Chapter 47 Burn, Tobacco!
McQueen drank the bitter aquamarine potion in one sip. The bitterness was not much worse than bile anyway. It was a pity that he did not sleep all night. He really could not stand it if he did not drink Garcia’s refreshing potion. Now, McQueen had a list in his hand. That was the statistics of the black dragon materials that were calculated last night. McQueen took it to his heart and waited for the upcoming black dragon sale.
The scales of the black dragon that were intact were 137,082 pieces in total. There were three types: small-sized had 74,556 pieces, medium had 43,355 while the large-sized scales were 19,171 of which include 13 pieces of lamella. More than 30,000 pieces were incomplete ones. (Excluding the head)
The black dragon meat, aside from some of the slab meat that were separated, there were a total of 28,399 kilos. Among them, 3,546 kilos were fat meat, 23,260 kilos were lean meat, and 1,594 kilos were tendons. The complete large tendons and small tendons were 20 and 422 respectively.
The black dragon’s skin was cut into squares, a total 56 of complete ones were obtained. Most of the incomplete ones were unidentified. Three pieces of epithelial membrane of the dragon wing was complete.
Black dragon blood, totalling with 1,852 kilos, blood-stained soil with 756 kilos, and a number of various blood-stained items were put to dry.
Its bones had various sizes and its number is up to 13,690 with a net weight of 3,654 kilos. Among them, there were 101 bone spurs, 22 bone claws (there were also two claws at the fold of the wings), and 33 bone segments in the tail.
The black dragon’s organs consisted of one dragon heart, one gut, two livers, four spleens, eight kidneys, eight lungs, three stomach pouches, one dragon breath pouch, a large intestine that was 20 feet long, and a small intestine that was 26 feet long.
The black dragon tail bones were six feet long each, and several had been cut off.
The head was not decomposed yet, and it contained 2 four-foot-long horns, 360 teeth, 2 fangs, and 2 eyes. It was estimated to contain some bones, some minced meat, one brain, and one black dragon crystal core.
“Oh my God, there are eight black dragon kidneys, and the black dragon tail bone segments are six feet long each. How awesome this is.” McQueen smacked his lips and was slightly envious of the dragon. It really was a powerful dragon, “but why did someone write an estimation of having one brain here? Who wrote this? Do you have brains? If the black dragon doesn’t have one brain, would it have two? Also, why didn’t I notice when I copied this? As for the black dragon’s crystal core, we need to take it out quickly and put it in my Crystallization of Wind, so that I can relief myself.”
At that time, there was a knock on the door of the study, and McQueen put down the list of his narrative, his own translation of the Earth version. Instead, he picked up a thick book on the shelf, opened it and pretended to read it, “Come in.”
The door was pushed open, and Garcia led a middle-aged man who looked like a farmer with a dark complexion into the study room. “Castellan, the former farmer chief, who was the current Minister of Agriculture, Adolf is here.” Garcia replied politely, his eyes glanced over the book McQueen was reading. A look of wanting to laugh but not daring flashed across his old face, and he stood with his hands aside.
“Adolf here to meet the castellan.” Although Adolf looked plain, the power of his voice was not bad, and it sounded very refreshing.
“Yes.” McQueen raised his head, looked at Adolf carefully, and said, “Garcia has conveyed your new appointment to you, right, Minister of Agriculture?”
“Yes, the Minister of the Interior has already issued the appointment letter to me.” Adolf replied respectfully.
McQueen said, “I ordered you here today to discuss with you about the ways to develop agriculture in Toss City. You can first introduce the current situation of agriculture in Toss City.”
Adolf cleared his throat and said in a clear voice, “Replying to the castellan, there are 49 towns and 363 villages in Toss City. Most of them grew wheat, accounting for 80% of farmers, and a small part of them grew cotton, which accounted for 20%. In addition, most farmers in Toss City grew rice, and the crop plantation was distributed around the Golden Fish Lake. As for the inside of the city, some farmers also grew vegetables.”
“How is the farmer’s income?” McQueen asked.
Adolf sighed and said frustratedly, “It’s barely enough to make ends meet. Now the market price of rice and wheat is very low. A silver coin can buy 50 kilos of rice or 60 kilos of wheat. A farmer can only collect about 10,000 kilos a year and sell it sell it for 200 silver coins, just 2 gold coins. According to the current price of Toss City, 2 gold coins can’t even buy ten kilos of pork. The price of cotton is not low, but the production rate is very low. There is no surplus at all to be self-sufficient.”
