Chapter 79:

The terrifying Countess was considered by the knights to be an activist. She did what she said. Before the female wild boar gave birth, she turned over the information and began to find a way to incite the pig. After studying and recording it in detail, she went to the blacksmith to build a suitable The knives, and together with chef Bob, who is very good at knives, the two whispered for a long time and found a seven-day-old little boar piglet from the pigpen to start.

"Seven to ten days old piglets are the most suitable for surgery. They have less stress response, and small wounds heal quickly, so there is no impact. This piglet is just seven days old, so it's just right."

"Madam, Do you want this?" Although he had discussed it with Wei Wei for a long time, he still couldn't help but hesitate when he was sitting on the stool with the specially-made fan knife and pressed Piggy to start.

As a cook, his knife skills are really good, and he often does things like slaughtering pigs and sheep, but he can't do anything to castrate piglets.

How to say he is a man, this kind of thing can't help but feel the same in the store, let alone the actual operation.

Wei Wei encouraged: "Don't be afraid, just cut a hole and squeeze the eggs out. It's very simple, don't worry about it, don't be afraid if it's broken, it just happens that Felix and the others want to eat roast suckling pig, this one It's very suitable."

Hearing you say that, I'm even more afraid! Not to mention Bob, the other servants who came to watch the fun after hearing about this couldn't help but take a step back, and the two servants who helped suppress the little piglet almost let go of the piggy's hands and let the piglet run away.

But in the end, with Wei Wei's repeated encouragement, Bob clenched his teeth ruthless, and he started to attack.

Piggy's shrill screams spread throughout the backyard, and those who heard it were really sad and those who saw it wept.

Fortunately, the castration operation went well. Bob's knife was well-made, his hands were steady, and the incision was the right size. His hands and the surgical site were sterilized with alcohol. Although Piggy groaned in pain after the operation, it seemed There were no other symptoms of discomfort.

Seeing that the operation of the first piglet was in good condition, Wei Wei simply did not do it again and again and asked Bob to cut a few more heads. They were all born a long time ago, and if they didn't do it, they would miss the best time for the operation.

For a time, the yard at the back of the kitchen was filled with sorrow, and the shrill cry of the little piggy who had lost his male dignity could be heard everywhere.

Except for the servant who helped, everyone else had left long ago, and the scene was tragic.

Wei Wei watched the whole process with a calm expression on her face and ordered those little pigs to clean up a new temporary residence for them, and they must be clean and tidy. "Temporarily isolate them from other pigs to observe the situation. Remember to clean up the environment every day as I said so that their wounds cannot be infected. After five days

, if they are sure that they are all right, they will castrate the other piglets as well."

The wound is almost healed in time. As long as it stops, it is unlikely that an accident will happen. At this time, there is no way to vaccinate the piglets, so you can only take care of them more carefully.

All the servants in the kitchen looked at Wei Wei with awe. After hearing her words, they nodded in agreement. As soon as Wei Wei left, these people couldn't help but talk while cleaning up.

"I didn't expect Madam to be so courageous. She didn't even frown from the beginning to the end. It's too strong."

They originally thought that Wei Wei's character was so gentle, and I'm afraid she wouldn't be too brave. They have completely changed their minds. This is a timid noble lady, but it is also, in the past, the countess could escape from the betrayal of servants and took away so much wealth, how can it be a weak temperament?

When Wei Wei got the piglets and went back to study the breeding techniques of hares, the group of children in the church were also assigned by Qin to form a tea and followed the soldiers sent by the castle to go to different villages and towns to handle the procedures for the residents. Population registered.

Hank sat in the carriage with his younger brother Kimmy in his arms. There were twelve-year-old girls, Eva and Ariel, in the same car. They were divided into a team, three older and one younger, for the convenience of everyone. Take care of each other, among them Hank's academic performance is the best, his younger brother Chimi belongs to the middle level, and the two girls are relatively backward, so this team is based on Hank.

The carriage they were riding in was a freight wagon with a few woven baskets on it. The baskets were filled with wheat straw and covered with clean gauze. The surface was also covered with wheat straw. It was impossible to see what was inside, but the familiar sweet smells were all around. The breath told them that there must be sugar cubes in it.

