Iron Harvest: When Farming Becomes Conquest
Chapter 217 - 22: Both Sides Are Emotionally Stable

Chapter 217: Chapter 22: Both Sides Are Emotionally Stable

"Why only eliminate students over ten years old?"

Naturally, it was because children of this age group possessed basic labor skills.

The students who stayed in school the longest had received at least a whole year of education.

Even those with the shortest study time had gone through at least half a year of education — from Roman’s first population harvest.

Nillie identified these people as illiterate deadwood, a determination certainly made after thorough consideration.

Can’t learn?

Don’t trouble yourself.

Go and work instead.

Roman didn’t care if there were any buried geniuses amongst them.

If a genius could be buried, they wouldn’t be called a genius.

Let them shout "do not despise the poor youth" after being expelled from school, struggle with labor, study hard, and achieve a startling success that would make Nillie’s face swell.

At that point, Roman would undoubtedly be alerted, and then personally meet with this child prodigy who mastered all the words, entrusting them with important tasks.

He couldn’t wait to find such seeds of great perseverance and wisdom.

Of course, he was quite happy now.

After all, he had directly gained six hundred secondary laborers.

The starting age was ten, but that didn’t mean they were all ten. There were quite a few children fourteen or fifteen years old, some even sixteen — they just made it into school last year.

By farmer standards, fourteen or fifteen years old was already a qualified labor force.

Roman having supported them for so long only proved they were educational waste.

He wouldn’t give a second chance.

Some of them would go to the Breeding Department, helping Yaki mow the grass and milk cows.

Others would become apprentices at the Wood Factory.

Some would be assigned to the Forging Department, where Ruto taught them how to smelt iron.

Or they would go to the Ministry of Agriculture and learn farming with Balrog.

Sige Town was so large; there was always some form of work suitable for them.

On the day of expulsion, Roman had Nillie give those students a literacy book filled with words and instructed them not to forget this experience and to study hard — casting a wide net, who knows, they might actually fish out a few hidden geniuses.

After all, only when they worked would they understand the hardship of labor and then develop a desire to learn.

Nillie’s drastic reforms in the school had an immediate effect.

All the teachers breathed a sigh of relief, "Damn, it was practically Hell these past days."

The school was self-governing.

The management cost was nearly non-existent.

Students took turns cooking; Roman only needed to provide the ingredients daily.

Disobedience was met with beating, free play after class, dare to mess around during lessons?

The teaching model could be said to be extremely crude.

But Roman couldn’t be bothered with all that.

In total, there were only about forty teachers to take care of such a vast group of students; it was bound to be rough.

In fact, elite education was the best choice.

Eliminate not only the lower-tier students but also those in the middle tier, retaining only a hundred or so diligent and potential students.

But what Roman was doing now was mainly about improving the literacy rate, lifting the number of literate people.

After all, what Roman currently needed was a vast grassroots force, not elite administrative personnel.

An elite couldn’t perform the work of ten grassroots staffers.

As long as they recognized words, it meant they had the basics of the grassroots level because they could understand written orders.

...

The last month of summer.

This land received another heavy rain.

The temperature had dropped again.

The population Roman had previously seized was almost fully integrated.

The labor force was each in their respective roles, joining collective labor, which was tantamount to being assimilated.

Thus, Roman once again mobilized his troops and sent out a thousand soldiers, setting off towards Kant Territory to relocate a batch of people here.

This time, they didn’t take the long way around.

The boatmen pulled the vessels, struggling upstream.

The troops were not led by Roman, but by Aaron and Green, the two Squad Leaders.

This was also considered a training exercise.

However, unfortunately, Earl Kant did not dispatch his remaining forces to intercept them, but sat in his castle, looking on with cold indifference.

He simply let them go.

This time, they had seized more than three thousand people.

The process went smoothly, and there were no conflicts throughout.

The emotions of both the raiders and the raided were stable.

The only instability came from the villagers.

But their opinions did not matter, they could only drag their families and belongings onto the boats to the downstream.

The Soldiers gave them some time to pack, instructing them to discard worthless items and take only those of value, so as not to arrive at the River Valley to settle with nothing.

At this moment, Roman thought of Nathan.

Why hasn’t he returned yet?

Every day he would glance at Nathan’s Apostle Realm interface.

If his Angel Envoy were sacrificed, Roman would sense it and the Apostle Realm interface would dim, turning to gray and locking up.

Nathan’s Apostle panel was still lit up.

So...

Why hasn’t he returned yet?

...

Nathan set off with two Soldiers.

They disembarked mid-journey and went ashore.

The three immediately galloped swiftly on their horses.

The journey was long, and Nathan was eager to return, hurrying day and night.

Taler County was in the Northern Black Iron Land, while he had come from the southeast corner, an immense distance between them.

Though waterways were fast and convenient, they were not safe.

Land routes were also difficult; Black Iron Avenue extended horizontally to various nations, but there were no vertical roads within.

They had to find their own path.

Passing through fields and villages, they crossed one Noble’s territory after another.

But those roads had many checkpoints, with Guards stationed at crossings, bridges, and pathways.

They judged people by their appearance, extorting road tolls. The woodcutters could pass with just a few logs, but wealthy merchants had to pay with copper coins.

Nathan’s towering stature meant he couldn’t travel fully armed on a prolonged journey, wearing only light armor, presenting himself as a Conquest Knight with two Riders at his side, also leading two horses laden with supplies.

Such a heavyweight squad was not something Desolate Knights or Free Riders could mess with.

The only oddity was Nathan wearing no crest or flag, making it difficult to identify his origins.

The Guards needed to question his destination, otherwise, they wouldn’t be able to explain to their superiors.

"I’m on a secret mission. My origins are not convenient to disclose. I’m heading to the Northern coast to find someone."

This was the explanation Roman had provided to Nathan.

The Guards had no reason to antagonize a passing Conquest Knight, and they were particularly secretive about the current situation in the North.

Hearing this, most would let him pass without too much trouble.

Only a few Guards felt it was inadequate.

But even they were bribed by the copper and silver coins Nathan tossed out.

The three hastened day and night, getting closer to Taler County, and unexpectedly encountered a group of about ten pirates.

This greatly alarmed Nathan, and he promptly killed the entire group, obtaining from the last pirate the information that these were just minor forces.

A massive pirate invasion was occurring, with the Noble army retaliating, and the two sides engaging in direct combat, each having victories and defeats.

These pirates had dispersed to fight on smaller scales and raid in various places.

And the Noble army was outraged.

The land was laced with rivers, which gave the pirates too much mobility.

Now, the fire of war had swept across the entire Northern coastline, spreading inland like a plague at an alarming rate.

Nathan did not want to be drawn into the battlefield.

He went the long way around, carefully avoiding that terrifying vortex, considering a delay of two days well worth the effort to stay clear.

But the further he went, the more war-related scenes inevitably appeared before his eyes.