Lord Harland.

August is the harvest season. Although there was a war this year, Harland's territory was not affected by the war, and neither the spring plowing nor the autumn harvest was affected.

This year is considered a normal year, and the grain yield per mu has reached normal levels.

This year, the Harland Territory resumed the cultivation of cultivated land in the Dirham Barony, and also reclaimed a large amount of wasteland.

The combined amount of summer grain and autumn grain, plus the tax and grain paid by the free people, exceeded tons.

Counting the veterans who have participated in the war and made meritorious service in the territory, as well as the families of injured and killed soldiers, there are currently about 30,000 free people in the Harland Territory.

A free citizen is allocated five acres of land, one acres of paddy field and four acres of dry land. According to the tax rate of 270%, he needs to pay kilograms of grain every year.

Converting to silver coins is about three silver coins of tax.

Thirty thousand free citizens, this year's land tax collected about 7500 gold coins.

However, many free people were short of money and had no choice but to hand over public grain. The public grain collected was about 3,000 tons.

These 30,000 free people no longer needed Richard to support them, and there were about 116,000 indentured servants left.

Now the territory of Harland can already provide some meat and fruits, and the elderly and children among the contracted slaves will also dig wild vegetables during the slack season. On average, they are half full, and each person needs to consume catties of food per year.

In the past few years, in order to buy more people, Richard left his indentured servants with an average of only 350 kilograms of food per person per year.

With an average of 350 kilograms of grain and relatively little meat, the indentured slaves could only be in a state of semi-starvation.

In autumn and summer, the elderly and children have to dig wild vegetables in the forest and collect mountain products such as fungus and mushrooms. When the male contract slaves have free time, they have to hunt with traps to make themselves full.

The situation has gotten a little better in the past two years. On average, each indentured slave is provided with four hundred kilograms of grain, plus some fruits, wild vegetables, and a small amount of meat. Coal mines have been discovered in the territory, and a large amount of woolen cloth has been produced. The standard of living has increased a lot, and it is barely enough. Just enough for food and clothing.

The reserved grain and rations for next year will require about 33,000 tons. In addition, 15,000 tons of unexpected grain reserves in the territory will be left behind. Because the liquor market has been lost a lot, the scale of winemaking has been reduced a lot, and only 2,000 tons of grain are needed.

Of the 80,000 tons of grain, 30,000 tons can be sold this year.

Although there was a war this year, because there were no natural disasters, there were relatively few areas affected by the war for spring plowing. In addition, more than 100,000 people were plundered by orcs in Gascoyne Province, and the demand for food in the market was also reduced, so the price of food was on the contrary. It's relatively stable, still two gold coins per meal.

Harland's territory is about kilometers away from Heihe Fort. If there is no river, it will be very difficult to transport tons of grain to Heihe Fort, requiring a lot of manpower and material resources.There is also a need to build roads and set up food storage points along the way, which cannot be afforded by the transportation capacity of Harland's territory.

With water transportation, although 30,000 tons of grain is a lot, it is not difficult to transport it. In total, there are only more than 200 grain transport ships.

The grain ship sailed down the river from Fort William and could reach Black River Fort in two days. The transport fleet in Harland's territory is not small. It has more than thirty transport ships, and it can transport food to Heihe Fort six or seven times.

The transportation of grain lasted for more than twenty days. Richard transported 30,000 tons of grain to Heihe Fort. This year, there were no big buyers in the Heihe Fort grain market. The 30,000 tons of grain could only be sold to the citizens of Heihe Fort.

More than half of the residents of Heihe Fort are the families of soldiers of the Northern Legion, and this part of the population is about .

Northern Legionnaires' salaries are very high, allowing their families to live a prosperous life, and most of their family members do not farm. The food consumed by this part of the population is approximately more than 20,000 tons per year.

In addition, there are a large number of craftsmen, merchants, and grassroots bureaucrats in Heihe Fort. The food digested by the local market exceeds tons per year, and the market size is already considerable.

However, the land in Heihe County is fertile, relying on the irrigation of the Heihe River Basin, it is a relatively important grain-producing area in the three northern provinces, and its grain production is more than that of rich places like the Arab Basin and Wright County.

Every year, the surplus grain produced in Heihe County exceeds tons, and the surplus grain in Luomen County and Wright County is also sold to Black River Fort.The grain market has always been in a situation of oversupply.

Every autumn harvest season, the Duke of Edward, the Duke of Fox, the Duke of Guise and other food-deficient areas will buy grain from Heihe County. Sometimes the Grand Duchy of Stanik will also come to Heihe County to buy grain through the channel of the Fortune Church .

