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

Chapter 285 The Third Autumn Harvest

The end of August.

The Jihadist army launched its first offensive.

Instead of Roman's professional army, they were met by a group of Origin City militia armed with light crossbows.

The number of light crossbowmen was so great that it was impossible to count them, and they filled the docks and ferry crossings.

It gave me trypophobia!
Sir Angus, who had been so confident that he would make the blasphemer repent, was now speechless.

The two sides exchanged shots.

Ultimately, the Holy War fleet was overwhelmed by a hail of arrows before it even reached the shore, forcing it to retreat in disarray and nearly riddled with arrows.

After this battle, Commander Matthew knew that the Holy War Army could no longer rely on force to attack Origin City.

That place is terrifying!

The only option is to follow the initial strategy, completely block the river, and send scouts into the mountains to find a path leading to the basin, preparing to surprise Roman with a surprise attack on Shu Han next year by sneaking across Yinping.

Roman was completely unconcerned about this.

He is under immense pressure right now and has no time to deal with next year's war.

The city of Origin has approximately 50,000 mu of arable land, plus 9,000 mu of scattered pastureland.

At first glance, it seems like a lot, but only a little over 10,000 mu can truly be considered fertile land.

Most of these were wastelands whose soil had only been improved for a year, and some were even less than a year old, having been reclaimed this spring.

Although Roman has been reclaiming land, having reclaimed 5,000 acres in the past three months alone, it was all wasteland with very low yields in the early stages.

And what about the population?

The price has risen from 30,000 this spring to nearly 80,000 now.

The population has doubled in a short period of time, while arable land is growing slowly and there are no immediate benefits, so the pressure is naturally enormous.

This is because the grain consumed during this period is all stored from the summer harvest.

Once the food reserves are depleted, there will be none left.

We need to cut costs!
We need to open source!
……

September is here.

In the crisp autumn air, the mountains and fields are covered in a golden hue.

A large number of crops have ripened.

After months of suppression, Origin City suddenly burst forth with tremendous vitality.

Smiles were on the faces of all the workers.

They sped up their work considerably, greatly improving their efficiency.

In these chaotic and disastrous years, being able to eat a meal in peace is the greatest blessing.

It should be noted that the more experienced farmers in Origin City still eat three meals a day, but the amount of food they get is less than last year.

The newly added slaves were only given two meals a day, while prisoners of war were given only one.

Even so, the slaves were still grateful—they had been sold here by pirates.

In this era of war, life in Origin City is truly hard-won.

In fact, none of the farmers objected to the rationing system; they understood the lord's approach perfectly.

Firstly, we are not getting enough to eat right now, but we won't starve either.

Secondly, we are full now, but we will have nothing to eat in the future.

It may seem like there are two choices, but for people at the bottom of society, there is no choice at all.

They spent the first half of their lives living the first kind of life.

Which child doesn't meticulously calculate every penny, counting the peas in their bowl? They'll get a slap if they eat even one extra bite.

If they used to be able to eat two catties of coarse grains every day, then when the rationing system was implemented, they could eat three catties of coarse grains every day. If their treatment was already at a low point from the beginning, then there was huge room for improvement.

Moreover, they divide the work and cooperate, doing only fixed tasks, which is much less strenuous than in the past and does not consume much physical energy.

The slaves who had just come from the north were not used to it.

At first, I was worried that the lord here might be feeding them too much.

Should we eat less? Just in case we don't have any left to eat later.

This idea is really common in this day and age.

It's all about thinking of the master.

Waaah! If we eat all of Master's food, won't he starve to death? Waaah! No, that won't do! What will Master do without us? I can starve to death, but Master can't starve to death!

……

The autumn harvest greatly alleviated the pressure on food supplies.

Farmers, slaves, and especially the afflicted slaves, gazed at the harvest with pious eyes.

Harvesting those bright yellow, plump beans was incredibly satisfying.

Roman breathed a sigh of relief.

The floods did not cause much reduction in production; nearly 40,000 mu of soybeans yielded 130 to 140 jin per mu, or 60 to 70 jin per person.

One pound of soybeans makes three pounds of tofu; if there's more moisture, it's normal to make five pounds of tofu.

Let's leave it at that for now. Next up is Roman's new crop this year.

