[The Wheat Is Ripe]
[The Wheat Is Ripe]
After nearly four months of planting, wheat was basically ripe now.
The wheat field without any border looked like a golden ocean at the first glance, the wheat was thick and full. Not only the fruit was doubled, but also the size was bigger than any wheat he had ever seen in the spring. Sirius knew it was a good harvest year this year without the need to weigh it after harvesting.
There was no doubt that this must be the witch's credit.
He had been planting with his father for 10 years, so he was very clear what an ordinary wheat should look like. A wheat would be divided into three spikes and each spike could produce 20 to 30 fruits. The fertility of the soil definitely affected the size of the grain, but it would not directly increase the wheat caryopsis by twice. He could not think of any other explanation other than the witches.
There were a lot of changes like this, such as the towering water tower in the town—he had closely observed the giant water tower, and it was impossible for a man alone to carry such a large iron bucket up to a tall iron frame which was higher than a residential building. Not to mention that they were almost all built overnight. Now, the residents who lived in the town rarely needed to carry their own bucket to fetch water, the cool well water would pour out from the pipeline as long as they unscrewed the faucet.
The "little island" in the middle of Redwater River was also the case. Since His Highness held the Award and Honor Ceremony to take on Miss Nana in the ceremony, the use of witches became increasingly obvious. Making a piece of land appeared on the surface of the open river was something obviously only the witch could do.
He asked Barov, City Hall Director about this, and the answer was none of your business as His Highness had his own idea.
Well... Anyway, the royal family always acted against the church. They would have to defeat the First Army even if the latter sent their army to crusade His Highness. Otherwise, the Western Region could only be Roland Wimbledon's Western Region.
Duke Ryan was a good example.
"You're here, my lord." The weeding serfs in the ground saw Sirius and immediately greeted. "Look at this, the wheat can be harvested immediately. So, I'd like to ask you..."
"If what the Lord said before was still effective?"
"Yes, yes, yes," the serf nervously said while rubbing his hands, "Could we really be promoted to freemen?"
As the person-in-charge of the Ministry of Agriculture, Sirius had an important duty, other than recording the best way to plant and the harvest statistics, which was to communicate with the serfs and preached the policies of His Royal Highness and the City Hall to them in time. Although he did not like these country bumpkins who were dealing with the muds the entire day, he still needed to fulfill his task with the knight discipline.
"See those slogans?" Sirius pointed at the farmland banner on the edge of the farm.
"My lord, I... can't read..." The serf smiled in embarrassment.
"Labor creates wealth, and labor changes fate," he said, "it means that you'll have a chance to be promoted to a freeman as long as you work hard. This is the promise made by His Highness, and it'll certainly come true."
"Real-really? That's great!"
"And, you can live in the center of the town after you become a freeman and have your own brick house. You'll also get the right to receive elementary education, so you don't have to ask me what the slogans mean again." The corresponding promotional content was repeated again.
"Yes, my lord," the serf said, nodding excitedly, "it's hot today, do you want to sit in my shed and have a glass of cold water?"
"No, I'm good. You just go about your work." He waved his hand and saw the two men bowed to express gratitude to him for a long time before returning to the field to continue working. This is Sirius' most heard questions for the recent one month, regardless how it was preached, they would not mind asking again as they were afraid that the lord would cancel the policy in a blink of eyes.
Without going too far, some people surrounded him again and asked, "Hello, Lord Sirius, we really need to only turn in 70% of it after drying the harvested wheat?"
He sighed in the heart. This was the second frequent question asked after the question for the "free people promotion". "It's indeed so for the first year and it'll only decrease in the future. If you become a freeman, you'll only need to turn in 20%. These're all we've repeatedly stressed about."
"It'll be nice if I could really get promoted," one of the tall men said while touching the back of his head, "and in this case, the 30% remaining wheat, can we..."
"It can only be sold to His Royal Highness, take it as your own food, or keep it for sowing." Sirius clapped his hands to gather the serfs around. "Listen, private food trafficking is prohibited in Border Town. No matter whether it's sold to the local or to the foreign businessmen, you're regarded as violating the Border Town law. Not only your income will be confiscated, you may be imprisoned if you do so."
"What should I do if the lord only offers a very low price?" the tall man muttered.
"This won't happen, of course. His Highness will purchase the grain with a fixed standard market price. There will have no significant change whether it's a poor harvest or a good harvest. So you don't have to worry if the wheat would not be sold due to overproduction or sold at a low price." Sirius stressed. "There's only a place to sell food in the entire Border Town, which is the Convenience Market, which is managed by the City Hall."
"So, the price is...?"
"No worries, His Highness will personally announce the price to you before the acquisition."
Looking at the serfs dismissed, he licked his dry lips and continued to check on the crops. He was not sure how many of them among this group of people would remember what he just had said, but Lord Barov had clearly conveyed the strong will of His Highness to punish the food smugglers severely.
This was when a young serf left the crowd and turned around, walking back to him. "My lord." He panted. "I've one more question for you."
"Yeah?"
"Do you know where Miss May and Miss Aileen have gone?" He hesitated. "There hasn't been any theatrical performance in the square recently, so I'm thinking... to ask you for their recent condition, did they fall... sick?"
It was a new and interesting question. Sirius could not help but tilt his lips. He would not be able to answer this question if he had not seen them, going through the formalities in City Hall. "They've gone to Longsong Stronghold."
"Ah," the other party looked disappointed. "Don't they intend to stay in Border Town?"
"They just go to perform in the Stronghold Theater." He shrugged. "And now the weather is so hot, can you bear to see them sweating under the sun? They'll return to the square in the fall to perform new plays."
"I, I see... Thank you, my lord!"
Sirius could not help but think of himself, watching the back of the young serf who walked away in satisfaction—the experience of the past few months could be described as ups and downs; from a knight to a prisoner, and from a prisoner to a city hall official, he did not want to go back to the domain of Wolf Family where there were only old houses and the empty wheat farms. Becoming a knight was simply for him to get rid of the life to live his father going for farming the entire life.
Not every knight could be as proud as Morning Light or had the best domain and squire like the knight of the duke, but his annual salary was now more than a knight's and there was also a vast opportunity to be promoted. Perhaps it was time for him to fetch his parents to the town, marry a girl and enjoy life.