Iron Harvest: When Farming Becomes Conquest-Chapter 328 - 1: Peasants in the Middle Ages could not exist without the Nobles
Chapter 328: Chapter 1: Peasants in the Middle Ages could not exist without the Nobles
Roman dispatched a thousand tons of wheat to Fertile City.
During the Holy War Army period, the residents of Kant Territory survived on supplies transported from Divine Mysterious.
But those supplies were exhausted by spring.
Now, Fertile City was sustained by Roman.
More than two months ago, Origin City began providing a continuous supply of support to Fertile City.
Each month, at least several hundred tons of food were sent.
Although Origin City could sustain an additional twenty thousand people, Fertile City had a population of fifty thousand, which still exceeded the limit of support.
A thousand tons of wheat could only ensure supplies for a month.
However, by June, Fertile City was to welcome the summer harvest.
After the harvest of a hundred thousand acres of Spring Wheat, everything was expected to improve.
During this period, Roman traveled back and forth between Origin and Fertile City, spending most of his days in Fertile City.
He was extremely busy.
The land in Fertile City was fragmented.
Hills, rivers, low mountains—these wild and rough terrains sliced through the entire map of Fertile City.
Roman was cultivating fields and building roads at the same time.
He also had to organize the Northern slaves to participate in these tasks.
These thousands of fools had been exchanged by Morry for farm tools and iron pots... Alas, they had no place to live in the North, they had to make room for pirates.
Roman did not despise them for being voracious eaters, but for being foolish.
Having taken over Fertile City for less than half a year, he solely relied on the army to manage the fools in the city.
The level of organization determined the production efficiency.
It would take two or three years of strict training to reach the level of Origin City.
Frankly speaking, the advancement of a civilization was wholly dependent on its level of organization.
And improving social organization was as hard as reaching the heavens, unless he could upgrade everyone’s brain.
Considering the current mix of people—Kant Territory’s remaining population from that period, Holy War Army prisoners, followers of the Holy War Army, Northern slaves.
Roman didn’t want to talk about how complex this group of fools was; it gave him a headache just thinking about it.
If they could understand farming and road construction clearly, he would be completely satisfied.
But such simple tasks!
They still couldn’t do them well and needed hands-on teaching.
In the foreseeable future, more fools were going to arrive in Fertile City.
Because the fleet was still transporting goods out and bringing more slaves back.
Roman needed a large population.
This would result in a lower level of organization in Fertile City—it was not high to begin with.
Roman could tolerate stupidity, as long as he could domesticate them; the organization level would eventually improve, and any progress was good.
But Roman couldn’t stand their continuous foolishness.
He had witnessed civilized societies, experienced true order, true organization, and what true production efficiency was like.
Train these fools to be human!
To participate in labor and production like humans!
That was what Roman wanted to do.
With his current military strength, not to mention sweeping the entire Black Iron Land, but just a hundred miles around would certainly be more than enough.
However, he couldn’t manage so much land.
To get Fertile City up and running, how many batches of the army, literates, agricultural advisors, and construction teams had Roman dispatched?
And which other place could have this level of resources?
No army, no management talents, no administrative clerks, no support in architecture and agriculture.
Conquering those lands would only worsen the lives of those people.
Nobility at least represents an order, and by killing the nobles, Roman was shattering that order. He lacked the ability to rebuild it and had to face pressure from all sides.
Do you think those farmers, without their lords, would live better lives?
You’re mistaken.
In the Middle Ages, peasants couldn’t exist without their noble lords.
There needed to be someone to rule them, manage them, strengthen them to make them feel secure.
It was a prolonged process of transformation.
But Roman didn’t care about their spiritual suffering; he only cared about whether they could complete the labor tasks he assigned in reality.
Quick action to solve a tangled problem!
Just as he had done before in Sige Town.
He forcibly pushed them to work.
During this process, he was to gradually absorb external populations.
Joining Fertile City and becoming residents here, surpassing the previous residents, was called progress.
Roman had exchanged iron tools for a large number of slaves and North Ice warships.
Currently, other than the highlands, only the Northern Front could provide Roman with a large supply of slaves—Black Iron Land had a substantial population, but those were permanent residents, tenant farmers who leased noble lands. The Black Iron King dared not sell those people as slaves to Roman, as that would provoke the wrath of the nobles.
Pirates were much less scrupulous; after conquering the north, they also needed to clear out space.
Now, they could exchange with Roman for a large amount of cheap iron tools.
Roman didn’t lose out.
Tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of iron farming tools were sent to the north.
The cheapness meant the pirates wouldn’t hesitate to buy.
A hoe, 3 copper coins, about two pounds in weight—just the blade, no wooden handle.
A ship could carry ten thousand hoe blades.
If a hoe cost 5 copper coins, not every pirate could afford it.
How else could Roman popularize iron farming tools?
Pirates on the Northern Front were striving to advance with iron farming tools.
But soon they would find out.
They, just like Kant Territory’s Holy War Army, ended up making a magnificent bridal outfit for Roman.
Kant Territory had only a few tens of thousands of people, whereas the entire Northern Front had a population in the millions!
The pirates tirelessly worked to improve cultivation efficiency, producing more crops, all of which would ultimately lay the foundation for Roman’s conquest plans.
Only with an abundance of food in the north would Roman not need to endlessly supply the Northern Front like Origin City was currently doing for Fertile City.
...
One day in May.
Fertile Castle received an envoy from the Black Iron King, not Damian, but a court eunuch, pale and beardless, carrying a letter from the Black Iron King.
Roman opened the letter.
The Black Iron King explicitly requested heavy plows.
In the past two months, the Royal Family had finally verified the effectiveness of heavy plows and fertilizers in farming.
But manufacturing heavy plows was not cheap.
One heavy plow was manageable, but the cost of hundreds or thousands was unbearable.
It wasn’t about having the money or not, but whether the money could buy them.
This land had never been deeply plowed before, and heavy plows needed to turn over soil layers up to several inches thick. The wooden structure with iron sheeting simply couldn’t withstand it; after just a few acres, significant wear would appear, and hitting rocks or roots could occasionally render it useless.
Although it was a small probability, the frequency was too high, almost certainly leading to damage.
Only a pure iron structure heavy plow could endure the intense use and wear.
Roman set down the letter and said to the waiting court envoy, "Weapons, shields, arrows, I can assist the Royal Family for free. But heavy plows are different; they are not included in my agreement with His Majesty the King."
The court envoy had anticipated what the young ruler would say.
"Lord, our King awaits your pricing," the eunuch said softly.
Roman leaned back in his chair and gestured with his hands, "One heavy plow, one Gold Coin, but I don’t want Gold Coins. I want an equivalent value of Red and Blue Gemstones, blue ones preferably."
