Lord Harland.

Chapter 238 Spring Plowing Ends

Although the royal capital has the strength and authority to deal with the Harland family, it forbids Richard's deviant policy and ordered him to close the school.

But firstly, the capital has not received the news, and secondly, Nolan needs the help of the Harland family to defend the northern frontier.Even if he had thoughts in his heart, he would not interfere with the Harland family easily.

Now that the Harland family has repeatedly made military exploits, it has a relationship with the Grant Kingdom that both prospers and loses. Its importance in the northern border is second only to several duke families and surpasses Viscount Luomen.

Thirdly, Richard pardoned slaves and spread knowledge. Although it touched the interests of the nobles as a whole, it did not threaten Nolan.These changes of his have nothing to do with the Grant family who ruled Nolan.

Fourth, although the Harland family has a certain strength, it is far from the Grant family, and it is impossible to rebel in a short time.The most feared thing in the capital will always be the Duke Jonathan's family, which is the second most powerful.

Suppressing and restricting the Harland family will only force them to move closer to the Jonathan family.

If the internal fighting between the royal capital and the great nobles of northern Xinjiang is too intense, once Li Cha opens the passage, the orc army will go straight to Heihe Fort and enter the rich areas of Gerda Province to plunder.

Grant Kingdom's years of hard work in northern Xinjiang has formed a good strategic situation, which will be destroyed in one day.

Due to various reasons and special geopolitics, Li Cha is completely talkative in the territory. Even if he engages in other things, basically no one dares to question him now.

Unless someone wants the situation in northern Xinjiang to be completely corrupt, they will take action against the Harland family.

The great nobles of Northern Xinjiang were either exiled nobles, or were promoted by military exploits.Although the title is very high, it has less influence on Nolan than the Marquis in the east and the Earl in the south.

These marquises and earls are all old families, and their territories are all in the hinterland of Grant Kingdom. They don't need to face orcs all the time, and they don't need to let family members bleed.

The aristocrats of northern Xinjiang are the most powerful and have the highest status, but their strategic posture is the worst. They are equivalent to the shield of the Kingdom of Grant, protecting the safety of other great aristocrats.

For this reason, the northern border nobles tend to be more independent, and the big nobles are not very bird king Nolan.

No matter whether Nolan likes it or not, as long as the royal family wants to maintain the situation in northern Xinjiang and not let the hinterland become corrupt, they will not easily attack the nobles in northern Xinjiang and cause trouble for themselves.Instead, it is necessary to carefully maintain the balance, continuously transfuse blood to the nobles of northern Xinjiang, and send troops to support them from time to time to help the nobles of northern Xinjiang maintain the situation.

Such an external environment is also good for the Harland family in northern Xinjiang.

After returning from the Grand Duchy of Stanik, Richard began to prepare for the spring plowing of the territory.

The Dawn Plane is still in the agricultural era, and spring farming is the most important thing in the agricultural era.

Even Roger Kingdom of the Grant Kingdom had to set an example during the spring plowing period and personally participated in a spring plowing.

Originally, Li Cha had already handed over the work of spring plowing to his cousin Tang En, but this year's situation is a bit special, and many things can only be left to Li Cha to decide.

The territory of northern Xinjiang is very fertile, and it is all nutrient-rich black soil.

However, because of the lack of fertilizers, generally speaking, it needs to be fallowed once every three years.

Starting from Li Cha's management of the territory, he used feces composting technology, built a large number of public toilets, collected human and animal feces, and built septic tanks beside the farmland.

Because of the use of farmyard manure, the grain output per mu in Harland's territory generally increased by [-] to [-] catties.

Don't underestimate the twenty or thirty catties of grain added per mu.

Enlarged to a scale of one million mu, the increased grain production exceeds 5 tons, enough to feed a population of [-] to [-].

In addition, the use of farmyard manure can also extend the cultivation period. Harland Territory uses farmyard manure, and the farmland that uses farmyard manure basically only goes fallow for one year after five years.

Tang En found Li Cha this year mainly because the farmland was fallow.

"My lord, our public land is very well managed, and it is enough to fall fallow regularly. But the private land allocated to free people is more troublesome to fall fallow.

Once the land is fallow, the income from the farmland will be greatly reduced, but the land tax collected from the freedmen by the territory is fixed every year.To reduce stress, the freedmen farmed their fields, almost never fallow.

Since last year, according to our statistics, the yield of farmland cultivated by freemen has decreased by [-] catties compared with that of public land.

