diymy Chapter 89 Welcoming and Sending Off
Chapter 89 Welcoming and Sending Off
Chapter 89 Welcoming and Sending Off
On November 15, 1305, the temperature in the north suddenly dropped, and freezing rain fell intermittently from the gloomy sky.
Roger was very busy in the first week after the martial arts tournament ended.
He invited his uncle's family, the lords of Islay, the minor lords of Ulster and Argyll in Ireland, and several noble lords he had befriended during the tournament to visit Milk House Manor.
Apart from his uncle, who was invited by his mother to the reunion, the other families were potential trading partners that Roger had discussed at the banquet.
Roger not only treated them to good food and drink, but also took them to visit the Campbell Saltworks on Holly Island, which was nearing completion, and the textile factory, which was in trial operation.
Before leaving, each guest was given a cloth bag filled with fine salt, and several families established trade relations with Roger to varying degrees.
They promised Roger's textiles and salt that they could sell them in their territory or through their territory to other places with lower commercial taxes.
These families were merely stepping stones and stepping stones for Roger to open up the local and surrounding markets.
During this time, he also participated in the swearing-in ceremony for Baron John's new knights. Baron John recruited a wandering knight who had won two tournament championships in a manor, adding a new noble to the knightly ranks of Arran Island.
Roger gifted the new knight a fine half-sword that he had just purchased from the temporary market town.
Roger was also very busy in the second week after the martial arts tournament ended.
After seeing off the guests, new guests arrived. Maren and the others assisted the families of the five newly recruited warriors in migrating to Arun Island.
As the lord, Roger didn't have to personally receive them, but in order to win over the people, he still put aside his airs and met with the new subjects who had traveled over mountains and rivers. At the same time, Roger also had to lead the grumpy-faced men to the baron's mansion to register everyone, arrange accommodations, and pre-distribute winter food and supplies.
Fortunately, both Marne and Olaf had a background in training people, and with their help, the newly recruited warriors, after settling their families, began their integration training.
In the third week after the martial arts tournament ended, Roger was even busier.
That Monday afternoon, Gray Rat, who had been away for more than a month, returned to the Isle of Aalen. This habitual thief had sneaked all the way from Ayrshire on the west coast to Edinburgh on the east coast, making a lot of money and also gathering a lot of information for Roger.
For example, the English gradually increased their garrisons in Carlisle and Berwick, presumably in preparation for the Scottish resistance forces following the execution of William Wallace.
For example, in September, Edward I convened a parliament in Westminster, drafted an ordinance for governing Scotland, amended traditional Scottish law, and formally established governing bodies and appointed commanders of local garrisons.
Grey Mouse had an excellent memory; he even repeated what the clergy had said: "The document did not refer to Scotland as a kingdom, but rather as the Scottish region, to highlight that Scotland had been reduced to a kingless 'land' and directly subject to the British Crown."
As for the reactions of the various Scottish warlord factions, they were rather muted. Apart from the remnants of William Wallace's old forces launching retaliatory attacks on a few British strongholds, almost all the powerful and influential remained quite calm and restrained.
The gray mouse told Roger, disappointed, that the Bruce family was "as quiet as a tomcat that had just been tricked."
There wasn't much information about the overall situation, but the last type of information Roger asked for, Gray Rat, didn't disappoint him.
Grey Mouse tells Roger that in a town called Dunbarton, near Glasgow, on the north bank of the River Clyde where the River Livingston flows into the river, a sizable textile workshop has gone bankrupt. The workshop owner was an English merchant, and it is said that his entire family was assassinated in the workshop by anti-British forces, and all their property was looted.
The workshop, now filled with resentment, has no takers and the town guild plans to sell it at a low price.
Upon hearing the news, the clever gray rat immediately rushed to Dunbarton and found the guild, saying that his master was interested in purchasing textile equipment and had paid a small deposit.
Roger was thrilled to hear this. He not only paid the full amount of the deposit that Gray Rat had advanced, but also paid him two shillings for intelligence on the spot, so that he could continue to collect intelligence.
