Ch30.1 - The Secret Formula Of The East (Part One)

The new Lord of Northumberland was indeed a distinctive noble. After testing the poison on the black cat, he tugged at the cat’s tail. He stood there, wide-eyed, as the cat breathed its final breath.

“Good. I’ll keep it alive and continue to poison it next time.” Cui QiChao directly looked at the agricultural official’s eyes as he spoke.

The agricultural official had no opinion. What he was afraid of was not the death of the cat, but the poison. Who knows how dangerous the effect of the poison would be for humans?

Seeing that XiaoBai was hungry, Cui QiChao said, “As for the rest, I’ll tell you next time, you can head back first.” 

Cui QiChao couldn’t go too far even if he was a ludicrous aristocrat with the church’s support. Cat cruelty was common during this era, however feeding the cats, which were believed to be possessed by witches or devils, was not.

The agricultural official said his goodbyes and promised to study the Lord’s secret formula. In his mind, he was reflecting on the Lord’s words. The Lord had already explained in great detail about how to use the insecticidal vines, noting where the bugs’ eggs usually grew.

The agricultural official’s heart began to warm up once more. He thought of all the plants in the land he had given to the Lord.

“Yes.” Cui QiChao watched the agricultural official leave.

As soon as the agricultural official left, XiaoBai immediately began to eat the beans, and Cui QiChao also took out some of the remaining meat to feed it. In this era when even most human beings didn’t have enough to eat, XiaoBai seemed to be the happiest cat in the middle ages.

The agricultural official was right. Cui QiChao certainly knew how to kill the other insects. Even though there were no pesticides in this era, nature was magical. Like the green manure crops that could be used as natural fertilizers, there were many plants that could be used as natural pesticides, and insecticidal vines was just one of them.

The earliest commercialized pesticides in the world were all extracted from plants. It was the Chinese who began to use plant ash, grass fumigation and other ways to curb pests in the early ages, and there were even plants that could inhibit the growth of weeds. For example, there was active matter in wheat to inhibit the growth of some weeds.

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.

Not all of these ingredients, such as leeks, garlic, pepper, and tobacco, were capable of killing insects. However, after crushing one kilogram of garlic and leek and extracting the juices, combine the fluids with no more than ten kilograms of water. The resulting liquid would have the effect of eliminating aphids and red spiders, and its efficacy at killing these pests was nearly 100%. 

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“Mi! Mi!” Under the bed, the calls of the two other kittens sounded out. They smelled the food and crawled out.

Cui QiChao had seen many kittens both in real life and in the virtual plane of the 21st century. None of them were as thin as they were. They should have been hidden somewhere by a female cat and captured by the serfs after they found them. He had no idea what the female cat’s current condition was. 

Cui QiChao asked his servants to bring him a bowl of goat’s milk. At least in terms of food, as long as he put on a cold expression, those servants would not dare to say no to the eccentric Lord who didn’t like to be served by his servants.

The goat’s milk was mixed with beans. After the beans were soaked until they were softened, he then gave them to the two cats who were obviously thinner than XiaoBai. If they were given dried peas, they might choke to death.

After only a few days of caring for the kittens, the white and orange kitten had developed a great trust in Cui QiChao. Cui QiChao was the one who fed them when their mother was away, in this era of food scarcity.

After the white kitten was full, it began to play with Cui QiChao’s hand. Cui QiChao said to him, “Sit down.” 

This white kitten had seen the interaction between Cui QiChao and XiaoBai. It had a strong comprehension ability in imitation, and sat down, to Cui QiChao’s surprise.

“What a clever kitten.” Cui QiChao touched the white kitten’s head and looked at it.

“……” It wasn’t known when XiaoBai had gone over to squat right by the cat’s side. Its eyes drooped into a semicircle, and it looked like it was frowning.

It came first, and it also herded ducks. 

Although Cui QiChao was a devil-like man, if he was robbed away by other cats, no matter how it thought, it still felt unhappy…

Without realizing it, the white kitten showed its trust and lapped Cui QiChao’s fingers again and again with its tongue.

“…Meow-ow!”

XiaoBai shrieked. Cui QiChao’s hand couldn’t move fast enough. Seeing XiaoBai’s action, he couldn’t stop it in time. The white cat was kicked away by XiaoBai. 

