Chapter 118 The Territory is Developing

In the next half month, the entire Storm Territory entered a busy state.

The serfs were busy looking for and picking wild grapes. Except for the time when they had to go to the fields to look after them, they were almost always looking for grape vines. After finding the grape vines, some serfs would fence them off and leave them for other serfs to pick. After all, grapes mature at different speeds. Fortunately, Gervis's territory was vast enough and the number of serfs was not large, so there were no conflicts among the serfs.

In just one week, Gervis harvested 5,000 kilograms of grapes, but the amount harvested began to decrease slowly in the following days. After all, grapes are wild, and no matter how many there are, they will eventually be picked. The ones delivered later were because they were not ripe in the previous days. After waiting for more than a week for them to slowly mature, the serfs picked them and sent them to the castle to exchange for money.

Thomas classified these grapes carefully when purchasing them. The size of the grapes, the degree of sourness and sweetness, and the price of each grape were different. Of course, the serfs did not dare to complain about this. When they got the copper coins, they all cheered and left happily with the copper coins.

Many people not only did not blame the lord for sorting the grapes, but were very grateful to Gervis for giving them the opportunity to earn so many copper coins. In previous years, they could only use the meager amount of food to exchange for other necessities of life, but now picking some wild fruits can allow them to get money to buy necessities of life, which can greatly improve their lives.

Because thousands of kilograms of grapes were received every day, the entire castle's staff was mobilized. The servants were responsible for washing and drying the grapes, and the dried grapes were sent to the small courtyard in the corner.

After the door of the courtyard is closed, 10 miners will come out of the space and, under the leadership of Rick, store all the grapes in the mining space. These 10 people will be the workers responsible for making wine in the future. Gervis has already taught them the process of making wine.

When the 10 people walked out of the space, Thomas and four guards holding longbows were standing on the wall. If the miners dared to make any unnecessary movements or ill intentions, the guards would shoot arrows at them without hesitation. The miners had been informed in advance, and they were all silent, not even daring to raise their heads. They all carried the grapes honestly, and after finishing carrying the grapes, they all returned to the space neatly.

The matters of boiling saltpeter and making gunpowder have also been put on the agenda. In order to prevent leaks, boiling saltpeter and making gunpowder are both carried out in the ore space. The miners are responsible for these two tasks. Three miners are responsible for boiling saltpeter, and the other seven miners are responsible for making gunpowder. Rick, who was appointed as the manager by Gervis, does not need to work, but only needs to take care of these miners.

As saltpeter ore and gunpowder were produced continuously, the small stone house used by Gervis to store these two items was slowly filled up. In order to prevent moisture, all the gunpowder was put into large wooden barrels, and a layer of bluestone was raised under the small stone house.

For safety reasons, the stone house was located at the innermost end of the front yard. Gervis also ordered a wooden fence to be built outside the stone house, and no one was allowed to approach without his permission.

While everyone else was busy, Gervis was also busy practicing his fighting spirit. He would enter the practice space on time every morning. Only at noon would he exit the practice space to have lunch at the reminder of Anna, the little maid. After lunch, Gervis would run non-stop to the gentle slope of the castle to train his 30 new guards.

After a week-long basic training, Gervis was pleased that the recruits could finally distinguish left from right and respond immediately to the commands given by Gervis. They had learned to march in step and to mark each other properly. If they were equipped with weapons and equipment, they would look like a strong army. Of course, this was only the appearance, and the real strength of these people remained the same, because Gervis had not yet started to teach them martial arts and team coordination.

Ever since the guards knew that Gervis would select 10 of them as his personal guards, they have been training very hard. For example, during the morning jogging, there were several cases where new recruits fainted on the ground while running. This forced Gervis to send a carriage to follow with a servant sitting on it. If anyone fainted, he would immediately help them to the carriage to rest and then give them water to drink to avoid accidents.

Of course, even if they work harder, some people will be ahead while others will fall behind, it’s just that the length of the list of people at the back will change.

Among the thirty people, Alex performed the best, which made Gervis look at him with new eyes. In every long-distance race, Alex was the first to reach the finish line. In the other training subjects in the afternoon, Alex was obviously easier to understand Gervis's meaning than other serfs. I don't know if it was due to his experience as a blacksmith, but Alex never made a mistake when turning left or right.

After 15 days of training, Bernard finally delivered the weapons and equipment that Gervis had asked him to make for the first time, including 20 sets of leather armor, 20 long swords and small round shields. It was at this time that Gervis also selected 10 best-performing recruits from the 30 people to become his own personal guards.

The 20 long swords and 20 sets of leather armor and round shields were distributed to ordinary guards, and the 21 people were completely integrated with the original 7 guards. Laurie and Audrey were appointed as their captains, and they were divided into two teams, with exactly 14 people in each team.

Because there were only 20 spots available for weapon forging, one of the guards could only get old weapons and equipment. Of course, the quality and performance were no different from the new ones. In order to compensate the guard who got the old equipment, Gves specially ordered someone to give him a brand new linen shirt, which turned the guard's depression into joy.

As an Earthling, Gervis knew very well that it was a common problem among human beings that what was worrying was not the scarcity of wealth but the inequality of it. Therefore, even if he did not appease the soldier, it would not cause any trouble. However, Gervis did not want to create hidden dangers in his army because of such a small matter.

While the ordinary guards were equipped with weapons, Gervis' 10 guards still had no weapons. Each of them held a strange-shaped wooden stick in his hand. If Bernard saw it, he would definitely recognize it, because it looked exactly like the one on the blueprint that Gervis asked him to forge.

Because of this wooden stick, the original excitement of the guards immediately disappeared, and they were instead ridiculed by the ordinary guards.

Originally, these 10 people were selected by the lord as members of the royal guard. The ordinary guards were envious of them. However, when they all got their weapons and equipment, they began to train vigorously, but they saw that the 10 royal guards were wearing casual clothes and training with wooden sticks. They immediately began to watch the joke openly and secretly, taking this opportunity to vent their depression.

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(End of this chapter)