This greatly surprised Gray Rat. Last time, when he risked his life to fight bandits alongside Young Master Roger, he only earned a gold coin worth three shillings. This time, he only asked a few questions on the way to steal something and was able to earn such a reward. How could he not be delighted?
More importantly, this money wasn't stolen like a rat, so I can take it with peace of mind and spend it with peace of mind.
The morning after Greymouse brought back the news, Roger organized a team to sail the Seawolf, which had its flag removed, across the Channel and up the Clyde River under Greymouse's guidance. They arrived safely in Dunbarton that evening.
Since the clever gray rat had paid a deposit and the workshop was too sinister to attract any buyers, after some haggling, the town guild sold eight spinning machines and seven looms to Roger for the low price of fifteen shillings per set. As for the wool combing brushes, hammer handles, floaters and other tools and equipment, the guild sold them to Roger as a package for the low price of two shillings.
This textile workshop was only built three years ago, and the machinery and equipment are still about 80% new. Roger got a great deal.
Besides textile machinery and miscellaneous tools, Roger bribed the guild steward with a pound to be allowed to recruit no more than five weavers and apprentices in town.
Thanks to the efforts of Jenny and her assistants, the Seawolf, which was loaded with textile machinery on the return trip, gained two more skilled textile workers and two more artisans who could bleach and dye.
Roger did not recruit too many people. Firstly, as was his custom, Roger hoped that the recruited craftsmen would move their families to Arran Island. This condition deterred many craftsmen who were originally interested, as they were not destitute.
Secondly, Roger's current strength is limited, and he cannot squander his remaining money without restraint.
Roger recruited these people simply to make them the technical backbone and to teach more low-cost laborers textile dyeing techniques, laying the foundation for the future development of labor-intensive industries.
Throughout the third week, Roger devoted almost all his energy to the formal reconstruction of the textile mill. At the same time, he also fulfilled his promise made on opening day by donating fifty yards of cloth produced by the mill to the families of the fallen warriors of Arran Island. This act more or less changed the deep-rooted bad impression he had on the islanders.
The week after the martial arts competition ended, which was just last week, the Holly Island Salt Flats saltworks were successfully completed.
From the ignition ceremony to personally participating in the boiling of the first batch of coarse salt and the purification of the first batch of refined salt, and then trying to improve the various process loopholes that were initially revealed and solve the problems of drying, preserving and packaging refined salt, Roger stayed on Holly Island for four days, and the saltworks basically began to resume production.
It is worth mentioning that when Roger was building the second saltworks on Holly Island, he had the craftsmen use the leftover materials to build a small, enclosed fenced courtyard with only two low wooden huts a hundred paces upstream. On the day the saltworks was lit, a reclusive and eccentric old man known as Old Black Sheep moved in with a large wooden box. From then on, apart from the ponytail girl who brought him food and drinks every day, no one ever saw him again.
Roger also strictly ordered the rest of Holly Island not to approach the courtyard without permission.
The day before yesterday, Roger, who had returned to Milk House Manor, spent half a day at the barracks construction site where the foundation work had just been completed. He planned a latrine and a bathroom next to the two barracks.
Because of these two novelties, Roger argued with the bricklayer who was also a part-time architect for quite some time. In the end, the bricklayer couldn't persuade Roger otherwise and introduced sewage from the bathroom into the latrine pit to flush it out. The filth from the latrine was then collected in a pit a little further away that Roger called a "septic tank".
The construction of the barracks at Milk House Manor, mainly constructed of wood, will take at most another half month, and the craftsmen who are about to lose their jobs are getting restless.
Roger repeatedly led Baldy and his men to bombard the area, attempting to retain technical personnel.
But those who make a living through technical skills are very stubborn, and Roger is not able to offer high salaries at the moment. So in the end, only eight craftsmen or apprentices, including two weapon craftsmen apprentices who were recruited during the martial arts tournament, agreed to stay for the winter and continue building the barracks, with their fate to be decided next spring.
After receiving their wages for the month or so, the rest of the people were sent off the island by Roger's ship.