Chapter 297: Lord Barton of Everlook Town
In the old iron pot, which had been repaired several times and even the handle had been replaced, hot water containing chopped potatoes was bubbling in the stove.
Farmer Mary poked the potato cubes in the pot with a spoon to confirm that they were soft, then grabbed two pieces of strange vermicelli that she had never cooked before from the bamboo dustpan next to the earthen stove and carefully sprinkled them into the pot.
This strange vermicelli is milky white all over, about the length of an adult's palms, and is dehydrated. It looks very similar to the macaroni that city dwellers like, but it is not as thick as macaroni and has no holes in the middle of the vermicelli.
This was distributed to everyone by the village's Undead Lord during the day, and each family received ten kilograms - the price was that starting tomorrow, every household would have to provide an adult laborer to work for the Undead Lord.
Mary felt that the undead lord who always made strange clicking noises was a little bit stupid...her neighbor thought so too.
——I’ve never heard of a lord giving food to his people while they work!
Before Mary's second child was born, the lord of the village was still alive. At that time, when the lord asked the villagers to do things, not only would he not give them anything, he would also have servants watch over them to prevent them from stealing!
The village next door was the fief of a baron. Every year, many people were called by the steward to work in the baron's estate. They were not given any food, and were only given two meals a day... Even this made Mary envious. At least she could send the boy who ate the most in the family out to eat for a while.
Mary couldn't even write her own name, but she had common sense - working for the lord was a normal thing, just like paying taxes every year.
Of course, now that the Undead Lord is willing to distribute food to everyone, no one would be stupid enough to remind him that it is not necessary... Anyone who dares to do so would offend the entire village.
As the hot water rolled around, the vermicelli thrown into the pot gradually became softer and thicker, and the quantity also increased a lot. One could tell with the naked eye that this was indeed edible food.
Mary, who had been staring at the pot nervously, was relieved. As long as it was edible, it was fine. She quickly grabbed the washed vegetable leaves in another winnowing basket and threw them into the pot one handful at a time.
Finally, add a little salt... The sea salt from the Nosk Federation is not as white as the refined salt shown by the lord, and there is a lot of mud and sand mixed in it, but as long as it has a salty taste, most people will not be too picky.
Cook a big pot of stewed potato cubes, potato vermicelli and vegetables, then put the slices of black bread baked in the earthen stove before stewing the soup and take them out, and the family's dinner is ready.
Mary's family consists of six people: Mary and her husband Todd, Todd's brother Kim, and Mary's three children.
Before it got dark, the family sat together in the yard and had their meal. Mary divided the whole pot of stew into six portions and brought them to the stone table that served as a dining table. The three children then buried their heads in the food and began to snore, not caring at all whether they had never eaten the vermicelli in the stew before.
"Mom, these white strips are so delicious and soft." My little daughter, who is in the process of changing her teeth, likes today's dinner very much. She smiles with her little mouth missing two teeth.
Mary smiled and touched her little daughter's head, then divided the toasted bread into three portions and placed them in front of her eldest son, her husband, and her husband's younger brother Kim.
The sixteen-year-old eldest son can already do the same work as adults and can get adult-sized portions of food.
Her husband Todd stared at the bread on the plate for a while, took two slices from his own portion and handed them to Mary: "You will go to work for the lord tomorrow, you can eat too."
Seeing this, the sensible eldest son also wanted to share his bread with Mary: "Mom, you eat it."
"No need to give it to me, this is enough for me." Mary felt sorry for her husband and son, so she pushed it all back.
Kim sighed, "Mary, I should be the one to go. Digging sand and rocks is hard work that is not suitable for women."
"We still have a lot of work to do on our land. If you can't spare the time, I'll go." Mary said indifferently, "The people who went next door are two little kids. I can't be worse than them, right?"
Todd didn't say anything. Mary was telling the truth. Their fields were far from the river, and there had been little rain this spring. Just watering and irrigating the fields was enough to tire out the three men who did heavy physical work, and they couldn't squeeze out any more people .
Todd's brother Kim also knew this and stopped talking.
Kim is almost thirty years old. Because he has not married and started a family, he can only rely on his brother for life. It’s not that Kim has any problems. Only 70% to 80% of rural men can get married successfully. There are always some unlucky ones who miss the age before they can save enough money for marriage or meet a girl who is willing to share the joys and sorrows with them.
