Knight Lord: Start with Daily Intelligence

After Su Li finished purifying the corrosion on his body, Agriculture Minister Vandar and Animal Husbandry Minister Edmond entered the meeting hall.

These two old druids were brothers and were considered a local legend for not avoiding nepotism.

There was no need to worry about them being corrupt, as they both had idealistic tendencies and grand ambitions.

Agriculture Minister Vandar Oakheart was solely focused on expanding the Church of the Dawn. He dedicated himself wholeheartedly to the great cause of the church. As the agriculture minister of the territory and the patriarch of the Church of the Dawn, he was deeply devoted to the ancient god, Rhea.

The Church of the Dawn believed that various human tribes began to devoutly worship the Dawn Goddess Rhea when they transitioned from nomadic life to settled agriculture. It was said that she brought the secrets of agriculture to humanity. The earliest humans believed Rhea gifted them domesticated grains, tamed animals, and the secrets of cultivation. Out of gratitude, humans revered Rhea in the mysterious stone circles they found on the land. Women responsible for guarding the secrets bestowed by Rhea established a nascent priestly system.

Some scholars believed Rhea was the modern incarnation of a goddess worshiped by the Old Faith. Others believed Rhea was the first civilization god, bringing stability and order to the vagaries of nature.

As more tribes turned to settled life, those most dependent on farming favored Rhea over other native deities.

Even the fiercest warrior kings recognized the need to avoid famine and ensure healthy births. After the Redma Empire was established, Rhea's worship maintained an important position but began to increasingly distance itself from the power centers in the cities. The church was never formalized. While Uric priests, Tar priests, and later Redma priests competed for political power in the new empire, Rhea's church maintained a pragmatic approach, focusing on the eternal care of the land—after all, this had always been Rhea's domain.

Therefore, Vandar was dedicated to expanding Rhea's faith in the countryside and villages of the Black Forest Territory. This was necessary because, although Rhea was deeply loved by the people of the empire, townspeople rarely paid attention to the goddess unless they needed her blessings—such as relieving the stress of childbirth, filling granaries and markets, or ending harsh winters. Female priests would visit larger settlements to care for expectant mothers, but they were not fond of being confined by walls and stones for long.

Rhea's true core belief area was in the villages and farms of the empire's countryside because, in these places, her grace was essential for survival and prosperity. Rural life was considered "cared for by Rhea" for good reason. If you lived in the countryside, she had been with you since birth, watching you grow up, pursue love, marry, and give birth to your own children. Even after your death, she was responsible for handing your soul over to Morr, and, in some legends, hoped that your body would be buried in the earth to support future life in the soil.

With the end of this round of war in the territory, the Church of the Dawn gained a great opportunity for expansion. A large number of villages and farms began to spread out from the towns, and many monasteries and mysterious stone circles of Rhea's church sprang up.

Their church was now in dire need of more nuns of the Dawn Goddess.

Edmond Oakheart was even more radical than Vandar. As an Elven druid, he was not interested in human affairs and beliefs, but focused on developing a forest town suitable for elves to live in. His vision was that as the territory and map of the Black Forest Territory continued to expand, he would find a forest in the vast foothills of the Black Forest, preferably on a tributary of the Brienne River, with a river running through the entire forest. Then, on both sides of the river, in the vast forest, he would build a large number of Elven buildings, where thousands or even thousands of elves could live, recuperate, and trade with humans.

In this regard, he had already achieved some success. The Sacred Forest was his pilot project. The development of this forest had a vigorous vitality, which meant that as long as the territory supported him and enough elves moved in, he could build a larger forest in another vast territory at any time.

If there was an ancient tree of life, the process would be even faster. Even some powerful Elven mages would move here.

But this also meant that there would be some contradictions and disputes in the territory. It was never easy to form a coalition. The resentful dwarves could never forget the hatred of their ancestors. The past of the War of the Longbeards led to elves and dwarves always hating each other.

Perhaps it was easier to reach a trade agreement, but if the Black Forest Territory were to integrate Elven mages and dwarven artillery into an army, they would fight each other before they could fight the enemy.

Even these peaceful druids could not stand the dwarves' violent temper.

So as soon as Vandar entered the meeting hall, deep wrinkles piled up on his wizened old face. He complained in exasperation: "Lord, you really should control these lawless dwarven engineers! They are actually using explosives in Lake Lefflin to open drainage ditches to the northeast. How can this be tolerated? Even the excrement of the ratmen is cleaner than their dirty gunpowder and bodies!"

