With these wheat seeds, can I get them planted and sit back while waiting for steamed buns and dumplings to be served?
Impossible.
After Zhang Yang used 21 wish fragments to get enough seeds, he found that he still lacked the tools to plant the fields.
At the very least, a plow was essential.
So without a second thought, Zhang Yang asked for two crude iron plows.
As for the ones to do the plowing, I can’t assign the farmers, can I? Their average attributes are only F+.
Zhang Yang called over four elite spearmen with E+ strength. Each of them was equivalent to five adults on Earth and was no worse than a large buffalo.
Brothers, thanks for the hard work.
After ensuring that nothing was missed, Zhang Yang ‘fled’ under the bitter gaze of the four elite spearmen. Farming was absolutely a tough job.
Next, Zhang Yang went to the level 5 residential houses where he finally reaped a great deal of comfort. Because from a long way away, he heard the laughter of children, which was more comfortable than swallowing an immortal elixir.
First, he checked the properties from the outside.
[Residence
Level: 5
Accommodation: 20
Current Population: 98 people
Elderly (45 years old and above): 6
First generation residents (Not recruitable)
Prime of Life (30~45 years old): 40
Second generation residents. Females cannot be recruited, but males can be recruited as a lumberjack, farmer, craftsman, hunter, cook, etc. If forced to recruit as a new soldier, loyalty will drop and in turn, cause the population to fall.
Young and Strong (16~29 years old): 29
Third generation residents (Recruitable)
Note: When women are recruited, birth rate will be reduced.
Teenager (12~15 years old): 11
Third generation residents (Not recruitable)
Child (4~11 years old): 8
Fourth generation residents (Not recruitable)
Toddler (0~3 years old): 4
Fourth generation residents (Not recruitable)
Warning: Village reproduction requires attention. There must be fresh blood before the sixth generation of inhabitants reach adulthood; otherwise, there will be unexpected events.
Current villager loyalty: 50
Note: The villagers’ desire to reproduce children is related to loyalty, village prosperity level, and livability index. When loyalty is greater than 80, village prosperity level is greater than 100, and livability index is greater than 20, each couple will have three children during their childbearing years and have a high chance of survival.]
Interesting.
Zhang Yang calculated. He decided that he didn’t need to bother with the first generation residents, but start from the second generation residents instead.
There were 20 males and 20 females, and a total of 40 children were born, for 24 boys and 16 girls.
In the third generation residents, six pairs of men and women had married and gave birth to 12 children into the fourth generation.
In the remaining third generation residents, there were 28 people, and assuming that their marriage was monogamous, there would be eight bachelors.
As for the fourth generation residents, there were 12 children; 7 boys and 5 girls. The ratio wasn’t looking too good.
So no matter what, he had to find a way to expand the population.
For the time being, I’ll build new residence houses first. It’s too crowded here. There should be many couples in the second generation that can continue to have a third child. And with more spacious residence and better living conditions, many third generation residents can also get married and have children.
However, the requirements for having a third child are rather stringent. The villagers’ loyalty must be at least 80, village prosperity level greater than 100, and the livability index greater than 20.
Zhang Yang pondered and quickly opened the Village Building Order panel.
The village prosperity level was calculated by adding 1 prosperity point for each level 1 building and 5 prosperity points for each special building. With each upgrade of the building level, the village prosperity level would increase by 2 points. Every 10 prosperity points would increase the livability index by 1 point.
Right now, Zhang Yang owned a level 1 training ground, level 1 barracks, level 5 residential houses, level 5 farmland, level 5 deer barracks, and the Tree Demon Tower. In total, the village prosperity level was 40 and livability index was 4. There was still a long way to go.
In that case, I’ll first recruit 8 craftsmen, 8 lumberjacks, 2 butchers, and 2 cooks.
Zhang Yang quickly recruited 20 second-generation residents who were strong men between 30 and 45 years of age. They were also the rightful head of their families, so forcing them to be recruited as soldiers wouldn’t be suitable as it would also decrease their loyalty.
But recruiting them to do ordinary jobs wasn’t a problem at all. Well, they had to support their families too.
In other words, if he were to recruit new soldiers, he shouldn’t find those with families.
At that moment, with Zhang Yang’s successful recruitment on the Village Building Order, 20 strong men came out of the level 5 residential houses one after another. But unfortunately, they were all empty-handed and didn’t even have an axe in hand.