Garcia interjected, “We have no choice in this matter. The production of rice and wheat by the big families using magic was really high. Especially in recent years, the development of miscellaneous rice paddies had been successful. Just one acre of land can harvest tens of thousands of kilos, so the price of rice had dropped again and again. Ten years ago, it was still two silver coins per kilo, but now it needs 2 copper plates per kilo.”
“The income of farmers is too low, and there is no spare money to stimulate consumption, so the commercial trade in Toss City can’t fully-develop, right?” McQueen asked.
“That’s right, Castellan.”
McQueen smiled slightly, “Therefore, we have to change this status quo and make farmers rich. Toss City has a population of 100,000. If you count the area under its jurisdiction, there will always be a population of 300,000, and there is no less than 27,000 of the people who are farmers. Think about it, once these 27,000 people become rich, how huge the consumption will be.”
“But, how can they get rich?” Adolf sighed from the bottom of his heart. Although the castellan was a dragon-slayer warrior, his dreams were too far away. Who wouldn’t know the business opportunities that farmers would bring when they become rich? But the key was, how to get rich? Should they learn how to use magic when planting rice paddies? If so, the people would have to know magic.
McQueen could see Adolf’s contempt, but he did not care. Those who made a big deal certainly had to have their stomachs running like a train, oh no, like a boat. “Adolf, come with me. Garcia, find a fire mage to follow us. The mage doesn’t have to be too advanced, just make sure that the mage had the ability to set fire.”
After McQueen finished, he ignored everyone’s thoughts, took the lead and walked towards the small deserted slope of South City. Before that he even stood on the top floor of the castle and took a look, the desolated hillside was still lush and evergreen. In a short while, a few people came to the hillside. On the way, there were quite a few ordinary people on the road, following McQueen, watching what McQueen was doing in admiration and curiosity. McQueen did not care about them either. Once the project was launched, the people still needed to cooperate. If the news was revealed sooner, the people could also be prepared.
The same kind of plant grew on the desolated hillside, a plant called weed. When McQueen came to the grass, the more he looked at it, the happier he became. The large green patch was actually growing ‘gold’ on the ground.
“Adolf, this is tobacco.” McQueen plucked a leaf, put it in his hand, and motioned Adolf to take a look.
Adolf nodded silently, who didn’t know that this was tobacco. When burned, its smoke could choke people to death.
McQueen looked at Adolf’s confused expression and laughed, “To make the farmers rich, the burden will fall on this tobacco, Adolf, don’t you believe it?”
“I not dare.” Adolf said that he did not dare, but in reality, his expression clearly said that he could not believe McQueen.
“What’s your name?” McQueen turned and asked a young man who Garcia had brought, a very energetic young man. “Can you set a flame?”
“My name is, replying to Castellan, my name is Schmeichel, a junior fire mage, and I can set up fire.” Schmeichel stammered. He was not very open, and suddenly facing a super legendary character who could slay dragons made him felt weird to open his heart.
“Don’t be nervous, Schmeichel, come, set fire to dry this leaf.”
“Yes, okay.” Schmeichel took the tobacco leaf, holding it in one hand, and preparing to set it on fire in the other. Puff, ugh, the fire was a little too big, and the tobacco leaves instantly burned out, “I, I…” Schmeichel looked embarrassed.
“It’s fine, take your time.” McQueen picked another leaf and handed it to Schmeichel.
Schmeichel did a good job this time, and a thin flame ignited from his hands, slowly drying and shrinking the tobacco leaves.
“It’s done.” McQueen halted him, and reached out to retrieve the dried tobacco leaves, “Schmeichel, please dry another dozen leaves for me.”
After the tobacco leaves were roasted, McQueen tore it to pieces and took out a small tube with him. That was the closest thing McQueen could find to a tobacco rod. In fact, McQueen did not know the correct to way to make tobacco into cigarettes, but it did not seem to be a difficult task. Aren’t cigarettes made by wrapping some dried tobacco shreds in a cigarette paper, plus a cigarette butt? Elementary school students would understand its simple combination. Since McQueen could not find a suitable cigarette paper, he could only imitate the dry tobacco smoked by ancient people.
Putting the shredded tobacco into the first end of the small tube, McQueen motioned to Schmeichel to ignite. Looking at his own work, McQueen rubbed his palms with satisfaction, held the other end of the small tube in his mouth, and took a light breath in front of everyone’s questionable gaze.
Wow……