Don't disturb my farming Chapter 65: His Royal Highness's First Experience
The interior layout of the Snow Wolf Man's house is simple and crude. The large bunk bed made of bricks occupies three-fifths of the house. The remaining space is left as a path for people to walk on, and is used to store various jars and cans filled with fermented kimchi and pickles.
The clutter in the room was tolerable, but the bunk bed was a bit of a challenge... For a nobleman like Dan Claudy and a prince of noble status like Carlisle, it was probably the first time in their lives that they slept side by side in a bed with so many people...
But now, no one cares about this. When Prince Carlisle excitedly described the cub Ayun's suggestion to his companions in his own way, Dan Claudy, the occasionally funny nobleman, also showed a confused expression as if he saw the door to a new world opened...
"This... this idea is really unheard of, but it sounds like it is very possible. Is this my illusion?" Dan Claudy gasped and looked at others uncertainly.
Alchemist Tim Humphrey nodded slowly with a solemn expression: "Our country has an army of 500,000, a navy of 100,000, and an army of 400,000. Excluding the servants, serfs, and auxiliary soldiers that some generals stuffed into the army for subsidies... we can at least send out 400,000 troops to participate in the war. To defeat our army, the Federation must send at least 500,000 people. To destroy our army, the Federation must send at least 1 million troops, plus logistics transportation and the conscription of farmers, it will take about three years to prepare." He thought of something and was suddenly shocked. He looked at the prince in astonishment, "...Is this the reason why Ayun wants us to form an alliance with the five southern countries within three years?"
Saint Bridge, a country with only tens of millions of people, actually maintains an army of 500,000. It is simply warmongering. The consumption of the standing army alone is enough to create a financial crisis for Saint Bridge - but which of the six southern kingdoms is not the same? If they cannot maintain a large army, those countries that are jealous of the spice production of the southern kingdom would have sent troops to attack and turned the six southern kingdoms into their de facto plantations long ago.
It was only afterwards that Prince Carlisle figured out what Ayun meant by "If you can settle accounts, others can do the same." What he actually wanted to express was: If you can't settle accounts, others will, and then you're doomed.
Carlisle exhaled lightly, knowing how naive his original idea was. He nodded slightly and met Tim's gaze: "The situation of the five southern countries is similar to that of our country. The smallest country can send out 200,000 troops. If the six countries unite, the Federation will not dare to attack us easily... Of course, we can't expect the Federation to do nothing before that. We know that the six southern countries can become a tough nut to crack if they unite. Doesn't the Federation know that?"
Dan, Tim and Darren looked more and more solemn. War, at least a local war, was inevitable.
"Let's fight. If we don't resist, any country from the Federation will treat us as soft persimmons. We must let them know the backbone of us St. Bridgers." Dan Claudy frowned and said angrily.
Tim hesitated and said, "Your Highness, we all understand that Saint Bridge's determination to defend itself cannot be proven without blood, but...how can we convince the nobles?"
This made the atmosphere suddenly cold...
St. Brigitte, which lives in a tropical climate suitable for the growth of spices, finds it difficult to maintain the land power division system like other countries due to the special nature of its flagship products. That is, the king divides the land in the country among nobles of all sizes, allowing the nobles to rule the territory and maintain their own armies and only need to pay taxes to the king. If it did so, the nobles of all sizes who acted independently would have been gradually swallowed up by the forces of other countries.
Under the influence of this special geographical environment, the power distribution system of the six southern countries naturally evolved slightly towards the "power feudal system": the land belongs to the state, and the right to use the land belongs to the nobles; the army belongs to the state, and the generals commanding the army come from the nobles.
