From Londoner To Lord

Chapter 323 - 318. Plans

The majordomo snorted with laughter. "It's the root of a weed! It grows everywhere even if we don't want it to. Trust me, we are never going to run out of it. That being said, how about giving that worker The Baron's Medal of Science? That is what it is for, right?"

"That's a good idea," Kivamus agreed. "It's late today, but tomorrow morning when the workers gather outside the manor, call up that laborer to the front and I will give him the medal and tell the villagers about his achievement. We will also give some gold to him as a reward, but that's for later. Hopefully this will inspire other villagers to come up with good ideas by themselves."

"Let's hope so," Duvas nodded, before he walked to the corner shelf to put the new sheets of papers there. We already sent the first hunting group out in the morning, so are you sure about sending more guards out?"

Kivamus nodded. "Assuming our scouts in the forest and on the watchtowers don't see anything suspicious tonight, send out the second hunting group in the morning. By now, the losuvil vines should also have started getting new leaves, so they can start bringing those as well. Although, now that winter is over, I'm worried if the leaves will last long enough for their journey till here..."

Duvas took a seat before he replied. "Hmm... it's still spring, so I think it will be fine. Those leaves are good enough for a few days in winter, but only a few hours in the summer. So in the spring I think they should last for at least a day or so. After perhaps a month and at most two months, any leaves plucked from those hills would lose their effects before the hunters reach the village."

"I think we'll have to think of a better solution later. Syryne has already been working with the village potter to make more and more customized clay pots to refine and process the leaves into the medicine. So once we have enough leaves, we will try to stock up on as much acelos as we can in these two months, but after that we might have to make a temporary encampment there. We have other things to worry about right now so I guess we'll deal with it when the time comes."

The majordomo nodded. "That reminds me, Madam Helga told me that she saw the first fruits of Toloraberries in this season."

"Oh, weren't those the ones she made that delicious pie from?" Kivamus asked.

Duvas grinned. "They were, although it will take a few weeks for there to be enough of them for that. Once that pie is being made again, we can start rewarding the best students in Gorsazo's classes with small slices of pies instead of the unsweetened baked cookies we have been giving them."

"I'm sure they would love it, and seeing the treats might also inspire even the older villagers to start participating in the classes more seriously." Kivamus knew that the toloraberries grew on a shrub, but there weren't too many of them here. "Madam Helga has some past experience growing plants, right?

Duvas nodded. "She grew a lot of herbs and such plants when she used to run that inn on the northern road. She is also the one who supervises the vegetable patches we grow here in the manor."

"Then tell her to try replanting the shrubs of these berries. I don't know if it will work, but if she's successful, we can use the cleared space outside the walls to grow them on a larger scale. Those shrubs are short enough that they won't hinder the line of sight from the watch towers either."

The majordomo scratched his short white beard. "Of course, we had already tried it in the past before you arrived here, but it didn't really work. But I think we can try it again. It might just work this time with Madam Helga's past experience in gardening."

"Yeah, having something sweet to eat in the colder months would motivate a lot of people. How's it going with the craftsmen?

"Darora gave the 11th crossbow yesterday, so now we have enough to place two of them on every watchtower, with one extra remaining for the sixth one under construction, or to train other guards. The last tower will take a few more days, but Taniok said it is right on schedule. As for the blacksmith, he already gave us the new wire meshes we wanted, so once Darora has used up all the stored crossbow parts, he will make the new frames for more moulds and deckles. Cedoron has also given four more safety lamps to the coal miners, so once he has made two more of them by tomorrow, he will start forging the iron parts for more crossbows, as well as the trial parts for the scorpion. He has also been talking with Taniok about the design of the triphammer and the sawmill, so they are working out the best way to make the iron parts required for them which will do all the tasks while also saving on as much iron as possible."

