Ch38.1 - Complete Surrender And Long Journey (Part One)

The knights’ weapons were smeared with the sap of the insecticide vine. Some of the thieves had gotten injured in the confrontation earlier, so within the time taken to eat a meal, symptoms of vomiting surfaced among them.

The thieves were already hungry, and their stomachs were empty. It was still fine if they didn’t have anything to eat, but now they were vomiting gastric acid.

Although everyone had finished eating by now, voices of disgust still sounded at this sight. The servants dragged the thieves out of the hall as if they were dragging dead pigs, and then they poured cold water into their stomachs to alleviate the toxicity of the insecticide.

The Lord said these people couldn’t be hanged to death. He wanted to keep them and make them work as coolies. 

What was the best way to transform the mindsets of people? Labor could best transform these people’s mindsets.

The maids cleaned the place where the thieves had been lying. Because the Lord Baron loved to be clean, urinating and spitting inside the castle was not allowed now. All the garbage had to be cleaned, and all the faeces were dragged to the fertilizer pile every day.

The thieves lay on the ground, on their last breaths. All their possessions were taken away from them. Of course, the people of Northumberland would not give food to the thieves. Everyone who happily had their fill jubilantly went to collect the plates.

From the egg to the apple, these thieves had not been able to talk with the Lord. In the past, the Lord would at least show off the prowess of his territory to the thieves.

They all thought that the end waiting for them was probably death by hanging with their corpses put on display outside the windows.

This was probably the last night of their lives, cold and hungry with their stomachs full of water…

The slave led the thieves to the barn after they had finished drinking.

The thieves were shocked. 

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.

Sleeping in the barn wasn’t an insult to non-aristocrats during the middle ages. On the contrary, it was a guarantee that they could live through this cold night!

Ktfs kfgf ublcu ab vlf rbbcfg bg ijafg. Qts vb atfs ralii mjgf jybea atflg ilof jcv vfjat abcluta? Glv atfs ifa atfw riffq tfgf yfmjerf atfs kjcafv ab qeclrt atf ktbif vfc bo atlfnfr abufatfg?

Ciatbeut atfs tjv bcis bcf cluta ifoa ab ilnf, atf atlfnfr tevvifv mibrf ab atf jclwjir, rffxlcu kjgwat ogbw atflg kjgw ybvlfr. Zfjcktlif, atf jclwjir vlvc’a mjgf ktfatfg atfs kfgf ibmjir bg atlfnfr. Ktfs vlvc’a gfoerf atf atlfnfr’ lcafcalbc ab tevvif abufatfg ab rajs kjgw.

Early in the morning of the next day, the thieves woke up when they felt someone dragging them. 

“Get up, you bastard thieves!” said a slave dressed in a sackcloth and with a spear in hand, which he pointed at the tied-up thieves. He then ordered them to go with him.

This is probably where we meet our end, the thieves thought.

As they walked out of the barn, the slave put on the woollen clothes that he had hung outside to dry.

Joseph, the leader of the thieves, swept a glance over him and judged what the slave was doing. Apart from one’s work, you could identify one’s status from one’s clothing. This man had looked like a slave earlier. But now, when he put on his woollen clothes, he looked like a farmer. 

Afterward, Joseph was astonished. Last night, with the waves upon waves of people consuming food, he couldn’t tell everyone apart. Today, as everyone performed their duties, the distinction became obvious. If the situation wasn’t that Northumberland didn’t have slaves, that meant even the slaves here could wear woollen clothes.

Regardless of which was the truth, the situation here was too shocking.

The thieves were dragged to the toilet, after which the slaves kicked the buckets toward them and ordered them to collect excrement. Slaves had the lowest status in the castle, so they could only do these jobs. But now that there were prisoners, their status wouldn’t remain the same. It was reasonable to say that aside from death, the only possible end for the defeated was to become slaves. Only the winner had the right to speak.

The thieves: “……” 

They didn’t quite understand what was happening. Where was this place, and why were there so many faeces… Although they had noticed this place yesterday when they were imprisoned, they didn’t have the heart to think about it. The castle was too clean, and there were no faeces on the ground. Now they understood that this was because all the excrement was here. What was with this custom? Actually, did everyone defecate at a fixed place?

