Chapter 238 Spring Ploughing Ends
Although the capital has the power and authority to deal with the Harland family, it prohibits Richard's unorthodox policies and orders him to close the school.
But firstly, the capital has not received the news, and secondly, Nolan needs the Harland family to help defend the northern border. Even if there are ideas in his mind, he will not easily interfere with the Harland family.
Now the Harland family has repeatedly made military achievements, and it has a relationship of prosperity and loss with the Grant Kingdom. Its importance in the northern border is second only to several duke families, and it exceeds Viscount Romen.
Third, although Richard pardoned slaves and spread knowledge, it touched the interests of the nobles as a whole, but did not threaten Nolan. His changes have nothing to do with the Grant family that rules 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 capital is always most afraid of the Duke Jonathan family, which is the second strongest.
Suppressing and restricting the Harland family will only force them to get close to the Jonathan family.
If the internal fighting between the capital and the nobles in the northern border is too intense, once Richard opens the passage, the orc army will go straight to Black River Fort and enter the rich areas of Geda Province to plunder.
The efforts of the Grant Kingdom in the northern border for many years to form a good strategic situation will be destroyed.
For various reasons, due to the special geopolitics, Richard is completely the only one who has the final say in the territory. Even if he does something else, basically no one dares to question it now.
Unless someone wants the situation in the northern border to be completely corrupted, they will take action against the Harland family.
The nobles in the northern border are either exiled nobles or promoted for military merit. Although the title is high, their influence on Nolan is not as great as that of 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 heart of the Grant Kingdom. They do not need to face the orcs all the time, and they do not need to bleed their family members.
The nobles in the northern border are the strongest and have the highest status, but their strategic situation is the worst. They are equivalent to the shield of the Grant Kingdom, protecting the safety of other nobles.
Because of this, the nobles in the northern border are often more independent, and the great nobles don't care much about the king Nolan.
Whether Nolan likes it or not, as long as the royal family still wants to maintain the situation in the northern border and doesn't want the hinterland to erode, they will not easily attack the great nobles in the northern border and cause trouble for themselves. Instead, they need to carefully maintain the balance, constantly transfuse blood to the great nobles in the northern border, and send troops to support from time to time to help the great nobles in the northern border maintain the situation.
Such an external environment is also good for the Harland family in the northern border.
After returning from the Grand Duchy of Stannic, Richard began to prepare for the spring plowing of the territory.
The Dawn Plane is still in the agricultural era, and spring plowing is the top priority in the agricultural era.
Even the Roger Kingdom of the Grant Kingdom has to set an example during the spring plowing period and personally participate in the spring plowing.
Originally, Richard had handed over the spring plowing work to his cousin Tang En, but the situation this year is a bit special, and many things can only be decided by Richard.
The territory of the northern border is very fertile, all nutritious black soil.
However, due to the lack of fertilizer, the land generally needs to be left fallow once every three years.
Since Richard started to manage the territory, he has used manure composting technology, built a large number of public toilets, collected human and animal feces, and built septic tanks next to farmland.
Because of the use of farmyard manure, the grain output per mu of land in the Harland Territory has generally increased by 20 to 30 kilograms.
Don't underestimate the increase of 20 to 30 kilograms of grain per mu of land.
If it is enlarged to a scale of one million mu, the increased grain output exceeds 10,000 tons, which is enough to feed 40,000 to 50,000 people.
In addition, the use of farmyard manure can also extend the farming period. The farmland in the Harland Territory that uses farmyard manure will basically be left fallow for one year in five years.
This year, Tang En found Richard, mainly because the farmland was left fallow.
"My Lord, our public land is easy to manage, and we just need to leave it fallow periodically. But it is more troublesome to leave the private land allocated to the freemen fallow.
Once it is fallowed, the income from the farmland will be greatly reduced, but the land tax collected by the territory from the freemen every year is fixed. In order to reduce the pressure, the freemen almost never leave the land fallow when they farm.
Since last year, according to our statistics, the yield of farmland cultivated by freemen has decreased by 15 kilograms compared with public land.
