Iron Harvest: When Farming Becomes Conquest-Chapter 359 - 32: The Storm Approaches

Any great pioneering movement cannot succeed without the support of a powerful regime.

During the Conqueror Period, there was also a phase of expansion.

Pioneers could become Pioneer Lords.

That era was a time of proactivity and progress, and the Black Iron Land still enjoys the benefits brought by that land reclamation.

However, the results of the reclamation were not necessarily good.

The pioneers fought against the heavens and the earth, breaking ground with bare hands.

It is true to say they were indomitable and resolute, true to say they were strong and virtuous.

Although they possessed hunting bows and leather armor, they certainly could not compare to the nobility’s fully armored, cavalry spear-wielding Conquest Knights.

Moreover, the nobles did not intend to kill all the pioneers, otherwise, there would be no one to cultivate the land for them—they were focused and only targeted the leaders.

The lower-level pioneers, seeing their lords dead, might not be willing to sacrifice themselves to pull those Conquest Knights off their horses.

Some Pioneer Lords managed to hold out with prestige and geographic advantage.

But most Pioneer Lords, who had not yet accumulated military capital and lacked castles, could only be considered estate owners and naturally could not hold out.

Like the Kant Territory.

That land was initially not pioneered by the ancestors of Count Kant.

But when that pioneering land became the Kant Territory, the Black Iron King did not intervene.

It has now become Fertile City, and the Black Iron King still has not intervened.

It was like that then and is like that now, history is like a circle, with only the eternal law of the jungle unchanging.

Unless there is a force that can provide all the resources needed for reclamation and ensure the rights of the pioneers themselves.

Roman’s intentions were clear.

If anyone prevents him from farming, he will plant that person into the ground.

Once he finishes farming, he will plant all the fools in the ground.

No negotiation there.

The land needs blood and corpses for nourishment, and the old nobility class is the best fertilizer.

Once Roman saw that Fertile City settled down, he began to send people to transplant various fruit trees from Apple Town to the reclamation points.

The head of the Ministry of Agriculture, Balrog, personally led people to prune branches, using soil and burlap sacks to wrap the roots of those fruit trees—generally seedlings between one and three meters.

Among them, grapes, which can be used for winemaking, could be sold in department stores and were much more expensive than beer.

Also easy to harvest wealth, with a low difficulty of planting, and cuttings that grow quickly, if they survive and are managed well, stable yields can be achieved in two to three years.

After the rice harvest in June.

The high temperatures arrived, marking the start of early autumn.

Roman had to reduce the labor intensity.

The fish ponds and meandering streams beside this year’s rice paddies brought Roman over 300,000 catty of fish.

Once the fish are slightly nurtured, throwing fermented forage and animal dung in can provide a lot of nutrients for plankton, resulting in yields several times that of wild fish.

During this period, an epidemic broke out in a chicken coop at the meadow pasture, likely due to high temperatures and some other reasons.

By the time it was discovered, it was too late, it alarmed Yaki, and also Roman.

Thousands of laying hens died en masse.

Roman made the decision—to burn them all.

No longer keeping the farm, a massive amount of firewood was piled into the chicken coop and set on fire for complete sterilization, as the current means of disinfection were inadequate, merely throwing lime water was too slow and difficult to handle, so an extreme method was actually straightforward.

Thick black smoke blocked the sky and could be seen clearly ten miles away. freewёbnoνel.com

After the flames were extinguished, the entire farm looked absurdly black, but the main structure remained intact.

Roman blasted it down with explosives, completely burying the chicken coop.

The chicken coop staff were also quarantined, washed with soap from head to toe, and allowed to stand for a few days.

Roman’s decisive approach left a profound impression on Yaki.

After all, it was twenty thousand chickens, gone in an instant, practically an extinction order.

Break the arm to save the body, not to let chaos spread.

The chicken flocks were densely farmed, and now in high temperatures, some things could not be prevented.

Other farms were easier to manage.

Pigs, sheep, cattle, and horses are large livestock with strong resistance, not easily problematic.

This year the domestic pigs gradually started large-scale listing.

This autumn, it is expected to bring Roman nearly 2 million catties of pork and 500,000 catties of mutton.

Wild donkeys and horses, after years of domestication, finally intermixed to produce reliable mules.

The first batch of superior foals, donkeys, and mules, are all in their youth and need two to three more years to become qualified working animals.

But once mature, they can be used for over a decade.

Harvest!

Harvest everywhere!

Endless harvests!

The seeds Roman sowed earlier finally bore rich fruits.

Nothing is more gratifying than this.

If anything, it belongs to the military.

Roman is still recruiting, forming medical corps, cooking squads, and other logistical units.

A labor force of over 200,000 people is a considerable burden to support nearly 20,000 troops.

Of which over 10,000 new recruits serving as auxiliary troops, had been rushing between places but have mostly stabilized now, accumulating enough training time over six months, gradually raising their quality.

The fastest growing among them are those who already had the foundation of old soldiers and were transformed into a think tank by Roman.

He first upgraded the think tank collectively, elevating them all to the level of first-rank knights, with a few even equaling second-rank knights.

Roman imbued them with knowledge during the day, allowing them to practice various labors firsthand, accumulating experience, and constantly mastering knowledge as if it was ingrained in their bones.

Martial skills could not be neglected either, as a think tank, they needed formidable force to maintain management.

Roman conducted practical combat exercises with them at night, entering various dungeons to hone their fearless minds and training their combat awareness.

Jet was the instructor on the surface, while Roman was the hidden instructor. Each Angel Envoy was elite among elites, warriors among warriors. Veterans of a hundred battles, not merely boasting a hollow reputation.

Ordinary infantry battalions were used to fill lines.

...

Roman, having farmed for several months in a state of forgetting both self and object, as if in secluded inner strength cultivation, his power grew thicker, this sense of fulfillment was increasingly plump.

In the outside world.

Political struggles at the upper echelons of the Black Iron Land seemed to vanish suddenly.

The Church Court, after failing to persuade Iao III to lift the ban, showed no intent for further negotiation.

But with the Church Court’s silence, a looming pressure of an impending storm hung over everyone’s hearts.

It seemed invisible yet solidified, like turbulent clouds and raging winds.

Like the final calm before a storm.

Until Duke Fury Pain left the Black Castle, and the ominous atmosphere was sensed by Iao III, who in the autumn of that year, issued a royal decree.

The Black Iron King ordered the King of Ice Island, King of Plateau, Winter King, Free City, Duke Oak, River Valley King, and other Earth Lords. Beixites, Sea Castle, Buck High Land, Rose Domain, and other Earth Vassals, commanded the princes to come to Black Castle to serve the king.

When this news reached River Valley, Roman, who had been secluded in cultivation for several months, opened his eyes.

A storm is coming!