126. Sticks and Beans

Wu Qingchen had limited memory, and when the clerk assigned common land and serfs to Andre, there was far too much randomness. The Earth team had no way to pre-select candidates for Wu Qingchen the way they had selected serfs for the lord's livestock shed.

In fact, standing by the edge of the common land and looking out, among the twenty-odd serfs in front of him, Wu Qingchen could barely name a single one.

"That one, Lucien."

After watching for a moment, Wu Qingchen called out the first name.

"Lucien?" Andre turned his head to look at the bailiff standing beside him, who immediately shouted loudly, "Lucien!"

A few dozen paces away, within the common land, a serf who was still struggling forward through the mud instantly shuddered all over.

And right behind this serf, another bailiff who had equally no idea what was happening immediately raised the club in his hand and rushed forward.

Oh no!

"Wait!"

Wu Qingchen, who had almost forgotten about this, couldn't wait for the accompanying bailiff to call out and hurriedly shouted at the top of his lungs, "Antoine, don't hit him yet!"

In the current medieval village of Eklis, Wu Qingchen's voice had already reached a relatively high level of recognition, and the words he spoke carried a considerable amount of weight.

Hearing the voice, the bailiff named Antoine indeed paused his steps, lowered his club, and turned his head to look over.

"Antoine," Wu Qingchen waved at the bailiff in the common land, "We'll need to pick a few serfs in a moment. When I call out their names, let them come over."

Standing to the side, Andre also nodded, confirming Wu Qingchen's instruction: "That's right, Antoine, listen to Los."

"Understood, Master Andre! Understood, Los!"

Antoine acknowledged the order, turned around, and walked over to the serf who had narrowly escaped a beating: "Lucien! Did you hear that? Why aren't you hurrying over?"

The serf obediently walked toward the direction where Wu Qingchen and the others were.

"And Jais, Kyle, Corey..."

Wu Qingchen continued to read off a few more names. The bailiff standing beside him repeated them loudly, and Antoine in the common land let them pass one by one.

After calling out the fourth name, all the serfs whom the Earth advisory team had recommended to him and whom Wu Qingchen could still remember had been selected.

However, it didn't matter. The Earth team certainly wouldn't pin any important matters on Wu Qingchen's memory performing exceptionally; they had thoughtfully provided him with selection criteria that were the easiest to implement and so simple that unless his brain suddenly short-circuited, it was practically impossible to forget.

"And that one, that one, that one..."

As Wu Qingchen's arm moved, with the assistance of the bailiff beside him and Antoine in the common land, twelve serfs, several plow carts, and various other wooden farming tools were soon gathered in front of Wu Qingchen.

"Hmm..."

Closely observing Wu Qingchen's selection process, even before all these lazybones had completely walked over, Andre had already noticed a common trait among them.

The lazybones picked out by Los were all fellows with the most scars on their bodies.

If that was the case...

"Los..."

Considering that although Los was leading the free peasants quite well, he had never managed lazybones before, Andre felt it necessary to offer a warning based on his own experience to his good friend: "These lazybones you picked out all seem to be the ones who get beaten the most?"

"Yeah," Wu Qingchen turned his head to look at Andre, "What's wrong?"

"In that case, you need to keep an eye on them," Andre leaned close to Wu Qingchen's ear. "Fellows who take a lot of beatings are either disobedient or love to slack off!"

"Ah, which ones love to slack off?"

Wu Qingchen looked at Andre doubtfully.

"I have no idea!" Andre replied with utter helplessness. "If I knew, would these bastards still be standing here so quietly?"

"That's true too."

Knowing Andre's ruling-class awareness quite well, Wu Qingchen nodded in deep agreement.

"Whatever, if these are the ones chosen, then these it is..."

Andre waved a hand and brandished the club in his hand. "Anyway, whether they obey or whether they slack off, in the end, it still comes down to this."

"Mm, you're right."

Saying this, Wu Qingchen waved toward the common land again. "Antoine, come over here too."

Regarding bailiffs—a group representing the village's violent means—Wu Qingchen understood them quite well, and without hesitation, he chose the one among the present bailiffs with the highest favorability toward him.

"I'm coming, Los!"

Antoine ran over joggily. "Los, I've been busy preparing for the summer corvée recently and didn't manage to come to your house to properly thank you for curing my family's ox. Did you see the fodder my son sent over?"

Yes, this unfortunate fellow was one of the village's owners of injured draft oxen.

"I saw it, I saw it."

Giving the bailiff a friendly smile, Wu Qingchen pointed at the serfs in front of him: "Antoine, I'm going to have these serfs do some work later, and I'd like to ask for your help."

"Alright, no problem!" Antoine tightened his grip on his club and glared viciously at the serfs. "Los, just put them to work however you like. Let's see which one dares to slack off!"

"No," Wu Qingchen shook his head. "We don't need to right now. It's too hot, take a rest first."

"It's nothing! I'm not hot!" Antoine said indifferently. "You helped my family with such a huge favor, I must help you do this job right! You lazybones, did you hear that? You better obey honestly and put your backs into it, otherwise..."

With those remaining words, Antoine directly swung his club through the air with a whistling sound, letting the serfs opposite him figure out the meaning themselves.

The serfs were not lacking in comprehension; they instantly shivered collectively.

"This..."

This script wasn't right!

Beneath the shade of the tree, Wu Qingchen felt his sweat starting to pour even faster, and he hurriedly pulled Antoine forcibly over to a rock. "Sit, sit, sit. You can just sit right here. When I need your help, I'll let you know."

Antoine sat down on the rock.

"You all heard it."

