Iron Harvest: When Farming Becomes Conquest-Chapter 373 - 10: Given the situation, let’s start farming.

Chapter 373: Chapter 10: Given the situation, let’s start farming.

In the fifth year, in early winter.

When the army returned, Roman was busy expanding the production of the mining veins, as the original scale of production was gradually failing to meet demand.

Mining efficiency was indeed considerable, but processing efficiency was not.

For the current era, these processing positions were all technical occupations. Workshop-style production was very stable, but once the scale expanded, there was the dilemma of a shortage of skilled workers. After all, training talent is a lengthy process, and Roman couldn’t possibly invest all the Angel Envoys into it.

The production direction of Coal Iron Town now mainly focused on steel agricultural tools. Roman had to not only sell these externally but the internal consumption was also enormous.

Reclaiming wasteland was inherently a task that severely wore down agricultural tools.

Just this year, nearly a hundred humanoid agricultural tools had died in the process of land reclamation. Some perished from disease, some drowned, some were carried off by wild beasts, and some reached the end of their service life; the accidents varied.

As for starvation or freezing to death, there were none.

Of course, the attrition rate of another kind of agricultural tool was even higher.

This year, Roman issued them with several hundred thousand pieces of various agricultural tools. The most common ones were hammers and scythes, axes, hoes, shovels, etc. The less common ones included steel wedges, Cross Pickaxes, and scythes.

More than ten kinds of tools combined could meet all the needs during the process of land reclamation.

This farmer had a hammer and a scythe, that farmer had an axe and a shovel. They exchanged their tools with each other, fostering a spirit of cooperation and a sense of collaboration... it was a move of necessity.

Because having a full set of agricultural tools per person was impossible, the costs were too high, and production capacity was limited.

For Coal Iron Town to churn out seven to eight hundred thousand agricultural tools in a year was the limit—on average, every Blacksmith had to produce one tool per day.

It doesn’t sound like much, but they also had to be responsible for military equipment.

Just the Forging of Plate Armor alone consumed a vast amount of manpower.

If one were to specify a range, then it would be that one-half of the seasoned Blacksmiths were responsible for plate armor, one-fourth of the ordinary Blacksmiths for weapons, and the final fourth being Blacksmith Apprentices responsible for Forging agricultural tools—wartime was another matter.

On average, Blacksmiths responsible for agricultural tools had to forge seven or eight tools per day, and sometimes under urgent pressure, they had to work on the job for a dozen hours a day.

Though the efficiency of casting agricultural tools was higher—directly pouring molten iron into molds to create the tools. This type of cast iron had high hardness but was very brittle and could not withstand high-impact collisions—a cast iron scythe hitting a rock would likely be scrapped.

While the hardness and output of forged agricultural tools were not as high as cast, their durability was much higher, which was essential for land reclamation.

Therefore, Roman supplied forged agricultural tools, issuing several hundred thousand of them this year alone.

Guess how many were worn out?

The answer was that over two hundred thousand pieces were worn out, nearly all tools were replaced, and some tools were replaced more than once.

Every day, hundreds of people would come to Moor with worn-out tools to exchange them for new ones.

If those tools were their property, they would use them carefully to extend their service life, using them for at least two or three years, or even consider them as heirlooms passed down to the next generation—a valuable asset... but they had the backing of Lord Roman.

Ah! Generation after generation, they’ve been sheared by the lord. Now at last, they’ve caught the chance to shear the lord’s wool.

Like a bicycle others would be reluctant to ride, they would stand up and pedal hard!

If it broke, they’d replace it with a new one and continue to stand and pedal vigorously!

Great effort leads to miracles, and naturally, the efficiency of land reclamation was extremely fast, since time was precious during the reclamation period. No one would intentionally damage the tools—that would be a foolish act, as exchanging tools took up time.

Faced with such a high rate of attrition, Roman had no choice but to expand the production of agricultural tools and improve agricultural efficiency.

In fact, he now faced two paths.

One was to Upgrade the military industries, making massive investments—just looking at the manpower needed for plate armor and weapons, upgrading military industries would likely leave agriculture with nothing, let alone selling agricultural tools; even subsistence would become difficult.

The other was to develop agriculture, continue farming, and enhance wartime potential—war was fought on logistics, and logistics was food. If Roman had unlimited food supplies, he would dare to turn half the population of Origin City and Fertile City into fodder for war.

Roman chose the latter.

He threw more Blacksmith and Carpenter Apprentices into the development of agriculture, vigorously popularized agricultural tools, and fiercely transformed the land.

How could this production level be enough? It wasn’t nearly enough!

...

As he was formulating his strategic development, Jet returned with his men.

Roman had long known the outcome of the war through the Beast Witch.

He performed his role, but the Black Iron King had still died, and the Black Iron Land was fractured.

A new power had risen in the North.

Although that Witch named Cassandra was somewhat insane, this fact might not necessarily be bad for him.

Where did Cassandra’s Dragon come from?

Igo.

The worship of the Dragon Clan in Igo Land had deep and ancient origins, likely no less revered than the worship of All Gods, both just as ancient, both stemming from those lost Dark ages.

The Dragon Clan worship of Igo Land deeply affected the North Ice Sea. In fact, the mythological core of the North Ice was the Dragon Clan belief of Igo.

To the Church Court, this was heresy.

While heretics are more detestable than heathens, in Gods World, there was a recognized religious leader, the nearly divine one seated in the Holy City, also known as the Guardian of All Gods, the Holy Seat, the Pope; he had the right to interpret Gods and beliefs—the so-called ultimate interpretative authority.

At least, Roman had never heard of the Church Court having heretics. Individuals like Galin didn’t count, as they couldn’t stir up any waves.

In the absence of heretics within the Church Court, heathens then became the greatest enemy.