Medieval Empire Soldier Chapter 55

   Chapter 55 Fifty-five · Building a waterwheel

   Time flies, and in a blink of an eye, it is mid-November.

   In two months, the first spring ploughing will take place, and there is still a big discrepancy from the number of acres of farmland planned in Oak Village.

  Lauren immediately organized manpower to participate in the reclamation work.

  [Farmland (Level 2)] The number of acres of arable land required is more than twice the existing arable land area. Currently, the farmland in Oak Village is enough to support 300 people.

   When the farmland is upgraded to level 2, Pitman, the affairs officer, estimates that in the late summer and early autumn next year, the crops such as barley, wheat, and vegetables that can be harvested in Oak Village are worth about 480 gold coins, enough to feed 700 people.

   A part of winter wheat has been planted. The seeds of these cold-resistant crops are provided by Druids of the Taal Sect and priests of Taal. A small amount of high-quality winter wheat seeds are expensive and require certain channels to purchase.

  It is reported that the Life Mage of the Imperial Academy of Mages has successfully improved a new type of cold-resistant vegetables. All the electors in the northern part of the Empire have the intention to buy it, and Lailun also wants to mix it up.

  The taxes and fees levied by the old world empires are not as harsh as the knight kingdoms.

The Knight Kingdom opposite the Grey Mountains implements the Nine Taxes, which is the result of a year of hard work by the serfs. 90% of them are turned over to their respective knight masters. One tax.

   Taxes are various, and the serfs at the bottom of the knight kingdom can't breathe.

   In starvation and resistance, they are uncertain.

   Every year, many serfs flee the country during the autumn harvest. They would rather be in the company of beastmen and robbers in the deep forest than continue to be oppressed by the knights.

  The empire normally collects taxes, which hover between 30% and 40%. This is a different matter for peasants, tenants or slaves.

   In other words, after the autumn harvest, Oak Village can receive about 150 gold coins worth of food.

   For the knights of the kingdom, this money has a very limited effect, and at most it is invested in building roads, building houses, expanding granaries, and issuing pensions.

  Lyron does not plan to change the tax rate, he has a clear understanding of his influence.

   Since the Fourth Chaos Invasion, the amount of taxes set by the Empire in the past two hundred years has been regarded as the standard by countless nobles who eat vegetarian meals.

  If the knights of the kingdom do not pass the judgment of the Electors of Midden and the local council, and reduce the tax amount without authorization, it is equivalent to Laren declaring war on all the old and new nobles of the empire on the bright side.

  If I remember correctly, the last great aristocrat who changed the tax rate was the emperor of the empire, the "gatherer", Dieter IV, a hundred years ago.

   The "good emperor" who was reckless and tyrannical was in power all day long, and the extravagant palace was full of elf ornaments and precious and shining gems.

After that, Dieter IV was dismissed and stepped down by the imperial parliament. The parliament elected Prince Rick. The grandfather of the current emperor Karl Franz, William III, was the new emperor. , The witch hunters of the Church of Sigmar finally found the "fat pig" emperor covered with dung forks in the sewers of the slum, and Dieter IV had long since died.

   has been changed to a higher level, resentment at the bottom.

   was lowered, and the nobles were angry.

  The two ends are unflattering, so let's wait and see what happens, and save enough influence to talk about it.

   There is a question that has plagued Layron for a long time. Why do some guys call themselves transmigrators, and in the case of no one, a single move can change the solidification of the general environment?

   Without going through a long period of blood and fire reform, it is difficult to change the deep-rooted thoughts of the people. The liberated labor force will only cause the whole environment to be turbulent without proper overall arrangement.

  The Knights of the Kingdom are preparing to recruit 30 new soldiers while cultivating farmland.

   They will train in closed infantry battalions for 40 days, after which a dozen young men with good performance will be selected to supplement their troops.

   As soon as the news was released, the next morning.

  In front of the gate on the second floor of the lord's longhouse, the young oak villagers who heard the sound lined up from the front of the longhouse to the open space in front of the old oak tree.

  The generous treatment that Lailen gave his soldiers was well known.

  Although there is no fixed monthly salary, all food and drink expenses are paid by the lord. They eat meat for at least three days. During the training period, their family members can receive 25 catties of grain from the granary every month to subsidize the labor force.

Many young men have peeked at the soldiers' food in the field. The farmer in charge of cooking in the infantry battalion brought a large basket of bread, a large bucket of broth, stew, boiled large pieces of pork and mutton, and goat cheese. .

  Even if they were far away, men, women and children in the village could smell the tangy meat fragrance, which was so greedy! Where do you usually get these? Meat can only be enjoyed once or twice during Winter Veil.