"Look at what they've done. This explosion poisoned and killed more than 5,000 lake fish! We don't have many fish in our lake to begin with. One explosion like this will bring the ecology close to collapse."

"And when I went to reason with them, they showed no remorse and threw a disgusting, dirty drawing mixed with the smell of alcohol and sweat in my face, saying that after calculation, this would significantly increase the irrigation area of ​​Bjorn Bay below."

"These metal-headed people only know how to calculate. They even arrogantly claimed that we druids are just a bunch of long-eared fools. Without their irrigation canals, the wheat fields wouldn't even be enough to feed goblins. Can the entire ecology of Lake Lefflin be destroyed for the sake of irrigation?"

The old druid's roar shook the dust off the antler crown on his head. Obviously, this round of explosions made him very embarrassed.

Su Li took the parchment scroll from him and spread it out on the conference table. The water diversion route marked by the dwarves with rune gold thread ran through the entire Bjorn Bay, and even advanced towards the Sacred Forest in the northeast and the newly emerging farms in the southeast.

When elves and dwarves are together, they always have a series of disputes due to differences in ideas and tree protection. The last time the elves were so violent was when the dwarves injected alchemical hardening agents into the riverbed while building a canal, causing all the hemlock trees for miles to petrify.

At that time, Edmond almost rode his giant eagle to fight the dwarves. In order to fight against this elite, the dwarven construction team even pulled out a fully armed fire team. The two sides were at war, and it was only thanks to Hilud, the high-ranking chief attendant, who brought a large number of armed attendants to force them apart.

And only a few days later, the conflict shifted to the Minister of Agriculture.

But Su Li really couldn't favor anyone. The Church of the Dawn was his most important helper in developing the territory's farming, but the dwarves' water conservancy construction and industrial production were also indispensable to him.

Moreover, the dwarves' actions were reckless, but after calculation, it was indeed the most efficient solution. After all, after the war, the dwarves suffered heavy losses, and the territory needed to build canals as quickly as possible to irrigate farmland and ensure that the harvest season at the end of the year had more grain output, so as to avoid the territory's food shortage and failure to make ends meet before the summer harvest next year.

They really had no way to carefully excavate bit by bit, and could only rudely blow open a gap to build as quickly as possible.

But fortunately, the territory was already accustomed to these lawsuits between the dwarves and the elves. There would be various conflicts between the real power departments of any territory. For this reason, the Provincial Council and the Court of Justice had set up a special mediation court, so Su Li didn't need to rack his brains to judge who was right and who was wrong.

He was the lord, and it was enough to play the role of a peacemaker and say some comforting words to both parties, so Su Li decisively said: "The dwarves' way of doing things is indeed a bit rude. How can they scold people? I will teach them a lesson. Now, my minister, first tell me about the territory's agricultural development."

Vandar didn't expect Su Li to really severely punish the dwarven engineering masters. After all, although he was angry, he also knew that the development of Bjorn Bay was inseparable from the water conservancy projects built by the dwarven engineering masters.

So Su Li gave him a step, and he immediately took the opportunity to go down the donkey and reported in detail, saying: "Lord, our reclamation effect during this period is remarkable. The focus of the territory's work is still on the restoration of Bjorn Bay. More than 60,000 acres of the territory's most fertile land were ravaged and burned by monsters, but with our full reclamation, we are constantly repairing it."

"Although those grumpy and bad-tempered dwarves speak like goblins farting, the water conservancy projects and flood control dams they built are really useful. The green dragon monsters frantically attacked the dams, but they failed to destroy their alchemical dams. This made the monsters only able to burn the farmland with fire. Although the wheat seedlings and crops were burned, the Dawn Goddess blessed us, and the burned land became more fertile. We quickly reclaimed the farmland and replanted winter wheat."

"Although the territory suffered from the war, the territory is not short of materials for production. On the contrary, without the huge military pressure, the territory is casting swords into plows with all its strength, and the agricultural tools it builds are very abundant. Nearly 2,000 slaves have reclaimed more than 60,000 acres of fertile land in Bjorn Bay in one month, and are continuing to open up new farmland to the east. The ditches built by the dwarves are providing water irrigation for these farmlands."

