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

Chapter 77 Summer Farming

Gweil and Sanna left quickly.

The forest has returned to its former tranquility.

The child wouldn't come too often; she would only come after she had saved up a certain amount of white bread. Moreover, the journey was long and the roads were rough, which was a huge challenge for a girl who was just over ten years old.

She thought she had come secretly behind Roman's back.

But they all knew that Roman had tacitly allowed her to come.

How could a witch's disappearance for half a day not attract attention?

They silently accepted Gweil's kindness.

She was simply repaying the kindness they had shown her in the past.

But those two years were enough for Gweil to repay them for half her life without complaint, until the youngest of them, Jet, also died in the mountains, and perhaps then she would stop this action.

Just as the Witch of Doom cried so bitterly when the great thief Borg died, every time she went into the mountains, after visiting them, she would also spend some time at Borg's grave.

Two more days passed.

Everything that Gweil brought was eaten up by Dick, Garin, and Jet.

They resumed their previous lives.

They sustenance themselves by hunting and gathering every day.

That day, Jet left his residence carrying his broken sword.

Dick met him and noticed something unusual about the deserter.

"Are you going down the mountain?"

Jeter's expression was indifferent, as if he had seen life and death countless times.

He didn't explain, he just nodded slightly.

The phrase, "Why can't what Roman wants to do be what I want to do?" has been echoing in his mind these past few days.

He didn't believe in miracles, but what if it were true? He had heard about the changes Gevier had made and had witnessed them firsthand. Why not try to believe it? It was free, after all.

For some reason, Dick felt somewhat relieved.

"Then go and take a look."

……

Jet walked out of the woods behind him.

It was as if I had stepped out of a cool and warm familiar world and entered another hot and restless unfamiliar world.

The blazing summer sun was particularly dazzling.

The gradually rising temperature was somewhat difficult for him to adapt to.

Looking ahead at the roads that stretched in all directions.

Jet had no idea where to go.

After standing there for a moment, he walked straight ahead.

He walked for half an hour, passing through those fields and saw many oxen and draft horses moving back and forth in the fields.

Two large animals pulled a heavy iron plow side by side. The plowshare split the soil, bringing out most of the weeds, tree roots, and stones, and creating a very deep and long furrow.

The plow left behind large amounts of black soil along its path, much like scraping cream. Once the land was cultivated to its end, the accumulated black soil formed a mound that served as the boundary of the land.

Viewed from above, it resembles neatly arranged wide noodles, forming a unique and distinctive appearance.

Busy!

This was Jeter's first impression.

All the farmers are working hard on summer plowing, and the main crop to be planted is soybeans.

He couldn't understand the unfamiliar heavy plow, but he could see the joy and enthusiasm on the faces of all the farmers, their former numbness and sullenness completely gone.

Although they are still working under the scorching sun, their mental state is completely different from before.

Many farmers also noticed the unusual Jet.

The main problem is that while everyone else is busy, they see someone wearing tattered armor and carrying a broken sword strolling around leisurely, looking completely out of place.

But their farming tasks are heavy, and they don't have time to care about anything else.

The lord assigned tasks to each of them.

This summer's planting season requires an additional 4,000 mu of land to be plowed, bringing the total to 6,000 mu when combined with the previous 2,000 mu.

This was a nationwide labor effort; virtually everyone who could be mobilized participated, even a group of people were temporarily drawn from the salt mines. They were divided into six farming teams. Each team consisted of about two hundred people, responsible for one thousand acres of land.

An administrator personally appointed by the lord is in charge.

If the farming task is not completed within the deadline, everyone in the team will be punished, whether they are ordinary farmers or managers. They will be whipped fifty times and then hung up for a whole day.

More importantly, their lord also brought a farming team.

This means that if the lord also fails to complete the task, he will be punished accordingly—first, he will be whipped! Then he will be hung up! For an entire day!

This pressure immediately fell on the farmers under the lord's command.

They were sweating profusely, putting in all their effort.

They were afraid that the lord would whip them for being too slow.

Of course, any farmer with a little experience can deduce from the farming tasks and time that they can complete the task within the allotted time if they work harder.

After all, farming is a labor task with a huge difference between its upper and lower limits.

The most arduous step is to remove debris such as tree roots, stones, and grass roots from the soil.

Striving for excellence is a form of labor.

Even doing things half-heartedly is a form of work.

Ultimately, the more meticulous a task is, the more time and effort it requires.

Based on diminishing marginal utility, let's assume that a perfect piece of land can produce 100 jin of grain.

A less-than-perfect piece of land can only produce 70 jin of grain.

However, to increase the yield by 30 jin and make the land perfect, it may be necessary to invest twice the labor force. If there are not enough people, the only option is to extend the working hours.

Given the labor shortage, it's understandable that they wouldn't do such detailed work.

This is a fact that even Roman has to accept.

If you assign such a heavy workload, you can't blame others for shirking their responsibilities.

Of course, very few people are truly willing to slack off.

The scene of the bountiful harvest was still vivid in their minds, and now, without Roman's explanation, the farmers understood the benefits of this farming method.

The more you invest now, the more you will reap in the future.

Most farmers felt they understood everything and didn't need to be urged; they all eagerly took up their work.

Now, when people are well-fed and can work, their work efficiency is completely different from before when they were not well-fed and could not work.

They hoped to see the soybean yield as soon as possible and finally determine the relationship between labor and production; their eagerness was no less than that of a groom impatient for his bride.

There was always something strange about Jeter's journey.

I can't explain it in detail.

He initially thought it was because the farmers' mental outlook had changed.

But it was soon discovered that this was not the case.

He met the farmers who worked together with a division of labor.

Some tilled the land, some harrowed the land, some weeded, and some moved stones and tree roots—they didn't move them by manpower, but by horse-drawn carts, to clean all the debris from the soil.

He later thought it was the strange feeling caused by the farmer's tools.

The sound that steel makes when it hits a stone is very crisp.

He knew at a glance that it must be tempered steel!
It requires a skilled blacksmith to expend great effort and forge it hundreds of times to achieve its shape.

The problem is, this was originally a processing technique for weapons and armor, so why is it being applied to agricultural tools?

Would other nobles spend so much money to forge farm tools?

Do you know how expensive steel is?

How many blacksmiths would have to work themselves to death to forge so many farm tools?

Finally, Jet saw the figure by the field, directing all the farmers in coordinated work.

Jet finally understood where the strange feeling came from.

Just as a pile of loose sand was gathered together by an invisible hand and transformed into a sturdy and sharp plow.

It carried an unstoppable momentum.

Fall suddenly!

It cleaved the earth in two!
(End of this chapter)