industrial lord

Chapter 120 New crops in the mountain village

The first snowfall in 1025 was stronger than ever. The pine trees around the mountain village were covered in white. The pheasants in winter clothes searched for pine nuts under the forest, only to find their bodies dehydrated and shrinking, curled up and hibernating in various crevices. slime.

Thomas woke up early in the morning, put on a thick cotton coat, a wolf fur hat, and wool-lined rubber boots on his feet. He put a small cloth bag in his pocket, and then began to patrol the village, watching Check to see if any roofs have been crushed by the snow.

The carpentry shop with the steam engine is fine, the houses where people live are all intact, and the livestock sheds are fine, but the snow in the chicken coop is a bit thick, and the chicken breeders should be reminded to sweep the snow.

Next is the Winter Spirit Festival. These days, the chickens cannot be thinned, otherwise the smoked chickens made will not be easy to sell.

Cooking smoke began to come out of the vents on the roofs of each house, and after a while, the whole village was filled with the smell of burning pine branches.

As the saying goes, connections are money connections. Thomas found out through the relationship among his classmates that Koehler's paper mill needed a lot of pine wood, so he went directly to the door to negotiate a contract for the supply of raw materials.

Then he obtained a loan with the help of Miss Katie, found Schmidt and bought a steam engine and a set of wood processing equipment, and began to purchase pine logs from surrounding villages, and processed them into thin wood chips with a small diameter at breast height and sold them to paper mills. , roughly processed into wood needed by carpenters.

The tree belongs to the headmaster’s family. Every time he sells a tree, he has to give him the money for the raw materials, but the tree must not be sold at this price. The extra money is the benefit brought by processing the wood. If the wood is sold more, everyone will benefit from it. Made money.

The same goes for rosin and turpentine, the money given to the raw materials, the processed and sold are their own.

Now that everyone is well-off, we no longer eat twice a day in the morning and evening in winter. At noon, boil water on the stove, put a fist-sized dry noodle ball, add a spoonful of salted lard, and find a suitable concentrated flavor Put half of the soup packet in, and after eating, your body will be warm until the sun goes down.

Thomas stopped suddenly, and saw two dark figures appearing in the pine forest in the distance.

It was a bear that lived in the forest in the south. Somehow, it got acquainted with the loggers. It was estimated that it would come out to look for food in the middle of hibernation.

He suddenly thought of something. When he went to Wessenburg City two days ago, he saw a picture book of stories in the bookstore. It was the size of a palm.

Thomas suddenly came up with an inspiration. I have nothing to do in winter. Why don’t I draw some storybooks and sell them. The protagonists are those two bears, and... it’s you, Hozenploz, and yours. Rice donkey!
Hozenpoloz was feeding the donkey with fodder, and suddenly shivered. Looking back, he happened to find the village chief looking at him with strange eyes.

"Good morning, Hozenpulos." Thomas walked over, "Are you free? I have something to talk to you about."

Hozenploz immediately replied: "Yes, I am free, what can I do?"

Thomas pointed to his house and said, "It's too cold outside, let's go inside and talk."

Hozenploz's expression changed slightly, and he immediately said, "Well... I still have to feed the donkey, how about I go to your house later?"

Thomas said with a smirk on his face, "It's okay, I'm going to talk to you and Liher about this, and I'll just finish it all at once."

After a while, he came into the house and saw two beddings placed on both sides of the firepit. He couldn't help curling his lips. It seemed that the two of them were really saving firewood.

Over the past year, many single men and women in the village have gotten married, and some of those who got married early have children, and are now waiting for the milkman at the entrance of the village.

There is a new way of proposing marriage this winter, inviting the other party to spend the winter in one's own home, on the grounds that it can save firewood.

Thomas took off his hat and put it aside, took out a small cloth bag from his arms, handed it to Hozenploz and said, "These are gourd seeds. The headmaster specially distributed them to our village, and I will let you plant them."

"There is a booklet with planting methods in it, you should study it more while you have time."

Hozenploz excitedly opened the cloth bag and took out the seeds to have a look. A while ago, when he was driving a donkey cart to the city of Langenar to buy goods, he heard that a large piece of gold had been planted in the city of Wessenburg. One is as big as a pot.

