I'm not a lord

Chapter 70 Iron Lord
"Master, everything is running smoothly at Manor No. 6. The fugitives and the women from the barbarians are getting along very well. Some of them can even work in the fields."

Since little Albert could speak a little of the barbarian language, Lynn sent him to guide the construction of Manor No. 6.

Every two or three days, he would return to the castle to report on his work, and the news he brought back was basically good news.

He had never expected that the escaped slaves would integrate so harmoniously with the barbarians, and the many response strategies he had prepared in advance were completely useless.

Lin En sat at his desk, reviewing the latest financial statements handed over by his two mistresses. He casually corrected them, "They are all citizens of the White Bear Territory, not runaway slaves or refugees."

White Bear Leader is currently in a completely debt-ridden operation stage, but fortunately it can still hold on.

Once the roads are repaired and the rye matures in August, the economy of White Bear Territory will enter a virtuous cycle.

Xiao Ai was so frightened that she immediately stood at attention: "Master, you are right. These people are all from our White Bear Territory. They are your most loyal serfs!"

Lin En put down the list and said, "Come with me to the town."

"Yes, sir!"

It was early June, the sun was scorching, and the temperature in the territory was rising steadily.

The two rode their horses to White Bear Town.

The rye in the striped fields is in the jointing stage, and the tender green seedlings sway gently with the heat wave.

Wild flowers bloomed profusely on the ridges of the fields, and adult female serfs were applying fertilizer in the strips of land.

This was naturally Lin En's arrangement.

The jointing stage is a critical stage in rye growth, and the demand for nutrients is very strong.

The humus soil brought back from the forest during road construction became excellent fertilizer after being mixed and fermented with livestock manure.

The amount of fertilizer required per acre of land is not much, just sixty or seventy kilograms.

The method of fertilization adopted is furrow application.

Just use a hoe to dig a trench more than ten centimeters deep between the wheat seedlings and bury the fertilizer in it.

This ensures that most of the fertilizer is absorbed accurately by the rye roots.

The process of ditch fertilization is rather complicated. Even if two female serfs cooperate with each other, it takes half an hour to complete the work on one acre of land.

If you want to keep things simple, you can use broadcasting, which is to spread the fertilizer evenly on the soil surface.

In this way, the time for one acre of land may be shortened to ten minutes, but the effect will naturally be greatly reduced.

In order to maximize production, Lin En ordered the heads of each village to use ditch fertilizer.

He even transferred back four hundred adult male serfs from the road construction front.

At this time, the excavation of the 55-kilometer hard soil road was nearing completion, and the remaining 20 kilometers would be completely completed after being paved with stones, which just freed up a large amount of labor.

When it comes to farming, if you fool the land, the land will naturally fool you.

The White Bears are accustomed to extensive farming.

The serfs farmed with the mentality of just not starving to death. After sowing the seeds, they left everything to fate. In a year, the net output per acre of land was only about 30 kilograms.

Lin En hated this perfunctory attitude. If one did not take farming seriously, it would be a waste and desecration of the land.

In the past, White Bear Territory only had to support 3,000 people, but this year it has to support at least 8,000 to 9,000 people.

Naturally, the serfs would no longer be allowed to be perfunctory.

After arriving at White Bear Town, Lin En went straight to the blacksmith shop.

Blacksmith Qi He has not stopped for the past three months.

It was like making a heavy plow and then a shovel, and making a spear after a hoe.

Now he has received a new order from the lord, asking him to make another 200 mining pickaxes.

He urgently recruited a dozen blacksmith apprentices, expanded the blacksmith shop, and commissioned the lord to purchase a batch of blacksmith tools from Sanhe City.

But the production capacity still cannot keep up with the master's demand.

But Qi He wasn't afraid of being busy. The busier he was, the more money he made. He had already earned nearly as much gold in the past three months as he had in the previous three years.

Every time he dragged his tired body back home at night, as long as he opened the box and saw the glittering gold coins, he would be full of energy again.

Qi He thought that the lord was here to place an order again today, so he put down his hammer and prepared to go forward to accept the order.

But I didn't expect that the lord would actually walk into the depths of the blazing blacksmith shop, snatch the hammer from an apprentice and start forging iron on his own.

clang clang clang!

Iron sparks flew, and the red-hot iron ingot was obviously deformed under the violent blows of the hammer.

Not only Qi He was confused, but even the apprentice who was holding the iron ingots was confused.

Lin En weighed the hammer in his hand and asked impatiently, "What are you standing there for? Why don't you soften the iron ingot?"

Little Albert, who was standing at the door, had come to his senses and walked quickly into the blacksmith shop: "Master, you can let the blacksmiths do these jobs."

Qi He also hurriedly advised: "That's right, sir, it's scorching hot here. How can we trouble you to do such menial work yourself?"

Lin En asked in return: "What do you think of my technique?"

Qi He recalled the lord's ironwork skills and hesitated, "Is it okay? At least more skilled than the average apprentice."

Just as the apprentice softened the iron ingot again, Lin En hammered it several times with clang clang clang sounds.

Seeing the lord's movements becoming more and more skillful, Qi He couldn't help but widen his eyes.

No, sir, are you really not a blacksmith?
This technique and control of strength are almost catching up with Qi He himself!
As the iron ingot in front of Lin En gradually flattened, a hint finally appeared in his sight.

[Forging Experience +1]

[Level 2 Forging: 99/100]

Lin En did not come to forge iron on a whim. After more than a month of dispatching followers, his forging experience was about to reach the maximum level three.

"Go on, come again!"

Under Lynn's orders, the apprentice had to keep softening the iron ingots for the lord's enjoyment.

After about half an hour, the iron ingot gradually took on the shape of a mattock.

Lin En was sweating profusely, and his experience points were finally maxed out.

[Forging Experience +1]

[Level 3 Forging: 0/100]

A huge amount of forging knowledge poured into his mind. He couldn't help but put down the hammer and rubbed his eyebrows with his hand until he had sorted out all the knowledge.

Little Albert asked worriedly, "Master, what's wrong with you?"

Lin En opened his eyes and looked around at the four apprentice craftsmen hammering iron in the blacksmith shop. He said calmly, "I just feel that the work efficiency here is too poor."

With his current level of third-level forging, it would take him half a day to forge a fine mattock.

This is on the premise that someone helps him blow air to heat the furnace.

The new apprentices Qi He recruited were even less efficient. Even if they worked in pairs, they could hardly make a hoe in a day.

"Master, this is how blacksmiths work. It's not efficient."

Qi He felt helpless when he heard this.

Iron ingots are difficult to deal with. They require continuous hammering and beating.

This is a great test of the blacksmith's precise control of temperature and strength.

Moreover, no matter how skilled a blacksmith is, he cannot work on iron every day as his arms would not be able to bear the strain.

Generally, I have to take a day off after working for two or three days, so my efficiency cannot be improved at all.

Lin En raised the corner of his mouth slightly: "We can use other forces to replace human hammering, such as water."

(End of this chapter)