10 – The Great Peanut Fields" Fertilization Campaign
The birth of sprite worms required copious amounts of nutrients. The infertile farmland was restricting the growth of the sprite worm. Also, after the nutrients from the farmland were gathered on the field in the middle, the peanut sprouts of the remaining fields were nearly dead.
The way to treat this issue was very simple; just spreading some fertilizer on the peanut fields was enough.
Liszt recalled the things he knew about farming, and then said to Old George.
“Old George, listen well. First, mobilize the serfs to go gather firewood and withered gra.s.s; set them on fire, and then collect the ashes. Second, mobilize able-bodied serfs to go dig up mud from the ponds, dig up the entire layer of mud from the bottom of the ponds. Third, let the children go gather manure; regardless of the type of manure, gather it all.”
Old George did not doubt the Sir Lord"s instructions: “Alright, Sir Lord. I will make sure that the Sir"s orders are executed.”
After the lame Old George left.
Liszt turned to Gort, saying: “Teacher Gort, I reckon that the peanut settlement"s manure will not be enough. Please go to the town and organize the serfs to gather manure… Hmm, right, as the administrative officer, purchase the manure at the price of one copper coin for one large wicker basket of manure.”
Copper , silver coins, gold coins, and dragon coins, this was the common currency of this world.
However, the gold, silver and copper coins issued by different empires, kingdoms, and grand duchies were different to some extent. The copper coin Liszt had mentioned was the currency of the Sapphire Grand Duchy, with one copper coin having the purchasing power of about four box-sized black breads, which would suffice an adult for a few days.
One silver coin could be exchanged for one hundred copper coins, while one gold coin could be exchanged for one hundred silver coins.
As for dragon coins, the full name being sapphire dragon coins, were magic gems of the sole sapphire dragon attached to Sapphire Gran Duchy, which could be exchanged for ten thousand gold coins. They were themselves were magic goods.
After Gort heard that, he could not help but to complain: “Whoa, Liszt, why do you have to spend so much on purchasing some filthy and inexpensive manure which does not have any other use apart from smelling bad.”
“No, manure is quite useful. Just announce it. By the way, find a place to store the manure, preferably some far away, upwind, uncultivated piece of land.” Liszt was quite clear about the worth of manure. In the absence of chemical fertilizers and with a lack of sprites, the best source of nutrients for farming was manure.
As the owner of a large tract of land, the one who owned Flower Town and all the lands a.s.sociated to it, Liszt had a lot of fields to cultivate; therefore, there could not be a lack of fertilizer. Besides, he did not want to have feces and urine on the streets of his little town. Such a thing was basically an affront to civilization.
He was prepared to purchase feces long term, for compost and for hygiene. To promote toilets and the like was temporarily not feasible; therefore, purchasing manure was the most cost effective as well as required the least effort.
“But this price is too high. A copper coin should buy ten, no, twenty large wicker baskets.”
“Do as I said, Teacher Gort.” Liszt"s tone was a bit harsh.
Gort stopped complaining, spreading his hands: “As you wish.”
……
Nowadays, the lord was the authority.
Once Liszt gave his orders, no one would dare to stonewall. Thus, the clerk and the serfs acted very quickly, piling up the mud, manure, and ashes that he had ordered in the peanut settlement.
“Very good, Old George. Now, send people to mix these things together. Next, dig a small hole next to the roots of each peanut sprout, put inside a bit of the mixture, and then cover the holes. Finally, pour some water and do some weeding. I reckon that in no time, the peanut sprouts will recover.”
While on top of Fierydragon, Liszt readily directed the peanut settlement"s serfs.
As the lord, he naturally would not do the work himself; the aristocratic system did not permit it and he himself was not willing.
The overall area of the peanut settlement"s peanut fields was about 100 mu (1 mu = 666.6667 m2), which was equivalent to about 10 football fields, or 7 or 8 primary schools. Altogether, there were 23 households, 92 people, in the peanut settlement.
Not considering the children among the 92 serfs, who could not do manual labor, while adding the serfs that were moved from the town, there were a total of 120 people busy working.
“Teacher Gort, what is the population of Flower Town?”
“Oh. I am sorry, Liszt, I have been in the town for too short of a period of time and have yet to sort this out.” As Gort had yet to figure this out, he turned to a clerk, “You have lived in the town for many years, do you know what the number of households and the number of people in the town is? Is it more than 1,000 people?”
“I do not know, Sir.” The clerk shook his head.
Gort then looked at another clerk.
This clerk also shook his head.
It seemed like no one in Flower Town knew exactly how many people there were in the town. Liszt was speechless. Was Flower Town forgotten, had the Coral Island"s administrative officials never come over to take a census? The former administrative officer had never taken a census?
“A lord who had not done a thorough census, who had not figured out the population under his jurisdiction, that is really too much.”
Following this train of thought, he started giving instructions: “Teacher Gort, organize some people, then hurry up and carry out a census. I want to figure out the number of households, the number of people, and each person"s name, family name, family ties, occupation, age, gender as well as marital status.”
“It is too rushed. Liszt, you know that there are too few officials in the town. We have no treasurer, no defense officer, no law officer, no diplomat. In fact, we do not even have an administrative officer; I am supposed to be your adviser and not the small town"s administrative officer.”
The civil officials of an aristocratic territory basically comprised of the head of the civil official, the adviser, followed by the administrative officer, the treasurer, the defense officer, the law officer, and the diplomat.
The military officials were the knight commander and the administrator knight.
As a dest.i.tute chevalier, Gort was at the bottom most of the aristocratic system, yet he was still an aristocrat. The reason why he had followed Liszt was because he was certain to hold the post of the adviser. The other, the knight teacher Marcus, was certain to hold the post of the knight commander… As for whether Flower Town could give rise to knights, that was another story.
“Teacher Gort, do not worry, there are many things waiting to be done in Flower Town, my castle is also awaiting its rise. First manage Flower Town"s administrative affairs on my behalf. We will talk again after you complete the census.
The adviser had too much authority. Liszt did not want to outright hand it over to Gort, not because he was afraid of becoming just a figurehead, but because Gort"s mind was filled with the aristocratic system, because he was too full of himself and could not keep up with Liszt"s development ideas.
“So be it. Liszt, you have already come of age, are a lord, and are ent.i.tled to your own ideas. I will obey.” Gort saluted with one hand, expressing his self-restraint and patience as an aristocrat.
……
For three consecutive days, the great farming campaign of frenziedly spreading fertilizer in the peanut settlement had been carried out. The 100 mu of land had very quickly organic fertilizer, a mixture of mud, manure, and ashes applied to it.
The field in the middle, in particular, had fertilizer applied to it a few times more than the rest.
Liszt had also been on the site for the last three days, commanding the operation. After everything was finished, the only thing left to do was to wait, wait until there was a change for the better in the peanut fields.
“Everything that could be done had been done. Now I can just hope for the mission to be quickly completed.” He was not an indecisive person. Since the work in the settlement was finished, he quickly shifted his sight to other affairs in his territory.
Among others, the most important being the issue of the sprite worms.