Iron Harvest: When Farming Becomes Conquest
Chapter 212 - 17: Deteriorating Situation

Chapter 212: Chapter 17: Deteriorating Situation

An infantry squadron was one-quarter of Roman’s current total military force, making it impossible to spare.

But for him next year, this wouldn’t be the case.

By this time next year, he planned to assemble ten infantry squadrons and not count other types of troops.

Rapid troop expansion!

Frenzied troop expansion!

How else would he push horizontally across this land?

The foundation of rapid troop expansion was farming and development.

He used the most efficient methods to integrate all resources, focusing all efforts on sustaining his army’s training.

However, Nillie did remind him of something.

On the second day of the celebrations.

Roman summoned the Three Stars Angel Envoy, Nathan.

This tall, robust envoy understood why Roman had summoned him and approached, looking at Roman with eager anticipation.

Roman said, "My promise stands, we don’t need to face war anymore shortly, you can bring your wife over now."

"Master, thank you for your kindness," Nathan’s expression almost matched Nillie’s.

But Roman had no interest in Nathan and certainly didn’t want to kiss him.

He gestured with his hands and said, "You must be careful on this trip; I have invested a lot in you, you must return safely."

"I understand!" Towards the end, Nathan showed great patience.

Roman had the estate’s maids tidy his facial appearance and hair, clean him up, then took him to the barracks to pick his equipment.

A set of armor weighing seventy pounds made specifically for Nathan, including chain armor, leather armor, a long-handled axe, throwing spears, flying axes, a shield, and plenty of jerked meat and water, plus several pounds of candy made with maltose—this high-energy food was crucial for long journeys.

Anyway, bring as much as possible, and provide enough provisions.

He then selected two veterans from the third squad to follow the squadron leader.

Lastly, he led five warhorses out from the livestock shed—all were excellent mounts ridden by Conquest Knights, strong in both endurance and stamina.

Roman accompanied him all the way to the docks.

He tirelessly cautioned him to be cautious.

Nathan nodded repeatedly, now clearly aware of how much Roman valued him.

One of only four squad leaders!

His peers were Aaron, Green, and Kao.

And he was the only squad leader who wasn’t a Conquest Knight.

Even if he died out there, he would have to come back with his head.

"Thank you, Master, I will definitely return."

Nathan thanked him once more.

Roman saw Nathan onto the boat and watched him depart.

He actually wasn’t too worried about Nathan’s safety.

His five attributes had all been elevated to D-rank by Roman.

This meant he was at least a Third Rank Transcendent, and with his Talent traits, even a Fourth Rank Knight would struggle to kill him.

But he had to keep up appearances.

...

[Dispatched Battle Initiated]

[Event—The Thousand-Mile Quest for Family]

[Your Three Stars Angel Envoy, Nathan, desires to bring his family close, they are separated by a thousand miles, and this journey is fraught with peril]

[Mode: Dispatched Battle]

[Recommended Level: —]

[Battlefield Record: —]

...

The current situation was truly bleak, everything in decay.

Sige Town, due to being sealed off, was slow in developing.

It relied entirely on the merchants who came to Sige Town, bringing with them substantial intelligence.

First was the Pirate King, Alex, who, since the start of spring, had led over ten thousand pirates, enslaving many and massively invading the land.

Grand Duke Riptide, leading numerous Nobles and vassals, totaling seventy thousand troops, split into several divisions.

One division allied with the King of Ice Island to fend off pirate raids; another supported the Highland Kingdom against the Barbarians; another pursued Witches; another suppressed rebellions.

Not to mention other strategies.

Let’s discuss the coastal battles first, which can only be described as having both victories and defeats.

Any successful repulsion of pirates counts as a victory.

Any breach of defense counts as a loss.

So, it’s not quite a retreat at every turn.

The war between pirates and nobles temporarily did not affect this area.

It at most affected the commercial network of half of Black Iron Land, while this side had not yet been impacted.

