Iron Harvest: When Farming Becomes Conquest
Chapter 197 - 2: Interesting Civilizational Phenomena

Chapter 197: Chapter 2: Interesting Civilizational Phenomena

Roman had never liked Alster.

He disliked his obesity, his indulgence in pleasures, his lavishness...

Despite being a Grand Duke, he lacked any execution ability and even shirked from handling governmental affairs.

Even a pig would do a better job!

At least a pig only needed cheap feed and could be left to roam freely.

Roman retained his past life’s mentality and had his own logic about everything.

What was right? What was wrong?

Those who held positions and did nothing deserved death! They were just wasting food!

Yet, for all of Alster’s flaws, one could not erase his sole virtue.

He had raised his children and given Roman the best he could give—the freedom to do anything without any reservations.

He knew he would die, but he did not expect it to happen so suddenly; he passed away hurriedly without waiting for his grand army to reach Split Armor Domain.

Now his death pained Roman.

Alster had given him so much, yet he had not managed to express his gratitude; whenever he thought about it, he tossed and turned, feeling only guilt.

He used to curse him in his heart, calling him old fool, wishing death upon him.

Back then, he cursed without guilt, arrogant and proud, but now he lay awake at night, wishing he could slap himself. I truly deserve to die!

He wanted to cry, but tears wouldn’t come; he needed to be more rational now.

There was no time for sadness.

He had to face the currently perilous situation.

Roman would never acknowledge Gael, even though he was the Duke’s eldest son, legitimate, with strong claims, he still wouldn’t acknowledge Gael.

His foundation was what Alster had given him.

This River Valley, too, was Alster’s gift to him.

No one could touch a single blade of grass here.

The messenger soon returned, carrying Roman’s response—

"Lord Roman will fully support Duke Gael, but alas, our conditions are limited, lacking soldiers, but will assist when the opportunity arises."

The messenger was very unsatisfied, having been confined to the docks the entire time without even seeing Roman’s face.

Seth made up an excuse that Roman was seriously injured and bedridden, inappropriate for receiving guests.

But the messenger didn’t believe it, thinking if you won’t receive guests, that’s fine, but why block me at the door?

Which vassal would dare to do such a thing?

Are you planning a rebellion?

The messenger would definitely exaggerate the situation to Duke Gael.

Roman didn’t care.

Let the messenger exaggerate.

The messenger was Duke Gael’s spy; there was no way he could let the latter carry news of Sige Town back with him.

The best way was to ensure the messenger saw nothing.

Of course, he didn’t believe Gael would outright ignore him.

But Roman also believed that Gael wouldn’t bother with him right now.

He had just ascended to power; how could he spend much effort on a distant vassal, at most, he would just note this incident.

Any Duke with a bit of political wisdom knew that now was not the time to strip him of his lordship.

If Gael dared to force Roman to leave, Roman was ready to rebel right now.

Once news spread, Gael couldn’t afford to bring an army from thousands of miles away to suppress the rebellion, and his authority as Duke would be challenged, which would be very unfavorable to him.

He couldn’t let the situation become deadlocked.

Roman was delaying; it was highly likely that Gael would delay too.

In the new Duke’s eyes, Roman was inconsequential, like a monkey in the palm of Buddha, who could be dealt with in the snap of a finger.

But Roman would not give Gael the chance to trouble him.

He planned to rebel first!

...

As the end of April approached.

The soldiers were still in training.

There were casualties in the battle on the riverbank.

But Roman immediately filled the gap, maintaining the number at two thousand soldiers.

The main challenge in sustaining professional soldiers lay in two aspects.

One was food consumption.

During the planting season, agriculture demanded a lot of labor.

Fewer hands meant reduced productivity.

But... let productivity decrease then.

At this critical juncture of life and death, decreased productivity wouldn’t lead to starvation.

Roman took food security very seriously; if there was no grain, then eat vegetables; if there were no vegetables, then eat meat.

Of course, a mixed diet was the best.

The current food storage would definitely last until summer.

By then, the tens of thousands of acres of winter wheat planted last year could be harvested.

