Chapter 236: Waiting Before the Meeting

That voice was like a bolt from the blue, waking George from his sweet dream.

“I’m coming right away!” George did a cartwheel off his bed and started fixing his clothes. His heart was pounding: ‘What could possibly make Dad so nervous! He is not some inexperienced person! After serving as the Duchy’s Secretary for so many years, he should be as calm as a mountain even if it crumbles before him. Could the Kingdom of Lucia have started a war right now? Or maybe a historic tsunami hit the port? Or perhaps someone in the Duchy is performing an Evil God ritual to invite an invasion from another Plane or cause a massive plague…’

After he hurriedly dressed himself, he opened the door and was pulled out by Viscount Bolerum.

His adoptive father pulled him while running fast and said: “The messenger sent by His Grace the Duke has already delivered the message and is rushing to the next Territory. I also sent my own messengers to spread the news, so the Knights should already be on their way to the City Hall. There is no time to wash up now. I have already arranged for the servants to bring the necessary supplies. If there is time after we reach the meeting room, we can deal with it then…”

When they reached the door, everything was proceeding according to the pre-arranged plan. They rushed into the carriage, and after the coachman cracked his whip loudly, the sound of hooves and wheel axles created a harmonious melody.

The heavy atmosphere inside the carriage was very oppressive. George had to turn his gaze to the scenery outside the window to distract himself.

At this time, the sky was not yet fully bright. The East was just beginning to turn white. The black sky was slowly fading, and the air still smelled of the night.

The flowers and grass along the road stretched their limbs in the lingering mist, as if they had just woken from a dream. Water droplets clinging to the petals and green leaves shimmered with light. The streets also carried a damp smell of morning dew, showing that the mist blocking the view had only just cleared.

The ocean had not only brought great wealth to Bolerum Territory but also brought a lot of water vapor. If salt, seafood, and the smooth sea trade routes were the gifts of the sea, then this abundant water vapor was a mixed blessing, loved and hated.

More water vapor meant more humid air, and only with humid air could there be abundant rain. The rich water resources affected by abundant rain largely determined the agricultural production of the territories in this world.

A nation is based on agriculture, and food is the first need of the people. Without such a strong agricultural foundation, Bolerum would not have the prosperity it has today. Agriculture, the primary industry, is the root of everything. George could hardly imagine that the people of the Territory could work hard while starving. Even if the whip could increase efficiency for a short time, the result would be piles of white bones.

Similarly, the moist water vapor also brought the growth of mold. Although it was far from the rainy season in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River in Tianchao before his transmigration, it still made many items that needed dry storage require extra care. At the same time, the maintenance and repair of wooden furniture, houses, and crossbows had to be done much more frequently than in inland areas.

Furthermore, the air contained a relatively high salt content. This made the maintenance of iron metal products especially troublesome. Just the loss of anti-rust oil reached 100 Gold Coins every year, not to mention the extra labor costs and the inevitable corrosion loss even with proper maintenance in such an environment.

According to George’s understanding before his transmigration, this was because the air had high salt content and strong conductivity, so electrons moved more easily, making rusting happen more readily.

In fact, back then in industry, there was a specific evaluation method for the anti-corrosion ability of metal products called the “Salt Spray Test.” This meant placing metal products in a special salt spray test chamber and using salt mist generated by salt water to test the metal’s anti-corrosion ability.

But now, George was not clear about the exact reason. He dared not be sure that the physical laws in this area were the same in both worlds. Moreover, the changes in matter at the microscopic level could not be observed with his current strength.

But overall, this environment was more beneficial than harmful for the Territory. Although the mist formed by the water vapor after a night of low temperature in the early morning might affect the movement of the city’s residents, there were not many people walking out early in the morning, even in busy Poitou City. In a society that had not yet experienced large-scale industrialization, the vast majority of Commoners still followed the lifestyle of working at sunrise and resting at sunset.

Just as the carriage stopped at the square in front of the City Hall, the sky in the East slowly turned the color of fish belly, then gained a faint red blush, with red and purple clouds drifting by.

Stepping into the City Hall, George found that apart from the Guards on duty at the entrance and the servants he brought, there was almost no one there. Seeing this scene, George actually felt relieved: ‘It seems that even if there is something major happening, it is not threatening the safety of the whole Duchy. Otherwise, there would be a crowd of civil servants busy and bustling here now.’

Viscount Bolerum had only said that he notified the Knights in the Territory to come, and did not mention any arrangements for the civil servants. So George could not make any inferences about the situation regarding them. Because in the political framework of the Territory, the status of civil servants was not very high, so it was possible that Viscount Bolerum ignored them in the brief conversation before. Power comes from the barrel of a gun, and this is a truth everywhere.