The children don't pay too much attention to those candy cubes. They are helping in the castle recently. They get a piece of candy every day. The sweet taste can make them savour the whole day. Have you finished eating candy bars? The carriage went smoothly. The towns assigned by each team were randomly selected. They were lucky. Although they did not go to Sardinson Castle to register for the serfs, they did not win the nearest Dingle, but they did. The two villages not too far from Dingle are only a three-hour journey by carriage. If everything goes well, they will be back before dark today, unlike the unlucky children who are drawn far away, it is just a round trip. It will take several days to and fro. "Brother, is this how Oak Village and Rob Village are written?" Chimi held a water-soaked branch in his hand and wrote a series of letters on the wooden board of the carriage. These are the two villages they are about to go to. name. Hank read the words he wrote carefully, and then nodded: "Yes, that's how it is written." Two girls from the two countries also came over and stared at the words on the ground. Their academic performance was relatively poor, so yes My memory is not very confident. Although I have memorized the names of the two villages and written them again and again, I am still worried that I will make mistakes when the time comes. Hank looked at them, thought about it, and said a method he had been thinking about before: "There are still several hours to the destination, now we can first write the name of the village on the registration form, and then wait. It can save a lot of time when registering." "This method is good," Chimi said what his brother said, and the two girls also felt that this method was good, so they agreed unanimously.

They took the registration form out of the package and took out the registration pen, not a quill, nor charcoal, but a pencil, made of graphite and clay in proportions, compressed and heated into a refill, and then outside It is made by glueing two pieces of wood. Because of the problem of craftsmanship, this pencil is thicker than the later generations, and the length is nearly half shorter, but the handwriting is still clear and smooth, and it is not easy to break. It is a new type of writing tool that will be promoted in Sardinsonburg.

This time, she specially allocated a pencil to the children. These walls were originally hoarded for the castle's stewards and literate servants, but just when the children were coming to do the population registration, she gave them first. took them.

In addition to the pencil, each child also got a small piece of dry and hard brown bread, but this black bread was not for them to eat, but to erase typos. Wiped clean with bread.

This is too extravagant for children. They can't bear to use precious food to wipe typos, so every child cherishes pencils and bread after they get them. The brown bread that came down was never used.

Although the carriage ran smoothly, it was not easy to write on anything, because the paper for the registration form was too soft, and it was very laborious to write without a cushion.

In the end, the children simply unwrapped the cloth wrapping the registration form, spread it on the ground, and wrote on their stomachs. When they were tired, they sat up and stretched their waists to relax before continuing to write. When the carriage arrived at the destination, the address was listed on the form with a total of 1,000 points. The content of one column was written by them.

Of course, the detailed address is not just the name of the village. They need to add a number after the detailed address, such as No. 1 in Oak Village and No. 1 in Luobu Village.

In addition to the task of posting announcements, the soldiers who had posted announcements everywhere to promote population registration had another task of informing the village chiefs and stewards of each village to number the houses in the village, that is, house numbers.

The compiled house number should not only be written on the gate of the house, but also the wooden piece. This is to prevent someone from forgetting their house number. number to know their exact address. Hank's proposal to save time also made them think that they could fill in some other content, such as gender and registration date, which were less important. Save some time. "This should be able to catch up and go back for dinner." Chimi expressed everyone's wishes. The children, like adults, eat two meals a day. The food is not that good. Wei Wei didn't plan to raise a group of people who like to do nothing but work, so the food prepared for them are the stewed beans, oatmeal, barley, etc. that the serfs often eat. Mainly to fill the stomach. But in the end, they are concerned about their young and growing bodies, so in addition to these, the children can also be given a bowl of bones with oil flowers at dinner every day. Bones, in addition to being sold cheaply to the residents, these bones will also be provided to the workers of the road construction team. The children can also get a few pieces every day. Although the meat on the bones has been completely removed, the broken bones There is a spinal cord, and the bone broth that has been boiled for a day for calcium and meat tastes, no one will not like it. And today, everyone went to a different place. Many children have to spend a few days outside, and they might get an extra bowl of soup when they go back tonight. "It's here, come down." The coachman was very good at the carriage. The soldiers who were also in the carriage urged the children to come down, but they were not reckless. One of the soldiers and two soldiers even hugged the youngest Chimi and got a sentence. thanks. This made the two soldiers glance at him. In fact, because of boredom along the way, they were observing the four children. It was easy to find that they were different from ordinary serfs and even freedmen's children. Will be deliberately noisy, work very seriously, and are obviously young but very precocious, although there are some shadows of the lower class, more often it shows a kind of upbringing that ordinary civilians do not have.