At the front of the long queue, there were five or six burly soldiers, including Graffitt Dunn. They were equipped with thick cotton coats and double-layered chain armor. The outer layer was covered with scale armor to increase defense, and round iron helmets were matched with dark colors. Cloak and leather boots.

   Holding a short army stick in his back, he stood motionless in front of the longhouse, exuding a chilling aura.

   They are the disciplined soldiers of the Oak Village army. All of them have fought with the Norsca predators. They must kill at least seven bad horned beasts before they are eligible to join the disciplined team. They are well-deserved veterans.

   In the provincial army of the elector, the military merit is enough to reach the company level sergeant.

  In the medieval world, the strong deter the weak, it is absolute.

  The cold eyes of the discipline soldiers glanced, and the team of more than 100 people was silent, a few timid young men were pale, and their legs trembled unnaturally.

   The young men who successfully signed up were taken to the infantry battalion in the west of the village by the disciplined soldiers.

In the shooting range, the crossbowmen team is training. They hold the crossbow machine in their hands and aim at the wooden target 50 meters away. They shoot, load, and shoot again. eyes.

  Two teams of spear and shield soldiers were on the training ground. They were holding their spears tightly and staring at the dummy in front of them. Following the sergeant's rhythmic command, they stabbed back and forth with a degree of relaxation.

   Sergeant Gavin Clinton was standing at one end of the school field, waiting for the young men to arrive.

  He was entrusted by Lallen with the important task of being responsible for several tests such as physical fitness, strength, and agility, as well as recruit training. Each round of tests can screen a dozen people.

   A few hours later, the young men who were eliminated could only leave the barracks with regrets.

   And finally, the 30 young men who stayed on the school grounds, all panting and sweating, lined up in uneven queues, you looked at me and I looked at you, with expressions of joy on their faces.

   Not long after, the lord of Oak Village, the kingdom knight Lallen came to the barracks, and the ranger Albert, the dwarf chief Rangni Stonehelm, and the affairs officer Pittman followed behind him.

  Graffitt Dunn was the first to see the arrival of the lord, and he immediately shouted:

   "Stand up!!"

   All the Discipline Soldiers stood up straight, with their right fists pressed to their chests, and saluted Laren.

   The young men who had just finished the test couldn't take a break and stood up straight in a hurry, looking very funny.

  Lairn looked at dozens of young and unfamiliar faces not far away. He turned around and asked the haunted Wood Elf: "Katarina, how do these people look?"

Even though Katarina was wearing a long dark green cloak, it was difficult to conceal her bumpy figure. The wood elf glanced at the school field lightly, and said coldly: "A group of human beings lacking courage, in the forest, Ace Lay can kill in a minute."

   "Really, I remember what Albert said was similar to what you said last time." Laylen looked away from the young man and looked at the spear and shield soldiers on the training ground: "A bunch of rabble."

   Katarina bent down and picked up the snow under the wooden platform, her beautiful amber eyes were very indifferent: "The rabble. It's quite suitable for them."

  The fragile human beings cannot be compared with the wood elves, the maid in gray is indifferent to races other than elves, and in Katarina's eyes, Laylen is just a human with a special status that is pleasing to the eye.

  The **** battlefield came to the mind of the knight of the kingdom, and he said softly: "It is not just by their heroic fighting that we repel the Beastmen Warband and defeat the Norsca army."

   After a simple lecture, the newly recruited 30 soldiers started training.

   A few days later, the drawings of the waterwheel designed by the dwarf Langone Stonehelm have been completed.

  There are many things to do in spring ploughing, such as digging the ditches in the cultivated land, transporting water sources, and diverting water from rivers, etc., all require waterwheels to complete.

   After more than a month, the more than 700 gold coins obtained by the extermination of the Norsca army have spent more than 200 coins.

The blacksmith shop in Oak Village has not yet been built. The tools made by a few blacksmiths are of average quality and are not enough for daily needs. Lailun simply purchased tools in large quantities, and by the way, he recruited a large number of craftsmen from Bray Town to build waterwheels to relieve manpower. insufficient pressure.

The waterwheel is the oldest agricultural irrigation tool. Granny, one of the ancestors of the dwarf gods, built the first waterwheel thousands of years ago. The obsidian waterwheel of the water lake also kept turning.

   Living in the fortresses of the mountains, it is inconvenient to fetch and divert water, and the barley fields in the mountains also need to be irrigated.

  The large waterwheel designed by the dwarves can directly irrigate six or seven hundred acres of farmland, reducing some sizes, and small ones can also irrigate one or two hundred acres.

  Waterwheel is labor-saving, labor-saving and spectacular. In the Middle Ages, it was regarded as one of the most advanced technologies in agriculture.

When the dwarf said that it would cost 50 gold coins to build a large waterwheel and 20 gold coins to build a small waterwheel, the muscles on Lallen's face twitched, and his affairs officer Pittman was too shocked to speak. He looked at the Kingdom Knight with a panicked face.

