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

Chapter 203 Both sides are in stable condition
Roman is very decisive in his actions.

Why only students over ten years old are eliminated?
This is naturally because children in this age group have basic labor capacity.

The students who spend the most time in school have received at least a full year of education.

Even the students with the shortest study period had all undergone about half a year of education—from the first human plundering by Romans.

Neel must have given this matter considerable thought before judging these people as ignorant and incompetent failures.

Can't concentrate on studying?

I won't make things difficult for you.

Go and get to work.

Roman didn't care whether there were any overlooked geniuses among them.

If a genius is buried, then he is not a genius.

If you're so capable, after being expelled from school, shout "Don't underestimate a young man's potential!" and work hard while studying diligently, you'll make a name for yourself and slap Nellie in the face.

Roman will surely be alarmed and will personally meet this prodigy who has mastered all the words, and entrust him with important responsibilities.

He was overjoyed to see such a promising young talent with such great perseverance and wisdom.

Of course, I'm quite happy now.

After all, there were six hundred more secondary laborers.

It's said that the starting age is ten, but that doesn't mean all of them are ten. There are quite a few children who are fourteen or fifteen years old, and some are even sixteen—they just barely entered school last year.

According to farmers' standards, fourteen or fifteen years old is considered a qualified laborer.

Roman has raised them for so long, only to prove they are academic failures.

He won't give them a second chance.

Some of them would work in the breeding department, helping Yaki cut grass and milk the cows.

Some people also become apprentices at the woodworking factory.

Some were assigned to the forging department, where Ruto taught them how to smelt iron.

Alternatively, you could go to the Ministry of Agriculture and learn farming from Barlow.

The town of Sig is so big, there must be some kind of work that suits them.

On the day he dropped out of school, Roman asked Nelly to give the students a vocabulary book filled with words and told them not to forget the experience and to study hard—cast a wide net, and who knows, you might actually catch a few hidden geniuses.

After all, you only know how hard it is to work after you've done it, and that's when you'll have the desire to learn.

Neel's sweeping reforms of the school had an immediate and significant impact.

All the teachers breathed a sigh of relief. Damn, the past few days had been like hell.

The school operates autonomously.

Management costs are also virtually nonexistent.

The students take turns cooking, and Roman only needs to provide the ingredients each day.

If you don't listen to me, I'll hit you. You can play as much as you want after class, but try causing trouble in class!

The teaching method was extremely crude.

But Roman couldn't care less about that now.

There are only about forty teachers in total, and they are responsible for such a large student body. It would be strange if they didn't do a good job.

In fact, elite education is the best choice.

Not only are students at the bottom eliminated, but even students at the middle level are eliminated, leaving only a hundred or so hardworking and promising students.

But what Roman is doing now is mainly to increase literacy rates and raise the base number of literate people.

Ultimately, what Roman needs now is a large grassroots force, not elite administrative talent.

One elite cannot be used as the equivalent of ten junior staff.

As long as they know the words, they have a basic foundation, because they can understand written commands.

……

The last month of summer.

Another heavy rain fell on this land.

The temperature has dropped again.

The population that Roman seized last time has been mostly consumed.

Each worker performs their own task, and when they join the collective labor, it is equivalent to being absorbed.

Therefore, Roman began to mobilize troops again, sending a total of one thousand soldiers to the territory of Kant to relocate a group of people.

This time we didn't take a long detour.

The boatmen pulled the boat upstream.

The troops were not led by Roman, but by the two battalion commanders, Aaron and Green. This was also a kind of training exercise.

Unfortunately, Count Condé did not send his remaining troops to intercept them, but instead sat in the castle and watched coldly from the sidelines.

Let them go.

More than 3,000 people were robbed this time.

The process went smoothly, and no conflict occurred throughout.

Both the robber and the robbed were in a stable emotional state.

The only unstable group is the villagers.

But their opinions didn't matter, so they could only take their families and travel downstream by boat.

The soldiers gave them some time to pack their belongings, discarding anything of no value and only carrying what was valuable, so they wouldn't go to settle down in that valley empty-handed.

At that moment, Roman remembered Nathan.

Why aren't they back yet?

He would glance at Nathan's Apostle interface every day.

If his apostle is sacrificed, Roman will sense it, and the apostle interface will dim, turn gray, and be locked.

Nathan's Apostle panel was still clearly lit up.

and so……

Why aren't they back yet?

……

Nathan set off with two soldiers.

They disembarked midway and went ashore.

The three immediately set off on horseback at full speed.

The journey was long and arduous, and Nathan was eager to return home, rushing to catch up day and night.

Thales County is in the north of the Black Iron Lands, while he came from the southeast corner, a great distance away.

While waterways are fast and convenient, they are not safe.

The land routes were also difficult to travel; the Black Iron Road stretched horizontally to various countries, but there were no vertical roads within it.

They had no choice but to find a way to go.

From the fields and villages, the journey passed through one noble estate after another.

However, those roads were heavily guarded, with some guards blocking the main roads, bridges, and paths.

They discriminated against people based on their status, extorting tolls. Woodcutters only needed to give a few pieces of firewood, but wealthy merchants had to pay in copper coins.

Nathan's body was as tall as a tower. He couldn't be fully armed for the long march, so he could only wear light armor, clearly showing the posture of a knight of war. Two riders followed on either side of him, and he also led two other warhorses carrying supplies.

Such a formidable squad clearly comes from a powerful background. They're not some down-on-their-luck knights or freelancers who can easily outmaneuver them.

The only odd thing is that Nathan did not wear any coat of arms or flags, making it difficult to determine his origins.

The guards needed to find out where he was; otherwise, they wouldn't be able to explain it to their superiors.

"I am acting in secrecy, and I cannot reveal my origins. I am on my way to the northern coast to find someone."

This is what Roman taught Nathan.

The guards had no reason to antagonize a passing knight on campaign, and they remained tight-lipped about the current situation in the north.

Hearing him say that, most people would do him a favor.

Only a few guards thought it wouldn't work.

But he was also bribed with copper and silver coins thrown out by Nathan.

The three hurried day and night, getting closer and closer to Thales County, when they were ambushed by a group of about ten pirates.

This alarmed Nathan, who immediately killed all the pirates. He learned from the last pirate that they were only a small force.

Pirates launched a massive invasion, and a coalition of nobles fought back, resulting in a direct confrontation where both sides experienced victories and defeats.

These pirates broke up into smaller groups, scattered in various locations, and carried out small-scale battles and plundering.

The noble alliance, however, was quite frustrated.

This land is crisscrossed by waterways, and the pirates were extremely mobile.

Today, the flames of war have swept across the entire northern coast and are spreading rapidly inland like a plague.

Nathan had no desire to get involved in the battle.

He took a longer route, fearfully avoiding the terrifying vortex, even though it cost him two days.

But the further he went, the more war-related scenes appeared in his eyes.

(End of this chapter)