Lord Highlander

   Chapter 499 498. Potions or Alchemy

There are many mountains around the city of Hailansa, and stretches of oak forests produce gold and silver acorns, but the oak forests are also mixed with chestnut trees, cassava trees, wild autumn pear trees and some hard miscellaneous trees. Rice is one of the most important winter grains for the villagers in the nearby mountainous areas in autumn. When the yield of many wheat fields is reduced, the mountain people near the barren land will go to the mountains in autumn to collect a large number of wild chestnuts to survive the long winter. .

The main reason why cassava is not accepted by the mountain people is that it has certain toxicity. Even if the cassava is cut into small pieces and soaked in water, it is difficult to completely remove the paralyzing toxin. After eating, not only the mouth is swollen , can also cause abdominal pain and other conditions.

Suldak brought more than a thousand kobold slaves from Bena City. These kobold slaves need to eat at least 3,000 pounds of cassava every day. Therefore, when the coachmen brought the first batch of cassava, Suldak Just let them continue to purchase cassava in the free market in Hailansa City and transport it to Daowal Village. Suldak promised that the purchase price of each cart of cassava should not be less than twenty silver.

   This is a big business for the carriage dealers whose transportation industry is sluggish in the spring.

Of course, the twelve coachmen would not let go of this good opportunity to make money. On the second day after returning to Hailansa City, the coachmen arrived at Wall Village with twelve carts full of cassava. Li Cun had a sum of money, which was saved from several sulfur mine transactions with the White Elephant Trading Company in the winter, and it happened to be used by him to pay the settlement commission for purchasing cassava.

When Suldak returned to Wall Village, two weeks had passed since the kobold slaves came to Wall Village. In just two weeks, twelve four-wheeled carriages passed between Hailansa City and Wall Village. Back and forth five times, the cassava brought by these twelve four-wheeled carriages alone made the old village head Brett build three large warehouses at the entrance of the village.

But after the third batch of cassava was transported to Wall Village, other coachmen in Hailansa City learned of the news, and they also bought cassava in the free market in the city and shipped them to Wall Village until Suldak returned to Wall Village. As far as Er Village, the old village head has built five large warehouses at the entrance of the village. Although the old village head has sent a message to the carriage dealers to suspend the purchase of cassava, there are still a steady stream of four-wheeled carriages full of cassava arriving in Er Village. .

Seeing these piles of cassava, the old village head Brett was a little dumbfounded and wanted to reject the cassava, but the group of coachmen pleaded with the old village head. It was not easy to arrive at Wall Village with a full load of cassava. Would rather trade in and want to keep the tapioca here.

The old village head, Brett, was wondering whether to collect the cassava. He felt someone secretly tugged at the hem of his clothes. He turned his head and glanced at Selina behind him. There was a fiery light in his eyes, and the old village chief followed Selina's gaze, and saw a convoy slowly approaching Wall Village, and the knight walking in the front was surprisingly Suldak. Pulling the reins of the horse, he waved at the old village chief.

  In the twilight, the old village head stood up holding a chair, with a relieved smile on his wrinkled old face.

   "Dak, you are back!" The old village head shouted loudly at Surdak.

  Suldak jumped off the horse, and the Gubolai horse neighed for a while, leading the Gubolai horse, Suldak walked quickly towards the old village chief.

   The ogre Gullitum followed behind Suldak like a mountain of meat, attracting the attention of many villagers and coachmen, while Aphrodite and Samira behind the team were ignored by everyone.

  Surdak saw many carriages stranded here, so he stepped forward and asked the old village chief, "Uncle Brett, why are there so many carriages here?"

  The old village chief Brett told Surdak what happened.

Then the old village chief said: "There is nothing else, but now that so much cassava has been purchased at once, and there are so many carriages full of cassava waiting here, I am worried that those kobold slaves will not be able to eat it all. It’s all over the mountain, I don’t think we need to waste buying so much, Dak, or we charge less, and let them take all the rest back?”

  Suldak looked at the four-wheeled carriages lined up at the entrance of the village, and said decisively to the old village head Brett: "Take it, Uncle Brett, we will take all these cassava!"

