...

...

The final dish prepared by Luo De is called "Knight's Nourishing Stew."

It mainly involves adding sage, rosemary, juniper berries, and angelica herbs to the meat dishes, prepared for the Knight Squad.

After system certification, Luo De immediately taught it to the women responsible for the Knight Squad.

They train every morning — basics of swordsmanship, basics of riding, and various cultural knowledge, plus Breathing Technique Cultivation, requiring at least twelve hours of training.

Knight's Nourishing Stew is perfect for strengthening their bodies, restoring energy, and preventing excessive fatigue from wearing them down.

As for the other soldiers, Luo De doesn't have that many resources for their nourishment at the moment.

After acquiring the "Exquisite Gourmet" title, Luo De's herbal knowledge advanced rapidly.

He has now completely surpassed Luna, and no longer needs her to introduce the characteristics of each herb.

Luna's current responsibility is to select herbs for Luo De.

There are even many herbs Luna doesn't recognize, so Luo De needs to sketch them out and annotate clearly for her.

When creating potions, Luo De still has to start with something simple.

Precious herbs are not easily found everywhere, so Luo De can only use herbs commonly found in the Northern Wasteland for preparation.

The key is to unlock the "Magic Potion Beginner" title to continue researching stronger potions later.

The first potion Luo De made was based on Luna's Hemostatic Powder, which stops bleeding and prevents infection. Luo De named it Redemption Potion.

Honey, garlic, thyme, sage, clove, witch hazel, and cornflower, combined with alcohol.

The missing ingredient here is alcohol, which Luo De needs to distill himself.

Fortunately, distillation is not a high-level technology; Luo De has it in his mind.

However, it consumes a lot of liquor.

Place the wooden barrel filled with alcohol into an iron pot, then place another iron pot full of cold water on top as a condenser.

When heated, alcohol evaporates, condenses upon the cold iron pot's outer wall, accumulating and dripping down again.

The wooden barrel's interior has a slanted channel connected to the alcohol slot, using hollow cow leg bones to divert the alcohol to other containers.

This device isn't difficult; carpenters finished it within a day.

In the estate, Luo De set up a shed, starting his alcohol distillation endeavor.

"Lord! We're going to be rich!"

As Luo De was busy, Lawrence ran in, panting, his face flushed, excitedly flailing about.

Luo De looked at Lawrence in confusion.

Did this guy know in advance about my alcohol extraction?

But Luo De doesn't remember mentioning the benefits of alcohol to Lawrence?

"Do you know how much grain we harvested from our thousand acres?"

Lawrence was overexcited, couldn't help but play riddles with Luo De.

He suddenly regretted it, swallowed hard, and stammered, "Sorry, Lord..."

Luo De raised a hand to interrupt, asking, "Two hundred tons?"

"Two hundred forty-seven tons, nine hundred seventeen pounds, six ounces!"

Lawrence excitedly reported, his voice slightly hoarse, "The yield per acre is over four hundred ninety-four pounds!"

He grabbed Luo De's arm, excited like a child.

Luo De lightly coughed, and Lawrence realized, quickly let go and bowed apologetically.

Luo De didn't mind and calmly said, "Calm down, it's not much."

Indeed, it's not much, excluding the crop lord title bonus Luo De has, the yield per acre is only two hundred forty-seven pounds.

It's far from the limit of three hundred pounds.

"It's already a lot, Lord!"

Lawrence exclaimed, "With just these 1000 acres, I can help you feed half the town!"

Luo De nodded with a smile.

Indeed, with Lawrence's frugality, he could certainly feed them.

In winter, people in the Northern Wasteland don't work much, activities are limited, and commoners eat only two meals a day, sometimes just one.

Of course, Luo De has planned many things to handle during winter, and with the current grain harvest in the territory, feeding everyone three meals a day is definitely possible.

The harvest of the territory's five thousand acres of wheat is nearing conclusion, but only the first one thousand acres that were harvested have completed the drying and threshing process, the remaining four thousand acres haven't been tallied.

More importantly, these first thousand acres are just the most ordinary farmlands.

Luo De's thousand acres of prime wheat fields haven't been calculated yet, which are definitely not just two hundred forty-seven tons.

"Lord, we could sell at least three hundred tons of grain this time!"

Luo De shook his head, denying Lawrence's suggestion.

Luo De doesn't plan to make money from the grain; he wants to store it all.

"Let's go, have a look."

Luo De didn't chat with Lawrence in detail, put down the herbs at hand, and followed Lawrence out of the estate.

People bustling about saw Luo De from afar, and respectfully bowed.

They couldn't hide their smiles, looking at Luo De with eyes full of admiration.

No one expected such a bountiful harvest in the first year the Lord arrived.

The farmers didn't know the exact numbers.

But seeing the bags filled with grain and the carts transporting wheat shafts, they knew — this year's yield exceeded expectations.

All of this is due to the transformations brought by the Lord.

The brown rye poured into burlap sacks, continuously filling the town's granaries.

Luo De walked to the threshing floor, casually grabbed a handful of wheat grains.

The grains were plump and made his palm ache, yet it filled him with joy.

"Leave a thousand pounds to be ground at the mill into flour to make bread."

"Let everyone taste the flavor of the new wheat."

"Yes, Lord!"

