What does it take to build a thriving territory?

First of all, there must be manpower.

However, what the Tara Khan Territory lacked most was manpower, or rather, population.

Because of the perverse behavior of the previous three generations of Earl Tara Khan, mainly to promote the development order regardless of the people's power, consume a large number of people to open up villages, so as to obtain a number of knighthoods that are of little significance in the eyes of the travelers, the population of the Tara Khan is really quite scarce. Population is not like animals or monsters in the wild that can be refreshed out of thin air, even if it is a poor farmer, it needs to be raised by his mother and father, and it also needs to grow little by little from small to large. Even if the traversers tried their best, they couldn't increase the population in a short period of time.

Since there is no way to increase the population, we have to tap the potential of the population as much as possible on the premise of the existing population base.

This requires enough food, after all, people have to eat enough to work.

Until then, the source of food has always been an issue. Even if the traversers were powerful, they would not be able to provide enough food to support a territory, and even if they only needed to provide food from the Earl's direct area, it was beyond their ability.

But after getting that huge sum of money, the problem no longer exists. Both the southern region of the kingdom and the Molai Commercial Federation in the southwest of the Western Continent can buy enough food. If you really can't do it, you can also go a long way to the Republic of West Vanlyka, which is very developed in fishing and agriculture, and buy enough seafood.

In this world, food is relatively expensive, but no matter how expensive it is, just the money of Panda and Bing Lin is enough for the people in the entire area under the direct jurisdiction of Count Tarakhan for ten years and eight years.

After that long time, the problem must have been solved long ago.

The first grain was bought shortly before the New Year. At this time, there was a relative shortage of food, and many poor people began to go hungry. But Anthony did not open a warehouse to release grain, but engaged in "grain loans".

All farmers who want to receive relief grain must put their fingerprints on the labor agreement. They do not need to pay back, but they must perform the assigned work in order to be able to calculate their remuneration and offset their wages with their labor.

The peasants were apprehensive about this request, but they had no other choice.

Either sign the agreement, get food, and work, or starve. It's a simple choice, and everyone knows how to choose.

So they quickly got enough food to survive the famine, and then, according to the unified plan of the earl, began to take advantage of the winter farming season to build roads and water conservancy in the territory.

A few traversers, such as Little Eggplant, didn't understand and asked why they didn't just give the food to the poor? Anthony smiled and said, "You are all too young and too simple! You need to improve your knowledge." They were confused, dizzy, and even more confused.

As a result, Heyin still couldn't look at it, and explained it to them in detail - laziness is human nature, if you can't give enough motivation, the farmers will only be full of food and sun, don't expect them to be willing to work against the cold wind. If you want them to do things, instead of relying on the lord's compulsory orders, it is better to mobilize their own enthusiasm.

"Is this a motivation to motivate them?" asked the little eggplant, puzzled.

"Probably count. "Harmony is not very sure, "Anyway, I have the impression that officials who can do things advocate cash-for-work." A good method that has been recognized since ancient times, if it is not very correct, at least it will not be wrong. If you don't believe me, run and observe and see how they are in good spirits. ”

So Little Eggplant and Xingzhao ran to the working peasants one after another, lurking in the dark, observing their mental state.

After observation, they had to admit that Anthony's method seemed to work really well, and although the farmers worked every day, they were in a good state of mind because they could earn food through work. Especially when they find that the better the work is done, the more they are calculated, and the few workers who do the best work each day are even rewarded with some meat.

Under these circumstances, the infrastructure construction in the area under the direct jurisdiction of Count Tarakhan can finally be carried out in full swing.

On the other hand, in some areas where the basic conditions are better and farmers do not have to worry about starvation in winter, the cultivation of mushrooms in the greenhouse is also progressing smoothly.

Liu Daoqing and others, who were in charge of this work, finally found a suitable plan after several failures. He mixes a little cow and sheep manure with rotting wood chips, ferments it to kill the poison, and then moves wild mushrooms into it along with the wood or soil from which they are produced. Through the spells of the druids, these mushrooms can be allowed to enter the breeding phase. Invisible mushroom spores spread around the greenhouse, and soon grew up.

It takes about a month and a half to two months for a new batch of mushrooms to grow. As long as the roots are not dug up when picking, these mushrooms can continue to grow.

It took them almost a year to explore these experiences. In the end, when the shelves in the greenhouse were full of snow-white mushrooms, not to mention the farmers involved in the work, even the traversers couldn't help but be happy, singing and dancing, as if they had made a fortune.

Although these experiences cannot be replicated for the time being, building greenhouses is not easy, and ordinary farmers really do not have this condition, so they can only wait until the spring flowers bloom before they can start to engage in mushroom cultivation along the way. But this did not prevent them from taking out the large number of mushrooms harvested in this batch and participating in the most important festival of the Tara Khan every year, the New Year's festival, in late winter and early spring.

This year's New Year's festival was much more lively than usual. The Count generously offered a lot of food for the celebration, especially the fat and tender white mushrooms, which made everyone who saw them feel like they had a big appetite.

In this world, it is not easy to eat some vegetables and fruits in winter. Not to mention ordinary people, even knights often have to be careful to buy a little dry and almost dehydrated vegetables.

As for the kind of vegetables that are preserved with magic...... Wouldn't it be nice to have spare money to buy that kind of thing, to prepare yourself a little healing potion, or to upgrade some equipment levels?

Are mushrooms considered vegetables? It's a bit of a complicated question. Biologically, it's a fungus. Fungi are neither plants nor animals, and since they are not plants, they are certainly not vegetables. However, in practice, neither the housewives on Earth, nor the farmers and knights of another world need to think about this issue at all.

All they know is that at the celebration of the New Year's festival, in addition to the usual bread and grilled meat, there is also mushroom soup to drink!

Mushroom soup yes!

Vegetable yes!

Oh yes!

For the people who attended the New Year's festival in the city of Tarakhan, the specific celebrations that took place on that day were ignored, and the content of the Earl's speech was equally ignored, and what impressed them the most was the scene of dozens or hundreds of people peeing together on the side of the bushes near the venue because they had drunk too much soup.

Is...... Spectacular.