I'm not a lord

Chapter 49 Food Problem
Since the spring plowing began in White Bear Territory, Yagna has become a busy person.

I am responsible for cashier accounting during the day, counting inventory in the evening, and reporting work progress to the boss late at night.

As for the place where work is reported, it is usually the Baron's bedroom.

To be more precise, it was on the soft big bed in the bedroom.

There is no way around it. The nature of the work requires face-to-face reporting.

"Sir, in the past two weeks, we have consumed a quarter of the salt and more than half of the sausages in the warehouse. The stocks of rye and dry peas are not very optimistic either.

If you want to recruit large-scale corvée labor in the summer, such as repairing castles or building roads, you will most likely face food and salt shortages."

Yagna had just finished taking a bath and put on a white, thin woolen nightgown. She whispered to Lin En about the latest inventory situation.

After spending a few months together, the relationship between the two has become very harmonious.

Yagena put herself in the right position, accepted the role of mistress, and no longer dreamed of being a baroness.

Usually she would not ask questions proactively, but would passively accept everything Lynn asked.

It was just that when she was reporting on her work in the study yesterday, she accidentally glanced at the somewhat crude route planning map.

The main thing is that the map is hanging on the wall and it is too conspicuous to ignore.

"I'm about to start conscription next week, not in the summer. The last time I explored the forest, I discovered a large salt mine."

At this point, Lin En naturally would not hide it from Yagena anymore.

He put his arm around the soft shoulders of the person beside him and gave a detailed introduction to the specific plans for road construction and mining.

"Sir, for a large-scale corvée like road construction that lasts for several months, the lord must provide three meals a day. Otherwise, the serfs won't be able to survive even half a week. I think it's necessary to go to Sanhe City as soon as possible to purchase some salt and grain."

Although Yagna also knew the huge risks involved in salt mines, she would never try to persuade or object like Lao Ai.

She was well aware of the decisiveness and arbitrariness of the men around her.

Since it was told to her, it was an order that could not be questioned.

Lin En lowered his head and sniffed the fresh fragrance of Yagna's golden hair. "Well, I will find a way to solve the problem of food and salt. While the road is being built, you will stay in the castle and continue to manage the warehouse."

After being a lord for more than a month, Lin En finally understood the meaning of that sentence - the boss is often just an empty shell. Every day when I open my eyes, thousands of people have to wait for me to serve them with food, drink, defecation and urination. How many of the bites can actually reach my mouth?

Managing territory inventory is a very complicated task.

He carefully looked through the account books of the past few years and found that White Bear Territory never stored too much surplus food.

The surplus grain produced would be sold to merchants going upstream in the autumn of that year.

The grain stored after the autumn harvest can barely cover next year's needs.

The reason is simple: the older the food gets, the less valuable it becomes.

Moreover, it can only be sold in the autumn of the same year and cannot be sold until spring and summer when food prices are high.

Because the merchants are not stupid, they only come to White Bear Territory to purchase food in autumn.

In the past, the main trade commodity of the White Bear Territory was food.

If the grain is not sold at the highest price, how will the lords and knights have the money to purchase war horses and equipment?

This really stumped Lin En, the latecomer.

Human food intake tends to increase with the increase of labor intensity.

No large-scale corvee labor was levied during the slack season, and serfs only needed to eat two meals a day, morning and evening, and the calorie intake was enough to maintain vital signs.

The amount of food consumed will naturally be greatly reduced.

Therefore, when levying large-scale corvee labor, the lord needed to provide the serfs with three meals a day.

After all, serfs didn’t have much surplus food at home, and the extra food would be exchanged for salt, ironware and other necessities of life.

Without food, they simply can't work. The same is true of salt: if they don't work, they won't sweat, and their need for salt won't be high.

To put it bluntly, when you lie down, your energy consumption will decrease.

The White Bear Territory has been lying flat for many years, and the inventory is prepared according to the premise of lying flat.

Now I suddenly have to start running marathons. Can I get used to it?
"Master, the price of buying food in Sanhe City is not cheap now." Yagena expressed her concerns.

In fact, she even worried that she wouldn't be able to buy enough food in Sanhe City.

Because the merchants in Sanhe City would not deliberately store too much surplus grain, the reserves would usually only meet the daily needs of the city.

Most of the grain purchased that year will be transported to downstream coastal cities for sale that year.

The discount rate of old grain is extremely terrifying.

The purchase price of rye in White Bear Territory is 8 silver coins per 300 kilograms.

After one year of storage, the price will drop by 20 to 25 percent.

Few businessmen would risk huge losses on a small probability famine.

The surplus grain on the market will be made into wine in a short time.

Because the older the wine, the more valuable it is.

"Don't worry, I have my own way. You just need to obey my orders and don't worry about anything else."

The method that Lin En mentioned was naturally the omnipotent Leon.

If you want to monopolize the illegal salt trade, it’s not excessive to invest in advance, right?
Leon would probably be very happy to pay that money.

But when he thought about it, Lynn actually felt pretty fucked up.

The White Bear Territory can obviously sell a large amount of grain every year, and has not encountered any major disasters in recent years.

However, they would face the dilemma of food shortage due to the addition of more corvee labor.

He finally understood why famines occurred so often in ancient times.

Because the entire society's ability to resist risks is zero or even negative.

Lin En remembered a Three Kingdoms strategy game he had played before.

In that game, it is extremely convenient for players to buy and sell food, and they can do so at any time.

You can even do something as weird as selling grain in June and buying it in July to make a profit from the difference.

However, Lin En quickly put aside the complicated issue of thousands of mouths. He still needed to feed the bright and charming little mouth in front of him tonight.

Before the eight-day deadline was up, when the serfs were still cultivating their own land, Lin En had already begun the preparations for road construction.

He brought all his subordinates with him except for the sixth and second brothers who stayed behind to guard the castle and the exit of the territory.

In mid-April, spring came and flowers bloomed, and the North welcomed a short spring.

Brown bears, black bears and wolves frequently appear in the forest, and there have even been several cases of bear attacks in the territory.

In order to protect the safety of serfs, clear obstacles for road construction, and also to train his subordinates, Lin En launched a large-scale hunting operation.

Hunting and warfare are highly similar.

Lin En directly used the bone whistle used in combat to command his subordinates to hunt animals.

Under his ever-changing whistle command, his eight subordinates divided the work and cooperated with each other, sometimes driving away, sometimes surrounding, and sometimes shooting.

In just three days, they successfully hunted two black bears, more than a dozen wolves, and several deer and other small animals.

(End of this chapter)