When the Saint comes, she does not collect food

#242 - War Brother Shop

After being warmly invited by Mericso, Bruner, though surprised, did not refuse and followed him into the Insula apartment.

However, he didn't stay long. After drinking two cups of hot ginger juice in the security room and meeting with Gashkur, who had returned from the workshop, he got up to leave.

The abrupt and enthusiastic Mericso originally wanted to keep Bruner, but upon hearing that he was going to have dinner at another centurion's house, he immediately let him go.

Walking out of the narrow courtyard and onto the street, Bruner still walked with his head held high, as he had in the recruit camp.

Despite the approaching New Year's Festival, many villagers were still repairing and reinforcing the Insula apartment roofs in various neighborhoods.

They leaned out of the windows, attaching wooden planks diagonally to the walls, and some were even riding on the beams, laying the still-intact ancient Elva tiles on the roof.

These houses had only undergone simple repairs, and many places were not sturdy, with some mortar not even fully dry.

Due to the tight schedule, in order to ensure that everyone could live in a house before it snowed, Witt's requirement for the houses was simply that they be habitable.

For the sake of safety, under the initiative of the decurion or the citizens themselves, the villagers in the neighborhood picked up wooden hammers and nails to carry out the final repairs before the snow fell.

After the soldiers returned to the town, Bruner clearly felt that the town was noticeably more lively than before.

Black-clad recruits stood in front of every Insula, and Salvation Army soldiers returning home were everywhere in the streets and alleys.

Whenever Bruner looked up while walking through the streets, he would see paper triangular flags hanging between the eaves.

Passing by the Insula, he could also see women in the public courtyard making handkerchiefs, dolls, and headscarves from scraps of cloth, while men were tanning rabbit skins into usable leather.

These rabbit skins could be made into leather, and the rabbit fur could be used as filling for clothes and shoes, which could be sold for a good price.

Wild rabbits were rampant on Autumn Twilight Island, so Horn issued an order for each centurion district to select some nimble and experienced people to catch rabbits in the wild.

Because rabbit hunting was basically done between midnight and dawn, which was during curfew, a special hunter's permit was required to go out hunting.

The hunters could keep the fur from the rabbits they caught, but most of the meat had to be concentrated and given priority to the soldiers, with the surplus being supplied to the market.

In the Papal State, where resources were scarce, Horn provided food, drink, and housing for free, so there was not much need to spend money.

What really cost money were some hand tools and meat products.

Horn specifically organized the villagers who raised cattle, sheep, chickens, and ducks into centurion districts, letting them live in farmhouses in the countryside and be responsible for raising livestock.

Their wool and milk were also given priority to meet the needs of the Papal State, with the surplus being allowed to flow into the market.

Horn would purchase these wool, milk, and vegetables at cost price or 30% below the market price.

The residents in the towns mostly engaged in infrastructure repair and reconstruction in the construction industry, with some being craftsmen and others engaging in clerical work.

Horn did not prohibit these residents living in the cities from engaging in small industries and side businesses, as long as they reported it to the centurion.

Therefore, the exchange of goods between urban and rural areas had already begun, with citizens sometimes going to the countryside to buy and sell, and villagers sometimes coming to the cities to buy and sell.

The general equivalent they used was currency such as the Dinar.

Horn did not collect any taxes on this exchange of goods.

To this day, the entire Papal State was very twisted.

If you said it didn't collect taxes, it would forcibly collect part of the fruits of labor; if you said it was a tax, Horn provided them with necessities such as housing, fuel, salt, and food free of charge.

This exchange of goods between urban and rural areas was often not an exchange of necessities, but an exchange of daily necessities and luxury goods.

Due to food shortages and too many residents in the town, the living standards of the citizens living in the neighborhoods had declined significantly, while the living standards of the villagers in the two rural centurion districts had increased instead.

By the time Bruner rushed to the gate, Jonal had been waiting impatiently.

"I've been waiting for you for ages. If you hadn't come, I was going to look for you," Jonal said, rubbing his sore knees as he stood up.

"Sorry, our decurion kept me talking," Bruner said honestly.

Jonal chuckled. "I knew it. If he still dared to make things difficult for you after you went back wearing that uniform, it would be an eye-opener."

