Ch31.1 - It’s the Best When Having Farming Tools (Part One)

Dylan was teaching his son John how to weed their land. There was always an endless amount of weeds that were being sowed with the seeds, but one had to carefully pick out the weeds from the seeds. Now, a new laborer has been added into Dylan’s family.

And yesterday—when Dylan thought of it, he still felt a little happy. His daughter, who originally remained at home, started making use of the days when she didn’t have to cook to go outside and collect cow dung. In addition, his family’s pig dung and sheep dung brought him a handful of oats from the steward.

Oats were far less valuable, so they had gotten it without much of an effort, but if they exchanged oats several times, the wheat they owed the Lord for the insecticide from last time could be offset. Maybe they would even be able to make some extra money this way.

But this was merely Dylan’s wishful thinking. Such good news wasn’t known only to their family, because all the families in the fief took action. First, they scraped all the feces in their house and land to give to the Lord, then the children who were too young to work went out to look for unclaimed feces, and soon the road was all cleaned up by wooden shovels. 

Places that were often passed by no longer had signs of feces lining the roads—or at least, Dylan didn’t step on any on his way to his share of land today. He even thought of the woodlands, pastures, and corners where livestock loitered around, and felt it was a pity that farmwork was so time consuming, or else he would have sent his sons to go pick it up.

——Who would even think about why the Lord asked for it? They didn’t care why the Lord was willing to exchange oats for animal excrement with everyone. They were merely glad that they had gotten a bargain. But what if the Lord goes back against his word one day? They heard the Lord’s temper wasn’t good.

As Dylan was in deep thoughts, he heard his little son cry, “Father, my feet.”

The serfs had no shoes and were barefoot whether at home or at work. Dylan looked at his little son’s feet. There were blisters on them. He sighed. “I told you to be careful of the three-petaled devil daisies. Their sap will make you blister.”

The general public’s view towards grass was complex. When it grew in the fields and was difficult to pull out, it was considered a product of the devil. When it is used by herbalists to make medicine, it becomes a holy product. Similarly, the clover wasn’t anything useful for them either, but after being planted in the field by the Lord, it became an existence that everyone was curious about. And yet, if the herbal medicine used to kill insects was eaten by livestock, it would become a devil plant that caused their livestock to be poisoned.

Dylan taught his son to differentiate all kinds of weeds that needed to be pulled out. Here, the plants are all prefixed with the devil’s name, from the devilled daisy to the devilled leaf and the devilled berry.

The most important thing to watch out for was the poisonous wheat. If it was not pulled out in time, it would grow to look like ordinary wheat, but if it was collectively harvested with regular wheat, it could cause food poisoning.

As Dylan watched his son grow up and learn little by little, he rubbed his waist happily. At this time, Alva, who lived next door, called him. 

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.

“Gsijc, jgf sbe jirb ublcu ab ybggbk atf Obgv’r kffvlcu abbir?” Cinj jrxfv.

Gsijc kjr ja j ibrr. “Qtja kffvlcu abbir?”

“Pa rffwr atja atf nliijuf tfjv tjrc’a abiv sbe sfa. Ktlr wbgclcu, tf abiv wf atja atf Obgv jrxfv atf mgjoarwjc ab wjxf j ojgwlcu abbi atja mjc kffv, jcv tf ybggbkfv la ogbw atf Obgv. Kb gfca atf abbi, sbe’v bcis cffv akb tjcvoeir bo yfjcr obg atf rewwfg.” Qtfc Cinj rjk atja tf xcfk rbwfatlcu Gsijc vlvc’a, lc jc lcrajca, tf mbeivc’a fnfc mjgf jybea atf kbgx ja tjcv. Lf tjv tlr tjcvr bc tlr kjlra jr tf rqijaafgfv tlr rjilnj.

“The village head said it’s a good thing. The craftsmen hugged it to sleep in their arms at night. After using it…” Actually, Alva didn’t even know how to use it. He said casually, “After using it, we don’t have to kneel and pull the grass.” 

