Iron Harvest: When Farming Becomes Conquest
Chapter 173 - 10: What Does Reclamation Mean?

Chapter 173: Chapter 10: What Does Reclamation Mean?

The reason Roman gave a fur coat as a wedding gift was simple.

He simply had no money.

Although he had plundered some wealth, it amounted only to a hundred and eighty gold, silver, and copper coins.

Compared to that, the captured warhorses were even more precious.

These metal coins were necessary to support the operation of Sige Town.

He had no choice but to give away fur coats as gifts.

A crudely made fur coat cost less than one gold coin, but it definitely commanded several silver coins.

That is to say, he was giving away three to four hundred gold coins worth.

Of course, that’s not how the accounts were actually calculated.

Because they couldn’t be sold.

However, using them to win people’s hearts was more appropriate than ever.

Roman presided over and witnessed the grand wedding, granting nearly five hundred soldiers three days of wedding leave.

With current conditions being modest, it was unlikely for them to share a room, mainly because there was no space.

Roman prohibited them from mating in the small woods.

So during this time, these newlyweds could only hold hands, kiss, or get a bit more physical with hands or mouths.

They would get their own houses only after two months—the military compound was in the planning stage and construction had not yet begun.

Roman also had to design a new architectural style.

So, this vacation was just giving them time to adapt to living together.

Life in the barracks had eliminated many of their old habits and scars.

When Roman was conducting cultural education, he always went all out to instill in them the idea that the army came from the people and was there to protect the Lord.

This ideology would give them a sense of conviction like never before.

Because they really did come from the people.

In the past, they were either the lowest level slaves or came from impoverished and poor commoners.

He would often ask them, were they truly happy when their fellow countrymen suffered and were exploited and oppressed by the Nobles?

Ah? You ask if I am also exploiting you? But isn’t my exploitation lesser than other Nobles! (annoyed)

Roman could never personally create a military class that came from the people and yet dominated over the people.

They could not step on anyone’s head but should try their utmost to understand their relationship with the people.

They could become hammers and sickles but never knives and swords.

The former were for performing productive tasks, while the latter were meant only for slaying.

He trained them, helped them become skilled, to urge them to save their fellow citizens—bringing him more population and resources.

Roman firmly believed he was right!

Everyone in this era was a fool.

Only his system was the smartest, most effective, and exploited with the highest efficiency!

He needed to expand outward, extend his power, and spread his governance ideals.

This task was the collective mission of those he ruled.

And the result of his rule would eventually benefit everyone.

This was fate!

This was the proclaiming of fate!

Whenever he thought about this, Roman would excitedly raise the flag!

Raising the flag of fate high!

Damn it all!!

...

After the wedding ended, he clearly allocated all the labor and now it was time to officially begin.

He selected six hundred individuals with potential to be sent to the barracks;

He added a hundred strong laborers to the Casting Department and the Wood Factory;

He then assigned four hundred lesser laborers to the Breeding Department;

And amongst these, the most important was...

It was time to cultivate!

...

The time for spring planting had arrived!

Last year, Roman had planted wheat and soybeans.

He had chosen the best, most fertile, and easiest-to-cultivate fields.

But beyond those ten thousand acres, the condition of the remaining farmland was terrible.

Especially since they had been neglected for a whole year.

Now, those lands were covered with weeds, resembling wastelands.

Why did Roman say those lands were wastelands?

Because every planting seemed like reclaiming the wilderness.

It’s called deep plowing and harrowing, but that requires a basis in cultivation.

The fields Roman chose were essentially good lands, well maintained.

They had undergone decades of cultivation and fallowing; the topsoil was relatively loose and had a cultivation foundation.

Thus, the deep plowing easily turned up the deeper soil layers.

However, the effect of heavy plowing on those wastelands wasn’t very good.

But since the present fields couldn’t meet the demands, they had no choice but to reclaim new land for spring planting.

What did reclaiming land mean in this era?

First, it meant dealing with weeds and shrubs.

Some vegetation wasn’t afraid of being burnt or cut; they had highly developed root systems and strong regenerative capabilities.

Now that winter had just passed, many shrubs hadn’t died from frost. Once the temperature rose, their roots would recover, and any buried seeds would germinate.

This was normal; otherwise, there wouldn’t be a saying about wildfires being inexhaustible.

For weeding, deep plowing was essential.

Hence, the second problem was that the soil in the wastelands was too hard.

Those soils were compact and very hard; tools like hoes were almost useless.

A Cross Pickaxe—specifically for mining—had to be used.

Roman wasn’t joking.

Using iron tools designed for mining rocks to reclaim wastelands.

He would lift the Cross Pickaxe high, swing it down forcefully, insert its pointed end into the soil, and pry upward vigorously. Once pried, several chunks of soil would break off. Its wooden handle also had to be custom-made; otherwise, with prolonged use, the handle would break.

This was a cruel reality!

And even more cruel was the scarcity of steel in this era.

This meant that the farmers plowing the fields didn’t even have iron implements; one could only imagine how low their efficiency was.

Faced with virgin land, they could only dig little by little using wooden tools.

And the soil clods on virgin lands generally contained a lot of stones and rocks.

Not to mention virgin lands, even on cultivated lands, those stones remained endless.

Every year, a large amount of stones would surface.

Year after year, and they could never be completely picked.

Picking them up was time-consuming and exhausting, and leaving them would affect the grain yield.

To turn virgin land into cultivated land, it required a cycle of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth; nurture it for three to five years, and it would become cultivated land.

The metal aspect was alright—Sige Town’s steel production was certainly sufficient to meet agricultural needs.

Regarding wood, planting leguminous plants or other vegetable crops—as long as one didn’t let the land go fallow—planting anything could effectively improve the soil composition.

Water referred to rain or irrigation; after each rainfall, the soil would be soaked, making it relatively easier to reclaim. This was also why farmers liked to work in the rain; this land also had a relatively high frequency of rainy periods.

Fire referred to burning the fields, but as slash-and-burn agriculture continued, some weeds became resistant to fire, even thrived in it, and could propagate with the help of flames.

And earth could be improved by mixing peat dug from swamps, fermented manure, and other humic nutrients into acidic soil, thereby quickly cultivating a piece of land within three to five years.

...

This was also why productivity was low in this era.

Without iron tools, without heavy plowing, without agricultural technology.

Farmers yearned to increase grain production but didn’t know how to begin; the agricultural revolution was still in its infancy.

There were many swamps, but Roman had never heard of anyone extracting peat from the swamps as a natural fertilizer.

The entire cultivation process presented a kind of ignorance yet a pure beauty.