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

Chapter 183 Interesting Civilizational Phenomena

Roman disliked Ulster from a young age.

I dislike his obesity, I dislike his indulgence, I dislike his extravagance...

Despite being the Grand Duke, he lacked any sense of execution and didn't even handle government affairs.

Even a pig would be better off in power than him!

At the very least, the pigs only need to eat cheap pig feed and can be free-range.

Roman has completely preserved his mind from his previous life, and he has his own logic in his views on everything.

What is right? What is wrong?
Those who hold positions without doing any work deserve to die! Their lives are nothing but a waste of food!

But despite all its flaws, Ulster's one and only merit cannot be erased.

He raised his children and gave them the best he could—he gave Roman a whole world of freedom, allowing him to do whatever he wanted without restraint.

He knew he would die, but he didn't expect him to die so quickly. Before his army could even reach Liejia Territory, he hastily departed.

His death now caused Roman pain.

Ulster gave him so much, yet he never had a chance to say thank you. Whenever he thinks about it, he tosses and turns, feeling nothing but guilt.

He used to often curse him in his heart as an old geezer and a deadbeat.

He used to curse with a clear conscience, arrogant and conceited, but now he can't sleep all night, wishing he could slap himself. I deserve to die!

He wanted to cry, but couldn't; he needed to be rational at that moment.

There is no time to be sad.

He has to face the current perilous situation.

Roman would never accept Gael, even though he was the eldest son of the Grand Duke, had legitimacy, and had a strong claim to the throne.

His foundation was given to him by Ulster.

This valley was also given to him by Ulster.

No one can touch a single blade of grass or a single tree here.

The messenger returned quickly, carrying Roman's reply—

"Lord Roman will fully support Duke Gael, but due to limited resources and a lack of troops, he will provide assistance when the opportunity arises."

The messenger was very dissatisfied; he was stuck at the dock the whole time and didn't even get to see Roman.

Sais's excuse was that Roman was seriously injured and bedridden and could not receive guests.

But the messenger didn't believe it at all. If he wasn't going to see a guest, he wasn't going to see a guest. Why was he blocking me at the door?
Which vassal would dare to do such a thing?

Are you planning a rebellion?

The messenger will surely embellish the story when he returns to Duke Gael.

Roman didn't care.

Add fuel to the fire if you want.

The messenger was Duke Gael's informant, and he couldn't possibly let the latter bring back what he had seen and heard in Sgard.

The best way is to make sure he can't see anything.

Of course, he didn't believe that Gail would really ignore him.

But Roman also believed that Gale certainly didn't have time to deal with him right now.

He had just taken office, so how could he possibly spend a lot of energy on a remote vassal? At most, he would just keep the matter in mind.

Any duke with a modicum of political acumen would know that he cannot be stripped of his rights as lord now.

Gale dared to fire Roman, and Roman dares to rebel now.

When the news gets out, Gael will be unable to lead his army from thousands of miles away to quell the rebellion, which would challenge his authority as a duke and be very disadvantageous to him.

We must not let the situation escalate.

Roman is stalling, and Gale will most likely do the same.

In the eyes of the new Grand Duke, Roman was insignificant, like a monkey in the palm of Buddha's hand, easily dealt with in a moment.

But Roman would never give Gale a chance to make trouble.

He's going to rebel ahead of time!

……

As April of this year was drawing to a close.

The soldiers are still in the training phase.

There were casualties in the battle on the riverbank.

But Roman quickly filled the gap, maintaining the number of soldiers at two thousand.

The main difficulties in supporting professional soldiers lie in two points.

One is food consumption.

During the agricultural era, agriculture had an enormous demand for labor.

Fewer people doing the work means lower productivity.

But... let it go if it's going down.

Now we've reached a critical juncture of life and death; productivity has declined, but we won't starve.

Roman placed great importance on food security; when there was no grain, he ate vegetables, and when there were no vegetables, he ate meat.

Of course, eating a mix of foods is the best.

Current grain reserves are certainly enough to last until summer. And by summer, the tens of thousands of acres of winter wheat planted last year will be ready for harvest.

