You were made to farm, and now you're the emperor of an empire?

Chapter 118 You'll get something if you squeeze it
Harvesting hay is simple, but chopping and storing it in cellars is not.

Roman commissioned Lax to forge hundreds of guillotines for this purpose.

There are currently about one million kilograms of silage stored.

In a few days, the pasture will likely begin to show signs of autumn, and its nutritional value will decrease. Although dried pasture can be used for silage, the results are not as good as ensilage.

To date, only a small portion of the huge silage shortage has been filled.

The soybeans planted earlier have turned yellow and withered, indicating they are about to reach maturity.

Soybeans have a suitable harvest period; they cannot be harvested too early or too late. They must be harvested quickly within a certain time frame, otherwise the harvest will be affected.

There were just too many things that followed.

Previously, the calves and horses could be used to supplement the labor force, but after the mass production of paper, Roman greatly increased their study intensity, and the children in the manor had no time to do anything.

The teachers were Hans, Gehmann, Neliel, and some literate Heyburg slaves. Sometimes Roman himself would also teach them, having them learn the alphabet on paper and recite words from memory.

He just wanted to train a group of children who could read and write as soon as possible—his expectations weren't high at all.

Besides, they shouldn't be made to do tasks like shredding hay; cutting off a finger is no joke.

Roman could only proceed with the plan step by step.

In any case, the autumn harvest work cannot be delayed, so he plans to free up manpower from the coal mining, iron smelting, and steelmaking operations.

There is currently an overcapacity in steel production. We don't need that much iron just to make farm tools and weapons and armor, and the blacksmith shops can't handle it all.

As long as mining and iron smelting are suspended, manpower will be sufficient.

Hands are like cleavage; you can create them if you try.

The idea of ​​going forward simultaneously is unrealistic to begin with—assuming Morey doesn't show up.

"524 slaves."

This is the number of slaves Morey brought this time.

"It may be a long time before I can come here again. I hope you can understand."

Morey was somewhat distressed.

The Black Iron Kingdom rarely goes to war, and its trade routes are relatively stable.

Whatever Roman wanted, he could find it through connections and networks.

Slaves are the least common thing.

This stuff is abundant in those chaotic areas. The acquisition process is too dangerous. It might be okay in the short term, but sooner or later it will all go wrong.

Scarface was a slave trader he had searched far and wide for, and he was barely a reliable one.

He had a contract with Roman, in which he would send 300 slaves every month. He went to great lengths to do this, fearing that Scarface might be unreliable or something might go wrong, which would lower Roman's trust in him.

He plans to spend the rest of his life here.

Fortunately, the first two attempts were completed successfully.

This time it won't work. Scarface is going to the pirate convention, so he can only rely on his merchant ship to complete this mission.

Morey even gave up the wool business. Each bag of wool weighed about 300 pounds, taking up more space than a slave of the same weight, and the total weight of more than 20,000 pounds would amount to seventy or eighty bags.

The purchase price of a bag of wool was 1 gold coin, while the selling price was 2 gold coins. The profit from its transportation was much higher than that from the slave trade, almost double.

The slaves he acquired this time were not purchased from nobles, but from Scarface.

Therefore, the quality is somewhat poor, and it can't fetch a good price, only a little over one silver coin.

It only adds up to a little over 60 gold coins. Even if Roman is very generous with the purchase price, he can't really ask for an exorbitant amount. 70 gold coins would be about right. It can't be compared to the wool business.

But for Roman, the value of these people far exceeded that of the wool.

Roman could understand Morey's predicament.

The pirate feast meant that most pirates would cease their plundering activities, and a trip to Iceland would likely be fruitless.

Those pirates didn't keep large numbers of slaves. Capturing slaves was a risk-free business for them; at most, they would select a few to serve their daily needs. If they couldn't sell them, they would either release or kill them. Some slaves would return to the land of Igor with the Arctic warships and be sold to nobles and lords there.

If we want to make large-scale purchases, we can only go to the northern lands or the eastern plateau.

This will require more time to find.

But the problem is that winter is approaching, making it difficult to do business.

Roman nodded and said, "You've done a good job these past few days, and the number of slaves you brought has exceeded my expectations. Next time, it's alright if you're a little late."

During this period, more than 1,200 slaves have come to Sig Town solely because of Morey.

This greatly alleviated the manpower shortage in Sig Town and even helped him complete the initial accumulation of population—which was extremely difficult, and Roman even prepared the "Spring Plan" because of it.

This time, he brought more than 500 people, even meeting the number agreed upon for next month.

Morey's dedicated performance earned him Roman's great favor.

Although a contract was signed, he didn't really expect Morey to send him 300 slaves every month, but Morey actually gritted his teeth and accepted it.

This is a really tough task.

Let alone a mere merchant, even those earls and lords wouldn't dare to boast like that.

There's no other reason than that these long-distance trade routes are very fragile. Without sufficient troops and manpower, relying solely on merchant ships for transportation is too dangerous and extremely unstable.

If even the King of Iceland's merchant ships could be plundered by pirates, nothing is impossible.

Once a Pirate King is born, it is certain that many commercial routes in the interior will be severely disrupted in the foreseeable future.

At the latest, next year, tough times will begin for businessmen.

"I will do everything in my power to ensure the number of slaves."

"Well, rest here for a few days. I have some prestige here, and no one can threaten your safety," Roman promised him.

Morey understood the unspoken meaning; this was the second time he had made such a promise, and his attitude was different from when the contract was signed. He felt somewhat relieved, realizing that he had truly gained Morey's friendship.

Roman didn't stay with Morey for long, leaving him free to explore on his own.

He left the manor soon after.

The footsteps in those leather boots were light and nimble, like a cheetah's, yet graceful as a tiger's stride, as the rider rode away with an air of composure.

These days, Roman has ordered about a hundred soldiers to capture wild horses on the grassland. The wild horses have sensed the danger from humans and run away when they see him. Roman has no choice but to chase them one by one on the grassland and put bridles on them.

The work is almost finished, with only a few stray wild horses missing.

He received a message from Morey, so he made a last-minute trip back.

This work is now finished.

Roman found the pursuit somewhat tedious during this period.

Although galloping across the grasslands is exhilarating, life on horseback is not something everyone can endure.

Around dusk, Roman rode his white horse back alone along the salt road, leading another fairly tall wild horse back to the stable. The rest of the wild horses were nowhere to be found.

A total of 264 wild horses were kept in two separate stables according to their sex.

Some wild horses were restless, some were stamping their hooves on the ground, and some were grazing with their heads down.

Roman was quite pleased to see this.

This herd of wild horses includes stallions, mares, older horses, and several foals.

This means that breeding can be carried out, and they can no longer be allowed to mate freely in the future.

Yaki is a herdsman from the plateau, so he should know a thing or two.

It's okay if he doesn't understand; he'll teach him how.

(End of this chapter)