Author: Afternoon is a demon

Chapter 499 Light Chapter 51.13-A: Quarry

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You gave the farmer two gold coins. The farmer looked at the gold coins in his hand and hesitated a little, then pointed to the barn not far away and said, "Would you like to sit down and have a drink of water?"

A small barn made of wood and mud was built on the edge of the field. After barking a few times, the old dog started wagging its tail and circling around you and Annette, and then lay down motionless. Immediately after entering the barn, an indescribable stench hit your face.

It's disgusting. It's a long space with the doorway in the middle. A large pot is hanging from the beam on the left. Something is cooking on the fire. There are three wooden chairs around it. There is also a large pot hanging from the beam directly above the pot.

There was a corpse that looked like a fox, a piece of pig or cow meat, and four fish, which were smoked with cooking smoke. There were a few radishes, a pumpkin, garlic, and two small bottles on the table, one of which looked like salt.

The other one looks like some kind of strange sauce. Judging from the tableware next to it, there should be three people living here. On the right side of the barn are three cows tied to the trough. The eating area and the livestock raising area are in the same place.

Under the eaves, the smells of food and cow dung were mixed together. The four walls were more or less illuminated from the gaps in the wood.

"To make you two laugh, we have a brick house in the town, which is much cleaner than here. We usually just have lunch here and go back to town in the evening. This dog is sensible and won't bite people randomly." The farmer invites you two.

Sitting down, there seemed to be some miscellaneous food cooking in the pot. For the time being, I could see clearly radishes and potatoes. "I don't care what you do. If you have anything to ask, please tell me. As long as you don't let me get into trouble."

Annette looked around. What she cared about most was that humans and cows were living together in the same room. "This cow...?"

"The price of cattle is stable. Last time I sold a bull for 8 gold coins. We usually only slaughter animals in winter, but my son found a girlfriend a while ago, so we sold one." So these three tableware refer to

Him, son and daughter-in-law. Actually Annette just wanted to ask why people eat with cows, but it is normal for farmers.

Just as he said this, a teenage girl carried a bucket and pushed the door into the barn. When she found a guest, she immediately bowed and saluted, then put the bucket in the corner and turned away, avoiding it. After a quick glance,

Although she has some freckles, she has an average appearance and her salute posture is acceptable.

The farmer filled two bowls of mixed food. Annette lowered her head and stared at the unidentified food in her hand, definitely not trying it easily, especially...

"Huh? What did you add here?"

"Have you never seen it? "Garangma" is a kind of fish sauce, which is made by pickling, fermenting and boiling fish and shrimp. Try it. It tastes very good. Just add salt and it has no taste. The fish and shrimp here are much cheaper than in the ancient city."

When Annette smelled the strange stench, she thought the farmer was blatantly poisoning the bowl. She silently put the bowl on her lap and kept a polite smile. She had lived in a big city for many years, so it was not like she couldn't live an adventurous life and sleep in the open air.

It's hard, but at least you have to pay attention to cleanliness and hygiene.

The ancient city is an inland city. Although the maze town has canals, it does not produce fish. Fish and shrimp are cheap probably because of the artificial lake.

"So you moved here from the ancient city?"

"Nearly two months ago, I learned that a pioneer village here was recruiting immigrants, so I sold all the fields and homes that were messed up by the rat men, and moved here with my son. The fields were destroyed twice, and the

The first time was when goblins orcs attacked the city, and the second time when rat-men were overflowing, I really couldn’t afford the taxes in the ancient city. My son has a craft, so moving would not make much difference. Anyway, he was still working in the ancient city market after moving here and there.

."This farmer is quite unlucky.

Annette asked about taxes.

"Both are 20%, the ancient city and here."

"Isn't this...a bit high?"

"It's not low, but it's okay." The farmer poured you a cup of hot water. The wooden cup didn't look very clean. "I have farmed in four places - I worked as a child serf in a farm in the ancient city. I want to eat.

Children have to work no matter how old they are. At that time, my father and I could only keep 10% of our income. Slavery was abolished across the country, farmers were hanged, and we were assigned a field in the suburbs, which we had just sold.

For that, the government hall took 10% and the temple took 10%, and we ate 40% ourselves. Plus other miscellaneous taxes, we were able to save 20 to 30% in the end. Later, I ran away from home in a young and energetic way and went to a nearby mountain village, where the government office was.

The tax for the hall is 30% and for the temple is 20%. It’s very hard. I begged my wife and immediately ran back to the ancient city; and then this is here.”

The farmer continued: "It was already late spring and early summer when we moved. I barely planted wheat. I didn't expect any harvest this year. The timing was not good. Thanks to the council hiring a few druids, the growth was accelerated.

And it fertiles the land. I have calculated that after paying the 20% tax, I will earn more than the ancient city, which is acceptable. The important thing is that the ancient city also has a 10% temple tax, while the temple here has no tax and the miscellaneous taxes are also less."

"What miscellaneous taxes are there?"

"Public bathhouse tax and kiln burning tax. Each subject must pay a bathhouse tax, and then they can use the large bathhouse for free. You have to pay whether you want to wash or not. I went once and never went again. It was a waste of money. There is a bath.

It's something that only idle young men can do. Ten and a half days and a half of rubbing it by the river is enough." The farmer became a little angry when he thought about the unjust money he had paid. "I originally wanted to bake the bread myself, but I can't discuss politics.

The government prohibits private baking of bread and ceramics. I didn’t want to pay the tax, so I dismantled the stove.”

"How are your son and daughter-in-law doing?"

"Wei, my future daughter-in-law. I haven't given my final consent yet. My son is pretty good at making belts, ropes, chains and backpacks. He mainly learned the cobbler's trade and worked for his boss." The farmer suddenly had a serious expression on his face and lowered his voice and said, "This daughter-in-law.