This situation really satisfied Su Li.

Now the territory's farming is not as constrained as it was at the beginning. There are plenty of serfs and farm tools. With the blessing of the dwarves and halflings, the territory also has a considerable number of professional agricultural machinery. The area cultivated every day far exceeds that of ordinary small-scale farmers.

After all, professional plowing machines and harvesters have already constituted the level of imperial industrial production.

Su Li asked with interest: "How many plowing machines and other industrial equipment do we have now?"

"33 units, Lord." Vandar replied immediately: "The main limiting factor for these agricultural equipment is the number of war rams. You know that it takes 3 war rams to tow a heavy plowing machine, and 2 war rams for a small harvester."

"How is the speed of these devices?" Su Li asked.

"Very fast. A heavy plowing machine can open up more than 40 acres of fertile land in one day. It's not that the speed of the plowing machine is only this much. In fact, if they are allowed to run freely, they can easily run more than 100 acres a day. But the serfs behind them have to clear gravel, level the land, dig out roots, etc., which limits their speed."

That's also very fast!

One machine can cultivate 40 acres a day, and 33 machines can open up more than a thousand acres of fertile land a day, which is more than 400 hectares of fertile land in a month.

Perhaps next year, Su Li will have 4,000 hectares of land. This once envisioned goal is not far away.

Moreover, this is the speed of reclaiming new land. When plowing and sowing next year, the efficiency can be even higher, and cultivating one hectare a day is not a problem!

This means that next year the territory will have more free time to reclaim new land, and these agricultural equipment may also be rented to various villages and farms. In addition to earning considerable wealth, it can also increase the area of ​​various farms.

But this is not the entire farming scale of Bjorn Bay. Vandar continued: "In addition to these halfling equipment, our territory also produces more than 80 sets of Nord heavy plows. So the speed of restoring production is very fast. What we need now is time, to let the serfs take good care of the wheat fields, so as to increase the yield of the harvest season."

Time, this is what the territory lacks the most right now!

After defeating the green dragon, the territory can finally produce with peace of mind.

Su Li was full of expectations for the winter harvest, especially after reactivating the Eye of the Storm, the territory would usher in a period of good weather.

Without severe natural disasters, Bjorn Bay would be guaranteed a good harvest regardless of drought or flood. The next harvest was fully guaranteed!

Su Li then said: "We have found a solution to the war ram problem and will cultivate a batch of rams as soon as possible for next year's expansion. You should organize the Church of the Dawn to produce more production machinery and increase the scale of blood sacrifices."

These two aspects that Su Li said were the focus of the territory's farming next.

In particular, the scale of blood sacrifices on farmland would greatly affect the amount of grain harvested.

Vandar nodded solemnly and said: "Our logging camps have begun to resume production. With the halflings' professional logging machines, we can cut down more than 3,000 trees every day, which is enough for us to build a large number of agricultural machinery while engaging in large-scale construction."

"But there has really been no progress in the blood sacrifice. We have not yet found the whereabouts of the next Bolevik."

The whereabouts of the Father of Grain, Bolevik, probably need Su Li's intelligence to collect.

Su Li did not force them from the Church of the Dawn on this matter and asked: "Then, my minister, how much grain do you estimate we will harvest this harvest season? Will it be enough to support the people of the territory until the next harvest?"

One copper coin per pound of grain is the bottom line that the empire has guaranteed stability for thousands of years.

Once the grain price exceeds this, those bottom-level civilians who have been completely plundered may not have enough to eat, and even their families may go bankrupt and become slaves.

The biggest impact of the Green Dragon's invasion was disrupting the previous farming rhythm of the territory. If the third harvest this year isn't plentiful enough, widespread starvation will occur next spring. Many people won't survive until the summer harvest next year and will starve to death in the chilly spring season.

As the Minister of Agriculture, Vandal was most concerned about this aspect and immediately frowned, replying, "Lord, the situation is not optimistic. Our territory's greatest agricultural asset is undoubtedly the 1,100 hectares of fertile land below Bjorn Bay."

"After our best efforts to salvage the situation, the destroyed farmlands have been replanted with winter wheat, but grain production has inevitably been affected. We estimate that even with buckwheat, peas, cabbage, and radishes, the total grain yield will only be around 20,000 tons."

"That's enough to meet the current scale of the territory, but if the population grows rapidly, famine will inevitably occur."

