Chapter 45: Grain Yield in Shanlin Town

With an Administrator, Luoning no longer needed to personally manage every matter in the territory.

However, this did not mean he would completely let go and become a noble lord who only sought enjoyment (though this was his ultimate goal).

On the contrary, he wanted to build the territory into his own utopia, so he had to inquire about many things.

Therefore, Luoning proposed the requirement of "weekly reports and monthly summaries" to Wilson, which could both deepen his grasp of territorial administration and allow him to understand Wilson's level of competence.

After these two days of busyness, the personnel arrangements for Shanlin Castle were basically completed.

Later, it would only be necessary to make appropriate adjustments according to the situation.

After his afternoon nap, Luoning, under the escort of Maiken, Dawei, and Tangmu, began to patrol the territory on horseback.

As the lord, he was full of enthusiasm for this patrol and full of expectations for every production and management area within the territory.

This feeling was like meeting an online lover in person; he had imagined so many beautiful things and longed for so many scenes in his mind, but only by actually meeting could he have the most intuitive understanding.

The center of Shanlin Town was very small, with the surrounding houses extending only about four or five hundred meters, mainly composed of the homes of Free Citizens and various shops.

Although the street was short, there should be quite a few people coming and going every day; otherwise, the street would not be so dirty.

Luoning did not linger on this street for long; led by Tangmu, he turned out toward the east.

If the street were compared to an urban area, then after turning out, it was the suburbs.

Luoning could see many low houses built of mud, thatch, or wood; they were crude and did not look sturdy, the kind that could be blown down by a strong gust of wind.

Compared to living in the urban area, the only advantage here might be that the air was fresher?

"My Lord, the town's wheat fields are mainly distributed in the east and southeast directions; the area to the northeast has orchards and vegetable plots, the northwest side is mainly grassland suitable for grazing, and the southwest side is mainly flax fields."

Although Tangmu's family were tailors, when he served as a Guard and Professional Knight in Shanlin Town, he was often responsible for patrolling the agricultural areas, so he knew quite a bit about this.

"If we follow this dirt road to the east, we will reach the barley and wheat farms."

Luoning raised his head and looked forward; he could indeed see a bit of yellow, as if the wheat was swaying.

"Do you know how large the area of the wheat fields is?"

Tangmu deliberated for a moment, "My Lord, I have heard people talk about it, but I cannot confirm the exact numbers."

Luoning looked at the other man; this surrendered Professional Knight had either been followed by Dawei or Maiken during his activities over the past two days, and there had been nothing unusual.

To him, as long as someone truly wanted to surrender and work for him in earnest, he could treat them equally.

Just as he had told Tangmu before, as long as he performed well during the three-month probationary period, Luoning would agree to restore Tangmu's salary from 20 copper coins a day to 30 copper coins a day, the same as Dawei.

"It doesn't matter, tell me what you know."

Tangmu then replied: "I have heard many farmers talk about it; the cultivated land already opened up in Shanlin Town is nearly 30,000 mu. Although half of the area is fallow each year, calculating it out, there are still over 9,000 mu of barley fields being farmed, and nearly 7,000 mu of wheat fields."

Luoning had heard the word "fallow" before; it meant that if a piece of land was planted this year, it would not be planted next year, resting for a year to increase fertility.

However, even with fallowing, the total wheat fields planted in Shanlin Town each year exceeded 16,000 mu, which completely exceeded Luoning's expectations.

One had to know that Shanlin Town was once wasteland, and everything required land reclamation.

Without a lord to lead it, it was very difficult for them to have opened up so much cultivated land with just this many people.

Luoning frowned slightly; he thought of the cooperation between Sain Territory and Pulinsite.

With such a large area of cultivated land, after the grain was consumed in Shanlin Town, a large amount could still be sold externally.

He wondered how much of it ultimately flowed to Zhaoze Town in Sain Territory.

Luoning became interested and asked: "Do you know roughly how many jin of barley and wheat are produced per mu?"

Tangmu replied: "My Lord, I don't know the exact numbers, but I heard farmers mention it during the busy farming season; they said the yield of barley per mu is about 90 jin, and wheat is a bit higher, with a yield of over 100 jin per mu, about 105 jin."

"This..."

Hearing these two numbers, Luoning was momentarily stunned.

He had already anticipated that crop yields in this world would be low; after all, the planting level here could not compare to that of the Central Plains.

But he never expected that the yield of barley per mu here would be as low as a mere 90 jin!

"Why is it so low?" He could not believe it.

Tangmu subconsciously assumed that the Baron had a superior background and had never been exposed to agriculture, hence his ignorance of the crop yields, so he explained:

"Actually, this yield is already quite good, My Lord. It is said that the barley yield per mu in Zhaoze Town of Sain Territory is less than 50 jin."

50 jin?

