10: Grain production

"Lord, why have you come?"

Upon discovering Renn's arrival, Fornal hurriedly ran over from the fields. He was getting on in years and was somewhat obese; by the time he reached Renn, he was panting heavily and drenched in sweat.

"I've come to see how the restoration of the farmland is progressing."

"Lord, the progress here at the farmland is going very smoothly. Yesterday, following your orders, I organized everyone to begin restoring production."

"Of the territory's 8,500 people, excluding the soldiers and the elderly, young, sick, or disabled who truly lack the ability to work, the remaining labor force of about 6,000 has been fully mobilized."

"I have divided these 6,000 people into four groups to concentrate our strength on restoring the farmland along both the upper and lower banks of the river near Red River Town."

"These riverside fields are the earliest cultivated lands of our Red River Territory; the soil is the most fertile and the yield is high. They are the most important and precious wealth of our Red River Territory."

"As for the fields scattered in other villages far from the Red Sand River, I have left them alone for now. The territory's current manpower does not have the capacity to look after all the farmland."

"Previously, to defend against the invasion of the Fel Orcs, the populations of all villages were gathered in Red River Town. Now that the Fel Orcs have been eliminated and production is being restored, these people should have originally migrated back to their respective villages."

"But because the territory has lost too much population, leaving only a bit over eight thousand people, I have let them all stay in Red River Town for the time being."

"Gathering them in the town allows for better unified organization and arrangement of labor, and also better protects their safety. Currently, the commoners below are still afraid that Fel Orcs might attack them in the wild."

Fornal reported his achievements of the past two days to Renn while wiping the sweat from his forehead.

He had originally wanted to report and ask for instructions yesterday, but because Renn was practicing the Basic Meditation Method at the time, he couldn't find him and thus hadn't reported yet.

"Very good, Fornal. You truly are the chief government affairs officer my father relied upon; you have done even better than I expected."

Renn was very satisfied after hearing Fornal's arrangements. Fornal's plan was comprehensive and made reasonable arrangements based on the current actual situation of the Red River Territory.

Renn had no prior experience in governance. Before crossing over, the most he had done was lead a dozen people on a project. The memories of the original Renn were mostly experiences of leading troops in battle, providing little reference for governing a territory.

Although the Red River Territory had undergone a great upheaval and its population had decreased significantly, there were still over 8,500 people.

The daily affairs of a town of 8,500 were already considerable, and with the added tasks of post-war production and reconstruction, Renn might truly have been flustered for a while if he had to personally direct the labor of several thousand people.

Even if he could carry out these tasks smoothly, the complex affairs would have exhausted his energy and left him unable to extricate himself.

Fortunately, his father, Baron Bode, had only taken away the territory's army and young men. The few literate scholars and village chiefs of the Red River Territory had not been taken. On ordinary days, these people were the grassroots management personnel of the Red River Territory, assisting the Derrick Family in managing the entire domain.

Viscount Black Stone had only snatched the bottom-tier population at the time; he had no interest in the grassroots management of the Red River Territory. Nor would Viscount Black Stone trust these people trained by the Derrick Family. Therefore, the management system of the Red River Territory remained intact.

Over the past few days, under the leadership of Fornal—the territory's Administrator and the mayor of Red River Town—this management system began to operate according to Renn's requirements.

From receiving three thousand young refugees to restoring agricultural production, these village chiefs and scholars of the Red River Territory saved Renn a tremendous amount of energy.

"It is all thanks to your wise guidance, Lord!"

Fornal stood respectfully to the side. Although he was a veteran of the Red River Territory, having been the mayor of Red River Town for nearly twenty years and serving the Derrick Family for most of his life, he had a clear understanding of his status.

A commoner was a commoner. His deference to Renn was not a bit less than it had been to old Baron Bode; it could even be said he was more submissive.

Fornal knew that old Baron Bode had broken through to become a Silver Rank knight at age 24, and at age forty, he had reached the Silver Peak, just one step away from breaking through to Gold Rank.

But the new lord standing before him, Baron Renn, had become a Silver Rank knight at only 19. His talent was much stronger than old Lord Bord's; it was quite possible that Renn might become a Gold Knight in the near future.

Fornal had grown up listening to the stories of the founder of the Derrick Family, the Wolf Knight Derrick. That legendary knight was a Gold Knight.

A Gold Knight was a legend to him, an existence to be looked up to for a lifetime.

Thinking of this, Fornal lowered his head even further.

"The credit is yours where it is due, Fornal."

As Renn spoke, he cast his gaze toward the fields.

Among the commoners of the Red River Territory busy in the fields at this moment, there were many women as well as some half-grown boys; fourteen or fifteen-year-old youths were already capable of a lot of work.

In the North, sixteen was already considered adulthood.

Fornal led Renn deeper into the farmland.

"How many mu of land are here?" Renn asked about the issue he was concerned with.

"What is the estimated yield for this year? How much longer until the harvest?"

"Lord, the farmland in this vicinity extends from the town all the way to Upper River Village in the north, totaling nearly ten thousand mu."

"The same goes for the west bank of the river; past the territory's stone bridge and heading north to Two-Bend Village, there are also nearly ten thousand mu of farmland."

