Chapter 946: Chapter 349: Inventorying Resources and Accepting Puteng Village Villagers

But according to what Cao Yi said, he allocated fifteen rooms to these 237 refugees, so living space is still sufficient.

Very soon, Cao Xing saw a group of figures gathered on a piece of vacant land next to the residents’ quarters.

…

…

Puteng Village was originally a small village located in the southwest of Gale Snow Plain, near Flowing Water Town.

The entire village consisted of more than sixty households, and all the villagers made their living by cultivating a type of winter grape.

Outside the village, the agricultural area was covered with large greenhouses.

Inside, they were all filled with lush grapevines.

This winter grape had a slow growth cycle, requiring half a year to grow once.

Each year in February and August, it was the harvest season for Puteng Village.

During harvest days, clusters of purple glistening and lush green grapes hung from the vines, as dazzling as gemstones.

The grapes produced by Puteng Village were of high quality, well-received by local wine merchants.

People in the village would use these winter grapes to brew delicious wine and hold lively grape festivals.

The villagers were hospitable, and their lives were as rich and sweet as the wine.

However, about ten years ago, Puteng Village was annexed into the territory of Baron Augustus.

In other words, the entire village, including its residents, became the baron’s property.

The baron set regulations for them, requiring Puteng Village to pay a fixed amount of taxes each year.

The regulation was that the village, with over 60 households,

must cultivate and submit over 90,000 kilograms of winter grapes annually as a fixed quota.

No matter how much or how little was grown, 90,000 kilograms had to be submitted.

As for any problems or difficulties encountered, those nobles would not consider them.

Any excess could be digested internally in the village or sold to local wineries to cover village expenses.

But if the amount was insufficient, all villagers had to contribute funds to fill this gap.

If a village didn’t submit enough in the first year, they would not only face the baron’s punishment but also have to make up the deficit the following year.

If, for three consecutive years, adequate amounts were not submitted,

the baron would deem the village valueless.

The entire village would then be disbanded, with villagers redistributed to other villages or sold directly.

The families originally formed there and various personal relationships would be directly disrupted.

For the common people of this world, living in such a cold hell was already extremely difficult.

Bonds with family and friends were among the few reasons that could sustain them.

To be separated from family would be more painful than death.

However, the baron’s orders were absolute; no one could defy them.

Even if he commanded the village to be razed to the ground or all commoners executed, they couldn’t utter a word of complaint.

This was the feudal system that had persisted for tens of thousands of years, deeply rooted in everyone’s heart in this world.

Therefore, over the past decade, Puteng Village had been fully dedicated to grape cultivation, striving to meet the baron’s quota.

However, under the extreme harsh weather of this world, ordinary crops simply couldn’t survive.

Let alone grapes, which required sunlight to grow.

In earlier years, such harsh weather was relatively infrequent.

With the entire village working with all their might, Puteng Village’s annual yield barely reached about 100,000 kilograms.

After a year, 10,000 kilograms remained, sold to local wine merchants for a meager income, allowing them to scrape by.

However, the good times didn’t last.

In recent years, bad weather on the Gale Snow Plain became more frequent.

Storms, cold silence cold wind, dense mists of disaster, and so on…

Each natural disaster not only threatened the lives of common people but also affected the crops growing in their greenhouses.

That year, they only managed to submit 80,000 kilograms of grapes, with the remaining 20,000 kilograms fulfilled by pooling all villagers’ savings.

This pretty much exhausted the savings they had amassed over the years.

They hoped things would be slightly better the following year.

But the weather turned out to be even more adverse.

The whole year yielded a mere 60,000 kilograms of grapes.

For three consecutive years, they failed to meet the baron’s quota.

So Puteng Village was directly dissolved on the spot.

Baron Augustus originally intended to redistribute them to work in some mines. ᴛʜɪs ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ɪs ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ʙʏ noⅴelfire.net

But having lost a bet with another baron, he sold these commoners to cover his gambling losses.

Then the entire village was sold to Alkaid Walker.

That was Fitz Walker’s father, the previous baron.

Right after taking over this territory, the old baron fell seriously ill.

It was only after his death that Fitz Walker remembered this batch of villagers.

As the village chief of Puteng Village, Zelco was now over fifty years old.

In this world, the common lifespan was generally around fifty to sixty years.

So Zelco was considered part of the elderly population.

This old village chief, with his back hunched, looked around him at the simple-faced villagers, and sighed.

“Ah… I wonder what kind of temperament this new lord has…”

“I hope he can treat us a little better.”

Nearby, a woman wearing a cotton hat and with a pale complexion said, “Village Chief, this territory is bigger than we imagined. This lord must be a very capable person, right?”

The old village chief shook his head, “I’m not sure. We haven’t seen what this lord looks like, nor do we understand his character…”

“However, I’ve heard that this lord is supposed to return today.”

“All of you need to be very mindful not to offend him, understand?”

“Otherwise, our future days could be troubled…”

…

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