The Lord of the Rings: Lords of Middle-earth.

Chapter 112 Spring Plowing Begins

“Spring is here! Go check on how the farm tools are being arranged!” Roland turned to Caslow and said.

"Yes, sir." Caslo nodded. After all, spring planting was about to begin, and if the farming tools didn't reach the people, it would affect the planting season. Roland didn't want to be eating black bread again; being choked by food was truly unpleasant...

"Make sure they get the farm tools ready! Tell all the blacksmiths to free up their hands to forge hoes, and prioritize the manufacture of urgently needed farm tools!" Roland instructed.

“Okay!” Caslo replied and walked out of the tent.

"Someone come here!" Roland called out after thinking for a moment.

"What are your orders, Your Highness?" A Lordaeron ranger clad in chainmail entered.

"Prepare the horses! Assemble the guards and the knights! Let's go check the farmland!" Roland said, wanting to see for himself if he had missed anything.

"Yes, Your Highness!" The Lordaeron ranger nodded respectfully and withdrew.

……

"Your Highness, what made you decide to come here?" Renault asked Roland curiously from about 5 kilometers north of Swiftstream City.

"I'm still worried, I have to come and check. If there are problems with spring planting this year... then Swiftstream City is finished!" Roland sighed helplessly.

"What problems could there be? The orcs are no longer capable of a large-scale southward invasion! Even a few scattered orc farmers could easily overturn them with pitchforks!" Renault smiled. The situation in Stream City was currently very favorable. Lonely Mountain stood in the north as a barrier, and in the west, besides Los Saint-Neil, ruled by the Whitewing King, there was the wide Stream River as a shield. In the east, the centaur lord Baldr would block the enemy from the east in the Tuput Forest. The only enemy might come from the south, but Stream City's current forces were sufficient to withstand an attack from an ordinary enemy. As long as it wasn't tens of thousands of orcs besieging the city, Roland could still put up a fight.

"This year will be very tough for us! Apart from the troops who need to stay behind, everyone else needs to join the spring planting. We have to race against time!" Roland sighed. Their biggest enemy now is time!

Assuming four mu of land can support one person, the population of Jiliu City is less than 5000. Therefore, 20000 mu of land would need to be cultivated to meet the needs of everyone! This doesn't even include the area for vegetable cultivation! After all, the system didn't provide seeds for high-yield crops, and the yield of ordinary crops in the Central Plains is really not much different from the yield per mu in ancient China!
"Hiss!" Renault gasped. He then realized that Swiftstream City was currently penniless and had no resources whatsoever. This year's spring planting required stockpiling grain for the future, which would increase the workload even further. Cultivating so much land in this short period of time was simply killing everyone...

“I think we can melt down the weapons and make them into hoes…” Renault opened his mouth, but the two blacksmith shops could only produce a few hundred hoes at a time without stopping. This shortage was simply outrageous!

"Nonsense!" Roland's eyes widened. "Melt your weapon and fight the enemy with your fists?"
"I'll go find Thorin. Looks like I'll have to ask the dwarves for help again!" Roland said helplessly. Although the Lagrangers had done the Irubor dwarves a favor, Roland was too embarrassed to ask them for help. He had been taking advantage of Thorin for so long. Although the Thorin in the movie was a bit brainless, the Thorin in this world was still very kind to Roland.

"Sigh! Let's send someone to Irubber to order two thousand hoes..." Roland said helplessly, rubbing his forehead. The demand was too great; if we really had to let the blacksmiths in Swiftstream City make them, everyone would starve to death this year.

"Oh, right! Take this gold with you! Don't go empty-handed!" Roland said to Renault with a pained expression as he took out a large wooden box full of treasured gold and silver from his system space.

"Yes, sir!" Renault responded, then turned his horse around, pointed to a few men, gave them instructions, and then sent them to Irubor to complete the task he had assigned them...

"Have you given the orders?" Roland asked, looking at Renault who had returned quickly.

"Yes, the order has been given," Renault confirmed. "By the way, do we have a carpenter?" Roland suddenly asked.

"Well... there really isn't!" Renault replied after thinking for a moment. Although he didn't pay much attention to this aspect, there were only a few skilled people in Swiftstream City at the moment, and Renault should know any carpenter.

"This is troublesome!" Roland said with a headache. He had just found the blueprint for a "divine artifact"—the curved plow—among the miscellaneous items he had collected from the system check-in system a few days ago!

"This thing allows for more precise farming and significantly increases yields!" Roland said proudly. In his hands was the culmination of ancient Chinese technology! A treasure passed down from our ancestors, an object that could be used for thousands of years!

"Um... what's different about it? Is it some kind of magical artifact?" Renault stared at the blueprints, completely bewildered.

"My lord!" Caslo's voice came from afar, arriving before he even appeared!
"What's wrong? Why are you so jumpy!" Roland rolled his eyes at him, annoyed. He had almost been startled off his horse by this rascal! Didn't he know that people lost in thought shouldn't be disturbed?

"If you don't give me a straight answer today, you're finished!" Roland grew angrier the more he thought about it.

“Um…Sir, there’s a huge shortage of farming tools! At least three-quarters of the people don’t have farming tools, let alone the soldiers.” Caslo frowned.

"Okay, I understand. I've already placed an order with Iruber!" Roland let out a defeated howl.

"What's wrong?" Caslo was startled by the intense, almost tangible sorrow on Roland's face and quickly nudged Renault beside him with his elbow, whispering.

"Well..." Renault clicked his tongue and then said in a low voice, "Your Highness just took out all his savings to order farm tools, and he's probably feeling the pinch right now!" Renault shrugged helplessly as he looked at the dejected Roland in front of him.

As one of Roland's earliest followers, how could he not know what Roland was like? Although Roland wasn't exactly stingy, he was still enthusiastic about accumulating wealth. Ever since he'd spent all his wealth points, Roland hadn't dared to browse the mall anymore. Everything looked beautiful, but he was always short of cash... He'd finally managed to save up some savings, but then he'd squandered it all during the spring planting season...

"How tragic..." Caslo looked at Roland with pity and sighed. He had seen Roland save money before. He had spent so long searching and refining gold and silver from the orc corpses and only managed to get half a chest full. Now he was back to square one...

"Pitter-patter~" The soft spring rain fell drop by drop, and Roland subconsciously stretched out his hand, the raindrops playfully jumping and rolling in his palm...

"Spring is here! Let those with farming tools come and clear the land first!" Roland looked at the sky. Hmm, the rain wasn't heavy; it was a good day to get to work.

"Let's wait, Your Highness. It's raining! If some civilians get caught in the rain and fall ill, it could cause a plague!" Renault said solemnly. The medical level in the Central Plains was just so-so. Even a flu could cause a plague. There was no rush.

“That’s true, let’s wait for the snow to melt!” Roland looked at the white spots stretching across the land, which were all snow that had not yet melted.

"Let's go back! It's so cold!" A gust of cold wind swept in, and the biting wind slipped in through the seams of Roland's clothes, making him shiver.

(End of this chapter)