This is a rather large number. If the problem of private land fallow is not solved, the land will be consumed too much, and the output of private land in the hands of free people will become less and less.Lord lord, I think a decree should be enacted to force the freedmen to leave the farmland fallow. "

Li Cha knows in his heart that ordinary people are short-sighted and don't think about long-term things.Allowing freedmen to forcibly fallow the land would greatly reduce their income.If taxes are not reduced or cultivated land is increased, even if this policy can be implemented, it will increase the burden on the people in the territory and make the free people in the territory more impoverished.

Li Cha thought about it carefully, and felt that Tang En's suggestion was unfeasible. He carefully analyzed the current situation of Harland's territory. For decades, it would still be an environment with few people and a lot of land.

The climate in Harland's territory is relatively cold, which is not suitable for autumn plowing. Li Cha tried to cultivate a few acres of winter wheat, but unfortunately he couldn't survive the severe cold and long winter, and there was almost no harvest.

If cultivation cannot be done in autumn and winter, the three-field system cannot be implemented.

In the absence of a large amount of chemical fertilizers, in order to reduce the consumption of land fertility, the Harland Territory can only implement the two-field system and let part of the farmland go fallow.

Li Cha looked at the registered land. Given the low population pressure, after careful consideration, Li Cha felt that it would be more appropriate to increase the land for the freedmen.

The Harland Territory now has more than 140 million acres of land and about 23 people.

This year's spring plowing still has 12 mu of farmland to open up wasteland, and there is not much shortage of land resources.

Now there are [-] free citizens in the territory, and each additional mu of land is only [-] mu. It is not too difficult to set aside [-] mu of land from the public land.

With more land and no increase in taxes, there is enough reason to order fallow.

Based on the calculation of six members of a freeman family, about six acres of land fall fallow every year
In addition to the fallow land, Li Cha is also planning to promote the development of animal husbandry, allowing the freemen to raise a large number of sheep.

The territory of Harland is mainly hilly terrain, which is very suitable for animal husbandry.Large-scale sheep raising in the territory can also promote the development of the wool textile industry.

Hearing Li Cha's opinion, Tang En frowned and said: "The free people near Graveson can certainly do this, but the free people who are divided into the Stopa Territory may not be able to do this. Because we are in the Stopa Territory , there is almost not much public land to divide.”

Li Cha looked at the map and said thoughtfully: "The population of the Stopa Territory is too large, I think some of them should be moved out."

"After I go back, I will release the news that I am willing to migrate to Graveson. The free people in the swamp basin will each have six acres of paddy fields. Let's see if the free people in the Stopa Territory are willing to leave their hometown and go to the new territory to reclaim wasteland."

Li Cha knew in his heart that ordinary people were unwilling to leave their hometown.Now the free people in the Harland Territory have a decent standard of living because they have more arable land per capita.

During the slack season, I went to nearby castles and worked odd jobs in factories and mines. Not only could I have enough food and clothing, but I could also save some money every year.

But after two or three generations, with the population explosion, the per capita arable land will be greatly reduced, and the standard of living will drop a lot.

To maintain a high standard of living, the best way is to increase the development of productivity, increase the output per mu of land, and increase the population carrying capacity of the territory.

If the increase in productivity level is relatively slow, the only option is to adopt the second method, which is to continuously migrate the surplus population in the territory, expand outward, reclaim arable land, and compete for survival resources.

The worst way is to consume the excess population through war.

The orc empire's continuous aggression is more or less due to this factor.

Each of the first two roads is very difficult to walk.

Taking the first path is Li Cha's wish. He has been adjusting production relations, liberating serfs, giving full play to the enthusiasm of serfs in production, enhancing social vitality, disseminating knowledge on a large scale, and cultivating the seedlings of science. He hopes to rely on the power of science to increase productivity. Level, to speed up the development of Harland's territory.

At the same time, the territory of Harland is taking the second path. It has been expanding continuously for more than ten years. It has grown from a small barony to an important nobleman in the three provinces of northern Xinjiang.

New farmland has been reclaimed every year for more than ten years.In order to facilitate the migration of the excess population and to open up new territories, Li Cha formulated the decree that the eldest son inherit property and land.

After the second son of the freeman in the territory grows up, if he wants to obtain arable land, he can only go to the new territory to divide the fields.

This decree will continue to be enforced by Li Cha, until the situation changes and it cannot be implemented, then it will be possible to change it.

