Hua Kai wanted to visit the village elders. Wal-mart had already informed everyone of the name list that Hua Kai had chosen. Today, Hua Kai's Third Uncle, Hua Zijie, and Fifth Uncle, Hua Zichen, were traveling with him.
Under normal circumstances, the head of the family would bring along the core members of the family to visit the village elders. Hua Kai bringing along his Third Uncle, Hua Zijie, was a matter of course. Most of the affairs in Fort Wah Ka were managed by his Third Uncle. As for bringing along his Fifth Uncle, Hua Zichen, it was purely for the sake of gaining loyalty.
The first house that Hua Kai went to was Hua Yue's house. Hua Yue's father was 70 years old this year. He was Hua Kai's grandfather's biological uncle. As a branch family member of Fort Wah Ka, the old man had worked hard for Fort Wah Ka all his life. Now, he was a little muddle-headed and was one of the most respected elders in the Hua family. When he was young, he was the village guard captain of Fort Wah Ka. Now, three of his five sons had died in battle for the family. His most promising son, Hua Yue, had become the village guard captain of Fort Wah Ka.
Hua Kai brought his Third Uncle and Fifth Uncle to Captain Hua Yue's house and saw that there were already more than 30 people gathered there.
Knowing that Hua Kai had personally come to visit the village elders, Hua Yue's brothers all gathered at his house. This was considered a gathering of the branch family members of the Hua family.
After asking the accompanying Household Servant to put down the gifts, Hua Kai sent his greetings and blessings to Hua Yue's father. Although Hua Yue's father was a little muddle-headed, he still called everyone over and told them that they had to work hard for the main family and give their all for the prosperity of the family. They had to listen to the orders of the head of the family, even if it meant going through a mountain of swords and a sea of flames.
This was how the world worked. Small families gathered together to form a clan. When a clan was strong, it would be surrounded by more clans to form an aristocratic family. When an aristocratic family was strong enough to manage other aristocratic families, it would form a country. The concept of family and country was firmly engraved in everyone's heart.
Hua Kai walked around until the sky turned dark. Only then did he finish walking around with Third Uncle and Fifth Uncle. When he returned home, Hua Kai saw that his family's Luck had increased by 10 points. Fifth Uncle Hua Zichen's Loyalty had also increased by 2 points, reaching 88 points. He was still 2 points away from the target.
After a day, his family's Luck had risen to 108 points. In the past, he was reluctant to use his Luck Points to help his family members increase their strength. Now that he knew that the Luck Points could not be used, Hua Kai decided that he did not need to be too stingy in the future. He should let more talented people try the [Concept Training Space] that cost 10 Luck Points per use.
At night, Hua Kai brought his grandparents to his courtyard early in the morning. Soon, a few uncles came to the main courtyard with gifts. It was time to pay respects to the head of the family.
A few uncles came over. Soon, Wei Hatou and some other village representatives came to the main courtyard. They all brought gifts that they had carefully prepared. Although they were not very expensive, they still represented their sincerity.
Hua Kai asked the butler, Wal-mart, to remember that he would give everyone a gift of the same value in a few days. The gifts had to be something that could be cashed in for money. Usually, it was some cloth, weapons, and so on. In this world, no one used gold or silver to make jewelry. If you dared to bring it out, there might be people who would directly attack you.
When most of the village representatives had arrived, Hua Yue and the other branches of the Hua family came. Most of them came empty-handed, but Hua Kai still had to prepare gifts for them. This was considered the family's year-end bonus. Every family in Fort Wah Ka received ten taels of silver every year. Sometimes, they could receive more.
After all the branches of the Hua family had arrived, it was time for the Household Servants who lived in the main courtyard. They were all considered part of the main family. With the butler, Wal-mart, as the representative, there were more than 30 Household Servants and maids. Some of them were villagers in Fort Wah Ka. During the day, they worked for the main family for their wages. At night, they returned to their own homes to sleep. These were the village's more talented, powerful, and loyal important members.
After that, there were some respected elders and famous genius representatives in the village who came together to wish Hua Kai a happy new year. This was a tradition that had been passed down for hundreds of years.
After a lively night, all the money in Hua Kai's hands was gone. At night, when he returned to his room, Hua Kai heard a system notification.
"Congratulations to the host's family, [Hua family]. The loyalty of all members has reached 90 points. The family's Luck recovery speed has increased by 50%."
Hua Kai saw that the family's Luck had increased by 126 points. It was probably because the Fifth Uncle had returned that the family's Luck had increased. This was why the family's Luck had increased so quickly.
"The last time my Luck was at its highest, it reached 168 points before the increase slowed down. Perhaps I can try to accumulate 200 Luck points. 200 Luck points can upgrade the family's mental cultivation method, [Meditation Mantra], or continue to upgrade my storage space."