Taking advantage of the fact that the Knights had not yet arrived, George quickly dealt with his personal hygiene issues. Fortunately, the City Hall had been built with this situation in mind. It should be said that this was the normal state of this world. During busy times, officials of all ranks in the Territory might live in the City Hall for ten days or even half a month.

Soon, the rumbling sound of his stomach came out. Or perhaps because the two of them, belonging to the Knight class, had particularly strong digestive functions. The sound seemed like a single song that kept floating in the meeting room.

Viscount Bolerum seemed a bit embarrassed: “Endure it, just endure it and it will pass. We can’t get food here! Wait until the Taverns on the street open, and have them buy something. Or wait until the cook wakes up and make the food to send it over.”

In fact, there was also a small kitchen in the backyard of the City Hall, which could be used to reheat food that had already gone cold. It could be said to be the greatest guarantee for civil servants to have a hot meal during busy times. It was also a preparation made in advance for the government departments to run around the clock during very special times.

However, although there was plenty of firewood in there now, and the servants were not a problem, there was no professional cook. But handling simple meals was still possible. After all, not everyone could have a professional cook to provide meals. These servants basically cooked for themselves. In fact, if it still didn’t work, George, this foodie, was also a top-class cook in this world. However, there were no backup ingredients stored in such a kitchen.

In ancient Tianchao before his transmigration, such a situation would absolutely not happen. The young masters in the large mansions of Tianchao could be said to have people specially waiting on them twenty-four hours a day. The kitchen was always staffed, and the stoves never stopped burning day and night. Whenever the master wanted to eat something, he just gave a signal, and soon hot snacks would be served.

Luxurious enjoyment and strict hierarchy meant that in any large family in ancient Tianchao that had existed for over a hundred years, any core member would enjoy such treatment. But on the Western Continent in this world, such a scene was basically unseen, because on the Western Continent where war never ceased, it was hard to have an order that existed purely for enjoyment.

Perhaps in the Commercial Republics in the South, or in the distant Silver Federation of Magic Kingdoms, such enjoyment could be found! But in the Duchy of Nohan, this was probably impossible to see. So Viscount Bolerum did not realize in the early morning that he could ask someone to wake the cook to prepare breakfast. It was thought that if the cook saw the generous treatment, as long as it was not too frequent, he would definitely get up on his toes on the surface.

The key was that Viscount Bolerum had no such idea. And George? He had been confused by Viscount Bolerum’s behavior for a moment.

“There is no need for such trouble, Father! Even in this meeting room, there is enough food for us to use for a whole day!” Saying this, George pulled out a rectangular wooden box made of nailed planks from under the table in the corner. Relying on his strength and skills that were close to inhuman, he easily opened the box. In fact, for ordinary people, a crowbar would often be needed as an aid.

After lifting the lid, there was cushioning dry straw. Of course, they also formed a moisture-proof and dehumidifying defense line together with those bags of quicklime. This could keep the food inside dry for a certain period of time, effectively preventing mold and spoilage.

Then he opened the tightly wrapped Linen and took out the dry and hard portable military rations that George had produced before. This food shaped like small square bricks was very solid. Its hardness without water was enough to compare with clay bricks, and only a little bit was needed to provide the energy required for a battle.

In fact, the best choice would be to wrap it with non-toxic oil paper. This could save the space occupied by the Linen, dry straw, and quicklime. But since George had not yet solved the papermaking problem, he had to settle for the second best.

“Here! Father, this is the new military ration made by our Territory. Please try it!” George handed two of the square bricks in his hand to the Lord Viscount, who seemed completely confused.

Viscount Bolerum took one piece and put it directly into his mouth. Immediately, a crisp crunching sound came from his mouth, as if he were chewing wood. He immediately picked up a pot of clean water from the side table and hurriedly poured himself a cup to moisten his throat.

After trying it, Viscount Bolerum frowned: “I say, George! The taste of this thing is really not good! Do we have to use this to fill our bellies in future wars? This seems like torturing the soldiers’ mouths and stomachs!”

To facilitate storage, the rations were dehydrated very thoroughly. The raw materials, originally in a paste-like semi-liquid state, were poured into molds. The molds were placed on expensive metal frames and pushed into a kiln to burn wood for drying. After completion, they naturally looked somewhat similar to red bricks fired with the same process. The main reason for not using the more convenient and simple sun-drying process was to prevent insects like flies from laying eggs on them.

George played with the dry ration in his hand and showed a harmless smile: “This is an emergency ration used when cooking is impossible during a battle, not a daily meal during a march. In fact, based on the soldiers’ reactions during these recent training exercises, the evaluation is quite good. In terms of taste, it is much better than the previous tasteless unleavened flatbread. And in terms of texture, it is not much worse than the Black Bread they eat at home. Moreover, after the volume was reduced, it became very popular for its portability!”

