Peaceful days always passed quickly. When the beastmen invaded, Rhodes was busy on the front line every day. At that time, there was danger every day, and he lived in fear every day. Later, the rebellion broke out in Erlengrad, which was also the time.
I am in a state of mental tension all the time, just like Caroline said - time has been stretched. It seems that every day is like celebrating the New Year. But now, we finally have a peaceful and quiet day. Like this
The days feel like they are passing quickly.
There is no big change every day, although big changes will happen over time, but when you put yourself in their shoes, every day is so ordinary. Wake up every morning, look at the rising sun and the busy town, and have a work meal at noon.
In the afternoon, I visited various places again, and returned to the castle to rest and sleep at night. The cycle went back and forth. But if you think about it, life is like this. It is impossible to live a wonderful life every day. It is normal for the days to fly by after you calm down.
And when everything settled down, all that was left was to move forward step by step according to the plan. Fortunately, after more than a year of development, so far, Black Hammer Castle has not deviated much on its development path.
Everything is as expected. All expenses and income are within control.
Sitting in the office, Rhodes closed his eyes and thought about the road he has traveled in the past three years. It is not a legend, but it is also worth singing and crying. It's just that there is always a good attendant missing around him. It seems that this is a curse.
The attendants who stayed with him never lasted more than two years. They either died in battle or were seriously injured. Talinnam... Rhodes suddenly remembered his last attendant. When he was in the Secret Whisper Castle, he and Talinnam were lost.
, from now on, the Lord of Blackhammer Castle no longer has the position of attendant. It has been almost two years now, and I don’t know how this kid is doing now, whether he is dead or alive...
Just as he was thinking about it, Alves' footsteps sounded outside the door. This kid always shuttled freely in the castle. Rhodes gave him the privilege to come in without knocking, but this guy always kept the last word.
Etiquette. He insisted on knocking before coming in. Over time, Rhodes stopped caring about him. You can do whatever you like~~
"The census you asked me to do is ready. Here is the report."
Alves started talking about business as soon as he came in. Like Rod, Alves's style of doing things is to talk about business first and gossip later.
"Unexpectedly, in just one year after I came to Blackhammer Castle, the population here has expanded to 8,030. This is simply more than when Iron Ring City was at its most prosperous."
After Alves handed over the report, he sat on the sofa in the office and boasted about himself as usual.
"So, the population growth of Blackhammer Castle depends entirely on your management?"
Rhodes taunted him every day.
"You can't say that. It's the general trend. As you said, if you stand on the wind, pigs will fly. The rebellion of Erengrad, coupled with the annihilation of Iron Ring City, brought a large number of outsiders to Black Hammer Castle.
Of course, it is only through our arrangements in advance that we can accept these refugees smoothly."
Alves said, picking up the large wine bottle on the table and pouring himself a glass of wine. He sipped the wine and looked up at the map of Blackhammer Castle behind Rhodes' desk.
"I think you should have thoroughly studied the terrain of Blackhammer Castle, right?"
Alves asked, pointing to the map hanging on the wall behind Rhodes.
"The above-ground research has been thorough, but the underground research has not been done yet."
Rhodes answered casually while looking at the detailed census report.
"You can't see or touch what's underground, how can you study it?"
"The dwarf engineering team will help me figure it out. Although their number is still very small now, I believe there will be more in the future. By the way, have you done statistics on how many dwarves there are in Dulong City in Blackhammer Castle?
"
Rhodes buried his head in the report and continued to ask.
"No. The dwarves are not within your jurisdiction. I don't think we have the right to investigate this. Of course, if you want to find out, I can talk to them."
"Forget it, it's not much anyway. I can generally recognize the important ones."
"There are 1,020 wheat growers, 555 barley growers, 831 potato growers, and 303 other various crop growers. The total number of people engaged in agriculture - two
One thousand, seven hundred and nine people?”
"Well, the data is as of a week ago. I have classified and totaled it, and averaged the salaries of various industries. They are all in this table. How about it? Is it more or less?"
Alves put down his wine glass and stared at Rod and asked.
"too much."
"too much?"
"Well, that's more. The total population of Blackhammer Castle is less than 9,000 people, and more than 2,700 people are engaged in agriculture, accounting for one-third of the total population. What does this prove?"
Rhodes put down the report and looked at Alves with a smile.
"Prove what?"
"It proves that we are still just a town, not a city. High dependence on agriculture is not a good thing. The climate in the north is actually not suitable for large-scale development of agriculture. Almost all crops here are harvested once a year.
, the yield is not good. In addition, there are disastrous weather conditions such as blizzards and hail in the north. Once encountered, crops will suffer heavy losses. Also, many truly valuable cash crops cannot be planted, except for ice peppers, which can bring huge profits.
, most of the other crops are just low-end products, used for food, clothing, and wine making. Agriculture can be developed, but it is not a major industry for the North. The expansion of scale cannot bring about a doubling of benefits, so we should try our best to support it in the future
Industry and commerce, not agriculture. Of course, agriculture is the foundation. It cannot be neglected."
"It makes sense..."
"Industrial products have added value. One ship of furniture and iron can be exchanged for ten ships of grain. The value is self-evident. Of course, as I just said, necessary agriculture must still be maintained. Otherwise, if one day we
If a war breaks out with the empire, without food imports, everything will be over."
Rhodes was half lying on the chair and continued -
"Let's transform slowly. This is easier said than done. It may take several years or more than ten years. I'm wondering if we can discuss with dwarf engineers to design a high-efficiency sowing and harvesting machine to compress the
The population engaged in agriculture transfers excess labor to other industries."
Alves had a look of confusion on his face. He really couldn't imagine that there was such a machine. In the entire old world, machinery was basically used for military purposes. How could anyone have enough time to study agricultural machinery? Think about the farmers and help them get rich.
No lord would worry about this. What Rhodes had in mind was the model of the harvester.