35: Another source of food

"I didn't expect you to convince Scholar Ravenk so easily, Lord. I thought he would hold onto his ideas forever."

On the way to the pier, Fornal and Renn chatted about what had just happened.

"Scholar Ravenk is old. For an old scholar like him, leaving a legacy is most important. No scholar doesn't want to be remembered by history."

"It's only natural that he didn't understand my methods. Don't you also fail to understand?"

Fornal was stunned for a moment upon hearing this.

"I didn't quite understand your thinking at first, Lord, but after hearing Ravenk speak, I think I understand your meaning a bit now."

"Oh?"

Renn asked with interest, "What do you understand?"

"You have extraordinary talent, Lord. Your future achievements will surely surpass the old master. When you become a Gold Knight, the current Red River Territory naturally won't match your strength."

"Those old neighbors to the north are all gone. This ownerless land should naturally belong to you."

Fornal spoke his guess aloud. This was the result of his observations and reflections on Renn's recent actions.

“Hahahahaha!”

"You certainly have quite an imagination, Fornal."

"Those four Baronies are not ownerless lands. They are the property of His Highness the Grand Duke. Only His Highness has the authority to distribute them."

"I'll pretend I didn't hear what you just said, and you should pretend you never said it. Don't mention it again."

Fornal's eyes flickered a few times before returning to normal.

"Yes, Lord, I understand."

Renn ignored him further. Before long, the two arrived at the Red River Territory pier.

The pier of the Red River Territory was outside Red River Town, south of the stone bridge, on the east bank of the Red River.

The pier wasn't large and usually had no ships docked. However, at this moment, several fishing boats were returning from the river, and about a dozen fishermen were happily collecting their catch.

"Lord, we've arrived just in time to see these fishermen returning with their harvest."

"It looks like they caught quite a lot of fish. The fishing skills of these former Redwood Town residents are really not bad at all, no worse than the fishing Serfs we had in the territory before."

The Red River Territory was right next to the Red River, so it naturally harvested fish. Originally, the territory had thirteen fishing boats and over a hundred Slaves who caught and processed fish working at this pier.

Not long ago, all the Serfs in the territory were abducted by Blackstone Territory. Afterward, because of the urgency to restore farmland production, this pier had been left abandoned with no one assigned to it.

After he began pulling some labor back from the fields, Renn had Fornal find dozens of fishermen who knew how to sail and fish to come to the pier and start fishing.

"As the only territory in the Red River Valley capable of shipbuilding, it's only natural for Redwood Town to have subjects who can sail and fish."

"Are there any shipbuilders among those brought back?"

Renn cared more about technical talents than the fish harvest.

There were five Barons in the Red River Valley. Red River Town had fertile land and produced much grain, focusing on agriculture. North of Red River Town were the remaining four Baronies. Redwood Town had a high-quality redwood forest and excelled at using that redwood to build ships.

Further north, Rye Territory was similar to Red River Territory, with fertile land and abundant grain production, focusing on agriculture.

The remaining Black Iron Territory had an iron mine and relied on selling iron ore and iron products for a living. The northernmost Rock Crystal Territory had a salt mine and primarily produced edible salt.

Whether it was the salt mine, the iron mine, or the redwood forest, Renn wanted them all. However, for the time being, he didn't have the strength to seize these resource points.

Redwood Town could build wooden ships. All the vessels in the other territories of the Red River Valley were purchased from Redwood Town, including the 13 fishing boats of the Red River Territory.

In Renn's memory, the wooden ships built by Redwood Town weren't large; they were mostly small fishing boats or small cargo ships. They had no large vessels, let alone the technology to build warships.

But because the raw materials were good, the quality of these small boats made by Redwood Town was excellent and durable. Thus, other nobles in the Red River basin liked to buy ships produced by Redwood Town.

Most minor nobles didn't need large ships because there was no demand. There was very little communication between noble territories, with almost no flow of people or goods. Only the nobles interacted; commoners might never leave the village they lived in for their entire lives.

Minor nobles only needed to buy some small boats for fishing and transporting small numbers of people and goods.

Renn actually wanted the technology to build large ships, but a skyscraper starts from the ground up, and foundations are very important. Right now, he would take whatever was available.

Fornal pointed to a few fishermen carrying the catch and said, "There are over a dozen people who can build fishing boats and small sailboats. I've already picked them out, and they're working at the pier now. Among those people are Shipwrights."

"But Lord, our territory doesn't have much timber suitable for shipbuilding, and we don't need that many ships. What's the use of these Shipwrights?"

"We don't now, but we might in the future. Perhaps one day they'll be useful."

"Let's go. Let's see how their harvest is."

As Renn spoke, he walked onto the pier, and a pungent fishy smell hit him.

