Age of Empires From Scratch

  Chapter 19 No Money

   "It's a pity. It would be great if it could be accelerated like in some games, or I could see the result directly with some kind of prop."

  No matter how much David hopes that Lindong Village will usher in the freedom of cooking as soon as possible, he can only wait for the result day by day.

However, compared to Mark Watney, who ran back and forth between the two ends, David's life is much easier every day. Apart from exploring the forest in the north from time to time to check if there are any other dangerous neighbors, the most important thing in every day is to practice. and study.

  Cultivation is mainly aimed at the use of several weapons and fighting skills. In addition to serving as a teacher, Fording will also serve as a training partner, which is really not a good experience for David.

There is also no interruption in the learning of various knowledge. David feels that this kind of learning may continue for a long time, because according to his own thinking, it is not possible to complete all kinds of messy knowledge in a few years. of.

   After a few more days, Mark Watney finally successfully opened up a potato field in the Mars base, and then he just needs to wait for the result quietly.

  Because of the backing of Cold Winter Village, he didn't have that much psychological pressure on this purely experimental project. Of course, he still hopes that he can succeed—if he can grow potatoes on Mars, he will definitely be called the first person in history.

   "You know what? Maybe I'll be called the first human to colonize Mars."

  When eating, Mark often mentioned this incident. Compared with the sprouting and unearthed wheat in Lindong Village, it is no longer a surprise.

"There is one thing I don't quite understand." As time went by, Fording's English level improved rapidly, and now he can communicate in English normally, because of the English he learned with Mark, so his accent and speaking The habit is more American: "Why go to a planet that has nothing, and can't even let people live on it?"

  In Fording's view, even if there are too many human beings on the earth and they need to find a new home, they should find a world that can survive, right? But in Mark's description, the place called Mars doesn't seem like a good place for a new home.

"This... because it is very difficult for people on earth to leave the earth and go to other planets. In this case, Mars is already the 'best' choice." Mark introduced Fording by the way The other major planets in the solar system, at the same time, once again emphasized the significance of their own experiment once it is successful: it seems that human beings have the possibility of going to Mars to live.

  Listening to the conversation between Mark and Fording, David was playing a fighting game with Laura—Laura moved in a lot of electronic products one after another, as well as generators, solar charging panels, etc.

  Looking at David's character being easily knocked down by his own, Laura gave him a few meaningful glances.

"how?"

   "Nothing." Laura held the handle and started the next game, talking about a topic that had nothing to do with the game in front of her: "When are you going to start?"

  David's next plan is to go to Iron Tree Fort, report the situation of Cold Winter Village, and obtain the kingdom's certification.

   Everyone knows about this. If it wasn’t for David who wanted to see if the wheat planted by Mark could germinate, he would have set off after eliminating the troll village a few days ago.

"Let's go at dawn tomorrow." Now that the results have been obtained and it is confirmed that the wheat can be planted, he feels that he has more leverage to recruit the villagers. The only worry is that the news spread by the pioneers who went back earlier may Let the credibility of your own words be greatly reduced.

   "Iron Tree Fort is a big city, right?"

   "Iron Tree Castle is the largest city in the north of the Kingdom of Tilan."

As an important town in the north and also the kingdom's main high-grade timber producer, Iron Tree Castle has a high status in the Kingdom of Tilan. Based on the iron tree, Iron Tree Castle itself is also prosperous enough—of course, after David, who has seen the 'world' In his eyes, that's all there is to it, and he can't get rid of the comments of being dirty and messy.

   "What? Are you interested in Iron Tree Fort?"

"Of course, I'm interested in many things in this world." Laura frequently runs to this world, and almost regards this place as her new home, because this is a new world that has not been explored and is full of unknowns. The desire to explore in her bones It made her wish to dig out everything in this world and understand it clearly.

   "So..." Hearing Laura's suddenly raised voice, David guessed what she was thinking: "You want to go with me?"

   "Yes! I also did some prep work."

   "Huh? Ready for work?"

"Yes, for example, clothes that are more in line with the style of this world." Laura paused the game and ran back to her room quickly. When she appeared in front of David again, she was holding clothes of a similar style to David's. and pants.

