Chapter 3: Countless Problems
After carefully locking the warehouse and securing the iron rod close to his body, Owen went to the open space in front of the castle. Three longhouses were built here, leaning against the earthen wall. Usually, soldiers lived here.
The longhouse, built with logs, was very sturdy. Covered with bark and hay, it was enough to shelter from wind and rain.
As for the inside, because there were no windows, it was a bit dim, but for the relatively cold climate of the Northland, keeping warm was the most important thing.
On one side of the longhouse was a well and a thatched shed that served as a kitchen. A large pot was set up there, and there was half a bag of grain. Obviously, the soldiers usually ate and lived here.
Due to the shortage of manpower, two soldiers were responsible for guarding the gate every day, two patrolled inside the castle, and the remaining four rested. As for training, they trained once when they remembered. It was impossible to train every day because there was not enough food. Forcing training without physical strength would kill people.
When Owen arrived, four soldiers were leaning against the wall, basking in the sun under the longhouse. After all, there was only this one thing to do in this damn place.
The soldiers were all in their prime. Because the castle provided food, they were stronger than the serfs. At least you couldn’t count how many ribs they had at a glance.
“Come out with me.” Owen didn’t dare go out alone, so he called on the four soldiers.
If there was one good thing about this world, it was that the rights of nobles were really great. Even though Owen was living such a miserable life, these four soldiers were still loyal. In order to maintain his rights, they would even sacrifice their lives. This made him feel a bit speechless, after all, he was the beneficiary.
After hearing the lord’s order, the four soldiers immediately put on their leather armor and picked up their spears. Two in front and two behind, they escorted Owen out of the castle with their chests out and heads held high.
The leather armor and spears were seventy percent new. They were purchased by Hydra II through gritted teeth from the Ha Rui Trading Company. This not only exhausted the little savings of the territory, but also left them in considerable debt. It was all for the purpose of arming the only thirty soldiers in the territory.
Thirty soldiers were not a small number. Counting the serfs, the territory could pull out more than a hundred people to fight at any time. Unfortunately, the last wolf disaster resulted in the deaths of most of the soldiers at the front line, which made Owen feel a bit insecure.
The rights of nobles came down to land and military force. It was not enough to have land without military force. Owen was having a headache over this matter, after all, eight soldiers could not provide him with enough sense of security.
The problem was that the Hydra family’s foundation was completely transparent. They had no money and no people. The serfs in the territory were passable at working, but they were much worse as soldiers. Therefore, Owen couldn’t replenish the soldiers for a while.
Not everyone could be a soldier. Generally, free farmers were chosen because they had a certain amount of freedom and wealth. In order to ensure that they could always have these, they would fight to maintain the rights of the lord, otherwise, once the lord changed, they would lose everything.
However, the Hydra family’s territory had no commoners, that is, free farmers. They were all serfs without personal freedom. Most of them were refugees who had lost their land, as well as criminals and opportunists. After coming here with the pioneer group, they sold everything they had in order to survive.
Because they had struggled with hunger all their lives, these serfs had no energy. Their eyes were filled with numbness and fear of the lord and soldiers. As for communication, Owen had tried, but their vocabulary was so poor that it was speechless. Many serfs could only speak twenty or thirty sentences because their monotonous lives only used these words. Anything more was beyond their comprehension.
It felt like trying to explain Coca-Cola and computers to people from a primitive African tribe. They simply couldn’t understand what you meant.
With serfs living almost like animals and soldiers who only knew how to obey, Owen had given up on the idea of burning glass to make gunpowder and cement. Unless he could do everything himself, any project would take at least five years to start without any helpers. Not to mention that Owen himself didn’t understand the theory and process of these things. After all, who in their right mind would learn how to make these things using primitive methods?
Thinking about these frustrating things, Owen continued his inspection, focusing on the farmland.
The land in the Northland was a bit barren. The weeds grew in patches and rarely formed a continuous expanse. Therefore, even if they worked hard all year round, the harvest was not much, barely enough to keep most people in the territory from starving to death.
In fact, if it weren’t for the small number of soldiers now, the soldiers would also have to work in the fields during the busy farming season. Only great nobles could afford to support a large-scale army that was completely detached from agricultural production. It was not something that a humble Northland border noble like the Hydra family could compare to.
Not long after leaving the castle, Owen discovered countless problems.
He had never farmed, but he had raised pigs. Could he not have eaten pork?
It was fine that the farmland here was not the square shape he was familiar with, perhaps round farmland was popular. But there were no ridges or furrows. The so-called spring plowing was simply using a stone knife to clear the shrubs, then using a pointed stick to poke a hole in the ground, throw two or three seeds in it, and cover it with soil to prevent birds from eating them.
Just thinking about it, you knew how terrible this planting method was. It was truly a blessing from God that the people of Hydra territory hadn’t all starved to death.
Owen’s face turned blue and white, but he also had no solution to this. Because if he really had to do it himself, he would be worse than these serfs who poked holes and buried seeds. He didn’t even know when to plant or when to harvest. He couldn’t afford the consequences of giving random commands. As long as there was no harvest for one year, he would have to take everyone in the territory to beg for food.
After wandering around the castle, there was finally a piece of news that might be considered good.
Although the Hydra family was nothing special, their territory was very vast. It would take an ordinary person almost two days to walk around the territory. Unfortunately, the land was not fertile enough, and there were no special products. There was also a shortage of manpower. What was the use of having a large territory? It couldn’t be effectively developed.
But increasing the population of the territory was not an easy task. The best way was to rely on the natural reproduction of the commoners. Such commoners were more loyal and were also the foundation of those great nobles who had been passed down for more than a hundred years. With this, they could even choose to listen or not to the emperor’s words.
The Hydra family, which had changed three generations in less than twenty years, certainly didn’t have this capital. If they did, would he still be worried?
As for other methods, they were buying serfs or taking in refugees.
Serfs were not expensive, because many of them were desperate refugees who were basically willing to sell themselves into slavery for a bite to eat.
The problem was that their bodies were too worn out. Even if they were given good food and drink, they couldn’t recover, not to mention that no lord would do this.
As for the latter, there were too many uncertainties, because many refugees often turned into bandits with their faces covered. Taking them in at will would become a factor of instability in the territory.
Countless problems weighed heavily on Owen’s mind. Therefore, after returning to the castle, he cried silently in his room, not daring to make a sound. Because now he only had a shell of nobility left. Once it was broken, what was the difference between him and those serfs? A single soldier could easily kill him and take everything from him. Not to mention that his grandfather’s family might also have their eyes on the Hydra family. Under such internal and external troubles, even a transmigrator like him with the soul of a middle-aged man couldn’t withstand the pressure and broke down.
If life had taught him anything, it was that as long as he didn’t have the courage to face death, he had to stand up and bear the pressure to continue walking. Even if his head couldn’t be raised and his waist was bent, he still had to walk. Because even if he stopped, no one would pity him, let alone lend him a hand.
