Chapter 82: Brown Sugar Tree
Richard wanted to find a plant similar to sugar cane, and couldn't do without the sheep-headed people in the territory.
Sheepheads are natural botanists. They know almost all the plants in northern Xinjiang, and can also distinguish the medicinal properties and toxicity of plants.
When they are sick, sheep-headed people usually look for wild herbs to treat their illnesses.
Through the herbs found by the sheep-headed people, Richard can also accumulate experience and develop plant medicine.
The development of this field will not only benefit the people of Chenxi Continent, but planting herbal medicine can also form an industry and provide more resources for the territory.
Through Bernard's translation, the sheep-headed people knew that Richard was not prepared to slaughter them.
Hearing this news, the sheep-headed man was very happy.
Among the captured goat-headed men, there were two first-level professionals. One was named Anu, who was a prisoner of the goat-headed squadron that Richard defeated the Shamok Brigade, and the other was named Larsi, who was taken by Richard with the nobles. The coalition forces entered the Orc Empire to capture slaves.
Sheep-headed people have a gentle personality and a happy-go-lucky nature.
The IQ of this group is average, not as good as that of kobolds, and equivalent to children of twelve or thirteen years old.
The life span of a sheep-headed man is only more than 20 years. If your life span is too short, the accumulated knowledge will not be enough. Therefore, it is rare for sheep-headed people to have excellent magicians.
In the orc empire, the herbivorous species are basically at the bottom.
Although the sheep-headed people have many shortcomings, the herbal knowledge accumulated in the sheep-headed people's genes is very important to the development of mankind.
In the thousands of years of history of the Dawn Continent, some nobles have also studied a lot of botanical knowledge, especially magical botany. They have studied very deeply and developed the theory of medicine.
But magicians don't care about ordinary people at all. The main research directions are magic plants and magic pharmacy.
The focus of the investment is on the evolution of personal power.
Magic researchers don't pay much attention to the botanical knowledge accumulated by the sheep-headed people.
Most nobles only regard ordinary people as objects of exploitation and oppression, and do not care about the health and life span of ordinary people.
After Richard settled the workers and drew the city construction map, he asked his second uncle Powell to be responsible for the construction of Fort Sophia. His energy was mainly focused on the sheep-headed people.
Through Bernard's translation, Richard had many questions for the sheep-headed people every day.
After a long time, he even learned the language of the sheep-headed people and talked with the sheep-headed people in person.
By talking to the sheep-headed people, Richard not only discovered some herbs, but also knew that there were two plants in the Eagle Mountains that had a very sweet taste.
One was similar to the beet that Richard had seen in his previous life, and the other was a rare tree.
Beet is a type of vegetable. The cultivation of vegetables consumes a lot of water and requires the best paddy fields for cultivation.
The two territories of Richard and William had relatively few paddy fields.
The territory's food security needs to be in hand, and large-scale planting of sugar beets is temporarily unfeasible.
But Richard had arranged for slaves to dig up some beet seeds. Prepare a small amount of cultivated beets and study the process of extracting sugar from beets.
In his previous life, Richard had watched a video of ancient sugar making, which was very simple in terms of craftsmanship. Generally speaking, there are processes such as cleaning, evaporation, crystallization, honey separation, and drying.
Except for the difficulty of making a large iron pot, the remaining sugar-making tools can be made in the Harland Territory.
Through many years of observation, Richard found that the development of productivity in the Dawn Continent was basically the same as that in the European Middle Ages.
Some craftsmanship is better than that of the Middle Ages, and some craftsmanship is not as good as that of the Middle Ages.
Especially in some remote areas, the economy has been in a relatively rough and primitive state for a long time. The development of handicrafts and commerce is very low, and the level of craftsmen is not high. Take blacksmiths as an example. Beginners can make weapons, while experienced ones can make armors and iron pots. I am afraid that only a very small number of highly skilled blacksmiths can do the job.
Richard asked the blacksmiths trained in the Harland territory and found that two of them were now able to make armor, but they still had no confidence in making iron pots.
You must know that the technology for making iron pots did not mature until the Song Dynasty. Even the Mongols in the late Qing Dynasty did not have the ability to make iron pots.
Of course, the Mongols cannot forge iron pots. In addition to craftsmanship, fuel is also an important reason.
Iron smelting requires the use of coke, and making coke from coal is a preparatory process.
Without coke, charcoal can only be made from wood. Without sufficient forest resources, it would be difficult to develop iron smelting technology.
There are not many forests on the Mongolian plateau, but there is a lot of coal. These coals contain high sulfur content and are of poor quality when used to make iron. They can only be barely used as weapons.
There are forests everywhere in Richard's territory, and there is no shortage of forest resources.
After the Harland family obtained the hereditary fiefdom, Richard built a wood retort kiln and produced charcoal suitable for iron smelting.
The fuel problem has been eliminated. Now, if you want to make a large iron pot, you need skilled craftsmen to sum up their experience and use their brains.
Although there is a master smelter in Heihe Fort, Richard cannot bother him every time.
This time he planned to train his own people.
In order to bring out the ingenuity of the blacksmith, Richard decided to set a heavy reward for the blacksmith. Whoever could make a qualified large iron pot would be rewarded with a bounty of thirty gold coins.
Thirty gold coins is equivalent to ten years' salary of an ordinary citizen. A farmer may not be able to save as much as thirty gold coins in addition to the expenses of food, clothing, housing and transportation after farming for a lifetime.
Even for the main legionnaires, it takes two and a half years to get this salary.
The main legionnaires need to be selected at different levels, and they also need to go to the battlefield to fight for their lives.
The blacksmith only needs to make a big iron pot to get this huge sum of money.
The huge sum of thirty gold coins was enough to tempt the craftsmen.
In addition, Richard also stipulated that the blacksmith who successfully made a large iron pot could be allocated a house and become a free citizen.
He also serves as the manager of the territory's blacksmiths. In terms of status, he directly entered the middle level of the territory.
There must be a brave man under a heavy reward. By October, a blacksmith named Thomas Weber completed the task, received a reward of thirty gold coins, and became a free citizen of Harland Territory.
This person was appointed by Richard as the blacksmith team leader.
If Thomas Weber can continue to make breakthroughs in iron smelting technology, Richard will elevate his status and give him more bonuses.
After successfully making a large iron pot, the process of pressing sugar is no longer difficult.
Besides beets, another plant with a high sugar content is a tree.
This tree is not common and has not yet appeared in human life.
There are a large number of magical beasts living in the Eagle Mountains, and there are also many orc tribes operating in the north.
Ordinary people in the Harland Kingdom would not dare to operate in the Eagle Mountains unless they were forced to become bandits.
Even the hereditary earl of the Grant Kingdom and a seventh-level magician lost their lives in the Eagle Mountains.
The sugary trees that grow in the Eagle Mountains are naturally unknown.
(End of chapter)