Roman disregarded this.

Every day they only knew how to fight!

They did not focus on production tasks, nor did they manage the logistics economy!

When I get stronger, you all will have to die!

...

The third day of the celebration.

Yesterday, three merchant ships arrived, and today four more came.

Trade development in Sige Town was getting better and better.

After defeating the noble coalition, Roman’s name was basically known throughout hundreds of miles, making him the dominant force in the frontier.

Farmers with some extra money took this opportunity to come to the market near the dock to trade with merchants—Roman prohibited unrelated people from entering the town and had specially arranged officers to watch over the area.

Merchants did not mind this arrangement.

As long as they could sell goods, they didn’t care if it was by the dockside or even in the water.

Sige Town could produce salt, and the commercial tax was low, so merchants were very willing to trade here, and it was only natural for them to follow the rules.

After all, if their goods were transported somewhere else, they might not sell all. But if brought to Sige Town, they would definitely be bought up entirely.

There was too big of a gap in societal resources.

However, the items Sige Town could produce were very limited, and this could not attract more merchants.

Thus, Roman started selling iron.

Salt and iron were essential for agrarian civilizations.

The latter meant survival, the former efficiency.

The steel production capacity on Roman’s side was too high.

This was, after all, an agricultural society, and the demand for steel was not large, either to make armor or utensils, what other uses were there?

None.

Farming tools and weapons generally weighed just a couple of pounds, the heavier ones three or four pounds.

Even armor, a piece weighing twenty or thirty pounds was about the maximum.

During Han dynasty’s iron refining, iron agricultural tools became widespread, some places would produce enough iron for a year at once, and then when it ran out, produce more.

Producing five hundred farming tools and weapons a day, or fifty simple half-body plate armors, anyone looking at such production would feel horrified.

There was simply no way to use it all up.

Roman was precautious, so he never stopped the steel production capacity.

As for the consequences of selling iron, Roman did not even consider them.

Whoever dared to invade again would definitely receive a good thrashing!

What he sold were not iron ingots but kitchen knives, hoes, and iron pots, all cast and able to be produced in large quantities.

In this era, while kitchen knives and hoes were common, iron pots had not yet become wide-spread.

Iron pots were all fine-quality iron pots.

Plate armor was forged in the same way as fine-quality iron pots.

The material and craftsmanship of a fine-quality iron pot were superior to those of cast-iron pots.

It’s easy to understand, if you use aerospace alloy to forge iron pots, their material and craftsmanship would also be superior to cast-iron pots.

And such an aerospace iron pot would need to sell at a sky-high price; otherwise, you couldn’t recoup the cost of materials and labor.

Thus, the process of making fine-quality iron pots was complex and expensive.

Meanwhile, the cost of cast-iron pots was much lower.

Roman directly cast them from pig iron.

With mass production, he could produce forty to fifty cast-iron pots a day, weighing about three pounds each.

Of course, he provided iron pots of various sizes.

The large pots, weighing about ten pounds, were specifically for cooking large pots of food.

Roman’s large kitchen housed hundreds of these cast iron pots, capable of boiling tens of thousands of pounds of wheat porridge at a time, greatly increasing the kitchen maids’ work efficiency.

But even so, iron pots in this era were still not an essential item.

Cheap clay pots could also handle cooking tasks.

However, some merchants, intrigued by the novelty, were willing to pay for them.

Because Roman had lowered the purchase price.

A fine-quality iron pot weighing 3 pounds might cost 2 silver coins on the market—that’s roughly equivalent to trading a pot for three hundred pounds of wheat—whereas a hoe was relatively cheaper, about 1 silver coin, equating to over a hundred pounds of wheat.

But Roman priced a cast-iron pot at 8 copper coins.

If bought in bulk, each pot could even be reduced to 5 copper coins.

Roman never engaged in swindling deals and had made it clear beforehand that his iron utensils could not be reforged.

Items cast from molten iron could not be reforged.