This year, the Duke of Edward has a bumper harvest and has lost a big buyer, making the oversupply of the grain market even worse.It's just that those who sell grain are hereditary nobles. If they can bear it without bargaining, the grain will not fall.

Anyway, the big nobles all have well-conditioned granaries, which can store grain for several years.

The Harland family has a large number of shops in Fort Heihe, including two grain shops, a bakery, and a restaurant.

Normally, these businesses can digest more than 2,000 tons of grain a year. This year, 30,000 tons of grain are unsaleable. It is very difficult to rely on these few stores to sell.

It takes a long time to buy and sell bulk grain, and the time to pay back is also relatively long.

But the market is like this. In the past two years, the Duke of Edward was hit by a disaster, which increased the price of food by %, but it is a small probability.

Grain prices in Heihe County have been stable for decades.

During the disaster last year, when grain merchants wanted to raise prices, the noble council immediately came forward to negotiate with the nobles of Heihe County.

The nobles of Heihe County couldn't withstand the pressure of Duke Edward, and even in a disaster year, food prices didn't go up.

Just when Richard was worried about selling grain, in September, it was his father William who helped him solve this problem.

William found Tarak, the logistics minister of the Northern Army, and sold 10,000 tons of grain to the Northern Army as military rations. The pressure of selling food was relieved a lot.

Because of the large amount of training, soldiers in the army need to supply three catties of grain every day, and they need to consume catties of grain in a year, which is equivalent to two mature men.

The Northern Army has 24,000 soldiers and consumes more than 13,000 tons of food a year.

William was able to win a purchase contract of tons, and the Harland family owed a lot to Tarlac.

After winning the food contract of the Northern Army, William approached Zachary of the Redeemer Army.

Although the Harland family turned against Zachary last year, the most important thing in the relationship between nobles is not face, but interests.No matter what, Zachary is considered William's old officer, and they can talk to each other.

Richard can send food to Iron Lion Castle and Platos Castle, which also saves a lot of money for the nobles behind the Atonement Legion.

He became a food supplier for two armies, and sold tons of food in exchange for gold coins.The remaining tons of grain can only be sold to ordinary citizens and slowly exchanged for money.

In order to sell more grain, Richard converted some of Mrs. Ola's stores into a grain station and expanded it into a chain of grain stores.

The selling price of food has also dropped slightly, and ordinary citizens are very price sensitive. Richard cut the price by one-tenth, which immediately caused a rush among citizens. Before other grain merchants could react, the Harland family's remaining grain was basically sold out.

After negotiating the sale of grain, Li Cha went directly to the Harland Mages Association.

Recently, the Harland Territory Mage Association is manufacturing a magic alchemy furnace.

Heath and Butler are both magicians from the tower of death, a large magic organization.

Although the Tower of Death is an evil necromancer organization, the knowledge of magic that the Tower of Death has mastered is very comprehensive.

Heath has seen magic alchemy furnaces many times, and has also been studying alchemy runes for a while.

Butler is a low-level mage in charge of managing the alchemy furnace. He is very clear about the operation of the alchemy furnace, and he can even repair the magic alchemy furnace.

After driving away the necromancer and capturing the mage tower.

Richard focused on the necromancer's research on blood and soul.

Since last year, the hospitals in Harland's territory have made considerable progress in their grasp of medical knowledge.

Although this year's magic research plan was interrupted by the orc invasion, Sophia still had new magical achievements. She improved and simplified the second-ring magic requiem, and created a new zero-ring spell to appease the soul.

Although the effect of soul appeasement is not as good as Requiem, the requirements for casting spells are much lower, and it is still a good spell for low-level magicians.

Especially the Harland Mage Association, there are many magic apprentices who can learn this spell.

Soul appeasement is a magic to appease the soul, it can be regarded as a healing spell.

Because several magic apprentices learned this spell, Li Cha established a psychiatric department in the hospital, selected a few young doctors with good foundations, and started using magic to treat mental illnesses together with young magicians who learned to soothe the soul.

The Haaland Territory now has a population of hundreds of thousands. Due to the harsh environment in northern Xinjiang, there are about one to two thousand people suffering from various mental illnesses.

These mental patients are all in serious condition. According to the conditions of Harland's territory, mild mental patients will not see a doctor.

Severe mental illness makes these people lose their ability to work.If these people can be cured, the territory can increase a lot of labor force, which is very good for development.

With the establishment of the hospital's psychiatric department, these mental patients have also been treated by doctors. Although there are still few methods to treat mental illness, they mainly rely on soul comfort.

