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

Chapter 202 Survival of the Fittest
The last month of summer has arrived.

The temperature is getting hotter and hotter.

The farmers who were responsible for cultivating the land used to drink cooled boiled water from wooden buckets, which has long since turned into herbal tea.

The advantage of a large kitchen is its high efficiency and significant fuel savings.

In June, all the farmers work from dawn till dusk, taking a four- or five-hour break at noon.

They plan to cultivate 5,000 acres of wasteland this month and plant vegetables and crops suitable for autumn harvest.

Why are we in such a hurry to start farming?
Naturally, we need to prepare for the future population.

Roman paid such a terrible price to destroy the entire Kande Territory; how could he only relocate a small group of people?

I can't say everyone...

We'll need to bring in at least another 10,000 people this year.

How can we feed them if we don't farm?

As for the lands of Kande, Roman basically gave them up.

You can take it, but there's no need.

Unless they break through the mountains and build bridges, Roman will have a hard time holding onto that piece of land outside.

The best solution is to relocate them here.

……

Roman was planning to clear land for farming.

The makeshift oil pressing workshop has started producing oil.

The soybeans were of poor quality and had a low oil yield, less than 10%.

Five thousand catties of soybeans yielded only about four hundred catties of soybean oil.

Cooking oil has many benefits.

However, if placed in the main kitchen, it would be used up in two days at most, which was not enough to eat at all.

But if used to make soap, that's about four hundred pounds. It can be cut into two thousand bars of soap.

Rounding up, it's equivalent to each of Roman's soldiers having a bar of soap.

If you use it sparingly, it can last for half a month.

That was Roman's purpose in making soap.

Maintaining a neat appearance and relatively clean smell for soldiers is considered one of their welfare benefits.

This is only the first batch of soybean oil.

Roman will eventually get about 4,000 catties of soybean oil.

As I said before, it's impossible to use it for cooking.

We'll live the way we did before we had cooking oil.

Their best use is in making soap, repairing and maintaining weapons.

But making soap requires manpower.

While large-scale production can certainly improve efficiency.

However, initial investment is indispensable for emerging industries.

The soaps made by Roman, though not as delicate and gentle as modern soaps, are better than nothing.

……

A few more days passed.

The town of Sige was hit by a summer downpour.

It's later than last year; the elderly in Sige Town say there are one or two rainstorms every year.

It's actually fine.

Because, from the thorn peninsula ruled by the King of Iceland, to the fjords of the King of Sinnoh, and from half of the Iron Lands to the Ego Lands.

Those places have hot, dry summers and mild, rainy winters.

It is only suitable for planting spring wheat, and it can only be harvested once a year.

The land where Roman lives is much better; it can yield two harvests a year, which can be considered excellent.

The climate is suitable, rainfall is even, the river network is dense, and the water volume is abundant, which is conducive to crop growth and does not require additional irrigation.

The benefit of heavy rain is that it can nourish crops and promote rapid growth.

The downside is that weeds and pasture grasses will also grow wildly.

Moreover, Roman had to stop working during the heavy rain.

He had checked the weather forecast; the heavy rain would only last for the next two days, so he distributed food to everyone a day in advance so they could take it home as rations for the next two days.

Take this opportunity to let them rest for two days.

Things are different now. Roman has a lot of manpower at his disposal, so he is not worried at all.

The fault tolerance rate has been greatly improved.

One word, steady!

The farmers were even less worried.

They've finally come to their senses over this period.

Damn it, after being a poor man my whole life, I'm now actually getting a government job.

With guaranteed income regardless of drought or flood and ample livelihood security, what more could one ask for?

However, the soldiers in the barracks still had to train in the torrential rain.

Jet, Dick, Aaron, Green, and Kao are leading all the soldiers on a long cross-country run in the heavy rain.

Each squad leader is responsible for their own soldiers; if one soldier falls behind, the entire squad will be punished.

It tempers the will and strengthens the body.

Neel found Roman on this stormy day.

He sat in a chair, sketching out future plans on paper with a pencil.

