Bloodstone, Prisoner of War Camp.
“Richard, how did I instruct you before I left?”
Talvey looked at the food in the prisoners’ hands and questioned Richard by his side.
After spending over a dozen days accompanying Gael on The Arbor, Talvey hurried back to Bloodstone, and today was his second day arriving at Bloodstone.
Just as he was inspecting Bloodstone today, he discovered the food in the prisoners’ hands, which we might as well call black bread for now.
This kind of black bread was nothing like the black bread eaten for weight loss in his past life; they were truly ‘black’ bread, baked with only a small amount of flour mixed with a large amount of bran, sawdust, and leaves, brimming with the technology and ruthless additives of this era, and this was the food currently in the prisoners’ hands, which should also be the food in the mouths of most people in this world.
Sir Richard was an upright and serious knight, which was why Talvey had him temporarily take charge of Bloodstone’s affairs together with Sir Azel and Sir Rickon, believing that with his character, he would certainly not line his own pockets.
After nodding in greeting, Richard answered rigidly: “Replying to my lord, you said not to abuse these prisoners, let alone let them starve to death, and to have them spend all the time of their remaining lives building Bloodstone.”
“Then why are they eating these adulterated foods?” Talvey snatched the remaining piece of bread from a prisoner’s hand and handed it to Sir Richard.
Richard took it with an unchanged expression and said: “My lord, I executed your orders strictly, and this is already quite good; we didn’t even add sand and stones into it.”
“Sigh~!” Talvey let out a long sigh; he had still overestimated the lower limit of people in this world.
Listen, just listen—no sand and stones added!
He finally understood why eating bread could shatter one’s teeth.
It was not that Talvey pitied these prisoners, but rather that these prisoners were all able-bodied laborers.
Compared to killing them, it was more appropriate to have them shed their very last drop of blood for the construction of Bloodstone.
“Good! Richard, I command you now, from now on, the black bread eaten by all prisoners is not allowed to have these things added anymore, understood?”
“Yes, Lord Talvey!” Richard solemnly bowed to accept the order.
Talvey looked helplessly at Sir Richard; he did not doubt Richard’s loyalty, because his name was right there in the system. You are reading on g.com, the official source.
It was just that Talvey placed higher expectations on him, so he earnestly explained to him: “Richard, these 3,982 prisoners consume three catties of black bread per person daily, and what we pay in a day is merely a few gold dragons. But the value that their daily work brings to us, although immeasurable, is definitely far beyond those gold dragons. Therefore, we must keep them alive, working for us until they die, understand? If they starve to death, who will complete this work? Should we let the soldiers do those most dangerous jobs?”
Richard said without hesitation: “If they die, we can capture more slaves; there is no end to capturing slaves, my lord!”
“Won’t capturing slaves consume more money?” Speaking of this, Talvey waved his hand listlessly, “Alright, from now on you will carry out my orders, and every day you must also provide them with at least one meal of fish soup. There is nothing here except fish; go execute it!”
“Yes, my lord!”
After receiving the order, Sir Richard walked hurriedly toward the camp with his subordinates.
“Azel, go gather all the prisoners!”
Talvey turned his head and instructed Azel on his right.
After a few breaths, the assembled prisoners stood quietly before Talvey.
“Those who can speak the Common Tongue, stand over there.” Talvey pointed to an open space.
About a hundred-plus people understood Talvey’s instruction, and they all walked to that open space.
“Very well, now everyone who knows how to mine, stand behind them!” This time Talvey spoke in Valyrian.
This time over fifty people stepped forward.
“Those who can speak the Common Tongue and also know how to mine, stand at the very front!”
Only four people walked to the very front of the crowd.
At this moment, the prisoners below had already divided into four phalanxes of varying sizes.
Talvey looked at the four people at the very front and said: “From now on, the four of you will be their leaders. Starting today, you do not need to participate in labor, but rather manage their work. You will distribute these people yourselves, and as for everyone who knows how to mine and understands the Common Tongue, they will no longer need to eat black bread from now on; I will have people prepare yellow bread and meat soup for them. As for the food for the four of you, someone will prepare it for you every day, and the food standard will be the same as Sir Azel and the others.”
“As for the others, every month I will inspect your work progress. For teams that exceed their quota, the rations of all members will be upgraded to ale, yellow bread, and meat soup, maintaining the optimal rations. Meeting the quota will retain your deserved food and fish soup. Failing to reach the quota for two consecutive months will lower the team’s rations by one tier.”
The four happily knelt on the ground and said in unison: “As you command, my lord.”
Talvey waved his hand: “Go down and form your groups; I look forward to your performance.”
The four of them began selecting group members joyfully.
For Talvey, these prisoners served only one purpose: mining.
Those crimson-red ores on Bloodstone were a unique type of iron ore, and the mountains across the entire island were almost entirely composed of this red iron ore.
Mining operations were the most dangerous work at any time, let alone in this incomparably backward world in terms of productivity.
Their remaining lives were already destined: either dying accidentally in the process of mining, or dying of old age in the process of mining.
Talvey now intended to divide them and raise their work enthusiasm.
Presumably, these four people would inevitably exploit the prisoners’ labor even more severely in the future, and over time, internal conflicts would certainly arise.
By then, House Valthorn would only need to play the role of the arbiter well.
Otherwise, under long-term hopeless work, inevitably some people would want to commit suicide.
Now, with the division of social strata, there was motivation, and they naturally hoped to eat better and drink better.
And when the prisoners had expectations for the future, they would naturally work harder.
When others were drinking wine and eating better food while you had none, wouldn’t you work harder?
If you say you don’t care what you eat and don’t want to put in effort, then congratulations, what you will face is the beatings and kicks from everyone around you, because you are affecting their interests.
Therefore, no matter what era it is, what is most important for development?
It is precisely that one must raise people’s enthusiasm for work.
After resolving the prisoners’ issue, Talvey set to work without stopping to handle dock construction and town construction, which could only rely on recruiting workers, while town construction still required waiting for the prisoners to level a piece of ground first before it could begin.
Judging by the current progress, they should be able to lay the foundations very soon.
Black Bread: Stone-Free Edition