Dylan was immediately moved. If they could stand up to do work, their waists would feel a lot better. But the cost was two handfuls of beans, which would be enough for him to have two meals…

“Have you ever seen such tools? In order to make it, the craftsman went to the woodland to cut wood and worked hard for more than ten days.” Alva continued, “We can borrow one along with Joseph and Joey, and take turns using it.”

If four families borrow it together, it would be a more manageable price to pay. Dylan was excited and said, “Let’s go to find Joseph and Joey and have a look at the farming tools.”

After finishing the farm work, Dylan and his friend went to see the new farming tools. Many serfs had the same idea and tightly surrounded the village and the agricultural official. 

“Heavens…” Dylan saw the farming tools. It was divided into two types. One was fan-shaped, with many teeth and a long handle. The other was smaller, with teeth but without handles, and only had a rope attached to it. Most of these two kinds of farm tools are made of wood. There are only two pieces of farming tools with sharp iron sheets wrapped around its teeth.

The village head tied the rope of one of the farming tools to his feet, and raised his feet up. Then he stepped on the ground, rubbed the weeds out, and flipped the soil over. All the serfs immediately called out enviously.

What was this amazing product that they could even use when standing up, and with a twist of their body, a huge patch of land was cleared? It was more efficient than bigger farming tools, and especially easy to use. They could just rake the ground with a wave of their hand. The one wrapped with iron was especially good to use. It can take out a large area of weeds all at once. After repeatedly doing it, the weeds on the plot of land were gone.

“If you want to borrow it, you need to give the Lord two handfuls of wheat, and you can only use it on the Lord’s land. As for those made of wood, they are much cheaper, it only costs two handfuls of beans.” The village head stated. 

Alva was mistaken!

He said that the function of these farming tools was just to allow them to get rid of weeds even when standing up, but in fact, everyone could see that after using the farming tool, the speed of raking weeds would increase. Any veteran farmer, with the exception of people like Dylan’s youngest son, who can’t even recognize the devilled daisy, can speed up weeding to at least three times the speed.

And the price was only two handfuls of beans.

The serfs almost flocked to the village and asked the village head to lend them the farming tools. 

But because there were more people than available farming tools, every family had to cooperate in renting the farming tools.

“Don’t worry, the craftsmen are still making more. The Lord said that when the grain is harvested this season, and if it is up to his standard, he will consider selling the farming tools to everyone.” The village head’s words were filled with enticement, “And it would only cost very, very little amount of wheat. In the future, only a few beans will be needed to repair farming tools.”

It’s not borrowing, it’s selling. Although these people still don’t know whether or not the village head was deceiving others by claiming that ‘little wheat’ would be sufficient, they merely thought about how much energy can be saved during the weeding period if one can own such farm tools.

Additionally, the village head revealed moments ago that those farming tools wrapped in iron had a better weeding effect and would be used in the Lord’s land. Which lucky person would be able to use the iron farming tool when weeding for the Lord? 

As a matter of fact, some well-off freemen are already thinking about whether they should send some oats to the agricultural official and the village head so that their families can use these few iron farming tools.

.

Dylan went back with the tiller happily. He made an appointment with Alva, Joseph, and Joey, and each family took turns to use it for a day. If the tool was damaged, the four families would repair it together.

The next day, when Dylan was trying it out in the field, he asked his sons to pull up the residual grass behind him. He and his eldest son took turns. The work that used to take a whole day to complete was finished before the sun rose above his head today. 

They used the time they had saved to thatch their hut and went to the woodland to collect firewood. In the afternoon, he would do the work that the Lord instructed him to do, piling soil and digging canals by the river.

The canal was to be connected with the Lord’s land and Dylan paid special care to connect the white soil that couldn’t grow crops.

While digging, Dylan heard a loud noise. He raised his head and saw a handsome aristocrat dressed in silk, riding a horse while being  accompanied by the village head, agricultural official and others.

Although no one has said it yet, Dylan had guessed that the Lord who he couldn’t raise his head to was the Baron, the new Lord of Northumberland. 

The serfs bowed down to salute the owner of the land and speculated in their hearts what the Lord would do.

