Chapter 69: 69 Incentive Plan

Chapter 69: The Incentive Plan

Early the next morning, just as Ronin had risen and dressed, Elron was already waiting outside his room, presenting two successfully crafted healing spell scrolls.

Faced with such diligent and hardworking a magician, Ronin couldn’t help but give him a thumbs-up and invited him to join for breakfast.

Upon learning that Elron had failed twice, Ronin didn’t say much. After all, this was quite normal—hadn’t he himself failed once last night?

As the saying goes, failure is the mother of success. Without the experience accumulated from failures, how could Elron have achieved two consecutive successes afterward?

However, noticing that Elron had exhausted all his mana early in the morning, Ronin couldn’t help but offer a reminder.

Although crafting spell scrolls was one of the territory’s primary financial means, both Elron and Ronin himself needed to reserve some mana for unexpected needs.

For instance, if someone suddenly suffered severe injuries and required Elron’s healing spell, but the latter had exhausted all his mana due to scroll crafting, causing the injured to lose their life, the loss would be significant.

Given Elron’s current mana state and the available quantities of spell ink and beast hide, it was sufficient for him to craft just one healing spell scroll per day.

During breakfast, Ronin received the salary statistics table from steward Chahar, which clearly listed everyone’s remuneration. As he ate, Ronin randomly selected a few entries to verify and found no discrepancies. He then began preparing to distribute the salaries.

In this world, a month consisted of twenty-eight days. Among them, McKen and Chahar had served him the longest—twenty days, followed by the guards, who had been with him for twenty-five days.

McKen’s strength was at the beginner level for two days, intermediate for nineteen days, and advanced for six days. Additionally, with the daily subsidy of 20 copper coins for serving as the guard officer, his salary this month reached an astonishing 2 gold, 3 silver, and 40 copper coins.

Chahar had served as a manservant for twelve days and as steward for fifteen days, totaling 160 copper coins.

The salaries of the ordinary guards were easier to calculate: 58 copper coins each, totaling 1682 copper coins. The ten thousand copper coins provided by the Green family were still available, perfectly suited for distribution.

David’s calculation was a bit more complicated: six days as an ordinary guard and nineteen days as a junior knight, totaling 582 copper coins.

Then there were Tom, the castle servants, official Wilson, and the newly joined Ridal—each one was to be paid accordingly.

After all calculations, Ronin needed to distribute 9 gold and 47 copper coins today.

Though compared to the money spent in Pasture City, this amount wasn’t significant, calculating it over a year would exceed over a hundred gold coins—a burden for a typical barony.

With Ronin’s savings of 120 gold coins, paying this salary was like sprinkling water; he felt nothing at all.

But for the guards, castle servants, even McKen and others receiving the money, it was an extremely joyful occasion.

After all, what could be more delightful than receiving wages?

Seeing his subordinates happy, Ronin naturally felt pleased. As long as they accomplished the tasks he assigned, this expenditure was worthwhile.

After distributing the salaries, Ronin met with the village chiefs and sixteen group leaders from the four villages in the outer castle hall.

Yesterday, when these individuals learned from Wilson that the lord would personally summon them, they were so excited they couldn’t sleep.

Some with slightly better households even brought out their rarely worn linen coats—though patched, they were slightly more formal than their usual ragged attire.

Those with poorer households also washed their faces and combed their hair, striving to appear a bit more spirited, lest the lord deemed anyone unfit.

They appeared serious and earnest, but some trembled nervously, betraying their inner anxiety.

Ronin didn’t pay much attention to their attire; Mountain Forest Town was like this—it was already quite good if everyone could wear complete linen clothes.

He regarded those below as beggars with washed faces; of course, he himself was the leader of the beggar gang.

“Now Mountain Forest Town is divided into four villages: Chief Delin of Prosperity Village, Chief Rad of Progress Village, Chief Heseba of Diligence Village, and Chief Han of Dedication Village. You four, come forward so I can get acquainted.”

Ronin wasn’t particularly interested in dealing with these people, but for the chiefs, being singled out by the lord for recognition was an honor.

The four excitedly stepped forward, stating their names while conveying greetings to the lord.

Ronin nodded in acknowledgment and patiently listened as the four chiefs introduced the four group leaders from each village, completing a preliminary meeting with everyone below.

Though he couldn’t remember their faces, they could clearly remember his appearance;

Even though Ronin emphasized that both chiefs and group leaders only had supervisory rights without enforcement powers, being specially treated by the lord elevated their status within the community of subjects in a certain sense.

To maintain such status, they would strive to accomplish the tasks assigned by the lord.

For some, the monthly subsidy of two copper coins and two pounds of barley might be insignificant; whether they could become group leaders was what concerned them most.

During this meeting, Ronin outlined the two most important tasks for the four villages in the coming period:

First was the autumn harvest. It was already September sixth, and the barley in the wheat fields was gradually ready for harvesting. Ronin demanded that the chiefs take proactive leading roles, ensuring that every village harvested all barley without leaving any stalks abandoned in the fields.

Second was the planting issue after the autumn harvest.

Ronin had consulted Wilson; Mountain Forest Town did not plant winter wheat. Generally, after harvesting barley, farmers hurriedly gathered carrots and then planted cabbage, cauliflower, and other vegetables.

After completing these tasks, farmers would have relatively more leisure. Some would sell labor to the lord to obtain timber for repairing houses to prepare for winter; others would use this time to maintain various farming tools, while others would focus more on livestock rearing and care.

After winter snows passed, farmers would busy themselves again preparing for spring ploughing.

Given this, Ronin planned to promote his ridge farming method during this period, starting with experimenting on planting cabbage and cauliflower. They would be harvested in December, allowing farmers to learn this method before spring ploughing.

Thus, Ronin instructed the four chiefs to select a plot of land for him, where he would personally direct labor and even take part himself.

The idea of a noble working in the fields was unheard of; today was the first time witnessing it. Not only did Chahar deem it inappropriate, even Wilson wanted to express opposition.

Ronin didn’t mind; doing this would allow the subjects to see his emphasis on this new farming method, facilitating better implementation.

Additionally, Ronin handed over the hoes and shovels purchased from Pasture City to Wilson, distributing them under the village names.

Of course, these tools were prioritized for serfs; free tenant farmers wanting to use them would have to pay a little extra, such as paying slightly more grain when delivering land rent.

Furthermore, to incentivize everyone’s enthusiasm for farming, Ronin instructed Wilson to record the annual yields of grains, vegetables, flax, and other crops for each village.

For villages ranking top three in total yield, Ronin would reward the chiefs with 1 gold, 5 silver, and 1 silver coins respectively, and the group leaders with 3 silver, 1 silver, and 50 copper coins respectively, along with certain grain rewards for participating farmers.

Upon hearing this, all chiefs and group leaders’ eyes lit up—these rewards exceeded annual salaries; their eyes gleamed with determination to strive for them.

But soon, Ronin added that if total yield ranked last consecutively for two years, with no outstanding performance in any crop, from chiefs to group leaders, he would replace them all without exception, allowing new individuals to take over!

With rewards naturally came penalties; Ronin didn’t want to harbor idle, slacking chiefs and group leaders; only those proving effective could remain.

Those below exchanged glances, revealing worry in their eyes—they didn’t want their unexpectedly gained status stripped away.

Yet they shared the same thought—among four villages, surely theirs wouldn’t rank last?