As a sister-in-law, Mary doesn't mind having a burdensome brother-in-law. Firstly, this kind of thing is very common. Some of her uncles are as unlucky as Kim. Secondly, Kim is a middle-aged laborer and can help with housework.
Mary picked up the potato vermicelli she cooked herself with a bamboo fork and put it into her mouth. Her eyes curved and she said, "This is really delicious. Our Undead Lord is really generous."
If you say that potato vermicelli is delicious, it’s just barely so... Noodles are all about seasonings, and vermicelli with very little salt taste is definitely not that delicious.
But compared to the dark bread and wheat rice (unground wheat with bran that is cooked or steamed directly), which are filling but difficult to chew, potato vermicelli has an absolute advantage: it does not hurt your teeth.
The lower classes of this world don’t have the opportunity to “enjoy” the “rich disease” of having their teeth corroded by sugar, but they can chew hard-to-swallow food for a long time and lack dental care, which causes serious wear and tear… For example, people of Mary’s age have at least one side of their back teeth that can’t bite hard objects. (This is also the main reason why adults in poor areas are more likely to have deformed and ugly lower faces than those in wealthy areas.)
It is easy to eat, has no strange smell or impurities, and has a tender, smooth and soft texture. Even though it has no taste, it is a rare and good ingredient for Mary.
Her husband Todd, who also had dental problems, and her brother-in-law Kim, nodded as they slowly thinned the vermicelli... The lord was so generous that he was willing to share even such fine food with them.
Although the orange cat boss asked Miss Linda to remind the villagers to eat well before working , most of the villagers were still like Mary's family and were reluctant to eat too much... For lunch, Mary's family ate the ingredients that were cooked before the call-up notice. For dinner, Mary was only willing to cook a little over a pound of vermicelli, and each person only got less than two taels. The "main force" to fill their stomachs were still potatoes and vegetables.
In contrast, the three exiled people in the lord's mansion were not so stingy - the butler who was unwilling to go near the kitchen cooked himself and used the method of cooking macaroni to prepare a vermicelli meal with rich flavor and complete ingredients.
"It's not as chewy as macaroni, but the texture is okay. It's not as troublesome to cook as macaroni. Just change the water once." The butler was having dinner and looked at Miss Linda with some interest. "Is this the business from Innadelli?"
"It seems so. It is said to be produced in Westham." Miss Linda wiped the corners of her mouth politely with a napkin.
"Since it's used to feed those poor guys, this kind of solid noodles should be very cheap, right?" The deacon's eyes brightened.
"It's really cheap. It's sold in all the street shops in Innadri. Ten kilograms for twenty-five copper coins." Miss Linda knew what the deacon was thinking. She said with a half-smile, "Unfortunately, Innadri does not allow such cheap civilian vermicelli to flow out in large quantities. If a person leaves the country with more than 100 kilograms, he will be checked. If he says that he is not clear about the purpose of carrying, he will be 'invited' to build roads in the Tarantan Wasteland."
The butler, who was about to ask more questions, shut his mouth.
"Why don't you sell it?" The guard asked in confusion. "Ship it to Moses Port and sell it for 40 copper coins per pound or 50 copper coins per pound."
Ordinary citizens are willing to pay for food that does not wear out teeth and tastes good.
"Who knows? There are so many things about Innadri that are incomprehensible." Miss Linda stood up with the plate, "Like those undead. Can you imagine that these undead who can kidnap Prince Lionel on the battlefield can also understand painting and music?"
Guards and butlers who have never been to Innadri: "???"
The next morning, Mary got up before daybreak.
Mary's family has two houses. The smaller one is used to keep ducks and store farm tools, seeds, grains and other sundries. The whole family of six are squeezed into the larger one.
Like the houses of other villagers, this relatively spacious house of about 50 square meters (living space is not limited in the countryside , but building a larger house requires more building materials, and there is also the problem of keeping warm in winter, so the villagers' houses cannot be very spacious) only has a small inner room belonging to the couple separated by wooden boards, and the large open room outside is not only Kim and the children's bedroom, but also the family's living room, kitchen, and living room.
Mary got dressed and came out of the inner room. She walked around Kim and the children's beds - a large bunk bed made of stones and wooden boards, covered with a layer of dry straw and reeds, and a layer of sheets - and walked to the earthen stove by the window. She squatted down and fumbled in the stove, took out two cooked potatoes and put them in her arms, then went out.
There is no such thing as breakfast in a farmer's home. Even if someone is going out to work, they will just put a potato or two in their pocket to fill their stomach.
