It was obvious that Ehrelo saw Lynn’s recruitment on the open ground.
Ehrelo bent his body, speaking with utmost respect, "Master Lynn, what do you need me to do?"
Lynn glanced at the crowd in the blacksmith shop.
The blacksmith shop, now led by Ehrelo, had as many as forty-five apprentices.
Although they were all apprentices, if they all graduated to become true blacksmiths, then led their own apprentices.
He would no longer have to worry about metal forging and iron product production.
Lynn responded, retorting, "How is the progress on the production of one hundred round shields?"
Ehrelo replied without any hesitation, "They’ll be completed by tonight."
Lynn continued, "The blacksmith shop’s next task is to produce three hundred combat iron spears and round shields; I’ll give you five days. Five days later, I want to see these weapons."
Ehrelo’s face instantly tightened.
With previous experience in producing combat iron spears and round shields, five days isn’t too tight for them.
Ehrelo was nervous because Master Lynn had plans to continue expanding the army.
He hurriedly bowed his waist again, responding, "Yes, Master Lynn."
Lynn left the blacksmith shop, mounted his horse, and began patrolling the village.
Seeing the faint green appearing on the ridges of the three thousand acres of farmland, his eyebrows raised instantly.
Without any hesitation, Lynn dismounted, and walked into the farmland.
Rows of pea stems growing a few tender leaves had already broken through the soil, with the slightly swaying seedlings enjoying the sunlight.
Normally, peas enter the germination stage about seven days after being planted.
And in another seven days or so, they enter the seedling stage.
Previously, he had been busy building the city wall and missed the germination stage of the peas.
Fortunately, he had Gavin and Wilbur manage the farmland.
There weren’t any obvious weeds in the farmland.
With a movement of his hand, Lynn picked up a piece of soil, gently compressed it with a few fingers, turning it into a pancake.
With another gentle grind, it turned into some fine soil.
The soil humidity is moderate.
Being close to the Acadia River, the humidity in both the soil and air is relatively higher than other places.
Plus, it had rained earlier, so there’s no need to worry about a shortage of water for now.
However, Lynn pondered.
As the weather gets hotter, the land is bound to experience a shortage of water, irrigation needs to be considered.
Lynn stood up and looked around; the position he was standing at was already nearly a thousand meters away from the Acadia River.
If it’s solely relying on buckets to carry water, it’s doable.
But it’s too time-consuming and labor-intensive.
The only way is to use a waterwheel for irrigation.
Transport the water from the Acadia River at a lower altitude with the waterwheel, then let it flow through channels to everywhere needing water.
Lynn had Red summon Gavin and Wilbur.
Watching the two men far away, wearing vests, rolling up their pants, and donning straw hats, running towards him.
Lynn felt a bit of inexplicable emotion in his heart.
Gavin and Wilbur arrived.
Breathing heavily, they respectfully called out, "Master Lynn, you summoned us?"
Lynn asked, "Who’s responsible for managing this farmland now?"
Gavin and Wilbur exchanged a glance, both responded simultaneously, "We are managing it together."
If it were their own planted farmland, just one of them could manage it.
Why do they need so many people?
Isn’t it just scattering the peas down and waiting for harvest?
But Master Lynn here has more stringent requirements. Fınd the newest release on 𝖓𝖔𝖛𝖊𝖑~𝖋𝖎𝖗𝖾~𝖓𝖊𝖙
The farmland can’t have any weeds whatsoever; they need to constantly watch the crop’s state to evaluate the soil’s fertility.
And observe the changes in soil humidity...
Gavin and Wilbur found joy in farming amid this complexity.
Planting crops into the soil with their own hands, then nurturing the crops’ growth...
It feels like nurturing their own children’s growth.
They feel this is true farming!
Lynn nodded, "Besides you two, how many farmers are assisting you?"
Gavin replied without hesitation, directly stating, "Ten others, like us, are also skilled farmers."
Once spoken, a trace of embarrassment appeared on Gavin’s face.
With their old planting ways, can they even be called skilled hands?
Despite having farmed for nearly twenty years, before Master Lynn, they’re no different from rookies.
Lynn continued, "Gather them together, and I’ll dispatch thirty more people here from elsewhere."
"I need you to dig channels around the lime road’s edge, two meters wide and one meter deep! Once complete, decorate the channels using lime sand for finishing."
A channel depth of one meter feels a bit inadequate to Lynn.
Knowing these channels will serve the entire territory’s farmland.
Now, although only three thousand acres of farmland have been reclaimed.
In the future, the farmland will surely become wider, and the range will continue to grow.
But for safety reasons, a one-meter channel is still enough.
Upon hearing Master Lynn’s words, Gavin and Wilbur’s eyes lit up instantly.
If it turns out as Master Lynn said, the river water of the Acadia River will continuously reach into the farmland.
They wouldn’t have to worry about soil drying out and water shortages anymore.
Both hurriedly responded, "Yes, Master Lynn."
Task completed, and as Lynn was about to leave, Gavin suddenly spoke up.
"Master Lynn, the cotton you planted earlier has already grown cotton balls; do you want to take a look?"
If it weren’t for Kuisi’s explanation, he might never have known what cotton truly meant in this lifetime.
However, from Kuisi’s words, he learned that Master Lynn highly values cotton.
So he had always been carefully watching over it.
Lynn raised an eyebrow, "Let’s go take a look."
Arriving at the cotton field, looking at the dozens of cotton plants with cotton clusters bursting out, Lynn felt a surge of satisfaction.
The cotton plant leaves were yellow and weak, marking the maturity phase.
The cotton planted for nearly half a year was finally close to the harvest phase.
Now, more importantly, is the collection of cotton seeds!
During the boll-opening phase, the maturity of the cotton seeds is also uniform and plump.
It’s the ideal time to collect seeds!
Lynn turned to Gavin and Wilbur, "Go back to get scissors and containers."
Wilbur responded, without hesitation, swiftly running towards the village.
Willby, carrying several pairs of scissors and some clean baskets, returned to stand beside Lynn.
Lynn took the scissors and began harvesting.
He roughly observed, each cotton plant had six cotton bolls.
Each cotton boll can yield about five grams of lint, and sixty cotton plants would yield barely two pounds of cotton.
Relative to these cotton fibers, Lynn cares more about the cotton seeds inside the bolls!
Due to limited soil fertility in wasteland, although the cotton plants mature, each boll’s seeds were only about thirty grains.
Lynn roughly calculated.
From this cotton harvest, he could obtain about eighteen hundred cotton seeds!
Meaning next year, he could plant two acres of cotton.
According to the current cotton harvest weight, eighteen hundred cotton plants could yield nearly two hundred pounds of cotton.