Iron Harvest: When Farming Becomes Conquest-Chapter 305 - 11: It’s Not Time to Rest Yet

In October, temperatures began to drop.

A new task appeared on Roman’s schedule.

How to survive winter?

The construction speed in Origin City was certainly not slow.

Roman had brought more advanced brick-burning technology.

One Mud Mason could produce nearly a thousand bricks a day, which was one of the components of construction.

There were other tasks like transporting soil and clay, sun and shade drying, fuel supply, and coal-fired kilns, which all contributed to a lengthy construction cycle.

On average, fifty workers could build a basic brick house every day.

The more labor invested, the greater the output.

Since they were building walls every day, the construction team had become very skilled, with an elder directing two newcomers in brick moving.

The benefit of this construction was its sturdiness and durability.

In this year’s torrential rains and floods, hundreds of people in other towns would end up homeless and displaced.

But in front of Origin City, that just constituted a light rain— at most causing some leaking issues due to improperly laid roof tiles.

However, houses could only provide basic cold protection.

This year’s slaves had no clothes, no bedding, and not even full furniture— the wood factory prioritized providing beds, which were made of wheat straw and hay.

The six thousand catties of freshly harvested cotton were reserved strictly for the military.

There wasn’t enough textile material, so instead of distributing it to just a few, it was better to distribute to none.

Roman canceled the winter clothing benefit, and certainly no one would complain.

But the issue was, Roman had been distributing winter clothes in previous years to permit work during the cold days.

This year...

It had to be the same!

If the clothes were thin, then let them be thin.

During the day, they would increase food quality, and if anyone felt cold, they could drink a few bowls of salty meat soup, its surface covered with a thick layer of fat, which could warm the body.

With enough calories and fat, their bodies would remain supple and active; they wouldn’t freeze to death working in the winter.

But only the people working outside could drink this.

Those in the workshops didn’t qualify for fatty meat; they could only eat lean meat.

So, days were manageable,

but what about nights?

The night temperatures dropped even lower, and it was all too normal for the bitterly cold winds to freeze to death those with weaker constitutions.

Once chilled, their work efficiency during the day would definitely decrease.

Roman had no choice but to visit Coal Iron Town.

Honeycomb coal and iron stoves could help them survive the long and cold winter nights.

Just like building brick houses,

this simple production task directly correlated manpower to output.

This time, Roman took five hundred newcomers to Coal Iron Town.

He also arranged for a hundred people to settle next to the coal mine, tasked with mass-producing honeycomb coal.

Without waiting half a month,

tens of thousands of honeycomb coals were transported from there.

Along with that came numerous iron stoves.

Iron sheet exterior, refractory-lined interior, lower air inlet, grate, and inner ring support were all integrated, easily fitting inside.

Manufacturing iron stoves was not difficult, each component could be made separately and assembled when used.

Each brick house could receive one iron stove, equipped with a pair of tongs, and Roman provided four free honeycomb coals daily.

This was not a small number,

Currently, Origin City had roughly nine thousand brick houses—excluding places like military barracks, military courtyards, Coal Iron Town, Salt Town, Gold Mine Town, and meadow pastures allocated for residences.

Not to mention nine thousand stoves, just the honeycomb coal itself would consume over thirty thousand daily, about one hundred thousand catties in weight, requiring twenty horse-drawn carriages to haul.

Some who had settled early, allocated to brick houses, had only two or three people, sharing five honeycomb coals.

And those not allocated a house, or those slaves who just arrived this year, also lived in brick houses, with an average of twenty people crammed into each house, each with only four square meters of space, sleeping on large straw mats crowded together to stay warm, also sharing five honeycomb coals.

Opening the air inlet, a honeycomb coal if burned at full speed could last about an hour.

If the inlet were plugged with wood, leaving just a tiny crack, it would significantly slow down the burning speed of the honeycomb coal, stretching the burning time to three to four hours.

Despite this, the heat provided by four honeycomb coals was limited, and keeping twenty people warm would be a challenge.