Like the young servants, they often see occasionally in castles, maybe better than that.

I don't know if the Countess just wanted to train them as future castle servants. After all, there was always a shortage of people in Sardinson Castle, and these soldiers were sometimes arrested and did things other than patrolling and escorting, although afterwards. Both will be rewarded, but busy is busy.

The first place the carriage arrived was Oak Village. This village was named because it was near an oak forest. The villagers who had been waiting for them notified the village chief as soon as they saw the carriage. Came over in a hurry. "Welcome to Oak Village, I'm Adolph, the village head of Oak Village." The attentive village head went straight to the two soldiers

, "Are you the ones sent to register by the Count?"

A child: "It's not us, they are responsible for the registration, we are just guards."

Adolph, the village chief of Oak Village, heard the words and looked at the four children in surprise.

He only heard that someone would come to register, but he didn't expect it to be a few little children.

Noticing his eyes, the children were striving to stand taller and straighter, Hank spoke to the village chief on behalf of the others: "Hello village chief, we were sent by the count to register, when can we start?"

Surprised but surprised, The village chief still reacted quickly and said quickly: "Yes, the sentence can start now, we have already prepared, please come with me."

He walked in with a group of soldiers, and the soldiers took the Baskets, like the registration form, the number of these candy cubes is pre-determined for fear of damage due to bumps in the road, and the uncertainty of the exact population, each squad brought more than the current registration for where they were going One third more, Oak Village and Rob Village are villages with only three or four hundred people, so the prepared candy bars and registration forms are 1,000 copies, and 1,000 pieces of 10-gram candy bars are only 20 pounds. , scattered in four small baskets, and two soldiers, one in each hand, followed them with ease.

Adolf deliberately looked at the carriage and made sure that there was nothing in it except the luggage that they had brought. Thinking of the Countess's gift mentioned by the soldier who came to notify them before, he knew that this basket should be the so-called gift.

It's just, how many things can be put in such a small basket, obviously this gift is not very valuable.

There will never be silver coins and copper coins in it to send them money.

He murmured in his heart for a while, he didn't expect the so-called gift at all, but he didn't know that although the things inside were not money, they were really valuable.

Because they were notified in advance, every village was ready and waiting for people to come, and Oak Village was no exception. They set up tables and chairs in the village's best house, that is, the village chief's yard. The villagers also received the news early, and after confirming that the castle will send people today, they did not leave the village but waited at home.

This village is so big. When the village chief received them, someone went to notify the villagers. Soon after Hank and the others arrived at the gate of the village chief's courtyard, there were a bunch of people preparing to register behind them.

But Hank had deliberately understood the purpose of this registration before, so he was very observant and noticed at once that although many people came, there were no young children, and the oldest was about the same as his younger brother. . And it is impossible for a village with a few hundred people to have no children under the age of seven or eight. If they have not had a newborn for so many years, I am afraid that everyone will be looking for someone to find a way. And on the way, he heard the cry of the baby, how could there be no child? So these people should be worried that the Lord Earl's order is just to fool them. They can't believe that the tax reduction he said is true, so they didn't bring the children out. He quickly realized this, and Hank frowned and glanced at the village chief who was talking to the soldiers. The two soldiers probably saw it, and they impatiently interrupted the village chief's cliché: "Okay, hurry up and get the villagers to line up and get ready to register. After that, we have to go to Luobu Village."

"Okay, I'll arrange it!" The

four children voluntarily walked behind the table and made preparations, because they didn't expect that there were four people in charge of registration, and the village chief only prepared one table, but he quickly asked people to return to the table. I moved one, and the two children have more than one to rub, which is also convenient for everyone to line up.