One had to know that many people hadn’t even had a few glimpses at the previous Lord Baron, and they definitely didn’t see the previous Lord by the side of a field. But they only saw the previous Baron when he went out to play and hunt. They saw him from a distance, and were not even allowed to get close to him.

Although the new Lord was handsome, he was unsmiling. He picked up a heavy cloth bag from his waist and threw it on the ground. The bag loosened, revealing a lot of beans and oats inside.

The new Lord said, “Place the firewood here and cook these into paste. Today, before sunset, if the aqueduct can reach up to where I stand, everyone will be able to eat a bowl of mush.” 

A bowl of mush! Almost everyone’s eyes lit up. This bowl of mush may be more than the handful of beans that they had paid to rent the tiller!

In the past, when doing such work that didn’t need to be urgently completed and when the task was commanded by the Lord, it was inevitable that someone would be lazy. Today, they didn’t need to be whipped by a rod. They merely encouraged each other to work hard.

Before the sun went down, the serfs had dug the aqueduct to the side of Cui QiChao’s horse’s hoof. The accumulated soil and grass could be mixed together and used to build mud dams.

Under the expectant eyes of all the serfs, Cui QiChao said, “Give them the mush.” 

The servants served the serfs with paste. If there were not enough bowls, people would receive the food with their hands. Everyone wolfed down the food, not leaving any residue. Usually, the serfs could only eat oatmeal paste and bean paste, which were thick and dry, as the serfs could only afford those. They couldn’t even afford black bread.

Most of the time, serfs couldn’t eat their fill with the amount of beans at home, only possessing a limited amount. This bean paste wasn’t cooked as thin as the one at home, so it tasted like a rare delicacy.

Cui QiChao looked at these skinny, hungry serfs and sighed at the bottom of his heart. His love for the people was greatly stimulated. If he could, he even wanted to invite all the serfs in the fief to eat wheat bread, but at this moment, it was all but a whim. He could only provide a meal of better quality oatmeal and bean paste.

On the way over, he also saw the serfs’ houses. They all had  huts made of wood and thatch on slightly flat ground. There were even domestic animals living with them in their huts. No wonder these serfs were also called hut farmers. 

This was just the first step. Cui QiChao thought that one day, he would increase the yield and let all the farmers in the territory have wheat and bread to eat. As for the oats, they could use it to feed the horses!

Today was one of the rare days where the serfs who worked by the river headed home with a filled tummy. They had a bowl of mush and cool water, and they tasted the feeling of satiety that they haven’t experienced in a long time.

Dylan said to his neighbor, “God must bless our Lord Baron. I’ve never seen such a kind big shot.”

The neighbors wanted to tease him, because why would the Lord Baron need Dylan to pray for him? But after thinking about today’s incident, they kept their mouths shut. Dylan was right. The Lord had given them a filling meal. 

Ch31.2 - It’s the Best When Having Farming Tools (Part Two)

And in every steward’s mind, the Lord Baron was still the same old crazy and ridiculous Lord.

Just for the sake of speeding up the repair of the canal, he forced the artisans to create the weeding equipment, and he squandered a sack of grains and beans to the serfs for free in order to expedite the canal’s restoration. Before the money they earned from renting agricultural implements could warm up in their hands, it was returned to the serfs’ bellies!

Furthermore, what was more terrifying was that the Lord intended to reward the serfs with mush not only for today.

Fortunately, the Lord was also very good to them. 

“Tomorrow, I’ll let the cook prepare a pot of fish soup for everyone.” Cui QiChao said.

Everyone was ecstatic. They could never forget the flavor of the barbecued meat that the Lord had asked the cook to prepare. The castle’s workers, on the other hand, did not slaughter pigs and lambs day to day, and the Lord’s barbeque must be cooked using fresh meat.

The Lord was not keen on hunting, but he would watch the cook prepare vegetables every day, and each time he did that, he wouldn’t take up too much time. Even if the Lord was not having a vegetarian diet on lenten days, he basically only ate vegetables. In this case, how would the other staff have the face to divide the spoonfuls of meat between themselves?

Like the agricultural official the other day, the cook of Northumberland castle was full of joy.

