Throne of the North.

Chapter 423 Swampland, a brilliant plan

The departure of the eight knights has touched the hearts of countless people, and everything will be calm until they come back.

However, there are some people who are destined not to participate in this excitement, and that is the tens of thousands of people who have just arrived in Lingdu City.

The houses that have been built, no, they should be called simple huts, built with previous marching tents, wooden boards, and three or five stones, form the outlines of the three villages.

Loess Town, Mawei Town, and Swamp Town are the names of the three villages and towns. As the preliminary shacks were built, Harrington drove these people to the north.

"You are not here to enjoy yourself. If you don't want to starve to death next year, take your tools and go reclaim the wasteland!"

The current shacks can protect these people from the cold wind that would kill a group of people the next day. This is the minimum condition. Once it is achieved, these people will not only focus on building shelters.

"The food you have now, including the food you will have until next year, is all given to you by the honorable Baron Ryan."

"Lord Ryan did not ask you to pay it back, but you must pay to make up for this gift."

The overseer from the Frozen Territory commands a large number of people, but his tasks are very simple.

Cut and fill.

This wasteland is the edge of the swamp. The Frozen Territory has been developing the swamp, but with little effect. With the arrival of winter, the swamp freezes, making the development process even more difficult.

But it became an opportunity.

Developing swamps does not mean developing only the swamps. The lands on the edge of the swamps are also rare plains.

Because of the winter, the land was frozen with frost, and it was impossible to grow food on such land. At least that was the perception of most nobles, so over the years, no nobles had tried to turn this place into arable land.

boom! boom! boom!
The farmer's palms turned red as the hoe hit the cold ground. But when he looked at the soil under his feet, he found that the piece he dug out was not even as big as his palm.

"It's so hard. Can you really grow food on this kind of land?"

These people thought with some despair, but they still did not give up, because more importantly, they regarded this matter as a debt repayment to Baron Ryan.

If the noble lord said that they didn't have to pay it back, did they really not have to pay it back? Years of oppression had made them instinctively unable to imagine and resist, and instead they thought.

During this period, everything they ate, drank, and even lived in came from Ryan.

Even if Ryan wanted to hang them on the stake now, no one would resist.

In comparison, digging a hole is much easier.

boom!
The wooden sticks were broken and the hoes had gaps of varying sizes. This was the land in front of the North, and it had turned into frozen soil.

"Want to be lazy, huh?"

A new hoe was thrown over to the farmer, and he couldn't let it go because it was very useful.

"Is this the hoe from Lord Baron Ryan's house? It's much better than the one I have."

"How could it be Master Ryan's? Why would a nobleman work with a hoe like you?"

Someone nearby retorted.

"Even if you are working, you shouldn't use this hoe of yours. I saw gold coins scattered all over the ground the other day, and they haven't been picked up yet."

"Master Ryan's family must have a hoe made of gold."

It is impossible not to talk while working, especially for these people. Most of their few activities are spent on talking.

Basket after basket of frozen soil was dug out and carried to the north by special people.

“Where are they sending the soil?”

"I do not know."

"I'm so curious. If I had known this earlier, I would have asked my uncle to arrange for me to join the soil delivery team. They don't even have to dig the soil. Why is this damn frozen soil so hard? It's harder than the soil in the territory I was in before."

The political officer from the Frozen Territory walked on the land. He was not a supervisor, but he watched these people digging the soil. Seeing one person moving forward continuously, the political officer angrily stopped him.

"Don't you see you've crossed the line?"

“You can’t dig here!”

The farmer put away his hoe and went back. He was still afraid of people who were dressed so warmly.

"A pit can only have a maximum area of ​​ten acres. Of course you don't know how many acres there are. The line on the ground is a marker. You must not cross it!"

A loud roar was heard from the sky. Seeing the griffin spread its wings, many people showed fear. They were no longer so afraid of orcs, but Warcraft was still a legendary creature.

Especially the huge, ferocious, and flying monsters.

On the back of the griffin, Etria looked at the ground below which was already full of holes, and couldn't help but frowning, then he fell down.

"What's going on? Digging so deep?"

The huge griffin brought a huge pressure, causing the political officer to bend down, and said respectfully to Etria:
"Mr. Archon."

He was also a little embarrassed about Etria's question.

"I don't know how deep to dig. I just want to see the right soil. But after digging for so long, I still haven't found it."

Etria looked towards the big pit. It had been dug almost half a meter deep, but the ground under his feet was still as hard as stone.

“Can this really grow food?”

She lost her confidence, and then entered Lingdu City and told Ryan about the swamp.

"If one meter is not enough, try two meters. If you still can't see any rocks after two meters, then stop."

We dug two meters deep and, as expected, we found rocks in some places and the ground was still frozen in some places.

At this time, the teams transporting frozen soil also began to transport baskets of swamp soil from the north. The surface of the soil was already frozen with ice, and they used hoes to break it up. A basket of soil became half a basket, and the soil would even shrink in volume as water dripped down.

Rumble!
Flames rose from the ground, and the cold air became warm. The firewood crackled and burned the baskets and the soil together.

