Chapter 24 Seafood that cannot be sold
Probably because the village chief was so capable, more and more people came to the entrance of the village. They were all villagers of this village. There were relatively few young and middle-aged people as they should have gone to work during this period of time. Basically, those who appeared at the entrance of the village were old people and children. When they arrived at the entrance of the village, they all came to Gervis one by one and knelt down to greet him. There were several elderly people, so Gervis asked two guards to support them from a distance to save them from having to kneel down to greet him as they had difficulty walking.
The mountain village was not big to begin with. After only six or seven minutes, the village chief who had gone to call for help came back. Although he was out of breath, his legs and feet were still nimble. He came to Gervis, bent down and said, "My Lord, everyone in the village has been called here. Some have already gone to the fields to farm. Do you want me to go over and call them now?"
"No need." Gervis shook his head, indicating that he didn't need it. He looked at the more than one hundred serfs of all sizes in front of him. Most of them were wearing tattered clothes, and the children were barefoot. Some of the children had dry and yellow hair and pale faces. Their bare upper bodies revealed the ribs on their chests, which was obviously caused by long-term malnutrition.
"Speak to them first!" Gervis signaled the guard who was responsible for shouting all the way to repeat what he had shouted.
"Yes, Baron!" The guard immediately stepped forward and shouted to the villagers, "Did you see this man? Benny's men. The first thing Lord Gervis did when he came was to punish Benny and his men and bring justice to you! But Benny was too cunning. He had already fled before the Baron arrived, and only two of his men were captured. This is one of them. The other one has been ordered by Lord Gervis to be hanged in the town square."
"God's grace has enveloped you! Lord Gervis will protect you from now on!"
"Lord Gervis has also issued a reward. If anyone finds or captures Benny, they can go to the castle to claim a reward of one silver coin."
…
"He really is the captain of the guard's men. I remember him stealing a rabbit from my house when he was paying the recycling tax."
"She should have died long ago... The girl was only 16 years old, and they raped her..."
"My Lord is wise..."
All of a sudden, the serfs started talking about it. They were all poor serfs who had been oppressed by Benny. They thought they would never see Benny and his two companions punished in their lifetime, but they didn't expect that the lord would arrest them as soon as he took office.
"My Lord, you are wise! Thank you for your protection!" The one who could become the village chief was obviously not ignorant of the ways of the world. While everyone was still discussing, the village chief had already shouted and prostrated himself on the ground. Seeing this, other villagers followed suit and prostrated themselves on the ground.
"My lord is wise. Thank you for your protection." Immediately, almost all the hundreds of people at the village entrance knelt on the ground, except for a few elderly people with poor mobility. Only some children who were ignorant of the world were still standing, but they were immediately pressed to the ground by the adults beside them.
"Get up, this is my territory now. As my serfs, I will naturally protect you. You just need to work hard and pay taxes on time!" Gervis spent so much effort today to bring Benny's subordinate here in a carriage. He did it to show his kindness. Now that he felt that it worked, he asked everyone to get up with great satisfaction.
Although some people may not be truly grateful, as long as this kind of atmosphere exists, Gervis's prestige in this territory will become higher and higher, instead of feeling as if they are surrounded by a weakening aura and trembling all over when they see him.
"Thank you, Lord!" Some of the elderly serfs were already in tears. They had lived their entire lives, and some had even lived and worked here when Viscount Major was still alive.
It can be said that they will be buried in the loess in a few years, but they have never seen a lord like Gervis who really does something for them as soon as he takes office.
"Okay, next, I have something to ask you!" Gervis felt embarrassed when he saw that some old farmers had already shed tears. Although he had decided before taking office that he would deal with evil guys like Benny, today's action was also a show, so it was still a bit awkward.
"Village chief, I want to ask, do you recognize what's in this pottery jar?"
Gervis pointed at the steaming clay pot on the ground and asked.
Of course the old village chief knew what the clay pot was used for. Some children in the village would go to the beach to pick up shells and crabs and cook them at the entrance of the village because they were hungry. This was done almost every day except when it was windy or rainy.
But now that the Lord had asked, the village chief had no choice but to act cautiously. So the old village chief quickly walked to the pottery jar, took a look inside, and seeing nothing unusual, he saluted and replied, "Lord, the things in this pottery jar were picked up by the children in the village from the beach!"