Like Mary, there were many people who had gone out early and registered their names with the Undead Lord yesterday... When Mary came out of the house, she saw several villagers holding torches and walking down the mountain in the dark.
"Come along, Mary." A villager saw Mary coming out of the house and waved to her.
"Okay, wait a moment." Mary hurried out of the yard and joined the villagers.
The slope of the hill where the village is located is not steep. Although it is still dark, it is not too difficult to walk on it. Just be careful not to fall.
As Mary walked together with a few villagers she happened to meet, more villagers came out of their homes, some in groups of three or four, some alone holding torches, and also headed down the mountain.
When a faint light appeared on the horizon and the villagers, who were generally night blind, could see the scene slightly farther away, Mary, who went down to the foot of the mountain with the villagers, exclaimed like her neighbors...
The river beach, which was empty in the past with only ducks, geese and playing children running across it, now has many tents and unrecognizable huge machines; there are also several boats parked on the river bank beyond the reeds!
"When did these things appear? I didn't see them yesterday!" Mary stood on tiptoe to look around in surprise.
"Yes, our home is closest to the foot of the mountain, and we didn't see anything here before dark." The villager who lived at the bottom of the village said in surprise.
The boats that appeared on the river bank were not big, at least not as big as the deep-draft boats that the villagers usually saw from a distance sailing in the middle of the Barcelo River. But they were boats after all, and they were all steel-framed boats, not the small fishing boats that occasionally stopped on the nearby river bank.
The machine that appeared on the river beach was also very large, painted in a bright yellow color that caught people's eyes. It was not scary at all, it just stood there quietly.
But... just these small boats and the machinery that didn't look too scary were enough to make the villagers feel scared and dare not go forward - even though that river beach was a familiar sight for the villagers and the women in the village often went to the river beach to pick up duck eggs and goose eggs.
This group of villagers, who had never seen the world and whose farthest place they had been was the rural market twenty miles away, all stopped at the foot of the mountain at the entrance of the village, gazing at the river beach, whispering to each other and looking towards the lord's house on the mountain behind them... Since the people from the lord's house didn't come, they didn't dare to move forward.
The sky gradually brightened. There was no movement from the direction of the lord's house, but there were human figures moving around in the tents on the river beach.
Dozens of young men in uniform appeared around the tent, most of them holding cups and with towels around their necks, and went to a slightly larger tent to get boiled water to wash.
The young men also noticed the villagers standing at the foot of the mountain looking at them from afar. They whispered to each other about something, and several of them walked out of the tent area and headed towards the foot of the mountain.
From a distance, a tall and thin young man who looked very energetic waved and greeted the villagers: "Hello! Are you from this village?"
Mary seldom went to the village market. The strange young men made her feel uneasy and panicked. Like other village women, she nervously hid behind the crowd.
The male villagers' reactions were not much better than those of the village women. They even felt more ashamed of themselves... These energetic young men, wearing neat and clean blue uniforms and canvas rubber-soled shoes, had rosy faces, were confident and full of vigor, and the young villagers of similar age wanted to hide their dirty feet in tattered straw sandals under the mud and never let the others see them.
At the critical moment, it was two "old men" over 40 years old who everyone thought were just making up the numbers who played a role. These two middle-aged and elderly men who no longer cared about being embarrassed walked out of the crowd, bent down, and put on a flattering and humble smile on their wrinkled faces: "Good day, distinguished gentlemen, we are villagers here, and it was the lord who asked us to come here and wait for work."
The tall and thin young man and several of his companions had strode to within ten meters of the villagers. Upon hearing this, the young man and his equally dazzling companions all laughed.
"Don't call us sir, we are just workers of the building materials company." The tall and thin young man waved his hand and said with a smile, "My name is John, these are my friends. We came from Innadri, and we were hired by an undead, the undead lord here."
Next to John, a young man with a very young face asked curiously, "Since the Undead Lord asked you to come here, does that mean you are all from the building materials company?"
The villagers looked at each other in bewilderment. After a while, a young villager bravely said, "Yesterday, when we were called to the Lord's Mansion, it seemed that the Undead Lord said that we were going to work for a building materials company."
"Then we are all colleagues." John smiled and clapped his hands. "Before we start working, why not get familiar with the machines first? Here are those. Do you see them?"
There were more than 40 villagers, young and old, present, all looking a little at a loss. They dared not agree nor refuse. They just stood there stupidly, as if they had not heard what John said.
John was used to this seemingly impolite reaction.
