Chapter 81 Early August
The eighth day of the eighth month is the most comfortable day of the year in the north. There is plenty of sunshine overhead, the temperature is pleasant, and there is a cool breeze by the river. All you need to go out is a linen robe.
Twenty miles outside the city of Einweiton, in a manor located on fertile land along the Derawlun River Valley, Jagabu was standing in the manor with the largest amount of cultivated land in the direct territory.
He was urging the tenant farmers to reclaim wasteland on the eve of the autumn harvest.
The river was blue, and the nearby fields were covered with yellow-green wheat. The wind blew the wheat waves, and on the river there were wooden boats with sails hoisted.
Near the ridges of the fields, in the once barren bushes, the tenant farmers cut down the bushes, pulled them up by the roots, and dried them in the sun for two days. Now they were burned by a raging fire.
After the fields cooled down, the tenant farmers brought a dozen mules, put plows on their backs, and began to plow the wasteland.
The tenant farmers followed the plows and picked up stones.
Jagabu stood by the river in the distance, holding a ledger in his hand.
When he first took over the estate, the original arable land was 130 acres. After several months of reclamation, 60 acres of wasteland have been reclaimed, and there are still 10 acres left to be reclaimed.
In the direct territory, each of the ten manors under Jagbu's jurisdiction must meet the goal of having at least 200 acres of actual staple food cultivated land within the year.
In May, there were only more than 300 tenant farmers in the direct territory, divided into ten manors, with only 30 laborers in each manor.
In June and July, two hundred refugees arrived from Hobbs County in the north, and the number of tenant farmers in the direct territory increased to five hundred.
At present, these five hundred people are distributed evenly, with about fifty people in each manor.
According to his method of intensive farming, each person can only cultivate four acres of land at most. Fifty people can only manage two hundred acres of land in a year.
Jagbu's account books are recorded clearly.
At the beginning, the amount of arable land on each manor varied in size, some had only 100 acres, while others had more than 200 acres, totaling more than 1,500 acres of arable land. There were countless fruit trees, shrubs and wastelands near the arable land.
In the past few months, he has supervised each estate and sent mules to help plow the fields.
In August, the last hundred acres of land were reclaimed, and the 2,000 acres of arable land for staple food were sufficient.
The ten direct-ruled estates that Jagabu was in charge of were located in the best locations along the river and had fertile land.
He could estimate that the exact yield from this year's 1,500-plus acres of wheat would be between 200,000 and 250,000 pounds.
The four hundred acres of land already cleared have been planted with soybeans and other pulses, and the expected yield is one hundred thousand pounds.
This year, we will save enough soybean seeds, and next year we will plant 1,000 acres of soybeans in the wheat fields and 1,000 acres of wheat in the soybean fields.
After this exchange, we will strive to produce a total of 500,000 pounds of grain from these 2,000 acres of land next year.
Five hundred thousand pounds of grain, at an average price of two sori, was worth a million sori, or a thousand gold coins.
If this money is used to pay 560 gold coins to 500 tenant farmers as wages, there will still be more than 400 gold coins left.
He took a deep breath and felt very happy.
Of the remaining money, 90% is usually allocated back from public funds for agricultural expenses.
It can be used to buy a large number of fruit trees for planting and more mules for plowing the land.
Next year, we plan to reclaim an additional fifty acres of land on each estate, which can be used to grow fruit trees and hemp.
He was thinking in his mind, and soon a tenant farmer came running out of the warehouse of the manor.
Coincidentally, this tenant farmer had known Jagabu before the war.
Later, when the population was counted, the tenant farmer saw that Jacob was living so well with the Baron, so he went to the place where his compatriots were hiding in the mountains to pass on the message and call them out from the deep forest.
Now, he was assigned to farm under Jagbu.
When he came up to him, the tenant farmer said hurriedly, "The Baroness sent you some bags and a letter."
"Oh?" Jagabu thought about it and went to the warehouse to find out what was going on.
When they arrived at the warehouse, the two people responsible for transporting the goods from the port did not open the sacks to see what was inside. They had no idea what was inside.
Jacob first opened the miller's letter and found out that the contents of the bag were potatoes, totaling six hundred pounds.
He was stunned for a while by the outrageous output, and immediately started counting on his fingers.
These 600 pounds of potatoes have no shell loss and are net yield per mu.
