I was a lord farming, how did I become an emperor?

Chapter 41 Crop Lord
Early June.

The frigid northern wilderness has finally welcomed warmth.

Even if you're not working, you don't need to wear a thick coat.

With the slaves working at full capacity, a two-kilometer-long canal was dug, and Rhodes began to build the embankment for the river bend.

While we're at it, let's build a fishing pond.

What Rod wanted was not just playful fishing, but the ability to eat from months of winter fishing at once.

The northern wastelands are uncultivable in winter, and Rhodes longs for a granary to store fresh ingredients.

Therefore, Rhodes planned to expand and deepen the river bend.

Rhodes found a narrower section of the river upstream of the bend and arranged for slaves to build a temporary diversion channel on the opposite bank.

After the diversion channel was completed, sacks filled with mud and sand were used to build a dam, diverting most of the water to the diversion channel on the opposite bank and isolating the river bend.

The next step is to wait for the water in the river bend to drain away completely before expanding it into a large reservoir capable of holding fish.

Of course, you have to catch fish before you can build anything.

Early summer is the breeding season for many cold-water fish, so Rhodes had his slaves dig a small pond nearby to store the small fish.

The slaves threw sandbags into the downstream section of the river bend, leaving only a three- or four-meter gap for the large net, and waited quietly.

As the river water continued to flow away, the water level in the river bend dropped rapidly, the turbulent flow turned into a slow trickle, and the deep pools became puddles.

When you stand inside, the water level only reaches your ankles.

Countless fish struggled in the puddles, and in the largest puddle in the middle, the dense school of fish was almost crammed together, churning and thrashing about incessantly.

The silvery fish scales shimmered in the early summer sun, making the riverbed look as if it were sprinkled with silver coins.

Before even getting into the water, Rod could already see half-meter-long silver mandarin fish, plump grass carp, catfish, salmon, and more.

It's so captivating.

Then sixty slaves jumped into the river and began fishing.

Or rather, picking up fish.

Some slaves would simply swing their baskets and scoop up half a basket of lively, wriggling fish from the water.

However, this kind of lazy behavior was strictly forbidden by Rhodes.

This kind of handling can easily kill many small fish.

Rod is planning to raise it.

Including preparation time, it took more than three days to harvest nearly 3,000 catties of large fish, and there were also some small fish fry that could not be counted.

In addition, there were some river crabs, clams, and shrimp, totaling only 800 jin (400 kg).

It contains mostly river shrimp, which are pickled and dried like fish.

Some river crabs are inedible once they die, so they are steamed and served on the same day.

River clams are too dirty, it's a waste of time to process them, and there aren't many edible parts, so I simply smash them all up and use them as compost.

These large fish were all cleaned, and the fish offal was used partly as food for slaves and partly as compost. The fish meat was pickled, dried, and preserved.

These three thousand catties of fish consumed more than three hundred catties of salt. If Gangle hadn't just brought back two thousand catties of salt from the salt mine, Shuangye Town really wouldn't have enough salt.

It's worth mentioning that Rhodes' salt mine is a rich mine; if mined at full capacity, it can produce 2,000 kilograms of salt per week.

To ensure the slaves could focus on mining, Rhodes specifically sent four female slaves to help them cook.

The salt mine tunnels are now quite small, so it's pointless to send more people there.

The women were in charge of processing the salted fish, and the river bend project was still ongoing.

The slaves not only dug the bay downwards, but also expanded it to both banks, eventually creating a funnel-shaped reservoir, reaching a width of eighty meters at its widest point.

Due to water seepage from the soil, the river channel could only be dug down to a depth of about one meter before the project had to be abandoned.

To deepen the river bend, Rhodes had to have the riverbank raised as high as possible.

To prevent the riverbank from collapsing, a retaining wall was built using wooden piles, which were then filled with clay, gravel, and bundles of thorns. The main body of the dam was also constructed with a frame made of durable pine wood. Wooden planks were inserted diagonally into the water-facing side to cover the dam body, and then stones and clay with bits of grass were filled into the wooden frame and compacted layer by layer.

