Chapter 46: Observing the Celestial Phenomena on the Forty-Sixth Night
By mid-February, most residents of Helions Manor had ended their deep winter lives.
It hasn't snowed in the past few days, and as farming is about to start in March, they have also started repairing farm tools.
However, the young tenant farmers have been busy since last year.
Having recently finished digging the ice cellar, we are about to start building a church on the manor.
The church in the manor is not that elaborate. It is just a single-story stone house with a prayer hall inside, and a few rooms separated as living quarters for the priest.
This project requires about ten workers and can be completed in a month. The most tedious part is to obtain stones from the fiefdom and transport them back for processing.
Many tenant farmers had little food to eat at home and relied solely on working to eat the stored food distributed by the manor.
There are more than 30 foreign residents in the manor. In half a month, they will no longer be able to eat the relief porridge distributed by the manor and will have to start reclaiming wasteland.
News spread from the manor that all the tenant farmers' fields would be taken over and cultivated together.
Everyone originally thought that they would no longer have their own land and all their food would have to be handed over, and the lord would at most give them a big pot of rice to eat.
There were also landowners who, in order to get more food into their own pockets, chose to feed their tenant farmers from a big pot every day.
But I also heard that every household, except for minors or those who have lost their ability to work, can receive a small salary.
The housekeeper was afraid that these tenant farmers would not understand, so he explained that the lady planned to use all the income from the staple food to pay salaries. In other words, everyone would get as much as they planted, but it would be divided equally among everyone, which was better than before when they had to pay one-third.
Although the laborers who can receive this salary are responsible for the construction of the manor, fishing, cutting trees, reclaiming wasteland, and growing cash crops in addition to farming, it is better than having nothing, as long as people don't starve to death.
This winter, several surrounding estates had more or less tenant farmers who died for various reasons, but their estate was safe and sound.
Many old villagers couldn't help but murmur in their hearts that things are different now that they have younger masters, who like to make trouble, but the people below can also benefit from it.
Recently, the steward and Jagbu began to divide the fields of the entire estate according to planting needs, and counted the tenants who were able to work, and allocated all the labor force to their new areas.
Most tenant farmers are happy that they don't need to save seeds for their own farming this year, which means that most people's family food reserves can last for several months.
…
After construction began on the monastery outside La Vossen, Olivia only visited it a few times during the construction work.
These days, construction tools and building materials are very primitive.
Along the main road outside the city gate, you can see many groups of workers pushing rough stones or wood on wooden boards to the processing area.
In the processing area, on a flat ground near the foundation, more than a dozen cloth sheds were built, and inside them were the craftsmen that Olivia was in charge of.
The stonemason hammered the rough stones into bricks and polished them smooth.
The carpenter roughs the wood, peels it, trims it into squares, and cuts it to the size the architect requires.
After processing, someone comes to haul the materials away and transport them to the construction area.
The craftsmen started working at dawn every morning. At noon, the people arranged by Letilen and his aunt would bring a big pot of rice to the construction site and distribute it to them.
Olivia's inspections were random. Every time she arrived at a construction site, she would first check the workers' diet, and then go to their living area to inspect the environment.
Then I count the number of people every time to see if they match the numbers, and then I check the quality of the work to see if anyone is lazy or not doing their job well.
Every time I go there, I can always see the work being done by other people in charge nearby, such as the workers laying the foundation.
I don’t know who was responsible, but the rye porridge the workers laying the foundation ate was so thin that the cutlery would float in the pot.
Olivia couldn't help but shake her head, thinking how dark that hand must be.
No matter how much you lament, it is best not to interfere in such matters, otherwise you will end up getting into trouble.
Olivia walked away silently again.
Back at the manor, I had to check on the progress of the construction of the chapel.
Compared to the large monastery, the progress of the small church was much faster. It only took two days to lay the foundation. The stones were mined from the hillside, brought back for processing, and the walls were built at the same time.
Olivia did not have to pay for the construction of the church out of her own pocket; Fanon got the funds from the bishop.
The manor had all the materials, so there was no need to spend money. All they had to do was buy some food and give it to the tenant farmers as wages, which only cost half of the money.
Olivia originally wanted to use the remaining half of the funds to build roads, but because the church could bring her different benefits, she used the funds to purchase mineral pigments and decent sacred vessels to decorate the interior of the church more dignifiedly.
Fanon, who was completely unaware of this, thought that the lady was a very pious person. If it were someone else, they would not be so generous to the small church in the village.
This made Fanon even more uneasy.
As a clergyman, he is not afraid that the people around him are not pious enough, but he is afraid that the people around him are more pious than him.
Sometimes, when Fanon hid in the room, using homemade lenses to look at the cells in the blood and study the blood circulation of animals, he felt that the people around him were too superstitious about miracles.
…
After checking the progress of each project, Olivia returned to the manor. It was already lunchtime.
Graya, who was promoted to housekeeper, reports to her on the internal affairs of the manor.
