Iron Harvest: When Farming Becomes Conquest-Chapter 331 - 4: Thunder and Rain, Both are Your Grace

After the Time Witch departed, Roman discovered that these assisting Witches didn’t just come over themselves, but also brought a large batch of parchment rolls about Spell knowledge. ƒreewebηoveℓ.com

He felt that the Prophet was making backup data.

Knowledge is the ability to quickly establish a complete system from nothing.

Of course, supernatural systems don’t just need knowledge, they also need corresponding talent.

This is just like a technology tree.

Roman wasn’t unable to produce more knowledge, but talent limited its utilization.

The tasks at hand already left him stretched thin.

A few hundred Blue Gemstones thrown down, just like splashing water drops.

Basic qualities were not up to par; they couldn’t understand too complex knowledge, and only usable knowledge is real knowledge, so Roman imparted to the Angel Envoys the most basic and superficial knowledge of firearms.

Roman, teaching by hand, ensured that Coal Iron Town could produce Original Firearms.

But could they understand?

They couldn’t, you know.

First, let them figure out the military formations and queues.

Similarly, if Origin City can’t even get a handle on schools, don’t even think about training Witches.

Even with a hundred Witches, it would be the same.

But the advantage of these Witches is that they were all literate—what Spells to learn, hurry up and shove them into schools.

Not knowing how to teach was no problem, since there were textbooks. If a group of kids circle around you asking how to read this word, won’t you tell them?

Roman placed great importance on schools.

The school in Origin City could provide him with a steady flow of twenty "graduates" each month.

Children over ten years old, as long as their literacy was up to standard, recognizing over eight hundred words, and could spell, could be immediately assigned to basic tasks such as household registration and message delivery.

These basic tasks would take three to four years.

Since it was an internship period, there was no salary.

They learned while they worked.

These kids were generally malleable. Even if they made mistakes it was okay, Roman would gradually correct their errors.

They had a huge margin for error and cost of error.

The world was just an amateur performance troupe, but compared to other Nobles, Origin City was more Stable, and the reason lay in these children. Once several years passed and they developed basic administrative execution skills, the entire land would be his.

Not just Origin City, Roman also planned to establish schools in Fertile City.

To provide a greenhouse for these seedlings.

The schools were established.

Hospitals should come next, right?

Women giving birth was always a difficult issue, and various benefits had to be in place; whether they accepted them was irrelevant.

Roman never cared about what the lower classes thought.

Thunder and rain, all were king’s grace!

...

June.

The trade caravan from Origin City set off for the fourth time.

They took on an extremely heavy commercial mission.

The first two times were to the Northern Front, obtaining dozens of decommissioned North Ice Warships from the hands of pirates.

Some of these warships were worn, but still usable, and could be considered complete. Even against the wind, they could reach speeds of 20 kilometers per hour, far from the edge of being scrapped.

As for why the pirates were willing to sell?

It was simply because they had established a foothold in Black Iron Land and felt they no longer needed so many warships.

Because ships, too, required maintenance, and would be scrapped if left unused for long.

They had their slaves and could farm the land, so why still need warships?

The pirate community was vast, and even if only a small fraction thought this way, Roman could exchange farming tools for ships.

And ships equaled transport capacity.

The fleet of Origin City had trade privileges, allowing them to pass through most Noble territories without paying tolls, able to travel unobstructed across much of Black Iron Land.

Of course, some Nobles still did not recognize the trading privileges granted by the Black Iron King and continued to forcibly impose a commercial tax.

But Roman couldn’t be bothered with such people.

If you don’t want to do business, there are plenty of others who do.

The salt and Iron trade started from Origin City, injecting a new vitality into the whole commercially shrunk Black Iron Land with its own power.

Affordable salt, low-cost Iron farming tools.

The prices were simply unimaginable.

A sickle was only worth a copper coin; even a common farmer could grit their teeth and come up with that money, and if really necessary, exchange it for the grain stored at home.

But with a sickle, their work efficiency could greatly improve.