Eight hundred mu of late rice yielded 80,000 jin of rice – all of which is edible and can be considered to fill a small portion of the food shortage.

The fifty acres of experimental fields blessed by Gewier yielded a total of more than 270 jin per acre, almost 2.7 times the yield.

It seems that the hand of fate has indeed drastically changed the destiny of these rice grains.

Roman carefully preserved all the rice in the experimental field, as these were seeds for the following year.

Secondly, it's cotton harvesting season.

The cotton yield was roughly as Roman had predicted, about 30 jin per mu.

Two hundred acres of cotton fields yielded six thousand catties of cotton, which is much better than flax.

Sugarcane cannot be harvested yet; it will have to wait until next spring.

Judging from its growth, it will definitely yield more than 2,000 jin per mu, just like the pasture grass that often yields 1,000 jin per mu.

High moisture content!

Each sugarcane stalk is over two meters tall and has a very high water content, which naturally increases its weight. Even a yield of 3,000 jin per mu is considered low.

The advantage is that sugarcane juice can be used to make brown sugar, and brown sugar can be sold in department stores.

The last type of beet is less satisfactory. Beetroot that has not undergone special cultivation cannot be used to extract sugar and can only be eaten as a vegetable.

Roman doesn't have time to work on it right now; he can only take it one step at a time.

The purpose of planting now is to allow the sugar beets to adapt to the local soil and climate as quickly as possible.

……

In addition, Roman caught over 10,000 kilograms of fish from the ponds he dug in the spring.

Roman would occasionally send people to throw some fodder into it to increase the meat yield.

To their surprise, the workers discovered that the ratio of meat to vegetables at each meal was changing.

The amount of meat has increased from 20 grams at the beginning to 300 grams now, more than ten times.

Because at that time, the farms were also slaughtering livestock on a large scale.

This autumn, a total of 3,000 pigs, 5,000 sheep, and 20,000 chickens were slaughtered—nothing much different from last year, because we couldn't afford to raise any more due to insufficient pasture supply.

Eating more meat can reduce the consumption of grains.

Because grain reserves are really running low.

Roman sometimes also takes fresh milk, goat milk, and eggs as side dishes.

Milk-producing cows and sheep, and egg-laying hens hold a high status in farms and cannot be slaughtered easily.

Because their output is very stable.

We can produce three to five thousand kilograms of milk and two thousand eggs every day.

That's where the benefits of farming come in.

They eat grass, but they provide highly nutritious supplementary food, which can at least make up for the loss of grain.

Of the more than 6 million jin of wheat harvested in the summer, not counting the wheat seeds, only 3 million jin have been harvested so far, which is about 30 jin of wheat per person.

Roman will have to rely on this food to get through the winter and into next spring.

If we run out of food again next year, we'll just borrow some from our new neighbors.

After all, we built our friendship through fighting, so we can't just refuse to lend it to them, can we?

……

The military also brought Roman some surprises.

Jett would occasionally take them out for outdoor training.

One thousand veterans are leading two thousand new recruits in basic training in the military camp.

The other four thousand soldiers who had completed basic training went into the wilderness.

They train in survival and combat skills in the wild, with only a limited supply of materials, and must fight in teams when it is most critical.

When necessary, remote communication can be conducted through means such as smoke signals, whistles, command flags, and gongs and drums.

While conducting high-intensity training, the field-training army was also able to hunt wild animals in the wild, which could be described as a large-scale autumn hunt, saving him tens of thousands of kilograms of rations.

Roman felt that Jet was helping him lighten his burden.

After all, the rationing system had been in place for two or three months to deal with unexpected situations, and everyone's food rations were very tight.

Only the military and schools received normal supplies.

After the harvest, everyone enjoyed two short but happy days of celebration.

……

After this season of legume planting, the soil has been initially improved, and this year's wheat seeds have adapted for two years.

Sowing winter wheat now will ensure a high yield next year... at least compared to the total yield of this land.

An average yield of 250 jin per mu is considered a win.

Roman spent September, a month filled with harvest and joy, reconciling accounts with Seth every day.

There's a missing chapter; it should be out soon.
Sorry, dear readers, I'll update with an extra chapter tomorrow.

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(End of this chapter)