Suhlen didn't care much about the spread of sugar beet seeds. Even if they got the seeds and successfully grew sugar beets, the juice they extracted from the beets would still be bitter brown sugar.
The raw material for sugar in the south was sugar cane, which was very similar to sugar cane in Abel's past life. Those people thought that the reason why Northern Town could mass produce sugar was because the raw material was different, so they paid a lot of attention to sugar beets. They even sent many people to secretly learn how to grow them.
What they didn't know was that the planting technology in Northern Town was based on the influence of the harvest altar. If they followed Northern Town's method to grow sugar beets, the results wouldn't be as good. Sugar beets also took a lot longer to mature than sugar cane, so there was no advantage to growing sugar beets in the south.
When the people who grew sugar beets realized that they couldn't produce sugar, and sugar beets matured half a year later than sugar cane, they naturally stopped growing sugar beets.
Suhlen and Frodo exchanged some spices and seeds. They then divided ten acres of land for planting. It wasn't that Suhlen didn't want to plant spices, but Frodo only had so many seeds.
Some of them were not suitable for the climate in the north. Suhlen planted pepper, fennel, chili, cumin, and a few other commonly used spices. Star anise, cinnamon, and pepper could only be bought from the south. It was said that the Red Dragon Queen controlled more than eighty percent of the spice trade. There were a few islands in the south that were filled with spices, and they were called spice islands.
The spice trade made a lot of money every year, and it made the surrounding countries jealous. They all wanted a piece of the pie, but they were afraid of the Red Dragon Queen's power and her army. A Red Dragon with the power of an ancient dragon and all kinds of spells could beat a team of legendary wizards by herself.
Even the paladins, who claimed to be enemies with evil, would automatically ignore the Red Dragon Queen's existence. In the prime material plane, an ancient dragon that was good at spells was basically the limit of power. Even the avatar of a holy spirit might not be able to defeat her.
Suhlen was also envious of the Red Dragon Queen. She occupied an important hub of the sea trade and controlled the spice trade. She was also shockingly powerful. She was a winner in life, no, a winner in dragon life.
The spices planted last year were growing very well. Among them, the chili peppers had already turned red and could be harvested in at most half a month. As for the remaining cumin, it was also growing well. The Sichuan pepper was still a small sapling and would have to wait until at least next year for it to bear fruit.
The other spices were growing well as well. In a year or two, Northern Town would be able to produce some spices as well. Although it would not be as good as the Red Dragon Queen's Spice Island, its climate and location were too good.
When Suhlen was expanding his territory, he had thought of going south. After all, there were many islands in the southern seas. Legend had it that there was even a treasure island. However, all the better islands in the south had already been occupied. With the Red Dragon Queen, a big boss, on top of his head, Suhlen felt very insecure. Perhaps with the help of the System, he could finally catch up to the Red Dragon Queen, but that would be a matter of time.
To protect the spices from being stolen and destroyed, Suhlen built a farm here. He included the spices and a thousand acres of land in the farm and built a wall to enclose the area. At the same time, he arranged for soldiers to guard the area.
Spices were still very expensive. Although they were not sold by the grain, they were not cheaper than white sugar. Among them, the most expensive were pepper and cinnamon. Except for cumin, the spices grown by Su Lun were less expensive than them.
Suhlen planned to continue expanding the spices planting area. He wanted to plant at least a thousand acres of spices in the entire farm.
There was also a lot of wheat planted in the farmland of the Northern Town, which was mainly supplied to Su Lun. The rest of the wheat would be sold. After all, many of the caravans here were rich people. Naturally, they would not eat potatoes. Flour was the best choice.
The rest of the land was planted with barley, oats, soybeans, and some other grains. Some of them were used to make wine, and some were used to feed livestock. Of course, some were used to extract oil. There were not many kinds of vegetable oil in the world, and the most popular was olive oil. However, the quantity of olive oil was too small and the price was not cheap, so Su Lun found a substitute, soybeans. He was going to plant soybeans to extract oil.
Besides, soybeans could be used to extract oil and feed livestock. They could also be used to make tofu. Although he had forgotten how to make tofu, he could study it slowly. Perhaps he would be able to taste the tofu pudding from his previous life again. He had not tasted that smooth and refreshing taste in a long time. When that time came, he would have a bowl of sweet and a bowl of salty tofu. He would drink one bowl and pour the other.