This is a considerable number. If the problem of private land fallowing is not solved, the land will be consumed too seriously, and the yield of private land in the hands of freemen will become less and less. My Lord, I think a decree should be enacted to force freemen to leave farmland fallow."
Richard knew that ordinary people were short-sighted and would not consider long-term things. Forcing freemen to leave land fallow would greatly reduce their income. If taxes are not reduced or cultivated land is not increased, even if this policy can be implemented, it will increase the burden on the people of the territory and make the freemen of the territory even poorer.
Richard thought about it carefully and felt that Tang En's suggestion was not feasible. He carefully analyzed the current situation of Harland Territory. In the next few decades, it will still be an environment with few people and a lot of land.
The climate in Harland Territory is relatively cold and not suitable for autumn farming. Richard tried to cultivate a few acres of winter wheat, but unfortunately it could not survive the long and cold winter and almost no harvest.
If it is not possible to cultivate 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 soil fertility, Harland Territory can only implement the two-field system and let part of the farmland fallow.
Richard looked at the registered land. In the case of not much population pressure, Richard thought carefully and felt that it was more appropriate to increase the land for free people.
The Harland Territory now contains over 1.4 million acres of land and approximately 230,000 people.
This year's spring plowing still has the task of clearing up 120,000 acres of farmland, and there is not much shortage of land resources.
There are now 60,000 free people in the territory, and each additional acre of land is only 60,000 acres. It is not too difficult to carve out 60,000 acres of land from public lands.
If more land is allocated, the tax revenue will not increase, which is enough reason to order it to be left fallow.
A family of six freemen would have about six acres of land fallow every year.
In addition to leaving the land fallow, Richard is also preparing to promote the development of animal husbandry and allow free people to raise sheep in large numbers.
The territory of Harland is mainly hilly, ideal for livestock farming. Large-scale sheep farming in the territory can also promote the development of the wool textile industry.
After listening to Richard's opinion, Tang En frowned and said: "Of course it's okay for the freedmen near Graveson to do this, but for the freedmen who are divided into the Stopa territory, I'm afraid it's not okay. Because we are in the Stopa territory. , there is almost no public land left to divide.”
Richard looked at the map and said thoughtfully: "There are too many people in the Stopa territory. I think some of them should be moved out."
"After I return, I will release the news that I am willing to move to Graveson. The free people in the swamp basin will be given six acres of paddy field for each person. Let's see if the free people in Stopa Territory are willing to leave their hometown and go to the new territory to cultivate wasteland."
Richard knew in his heart that ordinary people were unwilling to leave their hometown. Nowadays, the free people of Harland Territory have a decent living standard because they have more arable land per capita.
During the off-season, I went to nearby castles, factories and mines to do odd jobs. Not only could I have enough food and clothing, but I could also save some money every year.
But after two or three generations, as the population explodes and the per capita cultivated land decreases significantly, living standards will drop a lot.
If you want to maintain a higher standard of living, the best way is to improve the development of productivity, increase the output per acre of land, and enhance the population carrying capacity of the territory.
If the productivity level increases slowly, the only option is to adopt the second method, which is to continuously migrate the excess population in the territory, expand outward, reclaim farmland, and compete for survival resources.
The worst way is to consume the excess population through war.
The Orc Empire continues to launch invasions, which is partly due to this factor.
Each of the first two roads is difficult to walk.
It is Richard's wish to take the first path. He has been adjusting production relations, liberating serfs, giving full play to their enthusiasm for production, enhancing social vitality, spreading knowledge on a large scale, and cultivating the seedling of science, hoping to rely on the power of science to increase productivity. level, accelerating the development of Haaland territory.
The Harland Territory was also taking a second path. It had been expanding continuously for more than ten years, and had grown from a small barony to a very important aristocracy in the three provinces of northern Xinjiang.
New farmland has been cultivated every year for more than ten years. In order to facilitate the migration of excess population and to open up new territories, Richard formulated a law for the eldest son to inherit property and land.
When the second son of a free citizen in a territory grew up, he had to go to the new territory to allocate farmland if he wanted to obtain farmland.
Richard will continue to implement this decree until the situation changes and it cannot be implemented, then it is possible to change it.
For agricultural cultivation in the Dawn Plane, the power of magic is very important. 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 this aspect of magic and has accumulated a lot of experience.
