Chapter 72 Seventy-two Elegant Techniques
Nearing mid-November, the wind was biting cold, the sky was white, the ice layer was several feet thick, and snowflakes fell and piled up on the dead branches and leaves in the forest.
At Baskin Manor, the food processing kitchen was built on a vacant lot on the estate.
Opposite the kitchen is the granary, behind the granary is a wooden house where the cooks live, and a warehouse for storing firewood.
Every day before dawn, two hundred one-hundred-pound bags of flour were shipped from Helions Manor.
When the flour enters the warehouse, it needs to be weighed for the first time.
Then, bags of it are sent to the spacious kitchen, where twenty cooks knead it with salt and oil.
It was then taken to the chopping board area, where a dozen or so chefs simply rolled the dough into balls. As long as they were roughly even, they were sent directly to the oven area.
In the deep oven area of the kitchen there are thirty spacious bread ovens, where forty cooks are busy.
Thirty people were responsible for opening the stove lid, shoveling out the bread, and stuffing new dough in, while the other ten were responsible for passing the fire and carrying firewood under the stove.
The stove is specially made, with a bread oven on one side and a pot for boiling water using the heat source on the other.
An assembly line has been formed here.
Every stove was almost always burning morning and night.
One hundred pounds of flour can be processed and baked to produce one hundred and thirty pounds of bread.
The army's daily requirement is at least 20,000 pounds.
Each oven can bake two batches of bread an hour, each batch of about forty pounds.
Therefore, the chefs here work at least ten hours a day.
The bread they produced was dry and dense, as hard as a brick.
But it is easy to store and transport, easy to make, and durable. These breads are delivered to the base three days in advance.
When it was delivered to the position, the soldiers started eating it without opening fire.
It was not convenient for this team of several thousand people to carry food for several thousand people, nor was it convenient to cook porridge. It was not practical to bake bread in the position, so they could only supply ready-made bread through a special line.
The logistics soldiers pushed the bread out of the kitchen one by one, weighed it outside the door, loaded it onto trucks, and transported it to the camp not far away.
Early in the morning, Olivia and Mrs. Baskin walked outside the kitchen tent. They came out of the warehouse and slowly walked into the kitchen.
Both men wore fur cloaks and hoods, and held gloved hands, clutching a handful of parchment-written accounts.
They have just finished checking the number of bags of flour and the quantity shipped for the week.
He began to inspect the kitchen work as usual, and sometimes also helped with logistics.
Olivia glanced over the documents and handed them to her servant beside her.
At the same time, a corner of the kitchen tent was lifted, and the logistics soldiers pushed out the baked bread.
They also have to be checked on the lever scale at the door to be counted before they are packed into sacks and taken away, and transported to the position non-stop throughout the day.
A rich smell of bread wafted out. Olivia looked over and stepped forward to check the scale to confirm that it was correct.
Mrs. Baskin was watching and said:
"It's snowing heavily, and I don't know where Baron Berggru is. We don't have any information about the logistics either."
The two men lifted the felt cloth and walked into the kitchen to check whether there was enough oil and salt in the kitchen.
Olivia shook her head:
"The logistics department is only responsible for delivering dry food to the soldiers in the main camp. Once the soldiers in the main camp receive it, the dry food will be sent to the stronghold on the other side to the Knights. Of course, they know nothing about it."
These barons only marched with a few hundred soldiers, occupying fixed territories. They would not push forward like a large army. They all brought their own dry food, and each family sent people to deliver supplies to them, and they fought and ate as they went.
"If you're really worried about your husband, you can go to the Baron's Mansion and ask Lord Artie to find out where the Earl has transferred Baron Bergru."
Mrs. Baskin tutted her words. "I'm worried about him?"
Olivia smiled, checked the amount of butter and salt, and then checked the receipt again.
She opened the map and saw that half of the soldiers in the camp had been transferred out by the Earl.
The Earl himself was still in the Baron's Mansion, and at this moment, he was studying the map with several barons.
Olivia can use the event filtering function to see the approximate direction of each baron's advance.
For example, Baron Tedwin.
He had just been sent to set up camp north of Dongfeng City to ambush the reinforcements coming from Linkai City.
Before leaving the country, he had already decided to trick Baron Andrew who was sent to launch a feint attack on the west side of Dongfeng City.
