The end of March, early spring.
The withered grassland was repainted with tender green, the morning dew brought the vitality of early spring, and the green buds on the trees were as full of life and vitality as Wheat Fragrance Territory.
The two-month training is finally over.
Thanks to Ansen, none of the new recruits were seriously injured or disabled.
Nowadays, the team directly under the lord has also changed greatly, and it is no longer as shabby as before.
Meitengheim Great Swordsman,10/10
Pendor Armed Cavalry,30/30
Pendor Armored Archer,30/30
Pendor Armed Infantry,30/30
There are exactly 100 people in total, all of whom are truly elite soldiers.
The 40 security team members of Wheat Fragrance Territory have all become Advanced Troop Type, but they could not beat the new recruits half a month ago, and with the addition of Meitengheim Great Swordsman, they can barely break even - and this is only when the lord helps them with advice.
This is the day when the new recruits are out of trouble, they graduate.
But none of them seemed excited. Instead, they all looked extremely nervous.
Even a little scared.
In fact, it was just an ordinary and sunny afternoon, the weather was excellent, there were no foreign enemies, and there was not even a small theft in the territory.
But they were still trembling a little, as if what they were about to face was more frightening than facing a group army on the battlefield...
Indeed, this day is quite scary for the guys at Wheat Fragrance Territory.
They are experiencing the first Gaokao in their lives...
That's right, it's Gaokao!
--Senior Non-Commissioned Officer Examination!
Except for a few intellectuals who serve as invigilators, this exam is attended by everyone.
The lord has long felt that there are too many illiterate people under his command, so he deliberately created such a trick.
And this exam was a surprise attack.
The lord asked them to gather for training in the morning, announced the end of training, and then started the exam immediately in the afternoon...
"The brothers performed well in the training, and I am very pleased."
"But do you still remember that I have always reminded you during your training that it is best to learn to read? I also specially invited Amy to be your teacher..."
"You can see it too - we need more officers."
"Therefore, this afternoon, I intend to use the fairest way to determine the first batch of 'senior non-commissioned officers' candidates - after all, officers must at least be able to understand military orders."
The lord has indeed reminded his subordinates long ago that they must learn to read.
But except for Gou Sheng Eric, it seems that most people don't take it seriously...
You must know that Li Ang has not been idle in the past two months. Since Amy came to Wheat Fragrance Territory, he was immediately dragged by the lord to run a night school.
Amy also didn't expect that he came here to be a student, but instead became a Chinese teacher for more than a hundred people!
There are not many courses, one hour every night, free teaching, no forcing, just come if you want.
Two beautiful teachers, Sarah and Amy, work together to teach each other, and the classes are not boring.
There are quite a few people who come to attend the class, but I don't know whether it's because the teacher Amy is too beautiful or because the training during the day is too hard. Anyway, the students are basically not interested in class, and the teaching results don't seem to be very good.
So the lord decided to give them a real lesson, and suddenly announced that in the afternoon, "Gaokao", only those who pass the exam can obtain the qualification of "senior non-commissioned officer".
Those with senior non-commissioned officer qualifications will be awarded ten shares of Wheat Fragrance International...
Li Ang The so-called senior non-commissioned officer is actually a rank set by him, which is like a threshold like a qualification certificate or diploma.
This is two different things from a job.
For example, Kloze's position is Charge Captain, which means he is a formal officer, but he is not a senior non-commissioned officer. His position will only be listed separately in the lord's team, just like Ansen and Sarah.
There are still many people in the team who are corps commanders - in previous battles, those with military merit have actually been promoted and rewarded, but those who are promoted to corps commanders due to their merit have nothing to do with senior non-commissioned officers, but they only share more spoils.
Lord, I want to separate ranks and duties.
Everyone knows that the lord is a man of his word. There must be rewards for fighting bravely, so there must be benefits to training hard and improving your skills.
But no one thought that if they wanted to get promoted and make a fortune, they would have to rely on Gaokao to get a 'diploma'...
This is the result of the Lord's repeated evaluation.