If you plant 1,000 acres, you can produce 600,000 pounds a year. If you plant 2,000 acres, you can produce 1.2 million pounds a year.
One million and two hundred thousand pounds, four times the current annual output.
This matter is really no trivial matter!
Jacob immediately ordered the potatoes to be sealed in the warehouse, and asked someone to bring a horse. He rode the horse with two servants and went to the port.
This manor was closest to the port, and soon he entered the city gate which was under construction.
He walked along the cleared main road in the city towards the workshop area.
Two months ago, Gao Sili and Ethan, as well as Corinna and her daughter, took a large group of people to the mountains to explore for minerals.
They not only went to Einwyton, but also to Dunfermline, and searched the mountains of both towns, finding mineral veins and large quantities of clay and rocks needed for firing ceramics.
Although no salt mines, copper mines or iron mines were found, a coal area was found on the cliffs on the border between Dunfermline and Einwyton, which was mainly discovered by Corinna.
Gao Sili led his men to dig deep. The coal mine was very shallow, only ten meters underground, and could be seen by removing a layer of soil.
He gathered twenty workers from all over and was slowly developing the mine.
Now, he has returned and is working at the shipyard in the port to speed up the progress.
So, as soon as Jagabu entered the city, he went straight to the port.
The construction of facilities at the harbor has always been a top priority and is now complete. The city wall in this corner was also the first to be completed.
Starting from the port gate, you have to pass through a camp gate. In front of this gate is the garrison camp, where dozens of soldiers live. They are responsible for security day and night, and are also responsible for checking whether the quantity and type of goods in the cabin are consistent with the tax reported.
Currently, ship merchants pay berthing fees and port taxes at the garrison camp.
All merchant ships that load and unload goods at the port of Einweiden must pay taxes proportional to the value of the goods, totaling dozens of gold coins every month.
The money is used for port maintenance and garrison expenses.
When merchants who have paid taxes leave the port with their goods, they will be escorted by two warships until they leave the waters infested with pirates.
Jagabu rode his horse unimpeded through the garrison camp, passed through the city gate and came to the coast outside the wall, where his vision suddenly opened up.
The long port was filled with ships with sails lowered, ranging in size from twenty to thirty, and workers were coming and going to move goods from the ships.
He walked along the main road along the shore to the side of the Dela Ulun River, where there was a dock half surrounded by wooden boards, built on the sloping bank of stones, covering an area of three or four acres.
At the gate, there were two armored soldiers standing guard.
He dismounted and entered the dock, and immediately saw a huge sloping trough on the ground. The end of the trough was the river, but the water was currently blocked by a huge wooden gate.
The deep trench is ten meters wide and fifty meters long. There is a circle of piers at the bottom, on which the bottom keel of the large ship being assembled is placed.
Dozens of workers were either sitting on the scaffolding or standing next to the pier, hammering iron nails into the bottom or walls of the ship to fix the keel. The heavy metal noise was deafening.
The ship in front of us can carry a load of 500,000 pounds. It is eight meters wide at its widest point and thirty meters at its longest point.
Such a huge creature placed in front of Jagabu made humans look as small as ants. He was shocked for a long time.
The special pine wood was provided by ship timber merchants, the workers and preliminary technology were provided by shipbuilders, and the other steel materials were allocated by Gauss from the forge.
As for the style of the ship, it is also different from ordinary merchant ships. It is more rounded, the deck area is not that large, and a large number of high-hardness iron nails are used for fixing instead of dovetail joints.
This is a style that Gosley and ship merchants improved. It is most suitable for transporting cargo. They named this style of ship the Fruit type.
Jagabu looked for a long time before he remembered what he was here for.
He immediately walked towards a row of material warehouses on one side of the dock with the letter in his pocket.
The soldier at the door just said that the Baron and the stewards came to see the ship. They were looking at the structural drawings in the warehouse with Gaussili and the shipbuilder.
Jagabu took the letter and went there with his men.
In the third warehouse here, the warehouse door was open, and the warehouse was filled with long tables with design drawings on them.
A group of people stood nearby, including George, the port guard, Letilan, who was in charge of commerce, Ethan and Adam, as well as the shipbuilder. They were all paying attention to this most important project.
Caesar in the middle had a calm expression as he listened to Gaussley describe the advantages of this type of ship.
