The Hoffman Manor was located southeast of the small town of Bochum, within the borders of the Duchy of Mark, on the north bank of the Ruhr River.
This area consisted mainly of hills, with only a small portion being flatland.
The Hoffman family’s ancestors once served as court guards for the Duchy of Mark, though they were not particularly prominent.
As a result, when knightly territories were distributed after a certain war, they were assigned to this hilly area.
In theory, the Hoffman estate comprised 500 jugerums (about 1,000 acres) of land.
However, in reality, only 200 acres (1,200 mu) near the Ruhr River were suitable for farming.
The remaining 800 acres were mostly barren hills, where even trees couldn’t grow, leaving only sparse, weak grass.
This unfortunate situation arose because the ancestor of the Hoffman family had offended the Chancellor of the Duchy of Mark.
During the land distribution, the Chancellor secretly manipulated the allocation, sending the Hoffman family to this unlucky piece of land.
Meanwhile, those with better fortune received 1,000 acres of fully arable land, making them wealthy knightly families.
Even in medieval Europe, owning 6,000 acres of land meant wealth.
In the Ming Empire of the East, anyone with that much land would certainly be a large landowner, comparable to the great landlord Liu Wencai, who owned just over 10,000 acres.
However, in medieval Europe, 6,000 acres wasn’t extraordinary.
Typically, French knights held territories of around 1,500 acres, which made them wealthy and well-equipped.
During the Hundred Years’ War, the French king could easily gather tens of thousands of knights, while England could only muster a few thousand.
The rest had to be made up with longbowmen.
In the Holy Roman Empire, imperial knights, who served the emperor, also generally held about 1,500 acres.
However, knights under local dukes and counts held smaller territories, as these smaller regions simply didn’t have as much land to distribute.
In the Duchy of Mark, knightly territories were typically around 1,000 acres, and it was considered fortunate if more than half of that land was arable.
The Hoffman family, being particularly unlucky, had only a small portion of arable land, which made life difficult.
To cut costs and increase revenue, Lord and Lady Hoffman often racked their brains.
To test Marin’s idea, Lady Hoffman sent Adler to the town of Bochum to buy five strong bulls and a barrel of strong liquor.
Upon their return, they followed Marin’s method: they intoxicated the bulls with the liquor and then tied them up securely.
Marin, the expert, then pierced holes in the middle of each bull’s nose and inserted copper rings.
He also used the liquor to clean the wounds to prevent infection.
At first, the bulls were uncomfortable with the rings, but they didn’t dare move wildly with the rings in their noses.
After a few days, they accepted their fate and stopped resisting.
Lord Hoffman then had the serfs lead the bulls to the fallow 600 acres to test them for plowing.
“What? Five oxen pulling one plow?”
Marin was taken aback when he saw five oxen pulling a single heavy plow in the field.
“It’s a Saxon heavy plow, haven’t you seen one?” Adler smugly asked Marin, seizing the rare opportunity to outshine him.
“Using five oxen for one plow seems like such a waste,” Marin muttered.
“It can’t be helped. The Saxon heavy plow digs deep, which is good for the crops. The German light plow can be pulled by a single draft horse or ox, but it doesn’t dig deep enough, which isn’t as good for the crops,” Lady Hoffman explained.
The Hoffman estate had maintained 25 draft horses primarily to use the five-horse Saxon heavy plow, which improved rye yield.
“I must be a fool! How could I forget about the curved plow!” Marin slapped his forehead.
In many time-travel novels, the curved plow was always a must-have!
“What’s wrong?”
“I just remembered an Eastern plow that my teacher taught me about. It’s more efficient and requires less effort than the Saxon heavy plow!” Marin boasted.
“Is there really such a thing?” Lord and Lady Hoffman’s eyes lit up with excitement, while Adler, unfamiliar with estate management and farming matters, remained indifferent.
“Just wait and see!”
Marin then gathered the serfs who knew how to work with iron and wood and began constructing the curved plow.
The next day, the iron-tipped wooden curved plow made its grand debut.
Under Marin’s guidance, a serf attached the curved plow to a bull’s shoulder held the rope attached to the bull’s nose ring in one hand, and the plow in the other.
He began the test plowing.
After half a day, the serf gradually mastered the curved plow and excitedly shouted to Lord Hoffman:
“Lord, this is amazing! A single ox with this plow works just as well as the Saxon heavy plow pulled by five horses!”
“Really?” Lord Hoffman couldn’t believe it.
He went down into the field, examined the soil plowed by the curved plow, and found the depth nearly identical to that of the Saxon heavy plow.
The results were excellent.
“This is incredible! If that’s the case, I could use 10 oxen to plow all 50 jugerums (600 acres) in just two weeks!”
(Note: One ox can plow four or five acres a day.)
“In theory, yes, Father!” Marin confirmed.
“Can draft horses pull this plow too?”
“Why don’t we try it?” Marin casually replied.
They then attached the curved plow to a draft horse and conducted another test.
The result showed that a single draft horse could also pull the “Eastern divine plow.”
With the experiment successful, Lord Hoffman decisively sold off 15 of the estate’s draft horses and replaced them with 15 oxen.
The estate also produced several more “Eastern divine plows” for use in the spring planting season.
The curved plow and the bull nose ring were considered strategic secrets, and the Hoffman family ordered that they not be shared with outsiders.
The area surrounding the Hoffman estate was mostly hills or the sparsely populated Ruhr River region, so Lord Hoffman decided to enjoy the benefits of these innovations privately.
As for offering them to the emperor or the count?
After some thought, Lord Hoffman gave up on the idea.
In Europe, aside from military achievements and royal favor, there was no easy way to gain more land.
Offering these techniques might earn some money, but it wouldn’t bring titles or more land.
Without those, Lord Hoffman wasn’t interested in a monetary reward, so he decided to keep the curved plow and bull nose ring for his own benefit.