Well... compared with the feudal autocracy in ancient China, a country like St. Bridges was still a little behind. It did not evolve and develop the imperial examination system to provide a channel for the bottom to rise, and did not use the imperial examination system to create a civil service group to maintain the royal power (the imperial examination system was actually very advanced, but what was backward was the content of the examination, such as poetry, policy essays, and eight-legged essays. There was no need to deify the policy essays. To put it bluntly, the policy essays were just the bragging of modern keyboard warriors on the forum) - the political struggles in the early stages of the ancient Chinese dynasty were basically the civil service group tearing apart the nobles (the founding heroes), with the emperor sitting high above as the referee; in the middle and late stages, the heroes were suppressed into waste, and the civil service group shifted their targets, either fighting internally or fighting against the emperor; the so-called feudal emperor's art of ruling his subordinates depends on whether the emperor can control the civil service group, an elite group that can support the royal power but can also backfire.
As far as the feudal system is concerned, it is difficult to say which of these two evolutions is better. When power is distributed among the nobles, the proportion of rubbish in the ruling class is bound to be infinitely high, and the bad habits of wrangling, buck-passing, and sacrificing everyone for benefits are enough to make the royal family constipated. When power is distributed among the civil service group, whose IQ is at least in the upper-middle level at the current stage of civilization, although problems such as wrangling and buck-passing are certainly unavoidable, at least there will be some people who can do practical work, and the royal (emperor) decrees will be a little more effective than the former.
And now, His Royal Highness Carlisle has to face the troubles of the former situation: wars will kill people, and letting the nobles who actually control the army to waste their own soldiers on the battlefield is definitely not possible with the king's orders alone... The emperor wants to change the generals with just one word, and the king wants to replace the leading nobles? Emmmmmm... It's not that he can't change, it's just a matter of operation... Well, political transactions are inevitable and there is a price.
Carlisle pressed his forehead with his fingers. The wise man Ayun had also thought of this situation, so he put the exhortation of "building a core team" before preparing for war...
——I’m not mature enough for not paying enough attention to this point !
Lifting his eyelids to look at his companions who accompanied him deep into the grassland, Carlisle subconsciously looked at these three companions with an objective and cold perspective he had never had before: Tim Humphrey, whose glory and future depended on him, was undoubtedly the most reliable partner; Darren was the leading greatsword warrior in the country but was not valued because of his humble background. It was he who gave Darren the way to rise; Dan was his best friend -
No, this is not possible, Carlisle quickly shook his head and tried to calm himself down. He could not use blood relationship, closeness, or status as the criteria for hiring people. This was something Ayun had specifically pointed out.
But... Dan is still reliable. Carlisle tried hard to pull himself out of his original naive thinking mode, silently thinking about his good friend Dan, who grew up with him. The Claude family only managed to get the low-level lord title and squeeze into the aristocratic circle in the generation of his great-grandfather. It was not until the generation of Dan's father that they were finally promoted to viscounts. Although they were considered rich, the Claude family, who had only been rich for a few generations, still could not get rid of the label of nouveau riche. It was difficult for them to cling to the powerful aristocrats, so their family could only bet on themselves, who were not high in the inheritance order, to maintain the inheritance of the title. After all... Only when Dan's son successfully inherited the title, the Claude family would be considered to have reached the qualified aristocratic standard of "wealth for five generations".
Carlisle felt a little guilty for judging his friend with such a cold eye. He closed his eyes and calmed down, suppressing his restless emotions. When Dan asked him if he felt unwell, Carlisle opened his eyes, looked at his companions, and said word by word, "I want to participate in the competition for the succession to the throne and form a team that is attached to me, the third prince, and aims to safeguard the peaceful development of St. Bridget."
"We cannot achieve our goals by relying on the existing powerful nobles. They only care about whether they can have more manors and larger plantations. They are not of the same kind as us, and we cannot expect them to be our reliable companions."
Dan's eyes sparkled, Tim's breathing was a little disordered, and Darren was extremely excited... No matter when, where, or under what circumstances, things that are closely related to one's own interests are the most touching. If the Second Prince they follow can become the next king, then their status and position will be greatly improved.
The two competitors ahead of the Second Prince, His Royal Highness Carlisle, are his elder brother, the eldest Prince Anthony, and the eldest son of the previous king, Prince Hilbot. Needless to say, the latter, everyone knows how the current king would choose between his nephew and his own son. As for the former... he is not without a chance of winning!