So with all this food, how difficult could it be to sustain two thousand soldiers?

The second factor was logistical equipment.

In this era, a soldier’s life was worth less than his equipment.

Where lay the difference between a lost battle and a victorious one?

It was in the fact that the victors could recover the equipment from the battlefield, while the losers had to abandon their armor and helmets.

Military supplies were very precious.

Dead soldiers would be stripped clean, sometimes not even leaving their underwear behind, which for the lower-ranking soldiers, were considered wealth—of course, knights hardly cared for such spoils.

But the production of steel in Sige Town had increased last year.

If possible, Roman could arm them to the teeth, turning them into a group of "steel canned" soldiers.

...

A very interesting phenomenon of human civilization.

The simpler the social structure, the easier it was to muster manpower—as long as basic survival needs were met.

The downside was that such societies were not well-developed.

For example, in ancient times, humans relied on gathering and hunting, and primitive men were much more leisurely than agricultural people.

They could gather a whole day’s food in one morning, and then spend the afternoon catching fleas to eat with their tribe members.

However, their risk resilience was very poor, and the mortality rate was high.

Contrarily, the more complex the social structure, the harder it was to mobilize manpower—especially in societies that emphasized detailed division of labor.

Such social structures were naturally very prosperous.

Compared to primitive times, the quality of life had greatly improved, with diversified production offering more choices.

The downside was that the people entangled in such societies were increasingly weary, leading some to yearn for pastoral life.

...

Sige Town was at a very special stage.

Compared to this era, its productivity was developed, yet its social structure was simple.

This meant that as long as Roman met their basic survival needs, he could manipulate his subjects at will.

A chief of a primitive tribe, as long as he could feed his tribe, could train half of them as soldiers without a problem, making the concept of a fully militarized population reasonable.

Roman was not joking.

The drop in productivity in Sige Town was only relative to its full potential.

From ten meters per second to five meters per second, but compared to the era where progress was at half a meter per second or even at a standstill, it was still considered efficient.

As the second spring was ending.

The town saw significant developments.

Firstly, the construction team built numerous brick houses, alleviating the housing shortage, and the military compound was completed, only housing soldiers with families.

After all, one house per family was fundamental.

Secondly, the pigs, sheep, and chickens that had been bred since last autumn were now being slaughtered on a large scale.

The slaughter rate for pigs was 60%, and for sheep, 40%, with each chicken providing around two pounds of meat.

This meant Roman gained an additional eighty thousand pounds of pork, thirty thousand pounds of mutton, and nearly ten thousand pounds of chicken.

This was a significant reserve of meat.

More importantly, this was just the pure meat accounted for.

Parts like pig heads, sheep heads, trotters, and bones were not included.

If counted, that added another hundred thousand pounds.

Although Sige Town lacked various spices, it was not short of salt, scallions, ginger, or garlic.

Roman had lots of recipes, and these good ingredients couldn’t be waste.

Even pig intestines had to be kept, as their protein and fat content was high, considered nutritious in this era—though they needed to be consumed quickly due to difficulty in preservation.

Pig and sheep marrow were considered delicacies.

The sheepskin and wool could also be used for making clothes.

These were additional benefits brought by breeding.

Only the milk-producing ewes, egg-laying hens, and breeding sows were spared.

The rest were all slaughtered.

This was comparable to a great harvest.

Slaughtering meant they could starve them for a few days, eliminating the need for feed.

The breeding department had a total of a thousand people, who slaughtered in batches hundreds of pigs, two hundred sheep, and five hundred chickens daily. They cured the meat, hanging it up to dry and smoke, turning it into cured meat and bacon.

The more they killed, the less the pressure.

Until the next generation of bred pigs and sheep gradually grew up and the demand for feed gradually increased.

This meant that the breeding department no longer needed as many hands—freeing up six hundred people to do other tasks was not a problem.

Roman had them join the Ministry of Agriculture to plant large tracts of pasture on both sides of the riverbank.

Estimating around four to five thousand acres, Roman planned it as a natural grazing field.