Oh right. They now had to collect excrement and put them all in this big bucket. What was the purpose behind this?

“Hurry, you lazy pigs!” The slave finally had a chance to scold others. Of course he would be happy to do so. Together with several other people, he untied the ropes binding the thieves. Their feet remained tied, and with his spear pointed at them, he was close enough to thrust forward if needed.

In fact, even without the threat of the spear, these thieves could not resist anyway. They were all dizzy from hunger. 

No matter how dizzy you were, you still had to work.

In winter, there was no farm work, but it was necessary to accumulate manure, conduct maintenance on water conservancy projects, and prune fruit trees. After careful thought, one would understand that these tasks were more than enough to transform the mindsets of these thieves.

It was fine if they only had to clean excrement and trash. But they also had to transport these excrement to the fief, bring them to the place where composting took place, prepare the fertilizer, and mix it with other composts. This was done every two weeks, so that some air could be inducted into the fertilizers.

The thieves’ faces were turning green as they were forced to constantly stir the faeces. The scent caused them to feel even dizzier. 

“No, no. I’m going to collapse!” Joseph loudly cried.

The slave said contemptuously, “Then why don’t you try collapsing in it?”

Toward these captives, no one wanted to allow them to relax.

Joseph’s face darkened. Were they going to starve them to death, tire them to death, or smoke them to death with the scent? 

Looking at these sticky things, Joseph held back his disgust and continued to stir them. Still, his mouth didn’t stop spouting curses. “These people in Northumberland are all mental. It’s fine for them to act like dung beetles, but they’re even forcing others to act like dung beetles with them. Let’s take our time. I’m sure a plague will appear from this shit pile…”

“Shut up!” The slave struck Joseph with a stick. If Joseph wasn’t clutching onto his companion beside him, he would have fallen into the faeces pit.

But the slave was still speaking to him in a repulsed tone, “What the hell do you know?!”

These were holy fertilizers that even God had approved to make crops grow fast. Ever since the “Hellfire” incident, people automatically assumed that since God had punished someone for stealing fertilizer, God must also think that fertilizing the fields was a good thing. Besides, the Lord priest didn’t have any opinions against it either. 

Only these ignorant villains and thieves would say such laughable utterances.

Under the threat of being jabbed by spears and sticks, the tottering thieves finally stirred a whole lot of faeces. Half a day later, they smelled of sweat and stink.

The amount of faeces and domestic waste produced by all the people and livestock in the whole fief weren’t a small amount..

The slaves carefully evaluated the state of the thieves. They compared their current state with how they had acted earlier when handling faeces and determined that they really weren’t able to continue working. It was only then that the slaves stepped forward in a restrained manner, tied up their hands and feet again, and… took out some beans. 

“Open your mouth,” the slave said.

“…What are you doing?” Joseph shot him a wary gaze. They had been poisoned yesterday. Those beans shouldn’t be poisoned too, right?

But Joseph’s men had already opened their mouths and swallowed the beans in one gulp. They couldn’t care so much anyway. Even if they were to die, they would rather be ghosts that had eaten their fill than hungry ghosts.

No one gained any symptoms of poisoning. Thus, everyone believed that they had really been fed a meal of beans. 

Heavens, they weren’t dreaming, were they?

After the meal, the slaves took the thieves to the river so that they could start repairing the dam.

After a whole day’s work, the thieves had eaten two meals of beans. The amount was approximately only a slave’s meal portion, but for the thieves who were short of clothes and food, it was God-given.

On the way back, they saw the serfs repairing their houses. The slaves asked them to stop and help them mend the roof. 

The thieves were only half-full, yet they had to work everyday. When they got back, they felt so tired they could sleep until the next day. In this way, how could the thieves have any other thoughts in their minds?

Joseph had planned to escape several times. He had hid under a cow’s stomach and whispered to everyone how his escape plan would be executed while they were fertilizing the fields. Unfortunately, his men refused.

“Boss, although there’s a lot of work every day, they always give us a fixed amount of beans. If we run away, we may not be able to eat beans every day.” The thieves had a clear thought process. “Besides, don’t you see what kind of life the slaves in this castle are living?”

