System: Build My Own Territory

Chapter 29: Chapter 29: Two Hundred Pence

Lex has been at the wooden hut for four days now.

In these four days, he’s been doing the odd jobs as instructed by Master Lynn.

Helping with farming, helping to build the wooden hut, helping with cooking, helping to collect Wild Rabbit River Fish...

He can do it, and he does it well.

Master Lynn kept his promise: he wouldn’t let him go hungry!

He even ate three meals a day, each filled with meaty barley porridge that was as thick as rice paste!

He’d never had such a good life since he was a child.

But Lex is a brewer, and what he wanted to do most was brewing.

Only through brewing could he demonstrate his true value...

Looking at the man in front of him wearing a roughly made brown linen robe with coarse woolen underlayers, and brown long hair with stubble.

Lynn spoke seriously, ”Lex, I always regarded you as a brewer, but as you see, my territory needs development, and I am short on hands...”

Lex felt an inexplicable warmth in his heart, and the scant resentment he had before instantly dissipated.

Lynn noticed Lex’s loyalty rise again.

He continued, ”If I were to construct a brewing workshop for you to start brewing beer, what would I need to prepare for you?”

Lex hesitated hardly at all, ”First, a quality water source; spring water would be best, but if not, river water will do! I’ve observed these past days, and the river’s water is clear and clean, usable.”

”Secondly, a dry and ventilated storage space for storing barley and other raw materials, which means a warehouse.”

”Then, brewing equipment: I need a malt grinder, which means a stone mill, a mashing pot, a soaking tank, fermenting vats—metal ones are best, but wooden barrels can substitute if there’s no iron ones—a boiling pot, and also a fermenting room for beer fermentation.”

”Master Lynn, lastly... I’ll need an apprentice!”

Lex, indeed a Level 3 brewer, explained his needs very clearly.

But Lynn also realized that constructing a brewing workshop faced some challenges.

A warehouse or fermenting room could be as simple as building two wooden huts that could shelter from wind and rain.

But both the mashing pot and the boiling pot would require iron pots.

And presently, what Lynn needed most was iron.

Nonetheless, Lynn still felt the need to construct a brewing workshop to brew beer.

Producing smoked fish and selling it could earn some pence.

But without salt for curing, the shelf life of smoked fish was very short.

The key issue is that the price of smoked fish is low.

Two pounds of smoked fish for one penny is the limit!

The daily wage of an ordinary freeman is just one penny.

Craftsmen earn a bit more, with two or three pennies.

But they can hardly afford meals, let alone think about buying meat.

The short shelf life limits sales to nearby villages, and the market will eventually become saturated!

To make money, new avenues must be explored.

Brewing beer is currently the method Lynn can think of and also the easiest to accomplish.

Lynn said, ”We can build the storage warehouse and fermenting room first; as for the mashing pot and boiling pot, we’ll have to sell the smoked fish at Kent Village next time to buy them!”

Lex was full of surprise, ”Of course we can, Master Lynn.”

As long as Master Lynn is willing to start constructing the brewing workshop, everything can proceed.

After this conversation, Lex became more diligent in collecting Wild Rabbit River Fish every day.

Pressure can make people work, but it can never elicit genuine sincerity.

...

Lynn walked out of the wooden hut to find Red and Kuisi.

Under the excavation of Iron Hoes and Cross Pickaxes, and Kuisi’s help with carrying soil using shoulder poles.

Red had dug a pit one and a half meters long, one and a half meters wide, and two meters deep.

The toilet was only for four people to use.

For now, it’s sufficient.

It was located far from the Acadia River, so there’s no worry of polluting the water source used for drinking.

Lynn looked at Red and said, ”We need to drive stakes around the pit, reinforce the surrounding soil, and saw wooden boards using the Iron Saw to cover it.”

”I don’t want to fall in while using the toilet due to soil collapse.”

