Chapter 78: Chapter 20: Developing the Farming District of Jorn Shallow Bay
When Lauren tossed the Magic Tide Clam, the size of a millstone, into the reservoir, Su Li felt as if the entire lake water had become clearer, revealing two Light-Scaled Fish joyfully swimming below the surface.
Though they hadn’t reproduced, they seemed to have grown larger, even fatter than the big fat fish in Baotu Spring, with enormous mouths devouring the tiny bits of algae, aquatic plants, snails, and insects in the water. Su Li felt that its mouth could almost swallow his fist.
Their sensitivity to energy was quite acute, constantly trying to approach the position of the Magic Pearl with their mouths, joyfully swimming around the Magic Tide Clam.
At this moment, the Magic Tide Clam, feeling its freedom restored, finally stopped tightly shutting its shell and, cheerfully swimming towards the depths of the reservoir, opened its clam shell.
Seeing its open shell and the fresh, tender clam meat inside, Su Li instantly understood why there was a legend about the Clam Girl; it really looked like that, the ancients must have witnessed this scene.
Su Li couldn’t help but smile, in a good mood, turning to ask Lauren, "Was the collection of this Magic Tide Clam smooth?"
Lauren smiled and nodded, saying, "Very smooth. Thanks to the Lord’s precise orders, as soon as the Sea Women went into the water, they saw this gigantic clam and worked together to fish it up. They pulled on the hemp rope simultaneously, and the fishermen on the boat thought they had encountered some danger underwater. But in the end, everything went without a hitch; no one was injured, and we successfully brought back this gigantic clam."
This result was even more perfect than Su Li had anticipated! Before starting, both he and the Minister of the Seal, Lauren, thought that a few Sea Women might die underwater. The Territory was indeed prepared to do whatever it took.
And right now, having no casualties is the best possible outcome.
Su Li continued walking alongside the reservoir, asking, "How many fish are in the reservoir now, roughly?"
Vandar, following behind Su Li, immediately replied, "Our fishermen have had rich catches six times, accumulating over four thousand fish released into the reservoir. Calculating that each fish weighs about three to four pounds, there are over ten thousand pounds of fish meat."
This is all food reserve. As the territory’s population and slaves increase, the future consumption of food will become larger and larger.
Today and tomorrow, there will be an increase in the number of slaves. One hundred additional slaves will consume 6000 pounds of food in a month, and two hundred slaves will be enough to consume all this fish meat.
There’s no choice; the territory doesn’t have a large amount of grain right now. Slaves are eating the meat caught through hunting and picking berries.
In other territories, if slaves eat 7.5 pounds of meat a month, that’s because the Lord is rather generous.
And in Hesse Territory, if a slave can eat 7.5 pounds of grain and vegetables a month, that’s already rare.
This actually isn’t a good dietary ratio; the various fibers contained in plants are something humans and animals cannot generate themselves. So a person can live only eating coarse grains and vegetables, but cannot survive by eating only meat. If no plant fibers are supplemented for a week, basically, this body will have problems. So even cats and tigers sometimes eat grass.
The slaves in Hesse Territory also dig wild grass to eat and boil wild vegetable soup aside from eating meat.
Currently, it seems that slaves can maintain their essential needs with a mix of wild vegetables and hunting.
But Su Li didn’t let his guard down, instructing Lauren: "With food in hand, worries are averted. Let the Ogre Engineering Team continue expanding this reservoir, as this concerns our fishery and agriculture. You can first dig a new reservoir next to this one for water storage. And once it’s built, carve a gap through the land in the middle of the reservoir."
Lauren promptly agreed, saying, "We’ve already been preparing for this. We plan to connect this area with a shallow bay in the northeast for reclamation. If it goes smoothly, we can quickly increase the irrigated area of the reservoir to several tens of Imperial miles."
"Take me to see it," Su Li said, immediately interested upon hearing about such a large project.
Building waterworks, constructing dams for water storage, reclaiming and cultivating land—this is the gene in Su Li’s bones.
Just the thought of being able to build a large-scale water project to irrigate tens or hundreds of acres of fertile land filled him with zeal, a stark contrast to the dreary feeling of going to work as if going to a grave.
Lauren immediately had an attendant bring a horse, leading Su Li eastward at full speed for four or five miles.
By now, they had left the vicinity of the already cultivated farmlands and departed from the abandoned embankments built by the previous Lord, arriving ahead at a grassland shallow bay, where a vast amount of wetland was submerged in a state of waterlogging.
In fact, this is the norm for grasslands. Without reclaimed farmlands, many areas have large marshes and shoals. Moreover, while the grasslands might appear flat from a distance, up close, they actually have numerous undulating mounds and lowlands.
Lauren pointed to the shoal ahead and said, "Lord, this is the area that the former lord did not have time to develop. Although it currently has a lot of silt and marsh, it’s actually the most suitable area for us to cultivate next."
