Chapter 46: Chapter 45: Mountain Forest Town’s Grain Yield

With a Civil Servant, there were some matters in the territory that Ronin no longer needed to manage personally.

However, this didn’t mean he would completely let go and become a noble lord solely focused on pleasure (though that was his ultimate goal).

On the contrary, he wanted to build his territory into his own utopia, which meant he had to be involved in many things.

Therefore, Ronin had implemented a “weekly report, monthly summary” requirement for Wilson. This would both deepen his grasp of the territory’s administration and allow him to gauge Wilson’s capabilities.

After two busy days, the personnel arrangements for Mountain Forest Castle were basically complete.

From now on, only minor adjustments would be needed as the situation required.

After his midday rest, Ronin, escorted by Macken, David, and Tom, mounted his horse and began to patrol the territory.

As its Lord, he was full of enthusiasm for this patrol, filled with anticipation for every production and business area within the territory.

The feeling was like meeting an online love interest in person for the first time. He had imagined so many wonderful things and pictured countless scenes in his mind, but only by seeing it for himself could he get a true, firsthand impression.

The town center of Mountain Forest Town was very small, with the surrounding houses extending for only about four or five hundred meters, consisting mainly of the homes of Free People and various shops.

Although the street was short, many people must pass through daily; otherwise, it wouldn’t be so dirty.

Ronin didn’t linger on this street. Following Tom’s lead, he turned and headed east.

If the main street was the “downtown,” then the area they now entered was the “suburbs.”

Ronin could see many low-lying houses built from mud, thatch, or wood. They were not only crude but also looked flimsy, the kind that a strong gust of wind could blow over.

’The only advantage to living here compared to the town center is probably the fresher air, I guess?’

“My Lord, the town’s wheat fields are mainly distributed to the east and southeast. The northeast area has orchards and vegetable plots, the northwest is mostly grassland suitable for grazing, and the Southwest is primarily for flax.”

Although Tom’s family were tailors, he had often been responsible for patrolling the agricultural areas during his time as a Guard and Professional Knight for Mountain Forest Town, so he was quite knowledgeable about this.

“If we follow this dirt road east, we’ll reach the barley and wheat farms.”

Ronin looked ahead and could indeed see a hint of yellow, which seemed to be the swaying of wheat.

“Do you know how large the wheat fields are?”

Tom considered this for a moment. “My Lord, I’ve heard people talk about it, but I can’t be certain of the exact numbers.”

Ronin looked at him. This surrendered Professional Knight’s movements over the past two days had been supervised by either David or Macken, and nothing had been out of the ordinary.

For Ronin, as long as someone was sincere in their surrender and worked for him wholeheartedly, he could treat them equally.

Just as he had told Tom before, if he performed well during his three-month probation, Ronin would agree to restore Tom’s salary from 20 Copper Coins a day to 30 a day, the same as David’s.

“That’s all right. Just tell me what you know.”

Only then did Tom reply, “I’ve heard many farmers talk about it. Mountain Forest Town has nearly 30,000 mu of cultivated land. Although half of it lies fallow each year, that still leaves over 9,000 mu of barley being cultivated, and nearly 7,000 mu of wheat.”

Ronin had heard the term “fallow” before. It meant that a plot of land was planted one year and then left unplanted the next to rest and regain some fertility.

But even with fallowing, the total area of barley and wheat planted in Mountain Forest Town each year was over 16,000 mu. This completely exceeded Ronin’s expectations.

One had to remember that Mountain Forest Town was once wasteland; everything had to be reclaimed from scratch.

For its people to have reclaimed so much arable land without a Lord’s leadership was no small feat.

Ronin frowned slightly as he thought of the cooperation between Sain Territory and Princest.

With such a large area of farmland, there must be a significant surplus of grain to sell after meeting Mountain Forest Town’s own needs.

He wondered how much of it ended up flowing to Swamp Town in Sain Territory.

Ronin’s interest was piqued. “Do you know the approximate yield per mu for barley and wheat, in jin?”

Tom replied, “My Lord, I don’t know the exact figures, but during the busy season, I heard the farmers mention it. They said the yield for barley is around 90 jin per mu. Wheat is a bit higher, over 100 jin per mu, about 105 jin.”

“This…”

Hearing these two numbers, Ronin was stunned into silence.

He had already anticipated that crop yields in this world would be low. After all, the farming methods here were no match for those of his homeland.

But he never imagined the barley yield would be as low as a mere 90 jin per mu!

“How can it be so low?” he asked in disbelief.

Tom subconsciously assumed the Baron’s noble upbringing meant he had no contact with agriculture and was thus ignorant of crop yields. He explained:

“Actually, this yield is already quite good, my Lord. I’ve heard that in Sain Territory’s Swamp Town, the barley yield is less than fifty jin per mu.”