What kind of lives were the slaves leading? They had woollen clothes to wear, they had mush to eat (occasionally, they could also eat leftovers and taste pork lard and meat), and there were even some who were learning to make farm tools. All of them saw and heard this when the slaves had come to test the harness designed for the cattle and for the horses! 

Joseph was silent.

Should he gallop and roam freely in the forests, coming and leaving like the wind, wandering through various castles to loot them?

Or stay here as a captive because of the beans they provided, facing garbage and faeces all day long?

Ch38.2 - Complete Surrender And Long Journey (Part Two)

Joseph laid down on the ground and cried out, “Lord, please! Accept us as your personal slaves! We will voluntarily work for you and we won’t dare to run away anymore!”

Only a few days of labor reform and Joseph had surrendered, willing to become one of the members of the exploited class. Cui QiChao looked at Joseph and pondered on his words.

These thieves were quite strong, their physiques were more superior than that of slaves. Taking into account the fact that although they had been through a tough patch recently, they would definitely be able to reap some rewards and profits since they were able to escape the law for so long. The food they robbed must have been eaten by them to further help this point out.

However, the biggest issue was that Cui QiChao could not believe them so easily. He lightly said, “I’ll take a look at your attitudes first—after all, the bunch of you are people who once attacked the castle.” 

Joseph regretfully thought that if they had known this would happen, or if he’d known Northumberland was so rich that even the slaves had enough to eat occasionally, they might have taken refuge here directly instead.

In order to express his sincerity, Joseph said in a low voice: “Lord, I have a map. It was something that I made after I understood the geography of where I plundered. I drew it myself and hid it in the forest.”

The map contained all kinds of information about Joseph’s in-depth understanding of the region. Some areas were places Joseph previously plundered, while others he thought were not suitable for the time being, and so on. In this era, the big and small lords wanted to annex each other to seize resources. If there is such a map or information available, it can already be considered a guide on which areas to annex.

Joseph even said that he could lead the way to attack other castles. In his view, the Knights of Northumberland, with their quality of life and standard of fighting, can fairly occupy other territories.

Joseph didn’t think that the Lord would refuse because he had spent so much food to feed the knights. The Lord had probably fed the knights so that they could fight for him, right?

When Cui QiChao heard Joseph’s words, his eyes lit up and he looked at him: “You’ve been to many territories, and you know what their current situation is like?”

Joseph nodded hard.

“Good. Now, take some men to the forest and get the map back.” Cui QiChao said. 

Joseph was overjoyed. He thought that if he made a contribution, he might not even be a slave. Immediately, under the escort of some men, he went to his hiding place and found  the map. At the same time, there are also some belongings of the group of thieves that he grabbed. The people of Northumberland did not interrogate them, let alone search for the private property of prisoners of war.

“All these are dedicated to the master.” Joseph said respectfully. In fact, it’s just some rags, a little food, tools and so on, but it somehow reflected his sincerity.

In this era, trading is a declining trade. Just imagine that even a Baron has his own animal husbandry and farms, and he still had people under his rule. He could eat and drink, make his clothes, and live a life without trading, all in his own territory. Here, trading is basically referred to as aristocracy doing business.

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.

Mbg fzjwqif, rqlmfr remt jr qfqqfg jcv tlut-ugjvf mibat kfgf rbiv ys wfgmtjcar. Ktfs boafc tjnf ab pbegcfs atgbeut ibcu vlrajcmfr, jcv rfivbw jqqfjg lc afgglabglfr. Zjcs atlfnfr ilxf Abrfqt klii erejiis ijs atflg mijkr bc atfw, jcv atf rbmlfas ufcfgjiis vbfr cba ibbx eq ab wfgmtjcar. 

Pa kbeiv yf fzagfwfis ijybglber ktfc qfbqif ogbw akb cflutybglcu afgglabglfr fzmtjcuf rbwfatlcu rbwfalwfr. Coafg jii, yfrlvfr atf lcmbcnfclfca agjcrqbgajalbc, atf rfgor kfgf qfgrbcjiis ybecv ys atf geifr jcv gfraglmalbcr, jcv atf ojgwfgr kfgf cba jiibkfv ab ub lc jcv bea ja klii. Mfk qfbqif mjc ub bea ab agjvf. Frejiis, atfs kfgf rfca bea ecvfg atf bgvfgr bo atf Obgv.