Her mother, who was able to become a Northumberland contracted cook, exchanged her whole pickled fish recipe with a southerner’s recipe to make a broth. If she only had good cooking skills, it wouldn’t be enough for her to work in the castle. She had to have unique recipes. Otherwise, why would the Lord choose her instead of others?

But now, the Lord Baron was dissatisfied with her, though he didn’t replace her. Instead, he taught her several delicious recipes, which she kept in mind and would pass on to her children in the future. It would be a new skill the cook could rely on in the future.

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.

Today, the Lord Baron ordered her to cook two more dishes. One was grilled trout, and it didn’t come as a surprise when she was asked to wash her hands clean first. This was the only part where the cook had some complaints about the Lord. The Lord liked to abuse cats. He even asked if there were any new cats caught in his territory. Unfortunately, the cat seemed to be possessed by a demon and ran away so fast before few people could catch it in the field.

Ktf Obgv rffwfv ab yf j ilaaif vlrjqqblcafv klat atja, jcv bcf mbeiv rff atja tf kjrc’a fnfc kliilcu ab jyerf atf mja ab lar vfjat jii ja bcmf. Lf kbeiv jikjsr ajxf atf mja klat tlw jcv qlcmt la ktfcfnfg, pera ab wjxf atf mja rmgfjw. Lbkfnfg, ktja tf fcpbsfv vblcu wbgf kjr ab gfifjrf atf mja, jcv ifa atf mja gbjw jgbecv lc ofjg. 

The evil cat would slam into the cook on purpose every time, and this would lead to her washing her hands frequently. She felt that even after washing her body, her hands weren’t holy enough, but since it was very inauspicious for her to come into contact with the black cat, and it was even in front of the Lord, so the cook could only choose to wash her hands. It was fortunate that she could head to church for a cleansing.

The Lord Baron himself weighed two handfuls of herb and told her to put them into the cleaned fish. The cook carefully noted down the type and amount of herb, including half a handful of lemon balm, half a handful of oregano leaves and a little ginger slice. They were pickled all morning and placed on the grill.

The church’s grounds were densely forested with rosemary and thyme. The pungent aroma of the grilled fish would be dispersed after sprinkling it with dried rosemary and thyme powder. The fragrance of the herbs would permeate the fish as the skin gradually dried and the outer skin became crispy. With the permission of the Lord, she was able to add some salt.

When it’s cooked, the cook squeezed a whole slice of lemon over each fish. The burnt yellow grilled fish exuded a strong aroma. Every servant passing by the kitchen would stop to smell a few more whiffs before they were willing to leave. 

It was the same grilled fish and the same spices, but the grilled fish made by the cook’s own recipe didn’t taste that way.

What piqued the cook’s interest even more was a snack prepared with goat’s milk, something she had never heard of or seen before—-because it would take a long time for medieval people to even taste oatmeal porridge combined with fruit. This was referred to as pudding by them. And this pudding was shaped similarly to the double skin milk. And as for the pudding made of milk and egg, it would be invented much later.

Because the Lord often asked for goat’s milk recently, the slaves of the shepherd would specially prepare fresh goat’s milk for the Lord. They would boil a can of fresh goat’s milk with a little sugar that was very difficult to obtain from somewhere out of the fief, cool it, stir it with the egg whites, and steam it for some time. The cook had been keeping track of the time in her heart. When the Lord indicated that it was time, she took note of the time and brought the jar over.

When the jar’s lid was opened, the goat’s milk had become frozen, and some raspberries were added to it. 

With the permission of the master, the cook was able to taste a mouthful of milk jelly. She was immediately fascinated by the rich, smooth, and tender taste of milk. With just a little squeeze, the pudding would break. The sweet raspberry had a sour and sweet taste, which made people almost reluctant to swallow.

This should be the taste a dessert should have… the cook thought, startled.

On the long dining table, big plates piled with several fishes and jars filled with goat’s milk jelly were put up, attracting everyone’s attention. They all knew that the Lord spent a long time in the kitchen just to supervise the cook in making these two dishes.

Cui QiChao first started and divided the fish into his own plate. “Please help yourself, everyone.” 

