Black Iron Crown

The autumn harvest is in full swing, and snowflakes swirl like goose feathers in the northern region in November and fall from the sky.

Thick ice crystals hung on the tall branches, and the few snow on the ground made it clear that there was not much time left until the severe winter. The sound of the strong wind whistling was like the howling of a demon, which made people feel cold from the bottom of their hearts.

The farmers harvesting grain in the fields wore animal skins or many layers of linen clothes to resist the biting cold wind.

However, even so, their body temperature is still continuously lost, their noses flow passively, and they are shivering and working hard in this field.

This is a problem that every person in the northern border must face. The winter in the northern border actually begins in November and December, and lasts until May and June. It is winter for half a year.

The days when the grain is ripe often become extremely cold, and they have to endure the bad weather to harvest the grain.

But in order to fill their stomachs, they have no choice.

On December 20th, the 23rd year of the empire, the entire northern border seemed to be enchanted with ice and snow, and the whole world became frozen and covered in snow.

With crystal clear ice crystals and snow on the dead branches, it looks very beautiful at a glance.

Before that, the residents finally harvested all the food and handed over the tax and food that needed to be paid to Rainer.

This is a huge number. Leiner gathered all the officials together to make some statistics. After investigating the grain production of each village, he calculated the amount of grain collected by Leiner.

In the end, it turned out that there were no mistakes.

The total grain output of the entire northern border this year is about 250,000 tons, and the grain Leiner gets is collected at 40% of the tax. Except for some families of military families who died in war and active military families who have reduced taxes, Leiner draws The tax that comes out is about 100,000 tons.

Needless to say, Reiner's mood when he got this number at the beginning, it was a total of 100,000 tons of grain, what a huge number!

But he hadn't been happy for a few days before he realized it.

After all, 100,000 tons is not much!

These grains do sound a lot, but in reality?

170,000 people in my own hands produced 250,000 tons,

In fact, on average, the grain per person per year is less than one ton!

And the grain collected by himself is indeed a lot, but the actual value produced is not very high.

First of all, we have to get rid of the food we eat. Based on one kilogram per person per day, the 2,000 regular soldiers, 300 sergeants, and other soldiers who are training need 2,800 kilograms of food every day. Just the daily consumption of the army.

This has been reduced because the soldiers have to eat more vegetables and meat and milk, otherwise the food consumption will be more

In addition, besides copper and silver coins, Reiner will also give each soldier 15 kilograms of food per month. Two thousand tons of grain.

Salaries and food for the male and female servants of the castle, salaries and food for the officers, food supplies for the slaves, wages and food supplies for absenteeism, and many others employed by Rainer, etc., light At least 10,000 tons of food were eaten.

In addition to these, this grain has to be sold to the south for money, supplying those areas that do not grow agricultural plants but grow cash crops.

According to the price before the war, the 100,000 tons of grain is about 10,000 gold coins.

This is the North! Such a large territory occupies one-eighth of the empire, and a dozen places as large as Henan Province produce only so little food!

Rainer clearly remembers... the grain output of each province in the Celestial Dynasty started from tens of millions of tons...

After he figured out this joint, Reiner was not as happy as he was at the beginning.

But after thinking about it, I figured it out. In this era, technology is backward, there are no chemical fertilizers or pesticides, and low production is normal.

Compared with the grain output of the entire empire, the northern border has already accounted for one-tenth due to a slight increase in yield per mu and a substantial increase in cultivated land.

It is more than enough to feed 700,000 to 800,000 people.

Since the grain didn't get a lot of benefits, Leiner simply gave up the idea of ​​transporting all the grain to the south for sale.

What's more, in recent years, it has been an eventful time. Antiques in prosperous times and gold in troubled times, there is only one hard commodity in this era, and that is food!

Just like the Celestial Dynasty in the previous life, if you have food, you will have soldiers, and if you have soldiers, you will be the grass head king!

Leiner directly stored all the food. Didn't the chamber of commerce want to do business with him? He might as well do a personal transaction with him.

What's more, civil strife has already occurred in the empire, and with the spread of the war, the refugees are not everywhere?

When I spend a few years to increase the population in my hands to three or four million, who do I have to be afraid of?

If someone who doesn't know how to live or die still provokes himself, at worst, don't do business and directly farm the society to kill you, just maintain the basic life.

Bartering, salary and so on will be paid with food, and I still can't believe that I can't afford to overwhelm you with an army of tens of thousands of people!

On January 5th, the twenty-fourth year of the empire, the bitter cold wind was blowing, like countless ghosts and ghosts crying and howling in this dark world.

The sky and the earth were dark and vast, and large flakes of fine snow foam flew around with the strong wind. It was already hard to tell whether it was the snowflakes that fell from the sky or the snow that was blown up from the ground by the strong wind.

The residents were roasting fires in their homes, and soup was gurgling in clay pots hanging from the fire. The benevolent Earl allowed the residents under his rule to collect branches from the forest as firewood.

So this winter is extremely warm, and no one has died of freezing.

Reiner stood lazily lying on the special sofa in the middle of the room, comfortably flipping through the knight novel in his hand, while two little maids massaged his legs on both sides of the sofa.

The burning flame in the fireplace made the whole room flickering. Although the burning of the fireplace caused some smoke and fire, it made the whole room extremely warm.

With the windows closed, the cold wind outside could no longer invade Reiner's room, and he could even walk in the room wearing a loose nightgown.

Suddenly, Baron Corder pushed open the door and walked into Reiner's room.

With a solemn face, he handed a document to Reiner, and after dismissing the two maids, he said: "The savages on the grassland have suffered heavy losses due to this year's snow disaster, and they have gathered a huge team to march towards our territory. We can plunder enough food for the winter!"

After listening to Baron Corder's words, Reiner threw the document in his hand on the ground, and stood up from the sofa in annoyance.

"Fuck...why do we have to fight every winter! The Klades stopped, and the prairie people came again!" Leiner never tires of these bandits.

"Why do they come to plunder us every time? Are we weak? They come every time, every time the Klade people leave and the prairie people come again!" Reiner said angrily, dizzy and dizzy .