Nearly five hundred subjects, with seventy-six young and able-bodied men—this fief’s population structure actually seems quite healthy.

No, or rather, it’s so healthy that it’s become unhealthy in another way.

Finding an opportunity, Ethan Clark asked the family elder about the household situations of the subjects.

From the elder’s few words, he deduced a rather grim reality.

Among the five hundred or so subjects, the male-to-female ratio was two men to one woman. The elderly made up less than twenty percent, and children accounted for thirty percent.

The current situation arose because, after the old head of the Clark family died in battle, only warriors were conscripted from the family, without taking the able-bodied young men to the battlefield.

These days, when nobles go to war and win, they can receive rewards based on their merits, and some of the spoils of war don’t have to be fully handed over.

The warriors and able-bodied men who follow into battle must offer at least sixty percent of their gains to their lord’s family upon return.

There’s another scenario.

For example, if they win a campaign and receive tribute from other states, the king should appropriately reward the nobles (a bonus, not counted as merit from a specific campaign).

The Clark family’s Ethan Clark is still young, so only warriors were sent to war, without a noble leading them. Other nobles wouldn’t take those warriors seriously, so opportunities to gain spoils were rare.

In fact, without a noble accompanying them, all the dirty and exhausting work fell to the Clark family’s warriors, and they’d be the first picked for dangerous missions.

This is why the Clark family’s warriors are in an increasingly dire situation.

With no extra income, the family can’t give back to the subjects; in fact, the subjects still have to make offerings, creating a vicious cycle.

For example, the Clark family can’t afford to buy female slaves to give to the subjects as wives.

So, nobles who only know how to exploit their subjects are doomed to have no future.

Ethan Clark didn’t make any grand speeches; even if he did, the family elder probably wouldn’t understand.

In the following days, since the able-bodied were taken out by the grandmother, the new warriors, craftsmen, and servants had to participate in building their own accommodations.

Priority was given to allocating good land to the warriors, but as for the slaves they were supposed to receive, the Clark family was powerless.

The craftsmen temporarily lived in the spaces vacated by the former servants.

He assigned work to the craftsmen, mainly sticking to the original plan of making pottery to sell, in order to improve the family’s finances in the short term.

Of course, the craftsmen sent by Webb were mainly for matters related to iron pots, so those tasks couldn’t be neglected either.

For example, first building all kinds of furnaces needed to make iron pots, and the essential workshop.

Ethan Clark knew how to harness collective strength in a more efficient way, directing everyone to start by gathering materials.

Building houses now is considered “refined,” but in reality, it’s still extremely rough.

Bring in dirt.

Find enough of all kinds of grass.

There’s no such thing as digging a foundation; they simply mix mud with straw to build the walls, sandwich them between fences, leave space for doors and windows, and once it dries, it’s considered done.

Then, dig a pit, set up the load-bearing pillars, put up the roof frame, fix it to the pillars and walls, and a house is finished.

When Samuel Webb came again and saw the now-formed residential area, he stood there, lost in thought.

This time, Samuel Webb didn’t come alone… In fact, he couldn’t have come alone; he definitely needed to bring guards and servants.

He also brought some friends of similar status to visit the Clark family together.

Ethan Clark welcomed the large group, and upon seeing Samuel Webb, also noticed a few other young men with extraordinary bearing.

Samuel Webb stood there staring at the residential area for a while, exclaiming, “How fast it was built!”

How long had he been gone? Before he left, he was sure those houses didn’t exist.

Ethan Clark thought it was perfectly normal, even felt the building speed was a bit slow, but to people of the Spring and Autumn period, it was astonishingly fast.

A young noble whose right hand seemed a bit impaired grew impatient and urged, “Advisor, where’s the delicious food?”

This man was Charles Harris, eldest son of the lower army general of Jin, John Harris.

John Harris is currently one of the eight ministers of Jin.

Because he broke his right arm as a child, and with the medical skills of the time, it wasn’t healed properly, so his right hand is not only inconvenient but even somewhat deformed.

He gave up his status as the legitimate eldest son to his younger brother Robert Harris, and became a carefree young man who could eat, drink, and have fun as he pleased.

The other young men were all Webb’s sons.

Webb is currently only a “dafu” (high official), not yet one of Jin’s “qing” (top ministers).

Nobles value associating with people of similar status.

Because of his own situation, Charles Harris is destined not to enter the leadership of the Harris clan, so he doesn’t care and is happy to play with the Webb sons.

“Yes, yes, delicious food.” Samuel Webb planned to find another chance to ask Ethan Clark about the houses, but for now, he humored Charles Harris and looked at Ethan Clark, saying, “Sorry to trouble Ethan.”

It was because they’d enjoyed the food so much last time that they came again in person, bringing their friends along.

Otherwise, they could have just sent a family retainer to deliver the craftsmen and warriors’ official documents.