Garrett Nordmark added a bookmark and voted.
"The matters concerning the foreign nobles, you are not to interfere, or even ask about them?"
Garrett was startled. His teacher had never used such a severe tone to stop him from getting involved with the local noblesâ affairs...
Although he had never wanted to meddle before, he had directly participated in the establishment of the Public Health Administration, using both soft and hard tactics to obtain money and power from those high-ranking officials. Perhaps, in the teacherâs view, if he got involved in public health, he might also get involved in farming and hoarding food?
Garrett pondered for a moment, truly hesitant. Public health was not the core interest of those nobles and temples;
Forcing them to accept the councilâs demands, organizing manpower, and paying out of their own pockets to use the God of Natureâs divine magic to accelerate crop growth was truly their core interest!
Whether it was making them bow to the council, allowing outsiders to step into their territory, or making them spend money...
Let the council handle the councilâs business, the temple handle the templeâs business, and the nobles handle the noblesâ business. This was the consensus of all major forces in the Kent Kingdom, and it was explicitly stated on the stone monument at the beginning of the Igor Peak mountain path when Nevis City was established.
Even though the councilâs action this time had already reached an agreement with the royal family, the temple, and many wise nobles, there were always a hundred different people with a hundred different faces. There were always those who did not care about the lives of the common people, only their own territory being infringed upon;
There were always those who wanted to take advantage of the famine to annex the properties of free citizens and small owners to increase their own wealth;
There were always those who were simply lazy and did not want to do more work, knowing that no matter how severe the famine, it would not starve them...
The cost of breaking existing rules to force these nobles one by one before the great famine came was something that even the entire council could not easily afford.
"I understand, teacher." He nodded sincerely:
"I wonât get involved in such matters. As I am now... I cannot afford to get involved."
What he could do was protect himself, protect the people around him, and at most, expand a little to protect the people that those around him cared about.
"Bernard." Garrett stepped out of the small train station at the foot of Igor Peak, and the first thing he did was ask his loyal barbarian guard:
"I remember asking you to write to your tribe to store enough food for two years. How is that going?"
"No reply yet, boss." The barbarian replied bitterly:
"You know, itâs normal for a letter to take two to three months to go back and forth. If thereâs any mishap along the way, itâs not uncommon for there to be no reply for half a yearâin fact, unless itâs very urgent, itâs normal to wait a year without a reply."
Garrett rubbed his temples. When Bernard first came to work as his guard, the agreed payment was enough food for his tribe each year. But if his tribe reacted slowly or did not believe Bernardâs message...
By the beginning or middle of next year, when the famine truly hit, having gold coins would not guarantee a single mouthful of food.
"âŠForget it." Garrett sighed:
"Bernard, send another personâor even more people if necessary. Iâll pay them the same wage for this trip, and cover the travel expenses separately. Tell them to bring your tribe here, Iâll hire them all."
Bernard opened his mouth, hesitating to speak. Garrett quickly added:
"They can work as security, laundresses, horse, cattle, and pig handlers, thereâs always work for them. If they really donât want to come back, itâs fine, have them bring enough gold coins to buy three yearsâ worth of food and deliver it to your tribe."
Seeing Garrettâs firm expression, Bernard had no choice but to agree. Garrett patted him on the shoulder with a smile:
"Hey, after all, this amount of gold is no longer a big number for me. If your tribe is well-fed, youâll be at ease, and so will I. By the way, I havenât given you a raise since you became an 8th-level warrior!"
"Yes, boss..."
Garrett and Bernard rode the Silver Moon Deer back to the Oak Grove Clinic. The first thing Garrett did upon returning was to ask the hospitalâs chief executive, housekeeper, and newly advanced third-level mage, Leon Carlos:
"How much food does our hospital consume each month, including staff and patients?"
This question was no problem for the housekeeper. Just as he was about to answer, Garrett raised a finger to stop him:
"Calculate the total needed from now until next year. Grains, long-lasting meats, procure them at twice the current amountâno, ten timesâand store them."
"Yes, sir." Carlos did not have the slightest doubt, quickly recording everything. Garrett continued counting on his fingers:
"For Bernardâs tribe, store enough food and meat for ten times their current population. No, store enough for three years."
"Yes, sir."
"These things donât have to be purchased all at once, but gradually by the end of the year. Make sure the storage is done properly, ensuring that by next yearâno, the year after that, because spring famine is also terribleâthat everyone has enough to eat and wonât go hungry before the autumn harvest!"
"Yes, sir!"
Carlos had already started calculating how big the warehouses needed to be to meet Garrettâs requirements. One or two wouldnât be enough, three or four might still be tight, he might even need to dig cellars.
Garrett was kind-hearted and couldnât bear to see poor people go hungry. When the time came, impoverished mothers might not leave the hospital, and theyâd have to be given more aid. If a great famine did occur and the barbarians sought refuge with Bernard, based on Garrettâs nature, he would likely take in as many as came.
A group of starving barbarians...
Carlos was already thinking about how to buy two to three times the food with just one time the funds. Then he heard Garrettâs next idea:
"Right, we donât necessarily need to buy meat, we can buy more fish. If preservation is an issue, hire people to salt the fish, giving them a fish every few days as paymentâwhale oil can also be bought in barrels, with enough fat in the food, people wonât get hungry as easily, saving on grains."
Good idea...a barrel of fish is much cheaper than the same weight of beef. However, Carlos held back a comment:
Why do you think those big barrels of sea fish need to be salted by hired workers? Without enough salt, they wouldnât even make it to the port!
"Store enough vegetables...potatoes, sweet potatoes, pumpkins, carrots, beets, cabbages, anything that can be stored long-term, fill the cellars! Vegetables are half the food supply and can supplement vitamins..."
The rest of his voice was lost in muttering about "should we prepare a batch of vitamins ahead of time...or perhaps even in the Year Without a Summer vegetables could still grow..."
Back when the pandemic had just subsided, there were tips online about what vegetables to stockpile. What else was there to stockpile?
Milk?
Eggs?
Or should we just raise some livestock and stockpile feed?
âIn a Year Without a Summer, even grass wouldnât grow well, how should we make silage feed?
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