  The village has only more than 700 gold coins in total, and 200 gold coins were spent in a blink of an eye. The remaining 500 gold coins still need to be invested in the construction of blacksmith shops, fences, lord longhouses, etc. The monthly army maintenance fee also counts on this money

   Lailun gritted his teeth, and said with great pride: "Build! It must be built! First build 4 large waterwheels! Not enough to build!"

  To build a waterwheel, build the biggest one!

  Midden Collar is backed by the Central Mountain Range, and the river water flows continuously from the top of the mountain. It is a huge waste to let the river water flow! Yurik, the **** of white wolves, will feel distressed when he sees it!

   Four large waterwheels are enough to irrigate more than 2,500 mu of farmland. Even one mu of land can feed one person, enough for more than 2,000 people.

After    determined the construction policy, the dwarf patriarch sent a few dwarves to the river bank south of Oak Village to find a suitable place to install the waterwheel.

  The northern forest of Oak Village has no shortage of conifers that the two of them hug each other, and the output of the lumber mill is enough to supply the consumption of building a waterwheel.

  The bottom of the waterwheel needs to be fixed with a wooden platform, and the water diversion channel dug in advance saves a lot of trouble.

   After more than ten days of construction by dwarves and human craftsmen, the four large waterwheels were finally installed with cheers.

In view of the large number of acres required for irrigation, Langoni Stone Helmet designed the large waterwheels for Oak Village, each of which is 10 meters high, supported by a thick wooden bearing 5 meters long, and supports 24 wooden spokes. Expand radially around.

  The top of each spoke carries a scraper and a water bucket, the scraper wipes water, and the bucket holds water.

  When the river water rushes, the rough wooden bearings are driven to rotate slowly by the water force, and the buckets filled with the river water are lifted up step by step.

When the    reaches the top, the water bucket is naturally inclined again, and the water is poured into the trough on the top. Finally, the river water is gradually introduced into the trough to irrigate the farmland.

Hundreds of villagers from    Oak Village gathered on the banks of the York River. They raised their heads in unison, as if they were looking at the statue of God standing in the sky in a church.

  Under the arrangement of the dwarf craftsman, Laylen and Langone will pull out the baffle of the water tank together to make the waterwheel turn completely.

  Some merchants and villagers from other villages came to hear the news and watched the ceremony from all directions. Four large waterwheels were built in the barren villages in the north of the empire, which was more unusual than the savage greenskin not eating people.

  The wood elves, who have been reclusive, even Lailun didn't know where they were, appeared beside the river bank surprisingly.

   But their mysterious hoods and facemasks that cover up pointy ears and other inhuman features have kept the timid villagers from unrest.

  All races in the old world have only two impressions of elves: "unfriendly" and "death and life", and there is usually no difference.

Hundreds of people watched, Lallen and the dwarf patriarch walked to the waterwheel step by step, one person and one dwarf picked up the thick hemp rope at the same time, and with the slogan of "321", the water tank baffle that blocked the river was pulled away. .

   Amidst the roaring applause, the rushing water flow instantly poured into the water tank, hitting the bottom scraper of the waterwheel.

  The thick wooden bearing slowly turned, and the huge waterwheel turned faster and faster with the turbulent water flow. After a while, the water bucket that surged up to the highest point tilted, leading the river water into the ditch, and the water flow continued to flow forward.

   Among them, the applause of the dwarf craftsmen was the loudest. They raised their heads in awe, wishing to look at people with their nostrils.

   kept "humbly" loudly in his mouth:

   "The craftsmanship of the dwarves is mediocre and not worth showing off! These four waterwheels only last a few hundred years!"

   "Ha! Gunsan used crappy technology thousands of years ago! Nothing special!"

   "That's it! That's it!"

   Soon, the reputation of Oak Village spread throughout the Earl of Delavan, and unexpectedly attracted a lot of people to settle down.

Lailun looked at the waterwheel that was constantly turning, and the last trace of the pain in the two hundred money disappeared. He was naturally very happy. He specially sent a few barrels of Imperial beer to the dwarf craftsmen, as well as large plates of roast meat and bread. as a reward.

Of course, in addition to the wages that the human craftsmen hired, Lailun also gave them more than ten silver coins and a few kilograms of grain. As an extra reward, many craftsmen in Bray Town have the intention of moving to Oak Village, where a lot of construction work is carried out. The scene is too tempting.

  The knights of the kingdom readily agreed.

   Next, we must build a blacksmith shop before the spring ploughing!

   Ask for tickets and subscriptions!

   I owe one chapter yesterday, and I will make it up next week. I've been busy for another day, and I'm really sleepy.

   (end of this chapter)

Chapter end