Olivia didn't know what their past grievances were.
But from this we can judge that at least Baron Berggru is not here.
They should have been sent to the sea outlet east of Dongfeng City to burn ships and seize the docks.
If she wants to check the specific battle situation, she can paste Letilen's skills onto Caesar to light up the unknown map.
But since this skill only lasts for a week at a time and has a two-week cooldown period, she doesn't plan to use it so early.
Currently, the only way to obtain information is to filter events, observe personnel dispatches from the map, and observe the mood tags of various barons, earls, and chamberlains.
Olivia could feel that the Earl's advisor was quite capable, as if he was weaving a network in Constant County.
After she finished her check, she sifted through the events to find those related to herself and Mrs. Baskin.
This time, it wasn't nothing.
A logistics soldier named Robert Joel was currently distributing rations in the camp. He intended to wait until dark, sneak into Baskin Manor, and set fire to the firewood warehouse there.
Olivia was able to find out that the mastermind behind this man was Baron Mokeni.
She could see from the map that Baron Mokeni was still in the Baronial Palace in Lavosen, and his character card showed that he was a spy that the king had secretly contacted.
But this man was a traitor and did not really want to leave the Earl's knights without food, and he did not dare to do so.
But he also wanted to make some noise to let the king's spy planted in Lavosen know that he was not a mere decoration, so as to get some of the spy fees.
So I came up with the idea of burning the woodshed, which is a little troublesome but doesn't have too big of an impact.
The direct victim of this incident was Mrs. Baskin, but Olivia would not allow anything to happen that might affect military rations.
She has used the divine blessings she had accumulated to eliminate this incident three times, and the success rate of the incident is shown as zero.
The total number of Divine Blessings accumulated from the beginning of October until now is twelve. I have spent three and have nine left.
There are still six condemnations, but they have not been touched.
After staying in the kitchen for a while and counting the amount of seasoning salt with Mrs. Baskin, she left and took a car back home.
Along the way, there was constant wind and snow outside the car. The snow had piled up as thick as a palm, and in the fields, the entire forest was covered in white.
Olivia couldn't help but sigh. It was winter again. She had actually lived in this hellish place for a whole year. Time really flew by.
This time last year, she was still pinching her nose as she watched Lucy handle the wild boar.
This year's temperature does not seem to be as cold as last year, at least there is no sign of a blizzard.
Maybe it's because her bike frame is lined with felt this year and she's wearing fur, but her sense of temperature isn't as accurate.
It is now deep winter, and all the livestock in the family that need to be slaughtered have been slaughtered early.
We are currently preparing to smoke bacon and ham. We have also smoked two sheep and a dozen chickens, which are prepared for making hot pot every day.
After living at Olivia's place for more than a week, Theresa and her two sisters have tried all of the cook's specialties, but their favorite is hot pot in winter.
Usually, they only need to stew one kind of meat, add some tofu, cabbage, and some bean sprouts grown in the kitchen, add some noodles and kimchi to the soup, and make two or three side dishes, and they can have a full meal.
Olivia remembered that when she left home this morning, people in the kitchen were already chopping smoked lamb chops and washing muddy radishes.
The motivation for going to work today is this bite of smoked lamb chops and boiled radish.
She returned home, hiding her achievements and fame. As soon as she entered the door, she found the room extremely warm because of the fireplace. She took off her fur coat and walked towards the living room.
The living room window faces the courtyard and there is no aisle blocking the view, so the light is very good.
Theresa was sitting in her room sewing as usual.
Petunia plays with her hand-woven ball by the fireplace with the cat.
Meanwhile, Lainie sat at the table opposite Theresa, opening a wooden box and trying on a pair of glass glasses.
Perhaps he listened to Olivia's words. After Gaosli finished repairing the road and settling the camp affairs, he went back to the manor to study glass making.
Lainie had nothing to do in the manor. Every day she would either go fishing by the lake, help the housekeeper with the accounts, or hang out in the workshop.
She first met Gosley at the Lavossen Gate.
Old Renault's soldiers brought her a bunch of daily necessities. When she went to the city gate to get them, she happened to meet Gao Sili who was giving money to the soldiers guarding the city and asking about the whereabouts of his cousin.
