On the hillside, the slaves were transporting logs, working hard to build Luo De's manor.
Luo De planned to have six wooden houses; besides his main house, there would be a dormitory each for the guards and servants, a guest room for Gunter and his brothers, and two additional rooms used as storage.
The yard originally had three, and three more needed to be built, along with a cellar.
Under Lawrence's supervision, the slaves worked energetically.
Not far from them, on the open ground outside the yard, the townspeople surrounded Otto, chattering incessantly like boiling water.
They couldn't farm, forage, or fish in the river.
All of Frost Leaf Town's residents were idle and anxious.
Lacking knowledge, but watching the wooden bucket filled with wheat gradually empty, they were fully aware of the danger of exhausting their resources.
Upon hearing that working would earn them free breakfast and lunch, everyone rushed to Otto to sign up.
This way, the consumption of their own grain could be reduced by more than half.
As for the so-called work points, most people did not seriously consider them—
Would the Lord return the grain he collected from them?
It was more practical to eat it right away.
This situation dissatisfied the farmers who couldn't sign up.
"Otto, I'm stronger than your son, so why not me?" A robust farmer nearly six feet tall protested indignantly.
"You came late, the spots are already filled." Otto said indifferently.
This only made the sturdy farmer more upset,
"That's not fair, why did your son get to register first?"
"Yes, it's unfair!"
"The Lord told you first, so your son could register early!"
"Your son isn't even as tall as the wall, if he can do it, so can I!"
"Otto, you have plenty of grain, don't compete with us..."
...
The other townspeople who didn't get to sign up all chimed in.
Otto, after all, was not the Lord, and without guards dispatched to him by Luo De this time, the townspeople were not afraid of him and took the opportunity to vent their previous grievances.
Of course, Otto hadn't handled this matter well either.
Communicating commands in this era wasn't like in Luo De's previous life, where a message in a group chat informed everyone.
Normally, territories would have heralds to pass down messages layer by layer.
But now Luo De could only be seen as a makeshift team, and Otto naturally had no experience.
He told a few friends of the lord's command to pass it around town, and by the time many people received the message, it was already too late.
Especially the strong men, who felt they deserved such work more.
The crowd's verbal assault left Otto flustered, but his sons stood firm, confronting everyone with a fierce attitude.
"What's all this noise about?"
Just as a fight was about to break out, Durant's stern voice rang out.
Everyone turned back to see Luo De and Durant's figures appearing before them.
"Good day, Lord."
The townspeople all bowed their heads and greeted, voluntarily stepping aside to clear a path.
Luo De stared at Otto with a questioning gaze and coldly said, "Can't you even manage such a small matter?"
Otto hurriedly jogged forward, bowing in apology, "I'm very sorry, Lord, I didn't expect so many people would want to serve you..."
"Are you suggesting that my people hate me?"
"No, no, you've misunderstood..."
Luo De ignored Otto and turned his gaze to the townspeople, "Do we have any enmity between us?"
"No, Lord."
"No, sir."
The townspeople responded one after another, but their voices lacked confidence.
Luo De smiled and continued, "Then are you all willing to work for me?"
"Absolutely willing!"
"I'm willing, Lord!"
"It was Otto who wouldn't let us serve you!"
This time, more townspeople spoke up, and their voices were louder.
"Alright then, I now need fifty men to plow the fields and ten women to cook, with the same conditions as before."
"Me, me, me!"
"I'm strong!"
"My cooking tastes the best!"
...
Luo De's words were like a stone cast into a calm lake, instantly eliciting countless responses.
Luo De waved his hand to signal everyone to quiet down, then looked at Otto,
"Choose the strong and energetic ones for digging and plowing first, and those nimble and familiar with the mountain trails for gathering dead leaves and weeds, do I need to teach you this?"
"You're, you're right!" Otto confirmed fearfully.
"I'll give you one more chance. If you mess up again, expect to be whipped."
Luo De glanced at Otto, turned around, and left without waiting for a response.
From behind came cheers like "Well done, Lord" and "The Lord is impressive."
Hearing these words, Luo De didn't feel proud; instead, he thought these people were too simple-minded, easily swayed by small benefits and a few words.
Now, the class conflict had instantly shifted to internal conflicts among them.
When Luo De grants some favors in the future, these people would forget that he had taken away sixty percent of their property.
Of course, at the end of the day, the nobles of this era exploited so severely that Luo De seemed less harsh in comparison.
The farming method in Frost Leaf Town was originally broadcasting, yielding a hundred pounds of rye per acre in good years, but only fifty to sixty pounds in bad years.
This was not only due to pests and diseases but also theft by rats and sparrows.
Continuous planting would turn the soil barren and reduce the grain yield.
Since Luo De arrived, he couldn't continue the previous broadcasting method, so he adopted a normal farming method.
By eliminating barren land, and adding fertilizers, irrigation, and weeding, Luo De estimated that yields could be increased to two hundred pounds.
If selecting quality and plump seeds, the highest yield could reach up to two hundred and fifty to three hundred pounds.
To be self-sufficient, a conservative estimate would require a thousand acres.
Thus, Luo De ultimately decided on intensive cultivation for a thousand acres of quality fields.
Of course, other arable lands still needed to be farmed, just without adding fertilizers.
After all, as the lord, Luo De needed to have food reserves, and he also had to fulfill the lordly condition for crop planting.
But the fertilizer needed for a thousand acres was still astronomical.
To make up for the lack of manure, everything usable needed to be scavenged.
Not only weeds and fallen leaves, but even soil mixed with humus layers had to be collected.
Fortunately, tasks like gathering grass and digging soil could be performed by ten-year-old children and sixty-year-old elders alike, in order to collect more fertilizers, eventually, everyone in Frost Leaf Town stepped into the business of gathering grass and digging soil.
And to improve efficiency, all the farming tools seized from the Golden Sand Trading Team were distributed, with not a single one left.
The residents of Frost Leaf Town, like locusts, scraped off a layer of the forest floor.
What was once a naturally vibrant forest now looked like a city preparing for a sanitation inspection, swept spotlessly clean.
In the process, townspeople discovered habitats of birds like sparrows, where piles of droppings were all dug up together with the soil.
As for ponds with sludge and mud pits, those too were thoroughly scraped away, revealing the hard ground beneath.
Luo De lamented the absence of a swamp on his land; otherwise, fertilizers wouldn't be a worry.
According to the knowledge obtained from the system, Luo De sent people to collect and mine granite fragments from the valley and River Bay, then pulverized them into fine powder and mixed a hundred pounds per ton into the composed fertilizers.
Weathered granite contained potassium, which, although incomparable to the potassium fertilizer of his previous life, could still improve the soil.
While the townspeople gathered these materials, Luo De wasn't idle either, starting composting as soon as the pits were dug.
For the first composting, Luo De had to be on-site to instruct.
But seeing those yellow and black mixed together sticky substances, Luo De vowed never to handle it personally.