The power of magic is very important for agricultural planting in the Dawn plane. There are many magics that can promote plant growth and increase soil fertility.In particular, the Church of Nature and Harvest has done a lot of research on spells in this area and has accumulated a lot of experience.

However, there is no priest of the Natural Church in the Grant Kingdom, and even if Richard wants to exchange magic knowledge, he has no channels.

Moreover, the number of magicians in Harland's territory is relatively small. Even if you learn the spells to promote plant growth and increase production, relying on a few magicians and dozens of magic apprentices, the increase in food production is insignificant.

The most urgent task is to find new fertilizers, which is the most critical issue in agricultural development.

Relying on the experience of his previous life, Richard knew that the growth of plants mainly depended on the three elements of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium.

After coming to the plane of morning light, through various experiments, it was found that ordinary plants on the plane of morning light also rely on photosynthesis, and the growth of plants also needs the three elements of nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium.

Magic plants are special, mainly absorbing magic energy particles.

The knowledge of magic botany is also more complicated, and it is more difficult than ordinary agriculture.Planting magic plants requires the personal care of a magician.

The territory of Harland does not have the technical conditions to manufacture chemical fertilizers on a large scale, but it can find natural fertilizer deposits.

Now Li Cha holds more than 8000 square kilometers of territory in his hands, and many mineral veins have not yet been surveyed.

In recent years, Li Cha has been increasing his efforts in mineral vein exploration.

If a potash mine is discovered in the territory, with natural fertilizers, there is no need to worry about agricultural production.

There are many natural salt lakes in the territory of Duke Jonathan. During the dry season, these salt lakes can not only mine salt, but also have a large amount of potassium ore.These potassium mines have been accumulated in the salt lake for thousands of years and have not been used.

More than 30 kilometers to the east of Harland's territory, there is also a salt lake with an area of ​​more than ten square kilometers.

This salt lake is located in the northern part of Viscount Nelson's territory. If Harland's territory expands here, the salt lake can be developed.

Now it is also possible to mine the salt lake secretly, but the salt lake does not belong to the land of the Harland family. Once this area is developed, it will be cheaper for the Grant royal family.

Li Cha didn't want to do the job of making wedding dresses for others.He is going to wait a few years, and when he is promoted to earl, he will ask the royal family for the salt lake area, and then mine salt and potash.Then use natural chemical fertilizers on a large scale to increase food production.

Counting the 12 mu of farmland reclaimed this year, the farmland in the Harland territory has exceeded 150 million mu.However, due to fallow, only about 120 million mu of farmland has been cultivated this year.

Because the cultivated area is 10,000+ mu less than last year, if the weather is good, this year's grain production will be reduced by about [-] tons.

Although food production will decrease, Harland Territory has no worries about food shortage for the time being.

Alfalfa seeds are sprinkled on the fallow farmland, which not only fixes nitrogen and enhances the fertility of the fallow land, but also grows pastures that can be used to raise sheep.

There are now 200 million sheep in Harland's territory, but most of these sheep, Li Cha, have been handed over to the sheep-body tribe.

The sheep-body people in Harland's territory have exceeded 1 people, and they are divided into eight tribes.

In summer and autumn, the sheep-body people basically graze on the mountains. In late autumn, they collect pastures. In winter when the weather is not cold and there is no snowstorm, the sheep-body people will also drive sheep and eat dead grass and leaves.

The sheep-body people have thick hair on their bodies and don't need warm clothes.They also eat less food. The consumption of grains is only one-third of that of humans, and they don't need to eat meat. They don't even need to consume grains in summer and autumn. Just eating a little green grass leaves can fill their stomachs.

The cost of using goats to graze is very low.

Li Cha has already benefited greatly from the sheep-body slaves.

However, as the size of the sheep flock expands, more than 1 sheep-body herdsmen are gradually not enough.

The breeding population of sheep expands very quickly. If you focus on expanding the scale, you can double it tenfold in three years.If the scale of sheep farming in the territory is expanded tenfold, slaves will be able to eat a lot of mutton by then.

Harland Territory has abundant rainfall and dense vegetation. The carrying capacity of the Territory is enough to raise tens of millions of sheep.

However, the consumption of mutton in the Harland Territory is not small. About 60 sheep are slaughtered every year, and the scale is increasing every year.It will take at least five years to expand the sheep population to 2000 million.

This year, Li Cha plans to push the excess sheep to the market and sell them to the free people in the territory at a lower price, so that the free people can raise the sheep and shear the sheep to increase their income.

After entering April, the territory's spring plowing finally came to an end.

(End of this chapter)