Summoning the Blacksmith

Summoning the Blacksmith

Qi He was the owner of White Bear Town's Blacksmith Shop and the most skilled blacksmith in the territory.

As early as his great-grandfather's generation, his family had moved to White Bear Territory and settled there, making their living from smithing for generations.

In an era where social mobility had nearly come to a standstill, a lord's son became a lord, a steward's son became a steward, a blacksmith's son became a blacksmith, and a serf's son naturally remained a serf.

He did not know what others thought, but Qi He was quite satisfied with his current life.

He held a lofty position in White Bear Territory. Whenever serfs saw him, they respectfully addressed him as "Master Qi He."

His family was equally happy. His wife was the beautiful daughter of a Carpenter, his son had married a steward's daughter, and his daughter had married Little Albert, the son of Territory Steward Albert.

In White Bear Territory, the Qi family's influence perhaps ranked below only the lord and the several knights who possessed fiefs.

Other than the lord and his in-law, Old Albert, Blacksmith Qi He did not need to give anyone face.

He even looked down on Old Albert a little.

The position of Territory Steward could not be inherited. If he displeased the lord one day, he could be dismissed just like that.

Blacksmiths were different.

With the smithing techniques passed down through their family, they were treasures cherished by lords wherever they went.

Lords did not dare offend them lightly.

Unlike pitiful serfs bound to the land, blacksmiths lived by their skills and could leave whenever they wished.

When the new lord arrived yesterday, Qi He had not gone to welcome him at all.

Who the lord was did not mean much to him, but the work in his hands could not be set aside. The period before Spring Planting was always the busiest time of year for blacksmiths.

But while he had not gone to see the lord, the lord had come looking for him.

Just as he was demonstrating to two apprentices how to forge manure forks, the new lord arrived in White Bear Town and specifically demanded to see the blacksmith.

As for why he had summoned them, Little Albert, who had come to deliver the message, did not know either. He only said it was urgent and that Qi He must not refuse.

"Damn it."

Qi He cursed under his breath, but could only put down his hammer and obediently follow his son-in-law to see the lord.

At that moment, Lynn and his inspection party were resting in the town's only tavern.

The tavern mainly served two kinds of drinks: lightly alcoholic beer and the relatively stronger honey wine.

At this time, beer served roughly the same purpose as bottled purified water. It merely had a faint alcoholic taste, was cheap, and was produced in astonishing quantities. Even serfs could afford to drink it.

Honey wine, on the other hand, was a relatively expensive drink, and only a few people in the territory had enough spare money to enjoy it.

According to the customary laws of the Northern Border, all forests within a territory belonged to the lord.

Naturally, everything produced by the forests also belonged to the lord, including wild animals, honey, mushrooms, firewood, and more.

The serfs in the territory even had to pay a Firewood Tax before they could gather a fixed share of firewood from the forest each autumn.

In White Bear Territory, ten serf households specialized in beekeeping. By paying a separate Honey Tax, they had obtained the right to use a small patch of forest.

As for the tax rate, Lynn had seen it on the confiscated ledger: fifty percent.

No wonder this honey wine was not cheap.

"My lord, I just thought of another problem. If we follow your fertilizing method, one mu of land may need over a thousand kilograms of fertilizer. Even all the livestock manure and human waste in the territory would not be enough. And there is only one month left before Spring Planting. The amount of manure we can gather is quite limited. It probably will not even be enough to completely cover your public land."

Old Albert poured wine for Lynn without stopping his thoughts. Along the way, he had been considering how to make the best use of compost and what problems they might encounter when promoting it throughout the territory.

After thinking it over, the biggest problem was actually that there was not enough manure. The most powerful manure-producing machines in the territory were draft horses, which could produce around twenty kilograms of horse manure a day.

Twenty sheep could produce perhaps a hundred kilograms a day. Even if they collected an entire year's worth of manure, it still would not meet the needs of sixty mu of land for every serf household.

And they simply

could not collect it all.

During summer and autumn, livestock were left to graze freely on the pastures. Even if the serfs picked manure until dark, they would never finish gathering it.

"Just collect as much as possible. Compost is not the only fertilizer. I will find another kind."

The other fertilizer Lynn referred to was peat, also known as turf or peat moss.

According to the information provided by the game Lord, peat was a product of swamp development—coal that had not yet fully formed.

Once dried, it could be burned like coal, and it could also be used directly to fertilize crops. Its effect was no worse than compost.

The Northern Border had many swamps. White Bear Territory was located upstream of the White River, and the northern part of the territory was covered in swampland.

Lynn had already intended to explore the map's fog of war. Once the territory had stabilized, he planned to explore north first and search for traces of peat.

"My lord—"

Albert, overjoyed, was about to ask another question when Blacksmith Qi He arrived outside the tavern. He could only set aside his question for the moment and bring his fine in-law inside.

Lynn studied the middle-aged man entering the tavern.

He was broad-shouldered and powerfully built, with a head of messy, thick black curls and a bushy beard. He matched every image of a medieval blacksmith.

"Are you Blacksmith Qi He?"

"Yes, my lord. I am Qi He."

Qi He bent at the waist and gave an awkward but respectful bow.

White Bear Town lay at the center of the territory and was naturally an inseparable part of White Bear Territory. The lord possessed unquestionable ownership over the town, including the plot of land where the Blacksmith Shop stood.

Qi He could certainly pack up and leave whenever he wanted, but four generations of his family's work and all the connections they had built were in White Bear Territory. If he left, it would all be lost.

He did not want to leave, and he could not leave. Naturally, he could only obediently accept the lord's summons, even though this was the busiest month of the year.

Lynn pushed an oak cup filled with honey wine across the table, signaling for Qi He to sit and speak.

"Thank you, my lord."

Qi He did not dare refuse the gesture, but he only sat on half the seat and only dared take half a sip of the wine.

Then Lynn asked, "There are four blacksmith shops in White Bear Territory. I heard they are all yours?"

Qi He answered honestly, "More or less. The blacksmiths at those other three shops are all my relatives."

In the past, White Bear Town had only needed one blacksmith shop. But ever since Albert became Territory Steward, the living standards of White Bear Territory's serfs had steadily improved, and demand for iron tools had naturally risen with them.

Qi He had sensed the market trend, recruited apprentices from within the family, and opened branch shops, making a hefty profit.

Lynn was not interested in how much money he had made. He continued, "I looked at the plows used by the serfs. Their quality is fairly good. Did you make all of them?"

"Yes, but those things mainly rely on Carpenters. We only need to hammer out a piece of iron." Qi He did not claim all the credit. Besides, White Bear Town's Carpenter was his brother-in-law, so they were family.

"I have a design for a heavy plow here. Take a look. Can you make it?"

(End of Chapter)