When Lainie heard this, she felt that the person he was talking about sounded a little familiar. Seeing that the man's mother seemed to be ill, she offered to help.
Unexpectedly, Gao Sili stayed in the manor to work and became a small manager.
As soon as Lainie moved into the manor, she couldn't help but ask how Gosley was doing now.
As for Gao Sili, when he learned that the person who had helped him had moved into the manor, he was very grateful and sent things to the manor every few days.
Lainie loved fishing, so Gosley made several different labor-saving fishing rods.
She became shortsighted from studying in the monastery.
When Gao Sili learned about this, he made a pair of glasses that were easy to wear and sent them to him.
There are also ordinary glassware and porcelain.
If Olivia didn't know that Gosley and Lainie were still children, emotionally immature and very naive, she would have scratched her head and started to kowtow.
She shook her head and didn't intend to interfere in this matter. She was ready to let it develop naturally. After all, these two were gods and she couldn't control them even if she wanted to.
However, she had advised Lainie not to take the Bible so seriously.
Just learn it casually. You can't become a priest anyway, and it's not worth it to strain your eyes.
After returning home, Olivia went upstairs to change her clothes, put on comfortable wool socks, and took another nap. She was called up to eat at noon.
For lunch, they had a hot pot of smoked lamb chops and vermicelli made from pea starch cooked in the lamb broth.
The development of this dish is thanks to Aida in the kitchen.
Ever since she entered the kitchen of the manor and faced with the abundant ingredients, she began her own research and exploration.
First, I followed Graya to learn how to make the three breakfast musketeers: bread dumplings, and steamed buns.
Later, he began to study new crops, peppers and soybeans. In order to grind tofu pudding better, he bought a stone mill at his own expense and moved it into the kitchen.
Aida could see that although the lady was rich, she did not like to eat luxurious food, but was keen on making delicious food with ingredients that ordinary people could eat.
Since taking over the kitchen, she has been studying these common ingredients all day long, trying to make more delicious things and consolidate her position as the chef in the kitchen.
Since she found that grinding one type of beans could make delicious food, she began to try grinding other beans.
Grind the peas into a paste, filter the paste with gauze, and use the residue to make servant meals.
The slurry is then settled, clean water is poured in, and the layer of powder that has settled at the bottom is filtered and settled twice again to obtain very pure pea powder.
Ada discovered that one pound of peas could produce one-fifth of starch.
These starches can be boiled with six times the amount of water until thick, and then solidified into a pound of jelly after cooling.
She first cut the whole piece of jelly into pieces to make soup, but later, following Olivia's instructions, she cut it into thin strips with a knife to make soup.
For lunch, we had mutton soup noodles with some chili oil and minced garlic. It was so cold, but everyone felt great after eating it. We also had the same meal for dinner.
However, at dinner time, Olivia finished slurping a bowl of mutton soup when the housekeeper suddenly walked in from outside.
The housekeeper was a little nervous and whispered something about the woodshed at Baskin Manor in her ear.
Theresa was confused and asked what was going on while holding the bowl of soup.
Olivia cleared her throat and shook her head.
"Nothing. Just a logistics soldier who accidentally fell and died near the firewood warehouse at Baskin Manor."
Theresa's brows furrowed sharply. This was totally unheard of.
"Was it possible for someone to fall and die in Baskin Manor?"
Olivia calmly blew away the oil in the bowl.
"Perhaps the snow was too slippery, and the soldier was unlucky and hit his head."
After hearing this, Theresa couldn't help but gasp, then turned to warn Lani and Sansa that the road outside was slippery and they must bring servants with them when going out.
Olivia was thinking that this system was really clumsy and she wondered if it could be more elegant next time.
She opened the system map and found the icon of Baron Mokeni in the Baron's Mansion.
In Baron Lavosen's palace, all the barons who had not yet been transferred out of the border were waiting here with their servants for the earl's dispatch and to discuss military affairs with the earl.
The barons would have to wait until the Earl received the message from the Knights Templar and received clear instructions before going to their own small camps outside the city to gather the troops and set off.
Baron Mokeni's temporary residence is located in a standard room on the east side of the Baron's Palace.
He had not received any transfers in the past few days, so in the middle of the night, he had a drink and a hearty meal with some people in a restaurant.
