Lex didn't expect so many people to come—so many that he wondered if he had made a mistake.

The servants had obviously brought back not just their parents, but also their siblings. Some had brought back four or five people, while Lex had originally calculated that each person would bring back two people.

The number of people was now two or three times higher than originally expected.

It was impossible for all of them to squeeze into the castle, and even if Lex was willing, the steward and the knights would not allow it.

"Let them stay in the straw hut for now, and build a house while it's still dry," Lex said. 'Build a bigger one, the kind that can house more people, and build more next year.'

These people are in his territory, so they are naturally his people, and they must obey his orders.

Lex told his servants to also cook gruel for these people, one meal a day. He knew that the servants would also scrimp and save to subsidize their own families, so he wasn't going to give them much. Once they were able to clear the land and start farming, Lex wouldn't have to worry about it anymore, and he would only need to collect taxes once a year.

After all, with so many people here, the taxes he had to pay to the Holy Court would also increase.

This is why the nobles would rather have their domains full of slaves than civilians.

Because effort is the property of the nobles, it is equivalent to an object and does not need to be taxed, but the commoners do.

So many commoners became slaves of their lords after they could not afford to pay the taxes to their lords.

This is forcing people into slavery, but this is a gray area that the Holy Court does not care about, nor do the officials, so this abnormal ecology has continued.

The commoners who came here did not complain. You have to understand that when they were in the city, they didn't even have gruel!

One bowl of gruel a day, and their relatives in the castle would even bring them black bread to eat. What's not to be satisfied with?

But what they could never have imagined was that the slaves here could actually eat two meals of gruel a day, and occasionally even black bread.

"The slaves get bread for good work." Adam eats gruel with his family. This is the food he has saved up for the day and will take back to the straw hut with his family in the evening. He is used to the new master's rule and doesn't feel that there is anything wrong with it. 'This is how they will work hard.'

The previous master would not give the slaves much to eat. One meal of gruel a day, and only a little of that, and the slaves would always find ways to be lazy.

The current lord gives the slaves more to eat, but the slaves don't slack off. Adam doesn't know why, but he knows it's a good thing.

"My lord is kind and wise!" Adam said to his family with conviction, "Once the house is built and we've been given land, we'll be able to eat well."

The family was very happy. A lord who is kind to slaves can't be too bad to commoners.

They hoped even more that the lord was a softhearted person, so that their lives could be better.

For Lex, the best news recently was that after countless failures, he finally managed to refine steel.

It was refined by a goblin, and it was barely a child. There was a scar on his face. Lex dared not let the commoners do this, nor could he let the servants and knights know. He could only pick a few people from each race and let them forge iron in a walled house.

Maybe Alex and Elijah had guessed something, but they acted normally and didn't even ask.

Lex was relieved but also on guard against them.

If this continued, Lex felt that he might very well develop a persecution complex.

This kind of steel was much coarser than fine steel at the time, but compared to iron, the improvement was not just a little bit greater, and it was extremely labor-intensive. First, the pig iron was reheated over a carbon fire to form a sponge-like solid. After the furnace had cooled down, it was taken out and placed back in the carbon fire to absorb carbon, reduce impurities, and increase the carbon content. Steel was only obtained after repeated hammering and tempering.

Although it sounds simple, the actual process is very troublesome.

After all, without sophisticated equipment or experience, whether it can succeed depends not only on hard work, but also on luck.

As for the raw materials for weaving, Lex also learned from Alwin that cotton is now called cloud flower, and the woven cotton cloth is only supplied to the royal family and the Holy Court. The clothes worn by the common people are made from a plant. After the outer skin is peeled off, it can be twisted into thread after being beaten, and then woven into clothes.

This linen is even more durable than cotton and does not tear easily.

However, because of the limitations of current textile technology, the cloth sold by merchants is very thin and easily damaged.

Moreover, there are no tools for spinning thread here, and it is spun little by little by hand.

Therefore, the price of cloth is very high, exorbitantly so.

Lex had seen a spinning wheel when he went to the countryside for fun before, and the old woman had even demonstrated it to him. However, she used cotton, not hemp, and the thread spun on the wheel could be taken to the loom to weave.

The old woman also told him that when the country was first founded, some people still used this to spin, but they stopped doing it when life got better.

Thanks to the old woman, Lex can still remember how the spinning wheel works.

This spinning wheel is operated by pedaling, and the principle is the same as operating a sewing machine with your feet: the wooden wheel will rotate at the same frequency as the pedaling, and all one needs to do is adjust the thickness and pull the thread.

