Cutting Through Chaos with a Swift Blade

On the way back, Green took off his helmet and looked at Romain strangely. "I thought you'd keep feeding them barley porridge and give up exploiting them."

Green had learned the word "exploit" from Romain. He thought it was fitting, precise.

Romain said nothing.

Green continued grumbling, "Good thing you did this. If we don't exploit commoners and slaves, we won't even be able to afford white bread. How am I supposed to keep up my training from now on?"

Romain suddenly asked, "What if you really couldn't eat white bread anymore?"

Green looked startled and suspicious, as though trying to determine whether Romain was joking. Even the silent Aaron looked over.

The three had grown up together since childhood. Both Green and Aaron knew that Romain wanted to accomplish great things. Today was clearly the trumpet call marking the start of his charge.

Romain had waited more than ten years for this day.

Green said carelessly, "Then I won't eat it. You're the Noble Lord; we're just your attendant knights. Do whatever you want. It's not like we can oppose you anyway."

He had an impulsive nature and never liked using his brain, especially when it came to thinking about the future. The more he knew, the more lost he became.

But no knight would betray his lord. He would support everything his Lord did without condition.

Concentrate their strength on great undertakings! Great undertakings!

Wasn't that why he and Aaron had chosen to follow this lord?

Romain had known it would be this way, but hearing Green's words still brightened his mood at once. His lips curled upward as he looked ahead.

This time, Seth moved closer. He had no interest in the topic between the two of them. He merely said, "I don't know what you intend to do. But ordering children over five and under fifteen to come to the manor is inappropriate."

Over this period, he had completed a clear handover with Mol and gained a more detailed understanding of Sigg Town's circumstances.

There were roughly three hundred children in that age range, a considerable portion of Sigg Town's population.

Children that age could help their parents with basic, simple work.

Especially children over ten, who were basically considered ordinary laborers. Pulling so many laborers from every household would have a substantial impact on Sigg Town as a whole.

What was more, many of those families likely had younger children who needed care.

Older brothers and sisters could care for them before, but now they could only burden their parents and delay work in the fields.

Seth voiced his concerns to Romain. This would cause serious problems.

Romain said that he cared greatly about these underage children. He would select those suitable and gifted in learning for training, while he would also properly arrange for the younger children.

Seth was deeply puzzled by Romain's decision.

In his view, Romain had brought two clerks, and Sigg Town already had administrators. There was no need to go to such lengths to train personnel himself, much less train so many.

Romain did not explain what he intended to do. It was a very long process, and this was only the beginning. He wanted Sigg Town's minors to form the habit of going to the manor whenever they had nothing to do, gradually bringing them under his influence.

After thinking for a moment, Romain fixed his crimson eyes on the road ahead and said, "I want to change all this. First, I must destroy their old way of life. The manor economy only makes me laugh. I will coordinate all resources and distribute them uniformly. I will not tolerate any waste..."

Everything he had done today was meant to display his authority and power, to make those fools fear him from the bottom of their hearts rather than treat him like some parental official whose arms they could run into and whine in.

He could not show those commoners a kind face, or they would only push their luck.

Romain would forcefully shatter all their fantasies, erase all their hopes, and destroy all their psychological defenses, turning them into the most suitable sacrifices in exchange for a ticket aboard the ship sailing into a new era.

He had no time for gentle reforms or gradual guidance. That soft, overly kind approach disgusted him to the core.

Only cutting through chaos with a swift blade and laying the foundation with an iron hand was the optimal path, with the fewest sacrifices and the greatest speed.

For that, Romain could not allow those ignorant people to raise any objections.

Under Seth's horrified You've gone mad gaze, Romain continued, "I will reduce the cultivated area. If they can't adapt, then they can die."

More reclaimed wasteland was not necessarily better, nor was a larger planting area necessarily better.

In this era, a family had to cultivate sixty mu of land just to ensure they had enough to eat, and the ratio of seed to harvest was roughly one to four.

That was to say, when one grain of wheat was planted in the ground, only four grains could be harvested on average.

Because farming in those days depended entirely on heaven's favor. Wind cut the harvest in half, rain ruined everything, and there was no ability whatsoever to withstand risk.

Merchants might dare commit any crime for a profit of three hundred percent, but if you told a merchant to farm, he would probably smash his head against the wall and die!

Theoretically, if Romain could grow eight grains of wheat from one grain, he could reduce the cultivated area by half.

If he could grow sixteen grains, he could abandon three-quarters of Sigg Town's cultivated land.

Of course, the consequence would be maintaining their previous half-dead state. It would be inevitable that farmers would not get enough to eat at each meal, and things would remain at the limit, unable to endure any upheaval.

Based on the existing harvest, Romain wanted to produce as much additional grain as possible.

Sigg Town's population had given him a pleasant surprise, but labor was still scarce.

Intensive cultivation was more troublesome, but it reduced the need for labor in another sense.

More importantly, it could free up a portion of the workforce.

Just as Tale of Survival said.

Romain still had many things to do.

For now, the most urgent task was to plant enough food before this season ended.

As long as superior seeds were selected, the soil received enough nutrients, and conditions were suitable, these crops could grow close to their genetic limits—wheat was just like humans.

Naturally, such yields would not be low.

Therefore, abandoning most of the cultivated land would benefit the whole.

Romain expected a ratio of one to twenty between investment and return.

In his view, that was already a perfectly normal demand.

If even such a target could not be reached, then Romain would have disgraced his ancestors.

Now was the ideal time to prepare for the spring plowing. They had to seize this opportunity.

Sigg Town had more than eighty head of Draft Cattle. The climate of this land made animal husbandry easier than farming, but livestock raising could not feed people. They still had to rely on cultivation.

Farmers could not afford Draft Cattle. In the past, these Draft Cattle had been jointly owned by Agricultural Officer Mol and those Stewards.

Now, those assets belonged to Romain.

Romain felt no burden whatsoever over requisitioning Sigg Town's resources.

He was the Lord to begin with. It was perfectly normal for him to have that privilege, and he could no longer stand Sigg Town's sluggish pace of development.

This kind of primitive accumulation was extraordinarily slow. Even after all this time, they had only accumulated a few dozen cattle.

Outside, when prices did not fluctuate much, one full-weight Gold Coin could buy two head of Draft Cattle.

But Sigg Town's commercial scale was still far too weak. It lacked transport capacity, and even with money, they could not buy everything.

Romain could calculate with his ass that nearly two thousand people sharing just over eighty Draft Cattle was an extremely tight situation. There was no way they could complete all the plowing tasks.

He had asked about it. In the past, land that could not be plowed in time could only be planted crudely through human labor—scattering a few seeds at random and leaving whether they survived entirely to fate.

Under normal circumstances, there would at least be scattered harvests.

There was no other way. When land productivity could not be effectively increased, expanding the cultivated area was inevitable.

Yet that was also an enormous waste of resources. Abandoning wasteland that yielded two from one planting or four from two plantings, and concentrating their strength instead, was the wise choice.