When Hua Kai heard the system notification, he could not help but think. At the same time, he carefully studied the entire [Family's Mystic Realm]. Other than the Mystic Realm, which could cost the family's Luck points, he found another item that could be easily used.
It was the cheapest item in the [Weapon Shop].
[Golden Silk Soft Armor]: Forging requires 50 gold taels, 1 brocade, and 100 family's Luck points.
Hua Kai tried the best brocade from the Southern Kingdom in his storage space. However, he did not have 50 gold taels, so he could not forge this item. However, this was at least a way to spend the family's Luck points. When the family's Luck reached its peak and no longer increased, he could consider forging a [Golden Silk Soft Armor].
Early the next morning, when Hua Kai woke up, he saw the Fifth Uncle and Princess Ji Le discussing something in the courtyard. The Fifth Uncle was obviously deliberately keeping a distance from Princess Ji Le. Although the Fifth Uncle was handsome and had a righteous aura, which made him even more attractive, Princess Ji Le was only 16 years old. This was what Hua Kai's mother had told him last night. Therefore, even with Hua Kai's guidance, the Fifth Uncle still did not have much confidence in Princess Ji Le.
Hua Kai knew that the Fifth Uncle liked Princess Ji Le. Otherwise, he would not have brought her back to Fort Wah Ka. Since that was the case, Hua Kai decided to unleash the Fifth Uncle's potential as much as possible. With the [Family's Secret Realm], as long as he had enough Luck points, Hua Zichen's strength would increase greatly. However, this was on the premise that the Fifth Uncle's loyalty had to quickly increase.
Hua Kai went out. When Hua Zichen saw this, he deliberately distanced himself from Princess Ji Le. Hua Kai was about to go up and greet him when the door to Yu Jun's room opened.
"Greetings, family head. Greetings, scholars!" Princess Ji Le went out and bowed to the two.
The Hundred Schools of Thought all originated from the [Spring and Autumn Annals]. Although they were competitors, they would still learn from each other most of the time. Yu Jun belonged to the School of Novels, which was weaker than the School of Confucianism in this world. Moreover, his students were one level lower than the scholars, so the difference between them was like heaven and earth.
"Qi's School of Novels is relatively rare. It can be considered fate that we are able to come to Fort Wah Ka. However, I do not wish for unnecessary noise to appear in Fort Wah Ka. Do you understand what I mean?"
Most of the Hundred Schools of Thought supported individualism and emphasized that the self was the main body of society. This conflicted with the ideas of many countries. Many young people who studied the Hundred Schools of Thought ended up becoming wanderers. This was also one of the reasons why the common people did not like the Hundred Schools of Thought.
"Fifth Lord, please do not worry. All of Yu Jun's novels are about family and inspirational topics. You know all of this," Yu Jun said.
"Yes!
We can discuss it when we have the chance. I heard that you have recently started writing your own novel. Although I do not agree with this, there are some areas that are worth learning from. "
The ultimate goal of the Hundred Schools of Thought was to guide the development of the world's thoughts. The School of Thought was the number one school for thousands of years. It was normal for him to say that the School of Thought was only ranked after 30.
Although Yu Jun did not agree with his thoughts, he did not say it out loud. After all, Princess Ji Le was a scholar. He was almost 30 years old and was still a student. It was hard to say whether he could be promoted to a student in this lifetime.
Hua Zichen said that the School of Thought wanted to use novels to govern the world. It was obviously out of context.
The School of Thought advocated for all knowledge, principles, and ideas to be expressed in a way that people liked. This way, people would be guided to the correct values. It was easier for managers to guide the common people's thoughts. This was more practical than many schools of thought.
However, the School of Thought did not consider the interests of the aristocratic families. The power of the highest ruler was imperceptibly weakened. Therefore, the School of Thought could only seek survival at the lowest level of society. The aristocratic families only treated them as scholars who told stories.
In the next few days, the number of desolate beasts outside Fort Wah Ka increased. Hua Xing planned to let the desolate beasts gather enough to launch an attack. Fort Wah Ka had to complete a defense before the desolate beasts could truly pass through this year. Otherwise, if the desolate beasts continued to surround Fort Wah Ka until the snow melted, it would not be good for the village.
He waited until the sixth day of the first lunar month. Early in the morning, Hua Kai heard that the entire village was busy. More than 1,300 desolate beasts outside the village had begun to attack the village again. This time, no one told Hua Kai.
Hua Kai went to the city wall and saw the village guards and many villagers on the city wall. The savage beasts in the desolate beast horde had already been killed by Hua Xing. Waves of desolate beasts came to the city wall to die. In just an hour, more than 800 desolate beasts were killed in Fort Wah Ka. At this time, the other desolate beasts outside the village began to disperse. His grandfather led all the soldiers of Fort Wah Ka to chase the desolate beasts a few miles away. The entire Fort Wah Ka was suddenly quiet.
