Chapter 54: 54. The Land Reclamation Plan

On the day before the planned departure for Muma City, everyone was quite busy.

Maiken was working with Tangmu to formulate a plan for Dawei's upcoming territorial defense and patrols, while Aierlong rode his horse through the town, dispensing Luoning's benevolence.

Chahaer was tinkering with the castle toilet project, and Wilson, having finished his statistics, was bogged down in the matters of village division and organization.

Luoning was not idle either.

After finishing the knight novel in his hands, he rode his horse to the edge of the southeastern area to observe how the serfs and tenant farmers were reclaiming wasteland.

The farmers were selective when reclaiming wasteland; they did not just pick any piece of land to work on. They generally chose areas with relatively gentle terrain and softer soil, trying their best to avoid sandy or rocky ground.

Fortunately, there was a large, relatively flat area to the southeast of Shanlin Town, which provided the town with a significant amount of arable land; if they continued to reclaim it, it would likely amount to no less than forty or fifty thousand mu.

Added to the reclaimable areas in the northeast and the more than ten thousand mu currently lying fallow, the arable land area of Shanlin Town was estimated to be around eighty thousand mu.

And this did not even count the dangerous west side...

Luoning was startled by the data he had obtained from this quick analysis.

A town with this much arable land—could this be called barren?

As long as Luoning reclaimed all the uncultivated land and then increased the grain yield per mu slightly, relying on Shanlin Town's self-sufficiency should be enough to support a population of twenty or thirty thousand.

This only accounted for barley and wheat yields; if carrots and cabbage were added, the population that could barely survive would likely be a little higher.

"Pulinsite's annual forced land reclamation for the commoners actually makes some sense."

Luoning did not rashly stop the farmers from reclaiming land; it would truly be a waste not to cultivate such a large expanse of arable land.

However, the speed at which the farmers were reclaiming land was a bit too slow.

He rode his horse in a circle around the reclaimed land, causing those serfs and tenant farmers to think the lord had come to supervise their work; one by one, they were both trembling with fear and working hard, terrified that the lord's whip would fall on some unlucky soul.

As an outsider, Luoning did not easily point fingers at existing techniques and working methods, and he had no leisure time to supervise how the commoners labored.

The reason he was walking around and looking everywhere was mainly to collect usable information.

Through observation, he discovered that although the farmers were working without a moment's rest, the speed of reclamation was still not ideal; the reason for this was the lack of tools.

Whether it was plow oxen or horses, neither had been used on a large scale in land reclamation; it relied more on human labor, so the speed naturally could not be increased.

Moreover, Luoning carefully observed the few oxen they had; they were not only thin and weak, but the plows used were also light plows, which could only turn over a limited layer of soil and could not plow deeply.

Besides that, the design flaws of the plows and ox yokes led to a great waste of both human and ox power, especially when it was particularly strenuous to turn around at the end of a furrow.

Promoting ox-drawn plowing and improving the plows and ox yokes could increase the speed of land reclamation.

Luoning learned through inquiry that these few oxen were the private property of the tenant farmers; if others wanted to use them, they had to pay a certain amount of labor or grain.

In the past, when Pulinsite was around, he would lend out two or three to those in need, but he would also charge a fee. Of course, for Pulinsite, more of the oxen were used for eating.

Luoning had seen Black Water Buffalo; after all, the thirteen oxen sent from Sain Territory to Shanlin Town were inspected by him personally.

This type of water buffalo had a larger build, half a size bigger than the water buffalo of the Central Plains, so their strength could be imagined.

However, although these fellows were large in size, their temperaments were relatively docile, especially under the training of the cowherds from Sain Territory; they could understand human commands and were rare, high-quality labor.

Luoning had a total of twenty-four Black Water Buffalo available for plowing on hand, which was not a large number.

He planned to wait until Wilson had finished dividing the villages in Shanlin Town before distributing the plow oxen.

Of course, this was mainly for the serfs to use; as for the free tenant farmers, they would still need to pay a certain fee, though compared to Pulinsite, he could reduce it slightly at his discretion.

The problem of plow oxen could only be solved this way for now; the quantity was simply too small.

As for the plows and ox yokes, Luoning could indeed improve them.

