Iron Harvest: When Farming Becomes Conquest
Chapter 187 - 24: Murder Techniques

Chapter 187: Chapter 24: Murder Techniques

War affects production, but once the war is over, these tasks must be expedited.

The land must be cultivated.

Architecture must be built.

Soldiers must be trained.

Almost a hundred people died in this battle, a heavy loss that made Roman somewhat annoyed but he was helpless.

Because training time was short.

If the troops had been well-practiced and the soldiers coordinated in combat, casualties could have been greatly reduced.

This is the source of the saying, "Sweat more in peace, bleed less in war."

But when there’s no time, there’s no time to sweat.

Especially the over a thousand new soldiers, who only understood basic formations, were hurried onto the battlefield; how could they be expected to perform well?

That they didn’t retreat was commendable courage on their part.

Generally speaking, many soldiers die in their first battle.

Only those who survive can tap into their potential.

Faced with this phenomenon, Roman’s answer was: find people for mining.

Especially red and blue gemstones, which he desperately needed at the moment.

Blue gemstones could enhance professional skills.

Red gemstones could be exchanged for Battlefield Simulation coupons.

Lack combat experience?

Put them through the simulations to learn.

If once isn’t enough, doing it several times will surely suffice.

One Simulation Coupon could support twelve Angel Envoys, while a low-quality Ruby could only be exchanged for three coupons, which is thirty-six simulation attempts for the envoys.

Roman had previously used up all his Red Gems, resulting in over three hundred simulation attempts for his envoys.

A good knife is for cutting steel.

He only took envoys with combat talent into the simulations.

The effect was quite clear.

It’s like gaining experience in dealing with a car accident after being hit by a car once.

What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.

Die enough, and you adapt.

Combat and tactical skills also saw a significant improvement.

Because things that happen in the simulated battlefield affect the envoys in the real world.

Roman observed that a novice soldier envoy, after being stabbed up close by an enemy in the simulation, instinctively kept a certain distance from enemies during real-life drills.

But when Roman called him to ask about it, the new soldier said he didn’t know why, but he was very afraid of close combat.

Subconsciously, he knew the consequences of rashly closing in.

Roman didn’t blame him, and thought it was a good thing.

Only those who understand fear can live long.

Fear stimulates the desire for survival.

All the experienced veterans had one thing in common: they survived because they were afraid to die.

Those who recklessly charge into battle without knowing when to advance or retreat often don’t live long.

Those who fear death think about how to survive on the battlefield, and they usually come to one conclusion.

That is to kill the enemy and win the victory.

So, many veterans painstakingly delve into this profound subject.

Behind every seemingly insignificant combat skill is a trail of dozens or even hundreds of bodies that served as footnotes, and these skills become what are known as schools of combat, or killing techniques.

And Conquest Knights are a system that teaches how to kill enemies quickly from an early age.

Most wild samurai in this era find it difficult to learn real skills on their own and must rely on self-interpretation.

This requires a suitable environment, observation, memory, and most importantly, talent and insight.

And it cannot be divorced from reality.

Otherwise, it would result in farcical techniques like sliding tackles.

The life and knowledge of a person are ultimately limited, and the error rate for trial is very low, but Roman hoped his envoys could have infinite lives for trial and error, eventually becoming veterans of a hundred battles.

This will require extraordinary resource support.

Roman recalculated the forces at his disposal.

With the cultivation ending, a large workforce could be timely allocated to various posts.

The main concentration points of labor were in the breeding farms, the Ministry of Agriculture, and the construction teams.

The former goes without saying, it must be arranged for a thousand people.

Half of the labor force in the breeding farm was female, responsible for herding, milking, and collecting eggs, while the more physically demanding tasks like mucking out, mowing, and feeding were done by men.

As for the farmland, that too goes without saying, even if spring plowing was over, someone had to watch over it every day.

Weeding and farming could not do without five hundred farmers, which was the bare minimum.

Roman also had to find time for them to sow pasture seeds so that, with a harvest in summer and autumn, they could collect twice this year. Pasture was too important for livestock breeding, otherwise, if they relied solely on grazing, it would take at least ten months before the animals were ready for sale.

Houses also needed to be built, and brick and tile firing was another physically demanding job.

There were three hundred people specifically responsible for construction. Now that the technical and production capacity of the construction team had improved, they were able to build up a dozen brick houses every day with increasingly better quality and efficiency.

Compared with that, the wood factory and the blacksmith’s sheds, the two types of craftsmen combined, only amounted to four hundred people.

The big kitchen staff were relatively more numerous, with fully five hundred people, because the daily dietary pressure was immense.

Ultimately, he managed to squeeze out three hundred people for mining, which included some of the captives.

At that moment, everyone’s labor tasks were packed full.

The way of working was primitive, but labor efficiency was exceptionally high for that era.

Roman fully mobilized everyone’s productive potential, like a huge social machine slowly but firmly starting to operate.

Roman took away their rest time, but he was by no means stingy with their food.

It couldn’t be said there was meat every meal, but there was definitely meat every day.

This was their reward for hard work.

...

On Earl Kant’s conference table.

Those people sat there, one face gloomier than the next, like six stormy clouds gathered together, causing a very low pressure, so much so that the serving servants didn’t dare to breathe too heavily.

Gailande spoke first, "The situation is now clear."

"That’s right, we’re back here, as if we’ve done nothing at all, merely wasting so many hands in vain," Vilechka was greatly displeased.

"Because the enemy is not just a disorganized mob," Bald Carter said.

Earl Kant tapped on the table, "This is what I’ve always been emphasizing, but none of you paid any attention!"

The Earl felt secretly pleased inside.

His words were ignored by everyone.

They were like a keg of gunpowder, focused only on what they wanted to focus on.

Vilechka spoke out first, "If Lord Carter’s warriors had been braver, perhaps we wouldn’t be in such a mess, and now we could be eating roast meat dipped in salt."

"What did you say?!"

Vilechka pointed out, "It was you who said it! You’ve always said ’My warriors each can fight two opponents’! But the result was that you were beaten and fled in disarray as soon as you went ashore. When things went wrong, the first to run were your men."

"How many of Vilechka’s soldiers made it ashore? You all hid in the back! You let my warriors bleed!"

Steve had no choice but to say, "Lord Carter, I believe that is an inappropriate remark."

The Gailande Family had also shed blood.

The true spectator, the silent and reticent Knight Simon, watched the nobles shift blame and point fingers at each other.

He was silent and unobtrusive, only speaking when necessary, keeping a very low profile.

Carter slammed the table, making a banging sound. "The fact is my warriors broke through with their lives, your soldiers did not cooperate, prancing in the back, turning a battle into child’s play!"

Earl Kant agreed, "Exactly! That’s just child’s play! Knight Simon, in your opinion, whose army suffered the least casualties?"

The Simon family knew that others would have noticed their actions.

After all, those affairs could not be concealed.

"Earl, I can see that your soldiers fought the bravest and suffered the most grievous casualties. With such sacrifice, the reward you received must certainly be the highest, I swear!"

Knight Simon said.

"It’s just that they couldn’t defeat those people, your army couldn’t do it, and naturally, neither could mine. We all can see it—especially that over two-meter tall fellow; he’s on our level."

This statement was agreed upon by Flant, the Senior Knight who had been calm and composed ever since his return. His troops hadn’t lost a single man, with only a few being grazed by stray arrows.

But nobody dared to blame the Bexites family.

"That man on horseback is very likely a Third-tier Knight," Flant added.