The white cat jumped to the corner, and even the orange cat also shied away.

The servants outside heard the sound and wiped their sweat silently. The Lord Baron was abusing the evil cats again.

As the Lord Baron stated, this spring’s rainfall was far above typical seasonal rain. Unfortunately, insects were also making an appearance.

Dylan, the serf, was the first to have bugs infiltrate their fields. After two days, other insects then emerged in the hamlet. For the time being, no one knew what was going on in other regions of the country. 

The agricultural official used all of his power to have his sons personally prepare the medication and let the serfs to purchase it on their own. Furthermore, the official had to conceal the rhizomes and chop them so that no one would identify them. Then he requested a servant in charge of delivering letters to deliver them. The servant must explain that the medications must be exchanged for wheat, and the servant must receive no less than the stated quantity.

In the case of Dylan, the serfs next to his share of land acted as witnesses to the event, and the dead insects could be utilized as material proof. At the very least, serfs and freemen residing near the castle would no longer have to be concerned about the efficacy of the medication. They were just concerned about the two bowls of wheat they had to pay for.

Of course, in the end, they could only agree to get the medicine. Otherwise, they would lose more than two bowls.

The previous times when the thieving bugs grew, the wheat seedlings that could not be saved in time were all gnawed away. The yield of the entire field was reduced by more than half, and even the seeds were not enough. How many serfs starved to death? 

It turned out that these two bowls of wheat were actually worth the money. After the medicine killed the thieving bugs, those thieving bugs did not appear again. That was to say, this kind of medicine could not only kill thieving bugs, but also prevent them!

This was further confirmed by the fact that the agricultural official successively sprayed medicinal liquid on the fields where there were no thieving bugs.

Everyone knew that the Baron had gone on a study tour in the East for a long time. This unheard-of method of feeding herbs to crops must also come from there. This made them think of a question, similar to what the agricultural official had thought.

The Lord Baron asked them to plant some grass in his field. Was it also because it would have some magical effect? 

One had to know that the Lord Baron told them to plant it in his own land first. This also included those fallow fields. After spraying the insecticide, they could rule out the possibility that the Lord Baron was merely playing about. The only alternative left was that the noble Lord Baron was very intelligent in all aspects.

Curiosity spread throughout the castle, and the serfs gathered to speculate on what the “weeds” could do to keep the other insects away.

The serfs, who were first relieved that they didn’t have to grow grass in their fields, abruptly altered their expression. This was a very wise Lord, and the grass he nurtured suddenly became more beautiful and healthy…

In addition to serfs and freemen, priests, stewards, knights, and others weighed in more factors. 

For the aborigines of Northumberland, the stewards and the knights thought that their relationship with the agricultural official might change in the future. It seemed that he was favored by the Lord.

This favor he bestowed was so concrete, because it was an enviable insecticide secret formula. It was enough for the agricultural official’s son and the son of his son, to not worry about food and drink for generations. As early as they got to know about the whole fiasco, they felt they should be more active in responding to all the orders of the Lord. Who would have thought that the young Lord Baron was so wise and generous at that time?

They had to be cautious when they cozied up to the agricultural official, hoping that during the season when the thieving bugs emerged, they could acquire some medicine from the agricultural official beforehand, so that they wouldn’t have to worry about insects in their property.

There are also those “weeds”. They began to find all kinds of opportunities and excuses to observe the weeds in the Lord’s field. Then they found that the manner the Lord planted the grass was in a similar pattern like planting wheat. It was neat and had a definite number. If the number of plants exceeded, the Lord would send someone to cut it off and put it in other fields. 

It wasn’t as if the Lord was acting irrationally by letting the weeds compete for nutrients with the wheat. Although they didn’t know the specific use of it, the plant must be a good thing. It was a pity that this kind of grass on the territory had been raided by the agricultural officials. Otherwise, they would like to study it carefully.

The brave and cunning steward first asked the Lord Baron to reward him for his hard work. Then, he asked the Lord if he could allow him to follow the Lord and plant the grass in his own field.

