You were made to farm, and now you're the emperor of an empire?

Chapter 43 Buying Grain
[Cooking Experience +1]

[Cooking Experience +1]

[Cooking Experience +1]

Roman stood in front of the cutting board, chopping large chunks of meat with a loud bang.

Sowing is a very tedious process because it relies solely on manual labor.

Either too many seeds were sown, or too little fertilizer was applied.

Either the trench was dug too deep or too shallow.

Its efficiency is difficult to improve, especially for uneducated farmers, as it is a skill-based job.

Fortunately, learning this skill is not difficult; you'll get the hang of it once you're familiar with it.

Roman would rather go slower than see an acre of wheat seedlings growing unevenly, some dense and some sparse.

That's not called meticulous cultivation.

However, during this time, he would provide an extra free dinner so that they could complete the basic requirements for planting.

Roman can also use this to gain experience points for the [Cooking] skill.

Large pieces of bone and meat, large chunks of onion, large chunks of carrot, were all thrown into or outside the wooden basin on the ground.

It's not clean, you won't get sick after eating it.

With two meals a day, farmers no longer need to eat from their own food reserves; they can simply come to the common land to eat, and even bring their elderly relatives and children.

Moreover, the food was plentiful, and they even had salted meat soup.

But here is the problem.

After last winter, Sige Town was in a period of food shortage, and there wasn't much food left.

If we eat sparingly, we can definitely make it to July in the summer. By then, the wheat and other crops will be mostly ripe, which will just be enough to meet the food supply. No one in Sige Town will starve.

But since Roman started offering free lunches, the amount of food consumed during that time seemed astronomical to Moore.

The daily consumption reached an astonishing 1,000 jin!
Although most of the food consists of grains, cereals, and vegetables, the quantity is considerable!
It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that they eat the equivalent of a whole ox every day!

Those are robust oxen, weighing over 600 pounds each, capable of replacing five or six laborers in a draft!

That's an extremely valuable asset in Sig!
Even though he was an agricultural official, his daily meat staples were basically livestock such as sheep, pigs, and chickens.

He would only slaughter one old ox each year, occasionally enjoying the taste of beef, and would also distribute it to his relatives and friends. He would also feed it to the slaves he bought as a reward for the past year.

Now, Roman is going to start serving dinner again, which doubles the cost.

The already meager food reserves have been further depleted.

Therefore, upon learning of this, Mohr had no choice but to come before Roman and explain the situation.

Roman stopped chopping vegetables, listened to his explanation, nodded, and said, "You mean to say that even the landlord's family doesn't have surplus grain, right?"

Mohr wiped his sweat with a handkerchief. For some reason, he always felt drenched in sweat whenever he faced Roman's gaze.

Moore bowed respectfully and said, "You are absolutely right."

He was terrified that Roman would question him, wouldn't believe him, and would allow the guards to ransack his entire estate...

As he said, the food was almost gone, with only tens of thousands of pounds left, so Mohr wasn't too afraid.

But what he feared were other issues.

He has embezzled a considerable amount of his own money over the years; if those assets were exposed…

To be or not to be, that is the question. Roman hadn't thought about it that way. He lowered his head and pondered for a moment, then looked at Moor and said, "If we don't have enough food, then let's go outside and buy some."

Buying grain?
Mo'er was taken aback.

"This...this...isn't that inappropriate?"

The town of Sig sells large quantities of grain every year.

Moore never even considered buying grain from outside.

He thought that after telling Roman about this, Roman would give up giving out free lunches and let the farmers bear the cost of the food—the farmers' combined grain reserves were more than his own.

It wouldn't be a problem to scavenge a couple hundred pounds of grain from each household; it wouldn't even be considered a major loss.

Wouldn't this just fill the food shortage?
He was all prepared; he would carry it out immediately as soon as Roman brought it up.

If Roman didn't think of this, he would give subtle hints to demonstrate the lord's extraordinary wisdom!
What happened to you?!
If you mess things up at a crucial moment, are you still a noble lord?
Did you abduct the real Roman Riftarm on his way to take office?
The food has already ended up in their stomachs, so it's not unreasonable to ask them to pay for it. You haven't asked for a single penny, and it's already good enough that you don't levy a food tax on them. Why do you still need to buy grain to feed these farmers?

Roman glanced at Moore and said, "What's inappropriate about it?"

He slammed the cleaver into the wooden stake with a loud "bang!"

The loud noise made Moore's heart skip a beat.

Roman said in an unquestionable tone, "Bring all the merchants here to me!"

Roman didn't intend to plunder the farmers' grain reserves; that stuff was their lifeline, and it would easily incite public resentment.

You can kill people all you want; the deaths of ten or so people are nothing in this era.

But you can't steal grain, you noble lord, are you planning a rebellion!
Not long after.

Five merchants then approached Roman.

These people are small merchants who came from Sige Town and sold the town's products—such as mountain goods, furs, and agricultural products—to the outside world to earn meager profits.

But Roman took all the labor force away, and their supply of goods was cut off, leaving them without business for several days.

Now that Roman has summoned me again, I am puzzled.

Do you know the price of grain?

The group exchanged glances and bowed their heads, saying, "We know, sir."

"How much grain does Sige Town sell each year? What is the selling price?"

These small businessmen keenly noticed that Moore's face had turned deathly pale.

This made them uneasy.

Will their next answer affect Lord More's fate?

They didn't want to answer the question, but faced with Roman's calm face and intense gaze, they felt their throats go dry and finally said, "Maybe...maybe we sell 20,000 to 30,000 catties a year. Two thousand two hundred catties of grain can be exchanged for one gold coin."

He was being extremely conservative.

Roman ignored the collapsed Mor and continued asking the merchants, "What is the price of wheat now?"

The small business owners looked at each other in bewilderment.

Finally, a merchant said, "It's the off-season now. One gold coin can only buy a little over 1,600 catties of wheat. If it were peak season, it could buy about 2,000 catties."

After listening, Roman pondered for a moment.

Then he said, “Well, I need 100,000 catties of grain now, including miscellaneous grains, vegetables, and cereals. You will have to go out and find people to buy the grain to meet my needs, but I won’t give you any profit; I will pay you wages. You will get 5 copper coins for every 1,000 catties you bring, and 5 silver coins for every 10,000 catties you bring. As for your initial investment, Mo’er will pay for it…”

(End of this chapter)