I built a manor in the Middle Ages

Chapter 124 The First Prison (25)

Paul was watching the fun from the side, holding his bowl. His daughter also stretched her neck to look. After a while, she whispered, "Dad, are these the two people who stole my food before?"

"Yes, those two guys!"

Paul swallowed a mouthful of porridge, feeling somewhat gloating.

Of course he knew both of them, not only did he know them, he even had some grudge against them.

Anything can happen while fleeing famine, and the people traveling with you may not be reliable. It is considered a good thing to just grab some food.

But food was the key to survival, and Paul would not allow the other party to snatch it away. For those dozen or so moldy grains, a fierce conflict broke out between the two sides. Only because they were both weak did no one die.

It was also at that time that Luke suddenly appeared in front of everyone with his men. After he made the request, Paul was the first to stand up and agree. He was really desperate at that time.

"Because the hatred caused by the division of those seeds has actually been brought to the adults' manor, you will see, they will definitely be punished!"

……

Pleading sounds continued to be heard from under his feet. Just as Paul thought, Luc asked about the situation and saw that it was indeed a simple fight caused by anger. He said no more and whispered a few words in Ryan's ear. He nodded and immediately took Hans to the side to build a new building.

The two serfs knelt on the ground and trembled. In fact, they regretted the fight. In the old village, they were not unaware of the lord's harshness. The lord, who also had the power of judicial legislation, handled things entirely by his will. Occasionally, there were some juries, which were mostly auxiliary. When they encountered free people with land disputes, they would help investigate evidence.

So when they saw Luke's indifferent look, their hearts immediately sank.
It wasn't that they weren't afraid of Luc; on the contrary, he held a high regard for them, as he drilled the soldiers every morning. But not everyone was like Paul; most would act rashly after a good meal, and only behaved themselves when truly punished. While this might seem absurd, it was actually a reflection of human nature.

In the darkness of the night, the clanging sound of Ryan's hammer was particularly harsh. Luke instructed George and others to go over to help, and went back to the house to have dinner. When he came out, he saw that the two wooden cages had been set up.

Luc looked at the narrow wooden cage. This was what he had ordered to be built - the first prison in the Knight's Castle!

Due to time constraints, the wooden cage was very small, but it was just what he wanted.

"After a whole day of clearing the land, you still have time to fight. It seems you have no place to use your energy."

Luke said coldly: "Lian, lock them up!"

"It's the master!"

The two men with their hands tied behind their backs were immediately pushed in.

The wooden cage was a rectangular block, made up of ten logs. It was firmly connected to the narrow wooden planks above and below, leaving only enough space for one arm to extend. The wooden door was closed and tied with rattan ropes from the bottom. Once inside, the two men could only stand up straight, and even a slight knee strike was the limit.

"Since this is your first offense, I'll punish you by making you stand until the moon reaches the treetops! Let me, you supervise."

There will be new land to be cleared tomorrow, and since it was just a fight, Luc doesn't plan to impose too severe a punishment, just a light punishment will be enough.

Don’t underestimate this wooden cage. It’s okay for standing in it for a short period of time, but if you can’t change any posture and have to stand continuously, it will be a complete torture!
As long as time is long enough, having disabled legs is not a problem.

So even if they were punished to stand in the middle of the night, the two serfs would probably be unable to walk.

After looking around at the serfs, Luc turned back to the wooden castle.

……

The next morning, at dawn, they saw the two men, their legs trembling, dragging themselves off to clear the wasteland. Luc took a sip of tea; he had only recently discovered that the leaves of the thorn tree could be used to make tea.

The incident happened because Amy picked the leaves into the basket while picking wild hawthorn berries. This is a common occurrence, but as luck would have it, Luc, who was used to drinking hot water, accidentally put the leaves into the pottery and boiled them together. He didn't find out until he opened it.

I wanted to take it out and throw it aside, but I didn't expect that it would have a familiar taste after boiling. So I cooled the leaves to make them crisp, and then continued to soak them in water. I took a simple sip, and the slightly bitter taste and the fragrance of the fruit tree instantly filled my mouth.

“It can be considered a drink.”

Luc drank the tea in one gulp and muttered to himself, cider and kvass are not available every day.

Walking out of the house and onto the fields, I found that the initial plowing progress was faster than expected. After the serfs leveled the land these days, they began to fill in the soil and dig ridges.

Paul successfully replaced George's position and became the leading serf of the second team. At this moment, he was digging furrows from high to low.

The ridge row spacing is the same as the spacing of the wooden plow carts, and the depth is about ten inches to ensure root growth. In order to make the ridges straight, long lines have been drawn on the bottom in advance.

Paul kept digging deep with one of the few shovels he had, sweat dripping from his cheeks, while someone behind him held a wooden shovel to level the ditch, ensuring that the bottom and walls were smooth.

The strong peasant woman walked back and forth, tamping down the furrows.

Robert did the same thing on the other side.

Luc shielded his eyes from the glaring sun with his hands. He said that it was not necessary to dig all the ditches, and not all seeds needed to be planted in ridges. The most important thing was to adapt to local conditions.

However, water diversion is a big problem. The waterwheel can divert water from the river to the plains, but it cannot divert water to the hillsides.

"We'll figure it out after we plant it."

On the other side, Jill and Hans did not burn charcoal, but looked at the clearing in the forest and murmured:
"Ryan, are we sure we want to build a lumber mill here?"

"Yes, that's what the master ordered. The forest is getting deeper and deeper, and it's too troublesome to carry the wood back and forth. The master said we should just build a logging camp and a carpentry house as well. If the area is expanded in the future, we will also build cabins for the lumberjacks so that they can live in the forest."

"How big will the lumberyard be?"

"It'll be enough to temporarily protect the wood from the wind and rain. Besides, this is where we'll chop the wood. We'll chop a load and bring it back in a wheelbarrow."

Jill thought about it and found that it was indeed more convenient.

They did it as soon as they said it. Since no one lived there, there was no need to lay a foundation, which was why the three of them came to build it.

The burnt-black, sharpened stakes were driven into the loosened earth, then filled in. With Hans, a big man, by their side, the walls were quickly built. The lumberyard shed was about twenty feet long, and the roof was made of stacked logs. Climbing up the ladder, they used the pulleys they had used to build the wooden fort to hoist the logs. Hans had already cut the sides of the logs into bevels, placing them securely around the perimeter and securing them with vines and wooden nails. Then, they ground the gaps with mud and laid thatch to hold down the stones. They had only cold water and bread for lunch, but they worked from morning to night until they had built the basic outline.

"I'll work on it the next two days."

"no problem!"

Ryan's status is second only to Luke and his wife, and what he says is now considered an order.

From now on this will be the location for the initial splitting of the wood and will also be the location of the future carpentry shop.

(End of this chapter)