Knight Lord: Start with Daily Intelligence.

Chapter 138 Bjorn's Farming in Shallow Bay: Ten Thousand Acres of Good Farmland

After the summer solstice, the territory focused all its attention on the construction of Bjorn Bay.

The slaves sent by the West High Chamber of Commerce greatly helped the farming business in the territory.

When the land reclamation business started here, the population size reached one thousand people!

With the support of such a large population, more than 7,000 acres of fertile land were reclaimed in the territory in just three days.

Each person can reclaim two acres of land every day!

This efficiency is undoubtedly amazing, and it is also due to the popularization of various agricultural tools in the territory.

In this shallow bay, the territory mobilized more than one hundred oxen and horses, and used more than fifty heavy plows.

The feudal lord system is not entirely useless. Compared with the self-sufficient small peasant economy, large farmers are more willing to invest.

In particular, the large tracts of farmland here belong to Su Li. Without establishing a land system, he can organize large-scale mechanized production.

It's really mechanized, no exaggeration.

The halflings sent three heavy plows. These large machines, pulled by battle rams, are several times more efficient in plowing the land than the Nord heavy plows.

On the vast and fertile Bjorn Plain, they only had to gallop forward, and they didn't need to turn around even if they had plowed an hectare of land at a time.

These heavy plows cleared away all the dense tree roots and weeds on the plains in one go.

The bushes that could stop humans and oxen from advancing seemed like nothing in front of the heavy fighting rams. All the thorns, vines, and bushes were cut into pieces in front of the plow blades.

Then the serfs behind them just had to follow and clear the vegetation. They brought farm tools and after clearing the vegetation, they quickly turned the soil, threw out the stones and hard soil underground, and broke up the soil to make the land softer and easier to cultivate.

What followed was the most enjoyable part. After turning the soil, the serfs began to level the land, making thousands of acres of arable land flat and orderly.

On the third day, when Su Li stood on the high embankment of Bjorn Bay and looked down, the ten thousand acres of fertile land in front of him had already taken shape.

On the burnt green plain, there are nearly 10,000 mu of earth-yellow arable land platforms, with neat and orderly ridges. Between the woods, there are crisscrossing paths and ditches. All of this constitutes a pastoral picture full of vitality.

Every vast farmland appears fertile and full of vitality. The newly turned soil exudes the moist smell of earth, and the serfs work hard on it.

Su Li seemed to have seen that in the near future, this land would be covered with green crops, golden wheat waves would roll in the wind, and wheat ears would hang down heavily, full of the joy of a good harvest.

As Su Li was looking at the pleasant scenery, Minister of Agriculture Fandral came over.

Su Li looked at him and immediately asked with concern: "My minister, tell me about the results of the past few days. When can we achieve the feat of tens of thousands of acres of farmland."

Fandral looked down at the magnificent scenery below. Fields were being reclaimed and the fertile land stretched far into the distance of the plain. He smiled and said, "My Lord, the scale of our newly reclaimed farmland may have already exceeded ten thousand acres."

"Huh?" Su Li raised his eyebrows. This was good news.

The more land that is reclaimed, the larger the scale of cultivated land can be during summer planting.

If there are 20,000 mu of arable land and the yield per mu is 300 kilograms, that would be 6 million kilograms of grain.

It’s enough to feed 3000 people for a year, and there’s even some left over.

Even if we take into account that some economic crops such as flax, beets, olives, soybeans, etc. will be planted, it will be enough to support the territory for half a year, and some beer can be produced to trade with the dwarves.

Fandral explained: "The development of our territory does not only include this Bjorn Bay. In fact, our territory now has two subsidiary territories, four villages and seven farms!"

There is no need to say much about the two subordinate territories, namely the Halfling's Balan Autonomous Territory and the Frederick family's Golden Lion Territory.

They all had their own subjects and serfs, and William also bought a dozen slaves from Su Li to provide herding and farming services for their families.

On the fertile and vast Bloody Highlands, their family can make good profits even by relying on grazing.

The population of the halfling Balan Autonomous Territory is actually not small. Including the Balan Donborn family, they have a total of five families with a population of nearly 500 people.

Although most people are working outside as businessmen, servants, traders, etc., there are still two or three hundred people left in the territory.

The scale of farmland they reclaimed was equally impressive.

They do not need to pay taxes directly to Su Li, but the mayor of their territory needs to pay vassal taxes to Su Li in proportion to last year's income.

This is an obligation that every territory and every free village in Hesse must bear.

The free villages in the territory now include Jia Village, Tiexiang Village, Huishi Village and Yinquan Valley.