The head of Brett wiped his forehead with a handkerchief, and shouted to the young villagers standing next to the big warehouse: "Val, come over here, and continue to weigh these cassavas. Weigh all these cassavas, Celine Na, you are responsible for counting the weight of these cassava and how many silver coins we will spend!"

   "Okay, Uncle Brett!" Several young villagers shouted.

The carriage drivers at the entrance of the village originally thought that they wanted to bring the cassava back to Hailansa City intact, and they gathered together to discuss countermeasures. Seeing that the old village chief finally let go and agreed to continue the purchase, they hurried back to the village. Your own magic caravan, lined up for the weigh-in.

  Suldak took advantage of the old village head's turning around, blinked at Selina who was standing behind the old village head, and greeted quietly.

  Selena stood in place holding the sheepskin account book, with a delicate and pretty face. When she turned around, she avoided the old village chief and gave Suldak a supercilious look. Her expression was extremely charming.

  The old village head, Brett, approached Suerdak, lowered his voice, and asked mysteriously: "Dak, I know you have some ideas, tell me what you need me to do for you?"

Suldak pressed his forehead with his hands. He actually thought of a method to remove the toxicity of cassava, but he didn't know whether this method would work, so he said to the old village chief Brett: "I just have some ideas. I still don't know if it will work..."

   "This matter really needs you, Uncle Brett, to come forward. I need some water tanks and wooden barrels. I can just move them to the laundry sink in the village."

   "Oh! By the way, ask some village women to help."

  The character of Village Chief Brett is also vigorous and decisive. Hearing what Suldak said, he immediately agreed: "I will do it now."

   After finishing speaking, he turned around and walked towards the village.

   "Okay! Uncle Brett." Suldak followed behind and walked into the village together.

   Taking advantage of the old village chief's inattention, Selina leaned over and whispered to Suldak, "What are you doing?"

   "Just wait and see." Suldak said to Selina with a slight smile.

  At this time, the young villager who was in charge of carrying the cassava yelled at Selena, "Selena, one thousand and fifty-seven pounds, hurry up and make a record!"

  Selena glanced at Suldak, held up the hem of the long fur skirt, turned around and walked back resentfully.

  Aphrodite looked curiously at the back of Selena who turned and left, with a faint smile on her face.

  Suldak turned his head and told the ogre behind him, "Gulitum, help me get some cassava from here..."

There were several large boxes next to the cassava pile, and the ogre carried a wooden box of cassava on his shoulders, followed Suldak who was walking to the village, and asked him naively: "Captain, What shall we have for dinner tonight?"

  He simply didn't want to eat the cassava in the box.

  Suldak saw the group of yellow sheep being driven back from the Beigou pasture by two and a half children, so he smiled at the ogre and said, "Tonight, I will let you taste the sheep soup from our Wall Village..."

   "Oh... mutton soup, Gullitum likes to drink mutton soup." The ogre immediately grinned happily when he heard that he was not eating these mouth-numbing cassava.

On the bank of the creek not far from the wood workshop, there is a natural pool, where the women of the village usually wash their clothes, and the children of the village also bathe in this pool in summer. Slate, even if the river has stopped flowing, there is still a pool of clear water here.

  Suldak asked the ogre Gulitum to put the large wooden cassava box by the pool first.

Several women in the village were chatting and squatting by the pool to wash clothes. Suddenly they saw an ogre walking from the village carrying a large wooden box. look back…

  Samira and Aphrodite looked at the poor village curiously.

  Suldak pointed to the uppermost part of the village, and said, "Let's go, let's take you up there to see!"

The village's reservoir project has resumed work, and the river has completely stopped flowing. Carriages are loaded with volcanic ash and are driving along the village's main road towards the upper reaches of the village. Surdak takes members of the security team Go to the cistern in the village.

With the completion of the primary reservoir and the construction of the sluice gate, the horse-drawn carts in the village successively pulled the volcanic ash and lime powder to the construction site, and the shape of the secondary reservoir was completely around the primary reservoir. It has been expanded by ten meters, and the terrain here is obviously lower than the first-level reservoir by nearly two meters. More than 50 bricklayers are using cement to smooth the ground. The foundation of the embankment of the second-level reservoir has been completed. Once the ground is done, the laying begins.