He himself was a poor man from the slums, and he knew why these villagers who didn't look like they were living a good life looked so rude.
The poor have no vision, let alone know how to interact with others decently, but even so, they still have self-esteem.
When faced with things beyond their understanding, the poor, who have only self-esteem, are even less likely to admit their ignorance and the fact that they are inferior to others in everything as decently and calmly as people who live well.
It's not rude - I'm just afraid of being laughed at!
John slowed down his speech and explained to the villagers in a friendly and patient manner, just like his respected operator Patton: "We need to dig up the sand and rocks on the entire river beach and transport them to Innadri to sell for money. We also need to dig out some of the places soaked in water. With so few people, we don't know how many years it will take if we rely solely on manpower to dig. So our undead boss cooperated with Innadri and borrowed those machines to help us."
"Those machines are not as flexible as ours. Not only are they clumsy, but they are also prone to accidents. So we have to understand these machines in advance to avoid injuring people due to improper operation. Not only will we not earn money, but we will also have to spend money on medical treatment, which is a big loss."
John took a half step to the side and waved enthusiastically: "Come on, before it's time to start working, let's hurry up and learn what we need to learn, so that we can work more efficiently when we start working later."
Speaking more often, thinking about others together with yourself and putting yourself in other people's shoes can help you gain other people's trust more quickly and start work more efficiently. This is the experience that Operator Patton generously passed on to John and his group of young people.
John never used the word "you" once, and did not separate himself from the villagers, which really made the villagers feel warm - at least the village woman Mary no longer felt so uneasy when she looked at this strange young man.
When John kindly gestured to the villagers to follow him, Mary also walked forward unconsciously and followed John's footsteps naturally like the other villagers.
The villagers followed John onto the riverbank and into the neatly arranged tent area, where they heard John shout to the others, "Our new colleagues are here! Come and meet them!"
The young men, who were already looking at the villagers curiously, gathered around them.
"Hello, my name is George, and this is my first time out of town!"
"Hey, buddy, you guys are so close to the Barcelo River, have you ever had a flood?"
"It's okay if there's flooding. Our villages are all on the mountain."
"My hometown village is also on the mountain, but the mountain is not as big as yours. It's much smaller."
"It seems that the mountains here are bigger than those in Innadri."
"Who said that? The Sorensen Mountains are also huge!"
"Who can live in the Sorenson Mountains?"
These guys were all contract workers of the Innadri City Hall. They were the unlucky guys who were once sent to the battlefield by the Bartles family to be cannon fodder.
Those with a little family background cannot be tossed around like this. In other words, few of these people have good backgrounds. They are either urban poor or migrant workers from the countryside. The very few who are particularly lucky have never made it to the middle class.
Compared with the villagers in these mountain villages, the class difference is not so big that I can look down on them from a high position - many of the contract workers had been much worse off than the villagers here in the past. At least the villagers were self-employed farmers with land, and they no longer had money in their pockets to buy food more easily.
Even if there are a few people who think that being born in the city means they are superior to people from the countryside, they dare not show their sense of superiority when the people around them are generally of low birth.
Amid the noise with slightly different accents, some extroverted young villagers couldn't help but interrupt, and the more introverted villagers gradually showed relaxed smiles.
By the time the yawning trio of exiles and the orange cat boss who was delayed in coming online came down from the mountain, the local villagers had already learned a lot about the safety issues that should be paid attention to when working with machines from the young men from Innadeli.
At the same time...Operator Patton, no, Lord Patton, whom John had been thinking about, was sitting solemnly in a room on the first floor of Everlook Town's town hall, staring silently at the bustling crowd outside the window.
Today is a good day for Mr. Orange Cat’s building materials company to officially start operations, and it is also an important moment for Inadeli’s public farm to come to Yongwang Town to recruit workers.
The public farm of Innadelli is the "legacy" of the former lord of Everlook, the unfortunate Baroness - both farms are within the territory of Everlook. The Baroness, who once tried to kidnap Ms. Shirley and greatly offended the City Hall, did not have the courage to continue operating them and simply sold them to the City Hall at a low price.
The agricultural experts among the Tarantan Undead inspected two farms and decided to use both farms as breeding experimental bases - one for raising earthworms and the other for raising locusts.
Because the Baroness only sold the land and not the people (she would not be stupid enough to give the City Hall the opportunity to continue to deal with her under the pretext of slave trade), both farms had to recruit workers from scratch, and considering the employment rate in Everlook Town, the City Hall only arranged for half of them to be contract workers, and the other half was recruited from Everlook Town.
