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

Chapter 193 The Second Summer Harvest

On the second day.

Roman's army grew larger and larger, moving through enemy territory as if it were nothing.

Count Condé lost his defensive capabilities and could only worry about his castle.

This gave Roman a great deal of leeway and freedom.

This land is his domain.

However, in the past few months, the armies of the five noble families have nearly depleted the food reserves of the Conde Territory.

Nowadays, farmers rely on the summer harvest for their livelihood.

Roman didn't have time to harvest the wheat.

It's too sparse, too withered, the wheat grains are so dry and shriveled that a 50% flour yield would be a miracle.

Agricultural harvests in this era were truly unreliable.

He can't accept it; he has to leave it for the rest of the people.

Because Roman didn't take everyone with him, some people refused to leave with him and escaped, hiding in various places.

After Roman leaves, they will return and repeat their old lives.

Those idiots need to live too.

What will they eat after the wheat harvest?
Moreover, the farmland in Kangde Territory is too vast, more than ten times the size of Sige Town, and he doesn't have enough manpower to harvest the wheat in Kangde Territory.

The wheat in Sig Town is waiting for him to harvest.

This time he only robbed four or five thousand people, taking the whole family if possible, and not just the young and strong.

However, supporting these people also brought Roman a lot of trouble.

Fortunately, they captured a large amount of supplies, otherwise they really wouldn't have been able to afford to feed them.

In addition, there is another important thing to do.

“Green, you go to Tag Village; Aaron, you go to Doron Village; Dick, you go to Lana Town! I'm telling you, you must bring their whole family back!”

Roman sent them the list of victims.

"What if I can't find it?" Green muttered.

"Then you don't need to come back!" Roman glared at him.

"Then what are you doing?"

"Mind your own business!" Roman glared at him again.

Green was about to say something, but Aaron tugged at his arm, so he shut up. They could both tell he was in a lot of pain.

Roman's will was clear.

The families of the soldiers who sacrificed their lives for him must all be brought back, given pensions, and provided with good food and drink.

Otherwise, he wouldn't be able to continue tricking them into dying.

He then looked at his soldiers standing straight.

He remembered clearly that during his last raid on Kangde Territory, he captured more than seven hundred conscripts from various villages within Kangde Territory.

Roman basically converted them all into professional soldiers.

Now.

There were only about four hundred of them who could stand.

He really went all out this time.

Almost half of them were sacrificed!

His nose suddenly felt a little sore, and he raised his chin and said to them, "Go, bring your families over, and we'll go back together. I'll be waiting for you."

"Thank you, sir!" The soldiers had been waiting for him to say that.

With beaming smiles, they all simultaneously raised their right fists at Roman.

Roman calmed down considerably.

He smiled and nodded, raising his right fist in return.

They scattered in all directions, their steps steady and light as they turned and ran, even racing each other to see who could run the fastest.

Roman mounted his horse and glanced at the paper in his hand.

That was another list, filled with densely packed names—

The squad leader lost 33 men and wounded 25, most of whom were too badly injured to participate in the subsequent battle.

Roman folded the paper and sighed.

The casualty rate is too high.

But what can be done about it?
If they don't rush to the front, then who should?

Roman thought to himself.

Most of those who were sacrificed were people he had personally trained.

He remembered their names.

But what pained him most were the squad leaders who weren't apostles.

They were not apostles, yet they fought bravely and sacrificed themselves on the battlefield.

Roman turned to Jett and said, "They are all heroes!"

Jett simply gave a faint "hmm".

He didn't pay much attention to the issue of casualties.

A dead person is just a number to him.

On the battlefield, people are bound to die.

……

The boatmen pulled the boats upstream, back and forth.

The whole process was unhurried. It took Roman three days to finally transport all the people he had plundered.

They also captured those people who hadn't been able to be plundered during the first raid for various reasons, and reunited them with their families.

The Kande Territory is now basically Roman's backyard; he can come and go as he pleases.

Because he completely crushed that count.

Whether it's troop strength or mentality.

However, due to the tight summer harvest and concerns about indigestion, infrastructure construction needed to be carried out gradually, so Roman did not take away too many people the first time.

There is still a long way to go.

Take it easy.

Don't worry.

The merchants, having learned of the war's ultimate outcome, flocked to Sig Town to do business.

The trade network, which had been blocked for three months, suddenly became open again, as if to make up for the previous gap.

Numerous merchant ships flooded into the docks of Sig Town.

……

The last two days of early May.

Roman surveyed the vast wheat field, his brows gradually furrowing.

The wheat harvest is not growing as well as expected.

Specifically, the wheat is somewhat sparse, and at first glance, it doesn't even look as good as the spring wheat planted last year.

Last summer, he mobilized about a thousand people for the harvest.

This year's summer harvest, however, mobilized a total of 5,000 people.

It's fair to say they didn't care at all about the feelings of the newly added population.

Roman settled them in and planned to register them as households later.

The best way to adapt to local customs is to let them stick to their old ways.

Roman then ordered Vickers to build windmills and to construct three threshing grounds in various locations.

The main task is to harvest the 10,000 mu of winter wheat planted last year.

Of these, 6,000 mu are cultivated land, and there are also 4,000 mu of newly added wasteland.

The two are clearly a level apart in terms of output.

……

Five or six days later.

The summer harvest is over.

The 6,000 mu of well-cultivated land yielded a total of 1.8 million jin of wheat, with an average yield of about 300 jin per mu.

Four thousand mu of wasteland yielded a total of more than 600,000 jin of wheat, with an average yield of less than 200 jin per mu.

Roman's vision went black on the spot.

Damn it!

He observed that the tillering rate of wheat had increased to about 40%, which was much higher than the less than 10% tillering rate of spring wheat, and the nutrition was also adequate, but it just wouldn't grow tall.

But there are explanations for why they didn't increase production.

Spring wheat suddenly turned into winter wheat, which was not adapted to the seasonal change, resulting in a decrease in yield.

This is a problem with the wheat variety.

This happens when the growing environment of a crop is drastically altered.

This requires improvement, domestication, and seed selection.

Simply put... plant for a few years, and once it adapts to the environment, the yield per mu may eventually increase to 400 jin.

Anyway, production will increase year by year.

There's really nothing you can do if the variety isn't good.

Most of this land is covered with spring wheat.

Because this region is close to the northern lands, it is affected by the latter's winter cold waves and cannot grow winter wheat.

Meanwhile, Sinnoh, Free City, and Amber Court are planting winter wheat.

However, the distance is too great to import wheat seeds in large quantities.

Last year, he achieved his yield thanks to meticulous care, but with such a large winter wheat planting area, meticulous care is naturally impossible.

Roman had no choice but to accept this reality.

The town of Sige now has a population of over 16,000, with an average of 150 jin of grain per person.

I'd say it's alright, I guess.

To put it bluntly, wheat is a staple food—especially winter wheat.

A strong adult can only eat about 1.5 jin of wheat a day.

If made into steamed buns, that makes 15 whole wheat steamed buns.

If made into bread, it yields 15 slices of whole wheat bread.

As for staple foods, that's definitely enough.

After all, this is the amount of food for manual laborers.

Those who do light physical labor, women, and children cannot eat so much.

Moreover, the 3,000 mu of vegetables planted are being harvested one after another, which can serve as a side dish.

In about twenty days, the 5,000 mu of spring wheat sown in early spring will be ready for harvest, which should amount to hundreds of thousands of tons of wheat.

Therefore, Roman doesn't need to worry about a food crisis for the time being.

(End of this chapter)