Chapter 88 Eighty-eight takes office
In early December, a heavy snow fell in Einwidden, and from the fortress tower came the heavy tolling of bronze bells.
The soldier who rings the bell uses an hourglass to tell time, starting at six o'clock every day and ringing the bell one more time for every additional hour.
This was an important device used to tell time to workers and merchants in the city, servants in the fortress, and soldiers in the barracks.
The soldiers who rang the bells also learned how to ring the bells to warn of fire and the enemy.
From the tower, they could see all the watchtowers in the city, as well as the towers of the port barracks, and use beacons to transmit signals at any time.
This is also the most important infrastructure in a city.
From the moment the first bell rang, lights began to light up everywhere in the dim city, and lights were also lit one after another in the fortress.
In the servants' quarters on the second floor of the fortress, the housekeeper Graya was already in the corridor leading four newly promoted female stewards from servants, giving them instructions regarding today's food and daily life.
After making the arrangements, they dispersed into the fortress.
Graya arrived at the fortress with the lady's luggage the day before yesterday, and the butler arrived long after the Baron checked into the fortress.
After arriving at the fortress, Graya spent the entire day putting away the luggage and equipment brought from the manor and arranging the work of the new and old servants.
Yesterday, she and Jock went through the population of all the cooks, servants, maids, attendants, etc. in the fortress.
As a housekeeper, managing the population of a manor is much more difficult than managing the population of an entire fortress.
Take the kitchen for example.
In the manor, a kitchen only employs two or three main cooks, with six or seven helpers, which is enough to handle the daily meals of the baron and his wife, the staff meals in the manor, and the occasional banquets.
But in the fortress, it was not the same at all.
First of all, the population in the fortress needs to be supplied with three meals a day, which is too complicated.
In addition to the Baron and the Baroness, working meals are also prepared for those who come to the fortress during the day to work or report matters but do not have time to dine with the Baroness.
As well as occasional guests, the workshop manager, the knight's wife, and the servants and maids in the fortress.
In addition to these, ordinary servants were provided with two meals.
There are countless people every day, including the manager's subordinates, messengers sent from all over the place, and the entourage brought by guests. Basic food still needs to be provided, and there are also the kitchen's own people.
The cooking area in the fortress is very large, with a total of three kitchens with fires.
The first is the main kitchen that prepares exquisite meals a day, snacks and pastries for the Baron and his wife.
There are two head chefs, each with two assistants who are responsible for processing ingredients, controlling the fire and doing miscellaneous tasks, a total of six people.
There is also a kitchen that is open all day long and can prepare self-service meals at any time to meet the needs of busy office workers in the fortress.
There are two chefs and four handymen cooking here.
The last kitchen only prepares two big pot meals for the servants at a fixed time every day. There are ten cooks here.
Graya knew the lady's personality. She didn't have high requirements for clothing and housing, but her taste in food was very unique.
The two chefs who were responsible for cooking for the lady came from the manor.
The food currently used in the fortress was also brought from the manor this year.
Even the kitchen where the lady cooks is built in the style of the manor kitchen, but is enlarged. The stove is still designed in the same way, so the taste will not change.
However, it was still dark, so Graya went to several kitchens, inspected them, and looked at today's menu.
The cooks adapted to the new place fairly well, but they complained that the fortress was too spacious. The kitchen was too big, and the stove was more than ten meters away from the locker, and even farther from the storage room.
When they were cooking, they had to order their assistants to run around to get tools and ingredients, which made these cooks who were not used to ordering people around like this very embarrassed.
“We have to adapt even if we’re not used to it. Originally, there were only 20 to 30 people in a manor, but now it takes over a hundred people to run the fortress.
Not to mention you, even I am the same, but we still have to do things well, now it can't be like before."
After Graya finished speaking, she sighed deeply for a while and then went to look at the ingredients for breakfast this morning.
The Baron and his wife had been traveling for most of the day yesterday. They went to bed early last night and had no extra meals. When they woke up in the morning and waited for the 8 o'clock meal time, they must have been very hungry. Graya specially asked the kitchen to prepare some filling food.
The lady said in person that after moving to the fortress, the three meals a day should still follow the customs of the manor, and the quantity should not be increased arbitrarily. She and the baron must be able to finish them in one meal.
So there weren't many dishes this morning. The staple food was baked buns with two fillings: lamb and onion or chicken and cheese. They had to be made with lean and fat lamb and a five-month-old tender chicken, and they had to be juicy after being baked.
These should be eaten with vegetable soup. Today I made a soup that my wife called Hu La Tang.
