The small commotion outside the house did not enter the eyes of the people in the house. Lin also stated the purpose of his trip. He was not looking for experimental materials or sacrificing the entire village; he was also not looking for a ritual to summon demons. His trip was for the fruits that no one cared about in the mountains and valleys.
Of course, Lin did not only want the yield of one or two trees. If that was all, he and his two apprentices could do it themselves. Anyway, this forest was ownerless, and the villagers could only stare at it. They didn't dare to do anything to a magician who had two huge magic beasts with him.
However, Lin hoped to harvest as much as possible and process as possible. That would require the help of people and a place to work. What could be more convenient than living in this mountain and worrying about winter food during the slack period?
The requirements were simple. According to Lin's processing process, the flesh and skin of the fruit would be peeled off, leaving only the seeds inside. According to the weight of the final product, Lin would pay the corresponding remuneration.
When he shook a money bag, it made a crisp sound and attracted everyone's attention. He then placed the money bag on the table, revealing the bright yellow color inside. He no longer doubted Lin's credibility and only asked what he wanted to do.
Lin first picked out five gold coins from the money bag and pushed it in front of the old man, saying, "This is the deposit I will give you first. It is about the price we agreed on, the quantity of XXV (25) barrels of raw beans. I expect it to stay for one to two months. If during this period of time, the yield of beans is less than XXV barrels, I will not ask you to pay me back the rest of the money. But if the yield is much greater than XXV, I will pay you the amount we agreed on. "
Because this world did not have good linen bags, Lin simply chose to store them in wooden barrels. In terms of ventilation, moisture-proof, freshness, moth-proof, and insect-proof, wooden barrels were better than linen bags. The disadvantage was also obvious, which was that it was heavy. But weight was nothing to a mage. So Lin did not consider it.
The agreed upon wooden barrel was to be filled with XXX, which was thirty kilograms of raw beans. For every five barrels, Lin had to pay one kiel (one gold coin), and one kiel could buy half a year's worth of coarse grain for a family of four. In other words, the Vakir (5 gold) that Lin paid in advance was enough for everyone in the village to survive a month of winter and still have some left over. Coupled with their original grain reserves, as long as they lived frugally, they wouldn't have to worry about this winter.
That's right. The economy was still in a primitive state, and most of the people at the bottom did not have much consumption power, nor did they have any consumption needs. The purchasing power of Kiel, or gold coins, was very strong.
As for the way to organize and manage the people, Lin decided that the old man in front of him would be the window to communicate with the villagers. This included giving out orders for work, and then distributing the work after receiving the remuneration. Of course, if they had any opinions, they could communicate with him through the old man. Instead of personally organizing the villagers who were willing to work for him.
Was it fair to do so?
It could only be said that it was not entirely true.
At the very least, as long as Lin, the employer, did not intervene too deeply, it was difficult to prevent the old man from abusing his power for personal gain. Naturally, there was no fairness to speak of.
But there were a few advantages to doing this. The most direct one was that he only had gold coins on him, and no coins of lesser value, so it was difficult to pay the corresponding remuneration for each person's labor. Since that was the case, he could give it to one person, and then let him use other methods to pay the fruits of everyone's labor reasonably. This would save Lin a lot of trouble.
Secondly, Lin was not familiar with the people in the village at all. If he had to manage everyone like a hired worker, not to mention how much effort it would take, would the other party trust him? How motivated would everyone be? Who was suitable for what? Lin was not clear about these things, so there was no need to talk about efficiency.
If that was the case, it was better to use the form of contracting. Lin was only responsible for one person, and this person was responsible for other miscellaneous matters. Of course, the best candidate is the first old man who dared to come into contact with me, and the only one who accepted my gift of goodwill, that is, the gold coin at the beginning.
For such a person, as long as Lin did not ask for something too excessive, the old man would stand on Lin's side. Because he would understand that his power came from the money Lin gave him. Therefore, if he did not want to lose the opportunity to intimidate others, he could only curry favor.
Moreover, this was only the first transaction. When they could indeed use their labor and get a return, he would discuss with them how to plant coffee trees on a large scale and improve the processing process, and then hand it over to him, who lived in Wulian City.
These words would be more useful after they had tasted the sweetness of the first transaction. If he made such a request now and made a plan that he believed to be 100% successful, it would be no different from drawing a pie and putting it in front of them. Without establishing a preliminary trust, subsequent plans and ideas would be empty talk. He was not the lord of this place and had no authority to order anyone.
