blueteamnovel Chapter 57: The Bakery
Chapter 57: The Bakery
Three days after Thun set off with the Greens, Mrs. Moriel's bakery officially went into production.
Mrs. Morrill is selecting female workers for her bakery.
The territory now operates on a work-point system in exchange for food quotas, in order to minimize consumption and unnecessary waste of labor.
Ron built a large bakery to produce the daily supply of dark bread needed by the territory.
The most striking buildings in the bakery are the super-large solar concentrator in the center and the windmill next to it.
The concentrator focuses sunlight onto the bottom of the oven, allowing bread to be baked without firewood;
The windmill grinds wheat and black beans into coarse flour, saving the labor of manually pushing the millstone.
These two things combined allow the bakery to produce the equivalent of ten ordinary mills per day.
The bakery needs fifty female workers and produces more than four thousand loaves of bread every day. The surplus is stored in the warehouse and distributed the next day to ensure the supply of black bread in the territory.
Because production and distribution were centralized, many molds were specially made. In order to reduce food consumption, 20% sawdust was added to the black bread of ordinary citizens.
"From now on, you have only one task: to produce enough bread to feed the territory. If you complete your assigned work on time each day, you will receive ten work points, and you will also be rewarded with half a loaf of black bread when you return home at night. If you fail to complete your task, you know what will happen to you without me having to say it."
After beating him up, he was thrown out of the bakery.
This was Mrs. Morrill's style of doing things on the territory.
Nina was among the first group of people to come to the Blackthorn Wasteland with the lord. Her family were originally noble tenants, but the harvest from the land had been poor in the past two years, and her father was unwilling to sell his children, so he had no choice but to apply to go to the Blackthorn Wasteland to reclaim the land.
This was the only option for most of the people who could not survive.
When Nina's family arrived in Blackthorn Wasteland, they thought they were doomed.
But in just one month, the city walls were built, houses were built, and nearly a hundred acres of farmland were cultivated in the territory.
It's fair to say that the territory changes every single day.
The first group of settlers naturally enjoys their own set of unspoken benefits.
For example, the militia recruitment mainly targeted males from the First Territory, followed by people from the Wenger Territory. As for criminals, they could only be recruited if they had made significant contributions.
Nina's brother is now a militiaman in the territory, and working as a bakery worker is a good job in the territory.
After all, working in a place that serves food means you can't do without food.
The allocation of houses in the territory will also give priority to the citizens of the lord's directly owned properties.
Therefore, in many people's eyes, a bakery is basically the same as providing food and accommodation.
Nina secretly made up her mind that she must get this job.
Compared to popular bakeries, sanitary fertilizer workshops are jobs that everyone avoids like the plague.
Sanitation is responsible for urban sanitation, including the excrement of urban residents;
Fertilizer is the process of treating these excrements to make them into qualified fertilizer.
Therefore, the jobs in the sanitary fertilizer workshop were decided by drawing lots from the latest batch of captured women.
Nina had just finished her task for the day. She used to help make dark bread at home, so she picked it up quickly and barely managed to complete her ten work points for the day.
She happily went home, carrying the half loaf of black bread she was assigned that evening and the whole loaf of black bread she had exchanged for four work points.
I happened to be passing by the entrance of the sanitary fertilizer workshop.
In the open space in front of the sanitary fertilizer workshop, more than thirty women stood in two rows.
They were all prisoners who had just been rescued from the goblin camp. They had taken a bath, changed into uniform burlap smocks, and their hair was still dripping wet.
Mrs. Moriel stood on the steps, clutching a handful of wooden sticks in her hand.
"Those who drew the red lot, step forward." Her voice wasn't loud, but the entire open space fell silent.
The women in the front row took turns picking out lottery tickets from the wooden tube, their fingers trembling. When they pulled one out, they found it was colorless.
The woman's legs buckled, and she almost squatted down, but her companion behind her helped her stand up.
She covered her mouth and retreated back into the line, but the corners of her mouth couldn't help but turn up in a smile.
One by one, those who didn't get a draw stepped aside, their faces filled with relief at surviving a close call.
Some people clasped their hands together and bowed to the sky, while others couldn't hold back and almost jumped up, their heels already off the ground.
Mrs. Moriel's gaze swept over, and the woman who was about to jump abruptly put her heels back down, suppressing her laughter and letting out a very soft cough.
At the end of the first row, a short woman pulled out a red slip. She looked down at the dark red paint on the slip, her fingers began to tremble, her lips quivered a few times, and then she squatted down, buried her face in her knees, and let out a very low sob.
Cleaning up feces is not only smelly, but also dirty and tiring; it's real physical labor.
Mrs. Morrill neither urged nor comforted her. She waited until the crying stopped on its own before speaking: "Go get your tools when you're done crying. Start work before dawn tomorrow."
Behind her, two strong women had already pushed out a cart loaded with pitchforks and buckets.
The red tags were clutched in trembling hands as the women lined up and walked towards the cart, their steps slow and silent.
Those who didn't win have already lined up and obediently gone home, without anyone looking back.
Seeing this, Nina secretly rejoiced that her older brother had joined the militia. He had performed exceptionally well in the two wars, and in addition to being rewarded with a sister-in-law, he was also promoted to squad leader and received twelve work points every day.
Nina only got the job at the bread factory because her older brother helped her. Without him, the thought of digging latrines and carrying sewage made her shudder.
Nina returned to the mud-brick house assigned to her family. Since her family was among the first to be allocated housing, they naturally didn't have the opportunity to live in a pit house. However, compared to the cramped pit house, the mud-brick house was much more comfortable.
At least before going to bed at night, the whole family can sit and chat in the cool air at the doorway instead of crowding into the room.
Now, Nina's family of seven is crammed into a 40-square-meter mud-brick house, which is indeed very crowded. In the end, Nina's father, Sam, decided to build a small shed for the couple to live in at the entrance. His daughter-in-law is newly pregnant, and his daughter has to work during the day, so the couple can make do with the living space.
Nina's family was originally eligible to apply for a pit house, but her father, Sam, said that pit houses were too stuffy and they couldn't get used to living there, preferring to stay in their mud-brick house.
"Second sister, you're back!"
The other two boys in the house, who were only a few years old, saw Nina and ran happily towards her.
In their eyes, when their sister comes back, she will definitely bring them food.
Sam couldn't help but smile when he saw Nina.
"I'm back!"
Nina held up the black bread in her hand: "Father, Mother, I'm back. This is half a loaf of black bread that I was allocated today. I also used my work points to exchange for a whole loaf of black bread, which I'm saving for you to eat tomorrow."
"Yay!" the two boys cheered.
Nina and her family sat on the stone stools by the door, breaking open the black bread and taking a small piece for each of them.
The sawdust gives the bread a slightly crunchy texture, but the warm, wheaty aroma mixed with the evening breeze of the wilderness is better than anything else.
In the distance, the lights of Anson Tower lit up one by one, and night fell over Ashwood Territory.