Iron Harvest: When Farming Becomes Conquest-Chapter 358 - 31: Mind over Matter, Solutions Outnumber Problems

Chapter 358: Chapter 31: Mind over Matter, Solutions Outnumber Problems

Early June.

Kao led several thousand slaves back to Fertile City.

Roman accepted them all without exception.

He had now swept through the surrounding nobility and was not short of labor.

But since they were brought back, they shouldn’t expect to leave again.

Those purchased children were also of great use, all possessing malleability, they accepted education and cultivated loyalty, and would become the pillars of the future.

Of course, this process was a very lengthy one.

Roman was naturally willing to wait.

Kao temporarily resided in Fertile Castle, and Sanna settled down as well.

Both of them had something to say to him. The former believed the Black Iron King was but a skeleton in the tomb, while the latter brought intelligence on Iota Hina.

News from afar was both important and unimportant. It would affect the future, yet the future was still out of reach.

Before the future arrives, Roman could only try his best to develop.

He had a population of 200,000, enough to dominate the region.

The entire Black Iron Land had at least ten million people, even twenty million was possible.

Origin and Fertile, these two cities, were like a lone ship in a vast ocean. Even with high war potential, they couldn’t withstand the continued erosion over time.

Fertile City had no natural defenses to protect itself, pressure came from all sides.

If some irresistible calamity occurred, Roman would have to abandon Fertile City and retreat to Origin City.

Because, even if you win on the battlefield, it doesn’t mean everything is settled.

What the opposition threw over were all rotten fish and shrimp, neither wanted nor unwelcome.

The more prisoners of war, the more unstable the rule becomes. The loyalty in Fertile City would be continually diluted, eventually tending infinitely close to ineffective rule—unable to control a population too large.

For now, the majority of the slaves in Fertile City had grievances against him.

They had been slaves to Roman for less than a year or so, tasting some benefits but not many.

If they were to see the Church Court’s flag fluttering outside, then nine out of ten from one-half of them would pledge allegiance to All Gods, casting off the "slave" status and reverting to their former "farmer" status, and the remaining half would be indecisive.

Roman believed that two years of planting would suffice.

Pacifying the hearts of the people required time, ideological transformation required time.

By the time society stabilized enough to operate autonomously, the more these fools hated him now to the core, the more they would revere him like a god in the future.

Watch me grow a piece of heaven!

...

In June, the first harvest of rice for the year began.

The yield per mu of Gwivelle No. 3 rice seed had not yet been tallied. Gwivelle No. 4 rice seed was hurriedly planted.

Roman took the time to go back and have a look.

He was now very certain.

Today’s Origin City had become his largest granary, with the annual output of Origin City meeting the food needs of at least 150,000 people.

And Origin City only had 100,000 people.

That meant the surplus grain could be stored up.

If they could enjoy good weather for farming for two more years, then the surplus grain each year would grow more and more, and so too would the accumulated stockpile.

After all, the task of land reclamation around the canals was also in full swing.

Origin and Fertile Cities had two types of farmers.

Roman referred to the former as independent farmers, the latter as citizen farmers.

Independent farmers leased the land, contracting it on the scale of family or habitation. Apart from an unfamiliar levy of fifty percent taxes, it was the system most in line with the current era and most likely to be accepted.

"Citizens who farmed were like bricks, moved wherever needed. No pay was given, but a safety net was provided; Roman would cover all necessities—clothing, food, shelter, and travel—benefits that self-sustaining farmers could not enjoy.

It was hard to say whether one group’s condition was better or worse than the other’s, as their statuses were the same; both were laborers.

As things stood, most of the lower-class farmers wanted to become self-sustaining farmers.

The conditions for clearing new land were harsh—all one could do was live in a wooden shed, gathering firewood daily, enduring wind, sun, and rain. Still, that did not dampen people’s enthusiasm—they preferred to expend their efforts on their land rather than waste their sweat on someone else’s.

Furthermore, there was no need to worry about the materials required for land clearing.

Every month they collected a fixed ration from the canal side, turned over to wives for cooking, and the men would return to work with vigor.

A Cross Pickaxe or shovel broke? Just swap it for a new one.

Lacking animal power and a heavy plough? Finish the initial clearing, and then you could request to use them.

If you fell ill in the rain or contracted some other disease, you would get some Allicin from the hospital. Get better and carry on working; if not, you’d be laid to rest in the earth.

Lacking start-up funds? You could also borrow from Lord Roman to buy tables, chairs, pots, pans, and living necessities such as clothing and bedding.

With a principal that only rose by one-fifth annually, planting for four or five years would pay the debt back.

Roman was pleased with this since it truly saved on managerial costs.

The initial allocation of land brought some trouble—such as the proximity to rivers, the fertility of the soil, the complexity of the terrain. These trivial matters always led to a heap of bothersome issues.

Although these matters seemed petty, in the eyes of those fools, they were of the utmost importance. Even in Lord Roman’s presence, they would kneel, kowtow, and beg for a plot of land near a river, with fertile soil, and easy to clear.

But Roman never appeared in person or responded. He opted for a one-size-fits-all approach—if you don’t plant, there are plenty who will. You’re given this land; manage it well.

The initial problems were resolved.

However, subsequent allocation of resources for animal power and heavy plows presented another issue.

Many monks, little porridge: resources, after all, were limited. After clearing a flat plot of land, the difference of an early month’s deep plowing and a late two months meant whether one could sow earlier and thus plant and harvest sooner.

Moor from the Ministry of Agriculture was mainly responsible for mediating these disputes and ensuring fairness.

Fairness meant going with whatever method was the fastest.

Because Roman had set targets for him.

How Moor mediated these issues was no longer within Roman’s consideration.

Large animal power might not have been available, but there were plenty of plows. If there were no oxen or horses, couldn’t humans pull them?

If that was too hard, they could just use steel tools to plow the ground again.

The essence of plowing was turning the soil: dig ten to twenty centimeters deep, crumble the soil, carve out furrows, and the effect would be nearly the same as plowing once with a plow.

As long as willpower did not falter, solutions would always outnumber difficulties.

Up to now, the number of self-sustaining farmer families Roman sent to those areas were uncountable, totaling over thirty thousand people—most of whom were slaves introduced last year, providing a basis for stability.

They were either single or newly married, yet none had been assigned a brick house.

After all, once someone with a brick house departed to clear land, the room was no longer reserved for them.

On the other hand, due to the support for Fertile City’s infrastructure, the construction of brick houses in Origin City slowed even more. Those waiting in line just had to wait longer.

This, in turn, significantly diverted the population from Origin City.

Those laborers not frightened by hardship, along with their families, cleared fifty thousand acres of land within six months, a pace that quickly met Roman’s expectations.

But Roman’s investment was also substantial.

Farm work had its volunteers, but construction work was up to him.

Roman used a grand view of the map for planning, providing them with road design, but connecting all the reclaimed sites required laying roads, building bridges, and constructing houses.

So, the construction teams expanded, with a skilled worker leading several newcomers, swiftly growing to five or six thousand people.

Now they were like beauticians, gradually transforming those wild forests into patches of suitable settlements.

That was the transformation of nature. Turning unsuitable environments into suitable ones, expanding living space.

For humanity, there was no greater act than this."