In the past, people in the territory didn’t go out very much, and the act of trading was carried out very infrequently and items traded was often the same, and information outside the territory obtained was extremely insufficient, which affected the spread and promotion of different crops.

It was just like how it was impossible for the knights of Northumberland to go to a very far place to fight a war previously.

Cui QiChao took the map and looked at it carefully. He noted that Joseph did run to a lot of places, and these places were closer to the north, and that because of this, Joseph knew more information about the region than a trader. After all, he was a thief. Cui QiChao showed him a joyous expression. “Good, then you do something for me. If you do it well, I can consider forgiving some of your crimes.” 

Joseph immediately said, “Give me a horse, and I’ll fight for you until my last breath.”

“Horse? Why do you need a horse? The horses have to be kept to help out in plowing.” Cui QiChao said casually, “Come, recall in detail what type of grains you robbed in every granary, or the strange crops you saw in other people’s territory.”

Joseph: “??”

Cui QiChao: “Hurry up!” 

This Lord had a shocking countenance. He was simply unlike a Baron. As soon as the Lord frowned, Joseph began to use the descriptor the people of a lower social class used to describe the things in his memory. He assumed that it’s normal to think about what other people have first in their territories before plundering them.

Cui QiChao himself took pen, ink, and hemp paper to record——This was something that he found out about after all the trouble. Usually, the Lords and the knights didn’t need to write or draw much. They usually just fought. As Cui QiChao was painting the crops described by Joseph on the paper, everyone felt that he was worthy of being the nephew of the archbishop, that is, he was a man of culture. When they thought about the “Cui Family’s Subordinates” stitched on their clothes, they felt how smart the Lord was, for he was someone who even understood Oriental characters.

At present, there are too few crops in the territory. Firstly, Cui QiChao wanted to enrich the variety of crops in his territory. Secondly, it isn’t good to keep the grain seeds unchanged for a long time.

He listened to Joseph’s description of the crops. There must be some grapes, which were not planted in Northumberland, and Northumberland’s wine was bought from merchants. Wine is a luxury, and because of the church’s respect for wine, many monasteries will also study the cultivation of grapes and wine, which can earn them a lot of money. 

Planting grapes is undoubtedly a good way to get rich. It’s just that not every fief knew how to plant and brew grapes. Some people also don’t know how to produce grapes.

With Joseph’s narration, Cui QiChao also vaguely identified some crops, such as buckwheat, beet, walnut, cucumber and so on, which he was more interested in.

Last year’s bumper harvest gave Cui QiChao some capital to exchange for some crops. Even without Joseph, he had to consider entrusting the merchants to inquire about it when they came again. Now with this, he could save a lot of energy.

After recording it down, Cui QiChao called the steward and told him about his idea in front of Joseph. 

The steward only heard one key point, “Lord, do you want to plant grapes?? Do you know how to grow grapes???”

There were neither too many nor too little vineyards spread across the region. If one really wanted to grow grapes, one can still learn the skill sets needed to grow grapes in various ways, such as plundering other territories… But the best grapes are basically from the vineyards of monasteries all over the region. Who would dare to challenge the power of the church?

Because Cui QiChao had previously showed off the vast amount of knowledge he knew, and with the steward recalling those huge and high-quality vegetables the Lord instructed them to grow, and subconsciously thought that if the Lord planted grapes, the grapes would grow! Extremely! Well!

Of course, what the steward thought was also true. 

Cui QiChao: “Yes, and buckwheat, walnuts, cucumbers…”

The steward went insane. He couldn’t listen to Cui QiChao speak. “Wouldn’t it be great if we build a vineyard from the wasteland we reclaimed last year? Those prisoners of war can plough the fields. We can have a large vineyard, and brew our own wines, and sell to the church——”

Cui QiChao: “…”

Cui QiChao: “Calm down.” 

When it comes to planting grapes, people who weren’t aware would think that the steward was the one who was the descendant of The Divine Farmer.

The steward nodded, “Yes, so where are we going to grab the grapes?”

When the steward saw Joseph and thought of the mighty knights in his castle, he even thought that Cui QiChao’s first plan was to plunder the other territories.

“We aren’t robbing,” Cui QiChao looked at him in surprise. “Take a group of knights to the territory where grapes are planted, and exchange wheat with them for seeds.” 

