Iron Harvest: When Farming Becomes Conquest-Chapter 304 - 10: Third Year Autumn Harvest

At the end of August,

the Holy War Army launched its first attack.

The defenders were not Roman’s professional army but a group of militiamen from Origin City armed with light crossbows.

The number of light crossbow militiamen was enormous, uncountable, filling up the dock’s ferry landing.

It was so densely packed it could trigger anyone’s claustrophobia!

Sir Angus, who had vowed to make the blasphemers repent, was now at a loss for words.

After an exchange of fire,

the Holy War Army’s fleet was overwhelmed by a barrage of arrows before even reaching the shore and was forced to retreat, almost turned into porcupines.

After this battle, Commander Matthew knew that the Holy War Army couldn’t forcefully attack Origin City using armed force.

That damned place was too terrifying!

They could only stick to their initial strategy, completely blockade the river, and during this period, send scouts into the mountains to find a path to the basin, preparing to surprise Roman next year with a stealth attack straight to Shu Han.

Roman didn’t care at all.

He was under enormous pressure now and had no time to worry about next year’s war.

Origin City had about fifty thousand mu of arable land, plus nine thousand mu of scattered pasture.

At first glance, it seemed a lot, but only about ten thousand mu was truly fertile land.

Most of it was wasteland that had only been improved for a year, some even less than a year, cultivated just this spring.

Although Roman had been reclaiming wasteland continuously, he had cleared five thousand mu in the past three months, but it was still wasteland with very low initial yields.

And the population?

From thirty thousand in spring, it had now nearly doubled to eighty thousand.

The population had doubled in the short term, but the farmland was growing slowly and wouldn’t see quick returns, so naturally, the pressure was immense.

Because the grain consumed during this period was from the summer harvest.

Once the stored grain was exhausted, that would be it.

They needed to save!

They also needed to find more sources!

...

September arrived.

It was the season of crisp autumn air, and the mountains were covered in golden hues.

A large number of crops had matured.

The suppressed energy of Origin City suddenly burst forth with immense vitality.

The faces of all the laborers were filled with smiles.

Their movements quickened, greatly improving labor efficiency.

In this chaotic and disastrous year, being able to eat a peaceful meal was the greatest blessing.

Keep in mind, those veteran farmers of Origin City still ate three meals a day, though what they ate was a bit less compared to last year.

But the newly added slaves could only have two meals, while prisoners of war only got one meal.

Even so, the slaves were still grateful—they had been sold here by pirates.

In these war-torn times, life in Origin City was truly hard-earned.

Furthermore, all the farmers accepted the rationing system without any objections; they very much understood the Lord’s approach.

First, they weren’t starved, but they didn’t have full bellies either.

Second, if they ate their fill now, there’d be nothing to eat later.

Although it seemed like two choices, for the common people, there wasn’t a need to choose.

They had spent their entire lives living as per the first option.

What child from their families didn’t ration out their peas to survive? Eating an extra bite would earn them a smack.

If in the past, they could have two pounds of mixed grains daily, under the rationing system, they could now have three pounds daily, a significant improvement since they started from a very low baseline.

Plus, they specialized in allocated tasks, which was less demanding than their previous lives, and didn’t require much physical exertion.

The slaves newly arrived from the north were somewhat unaccustomed.

At first, they even worried whether the Lord was feeding them too much.

Should they eat less to avoid running out of food later?

This way of thinking was quite common in this era.

They deeply considered the Lord’s well-being.

Oh, if they ate up all of the Lord’s grain, wouldn’t the Lord starve to death! Oh no, that won’t do, what would we do if the Lord wasn’t around, I might starve to death but the Lord must not starve!

...

The autumn harvest greatly eased the pressure of food supply.

The farmers, the slaves, especially the disaster-stricken slaves, watched this round of crops with devout eyes.

Those bright, full grains were a pleasure to harvest.

And Roman also breathed a sigh of relief.

The floods didn’t cause much of a reduction in production, with close to 40,000 acres of soybeans yielding around 130 to 140 pounds per acre, averaging 60 to 70 pounds per person.

