The next day, just as the sky was barely beginning to brighten with the first light of dawn, and a thick layer of heavy fog still blanketed the entire territory, Jasmine had already awakened.
She still clearly remembered that today she had to rearrange the work assignments for the slaves, and she also needed to ask the Cow-headed man to assist in grinding the soybeans that had been soaked overnight yesterday into fresh soy milk.
This was to be the breakfast for absolutely everyone in the territory today; it was a matter that could not be treated carelessly or casually.
The old Butler had gotten up even earlier than Jasmine. When Jasmine stepped out of her door, the old Butler was already waiting at the entrance to serve her, his attire perfectly neat and tidy as if he had never slept at all.
"Good morning, respected Lord."
"Good morning, Butler William." Jasmine had already become accustomed to the way of greeting here. She smoothed back her hair, which was still slightly messy from sleep, and said: "Let us go; we shall go out to the vegetable garden to take a look first."
She still remembered the incident from the middle of the night yesterday, when a group of small animals had run over to take revenge on them, and she did not know how the vegetable garden was faring right now.
"As you command, respected Lord." The old Butler bowed slightly, then walked ahead to lead the way for Jasmine.
The slaves in the banquet hall downstairs had also all risen. If they dared to wake up later than even the Lord, it would be an incredibly serious mistake. The slaves were used to being cautious and timid; they did not dare to commit such an error.
Seeing the old Butler leading Jasmine outside, the group of slaves looked at each other for a moment. It was still the Cow-headed man, who had interacted with Jasmine the most yesterday, who gathered all his courage. He waited until Jasmine and William had stepped out of the main gate before hurriedly following behind.
He still remembered the matter of having made up his mind to protect the Lord. Furthermore, if he hovered around in front of Jasmine often, perhaps the Lord would arrange some work for him to do today.
Thinking of this, the Cow-headed man could not avoid feeling a little agitated; his breathing released puffs of white smoke into the biting cold air.
When Jasmine and the others arrived at the vegetable garden, the female chef was already there. She was kneeling beside the vegetable patch with red-rimmed eyes, secretly wiping away tears, her thin shoulders trembling violently.
"Lord." The female chef, seeing a large crowd of people walking towards this side, was so frightened that her face turned pale, and she hurriedly kowtowed.
"Do not worry, this is not your fault." Jasmine helped the female chef up and patted her shoulder to offer a sentence of comfort. Only then did she shift her gaze to the vegetable garden beside them.
The scene before her eyes caused Jasmine's heart to ache.
The vegetable patch that had originally been planted with cabbage was almost completely empty. Perhaps because Jasmine had led people to harvest a round of vegetable leaves yesterday, the group of small animals could not find enough food, so they decisively pulled the vegetables up by the roots. On the garden plot, which had been quite flat, individual small pits had appeared; the soil had been churned up, and only a few cabbage plants growing on the desolate edges had luckily survived, but even their leaves were torn and tattered.
The carrots, because their smell was stronger than the cabbage, seemed not to be very favored by the small animals, but they had also been trampled quite a bit. The green leafy parts were broken and crushed, and the tubers were lying limply on the ground; it was unknown whether they could still survive.
Jasmine felt her vision go dark. She had not expected the vegetable garden to be devastated so seriously. Looking at the situation, if they did not replant and fill in the gaps, let alone surviving the harsh winter that was coming, they would not even have green vegetables to eat for the next few months, and would only be able to gnaw on hard, rock-like black bread.
"Harvest the plants that are still edible first. Tonight, we will add a dish for everyone." Jasmine wearily waved her hand, ordering the slaves who had followed along to join the female chef in urgently harvesting the vegetable plants that could no longer survive.
As for the carrots that had not been trampled too heavily, they were to pile the soil back up around them, letting them continue to grow in the earth, hoping to salvage whatever little could be saved.
While the others were working, Jasmine did not stay idle. She walked around the vegetable garden to observe the terrain.
Because there was no perimeter wall, the vegetable garden and the wilderness outside were directly connected. The wind and sand blew straight in, and those small animals that wanted to rush in encountered absolutely no obstacles whatsoever.
This would not do. Right now, it was only small animals of no great size on the wilderness, but what if larger carnivorous beasts prowled close later? Even with the aura of the Black Dragon protecting them, Jasmine did not feel any sense of safety.
She looked around once at the large and small piles of rubble scattered about, the ruins of old walls, and an idea sprang up in her heart.
"Build a perimeter wall?" The old Butler was surprised, then he advised with considerable disapproval: "My Lord, we do not have enough gold coins to hire masons, nor do we have suitable cement materials."
Although there was no shortage of collapsed stones around the castle, a perimeter wall was not something that could be used just by simply stacking stones on top of each other. Otherwise, the previous generations of Lords would not have left the territory in such a tattered state without repairing it.
"Does our place not have stones everywhere? Using wet mud mixed with dry grass can make a rather good binding agent." Jasmine signaled to the old Butler, pointing her finger at the pile of weeds growing rampantly nearby. "There is also no need to build it very high; about half a meter to a meter is enough. We only need to make it so that those small animals on the wilderness cannot easily enter our vegetable garden."
Jasmine was determined to replant the vegetables. If there was no perimeter wall to block them, the group of small animals could still advance with divine speed and sweep away their hard work. In that case, no matter how many vegetables they planted, it would all be in vain.
"That low? Will it be effective?" The old Butler pondered, his eyebrows furrowing.
The perimeter walls of a normal territory were all ten to twenty meters high, imposing and majestic. They were there to stop enemies as well as to block the various types of giant beasts on the wilderness.
Jasmine currently did not have the conditions to build a perimeter wall like that; she could only utilize materials on-site and use labor to make up for the lack of capital.
"It will probably be effective." Jasmine did not dare to be too certain, but she would not give up on this plan.
Doing something was better than doing nothing.
She picked up a dry tree branch and marked out a rough location along the main building and the vegetable garden first. The perimeter wall did not need to be built very wide; it only needed to surround these two important places.
After the old Butler had led the group of slaves over, Jasmine began to divide the work for them clearly.
One group of slaves used crude tools to clear the foundation for the perimeter wall. A group of slaves with greater strength cleared the rubble and collapsed stones around the castle to gather them together. Another group of slaves went to the river near the forest to dig clay and cut tough weeds to make the binding agent.
The slaves had risen early in the morning and had not eaten anything yet before starting manual labor. Sweat beaded on their foreheads despite the cold weather. Jasmine felt a bit unbearable watching this, so she told the female chef to go boil a large pot of water first, let it cool, and then allow the slaves to take it themselves to use, avoiding stomach aches from drinking raw water.
Before the slaves received their tasks and dispersed to prepare for work, Jasmine loudly encouraged them: "You all just do the work first. Later, when the soybean pudding is finished grinding, this morning everyone will be able to receive a bowl of hot soybean pudding."
Normally, a slave would only get a handful of thin bean porridge a day. Although they did not quite understand what the "soybean pudding" in Jasmine's mouth was, hearing that once it was done later, each person would be given a bowl, everyone was very happy. Their eyes lit up, and they worked with significantly more enthusiasm.
Jasmine did not use food to lure the slaves into doing more work. She was afraid that the slaves, wanting to eat an extra bowl of soybean pudding, would disregard the limits of their bodies and work desperately, causing themselves injury.
With Jasmine's understanding of these slaves, it was possible they really had the capability to do such a thing for the sake of a bite to eat.