Chapter 82 – The Brown Sugar Tree

Chapter 82 Brown Sugar Tree

Richard wanted to look for plants similar to sugarcane, and could not do so without the Sheepsheads of the territory.

The Sheepsheads were natural botanists, they knew almost all the plants in the Northern Territory, and they could also differentiate the medicinal and toxic properties of the plants.

When they were sick, the Sheepsheads usually looked for wild herbs to cure their illnesses.

Through the herbs sought by the sheepsheads, Richard could also accumulate experience and develop plant medicine.

When this field developed, not only would the humans of the Morning Glory Continent benefit, but growing herbs could also form an industry and provide more resources for the territory.

Through Bernard’s translation, the Sheepsheads knew that Richard was not prepared to slaughter them.

Hearing this news, the Sheepsheads acted very happy.

Among the captured sheepsheads, there were two first-ranked professionals, one named Annu, a captive of Richard’s defeat of the sheepshead squadron of the Shamrock Brigade, and the other named Larsi, a slave that Richard had captured when he entered the Orc Empire with his coalition of nobles.

Goatheads are gentle and have a go-with-the-flow trait.

The IQ of this group was average, no better than the Dogheads, equivalent to a twelve or thirteen year old child.

The lifespan of the sheep-headed people was also only in their twenties. With a life span too short, the knowledge accumulated would not be enough. That’s why the sheep-headed people could seldom produce excellent magicians.

The herbivorous species in the Orc Empire were basically at the bottom.

Although the sheepsheads had many shortcomings, the herbology knowledge accumulated in the sheepsheads’ genes was very important to the development of humanity.

In the thousands of years of history of the Morning Glory continent, some nobles also heavily researched botanical knowledge, especially magic botany, which was studied very deeply and developed the doctrine of potions.

But magicians do not care about ordinary people at all, the direction of research is mainly magic plants, magic pharmacology.

The focus invested was the evolution of personal power.

For those botanical knowledge accumulated by the goat-heads, the magical researchers also did not value them at all.

Most of the nobles would only treat the commoners as objects to be exploited and squeezed, and they didn’t care about the health and longevity of the commoners either.

After Richard settled down the laborers and drew a map of the city’s construction, he let his second uncle Powell be in charge of the construction of Sophia Castle, and his energy was mainly focused on the sheepsheads.

Through Bernard’s translation, every day Richard had many questions to ask the Sheepsheads.

After a long time, he even learned the sheepshead language and talked to the sheepshead himself.

Through talking with the sheepsheads, Richard not only discovered some herbs, but also knew that there were two plants in the Eagle Mountain Range that had a sweet flavor.

One was similar to the beets that Richard had seen in his previous life, while the other was a rare tree.

Beets were considered a type of vegetable, and the cultivation of vegetables was very water-consuming, requiring the best water fields to be plowed.

The two territories of Richard and William had less paddy fields.

The security of the territory’s food needs to be in the hands of the large-scale cultivation of sugar beet is not feasible for the time being.

But Richard has arranged for slaves to dig up some sugar beet seeds. He is ready to cultivate beets in small quantities and research the process of sugar extraction from beets.

Richard had seen videos of the ancient method of sugar production in his previous life, and it was very simple in terms of the process. Roughly speaking, there were processes such as cleaning, evaporation, crystallization, honey splitting, and drying.

The tools required for the ancient method of sugar production, except for the large iron pot which was a bit difficult to manufacture, the rest of the tools for sugar production could be made in the Harland Territory.

Through Richard’s observation over the years, it was found that the development of productivity in the Morning Glory Continent was basically on par with that of the European Middle Ages.

Some of the crafts were a little better than the Middle Ages, and some of them were not as good as the Middle Ages.

Especially in some remote areas, the economy has been in a relatively rough and primitive state for a long time, and the development of handicrafts and commerce, etc. is very low, and the level of craftsmen is not high. Take blacksmithing for example, beginners can make blades, experienced can make armor, can make iron pots, I’m afraid only a very few skilled blacksmiths can be competent.

Richard had asked the blacksmiths trained in Harland’s territory, and now two of them could already make armor, but they were still not confident in making iron pots.

You should know that the iron pot manufacturing technology did not mature until the Song Dynasty, and the Mongols at the end of the Qing Dynasty did not have the ability to make iron pots.

Of course the Mongols would not be able to forge iron pots, in addition to the process, fuel is also an important reason.

Iron smelting requires the use of coke, coal coke is the front process.

Without coke, they could only use wood to burn charcoal. Without sufficient forest resources, it was difficult to develop iron smelting technology.

There are not many forests on the Mongolian plateau, but there is a lot of coal. These coals were high in sulfur, and the quality of the coal used to make iron was very poor, and could only be barely used as weapons.

Richard’s territory was full of forests, and there was no lack of forest resources.

After the Harland family obtained the hereditary fiefdom, Richard established a wood distillation kiln to produce charcoal suitable for iron smelting.

The fuel problem had been ruled out, now if you wanted to make a large iron pot, you needed skilled craftsmen to summarize their experience and use their brains.

Although there were iron smelting master craftsmen in Black River Fort, Richard was not good at troubling people every time.

This time he was ready to train his own people.

In order to utilize the ingenuity of the blacksmiths, Richard decided to set up a heavy reward for the blacksmiths, whoever could make a qualified large iron pot, Richard rewarded them with a bounty of thirty gold coins.

Thirty gold coins were equivalent to ten years of salary of an ordinary citizen, a farmer who farmed for his whole life might not be able to save a huge sum of thirty gold coins, except for the expenses of food, clothing, housing and transportation.

Even for the main army soldiers, it would take two and a half years to get this salary.

The main army soldiers needed to be selected at various levels, and they also needed to fight for their lives on the battlefield.

Blacksmiths only needed to make large iron pots to get this huge amount of money.

The huge sum of thirty gold coins was enough to move the artisans.

In addition Richard also stipulated that the blacksmiths who succeeded in making a large iron cauldron would also be allocated a mansion and become free citizens.

It would also serve as the manager of the territory’s blacksmiths. In terms of status, it directly entered the middle level of the territory.

There will be a brave man with a heavy reward, and by October, a blacksmith named Thomas Webb completed the task, received a reward of thirty gold coins, and became a free citizen of the Harland territory.

This person was appointed by Richard as the head of the blacksmith class.

If Thomas Webb could continue to make breakthroughs in the iron smelting process, Richard would also elevate his status and give him more bonuses.

Successfully creating a large iron pot, the process of sugar extraction was no longer difficult.

Apart from beets, another plant with high sugar content was a tree.

This tree is not common and has not yet appeared in human life.

There were a large number of magical beasts living in the Eagle Mountain Range, and there were also quite a few orc tribes operating in the north.

Ordinary people in Harland Kingdom, unless forced to do so and fall into banditry, ordinary people simply did not dare to operate in the Eagle Mountain Range.

Even the hereditary earl of the Grant Kingdom, a seventh-order magician, lost his life in the Eagle Mountains.

The sugar-containing trees that grow in the Eagle Mountain Range are naturally unknown.

(End of chapter)