This time the Demon Moon lasted for nearly five months, and by the time the clouds cleared and the warm sunshine reappeared over the West, most of the spring had passed. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

An urgent task lay ahead of Roland.

That's spring ploughing.

Launching a war to conquer the Far South in the Evil Moon, where other forces could not move an inch, would certainly save a lot of time and allow the next unification strategy to be carried out with ease, but the consumption of food was also very staggering.

Due to the lack of entry and exit, coupled with the rapid growth of the population, the granaries in the border areas have bottomed out for the first time. Roland secretly rejoiced that the first thing he did after annexing the Changge Fortress was to hand over the "Golden No. 1" seed cultivated by the leaves to Pero, and ordered him to forcibly promote the improved crops, otherwise this evil moon would really be unhappy.

The cement ships that traveled between the border and Changge formed the lifeline of the First Army, and a large amount of wheat flour pancakes were distributed to the soldiers fighting on the front line by shipping.

So Roland convened a spring ploughing battle meeting the day after the end of the "Victory Day" celebration.

Not only the Ministry of Agriculture, but also the entire city hall, including the second-level officials of the Changge District, as well as the sub-district consul Pei Luo, and the consul of Falling Dragon Ridge Speer, were all summoned by him to the Neverwinter Castle. Among them, Speer Passy was flown directly by Maisie, and when he landed, his whole cheeks were pale, and he saluted him with a few more complaints.

Calvin Kant, the lord who temporarily ruled the North, was replaced by his daughter Edith and his second son Cole, I don't know if it was an illusion, Roland always felt that the Northland Pearl who returned from the Snow Mountain had a more dazzling look, but Cole, who was behind her, looked much weaker, and the suit was ...... Isn't it a little too neutral?

In any case, the meeting had gathered representatives from all sides of the Grey Castle, and with the exception of the eastern border, which had not yet been submitted, and the central region, which had not yet established the town hall system, it was basically a national congress.

He looked around the hall in satisfaction, then tapped on the table.

The crowd fell silent and turned their gaze to the king.

"I know you must be wondering why the word war is used on the banner," said Roland, pointing to the red cloth banner hanging on the wall behind him, "because this is a war." It is not only related to the smooth implementation of this year's strategic plan, but also determines the correctness of the rule of Neverwinter! As early as the beginning of the co-optation of refugees, I promised that as long as they are willing to work hard, there will never be a day of hunger. ”

"I've done this in the last three years, and the territory has expanded from a remote border town to most of the Grey Keep, and there's no reason why it won't be possible this year. The kingdom will only be stable if the people do not have to worry about food and drink, so I ask everyone to take the spring ploughing seriously and complete this year's planting in accordance with the regulations and sowing manuals established by the Ministry of Agriculture. He paused, "And from this year onwards, special assessments will be implemented for agricultural work, including the area of reclamation, the number of farmers and agricultural output, which will become the standard to measure whether you are suitable to be in charge of a place!"

Looking at the participants with blank faces, Roland couldn't help but raise the corners of his mouth, "It doesn't matter if you don't know what these assessment items are, and then Agriculture Minister Seni will spend a day explaining to you in detail." All in all, failure to meet the standards I have demanded will only mean that my abilities are limited, and I am no longer fit to continue in the position of consul. ”

Although everyone didn't say anything, it could be seen from their expressions that they were obviously nervous.

This is exactly what Roland wants, abolishing the aristocracy, in addition to being able to recover the power of the fief, and the fact that the domain officials are no longer hereditary for life. He doesn't mind the rights and interests of these people, but he doesn't allow them to drag down his development plans.

And the agricultural assessment is just the beginning.

Roland lifted a curtain behind him, revealing the numbers underneath in capital letters, "The other criteria for the first year can be relaxed appropriately, but in the case of agricultural output, I ask you to reach this number!"

Everyone took a breath in unison, "Fifty thousand?"

His reaction to this was not surprising, after all, according to the average of this era, the annual harvest of ordinary cities was about 10,000, and important towns such as the old royal capital could reach 15,000. When the border town used the "Golden No. 1" for the first time, it only collected more than 7,000 hundreds, which was already a shocking harvest at that time.

Of course, the actual harvest in each region also has a lot to do with the area of farmland and the number of farmers. Unlike the development of high-yield agriculture in border towns, large cities can only get so much food through the brutal cultivation of surrounding villages and towns and tens of thousands of farmers, so he will put these two items into the assessment content.

After all, the fewer people working in the farm, the more workers the factory can accommodate.

Roland stretched out his hand to signal everyone to be quiet, "In fact, when you see the test field of Golden II, you will feel that this goal is not a fantasy. After repeated tests on the leaves, the unit yield of Golden No. 2 can reach more than twice that of No. 1, and the ears of wheat produced in the field are enough to overwhelm the wheat stalks. ”

This time it was Perot's turn to exclaim, "Your Majesty...... Can it really be more than doubled?"

Among the officials in the field, he was the only one who felt the most deeply about the astonishing output of the Golden No. 1 -- throughout the Evil Moon War, the Changge District provided more than 50% of the rations for the First Army, because of the large surplus grain that appeared after the change to the Golden No. 1. Replacing it with ordinary wheat in the past can't even feed a city.

"That's true, but the Golden No. 2 is not without its flaws," Roland looked at the leaf on the side, "Next, Miss Ye of the Witch Alliance will tell you more about its characteristics." ”

Leaf nodded and saluted, then walked up to him with a bag of ripe wheat grains and began to show everyone the Golden Two, "It's different from all the wheat you've touched before, and can only be planted once, so you have to come to Neverwinter every year to get new wheat seeds." I've also strengthened its root system so that it can absorb nutrients deeper underground, but this also makes it extremely fertilizing, and it needs to be planted with fertilization, otherwise it would have to carve out three plots of land to rotate and fallow them. And ......"

Roland looked at the leaves, which were a little restrained at first, and then became more and more smooth, and touched his chin with satisfaction - Golden No. 2 can be said to be a new type of wheat with its own golden kera, the root system can extend to four to five meters underground, and strengthen the ability to absorb fertilizer, except for the inability to reproduce continuously, other aspects almost completely surpass Golden No. 1.

The only drawback was an advantage for Neverwinter - the inability to keep seeds meant that once the other cities began to grow Golden No. 2, they would not be able to do without the supply of the new royal capital, and all other low-yielding wheat would be squeezed out of the market, which would be beneficial for him to monopolize grain sales and put this resource under the control of the state.

Roland believes that no farmer will try to plant Golden Two and then go back to planting ordinary wheat.

As long as this new and improved seed is spread throughout the country, it will be able to greatly alleviate the shortage of food in various localities.

With food...... Naturally, it will be able to contain more people.

After all, a Grey Fort alone wasn't enough for him to be satisfied.