Early the next morning, Kohler was nearby, conscripting many residents and ordering them to help clean the castle. In the middle ages of agricultural society, most people had nothing to do when winter came. Especially the farmers who cultivate the land have nothing to do in winter.
Marin asked Kohler to go to several nearby villages and recruited 200 farmers to help clean up the castle, and at the same time, clean up and clean the streets. As for remuneration, there is none. Because, in medieval Europe, it was an obligation to help the lord with work during the slack season.
Kohler, a bastard, bullied the serfs without mercy, showing the true nature of evil slaves. On the contrary, Marin was embarrassed, and after Kohler dismissed his opinion on paying wages, he provided free lunch to the farmers.
The ghost knows what the serfs thought. Marin just provided them with a free lunch, and they cheered very much and were very grateful to Marin.
It turned out that in the eyes of European serfs in the Middle Ages, labor was worthless. But food is extremely precious. For a family of three serfs, if Marin solves the man's food problem, their family will lose one mouth to eat that day, and it will be the mouth that can eat the most. The food saved can completely feed the wife and children. This is the simple and poignant logic of the serfs in the Middle Ages...
Marin never thought that there were such tragic people in the world. Just providing a lunch will keep them happy. With a soft heart, he asked Kohler to provide the working serfs with a piece of black bread at noon every day, and allowed them to take half a piece of bread home when they went home at night. This decision made the serfs cheer again, feeling that they had met the best lord in the world. Marin was very speechless - how bad are the other lords
While the serfs were working, Marin had to do other things too. First, he sent Kohler to Amsterdam to buy a new batch of furniture and other supplies.
Because many wooden furniture in the castle are corroded and need to be replaced. Schwartz, on the other hand, was sent to three villages and asked them to send a message to the owners of their respective manors, saying that he wanted to buy their land.
In fact, as an autonomous lord, Marin owns the land rights on the island. If it is civilian land, the lord even has the right to directly deprive it. But the owners of the three Zhuangzi are all nobles living on land, so it is not easy to use force. However, it is possible to forcibly redeem them at a relatively low price. Being able to give money is a great way to save face. Because, although the three Zhuangzi masters are nobles, they are only knights (equal to knights), and they are not considered hereditary nobles. Ma Lincoln paid the full price, which is already counted as a face. You must know that the village on the island is not the official fiefdom of the three families, but was purchased later. If it is not a formal fiefdom, the local lord has the right to forcibly buy it.
The owners of the three villages all lived near Den Helder. They are on land and have another estate. For Zhuangzi on Texel Island, they also feel that it is a bit tasteless, it is tasteless to eat, and it is a pity to discard it.
Now, the new lord Marin is willing to buy, and they are also considered to be a burden. The farm on the island, because of its remote location, no one wants to manage it. Therefore, the management of the three Zhuangzi is very chaotic, and the output is not high. Even, because "the sky is high and the emperor is far away", corruption has also appeared on the island's stewards, resulting in relatively low output on the manor for the owner.
Marin sent Schwartz to negotiate with them, and Schwartz, in order to put pressure on the other party's representatives, brought 400 fully armed brothers to the front, scaring the three representatives away. Then, Schwartz used 15,000 gold coins to buy all the farmland and pastures on the island belonging to the three families, including the "organizational relationship" of the serfs. This price is definitely the bottom price. But Marin didn't reason with them and used power to overwhelm others, and they couldn't help it. After all, this island is now Marin's territory.
In this way, the entire island of Texel, except for the 200 Yugram land owned by the church, cannot be moved, and all other cultivated land, pastures and wasteland belong to Marin.
As for the fishermen in the two fishing ports, their taxes, except the church's tithe, other taxes do not need to go to Den Helder to pay, just hand it over to Marin. In fact, the so-called tax they handed in is dried salted fish, and some fresh fish can also be paid, it all depends on Marin's request...
Kohler came back soon, and he brought back hundreds of pieces of furniture. At the same time, a batch of masons and building materials were brought back.
First of all, Marin asked the masons to coat the walls inside the castle with lime. In this way, the white walls look bright. Marin then had them rebuild the sewers and toilets, and began building septic tanks. In this way, there will never be a bad smell in the castle.
Then, on the grassland to the north of the castle, Marin built rows of stables, housing 1030 horses and a few cattle pulling carts.
In the end, Marin mobilized the peasants to build a batch of adobe houses with soil for his 400 soldiers...
This adobe house was lived by Uncle Zhou, a lonely old man at the entrance of the village, in Marin's previous life's hometown. At the beginning, when Uncle Zhou's adobe house was renovated, Ma Lin went to help, and saw how everyone built the adobe house.
