Pioneer Lord: Starting From Daily Intelligence

Chapter 494: Chapter 4: The Necessity of First Night Rights and Extraordinary Grass

The Beaver Clan requests the right to build a dam at Holy Land Reiflin Lake in the Hesse Territory, with an important condition being the construction of several High Tier magic mills for the territory. These mills can grind the Extraordinary Grains that ordinary animal-powered mills and water mills cannot.

The location of these High Tier mills is very suitable. Just below the dam is the most important agricultural planting area of the Hesse Territory, Jorn Shallow Bay. The territory’s first canal, irrigation ditches, and large tracts of fertile fields are all located here. It’s very convenient to send the Steel Wheat Seeds over to be ground into flour.

The bread made from these Steel Wheat Seeds provides a power and defense boost for the knights. Although it only lasts for a period of time, about four hours, it can be considered a permanent effect. After all, it’s only a few hours between meals, and before a battle, the lord will surely feast the soldiers. It perfectly covers the time when the warriors are fighting.

The only problem is that the Steel Wheat stalks have too many sharp blades, requiring chain armor to harvest them. This is actually a very risky thing, not for the slaves, but for the entire territory!

Equipping hundreds or thousands of serfs with chain armor, with sharp sickles in their hands, the implications are self-evident!

So many armed slaves, should they get a wild idea, like learning to call foxes at night or digging up some strange Divine Spirit Holy Statue, these strong slaves would certainly be more inclined to rebel and loot than remain oppressed.

Come harvest season, the territory may need to gather the Knight Legion and station them beside the Holy Land to monitor them.

After all, holding weapons breeds thoughts of murder, while the throat remains courteous to sharp instruments.

Hundreds of serfs in chain armor, facing several hundred elite knights in plate armor, the gap is no less than the difference between commoners in hemp clothes facing fully armed elite armored warriors.

This is also the reason he maintains such a large army, 1,000 elite knights, whose rations alone are equivalent to 10,000 Armed Attendants.

But facts have proven, his understanding of the territory’s grain crisis is still too simplistic, for just after he solved Vandar’s problem, Edmond dealt him a blow without mercy.

”Lord, I think you and the Minister of Agriculture have both seriously overlooked an issue. The territory’s grain consumption isn’t just for soldiers and the common folk. In fact, feeding livestock and warhorses is also a significant expense. Humans eat, horses chew, and the consumption of horse affairs is no less than that of humans.”

Don’t ask why the territory needs to maintain livestock, in difficult circumstances, the knights can still be somewhat rugged with their meals, after all, humans can be used as gray livestock, their willpower and endurance surpassing most creatures.

But the griffins’ feed is truly non-negotiable. At the very least, they must eat chicken, feeding them pork is like giving humans rotten meat, though not inedible, they deeply resent it.

To supply so much meat to the knights, a vast amount of grain must inevitably be consumed.

There’s no avoiding this, but fortunately, there are ways to mitigate it, Su Li said, ”For horse and sheep herding, don’t use grains. Collect more grass instead! If you lack manpower, you can tax the commoners, making them provide the territory with 100 catties of fodder each year.”

Fodder is just grass used for feeding livestock.

A sovereign army always has the populace vying to deliver firewood and fodder to support them. It’s similar to the scenario of offering rice and glaze.

If the tax system were advanced enough, then basically all agrarian society’s commons would bear the burden of the fodder tax.

However, the Empire’s tax system in this world is rather sloppy, there is no differentiated tax, crudely imposing the Nineteen Taxes, leaving farmers with little more than basic provisions.

The standard of living for the peasants depends entirely on the lord’s virtue and how much tax relief is granted to them.

Su Li believes that granting ordinary peasants an additional 10% tax reduction in exchange for 100 catties of fodder per person seems like a benevolent policy. It’s an opportunity to further his own virtue.

Of course, the Provincial Affairs Council might not support this idea. The Iron-blood Chancellor Oliver is extremely resistant to any notion of tax reduction.

Last tax reporting day, this Chancellor had a heated conflict with Su Li and Vandar.

He considered Su Li’s tax reduction policy for the serfs by as much as 30% very unwise, and out of respect for Su Li’s position, he maintained a degree of respect.

But he wasn’t so polite towards the Dawn Church’s mercy and generosity, directly slamming his gauntlet on the conference table, causing sparks to fly from the forceful impact.

Then he looked down coldly at Vandar and questioned, ”Mercy? Is your brain being nibbled by fleas from those mud-diggers? The Empire’s laws have always been etched on a knight’s blade! Serfs are born to lubricate the lord’s chariot wheels with their flesh and blood.”

”The Nineteen Taxes are the sacrament bestowed by Redema upon the nobility. You should recommend those worms be even more grateful that they have encountered a virtuous lord. Just last year, when the Leonis Knight Order suppressed a revolt in the Empire’s south, they fertilized the vineyards with the intestines of 20% of the rebels!”

Do not be fooled, although the Minister of Agriculture Vandar dares to quarrel and argue with the irascible dwarves without reservation, against the powerful aura of this Iron-blood Chancellor, they haven’t the slightest courage to retort. After all, he is a powerful bureaucratic Divine Chosen.

So Vandar completely avoids Oliver, fearing his benevolent policies might be cut down with a single argument.

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