Part 13 (2/2)
”That makes it rarer, boy There aren't any schools here like the ones you went to, but I hear that you're working on it”
”Yes, your grace We now have nine dozen pri in Count Lae”
”Alrace, you ht I can only try to persuade a baron to do things ainstabout Baron Jaraslav, Sir Stefan's father, aren't you”
”Yes, your grace”
”He's a hard-nosed bastard, but he's served ainst theEducation is ih those schools will cost hi them in at my own expense, with the help of the peasants”
”Boy, I don't see why you're pushi+ng this reading and writing business so hard What good is that going to do a peasant?”
”As things stand, very little, your grace But things aren't going to stay as they are forpoith human muscles But you saw that steam-powered sawmill of mine You said it had the power of two hundred women Well, the wo-bea other work now, more skilled work”
”That's just a start To to turn the machines in the shop here, and the others to knead the clay for the mold shop and pump the bellows of the soes in, we need fewer dumb peasants andtoo quickly forthe trades of their fathers They'll have to learn them in schools and out of books They have to be able to read”
”I'll grant you're right when it comes to factories, boy, but most co to eat!”
”True, your grace, but only so long as we stay with current fars There was another buot the entire harvest in, despite more rainy days than usual The difference was as si as a wheelbarrow They have a thresher attachment on their windmill, and they were able to store the entire harvest in their existing storage bins threshed Had it still been in the shucks, as is usual, half of it would be on the ground In the next few years I'll be introducing nes, reapers, and other harvesting machines The era of the du But how far can this go?”
”Quite a ways, your grace I once spent four years in a country called Aricultural products in the world, and its people are a the best fed, Yet only one man in fifty was a farmer! Most of the rest worked at trades that are unknown in this country There aren't even words for them”
”Yet so myself if it's all really worth it”
”They seerace, Tell me, would you like to live in a home that arm in the coldest weather, that was as cool as you wanted it on the hottest day? Would you like to have fresh fruits and vegetables available at any time, no matter what the season? Would you like to have an instrument called a telephone that would let you speak to any of your vassals, though they were a hundredin Christendom? Would you like to have doctors so skilled that they could keep you healthy for many years to coreat silver shi+p that could fly you to China in an afternoon, while a pretty waitress brings you drinks as you look down on the clouds below? And would you like to have these things not only for yourself, but for the least of your subjects?”
”Tell s worth it?”
”Maybe, boy Maybe But your priest has told hty that onea button, could destroy whole cities Of hatreds, and of famines when there was no need for faineer, your grace I can build machines that can heat your home, harvest your crops, and flush your shi+t It's not fair to expect me to make you love your fellow man as well That's not iving the duke and his party a tour of the facilities at Copper City He seeines ere installing, two of which were already operational They were all single expansion units, and not very efficient thers had steam radiators in every room, which condensed the steaain Cogeneration Co a leather tannery to use that excess heat in the suain dined with the duke, and Cilicia told the story of how her native city was destroyed by the Mongols Everyone in the inn's dining roo She told the same story that her father had told to ut I don't think that there was a dry eye in the place, and even the crusty old duke was in tears
He promised me his continued support, as did every enerate support for the upco war, and she was to tell that story a hundred times over the next few years
I spent threetechnical probleers and didn't need le Nest in one day, leaving before dawn and arriving after dusk The instructors were in uniform, but only about half of the boys' outfits were co
It was getting beyond kite-flying weather and the hangar was big enough to flythe installation we had so ht as well build it big enough in the first place The hangar was six dozen yards wide and twelve dozen long, big enough to acco out of wood and canvas It was rather like the church we had built at Three Walls, only two of theh not as tall and with a dirt floor Two huge counter-weighted doors faced the eventual runway
But noe used it forSunday afternoon, talking about aircraft, about lift and drag and the other forces on a plane The type I got thelider, halfway between a sailplane and a piper cub Sort of an observation plane without an engine
The stea very thin strips of wood, and I headed for Okoitz
Count Lahts in his cloth factory, mostly because it would permit his massive harem to stay there all winter He was less enthusiastic about putting in a second shi+ft
As it was, the girls not currently being used slept on cots in the factory itself Putting in a second shi+ft involved building housing for all of the to do that, I insisted that we put in plu and kitchens of the sort we had at Three Walls
What finally sold hi to sexual desirability and keep the best ones on the day shi+ft, thus i the quality of his already beautiful ladies
If that's what it took to get better sanitation at Okoitz, then so be it Our infant hth of what it was at Okoitz If saving thirty-five children a year irls, then let their feelings be hurt!
And yes, I would accept cloth instead of cash for all the plun and supervise the construction of the new buildings as part of my feudal duty to him
That settled, Count Lambert wanted to talk about the Great Hunt Sir Miesko had done a co was ready The local hunt hts in the duchy had been sent, and the enclosures for the killing grounds had been sent and enclosures for the killing grounds had been built The only problem was Baron Jaraslav and his son, Sir Stefan They were ada that I was involved with I was hoping that Count Lambert would talk to them
”What!” Count La done?”
”They do, my lord Sir Miesko has been very ada to do with it If we bypass theround for wolves, bears, and wild boar They know it but don't care”
”Well, I'll settle with Baron Jaraslav! I've had enough out of those two! I'll visit thehts at e lord or pay for it!”
”Yes, 's blood! There is! You and Sir Vladimir will attend me here in one week Sir Miesko is on your way, so tell him and any others you meet to co battle?”
”I' my vassals to obey me All of them!”
”Yes, ue
Count Laave four of the, contact certain specific barons and knights, and have them report to Okoitz Verbal, because Count Lambert still couldn't read or write
It was an hour before he cally that he'd rather like to try out the wench I'd brought along
I wasn't happy about lending out Cilicia, but Count La that I wanted to trifle with Anyway, he had always been so generous with ardly of me to refuse him
”Of course, ner, and the customs of her people are different from ours I'd best talk to her first”