This time, after killing more than 800 desolate beasts, Hua Kai only received 9 points of luck from the clan. Perhaps it was because the clan's strength had increased that the villagers were not surprised by the victory over the desolate beasts!
There were still more than 20 days before the arrival of spring. After this batch of desolate beasts left, it would be difficult for desolate beasts to gather again. This winter in Fort Wah Ka was considered to be over. Next, the clan had to prepare for two things for the coming year.
The first thing was to boil the beast bones.
Every winter, Fort Wah Ka would kill a large number of desolate beasts, and a large pile of beast bones would be collected. At times, it would be close to 5,000 pounds, and at times, it would be more than 500 pounds. The clan's spring plowing and the preparation of goods for traveling merchants would mostly come from this area. Therefore, this was not a small matter for the entire village.
After the desolate beasts left, the boiling of the beast bones could begin this year. In the past, Hua Xing would personally do the cooking. This was a specially made large vat. The fire under the vat burned continuously, and a Household Servant would constantly throw bones into the vat.
Hua Kai would come here every year to watch the beast bones being boiled. It could be said that the entire village would come here.
Boiling the beast bones required a certain level of skill. First, it would be the low-grade desolate beast bones. These bones would burn easily when placed in the vat. After two hours, the bones would soften and turn into powder, leaving behind only some hard bones and a small amount of metal. Low-grade desolate beast bones were not worth much.
This year, Fort Wah Ka's beast bones exceeded 10,000 pounds for the first time, reaching an unimaginable 18,000 pounds.
Just the 11,000 pounds of low-grade desolate beast bones took less than half an hour to fill the vat with beast bones. This way, it took four consecutive days to boil the low-grade desolate beast bones. Next was the mid-grade yellow beast bones. This time, it would take more than six hours for the bones to melt when thrown into the vat. More than 3,000 pounds of mid-grade desolate beast bones took three days to completely boil. From this height, one could see that there was some black liquid flowing at the bottom of the specially made large vat.
Next was the main point of boiling the beast bones this time. More than 2,000 pounds of high-grade desolate beast bones and 2,000 pounds of savage beast bones were the main point of this time.
The 2,000 pounds of high-grade desolate beast bones took six days to completely melt, and the savage beast bones took at least ten days.
Fort Wah Ka's large vat was inconvenient every year, and the size of the fire did not change much. According to the length of the burning time and the quality of the beast bones, everyone already had an estimate. This year, Fort Wah Ka's bone coins would be about 60,000, 537 taels of silver, and 23 taels of gold.
Hua Kai did not care about this. Even without his grandfather, many of the elders in the village were very familiar with the process of boiling the beast bones. He only needed to take a look when he came out of the vat.
On the 16th day of the first month, the temperature gradually warmed up. Outside Fort Wah Ka, the village protection team would come out of the village to chase away the wild beasts. The land that had been left in winter was once again in the hands of the people.
The second thing that Hua Kai had to do was to determine the number of people in the family. In winter, there would definitely be many villagers who would die fighting against the wild beasts. At this time, the main family might need to replenish some Household Servant or take in some of the nearby villages. If they received an invitation from the main family, some of the villagers could choose to stay in the main family. Of course, they could also choose not to stay and leave in spring.
The villagers who left could either return to their previous villages and continue farming. After winter, the surrounding areas of Guang County would be quickly dispersed by the city guards. At that time, there would only be some low-grade wild beasts left in the wild. This would not be a big threat to the ordinary villagers.
Therefore, Hua Kai had to decide whether to keep the villagers or not. Should the main family recruit some Household Servant?
Third Uncle, Fourth Uncle, and the housekeeper had already told Hua Kai in advance who wanted to stay, how many jobs Fort Wah Ka could provide, and how much money the family would have to pay their wages in the coming year.
"This is too much!
There are a total of 36 households with a total population of 294. Our village only has 100 mu of land. If we take in so many people, how are we going to feed them? "
Third Uncle, Hua Zijie, took the name list that Hua Kai gave him and said with some surprise after reading it.
Although he also hoped that Fort Wah Ka could continue to grow, everything had to be within the scope of his own ability. If the family took in so many people, there would be no corresponding work for them.
It would be troublesome if they could not afford to pay their wages when the time came.
"I have already considered this name list carefully. These 17 households are members of the Yuan Opening Realm village protection team. They have brought their families to Fort Wah Ka. We have no reason to reject them.
These 9 households all have highly talented youths in their families.
These 6 households are the bravest in the battle against the wild beasts and are the most loyal to the family.
These 4 households have special skills, "Hua Kai said as he opened the name list.