On the one hand, it is true that only literate people can be leaders. Illiterate people who cannot even understand military orders may be excellent soldiers, but they cannot lead troops to carry out complex tactics.
On the other hand, Li Ang wants to establish a simple upgrade logic in the army, a new class that has nothing to do with positions and will not create class conflicts - non-commissioned officers.
Non-commissioned officer is not an officer, it is a kind of identity, or a collective term for 'staff within the establishment' designed by Li Ang.
Since people need to accept it step by step, only three simple ranks are used for the time being.
Private, noncommissioned officer, senior noncommissioned officer.
First of all, only those who have received more than four weeks of rigorous training can become a private soldier. The lord will not take junior soldiers out to fight in the future.
Private soldiers can become 'non-commissioned officers' as long as they pass the lord's test through hard training, complete more than one battle with the lord, and perform qualified on the battlefield.
The Lord's test is actually mainly to determine loyalty through fighting, and to check whether they have become Advanced Troop Type through the system-this test will definitely be quite fair.
But the soldiers don't know, they only think that the lord has a sharp eye, is fair and strict...
After becoming a noncommissioned officer, even if you join the official establishment, you can still receive salary when you are not fighting, which is very attractive.
These one hundred men are now eligible to become non-commissioned officers because they have participated in combat before.
But what is more attractive is the 'senior non-commissioned officer'.
The lord said that becoming a senior non-commissioned officer means becoming a full-time soldier. Regardless of whether he eventually becomes a knight, he will say goodbye to his farming career!
Moreover, being a senior non-commissioned officer is a prerequisite for becoming a knight under the lord. All the necessary food, clothing, housing and transportation are free, and all equipment will be provided by the lord!
Being able to completely quit work, no longer have to work in the fields, and become a professional warrior means having a higher social status. In fact, this is the case for the knights of the Pande Continent.
In other words, this is actually a knight without a fief, but he is not a noble.
However, the treatment is better than that of ordinary knights from noble families. Not only is the salary high, the lord also provides food, accommodation and equipment, and there is no need to work for any nobles.
In this day and age, this attraction is huge...
But if a non-commissioned officer wants to be promoted to a senior non-commissioned officer, he does not have to be highly skilled. He must first obtain the qualification certificate through 'Gaokao';
In other words, to be able to become a senior non-commissioned officer, one must first have good skills, have fought in battles, and have some merit, and then he must be educated.
After becoming a senior non-commissioned officer, if you study hard and gain some merit, you may become a knight. The lord also has a knight exam waiting for them. Most of them are cultural subjects. After all, becoming a noble requires culture...
Of course, for those illiterate strong men with outstanding skills, it is not impossible to become a rich man by relying on military merit alone. The lord is very trustworthy in distributing the spoils, and you can live a very wealthy life as a corps leader in Wheat Fragrance Territory.
But senior noncommissioned officers can get ten additional shares!
Food and accommodation are also included!
What a great treatment!
But no one thought that the lord would need to take cultural courses when evaluating the rank of non-commissioned officers...
Therefore, during the afternoon exam, everyone almost collapsed - they spent all their energy on training and did not study the cultural courses properly at all.
Right now, the examination room is filled with gloom and mist.
Even Kloze, an old subordinate who has been with the lord for the longest time, was actually chewing the end of his pen in the examination room - he almost gnawed the quill bald, but he still couldn't write a few words...
This guy looked pitifully at the proctors Li Ang and Amy, looking like he was about to cry.
And it wasn't just him, most of the soldiers had sad faces. Most of the wooden boards in front of them that served as 'papers' were blank.
Probably for them, writing is much more difficult than killing people - especially Meitengheim people, who are basically all from poor households!
Exams are a rare thing, and these soldiers have not learned to cheat. They all look around and scratch their heads...
In fact, they can't cheat at all. Many of them are not even good at holding pens and can't copy. Besides, these questions are all essay questions.
For example, "Write a military report after a detailed investigation. The data can be used as examples."
Another example is "Please write a letter of request for help to the lord."
