Iron Harvest: When Farming Becomes Conquest-Chapter 337 - 10: Igo, Dragon Clan

Over a hundred years ago, the Conqueror and the first King of Ice Island had a dual kings’ meeting.

Just as Yige was in turmoil.

Thus, the two kings joined forces and pacified Yige.

Wherever they went, all submitted.

The Conqueror placed all the exotic treasures he had obtained into his treasure vault.

Most believe the Conqueror’s Treasure Vault is in Black Castle (capital of Black Iron).

But there are also a handful of people who think the Conqueror built his vault somewhere else, these people are known as "Treasure Hunters" and "Treasure Seekers."

This group has never disappeared, constantly there are people who hear those legends and embark on the journey in search of the treasure.

They believe the vault is not in Black Castle, it’s either in Cangyue, in Yige, or in the far-off Desert Royal Court.

Without a map, it’s impossible to search.

After the Conqueror left, the court witch was expelled and had to secretly establish Witch Forest.

In the past, various powers secretly assisted Witch Forest, including the merchant family of Perea.

But after their involvement was exposed, Perea was pushed forward as the scapegoat.

However, the family head, Selin, disappeared without trace, and the eldest daughter, Cassandra, likewise vanished.

Hos bribed a servant of Selin in advance and learnt that his father and sister had found the Conqueror’s treasure map, they had deciphered its key information, and had then headed to Yige, the implication of which was self-explanatory.

"Your Highness, to control the Conqueror’s Treasure Vault is to control this land, but only a true King can obtain it, I think it’s undoubtedly yours," said Hos.

The vault wasn’t something he could covet, but if he couldn’t have it, then neither could Selin and Cassandra.

The old man was too ruthless!

All their siblings were butchered in the church court’s purges, leaving only him and Morry lucky enough to survive.

As long as the River Valley King dispatched troops on an expedition, that father-daughter team wouldn’t get any treasures from the vault!

However, Hos was disappointed, the young king he was eagerly watching merely nodded indifferently.

"I understand," he said.

"But..." he wanted to reach out and retain that retreating figure, but Morry landed a punch on him, "Don’t show off your cleverness anymore, do you understand the principle of too much is as bad as not enough?"

Hos, bearing the pain, glared at Morry, but he had to bow his head under someone else’s roof.

Damn! In the future, he would actually have to rely on Morry whom he had always looked down upon.

He bowed his head in humiliation and said, "I understand, brother."

Morry nodded with satisfaction, but in his view, this disappointing younger brother still needed a good lesson.

Roman paid no attention to the disagreement behind him.

He gestured to Seth, "Get the wool to the textile factory as soon as possible and have the weavers turn it into fabric quickly."

These several hundred thousand pounds of wool would go from place to place.

The caravan could make another trip, bringing even more wool.

Don’t think of Ice Island as just an island, it’s vast.

With millions of residents on Ice Island, about twenty thousand bags of wool are exported annually, with each bag weighing around three hundred pounds, that’s more than five million pounds of wool.

A bag of wool is worth one Gold Coin; three pounds of wool can be exchanged for one copper coin (export price).

After deducting commercial tax and transportation costs, two pounds of wool fetch one copper coin (a bag of wool is taxed approximately 1.5 silver coins).

After processing, a pound of wool was worth as much as a copper coin. (A pound of wool is left with only seven taels after processing.)

That is to say, Roman’s female textile workers could only afford two pounds of processed wool after working for a month.

But this wage was already quite high.

Receiving two pounds of wool every month, with meals provided by the textile factory, what was there to be dissatisfied with?

If Roman had enough wool, he could even use it as wages to pay out.

This was hard currency!

Just like grains, cloth was even harder currency than metal coins.

The production of wool on the Meadow Pastures was very scarce, and Roman was highly dependent on imports, so this year he would start by bringing over a million pounds of wool from Ice Island.

His appetite was enormous; he loaded a hundred thousand pounds of steel farming tools onto the merchants’ ships and stuffed another fifty thousand pounds of salt into other ships—these were the materials exchanged for wool.

Raw materials were not expensive, the difficulty was in processing.

Common sense would suggest that it would take at least ten thousand women two months to process this million pounds of wool.

Not to mention how to manage such a large operation, just the employment and meals expenses wouldn’t leave much profit.

Moreover, the two months required were also torturous.

That’s why the progress of civilization is the progress of technology.

Roman had a textile factory and could just assign a few hundred newcomers, who after working with the veterans for half a year would become veterans themselves.

A thousand female textile workers could spin it into cloth in just one month’s time.

What was this?

This was productivity!

Roman arranged the corresponding affairs.

The ships of Origin City were to be constantly accompanied by a hundred veteran soldiers as guards. Soldiers could rotate, but there had to be enough protective power to avoid unexpected incidents while abroad.

He left Origin City by ship, wishing to return to Fertile City.

On the way, Shasta whispered, "Your Highness, I know Cassandra."

Selin’s eldest daughter, Morry and Hos’s sister, and also a witch from the Witch Forest.

"She is a student of the Prophet, the only witch who has learned the Prophet’s Magic. She is younger than the Prophet, more ambitious, and more dangerous—Cassandra led a dozen sisters to the Northern Land in search of opportunities, but only returned alive, covered in blood, all by herself. My teacher accused her of murdering her sisters and wanted to execute her, but the Prophet saved her, and since then Cassandra has had no place in the Witch Forest..." Shasta narrated eloquently.

These words were somewhat different from those Hos had mentioned—but that was normal, as the witches knew Cassandra better.

Roman thought that the eldest daughter of Selin was very good at disguising herself. Cassandra, being the eldest daughter, often appeared in public, but her identity as a witch was never discovered; otherwise, the Church Court would have been on her doorstep long ago.

"Do you care about her?" Roman asked.

Shasta rarely concerned herself with irrelevant matters. She said, "I don’t care about her, I care about the treasure vault!"

"Are you saying that Igo’s treasure vault is real?"

"Cassandra is not reckless," Shasta said. "You are the son of Riptide, the Lord of Black Iron, the most qualified to inherit that treasure vault!"

She stared straight at Roman, her meaning unmistakable.

Inheriting the Conqueror’s Treasure Vault would greatly enhance Roman’s enterprise.

"But Igo is too far." Roman continued, "It is much further than Ice Island. I’ve heard that if you sail through the waves, you’ll see that land alone, floating on the North Ice Ocean—it’s not on Black Iron Land."

He never relied on suddenly striking it rich; fantasies were just that until they happened, and it was better to be down-to-earth.

"Shasta, I appreciate your goodwill, but I won’t go to great lengths for something whose specific benefits are unknown."

"The Prophet said Igo Land is an ancient, barbaric, and primal land, home to some mythical creatures of legend. Although His Majesty the Conqueror subdued the Yige people, he never conquered that land," Shasta showed a trace of disappointment, "The magic power there is very strong, the Church Court has never had a foothold there, pirates do not believe in All Gods, the North Ice legends originate from Igo, and the Igo legends come from the Dragon Clan... Your Highness, I mean to say that there are dragons in Igo Land."