But in Origin City, that was simply how life was for the houseless slaves.

Their only way out was to work hard and avoid slacking, otherwise they would receive the same treatment as prisoners of war.

If they performed well, according to the current speed of construction, the last group of people could get their residency registration and own houses within six months.

By then, they would automatically lose their slave status.

Origin City had its residential rules.

And the Steward of the residential department would clearly convey these rules to others.

For example, enlisting in the military could immediately secure two brick houses—soldiers would have an apartment in the military compound and Origin City would also allocate an apartment for their families.

If they had no family, it didn’t matter, since there was a guaranteed apartment in the military compound, with abundant resources and extremely high wages.

Additionally, if one missed the military recruitment or wasn’t recruited,

The newly built brick houses would be prioritized for those with families.

If one had no family, they should find a partner, register for marriage, and then line up.

Otherwise, they would have to share a room with other single people.

This could only be considered a very normal means of transforming slaves into residents.

It is a terrible thing if a person lacks ambition.

A person with ambition but no family is also quite terrible.

The so-called put down roots meant forming bonds with this land, never abandoning it, and thriving or perishing together.

...

Roman set the target of manufacturing two thousand iron stoves.

Although it was a large volume of work, distributed among more than a thousand people, it was manageable.

Those blacksmiths were the main force of production, and the blacksmith apprentices Roman had trained for over a year were now skilled enough to proficiently use various tools for metalworking. frёeωebɳovel.com

Although they could not forge a piece of plate armor on their own, with the Forging Hammer and Rolling Machine, most people didn’t need to acquire the advanced skill of hand-forging plate armor.

These skilled blacksmiths could now guide the next batch of blacksmith apprentices— the five hundred people selected by the residential department.

Their productivity was not to be underestimated.

It was worth mentioning that the iron sheet stoves rolled out by the Rolling Machine were in themselves materials of plate armor quality.

Roman had no intention of designing a new type of iron sheet.

The line between military and civilian use was blurred, opting for whatever method was most expedient.

That winter, the smithy in Coal Iron Town was occupied with only two tasks.

Either forging plate armor or making iron stoves.

Both began to be widely used.

Not just for domestic use but also for public use.

If more stoves were placed in every workshop, with a water-filled clay pot or ceramic kettle on top, and honeycomb coal burning underneath, it would raise the indoor temperature while boiling water.

Workers could drink hot water whenever they were free, warming their bodies.

That would increase their labor efficiency by at least thirty percent.

Roman resolved the issue of heating during winter within half a month.

He also made it clear, the iron stoves and honeycomb coal had replaced the winter clothing welfare, and he required the residential department’s personnel to promote how to use them properly and maintain ventilation to avoid carbon monoxide poisoning.

If people still succumbed to poisoning after the campaign, it was deemed natural selection; the sooner they died, the sooner their places could be cleared.

Strictly speaking, this setup cost much more than winter clothing.

Moreover, the iron stove itself was also a cooking stove.

When Roman designed the brick houses, he hadn’t considered allowing them to cook at home.

But it must be admitted, this consideration was inappropriate as there were always certain people who, for various reasons, needed to cook at home, otherwise going to the communal kitchen each time was very inconvenient.

The iron stove essentially met all the stove-related needs of those families.

It was very portable and an excellent tool.

More importantly, it was given to them for free.

The only drawback was fuel.

But even after winter had passed and the honeycomb coal was no longer free, they could purchase cheap honeycomb coal from the general store—a quarter of a copper coin for twenty pieces.

Correspondingly, those who received the free iron stoves, whether slaves or residents, all had to work during winter.

In preparation for next year, several thousand acres of land needed to be reclaimed this winter.

Not just ordinary farmland, but paddy fields.

Now was a good time to build irrigation systems since the marshland was in its dry season.

The transformation of the meadow pastures was not yet complete.

The forest was still being cleared and reclaimed.

So, it wasn’t time to rest yet.