   "I'm really well prepared." David has also dug out his previous clothes in the past few days, and has carried out some camouflage treatments on the backpack and bow, such as covering them with a layer of wild animal fur.

   Found that David and Laura were discussing going to Iron Tree Fort, Mark and Fording also stopped the science introduction of the Milky Way.

   "How long does it take to get to Iron Tree Fort from here?"

"If the road goes well, it will take more than half a month, at most a month." It took two months to walk from Iron Tree Fort to this place, but that was because of the large number of teams and the slow speed of travel. reason.

  If there were only David and Laura, the walking speed would be much faster. David estimated that half a month to twenty days would be enough if there were no accidents.

   "It's a pity that there are no livestock left in the village." Not to mention keeping a horse as a mount, even if there are some livestock that can be used to carry food, the journey will be much more comfortable.

  Now David and Laura can only bring more compressed food, while walking along the river, using the river flowing from the iron tree forest as the main source of food on the road.

"Speaking of which, it seems that in addition to recruiting villagers, we also need to buy some livestock." Only then did David realize that all kinds of livestock are also indispensable for the development of the village—if possible, some poultry should also be obtained. return?

   After a few words of discussion, Mark suddenly became curious about something: "After talking for so long, I suddenly remembered, is there any money in the village?"

   "..."

  The scene became very quiet. Several people present had never thought about this question before, and all three eyes turned to David. Only he can answer this question.

"No." David looked at the three people who were staring at him, and gave the answer simply and neatly: "Actually, the development team will make all preparations before departure. Once the village is successfully established, the next step will be normal. life developed."

David explained the current situation to the three people: "That is to say, under normal circumstances, livestock, seeds of various crops, agricultural tools, and poultry are all prepared when the team is formed. If follow-up If you need anything, you can only rely on the village to find a way.”

  For example, sell the food produced, the high-quality fur obtained from hunting, the mineral deposits found, etc., and then use the money earned to buy what you need.

   "In normal circumstances, it should be like this..."

But David’s situation here is not normal. His Cold Winter Village was originally unsuccessfully established, and all the resources he brought back were basically consumed. Now, although the village has been established and food is available, it is still Not rich enough to sell on a large scale.

   "Then what will be used to buy poultry and livestock?"

"Let's think about it after I get to Iron Tree Fort!" David's idea was to see if he could let those who agreed to come to Cold Winter Village bring some poultry or livestock by themselves, and he didn't think about the quantity. Let's solve it first.

  As long as there is a foundation, there will always be more as the village develops.

  Besides that, I wonder if Iron Tree Fort will give Lindong Village some "support"?

  According to the usual practice, once he becomes the head of Cold Winter Village, the Lord of Iron Tree Fort will become his direct superior. As a subordinate, it is normal for David to ask his superior for some material support.

   Briefly stated his own ideas, Fording felt that David's ideas were not problematic, and the feasibility was not low, so he agreed.

  Mark lamented that the timing was bad. His Martian potato planting experiment was in its infancy, and several fields in the village also needed to be taken care of. He couldn't get away to see the world's big cities.

   "When there are enough people, you can go out at will." But David is worried that Mark lacks sufficient self-protection ability: "Before then, you should increase your force."

"I will!" Mark also knows that the world is full of crises, and he is not prepared to run around alone: ​​"And I am not prepared to run out alone, maybe after you come back this time, the next time you need to go to Iron Tree Fort , I can go with you."

   "There must be many opportunities."

  No matter what the final result is, David can be sure that his future self will definitely have to go back and forth between Cold Winter Village and Iron Tree Castle from time to time.

  Thinking of this, he suddenly became curious about one thing: "Speaking of which, there were three pioneering teams that set off from Iron Tree Fort back then. I wonder what happened to the other two?"

   "Huh? There are two other pioneering teams?" Mark and Laura heard that there were still two teams that were as miserable as David's before, and they were also curious about the situation of the two pioneering teams.

   "One of the teams established a village in the south of Lindong Village, which is next to the Iron Tree Forest. This time, we will pass by on the way to Iron Tree Fort. If the village is established, we can add some supplies."

  Just including David, everyone present felt that the possibility of successfully establishing a village there was not great.

  (end of this chapter)