Iron Harvest: When Farming Becomes Conquest
Chapter 98 - 2: Spring Plan

Chapter 98: Chapter 2: Spring Plan

Roman improved agricultural tools, screened seeds, and applied fertilizer, which freed a large amount of labor from the land.

But this labor force was still not enough!

He needed a population!

Slave ships could not satisfy Roman’s demand for labor.

Thus, he set his sights on Kant Territory a hundred kilometers away from Sige Town.

The land ruled by the Count of Kant.

Situated at the edge of the Black Iron Kingdom, the territory was vast, with half of it being rugged hills and wilderness; the land was fragmented, not cohesive.

Its population numbered between thirty thousand and fifty thousand people.

Kant Territory had no special products; its main output was grain, a proper agricultural territory.

Recently, merchants from Sige Town had traded salt for a large amount of coarse grain in Kant Territory.

The grain from Kant Territory was transported upstream on the Bro River, passing through Silver Dragon Canyon to reach Sige Town.

In the past, Kant Territory and Sige Town had also conducted sporadic trade, with each respecting the other’s boundaries.

Now, the Count of Kant surely knew that Sige Town was a salt-producing area.

Roman did not believe that the Count had no designs on him.

Coincidentally, he had some ideas of his own.

Roman planned to launch a raid on Kant Territory next year, to plunder its population.

Right now, the conditions on the side of Sige Town were not ripe; it required patient planning.

Roman named this plan the "Spring Plan."

He desperately hoped to implement this plan before the end of next spring.

For this, he needed a well-trained, fearless elite force.

By the time of the Spring Plan next year, this army had to have at least 400 qualified warriors, including 200 Heavy Equipment units.

They would not engage in any production; they existed solely for the purpose of warfare and conquest.

Roman would provide them with the finest equipment and logistical support.

The plundering was definitely going to happen!

As long as the population increased, everything would get better.

To ensure the progress of the "Spring Plan," all laborers in Sige Town would undergo exceptional hardship in the second half of this year.

But it did not matter; next year, others would join them in their suffering.

Only war!

Only plunder!

Roman gently clenched his fist, his spirit surging.

Seth did not know about Roman’s plan, but he was very surprised to hear that 400 sets of armor needed to be forged before the end of winter.

Having iron ore did not mean being able to refine iron.

With the current method of iron refining, it would take an absurdly long time.

Right now, it simply could not support a project of this scale.

The process was tedious and required a lot of manpower.

But Roman had made up his mind and was always decisive in his actions.

He had just returned from the Wilderness, and without rest, he immediately rose from Origin Manor and quickly made his way to the forging shed.

The temperature in Rexia’s forging shed during summer was imaginable.

As soon as Roman entered, he was greeted by a blast of hot air.

It was much hotter here than outside, a constant clanging of metal.

Next to the waterwheel, several buckets of beer and iced tea were soaked in the river to maintain a cool temperature, supplying their need for water.

Those tall Blacksmiths with bulging muscles were focused in front of the Forging Hammers, bare-chested and drenched in sweat, constantly turning the red-hot iron ingots with iron tongs and utilizing the weight of the Forging Hammers to forge.

"Lax, you have a new task. Are you happy?"

Roman had just come in when Lax went to greet him.

He didn’t quite understand the humor in Roman’s words, but he could hear the enthusiasm and knew that work had come again. So he said, "Just give the word."

In this bustling forge, he felt as if he had found his life’s purpose and destination.

Originally, forging was just to make ends meet, but now, watching the forging hammers rise and fall and the sparks fly as the metal took shape, he felt a unique beauty and vaguely understood what the professional spirit of a blacksmith was.

Roman first asked, "How much iron do we have left now?"

"A thousand pounds," Lax estimated.

These days, they had been using the forging hammer day and night, creating countless types of farming tools, of which there was an abundance of iron shovels—enough for every resident of Sige Town to have spare.

But the problem was that the women and children could not use these tools.

Now, most of the farming tools were idle, waiting to be put to use.

Roman clenched his fist. "A thousand pounds... Good! Forge all of it into weapons for me. I want 400, and two hundred Iron Inlaid Shields!"

As he spoke the second half of the sentence, he formed a victorious V with his fingers.

Lax was not surprised at Roman’s command.

In fact, he had long guessed in his heart when Roman would have him forge weapons.

In this era, forging weapons for nobles was also considered the ultimate destiny of a blacksmith.

Amongst all the nobles, Roman was the most unusual one for being willing to use a large amount of steel to create farming tools instead of weapons.

These days, he had only forged two steel swords, nowhere near mass production.

"I’m afraid there won’t be enough iron ingots," Lax said, troubled upon hearing Roman’s detailed request.

Roman had high demands for the shields.

The main structure of the shields was made of wood, standing in a U-shape with the sides slightly flaring upwards. They measured 1.6 meters high, 1 meter wide, and 5 centimeters thick. A 20-pound iron sheet was to be completely inlaid on the wooden shield’s surface, making the total weight most likely exceed forty or fifty pounds.

The Human Clan had high potential; such a heavy and large shield could definitely be used, but it wasn’t to be lifted. Instead, it was meant to be placed on the ground to be effective.

Though it would surely be inconvenient to move, it belonged to the Heavy Infantry units. Roman needed them to carry a weight of seventy to eighty pounds each, using this type of specialized shield to face off against Conquest Knights—Light Troops also had Light Shields.

The Hydroelectric Hammer couldn’t fabricate plate armor but shaping a sheet of iron was relatively easy.

However, the consumption for 200 shields was considerable, with 20 pounds of iron needed per shield, amounting to 4000 pounds in total.

Not to mention the weapons, with steel lanceheads, curved blades, and Short Swords all consuming steel, some weighing a couple of pounds, others three or four pounds each.

These common weapons would need replacing after a year or a year and a half at most, with natural wear and battle consumption being major issues.

Training a fully equipped warrior was always a huge expense.

Roman was well aware of this.

So he promised, "Lax, go ahead and do it. We’ll never run short of iron again, never."

Upon hearing this, Lax was suddenly electrified; these words carried no ordinary meaning.

"Really?"

Lax swore that he hadn’t been this excited when Roman said he had found a Salt Mine.

He could afford salt, but forging iron was really beyond his means.

Roman cheerfully said, "Of course, for now, we still need to purchase other people’s iron ingots first."

"Start with the armor and don’t worry about the Heavy Shields for now. I’m going to have Vic equip my warriors with the best wood material!"

He left the forge full of excitement and headed to the Wood Factory to explain his needs to Vic.

Roman seemed to have endless energy.

After arranging future plans, that afternoon, he drove hundreds of laborers to the predetermined road construction site as if herding livestock.

They wielded sharp axes and hatchets to clear away the shrubs and trees and used iron shovels to level the ground.

Iced tea and beer were delivered non-stop to the site, and he also sent someone to get an insect repellent herbal recipe from Galin.

Roman planned the day’s task progress for them, asking them to push forward one kilometer by the end of the day.

However, this work only carried on for two days.

A sudden downpour extinguished Roman’s soaring spirits.