Castle of Black Iron

“How many official fields in total in Huanzhou Province, Kangzhou Province, Ningzhou Province and Military Province?” Zhang Tie asked as he drank in the banquet hall.

“There are 13.8 billion mu official fields in the 4 provinces!”

“As many commoners and major clans have been evacuating from the 4 provinces since the second half of last year, isn’t the farming of the official fields influenced?”

“Since demons started to invade us, one batch of people have been evacuated from the 4 provinces. Some fields indeed became deserted in the second half of last year. The land prices in the 4 provinces are also plummeting. However, all the official fields in the 4 provinces are taken over by border residents of Taixia Country. Those border residents don’t have the right to migrate casually; therefore, the farming of official fields is not influenced!” Lu Yanyu answered fluently.

Half of the dinner held by the Peacewest Agricultural Administration for Zhang Tie had passed while the fluorite lamps in the lobby were gradually lit. When Zhang Tie had dinner with them, he didn’t put on airs at all. They just toasted each other. Starting from the main officials of the Peacewest Agricultural Administration, all the Weiji envoys proposed a toast to Zhang Tie by turns. Zhang Tie accepted them all. After having the toast proposer report his name and official rank, he would have a drink with each of them. Therefore, Zhang Tie had drunk kilos of liquor in a short period although using a small cup. After seeing their Weiji General having such a great drinking capacity, the dining hall became fervent while all the Weiji envoys finally became reassured.

After having kilos of liquor, Zhang Tie’s face turned redder while his eyes turned brighter. However, he didn’t look like being drunk at all. He then started to inquire about public affairs when it gradually turned quiet in the dining hall. Only Zhang Tie was talking with Lu Yanyu in the dining hall. All the other Weiji envoys were just listening to their talk quietly in their own seats.

“How do you dispose of the deserted fields?”

“A part of deserted fields are for sale. The others are allocated to the commoners who’re still staying in the theater of operations by the agricultural authorities across the Peacewest Military Region according to the decrees in the theater of operations. When there’s not enough labor force, only by inputting more agricultural machines into fields so that people could manage more fields has the agricultural authorities across the military region solved the problem of the greater part of deserted lands.”

“Have these provinces suffered from a crop failure last year?”

“Yup, many official and private fields in Huanzhou Province, Kangzhou Province, Ningzhou Province and Military Province suffered a crop failure last year, causing a panic in the area!”

“How do we solve the supply of grain seeds this year?”

“This year, all the grain seeds for the official fields in these provinces are directly allocated by the Imperial Land Bureau from other provinces through airboats and airships. We could sow them in the spring. We won’t use the grains storage in the 6 top warehouses in each city!”

After hearing that, Zhang Tie finally became reassured. As long as the grain seeds in the 4 provinces were safe, he would not worry about anything else.

He was worried about the grains supply within the 4 provinces. Even though he had Castle of Black Iron, the grains storage in Castle of Black Iron was far from meeting the demand of the over 10 billion mu land in the 4 provinces. If the grain seeds in the 4 provinces met any problem, the garrisons in these provinces would not have food timely. By then, even Weiji General couldn’t deal with it. If grains were transported here from other provinces, the enormous freight, materials consumption and human resources would be a problem. They couldn’t even have enough food, not to mention fighting demons. No matter what, the corps of Taixia Country couldn’t eat human fleshes like demons.

Thankfully, Xuanyuan Hill also realized the severe outcome if there was any problem with the grains in Peacewest Military Region at this critical moment. Therefore, the Imperial Land Bureau was responsible for solving the deficiency of grains in the 4 provinces.

The grains produced by the Imperial Land Bureau were the best in Taixia Country. All of them were basically provided for the imperial households and the dignitaries in Xuanyuan Hill. Additionally, the agricultural base of Imperial Land Bureau was under strict administration. Each link was under strict control. Neither they would purchase grain seeds from outside nor allow the demonized grains to flow in their fields. Therefore, the grains under the direct control of the Imperial Land Bureau would be the last unsafe grains across Taixia Country when the country was facing grains disaster as a whole.

As all the items provided by the Imperial Land Bureau were privileged. Many people might abhor privilege the moment they heard it. However, privilege might play a great role in some cases instead of being always bad.

“But…”

After finding that Zhang Tie became reassured, Lu Yanyu slightly revealed a worried look after hesitating for a second…

“But what?”

“But the grains provided by the Imperial Land Bureau could only meet the demand of 13.8 billion mu official fields in the 4 provinces this year. After this year, the Imperial Land Bureau would not allocate any more grain seeds to us. We have to deal with it ourselves!”

“Won’t we solve it with enough grain seeds?” Zhang Tie fiddled with his cup as he asked Lu Yanyu while slightly squinting his eyes.

Gritting his teeth, Lu Yanyu replied, “The grain seeds provided by the Imperial Land Bureau should be safe. However, many official fields in the 4 provinces had suffered a crop failure last year; the soil over there had been destroyed by demonized grain seeds and tend to harden. We’re having big trouble in recovering the fertility of the soil. None of the Weiji envoys in Peacewest Military Region could guarantee a bumper harvest in the official fields this year. It’s not that this humble official is afraid of difficulty and adversity; it’s actually a problem facing all the Weiji envoys in the 4 provinces. They’re all very worried about the yield next year. We expect to notice the general in advance!”

After hearing Lu Yanyu’s words, all the Weiji envoys at present nodded inside with a worried look. Lu Yanyu’s words were what they wanted to say too. If there was any problem with the grains production this year, the grains supply of the army would be influenced; by then, many people’s heads would be chopped off.

Zhang Tie was also clear why commander-in-chief insisted on appointing him the Weiji General; because the grains harvest of the official fields in the 4 provinces determined the stability of the entire theater of operations. They were not allowed to make any mistakes regarding grains production. As long as the 4 provinces suffered a crop failure once again, even the Imperial Land Bureau would be unable to help them. The Imperial Land Bureau must have thought twice before providing them such a large quantity of grains. They would barely assist them for another time as they didn’t have such a regular grains storage even as the Imperial Land Bureau.

Therefore, the principal task of the Weiji envoys in the theater of operations this year was to guarantee the production of grains in the 4 provinces.