’Fifty jin?’

Ronin was utterly shocked by this number.

After accounting for the seeds used for planting, Sain Territory’s barley probably had a yield ratio of only 1:2. ’That could hardly be enough to even feed themselves, could it?’

’Honestly, with a yield like that, what’s the point of even planting it?’

Ronin suddenly understood why Sain Territory wanted to absorb Mountain Forest Town.

Baron Reisen was probably treating Mountain Forest Town as his personal granary, a place dedicated to producing grain.

As they talked, the group quickly arrived at the wheat fields. But the closer they got, the more tightly Ronin’s brow furrowed.

Counting the days, today was the fifteenth of August in the Imperial Calendar. The barley harvest was only a little over half a month away.

In Ronin’s mind, a wheat field should be a neat, uniform stretch of gold, but the field before him was nothing of the sort.

First, the stalks were not uniform at all; some were tall, some were short, creating a very uneven field.

Second, Ronin noticed that some of the grain had already begun to ripen, while some still looked underdeveloped. In the same field, sown at the same time, they were maturing at different rates.

Finally, and most puzzlingly to Ronin, the fields were overgrown with weeds, looking as if they had never been tended to at all.

Ronin sat on his horse, carefully observing the fields, and realized there wasn’t a single farmer in sight.

“Tom, where are the farmers?”

He finally couldn’t help but ask, “Why don’t I see any farmers here?”

Tom replied, “My Lord, perhaps they are reclaiming wasteland?”

This answer once again took Ronin by surprise. ’Ignoring the planted fields to focus entirely on reclaiming new land? Is that really how they do things?’

“Was this Princest’s directive?”

Tom nodded. “At the beginning of every year, Princest would issue a land reclamation quota to each family, which had to be completed within the year. I did it too, back before I became a Professional Knight.”

“Right, right.”

Ronin couldn’t understand the logic behind prioritizing land reclamation over tending to the crops that had already been planted.

He dismounted, walked to the edge of the field, and pulled out a healthy-looking weed.

“You said you’ve reclaimed land before, so how much do you know about farming?”

He handed the weed to Tom and asked, “Why don’t they weed the fields?”

“It’s too much trouble.”

Tom took the weed and answered as if it were obvious, “Weeds don’t affect the grain’s growth. Besides, as you can see, the stalks grow so densely that if we were to walk into the fields, we would damage them.”

Indeed, the grain wasn’t growing in neat rows; to be precise, it was a chaotic mess, as if the seeds had simply been scattered on the ground and left to grow on their own.

’In a situation like this, fertilizing and watering would also be nearly impossible.’

“How do you sow the seeds?” Ronin couldn’t help asking.

Tom began to gesture with his hands. “My Lord, we usually start by burning the grass on the wasteland, then we turn the soil a couple of times and scatter the seeds evenly on top.”

When Tom didn’t continue, Ronin prompted, “And then?”

“That’s it~”

Tom chuckled. “Then we just wait for the harvest. After that, if we feel the yield here has dropped, we’ll let it lie fallow for a year or two and graze some animals on it. When we come back to plant grain two years later, the yield magically increases. It must be a blessing from the Seven Gods!”

’To get a yield of 90 jin per mu with such methods is actually quite impressive,’ Ronin suddenly thought.

No fertilizer, no weeding, just waiting for the harvest… this was probably only a tiny step above slash-and-burn agriculture.

’Why is the situation like this?’

Ronin didn’t know much about this world’s history, only that its recorded history began with the founding of the Orland Empire.

Although the Empire had now fallen, both the Oduin Kingdom and the Tricia Kingdom claimed to be of Imperial blood and possess the legitimate right of succession.

For this reason, both Kingdoms continued to use the Imperial Calendar.

The current year was 968 by the Imperial Calendar.

’Nearly a thousand years have passed, yet the level of farming is still so low?’

’Or was the level of farming higher in the past, only to be beaten down to this almost primitive state by centuries of continuous warfare?’

Without the help of good agricultural technology, when Lords saw how low the grain yields were, their only choice was probably to make the farmers reclaim more land.

They traded an increase in the area of cultivated land for an increase in the total grain output.

Ronin couldn’t help but sigh for the farmers here.

This method of farming inevitably led to low yields. To increase the total amount of grain, they could only expand the planted area, which required them to reclaim more and more land.

In this vicious cycle, most of their energy was spent on reclamation. How could they have any time or energy left to study how to increase the yield of a single plot of land?

’I have to optimize agriculture and increase the grain yield per mu. Only then can I free up more people to develop other sectors.’

’And only with sufficient food can I support a larger population.’

Agriculture was the foundation. Only after solving the problem of basic sustenance could one even talk about development.

“Let’s go. On to the next place.”

Ronin dusted the dirt from his hands, mounted his horse, and headed toward the next area.

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