If only the agricultural trade here was more developed—that way, he could exchange the seedlings directly and plant them just after the soil thawed in spring. Unfortunately, at this time, no one would cultivate the seedlings. It would take about three years for the seedlings to bear fruit. Not to mention that since it would take too long for the seedling to grow, its good traits would also diminish during transportation…

Cui QiChao thought about it. He could be more conservative. He could exchange some seeds, and some branches for cutting. The seeds could safeguard the branches, so that when the knights were transporting the crops to the fief, there were still some crops that could be planted, and the trip made wouldn’t be wasted.

What the Lord said was not beyond the expectation of the steward. After all, he hasn’t mentioned about invading other territories for nearly a year since he came here. The so-called plundering was just simply something the steward had thought the Lord would do, so, it’s not surprising to hear the Lord’s decision.

Joseph had a puzzled expression on his face. If he had such mighty subordinates, why would the Lord bother with carrying out an honest exchange? Is this Lord sane? 

Cui QiChao didn’t care about him. He said to himself, “The mountains are long and the waters are far away. The knights are circling around in the hopes that spring will come just in time for sowing. Since they are journeying out, they should prepare some poisonous fluid to protect themselves. That way, they would be able to protect my seeds.”

After thinking about it, when the knights arrived at the fief where grapes were grown, they could simply treat it as helping the fief trim the branches of the crops…

.

Cui QiChao selected a team of knights and their attendants to form a trade team, and explained to them in detail the tasks of this line, “Sausage, bread, bacon, jam… all are taken to make dried food. I hope all of you spend your time merrily but also hope you take good care of my crops.” 

The knights looked at each other and answered in agreement loudly. To be honest, they were so bored that their bodies were about to grow mold. Finally, they were able to head out to battle. Even if the main purpose was to exchange seeds, they may meet a thief like Joseph, who had bad judgement, and they can show off their skills.

Cui QiChao saw that the knights had all agreed. He instructed, “I’ll teach you how to distinguish the good seeds. Don’t be scammed. If you get scammed, the seeds you exchange for me may not be able to grow. Besides, you should also be very careful in the preservation of grape branches. You have to prepare containers, water and soil, and take good care of them on the way back.”

Cui QiChao knew that the knights didn’t understand this. He divided what he had to teach into small sections to teach them, and each one of them was only responsible for his own duties, from cutting, pruning and cutting to cutting storage, keeping temperature and so on. They must ensure that they do a good job in storing the grape branches so that they could arrive in Northumberland safely.

Now that the grapes have not sprouted yet, they must choose the branches filled with full buds, and mature, excellent branches. Then, they will have to fill the containers with soil and sand, dig ditches and bury them. It’s great that it’s coincidentally winter now, so it’s estimated that it will snow in a while. It’s very suitable for storing grape branches at around 0 degrees Celsius. 

Just the thought that there will be vineyards in the fief in the future, and with the Lord’s generosity, the members of the trade team thought that they may be invited to eat grapes and drink wine!

Cui QiChao encouraged them, “If you encounter thieves on the road, be careful and protect yourself. As long as you come back safely, I will bestow rewards.”

After hearing the Lord’s promise, the knights shouted collectively in a loud voice:

“For the Lord’s grapes, we will do our best!” 

“Don’t worry, my Lord. If we encounter thieves, we will catch them all and help you to farm the land together!”

It seems that everyone clearly remembered Cui QiChao’s usual hobbies. For a moment, Cui QiChao felt warmness swell in his heart. “I didn’t expect the bunch of you to make the effort to remember this. Someone, come, pour some wine to see these good guys off.”

.

One can only imagine how the audience of LJJ platform exploded when this episode was broadcasted: 

[A map was delivered to your hands, yet you didn’t want to rage war! You only know how to farm, farm, farm!!]

[Why can’t our descendant of The Divine Farmer, Lord Cui, farm? Why? Can’t you see that the products of his labour were all big and thick? Did he offend you because you felt what he cooked wasn’t delicious, or because he made you guys grow fatter? Why are you guys unsatisfied?]

[…Fuck, some viewers have to pay attention to their distorted mentality!]

[Don’t talk in such a manner, big sister. I’m afraid!]