So what's wrong with me having so much food to feed two thousand soldiers?
Secondly, there is logistical equipment.

In this era, a soldier's life is less valuable than his equipment.

What is the difference between a defeat and a victory?

The point is that the victor can reclaim the equipment from the battlefield, while the loser has to abandon everything.

Military supplies are very valuable.

Dead soldiers would be stripped naked, sometimes not even their underwear would be left. For the lower-ranking soldiers, this was all wealth—of course, the knights wouldn't even look at it.

But steel production in Sigge town increased last year.

If he could, Roman could arm them to the teeth and turn them into a bunch of tin cans.

……

A very interesting phenomenon in human civilization.

The simpler the social structure, the easier it is to concentrate manpower—as long as basic survival needs are met.

The downside is that such a society is not developed.

For example, in primitive times, humans relied on gathering and hunting for survival, and primitive people had a much more leisurely life than farmers.

They can gather enough food for the whole day in one morning, and then in the afternoon they catch and eat fleas with each other.

The downside is that it has extremely poor risk resistance and a very high mortality rate.

Conversely, the more complex the social structure, the more difficult it is to allocate manpower—especially in societies that have undergone a large division of labor and emphasize the subdivision of production tasks.

Such a social structure is naturally very prosperous.

The quality of life has greatly improved compared to primitive times, and production has become more diversified, offering more choices.

The downside is that people living in it are becoming increasingly exhausted, so some people are starting to miss rural life.

……

The town of Sige is in a very special phase.

Compared to this era, its productivity is highly developed, but its social structure is very simple.

In other words, as long as Roman meets their basic survival needs, he can do whatever he wants to his people.

As long as the chief of a primitive tribe can support his tribe, it's not a problem to train even half of the people into soldiers, let alone one-fifth. To some extent, it's reasonable to say that the whole nation is a soldier.

Roman wasn't joking.

The decline in productivity in Sig Town is only relative to full-scale production.

The speed has decreased from ten meters per second to five meters per second, which is still considered efficient compared to an era where speeds are half a meter per second or even stagnant.

At the end of this second spring.

It has made significant progress since then.

First, the construction team built many brick houses, which alleviated the housing shortage. The military compound was also built, which only accommodated soldiers with families and settled their families.

After all, one house per household is the basic requirement.

Secondly, the pigs, sheep, and chickens that have been raised since last autumn are now being sold on a large scale.

The meat yield of pigs is 60%, that of sheep is 40%, and each chicken yields about two kilograms of meat.

This means that Roman had an extra 80,000 jin of pork, 30,000 jin of mutton, and nearly 10,000 jin of chicken.

This is a huge meat reserve.

More importantly, this is just the amount of pure meat.

Pig heads, sheep heads, pig trotters, sheep trotters, internal organs, and bones are not included.

If we include everything, then we'd have to add another 100,000 jin.

Although Sige Town lacks various spices, it has no shortage of salt, scallions, ginger, and garlic.

Roman has plenty of recipes; these good things shouldn't be wasted.

Even pig intestines have to be saved for me. Intestines are high in protein and fat, and are considered a nutritious food in this era—it's just that they don't keep well, so I have to eat them quickly.

Pork bone marrow and sheep bone marrow are considered delicacies.

Those sheepskins and wool can also be used to make clothing.

These are all additional benefits brought about by farming.

Only the ewes that could produce milk, the hens that could lay eggs, and the sows that could produce piglets were left.

Kill the rest completely.

This is no less than a bumper harvest.

Slaughtering means starving them for days without feeding them.

The breeding department has a total of 1,000 people. Every day, they slaughter hundreds of pigs, two hundred sheep, and five hundred chickens in batches, marinate them, hang them up to air dry and smoke them to turn them into cured meat and salted meat.

The more you kill, the less pressure you feel.

As the next generation of selected pigs and sheep grows up, their demand for feed gradually increases.

This also means that the breeding department no longer needs so many people—it's not a problem to free up 600 people to do other things.

Roman then had them work with the Ministry of Agriculture to plant large areas of pasture on both sides of the river.

It's estimated to be four or five thousand acres, and Roman has planned it as a natural pasture.

(End of this chapter)