Farmers Cannot Appear Out of Thin Air [Seeking Favorites and Recommendations]

According to the prompt, as long as one walks three miles due north of the small courtyard, they would be able to find that small stream.

Zong Shen rode the old travel horse, moving at a steady pace, and it only took him six or seven minutes to see the stream.

Although it was called a small stream, the entire surface was about a zhang wide; the current was somewhat rapid, but the water level was not deep.

Zong Shen dismounted and arrived at the creekside.

The stream water was very clear, and because it was running water, it was not murky, allowing him to clearly see the pebbles at the bottom.

He looked up, following the stream toward the upstream direction.

He discovered that this stream flowed out from the mountain forests far away to the north.

It meandered from the north toward the southwest.

Thinking of the system's previous hint that there was a lake in the southwest, it was likely that this stream was one of the water sources feeding into that lake.

Zong Shen was actually not surprised at all that there was a water source nearby.

After all, if there were a lack of water here, it would be impossible to form such a large, lush pasture.

Moreover, Zong Shen had discovered while digging that the soil here was extremely fertile black earth.

It was relatively moist and quite viscous.

According to the terminology from Earth.

That would be humus-rich soil formed under the conditions of temperate humid climate grassland meadow vegetation.

The organic matter in this type of soil is around 3% to 10%, making it incredibly fertile.

As long as there was no desertification or desolation of the grassland, it would be impossible to lack water.

This was a judgment based on common sense.

However, those lords who landed in the Gobi or desert regions must be having a miserable time.

It was just unclear whether there would be some kind of balancing compensation.

Many of the settings in Lord Survival were still quite fair.

Zong Shen stood by the stream, not in a hurry to fetch water, but instead began to ponder the relationship between the environment and survival.

Then, with a wave of his hand, he took out the three wooden buckets he had crafted earlier and placed them beside him.

He crouched down, reached out to scoop up a handful of water, and took a light sip.

The water quality was very sweet and clear, with no strange odors.

Clearly, this was a stream formed by water flowing down from a mountain spring and merging into the meadow.

After constant scouring and the purification of the pebbles, the water quality was quite good.

He gazed intently at the surface of the water.

(Water flowing from a high mountain spring, rich in various minerals; the quality is good, but it is still recommended that you boil it before drinking.)

After checking the Strategy Module and confirming there were no issues, Zong Shen began to collect the water.

He filled the three buckets one after another and stored them in his personal storage slots.

He let the old traveling horse go downstream to drink on its own.

The three full buckets were considered the same type of item, so they could be stacked and would not take up too many storage slots.

That gave him 30L of water.

Currently, there were eleven farmers, two warriors, one Black Panther, and one giant wolf in the territory, plus Zong Shen himself and the old traveling horse.

This 30L of water should be enough to last for one to two days.

However, Zong Shen's territory was not far from this stream, so once he had sufficient wood resources on hand, he could craft more wooden buckets and have Colby come over to fetch water.

He did not feel at ease letting the farmers travel far.

The combat ability of the farmers was too low; they had no power to protect themselves, and it would be easy to suffer losses if they encountered danger.

While thinking, Zong Shen mounted the old traveling horse.

He rode the horse back toward the small courtyard.

Utilizing his spare time, he needed to understand some common-sense issues placed before him as soon as possible.

The Lord Survival system would not answer these questions; originally, lords were meant to explore these things on their own, but Zong Shen was different.

He had the Strategy Module.

Currently, Zong Shen did not have a clear goal regarding how to acquire more farmers.

His initial farmers came from the starting gift.

Then, he had rescued eight more farmers by clearing out a bandit camp.

These farmers did not seem to be able to be recruited out of thin air like warriors.

"May I ask, how can I recruit more farmers?"

As the saying goes, when in doubt, check the strategy.

Zong Shen immediately voiced the doubts in his heart.

(Regarding the recruitment of farmers, there are mainly the following channels.

The first channel, and also the most primary one, is to seek out indigenous villages/towns/major cities. By increasing your reputation and completing tasks to improve regional favorability/reputation, you can gain the trust of the indigenous people. You can recruit from that region once every period of time, and the number of indigenous people recruited depends on your favorability/reputation and the scale of the region.

The second channel is that mercenaries and aspiring individuals often appear in town taverns. Here, as long as you can pay sufficient compensation or agree to fulfill the other party's ambitions, you can quickly gain talent, and you might even encounter potential hero-type individuals.

The third channel is to raid indigenous villages and forcibly plunder the population, though you may face counterattacks and extermination from indigenous forces of various levels.

The fourth channel is to attack bandits/outlaws/alien tribes/nests, where there is a probability of rescuing a certain number of indigenous people.

The fifth channel is to purchase them through slave traders.

The sixth channel is that after your territory expands and your influence increases, it will naturally attract population migration.

The seventh channel is that if you are able to accept alien races, you can even go to alien kingdoms to recruit through alliances/grinding favorability/raiding.

PS: The above channels are not all the ways to obtain population; there are countless opportunities and powerful figures waiting for you across the entire continent.)

So that's how it is!

Zong Shen suddenly understood.

Farmers and other populations cannot appear out of thin air; they need to be recruited from the indigenous forces of the continent.

This is the primary source of population.

Only after possessing a base population can one reproduce and thrive.

This will require decades of patient, grinding effort.

"Then what about soldiers? Can they only be recruited through recruitment scrolls?"

Zong Shen raised the second question in his heart.

(Soldiers summoned directly from recruitment scrolls are all recruitment items left over from ancient times. The number of recruitment scrolls is large but also very scattered; they are hard to come by. They were once a major way of recruiting soldiers on the continent, and the troop types within them are almost extinct today. Powerful heroes or soldiers voluntarily slumber in other dimensions, waiting for a lord to summon them and reappear in this world.

Besides recruitment scrolls, those indigenous farmers, as basic population units, can also be trained into soldiers, but this requires specific buildings, such as those Tier 1 barracks-type buildings in [Construction].

These are the most common and basic human recruitment units. By spending some materials, you can train farmers into soldiers.

Of course, there are many special recruitment buildings that require the lord to constantly explore and discover!

To sum up, the road you have to walk is very long. Keep working hard, you newbie lord.)

After reading the prompts, Zong Shen had a deeper level of thinking regarding population and development.

If he wants to develop, contact with indigenous forces is an unavoidable matter.

However, there is no rush for this.

Today is the first day of landing and development.

The territory has not yet taken shape.

Zong Shen will only consider making contact with indigenous forces once the territory has at least begun to take shape and possesses the power to protect itself.