“If it is not for long-term use, it is still bearable. But why can’t you make the taste of this thing better! Or have more varieties? Then the choices in taste would be richer and more varied?” Viscount Bolerum looked at the half-eaten “brick” in his hand.

“Father! For hungry people, a variety of flavors cannot fill an empty stomach: for people who can eat enough normally, no matter how complex the seasoning, it cannot make this ration delicious. Although significantly increasing the cost could make it delicious, it would lose the original meaning of the ration. I do not want the soldiers to eat these rations as snacks before the battle even starts.” Facing his father, George also spoke the truth he had never told anyone else. The real situation in this regard was not clear to anyone in the Territory before.

“But if it is only an emergency ration, the production quantity is probably not large, right! I see that the box used for packaging has uniform specifications. The former might not be a problem, but the latter requires a large number of molds, which is probably a lot, isn’t it! If it is not mass production, I think with your penny-pinching character who never wants to lose out, you would not be able to do it! What other plan do you have?” Viscount Bolerum looked at George with a half-smile.

As the saying goes, no one knows a son better than his father. Years of living together had allowed Viscount Bolerum to understand George’s character thoroughly.

“For the army on the road, that is just an emergency ration. But for those sailors on long sea voyages, using this food to replace their crawling bread could not be better! In fact, even when I was just equipping our Territory’s own warships and fleet with these rations, many captains and Caravans were already preparing to buy in bulk. However, the condition I proposed was to exchange them for equivalent grains. Because if this kind of dry food is shipped out on a large scale, the self-produced grain in our Territory would be fundamentally insufficient. To prevent accidents, no business has been conducted so far!” George said with considerable regret.

Watching the orders fly before his eyes one by one, but not being able to eat them for the moment, George’s heart was indeed a bit uncomfortable.

In fact, George had already formulated emergency rations made from different batches and different types. The content varied greatly. Depending on the season of production and the type of supply used, the raw materials of the rations were constantly changing.

The ordinary type used by his own army was of course a mixture of oats, wheat, and chopped dried fish. In addition, there was a deluxe type with beef chunks mixed with brown sugar and spices. There was even a basic type with cheap acorn flour and wheat bran, plus some lettuce and fish scraps. The only thing that was the same was the weight and size of the emergency rations. Through different grades and prices, they met different customer needs. After all, for sailors at sea, this was their normal daily meal.

In fact, to prevent the common problem of insects growing in dry food at sea, George also specially sterilized the packaged rations a second time to ensure nothing went wrong.

The staple food that ordinary sailors at sea had used for a long time was, just as before his transmigration, the terrifying salted beef and hard biscuits. The biscuits were baked only from the cheapest old clumpy coarse flour and salt mixed together. Even to save money, a lot of bran was added, making it “Hell food.” The soldiers called it a grain brick.

And sometimes, due to carelessness in production, sand and stones were mixed into these biscuits. Since this thing could be described as hard as a brick, the practice of putting it directly into the mouth to gnaw was obviously absolutely wrong.

At first, the ship’s cooks soaked the biscuits in water and fried them. Even so, to swallow such a biscuit, one still had to endure the pain of a blade scraping in the throat.

Later, they chose to soak these things in hot water or hot soup for a long time until they became soft enough to swallow. Or even more trouble, they tried to grind them into powder to make porridge. It can be imagined that the taste of such porridge would be the most terrifying in the world, said to be like melted rubber paste.

Even more terrifying was that if these hard biscuits were stored for too long, and if the salt was not enough, not uniform, or stored improperly, they were easily infested by insects like honeycombs, becoming a home for several or even a dozen weevils and maggots. The disgust level was naturally unimaginable.

The method to remove these insects was even more disgusting. Put the maggot-infested biscuit in a bag, and put a stinky fish inside. In this way, the maggots would crawl out of the biscuit and move to the stinky fish. So, when the stinky fish was thrown away, the insects in the biscuit should be slightly fewer.

In fact, if a soldier was given a moldy biscuit, he could ask to exchange it for another one. Because moldy biscuits were poisonous. But if he was given a biscuit with insects, since it could grow insects, it meant it was non-toxic, so he had to eat the insects and the biscuit together, otherwise he would have to endure hunger.

So sailors jokingly called the “maggots” “boatmen,” because the “maggots” wriggled on the biscuits just like boatmen rowing a boat.

So George believed that his product could replace the originally criticized food to a certain extent. In fact, if the ship owners and captains were not too stingy with their sailors, they should know how to make a choice for the safety of the ship and the morale of their crew.

Before, it was okay that everyone was like this and had no other choice. But once there was a choice, those sailors who originally accepted their fate would easily develop different thoughts. Because one is not afraid of not knowing the goods, but afraid of comparing goods.