CHAPTER 765: PREPARING FOR WAR AND FAMINE

Garrett Nordmark added a bookmark and voted.

"The matters concerning the foreign nobles, you are not to interfere, or even ask about them?"

Garrett was startled. His teacher had never used such a severe tone to stop him from getting involved with the local nobles’ affairs...

Although he had never wanted to meddle before, he had directly participated in the establishment of the Public Health Administration, using both soft and hard tactics to obtain money and power from those high-ranking officials. Perhaps, in the teacher’s view, if he got involved in public health, he might also get involved in farming and hoarding food?

Garrett pondered for a moment, truly hesitant. Public health was not the core interest of those nobles and temples;

Forcing them to accept the council’s demands, organizing manpower, and paying out of their own pockets to use the God of Nature’s divine magic to accelerate crop growth was truly their core interest!

Whether it was making them bow to the council, allowing outsiders to step into their territory, or making them spend money...

Let the council handle the council’s business, the temple handle the temple’s business, and the nobles handle the nobles’ business. This was the consensus of all major forces in the Kent Kingdom, and it was explicitly stated on the stone monument at the beginning of the Igor Peak mountain path when Nevis City was established.

Even though the council’s action this time had already reached an agreement with the royal family, the temple, and many wise nobles, there were always a hundred different people with a hundred different faces. There were always those who did not care about the lives of the common people, only their own territory being infringed upon;

There were always those who wanted to take advantage of the famine to annex the properties of free citizens and small owners to increase their own wealth;

There were always those who were simply lazy and did not want to do more work, knowing that no matter how severe the famine, it would not starve them...

The cost of breaking existing rules to force these nobles one by one before the great famine came was something that even the entire council could not easily afford.

"I understand, teacher." He nodded sincerely:

"I won’t get involved in such matters. As I am now... I cannot afford to get involved."

What he could do was protect himself, protect the people around him, and at most, expand a little to protect the people that those around him cared about.

"Bernard." Garrett stepped out of the small train station at the foot of Igor Peak, and the first thing he did was ask his loyal barbarian guard:

"I remember asking you to write to your tribe to store enough food for two years. How is that going?"

"No reply yet, boss." The barbarian replied bitterly:

"You know, it’s normal for a letter to take two to three months to go back and forth. If there’s any mishap along the way, it’s not uncommon for there to be no reply for half a year—in fact, unless it’s very urgent, it’s normal to wait a year without a reply."

Garrett rubbed his temples. When Bernard first came to work as his guard, the agreed payment was enough food for his tribe each year. But if his tribe reacted slowly or did not believe Bernard’s message...

By the beginning or middle of next year, when the famine truly hit, having gold coins would not guarantee a single mouthful of food.

"…Forget it." Garrett sighed:

"Bernard, send another person—or even more people if necessary. I’ll pay them the same wage for this trip, and cover the travel expenses separately. Tell them to bring your tribe here, I’ll hire them all."

Bernard opened his mouth, hesitating to speak. Garrett quickly added:

"They can work as security, laundresses, horse, cattle, and pig handlers, there’s always work for them. If they really don’t want to come back, it’s fine, have them bring enough gold coins to buy three years’ worth of food and deliver it to your tribe."

Seeing Garrett’s firm expression, Bernard had no choice but to agree. Garrett patted him on the shoulder with a smile:

"Hey, after all, this amount of gold is no longer a big number for me. If your tribe is well-fed, you’ll be at ease, and so will I. By the way, I haven’t given you a raise since you became an 8th-level warrior!"

"Yes, boss..."

Garrett and Bernard rode the Silver Moon Deer back to the Oak Grove Clinic. The first thing Garrett did upon returning was to ask the hospital’s chief executive, housekeeper, and newly advanced third-level mage, Leon Carlos:

"How much food does our hospital consume each month, including staff and patients?"

This question was no problem for the housekeeper. Just as he was about to answer, Garrett raised a finger to stop him:

"Calculate the total needed from now until next year. Grains, long-lasting meats, procure them at twice the current amount—no, ten times—and store them."

"Yes, sir." Carlos did not have the slightest doubt, quickly recording everything. Garrett continued counting on his fingers:

"For Bernard’s tribe, store enough food and meat for ten times their current population. No, store enough for three years."

"Yes, sir."

"These things don’t have to be purchased all at once, but gradually by the end of the year. Make sure the storage is done properly, ensuring that by next year—no, the year after that, because spring famine is also terrible—that everyone has enough to eat and won’t go hungry before the autumn harvest!"

"Yes, sir!"

Carlos had already started calculating how big the warehouses needed to be to meet Garrett’s requirements. One or two wouldn’t be enough, three or four might still be tight, he might even need to dig cellars.

Garrett was kind-hearted and couldn’t bear to see poor people go hungry. When the time came, impoverished mothers might not leave the hospital, and they’d have to be given more aid. If a great famine did occur and the barbarians sought refuge with Bernard, based on Garrett’s nature, he would likely take in as many as came.

A group of starving barbarians...

Carlos was already thinking about how to buy two to three times the food with just one time the funds. Then he heard Garrett’s next idea:

"Right, we don’t necessarily need to buy meat, we can buy more fish. If preservation is an issue, hire people to salt the fish, giving them a fish every few days as payment—whale oil can also be bought in barrels, with enough fat in the food, people won’t get hungry as easily, saving on grains."

Good idea...a barrel of fish is much cheaper than the same weight of beef. However, Carlos held back a comment:

Why do you think those big barrels of sea fish need to be salted by hired workers? Without enough salt, they wouldn’t even make it to the port!

"Store enough vegetables...potatoes, sweet potatoes, pumpkins, carrots, beets, cabbages, anything that can be stored long-term, fill the cellars! Vegetables are half the food supply and can supplement vitamins..."

The rest of his voice was lost in muttering about "should we prepare a batch of vitamins ahead of time...or perhaps even in the Year Without a Summer vegetables could still grow..."

Back when the pandemic had just subsided, there were tips online about what vegetables to stockpile. What else was there to stockpile?

Milk?

Eggs?

Or should we just raise some livestock and stockpile feed?

—In a Year Without a Summer, even grass wouldn’t grow well, how should we make silage feed?

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