Wu Qingchen turned back to face the serfs and gestured to the open space in front of him. "The work you'll be doing later is similar to what you usually do. I'll call you one by one. Whoever's name is called, step forward. Do whatever you're told to do immediately. Is that clear?"

"Understood."

The serfs nodded obediently.

"Lucien."

Wu Qingchen called out a name.

Almost the skinniest of the group of serfs immediately stepped to the spot where Wu Qingchen's finger was still pointing.

"You, walk over that way," Wu Qingchen pointed to the distant opposite side. "Pick up all the stones and branches along the way and pile them together."

Lucien immediately set off.

"Jais."

Wu Qingchen pointed to another serf. "Take a basket, follow behind him, load up the piled stones and branches, and throw them outside the common land."

Jais immediately set off.

"Kyle, Corey..."

Wu Qingchen continued calling out names.

Standing to the side, quietly watching Wu Qingchen arrange the position for every single serf, Andre was quite certain: this was entirely a carbon copy of the working model used by Richard and the other three households.

Wasn't this kind of method only possible to implement with "Wu Qingchen's face" and "Wu Qingchen's kindness" serving as the ties?

Otherwise, even free peasants couldn't cooperate properly, so how could these damned lazybones possibly work hard obediently?

Hearing such a question, Wu Qingchen pointed at the club in Andre's hand: "Didn't you already say it? You have this!"

"This..."

Andre looked at Wu Qingchen speechlessly. "These bastards, even when doing the exact same work, it's hard to catch the ones slacking off. Now like this, with everyone doing different tasks, how could you possibly tell?"

"Actually, you can tell."

"How?"

"Well..."

While the two were conversing, the work in the common land had already begun for a few minutes. Staring constantly at the backs of the serfs, Wu Qingchen didn't directly answer Andre's question, but instead asked first: "Look, if we don't consider speed... these tasks, they can actually be done this way, right?"

Of course right!

Division of labor and cooperation after breaking tasks down was originally something every serf had to do every day, and Wu Qingchen had already assigned every single station to a specific person, so of course it was impossible for them to be unable to do it.

"However, what matters is speed!"

Very important!

In just this short while, even an agricultural layman like Andre could see that without the club following behind them, the serfs in the common land immediately began to slack off, seizing this rare opportunity to catch their breath.

If they kept working like this, the working speed of the serfs picked out by Wu Qingchen would estimatedly be two to three times slower than the group that wasn't picked.

"No, what matters is beans."

"What?"

"Beans!" Wu Qingchen repeated. "If these serfs work at a fast speed, would you be willing to let them eat a few beans?"

"How many?" When it came to food, Andre was rather cautious.

"Hmm, seven or eight bowls, not too many."

"That's not a problem." Andre breathed a sigh of relief.

"Alright!"

With that, Wu Qingchen shouted toward the direction of the serfs: "Alright, that's enough, come here now!"

The serfs hoisted their farming tools and obediently arrived at the starting point.

"Good, next, go pick up stones. Everyone go pick up stones. When I call you over the next time..."

At this point, Wu Qingchen smiled slightly. "Whoever picks the fastest gets a bowl of beans!"

"Ah!"

The serfs let out a collective low gasp.

"You should know York, Harry, Jared, and Rex... they've all eaten the beans I gave out."

Following these words from Wu Qingchen, the sound of the serfs' breathing immediately grew much faster and heavier.

"Lucien."

Without leaving the serfs any time for surprise, joy, or doubt, Wu Qingchen directly began calling names.

Lucien stepped out of line once again.

"You, walk over that way," Wu Qingchen pointed to the distant opposite side. "Just like last time, stones and branches."

Lucien set off at a run.

"Jais."

Wu Qingchen motioned for the serfs to follow, walked a few steps along the path, and then named another serf:

"You," Wu Qingchen pointed into the distance again. "Everything over this way belongs to you."

Jais set off running.

"Kyle."

After walking a few more steps, another serf sprinted toward the stones and branches.

Just like that, Wu Qingchen walked all the way forward, and by the time he reached the end of this half of the common land, all the serfs had also set off.

"These bastards!"

Andre was shaking with anger. In the common land, the speed at which the serfs were picking up stones and branches was blazing fast, far exceeding the speed during the rehearsal just now: "Alright, if there are beans, this makes it fast... but Los, what's the use of this? You can't possibly give beans every single day—no, you can't possibly give beans every single time they pick up stones, right?"

"Don't worry."

While speaking, Wu Qingchen found a relatively flat patch of open ground, propped up a well-fitting stone flake with mud, and finally stuck a relatively straight branch onto the stone flake using mud.

This was a very crude sundial.

Andre recognized it.

"When this..." Wu Qingchen pointed at the shadow of the branch, then moved his finger a few inches aside. "...reaches here, can you have the beans brought over?"

During the summer corvée, even serfs would get extra meals; although there weren't many beans, a small batch was definitely prepared every day.

"Go quickly!" Andre hurriedly turned his head to look at the bailiff standing beside him.

"Understood, master." The bailiff hurriedly ran off in the direction of the village.

Wu Qingchen calculated with considerable accuracy; just as the shadow was about to reach the spot Wu Qingchen had pointed to, the bailiff arrived back by the edge of the common land. In his hand, he carried a basket containing several wooden bowls and an earthenware jar filled to the brim with beans.

"Alright, follow me now."

Leading Andre and the bailiff, Wu Qingchen walked from the tree shade back to the end of this half of the common land. Moving at roughly the same speed as when they had walked across earlier, Wu Qingchen shouted out every few steps, calling all the serfs over one by one and having them stand at their assigned positions.

Leaving the two bailiffs to watch over the serfs, Wu Qingchen and Andre looked out over the common land, taking stock of the piled-up stones and branches.