Iron Harvest: When Farming Becomes Conquest-Chapter 82 - 16: Arrangements

After lunch.

Roman called Jimmy to him.

This was a yellow-haired boy, looking even scrawnier than Kao, like a girl.

The latter had a well-proportioned, sleek, and agile physique. Although still a minor, he already had a masculine bearing.

But Jimmy looked like a refugee, his skinny ribs clearly visible, with severe loss of health not compensated for in recent days.

Roman asked, "How has your learning progress been recently?"

Jimmy was too nervous to speak.

Should he say it’s good or not good?

Roman casually rested his chin on his hand, looking at the slightly awkward little Angel Envoy with some amusement, and asked again, "What number can you count to now?"

The child saw him smiling, and his voice, magnetic, tickled his ears, relaxing him inexplicably. He spoke softly like a mosquito, "100."

"Count for me."

He began counting softly, "1, 2, 3..."

Jimmy stumbled at 53 but quickly overcame it, and Roman, without urging, patiently waited for him to count to 100.

In his view, 100 numbers were clearly not Jimmy’s limit.

"How many letters do you recognize?"

"I know them all."

"And words?"

"I know about fifty."

"Can you write your name?"

Jimmy shook his head.

The reason he knew more than fifty words was because Hans and Geman had only taught a little over fifty simple words.

To ensure overall teaching progress, the two taught very slowly.

In fact, they had no choice.

In an open area, they let the children form a circle and then conducted teaching.

There were no textbooks, everything relied on verbal explanations; understanding depended on the individual. Facing an overwhelming group of more than three hundred children, their throats were parched every day as they took turns.

They taught the fundamentals of the fundamentals.

Sometimes, even they were desperate over this tedious work, but under Roman’s pressure, they had no choice. They earned 1.2 gold coins annually and had to work for it.

Some learned fast, some learned slow.

And Jimmy was clearly among the fastest learners.

"How old are you this year?"

"Mom says I’m 13."

"And your father?"

"Father is dead."

"What do you want to do in the future?"

"Tend sheep for Steward. My dad drowned with the sheep while working for Steward, and Mom says we owe Steward a sheep..."

Steward lost a sheep but ate mutton; he lost his dad but owed Steward a sheep. They both had a bright future.

"In the future, do not herd sheep anymore, come work for me instead."

Jimmy apparently did not understand Roman’s meaning, looking dumbfounded and not very emotionally intelligent.

He still kept thinking about that sheep, hesitated slightly, then bowed his head in confusion, saying, "I will listen to you, Lord."

Roman turned to Seth and said, "Seth, let him follow you from now on, start as a little clerk. He has a good memory; you can tell him more, it doesn’t matter if he doesn’t understand now, he will slowly grasp it in the future."

Seth, having witnessed the entire process, had to admit that the little guy in front of him was a promising talent; not every child could master 100 numbers and letters in three months.

The educational system of this era was monopolistic because of high educational costs, but there were no differences in intelligence; geniuses emerged among commoners, and there were fools among Nobles.

But clerks held much higher status than ordinary Stewards.

It shouldn’t be a child holding such an important position; he resolutely opposed.

"Take him as a student, and teach him well."

Roman made it clear.

Seth, with a solemn expression, took Jimmy away.

He strongly opposed the clerk of Origin Manor being in such a filthy, lowly state, and insisted on training him into a qualified clerk.

Since Roman said he had a good memory, just slowly inform him what a qualified clerk should dress like, what future roles he should undertake, and what rights he should possess.

...

Next, Roman arranged all the valuable Angel Envoys he selected, significantly enhancing their status.

Let them adapt to the work first, cultivating command and management abilities.

But Roman had to frequently monitor their growth progress, making them report to him daily, then Roman would clearly instruct them on how to act, to avoid the recruited Angel Envoys becoming another batch of stale Stewards.

If that happened, Roman’s resources would be wasted.

Then there was the distribution of the slaves.

The slaves brought by Daken were of poor quality. freewёbn૦νeɭ.com

There were seventy or eighty sickly ones.

They couldn’t do heavy labor, couldn’t do road paving, mining, or forging work.

Roman let them engage in light handicraft labor, or for example, entering the kitchen to cook, overseeing children under five, herding livestock like pigs and sheep.

After all, Sige Town didn’t sustain wastrels.

Then he selected those with good physical quality and willpower who were the last to stand in the morning, letting them freely choose to join either the Guards or Blacksmith side.

And the majority of slaves coincidentally chose to become Guards.

Which increased the number of Guards to over sixty, still a bit insufficient, but slowly it could improve.

The blacksmith’s shop also gained five laborers—after the introduction of the Hydroelectric Hammer, labor was greatly liberated, but that didn’t mean they could reduce manpower.

Roman had them work in shifts, day and night.

As long as the river flowed, the Hydroelectric Hammer should never stop.

Roman neither cast weapons nor forged armor; instead, had them forge various steel agricultural tools and tools at the fastest speed.

Among them, shovels, Cross Pickaxes, and axes were indispensable, significantly improving work efficiency.

The workforce at the Salt Mine also got supplemented, with fifty slaves joining the rock salt mining task.

And the last hundred or so slaves joined the road paving team.

The efficiency improvement was immediately evident.

The construction progress nearly doubled every day.

After elegantly arranging the allocation of all slaves.

Roman then hired all the construction workers from Sige Town, having them build simple longhouses under Roman’s directives, to serve as shelters for the slaves.

Continuously having them live in shelters would definitely cause problems: unable to shield from wind and rain, once it rained, at least a quarter of the slaves would fall ill.

Three days passed.

Roman arrived at Vic’s carpenter shed.

Like Lax, Vic had also remodeled and expanded the carpentry shop. The original small workshop couldn’t keep up with the production tasks assigned by Roman. It now gradually had the semblance of a lumber processing factory.

Piles and stacks of wood formed a mountain, and the broken wood and sawdust covered the ground up to ten centimeters deep, able to be used as fertilizer in the future.

Vic was leading people in making wooden handles for shovels and axes.

Since the availability of the Hydroelectric Hammer, production at the blacksmith area had significantly increased, forging dozens of sharp shovels and hoes every day.

Compared to blacksmiths, the threshold for carpenters was lower, so Vic had many helpers and much work to do.

For instance, the cooper craftsperson had to make a dozen wooden barrels for the Origin Manor every day, for unknown contents.

Yet, a qualified carpenter hadn’t appeared.

Because Roman’s demands on carpenters were high.

They had to possess exquisite craftsmanship, able to independently manufacture wheels and carts, various wooden basins, wooden bowls, wooden plates, various furniture, and farm tools—capable of handling every task.

According to Vic’s predictions, in another two months, his former apprentices and slaves would become real carpenters, and he could receive the gold coin reward promised by Roman.

"Lord Roman, what brings you here?"

Vic knew Roman valued blacksmiths more than carpenters.

Therefore, this lord often went to Lax’s side and rarely came to his.

"I’m here for the summer harvest!"