Soon there was new news that what grew out of the field was not gold like melons, but golden melons.

At that time, Frederick thought about it for a long time, but couldn't figure out why the pumpkins in this world were golden and hard, but the meat inside was delicious, and it tasted like pumpkins.

Psyche is also very curious. Although the color of the pumpkin on the Peach Blossom Stone is orange-yellow, it is not this golden. It can only be explained by "Oranges born in Huainan are oranges, and oranges born in Huaibei are oranges".

"Village head?" Hozenpoloz frowned while holding the melon seeds, "Did you take the wrong one? Why are the seeds of the melons white?"

Liher, who was on the side, was stretching his head to look at the freshness, and said: "Village chief, could it be that someone has been transferred, is there a beautiful woman in the front to take advantage of you, and someone behind is stealing from you."

"Or was there a woman who invited you to a remote house, rushed in as soon as you took off your pants, and several people held you down?"

Hozenploz continued seriously: "It is also possible to be robbed, and a rope is used to strangle the neck suddenly from behind in a place where there is no one, and it can stun people in a few blinks, and many people have not reacted. What happened."

"There is also a kind of powder made from rainbow mushrooms. Someone blows it on your face, and then you can do whatever you are told to do. After the effect of the medicine is over, you don't remember what happened."

Thomas thought to himself that the two of you are really talented, and at the same time, he felt a little better after seeing someone like this bumpkin. He said that yesterday but was laughed at by the principal.

"Are chicken feathers the same color as eggs?" he imitated Frederick's words.

Those two were speechless.

Thomas continued: "You are dedicated to being farmers, so please leave me to grow gourds in the village."

"This pumpkin is a good thing. The vines grow quickly and can be used to feed livestock. One hectare of land can produce three to four thousand kilograms of melons. It is very sweet and can be kept for a long time. Feeding pigs and chickens can make them grow longer Meat. Humans can also eat it, not only as a vegetable, but also as a substitute for staple food.”

"The most important thing is that it doesn't choose the land. It can be planted on slopes, or you can just find an open space and plant one or two trees. It doesn't compete with other grains for land."

"The principal said that the next step is to promote the cultivation of pumpkins on slopes. It will be difficult to starve to death in the future."

"We have a lot of mountains here, I finally got seeds from the principal, and I agreed to do a pilot."

"Next year, I will set aside a hillside facing south for you. You should plant it well. If it can be planted well here, then everyone will plant it on the hillside, together with the pasture at the foot of the hill. Then I will bring back some pigs. When they are planted, they will be taken. Come raise chickens and pigs."

Hozenploz thought for a moment and said, "That's all right, but the hillside hasn't been weeded yet."

"It doesn't matter." Thomas said, "As soon as it gets warmer next year, I'll have people put the sheep up there, and I won't leave any grass roots for you when the spring begins."

Hozenploz looked at Liher, and Liher also said, "I didn't ask any questions."

Thomas said: "Then let's put it this way, put the seeds away first, and don't let the mice eat them."

Hozenploz found a clay pot, put pumpkin seeds in it, covered it with a wooden board, and then went outside and took a big stone to press it on.

After he came back and sat down by the firepit, Thomas said again: "I have something to discuss with you. Now the militiamen in the village have gone out for training. They will go out to fight next year."

"In this way, the village will be empty, so now, the villages in the territory have to organize some people to work at home, and keep the weapons they buy at home. If there are wild animals or robbers, they will go home immediately to get the weapons. "

"On weekdays, I practice how to use weapons for half a day every Sunday."

"The requirements are not high, just keep the village well."

Hozenploz frowned and said, "Do you want me to participate?"

"You guys." Thomas said sincerely, "The principal and I won't pursue your past affairs, but if someone calls home, you can't just watch from the sidelines."

"I hope you can join and protect our home together."

"Of course, this is just my suggestion. How to do it is up to you."

Hozenploz and Liher glanced at each other, and finally said that they should think about it.

Thomas didn't say much. Putting down their weapons meant breaking away from the past, so they were somewhat resistant to taking up arms again. Too much force would only be counterproductive.

(End of this chapter)