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

Chapter 282 Bullied by the Whole World
“Your Highness, we are isolated and helpless,” Seth said.

“It’s alright, they’re no match for us,” Roman replied.

The consequences of provoking the Vatican are terrifying.

The scariest part is that nobody wants to do business with him anymore!
This is easy to understand.

The influence of the belief in gods on this land is terrifying.

This includes all priests, nuns, novice believers, and fanatics.

These believers probably make up about 50% of the entire human society.

If all humans who say "Gods are above" are considered believers in God, then they would probably account for about 80%.

The other 20% consist of groups with special beliefs, such as pirates and barbarians.

The Vatican's war potential is almost equal to that of half of human society.

Dare to go against the Vatican?
Are you really not afraid of your billions of followers?

The three Black Iron Dukes, working together, could certainly stand against the Papacy.

But that was only under the premise that the Papacy violated the conqueror's order, and that they were willing to maintain the conqueror's order.

However, the conqueror order is now completely rotten.

The Iron King has distanced himself from Roman, but Lord Conqueror and others haven't retracted their claims, pretending to know nothing.

If even the King of Black Iron is like this, then well-informed merchants are even less willing to come here.

Admittedly, they can sell the ropes that hang themselves.

But they certainly wouldn't want to gamble their entire fortune on an extremely slim possibility; otherwise, if they failed, they would be disgraced and purged by the Vatican. Keeping their distance was the best option.

This is terrible! Roman is being bullied by the whole world!

Roman, who wanted to dominate the whole world, was very unhappy about this.

TMD!

You guys think you can run a business?!

A bunch of spineless businessmen who are afraid to risk their lives for big things but will risk everything for small gains!

Sooner or later, the army will be ordered to kick down their gates and force them to trade freely with Origin City!

Forget it now.

Now that there is a sufficient manpower, Romano has set up some production positions to achieve self-sufficiency.

In fact, given the current size of Origin City, that amount of trade alone is far from enough to meet its daily needs.

In fact, since swallowing 20,000 slaves, Origin City has been in a state of severe shortage of resources.

There were no clothes, no brick houses, no furniture, and some people didn't even have utensils to eat with—they had chopsticks, but no bowls or plates.

The most urgent task now is to expand production and establish an internal circulation system for Origin City.

Improve the supply of materials, recruit more workers, pay more wages, and then collect all the wages through department stores.

Roman had to use another batch of emergency sapphires and assign the apostles who knew how to produce them to various positions.

Digging clay and firing pottery;
Large-scale, standardized resin collection for paint production;
Soybean oil was used to make large quantities of oil lamps or candles;
Mass production of vinegar and soy sauce;

Establish more specialized breweries, soap factories...

Making blackboards and chalk, etc...

These measures can effectively improve the risk resistance of Origin City.

Moreover, these workshops also served to divert population and maintain social stability, with each workshop having its own small kitchen.

Roman calculated the precise allocation of rations based on the number of laborers, and every few days a batch of firewood, rice, oil, and salt was transported from the warehouse to the workshop kitchen, thus ensuring a stable harvest of their output.

August has arrived in the blink of an eye.

Roman learned that Pirate King Alex had decisively defeated Duke Cracked Armor on the northern front.

The battle lines began to shift south.

The pirates advanced rapidly, reaching Liejialing, before being stopped at the pass of Tiehua County.

The victorious pirates finally had time to trade with Roman.

They brought countless prisoners of war to trade with Roman, in exchange for large quantities of weapons and arrows.

The latter, in particular, has tasted the sweetness of success.

The arms trade has always had both advantages and disadvantages.

The advantage is convenience and speed, but the disadvantage is that it hinders the development of one's own military potential. Simply put, talent needs to be cultivated, and industries need to be established; these cannot be accomplished overnight.

Once path dependence is formed, it loses its independence in a certain aspect, and if this path is cut off, it will be very difficult to maintain.

Roman didn't know if the pirates understood this principle.

But he didn't need to say more.

The pirates are riding high; it would be best if they could storm into the heart of the Black Iron Kingdom and help him fend off the Holy See's holy war army.

After all, the Papacy and the pirates were also hostile forces.

Both the pirates and Origin City knew that this might be their last deal of the year.

But in this deal, Roman only took a few thousand selected slaves.

Origin City is truly overwhelmed with food now.

The population is approaching 80,000.

There is a real shortage of food.

Even the wartime rationing system couldn't hold up.

He is now focused on waiting for this year's autumn harvest.

……

Early August.

Roman harvested a batch of medium-season rice, which yielded slightly more than the early rice. He was very happy with the more than 20,000 jin of rice.

At this moment, the Holy See's holy war army was about to arrive at Roman's doorstep.

"Your Highness, what should we do?" the witch asked.

“Never mind him,” Roman said.

The witches were stunned. They had expected Roman to strike hard. Even though they hadn't known each other for long, they were familiar with his style and had heard his glorious deeds countless times.

Roman ignored the stunned witch.

Still fighting?

Beat the ass!
I said I would let the gods punish me, but I didn't say I would strike hard.

We absolutely cannot fight again this year!
Let them blockade us if they want. Given Origin City's current situation, it doesn't matter whether it's blocked or not.

Roman has decided to stay here for the rest of the year.

He went to inspect the troops.

The new recruits who just joined the army this year are already showing promise.

After all, training with veterans provides a learning model, and through constant exposure, one naturally learns how to do many things.

Roman held a military meeting and said to the high-ranking military officers, "The Papacy's army is coming."

The atmosphere was solemn, and no one spoke.

Soldiers take obedience to orders as their primary duty, and the army is the ultimate embodiment of Roman will.

Whether to fight or not is entirely up to him.

“But you can continue training; there’s no need for you to do anything right now,” Roman continued.

The sergeants had heard similar rumors before, and they were all relaxed.

They are not afraid of war.

But how many of these new recruits will come back alive?

"You must continue with your training—my safety and the safety of Origin City are in your hands."

Aaron suddenly stood up, raised his right hand, and shouted, "I have fulfilled my mission!"

The other sergeants were startled by him, then they all stood up and saluted: "We have fulfilled our mission!"

The sound was deafening!

Roman looked at the neatly arranged forest before him with great satisfaction.

“Excellent! I will select another two thousand new recruits—our soldiers are tempered and refined, our enemies are no match for them! They are all paper tigers! There is nothing to be afraid of, we will crush them next year.”

After saying this encouraging word, Roman left.

After he left, Jeter began to reorganize the army and started more rigorous and demanding field training.

(End of this chapter)