Luoning was completely shocked by this number.

After deducting the seeds, the barley in Sain Territory was likely only a 1:2 harvest; this probably wouldn't even be enough to feed themselves, right?

To be honest, why even plant it with such a low yield?

Luoning suddenly understood a bit why Sain Territory wanted to incorporate Shanlin Town.

Baron Leisen perhaps regarded Shanlin Town as his family's granary, specifically for producing grain.

During the conversation, the group soon arrived at the wheat fields, but the closer they got, the tighter Luoning's brow furrowed.

Counting the time, today was already the 15th of the eighth month of the Imperial Calendar; in another half a month or so, it would be time for the barley harvest.

In Luoning's impression, a wheat field should be a neat, golden expanse, but the land before him was not like that.

First, the wheat here was not uniform; their stalks were high and low, very inconsistent.

Second, Luoning discovered that some wheat had begun to ripen, while some wheat still lacked the proper maturity; in the same wheat field, planted at the same time, the ripening times were actually different.

Finally, and what puzzled Luoning very much, there were many weeds in the wheat field; it looked as if no one had ever taken care of it.

Luoning sat on horseback just like that, carefully gazing at the wheat fields, and he discovered that there was not a single farmer here.

"Tangmu, where are the farmers?"

He finally couldn't help but ask: "Why don't I see a single farmer here?"

Tangmu replied: "My Lord, perhaps they are reclaiming wasteland?"

This answer again exceeded Luoning's expectations; leaving the wheat fields here unattended to focus entirely on reclaiming wasteland—was there such a practice?

"Was this arranged by Pulinsite?"

Tangmu nodded, "At the beginning of every year, Pulinsite issues a task to every household to reclaim wasteland, which must be completed within the year. Before I became a Professional Knight, I also reclaimed land."

"Alright, alright."

Luoning could not understand at all what kind of operation it was to only pursue reclaiming wasteland without tending to the crops planted.

He dismounted and came to the edge of the wheat field, reaching out to pull up a weed that was growing quite well.

"You said you have reclaimed wasteland, so how much do you know about farming?"

He handed this weed to Tangmu and asked, "Why don't you weed?"

"That is too much trouble."

Tangmu took the weed and answered as a matter of course, "Weeds do not affect the growth of the wheat, and as you can see, the wheat grows densely; if we walk into the wheat field casually, we will damage them."

Indeed, the growth of the wheat was not uniform; to be precise, it was chaotic and disorganized, looking as if the seeds had just been scattered on the ground and left to grow on their own.

Under these circumstances, fertilizing and watering would likely be very difficult to carry out.

"How do you sow the seeds?" Luoning could not help but ask.

Tangmu began to gesture with his hands, "My lord, we generally first burn the grass on the wasteland, then turn the ground over twice, and then scatter the seeds evenly on top."

Seeing that the other party did not continue, Luoning could not help but ask, "And then?"

"That's it~"

Tangmu laughed, "Then we just wait for the harvest, and after that, if we feel the yield here has dropped, we let the land lie fallow for a year or two and graze some livestock here. When we come back to plant grain two years later, the yield will magically become higher; this must be the blessing of the Seven Gods!"

Luoning suddenly felt that for the yield per mu to reach 90 jin with such operations, it already seemed very, very good.

Not fertilizing, not weeding, just waiting for the harvest like this—this was probably only slightly better than slash-and-burn agriculture.

Why was there such a situation?

Luoning did not know much about the history of this world, only knowing that records began from the founding of the Orland Empire.

Although the empire has now fallen, whether it is the Auduin Kingdom or the Tricia Kingdom, they both claim to be of imperial blood and possess the legal right of succession.

Because of this, both kingdoms continue to use the Imperial Calendar.

Now is the year 968 of the Imperial Calendar.

After nearly a thousand years, is the level of farming still this low?

Or was the level of farming once high, but centuries of continuous warfare struck the agricultural level down to a near-primitive state?

Without the help of good agricultural technology, when lords see that the grain yield per mu is too low, they can probably only choose to let the farmers reclaim more land.

They trade the expansion of cultivated land area for an increase in total grain production.

Luoning could not help but sigh for the farmers here.

This way of farming inevitably leads to low yields, and in order to increase the total amount of grain, they can only expand the planting area, which requires them to reclaim more land.

In such a cycle, most of their energy is spent on reclamation; where would they have the time and energy to study how to increase the yield of a single plot of land?

"I must optimize agriculture and increase the grain yield per mu; only in this way can I free up more people to develop other fields."

"And only with sufficient grain can I support a larger population."

Agriculture is the foundation; only after solving the problem of food and clothing can one talk about development.

"Let's go, let's go see the next place."

Luoning brushed the dirt off his hands, mounted his horse, and headed toward the next area.

(End of this chapter)