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"That's good to hear," Kivamus nodded. "I can't wait to see the sawmill ready. Taniok can make a lot more planks immediately after that. Hmm... That means most of the bulk carpentry would move there after that, apart from Darora who only works on small, intricate parts and doesn't produce much sawdust. So perhaps we would also have to shift the sawdust press machine to the stream's banks to make it more efficient, since after the sawmill is ready, basically all of the sawdust would be generated right there. This would also free up the kids who needed to gather it from the village, so they can focus on studies and other things. In fact, with all the sawdust being produced there, it would be a good idea to shift the whole paper making setup to near the dam."

He continued, "Same for the blacksmith, I think. Once the triphammer is ready, Cedoron can use it to forge things much faster while working there, although he might have to make a new forge near the dam for that. We'll see what to do about it when the triphammer is ready. Although we also need to do something to increase our coal production."

"Huh... But why?" Duvas asked. "You know that the demand for coal is quite low right now. We can barely sell what we already produce here."

"That is exactly why we need to produce more, so we can target new markets for it." Kivamus shook his head. "I am thinking about the future right now... With Cinran being our only market, we have to rely on the vague hope that merchants from there will come regularly. But that setup is not working these days, you already know that. Kirnos' demand is low enough that it hardly counts. Anyway, I have a few ideas about how to increase coal production, but before anything else, we will need a better road connecting the village to the mines."

Duvas frowned. "We already have a road there..."

"Hah!" Kivamus snorted. "That's not a road! It's a dirt path at best. A road means something having a wide and flat service- just like the ones we've made in front of the longhouses. We will need to make something like that for the mines soon... So how long does it take for loaded wagons to travel from the mines to this manor?"

"With the wagon empty in the morning, it takes something above half an hour." Duvas added, "When returning, the wagons are heavy so they often get stuck on some potholes on the road... well, the dirt path. So they usually take three quarters of an hour, to a full hour when returning."

"Hmm... with a better road where the wagons never get stuck, and where the horses can pull their loads easier, would mean the whole one-way journey could be done in well under half an hour. That would save around an hour of time including both sides' journeys. That's an hour extra which the miners can use to dig more coal..."

"In fact, we will be better served by extending that road further ahead of the mines to the dam site, which will save time for the carpenters' apprentices and the paper makers too. And maybe even the blacksmith. But that is still only a start. Later on, I want to make some parallel wooden rails connecting the village to the mines, and later to the dam site. We can even make a new kind of wagon which will run only on those wooden rails, with the horses walking parallel to the rails pulling that load. It will allow the horses to pull a much heavier load and faster. That means with perhaps two pairs of horses, which can drag just two wagons right now in total, will be able to pull a longer wagon-train of four or five wagons easily with the help of those rails. Perhaps even more."

Duvas frowned. "I still don't understand. I think I know what you mean by the rails. I've seen the carpenters using something like that when they have to drag a heavy log closer to a construction site, but that still takes a lot of men - or a pair of horses - to drag it. So how will the horses become twice as strong just because of dragging the load on wood instead of dirt?"

Kivamus smiled. "It has to do with something called friction. I can explain it more easily when we have those rails ready, so let's leave it for then. Anyway, right now we don't even have the capacity to make that many wooden rails with our two carpenters already using up all the daylight hours for other things. But once the sawmill is ready, it should allow us to increase our wooden-goods production many times over. We should be able to produce those rails after that. But again, we have a few more steps to go through until we reach there, starting with a better road."

Duvas took a deep breath. "You've said a lot of things which don't seem to make much sense, but I know that you are not just boasting about things which are not possible..." He nodded. "Since we often have new refugees coming here these days, we will have more labourers in the future. So I'll tell the carpenters to take on a few more apprentices. Even if they can only do the basic stuff, it will help in increasing the production of wooden goods in the coming days."

"That's a good idea," Kivamus praised. "I just hope we are able to deal with Torhan's bandits without any major losses. Once the sword of an imminent raid stops hanging over our heads, we will be able to focus on the construction of everything a lot more easily."

"Let's hope so, milord... let's hope so."