After he said that, the stewards all began moving their hands. Coincidentally, all the tablewares in their hands extended to the ginger on the grilled fish.

Although fish was grilled until it was fragrant, the ginger that was imported from another fief was rarer. They felt that the meal would have been worth it if they merely ate it. In terms of food, the new Baron was generous and particular about it, and it won everyone’s praise.

Although there was no pepper in the dish, a little salt, a proper amount of herbs and lemon juice had made the grilled fish appear extremely enticing. It wasn’t known how the cook controlled the temperature. The skin was grilled to perfection, slightly burnt and crispy. Once it was torn open, the flesh inside was still fresh and tender. There was barely no fishy stench since the unpleasant stench was neutralized with herbs and lemon juice.

When the crispy fish skin was chewed on, it made a squeaky sound. The aromatic and fishy aroma enticed everyone to sip up the fish broth on the side. Now that they had consumed this dish, they noticed how the previous fish broth tasted fishier and more tasteless. Terrifyingly, they realized that they used to enjoy such food with relish. 

The agricultural official thought, “Even for the sake of the grilled fish, I would always be loyal to the Lord Baron… Oh, no, and also for the sake of the goat’s milk jelly.”

He scooped a generous helping of this exquisite goat’s milk jelly. The creamy milk jelly was speckled with bright raspberries. The delicate and silky milk jelly glided across his tongue with ease. It didn’t take much effort to relax his already loosened teeth. Sugar was also sprinkled inside, and he could taste it. Milk and sugar were the best combination. He thought he must ask the Lord to allow him to save a bite for his wife and daughter.

That night, the agricultural official became the noblest man in his family. Because the generous Lord Baron allowed him to take a whole bowl of goat’s milk jelly back, his wife and daughter went completely crazy over it. His wife even grabbed his collar and forced him to promise that he would definitely allow the Lord to continue to bestow favours upon him.

The bored medieval people lived in the fief with a vast area and few people. The conversational topic they could talk about was very limited everyday. Since the arrival of the new Baron, there were many things for everyone to talk about and think about, and they even felt busy talking about him. Because they led such barren lives, it caused them to exaggerate the greatness of the Lord’s slightly crude recipes. 

After Cui QiChao bathed in the grateful eyes of his subjects, he also had to take a real bath.

The church had spread the notion that those who did not bathe would always be the holiest. The county of Northumberland was also included in the southern area. Because the temperature was quite hot here, the aristocracy would bathe more frequently, from four times a year to ten times a year… Civilians were unable to afford baths.

Most aristocrats still hated to take a bath, and even if they had to take a bath, they hastily completed the job. Even if they enjoyed bathing inwardly, everyone would hide these desires, as if it was a horrible habit.

He should be glad that there was no outbreak of the black death when he arrived, otherwise it would be impossible for him even if he wanted to sink into depravity to take a bath. 

t/n: this whole sentence basically implied how people didn’t keep themselves clean in the black death, and in the black death, no one liked to keep themselves clean. In fact, it was not normal if one kept themselves clean during the period.

The ruthless Baron wanted to be a man that couldn’t correct his horrible habit. He asked the kitchen to boil water for him every few days. He was even worried that there was no bathtub in the castle. However, he found that even the bathtub here was brand new. Maybe the previous Baron was not keen on taking a bath, so he wiped himself with a wet towel.

The rough barrel must be covered with fine cloth, or else the wooden thorns on the barrel could turn the bathing water red. Cui QiChao heard the sound of scratching from the barrel. He raised his head to have a look and saw that XiaoBai was scratching the barrel.

“You’d better not take a bath so often. It’s easy to get sick without a hairdryer.” Cui QiChao said, “Lick yourself clean.” 

XiaoBai: “……”

Lick yourself??

XiaoBai took a few steps backward. It then dashed, leapt, and stepped on the side of a wooden bucket. Using the wooden bucket, it turned its body to stick to the bucket. With a few steps, it jumped to the edge of the bucket, and jumped forward.

Bam! 

It fell and sank between Cui QiChao’s legs.

Cui QiChao: “……”

Was it now time to do what the Romans did in Rome and actually start abusing the cat?