As a modern person from the Central Plains, he not only had an understanding of the curved plow from history books but had also tinkered with plows and big black oxen in the fields during his childhood.

Luoning prepared to draw the design of the plow and then hand it to the Blacksmith Kalesi in town to forge a set to test out; there shouldn't be much of a problem.

While Luoning was busy improving the agricultural technology level of his territory, most of the nobles in the entire Wushan Territory were preparing for the upcoming grand gathering.

On August 28th, Earl Aosen Haide of Heimang City welcomed his seventieth birthday.

To ordinary people, fifty years old was equivalent to entering old age; to nobles, fifty was merely the end of middle age.

And for this Golden Knight, even at the advanced age of seventy, he remained robust and powerful.

The skin, flesh, and internal organs of a Golden Knight were tempered by Battle Qi for Along time, and their function and strength were already several grades ahead of ordinary people.

A Transcendental of this level, if there were no illnesses or injuries, would not enter the period of physical decline until eighty years old.

Therefore, for the next ten years, Aosen Haide would remain robust.

The Haide Family was already powerful, and now that the Earl's own grandson had the right of succession to Wushan Territory, the prestige of the Haide Family was rising ever higher.

Thus, this birthday banquet would be grander than ever before, which was also the reason why Baron Leisen set off for Heimang City so many days in advance, because it could indeed generate many exchanges.

In Wushan Castle, Lulansi, as the liege lord of Aosen Haide, naturally would not personally go to celebrate the other's birthday.

However, his son, as the Earl of Wushan City and also the son-in-law of that fellow Aosen, definitely had to go on this trip.

But this Earl was currently arguing with his wife in the castle, the cause being that Weijinsi did not want to go to Heimang City.

When he was young, he was keen on attending all kinds of banquets; the more nobles there were, the more he liked it.

But after growing older, especially in the last few years, he increasingly hated attending such banquets; watching the nobles clinking glasses, smiling on the surface while not knowing what they were saying about him behind his back, he felt a wave of nausea.

Daianni was feeling a bit frantic at this moment; how could a son-in-law not attend his father-in-law's birthday banquet?

She kept questioning Weijinsi, asking him what exactly he was afraid of!

The argument lasted for Along time, until this matter disturbed Lulansi, who was resting in the back courtyard.

When this old gentleman sat before the two of them leaning on his cane, whether it was Weijinsi or Daianni, they could only lower their flags and extinguish their fire.

"For this birthday banquet of Aosen's, you have no reason not to go." Lulansi made the final decision with a resounding tone.

Weijinsi suddenly felt very tired; being this lousy Earl and serving as the heir to the Marquis was truly too exhausting. If he could, he would have loved to trade his own life for the rebirth of Geleimusi.

"Father, wouldn't it be enough to let Daianni take Buleidun?"

He was still a bit unwilling to give up, "Can't we just tell the outside world that I'm sick, feeling unwell, and resting at home?"

Hearing this, Lulansi suddenly felt as if he had aged another year; he did not want to say anything more, only staring coldly at the son before him.

Very quickly, Weijinsi was defeated, "Fine, I'll go!"

Lulansi sighed inwardly, "This time, let Tolu lead the team to accompany you."

Tolu Weinaer is Lulansi's disciple, a Conferred Knight of Wushan Castle, and the Regiment Commander of the First Knight Order of Wushan Castle.

Tolu publicly claims to only have Silver-tier Peak strength, but he broke through not long ago; it is just that this matter was not publicized, and only Lulansi knows about it.

Weijinsi was startled, "Father, Tolu is responsible for guarding Wushan City; if he goes with me, then what will you do?"

"Are you worried about my safety?"

Lulansi chuckled, then his expression suddenly turned stern, and he struck his cane heavily against the floor.

The floor tiles shattered with a crack, and a scorching Battle Qi formed a whirlwind that rushed toward Weijinsi, actually blowing him, along with the table, chairs, and sofa, directly away to slam against the wall.

Daianni, who was to the side, could not help but be startled; she had not expected the old man's momentum to still be so powerful!

"Cough, cough~"

Lulansi coughed twice, looked at the son he had just taught a lesson, and felt the anger in his heart ease a little.

He stood up and walked outside, "Your father is only ill, but not dead. There is no one in Wushan Territory yet who can take my life."

(End of this chapter)