"Forget it, I don't want to stay there any longer," Bruner was still afraid that his unwillingness to go to the battlefield would be seen through. "Are we going straight to your house now?"

"Of course not. Let's go to the War Monk store."

As soldiers who were wearing black military uniforms, they were basically confirmed Salvation Army War Monks, so they could buy meat at a low price.

Next to the prayer hall was a special War Monk store, only for soldiers of the Salvation Army Warband.

The prices in these stores were generally one or two tenths cheaper than normal grocery stores and small vendors.

Jonal and Bruner both came in military uniforms, so the shop owner naturally couldn't stop them.

The store was not large, about sixty or seventy square meters, with half of the valuable goods behind the counter, which could only be retrieved by following the shop owner.

The goods inside were mostly various herbs, cheap spices, salt, vegetables, tables and chairs, meat and other agricultural and sideline products, etc.

While Jonal went inside the counter to choose gifts, Bruner only selected a dozen eggs outside, costing only half a Dinar.

As for Jonal, he bought butter, rabbit meat, oregano and potato root wine, as well as various other things, costing nearly 12 Dinars in total.

"What are you buying so much stuff for?" Bruner couldn't help but ask, looking at Jonal, who had to buy an extra sack to carry everything.

"Nonsense, there are ten people in my family," Jonal said vaguely, stuffing a corner of cheese into his mouth. "If it weren't for the Green Robes... the church, it should be eleven people."

Carrying these meats and spices on the street, Bruner's usually dull mood improved a lot.

After only a few turns, Jonal led Bruner to the Jonal neighborhood, to the Insula apartment where his family lived.

Since the neighborhood had been largely repaired, the citizens finally had time to take good care of their future homes.

Like this Insula apartment, thyme, onions, and ginger were planted in the flowerbeds, and there was also a chicken coop made of wicker cages under the stairs.

Seven or eight chickens wandered around the yard, pecking at small insects and grass seeds.

Against the wall was a broken large jar, filled with brownish-black soil.

"What's that?" Standing by the door, Bruner pointed to the broken jar filled with soil and asked.

Before Jonal could answer, a middle-aged man with the same bulbous nose as Jonal came out.

"That's earthworm soil. When His Eminence came to visit before, he saw that we raised a lot of chickens, so he told us to make earthworm soil and use earthworms to feed the chickens."

"Papa," Jonal said, carrying the bag, stepped forward and gave his father, Old Jonal, a big hug.

After the father and son finished greeting each other, Bruner handed the eggs in his hand to Jonal's father: "This is a gift for you on my first visit."

Old Jonal straightened his crooked felt hat: "Are you Jonal's friend in the military camp?"

"Yes, my name is Bruner." After twenty days of recruit camp baptism, Bruner unconsciously changed his mumbling manner of speaking.

Old Jonal originally wanted to put his arm around Bruner's shoulder affectionately, but found that he couldn't reach, so he could only awkwardly grab his arm and walk towards the house.

"Little Jonal, your brother is back. Here are some eggs, go and take them to your mother."

"Jonal is back?"

"Jonal, where's your armor? Didn't you get it?"

"Jonal, which legion are you going to?"

Following behind his father, Jonal answered his neighbors one by one, but his arms were sore from holding the meat and butter, and he didn't get any attention from his father.

Seeing that he was about to reach the house, he said irritably: "If you don't take it, I'll give it to someone else."

Jonal's father glared at him, took the meat, butter, and onions from his hand, and then called the cook from the cafeteria: "Make a pot of stew tonight."

Due to the lack of sufficient time and nutrition, most of the dishes in Thousand River Valley were mainly stews and smoked meats.

Combined with a disastrous sense of hygiene, most of what they made was yellow and resembled South Asian food.

"Hey, hey, this is for you to eat..."

"We all cook together. Are we going to eat meat while others just watch?" Old Jonal poked Jonal's forehead.

"Then you should have said so earlier. I would have changed it to cheaper meat and bought more. It's a waste to stew such good meat."

Jonal muttered, and seeing his friend running downstairs to greet him, he happily welcomed him with a hug.

Old Jonal patted Bruner, who was standing aside, at a loss: "Can you drink?"

"I can drink, but not too much, just a little bit."

"Then come and have a couple of drinks with me, and tell me about what the military camp is like, and how Jonal is doing in there."