I built a manor in the Middle Ages

Chapter 13 Opening up wasteland

"Clap!"

As the last wooden stake was rammed into the ground, Luc, who had been busy all morning, finally sat down to take a breath.

He wiped the sweat off his face and looked towards the chicken coop.

Twenty days have passed since the hornet's nest was burned. During these twenty days, apart from little Charlie gradually recovering, the chicken coop was the most lively.

After the initial tossing and turning, the two pheasants gradually calmed down after they realized that they would be provided with food without having to look for it. However, what followed was that a fight between the two pheasants was about to break out.

The clucking of chickens rang out endlessly from morning till night. Sometimes Luc wondered why they were fighting so fiercely when they were obviously a male and a female.
Didn't they say that working together as a couple wouldn't be tiring? And I still expect them to lay eggs for me?
Besides the chicken coop, the second busiest place is my own wooden house.
Luc looked up at the sky, which was covered with dark clouds.

After burning the hornet's nest, Luc's prediction of a southwesterly wind came true, and heavy rain arrived.
As soon as Luc got home that night, the rain started to fall.

This was the first time that Luc saw weather other than sunny days in the forest. Before he could even sigh in admiration, he heard a dripping sound. Turning around, he saw that his cabin was leaking!

This made Luc a little distressed. It seemed that even if he sealed the cracks in the roof with yellow mud and thatch, it still couldn't stop the rain.
Fortunately, there were not many places where the rain was leaking, so Luke could just use pottery and clay pots to catch the leaks.

But the rain never stopped, or rather, it had no regular pattern, coming every few days. Not only did it make the wooden house wet and dry at times, it also seriously hindered Luc's work progress.

After a short rest, Luc got up and started weaving a fence.

Weaving a fence is very time-consuming. It takes several days to cut down trees and prepare the wood. It takes several more days to use them to build a basic square yard frame. When weaving with rattan, it takes another five or six days.

With the occasional drizzle, the fence is finally finished today.
Luc took the cane and passed it through the gap between the two horizontal bars, alternating from one side to the other, gradually weaving upwards to form the main body of the fence.

In order to make a strong fence, winding vines are essential. After finishing weaving the last piece of wood, Luc cut off the extra vines. Before he could continue to build the fence gate, raindrops started falling. Luc had no choice but to go into the wooden house and wait for the rain to stop.

Little Charlie, who had grown a little bigger, and Luc walked into the house together. Luc stood by the window, looking a little anxious.

What is his most important job since the wooden house was built?
Of course it’s growing crops!
Whether it's going out to trade or building fences, the ultimate goal is to grow crops.

It was almost September, and the land hadn't been cultivated yet. How could Luc not be anxious?
As soon as the rain stopped, Luc didn't bother to weave the fence anymore and started to really reclaim the land!
The mayor of Ward Village once said that if one hundred pounds of seed were needed to plant one acre, then twenty pounds of seed would only require about one-fifth of an acre.

One-fifth of an acre of land is neither big nor small, but it certainly cannot be accommodated within the fence. Luke chose the flat land to the left of the cabin as farmland.

The first step in land reclamation was to remove the weeds and gravel from the ground. This was not difficult, as the soil was soft due to recent rain, but it still took Luc three hours.

After the tired Luc had to stop and beat his waist, a new problem lingered in Luc's mind. He didn't have a hoe or other tools to turn the soil.
As Ward Village Chief said, the hoe is the farmer's sword
In the once impoverished baronies, serfs usually used horses to till the land, while bulls were only found in large estates.
But at this moment, Luc didn't even have a slow horse.

Luc closed his eyes and pondered, as he always did when difficulties arose, hoping that the little knowledge remaining in his mind could guide him.

"Quyuanli!"

A word popped into his mind, and Luc opened his eyes suddenly, but then narrowed them again.

If I remember correctly, the curved plow still needs to be used with animals.
Moreover, the mature curved plow is equipped with iron plates and is not a purely wooden tool.

Luke's eyes were filled with solemnity. It seemed that he could only use the most stupid method to make a plow.
A lei shu (plow) is simply a wooden hoe. A lei is made by slicing a sharp wooden stick with a short crossbar near the tip. To use it, the sharp end is inserted into the soil, and the crossbar is pressed down to push the stick deeper, turning the soil. A shu (plow) replaces the sharp end with a flat-headed wooden board, which is then used for digging. Combined with a mattock, this allows for manual tillage.
Of course, this will be very tiring, but that is not something I should consider now. Once everything is on track in the future, the tiredness will not be temporary.

Luc started chopping trees, peeling bark, and polishing the land. By evening, he had successfully made the plow. The next morning, before dawn, Luc went out to cultivate the land.

The still dark sky was occasionally filled with the cooing of birds, making the mountains and forests seem even more secluded.

Luc worked hard to cultivate the land. The land is the most honest guy and no one can deceive it. If you choose to deceive it, all you will get in return is death.

The nobles disdained farming. They lived a life of luxury, had their own serfs and livestock, and only needed to sit back and enjoy the fruits of their labor when the harvest came.

If any noble chose to farm together, he would be greeted with naked ridicule, and might even be ostracized and despised by other nobles.

Luc did not have this concern, as he was not the illegitimate son of a nobleman. Besides, compared with those serfs, Luc was very motivated.

The serfs of the manor did not have their own land, but their land was very small, and they had to pay rent to the lord in order to cultivate it. In the end, after growing grain on their own land, they handed over a large amount of grain, leaving only enough to fill their stomachs.
You heard it right, the serfs were so miserable, and that was not the end. During the busy farming season, they were not allowed to cultivate their own land. They had to cultivate the lord's land first, and complete all the reclamation and sowing of the lord's land before they could cultivate their own land.
Rather than owning their own farmland, serfs simply obtained the right to use the scarce land given to them by the lord.
Luc has no such worries.

This land belongs to you, and you don't need to pay taxes to any lord or church!
Little Charlie ran across the fields, his lively figure relieving Luc's loneliness. By the time the sun broke through the mist and dew hung on the branches, Luc had already cultivated one-fifth of the land.
For the next three days, Luc turned the entire field over and over again, striving to make it the most fertile state.

Finally, at dusk on the fourth day, the first day of September, Luc completed the reclamation work, then took out the rye and wheat seeds and prepared for sowing.

Farming is not just about plowing the land and sowing seeds. There is still a long way to go, including watering, fertilizing and weeding.

Among them, watering is not difficult as Luc is close to the stream, but fertilizing is a very important thing!
The reason why Luc is so confident and sure that twenty pounds of seeds can feed himself is here!

After taking out the wheat and rye seeds, Luc looked at these two grains that could be sown directly without the need for seedling cultivation, stretched himself, and went home to sleep.

(End of this chapter)