Seeing the changes in the expressions of his three close partners, Prince Carlisle couldn't help but sigh secretly... He didn't really want to compete with his eldest brother, but obviously, entering the competition for the throne was the best way to attract useful people to his side as quickly as possible.
The so-called feelings, no matter whether it is blood relationship, friendship, or love, cannot surpass personal interests! In the face of interests that are enough to move people, loyalty and betrayal are of no value!
The still young Prince Carlisle fell asleep with mixed feelings, and in his sleep he silently paid tribute to his disappearing innocence.
This prince who grew up in a greenhouse and just poked his head out to take a look at the stormy world outside the greenhouse still needs time to adapt to the truth Xiao Yun taught him: so-called growth means understanding and accepting that other people have no obligation to share your innocence.
The next day, the five human guests who had just arrived at the Snow Wolf Tribe were greeted by an unreasonably harsh wake-up call...
"What's going on?!" Carlisle sat up suddenly, and Dan, who was sleeping next to him, drooled and hurriedly crawled out from the blanket.
"Hey, hey, good morning~~"
A manul cub, less than one meter tall, came in carrying an iron pot, and another cub walked behind holding a bowl and a spoon. The cute manul cub ignored the harsh and continuous metal knocking sounds, and greeted the human guests in a relaxed manner: "Don't mind, it's Ayun who is ringing the wake-up call. Come and have breakfast first?"
"..." The four adult human men stared intently at the caracal cub, which was similar in size to a human child, but had large eyes, obvious golden pupils, and cat ears on its head.
The cub lifted the iron pot with great effort and moved it to the unlit stove at the head of the kang. The cub holding the bowl placed it on the stove and said seriously, "Put the bowl back into the pot after you finish eating. Someone will come to clean it up later. Don't break the bowl."
"..." Dan wiped the saliva from the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand, and took out a bag of candy from the bag beside the pillow - St. Bridget produced sugar, and also brought samples to the grassland. The braised pork yesterday was made with the sugar they brought - he got up as if possessed and handed it to the two caracal cubs.
"Thank you~" The caracal cub held the candy bag in its little hands and tilted its head to express thanks happily.
"..." Dan couldn't help but reach out and touch the little head of the caracal cub. Although they were not mounts, these little things were so cute!
The two cubs hopped away, and Dan stared at their backs for a few seconds, then turned around and said, "Carlisle, can you adopt these kids?"
Without Carlisle saying anything, Darren slapped Dan so hard that he staggered. "You think too much... If you anger the black cat tribe again, we won't care about you."
Breakfast consisted of noodle soup with vegetables and meat, and a bowl of elm seeds mixed with wild garlic, vinegar and soy sauce. The amount they ate was calculated based on that of an adult caracal, and they filled the group up early in the morning. The elm leaves were scraped clean with a spoon... The people of St. Bridge also ate elm seeds, but only the poorest people ate them. Darren, who came from a citizen family, had never seen this thing and thought it was some specialty of the grassland.
After eating the Snow Wolf-style breakfast, the four of them went out and saw a large group of gray dwarves walking out of the paths on both sides of the house...
Since they didn't need to shovel snow to move forward, the gray dwarves naturally didn't need to shout slogans. They just walked and talked lively. Some of them turned their heads curiously to look at the humans standing in front of the house, but they just looked at them twice and didn't approach or say hello to them.
"So many dwarves, there must be 40 or 50 of them?" Dan was surprised. "So there are dwarf tribes on the grassland."
" Look carefully, their skin is gray." Tim rolled his eyes at him. "Those are gray dwarves, not dwarves. How can dwarves have a tribe on the grassland? The tiger tribe should have captured them all."
St. Bridges was a coastal country with a flourishing slave trade. Some of the rarer slaves were captured and sold to the Tiger Tribe. Carlisle had seen his cousin Prince Hilbot purchase a Centaur captured by the Tiger Tribe at a high price. Centaurs were also precious mounts, but their temperaments were too bad to be disciplined. The Centaur died of starvation after being locked up for a few months.