The Lord Baron thought about it for a long time, then reluctantly nodded his head and asked him to take the seeds of the grass from the agricultural official. He asked the agricultural official to tell them the quantity and the distance between each plant in sowing. Then, the tax official, knights, and so on, were all moved.

In the past, the agricultural official was by no means the most important person to the Lord in the manor. Now, from the housekeeper to the tax collector to the sheriff, all of them were carrying smiles when they saw him. The agricultural official was deeply satisfied. 

As for the priest, he wanted to tax the land on behalf of the church. Therefore, after the emergence of the thieving bugs, he began to pay attention to it, although he had no idea how to solve it.

But unexpectedly, the new Lord Baron had an idea!

The priest intended to write to the main church fairly quickly. But he soon wondered if it was required for him to disclose this problem, given the Lord Baron’s connection with the archbishop. So it would be preferable for him to attempt to maintain a favorable relation with the Lord Baron instead.

Ch30.2 - The Secret Formula Of The East (Part Two)

Under such an atmosphere, the stewards were all trying to snag the rights to complete Cui QiChao’s next request.

Cui QiChao said, “I’ve noticed that there are feces everywhere on the ground.”

Everyone nodded. That was right. People defecated anywhere they liked, a behavior they shared with livestock.

Cui QiChao said, “This won’t do. Everything in this territory belongs to me, including feces.” 

Everyone: “……”

Feces?? If it wasn’t for the Lord Baron showing them his secret formula to kill insects not long ago, they would have thought the Lord Baron was talking nonsense again.

Cui QiChao pointed out, “Dig a few big pits in the white soil and collect all the feces and leftover dregs to fill the pits with. The most important ones are cow manure, pig manure, and goose manure. The serfs can get a handful of oats for collecting more.”

The stewards were shocked. Trading feces for oats? Where did this good idea come from? Wasn’t that simply a bargain for the serfs?

Why does the Lord always say something incomprehensible once everyone already changes their mind about him? As for the weeds, after the insecticide incident, everyone was convinced that it had some special effect, but what could be the use of feces that bred insects and rats?

This question was destined to be buried in their hearts for several months. After all, composting took several months.

Cui QiChao only asked the steward to prop his ear over. “Go collect some straw. Lay a layer of it at the bottom of the pits, and wait until the pits are full of feces before covering them with soil.”

If one dug a hole in the white soil—that is, saline alkali soil—one could eliminate one step in creating compost, which was to splash alkaline lime water on the soil. 

The steward’s eyes widened. Hm? Was there a need to keep this step a secret? His breathing became hurried. Although he didn’t understand the purpose of his task, this was evidence that the Lord believed he would be able to accomplish his duties well.

The others stared at the steward in jealousy, especially the agricultural official. To others, it seemed as though the Lord really possessed a secret, which he only told the steward. Therefore, after the Lord’s request was carried out, if any benefits were obtained from it, the steward would definitely be the first to enjoy it.

And the Lord Baron not only requested him to do that.

Cui QiChao had ordered people to dig ditches in their saline land so that they could be used to store water. On one hand, the canals were used to store rainwater; on the other hand, they were actually used as part of water conservancy projects. 

Cui QiChao didn’t know which Baron of Northumberland had built this castle, but it seemed that the fief was specially designed to be on high ground. Winding rivers on lower-leveled ground also surrounded the fief.

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.

The serfs who could live in this fief were relatively happy. The distance between the land and the river in some other villages wasn’t as close.

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Without water conservancy facilities, it would take hundreds of years for the medieval farmers to come to understand how to build water conservancy projects for irrigation and drainage. 

The livelihood of farmers during this era really depended on the weather. They had to be satisfied with how much rain the god above bestowed on them. If the god said that this year’s sowing would result in this number of harvests, then they would have that number of harvests. And for them, the highest number of harvests they had ever had were five to six.

Cui QiChao had carefully observed the shape of the territory and asked the agricultural official to measure it carefully. Most of the places where the lord of a territory lived were flat, so the waters would be right around their feet, and the fields would be right above their heads. If that was the case, then they would have to build a waterwheel.

There were many kinds of dykes and dams. For example, for the fief’s situation, the river’s water levels and water volume could be directly diverted into the canal to build a branch dam.