The number of farmlands in Northern Town increased by the day. Whether it was in his previous life or in this world, food had always been very important. Northern Town had always had a large number of immigrants. A large amount of food was needed to feed these people.
After patrolling the farmlands, Suhlen went to the academy he had set up to take a look. The academy now was very different from when it was first established. In the beginning, the scholars stayed here because of Suhlen's threats. After living here for a while, they realized that other than their personal freedom being restricted, they were treated much better than they were in the northern provinces.
Most importantly, Suhlen gave them too much money. On average, a scholar would receive 150 Kinnar per year. In addition to their benefits, which included sugar, rum, flour, tea, and so on, they would receive more than 300 Kinnar per year.
Such good treatment made the scholars, who originally thought that this was a bitter and cold place and were ready to make a fortune, completely overturn their understanding of this place. One had to know that when they were in the northern provinces, although they were nobles, they were mostly just messing around to make a living.
Therefore, after getting used to this place, apart from teaching literacy and arithmetic, these scholars began to teach other subjects. Of course, most of the officials who came to study here only learned the basics and left. There were also some who took time to study here.
After taking a look at the academy, although it was good enough to teach basic knowledge, there was still a shortage of teachers. Suhlen planned to continue hiring scholars at high prices. As for how the merchants managed to convince the scholars to come, he did not care. As long as they came, they would not be allowed to leave until they were taught for a few years. Of course, Suhlen would pay them a high salary.
In addition to the lack of manpower, the academy also had a shortage of books. They could only rely on the books that the scholars brought with them. Suhlen had already sent Zeon's merchant group to buy these books. It was estimated that they would be done by the time they returned.
Another problem was paper. There was no cheap paper in the academy. The price of a piece of parchment was much higher than that of a piece of sheepskin. These students were still learning how to write using sandboxes and wooden slips. The papermaking workshop in the northern town had been experimenting with making a sturdy, cheap paper that could be used to write smoothly.
Suhlen heard from them that they had made some progress. The paper they used before was too soft and absorbent, so it could not be used to write at all. After following Suhlen's instructions, these craftsmen used several kinds of trees to make paper.
After leaving the academy, he went directly to the papermaking workshop. Since the workshop started producing paper, paper had become very popular. After all, not all nobles liked to share the same thick hemp rope or the same wooden stick.
As soon as paper was introduced, it was widely praised by the nobles.
Since Su Lun built the papermaking workshop last time and produced a batch of paper, the papermaking workshop had expanded a lot after this period of production. The number of craftsmen inside had doubled. Half of them were producing toilet paper, and the rest were experimenting with new materials.
The raw material for papermaking had been changed from wood to tree bark. There were also many other materials, such as linen. After a period of experimentation, the craftsmen had divided the papermaking process into several steps.
The first step was steaming, which was to cook the raw materials into a paste. The second step was hammering, which was to beat the cooked raw materials repeatedly. Finally, the pulp was made into a pulp, which was then fished out layer by layer. At this time, the paper had already taken shape. As long as it was dried, it would be paper.
Although the process looked simple, it was not easy to obtain a piece of paper.
After dozens or even hundreds of experiments, the workshop finally made a barely usable paper after changing the bark of various trees and plants in the northern wastelands.
This paper used the bark of a common tree in the wastelands as the raw material. It was made with linen and several other materials. In the end, the paper was not pure white. Instead, it was slightly yellow.
In his previous life, no one wanted this kind of paper. The color was yellow, the paper was rough, and the paper was somewhat thick. Although there were many shortcomings, the price of this paper was relatively low. Moreover, there were not many problems with writing. It was completely usable.
After the papermaking workshop successfully produced this kind of paper, Suhlen heard a system notification.
[Congratulations to the host. The papermaking technique has been successfully broken through. The mastery of papermaking technique has been upgraded.]
[Papermaking Technique: Using tree bark, linen, fishing nets, and other materials after steaming, hammering, copying, and drying, paper that can be used to write. Territory Civilization Progress + 10, Territory Culture + 10, Learning Ability + 5.]
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