Although the royal capital had the strength and authority to deal with the Haaland family, he forbade Richard's deviant policies and ordered him to close the school.

But firstly, the royal capital has not received the news, and secondly, Nolan needs the help of the Haaland family to defend the northern defense line. Even if you have an idea in your heart, you will not easily interfere with the Haaland family.

Now the Haaland family has made many military exploits, and the relationship with the Grant Kingdom is one glory and one loss, and its importance in the north is second only to several duke families, surpassing Viscount Rohman.

Third, Richard pardoned slaves and spread knowledge, which touched the interests of the aristocracy as a whole, but did not threaten Nolan. His changes have nothing to do with the Grant family, which rules Nolan.

Fourth, although the Haaland family has a certain strength, it is far from the Grant family, and it is impossible to rebel in a short period of time. The most feared by the royal capital is always the Duke Jonathan family, which is the second most powerful.

Suppressing and restricting the Haaland family will only force them to move closer to the Jonathan family.

If the infighting between the royal capital and the great nobles of Northern Xinjiang is too fierce, once Richard clears the passage, the orc army will go straight to Heihe Fort and enter the rich areas of Geda Province to plunder.

The Grant Kingdom's years of efforts in northern Xinjiang have formed a good strategic situation, which will be ruined in one fell swoop.

For various reasons, special geopolitics, Richard is completely a word in the territory, even if he engages in another set of things, basically no one dares to question it now.

Unless someone hopes that the situation in northern Xinjiang will be completely eroded, they will take action against the Haaland family.

The great nobles of Northern Xinjiang, or the aristocracy in exile, or the promotion of military merits. Although the title is high, it does not have as much influence on Nolan as the Marquis in the east and the Earl in the south.

These marquis and earls are all old families, and their territories are all in the hinterland of the Grant Kingdom, so they don't need to face orcs all the time, and they don't need to let family members bleed.

The nobles of Northern Xinjiang are the strongest and have the highest status, but they have the worst strategic situation, which is equivalent to the shield of the Grant Kingdom to protect the safety of other great nobles.

Because of this, the independence of the nobles in Northern Xinjiang is often stronger, and the big nobles are not very bird kings Du Nolan.

Whether Nolan likes it or not, as long as the royal family still wants to maintain the situation in the northern Xinjiang and does not want the hinterland to erode, they will not easily attack the big nobles of the northern Xinjiang and make trouble for themselves. On the contrary, it is necessary to carefully maintain the balance, constantly transfuse blood to the great nobles of Northern Xinjiang, and send troops to support from time to time to help the great nobles of Northern Xinjiang maintain the situation.

Such an external environment is also beneficial to the Haaland family in northern Xinjiang.

After returning from the Grand Duchy of Starnik, Richard began to prepare for the spring plowing of the territory.

The Dawn Plane is still in the agricultural era, and spring plowing in the agricultural era is the top priority.

Even the Roger Kingdom of the Grant Kingdom has to set an example during the spring ploughing period and personally participate in a spring ploughing.

Originally, the spring ploughing work had been handed over to his cousin Donn, but this year's situation was a bit special, and many things could only be handed over to Richard for decision.

The territory of northern Xinjiang is very fertile, and it is all nutrient-rich black soil.

However, due to the lack of fertilizer, it is generally necessary to fallow once every three years.

From the beginning of Richard's territory, manure composting technology was used, a large number of public toilets were built, human and animal waste was collected, and septic tanks were built on the edge of farmland.

Because of the use of farm fertilizer, the grain output per mu of Haaland's territory has generally increased by twenty or thirty catties.

Don't underestimate the twenty or thirty catties of grain added per mu.

Scaled to a scale of one million mu, the increased grain output exceeded 10,000 tons, which is enough to feed 40,000 or 50,000 people.

In addition, the use of farm manure can also extend the cultivation period, and the farmland in the Haaland territory that uses farm manure will basically be fallow for one year in five years.

This year, Donn found Richard, mainly because the farmland was fallow.

"My lord, our public land is well managed, and regular fallow is fine. But the private land allocated to the freemen is more troublesome to leave.

Once the land is fallow, the income from the farmland is greatly reduced, but the land tax levied by the freedmen every year is fixed. To alleviate the pressure, the freedmen farmed and almost never fallowed.

Since last year, according to our statistics, the yield of farmland cultivated by free people has decreased by 15 catties compared with that of public land.

