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

Chapter 9 Cutting the Trouble with a Quick Sword

On the way back, Green took off his helmet and looked at Roman strangely: "I thought you were going to continue feeding them porridge and give up exploiting them."

The word "exploitation" was something Green learned from Roman, and Green thought it was very appropriate and fitting.

Roman didn't speak.

Green continued to complain, "It's a good thing you did that. If you don't exploit the common people and slaves, we can't even afford white bread. How will we maintain my training in the future?"

Roman suddenly asked, "What if you really can't eat white bread?"

Green looked surprised and suspicious, as if trying to figure out if he was joking. Even the silent Aaron looked over.

The three grew up together, and Green and Aaron both knew that Roman wanted to do great things. Today was clearly the starting point for his charge.

Roman has waited more than a decade for this day.

Green said carelessly, "If you can't eat it, you can't eat it. You are the noble lord, and we are just your knights. Do whatever you want, we can't object anyway."

He has a free-spirited personality, but he doesn't like to use his brain, especially when it comes to thinking about the future. The more he knows, the more confused he becomes.

But no knight would betray his lord; he would unconditionally support everything his lord did.

Let's concentrate our efforts on great things! Great things!

Wasn't that why he and Aaron chose to follow this lord?

Roman knew this would happen, but hearing Green's words immediately cheered him up, and he smiled as he looked ahead.

This time, it was Seth who approached, showing no interest in their conversation. He simply said, "I don't know what you're planning. But requiring children under 15 and over 5 to come to the manor is inappropriate."

He had finished handing things over with Moore during this time and had gained a more detailed understanding of the situation in Sig Town.

There are about 300 children in this age group, which is a significant proportion of the population in Sige Town.

Children of this age can help their parents with basic and simple chores.

Children over ten years old, in particular, are basically regarded as a basic labor force, and the impact of drawing such a number of laborers from all families on the town of Sige as a whole is quite significant.

Moreover, these families are very likely to have young children who need care.

Before, my older siblings could take care of me, but now I can only be a burden on my parents and it also interferes with the work in the fields.

Seth expressed his concerns to Roman, saying that this would cause serious problems.

Roman said he cares a lot about these underage children and will select suitable and talented individuals to train, while he will also make proper arrangements for the younger children.

Seth was deeply puzzled by Roman's decision.

In his view, Roman brought two clerks, and since there were already managers in Sig Town, there was no need to go to great lengths to train talent, and the number of people trained was already too large.

Roman didn't explain what he was going to do; it was a rather long process, and this was just the beginning. He wanted to get the minors in Sig Town into the habit of going to the manor whenever they had free time, and slowly exert influence on them.

Roman pondered for a moment, his crimson eyes fixed ahead, and said, "I want to change all of this. First, I must destroy their past way of life. The manor economy only makes me laugh. I will coordinate all resources and then distribute them uniformly, without tolerating any waste..."

His actions today were intended to demonstrate his power and authority, to instill genuine fear in those fools, rather than to make them fawn over him like a beloved parent.

You can't be nice to those lowly people, or they'll take advantage of the situation and try to climb the social ladder.

Roman wanted to forcefully shatter all their illusions, erase all their hopes, and destroy all their psychological defenses, making them the most suitable sacrifices to exchange for a ticket to the new era.

He has no time for gentle reforms and gradual guidance; that kind of asaïve, lukewarm approach only makes him despise it.

The best approach is to act decisively and decisively, laying a solid foundation with an iron fist, which will minimize sacrifices and achieve the fastest results.

Therefore, Roman could not allow those ignorant people to raise any objections.

Under Seth's horrified gaze, as if to say "You're insane," Roman continued, "I'm going to reduce the cultivated area. If you can't adapt, then die."

It's not that the more wasteland you reclaim, the better, nor is it that the more land you plant, the better.

In an era when a family needed to cultivate 60 mu (approximately 4 hectares) of land just to ensure they had enough to eat, the ratio of seeds to harvest was roughly 1:4. That is to say, for every grain of wheat planted, an average of only 1 grains of wheat could be harvested.

Because in this day and age, farming depends entirely on the weather; a strong wind can halve the yield, and a heavy rain can wipe it all out. There is absolutely no ability to withstand risks.

Although it is said that merchants will dare to commit any crime as long as they have a 300% profit, if you ask a merchant to farm, he would probably just kill himself here!

In theory, if Roman could grow eight grains of wheat from one grain, he could reduce the cultivated land area by half.

If he can grow 16 grains of wheat, he can give up three-quarters of the arable land in Sig Town.

Of course, the consequence of doing so is that the farmer will remain in the same half-dead state, and it is inevitable that he will not have enough to eat at every meal. Moreover, this situation is very limited and cannot withstand any upheaval.

Roman planted as much grain as possible based on the existing harvest.

The population of Sig Town surprised him, but labor was still scarce.

While intensive farming increases the level of trouble, it indirectly reduces the demand for labor.

More importantly, it can free up a large number of workers.

As stated in "The Tale of Life".

Roman still has a lot to do.

The most urgent task now is to grow enough food before the season ends.

As long as superior varieties are selected, the soil has sufficient nutrients, and the conditions are suitable, these crops can grow to near their genetic limits—wheat is just like humans.

Such output would naturally not be low.

Therefore, abandoning most of the cultivated area is beneficial to the whole.

Roman's expected ratio of effort to reward is 1:20.

In his view, this was already a very normal request.

If even this goal cannot be achieved, then Roman would be utterly ashamed before his ancestors.

Now is a good time to prepare for spring plowing, and we must seize this opportunity.

The town of Sige has more than 80 cattle. The climate of this land makes animal husbandry simpler than farming, but animal husbandry cannot support people, so they still have to rely on farming.

Farmers could not afford oxen, which in the past belonged to the agricultural officer Moore and the collectives of stewards.

Now, those properties belong to Roman.

Roman felt no remorse for requisitioning the resources of Sig Town.

He was a lord, so it was normal for him to have this privilege. He also couldn't stand the slow pace of development in Sig Town.

This initial accumulation was extremely slow, and to date, they have only amassed a few dozen cattle.

In the outside world, when prices don't fluctuate much, a single high-quality gold coin can buy two oxen.

However, the commercial scale of Sig Town is still too weak, lacking transportation capacity, so even if you have money, you can't buy everything.

Even Roman could do the math and know that having nearly two thousand people sharing just over 80 oxen was an extremely difficult situation, and it was impossible to complete all the plowing tasks no matter what.

He asked around and found that in the past, land that couldn't be plowed in time could only be cultivated extensively by manpower—that is, just scattering some seeds and whether they would survive was entirely up to fate.

Under normal circumstances, you can usually get some scattered gains.

There's no other way; if land productivity cannot be effectively increased, expanding arable land is inevitable.

This is a huge waste of resources. It is wise to abandon those barren lands where planting one yields two or four harvests, and concentrate resources instead.

(End of this chapter)