Amy's face is quite gloomy now.
These uneducated rough guys are all her students, and her teaching itself doesn't have much of a problem - what's the big problem with teaching basic reading and writing? These people are adults, not six-year-olds.
But the teaching quality of Amy is not good. The main reason is that she is too gentle.
As a well-educated aristocratic girl, Amy never swears or curses, let alone corporal punishment...
Her upbringing also influenced Sarah. After all, she was taking cultural classes, and Sarah didn't torture anyone.
As for Wheat Fragrance Territory, a group of illiterate people, although no one caused trouble because of their identities, most of the people who came to attend the lectures actually came to relax by the fire and pass the time...
There was no nightlife in this era, and the lord strictly prohibited them from participating in gambling. These guys had no choice but to gather in the 'classroom' where the brazier was always lit to warm up in the evening and watch the two beautiful ladies.
Li Ang allows businessmen to open entertainment venues everywhere, but they manage their own territories extremely strictly. Anyone who dares to gather people to gamble will have their crime tools confiscated and whipped until they can't get out of bed.
In the whole Wheat Fragrance Territory, the only good student is Eric.
This guy has been studying hard since he became a political officer. Now, let alone reading, he can even recite several poems with great emotion.
The results of this exam were quite dismal—out of more than a hundred people, only five people passed.
You should know that the passing standard only requires you to write out common military reports according to the topics and write a simple letter - which is a daily document that a captain-level officer will often use.
Eric is the one with the best score. He even did well in the extra tactical questions.
These five qualified people were personally awarded a small Griffin Badge made of copper by Li Ang.
They became Wheat Fragrance Territory's first batch of 'senior non-commissioned officers', and also became captains or deputy captains of each unit. They would have feathers on the top of their helmets, and were granted an additional ten shares of Wheat Fragrance International. They were all very happy.
And that little badge became Wheat Fragrance Territory's first 'qualification certificate'.
From now on, in the lord's territory, those who hold this badge will have no worries about food, clothing, housing and transportation, and all supplies will be given priority.
The dozens of people with the worst grades will be temporarily excluded from the rank of non-commissioned officers as their punishment - in fact, their wages will be deducted!
Because, after two months of learning, they actually can't even write the lord's name! Many of them can even write their own name incorrectly!
These dozens of illiterate people cried bitterly, hating themselves for not working hard enough, and expressed that they would definitely change their ways and study hard.
Fortunately, the lord warned me earlier, and at least Meitengheim people can all write their own names and understand simple military orders.
But this is probably mainly because Meitengheim people knows how to make iron - they are used to engraving their names on the iron tools they make, and they are not purely illiterate in the first place.
But apart from that, including Kloze, they are still semi-literate...
Since they had followed him the longest and had made a lot of contributions, the lord gave them new jobs and became his bodyguards.
But when they see someone wearing a senior sergeant badge, they still have to give a military salute - this is also to encourage their subordinates to become more knowledgeable.
And just the day after this "Gaokao", the Lord issued his second official knight appointment-Eric.
Because Eric applied for the knight exam the next morning and passed it successfully!
The knight exam designed by the lord is actually very difficult.
It includes martial arts, noble etiquette, Pendor's history and current situation, and also tests basic tactics and management abilities.
Eric really worked hard. He even participated in all the cavalry courses with the new recruits and almost broke his leg.
But he didn't expect that the lord's knight exam didn't test riding skills...
And the lord does keep his word. No matter what his background is, as long as he meets the requirements of the lord, he can become a true noble.
However, since the territory is only so small, Li Ang currently does not allocate Knight's Territory to Eric - this is also an important reason for creating a senior non-commissioned officer for the transition. The lord actually has some subtle intention to replace the land enfeoffment with other methods.
Eric still serves as the administrator and security captain of Wheat Fragrance Territory.
That is, the director of the village committee and the director of the police station.
With Eric as a model, the learning atmosphere in the territory suddenly became heated, and everyone's eyes were full of hope and enthusiasm.