At the same time, a layer of pine resin is applied to the outside of the wooden board as a protective layer to prevent corrosion.

The gate was made of four layers of wooden planks joined together with mortise and tenon joints. The surface was also coated with a protective layer of pine resin. The sides were embedded with grooved stone walls, and a lifting gate was constructed using a winch and counterweight stones.

It sounds simple, but there are many details in the actual production process.

This was also Rod's first time actually participating in the design and production process. He worked with the carpenter on the design and research, and made constant adjustments.

Even at night, I dream about brushing grease and nailing boards.

Just as Rhodes was feeling utterly exhausted, a system notification suddenly appeared.

[Five thousand acres of land have been cultivated within the territory, unlocking the attribute: Crop Lord]

[Crop Lord (Purple): Common food crops in your territory flourish under your influence, increasing base yield by 100%.]

puff!
Rhodes, who was drinking water, spat it out!
Simple words, unpretentious effect, yet stunning!
No wonder it's a purple entry!

Damn it!
This is truly a crop lord!

After a quick calculation, Rod realized that his 1,000 mu of meticulously cultivated land could yield up to 600 jin of produce!
This is already comparable to the grain yield per acre in low-yield areas of my previous life!
If grain production doubles, it means that Rhodes can support more slaves and also double the ratio of soldiers to civilians!
For example, if 100 people used to support 5 soldiers, now Rhodes can support 110 soldiers with 100 people!

Because none of the doubled grain was consumed; it was all used to feed the army!
And the better the cultivation, the more the grain will be produced!
Of course, this is only in theory; in reality, maintaining an army requires much more resources.

This also involves taxation and the economy, unless one is driven to the brink of desperation.

But this also means that food is no longer an obstacle for Rhodes!

In addition to their abilities, the Crop Lord also possesses various crop cultivation knowledge and agricultural tool making methods in their mind.

It's not just wheat, rye, and potatoes; there's also corn, rice, and other crops that are no longer cultivated in Heisongling. The list goes on and on.

This means that Rhodes could snowball his territory simply by farming, selling grain, and buying slaves!

Of course, that method takes time.

Rhodes was in a good mood and quickly checked the next entry.

[Next entry: Successfully acquire four entries: [Crop Lord], [Mineral Lord], [Animal Husbandry Lord], and [Hunting Lord] to unlock: Great Lord of Nature]

I've already obtained the Crop Lord, but I'm missing one Mineral Lord. I haven't unlocked either the Animal Husbandry Lord or Hunting Lord series yet.

The carpenter next to him saw Rod standing still, staring at him with narrowed eyes, his gaze deep and the corners of his mouth slightly upturned.

Is it because I didn't do a good job?

The carpenter couldn't help but shudder.

"My lord, what are your orders?"

Rhodes snapped out of his daze and calmly ordered, "Go tell Durant to come to the lobby to see me!"

Rod strode back to the manor, and Durant arrived shortly after.

Before Durant could even speak, Rod waved his hand.
"Convert all the militia and fifteen reserve slaves into regular soldiers, and have them participate in training around the clock!"

"In addition, ten good performers will be selected from among the slaves and townspeople to participate in militia training."

The militia are considered reserves; they train occasionally, but they also need to do manual labor regularly.

"what?"

Durant was taken aback, unsure why the lord had suddenly changed so drastically.

"With spring plowing finished and the fishpond basic structure in place, we can slowly build the rest of the irrigation canals. If all else fails, we can go to the border town in a couple of days and buy some more slaves."

Although the effects of the Crop Lord are not immediately apparent, it means that Rhodes can be bolder and not need to stockpile as much food for winter.

You can also boldly spend some of the gold coins you have to accelerate your development.

Training soldiers is not something that can be done overnight, and once he had the confidence, Rhodes had to seize the time to prepare in advance.

If we have plenty of grain but don't use it to support an army, then what's the point of having all that grain?
(End of this chapter)