At first, they often failed when burning charcoal. Burning this stuff requires experience. There is a knack to when to close the kiln and when to open it. It may take several failed attempts to successfully burn a kiln of charcoal, but as a result, the Bullheads found the most suitable wood for burning charcoal.

It is a type of tree that grows deep in the forest. This kind of tree burns with a fragrant smell and is not prone to insects.

The leaves of this tree are very broad, a bit like palm leaves, and when woven together they can be used as a roof and also to hold water. The slaves used these leaves as the roof when building their thatched huts.

With Lex's guidance, the dwarves also managed to make the bellows.

It was only at this time that Lex discovered the creativity of the dwarves. After all, he had only told them to make a wooden box with an opening for the air to escape and a lever at the back that would move back and forth.

He was being extremely abstract, but after more than ten redesigns and adjustments, the dwarves actually managed to build the bellows.

The dwarves themselves could not explain exactly how they did it, but they had a unique approach. They even knew how to use mortise and tenon joints, although of course not as sophisticated as the mortise and tenon joints Lex had seen in the modern world.

Compared to the hardworking and creative trolls and dwarves, the gnomes seemed to have few special skills or advantages.

The gnomes are good at digging holes, so Lex, after some thought, told them to go to the woods and dig traps.

They couldn't dig too deep, otherwise the prey wouldn't be able to get out, and they would have a hard time getting it out.

They couldn't dig too shallow either, otherwise the prey could easily escape.

The gnomes could only think of the simplest solution, which was to bury sharpened, pointed pieces of wood in the dug traps, so that the prey would be stabbed or killed as soon as it entered.

Luckily, Lex didn't want to keep wild prey as pets either. Unlike the livestock that the Holy Court would soon be distributing, these beasts would starve to death if they were not kept alive, and they would not be kept as pets by humans, as they would just waste away.

It was probably because they would go hungry if they didn't behave that the goblins had been behaving themselves recently.

They had even learned that if they didn't work hard, they would be kicked out of the mud house they were living in.

The goblin with the scar on his face said angrily as he dug the hole, "It's their fault! If they hadn't been lazy, we wouldn't only have one meal!"

He had been a slave since birth, and the best days of his life had been some time ago, when he had two meals a day, lived in a nice house that protected him from the wind and rain, and lived with his mother, so they could sleep together at night to keep warm.

He felt full of strength. If he worked a little harder, perhaps when his mother could no longer work, he could ask the lord not to evict her. He could work for two people and support his mother.

But now, he didn't know if he would be able to fulfill his wish.

It was all because of those lazy bums!

The female goblin whispered, "Keep your voice down, don't let them hear you."

The lazy goblins were all adult male goblins, and she was afraid they would hear her.

The young goblin was not afraid at all: "Do you think they would dare to hit me? They've gone too far! The adults should kick them all out! Because of them, we only get so little gruel to eat a day, while the trolls and dwarves are rewarded with bread by the adults! And we still only get gruel!"

The young goblin began to cry as he spoke, and he raised his arm to dry his tears on his arm: "Mum, as long as they're here, this is all we'll ever get. You've never had bread..."

They had only heard about bread. They had heard that it was delicious, that it filled you up, that it was soft and fragrant, and that it was so good you could eat your tongue!

One minotaur had bitten his tongue while eating bread.

He wanted his mother to be able to eat bread too.

"Get them out of here!" the young goblin clenched his fists, "We work hard, we shouldn't be held back by them!"

This time, the gnomes who had been digging with them were not silent. They said, "Yes! Get them out of here! We want bread! We want two meals of gruel!"

The gnomes quickly made a plan. They would knock the gnomes out while they were sleeping at night, use the darkness as cover, drag them as far away as possible, and then throw them away.

Then they would go back and tell the steward that the gnomes had escaped.

Escaped slaves were executed if they were caught!

The gnomes definitely won't come back.

The gnomes thought the plan was great, but they had been hungry for several days and weren't sure if they still had the strength to drag them far away.

The young gnome encouraged them, "Just think, we'll soon have two meals of gruel!"

"And soft bread! Do you want the lord to think we're worse than the trolls and dwarves?

The result was that the next day, Lex learned that eight goblins had escaped, and these were precisely the same eight goblins who had been slacking off before. His gut told him that there was more to it than that. His territory was actually quite desolate. Although it was backed by mountains and surrounded by water, there were no towns or other nobleman's territories nearby because the roads were treacherous.

If you wanted to go to the city, you would have to take a carriage for most of the day, provided it didn't rain that day and you didn't encounter any wild animals on the way.