A diversion dam could be built on the river to divert the water so that it could irrigate the fields. The water was led into the aqueduct through the diversion dam, and if there was a surplus of water or it was raining, in which case irrigation wouldn’t be needed, the diverted water would be returned to the river through the return channel. 

After some inquiries, Cui QiChao learned that although Northumberland didn’t see much rainfall, the river didn’t dry up during the dry season. Moreover, there was a rising trend in the amount of rainfall in recent years, so there was no need to use a barrage to store water.

It was just a small canal system project. At present, the serfs were far from being able to build large-scale projects. Cui QiChao had to use the simplest materials for the dyke. He didn’t even think about using stones to build it. Otherwise, how long would they take to build it? Their castle was built with stones.

Only materials that could be found locally were used. A layer of soil and a layer of grass were superpositioned over one another for the construction, which would ensure that the grass mould dam would solidify enough.

Although it took time to build dams and canals in the early stages, once they were built, they could save a lot of effort in managing the irrigation and drainage, especially for those farmers whose land was far away from the river. 

Because of the unaltering rigidity of people’s mindsets in the middle-ages, Cui QiChao only asked them to divert water to the saline land and the arable land for the time being, so that they could see the usefulness of diligently irrigating crops.

When the steward heard that he wanted to build a grass mound to divide the water and connect it with the previous ditch, he suddenly realized, “Lord, wouldn’t the river water flow into the field by itself?”

It was just a ditch to store water. To store water, this ditch had to similarly wait for rain to fall, but if Cui QiChao claimed that it was diverting water, then it would be a completely different thing to the steward.

This was obviously easy to understand. The others also appeared to have comprehended the Lord’s words. Luckily, everyone understood what Cui QiChao had said. “Heavens, wouldn’t that be akin to daily rain for the crops?” 

Of course, they still didn’t realize that the construction of the canal wasn’t so simple. The route, shape, and height all needed to be planned in a unified way. It would be counterproductive if they started building the canal rashly and casually.

Seeing that they could be taught, Cui QiChao’s interest was perked up. “When I was study-touring, I found that they had a lot of rainwater, so they had to build a lot of things to manage that. They also made use of the water flow through water diversion and irrigation. When the water level rises, they drain the water out.”

Fortunately, it was all saline land here. If this territory had swamp land, he would have to crazily build all kinds of drainage systems.

The stewards were ready to get moving. “That’s great. It would be good to let the serfs quickly pile up the soil and dig the ditch. That way, Milord, we can see the construction completed as early as this winter.” 

No matter how smart the Lord was, the amount of working time the serfs had was limited. With the tons of farm work they needed to accomplish, it would be very hard for them to take out some time to dig canals and repair dams. If they gradually conducted the construction, they should be able to get it done by winter.

“Winter? No, no. Ask them to put down their weeding work for the time being and spend most of their time digging ditches,” Cui QiChao said.

Confused, the agricultural official asked, “Milord, what about the weeds?”

These weeds in question weren’t the ones that the Lord specially ordered them to plant. He was now convinced they weren’t weeds, but if the real weeds on the field weren’t pulled out, how could the wheat grow? 

“The weeds have to be removed of course,” Cui QiChao said lightly under the watchful eyes of the stewards.

Newly grown weeds could be washed away by the newly built canal, while the grown weeds would also be removed.

During this era, even lords would cherish the metal farm tools they owned and wouldn’t lend them to others at will. The wooden farm tools in one’s possession were also relatively few. Hoes were a family property. The entire family might only own one. Many farmers didn’t even have one.

In other words, serfs used their hands to do most of the farm work. They also did their weeding by hand. In the few months after the plants were sown, they had been doing their best to pull out the weeds with both hands, competing in speed with the weeds’ growth rate. The most hardworking and capable farmers were those with the most children. In those people’s fields, one could hardly see any weeds. 

Cui QiChao couldn’t continue watching such a method of collecting weeds!

In Reality. LJJ livestream platform.

This was Cui QiChao’s first program in the male genre. The background setting of the program was set in an era similar to the Western medieval period. In the beginning, Cui QiChao would start as the owner of a small fief.

