On the Blackstone Trading Road, the city that declared its independence from the empire was called the Emerald City, and as the name suggests, the location of the city was famous for the production of various jade agate and other jewelry.

The Emerald City is located in a special location, at the junction of the Northern Province and the Dolan Province.

The vast northern part of the kingdom was divided into six provinces, the largest and most powerful of which was Count Draco of the northern provinces.

Not only is he the de facto ruler of the northern provinces, but the other five provinces are also more or less intervened by his forces.

Because of this, after feeling the threat of his ambition, the counts of other provinces were on guard, causing the northern part of the kingdom to be in a chaotic and divided situation.

To get back to the point, the Emerald City has always lacked a lord with sufficient dominance due to the unclear jurisdiction of the jurisdiction.

Local lords often die due to various accidents, and are later occupied by other nobles in the northern provinces or the provinces of Doran.

But because of the improper name, it is easy to be forcibly seized by the nobles.

The frequent change of rulers meant that the internal administration of the Emerald City had little to do with the lords, and was mainly dominated by the local councils.

The power of the local council infiltrated every aspect of the city, and if necessary, it was even able to directly order the troops of the Defense Department beyond the lord.

Just like now, the council directly declared the independence of the city, and even drove the lord out of the city.

After listening to the detailed introduction of Finance Minister Adlich, Ronan was not in a very happy mood.

Emerald City declared independence, and he had no problem with it.

But the problem is that after checking the city's commerce, the council members declared that there was a problem with the grain trade with Blackstone.

They stated that the ownership of the grain belonged to the council, but the money paid by Ronan was embezzled by the previous lord and not received by the Emerald City.

Either the order is voided, or Ronan will need to re-pay the deposit to them.

Otherwise, it would be impossible to bring him food and seeds.

Ronan felt that the members of the council were intent on pitting themselves.

Since they can all drive the lord out, can they still let the other party take away all the money smoothly? How can it be.

It is likely that because of his royal status, his prestige in these councils represented by merchants and new nobles has fallen to a negative number.

"What about the nobleman who was kicked out?" Ronan asked Adlich.

"The original lord of Emerald City was Viscount Jonson of the Red Flower Family, and now he is staying in the town of the White Fruit Collar to ask Count Draco for help." Adlich reported.

"Count Drake is busy with the war with Dragon's Tooth right now, I'm afraid I don't have time to deal with him." Ronan shook his head.

Not only that, although the Emerald City nominally declared independence, it could actually be seen as a branch of the Dantuma Alliance.

In the current situation, Count Draco may not offend the Dantuma Alliance, but more likely recognize their independence.

"Go and send a letter to the council in the Emerald City and tell them that if the grain trade goes on as usual, I will increase the trade in permafrost resources with them."

Aderich, who had received his order, bowed his head and left.

The grain trade was important to the current territory, and Ronan thought to himself, there were not many places willing to sell grain to the outside world today.

In the early days of the Black Death, the nobles had a large amount of food in their hands.

But now two years have passed, the abandonment of farmland and the lack of labor have caused famine in many territories, and even many lower-ranking nobles have been killed by the rioting people, and the entire territory has been reduced to nothing.

The reason why Count Drach and others are in this terrible situation are that they have launched a war that costs people and money.

A big part of the reason is to tear a hole in order to go deep into the Great Plains, get more farmland, and have a stable food channel.

It's a pity that he was pushed back with a musket.

They were still too busy to take care of themselves, and it was difficult for Ronan to buy enough food from Count Drake.

Therefore, the channel of the Dantuma alliance becomes extremely important.

Therefore, he is willing to continue to communicate with the Emerald City Council.

But if they still choose not to eat oil and salt, then Ronan will not be polite.

The goods for which he has already paid must be his.

"Old Motou, what is the specific situation of the farmland near Black Rock City now?" Saying goodbye to Adlich, Ronan asked the old Mo beside him.

Previously, it was Lao Mo who was worried about the specific problems of spring ploughing for him.

"My lord, according to the statistics of the officials I sent out, there are currently about 20,000 hectares of arable land outside Blackstone City, that is, 300,000 acres of farmland."

Lao Motou said, "These farmlands are distributed in farms outside the city and sixteen villages, of which more than 100,000 acres of farmland are unmanaged, and at least one farmer needs to be arranged for every six acres of farmland. ”

In other words, there is a shortage of at least 30,000 peasant laborers in your territory?

Ronan couldn't help but have a headache, but it wasn't over yet.

"According to the tax statistics of previous years, taking into account factors such as farmland abandonment, disease, and fallow, the annual grain yield of farmland here is about 200 pounds per mu." Old Mo Tou reported.

Is it almost more than 180 catties per mu of annual output?

It sounds pitiful, but it's actually a lot higher than Ronan imagined.

You must know that due to the poor land problem in Black Rock City, the local farmland uses a two-garden system.

That is, two acres of farmland, one acre of cultivation, one acre of fallow farmland, and so on for the next year to rotate.

Compared with the three-nursery system in the Great Plains, the farmland here is less utilized, and the cold climate in winter often results in less than half of the harvest in autumn.

It is not an exaggeration to say that there are such yields under such circumstances.

It's just that this obviously doesn't meet Ronan's needs.

After trying to fill the labor force, the population of the Cold Wind Collar and Black Rock City was about 120,000, including 90,000 farmers, 20,000 urban people, and 10,000 Cold Wind Leaders.

According to the most basic requirement of food, each person needs two pounds of grain per day, or 87.6 million pounds a year.

And the farmland in his territory can only produce 60 million pounds of grain under a good harvest.

Ronan estimates that by using fertilizer and intensive cultivation in his fields, he will be able to double or triple the grain output after further improving the rotational tillage system, which should be able to meet the supply needs of his territory.

But that's just his estimate.

Before the actual situation is determined, he must be prepared for the fact that he cannot be self-sufficient in food, and find channels to buy food as much as possible.

And there's another big problem, don't forget that he still has a hundred big stomach knights under his command!

The knight's food consumption is almost fifty times that of ordinary people, and this is only the staple food, and the rest also needs enough meat, eggs and milk to supplement nutrition.

A knight's daily expenses such as food, salary, horses, and weapons are cumulatively calculated.

If Ronan collects 30% of the land tax from the peasants, he needs the output value of 2,000 peasants to be able to afford a knight.

That is, he relied on selling mines, furs and other permafrost resources to keep the funds of the territory from being cut off, otherwise he would not be able to support these hundred knights.

This is also the reason why Ronan never wanted to continue to increase the number of knights.

These knights are not very strong, and they have a lot of requirements, and as an emotional human, Ronan needs to take care of their mood at all times.

It's like a puppet, you don't need to eat, you don't need to be paid, and the only meaning of existence is to work for him.

It's a pity that the brain is not very good

(End of chapter)