Gao Sili, wearing a monocle in his eye socket and holding a worker's nail, said, "...The surface is blued to prevent rust."
"Now when the forging workshop has enough materials, it can produce a thousand such nails every day to fix the hull.
Using iron nails minimizes labor time and allows for the use of more readily available pine wood."
Caesar knew that for the traditional shipbuilding industry, oak was the mainstream because it was hard and suitable for grooving and mortise and tenon joints without affecting the quality of the structure.
This is something that softwoods like pine cannot achieve.
After repeated experiments, Gauss used wrought iron with extremely low carbon content to forge long nails that were easy to forge into shape and had the most suitable toughness and density.
With this kind of nail for connection, we can abandon the time-consuming and labor-intensive dovetail joint structure, and naturally we can also abandon the oak wood suitable for making joints and use ordinary pine boards instead.
The entire ship requires tens of thousands of nails, which is quite a test of forging ability.
But it can be said that the advantage of this type of ship lies in the quality of the nails and the cheapness of the wood.
It saves labor time and does not require experienced boat builders. An ordinary worker can start nailing boats after a little training.
As soon as Letilen heard it, he knew that such a ship would probably make all the current shipbuilders vomit blood and change their careers to become blacksmiths.
Efficient, fast, cheap and high quality, these are what the Baroness likes most.
Caesar looked at the clear structural diagram and anticipated the potential benefits of this thing. He simply nodded and asked, his expression expressionless:
“How long will it take to build it?”
When Gao Sili mentioned this, his eyes lit up and he said proudly:
"This is the most important part. We use pine wood that has been dried for two years by timber merchants. It only takes a few days to transport the raw materials from the forest farm, and it is much cheaper than oak.
Once at the shipyard, it only takes workers a month to process the pine wood into components.
The total time for installing the keel, ribs, laying the hull and deck was less than three months.
Like this ship, it can be launched and fitted out by the end of October.
At the earliest, we can finish loading and sail out to sea by late November."
It takes only half a year from the time the timber enters the dock to the time it is completed and ships set sail.
Compared with traditional wooden boats of the same capacity, the manufacturing speed is much faster, and it can be said that it only takes a quarter of the working hours.
This can only be carried out smoothly when there are sufficient materials, standardized construction, regular assembly, and highly detailed division of labor.
This also means that the threshold for imitation is not small. If traditional shipbuilders want to learn, they have to burn out usable iron nails first, and it is not a problem to spend three to five years during this period.
In the next three to five years, by the time they build similar ships, the port of Eindhoven will probably be full of people.
Hearing this, Jagabu had already squeezed forward.
Caesar noticed Jacopo, who was supposed to be clearing the land, and asked him what he wanted.
Jacopo cleared his throat and said, "A letter from Lavossen."
Caesar immediately perked up and asked him what the letter said.
Jacopo said, "Potatoes, potatoes. Madam sent a letter from the miller with potatoes. We planted one acre last year, and this year we harvested six hundred pounds."
Everyone present scratched their heads. Their first reaction was, "Six hundred pounds? Are you kidding me?"
But then they thought, the source of this news must be no joke, and the land was planted by Jagbu.
Jacopo looked at Gosri and Letilun
"I came here precisely to look for you. Once the merchant ship is built, I will definitely go to the island in the southeast of the continent. It is said that these potatoes were brought back from that island by the merchant.
I just heard that merchant ships can go out to sea in December, so how long will it take to reach the southeastern islands?
If we can bring it back before March, it will be ready for germination.”
Gao Sili nodded and said, "I've calculated that if we sail along the mainland and the wind direction is suitable, we can reach the southeast island in four weeks with an empty ship.
If it were fully loaded, the return trip would take six weeks.”
Gao Sili touched his nose, a little embarrassed: "Because it uses too much iron and has a deep draft, its speed is slower than other ships.
However, if we leave in early December, we can return in March even if we hurry."
Gao Sili made a guarantee, and Jagbu also estimated the process required.
So, what remains is to find the origin of this crop.
They all looked at Letilen.
As the only person present who had walked past caravans and fleets on the road, he would definitely take his men out to do business when he had his own merchant ship.
Letilun blinked, reacted, and said:
"No problem, no problem. Other families in Lavosen also grow some potatoes. They say they come from the southeastern islands. If they have them, I can definitely find them and bring them back.