Fornal frowned as he looked at the baskets of fresh catch. Usually, he wouldn't come here personally; he couldn't stand the smell. Renn, however, looked unperturbed.

"Lord! Why have you come personally?"

"Good day, Lord!"

A dozen fishermen knelt and bowed upon seeing Renn.

"Everyone, rise!"

"How many pounds of fish did this boat harvest?"

One fisherman answered cautiously, "Lord, I don't know how many pounds are in this boat, but I know it can fill five large baskets."

Fornal added, "One basket is about a hundred pounds, so five baskets is five hundred pounds, Lord."

"One fishing boat harvests five hundred pounds in one trip. How many times can they harvest in a day? Do they catch this much every time?"

Facing Renn's question, another fisherman thought for a moment and answered carefully:

"It takes half a day to fill the hold. We can go out twice a day at most, and the amount to fill the hold is about the same each time."

Renn began calculating the daily amount of fish.

There were thirteen fishing boats in the Red River Territory. Harvesting twice a day, one boat would catch a thousand pounds. Thirteen boats could harvest over five tons of fish a day.

"Over five tons a day. That's quite a lot. Good."

Living off the land and the water—since the grain yield from the fields was basically fixed for this year, Renn turned his gaze to the Red River.

The Red River had an abundant water supply. The location of the stone bridge in the Red River Territory was the narrowest part of the area, yet it was still over three hundred meters wide. Further south of the stone bridge, the river expanded rapidly.

At the pier, the river was already six or seven hundred meters wide. Further downstream, the river continued to widen until it completely flowed out of the Red River Valley into the Blackstone Territory, where it would slowly narrow again.

With such an abundant water supply, the fish resources in the Red River were naturally plentiful. Nobles on both banks organized Slaves to fish.

Most river fish had a very strong fishy smell, so nobles didn't like to eat them. They didn't fish to feed their subjects either; instead, they sold the vast majority of the catch to Great Nobles, keeping the rare varieties without the fishy smell for themselves.

Those powerful Great Nobles all raised mounts or war beasts, just like the Wolf Pack kept by the Derrick Family.

Most aggressive mounts and war beasts were carnivores with huge appetites. These beasts or magical beasts required a large amount of meat every day.

Fish is also meat, and beasts aren't picky eaters. The fishy smell wasn't an issue for them at all, so fish meat could serve as fodder and was a popular commodity.

Previously, the Red River Territory bought fishing boats to fish in order to feed the territory's Wolf Pack. Fortunately, being adjacent to the Red River provided fish meat; otherwise, the Wolf Pack alone could have bankrupted the Red River Territory.

In the past, all the fish produced in the Red River Territory went to support the Wolf Pack. Now that the Wolf Pack was gone, this fish meat could be used elsewhere.

"Lord, do you really intend to distribute all this fish to the subjects?"

"If we dry this fish, we can sell it to the Salak Merchant Guild's ships when they arrive to earn some gold coins to subsidize the territory. Distributing it like this is too wasteful."

"The grain you've already given them is enough."

Fornal knew what Renn wanted to do, but he still offered a word of advice.

"I think the grain the territory currently provides to the subjects is already enough for their daily needs. There's no need to increase the fish supply, Lord."

Renn's thinking was completely different from Fornal's.

"Dried fish?"

"Fornal, do you think our territory still has the manpower to specifically dry so much fish right now?"

"The Salak Merchant Guild won't be coming to the territory anytime soon. If we leave this fish here, it will all stink in a few days. Even as fodder for sale, no one wants rotten, stinking goods. By then, this fish will be worthless. Distributing it to the subjects now will allow everyone to eat more meat and nourish their bodies."

Ordinary Farmers were quite accepting of fish. They didn't care about the fishy smell; being able to fill their stomachs was happiness. Since that was the case, Renn was happy to distribute the fish.

After half a month of labor, Renn felt more and more that the two pounds of grain per person per day he had set earlier was still not enough. The human race on the Noah Continent was naturally strong and ate more. Renn wasn't afraid of them eating a lot, as long as they worked hard enough.

However, the Red River Territory's grain reserves were insufficient, so he couldn't continue to increase the grain supply right now. But fish was different!

Renn believed that after providing enough fish, the physical fitness of the Red River Territory's subjects would improve significantly, and their work efficiency would also increase.

Furthermore, if they ate more fish, the consumption of grain would naturally decrease.

As for the gold coins lost by giving away the fish?

Could gold coins that couldn't be earned in the first place even be considered a loss?

"Fornal still has a mindset problem. He doesn't see the subjects as core assets. What does this little bit of fish matter?"

Seeing Fornal's pained expression, Renn understood that the other man still looked down on these ordinary subjects.

Renn ignored Fornal further. Seeing Renn's firm attitude, Fornal tactfully shut his mouth, though he still felt some heartache over the loss of the fish.