The construction of an adobe house is very simple, that is, use the mud that is available everywhere, put thatch, straw, etc. as "bones" into it, and mix it up, which feels like reinforced concrete. And those thatch are the "muscles and bones" among them.
Then, we erected it with two wooden planks, sandwiched on both sides, filled it with mud mixed with thatch, and compacted it. Wait until the soil in the plywood is almost dry before removing the plywood. In this way, a thick mud wall was built. After it was built, a fire was raised to dry the walls. What's more, this kind of soil is mixed with thatch as the mud wall, which is quite strong. At least, wind and rain are absolutely fine.
Moreover, living in an adobe house, in an era without air conditioning, it was quite warm in winter and cool in summer...
The soldiers began to dislike this kind of mud house, but Marin let them live in it for a few days, and they fell in love with this cheap and fast-built house.
In fact, Marin had no choice but to use this trick. It's December now, it's winter. It's quite cold to live in a tent, but how many stones do you need to build a stone house that is popular in Europe and repair a house for 400 people
Moreover, Texel Island does not produce stones, so they have to buy them off the island and ship them back... How much trouble is it? Also, time is tight...
Therefore, Marin simply asked the serfs to help and built the legendary adobe house together. The cost is low, the construction speed is fast, and the comfort is good...
Then, according to the habits of the Orientals, Marin built a Chinese-style stove in the house and erected a simple chimney...
But what makes Marin speechless is that chimneys do not seem to be popular in Europe at present. At least, not very popular in the homes of common people in the Middle Ages...
It is said that chimneys were introduced to Europe from the East by Jewish merchants, Egyptians and Syrians around 800 AD. Although, hundreds of years have passed, chimneys are still not fully popular in Europe.
Because the biggest function of the chimney is to exhaust smoke. Only very particular nobles and rich families pay attention to smoke exhaust. As for poor families, they can still light a fire without a chimney. At worst, they will be choked by the smoke... Many poor families have directly built semi-open kitchens to prevent smoke from choking. In this way, when the fire is baked, the smoke will spread out directly...
Marin organized everyone to build 400 adobe houses with three bedrooms and one kitchen, without spending much money. Even the beds were directly built with mud, and then hardened and dried with a fire.
Moreover, each bed is actually an earth kang. In the outer room, there is a stove, which can put fuel in it. Fireplaces are currently popular in Europe (in fact, they are also popular among rich people, and chimneys are mainly equipped for fireplaces), but there is a problem with fireplaces, which burn fire inside the house. If it is burning firewood, it is okay, but if it is burning coal, it is easy to cause gas poisoning.
The oriental kang introduced by Marin is an artifact for overwintering. People in Nagazi in the northeast can resist the low temperature of tens of degrees below zero by relying on the earth kang. And put coal and other fuels in the outer room with the window open, and don't worry about gas poisoning in the kang room. But in the Netherlands, the lowest temperature is only a few degrees below zero, which is because it is in the "Little Ice Age". Using earth kang is simply a waste.
The only problem is that there are no trees on the island and there is a lack of wood. This also led to the lack of firewood available on the island. Therefore, residents on the island generally burn hay for cooking and heating. At the same time, I will also go to Den Helder to buy some firewood. Of course, those who go to land to buy firewood are usually rich forces like the church. After all, churches have fireplaces. And priests, you can't burn hay in the fireplace, can you? There is no grade, it is more formal to burn firewood...
"Should I get some coal from the coal mine at home to use as fuel?" Marin thought while holding his chin.
The coal reserves of Hoffman Manor are not small, and the quality of the coal is excellent. However, in this medieval era, coal was used for very narrow purposes. This also led to poor sales of coal. The largest and only customer of Manor Coal was settled by Marin when he was at home.
However, the Wiggins Chamber of Commerce's purchases from the Hoffman Coal Mine are also limited. On average, the Wiggins Chamber of Commerce only buys 100 Chaltron coal from the Hoffman Coal Mine every day. And one chartelon coal, the profit is only a little more than 1 shilling. On average, Hoffman Manor only earns about 2,800 marks from coal mines every year.
Marin bought coal from his own coal mine, which not only solved his fuel shortage problem, but also made his family cheaper. But the question is, how to get the coal from Hoffman Estates to Texel...
Marin himself had no boats and no sailors. It is obviously wisest to transport coal from Hoffman Estate to Texel by water. Because the cost of waterway transportation is low, there are few tax cards to pass (this is a very important reason), and the volume of cargo is large.
To load the coal, colliers can travel west along the Ruhr and into the Rhine. Then, pass the Rhine River to reach the estuary, and then go north along the west coast of the Netherlands to the island of Texel.
This whole set requires not only a ship and skilled sailors, but also a navigator who is familiar with the route and knows how to avoid tax cards. Marin didn't have any of these... So, Marin decided to find someone to cooperate...