Chapter 578: A Major Blow

This chapter is a bonus update for the "Little Rui's Kitchen" reward.

Liszt plans to place all the Abandoned Insect Mushrooms in Mushroom Town, which was originally planned for building mushroom greenhouses covering more than ten thousand acres. Now it is perfect for planning the new Abandoned Insect Mushrooms.

Unfortunately, there are only ten serfs for each type of Abandoned Insect Mushroom, and it is not an easy task to teach other serfs how to plant them in a short time.

After all, the hydrology and climate of each island are different, and the planting techniques need to be adjusted accordingly.

It is likely that within a year, these five types of Abandoned Insect Mushrooms will not play a significant role. However, Liszt can afford to wait; he's still young, only eighteen.

For the next period of time, he has been supervising the newly arrived fifty serfs to build greenhouses for the Abandoned Insect Mushrooms. However, after inspecting the environment of Mushroom Town, twenty serfs shook their heads, and only those who could plant Golden Thread Mushrooms, Monkey Head Mushrooms, and Horse Fart Mushrooms felt that the environment of Mushroom Town was suitable.

The serfs planting Blue Pine Mushrooms said, "Lord, Blue Pine Mushrooms need dark, decaying woodland to grow. Mushroom Town lacks trees, making it difficult to grow Blue Pine Mushrooms."

The serfs planting Black Truffles also said, "Lord, Black Truffles require a large amount of dead wood, preferably pine, and they cannot be too close to the sea, otherwise the quality will be poor."

"Then you should inspect Black Horse Island and choose suitable places for planting. If anything is missing, directly ask Advisor Gort for it."

Liszt has always been a big-picture thinker, providing a direction and leaving the rest to his subordinates to execute.

When he handles territorial affairs, it is nothing more than holding a meeting and laying out some clichéd decisions: "You must attach great importance to this," "Gort, I leave this to you," "Execute as soon as possible," "This is a key industry of the territory and cannot be ignored," "Do well and I will reward you."

In summary, it's all about formalities.

Fortunately, although he likes to use formalities to replace decisions, he never interferes with specific work. For example, when it comes to planting Abandoned Insect Mushrooms, he only asks about the progress and does not forcibly interfere with how they are planted.

However, recently, many problems in the territory have gradually entangled him.

The Administrator of Flower Town, Isaiah, constantly complains, "Sir, the serfs in Flower Town are severely insufficient, and we can no longer transfer them to Black Horse Island."

"Have a cup of tea to cool down," Liszt gestured for a servant to brew him a cup of green tea, "Serfs will be available. I have already asked Levis to help me find them, and a new batch of three thousand serfs is about to arrive. Additionally, when the expansion order is issued again this year, I will continue to search for twenty thousand serfs to bring back."

Isaiah bargained, "Then you must allocate these three thousand serfs to Flower Town, and Flower Town can receive fewer serfs at the end of the year."

"Don't worry, you won't lack serfs. What you need to do now is to reassure the people of the territory, make the serfs loyal to the territory, and prevent disturbances when new serfs arrive."

"Yes, sir, Isaiah will strictly control the territory's public opinion and public sentiment, increase publicity efforts, make the serfs loyal as soon as possible, and will definitely not affect the integration of new serfs!"

Just as he had calmed Isaiah down, the Administrator of Port Town, Blair, came to plead bitterly, "We are short of people, sir. The construction of the town hall has been stalled for a week, with no workers! Advisor Gort has taken away another batch of serfs to plant Abandoned Insect Mushrooms. If this continues, there will be no one to maintain the town's operation!"

"Calm down, Blair, have a cup of tea to cool down," Liszt again gestured for a servant to brew Blair a cup of green tea.

Serving green tea to guests has become his signature, gradually guiding the trend of drinking green tea. After a while, he used the same rhetoric as before to send Blair away.

Liszt finally got a moment of peace.

"I didn't expect that after bringing back nearly twenty thousand serfs last year and subsequently purchasing five thousand more in small quantities, we still can't keep up with the development needs of the territory," he himself was almost getting anxious. The serf trade he conducted with Levis had never stopped, yet they were still short of people.

During the expansion order period, serfs were cheap and of good quality, so he bought them in large quantities.

In peacetime, serfs were not only expensive but also mostly old, weak, sick, or disabled, so he still bought them in small batches.

Other territories did not have so many industries, so naturally, they did not need so many serfs and could develop step by step. Liszt's territory, however, saw industries emerging one after another, each requiring a large number of serfs to operate. Therefore, serfs were always in short supply and never abundant.

"I hope to develop the magic plants as soon as possible to reduce dependence on serfs... Long-term engagement in the serf trade brings too much guilt," he sighed quietly to himself.

Every ship of serfs carries the souls of the wronged.

Excuses like "If I don't buy them, someone else will" or "They will live better in my territory" are becoming less effective at easing his conscience.

He quickly adapts to the noble lifestyle, corrupted by its luxuries, yet a sliver of kindness remains in his heart. He desperately wants to convince himself that he is a time traveler, that the people here are not his compatriots but merely aliens from another world. Yet, faced with each vivid individual, how could he remain indifferent?

He gulped down the green tea in his cup.

He suddenly made a decision: "I cannot stop developing my territory. The best I can do is ensure the safety of the serf trade and the well-being of the serfs on my land... Starting tomorrow, I'll cut taxes and raise the minimum wage in the territory from two copper coins a day to three."

This was already the second time he had raised the wage standard. During the New Year, he had raised it from one copper coin to two.

"With so many industries, I can support the territory through business without exploiting the people."

...

The labor shortage is a tough problem, and bad news keeps piling up.

This time, the bad news came from Acheronides' research on natural magic. After systematically studying the Sun Script, she could read a large portion of it. In 'Druid Essentials - Magic Bean Cultivation,' she translated a detailed section on Magic Beans.

Basically, it takes ten years for a Magic Bean to grow into a big tree. The yield in the first ten years is very low, gradually increasing in the next ten years, peaking around forty years later, when each tree can produce fifty thousand pounds of Magic Beans annually.

"Fifty thousand pounds per tree per year, that's indeed impressive."

Liszt clicked his tongue: "But why does it take ten years to bear fruit, twenty years for the yield to grow, and forty years to hit fifty thousand pounds a year?"

In forty years, Liszt would be fifty-eight, and by his own guess, he'd have already united the continent.

By then, what would he need Magic Beans for?

Later, Acheronides deciphered 'Advanced Druid Essentials - Shape-shifting Tree Cultivation,' which also recorded the growth cycle of Shape-shifting Trees. It turns out that a tree takes a hundred years to grow from seed to maturity, to the point where it can be used to build the keel of a sky ship! Even a wrist-thick Shape-shifting Tree takes twenty years to mature.

"Twenty years, wrist-thick, barely enough to build a carriage... Do I need such Shape-shifting Trees?" Liszt was utterly defeated by this news.

Instantly, he lost interest in all magical plants.

However, he spent ten minutes regaining his composure, then handed over the matters of natural magic and magical plants to Acheronides. Once she had researched the results, he would pass them on to Cris to implement. Ten years to mature, a hundred years to be useful—such good things are better left for future generations.

A few days later, the disheartened Liszt finally received some good news.

Cris and Glanny, two mages, finally thoroughly researched the golden pearls produced by the Golden-lipped Clam. Using these pearls, they crafted a magical device that can "cool down." The Golden-lipped Clam is a water-attribute sea monster, and its pearls are also water-attribute, but they can generate ice-attribute effects.

Each golden pearl is a magical air conditioner, cooling but not heating.