The ones who usually purchased iron farming tools on a large scale were the nobles.

No one wanted to go against the times; advanced things were right in front of one’s eyes, so why not use them? Just because the Church Court propagated that the River Valley King was a devil from the Abyss?

The stock of farming tools began to run out.

Coal Iron Town was working overtime to forge new steel farming tools.

But it still wasn’t enough to meet the demand.

A single ship could carry tens of thousands of farming tools, and two or three hundred thousand would sell out in the blink of an eye.

This also brought huge profits to Roman.

Even if the average price of a farming tool was two copper coins, that was still thousands of gold coins.

To earn thousands of gold coins in two months’ time could only be described as a profit margin second only to war.

However, war preparation, planning, and logistics would delay time; more importantly, there would be casualties in war.

Fighting a battle meant pausing development for twenty days, unable to accomplish anything else but to clean up the mess of war.

Therefore, growing rapidly was better than fighting a war.

Roman was stationed in Fertile City, and on this day, he received a letter from Origin City.

The first batch of rice of the year had been harvested.

Over seven thousand acres of rice fields had an average yield of 140 catties per acre—Gwivelle No. 1 rice variety had an average yield of 200 catties per acre, while the yield of ordinary rice varieties was only 80 catties per acre.

This contrast highlighted the significance of Gwivelle.

Roman believed that perhaps the soil quality of the rice fields had not been properly transformed, which was why the yield was somewhat low, but it would get higher and higher in the future.

After all, the next round of rice would be Gwivelle No. 2, which she had blessed a hundred acres of experimental fields in the first half of the year. After the harvest, it was all used as seeds.

With grain in hand, there’s no need to panic.

Even if Origin City’s caravans brought him more than ten thousand slaves again.

But Roman was still not at all flustered.

Because the spring wheat in Fertile City could also be harvested.

This harvest was truly crucial.

The land of Fertile City couldn’t achieve two harvests in one year; in the second half of the year, the most it could do was plant some vegetables.

This year, they were relying on this round of wheat to get by.

"Keep a close eye on everything, and don’t mess up!" Roman instructed a group of officers.

"Yes!" the crowd answered in unison.

After spending half a year in Fertile City, working like oxen and horses when busy, military training during downtime, only when transporting supplies from Origin City to Fertile City would a group of soldiers take the ship home to see their wives and children.

All of them were both blackened and emaciated.

A hundred thousand acres of wheat fields were spread across the countryside of Fertile City.

Three thousand acres here, five thousand acres there, the fields appeared very fragmented.

Roman’s army was familiar with every road in Fertile City; they had once pulled carts, transporting tons and tons of fertilizer to each plot of land, making it hard not to know them well.

Thousands of soldiers and tens of thousands of farmers began to harvest, thresh, dry, and store according to the model from Origin City.

Looking at those slaves who were dark-skinned with exhaustion, mixed with a bit of joy, and covered with the scent of wheat, Roman found himself at a loss for encouraging words.

Sigh, talking to them now would just be a waste of energy.

He waved his hand.

With that, the harvest celebration belonging to Fertile City began.

Fertile City had no grain reserves.

Roman had specifically deployed from Origin City

Two hundred thousand catties of freshly husked rice,

One hundred thousand catties of tofu made overnight,

Fifty thousand catties of freshly butchered meat,

One hundred thousand eggs delivered from the chicken coop.

The staple food was freshly steamed rice, the main dishes were tofu stewed with meat, and the soups were mutton soup and egg soup.

To prevent anyone from overeating to death, Roman set up huge iron pots on the spot in the open space to cook.

Everyone queued for their meal, which was limited per serving; after finishing, they would join the queue again hundreds of people back.

In the end, they could also queue up to receive a cooked egg, a two-ounce piece of cheese, a portion of maltose wrapped around a stick, and a piece of stewed smoked meat.

These benefits were distributed per headcount, including children.

The army maintained order; next to the newly constructed toilets, those who relieved themselves randomly were beaten, and anyone who dared to cut in line was struck.

The celebration passed in chaotic disorder.