He had just returned to his bedroom, planning to have a peaceful sleep, when suddenly his servant called him outside the door.
"My lord, my lord, something bad has happened."
Baron Mokeni stood up impatiently, opened the door and let the servant in.
"What's the matter? Why are you so surprised? Is the Count looking for me?"
The attendant waved his hands and whispered what had happened near the camp.
The battle hadn't even gotten started when a logistics soldier died in the military camp kitchen.
This fact was so unbelievable that it spread throughout the camp.
Mokeni's servant found out from others who the dead person was, and was so scared that he almost dropped the cup.
He thought that the soldier must have been discovered while doing his job and was killed.
However, the kitchen was full of cooks and there were no formal guards. Who would keep an eye on a logistics soldier who was moving around freely?
When Baron Mokeni heard this, he was suddenly frightened and slapped his thigh.
"Could it be that the Earl has discovered this?"
The attendant scratched his head. "How could the Count know? We spent so much effort to place this logistics soldier, and it's only been a few days.
Sir, do you want us to find someone to take action again?"
"No, not for a while."
Baron Mokeni was a bit timid. He just wanted to make some extra money and get some money from the king, and had no intention of making an enemy of the earl.
Because the logistics soldier's death was so strange, he couldn't sleep because he kept thinking about it...
At this moment, in the Earl's residence in Baron Lavoson's mansion, the candlelight was shaking and emitting a halo due to the gust of wind caused by a burst of rapid footsteps.
Ssona received the latest military report from the front line, and he and Bilson strode all the way from the study to find the count to report the good news.
The Earl had just met his two sons and was now washing up, wearing a gorgeous nightgown and preparing to rest.
He heard Ssona's voice outside, and hurriedly got up to open the door and ask.
"Did they get in?"
Ssona and Bilson nodded and relayed the message they had brought.
Several people crossed out the Oswegoton area on the map in the room with ink and began to discuss the latest developments.
The cause of the sudden attack on the city in the middle of the night was an accident this afternoon.
There are three groups of troops surrounding Dongfeng City. In the north is Baron Taidwin, who leads hundreds of people to ambush in the mountains and forests, responsible for ambushing Lin Kai's support for the rebels in Dongfeng City.
However, Baron Andrew, who led a few hundred men in a feint attack in the southern part of the city, was inexplicably attacked by the rebel support forces, which numbered about two thousand.
Andrew cursed, but the situation on the battlefield was unclear. Who knew which road Taidwin took to ambush, or whether he was beaten black and blue by these two thousand people and ran away.
His feint attack was intended to wear down the patience of the rebels defending the city. He would shoot a few arrows, throw some flints, and then move to another place.
In order to lure out all the rebels in the city and hang them, we can see exactly how many rebels are stationed here, and then let the Knights take the main attack.
But the soldiers guarding the city didn't come out. After waiting for a long time, reinforcements arrived.
They were forced to abandon their feint attack and retreat to the border outpost.
Several aides and knights in charge of command saw that they could not waste any more time. Since two thousand people had arrived, there must not be too many garrison troops in the city.
So he sent a thousand handsome infantrymen to use ladders to seize the gate in the middle of the night and fight with the rebels.
The infantry first engaged two thousand rebels outside the city gates, played their part, and then retreated voluntarily, luring the rebels into an ambush by cavalry and archers.
However, the rebels were quite cunning and reacted very quickly, and soon planned to retreat back to the city.
This place is easy to defend but difficult to attack. If we let them go back intact, we may not know when we can get them out next time.
So, the archers and cavalrymen in ambush gave chase closely, and only a hundred or so cavalrymen squeezed into the city and began to fight with the two thousand people at close range to seize the gate.
Before midnight the city was taken.
The Earl pointed at the map and thought for a long time, then ordered the stronghold to be moved into the city. He wanted to personally lead the soldiers in the camp out of the country, and ordered several barons to stay at the border to prevent surprise attacks from behind and provide support at any time.
After a night, when the military report reached every corner of Lavossen, soldiers were already crossing the river on ice on a large scale.
Not far from the river, Olivia transferred 20,000 pounds of flour from the manor and observed the changes in the entire map.
She heard that Dongfeng City was taken last night and this group of soldiers followed the Earl into the city to set up camp.
…
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