"Of course there are differences between Wise Ayun's tribe and other tribes. It's not surprising that the Snow Wolf Tribe, which is willing to take in human exiles, will also take in gray dwarves." Carlisle said, "Here... it's best not to mention slaves. I can see that Wise Ayun attaches great importance to the grassland people. We must be careful not to say anything that will offend them, especially you, Dan."
"I have long since stopped saying anything..." Dan muttered with a bitter face, "I just tried to look at that particularly magnificent snow wolf man yesterday as much as possible..."
At the construction site where the construction team had already started working, Hongye, who was busy moving limestone, said: "Ah, sneeze!"
Carlisle smiled. Dan's ability to listen to advice was his strength. After walking a few steps outside, Carlisle suddenly felt something was wrong. After walking a few more steps, his expression changed drastically: "Wait...Where's Yumi?!"
Tim and the other two were horrified...
The four of them hurried to the house where Yumi lived. As soon as they turned the corner, they saw Yumi, who was neatly dressed... gentle, charming, bright and beautiful... following the particularly handsome snow werewolf, step by step.
Da He held a large bundle of gray vegetables in his left hand and a bucket of bean sprouts in his right hand. He was in a headache and kept turning back: "Don't follow me like this, I still have things to do!"
"Can you please let me help you, Dahehe?" Youmi held her heart with both hands, her voice as sweet as if it had been soaked in honey.
Carlisle and the other three watched helplessly as the infuriatingly handsome snow wolf man gave them goosebumps and shivered...
"Don't change my name! My name is Dahe!" Dahe is the really scary one.
"Okay~ Dahe~" Yumi dragged out the last syllable especially long.
Daha turned around and ran away. If you can't afford to provoke him, can't you just hide from him?
"Wait for me~" God knows how she could shout so loudly with such a sweet and soft voice.
The river ran faster.
"Just... leave her alone?" Tim turned to look at Carlisle.
"Well, let her be." Carlisle said expressionlessly.
Dan looked at Da He's back with a sour look on his face: "How did that guy grow up like this..."
After exiting the dormitory area from the other side of the passage, I saw… several adult caracals were working together to press a fat black-haired wild boar on a stone table. The wild boar’s mouth was tightly tied with vines, so it could only make humming sounds. The caracals placed a bucket under the pig’s neck and pulled out a broad-backed machete that gleamed with cold light…
A knife cut the wild boar's throat, and the blood spurted out and splattered all over the caracal who cut it. The caracal wiped the broad-backed machete on the wild boar's skin, and saw the stunned human guests from the corner of his eye, and waved to them with a sunny smile (＾0＾)┛: "Good morning, you can also eat braised pork today~"
Without the sugar and spices brought by humans, pork would not be so delicious. Of course, we have to be polite.
Carlisle, who saw a pig being slaughtered for the first time in his life, said: "..."
They hurriedly left the bloody pig-slaughtering scene. Before leaving the square, they saw the wise man Ayun and several snow wolves turning towards them from the intersection.
"Prince Carlisle!" Xiao Yun's eyes lit up.
"Good morning, Mr. Ayun." The four of them quickly stood up and saluted in a standard manner.
"Don't be so polite, we are good friends with all-weather friendship!" Xiao Yun smiled and held Prince Carlisle's hand affectionately, "Come on, it's a rare trip to the grassland, why not come and experience the life of us grassland people, it's also very interesting~"
Ten minutes later, four strong human men, each holding a clean pottery jar, stared in amazement at the vast open-air sheepfold, countless sheep, and... the wise man Ayun who was squatting in front of them and demonstrating to them how to milk.
"Look, squeeze like this, go down, use the right amount of force, don't let the ewe feel pain, and when one is emptied, switch to another... isn't it very interesting?" Xiao Yun said with a smile, "This is the daily work of the youngsters in our tribe. Today we have to sow seeds and the youngsters can't spare the time, so it's just right for you to come and experience the lifestyle of us grassland people - it's very fun!"