However, these considerations did not seem to exist in the minds of these mountain people. They simply thought that there were advantages or disadvantages to doing so. If there were advantages, they would do it, and if there were disadvantages, they would refuse. Their attitude towards life was that simple.
Therefore, under Lin's command, nearly a hundred people in the village, including the elderly and children, began to move. Perhaps some of the old and weak were not suitable for heavy work, but there was no age limit for picking fruits. As long as they had hands and feet, they could at most walk back and forth a few more times and gather the fruits in their basket.
Even if their feet were really inconvenient, they could still take on the second step, the task of selecting beans. This was mainly to pick out the impurities, such as small stones, and eliminate the obvious low-quality beans.
From the third step, it was a little rough. First, they had to dig a pool, and there was a mountain stream beside the small village. It flowed endlessly from a higher mountain, and it just happened to be able to draw water into the pool. Next, all the coffee fruits were thrown into the water. The ripe and plump fruits would sink to the bottom of the pool, and the unripe or incomplete ones would float to the surface.
From the fourth step, there were differences. Half of the fruits would be spread on the village's drying field and sun-dried. Every day, the fruits had to be turned to let them dry evenly. At night, they had to be covered to avoid moisture. The exposure time was about two to four weeks. This was the so-called sun-drying method for processing coffee beans.
The other method was, of course, the washing method. It required roughly removing the skin and pulp, and then putting the coffee seeds with a mucous membrane into the fermentation tank. In about a day to a day and a half, the layer of pectin mucous membrane would become very easy to clean. At this time, a large amount of water was used to remove the layer of mucous membrane and remaining pulp.
The fifth step of the sun-drying method was to remove the outer layer that had already dried and hardened, and to remove the outer layer of the seed's shell. In this way, it was considered completed.
The fifth step of the washing method was to dry the coffee beans again in the sun for about one to three weeks. Finally, all the steps were completed by removing the shell.
Of course, the flavors between the two were different. Lin had never drunk coffee before, so he naturally did not know which method was suitable for the coffee in the mysterious land. As for the sun-drying method and the washing method, the time needed was about the same. If there was a difference, it was that the washing method required a lot of water, so it was difficult to carry out in some places where there was insufficient water.
The work was carried out quite smoothly. After all, this was a matter of the land, and this group of people was very familiar with it.
All kinds of plans, including the exposure field, processing plant, fermentation tank, washing tank, and so on, were formed one by one under the responsibility of the village's able-bodied men.
During this time, other than giving instructions, Lin did not provide any other assistance. No matter what, he was considered an employer. This was not a war, and he had to rely on taking the lead to boost the morale of the soldiers. If he did too much or did too much, it would not necessarily be pleasing to others, and it would only increase the pressure on others.
Moreover, in terms of proficiency, he was definitely not as good as these people who had been farming for their whole lives, so he did not want to add to the trouble.
In the entire mountain forest, the coffee tree was only one of the trees, and it was a relatively large tree species. Because it was a wild plant and had not been planned and cared for, the production of coffee fruits was definitely not as good as the coffee plantations on Earth. However, Lin Dalve calculated that this mountain forest could produce about 3,600 barrels of coffee.
However, that was the inference of the data from the machine-assisted production on Earth. Considering that some parts of the mountain were not suitable for harvesting, the villagers here were doing this kind of work for the first time, and the process was not necessarily smooth. Therefore, the production had to be discounted.
In the next month, in the process of the homework, because only Lin knew the complete process, and only he knew what to get in the end. Although he did not keep an eye on the work of everyone at all times, he still confirmed that every step was appropriate under the invitation of the old man.
Many of the machines and equipment were not available in the Lost Earth World, so they could only think of some alternative methods. When Lin made the request, he did not force everyone to follow the method he said. Instead, he proposed some possible feasible plans to discuss with everyone. Of course, someone could come up with a better plan, and it was actually approved after everyone used it, so Lin was not stingy with the reward.
A reward of one gold coin each time, which stimulated the enthusiasm of the villagers very well. It was not that there were no whimsical ideas, but Lin did not provide any assistance. Instead, he wanted the person who suggested the idea to do it himself.
With their ability, they could complete the work and get the approval of everyone. This kind of craftsmanship was what he needed. If everything had to be done by the mages and solved with magic, did it not mean that he would have to come every year or hire other mages to help to complete the harvesting and processing of the coffee beans? This was a bit of putting the cart before the horse.
It was in this kind of environment that the Lost Earth World version of the fruit pulp separator and the sheller were born. Although it was very simple, it was several times more efficient than manually processing such a large number of coffee fruits.
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