Iron Harvest: When Farming Becomes Conquest-Chapter 377 - 12: Military Stronghold

Sanna was an extremely healthy child, her body flexible like a cat, her explosive power was like that of a leopard, her senses were extremely sharp, and her physical strength was more abundant than that of ordinary people. However, for a proper Conquest Knight, it seemed that she still lacked a bit of endurance.

Unlike Shasta and Margaret, Sanna’s body was completely different; the latter two were no longer truly young girls, they had matured, and that fervent vigor no longer burst forth from their bodies.

Innocent, agile, timid, Roman found it difficult to describe her precisely.

But without a doubt, he was very fond of her, so checking on her health had become an important matter.

In less than an hour, Sanna was drenched in sweat, with her skin flushed all over.

The time she persisted was short, which might be related to this being her first physical examination.

She squinted and lay on the table, satisfactorily like a cat that had eaten fishy food.

This was a minor episode, Roman picked her up and sent her to the bedroom to rest, and then spent another half an hour there.

He felt somewhat unsatisfied, as he could indulge a few more times, seeing as she wouldn’t be damaged, and a young girl’s skin elasticity and recovery were very strong.

But there were other matters that needed his attention now.

...

The effects of the War of the Kings were extremely profound.

The most direct was that Roman lost a stable wool supply base.

Ice Island was an island inhabited by millions of people.

The former King of Ice Island, Yerman, was a faithful ally of Iao III—although they had only met twice over the decades, that alliance had been established more than a hundred years ago.

Yerman was near fifty, robust and healthy, and his subjects all believed he could reign as king for at least another twenty years.

Because of the Conqueror Order, Lord Yerman also recognized Roman’s trade privileges—exemption from commercial taxes, tariffs, and tolls.

The King of Ice Island overcame all objections and carved out a portion of Ice Island’s wool exports to be allotted to Origin City.

Over the past year, Roman’s fleet had purchased more than a million pounds of cheap wool from Ice Island, becoming a main source of raw materials for the textile mills.

Such national commerce couldn’t happen without the king’s nod.

After all, such large-scale trade was impossible without the cooperation of the local authorities and the Nobles.

Even if Origin City had the money to buy, they still had to negotiate one by one.

This process involved constant haggling, bargaining, and no guarantee—the painstakingly negotiated deals could be reneged upon or prices raised at a whim.

Because the Ice Island Nobles were not afraid of the River Valley King.

It would take a cunning and respected King of Ice Island to oversee this.

But the new King of Ice Island had just ascended the throne, and the Axe Guard had suffered heavy casualties in the War of the Kings—the Axe Guard was a force of the Royal Family, and its members were also from Noble families loyal to the king. More than two thousand had gone out, and less than a thousand returned.

The Royal Faction’s strength was greatly reduced, which essentially meant an increase in the voice of the other Nobles.

Roman couldn’t even begin to imagine the chaos that would ensue when Yerman’s bones were sent back to Ice Island.

He only hoped that the situation on Ice Island would settle down quickly.

Price wasn’t an issue, steel for wool, it was all profit for him no matter how much he exchanged.

He was quite worried that the new King of Ice Island wouldn’t give Roman a chance to trade.

However, this year’s wool trade had ended in the fall, leaving him plenty of time to buffer, certainly enough for a year or two.

After all, the two cities combined had only about two hundred thousand people, and the textile products had been distributed quite early.

Citizen farmers could get two sets of clothes for free every year, suitable for winter and summer—with summer clothes using significantly less material than winter garments.

And serf farmers had to run up debts to get warm clothes.

A copper coin could buy a pound of clothes, and four copper coins could keep someone warm through the winter.

The method of running up debts was simple: take out the household registry of the residence, make a mark on it—a family taking ten pounds of clothes would mark ten copper coins, and when repaying the debt, the marks would be erased and also listed were farming tools, kitchenware, furniture, etc., that they had received on credit.

An ordinary serf farming family, with three to five family members, would owe Roman 20 to 50 copper coins—a significant initial sum for a family, hence the larger initial amount.

Since Roman redefined serfdom, in addition to citizen farmers, skilled workers, breeding workers, and female textile workers, the two cities had about one hundred and twenty to thirty thousand serf farmers, with Fertile City accounting for ninety thousand.

These tens of thousands of serf farmers collectively owed Roman thirty to forty thousand Gold Coins.

Because of interest, 20 copper coins owed this year would become 24 next year and 28 the year after.

The serf farmers could calculate that if they worked hard, by repaying Roman with four hundred pounds of wheat next year, they could wipe out the debt they owed.

But paying off the debt all at once was a difficult task.

A serf farming family had deeply plowed twenty acres this year, ten of which were for Roman’s tax, and only the yield from the other ten acres was theirs. Assuming a yield of two hundred pounds per acre, that was two thousand pounds a year—an ideal situation.

Good farmland could yield two to three hundred pounds of wheat per acre; however, barren land needed soil improvement, and a yield of one hundred and fifty pounds in the first year was considered quite good.

Moreover, they couldn’t work in the fields every day.

During the busy farming periods, they worked the land; during the slack periods, they served.

The serf farmers of Origin City were dedicated to land reclamation, battling harsh nature, and thus couldn’t be called upon for service, but let’s not get into that.

As for the serf farmers of Fertile City, at least twenty thousand laborers had to be drafted into infrastructure construction during the slack farming periods.