Chapter 17 Establishing a Farming Industry
Landon decided that he would check his reward when he went back home at night. For now, he needed to see the results for himself.
Landon looked at the overly excited Waldo. Judging from his appearance, Landon could see that Waldo had been crying before. He assumed it was tears of joy.
Waldo knelt down in front of him and almost began crying again.
"Your highness...your idea was a success....with the soil not being barren any more ...w..we....(sniff)...we would be able to produce enough food to feed everyone. Thank you your highness...thank you..( sniff, sniff)", Waldo said while trying to hold back his tears.
"Please stand...you all are my people and my new family...it is my responsibility to take care of you all", Landon said with a smile.
Waldo looked at Landon and was filled with warmth. This is what a ruler should be like, he thought.
"Waldo, let us go to the farms and have a look at the fields"
"Yes your highness", Waldo said with a smile.
Once they got to the farmlands, Landon was shocked. He could see tall stalks of wheats, he could see bean sprouts, oats, peas, rye, and tomatoes. Infact, the farms all looked lucious and rich.
When everyone saw him coming over, they all smiled and rushed over to him. They were no longer afraid to speak their minds in front of him. In fact at the middle and end of every week, Landon made sure to come over regularly.
He always brought food over and spoke to them as if they were his family. The farmers were stunned at first, then they later realized that their king didn’t care about appearances at all. All of them thought he was wise, intelligent, kind, generous and most of all humble.
"Your highness", they all greeted and gazed at him as if they were looking at a God.
"How are you all? I heard that there are a lot of goodies from the farm this time...you all should make sure not to overwork yourselves.. Taking care of one’s health is the most important thing afterall." Landon said while smiling
They all smiled in return and Lyore stepped forward.
"My king, your methods were amazing. I feel like a toddler who is learning farming for the first time." Lyore said excitedly.
Landon chuckled while looking at their excited faces.
"Dont worry, in the future I will teach you all on everything concerning farming. But for now, we need at least 250 more people here. We will hire people irrespective of gender. Of course children below the ages of 15 and people above 38 will not be allowed to carry or distribute the goods. They can only work on the fields for health and safety reasons."
Everyone nodded in agreement. Afterall, it would be difficult for the elderly or very young boys or girls to carry those heavy bags of food.
"This Food industry will have Lyore as the overseer for all farming activities. Pat will supervise how to workers plant and care for the soil, while Waldo will supervise how much yields we make and the storage of the goods. Pat will be in charge of 150 people, while Waldo will take on 100 people."
Again, they all thought that was reasonable.
"At the end of the day, storage of all goods is to be kept in the second estate on the left of the fields, and the amount recorded. Also, Waldo it would be your job to distribute the goods to the local stores in the central region. We will set reasonable prices for all food items, so everyone can buy them. 10 wagons will be assigned to the farming industry. Use the wagons to send the yields to the estate and the stores in the central region."
"Yes my King", Waldo replied proudly.
"There will be also 5 cooks and 20 guards assigned for protecting you all and the fields. You all will also have your lunch breaks in the estate as well."
They were all happy that at least they had a place close by to get food. One needed to know that there was quite a good amount of distance between the farmlands and the central region of Baymard.
"Finally, everyone will receive their salaries from Lyore at the end of each month. All workers would earn 400 copper coins, supervisors get 500 copper coins and the overseer gets 600 copper coins. Of course your meals will be taken out of your salaries, it would cost 5 copper coins a plate.
Once more, they were truly shocked. All farmers in the empire were paid a measily 250 copper coins per month, but his highness gave them so much more..... They were beaming with joy and really felt grateful towards him. They swore in their hearts that they would work twice as hard and make the best of their new lives.
Over the past few weeks, they’ve been hearing some of the miners brag about how grateful they were to his highness. He gave them food, jobs and made them feel safe and cared for.
They felt like they would hold their heads up high once again.
So what if he wasn’t favored in the Empire? He was kind and very trustworthy towards all of them.
Infact, some people even thought that Landon was the reincarnation of a God sent to help Baymard grow.
Landon looked at their happy faces and smiled.
"Now, let me show walk you all to the estate that would represent the future Food industry"
Once they arrived the second estate, Landon showed them around while explaining how the estate would be used.
He told them about his future plans, so they would know that they were going to share the estate with others soon. Although they didn’t understand half of his plans, they believed in him. Hence they didn’t mind sharing with others. This was a man who solved the barren soil issue as if it was nothing...what more could they say. He was working his hardest to make sure that they had food in their bellies.
Landon planned to make a section for fishing, production of can foods and so on..but that would be in the future. Hence he needed them to understand that they share this estate with others.
He allocated some buildings to the farming department and told them to store foods in different rooms depending on the food types. He also showed them all the seeds he originally found in the estate and asked them to plant some more crops. He would need to get the rest of the seeds he found on the other estate’s over here later. He thought.
Lyore had agreed that in three days time, he would gather 250 men to work for the farming industry.
Landon could only wait.