Power and Strength

Power and Strength

Romain felt that this land had once been covered by forest, only for it to be completely felled during later cultivation. Lacking suitable tools, no one had ever cleared out the stumps buried beneath the ground.

There was no need to clear them out, either. There was plenty of land; there was no need to pit themselves against those deeply rooted stumps.

There might still be dozens, or even hundreds, of such stumps.

Romain would not tolerate any debris remaining in the soil and affecting his harvest.

In theory, Sigg Town's total workforce numbered roughly eleven or twelve hundred people.

In reality, even counting everyone available, Romain had only a little over seven hundred workers at his disposal, since the rest had to keep Sigg Town functioning.

Compost was an important matter. At present, most of the laborers were collecting manure.

According to Romain's estimates, this work would be largely finished in three days.

By then, the new heavy plows would have been forged, and the laborers freed from manure collection would turn these two thousand mu of land upside down.

"Do you understand?"

"Yes, my lord," the farmers answered unevenly. Many of them stared fixedly at the heavy plows, clearly extremely curious about these new farming tools.

Romain waved them away to get to work.

Compared with light plows, heavy plows were heavier and moved more slowly, requiring two oxen to pull them.

However, a heavy plow could deeply till a strip half a meter wide at a time, and only needed to pass over the ground once. Two draft cattle could plow six mu a day—provided they did not have to turn around frequently, which wasted a great deal of time. That was why Romain had chosen such a flat, open stretch of land for collective labor.

Once all the heavy plows had been forged, these two thousand mu of land could be harrowed in ten days.

But the Blacksmith Shop's production efficiency was low. Romain had asked Laxus, and even at his fastest, he would need another seven days to finish making the fortieth heavy plow.

Therefore, each heavy plow had to be put into use as soon as it was forged.

Romain wanted to prepare this land as thoroughly as possible over the next thirteen days.

By then, the manure fertilizer would have mostly fermented as well.

Deep plowing was only the foundation. The sowing and fertilizing that followed were just as important.

This was also a race against the heavens, to avoid missing the best time for spring cultivation.

The principle of intensive farming was simple: do not half-ass the land, or the land would half-ass you in return.

But once planting was finished, a great deal of labor could be saved—during the coming spring and summer, at least four-fifths of the labor force could be freed from the grueling work in the fields.

That was Romain's goal.

For generation after generation, these people had been bound to this vast and endless land.

They carried an invisible mountain on their backs, one that weighed them down so heavily they could never raise their heads. Every day, they performed backbreaking labor that would never end.

Day after day, year after year, through the rise and fall of hundreds of generations, the seeds sown in this soil sprouted time and again, yet never broke through those invisible shackles.

It was as though a dreadful curse hung over this barbaric, dark age.

Even now, Romain had not told them that Sigg Town would plant only these two thousand mu of land this spring.

Once the farmers learned of it, they might start a riot.

From their perspective, Romain was trying to starve them to death. The harvest from two thousand mu was nowhere near enough to feed everyone.

In this era, when food outweighed all else, farmers were generally extremely conservative and cautious about farming—this was purely an instinct for survival, since even the slightest mistake in agricultural production could lead to serious problems.

This could not be hidden for long. The farmers would soon notice.

But it did not matter. He would suppress any unrest.

Even if a hundred or so farmers died, if it allowed Sigg Town to continue developing step-by-step, Romain considered it a very worthwhile trade.

He was determined to carry his will through to the end!

Romain demanded much from these laborers.

Because there would be even more work for them to do in the future.

The interface of Tale of Survival was a grid-like world map, and Romain's Origin Manor lay in one corner of Sigg Town.

Only the areas he had explored were lit up, while unexplored areas remained dim. Romain still did not know all the resource nodes in his territory.

While in the mountains, Romain had surveyed resource areas containing iron ore, stone, and the like.

However, they could not be mined deep in the mountains.

Romain needed to find more resource nodes—ones that were more suitable and more abundant.

That would require enormous amounts of manpower and material resources. He would not allow these people to remain bound to this land; to him, that was an intolerable waste.

Yet surveying resources was itself a lengthy task. Romain would need at least half a year, or perhaps a full year, to visit every corner of this basin.

He had no time to reveal the map now, so he could only set it aside for the moment.

One had to eat one bite at a time. Romain planned to raise his life-skill levels first.

For example, the Gathering skill.

The way to level up this skill was simple: keep chopping trees, quarrying stone, and mining ore!

North of Origin Manor lay a vast stretch of mixed woodland that extended all the way to the foot of the mountains.

Romain had found that forest irritating ever since he began clearing land at Origin Manor to grow vegetables.

Chop it down!

No sooner said than done!

Romain immediately handed the plowing over to Mol. The area that needed deep tilling had already been marked out, so there was no need for him to stay there any longer.

Romain first went to check on the children. Hans and Germann were temporarily serving as the manor's teachers. Since there were so many students, the classes were held outdoors in an open-air setting.

They began by teaching letters and numbers.

These children's foundations were terribly weak.

Fortunately, Romain had not placed much hope in them. They only needed to receive basic literacy education.

He took a sharp axe from the storeroom, gripped it in his hand, and headed alone toward the forest north of the manor.

After Gevra had eaten lunch in Sigg Town, Aaron and Green brought her back to Origin Manor. When she saw Romain, she followed after him as well.

"Why are you following me?" Romain asked, turning his head.

Gevra stood where she was, looking somewhat flustered. "Didn't you say I was your attendant, my lord?"

Romain had originally intended to send Gevra to study with the other children, but on second thought, she was rather special. Hans and Germann might not be able to accept her, and it would be troublesome if something went wrong.

So he said, "Then come over."

Gevra beamed and ran toward Romain on tiptoe.

She was a harbinger of disaster, but she was not afraid of bringing misfortune to Romain.

In this era, the common people at the bottom of society had, through the natural influence of their environment, developed an instinctive obedience toward the noble class.

If the identity of a Witch was filled with the unknown and terror, then the identity of a noble represented authority and strength.

This gave Gevra, sheltered beneath that authority, a powerful sense of security.