A lot of pepper and other spices and flour water are added to thicken the sauce, as well as shredded tofu, shredded wood ear mushrooms, shredded pine mushrooms, chanterelles, shredded ham, shredded kelp, and shredded radish that is dried in the summer.
There was also a plate of large shrimp steamed with Jerusalem artichokes, served with lemon juice and pickled mint leaves.
Two bowls of Jerusalem artichoke juice mixed with hot milk, accompanied by honey cakes made with various nuts and preserved fruits, and a plate of apples.
Once all the food is ready, put it in a plate, cover it with a lid, and put two hot towels on top to keep it warm.
It takes half a day to get the food from the kitchen to the small dining room in the master bedroom suite on the third floor, and then wait for it to be served inside. If there is no insulation during this time, the food will not be hot in such cold weather.
Eating cold rice for a long time is bad for the body. Graya also heard Fanon say this, and she took it seriously. She waited in the kitchen until the meal was ready, and then the servant who delivered the meal personally followed her to the small dining room outside the bedroom and put the meal on the table. She reached out and touched the plate to feel its temperature.
Sure enough, if it is packaged like this, there will be no problem delivering it within 20 minutes.
Graya cleared her throat and looked through the layers of doors towards the innermost bedroom.
Vansh knocked on the bedroom door, followed by two servants carrying hot water and towels, still waiting for a response from inside.
This suite is very narrow and long, divided into five rooms. The innermost room is the bathroom, followed by the cloakroom, the middle room is the bedroom and living room, and the outermost room is a small dining room. There is also a dedicated corridor outside the dining room to ensure that there is no corridor next to the bedroom.
This was Slochi's clever idea, to ensure that the lady and the baron would not hear any footsteps coming from nearby while they were resting.
In the bedroom, Olivia's eyes were swollen and she couldn't open them. Her throat was sore and her bones were achy. She was still sleeping soundly, groaning as she wrapped herself in the quilt.
Caesar didn't want the servants to interfere, so he went out to get hot water, brought various toiletries from the bathroom, and sat by the bed to help her wash.
He carefully put on her stockings, panties, bra, pajamas and dressing gown, and after wrapping her up, he put her on the stool at the end of the bed and helped her comb her hair, intending to tie it up a little neater.
When Olivia was slightly sober, she was still combing her hair, with her face on the man's chest. Her nose was filled with a faint scent of grass and body fragrance. Through the thin shirt, the warm body temperature enhanced the smell, continuously soothing people's nerves, making people unable to help but breathe greedily.
After he finished his work, Olivia recovered and was able to meet people. After they whispered a few words, she stood up, her dressing gown passing over Caesar's knees, and she walked out the door with her feet fluttering.
After breakfast, Olivia and Caesar dressed up and prepared to go to Ein Wetton Church, where the main hall had been completed.
This is the first prayer day after Nativity, and the residents of the city who have converted to Protestantism will go to the church to listen to the scriptures.
As a lord, he had to crawl over to participate in this ceremony even if his legs were broken, let alone in the snow.
With them as examples, knights, soldiers, officials, merchants and the like will take them seriously.
Only when these people attach importance to it can they guide the common people to believe in it and make them feel a sense of belonging to the Kingdom of Alta.
This was also Olivia's first public appearance in Einwidden, and she was particularly careful, wearing a gorgeous velvet robe embroidered with gold thread and inlaid with fur, and embellished with pearls.
Compared to the baron's regulated clothing, no one cared what the lady wore. She tried to wear luxurious gems as much as possible and dress in a dignified and majestic way. She wanted to show her wealth and ability, but she didn't want to be flashy and attract ridicule.
Prayers started at nine o'clock, and at half past eight, when it was already bright, Olivia and Caesar walked along the avenue to the church.
Caesar rode in front on horseback, while Olivia sat in a luxurious carriage, and the curtains could not be drawn.
Snowflakes were falling outside, and she had to show her face in a performance to show her appearance to the people watching on the roadside.
Olivia maintained her smile and couldn't help but think that no matter how devout a person was, when they reached this position, they would have to go through such a torture process out of the need to control the people's ideology.
But after a long time, can you still be very pious?
As she was thinking, the church appeared before her eyes.
Einwidden Church and Lavossen Church do not look much different from the outside.
The building consists of a main hall, two side halls, a pair of towers, a monastic compound, and an enclosed cemetery.
The interior space is not small. The auditorium has three parts. Now only the middle auditorium is open. If the other two side halls are also decorated, the seats can accommodate two thousand people.
A team of cavalry followed briskly behind and escorted them into the church.
There were guards in the church originally. After the lord entered, they began to lift the access control and let people in one by one.
Various managers and officials in the fortress had reserved seats, and workshop owners and merchants also asked their servants to help them occupy the front row.
