When the Saint comes, she does not collect food

Chapter 1007 The Locks of County Hotham

As the ship sailed from the Naoan River into a tributary, the current gradually became calmer.

Led by the cabin manager, and under the supervision of the ship's officers, they lined up and walked onto the deck one by one.

It wasn't that the Ludwick Relief Association deliberately mistreated these refugees; rather, it was out of necessity.

In the words of a more easygoing pastor, these refugees are "not yet able to adapt to the relatively detailed management regulations of the Holy Alliance."

Some short-tempered pastors would have directly cursed him for being "untamed."

These refugees are really too difficult to manage.

The Holy Alliance is quite meticulous in its efforts to promote literacy and administration, and etiquette is regarded as a doctrine to be followed by its believers.

Over the past seven years, the farmers of Thousand River Valley have become more civilized than the refugees. This is not an exaggeration to say that the people of Thousand River Valley are more civilized.

Therefore, it is relatively simple for monks to manage the common people in the Holy Alliance.

At first, the pastors were kind and gentle to the refugees, but they found it was no use.

Not only was it useless, but they also went further and further, almost riding on our heads.

Left with no other option, they resorted to this drastic measure: they found a guard and used a stick to tell them, "You must use the toilet in the toilet! You must eat in the dining hall!"

The refugees, who had been sitting in the cabins for a long time, went up to the deck and the first thing they did was to reach out and shield their eyes from the glaring sunlight.

It's already June, the beginning of summer, and the cicadas are chirping incessantly, their cacophony making one feel restless and irritable.

Once the refugees' eyes had adjusted to the sunlight, they all went to the side of the boat and looked towards the shore.

Sherley dared not stray too far from the Ark of the Sacred Relic in the cabin, but he couldn’t resist his curiosity and walked forward to see if the so-called “Road to the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth” was truly living up to its name.

Standing at the bow of the ship, one could see mountains in the distance that appeared to be no bigger than a thumb to the naked eye.

The damp sunlight was now enveloping the mirror-like blue river water and the bluish-gray dam.

Taking a deep breath, Sherley unconsciously smiled as the air was filled with the scent of earth and straw.

The chaplain, Halifax, standing nearby, couldn't help but exclaim, "In winter, this river is only a dozen meters wide, but when we return in summer, it's dozens of meters wide."

In winter, the river is dry and the water level drops, while in summer, the water level rises. This is the natural order.

Therefore, in winter the river is often far from the embankment, while in summer it is just right to reach the embankment.

However, in Sherley's opinion, the riverbanks were a little too narrow, and the water level was higher than the land behind the embankment.

But that's normal. The Thousand River Valley is a wild and desolate place. How could it have the water conservancy level of the Golden Plain in the center of the empire?

Looking at the embankment before him, Sherley was momentarily surprised, but it seemed to make sense.

People on the shore were waving flags at the boats, and Khalifa quickly called for a response before hurrying away.

In Sherley's eyes, the closer he got to the embankment, the clearer the view became.

"Hey?" Hunchback Worin suddenly exclaimed, "Why is there a hole in the embankment over there?"

Upon hearing this, everyone looked in that direction and then exclaimed in surprise one after another.

"There really is a hole."

"All the river water rushed out through that hole."

"It's over, we can't get off the boat, the area behind the dike is flooded."

Hearing the wailing and howling from one side, the refugees on the other side immediately crowded over, wanting to join in the fun.

However, before the discipline could be implemented, Anselm, a wealthy farmer from Leia, struck first.

"Don't panic, that's not a hole, it's a sluice gate!"

Just then, the guard came over with a rubber baton: "Who's making a fuss? Don't crowd on one side of the boat, go to the other side!"

Squeezed against the ship's side, Sherry finally got a clear look at the so-called "hole".

Seven or eight meters away from the boat, there was indeed a sluice gate. The heavy gate was halfway raised, and the dormant river water broke free from its cage, rushing out with sunlight like scattered gold.

Like a wild horse, the river rushes along the neatly constructed stone-lined ditches.

On both sides of the ditch, farmers wearing wide-brimmed hats bent over to inspect the diversion gates, and also picked up branches and weeds that might be clogging the ditch.

Because the water level is higher than the ground, the river water can naturally flow through the irrigation canals and into the long, narrow paddy fields.

The parched soil greedily absorbed the water, and in the blink of an eye, it shimmered with light.

The farmers, barefoot, waded through water up to their calves as they planted tender green rice seedlings into the soft paddy fields.

Sherley's face flushed slightly; he had seen this sluice gate before, both on the river island and at the windmill site.

However, once they arrived at the Holy Alliance, prejudice took over, and they were immediately convinced that the Holy Alliance was not up to par.

After silently reciting a few lines of scripture from the Messiah admonishing believers not to be arrogant, Sheri regained his composure.

On the other hand, a naive inland farmer asked Anselm, "Why do we need to build a sluice gate to release the water? Is it to prevent the water from overflowing the dam?"

“How could that be?” Anselm shook his head. “Even if we were to release water, it would be through that groove in front, that dried-up flood discharge channel. Why would we use this small opening to release water?”

"Won't doing that just flood the fields?"

"You wouldn't understand, would you? This is our grassland irrigation method on the river island!"

The grassland irrigation method described by Anselm involved first building dams to store water along the riverbanks near the grasslands, and then constructing main and branch canals.

Next, the water flow is controlled by the sluice gate, allowing the river water to flow into the grassland along the channel, maintaining a depth of 2 centimeters.

Because the planted grass is flood-resistant ryegrass, which can absorb sediment from rivers, the grass grows very quickly.

Once the pasture has grown well, close the sluice gate and let the cattle, horses, and sheep graze. During this time, the livestock manure will fertilize the land, and it will be ready to be sown again in the fall.

“By doing this, we can ensure that all the land can be used for continuous wheat cropping, and we can even raise cattle, sheep and horses.” Anselm smiled smugly.

"I see." The craftsmen were bewildered, but many farmers nodded repeatedly.

If the same land does not need to be left fallow, it is equivalent to having 50-60% more land out of thin air.

No wonder the grain yield on Heshan Island is so high!
"Really?" someone nearby questioned. "Then why are they planting now?"

Yes, even though they were far away, they could still see the farmers planting rice seedlings into the paddy fields.

“That’s pasture!” Anselm insisted.

Someone nearby questioned, "Does that grass really need to be planted out one by one like that?"

"Who? Who's speaking?" Anselm turned around to look, but found no one responding. He straightened his collar. "It's Hay, everyone. If you don't believe me, we'll go down and ask him later."

If nothing goes wrong, this will be their future home.

The Holy Alliance promised to allocate 30 to 50 mu of land to each person.

Although it was a remote area of ​​the empire, these few dozen acres of land were not worth much, but at least it was peaceful.

As the saying goes, every place has its own way of doing things. If you want to settle down in Thousand River Valley, you have to learn how things are done here.

Amidst the murmurs of the crowd, the fifteen ships finally slowly docked at the pier.

The refugees were first herded back to their cabins. Once the ship came to a stop, they were led off the ship by their cabin supervisors. They were required to report to the guards and move together as a group.

Halifax hurried away, telling everyone, "Remember to get back to the ship before sunset, the voyage waits for no one!" before departing.

The cabin where Sherley was located was where Anselm, Tall Sani, Hunchback Worin, and the Al speculator Reginald were about to disembark.

Sheryl originally intended to stay on the ship, but after thinking about what he had seen and heard, he instructed his attendants and disembarked.

He wanted to use his eyes to thoroughly explore this small town and this border country known to the world as the "graveyard of empires."

(End of this chapter)