Graya is very organized in kitchen management.
After the project started in February, guests from all walks of life came to the manor two or three days a week to handle business and coordinate work, and these people would occasionally stay for meals.
In order to increase revenue and reduce costs and facilitate kitchen operations, Graya set a set of rules for herself.
If the person comes in person or is sent by a superior, he needs to be accompanied by his wife. Lunch and dinner will consist of five dishes and one soup, one kind of wine and two kinds of snacks.
If the guest's rank is equal to that of the wife, then the meal standard is four dishes and one soup, with only wine but no snacks.
They are all common local dishes, roast meats, pies, stews, cheeses, puddings, soups and the like.
For managers who come to run errands from other estates, or foreman on construction sites, the standard for meals is a simple two dishes and a soup in the kitchen.
If there are no guests at home, it is the standard three dishes and one soup, and then make some special side dishes that my wife likes, such as dried mushroom and bacon buns, dried shrimp and egg wontons, braised pork noodles,
When she has guests, Olivia probably won't reveal her peculiar eating habit.
Olivia was quite satisfied with Graya's arrangement.
However, in order to avoid mistakes, the two kitchen helpers made every standard dish almost exactly the same.
Therefore, if Olivia went to Renault Manor for business and was not at home for a few days, then everyone in the manor would have to eat the same dishes every meal.
Spring is just around the corner, and the cattle and sheep will give birth in just over a month. Olivia often goes back to her hometown, mostly to learn from others.
That day, just as the cook had finished reporting and was about to serve the dishes for the lady to eat, the Baroness sent her maid over.
Olivia had seen that maid before. She usually combed the Baroness's hair and was also the wife of the Baron's personal knight. Her name was Fanny.
Apart from the two official maids, Fanny spent the most time with the Baroness.
She must have come because the Baroness had something to tell her, so Olivia immediately invited everyone to have dinner together, and Graya hurried to the kitchen to ask for more food.
"The Countess replied, agreeing with the Baroness's idea and having someone carry it out."
The maid took out a beautiful embroidered bag from her clothes, with coins rustling inside. She handed it to Olivia and said it was a reward from the Countess.
Olivia was reluctant to accept it, but after refusing it twice, she finally accepted it.
"It's not a difficult idea to come up with, but it's hard to find the right person. It's all thanks to the Baroness for giving me a thumbs up."
After saying that, Olivia opened her pocket without changing her expression, poured half of it to Fanny, and thanked her for being willing to make the trip even though the road was slippery.
Fanny originally wanted to leave after dropping her off, but after happily receiving the money, she actually stayed for a meal before leaving.
Olivia's original idea was to have the Countess send the Queen some healthy, expectant livestock, such as sheep, the more lambs the better.
On the surface, this gift looked insignificant, just a group of fat cattle and sheep. It was obviously not worth much, and the king had no reason to stop the queen from accepting it.
When the queen received the gift, she knew that it was a symbol of good fortune to cater to her, after all, the queen's birthday was the birthday of the satyr.
It doesn’t matter whether these cattle and sheep can really give birth to many offspring. The news that will be spread will be that these cattle and sheep are all healthy and have many offspring, which will further consolidate the queen’s image and not offend the queen’s party.
The king couldn't find fault with this little beast, so he just pretended to ignore it.
After seeing off the Baroness's maid, Olivia put away the remaining ten gold coins in the embroidered bag.
It was indeed painful to give half to someone else, but it was also so that the maid could say more good things about her to the Baroness and help increase her favorability.
What's more, Olivia observed the celestial phenomena at night and thought that there had been a lot of big and small things happening in La Watson recently, and something would happen sooner or later.
There are various minor frictions in the project and the problem of resettlement of refugees.
There are also increasing numbers of scattered refugees on the border.
Just two days ago, three or four rebels crossed the border and were wandering on the river near Olivia's home.
But Caesar said that because the ice was chiseled out to get it, the men took a look.
I don’t know if it was because they were afraid that the ice couldn’t bear the weight, or because they thought there might be a lot of heavy labor activities here, so they went to the riverbank on the east side.
He and his soldiers hid in the bushes and ambushed the group of people clearly.
We also need to be vigilant against these external threats.
If something goes wrong, she hopes that the person she pleases today can be of some use in the future.
Anyway, Olivia saw that Fanny's favorability towards her was almost full, so it seemed that money was still the best thing.
After running around outside all morning and having to attend a social event at noon, Olivia decided to reward herself with a bath in the afternoon and a good nap before getting up for dinner.
However, before she could sleep until dinner time, Graya knocked on the bedroom door again and again just as it was getting dark.
Olivia, wearing her nightgown, walked forward blankly and opened the door.
Graya, who was always steady and could cheerfully work no matter what, now sounded a little flustered. Olivia realized that her premonition might be confirmed, and her morning grumpiness immediately vanished.
"What happened?"
"Ma'am, there's a fire at Toxon Manor."
…
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