People in the town are naturally willing to work near their homes. Some young people who used to do odd jobs in the city have returned, which has led to a recruitment situation where supply exceeds demand in the courtyard of the Yongwang Town Hall.
This crowded scene made Barton, who was suddenly promoted from an operator to the lord of Everlook Town, feel extremely complicated...
Even in today's Innadelli, it's not easy to find a good job. This was something that Barton knew very well when he was still an operator.
And this is also the biggest reason why Patton is extremely torn in his heart - he has been the lord of Everlook Town for almost three months, but Patton still has no sense of reality. He feels like he is having a very long, beautiful dream, and he is very afraid to wake up from it!
Ms. Gold Coin - he used to carefully pretend to be a very loyal and capable operator, but he tried so hard to cover it up because he knew in his heart that he was not that kind of pure and noble person!
He tried his best to demonstrate his talent in organization and complete each task as beautifully as possible because he didn't want to be transferred to the dangerous Tarantan wilderness to work for his life like Sam Hank!
Patton's greatest pursuit in life is to be in a safe and secure position, doing a stable job that is not too dangerous and does not require risking his life!
He was promoted to be the lord of the small town while pretending to be so - even if he was just a puppet lord, on the surface, Patton's status was infinitely comparable to that of the barons in the city - this was really outrageous!
What if, what if one day he was "exposed", and people found out that he was not as loyal, brave, and flawless as he seemed, and found out that he was not even as good as Sam Hank and his companions who resolutely ran to the Tarantan Desert and stayed there for half a year... Patton himself didn't want to think about the consequences.
Even to his own wife, Barton could not and did not dare to tell the truth...
Barton was personally supervising the recruitment site with a fair and serious face. Just as he was feeling worried, an operator came into the room sighing.
After Patton was sent by Rex to take over Everlook Town, he also assigned operators who had a good relationship with him to assist Patton, and this operator was one of them.
"What a pity for that young man just now." The operator put the list in his hand on the table and sighed, "He has experience working on a farm and is a good person. Unfortunately, there are too many competitors and his qualifications are not better than others."
Barton looked over silently.
"His grandmother is so old, and his father died young. The whole family relies on the income of this young man and his brother to survive. I feel pity for him." The operator sighed, "Although other people also need this job, I think he should be the one who needs it the most... I say, Patton, can't we be flexible and take care of people in special situations? His brother is also our contract worker. You also know him, that very motivated young man--"
Barton couldn't help but sigh.
This silly boy, if what he said was heard by Rex, let alone Ms. Zhao, he would be an operator in this life.
"You think his situation is special, maybe not just because he has a grandmother and lost his father, but because you know his brother, so you want to take extra care of him." Barton said.
Relying on his close friendship with Patton, the operator also gave in and smiled shyly, "After all, he is one of us, Patton."
Barton shook his head and said, "You'd better think about how you got the job of an operator, Ron. We were all members of the City Defense Force, but not all members of the City Defense Force became operators. How are you more competitive than others? Because you are careful and conscientious in your work, and you have no record of gambling or whoring. You got the position of operator and the trust of the City Hall by your own ability, not because you have a deeper friendship or better relationship with me or others who have become operators."
After the change of ownership of Innadelli, less than half of the disbanded city defense forces were hired as operators by the City Hall, and this operator was one of them.
Others had to fend for themselves, and some were even sent to the prisoner road construction team - there was no other way. When the City Hall settled the history, even among the city defense forces that were well supported by the Bartles family, there would inevitably be a group of dishonorable people.
The operator's expression changed a little, a little proud, and a little unhappy: "Barton, what do you want to say?"
"What I want to say is that it is the rules and regulations of the city hall that allow capable people to work in suitable positions." Barton treated the other party as a friend and explained patiently, "You and I are both beneficiaries of this set of rules and regulations. We don't have to rely on connections or relationships. As long as we are capable, we can get the positions we want."
The operator's face suddenly turned pale.
"If everyone in the city hall thinks like you do, and appoints people based on relationships and connections, then how do you think soldiers like us compare to those respectable families in the middle of the city? How do we compare to the people of Westram who were the first to deal with the undead and Mr. Rex?"
Barton stood up and patted his friend on the shoulder: "We are all people who don't have any foundation to speak of. For people like us who have to climb up on our own, it is much better to talk about rules and regulations than to talk about personal connections , and it is much more hopeful."
