s orders, like a capable and competent secretary.

“How are those serfs these days?” Owen asked to Maya with a strong sense of humor.

“Because the grass huts were built for themselves, and because the food is also quite a bit better than before, they are laboring very hard and are very obedient.” Maya usually had concerns about the state of the serfs, after all, the territory now had thousands of serfs, and the ones they held in their hands during the daytime work could be metal tools, so if they really messed up, the trouble could not be small.

“Not enough, you tell them, before the first snow arrives, the best performing one hundred serfs will receive my gift, become the territory’s first batch of farmers, will have their own property and land, in addition this is just the beginning, next year, spring plowing, fall harvest, there will be a gift quota.” Owen sorted out his somewhat confused head, then said to Maya.

Maya didn’t have any opinion on this, and even very much agreed.

It seems that all the wealth created by the serfs is the lord’s, but the problem lies in having nothing, in this state, even if they are allowed to sleep on the ground and nibble on the straw cake before they live in the straw hut and drink the thick porridge, the morale is only temporary, when they get used to it, they will return to the original state, unless the treatment is raised again.

Peasants are different, although they have to pay taxes and serve in the army, but they can own their own private property, land and houses are also their own, even if they are living in poverty, they will not lose hope, and they will work hard without any supervision, and at the same time, when the territory is invaded, they will fight back with their lives, because once the territory is lost, they will lose everything.

Of course, although peasants had all these benefits, the previous situation of the territory was not suitable for expanding the number of peasants because it was too poor and there was no foundation at all.

Now it was different, with a sufficient number of people, especially with a town center, there was a soil for farmers to survive, which was why Owen had this idea.

Then somewhat messy to say his hard thinking all night idea, Owen patted his butt to go back to eat and sleep, the already early rising Maya had to work overtime to organize and perfect the idea just put forward by his master and inform it to everyone at noon, at once the whole territory was boiling.

After learning of the lord’s gift, these serfs are really taking their lives to fight, they already have nothing, but where there is a ray of hope, they do not mind taking their lives to exchange.

Owen did not go back on his word, in the first snow slowly fell on the day, in the thousands of serfs under the spectators, a hundred serfs with full of excitement, two eyes full of tears, just like a dream into the center of the town.

Here, they would be registered and assigned land, and when they came out again, they would no longer be lowly serfs, but masters of the land.

Sitting in the main seat, looking at the one hundred converted peasants kowtowing to him and swearing allegiance, Owen quietly clicked, with the consumption of twenty points of progress value, one hundred serfs have a new mental outlook, at the same time, under the influence of the town center, their physical state will slowly return to their prime years, and quickly master a variety of labor skills.

Of course, this took time, and also required enough food along with a practiced program.

But this would also seem to become more reasonable, otherwise a group of skinny and bony serfs going in and a bunch of bladdered peasants coming out, everyone would know that there was something wrong inside. With enough time to buffer it would be fine, after all, it is normal for people to get better and become more motivated when they have something to live for.

After completing the household registration, these freshly minted peasants receive in turn a hoe, a scythe, an iron pot, and a bag of grain, which are the rewards given to them by the benevolent lords, and the private property they now own.

The next step was the division of the land, and the houses had to be built by the peasants themselves, and until they were built they would still have to live in straw huts, but no one complained about this, everyone was loyal to the lord and looked forward to a better life in the future.

After dealing with the peasants, Owen sat in the redecorated lord’s office, stretched comfortably, picked up the coffee brought by Maya, smelled the unique aroma produced by mixing the coffee beans with milk and cane sugar, drank it in a few gulps, and then brewed himself a pot of tea.

This is a habit he developed in his previous life, in order to more quickly refreshment, half a cup of coffee in the morning plus tea, the effect is really good, is easy to sleep at night.

Pulling out a pen and paper, Owen began to calculate what kind of achievements the territory had made at this stage.

Thanks to the recovery of the accelerated progress value, before converting these one hundred farmers, Owen raised the number of farmers in the territory to one hundred and fifty, under Maya’s operation and management, the speed of construction was greatly accelerated, the buildings that could be constructed at the level of the town center were almost completed, and some additional buildings were also added.

Now the territory has a blacksmith store, a dock, a mill, a waterwheel, a bakery, a stable, a sheep pen, a cattle pen, a chicken farm, and so on, and there is even a grocery store.

The blacksmith store, bakery and stables were already there, so although it seems to be a lot, the overall amount of work is not much, and these buildings are simple, only need wood and stone, and the wood has more than a hundred descending soldiers in the forest to keep chopping down, and the stone is dug directly from the collapsed city wall, together with several hundreds of serfs, the speed of construction is naturally not slow.

Of course, some buildings are not enough, such as the waterwheel, mill and bakery, want to irrigate more farmland need more waterwheels, want to grind the harvested grain into better taste and more easily absorbed flour, also need more mills, not to mention that to satisfy the thousands of bread is not one or two bakeries can bake.

These are not in a hurry, wait until next spring to mobilize manpower to continue to build it, Owen focus on the barracks and the shooting range.

Just like the town center, the barracks and the shooting range also have the ability to transform, in addition to the system farmers can be trained into militia, but also spend a longer time to train the militia into a soldier worth one progress value, during this period of time do not need to spend additional progress value.

Unfortunately, this is the maximum number of farmers and the maximum number of level 1 town centers.

It was also possible to train ordinary soldiers into system soldiers, Owen had already tested this through descending soldiers, one progress value could convert two ordinary soldiers into system soldiers, although it was only one progress value worth of soldiers, it still greatly reduced the consumption of progress values.

(End of chapter)