So the group of gnomes just ran, but where could they go? Run into the woods and become savages? Besides, the wild animals in the woods are also very fierce, and eight people are not enough to make up the difference.

"It must have been done by other gnomes," the butler's eyelids were slack, his eyes were not wide open, and now his droopy eyelids were emitting a wise light, "Hmph, these gnomes are a bit clever."

Butler: "But they still have to be punished!"

"Otherwise, they'll always have fewer slaves in the future!"

He winced. 'Slaves are expensive! You have to trade good wheat for them! Merchants are the most treacherous people!'

Lex asked, 'What punishment?'

The butler's expression tightened, and he said sternly, 'Tell them to finish the work of those eight goblins! They won't have to do it until new slaves are replaced!'

The butler's heart bled, as those eight goblins had also been bought with wheat.

Lex, however, felt nothing. After all, since becoming a lord, he had never bought slaves with money or grain.

He blinked: "Okay, just do as you say. We can't let them get into the habit of throwing away slaves."

The gnomes soon learned the bad news, but the good news was that if they didn't slack off and worked hard, they would be able to resume eating gruel twice a day after half a month.

The young gnome said to the gnomes, "If any of us slack off, we'll do the same to him!"

"Yes!"

"For two meals of gruel!"

"For bread!"

...

The young goblin was woken by nightmares, in which he dreamed that the eight goblins they had dragged away had died and returned to seek revenge on them. He shivered in the darkness, quietly weeping in his mother's arms, but he did not regret it at all.

As long as those goblins were still around, they would always be held back by them.

Although they are of the same race, they are not related by blood. The gnomes never looked after their own kind, but instead stole their gruel. When the young gnome was little, he even wished to go with his mother to the dwarves.

The dwarves also did not have an easy life, but they did not bully their own kind.

In fact, the dwarves even looked after their own kind.

The young gnome clung to his mother.

The two knights have now also returned to normal, or at least they have not gone mad, but their hostility towards Alwin has increased. They complain to Lex from time to time, and Lex is getting a real earful.

But they also eat a lot of the wild boar meat that Alwin sends them.

When it was time to eat, they always asked the cook to give them extra bacon.

Lex asked them, "Is it delicious?"

The two knights beamed and said, "It's delicious!"

Lex was speechless.

He had been worrying about his loom recently. After the charcoal was ready, he still had to hammer the iron. Hammering iron was also a skilled job. He didn't know how much pig iron he would have to waste to make a decent blade.

To sharpen the blade, he would need a whetstone—and he still had to find one.

Lex felt that the road ahead was long and winding, and it was possible that he would not be able to make a loom by next year.

Before starting to make steel, the Holy Court finally sent someone to deliver the livestock. It had been more than two months since they had applied to keep livestock until the Holy Court sent them. This time, there were two cows, twelve sheep, and twenty chickens and ducks respectively.

The animals were delivered by a low-ranking servant and several slaves. Servants are the lowest ranking people in the monastery, and they could be expelled at any time for financial reasons. They mostly do the hard work of running errands.

The servant's name was Thomas. He had a big brown beard, was very tall, and had a body full of muscles. After delivering the animals, he was about to go back the same way he came, but Lex repeatedly invited him to stay for a meal.

In order to prevent him from going back to the monastery and telling them about the new bread Lex had made, which would result in the monastery sending someone over to find Lex working with iron and ultimately getting Lex hanged, he was invited to eat ordinary unfermented bread and the stale meat that the cook kept hanging on the windowsill.

But Thomas was very happy to eat.

The position of the court attendant was very low, and although the common people respected them when they walked outside, the pay was very limited.

The most they got to eat was black bread, and being able to eat meat, even if it was spiced, was already a great treat.

"Please express my loyalty to the Holy Court," Lex said, repeating what the steward had taught him, "I always bear in mind the teachings of the Holy Spirit and uphold the will of the Holy Spirit."

Thomas stuffed the meat as hard as he could while staring at Lex in fascination, "My lord, don't worry, I will definitely report your loyalty to the Holy Spirit to the Holy Court as it is."

Lex saw Thomas to his horse himself and watched him leave with the slaves.

Thomas waved to Lex as he rode away.

"Why are you still looking?" Alwin asked, walking up to him.

Lex sighed. "I don't think I can keep it a secret forever."

He had to think of a better way to disguise it.

That was why he was afraid to hire people. He was also afraid that the servants would tell their relatives when they were sent home.

But he just wanted to live better.

He wanted the slaves to live better.

Everyone.

But at the risk of being hanged.