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

Chapter 161 What does pioneering the wilderness mean?
The reason Roman gave a fur coat as a wedding gift is simple.

Simply because he had no money.

Although they plundered some wealth, it amounted to only a hundred or so gold, silver, and copper coins.

In comparison, the captured warhorses were more valuable.

These metal currencies were meant to support the operation of the town of Sig.

Fur coats are the only gifts we can give now.

A crudely made fur coat costs less than one gold coin, but it's definitely worth several silver coins.

In other words, he gave away three or four hundred gold coins this time.

Of course, that's not how the accounts are calculated.

Because they can't be sold.

However, it is therefore perfect for winning people's hearts.

Roman presided over and witnessed the grand wedding, granting nearly five hundred soldiers a three-day leave for the occasion.

The current conditions are so basic that it's unlikely they'll share a room, mainly because there's no space.

Roman forbade them from having sex in the woods.

So during this period, these newlyweds have mostly just held hands, kissed, or used their hands and mouths.

They won't have their own houses for another two months—the military compound is in the planning stage and construction has not yet started.

Roman also had to design a new architectural style.

Therefore, this holiday was just a time for them to spend time together and get to know each other.

Life in the military camp changed many of their old habits and ingrained traits.

When conducting cultural education, Roman always spared no effort in instilling in them the idea that the army came from the people and protected the lord.

This kind of thinking will give them an unprecedented sense of conviction.

Because they truly come from the people.

In the past, they were either the lowest-level slaves or came from the poor and destitute people.

Ask them more questions: Are they really happy when their compatriots suffer, are exploited and oppressed by the nobility?

Huh? You're asking if I exploited you too? But didn't I exploit less than the other nobles? (Annoyed)
Roman must never create a military class that originates from the people but is above them.

They cannot step on anyone's head; instead, they must do their best to understand their relationship with the people.

They can become hammers and sickles, but not knives and swords.

The former can perform production tasks, while the latter can only be used for killing.

He trained them and made them capable so that they would be motivated to save their fellow countrymen—to seize more people and resources for him.

Roman insisted that he was right!

Everyone in this era is an idiot.

His system is the most brilliant and effective, and also the most efficient at exploitation!

He wanted to expand his influence, broaden his power, and spread his ruling ideology.

This was the shared mission of those he ruled.

And the results of his rule will eventually benefit everyone.

This is destiny!
This is the manifestation of destiny!

Whenever he thinks about this, Roman gets excited and raises his flag!

Raise high the banner of destiny!
Damn it!!
……

After the wedding, all the labor was clearly allocated, and now it's time to officially get to work.

Six hundred promising talents were selected and sent to the military camp.

One hundred more able-bodied men were to be added to the foundry and the woodworking factory;

Another four hundred secondary laborers were transferred to the breeding department;
And of all these, the most important is...

It's time to start farming!
……

Spring plowing season has arrived!

Roman planted wheat and soybeans last year. He chose the best, most fertile, and easiest-to-cultivate land.

But apart from those 10,000 mu of land, the condition of the rest of the arable land is very bad.

Last year, in particular, was wasted the entire year.

Now, those lands are overgrown with weeds and are desolate.

Why did Roman say those lands were wasteland?
Even though each planting is equivalent to clearing land.

It is said that heavy plowing and deep cultivation are necessary, but there must be a foundation of farming.

The fields that Roman chose were mostly excellent land, and were actually very well maintained.

They had undergone decades of cultivation and fallowing in the past, resulting in relatively loose topsoil. This provided a foundation for cultivation.

Therefore, heavy plowing easily turned up the deep soil.

However, heavy plowing is not very effective for dealing with wasteland.

However, the current farmland cannot meet the demand, so spring plowing now means clearing wasteland.

What does land reclamation mean in this era?
The first thing you'll encounter is weeds and shrubs.

Some plants are not afraid of fire or sickles; they have particularly developed root systems and super regenerative abilities.

Winter has just passed, and many shrubs have not been frozen to death. Once the temperature rises, their root systems will revive, and the grass seeds buried in the ground will sprout.

This is normal; otherwise, there wouldn't be the saying that wildfires can't be extinguished.

To weed, you have to rely on deep plowing.

Therefore, the second reason is that the soil in the wasteland is too hard.

The soil there was compacted and extremely firm, making hoes and other farming tools basically useless.

You need a pickaxe—the kind specifically designed for mining.

Roman wasn't joking.

Use iron tools for quarrying rocks to clear wasteland.

Raise the pickaxe high, swing it down hard, insert the pointed end into the soil, and pry it up forcefully. Once pried up, it will split into several clods of earth. The wooden handle also needs to be specially made, otherwise it will break after prolonged use.

This is a very harsh fact!
What's even more cruel is that steel was a scarce commodity in this era.

This means that farmers who cultivate the land don't even have iron farming tools, so it's easy to imagine how inefficient they can be.

When faced with uncultivated land, one can only use wooden farm tools to dig and cultivate it little by little.

The soil clods in the raw soil usually contain a lot of stones and rocks.

Let alone undeveloped land, even developed land would have an endless supply of pebbles to collect.

Every year, a huge pile of stones can be found.

There are always some every year, and you can never pick them all up.

Picking them up would take a lot of time and effort, but not picking them up would affect the grain yield.

To transform raw land into mature land, it needs to undergo a cycle of the five elements (metal, wood, water, fire, and earth) and be nurtured for three to five years before it becomes mature land.

Jin is fine; the steel production in Sig Town is certainly enough to meet agricultural needs.

If you have wood, you can plant legumes or other vegetable crops. As long as you don't leave the land barren, planting something will effectively improve the soil composition.

Water refers to rain or irrigation. After each rain, the soil becomes wet, making it relatively easier to cultivate. This is why farmers like to work in the rain, as this land has a relatively long rainy season.

The fire refers to burning wasteland, but after a long period of slash-and-burn agriculture, some weeds are no longer afraid of fire, and even like fire, and can reproduce with the help of flames.

Soil can also be matured quickly by mixing humus, fermented manure, and other humus nutrients into acidic soil through digging up swamps, which can be cultivated in three to five years.

……

This is also why productivity was low in this era.

There were no iron tools, no heavy plows, and no agricultural technology.

Farmers longed to increase grain production, but didn't know where to begin; the agricultural revolution was still in its infancy.

There are many swamps, but Roman has never heard of anyone digging peat from the swamps as natural fertilizer.

The entire farming process presents a kind of ignorant yet innocent beauty.

(End of this chapter)