In the blink of an eye, another six years passed.
Zhou Ming was now twelve years old. Thanks to deliberate training and his rapidly increasing height, he looked even stronger than an eighteen-year-old adult.
The land he rented from Baron Connor had increased from ten hectares six years ago to twenty mu.
Six mu were still used for growing wheat, while the other fourteen were planted with peas and pasture grass.
As his farming skills steadily improved and the effects of Strongest Manure became increasingly apparent, the average total yield from Zhou Ming's six mu of wheat rose from seventy Taren six years ago to one hundred Taren.
Although the other farmers had also begun using manure on their wheat fields and saw some increase in production, their yields had only risen slightly and were nowhere near as exaggerated as Zhou Ming's wheat field.
The farmers in town discussed it endlessly and asked him for his secret. But after looking into it, they felt Zhou Ming's farming methods were far too cumbersome and simply impractical to apply across hundreds of mu of land. So they gave him another nickname—"Lucky Little Ryan."
As for the other fourteen mu of pastureland, Zhou Ming exchanged twenty Taren worth of grain with the ranch steward Leodo for four lambs, then adopted a young heifer for an annual rent of two Taren worth of grain.
Zhou Ming had his younger sister Alice learn how to graze the one cow and four sheep. In less than three years, the livestock had grown splendidly and begun producing offspring and milk. In less than four years, their numbers had doubled, bringing the young siblings plenty of meat and dairy products.
There were also the hundreds of chicks Zhou Ming had raised to prevent pests and diseases in the wheat fields and pasture. The dozens of eggs they laid each day not only improved the siblings' living conditions, but also allowed them to develop much faster than children their age.
Moreover, Zhou Ming was still under sixteen and had not yet reached the age when he was required to perform Zhou Labor for the lord. The work in the wheat fields was not heavy, and his sister Alice could help tend the chicks, cattle, and sheep. This left Zhou Ming with plenty of time every day to train his body.
And during that training, he studied knights.
Knights were the ultimate representatives of military force in this era, the solid foundation upon which the ruling class maintained its rule. Becoming a noble and powerful knight was practically the dream of every person from the lower classes.
Naturally, Zhou Ming had looked into how these humanoid tanks known as knights were trained.
Using several visits to deliver gifts to Madam Madeline as an excuse to enter the castle, Zhou Ming secretly observed the knights training at the Training Ground, wanting to see what made them different.
Horizontal slashes, downward chops, thrusts, shield bashes, mounted charges, archery, throwing axes, throwing javelins... those were about all the tricks they had.
Zhou Ming felt that the knights' combat techniques were basically no different from the fighting styles in a game he had once played called Mount & Blade.
They were simply faster with their attacks, more accurate with bows, and stronger in their impacts... nothing more than practice making perfect.
However, when he watched those knights split bowl-thick logs in two with a single sword stroke; smash door-sized thick wooden boards to pieces with one shield bash; and, while clad in heavy armor and charging at high speed on horseback, slice off the heads of roadside straw dummies as easily as cutting vegetables, Zhou Ming could not help clicking his tongue. With such terrifying martial strength, they could probably kill a hundred farmers armed with wooden sticks on an open battlefield in less than an hour.
"Never face these knights head-on. Their defense is invincible, and their attack power is overwhelming. Unless we use armor-piercing crossbows or longbows and have a hundred people focus their fire, there might be a chance to defeat one knight. Or we could enter the age of firearms and blast them to death with Matchlock Guns and cannons..."
Countless plans flashed through Zhou Ming's mind in an instant.
But... none of those plans were realistic for him at present. There was no need to mention Black Powder; both saltpeter and Sulfur were resources that were difficult to gather in large quantities. The complicated spring mechanisms inside crossbows also required highly skilled craftsmen to make.
As for longbows, they required a height of over 1.8 meters, the ability to draw a bowstring with nearly forty kilograms of force, and accuracy at a distance of 1,200 meters...
"I should start with the most basic training. If I build a strong body, then even if I can't defeat those knights, I should have more than enough ability to protect myself."
Thus, from the age of eight onward, after drinking a cup of cow's or sheep's milk, eating several eggs, and chewing through a large barley loaf spread with butter every morning, Zhou Ming began doing five hundred push-ups, one hundred frog jumps, and a two-thousand-meter run. In the evening, he tied several sandbags to his body and, in the backyard, held a sharpened Birch Pole. Aiming at the mouth, eyes, throat, chest, and heart of a humanoid wooden target, he would charge forward three steps before thrusting fiercely. He repeated this cycle fifteen hundred times.
"Brother, why do you have to do all this? Can't you come play with me for a while?" One day, Alice sat bored at the courtyard entrance, pouting as she spoke to the training Zhou Ming.
Brother spent all day doing such boring things. He never even played with me.
Hearing her voice, Zhou Ming finished his last set of spear-charge training, set the Birch Pole aside, wiped his face with linen cloth, then sat beside Alice and looked at her gently for a while.
His only younger sister was only ten years old, yet she had already grown into the makings of a beauty. Perhaps she had inherited good genes from their parents, or perhaps her nutrition had improved over the past few years. Her crystalline, creamy-white skin, long golden wavy hair, delicate little nose like carved jade, cherry lips with a touch of innocent charm, enchanting large eyes, and the slight beginnings of development beneath her chest... Zhou Ming admitted that his sister would definitely grow into a graceful, renowned beauty in the future.
Even now, when she walked down the road, she could already attract the gazes of some farmers and knights.
"Ryan, I heard your sister Alice is very beautiful. Bring Alice to the castle tomorrow. I want her to be my little lover." Donny, the lord's youngest son, had said this to Zhou Ming one day when he went to the castle to pay his respects to Madam Madeline.
Beauty had always brought disaster. His sister was so beautiful that someone had already set his sights on her at the age of ten. He did not even know what he would do when she grew up.
"Alice, it's not that Brother doesn't want to play with you. Brother just has to grow stronger as quickly as possible and learn a set of skills! Only then can Brother protect you properly and keep those bad people from hurting you." Zhou Ming kissed Alice's forehead and pulled her into his arms.
"Mm, I understand. Brother, you're so good to me." Alice nodded obediently. Her brother had raised her with his own hands. In this world, no one treated her better than he did.
"Alice is such a good girl. How about this? Brother will tell you a story. Once upon a time, there was a farmer's daughter named Cinderella..."
He told her seven or eight stories in a row. Only after Alice rested her head on his arm, smiled in her sleep, and drifted into sweet dreams did Zhou Ming carry her to bed and gently cover her with a blanket.
"Alice, even if Brother has nothing in the future, I will never let you suffer the slightest harm!"
Looking at his sleeping sister, Zhou Ming silently swore.
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