This is a considerable figure, and if the problem of private land fallow is not solved, the cost of land is too severe, and the production of private land in the hands of the freemen will become less and less. My lord, I think there should be a decree that would make it mandatory for the freedmen to leave their fields fallow. “

Richard knew in his heart that ordinary people were short-sighted and would not think about long-term things. Forcing freedmen to leave their land fallow would greatly reduce their income. If taxes are not reduced or farmland is increased, even if this policy can be implemented, it will increase the burden on the people and make the freedmen of the territory even poorer.

Richard thought about it carefully and felt that Donn's suggestion was not feasible, and he carefully analyzed the current situation of Haaland's territory, which was still an environment with few people and many places for decades.

The climate in Haaland's territory is relatively cold, which is not suitable for autumn ploughing, and Richard tried to cultivate a few acres of winter wheat, but unfortunately he could not withstand the cold and long winter, and there was almost no harvest.

Autumn and winter can not be cultivated, the three-nursery system can not be implemented.

In the absence of a large amount of fertilizer, in order to reduce the consumption of land fertility, Haaland's territory can only implement a two-nursery system, leaving part of the farmland fallow.

Richard looked at the land that had been registered, and after careful consideration, Richard thought that it was more appropriate to give more land to the freedmen under the condition that the population pressure was not great.

The Haaland territory now has more than 1.4 million acres of land, about 230,000 people.

In this year's spring ploughing, there is still the task of clearing 120,000 mu of farmland, and land resources are not lacking.

Now there are 60,000 freemen in the territory, and each person has only 60,000 acres of land, so it is not too difficult to set aside 60,000 acres of land from the public land.

More land was divided, taxes were not increased, and there was enough reason to order fallow.

A family of six people has about six acres of land fallow each year

In addition to fallow land, Richard was also preparing to promote animal husbandry and allow freedmen to raise sheep in large numbers.

The Haaland territory is predominantly hilly, which is ideal for animal husbandry. Large-scale sheep farming in the territory can also promote the development of the wool textile industry.

Listening to Richard's opinion, Don frowned and said, "The freedmen near Gravesson, of course it's okay to do this, but the freedmen who are divided into the Stopa territory, I'm afraid it can't be done here." Because we are in Stopa territory, there is hardly much public land to share. ”

Richard looked at the map and said thoughtfully, "There are too many people in Stoppa's territory, and I think some of them should be moved out." ”

"After I went back, I released the news that I was willing to migrate to Grayfordson, the freedmen of the swamp basin, each of them divided into six acres of paddy fields, and looked at the freedmen in the Stopa territory, whether they were willing to leave their hometown and go to the new territory to reclaim the wasteland."

Richard knew in his heart that ordinary people were reluctant to leave their hometown. Now the freedmen in Haaland's territory have a decent standard of living because of the more arable land per capita.

When the farm is not working, I go to the nearby castle and do odd jobs in factories and mines, so that I can not only eat and clothe myself, but also save some money every year.

However, after two or three generations, with the explosion of the population, the per capita arable land will be greatly reduced, and the standard of living will be much lower.

If you want to maintain a high standard of living, the best way is to increase the development of productivity, increase the yield per acre, and increase the carrying capacity of the population of the territory.

If the level of productivity increases relatively slowly, the only way to do this is to constantly move the surplus population of the territory, expand outward, reclaim arable land, and compete for subsistence resources.

The worst way is to use war to consume the surplus population.

The Orc Empire's constant aggression also has this factor to some extent.

The first two paths, each of which is difficult to walk.

It is Richard's wish to take the first road, and he has been adjusting the relations of production, emancipating the serfs, giving full play to the production enthusiasm of the serfs, enhancing the vitality of society, disseminating knowledge on a large scale, cultivating the seedling of science, hoping to rely on the power of science to increase the level of productivity and accelerate the development of Haaland's territory.

At the same time, Haaland's territory is taking the second path, and it has been expanding continuously for more than ten years, from a small barony to a pivotal aristocracy in the three northern provinces.

New farmland has been cultivated every year for more than a decade. In order to facilitate the relocation of the surplus population and to open up new territories, Richard made a decree that primogeniture inherited the property.

When the second son of the freedman grows up, he can only go to the new territory to divide the land if he wants to obtain farmland.

This decree was carried out by the Richard Council until the situation changed and it could not be enforced.