The effect of soul pacification in treating mental illness is good. The power of magic in the treatment of mental illness far exceeds Richard's prediction.

After the invention of soul pacification and the establishment of the psychiatric department, the development of the territorial hospital has accelerated a small step.

After the war ended this year, Butler submitted an application, hoping to apply for a magic core and build an experimental magic alchemy furnace.

From the Tower of Death, Harland Territory obtained some alchemy information, which also involved the alchemy furnace.

The magic alchemy furnace uses the magic core as an energy source, mobilizes the power of mysterious magic runes, can provide higher temperatures, and melt metals with a melting point of more than degrees.

To build a magic alchemy furnace, the materials used are also unusual. Graphite powder is needed to be mixed with mithril powder, and magic bricks are fired first.

Special magic runes must be engraved on the magic bricks.

If Butler hadn't provided the magic brick formula and refining technology, the magicians in Harland's territory would have no idea of ​​the doorway inside.

Even if you want to build a magic alchemy furnace, it will take a long time to refine the magic bricks.

Because of the use of mithril powder, the manufacturing cost of magic bricks is very high.

Just installing a magic alchemy furnace, the magic bricks alone cost four thousand gold coins.

In addition to magic bricks, alchemy furnaces also consume the energy of magic crystals.

The price of magic crystals is very high, and the cost of using an alchemy furnace is not low.

In September, under Butler's guidance, a magical alchemy furnace was successfully built in Harland's territory.

This magic alchemy furnace looks very bulky, about two meters high. There is an ore feeding port on the top of the alchemy furnace and an outlet on the bottom.

In the middle of the magic alchemy furnace, three rows of runes were engraved.

These runes need to be engraved on obsidian, and then the obsidian is carefully polished and inlaid on the furnace body.

Li Cha studied the newly built alchemy furnace and found that the three rows of runes are a fire element gathering circle. The energy provided by the magic crystal can stimulate the power of the fire element gathering circle and increase the temperature of the magic alchemy furnace.

The working principle of the alchemy furnace is actually very simple. The only difficulty is actually the manufacturing process of magic bricks.

The magic bricks added with mithril and engraved with magic runes are a kind of super refractory material. If it weren't for the extremely expensive price, Li Cha would have wanted to use these magic bricks in ordinary crafts.

After the magic alchemy furnace was successfully built, Richard tried to smelt a furnace of blood molten steel.

The melting point of blood steel is more than a hundred degrees higher than that of ordinary steel. In the past, it was very difficult to smelt blood steel in Harland territory.

The yield of alchemy bombs is very low, and the difficulty of smelting blood steel is also a factor.

Now using the magic alchemy furnace to smelt blood steel has immediately become much easier. Although the cost of using magic crystals as energy has increased a lot, it has greatly increased the speed of blood steel smelting.

If there is an emergency, you can use the magic alchemy furnace to speed up the production of alchemy bombs.

After successfully building the magic alchemy furnace, you can also explore and study the alloy process. If you can produce some high-quality alloys, it will be very beneficial to the progress of the process.

"Butler, according to your experience, how many times can this magic alchemy furnace be turned on every day?"

"Master Richard, the effect of the fire element gathering magic array is very good. It can refine a furnace of metal in an hour and a half. Each furnace can refine fifty kilograms of blood steel. However, after three hours of continuous use, it will take ten Cool down for an hour to allow the magic runes engraved on the obsidian to cool down. Otherwise, if the alchemy furnace is used for a long time, the magic runes on the obsidian will burn out. The fire element gathering array engraved on the obsidian is the core of the magic alchemy furnace. Once it is damaged, you need to buy new obsidian and have it engraved with magic runes to repair it.”

Listening to Butler's story, Richard thought to himself: "If you use a magic alchemy furnace to make steel, you can make about four furnaces a day, which is about 200 kilograms. The magic alchemy furnace will consume a first-order magic core in three days. About twenty gold coins.

Calculated this way, the cost of refining steel in a magic alchemy furnace is about twelve copper coins per kilogram. Coupled with the prices of raw materials such as iron ore, it turns out that the high price of steel is due to this reason. It is estimated that the great nobles with magical heritage will use magic alchemy furnaces to refine steel. "

Nowadays, the cost of steel refined in Harland territory has been reduced a lot. Richard calculated this year and found that the cost price of one pound of steel has been reduced to four copper coins. This also includes the wages of steel plant workers, the cost of materials to build the steel plant, the fuel costs of purchasing coal, the transportation costs of coal, ore and steel, and other miscellaneous expenses.

It seems that the magic alchemy furnace used to make steel cannot compete with the earthen blast furnace.