Chapter 57 Elves, Currency, and Irrigation

As soon as Amber's voice fell, Gawain turned his head and stared at her, staring at the half-elf thief furiously: "You... what do you mean by that look..."

Gawain's eyes looked like he was looking at an alien creature: "Why do you know a Druid?"

"Why can't I know a Druid!" Amber crossed his waist and said confidently, "I'm more or less half an elf - all the Druid factions in the world originate from elves, haven't you heard of it?"

This sentence can be said by any other pointed ears, but the shame of this elf is really not convincing. Gawain looked up and down the lady thief who still maintained a righteous face, and it took a long while to say it. One sentence: "Is it the kind of recognition that you have stolen other people's things before, so you are hated, and people are chased and killed all over the world?"

"You're insulting my personality, I'll tell you!" Amber jumped up suddenly, "How could I be discovered when I stole something!"

Gao Wen: "..."

I always feel that there is something wrong with this point of view.

However, although she questioned her mouth, looking at Amber's assertiveness, it seemed that this guy really knew a Druid, and she introduced it like a salesman: "I tell you, I know that The guy is not only a druid, but also a scholar-type druid who knows a little bit about everything. His druid faction is the 'heart of the woods', which is particularly good at dealing with animals and plants. , absolutely reliable..."

Gawain finally believed the guy's words, but he did not ask in detail how Amber and the mysterious Druid knew each other, as well as the other party's name origin and other details - it is obviously not polite to ask these now. After listening to Amber's pitch, he only asked two questions: "Can you still reach him now? If so, how long will it take you to bring him?"

"It's easy to get in touch. Although people in the world say that Druids are reclusive and hard to find, but I know that guy's range of activities is very fixed, just in the southern region. As for how long it will take to bring it..."

Amber continued to wink at Gawain as he spoke: "When I went to find him, I was able to travel all the way in the shadows, but when I come back, I'm afraid I can only hurry honestly, how fast we can go depends on the means of transportation, Transportation, you understand?"

Gawain immediately understood what the other party meant, and with a big wave he took out a few copper plates and stuffed them into her hand: "Go buy a new pair of shoes."

Amber stared: "...I don't take you like this! And you have to give me some money to use as a deposit for others, right? Even if it is introduced by an acquaintance, you have to pay for the employment fee!"

"You said that earlier, didn't you?" Gawain was just joking with Amber. After all, it was interesting to see the girl jumping up and down, but he had to take it seriously after the joke was over. He took it out from another pocket. Some thin strips of gold and silver pressed into a uniform size, "Take it and get this done - whatever is left is yours."

Amber immediately took over those shiny treasures with a smile.

Since the work required for coinage has not yet been prepared, "Cecil coinage" is still only a concept, so Gawain temporarily asked craftsmen to use some gold and silver in the treasure house to make this kind of broken gold and silver for use. trade with the outside world.

This practice is not uncommon in this world - precious metals are used as trading chips for direct circulation, and the commercial system is still very primitive in the Middle Ages, gold and silver with a certain degree of purity are themselves currency, and gold and silver are often made into coins just for the purpose of It is easy to carry, check and count, but merchants also accept direct gold and silver transactions - but this kind of transaction adds a process of inspection and weighing calculation, so when buying goods directly with gold and silver, Prices will increase slightly.

Of course, this is also under the premise that the "money reputation" of the nobles is still sufficient. If one day the nobles mix the impurities in the gold and silver coins to the extent that they can sting the merchants,

Then the unofficial gold and silver bullion will in turn surpass the currency issued by the royal family and the dukes and become the mainstream transaction, and if you use gold and silver coins to buy things, it will be more expensive.

This is why the emblem of the god of commerce is a scale, and there are iron scissors and an eye at each end of the scale. Both iron scissors and scales are things that merchants carry with them. The former is used to cut gold and silver The bar is formed, the latter is used for weighing, and the eyes are the good eyesight that a good businessman must have to be able to see the fineness of gold and silver.

In fact, if it wasn't for Gawain's somewhat obsessive-compulsive disorder, if he had to cast delicate and distinctive gold and silver coins, he could "mint" coins in a simpler and cruder way-casting gold and silver into round rods, then directly cutting them into thin slices, and then Just stencil Cecil's emblem on it. In order to save time and effort and reduce the cost of paying to craftsmen, the Duke of Ansu in 536 used this method, and the gold and silver coins of the Western Border in that year were also dubbed as "miser's money for the road"-because the Western Border at that time The law stipulates that all merchants who enter the Western Border must exchange one-third of the currency they carry into the Western Border Gold and Silver Coins, and must use this inferior gold and silver coin to settle the settlement when passing through any checkpoint.