The people around gathered here. They no longer needed to dig holes. They gathered around the fire and enjoyed the warmth. They felt heartbroken to see that the firewood was used to roast the soil.

As the half hour passed, the PC began to give orders.

"Don't just stand there, put out the fire!"

"Don't water them with the runoff! Use a hoe to separate the wood inside, and then use a wooden basket to throw the soil into those pits!"

Large amounts of steaming soil and burning ashes were pushed into the pit, and as evening approached, the air became fetid as truckloads of them were dumped into the pit.

"Fall down!"

No one understands, but just do it.

As the feces were sprinkled in, the final layer of wood ash covered it.

"Those frozen soils that have been dug out should be broken into pieces, crushed like wheat, and then spread out!"

As a layer of soil fell, the originally two-meter-deep pit became only one meter. Finally, another layer of rotten leaves was spread down.

At this moment, the sky was already dark, and most of the people had returned to the villages. The last group of people erected wooden stakes in the north and supported the wooden boards at an angle.

The wind at night is very cold, which can at least change the flow of the cold wind when it is close to the ground, so that these potholes will not bear all the cold.

However, some charcoal and branches were left in each pit, and the flames illuminated the last group of people in the dark night.

The next morning, when we went to work again, the pits had frozen hard, but when we removed the top layer of ash, the soil inside still retained its warmth and vitality.

The work on the second day was the same as the first day. The frozen soil was dug out and sent to the north. The swamp soil from the north was also sent over and filled into the pits. The flames maintained the temperature. When it came to the last layer of 20 to 30 centimeters, people even had to stand in and stir the beast feces and soil themselves.

"Five households are responsible for one piece of land. Digging, transporting, filling, and mixing. If anyone lets the soil freeze, I will beat you to pieces with my whip!"

The political officer was accompanied by guards, which made him look particularly intimidating. Pieces of land were constantly being improved, and human power was used to force the soil to remain alive. There were also large construction sites in the swamps to the north.

Unlike the reclamation of wasteland in the south, the people here only need to do two things, and that is to dig out the frozen swamp land, along with the solid ice and even the deeper black swamp mud, and send it all to the reclaimed fields in the south.

The nutrients in these soils are incredibly high, but they are too watery, and coupled with being frozen for most of the year, no food can grow.

Ryan didn't need them to become farmland to grow food for the time being. The most important thing now was to keep the swamps in the summer so that all the efforts made by the frozen land would not be in vain.

The extremely hard soil from the land in the south was poured into the long trenches dug here, and as layer after layer fell, pieces of stone were also transported from the direction of the frozen land. These stones were also huge wealth, but now they were all filled into the swamp.

There must be a road here by next summer.

The stones and frozen soil will stabilize the deep soil beneath your feet, because it is mixed with metal waste. This waste comes from the blacksmith shops and the academy in the Alchemy Valley. Those damn alchemist apprentices wasted countless amounts of metal in the process of becoming alchemists.

These metals could certainly be recycled, but in the end the decision was made to recycle them. After all, the recycling process is too cumbersome. It would be fine if metals were scarce in the North Wind Province, but there is a shortage of them after all.

The metal waste was crushed into a simplified version of "rebar" by the crystal python of Rose Alchemist, and thrown under the land to serve as beams.

Ryan stood at the end of the road. He knew very well that what he was doing now was just a drop in the bucket for this vast swamp.

But it must be done. When the weather warms up next year and the swamp thaws, he will even try to plant trees to absorb the excess water and stabilize the land.

This is a long process, which may take his whole life to achieve.

Perhaps in some year in the future, this swamp will turn golden, and countless wheat seedlings will dot the cold land, allowing time to witness the greatness of human power.

This was his vision, even though no one in the entire Frozen Territory could imagine such a scene.

However, the final day has not yet come, and Ryan needs to let these people see hope, starting from this first piece of land.

He personally walked through the swamp and came to the reclaimed wasteland in the south. Wooden boards stood here like sloping roofs. Under the boards, some people even laid hay and branches. They planned to live here to ensure that the soil was turned over at night.

No one wants to endure being whipped.

But the smell here is very bad. Although this wasteland was a bit barren a few days ago, the air was still fresh, but now it is very pungent.

The farmers here were somewhat shocked by Ryan's arrival. They didn't expect Ryan to come to such a place in person. After all, when they first came two days ago, they themselves couldn't stand the smell.

The serfs were kneeling on the ground. Some of them had actually become commoners because of their merits, but they were still kneeling.

"Three thousand acres in one month, can it be completed?"

A group of political officials stood cautiously in front of Ryan. When they heard what Ryan said, they immediately said that they would definitely be able to accomplish it.

Maybe they were worried before, thinking that 3,000 acres might be troublesome, but now it must be completed, and it must be completed with increased efficiency and scale.

This is a chance to catch the eye of Lord Ryan.

"Three thousand acres is three thousand acres, no more, no less, otherwise you will have to deal with Mage Yelena."

If you want to reclaim wasteland, reclaiming the land is actually just the simplest first step.

Reclaiming wasteland only requires manpower and tools, but if you want to grow crops, the first thing to test is the seeds.

