Chapter 238 Spring Plowing Ends
Although the royal capital has the strength and authority to deal with the Harland family, it prohibits Richard's deviant policy and orders him to close the school.
But firstly, the royal capital has not received the news, and secondly, Nolan needs the help of the Harland family to defend the northern Xinjiang defense line. Even if he has thoughts in his heart, he will not interfere with the Harland family easily.
Nowadays, the Harland family has repeatedly made military exploits and has a mutually beneficial relationship with the Kingdom of Grant. Its importance in northern Xinjiang is second only to several duke families and surpasses Viscount Romen.
Third, Richard pardoned slaves and spread knowledge. Although it touched the interests of the nobles as a whole, it did not threaten Nolan. These changes he made had nothing to do with the Grant family that ruled Nolan.
Although the fourth Harland family has a certain strength, it is far from the Grant family, and it is impossible for them to rebel in a short time. The most feared person in the royal capital is always the second most powerful Duke Jonathan family.
Suppressing and restricting the Haaland family will only force them to move closer to the Jonathan family.
If the internal fighting between the royal capital and the northern nobles gets too fierce, once Richard opens the way, the orc army will approach Black River Fort and enter the wealthy areas of Geda Province to plunder.
The Grant Kingdom's years of hard work in northern Xinjiang and the formation of a good strategic situation will be destroyed in one day.
Due to various reasons and special geopolitics, Richard is completely consistent in his territory. Even if he does something different, basically no one dares to question it now.
Unless someone wants the situation in Northern Xinjiang to be completely corrupted, they will take action against the Haaland family.
The great nobles of Northern Xinjiang are either exiled nobles or have been promoted to nobility due to military merit. Although his title is high, his influence on Nolan is not as good as that of the marquis in the east or the earl in the south.
These marquis and earls are all old families, and their territories are in the hinterland of the Grant Kingdom. They do not need to face orcs from time to time, and there is no need to bleed family members.
The nobles in Northern Xinjiang are the strongest and have the highest status, but have the worst strategic situation. They are equivalent to the shield of the Grant Kingdom, protecting the safety of other great nobles.
For this reason, the nobles in northern Xinjiang tend to be more independent, and the big nobles are not as powerful as the Bird King Nolan.
No matter whether Nolan likes it or not, as long as the royal family still wants to maintain the situation in Northern Xinjiang and does not want the hinterland to rot, they will not easily attack the great nobles of Northern Xinjiang and cause trouble for themselves. Instead, they need to carefully maintain a balance, constantly transfuse blood to the great nobles of Northern Xinjiang, and send troops to support from time to time to help the great nobles of Northern Xinjiang maintain the situation.
Such an external environment is also good for the Harland family in northern Xinjiang.
After returning from the Grand Duchy of Stanik, Richard began to prepare for spring plowing in the territory.
The Dawn Plane is still in the agricultural era, and spring plowing is the top priority in the agricultural era.
Even the Roger Kingdom of Grant Kingdom must set an example during the spring plowing period and personally participate in a spring plowing.
Originally, Richard had left the spring plowing work to his cousin Tang En, but this year's situation was somewhat special, and many matters could only be left to Richard to decide.
The territory of Northern Xinjiang is very fertile, consisting of nutritious black soil.
However, due to the lack of fertilizer, generally speaking, it needs to be left fallow once every three years.
Starting from Richard's management territory, manure composting technology was used, a large number of public toilets were built, human and animal excrement was collected, and septic tanks were built beside the farmland.
Because of the use of farmyard manure, the grain output per mu of land in Harland's territory has generally increased by twenty to thirty kilograms.
Don’t underestimate the 20 to 30 pounds of grain added to each acre of land.
Scaled up to a scale of one million acres, the increased grain production would exceed 10,000 tons, enough to feed a population of 40,000 to 50,000 people.
In addition, the use of farmyard manure can also extend the farming period. Farmland in the Harland Territory that uses farmyard manure will basically be left fallow for one year every five years.
This year Tang En found Richard mainly because the farmland was fallow.
"Lord, our public land is easy to manage and can be left fallow regularly. But the private land allocated to free people is more troublesome to leave fallow.
Once fallow, farmland income will be significantly reduced, but the territory's annual field tax levied on freemen is fixed. To relieve the pressure, freedmen farmed their fields, which were almost never left fallow.
Since last year, according to our statistics, the yield of farmland cultivated by freemen has decreased by fifteen pounds compared with that of public land.