The good thing was that they all came with basic skills for their respective professions. For instance, lumberjacks had level 1 logging skills, butchers had level 1 slaughtering/skinning skills, and cooks had level 1 cooking skills.
The craftsmen’s skills were basically similar to Zhao Tiezhu’s.
This is as clear as day. They are starting from scratch.
With a sigh, Zhang Yang retrieved the gray wish fragments again and this time, received 16 saws, 16 axes, eight hammers, eight chisels, two boning knives, two kitchen knives, two large iron pots, and 50 kilograms of salt.
This used up 20 wish fragments.
He equipped them with their respective tools and sent them to their respective jobs. He arranged for the two cooks to prepare lunch and got the eight lumberjacks to go to the nearby forest to chop wood. Anyway, skill upgrading required the increase of proficiency.
Later, Zhang Yang brought the eight junior craftsmen to Zhao Tiezhu. The expansion of the fortress could be postponed because the main priority was to build a residential house. After all, this wasn’t a game. In this world, giving birth to a child also needed 10 months.
Meanwhile, the craftsmen also weren’t like those in the games, where they could construct a building after being allocated materials. Zhang Yang had to teach them how to cut wood, pack the foundation, make holes in the wood, and rivet. In this aspect, Zhang Yang also had to personally figure them out, so one could imagine how terrible his mood was.
But despite his bad mood, every foundation and detail determined the future success or failure of the village, so he didn’t dare take it lightly.
The location of the new residential houses was chosen at the bottom of the hillock toward the west. It was 150 meters from the fortress, 100 meters from the training ground, and next to the first level 5 residential houses with a 10 meters road gap in between.
Yes, Zhang Yang was still capable of planning well for this.
“The foundation has to be done properly. You guys, continue digging along the line I drew. As for the depth, it will be based on your individual size. Pay attention and standardize!”
According to the standard of the level 5 residential house on the opposite side, Zhang Yang first drew a large square grid, marked out a two-meter-wide foundation beam area, and made the 10 soldiers dig with shovels. This would be much faster than an excavator—as long as they didn’t dig in the wrong place.
“All craftsmen, come with me. The few of you too; go and pick some stones for now. Wait, should I burn the bricks first since that is usually the case in most transmigration novels?”
Zhang Yang’s forehead got a little sweaty.
He was really having a guilty conscience.
“Forget it, mine stones first. Mighty oaks grow from little acorns; I understand the importance of a good foundation.”
With dozens of people rumbling past the training ground, the training ground instructor, Qin Ge, sat in the hut leisurely, watching the rain in a very poetic way.
This instantly annoyed Zhang Yang, so he asked, “Can you help me train the craftsmen?”
“Village Chief, I can’t. I can only train new recruits,” Qin Ge replied with a smile. But somehow, Zhang Yang felt like there was a hidden meaning behind those words.
“Then who can train the craftsmen?”
“Village Chief, a more senior craftsman will be able to. But instead of finding a senior craftsman, you should train them yourself,” Qin Ge answered. He always had an inexplicable smile, as if he were looking at a joke.
This motherf*cker.
Zhang Yang cursed in his head and decided to change his approach.
“I’ll give you 1,000 energy points; you help me think of a way. Anyway, you can take the cameo role of a mercenary. This shouldn’t be a problem, right?”
“1,000 energy points!” Upon hearing the number, Qin Ge instantly felt energetic. “Village Chief, you are really wise. My mother used to be the apprentice of an excellent craftsman. I’ve been influenced since a young age, so I probably remember some general skills. But wait, what do you want to build, Village Chief?”
“Level 5 Residential Houses.”
“Level 5? That’s impossible, Village Chief. I can only help you build level 3 residential houses. As for whether the craftsmen can master the skills, it isn’t really up to me.”
“You’re saying that you’ll help me build it?” Zhang Yang was stunned. He didn’t expect this young man to offer help.
“Yeah. Besides this method, there seems to be no other way to teach them. Anyway, practice makes perfect!” Qin Ge had a perfectly guileless look on his face.
“Okay, deal!”
Zhang Yang breathed a sigh of relief. If he had to personally teach those craftsmen to build houses, perhaps he would need to spend a dozen days. Besides, he still had to hurry and deal with the ‘iron wall’ battle mark.