  At this time, Rita, Natasha and several women in the village were cooking dinner for the bricklayers on the construction site.

Suldak stood on the embankment of the first-level reservoir, pointed to a large area of ​​land downstream of the reservoir, and introduced to Andrew, Samira, Aphrodite, and Gulitum: "Here's the next step. Three more stepped reservoirs will be built to increase the water storage capacity on the upstream side. Hailansa City is affected by climate and monsoons. Spring is dry and rainy, but in midsummer, abundant rainfall is easy to form. Waterlogging, so we built a reservoir here, and the water in the reservoir can irrigate some wheat fields in the lower reaches of the village to cope with this dry season."

  Half-elf archer Samira asked Surdak a little strangely: "Since there is abundant rainfall here in summer, why is this place still so barren?"

Suldak pondered for a while before saying: "The geological feature of this barren land is that it is covered with limestone rock formations that are extremely permeable, and rainwater can easily seep into the ground. In addition, there is a lack of fertile soil for plant growth, and the dry season happens to be in the middle of everything. In late spring and early summer, many plants cannot survive in this land. Only some thorn grass and thirsty grass can survive. Only some valleys with water sources can show a trace of vitality, except for Wall Village. In addition, there are more than a dozen villages around here that are almost like this."

   "Except for being on the main plane of Roland Continent, nothing else can compare to Wojmara." Andrew muttered to the side.

   "But this is precisely the most important thing." Aphrodite stood beside Andrew and countered.

  The native warrior's lips moved, but in the end he couldn't think of any suitable words to fight back.

  At this time, a young man ran up the embankment panting, and shouted at Surdak: "Dak, Uncle Brett is ready..."

   "I'll go right away..." Suldak waved at the young man.

He did not take the members of the security team directly back to the pool in the village, but instead walked to the stone roller in the village's threshing ground, and asked the ogre Gulitum to directly lift the base of the stone roller, and Andrew carried it The ground roller, and then returned to the pool.

  Under the surprised eyes of the villagers, the ogre placed the nearly thousand-pound stone roller base by the pool, and helped Andrew straighten the stone roller.

The old village head, Brett, has already moved eight large water tanks, and collected dozens of wooden barrels. These wooden barrels almost filled the stone platform by the pool. A group of women in the village saw the ogre and frightened Dedu's face was pale, his legs were weak, and after being scolded by the old village chief Brett, his mood stabilized.

   "Dark, what are we going to do?" The old village chief Brett walked up and asked Surdak.

   "Uncle Brett, this process is not difficult, you just need to watch us do it..." Suldak said to the old village chief.

After finishing speaking, Suldak asked Andrew to place the cassava in the box on the stone roller, and the ogre Gulitum pushed the stone roller, crushing the crispy radish-like cassava into pieces, making them look like mud. The milky white cassava juice flowed into the wooden barrel along the stone trough, and soon filled a wooden barrel. Then Surdak spread a piece of coarse linen on a water tank, and then poured the white juice into the barrel. Enter the water tank, and add two buckets of clean water to the water tank.

   In this way, Gullitemu and Andrew ground a wooden box of cassava into white pulp. After the white pulp was filtered, it was mixed with a lot of clean water and put into a water tank to stand still.

  The old village head led a group of women in the village to watch silently. Everyone couldn't understand what Suerdak was doing to squeeze the cassava juice.

Soon the water in the first water tank became clear and transparent, and Suldak asked Samira to scoop out the clear water in the water tank until there was only a thick layer of white pulp at the bottom of the water tank, and then Refilling two buckets of water vigorously stirred the white pulp, and then waited for the slurry in the tank to become clear. After repeating it three times, Suldak collected the paste-like white pulp in a wooden barrel .

The old village chief walked up with a frown, looked at the two barrels of white pulp that had been settled after consuming a whole large wooden box of cassava, and asked Surdak, "Dak, is this potion science or alchemy? This thing what is it call?"

Suldak rubbed his temples vigorously, and introduced to the old village chief Brett: "Now... we can call them 'water starch', after they are dried, they will be starch. This thing not only removes the cassava It is not poisonous, but it is still quite delicious to eat, and I also know how to cook this kind of food, people there call this kind of food 'braised sub'..."

  …

  (end of this chapter)