The semi-literate people finally began to actively learn culture.
However, they only took the Chinese class seriously for a few days before they had to temporarily suspend the class.
Because during this time, merchants also came to this busy territory one after another.
Businessmen are here to traffic people.
The lord made an appointment with them before, 50 dinars per person, as long as they are young and strong enough to speak.
This is of course a very high price, and the merchants didn't even bring any other goods in their fleet...
Today, Wheat Fragrance Territory has more than 300 poor people in ragged clothes.
The current total population of the territory is 500 people, and the number is increasing every day.
The increase in population is originally a good thing, but it also means a big problem...
"Teacher, you seem to have brought in a lot of people... but you may not know that when Bacchus Empire was besieging the city before, the fields around White Deer Fortress were ruined a lot. This year White Deer Fortress may be short of food and will not be able to provide you with food!"
Amy is 'White Deer Fortress Grain and Oil Company General Manager'. After seeing the population growing, she was the first to react, Wheat Fragrance Territory's food was not enough!
The new arrivals are basically refugees who have lost their source of livelihood. They will become new farmers, just in time for the spring wheat planting period in late April and early May.
The land near Wheat Fragrance Territory can produce two crops a year, and the winter wheat growth cycle is relatively long, from October to April.
Spring wheat is planted in May and harvested in September.
But good land cannot support the large number of people.
The wheat fields planted before were already lush and green, but the winter wheat fields that were sown by a hundred people using crude sowing methods were obviously not enough for so many people.
Pande Continent is a vast land with sparsely populated areas, and the people here do not cultivate intensively. The grain yield is quite low, with the yield per mu in most areas being only over a hundred pounds.
The climate in the north Raven Kingdom is cold, the harvest is smaller, and the yield per mu is less than 100 pounds.
In other words, there are more people but less land, and the per capita planting area is dozens of acres. Otherwise, there would have been a famine long ago.
Wheat Fragrance Territory's climate is very good, but one acre of wheat field can only produce about 150 pounds of wheat - this is already considered a fairly high yield.
The lord doesn't know much about agricultural technology, he doesn't know how to increase production, and he didn't have the time to pay attention before.
Now that I am settling my accounts, I feel quite stressed.
Wheat Fragrance Territory has more than 800 acres of wheat fields and is expected to harvest 120,000 pounds of coarse wheat - so many wheat fields are possible thanks to the seeds provided by Godric at that time.
One hundred and twenty thousand pounds, doesn't it seem like a lot?
But the problem is that in order to quickly attract the population, the lord only collects 30% of the agricultural tax, and only more than 30,000 pounds can be obtained.
If more than 30,000 pounds of wheat are just to support the troops, it is completely enough. Currently, there are only a few dozen people who are completely off work.
But when divided among the more than 300 new arrivals, one hundred pounds per person... isn't even enough to plant spring wheat seeds.
There are now 500 people, more than 40 war horses, and dozens of draft horses in the territory. At least 2,000 acres of land must be planted next season to support them, and 40,000 pounds of seeds alone are needed.
The lord made a fool of himself - the war had just ended, and he did not expect that White Deer Fortress would have another war so soon. In order to quickly increase the territory's population, he asked the merchants to find people for him.
Originally, White Deer Fortress would definitely have a surplus of grain. The two sides were allies and were close to each other. Buying White Deer Fortress's surplus grain would be enough to maintain rapid development.
But now, due to the previous siege, the fields around White Deer Fortress suffered huge losses, and no support can be given...
Amy After all, White Deer Fortress not only has no spare capacity to sell grain, but also has to purchase it from outside.
The Lord is a human being after all. He only stayed in White Deer Fortress for one day, and it was for the purpose of carrying out the kidnapping. He had no time to understand the situation at the time.
We are experiencing a food crisis...
Note: In fact, the way to measure grain is not weight, but volume.
Usually bushels, gallons; or fisher, etc.
Similar to the sheng, bucket and stone used by the Celestial Dynasty.
But for ease of understanding and calculation, I changed it to pounds.