This is a quite large number. If the problem of private fields left fallow is not solved and the land resources are consumed too much, the output of private fields in the hands of free people will become less and less. My lord, I think a law should be enacted to make it mandatory for freemen to leave their farmland fallow. "
Richard knows in his heart that ordinary people are short-sighted and do not think about long-term things. Letting free people compulsorily leave their land fallow will greatly reduce their income. If taxes are not reduced or cultivated land is increased, even if this policy can If it continues to be implemented, it will also increase the burden on the territorial people and make the free people of the territory even poorer.
Richard thought about it carefully and felt that Tang En's suggestion was not feasible. He carefully analyzed the current situation of the Harland Territory and found that it would remain the same for decades. It is an environment with fewer people and more land.
The climate in the Harland territory is relatively cold and is not suitable for autumn farming. Richard tried to cultivate a few acres of winter wheat, but unfortunately he could not withstand the long and cold winter, and almost no harvest was achieved. Farming cannot be done in autumn and winter, and the three
gardens The system cannot be implemented.
In the absence of a large amount of chemical fertilizers, in order to reduce the consumption of land fertility, the Harland Territory can only implement the two-field system and leave part of the farmland fallow. Li Cha looked at the registered
land and saw that there was little population pressure. Under the circumstances, after careful consideration, Richard felt that it would be more appropriate to add more land to the free people. The
Harland territory now has more than 1.4 million acres of land and about 230,000 people.
This year's spring plowing, There is still the task of opening up 120,000 acres of farmland, and there is no shortage of land resources.
Now there are 60,000 free people in the territory, and each additional acre of land is only 60,000 acres. It is not too difficult to carve out 60,000 acres of land from public land. .
After allocating more land, taxes will not increase, and there is enough reason to order it to fallow.
A family of six freemen has about six acres of land left fallow every year.
In addition to leaving the land fallow, Richard is also preparing to promote the development of animal husbandry and allow free people to raise sheep in large numbers.
The territory of Harland is mainly hilly, ideal for livestock farming. Large-scale sheep farming in the territory can also promote the development of the wool textile industry.
After listening to Richard's opinion, Tang En frowned and said: "Of course it's okay for the freedmen near Graveson to do this, but for the freedmen who are divided into the Stopa territory, I'm afraid it's not okay. Because we are in the Stopa territory. , there is almost not much public land that can be divided."
Richard looked at the map and said thoughtfully: "The population in Stopa territory is too large, I think some of it should be moved out." "I will release
the news after I return, and I am willing to Migrate to Graveson, and the free people in the swamp basin will be given six acres of paddy field for each person. Let's see if the free people in Stopa Territory are willing to leave their hometown and go to the new territory to cultivate wasteland." Richard knew in his heart that ordinary people were
not Those who are willing to leave their hometown. Nowadays, the free people of Harland Territory have a decent living standard because there is more arable land per capita. During the off-season, I went to nearby castles, factories and mines to do odd jobs. Not only could I have enough food and clothing, but I could also save some money every year.
But after two or three generations, as the population explodes and the per capita cultivated land decreases significantly, living standards will drop a lot.
If you want to maintain a higher standard of living, the best way is to improve the development of productivity, increase the output per acre of land, and enhance the population carrying capacity of the territory.
If the productivity level increases slowly, the only option is to adopt the second method, which is to continuously migrate the excess population in the territory, expand outward, reclaim farmland, and compete for survival resources.
The worst way is to consume the excess population through war.
The Orc Empire continues to launch invasions, which is partly due to this factor.
Each of the first two roads is difficult to walk.
It is Richard's wish to take the first path. He has been adjusting production relations, liberating serfs, giving full play to their enthusiasm for production, enhancing social vitality, spreading knowledge on a large scale, and cultivating the seedling of science, hoping to rely on the power of science to increase productivity. level, accelerating the development of Haaland territory.
At the same time, the Harland territory was taking the second path. It had been expanding continuously for more than ten years, developing from a small barony to a pivotal aristocracy in the three provinces of northern Xinjiang.
New farmland has been cultivated every year for more than ten years. In order to facilitate the migration of excess population and to open up new territories, Richard formulated a law for the eldest son to inherit property and land.
When the second son of a freeman in a territory grew up, he had to go to the new territory to allocate farmland if he wanted to obtain farmland.
Richard will continue to implement this decree until the situation changes and it cannot be implemented, then it is possible to change it.