"I discussed with the Minister of Agriculture, and we plan to build a dam at the higher part of the shoal to form a reservoir. Then we will set up drainage ditches in these lower shoals below the dam to eliminate water accumulation, just in time to drain the water during summer, making the land suitable for farming. The reservoir formed above the dam can store rainwater and snowmelt for irrigation during the dry season."
Su Li nodded slightly. In fact, during this month since he took office, the development has been so smooth, largely benefiting from the legacy of the previous lord.
The previous lord had built a hydraulic facility east of the farmland, with embankments blocking the rainwater spreading from the shoal during the rainy season.
If it weren’t for this embankment, the 1,200 mu of farmland he painstakingly planted would have been directly submerged by the floodwaters of the rainy season.
However, the area reclaimed by the previous lord’s enclosed fields had almost been fully developed by Su Li. To continue expanding the arable land, he would need a spirit of exploration and innovation.
Su Li was very pleased with Lauren and Vandar’s plan, saying, "Your adaptive measure is very commendable. Then let’s proceed as planned. We will first build a dam at the higher part of the shoal and expand the area of the reservoir. It’s already late spring, and the summer rainy season is approaching. If we don’t store water, let alone new land reclamation, even our well-planted fields might be destroyed."
Most of the water conservancy facilities of the former lord were basically destroyed. Instead of repairing that small embankment, Su Li preferred to take advantage of the transition between spring and summer to build a larger embankment, creating an area of good fields spanning dozens of miles.
The Lord has great ambitions to support his enterprise, and Lauren was naturally excited, but he couldn’t help frowning slightly, saying, "But there’s a problem with this project, which is that our construction personnel are quite lacking, both in experienced dwarf engineers and a large number of ogre workers. If we could have a construction team of a hundred ogres, that would be equivalent to at least one or two thousand human workers."
This is indeed a problem. Su Li pondered for a moment and said, "Let’s proceed with the project as you planned. Since we’re going to do it, let’s do it ambitiously, to achieve a grand feat. Let’s not be penny-wise and pound-foolish, expanding and modifying the project before it’s even finished. I’ll find a way to solve the manpower issue."
Just as he was speaking, a Knight rode up and reported to Su Li, "Lord, Knight Frederick has asked me to share the good news. He successfully destroyed a goblin camp below Moonlight Highlands, capturing 23 prisoners including dwarves, half-elves, and human women. Additionally, we have successfully located the Shepherd Tribe. They have submitted to our overwhelming strength and are willing to become your loyal subjects. We found 35 nomads in their tribe, along with 3 breeding horses and over 200 sheep."
Su Li immediately smiled, "Isn’t this the manpower we needed for labor?"
The addition of various bandits, prisoners, and shepherds today has increased the population of the territory by over a hundred!
If you include the population from the half-elven territory and Wolfgang Farm, Hesse Territory’s population now exceeds 600 people.
This has expanded the scale by three times from the 50 Knights and a squadron of armed attendants that Su Li started with.
Although the pressure on food supply has increased considerably—600 people doing nothing in a day still consume 3,000 pounds of food—the speed of territorial development will certainly accelerate.
Su Li thus said to Lauren, "Let the shepherds primarily handle the work of the meadow. All other manpower, except for necessary tasks, should be devoted to farming and water conservancy. I expect that by summer, this embankment and reservoir can achieve preliminary formation."
The focus of the territory’s work was laid out, and for the following week, the territory advanced toward this direction in an orderly manner.
With the increase in slave manpower, the construction of the hydraulic engineering dam progressed visibly by the day, extending longer.
The additional slave manpower mainly came from the bandit groups in the forest. Over seven days, four bandit groups entered the domain of Hesse Territory, were found by Su Li, and were successfully defeated.
According to captured confessions, the forest is now very unsettled. Besides the frenzied Centaur Tribe raging everywhere, the powerful Goblin Broken Toe Tribe is also rising. The outer area on the west side of Blood Pine Forest is in turmoil.
The bandit groups have already drifted out, wanting to launch a wave of looting during the rainy season. It’s said that an unlucky territory has already had its castle breached by a bandit group. A Pioneer Lord with only a few Knights and a dozen attendants could easily fall victim to an ambush by these bandit groups, each with several dozen members.
Of course, with the assistance of the daily intelligence system, this looting by the bandit groups became the greatest opportunity for the growth of Hesse Territory.
These four bandit groups, the largest with over seventy members and the smallest with over twenty, resulted in nearly fifty being killed, while the remaining over 150 bandits all became Su Li’s captives.
This not only increased the number of his slaves but also greatly enhanced his military strength.
Because he obtained three formal Knights, five Apprentice Knights, and an Elite Knight named Beast Slayer Jerald among them!