Bitumen Mine and Sowing

After sending the two Wild People off, Lynn did not forget to instruct them:

"Go back, return to your tribe, Suo Wade. You must remember that I am Lynn, Baron of White Bear Territory, and the most trustworthy ally of your Lowland Tribe. Also, be sure to relay everything I have said to your father."

"I will, I certainly will."

Suo Wade nodded earnestly. He was currently dying to pour his heart out to his father.

Everything that had happened today was completely beyond his scope of understanding.

Even though it was already late at night, he still couldn't wait to start his journey home.

He and his companion turned with their gifts and walked toward the forest in the north. After walking about ten steps, he looked back and found that Lynn was still standing in the same spot, even waving at him in a friendly manner. A sense of relief at having survived a disaster suddenly welled up in his heart.

When they reached the edge of the salt mine, Suo Wade turned his head and shouted, "Lynn, how can I find you?"

"Go to White Bear Territory in the south. As long as you show that sword and that set of chainmail, someone will bring you to see me, or you can wait for me here at the salt mine. I will come again in a while."

Lynn carried that sword with him whenever he patrolled White Bear Territory. The stewards and farm managers on the land could recognize it, and many serfs had seen it too.

The chainmail hauberk he gave to Suo Wade was also embroidered with the family crest of the Cold Wind Family, which could likewise prove his identity.

Suo Wade, the 'crown prince' of the Lowland Tribe, was gone.

Second Brother, meanwhile, was left alone in the cold night of the Northern Kingdom, feeling bewildered.

He also did not understand Lynn's behavior.

But he knew he could not question his elder brother.

At times like this, simply believing was enough.

His elder brother was always the most trustworthy person in the world.

However, after waking up from a night's sleep, Second Brother still couldn't shake his doubts.

When he had packed his luggage and set off on the return journey, he couldn't help but ask, "Brother, why did you give the chainmail and the sword to that Wild Person?"

"There is a proverb in the Southern Border: you have to lose a child to catch a wolf. The Wild Person I let go is the son of the tribal chief." Lynn sat astride his horse, in a very good mood.

He hadn't explained too much to Suo Wade last night about the benefits of cooperation between the two sides.

Even if he explained too much, Suo Wade wouldn't understand it with his intelligence.

After all, it was only their first contact; letting them go and giving some gifts to show goodwill was enough.

Given the current situation of the Lowland Tribe, they had nowhere else to go.

As long as the two sides had a few more contacts, Lynn would sooner or later be able to bring them into his fold.

He didn't believe the Lowland Tribe could refuse fine armor and weapons, let alone fertile farmland and sufficient food.

One look at the chief's son's thin frame was enough to tell that these Wild People couldn't even fill their stomachs.

The Northern Wasteland was at least a plain; although it was barren and bitterly cold, they could grow some crops.

How much food could there be in the forest? Aside from foul-smelling beast meat, there wasn't much to find.

In the absence of staple grains, the more they ate that beast meat, the thinner they became. It was no wonder the Lowland Tribe wanted to return to the wasteland.

Second Brother pondered on his horse for a long time before asking, half-understanding, "So the chainmail and the sword are the child? Then what is the wolf?"

"The wolf is naturally the entire Lowland Tribe. I will bring them to White Bear Territory to plow the land, fight, and multiply for me."

At the end, Lynn didn't forget to add, "If they can't be tamed, then I'll just kill them."

When returning to White Bear Territory, Lynn still had to explore the Triangle Mist Region.

This area was too vast; it took a round trip to get a rough idea of it.

After walking for a day on the road, Lynn discovered an open-pit bitumen mine through the guidance of his map.

Like the salt mine, this bitumen mine was surrounded by barren land where nothing grew. One only needed to dig away the soil covering the surface to see the pitch-black bitumen ore. Lynn roughly estimated that the bitumen vein extended for about three hundred meters, and the reserves were quite astonishing.

According to the information provided by the level-two [Gathering], there was a probability that oil was hidden deep in the strata beneath the bitumen mine.

It was just that his current [Gathering] level was too low to detect such deep mineral deposits.

But discovering a bitumen mine was already a huge harvest.

Bitumen could be used for paving roads. With the current level of handicraft, refining bitumen was not difficult.

Besides that, bitumen was also an excellent waterproof and sealing material.

Applied to the roofs and walls of brick and stone buildings, it could form a waterproof coating, effectively solving the problem of rainwater seepage.

Building large ships also required bitumen to prevent the hull from leaking.

As far as Lynn knew, there were two small-scale bitumen mines in the south of the Northern Kingdom, and most of the ore produced was exported to the Southern Border, fetching a decent price.

The purchase price of one ton of bitumen ore at the source was roughly equivalent to about five hundred kilograms of rye or barley.

Although the price was far inferior to salt, it was still a very good economic mineral.

After all, it was only a basic mineral; to actually use it, a large amount of man-hours and fuel would be required.

Lynn examined the markings of the stone mine and the bitumen mine on the map and found that the two deposits were not far apart, only about five or six kilometers.

So, he took a detour to the stone mine and took the opportunity to conduct a detailed survey of the road conditions and natural environment along the way.

When he reached the stone mine, he did not return along the path he had come, but instead walked in an 'S' shape, exploring the last bit of white mist in the triangle region.

By the time he returned to White Bear Territory, five full days had passed since his departure.

Under Old Albert's command, the plowing task for nearly twenty thousand mu of public land had been completed.

The three thousand-plus mu of land plowed at the beginning had entered the final process before sowing—harrowing.

There wasn't much room for improvement in the 'harrow' used in White Bear Territory; it was basically the same as the 'harrow' provided by the panel.

The main frame of this thing looked like a rectangular wooden picture frame, with three wooden strips laid horizontally and vertically in the middle, and 'harrow teeth' embedded under the strips.

The harrow teeth were generally made of iron or hardwood, which could effectively break up the large chunks of sun-dried topsoil and make the land more level.

A sturdy draft horse could harrow more than ten mu of strip fields every day.

After the land was harrowed, sowing could officially begin the next day.

Lynn rested for a night and immediately threw himself into the sowing work.

He personally demonstrated the specific details of sowing to Old Albert and the stewards.

The compost prepared earlier finally came in handy.

Lynn adopted the method of strip application and strip sowing, burying the fertilizer ten centimeters deep in the furrows, and then sowing the wheat seeds coated with plant ash above the fertilizer.

The fertilizer supported the wheat seeds and provided sufficient nutrients for them to take root and sprout.

The plant ash wrapped around the seeds could also provide nutrients while effectively inhibiting pathogens in the soil, helping the wheat seeds grow better.

For every mu of land, about five hundred kilograms of fertilizer were applied, and fifteen kilograms of seeds were sown.

After the demonstration was completed, Old Albert immediately led the stewards to convey the Lord's latest instructions to the entire territory.

The serfs followed the commands of the stewards and farm managers, imitating what they had seen, and completed the sowing task for the three thousand-plus mu of land in one day.