From Tyneburg to the mouth of the river it was a full day's walk downstream. Vig calculated that it was at least 20 kilometers.
"Set up one beacon every five kilometers, for a total of three beacons. As soon as an enemy fleet is detected, light the "smoke" of cattle dung during the day, and at night light a pile of wood..."
As for the composition of the garrison, Vig planned to allocate four men to each beacon, three men to be relieved every eight hours, and the remaining one man to be extra.
"A total of twelve men, plus the cost of building the beacon." He muttered to himself as he sat on his horse, and decided to distribute the costs equally among the estates and villages under his jurisdiction. This early warning system was beneficial to all settlements, and there was no reason for the lord to shoulder the cost alone.
Having made his decision, Vig asked the men to gather the village chiefs and nobles. Thanks to the reputation he had earned last time, no one dared to refuse his invitation. After
a short discussion, the guests promised to take turns guarding the lighthouse. When it comes to their lives, they are not as picky as expected.
"By the way, there is one more thing."
Vig led the men to the riverbank, where three hydraulic workshops were being built: one for bleaching woolen fabrics, one for milling flour, and the last one for cutting wood.
"After the wool is sheared, it must be combed, spun, and bleached. Bleaching fabrics requires workers to step on the fabrics with their feet, which takes a lot of time and labor. I plan to build a hydraulic bleaching workshop, and you can use it."
Fat Squire Harry asked, "How shall we charge the fee?"
"After it is built, the fee will be charged according to the specific effect of use, and the maximum will not exceed 5%."
This ratio refers to the fee for milling flour. Usually, farmers have to give between 5% and 8% of the flour each time they borrow a lord's mill. Master Wig was kind-hearted and decided to set the milling and bleaching fee at 5%, just to earn enough to eat.
After serving a lunch of fish soup and bread, Wig dismissed the group and devoted all his energy to building the workshop.
In terms of technical complexity, the bleaching workshop is the simplest. The cloth is placed in a tank filled with clean water and bleaching earth, and a water wheel causes a hammer to hit it repeatedly to remove the grease stuck to the surface of the cloth.
On the contrary, the sawmill is the most complex and expensive, especially the main component, the long iron saw. Kader said that the complexity of processing this thing is far beyond imagination, and he should ask his father for help.
"Really? Hurry up and ask him for help. Money is not a problem." Vig ordered the other man to go to the stables to choose a horse for himself, and told him to go and come back quickly so as not to delay the construction of the remaining two workshops.
Leaving the riverbank, Vig yawned and headed to the bedroom, and was grabbed by the Crow Speaker on the way.
"Sir, I have chosen a piece of vacant land to build a temple to worship the gods. Can you give me some money?"
"Not yet." Vig frowned and asked a question worthy of deep thought. "I have heard that in southern Denmark, the local lords are gradually abandoning their traditions and converting to Roman Orthodoxy. Why? Go back and think about it slowly. Come to me when you have figured it out."
...
It turned out that the Raven Speaker's intellect far exceeded that of the average Viking. After a night of thinking, he came to a conclusion - words.
"My lord, our runes are not suitable for long writing. Messages can only be conveyed through language, and accuracy depends on human memory. Over time, generations grow old, sick, and die, and much of the experience and wisdom is lost. To manage the affairs of state more effectively, the lords tend to rely on missionaries who speak Latin, relying on them to collect taxes, process paperwork, and record history. In time, they turn to their gods."
"Right, are there any other answers?"
Finding that the Raven Speaker had stopped speaking, Vig rose from his seat and began to pace the room. "In addition to the lack of text, your rituals are too bloody, and you kill cattle and sheep at every turn, which can easily frighten children. Remember to change the content of the rituals in the future, eat less hallucinogenic mushrooms and do not dress too somberly. Just be solemn and simple..."
He spoke for a long time until the Raven Speaker promised to accept all offers. Vig nodded and gave him a plot of vacant land, two pounds of silver and a booklet full of symbols.
The original rune had complex strokes, and Vig spent time adjusting it (referring to English letters in the 21st century). Since the Raven Speaker was ready to reform Nordic polytheism, Vig gave him this writing system.
After more than 20 days of hard work, they finally launched version 1.0 of Rune and decided to implement it on a small scale.
"Adults don't have time to study, you can recruit a group of children and teach them runic writing and arithmetic. Spend this money sparingly and come back to me when you're done."
Vig planned to train talents from scratch. One day, he would take over the Pictish lands in the north (Scotland), and he needed a group of skilled officials on affairs to help govern.
...
The Raven Speaker case came to an end, and Vig again poured his energy into the hydraulic workshop. Khader's father had good skills and asked someone to send him four saw blades.
After testing, the saw blade's efficiency in cutting wood was equivalent to eight times the efficiency of labor. Currently, the sawmill can accommodate three saw blades. If all of them are put into production, it will be equivalent to about 24 adult workers.
"Very good, this is the salary I promised to give you."
The three workshops were put into operation one after another. Vig called Miham to summarize the results, a total of seven pounds of silver. In addition, a large amount of labor was used during the construction period, causing discontent among the residents of the surrounding areas. If the cost of labor is included, the total cost is expected to reach fifteen pounds.
"Seven pounds of silver is enough to buy a huge estate. The initial investment in the workshop is really too much. I hope to recoup my investment as soon as possible."
After a few emotional words, Vig patted Kader on the shoulder: "Well done, young man, have you thought about training a few apprentices to help out?"
"What?" Kader instinctively wanted to curse, but given the personality of the interlocutor, he could only hold back the curse.
To train the apprentice and starve the master - such is the common sense of medieval craftsmen. The total number of orders remains unchanged. The more practitioners, the less profit one practitioner will receive. In order to prevent disorderly competition, the guilds of different cities have introduced measures to strictly limit the number of apprentices they can take.
Looking at Kader's flushed face, Vig quickly responded and seemed to touch on the man's core interests.
"That's right," he thought to himself, "Orders from one area can only support one blacksmith, tanner, or barber. If an apprentice leaves, in most cases the master will give him a set of tools and allow him to find work in other areas. If the apprentice insists on staying to steal the business, one of the master and apprentice will certainly go bankrupt."
In response, Vig's approach was to increase the money and promise the other party to pay one pound of silver for each apprentice he trained. Faced with the temptation of huge sums of money, Khader said he would think about it for a while before giving an answer.