Suri calculated that the food was indeed enough to eat at the moment, and even if the territory recovered to a population of 6,000, there would still be some surplus.

Suri then asked, "My minister, how can there be a famine? At the previous level, this amount of grain was sufficient."

Vandal sighed, "Lord, you absolutely cannot calculate according to the previous level! Previously, the territory had five to six thousand civilians, slaves, and armed attendants, with only three to four hundred elite knights."

"But now, the territory and the various knight orders and knight order garrisons have nearly a thousand knights. These people are all big eaters; they can eat 2-3 pounds of meat in one meal. If they eat ordinary grains, they need even more. Their daily consumption is astronomical."

This was indeed a problem.

Even the recruit camps of ordinary humans on Earth can exhaust their food allowances.

In training and combat, the consumption of those energetic young men cannot be compared to that of office workers sitting in their offices.

And the knights of this world, as extraordinary bloodlines, are all big eaters, even more capable of consuming than the biggest eaters on Earth.

This is also why the social mobility of this world is very low; it is almost impossible for a commoner family to produce a knight.

Because it takes wealth to cultivate martial prowess, just providing these knights with sufficient food to stimulate their bloodline is enough to overwhelm a not-so-wealthy family.

The meager food reserves of ordinary farmers' families, if a knight is about to awaken their bloodline, it is really the last straw for this family, enough to drag the whole family to collapse and fall to the brink of starvation.

And from squire to formal knight to elite knight, each stage is a hurdle.

Why must knights have their own manors? Because their demand for grain is really huge.

Supplying 1,000 well-equipped, armored, and well-trained elite knights, grain consumption alone is equivalent to 10,000-20,000 infantrymen.

Calculating it this way, the territory's grain is indeed stretched thin, and the territory's farmland must continue to be expanded, at least to more than 1,500 hectares in Bjorn Bay this year.

So, Suri sighed and said, "Grain production is really a long and arduous task! My minister, after hearing what you said, I feel that a grain famine is inevitable."

When he won the war against the Green Dragon, Suri was only happy, after all, so many elite knights emerged, and the territory's military strength had made rapid progress.

But raising such an army is far more difficult than he thought.

Such an elite heavy cavalry not only requires a large amount of grain, but also has very high requirements for the quality of food. If they are given the food that fools civilians and serfs, they will dare to throw it on the ground, then raise their arms and walk out of the camp to protest in front of the Provincial Affairs Office. They might even smash the tables of the Provincial Affairs Office in excitement.

As Vandal said, they must be provided with sufficient, high-quality food, such as cheese, bread, pork sausage, malt wine, vegetable soup, pies, and some roasted meat.

The more Suri thought about it, the more his head hurt, and he said, "My minister, why do I feel like I can't afford to support so many troops?"

Vandal solemnly said, "This is normal, Lord. I have long said that you should talk to Marshal Erlstine about reducing the army. We are just a small pioneering territory, and this year we have to maintain thousands of elite troops, which really exceeds the carrying limit of our territory."

"Marshal Erlstine will not agree to reduce the army. Moreover, it is wise to be prepared for danger, and our land is not peaceful. It is not wise to reduce the army at this time. Do you have any other solutions, my minister?"

Hearing this, Vandal sighed and said, "Then we can only increase the pressure on the Dawn Church. Lord, try to relax. Our territory's wealth is not limited to Bjorn Bay. There are many farms and villages that can also alleviate the territory's grain pressure."

"Moreover, we cannot rely solely on Fangu to supply these elite knights. After this Green Dragon ravaged the land, some of our grains near the Green Dragon have also mutated into [Steel Wheat Seeds]. The stalks grown from these wheat grains have sharp edges and require wearing chainmail to harvest."

"However, these wheats are more durable and have more psionic energy, requiring advanced magic mills to grind them into flour. If they can be made into bread, they can greatly alleviate the knights' hunger and slightly increase their strength in a short period of time, by no less than 20%."

"Unfortunately, we do not currently have such high-level magic mills."

Tsk ~

Suri couldn't help but sigh. The fantasy plants in this world are really strange and varied, always increasing his knowledge.

He never thought that he would have to put chainmail on the serfs to harvest wheat.

But he immediately smiled and said, "The construction of high-level magic mills is no longer a problem. I will help you solve it. You should cultivate these steel wheat seeds well now and strive to increase the planting area next year."