Lawrence happily responded, turned, and shouted to everyone,

"The Lord wants to use new wheat to treat us to bread! Did you hear?"

"Thank you, Lord!"

"Long live the Lord!"

"May the Lord have eight sons!"

...

Poof!

Everyone's cheers almost made Luo De choke on his saliva.

The commoners genuinely offer their blessings, after all, in this era, having many children signifies a prosperous family and a strong lord.

"This is just the yield from a thousand acres of farmland, we must not relax yet."

Luo De exhaled slowly and ordered Lawrence, "Make sure every grain goes into storage."

Although most of the wheat has been harvested, it still needs to be dried and threshed.

Luo De specifically sought out Prophet Bai Shuang to ask about the weather forecast.

Luo De doesn't need specific temperatures or wind strength, just whether it would rain.

Prophet Bai Shuang assured Luo De that it would be sunny for the next two weeks.

Taking advantage of the good weather, these wheat must be properly dried.

The Northern Wilderness is drier in autumn, unlike the southern provinces which are always damp.

Most of the rain here waits until winter, turning into heavy snow.

This is, in fact, the advantage of the Northern Wilderness.

"I've reminded countless times about moisture and rot prevention in the granary."

"Also, no flame should be allowed where the grain is stored; I'll be inspecting this often."

Luo De's tone was calm but filled with authority, "If something goes wrong, it will cost more than just a couple of lives."

"Rest assured, my Lord!"

Lawrence pledged earnestly, "I will not be negligent in this matter."

Luo De nodded and made another round of inspections at the other wheat fields before returning to the manor at nightfall.

Just as he sat down, Durant approached quickly, holding a letter in his hand.

"Lord Baron, a reply from Count Hawk."

Luo De took it, opened it, and slightly furrowed his brows.

"Interesting... This guy was urging before and now suddenly stops."

"I thought he would lash out this time."

Luo De's words filled Durant with curiosity. He glanced at the letter and nodded,

"Indeed, it's quite odd."

The previous letter from Count Hawk was full of anger, but now it suddenly softened, telling Chris to proceed at his own pace.

The key is, Chris had mentioned that Count Hawk is not a person of good temper.

Luo De leaned back in his chair, pondering as he spoke, "It seems he's sensed something and is using this letter to stabilize us."

A child that doesn't cry or speak is often brewing something bad.

He then turned to Durant, "Any movement from the patrol team?"

"Not at the moment."

Durant shook his head, "There hasn't been any for the past couple of days."

Durant meant that ever since the guard disguised as Chris's attendant returned with the letter, there has been no abnormality in the southeast.

Luo De let out a long breath,

"Keep a close watch, don't slacken."

"Also, we need to seal off information in our territory moving forward."

"Don't let the captured soldiers out, just let them work in the town."

"Don't let the news of Chris's capture leak out."

Durant bowed, "Understood, I'll arrange it immediately."

Luo De leaned back in his chair, lightly tapping the armrest with his fingers.

"Let's wait a bit longer, until the autumn harvest is completely finished."

"By then, Count Hawk, we'll settle the accounts thoroughly."

...

...

At night, the moon was bright with few stars.

A slightly cool autumn breeze blew by.

Yet the patrolling soldiers were still in thin short sleeves, clad in chain armor.

Doc rubbed his arms and grinned at Joseph beside him, whispered, "We won't starve this winter."

Joseph glanced at him and chuckled, "Lord didn't let you starve either!"

"Though we are slaves, life is much more comfortable than before."

"Now that we are soldiers, we receive wages, which though not as high as freemen, are sufficient."

Joseph paused, with a bit of longing in his voice,

"Save some money, maybe we can even marry a Wildman woman and have a child."

"Lord said if their children can serve as soldiers, craftsmen, or even knights, they can fully shed their slave identity."

Doc nodded.

Lord indeed treats these soldiers well, not just in terms of meals.

The incident a few days ago, defending Or, was still vivid in his mind.

Whenever Doc thought about it, it stirred his blood.

"It's true that Lord never let us starve,"

Doc changed his tone, with a slightly bitter smile, "But don't forget how we survived winter without Lord."

"We were so starving in the village that we gnawed on pine bark, and I even considered making soup with pine needles!"

Joseph wrinkled his face, saying with disdain, "Shut up, don't bring that up, just the smell makes me want to vomit."

"Back then, we only had nuts and dried fruits to fill our bellies, unlike now where black bread is satisfying, and half a pound of meat every day!"

"If you are willing to spend your labor points, you could even get a soft white bread to chew on."

Doc licked his lips, eyes gleaming.

"Enough, let's not mention these things."

"I'm grateful that when we plundered the Golden Sand Trading Team, we weren't trampled to death by warhorses, nor chopped by Lord Gang Le's axe."

"Hahaha!"

The two exchanged smiles, patted each other's shoulders, and continued patrolling around the wheat fields.

The matter of grain is not one to be careless with; there are eight groups of sixteen people like them patrolling each wheat field.

Doc and Joseph also understood the great responsibility they bore; even in the latter half of the night, they dared not slack off, much less fall asleep.

To keep themselves awake, they occasionally splashed some cold water on their faces.

It's not just for labor points but also for their own future better life.

"Wait!"

Just as they finished wiping their faces and continued patrolling, a rustling sound came from behind them.

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