But there is no natural church priest in Grant Kingdom, so even if Richard wants to exchange magic knowledge, he has no channel.
Moreover, the number of magicians in Harland Territory is small. Even if they 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 will be negligible.
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 depends on the three elements nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium.
After arriving in the Dawn Plane, I discovered through various experiments that ordinary plants in the Dawn Plane also rely on photosynthesis, and the growth of plants also requires the three elements nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium.
Magic plants are special and mainly absorb magic energy particles.
The knowledge of magical botany is also more complicated and more difficult than ordinary agriculture. Planting magic plants requires the personal care of a magician.
The Harland territory does not have the technical conditions to manufacture fertilizers on a large scale, but it can find natural fertilizer deposits.
Today, Richard holds more than 18,000 square kilometers of territory, and many mineral veins have not yet been explored.
In recent years, Richard has been increasing his efforts in mineral exploration.
If a potassium rock mine is discovered in the territory and natural fertilizers are available, there will be no need to worry about agricultural production.
There are many natural salt lakes in Duke Jonathan's territory. During the dry season, these salt lakes can not only mine table salt, but also contain a large amount of potash ore. These potassium deposits have been accumulated in salt lakes for thousands of years and have not been used.
More than thirty kilometers to the east of Harland's territory, there is also a salt lake covering an area of more than ten square kilometers.
This salt lake is located in the northern part of Nelson Viscounty. If the Harland territory expands here, this salt lake can be developed.
Nowadays, the salt lake can be mined secretly, but the salt lake does not belong to the Haaland family fiefdom. Once this area is developed, it will benefit the Grant royal family.
Richard was unwilling to do things that would make wedding dresses for others. He planned to wait for a few years, and when he was promoted to earl, he would ask the royal family for the salt lake area, and then mine salt and potash. Then he would use natural fertilizers on a large scale to increase grain production.
Including the 120,000 acres of farmland reclaimed this year, the farmland in Harland Territory has exceeded 1.5 million acres. However, due to the fallow period, only about 1.2 million acres of farmland were cultivated this year.
Because the cultivated area is more than 100,000 acres less than last year, if the weather is good, this year's grain production will be reduced by about 10,000 tons.
Although grain production will decrease, Harland Territory has no worries about food shortage for the time being.
Alfalfa seeds will be sprinkled on the fallow farmland, which can not only fix nitrogen and enhance the fertility of the land during the fallow period, but the planted grass can also be used to raise sheep.
There are now two million sheep in Harland Territory, but Richard has handed most of these sheep over to the sheep tribe.
The sheep in Harland Territory has a population of more than 10,000, divided into eight tribes.
In summer and autumn, the sheep-bodied people basically graze in the mountains. In late autumn, they will collect grass. In winter when the weather is not cold and there is no blizzard, the sheep-bodied people will also drive the sheep and eat dead grass and leaves.
The sheep-bodied people have thick hair on their bodies and do not need warm clothes. They eat less, and their grain consumption is only one-third of that of humans. They do not need to eat meat, and they do not even need to consume food in summer and autumn. Just eating a little grass and tender leaves can fill their stomachs.
The cost of using sheep-bodied people for grazing is very low.
Richard has gained great benefits from the sheep-bodied slaves.
However, as the scale of the sheep herds expands, more than 10,000 sheep-bodied herders are gradually not enough.
The sheep breeding population is expanding very quickly. If the scale is expanded with one heart, it can be increased tenfold in three years. If the scale of sheep breeding in the territory is expanded tenfold again, the slaves can eat a lot of mutton at that time.
The precipitation in the Harland territory is relatively abundant, and the vegetation is also very dense. The carrying capacity of the territory is sufficient to breed tens of millions of sheep.
However, the consumption of mutton in Harland Territory is not small now. About 600,000 sheep are slaughtered every year, and the scale is rising year by year. If you want to expand the sheep population to 20 million, it will take at least five years.
This year, Richard plans to push the excess sheep to the market and sell them to the free people of the territory at a lower price, so that the free people can raise sheep and shear wool to increase their income.
After entering April, the spring plowing in the territory finally ended.