The power of magic is very important in the agricultural cultivation of the Dawn Plane, and there is a lot of magic that can promote plant growth and increase soil fertility. In particular, the Church of Nature and Harvest has studied this aspect of spells very well and has accumulated a lot of experience.

But there was no priest of the natural church in the kingdom of Grant, and even if Richard wanted to exchange magical knowledge, he had no channel.

Moreover, the number of magicians in Haaland's territory is small, even if they learn spells that promote plant growth and increase production, relying on a few magicians and dozens of magic apprentices, the increase in food production is insignificant.

It is imperative to find new fertilizers that are the most critical issues in agricultural development.

Richard relied on the experience of his previous life and knew that the growth of plants mainly depends on the three elements of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium.

After coming to the Dawn plane, through various experiments, it was found that ordinary plants in the Dawn plane also rely on photosynthesis, and the growth of plants also needs nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium.

Magic plants are special and mainly absorb magic energy particles.

The knowledge of magical botany is also more complicated, and it is more difficult than normal farming. Cultivating magical plants requires the mage to take care of them personally.

The Haaland Territory does not have the technical conditions to manufacture fertilizer on a large scale, but it is possible to find natural fertilizer deposits.

Today, Richard holds more than 18,000 square kilometers of territory, and many veins have not yet been explored.

In recent years, Richard has been ramping up its vein exploration.

If a potash mine is discovered in the territory, with natural fertilizers, agricultural production will not have to worry.

Duke Jonathan's territory is home to a number of natural salt lakes, which, during the dry season, can mine not only table salt, but also potash. These potash deposits have been piled up in salt lakes for thousands of years and have not been utilized.

More than 30 kilometers east of Haaland's territory, there is also a salt lake with an area of more than 10 square kilometers.

This salt lake is located to the north of the Viscount of Nelson, and if Haaland's territory expands here, it can be developed.

Now it is also possible to secretly mine the salt lake, but the salt lake is not part of the Harland family fiefdom, and once this area is developed, it will be cheaper for the Grant royal family.

Richard was reluctant to do the wedding dress for others. He was going to wait a few years, and when he was promoted to earl, he would ask the royal family for the salt lake area, and then mine the salt and potash mines. Natural fertilizers are then used on a large scale to increase food production.

Counting the 120,000 mu of farmland reclaimed this year, the farmland in Haaland's territory has exceeded 1.5 million mu. However, due to fallow, only about 1.2 million acres of farmland have been cultivated this year.

Because the cultivated area is more than 100,000 mu less than last year, if the wind and rain are good, this year's grain output will be reduced by about 10,000 tons.

Although food production will be reduced, there is no shortage of food in Haaland's territory for the time being.

Alfalfa seeds are sprinkled on fallow farmland, which not only fixes nitrogen and enhances the fertility of the land during the fallow period, but also grows pasture grass that can be used to raise sheep.

There are now two million sheep in Haaland's territory, but most of these sheep Richard have been handed over to the sheep tribe.

The sheep people in the territory of Haaland have a population of more than 10,000 people, divided into eight tribes.

In summer and autumn, the sheep people basically graze in the mountains, in the late autumn, they will collect pasture, and in the winter when the weather is not cold and there is no snowstorm, the sheep will also drive the sheep and eat the leaves of the dead grass.

The sheep body is a race with thick hair and does not need warm clothes. Eat relatively little, the consumption of grains is only equivalent to one-third of that of human beings, and there is no need to eat meat, and there is no need to even consume food in summer and autumn, just eat a little grass and young leaves to fill your stomach.

The cost of grazing with sheep is very low.

From the sheep-like slaves, Richard had already reaped great benefits.

But as the size of the flock expanded, the more than 10,000 sheep herders were no longer enough.

The sheep breeding population is expanding rapidly, and if the scale is concentrated, it can increase tenfold in three years. If the scale of sheep breeding in the territory were increased tenfold, slaves would be able to eat mutton in large quantities.

The territory of Haaland has abundant precipitation and very dense vegetation, and the carrying capacity of the territory is enough to breed tens of millions of sheep.

However, the consumption of mutton in Haaland's territory is not small, and about 600,000 sheep are slaughtered every year, and the scale is increasing every year. It would take at least five years to expand the sheep population to 20 million.

This year, Richard plans to push the surplus sheep to the market and sell them cheaper to the freedmen of the territory, so that the freedmen can raise sheep and shear sheep to increase their income.

After entering April, the spring ploughing of the territory is finally over.

(End of chapter)