Lord blessed by the elves

Chapter 34 Eat enough
Baffir's voice lowered, filled with deep worry: "Young Master, this is already an excessive amount of work. Human strength is limited. If we continue to exploit people like this... I'm afraid that before the enemy even attacks, people on our own territory will die from exhaustion, or... or some serfs will be unable to survive and risk running away!"

The old butler's words struck Kruse like a hammer blow, instantly extinguishing his anger and replacing it with a cold sense of reality and heavy pressure.

He looked around and examined them closely. The serfs were not deliberately slacking off; they had truly reached their physical limits. Every time they lifted their hoes, it was as if they were expending their last bit of life energy.

Buffet is right, this is not a matter of attitude, it is a matter of survival.

He was so focused on grand plans that he neglected the fact that the most basic human resources, which were responsible for all of this, were already overburdened.

Would serfs be too tired to work?

The idea flashed through Kruse's mind for only a moment before being rejected.

No, the serfs of Lion's Tooth Territory were not born weak. The root of their problem was never "exhaustion," but "hunger"!
The prolonged period of semi-starvation drained their strength and extinguished their hopes, leaving them like blindfolded donkeys pulling a millstone, only able to turn numbly and slowly.

As long as they can fill their stomachs and see real food that can actually enter their stomachs, these serfs, whose spines have been bent by the weight of life, can unleash a tenacious power from the very bottom of life that will shock all the nobles!
Kruse recalled the 1,800 pounds of purple sweet potatoes stored in the castle warehouse.

They may not taste good, but they are rich in starch, which is real energy!
Kruse's gaze swept over the exhausted serfs, who were barely holding on by sheer willpower, and then fell upon the anxious and helpless steward, Buffet. He took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing the frustration arising from the thwarted plan.

This was not pure benevolence, but an extremely pragmatic investment.

Allowing these serfs to endure hunger and hardship is inefficient, easily leads to exhaustion and even escape, and ultimately harms the overall interests of the territory and the completion of the summer harvest.

Using these temporarily "extra" grains to supplement their meals and replenish their energy is to enable them to complete the tasks of reclamation and field management more quickly and effectively, ultimately ensuring their own plans.

Kruse had calculated this very clearly.

Now, he has pretty much figured out the "nature" of this mysterious system.

The main quests are interconnected, propelling him to solve the core problems of the territory's survival and development.

As for the reward of the book "The Origin of Elves," he was not really interested at the moment—he was almost starving, who had the mind to study the genealogy and history of elves?

The problem is that if a task is not completed, a new task will not be generated.

Those side quests with generous rewards, like a windfall, are even more rare and hard to come by.

To obtain more system rewards that can be immediately converted into strength, such as energy crystals, spirit insects, and high-quality seeds, he must continuously and as quickly as possible complete the tasks issued by the system.

This has almost become a simple equation: completing tasks = obtaining rewards = strengthening territory = dealing with crises.

The current predicament, whether it was the exhaustion of the serfs or the impending attack, only intensified the urgency for him to complete the task of "planting one hundred acres of purple sweet potatoes." No sooner said than done!

The next day, just as dawn was breaking, a large stone mill was set up in the open space outside the castle.

There was nothing that could be done about it; there were no windmills or mills on the territory.

Kruse personally took charge, dividing the castle's servants into several teams: strong male servants were responsible for washing and cutting the purple sweet potatoes into chunks, and then pushing the heavy stone mill to grind the sweet potato chunks into a coarse, sticky white paste.
The maid then took charge of the next delicate task—pouring the ground potato pulp into a large wooden barrel covered with multiple layers of coarse linen, continuously adding water, and repeatedly kneading, squeezing, and filtering it until the flowing juice became relatively clear, leaving only coarse fiber residue in the cloth.

This process is extremely tedious and time-consuming, and it also consumes an astonishing amount of water.

The filtered milky white potato syrup was poured into large earthenware jars to settle and settle.

After a full day and night, the top layer of yellowish and even slightly acidic wastewater can be carefully skimmed off, revealing the thick, slippery, and slightly grayish-white sediment at the bottom of the tank.

This is the initial separation of purple sweet potato starch wet powder.

More than 1,800 pounds of purple sweet potatoes with soil on them, after such primitive and inefficient manual processing, the final wet starch obtained is probably less than 60 pounds after drying!

The starch yield is shockingly low, with a large amount of nutrients and starch being wasted in residue and wastewater.

But Kruse was not discouraged.

Pointing to the mountain of purple sweet potato fiber residue left after filtration, he ordered the cook in charge of meals: "Dry this residue, grind it into powder, don't waste it! Mix it into rye flour and bake it into bread! From today onwards, all serfs who participated in land reclamation, composting, and planting will be provided with three full meals a day! The bread ration will be doubled!"

The news spread like wildfire throughout the entire serf settlement!
When those rough, darker-colored loaves of black bread mixed with purple root potato residue were brought out, and when the aroma of the third meal of the day, which had previously only existed in dreams, truly wafted into the air, the eyes of all the serfs lit up, as if hungry wolves had spotted their prey!
The simple phrase "eat your fill" has become the strongest spur and the most effective encouragement!
No one complained about the heavy workload anymore, and no one slacked off.

Because they saw that the stronger the hand that pushed the millstone, the bigger the piece of bread they would receive;

The more wasteland is excavated, the thicker the porridge will be in the evening!

A miracle happened.

The land reclamation task, which was originally expected to take a lot of time and a lot of supervision, was progressing faster than expected thanks to the simple promise of "three full meals a day"!
More than a hundred emaciated serfs, their eyes gleaming with a green light, seemed to have been injected with a fanatical vitality. They shouted spontaneous chants, brandished hoes and shovels, and launched an attack on that stubborn hilly land!

As a result, what was originally planned to be fifty acres of land was actually a hundred acres of sloping land suitable for the growth of purple sweet potatoes, which was reclaimed by this group of "well-fed" serfs in just one week!

Efficiency has increased by more than 20% compared to before!
The doubled fertile soil exudes the earthy aroma under the sun, as if silently proclaiming: food is the most powerful magic and the most effective mobilization order on this land!

(End of this chapter)