Master Yelena was a magician invited by Ryan from the Imperial Capital. When she arrived in the Frozen Territory, she did not perform any magic but was arranged to study grain seeds and production. Even Ryan did not dare to communicate too much with this woman because of her resentment.

If Master McKen had not told Yelena that life magic was the ninth miracle that emerged from the eight elements and that the energy of any life was the truth of magic, Master Yelena would have probably given up long ago.

And her talent is also terrifyingly strong. Ryan feels that Yelena the Mage's talent is comparable to that of Luna the Mage.

In the Doomsday North of Svadifari, Mage Luna was able to become a great mage, and even forced her way towards becoming a great mage. As for Yelena, she came from an ordinary family, but became a mage in her twenties by borrowing money from the magic academy. This is very rare.

In comparison, although Baroness Avril Meléndez became a magician at a younger age, the resources they obtained were completely different.

Avril has talent and resources, but Yelena only has talent.

In the past two years, the biggest surprise Yelena brought to Ryan in the Frozen Territory was the seeds of grain. Those seeds were able to maintain life energy and grow in the cold land and were able to adapt to the environment of the Frozen Territory.

Food is the most important thing for people. Mage Yelena expanded the sky of the Frozen Territory several times.

So when discussing the crop cultivation on this wasteland with Yelena, Ryan told her without hesitation that he had already paid off the debt owed to the magic academy on her behalf.

If food can grow in the wasteland next autumn, Ryan will not hesitate to help the other party take a step further and become a great magician.

Mage apprentice, sorcerer, magician, grand magician, at this stage, it can be said that one has achieved something on the extraordinary path of magic.

Becoming a great magician means that you can foresee the day when you become a great magician in the future. Regardless of whether you can succeed in the end, at least you are not lacking in talent and qualifications.

This is true for all nobles. Becoming a magician will give you a certain level of funding, and becoming a great magician will give you a level of funding that will completely change the future decisions of a noble family.

"So, you can definitely research the seeds for three thousand acres of land, right?"

Ryan still remembered the desperate look in Yelena's eyes when he grabbed a large sack of seeds and placed it in front of her.

Three thousand acres is already enough, but Yelena needs to complete the research on grain seeds from this winter to next spring to ensure that at least some of those seeds can grow on this reclaimed land.

Ryan's requirements were not high. He just wanted to be able to produce ten kilograms per mu on this land for the first time. Just ten kilograms.

He will be able to gain countless loyalty.

At that time, tens of thousands of people in these three villages and towns will become Baron Ryan's die-hard fans, and Ryan can lead them to kill the emperor with such loyalty.

Such is the power of this land.

At the same time, Ryan can once again enhance his prestige in the aristocratic circle.

In the Borean Province, food is a problem every year.

The victories in the wars forced the nobles of the North Wind Province to consider Baron Ryan's words in any decision. So when the grain really grows, all decisions involving all the nobles in the North Wind Province must be made by him, Ryan.

Politics, military, and economy are the three major subjects. In the military aspect, no one can question Ryan. No matter what kind of war it is, Ryan is undoubtedly the commander-in-chief.

As for the economy, Ryan did not stop. Wasn't the bustle of Zero Crossing City caused by him? In just five days, the Northland Brave Guild took out more than 800 gold coins, representing the death of more than 800 orcs, but no one knew that Baron Ryan harvested more than 1,300 gold coins from the Northland Brave Guild in just five days.

Everyone thought Ryan was losing money, but behind the advertising fees were huge positive returns.

In the Borean Province, metal weapons are very cheap, but it depends on what you compare them to. Compared to weapons in the south, they are much cheaper, but how about metal compared to wood?
A dagger, a short sword, those are things that an ordinary family can only make by gritting their teeth and tightening their belts.

Lingdu City, the Northern Chamber of Commerce, and the Northern Heroes Guild, the three biggest money bags, are constantly producing wealth for Ryan.

Financially, he has his own rhythm.

Finally, it’s politics.

For the nobility, politics is on the ground beneath their feet.

Ryan should have gone to Thundercloud County to compete with those nobles for the land and mines that had completely lost their lords, but he didn't. He didn't choose that path. That ready-made political battlefield would have allowed him to gain a lot of political prestige, but at the same time, it was also destined to make Ryan gain political enemies in the end.

There were too many wolves and too little meat. The lands and mines were distributed to some people, and the other nobles who suffered the same heavy losses would naturally become angry and resentful.

But this is not what Ryan wanted. He could have enemies, but they could not be divided so easily. So he simply gave up the political battlefield, jumped out of Thundercloud County, and returned to this desolate land.

Use the land foundation to tell all the nobles who they need to bow before in the North Wind Province.

The emperor no longer cared about the North Wind Province and replaced it with Meyers to join in the fun.

For Ryan, this was a godsend.

During the power transfer between the Emperor and Meyers in the North Wind Province, it was Ryan's chance to intervene and gain the loyalty of this land before the Emperor left and Meyers arrived?

"Baron? You can call me Baron, but you can't really treat me as a Baron."

Ryan stood at the edge of the dung, looking at the south with a smile, putting his palms on his chest, and when he bowed, the sun in the sky set just right.

(End of this chapter)