Vikings: Lords of the Ice Sea

Chapter 180 Clover and Turnip
Vig acted swiftly, resigning the day before and packing his bags to leave Rendynewm the following morning.

The most important thing in the country is to sacrifice to the army.

After six months as prime minister, he realized that finances were more important than war and sacrifice. Some suggested plundering, but looking around, the only suitable target was West Frankish kingdom—a vast kingdom that controlled Aquitaine and Brittany and had a population of five million.

Times have changed. The scale and intensity of wars have gradually increased. If Ragnar intends to revisit the old grounds, he will need to gather at least 20,000 men and pray that another Frankish king will not join the war.

"If I'm not mistaken, the timing of the attack on West Francia depends on when the kingdom's finances collapse."

In late August, Vig arrived at a village called Durham, and further north was his own territory. As he carefully observed the road, he saw that most of the pastures along the way had been converted to clover.

In his memory, clover has nitrogen-fixing properties, which can convert nitrogen in the air into nitrogen fertilizer that can be used by the soil. Long-term planting will not deplete the soil fertility, but will instead make it more and more fertile. It is suitable for planting in pastures or fallow land.

Looking out into the distance, the low-lying grasses grow close to the soil, their leaves rippling in the breeze, painting the entire hillside in varying shades of emerald green. Sheep, like scattered cotton balls, dot the landscape, heads bowed, intently grazing, their thick wool swaying gently with each chew.

In the shade of a tree not far away, a herdsman dozed off against a crooked ash tree, his coarse hemp cloak spread out on the meadow, surrounded by a few buzzing bees.

Sensing a large group of riders approaching, the herdsman was awakened by the noise of his sheepdogs. He saw the rider at the front holding a black dragon flag and hesitantly went over to greet him.

"Lord?"

“I’ll take a moment of your time,” Vig said, tossing down a silver penny and asking the herdsman for advice on this new crop.

“Very good. The sheep are growing faster and their wool is thicker. Moreover, this plant is low and close to the ground, suppressing the growth of ordinary weeds. As long as we sow the seeds once in the spring, we don’t need to worry about it afterward.” The herdsman led over a sheep and showed everyone its thick wool. Then he waved his arm to drive away the annoying bees nearby.

"The only downside is that the clover attracts bees, which keeps me and the other herders from getting a good afternoon nap. The village is discussing that since the beekeeper's bees are collecting nectar on our pasture, there should be some compensation."

Is there such an effect?

The promotion of clover has led to the development of the beekeeping industry, a benefit that Vigg had not anticipated. If honey prices drop, distilleries can appropriately increase mead production and sell it in Northern Europe for profit. Given a choice, the Viking people still prefer mead.

During the conversation, Vig heard that the shepherd's village had a threshing machine and was planning to plant turnips. On a whim, he went with him to see it.

"Did the agricultural technician in town teach you these things?"

The shepherd scratched his dirty leather hat covering his ears. "Yes, the young man is very young, and he keeps spouting nonsense about 'performance' and 'KPIs,' as if his boss will deduct his salary if we don't plant clover and turnips. Poor young man, he's always busy and looks miserable. I hope he gets his full salary this year."

Upon hearing this, Vig couldn't help but smile. This was the advantage of establishing a civil service system: it allowed for the rapid dissemination of government orders, rather than waiting for the people to accept them spontaneously.

Upon arriving at the village entrance, farmers were using a threshing machine. They fed bundles of barley straw into the feed inlet, and with the help of draft horses, the cylindrical drum rotated at a constant speed. The spikes on the surface of the drum repeatedly struck the straw, causing the wheat grains to fall off and pass through multiple layers of screens to the lower layer. The shredded straw was discharged from the tail end of the threshing machine as livestock feed.

"The town lent us this machine for free, and the farmers plan to raise funds to buy it."

Compared to traditional manual threshing, the efficiency of threshing machines was a qualitative leap. In the 19th century, the widespread adoption of these machines reduced reliance on manual labor, but ironically, it sparked the Swain Riot in rural England.

The root of this unrest lay in the enclosure movement, which led to a surplus of land and a loss of livelihood for farmers. However, given the sparse population in the early Middle Ages, there was virtually no resistance to threshing machines among the general public.

Wigg followed the shepherd to the open space at the east end of the village to watch the entire grain threshing process.

According to agricultural technicians, turnips have a relatively short growing season, roughly 3 to 4 months. If sown in autumn, they can be harvested at the end of the year or early spring of the following year, avoiding the shortage of fodder in winter and preventing farmers and herders from being forced to slaughter their livestock.

At this moment, the stubble left by the sickle was still stuck in the soil, and several bundles of unharvested straw were crooked on the dark brown ridges. The man drove the draft horses and turned over the land with a heavy iron plow. The woman, wearing a coarse hemp apron, followed behind, grabbing grayish-brown seeds from the apron pocket and throwing them into the furrows with her five fingers spread out like salt.

Behind his parents, a six- or seven-year-old child skipped and jumped, using a slingshot to scare away the birds circling in the sky and prevent them from pecking at the seeds.

After a long while, the man straightened up, pounded his back, and muttered as he looked at the newly sown furrows: "If the turnips can survive the frost, we won't have to slaughter those sheep in the spring."

"Why?" The child didn't understand his father's worries and instead clamored for stewed mutton.

The woman wiped the sweat from her brow with her worn-out sleeve, her sun-kissed neck exposed as she bent over, and continued scattering seeds into the damp soil. The distant sound of temple bells echoed, startling a few drab gray sparrows into flight.
After the visit, Vig gave the shepherd five more silver pence, mounted his grey horse, and rode away.

Upon returning to Tyneburg, Herigel was surprised and relieved by Vig's return. She learned from passing merchants that the kingdom's finances were in dire straits this year, with the cabinet borrowing money from all sides, earning her husband the nickname "Gold-Sniffing Raven."

After dinner, the two returned to their fourth-floor bedroom, where she raised a question that everyone was concerned about: "How much does the royal family owe? They still owe us four hundred pounds for iron, and we haven't heard from them in over a year. Haven't you asked the King for the money?"

Vig lowered his voice, "A total of over 20,000 pounds, more than half of which belong to various noble families. It's estimated that this messy debt will never be repaid."

Helige sat listlessly on the edge of the bed. As a member of the ducal family, the four of them had scrimped and saved for years, without raising peacocks or swans, hiring foreign chefs, or employing bards. It was a great irony that the royal family had cheated them out of four hundred pounds for nothing.

Vig stretched, organized his notes from this period, and comforted his wife.

"Don't rush. If we delay a bit longer, someone will definitely get impatient and start demanding payment. The royal family can't afford to anger all the nobles, so they should give us an explanation."

(End of this chapter)