His Royal Highness Prince Carlisle Harvey Ferdinand: "..."
After milking hundreds of ewes, the whole morning passed. At lunchtime, Carlisle and his friends could smell the tang of goat milk lingering on their noses while eating the delicious braised pork...
After finishing their meal in the square, the enthusiastic wise man Ayun immediately came up to them with a particularly friendly smile: "The milk we squeezed this morning is enough for us to use during this period. Let's do something else in the afternoon..."
Carlisle breathed a sigh of relief.
"...There are actually some rules for sowing wheat. Why don't you come and experience our Snow Wolf tribe's sowing method and see how it differs from your Saint Bridger's wheat sowing method?" The wise man Ayun said enthusiastically.
Carlisle and others: "..." Can you refuse? I'm not really interested, can you just say it?
To grow more than 2,000 acres of wheat, Xiao Yun even used the cat claws of the caracal cubs. How could he just sit there and watch the four ready-made human strong men sit idle? They are in such good health, they must be more durable than Sal, right?
The four people who couldn't say no were eventually taken to the fields. The noble prince and Dan Claudy, whose family was at least three generations rich, couldn't help but say something. Darren, who came from a middle-class family, and Tim, who had been a servant since childhood, had never done this job. They rolled up their trouser legs, put on the straw sandals given by the snow wolf and stood between the ridges. Their expressions were particularly confused and helpless... Who am I, where am I, and what am I doing?
To put it bluntly, sowing requires patience and carefulness. All four of them have received above-average education, so it is not difficult to learn. Once they get over the mental hurdle and listen carefully to the instructions, they can get started. Soon they are contributing labor that is only slightly worse than that of adult caracals.
After being busy for an hour or so, the wise man Ayun, who had been away for a while, came back with the unhappy handsome man Taiga and the nympho Yumi...
In front of so many people including Yumi himself, the wise man Ayun patted the handsome man Dahe's arm and said earnestly: "Don't be emotional, just temporarily hand over the work in the kitchen to Niu Jiao. We don't have enough manpower to sow seeds. With your coming, we have four more hands. It's a good deal..."
Prince Carlisle, who was covered in mud, stared blankly at his hands.
When he looked up again, he saw Yumi being asked to pull up her robe and tuck it around her waist, take off her riding boots and change into straw sandals. A familiar, helpless expression soon appeared on her face...
Carlisle lowered his head and continued to sow seeds, with only one word in his mind: "It's due!"
His Royal Highness Prince Carlisle had never felt that an afternoon was so difficult to endure. Several hours could have passed quickly by sitting in the courtyard, drinking tea and chatting with friends, but unexpectedly every minute and every second was so torturous... At dinner, he was still energetic after practicing swordsmanship or riding and hunting all day, but he almost couldn't sit still because of the back pain!
Fortunately, the Snow Wolf tribe was also very particular about hygiene, and provided warm bath water before bedtime so that everyone could take a good bath and wash off the dirt on their bodies. Lying on the big bunk bed where four people were considered indecent the day before, Carlisle felt as if he was finally saved, and fell into a deep sleep.
The exhausted prince only closed his eyes for a short time before the shocking, incomprehensible sound of iron knocking woke him up again. When he opened his eyes, Carlisle couldn't believe it: Is the night so short? !
Struggling to sit up, Carlisle almost thought there was something wrong with his eyes - it was still pitch black outside.
He supported his waist, got out of bed, walked out the door, and saw... the wise man Ayun standing at the entrance of the side, holding a round thing similar to an iron pot in one hand and a sickle in the other.
"Ah, Prince Carlisle, you don't have to get up. I just asked some people to get up early to sow seeds." Xiao Yun smiled and waved his hand.
"..." Carlisle looked up at the sky, the moon half hidden in the clouds was big and round, then he looked down at the gentle and kind smile of the wise man Ayun, no, your "early", isn't it too early? !
