Iron Harvest: When Farming Becomes Conquest-Chapter 298 - 4: This Year’s Plan

In theory, after hearing those enticing words, Gwivelle should have been fired up, kicked Roman aside with one foot, and then ridden Ami to achieve her goal without hesitation.

At times when it was necessary, she, the little witch, could also shoulder enough responsibility!

However, once her emotions had settled, Gwivelle realized she was still the little witch with no strength to truss a chicken.

Up to now, she had blessed twenty acres of rice fields.

Initially, she could bless one acre of land each day.

But as time went on, the recovery time grew longer, and now it took three to four days to bless one acre of land.

The feeling of being completely drained grew more intense.

This weakness was visibly apparent.

Therefore, the tasks Roman assigned her this year were not too burdensome—blessing just fifty acres of paddies was enough.

There was still plenty of time.

Draining the pond to catch all the fish was not Roman’s style.

In another month or two, the medium-grain rice planted in April would be ready for harvest.

The area of medium-grain rice covered over two hundred acres.

The area for late rice was even larger, about seven hundred acres.

By the end of June, Roman had approximately cultivated a thousand acres of rice fields.

By the end of the year, he aimed to cultivate another thousand acres.

Roman did not hold great expectations for the rice varieties outside the experimental fields.

If calculated at a hundred catties per acre, the rice fields cultivated this year could secure him a little over one hundred thousand catties of rice reserves, barely scraping by with two catties of rice per person.

But there was no help for it—seeing any yield in the first year of planting was already quite good.

Such rice, producing about a hundred catties per generation, could not significantly increase the output without planting it for four or five years.

He didn’t have the time now for slow improvements.

Everything harvested from the fifty acres of experimental fields would be used as next year’s rice seeds; Gwivelle’s blessings were only beneficial without any downside.

Of course, before witnessing the effects brought by Gwivelle, Roman did not have the habit of putting all his eggs in one basket.

Meadow ranches were under construction; swamp paddies were being cleared, and forest wastelands were being cultivated.

The main goal was to cultivate multiple areas simultaneously.

All the labor involved in the land reclamation and construction efforts was about fourteen thousand people.

This year’s plan was to cultivate two thousand acres of wet fields, seven thousand acres of wasteland, and thoroughly transform the ranches.

The first two were manageable, but transforming the ranches was the most challenging.

The construction of the ranches was managed by the construction team, but planting tens of thousands of acres of alfalfa and sowing all the arable grasslands with grass seeds was a massive task.

...

By July.

The falling temperatures began to rebound.

The hottest and most ferocious autumn tiger of the year was coming.

Roman usually gave them holidays in previous years.

Due to the scorching sun, work efficiency was too low; it was better to let them rest for a few days.

But not this year.

Even if they could only work five hours a day, everyone had to keep moving, losing a few lives was nothing.

The food crisis was a Sword of Damocles.

The current Origin City could not afford to relax for a moment.

The newly reclaimed wasteland required immediate fertilization, requiring one thousand five hundred pounds of peat and five hundred pounds of manure per acre, followed by planting crops such as alfalfa, spinach, beets, and radishes.

Even an output of two hundred pounds of vegetables per acre was not considered a loss.

Without soil improvement, the first yield of newly reclaimed wasteland was this low.

Without Roman’s swamp peat for fertilization, an output of one hundred pounds was considered a generous gift from the land.

This was a problem all farmers of the time had to face.

In Black Iron Land, the population was vast, but not all land was utilized—referring to land that could be developed but had not been.

According to Roman’s observations, most Nobles had about a 70% utilization rate for their land, with some corners left completely unused.

The remaining 30% could become arable land once reclaimed, but it remained fallow.

This situation was widespread.

In an era where iron tools were scarce, the initial investment in reclaiming land was enormous, and the first two years were a net loss, making it not worth the effort.

It was often only when a piece of land reached its carrying capacity limit that someone would choose to reclaim more.

This was a common dilemma in the development of civilization.

Were it not for the Church Court’s constraints, the most essential task for humans would have been to popularize iron tools, improve plowing tools, use stronger Iron agricultural tools for reclamation, plant more food, which in turn would support society and advance new technologies, thus driving the entire development of civilization.

However, the reality was that they were stuck in rounds of internal strife. freeωebnovēl.c૦m

The Conqueror brought a brief, hard-earned period of peace.

More than twenty years after he led his fleets away, the Silent Valley blood battle erupted, depleting a whole generation, and people began to lick their wounds.

Then the Barbarians and pirates returned, and some Nobles became restless.

In his youth, Grand Duke Riptide initially deterred most of the traitors, leading his troops to strike against the pirates and Barbarians, but he later lost the drive to continue.

After decades of barely scraping by, this land once again plunged into a new round of warfare.

Roman knew the theory of the demographic trap; there was a limit to how many people the land could support through Cultivation, but there was no limit to human reproduction, hence the need to engage in other forms of population control.

But this theory had never been triggered on this land—because the population had never reached the limits of the land, being depleted prematurely.

Sometimes it seemed saturated, but finding a piece of wasteland to reclaim could still accommodate additional people.

Only when you couldn’t find any more wasteland to reclaim would it truly be saturated.

And according to Roman’s estimates, this basin would not feel saturated with a population of less than several hundred thousand.

Once he increased the per-acre yield of the crops, the land’s carrying capacity could support millions.

...

In the hottest month of July, Origin City welcomed a new guest.

At that time, Roman was arranging manpower for fishing, and upon hearing the news, he hurried back to Origin Manor.

The guest was brought to Origin City by the Beast Witch.

Shasta had a giant eagle that could carry people in flight, but its drawback was being a huge target, unable to always stay by her side when fleeing, often caught in the open, and being very likely to be shot dead by a Divine Archer.

Moreover, there were some special places it could not go.

Cangyue was a land rampant with sprites; among them were flyers, and facing those vicious creatures, even the giant eagle couldn’t ensure its full safety.

Shasta couldn’t bear to let it take the risk.

And this new guest was from the Witch Forest of Cangyue, the assisting witch mentioned by Shasta called Laisa Silver Moon.

She had traveled for over a month and finally arrived at Origin City.

Roman met the witch; she was young, freckle-faced, and as lovely as a farm girl, her bright eyes slightly worn, seemingly having endured hardships.

She was guarded on her long journey, avoiding the eyes of Divine Mysterious, crossing mountains, and after leaving Cangyue, the Beast Witch sent the giant eagle to bring her over.

Laisa also met Roman, saw his characteristic red eyes, squinted with a warm smile, and bowed, "Honored River Valley King, the Prophet Witch sends her regards."

"I hope she is well," Roman nodded.

"The Prophet Witch asked me to relay a message to you—the eyes of the Church Court have shifted from the stars back to the River Valley. If you choose to stand beside the witches in battle, then please show your capacity and breadth of spirit to this land..."