The world's currency and economy is so magical.

Amber left happily, and the half-elf lady almost ran away from everyone's eyes, which made Heidi feel deeply worried: "Shouldn't she run away with those gold and silver..."

"Absconding with money?" Gawain muttered, and then deeply thought that the elf's shame might really be able to do such a thing...

Forget it, just trust her a little at this time—there is no other hope anyway.

Can the entire camp find a second person who claims to know the Druid?

After Amber left, Gawain turned his attention back to the reclamation project in front of him.

The old farmer named Norris kept his head down and waited quietly, neither shaking his body and looking around like ordinary poor people in this situation, nor did he speak rashly, as if he had been waiting for Gawain to ask questions.

"Is there any problem with this land?" Gawain asked, "As long as there may be a problem, it is best to say it as soon as possible."

"What I have to say is that the terrain is higher than the river beach, and it is difficult for the canals to directly divert water, and the canals or wells have to be dug from the upper reaches," Norris replied, "but it is also good, if something like a heavy rain causes the White Water River to rise , but you don't have to worry about the farmland being submerged."

Diversion of water... If there is a pump or similar lifting machine, it can be easily solved, or use the "featured technology" of this world to find a mage specializing in water elements to come over to water the ground, but obviously the second way is unreliable ——After the camp is on the right track, Heidi can only be busy with more and more things. She can no longer have the opportunity to run over to be a human power pump, and hire a formal mage to come over and be responsible for watering the ground... Even if it is a violet in the north Neither the kingdom nor the elves in the south can do such extravagant things. Besides, even if Cecil's family's money fell from the sky, there are several mages willing to come to the fields to do such "low-level talents". Dirty work?"

They would rather go to the castles of the king and the great nobles to set off fireworks for the banquet with double the pay, so as to please the pale ladies and noble ladies who drink potions.

Therefore, Gawain immediately dismissed the idea of ​​finding a mage to be a human flesh pump, and turned to consider the solution from a mechanical point of view—of course, if it is according to the general rules of this world, the nobles are generally less likely to solve such problems. The idea is to find more serfs to work, but for Gawain, it is too extravagant to waste manpower on this kind of thing.

At this time, an ancient and effective machine appeared in Gawain's mind: "Have you ever heard of something called a waterwheel?"

Hetty, Norris, and Philip Knight were stunned.

Sure enough, no one had heard of such a thing.

Gawain looked at Heidi: "Do you have a pen and paper?"

After getting the pen and paper, Gawain began to draw a simple sketch. It is a tall wheel-like thing, supported by spokes, and on the outer edge of the "wheel" is fixed a neatly arranged structure of inclined cylinders and planks, and on one side of this "wheel" is drawn an extension out of the sink.

Due to limited time, he only drew a part of the structure of the waterwheel, and it was a sketch, but this simple and magical machine has an amazingly simple principle, just a little explanation: "This thing is a waterwheel, and the river flows from it. The water flows down and hits these wooden boards, driving the waterwheel to rotate, and then the waterwheel will bring the cylinder filled with water to the top, and the water will be injected into the water tank. This process continues to circulate, and the water is lifted to a high place. How high can be improved depends on how big the waterwheel is made, as long as the material can hold up.”

After speaking, he added: "Of course, this is just a sketch, and the principle is very simple. There can be more models on this basis..."

Heidi couldn't speak at all at this moment - she was completely attracted by this simple and incredible thing.

With simple reasoning, she can see that this machine is absolutely useful, but before seeing this sketch, she really never thought that there would be such a thing in the world:

It does not require manpower, nor does it require the participation of any extraordinary power, it can work around the clock to complete the work that requires many serfs to complete, and it is driven by the forces of nature.

She suddenly felt "beauty" from this simple machine, a word that had nothing to do with the original structure of the crude benzene.

However, Gawain was still sighing: "It's a pity that there is no bamboo here, otherwise it would be much easier to build..."

Heidi didn't hear clearly for a while: "Ah? What did you just say?"

"No, it's nothing," Gawain waved his hand, "Do you have any ideas about this machine?"

Hetty just wanted to say that this was a genius design, but saw Norris next to him pick up a pen and sketch on a blank piece of paper, the old farmer said while sketching: "Make it directly. It will be greatly affected by the river water near the Baishui River, and it cannot be used during the dry season. If you can divert another canal next to it, during the dry season..."

Noticing the sudden silence around, Norris reacted suddenly, then threw the pen away in panic, and backed away tremblingly: "Master, I just..."

However, what Gawain said was beyond his expectations: "Can you write?"