, I don’t like it very much. When I was looking for a wife, the girls in the mountain villages were very simple, but this girl came from the newly developed village nearby. She fled from the north and had learned a little bit about reading, writing and arithmetic. Let me tell you, women

Are you high-spirited... Oh, I'm sorry, I mean there is no benefit to a farm woman being high-spirited. She thinks that by marrying a citizen who is officially registered in a good territory, she can also obtain the status of a formal citizen. I am not referring to her specifically.

No, I have seen many such restless women. If they encounter a better opportunity than my son, they will fly away immediately. I will not make a mistake." After saying this, the farmer lowered his head and sighed.

"Are there many refugees?"

"Many, the pioneer village itself does not have that many jobs to support them. The farm next to my home has hired 20 temporary workers, and the monthly salary is only 1 gold. 1 gold, which is not enough to feed these young men in their prime, but there are always

It's better than starving to death. Whether you like to work or not, there are more things you want to do." The situation in Matthew's territory seems not to be very good, and some unemployed people have begun to look for jobs in Maze Town. Unemployment problems can easily turn into security problems.

"Are there any scoundrels looking for trouble?"

"Once, I was bumped into by several militiamen from the market organization while patrolling and chased away."

"Could it be that..." Annette suddenly laughed when she remembered the farmer, "I just said there was no shortage of manpower because you also hired those temporary workers?"

The farmer waved his hands again and again: "Ha, no matter how cheap it is, I can't bear to spend that money. How big is my field? Do I need to hire people? It's cheaper than temporary labor. This is almost the same on my neighbor's farmland. In fact, we do it at night.

…”

Just mid-sentence, the door was pushed open by the girl.

She hurried to the farmer's side and stirred the cauldron: "Uncle! Look, you are only talking to the guests. Look! Have you forgotten!?" The last three words were particularly emphasized.

The farmer blinked, as if he remembered something, and changed his words: "That's right, I almost forgot. Oh, I won't say it anymore, you guys hurry up and eat."

The atmosphere has changed. The girl no longer avoids him. Instead, she stands beside the farmer, stirring the cauldron and serving soup to you two enthusiastically. It seems that after saying this, it is time to leave.

You and Annette left the barn, and you heard conversations coming from far behind, such as "They told you not to tell anyone" and "I know, I just forgot about it", but you couldn't hear them clearly.

The secret between more than one ordinary farmer in this neighborhood cannot be something serious. Let’s talk about it later.

You two head toward the foot of the mountain.

Looking from a distance, there are two areas that are more lively. On the left is the lumberyard, and on the right is the quarry. You walk towards the quarry.

The shirtless man pulled a cart full of square and large rocks and passed you two toward the town. There was another man pushing hard behind the cart.

The quarry is not large in scale. The square-like compacted open space where stones are piled is about two or three carriages wide and less than a hundred meters long. The vertical height of the hillside excavation is only about thirty meters, and the hillside above that is still

There are green grass and moss. There are two potholes with no rails. Looking inside, it doesn't look like they are very deep.

But there are a lot of people, there are four or five people who look like overseers holding wooden sticks, and there are forty or fifty people who are clinking and moving stones, and they are very busy.

Although the supervisors saw you coming, they paid no attention to you.

Annette found a person who seemed to have the highest status and asked: "Hello, we want to inquire about something."

"I'm so busy, didn't you see?"

A gold coin made him change his mind. He bit the gold coin and said a little impatiently: "Okay, you can ask."

"What kind of stones are produced here?"

"Limestone and granite. We only trade with the local market. We can't sell you even one piece, otherwise we will be in breach of contract. I can't tell you the price. I told you, if you go to suppress the market price, in the end the wool will still have to go to the sheep. It's miserable.

It’s me.” The supervisor of the quarry mistook you for out-of-town businessmen who came to inquire about the market situation.

"How's the output? Where is it used?"

"Our quarry has not been established for a long time. It was severely understaffed at first and had no scale at all. We have just recently increased the production, but it still doesn't work. The people who come here are all stupid boys who can't work well and have no strength."

Use it, we need technology here, technology! They are all sold to the market, and how do I know where the market resells them to? However, I have not heard of any stones being transferred out. I only heard that stones were purchased from other places.

There is never enough stone for construction projects in the territory." According to Annette's original imagination, there should be a large cave in the quarry, which is very wide and has caves, and can even lead to the back door of a castle on the other side of the mountain.

.Actually, this quarry was built just over a month ago.

"Don't the market or the council plan to send more manpower and expand the scale?"

"Is there a mistake, you two?" The supervisor scratched his head, seeming to be embarrassed, "Who can quarry on a larger scale than Biyun City? Sixty percent of the stone in the central and southern regions comes from Biyun City. The local area is

In a small trading town, everyone relies on craftsmanship to make money. If you want to rely on labor-intensive industries to make a living, it will be very difficult. The most basic thing is, you see, this town has an insufficient population. There are only ordinary workers in a quarry in Piyun City.

There are only five to six hundred people, which exceeds the entire population here." The supervisor pointed to the waste stones at his feet, "And we also rely on stone processing and carving to maintain our business, not on the production of rough stones. The hills nearby are all

Not very good."

Annette thought for a while and asked: "Weren't you provided with stones for the trebuchet?"

With a sigh, the supervisor frowned and looked Annette up and down: "That thing is round, and everything here is square. If you don't believe me, just take a look around. What are you two doing? Trebuchet? That's enough.

, don't hinder my work." He said and walked away.

What are you going to do?

A, ten gold coins will make him say more.

B, leave and head towards the temple.
Chapter completed!