Iron Harvest: When Farming Becomes Conquest
Chapter 207 - 12: The Second Year Summer Harvest

Chapter 207: Chapter 12: The Second Year Summer Harvest

On the second day.

Roman’s troops grew even larger, moving as if no one stood in their way.

Count Kant had lost his defensive force and could only manage his castle.

This gave Roman great leeway and freedom.

This land was his to traverse at will.

But in the past few months, the armies of the five great nobles nearly exhausted the grain reserves of the Kant Territory.

Now the farmers were relying on the summer harvest to survive.

Roman had no time to harvest the wheat.

Too sparse, too withered, the grains were so shriveled that achieving 50% milling yield would be considered a miracle.

This era’s agricultural harvest was truly unreliable.

He couldn’t harvest it, needing to leave it for the remaining people.

Because Roman did not take everyone away, there were always those who refused to leave with him, escaping and hiding in various places.

After Roman left, they would return to repeat their former lives.

Those fools also needed to live.

If the wheat were harvested, what would they eat in the future?

Besides, the arable land of Kant Territory was too vast, more than ten times the size of Sige Town, and he didn’t have enough manpower to harvest its wheat.

The wheat in Sige Town was still waiting for him to collect.

This time, he only captured four to five thousand people, taking entire families wherever possible, and he couldn’t just choose the young and strong.

But supporting these people also caused Roman significant trouble.

Luckily, they seized a lot of military supplies, otherwise, they really wouldn’t be able to feed them.

Additionally, there was one more important task to do.

"Green, you go to Tag Village; Aaron, you go to Doron Village; Dick, you go to Lana Town! I’m telling you, you must bring their whole families back!"

Roman issued the list of those who had sacrificed themselves to them.

"What if we can’t find them?" Green muttered.

"Then don’t bother coming back!" Roman glared at him.

"So what are you doing?"

"Mind your own business!" Roman glared at him again.

Green wanted to say something, but Aaron pulled his arm, so he had to shut up. They both saw that he was very upset.

Roman’s will was very clear.

The families of the warriors who sacrificed themselves for him had to be brought back in full, provided with pensions, and given good food and drink.

Otherwise, he wouldn’t be able to keep fooling them into sacrificing for him in the future.

He looked again at the soldiers standing straight.

He remembered clearly, last time he raided the Kant Territory, capturing over seven hundred conscripted soldiers from various villages in Kant Territory.

Roman had basically converted them all into professional soldiers.

Now though.

Only over four hundred could still stand.

This time, he had thrown everything into the effort.

He had sacrificed nearly half of them!

His nose suddenly tingled as he raised his chin and said to them, "Go on, bring your families over, and let’s go back together, I’ll wait for you."

"Thank you, my lord!" The soldiers had long been waiting for him to say this.

One by one, they beamed with smiles, all raising their right fists towards Roman simultaneously.

Roman’s emotions calmed considerably.

He nodded with a smile, also raising his right fist in return.

They scattered, turning to run with steady and light steps, as if in a race to see who could run faster.

Roman mounted his horse and glanced again at the paper in his hand.

It was another list filled with densely packed names—

Small team captains sacrificed 33 men, with 25 wounded, most too severely to participate in subsequent battles.

Roman folded the paper and sighed suddenly.

The casualty rate was too high.

But what could be done?

If they didn’t charge to the front, who should?

Roman thought.

Most of those who sacrificed themselves were nurtured by him personally.

He remembered their names.

But what pained him the most was the small team captains who were not Angel Envoys.

They weren’t Angel Envoys, yet they charged fearlessly, sacrificing themselves on the battlefield.

Roman turned to Jet and said: "They are all heroes!"

Jet only replied with a faint nod.

He didn’t pay much attention to the casualty issue.

The dead were just dead, just numbers in his eyes.

Who ever went to battle without the expectation of death?

...

The boatmen hauled the boats upstream, trip after trip.