Because of Cui QiChao’s excellent performance in the women’s genre, LJJ’s current attitude was completely different from their attitude during his last program. Before the broadcast, they had significantly strengthened their publicity. The program got onto many recommendation lists, all in order to advertise for the first episode premiere. 

Advert statements went along the lines of “One possessing the awakened bloodline of an Eastern Emperor has arrived in the West’s medieval era.” In the first episode, the must-watch part of the episode was the appearance of the secret formula from the East. This formula managed to amaze the medieval people.

On the day of the broadcast, a large number of viewers that came from the female genre clicked onto the male genre broadcasting episode list.

Once the episode screened, the commentary barrage appeared.

[I’m an old audience coming to give my support. Boss Cui will definitely be just as brilliant in the middle ages!] 

[Let me share some knowledge about Cui QiChao with everyone. Our Cui Cui has inherited the bloodline of the Yan Emperor, one of the three sovereigns and five emperors of China. It would be very fitting for him to be an emperor. It wouldn’t be a feat for him to just be the Lord of a fief. Everyone, please look forward to the surprises he will bring you!]

[I’m taking a seat at the front row, and I brought my pills for my heart. When our President Cui does something exciting, it’s particularly thrilling.]

[Sitting in the front row, prepping my little lunch box.]

[Wow, you’re all so naughty…] 

At first glance, the audience that originally came from the male genre trusted the words of these old audiences with a slightly distorted mentality. They thought, wow, this person must be amazing. This person with an awakened bloodline had so many supporters even though he only acted in one program. And they even followed him to the male genre. It seemed that this show would be very exciting.

Only a few people noticed something wrong with this overly enthusiastic recommendation. But it was too late because the program had already started.

Cui QiChao first saved three cats and won a certain degree of favor from everyone. Whether in the male or female genre, there was a consensus that small animals shouldn’t die. Then came the dark cuisine of the middle ages.

In medieval reality shows, this was a fixed routine. It was also one of the funny points when the audience could see the actors being poisoned by the dark cuisine. 

[Heavens, this kitty. Cui QiChao must have missed XiaoBai…]

[Wow, fuck. There are so many fields here. Cui QiChao must feel blessed.]

[?? No matter how much you miss XiaoBai, you shouldn’t call a black cat XiaoBai.]

[Okay, okay. I know you’re good at training cats.] 

[I sense a familiar aura upon seeing these dishes. So the next thing should be…]

[I have opened my lunchbox.]

Unsurprisingly, at the next moment, Cui QiChao forced the cook to start barbecuing meat. The smell of roasted mutton, rich in oil, tender on the inside, and charred on the outside, could almost leave the screen and reach people’s noses. There were several big close ups and slow shots.

The detailed food scenes made the audience salivate, and the unprepared new audience could only howl: 

They really hadn’t been ready for the appearance of delicious food when they were watching a program set in a medieval virtual plane! Why did this Eastern emperor know how to barbecue?

Then came the climax of the episode. During the most exciting part of this episode, Cui QiChao showed them his secret formula from the East—insecticide.

[…It’s really amazing, but it’s a little bit different from what I imagined. I thought he would beat all the knights down, make them convinced of his title as the Lord, and swear that he would expand the territory as the Lord.]

[Tsk, tsk. That’s such an old-fashioned way of acting in the middle ages. Why don’t you say that the knights should kneel down and kiss his feet as soon as his tiger body shakes?] 

[It’s cool to see the steward being slapped in the face, kneeling and sucking up to the Lord, and the fate of the serfs being reversed. I’m grateful to the leading actor, and I’m obsessed… Isn’t that the meaning of this show? He has to beat the boss with hit after hit. I’m looking forward to more wonderful plots in the future!]

[This is reasonable. If you want to go to war, you must have grains first. The actor is right to do this. I also support the main lead in aiding the serfs in their farming!]

[I give my support, my support. I have no comments. Cui Cui charge! Grow more grains!]

[Accumulate great stores of grain to accomplish something big! Our Cui QiChao would never let all our brothers down!] 

[Cui QiChao is the best! Possessing an imperial bloodline and overbearing beyond your imagination!]

[……]

[Don’t you really think the way those old audiences talk is a bit strange?? My mother is Chinese. I suddenly feel that this show may be different from what I think…]