It's not difficult to make, and there's nothing difficult about it.

So, steel has appeared, and spinning wheels and looms can also be made. The only problem is, where do you get ramie?

Lex didn't dare to think about cotton. No merchant would dare to sell this stuff, and even if a merchant were crazy enough to sell it for money, Lex wouldn't dare to grow it on his territory.

Growing ramie was fine, because apart from being used to spin and weave cloth, ramie could also be eaten. The roots could be used as food, the stems could be used to make wine and sugar, the husks could be used to make paper, and after soaking, the fibres could be extracted and used to spin thread.

Lex had read about this in a history book. Of all the academic subjects, Lex was most interested in history, especially ancient history, and least interested in modern history.

When he heard Alwin talking about plants, he immediately thought of ramie. This stuff can be used for almost everything, it can be eaten, used for making paper, etc. But Lex couldn't tell Alwin that this stuff can be used for making paper, and only mentioned that it can be used for making wine and sugar in addition to spinning.

When Alwin heard that it can be used for making wine and sugar, he said, "This is a good thing."

Lex was a little discouraged: "No matter how good it is, where am I going to get the seeds?"

Although he didn't know which weeds and wild vegetables grew in his territory, he knew that if anything was edible and useful, someone would have tried it. If there were ramie, how could he not collect the seeds to plant it?

Alwin laughed: "Do you think everyone knows it's so useful like you?"

This thing is not precious. As it happens, Alwin also bought seeds when he went to the city to buy pig iron before.

"I know you can use it." Alwin looked at Lex with watery eyes, wanting to look into Lex's mind and see how much more Lex had stored in his mind.

Lex was stunned, and then excitedly hugged Alwin.

"You're amazing!" Lex grabbed Alwin's hand. He really needed helpers like Alwin. He was sure that he would not be able to think of many things on his own, and he really needed helpers to fill in the gaps.

Alwin's mouth curled up into a smile. Suddenly, he broke free of Lex's hand and gave him a standard aristocratic salute.

"It is my honor to be at your service."

Lex smiled brightly, unconcerned about his appearance as he crossed his arms and said complacently, "Now we are going to take the first step towards a new world!"

Then he left the confused Alwin behind and ran to the blacksmith's room.

This house was built larger than the others at the time, and it also had a high stone wall. Once the door was closed, you could only hear the sounds from inside, but not see what was going on.

As soon as Lex walked in, the slaves hurriedly got down on the ground, even if they were still working.

Lex met the goblin who had successfully smelted the steel.

Slaves don't have names, but if they have an elder, they will give him a name, but the names they give are all very strange, some are called Stone, some are called Wood, in short, they are all words that no one uses as names.

This goblin didn't have a name. When Lex asked him what his name was, he pressed his forehead to the ground, afraid to let Lex see the scars on his face, and said tremblingly that his name was Tree.

He also explained that his mother said that there was a big tree in their hometown.

Lex praised him and rewarded him in front of all the slaves because he was the first to refine steel. So his daily black bread could be exchanged for white bread, and his gruel could be replaced by three meals. Lex also rewarded him with a set of clothes, which the servants would bring to him as soon as they were ready.

After all, there was still cloth in the castle. Although it wasn't cotton, it was still very luxurious to be able to make a whole suit out of coarse cloth.

All the slaves were dumbfounded, including Tree, who had refined iron. He fell to the ground and tears flowed down his face.

He had worked day and night, just so that he could smelt iron sooner. He was afraid that the lord would hate them gnomes, and hoped that he could win the lord's favor with his hard work.

But he never expected to get so much, so many things!

Three meals of gruel a day, and white bread! He could let his mother eat soft, fragrant bread too!

He dared not cry out, and only let silent tears fall.

Lex didn't stay long either. Slaves always feel uncomfortable when he is around, and they can't work properly when they are distracted. So he gave them a few words of encouragement and then left, after painting a big pie in the sky for them.

This pie promised that if the slaves worked hard and no one slacked off, next year all those involved in steelmaking would become free men.

The pie was so delicious that the slaves thought they were dreaming.

After Lex left, the gnome named Tree stood up with all the slaves.

All the slaves were looking at him, admiring him, as if he had suddenly become a different person.

Tree had never been so excited and proud in his life.

Although he was born a slave, he didn't want to remain one forever!

He had to work harder than the others, be more useful and loyal to the master, so that he could provide a good life for himself and his mother.

And then... he could get a little closer to the master.