Red thought for a while and then nodded, ”I understand, Master Lynn!”

The second wooden hut in the plan was completed, and the latrine was also built.

Lynn even constructed two wooden huts several meters from the Acadia River for the upcoming beer brewing.

In Lynn’s wooden hut, the walls were covered with smoked fish from the Acadia River.

Looking at the ceiling, which was like densely hung corpses, his lips twitched slightly.

There must be nearly three or four hundred pounds of smoked fish hanging up there!

And this was just in Lynn’s wooden hut.

Because there was no more space to hang them, fearing the roof would collapse, thirty or forty pounds of smoked fish were hung on the neighboring wooden hut’s roof.

Combined, there were three to four hundred pounds of smoked fish!

If not for an additional daily yield of twenty to thirty pounds of smoked fish, Lynn would have thought the river fish in the Acadia River were excessively abundant.

Finally, Lynn decided.

To head off to Kent Village to sell the smoked fish!

The sky was not yet bright.

Lynn and his group of four walked out of the wooden hut with shouldering poles, heading to Kent Village.

Having previous experience, this time they headed to Kent Village with more familiarity.

As the sky just lit up, Lynn and the other three arrived at Kent Village.

They placed four baskets full of smoked fish on the roadside open space, and Kuisi instinctively started shouting.

”Smoked fish, smoked fish, tasty smoked fish! Perfectly salted, great with rice and drinks!”

”Fresh smoked fish! Crispy outside, tender inside, aromatic, come and taste it!”

”...”

The voice was natural and unpretentious, with an easy manner.

And Red’s voice, which made Lynn shake his head involuntarily.

”Fish... smoked fish... come buy smoked fish... yes.”

The words were intermittent, like a fishbone stuck in his throat.

Lex’s calls were more natural than Red’s.

”Buy smoked fish, fresh smoked fish, the more you eat, the more you love it!”

Amid these calls, several passing villagers gathered around.

Learning that one penny could get them two pounds of fish, their eyes lit up and they came closer.

A familiar figure entered Lynn’s sight.

A slightly overweight woman with a woolen hat strode over.

Last time he came to Kent Village, she was the second one to buy smoked fish.

Seeing the woman urgently approaching, Lynn couldn’t help but frown.

Could she be here to cause trouble?

If she caused trouble and brought the Manor Lord who managed the village, it would be troublesome!

Lynn wasn’t a villager of this Manor Lord; he had entered boldly, assuming great risk.

But there was no choice.

To obtain some items that couldn’t be made by hand for now, they had to take the risk.

The overweight woman approached the baskets, her face full of joy, ”You’ve finally come to sell smoked fish again; my husband and children loved your smoked fish so much last time that they wouldn’t stop talking about it. They asked me to come and buy more!”

”Here’s five pence; I want to buy ten pounds!”

Seeing the smoked fish the overweight woman handed over, Kuisi reached out and took it.

”Of course, ma’am, feel free to choose anything within ten pounds.”

The villagers passing by witnessed this scene with novelty and gathered around.

Shills!

There are shills!

Was the overweight woman a hired shill?

Lynn was surprised; the key is, he hadn’t hired anyone for advertising...

Looking at the eager villagers wanting to buy smoked fish, Lynn was somewhat impressed.

Is this the power of a shill!

On second thought, Lynn found it rather normal.

These people had never been bombarded by advertisements before, so they were really simple-minded.

...

The baskets of smoked fish gradually dwindled.

Not many people came to the village market.

Villagers came and went, and others came and replaced them.

In the afternoon, Kuisi yelled after emptying the baskets of smoked fish.

”Master, we’ve sold all the smoked fish, and got two hundred pence in total.”

Lynn didn’t take it, he just glanced and saw.

The bottom of the basket was lined with cloth bags, each filled with a small pile of pence, and Lynn nodded with satisfaction.

It seemed the villagers from neighboring villages quite liked to eat smoked fish.

”””