Iron Harvest: When Farming Becomes Conquest-Chapter 383 - 15: Go Break Through the Mountain

Roman had only one attitude toward development.

Accelerate!

Push harder!

Speed is the only god!

Productivity is above everything!

Since Roman became the Lord, he had tried every means to increase the construction speed.

Of course, with the backward thinking of peasants in the Middle Ages, they couldn’t grasp this advanced concept and merely felt that Lord Roman was a slave driver.

He hurried them during the busy farming seasons and even during the slack times, barely allowing them to rest.

The construction tasks assigned to this residential area must be completed within the specified period.

If not completed, the entire residential area would be punished.

When you owned nothing, I couldn’t exploit you, but let me give you a house first and see if you would fight for it.

Now, they got severely controlled at their weakest point.

Of course, where there were policies from above, there were countermeasures below. They could not finish too early or too late but had to complete it just right.

Today, Roman was inspecting the construction of a road.

It stretched northward along the mountain terrain, parallel to Silver Dragon Canyon; if it extended seventy kilometers, it would reach King’s Crossing—this was the route Roman’s army first took. The terrain was uneven but passable for convoys, though it was underdeveloped and the land was barren.

The road infrastructure of Fertile City was essentially complete. Now Roman was building roads northward again, but not toward King’s Crossing.

...

To transport materials from Origin City to Fertile City, they either went through King’s Crossing downstream or through Bridgehead upstream.

All of these routes were extremely time-consuming and labor-intensive.

According to Roman’s surveys this year, he found that the thickest part of the mountain was several hundred meters thick, yet the weakest part was only thirty to fifty meters thick.

Roman imagined the Origin Basin had once been surrounded by mountains, forming a solid, thick basin.

He didn’t know how many years ago a geological movement had caused the mountains to crack open sharply, forcefully creating Silver Dragon Canyon.

Inside Silver Dragon Canyon was Roman’s Origin Basin, and outside lay the barren wilderness of Earl Kant.

Origin Basin was isolated from the world. Surrounded by high mountains and sealed off, it was difficult to access.

...

Since the mountains obstructed, they would be hewn through!

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This was Roman’s plan.

To ensure administrative efficiency and improve transportation.

Under any circumstances, Origin City must be connected with Fertile City!

The weak part of the mountain was located about a dozen kilometers north of Fertile City.

Roman rode there and found the road quality to be quite good. Thanks to black gunpowder, quarry output had increased significantly; rocks were mined and evenly laid on the road surface, making it solid, flat, undulating, and stretching north.

When he reached the end of the road, it was already noon.

There were five temporary canteens, and about four thousand laborers were queuing for food, enjoying their meals.

The lunch menu consisted of a spoonful of minced meat sauce, braised tofu, cooked fava beans, stir-fried cabbage. The main course was half a pound of whole wheat bread, and finally, a bowl of pork bone soup. If they were lucky, they could scoop up marrow floating in the soup bucket or remnants of fat and tendons on the bones—those lucky workers would squint their eyes, licking their lips, savoring this rare happiness.

This was their greatest motivation for serving every day.

In these unstable times, lower-class farmers often fantasized about enormously abundant food.

At the same time, they harbored fears and an imminent sense of danger.

This was a deep-seated insecurity common in people’s hearts and prevalent in daily life.

Facing famine, many would pray to All Gods for intervention, hoping to live in a paradise where they could feast, dress warmly, and lead a comfortable life.

The current situation in Fertile City basically satisfied the most basic fantasies.

The Captain of the construction crew was the overseer here, named Olei. He had a dark face and robust muscles, with thick calluses on both palms. He was also one of Roman’s Angel Envoys.

Roman trusted his abilities highly and left the arrangement of the construction crew members to him, focusing only on the results.

When Olei saw Roman, he immediately ran over, exhaling heavily, clad in a woolen sweater with a black leather jacket bought from a department store on top.

He didn’t do physical work, but being in charge of the construction sites year-round, his clothes were inevitably dirty and disheveled, stained with dust.

Olei said, "Your Highness, the task you assigned us has been completed."

He handed over the flag that the River Valley King had planted here in the autumn. The latter liked to use flags to mark territories for construction; every time a task was completed, Roman would personally come to retrieve the flag. If the flag wasn’t taken back by the due date, it meant someone was in trouble.

This task should have ended a month ago, but the River Valley Army had been called up to support the king, taking away a large number of draught animals, so the progress of the construction had to be pushed back. Only now had the property been returned to its owner.

Roman picked up the half-meter long flag and stuffed it into his saddle.

"Very good!" He nodded slightly, then pointed to a fragile mountain mass about three hundred meters away, separated by a patch of scrubby wild forest.

He said, "Do you see that mountain?"

"I do." Olei was a man paid in copper coins, earning several gold coins this year alone, with his income increasing. Thus, he never questioned Roman’s intentions, only focused on the task at hand.

Roman gestured with his hands and told him, "Go and bore through this mountain."

Olei, accustomed to Roman’s various endeavors, was still shocked by this request.

"Ah? Me?"

"Yes!"

He exclaimed, "We don’t have enough men."

"I will send you more manpower."

Olei pointed out the main difficulty, "It’s unknown when it will be completed."

"This time there is no deadline. Finish as soon as possible, and I will keep an eye on this matter," Roman patted his shoulder, "but you know what to do, right?"

"Yes. Firstly chop down trees and dig the earth, then use fire and water on the rocks, and finally use hammers and chisels to break through."

Roman was satisfied with his answer; the Blue Gemstone Olei consumed wasn’t wasted.

Isn’t this just the Foolish Old Man Removes the Mountains!

He deployed ten thousand such ’fools,’ taking turns carrying earth and stones and using the principle of thermal expansion and contraction to crack the rocks, confident they would carve out a pass of more than ten meters wide.

We’ll conquer it by next year!

"What are you using the mountain for?" Tashina asked at that moment, finding it incomprehensible why one would stubbornly challenge a mountain.

Roman glanced at her and said to Olei, "This is a Royal Family Princess, Princess Iota Hina." The construction captain was again surprised and quickly bowed, saying, "I have seen Your Highness."

Then, Roman explained to Princess Tashina the greatest geographic constraint he currently faced.

She had only arrived two days ago and was not aware of this.

A shipment of supplies from Origin City to Fertile City would normally require at least a hundred units of labor.

But with this pass, it could save up to seventy percent of the labor force.

Tashina thoughtfully remarked, "So, if there is a war, your Origin City could rapidly support Fertile City."

This was a significant strategic advantage.

Origin Basin had a high degree of isolation; it was difficult to attack from outside and hard for the people inside to fight their way out, making the whole thing very cumbersome.

But with this pass, Origin City would now hold the initiative.

It could advance to attack or retreat to defend; truly ingenious.

But even so, Tashina felt overwhelmed for the whole year.

Are you out of your mind? What normal person would think of battling nature?

And the courage involved was immense; such a massive project to embark upon just like that.