The Lord of the Rings: Lords of Middle-earth.

"Do you think we have the ability to build a mage tower? Even a basic one will do!" Roland suddenly asked Yunfeng.

"Dream on, Your Highness!" Yun Feng rolled his eyes. He was a wise man, not a beast of burden! Although wise men could build mage towers, it didn't mean that every wise man could build one. After all, each wise man had a different specialty, and Yun Feng just happened to be one of those talents who couldn't build mage towers.

"..." Roland pouted, feeling a sense of shattered dreams. After all, if they had a mage tower, Roland's expansion plan would be a sure thing!

A mage tower isn't just any random tower that's been built and called a mage tower. Besides amplifying the abilities of mages, the most important feature of a mage tower is that it can be moved freely. Although most mage towers don't move once they're built and placed on the ground, that doesn't mean they can't be moved.

"It's alright, Your Highness. The absence of a mage tower doesn't affect my strength." Adolf Heinrich waved his hand. Having a mage tower would be better, but not having one wouldn't matter. After all, mage towers were basically extinct in the Middle Kingdom, mainly because wise men had basically disappeared.

Nowadays, spellcasters in Middle-earth only need to bring one person with them when they go out to fight, unlike in Lord of the Rings games where sages would be embarrassed to greet others if they didn't bring a tower with them.

"Hmm..." Roland shook his head, resigned to his fate, but he really wanted a mage tower! A sage crammed into a basic mage tower—let alone ordinary ringwraiths, even the Witch-King of Angmar would have to cower and retreat. From now on, he could just launch mage towers on his eastern expeditions and unleash overwhelming firepower on the Eastern Barbarians.

"Forget about that... How's the spring planting preparation going?" Roland shook his head, changing the subject. Spring planting was the most important thing. He was currently out of wealth points. Although there was plenty of food stored in the system space, he shouldn't forget that the Kingdom of Lagrang had gained several thousand more soldiers who had been given leave to work! The kingdom was suffering a severe loss of able-bodied men!

Spring planting is proceeding as planned, and this year the area of ​​reclaimed wasteland is even larger! This turmoil hasn't affected spring planting yet. "Yun Feng said with lingering fear, mainly because the chaos in the kingdom was extinguished by the combined efforts of several parties before it could even gain momentum! Whether it was Nyx's concession or Yun Feng's compromise, both prevented the turmoil from escalating further, and Apophis Breo's decisive feigned death and Roland's return put the final straw!
"But there are too many soldiers who have been demobilized!" Adolf Heinrich looked at the parchment with a horrified expression as he looked at Yunfeng's statistics. His own king was no longer just a warmonger! He was downright insane! How the hell did they raise a military-civilian ratio of 1:3? Adolf Heinrich, who had a noble lineage, could naturally see the horror and crisis hidden within.

"Hmm, that's a bit too much!" Roland glanced at Adolf Heinrich and nodded casually. *I have a system now, when else should I build up my army? With a system, why not return home in glory and show off in front of everyone? How can I conquer this vast territory without a large army?*
“That’s probably not a good idea…” Adolf Heinrich said to Roland, carefully choosing his words.

"It's alright..." Roland waved his hand, intending to end the topic. After all, he could buy food from the system to support the army, and the financial burden on the army wouldn't be borne by the kingdom's people... Wait a minute! Damn it, I'm broke!

Thinking of this, Roland immediately looked at Adolf Heinrich with a strange gaze. He had traded the money meant for maintaining a large army for a sage. Although it wasn't a loss, the financial hole in the army still needed to be filled.

When Yun Feng saw Roland fall into deep thought, he knew something was wrong. He knew that the kingdom's army was supported by Roland's private treasury. Now that King Roland had suddenly stopped talking, he guessed that there was a problem with the king's granary.

