Iron Harvest: When Farming Becomes Conquest
Chapter 220 - 25: Independence

Chapter 220: Chapter 25: Independence

Sige Town entered a stage of vigorous development.

It could be said that it was changing with each passing day.

Every day, thirty to forty brick houses were completed.

Every day, hundreds of acres of wasteland were reclaimed.

Fodder was harvested in the summer, yielding millions of pounds of feed.

Roman stored it away.

Although the yield per acre was only about a thousand pounds, no breed improvement had been carried out and the soil was not fertile.

A round of fodder needed a two to three-month growth cycle.

But Roman planted a lot, continuously sowing six to seven thousand acres of forage.

Along the banks of the river as far as the eye could see, there was all forage—mainly alfalfa, complemented by deer grass and black oats.

Lush and pleasing to the eye.

The tall forage could reach waist-high, and the shorter forage could reach knee-deep.

This forage was thriving, full of juice, and after silage, it was fragrant, palatable, and highly nutritious.

And, in the fall, there could be another harvest.

This year, Roman’s breeding farm raised two thousand five hundred pigs, nearly four thousand sheep, and over ten thousand chickens.

Yaki was selecting and breeding good varieties.

He chose the healthiest, best-shaped, and most robust pigs, sheep, or chickens among their kind for specialized breeding.

This was a long-term process.

The growth rate of pig breeding was the highest.

Mainly because they gave birth to many offspring and yielded a lot of meat, they were a very high-quality source of meat.

Sheep and chickens were not as cost-effective.

Roman raised sheep, not only for mutton but also for the associated benefits—sheep milk, sheepskin, and wool were all good things.

Raising chickens was also for the eggs; now in a chicken house, the majority were hens, which could produce three to four thousand eggs a day.

For this reason, Roman built two more breeding farms and carried out separate breeding.

After all, the greatest fear for concentrated breeding was an epidemic; it was essential to enforce hygiene.

To maintain hygiene, manpower was indispensable.

A pig produced several pounds of manure each day, and a sheep also had a pound or two.

The manure was shoveled twice a day, and hydrated lime was spread every three days for disinfection and sterilization.

Roman increased the breeding department’s manpower to around seventeen hundred people, but there was still a tendency to be understaffed.

Although in the spring, all the adult livestock were sold off.

Now, a new batch of livestock was slowly growing up, and moreover, in greater numbers, the demand for feed was steadily increasing, and by late fall, it was estimated they would be ready to sell.

Therefore, more hands would have to be hired later.

Now Kant Territory served as the labor reserve base for Sige Town; whenever there was a shortage of manpower, Roman would transfer a batch over.

The difficulty lay in how to quickly assimilate them.

If a person worked in a certain position for some time, even without supervision, he would know how to work and understand that doing the job well meant he could enjoy three meals a day—that was what assimilation meant.

This was not easy.

In an era where the average person had little to no formal education, doing a job well was extremely difficult!

Roman had them work in division and cooperation, breaking down the steps; each day they had a fixed task, those transporting feed did that, those spreading feed did that, those shoveling manure did that, those spreading lime did that.

Even with these fixed tasks, it would take at least a month to properly discipline them, needing daily reminders to ensure they firmly remembered what they should and should not do.

Otherwise, their fanciful brains would always drive them to do nonsensical things.

Some would slack off, some had no discipline, some did bad things with good intentions, or there would be severe inadaptability—

They had been working the land and free-ranging pigs their whole lives, and had never experienced keeping pigs penned up and fed, so they chose to open the pigsties and let the pigs roam freely to forage.

In the face of such a situation, just beating them would do.

Dare to disrupt the production process, be it one or all, beat them severely, and then hang them up as a warning.

Did I give you three meals a day to cause trouble?

Yaki managed very strictly, inspecting the five large breeding farms every day, limping along. Upon finding issues, he would beat people, taking his responsibilities very seriously.

Because he knew how important the breeding farms were to Roman, and he could not let Roman down.

Those who had been beaten the most recently were the educational failures that Roman had sent over.