"Oh, I know that. I want to ask, what is this thing called and are there many of them on the seashore?" Gervis said, holding up the oysters with only the shells left in his hand.
"My lord, this... this shell has no name. There are a lot of them, but they are not filling. The villagers occasionally ask the children to pick some up and eat them as dishes!" The old village chief didn't know why Gervis was interested in this common shell. There are a lot of them on the rocks on the seashore, but they have very little meat and are not filling. At most, they are eaten as dishes by the villagers.
And because the villagers are busy farming, they basically ask the children to pick up these things at the beach.
"No name yet? Well, I took a bite just now and it tastes pretty good. Since it doesn't have a name yet, let's just call it oysters from now on!" Gervis was a little surprised that oysters didn't have a name in this world. You know, in his previous life, oysters were a must-have ingredient on every barbecue stall.
Because oysters are not only delicious but also have powerful effects, they are loved by men, women, young and old. Men eat them to nourish their bodies, and women eat them to beautify their skin. They are also cheap, making them a must-eat dish for foodies at barbecue stalls.
But after thinking about it, Gervis felt relieved. The productivity in this world was low, and people worked hard but could not even get enough food to eat. Of course, they had no time to care about these things.
It’s just a dish that you eat occasionally. No matter whether you are big or small, just call them shells.
In Gervis's previous life, he often saw posts on the Internet about hairy crabs. In the beginning, hairy crabs had a similar fate to oysters in this world. In the poor years, food was scarce, many people were hungry, and some people had to catch hairy crabs to fill their stomachs.
But later, as living standards improved, people no longer worried about having enough to eat. Instead, the price of hairy crabs, which were previously only eaten by the poor, skyrocketed and became something that the poor could not afford.
"How do people in your village usually make a living?" Gervis continued to ask.
"My lord, farming. Everyone in our village is working hard on farming!" The village chief quickly replied.
"Is there no one doing other work? Like catching fish or shells from the sea to sell?" Gervis was a little speechless. It is said that if you live by the mountain, you can eat by the mountain; if you live by the sea, you can eat by the sea. Why doesn't anyone want to take advantage of the sea when these people live by the sea?
Although I don’t know how big the ocean is in this world, since it is an ocean, in this feudal era, without any machinery, the ocean is simply an inexhaustible treasure trove.
"No, my lord, the villagers are working hard to grow crops!" The old village chief shook his head like a rattle.
After saying that, he looked at Gervis again, and then said carefully: "In fact, when Viscount Major was still alive, there were people who went to the sea to catch fish and sell them as the Lord said. Originally, there were few people who did this, and they could make a living by selling fish. But later, some people saw that fishing and selling fish were easier than farming, so they also learned to do it. In the end, the fish became cheaper and cheaper, and they could no longer make money. When it was time to pay taxes, those people couldn't even pay the taxes. Each of them was whipped 20 times by the lord, and then Viscount Major ordered that fishing and selling were not allowed!"
So that's how it is. Gervis nodded, but he didn't understand one thing, so he asked: "When Viscount Major was still here, the population should have been large, right? Why are the prices getting cheaper? Even if Viscount Major got a lower price, he could sell it in other lords' territories."
Gervis was a little confused. A price war would only happen under one circumstance: when the market was saturated, merchants would think of lowering prices to increase sales.
Based on the population at that time, even if everyone in the village was engaged in this business, it would not cause market saturation. After all, there are so many villages and towns, and the worst that could happen is that they could just go further away to sell.
"Sir, there were a lot of people at that time, but sea fish can only be sold when they are fresh. If they are taken far away, they will become smelly and no one will want them even if they are given for free." The village chief answered cautiously.
"Gah..." Gervis was a little embarrassed. Indeed, he had forgotten a very important piece of information. This world did not have an effective way to keep fresh food.
Even ice can only be enjoyed by the great nobles except in the harsh winter season, because the great nobles have the financial resources to build ice cellars. In winter, the great nobles put the ice in the underground ice cellars and do not have to worry about having no ice to use when the temperature rises.
However, even the nobles would use ice sparingly in other seasons.
It is conceivable that ordinary people would not have something that even small nobles basically did not have. Without ice, it would be impossible to keep the sea fish fresh. Even if they were to be sold, they could only be sold in nearby villages and towns. No wonder the market was saturated. There were only so many buyers and more and more sellers, so there was no other way except to lower the price.
(End of this chapter)
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