At this moment, Roland was still mentally calculating how to fill the hole! The soldiers' food shortage was huge; the food consumption of these "manure-producing machines" was far greater than that of the kingdom's tens of thousands of citizens! Add to that the consumption of the knightly order, and the annual food consumption of those hundred magical warhorses was enough to feed tens of thousands of people comfortably for a year! Thinking of this, Roland suddenly felt a pang of regret that the hundred-man heavy cavalry unit had died at just the right time. Although it was somewhat immoral to say so, it truly relieved the financial pressure!

Roland racked his brains but couldn't come up with a good solution. After finishing the orders for magical weapons from the elves and dwarves, the kingdom had no other trading partners. Furthermore, the ongoing war had prevented Cloud Maple from starting production, essentially blocking all foreign trade. Moreover, the long distances involved in transporting grain resulted in significant losses, making the use of spatial items for sourcing impractical. The plan to procure supplies from the south was thus aborted. As for the northern kingdoms… cough cough! To put it bluntly, their yields weren't even as high as Roland's. Roland's family was able to cultivate the land so quickly and efficiently thanks to the use of curved plows and manure. The other powers, with their neglected farming methods, were already lucky to be able to feed themselves – a true blessing from the heavens in Middle-earth.

The last remaining option is internal consumption, but with a 1:3 ratio, how much tax would be needed to support that?

"If all else fails, let the soldiers settle in the fields!" Roland narrowed his eyes. Prime Minister Cao! I won't learn your Jian'an style or your Wei Wu legacy, but learning your land reclamation system shouldn't be a problem, right?
"Tuntian?" Yunfeng and Adolf Heinrich were taken aback and expressed their curiosity, clearly indicating that this term did not yet exist in Middle-earth.

"Farm in peacetime, and leave production in wartime!" Roland tapped the table and said succinctly to the two of them.

"How about we call the others to discuss this?" Yun Feng narrowed his eyes. He seemed to have grasped a glimmer of light, but not quite.

"No need. Even if we're going to settle down for farming, only the Swift Infantry and Light Infantry can go! Other professionals can't take time off work!" Roland shook his head. His goal was clear: the six thousand Swift Infantry were major producers of manure! Sending them away would save a lot of money!
"Spring planting has just begun! Let the Swift Infantry clear the wasteland outside Lulong Fortress and Swift Flow City and cultivate the land! Anyway, they used to be farmers, so they're quite skilled!" Roland smiled. He only needed to raise them until the autumn harvest, and then he would only need to support the other professional soldiers. The Swift Infantry could be completely self-sufficient!
“Yes, this is feasible!” Yun Feng nodded. It’s just a matter of converting the Swift Infantry into a semi-agricultural, semi-military mode. Isn’t that what most nobles in this world do? They call up militia to fight in times of war and become farmers in times of peace… It’s just that Roland’s militia is more elite and doesn’t need to provide their own equipment.

“Yes, that’s certainly possible, it will greatly reduce the burden!” Adolf Heinrich nodded.

"That's settled then. Yunfeng, go and inform Swiftstream City! Tell them to bring back a Swiftstream infantry unit to clear the land! The other soldiers should also take their positions," Roland instructed.

"What's the situation in Palembang?" Roland asked again.

"It's nothing serious. Palembang wasn't even involved in this..." Yun Feng shook his head with a wry smile. Because of military preparations, Palembang's garrison commander, Lance, had been summoned to Lulong Fortress by Nyx, while the commander of the Lagrange City Guard, Verin Angus, was ordered to be stationed in Palembang. When Verin Angus arrived in Palembang, he was focused on developing the wilderness and building the town, and had no idea that there was such a farce going on in the central government...

Well, actually, everyone forgot about Palembang... When Renault and Lavian were protecting Nyx as they fled to Stream City, they passed by Palembang but didn't go in at all. Valin Angus, seeing the hurried group, didn't stop or ask any questions. Palembang was thus forgotten on the wasteland, and Valin Angus, completely unaware, continued to guard it.

Roland's lips twitched as he listened to Yun Feng's account. Good heavens, is a town garrison commander really that insignificant? Oh! So the Palembang garrison was transferred! That's alright then…