Three pounds of tofu can be made from one pound of soybeans, and if the water content is a bit higher, making five pounds of tofu is normal.

Let’s leave it at that for now.

Next is the new crop that Roman planted this year.

He harvested 80,000 pounds of rice from 800 acres of late rice—all of it edible, which somewhat filled a small portion of the food gap.

The fifty acres of experimental fields blessed by Gwivelle produced a whopping 270 pounds per acre, nearly 2.7 times the usual yield.

It seems that the Hand of Destiny indeed greatly changed the destiny of these rice grains.

Roman carefully stored all the rice from the experimental fields, using them as seeds for the next year.

Next, the cotton was also ready for harvesting.

The yield was about as Roman expected, roughly 30 pounds per acre.

From 200 acres of cotton fields, he harvested 6,000 pounds of cotton, definitely better than flax.

The sugarcane couldn’t be harvested yet and would have to wait until next spring.

Judging by its growth, it wouldn’t yield less than 2,000 pounds per acre, just like the pasture that yields a thousand pounds per acre.

High water content!

Each stalk of sugarcane was over two meters tall with significant water content, naturally heavy, making 3,000 pounds per acre a conservative estimate.

The advantage is that sugarcane water can be boiled into brown sugar, which can then be sold in department stores.

The last type of beet was not satisfying as the beets that weren’t specially cultivated couldn’t be used for sugar extraction and were only good as vegetables.

Roman didn’t have time to deal with it right now and had to take it step by step.

Right now, the purpose of planting was to get the beets to adapt quickly to the local soil and climate.

...

Additionally, the ponds that Roman dug in the spring yielded over ten thousand pounds of fish.

Roman occasionally had people throw some fodder into the ponds to increase the meat yield.

Thus, the laborers were surprised to find the ratio of meat to vegetables in their meals changing.

The meat portion increased from the initial 20 grams to 300 grams now, a more than tenfold increase.

Because the breeding farm was also massively slaughtering livestock.

This fall, a total of 3,000 pigs, 5,000 sheep, and 20,000 chickens were sold—comparable to last year, as they couldn’t raise more due to insufficient pasture supply.

Eating more meat helped reduce grain consumption.

Because the grain storage was really running low.

Roman sometimes had to use fresh cow’s milk, sheep’s milk, and eggs as supplements.

Dairy cows, sheep, and egg-laying hens held high status on the breeding farm and couldn’t be slaughtered easily.

Because their output was very steady.

There were daily yields of three to five thousand pounds of milk and two thousand eggs.

This is the advantage of breeding.

They ate grass but provided high-nutrition supplementary food, which could also make up for the losses in grain.

The harvest of over six million pounds of wheat in the summer, not counting the seeds, left only three million pounds currently, averaging over thirty pounds of wheat per person.

Roman had to rely on this batch of grain to get through the entire winter and next spring.

If there was a shortage next year, he’d seek help from new neighbors.

After all, their relationship was forged through combat; they couldn’t refuse to help, right?

...

The military also brought Roman some surprises.

Jet occasionally took them out for wilderness training,

One thousand veteran soldiers along with two thousand new recruits underwent basic training at the military camp.

Another four thousand soldiers, who had completed basic training, entered the wilderness.

There, they practiced survival and combat skills with only minimal supplies, forming teams to fight when necessary.

When needed, they communicated remotely through smoke signals, whistles, command flags, and drums.

The army, engaged in intense training, also hunted wild beasts in the wilderness, which saved him over a hundred thousand pounds of food rations this autumn.

Roman felt that Jet was helping to lighten his burden.

After all, due to the precautions for unexpected situations, a rationing system had been in place for two or three months, making everyone’s food supply very tight.

Only the military and schools received regular supplies.

After the harvest, everyone enjoyed two days of brief but happy celebration.

...

After the season of legumes, the soil was preliminarily improved, and this year’s wheat seeds had adapted for two years.

Now sowing winter wheat, next year’s yield definitely wouldn’t be low... at least compared to the yield of this land, it certainly wouldn’t be low.

An average yield of 250 pounds per acre would be considered a win.

Every day Roman and Seth reconciled accounts, passing a September filled with harvest and joy.