In addition to the freed slaves, there were also migrated believers of the Sun Goddess, refugees from the Surander Province, and a village composed of refugees.

Some of these villages have as few as thirty or forty people, while others have as many as thirty or forty households and hundreds of people.

According to the original agreement, Su Li provided them with land for free for three years, and did not charge rent during these three years, but still levied a high tax of 19%. Therefore, these people worked hard to cultivate farmland and strive to meet the tax quota.

The nobles of this world are not so easy to talk to.

In the empire, if any farmer failed to pay enough taxes, the cruel and ruthless tax collectors would take away all his wealth, even his status as a freeman.

Many slaves, vagrants, and peasant mobs lost their original class, status, and wealth because they did not pay enough taxes.

Once you become a slave or a vagrant, the chances of returning to normal society are slim.

The Border Prince's Territory is the last piece of land these people are trying to gain a glimmer of hope.

These people are working hard to farm, and based on the scale, the farming should be at least one-third of the area near Bjorn Bay!

There were actually quite a few of them, but as freemen and farming families, their farming scale and technical level were far inferior to those of Bjorn Shallow Bay, to which Su Li gave his full support.

Their greatest advantage lies in their higher motivation and meticulous work.

Su Li asked with concern: "How is the enthusiasm of the serfs?"

Speaking of this, Fandral said solemnly, "The new serfs are undoubtedly very motivated. With the 'Land Labor Law' in place, they dare not slack off in the slightest."

"But the enthusiasm of the previous batches of serfs wasn't as high. They had already harvested a season's harvest, so it was basically impossible for them to be in the last place. So some of them started to slack off."

Su Li nodded. This was within his expectations.

No legal provision can solve the problem once and for all.

Although the "Land-Working Law" sounds cruel, in reality only the last three people were beheaded.

When there were only a hundred or even several hundred serfs, the deterrent effect was relatively high.

But when the number of serfs reached thousands, the deterrent effect was greatly reduced.

What does a probability of 3/1000 mean?

Under current medical conditions, the childbirth mortality rate is higher than this.

The mortality rate of any disease is higher than the penalty rate of the Litian Law.

So Su Li thought about it and said, "Let the court expand the scope of the Litian Law, increase the number of rewards to twenty people, and increase the number of punishments to ten people."

Rewarding filial piety and hard work in the fields is the most effective way to promote farming.

However, in this fantasy world, rewarding labor in the fields is only the most common practice. If you want to improve productivity, you still have to rely on some unique abilities.

Su Li asked with great interest: "My minister, does your Dawn Church have any methods to improve farming?"

Fandral shook his head and said, "The main ability of our church is to increase the output of farmland and grain after reclaiming the farmland."

"For example, our new sisters' ability, [Rhea's Abundance], can sing of the midsummer and the goddess's glory in the summer, bringing abundance and clearing away all filth. Stored food and uncooked ingredients will slowly expand and split in two, doubling the quantity of everything they touch. Mold, pests, insects, and other sources of spoilage will disappear, and long-standing food will become fresh again. Each round, one barrel, box, or basket of food can be touched."

"But when it comes to reclaiming wasteland, we don't have any special magic. Believers are required to do it themselves. Only after a certain amount of effort will Rhea's grace be bestowed upon them."

"But I think you might want to discuss this matter with the dwarves."

"Dwarf?" Su Li raised his eyebrows.

"That's right." Fandral nodded and said, "Their engineers can help the halflings make more engineering machinery, such as harvesters and plows. If there are enough machines, we can create a lot of farmland on our vast farmland."

Speaking of dwarves, Su Li remembered that Doglin and the others should be back by now.

Doglin promised to return within one cycle. It took three days from the time they walked to the summer solstice, and another three days after the summer solstice.

Judging from the schedule, they should be not far from the territory.

Dwarf engineers are best at building water conservancy systems and some powerful machines, such as catapults, crossbows, artillery and even helicopters.

Of course, their helicopter is not the kind of helicopter that humans use, but a steel product like a land ship or an organ gun. It is rough and bulky, more like a flying iron lump.

They have unparalleled talents in engineering and creation. If they can help the halflings build a batch of plows, it will naturally greatly improve the efficiency of farming.

These chariot-like machines pulled by battle rams are indeed far more efficient than ordinary human serfs.

This is a special type of halfling soldier, somewhat similar to the Robber Fang Bandit Chariot, and has unparalleled value.

Su Li was thinking about this for a while when, in the evening, Laun arrived at Bjorn Bay and said, "My Lord, the Redbeard Clan has arrived. And they have a huge army!"

(End of this chapter)