Those kids were poor at studying, but they had learned, and recognized some words.

Yaki regarded them as the next generation of managers, breaking down the breeding knowledge in his head to feed to them.

Regular checks every day, and if you couldn’t answer, you would be beaten.

He himself was quite diligent, whenever Roman asked him to learn more words, Yaki would clutch the primer tightly and study every day, and his learning speed was actually not slow.

It can only be said that a person who consciously and diligently studied would be more efficient than someone who studied without interest.

...

In the meantime.

A messenger from Duke Gael came again.

This time his attitude was very stern.

You must send troops!

Damn it!

Last time I replied to your letter, you said you were short of soldiers and generals, laid up in bed, and I was busy, so I didn’t haggle with you.

But then you turned around and dealt with six great nobles, flaunting your power.

Earl Kant’s complaint letters keep coming, one after another, and it’s about to reach the Black Iron King, how am I supposed to explain this to them?

You have no shame, but the Riptide Family must maintain its dignity!

And you still dare say you have no military strength?

Now the front lines are in a tight spot, you must send a thousand men over, and once the situation at the front has settled, I will make sure Earl Kant holds no grievances against you.

...

Roman could tell that Gael was really anxious.

He even offered him the prospect of seizing Earl Kant’s territory as a carrot.

Unfortunately, he wasn’t tempted.

Roman’s reply was very straightforward.

Rumors, all rumors, they are slandering me.

How many men did I have when I first received my enfeoffment?

Do you want to discuss logistics, military strength, provisions, and warhorses with me?

Basically, just dragging it out to the end.

Roman had Seth draft the letter, as politely and gently as possible; one can act arrogantly, but one mustn’t speak arrogantly, otherwise Gael would dare to abandon the main battlefield and lead his troops directly against him.

After Seth finished writing, he lit a candle, melted the wax seal, and then ordered a servant to hand it over to the messenger.

Immediately afterwards, Roman said to the others, "We are out of time, let’s declare our independence."

Last time we could delay, but not this time.

Gael has grown desperate, and he can’t be fooled any longer.

Gael is Riptide, and Roman is also Riptide, but there is a distinction between lord and vassal.

After Roman accepted his enfeoffment, he could no longer act under the banner of Riptide.

He could only fly his own banner.

The Grand Duke of the Riptide had a crest that was a blood-red large bow, pure and simple.

But Roman’s banner had more details, although the main structure did not change, and at the very center of the flag there remained a large bow.

All the crests of the enfeoffed Riptide vassals must include such a bow, though specific details differed; some changed the color, some the structure, it could be above or below, all to show their loyalty.

This time, Roman had to change his flag, which meant erasing the mark of the Riptide Family, an act equal to rebellion.

This is something the head family cannot tolerate.

In this land, the nobles’ ways of succession varied.

Ordinary nobles generally practiced primogeniture, which helped stabilize society, ensured the purity and propagation of the family bloodline, and made it possible to draw connections and support from the mother’s relatives.

But some nobles were completely different.

For instance, the lord of the Sea Castle only chose the most pure-blooded for inheritance, if the eldest legitimate son’s blood was impure, he would still have to become a commoner.

The Riptide Family was determined by the previous Grand Duke.

If he said you were capable, you were; if not, you weren’t.

The Fury Family’s form of inheritance was to choose the strongest.

Only the strongest scion of the Fury could inherit the position of Grand Duke. Thus, the Fury Family was a very dominant family, and also the strongest duke of the Black Iron Land.

Regarding Roman’s decision, everyone had already anticipated it.

"Then what title do you plan to claim for your independence?" Seth sighed.

Roman had come to this point; if Alster was still the Grand Duke, Roman wouldn’t have gone to such extremes, as that duke had given him a great deal of freedom and turned a blind eye to all his actions.

But the death of Alster had relieved him of his reservations.

From a young age, he had been arrogantly insufferable, unwilling to care about his brothers and sisters.

In his eyes, even Gael was probably just a stranger.