The entire time, neither hurried nor slow.

Roman took three days to finally transport all the captured population during this raid.

He also seized those who hadn’t been captured in the first raid due to various reasons, reuniting them with their families.

Now, the Kant Territory was more or less Roman’s back garden, visiting or leaving as he pleased.

Because he had completely crushed that Earl.

Both his military strength and his morale.

But with the summer harvest pressing and fears of indigestion, requiring gradual infrastructure development, Roman didn’t capture too many people in the first instance.

There were still many days ahead.

Take it slow.

Don’t rush.

The merchants, realizing the eventual outcome of that war, flocked to Sige Town to conduct business.

The trade network, blocked for three months, suddenly became smooth as if to make up for previous deficiencies.

Numerous merchant ships poured crazily into the port of Sige Town.

...

In the last two days of early May.

Roman examined the vast wheat fields, gradually furrowing his brow.

The growth of the wheat fields was less than satisfactory.

Specifically, some areas were sparse, at first glance, even less than last year’s spring wheat.

Last summer harvest, he mobilized roughly a thousand people.

This year’s summer harvest, he had mobilized a full five thousand people.

He could say he didn’t care at all about the emotions of those newly added populations.

Roman settled them down, looking to gradually integrate them in the future.

The best way to let newcomers adapt is by having them work in their original trade.

Roman also ordered Vic to construct a grain windmill and built three threshing yards in various locations.

Mainly to harvest last year’s planted ten thousand mu of winter wheat.

Among them, six thousand mu were well-maintained fertile land, plus four thousand mu of reclaimed barren land.

The output of the two types of land was clearly of different grades.

...

Five or six days later.

The summer harvest was over.

Six thousand mu of well-maintained land yielded a total of 1.8 million jin of wheat, with an average yield of about 300 jin per mu.

Four thousand mu of barren land yielded over 600,000 jin of wheat, with an average yield of less than 200 jin per mu.

Roman suddenly felt his vision go black.

Damned it!

He had observed that the tillering rate of the wheat had increased, about 40%, much higher than the less than 10% tillering rate of spring wheat, and the nutrition was adequate, but it just wouldn’t grow.

However, there was a rationale that supported the lack of increased yield.

Spring wheat suddenly grown as winter wheat had adverse reactions to seasonal changes, leading to yield drops.

This was a wheat seed issue.

Dramatically changing a crop’s growth environment leads to such things.

It requires improvement, acclimation, and selection of seeds.

Simply put... after several years of planting, once the environment is adapted to, perhaps the yield could be increased to 400 jin per mu.

Anyway, the yield would be higher each year than the last.

Nothing could be done with poor quality seeds.

Most of the land here was spring wheat.

Because this region was relatively close to the Northern Land, affected by the northern winter cold currents, winter wheat couldn’t be grown.

Whereas in Divine Mysterious, Free City, and the Amber Court, winter wheat was cultivated.

But it was too far away for bulk imports of wheat seed.

Last year, he relied on meticulous care for any yield, but with winter wheat covering such a large planting area, there was naturally no way to care meticulously for all.

Roman had to accept this reality.

Now, Sige Town had a population of about 16,000, with per capita 150 jin of grain.

It could be said to be fairly manageable.

Frankly, wheat as a staple grain—especially winter wheat.

An able-bodied worker can consume 1.5 jin of wheat per day.

Made into steamed buns, that’s 15 whole-wheat buns.

Made into bread, that’s 15 slices of whole-wheat bread.

As a staple, it should certainly suffice.

After all, these are the dietary needs of heavy laborers.

And those engaged in lighter labor, women, and children, couldn’t eat as much.

Moreover, the three thousand mu of planted vegetables were being harvested gradually, serving as a side dish.

In another twenty days or so, the five thousand mu of spring wheat sown in early spring could also be harvested, likely yielding hundreds of thousands of pounds of wheat.

So Roman didn’t have to worry about a food crisis for now.