"My lord, I need to discuss some things with you."

Her face looked tired, as if she had been overworked, but her eyes were deep and blue, and her expression was serious.

"I think it's necessary to streamline schools," Neel said.

"why?"

"Sir, do you know how many students there are now?"

Before Roman could answer, Neel said to herself, "2459 people!"

From five to fifteen years old, all the children in this age group were crammed into Roman's school. The current scale can only be described as extremely bloated, making it very difficult to operate, and there is almost no room to move.

Neel handed over a stack of student names.

Roman immediately realized that Neliel had come prepared.

He sat up straight and said, "Tell me in detail."

"What troubles us is not the classroom, the teacher, or the paper and pencil, but the students themselves!"

Nili said,

"You don't distinguish between good and bad, or between men and women, and you hope to cultivate them into useful talents, but some people don't love learning as much as you think, which is torture for them."

Simply put, some people just can't learn, and no amount of teaching will help.

Being late, skipping class, submitting blank exam papers—all sorts of oddballs are on display.

Roman fell into deep thought. He knew that studying was against human nature.

Even more developed societies cannot solve this problem.

Not to mention the current conditions.

He really hasn't paid much attention to the school. In the past, there weren't many students, but now the population is booming. Moreover, he teaches less often now, sometimes only once every four or five days, teaching for a few hours before leaving.

They don't care about trivial matters at all.

In retrospect, it can only be said that he miscalculated; there were too many things to consider, and he didn't think things through completely.

Seeing Roman remain silent, Neel felt that he wasn't listening.

He placed high hopes on those students, regarding them as the cornerstone of his future.

Once he's made up his mind, it will never change.

But she wanted to persuade him.

“Sir, I am not shirking my responsibility. I will nurture the saplings to grow into useful trees, but I cannot bring dead trees back to life. Those dead trees have consumed too many of your resources and the school’s resources. We are exhausted and can only neglect the truly good seedlings…” Nilier said anxiously.

Roman pressed his palm down lightly, signaling her to calm down.

Neel is currently the acting principal.

She once begged Roman to lend her troops to recapture Seaburg and become its new ruler.

The fortress is crippled, but even a starved camel is bigger than a horse.

The remaining population of Heyburg is still greater than the total population that Roman now controls.

This is a huge piece of meat, and Roman will help Neliel get it back.

Because he needed Seaburg to be his shipbuilding base.

But Nellie left on the condition that she train a group of literate students from the grassroots level.

This concerns Neliel's future, and she takes it very seriously.

Roman knew that even if Neliel was acting out of selfish motives, what she said was the truth, and he knew it from the bottom of his heart.

“I will take responsibility for you, sir! I swear!” she said at the end, then looked quietly at Roman.

Roman asked, "So what suggestions do you have?"

“Prune them and direct the nutrients to the real saplings,” Neel said.

Roman thought it over and over, then nodded and said, "I agree. For children over 10 years old, you can choose whether to keep or leave. For children under 10, I will make a judgment on the case and give them more opportunities... Don't rush the students who entered the school last, let's observe the situation a little longer."

“You are an enlightened lord, but I’m afraid those children don’t understand your good intentions,” Neliel said with a sigh of relief.

Learning can change your destiny.

She had been a slave, but was eventually discovered by Roman and given the position of his personal attendant.

But the reason Roman appointed her to manage the school was not because of her status, but more importantly, because he recognized her talent.

She has the option to be chosen, but do the other slaves in the sea fort have that option?
They don't even have the right to speak in front of him.

If you don't improve your own value, don't blame others for thinking you have no value.

……

Neel was extremely efficient; when the downpour ended, she handed Roman a list of six hundred people.

These were the first students to be eliminated.

It's clear that she had already planned this out.

As the acting principal, she shuttled between the school and the manor every day.

She was incredibly intelligent and diligent, and she remembered the faces and names of almost every child.

Natural selection, survival of the fittest.

The same applies to schools; those who cannot adapt must leave.

They had already enjoyed too many extra resources that Roman had provided for them.

(End of this chapter)