For agricultural cultivation in the Dawn Plane, the power of magic is very important. There are many magics that can promote plant growth and increase soil fertility. In particular, the Church of Nature and Harvest has done a lot of research on this aspect of magic and has accumulated a lot of experience.
But there is no natural church priest in Grant Kingdom, so even if Richard wants to exchange magic knowledge, he has no channel.
Moreover, the number of magicians in Harland Territory is small. Even if they learn the spells to promote plant growth and increase production, relying on a few magicians and dozens of magic apprentices, the increase in food production will be negligible.
The most urgent task is to find new fertilizers, which is the most critical issue in agricultural development.
Relying on the experience of his previous life, Richard knew that the growth of plants mainly depends on the three elements nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium.
After arriving in the Dawn Plane, I discovered through various experiments that ordinary plants in the Dawn Plane also rely on photosynthesis, and the growth of plants also requires the three elements nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium.
Magic plants are special and mainly absorb magic energy particles.
The knowledge of magical botany is also more complicated and more difficult than ordinary agriculture. Planting magic plants requires the personal care of a magician.
The Harland territory does not have the technical conditions to manufacture fertilizers on a large scale, but it can find natural fertilizer deposits.
Today, Richard holds more than 18,000 square kilometers of territory, and many mineral veins have not yet been explored.
In recent years, Richard has been increasing his efforts in mineral exploration.
If a potassium rock mine is discovered in the territory and natural fertilizers are available, there will be no need to worry about agricultural production.
There are many natural salt lakes in Duke Jonathan's territory. During the dry season, these salt lakes can not only mine table salt, but also contain a large amount of potash ore. These potassium deposits have been accumulated in salt lakes for thousands of years and have not been utilized.
More than thirty kilometers east of Harland's territory, there is also a salt lake covering an area of more than ten square kilometers.
This salt lake is located in the northern part of Nelson Viscounty. If the Harland territory expands here, this salt lake can be developed.
Nowadays, the salt lake can be mined secretly, but the salt lake does not belong to the Haaland family fiefdom. Once this area is developed, it will benefit the Grant royal family.
Richard didn't want to do the job of making wedding clothes for others. He planned to wait a few years and ask the royal family for the salt lake area when he was promoted to earl, and then mine salt and potassium mines. Then use natural fertilizers on a large scale to increase food production.
Counting the 120,000 acres of farmland reclaimed this year, the farmland in Harland Territory has exceeded 1.5 million acres. However, due to fallow conditions, only about 1.2 million acres of farmland will be cultivated this year.
Because the cultivated area is less than 100,000 acres compared to last year, if the weather is favorable, this year's grain production will be reduced by about 10,000 tons.
Although food production will decrease, Harland Territory has no worries about food shortage for the time being.
Alfalfa seeds are sprinkled on fallow farmland, which not only fixes nitrogen and enhances the fertility of the land during the fallow period, but the grass grown can also be used to raise sheep.
There are now two million sheep in Harland's territory, but most of these sheep have been handed over to the satyr tribe.
The number of satyrs in Harland's territory has exceeded 10,000, divided into eight tribes.
In summer and autumn, the goats basically graze in the mountains. In late autumn, they will collect grass. In winter, when the weather is not cold and there are no snowstorms, the goats will drive the sheep and eat dead grass and leaves.
The Goat people are a race with thick hair on their bodies and do not need warm clothes. They also eat relatively little, and their grain consumption is only equivalent to one-third of that of humans, and they don’t need to eat meat. They don’t even need to consume grain in summer and autumn. They can fill their stomachs by just eating some green grass and young leaves.
The cost of using goat body grazing is very low.
Richard has gained great benefits from the goat slaves.
However, as the size of the sheep herd expanded, the more than 10,000 satyr herdsmen were gradually no longer enough.
The sheep breeding population expands very quickly. If we focus on expanding the scale, it can increase tenfold in three years. If the scale of sheep breeding in the territory is expanded tenfold, slaves will be able to eat a large amount of mutton.
Harland territory has relatively abundant rainfall and very dense vegetation. The carrying capacity of the territory is enough to raise tens of millions of sheep.
However, the mutton consumption in Haaland Territory is now quite large. About 600,000 sheep are slaughtered every year, and the scale is rising every year. It would take at least five years to expand the sheep population to 20 million.
This year, Richard plans to push the excess sheep to the market and sell them to the freedmen of the territory at a cheaper price, so that the freedmen can raise sheep and shear them to increase their income.
After entering April, the spring plowing in the territory finally ended.
(End of chapter)