However, although finding crops is important, we cannot go out to sea with an empty ship.
I just received a large order for the workshop, which is to be sold to the southeastern country of Galamu, for a total of 5,100 pieces of porcelain.
Five hundred sets of celadon porcelain dinner plates, eight hundred sets of red-glazed porcelain vases, and five hundred sets of white-glazed porcelain water pots.
The six-month construction period has just been completed, and they are all counting on this ship to deliver it.
Since the import of potatoes cannot be delayed and the delivery cannot be delayed, the process of going back and forth naturally cannot be saved.
I think the shipbuilding schedule has to be pushed down. Is there a shortage of shipbuilding workers now?
Why don't you train some more workers, Mr. Theseus?"
So the pressure was put on the poor shipbuilder Theseus again.
Caesar was upholding justice, and after thinking about it, he decided to do the following.
So Theseus was sent to Dunfermline to recruit people, so as to shorten the time for nailing the hull by another one third.
What Eindhoven lacks most now is labor. Production everywhere requires people, so they can only ask their families to recruit.
Compared with workers from all over the world, those with local household registration can be used more reliably.
Theseus was originally just a small shipbuilder. Now as the manager of the shipyard, he naturally has no say and can only follow orders.
Fortunately, the Baron and these stewards not only raised problems but also found solutions. Most of the time, he only had to run errands and do the assigned work.
After the discussion, Caesar asked George to write down everything they discussed and send it to Lavosen urgently. He would not proceed until he got their reply and approval.
Afterwards, after everyone finished their discussion at the dock, they took advantage of their free time to go to the workshop to see the new styles of porcelain.
What kind of thing could sell for such a large amount? No one has taken a close look at it except the person in charge of the construction.
Porcelain, this was the name Olivia gave to the bulk sample after it was sent back to Lavosen.
Before she named this high-temperature porcelain vessel, the workshop was still called Tao.
Under Letilen's marketing, this beautiful porcelain vase has become more expensive than copper-based enamel.
This large order will be sent to the country of Galamu.
This is right in the southeast corner of the continent, a few days' sail away from the southeastern island belt.
Karamo is a place that produces olives and oranges, has hot weather, natural sponges and grapes, and also produces glass.
Because the olive oil and wine here are very famous, the country is very rich, and the capital of Galamu is also on the seaside.
The big merchants who came from there were actually the king's relatives and friends, and the royal compradors, so they could afford to pay so much money.
These porcelains with rich glazes were only tested and fired on a large scale after the workshop moved to Eindhoven.
They are all recipes that the three of them have worked out over the past six months.
After firing the sample, Ethan sent someone to give Lavosen and others instructions on what shape of vessel to make.
Only after receiving instructions from Lavosen did the workshop start producing large quantities of goods.
After the bulk of the goods were produced and the first batch was delivered to the new city store, Letilen smelled a huge business opportunity.
He thought this thing was a rare commodity, so he didn't sell it as currency.
He simply put them all into the warehouse and only took Galamu with him to take the wine and olive oil merchants to inspect the goods.
After seeing the colorful porcelain, the wealthy businessman thought that the nobles of Garamu would like it. Under the eloquence of Letilan, he placed an order for 5,400 pieces at once and paid a large deposit.
The price of each one is different, the lowest is seven or eight silver coins, and the highest is one gold coin.
A set of celadon includes shallow-mouthed plates, deep-mouthed plates, and high-footed plates.
This is a set of tools for eating main dishes, soups, and desserts.
Five hundred sets are one thousand five hundred pieces, which is one thousand five hundred gold coins.
A set of red-glazed porcelain vases consists of two groups, one is a round vase with a thin neck, and the other is a short vase with a square top.
Eight hundred sets are one thousand six hundred pieces, which is a total of one thousand one hundred and twenty gold coins.
White porcelain water pots, a set of four.
They are the mouth-cleaning cup, the spittoon, the hand-washing basin, and the double-handled water pitcher.
There are two thousand pieces of goods in total, worth one thousand four hundred gold coins.
Total, four thousand and twenty gold coins.
Olivia had instructed the workshop to limit the amount of porcelain produced and not to neglect pottery.
Porcelain is not about quantity but quality. Only when there are few of them and they can be compared with pottery can they be sold at a high price.
Therefore, the workshop needs to slowly carve and carefully craft these porcelains and fire them for half a year.
…
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