"From the east bank south to Lower River Village, and from the west bank south to Three-Bend Village, the farmland areas are mostly the same, each being about 10,000 mu."

"These four areas combined total about 40,000 mu of farmland. Currently, each area has 1,500 people engaged in plowing and labor."

"These 40,000 mu of farmland are the limit of what the territory can look after at present. This is also the core grain-producing region of the territory."

"Overall, the restoration of agricultural production is going smoothly because the people below all know they are growing food for themselves. If they don't plant well, they will starve in the winter, so they are all working very hard."

"However, these fields were neglected for over a month after all, so there will definitely be some reduction in yield. I've looked at each area, and based on past experience, even with the current restoration going well, this year's yield will decrease by about twenty percent."

"In addition, many of those currently working in the fields are the elderly, young, and women. These people are not prime laborers after all; their physical strength is limited. No matter how hard they work, they cannot make up for the gap in physical strength. Managing these 40,000 mu of farmland is still a bit of a stretch for them."

"Those children also lack experience, so there might be further yield reductions in the fields later on."

"I estimate that in the end, the yield reduction might reach about thirty percent."

"Without a reduction, these good fields of our Red River Territory can produce about 200 jin of grain per mu. If we calculate this year's reduction generously at thirty percent, each mu will yield about 140 jin of grain."

"With 40,000 mu of farmland, we can produce approximately 2,800 tons of grain this year."

"Lord, today is June 30th. There are exactly two months left until the September harvest season. In two months, when the harvest season arrives, the fields should produce a total of 2,800 tons of grain."

"Lord, although this grain is far less than in previous years, I have calculated that it is definitely enough for the territory to last until next year's harvest season."

"So you don't need to worry too much about us lacking food. If we harvest a bit more this season, we might not even need to touch the remaining grain stored in the family granary."

Fornal had been constantly calculating the state of the farmland over the past two days. He had gone over all the data dozens of times in his head, so he spoke very fluently without any hesitation.

Fornal was quite optimistic about the food issue. Although this year's output was much less, one couldn't ignore that there were fewer people in the Red River Territory this year.

Therefore, he felt there was no need to worry about a food shortage at all.

Renn did not answer Fornal, merely committing the data he mentioned to memory.

The journey along the way was indeed as Fornal had described. Renn saw that although the half-grown boys busy in the fields understood farm work, they were indeed not as skilled as the old Farmers.

40,000 mu of land was the limit of the Red River Territory's current manual labor capacity.

However, the grain yield Fornal calculated was far below Renn's expectations.

The grain Renn had requested from Count Sena totaled nearly a thousand tons. After his father, Baron Bode, had moved out more than half of the surplus grain in the Red River Territory's warehouse, there were still about 1,000 tons of grain left.

Adding the 2,800 tons of grain projected for this year, the territory would have a total of over 4,800 tons of grain by the September harvest season.

With a population of 8,500 in the territory, Renn calculated that an average person would eat nearly 2 jin of grain per day. Because these commoners of the Red River Territory basically had no other supplementary food and relied on staples to survive, the actual consumption of grain might be even larger.

Based on a consumption of 2 jin per person per day, the Red River Territory would consume at least about 8.5 tons of grain daily.

"Soldiers and Professionals eat more; at least 2 more jin of grain must be added for each person per day. Adding the consumption of the warhorses, the army will need about another thousand jin of grain daily."

Renn factored in the extra consumption for the troops, which was an additional thousand jin of grain per day. This was assuming he allocated most of the territory's scarce meat to the army; otherwise, the consumption would be even higher.

Professional soldiers could eat a lot, and Professionals were even more so.

"In other words, without an increase in population, the territory will consume at least about 9 tons of grain per day. From now until next September's harvest season, there is still one year and two months, over 420 days."

"3,780 tons!"

In the end, Renn calculated the amount of grain the territory needed to consume, which was already less than the estimated 4,800-plus tons. On paper, it seemed the Red River Territory could survive the grain shortage.

But this result was too uncertain; it couldn't withstand even the slightest storm or setback.

No one could say for sure what the actual yield would be this year until the grain was in the warehouse. Nothing could go wrong throughout the entire process.

Furthermore, Renn had many plans in mind to implement. One of the core items was to increase the territory's population, followed closely by cultivating farmland and engaging in large-scale construction.

Without sufficient grain reserves, his plan to expand the population could not even take the first step. Additionally, planting the fields required a batch of high-quality grain for seeds, and the amount of seed grain to be set aside was not a small number either.

Therefore, Renn needed grain—lots and lots of grain. No amount would be too much for him. Without sufficient grain reserves, he felt uneasy. The currently estimated harvest was simply too low.

"It's far too little. The grain yield is too low. Normally, each mu only produces 200 jin; that's just too little."

"These fields are all fertile riverside lands. They were already cultivated and don't lack water, yet the output is only 200 jin per mu. With a slight setback, it might not even reach 200 jin."

"Do these people even know how to farm?"

Renn was very dissatisfied with the farmland yield. Along the way, he had also discovered many problems with how these Farmers of the Red River Territory planted their crops.