Hank took out the form that said Oak Village, distributed it to everyone, and sat down to start the registration. The table and chairs are the height of adults. These children are sitting a little high, and the youngest Jimmy can't even reach the tabletop. No more pads were added. When the villagers saw that a group of children had been registered for them, they also discussed it, but with the village chief present and soldiers staring at the children, no one dared to force it loudly. "It's time to start." The villagers who were lined up stepped forward and took out the wooden sign that Hank had prepared. Hank looked at it and saw that number one was written on it. The villager was followed by a middle-aged woman and a teenager, who should be a family. . Hank registered the house number and started filling in the rest. "Name?" "Billy." "Age?" "34 years old" "Do you remember what year, month and day of your birthday?" The villagers hesitated for a while. Ordinary people don't have birthdays, so he remembered the year and month, but can't remember the exact day. Teacher Qin had already mentioned this situation in advance, so Hank registered the year and month for him, and said, "You can think of a date, any day is fine." So the villagers thought of the dates by themselves, and Hank said After filling in the form, he continued to ask other questions. He knew that his specialities were the ones that the Count and his wife were more concerned about, so he asked seriously. Unfortunately, most ordinary people had no specialities, and this was the case with this villager in front of him. The most difficult thing to write is the physical sign, that is, the appearance. Because there are a lot of words to write, he looked at the villager named Billy, recorded his hair colour, pupil colour, and basic features of his face and body shape, and then asked what he had on him. No birthmarks or anything like that.

"Does it count as a scar on my arm?" The villager rolled up his sleeves, revealing a wound that he didn't know how many years ago.

Hank looked at the wound, organized the text in his mind, nodded and wrote it down.

After filling in all the contents, he asked the villagers to put their handprints under the form with the red paint they brought, and the registration form was filled out.

When the handprint was pressed, the villagers were very resistant, as if they were worried that there was something unfavourable to him. During this period, it was not uncommon for black-hearted businessmen to deceive freemen to use their handprints to sell their fields and their families. Of course, they were worried.

Fortunately, the village chief is literate. He has been watching, making sure that there is nothing wrong with the registration form, and that the villagers have no resistance.

The registered villager was about to leave, but was stopped by the soldier on the side: "Wait, take this away."

Compared with the children, Billy's attitude towards these two soldiers was much more cautious. Looking over his shoulder, the soldier took out a tawny piece from the basket and handed it to him.

"Here, this is a gift prepared by the countess for the people."

Billy took the piece and asked blankly, "What is this?"

"Sugar." I feel like I'm spoiling something good.

The children of the helpers can all get a small piece of candy. How can they not be the soldiers who serve in the castle? They get more, as many as ten pieces in the hands of the villagers, and they eat the same food as the castle servants on weekdays. They can often taste some sweetness in the past few months, so everyone knows that there is sugar in the castle, but this does not mean that they do not care about these sugars.

Knowing that the Countess was going to give candy to all the registered people, whether it was a servant soldier or a knight, all of them were stunned, thinking that she was too extravagant, but since it was the master's order, of course, they would listen.

So although it is a pity, the soldiers still obediently distribute the sugar. No one dares to covet this thing. It is all tied to the number of people registered in the form. It is easy to be discovered if there is more or less. Castle, maybe you can get some leftover candy chips as a reward.

Sugar is a very rare item, and the commoners rarely have the opportunity to touch it, not to mention in a rural place like theirs, many people have only heard of such a delicious and healing sweet product, but they have seen it. There are not many people.

So let alone Billy who heard his words, even the village chief who had some knowledge on the side didn't react immediately.

But soon, his brain picked up the meaning of the word.

"Sugar? This is candy?!" After realizing what it was, the village chief shuddered and rushed in front of Billy. The original smile was not well controlled, and it twisted into a ferocious and frightening expression.

Frightened Billy couldn't help but take a step back, and the other villagers also looked at him at once.

The village chief didn't care whether the sugar belonged to Billy. He grabbed it and licked it. The sweet taste in his heart immediately told him, "That's right, this is sugar. It's as precious as honey and can only be eaten by nobles." Expensive food.

As the mayor of the village, he once ate a little sugar when he attended the banquet. That's what he tasted at that time, and he once heard that the knight who held the banquet said that a pound of candy would cost three Silver coins, and he, the village chief, can't see a single silver coin a month.

He looked at the candy bars in his hand and then turned to look at the basket opened by the soldier. Inside, there were identical candy bars.

This is worth several gold coins, and the entire village is afraid that they can't even collect a single gold coin.

And the Countess is going to prepare gifts for all the people of Sardinson County, right? How much sugar (gold) does it cost? ! !

After realizing how valuable the countess' gift was, the village chief almost fainted on the spot.