Olivia turned her head and saw Gosley yawning in the seat behind her while talking to Ethan and Jock about the assembly of the second ship.
The first ship was launched in October and outfitting began. At the same time, the nails and keel for building the second ship were cut and stored.
Once the dock was free, the shipbuilders seamlessly connected and began hammering nails into the second ship.
Now two months have passed, the first ship has been outfitted and is being loaded at the port, ready to go to sea. The second ship also has a specific framework in the dock.
They were chatting in low voices behind the scenes, this was what they were going to discuss later.
Olivia turned around and saw Fanon, several priests, and novice monks coming out.
The others stopped at the pulpit, and Fanon, the town bishop, walked up alone, holding a brand new scripture.
He looked quite natural, wearing a bright red robe and not at all shy.
The crowd in the seats was not quiet yet. At this time, the novice monks and priests began to play musical instruments on the side. Some were similar to organs, and some were hitting a copper plate similar to a chime.
The church roof is uniquely designed to facilitate sound transmission, and every monk has been practicing how to recite scriptures and sing hymns with full energy since childhood.
After a burst of ethereal instrumental sounds, the novice monks began to sing hymns.
After the singing, Fanon began his opening speech. Every priest has a different style of preaching. Fanon tried his best to be friendly and kind when preaching in this area with many new believers.
Today he excerpted a passage from the scriptures, which tells the story of how the Creator God created the heaven and the earth, and the birth of various servant gods.
The reason for choosing this myth with its very peaceful and harmonious content is to make it easier for people who believed in the sun god to accept it. After all, the sun god is also one of the attendant gods separated from this system.
However, the mythological history of Alta says that the sun god was later exiled for various sins.
Those who believe in the sun god read scriptures that tell the story of how the sun god found the truth after countless reincarnations, which inspired the prophet of the Lenian people.
These myths written in the style of the Spring and Autumn Period are as crazy as the plots of melodramatic novels and TV series.
Every country and every dynasty tampered with the scriptures according to their own ruling needs. Now, every country has its own version of the scriptures.
Olivia sat there, feeling like she was watching someone she knew perform. She treated it all as an immersive performance.
After the show, it was already after ten in the morning.
Olivia and Caesar returned the same way they came, but before leaving, they had to symbolically have close contact with the people together with the bishop.
When we returned to the fortress, it was lunch time again. This time, lunch was served on the first floor, and all the managers who held some power in Einweiden were there.
Today is the first day since the Baroness arrived, and each of them has prepared their own manuscript to report to her on the previous year at the meeting after lunch.
As for Caesar, he is like a teacher whose students are about to take an exam. Just thinking about it makes one worry for them.
He knew that Olivia felt that her men had been slacking off for too long and wanted to give everyone a boost.
The new year is coming soon, and everyone has to set goals for themselves and issue military orders.
Olivia had already figured it out. Not only did she need to refresh him, but she also needed to give him sweet dates.
She planned to standardize the official ranks, give everyone a title, and then slowly develop some government offices with different responsibilities.
This makes it easier to set salaries and maintain integrity, and also allows for clear division of various matters within the territory.
As for official ranks, such things do not exist in the common baronies or even earls today.
The affairs of the earldom were too large and had to be divided among various attendants.
But in most baronies, one sheriff can gather administrative, judicial, tax, financial, city defense and various other powers.
If a baron has too many other things to do, he will assign them to the butler and servants.
There was neither an imperial examination system nor a complete recommendation system. It all depended on one's mood and could be arranged freely as long as religion permitted.
Such a situation usually leads to confusion between internal and external affairs, public and private affairs, and the use of taxes as private property.
As long as they are not violating the doctrine, no matter if they are an illiterate animal trainer or a crazy bard, as long as they are favored by the lord, they can come and go freely without any identity or title.
They can also provide various suggestions, handle various matters on behalf of the lord, compete for power with the sheriff and steward, and influence the politics of the territory.
If the lord is not clear-headed, the territory cannot function properly.
This kind of disorder is the first thing Olivia wants to abolish, as it is not conducive to development at all.
Even if she could ensure that she would not be eroded by this kind of freedom, she could not guarantee that her descendants would not make mistakes in the future.
Therefore, an official rank framework that can regulate the exercise of power to a certain extent is necessary.
For a lord, excessive freedom and despotism is the first step to self-destruction.
Although Caesar didn't know about the system that Olivia was talking about before, he intuitively felt that this was the most efficient way.
After lunch, everyone came to the side hall where there were more than a dozen velvet-lined armchairs.
Olivia and Caesar sat at the top, while the remaining dozen or so people sat beside them, giving way to each other.
She cleared her throat and used this as a guide to arrange seats for them.
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