Lord Harland

Chapter 84 Territory Expansion
But to develop the brown sugar plantation to that extent, it will take at least ten years of operation, which is also a long-term task for the territory.

Now there are only 26 brown sugar trees and hundreds of saplings in the brown sugar plantation, and the brown sugar squeezed out this year is only a few hundred catties.

The big and small families in the Baron's Mansion consume more than 100 catties in total.

Most of Richard's remaining brown sugar is going to be supplied to the army to improve the living conditions of the soldiers.The remaining bit of brown sugar was reserved for the civil officials of the territory.

In the current situation in northern Xinjiang, low-level bureaucrats with civilian positions are indeed not treated as well as soldiers who lick their blood with knives.

This brown sugar territory has been digested internally, and a large amount of gold coins will not be exchanged within a year or two. It is estimated that it will take more than ten years to make brown sugar an important source of income for the territory.

Li Cha made a cup of brown sugar water for Sophia, and sat comfortably on the recliner.

Today's sunshine was very warm, Sophia lay lazily in his arms, enjoying the peaceful time, Richard was unwilling to move for a long time.

After coming to Chenxi Continent for ten years, Li Cha finally brought some changes to Chenxi Continent.

If the sugar industry can develop, Li Cha can proudly tell others that he is the father of the sugar industry in Chenxi Mainland.

If he lived in a peaceful environment, Li Cha might get the reputation of Baron Brown Sugar.

It's a pity that in the northern border of the Grant Kingdom, even the upper-class nobles will face cruel competition.

Just near the territory of Harland, the Stopa family was almost wiped out in the last orc war. Most of Sophia's relatives died at the hands of the orcs, and the people were all snatched away by Baron Harden. The territory that had been operated for decades was reduced to ruins.

In this orc war, Baron Dirham became unlucky.Members of the baron family were massacred by orcs, and the people were annexed by the Harland family.

The old baron had only been dead for two years, and the chosen heir was not good, and problems immediately occurred in the territory.

If no one in the Dirham family is willing to take over the mess, they may be expelled and lose their status as nobles.

Through the gossip, Li Cha heard that the Dirham family had selected an unlucky guy by lottery to become the next Baron Dirham.Those who did not win the lottery took out a lot of gold coins and managed the territory together, trying to maintain their noble status as much as possible.

Last year, the weather was basically smooth, the harvest in the territory was very good, and a large amount of grain was stored.In addition, Li Cha made war fortune and obtained the food accumulated by the Dirham family for three years, which amounted to as many as [-] tons.

Counting the territory of the Stopa family, the food resources that Li Cha can control reached [-] tons.

Even if more than 1 people poured into the territory, food security can basically be guaranteed.

In the spring of 3256 in the morning calendar, Richard will arrange for 2000 people to move into the Stopa Territory to grow food.

The Stopa Territory has been in operation for decades, and a large amount of farmland has been reclaimed. Although a lot of it has been abandoned in the past few days, it is not too difficult to restore it.

Among the three territories, the Stopa collar has the most plains, and more than [-] hectares of paddy fields have been cultivated.If the dry land in the territory is reclaimed, the area will reach more than [-] hectares.

With the development of this territory, the Stopa Territory can feed 10 people by growing food.

3000 people entered the Stopa territory, and even the previously reclaimed farmland and the villages they lived in could not be restored.

In order to restore the food production in the territory that has not been destroyed by the orcs, it is necessary to increase the population by 2000 to resume farming.

The population controlled by Li Cha is about 5000 people.

Now the Stopa Territory has the largest population, with as many as 6000 people, and most of its vitality has recovered.

The positioning of the territory is mainly based on agriculture, and the population is almost all farmers.

William led two reclamation camps, forming two large-scale villages.Camp No. [-] is the largest, and it was named Rhinoceros Village because of the discovery of rhinoceros.

Near Xijiao Village, [-] hectares of paddy fields have been reclaimed. The farthest farmland is three kilometers away from the village. There are [-] people living in the village.

Counting the old and the weak, each person has an average of five acres of land.

A strong working family needs to cultivate about [-] acres of farmland, and the labor intensity is already relatively heavy.

This year is the fourth year of farming for the indentured slaves, and in the spring of the following year, they will become freedmen.

After regaining freedom and planting [-] acres of land, Li Cha's taxation is lighter than other lords, so there should be no doubt about ordinary people's food and clothing.

Camp No. 1000 has a population of about [-] people, and [-] hectares of paddy fields have been reclaimed.

In addition, hundreds of people live in the Bobby Brick Kiln Factory, and hundreds of people live in other lime kilns and wood distillation kilns.

On the contrary, Fort William was stationed by soldiers and their relatives.

There are less than 6000 people living in William's Territory.

Li Chaling is still barren, 3000 people are still building Sophia Fort, and the remaining hundreds of people will start planting brown sugar trees after spring.

As the Sophia Fort is slowly built, the scale of brown sugar plantation will also increase, which can just digest this part of the population.

The remaining part can continue to be invested in land reclamation and planting.

In recent years, most of Harland's bulk supplies have become self-sufficient.

The only bulk materials that need to be purchased every year are cloth, plus some small commodities.

Although it is still in a state of net investment, the income and expenditure are gradually returning to balance.

If the rich food in Harland's territory is sold, the income will be far greater than the expenditure, and three thousand gold coins can be harvested every year.

The income of three thousand gold coins is not enough to pay the soldiers according to the standard of the main army.

Fortunately, the soldiers in the territory of Harland are all slave soldiers, and only those who have done meritorious service can be restored to the status of free citizens.

After this battle, almost all the soldiers of the two main squadrons were freed. Although their salary was only half of that of the main army for the time being, including the officers of the two squadrons, they still needed 2400 gold coins per year.

If you can't increase your financial resources, the pressure on the territory is actually very heavy.

Sophia's territory is slightly better, with only one squadron of soldiers.

The soldiers of this squadron also participated in the war, and almost all soldiers became freemen.

It takes 1200 gold coins to raise an army.

The income of Stopa Territory is also higher than that of William Territory, and the surplus grain can be sold for [-] gold coins. The production of Zitoufeng honey has also begun to increase, and the financial pressure is relatively light.

Now the surplus grain in the territory, Li Cha is not going to sell, so he can only continue to invest money.

Fortunately, during last year's war, Richard and Sophia made war fortunes, and received 12000 gold coins in cash from Malte Castle alone.

After that, the two led troops and followed the main army to attack the orc tribes and seized some gold coins. Both of them got a dividend from the sale of orc slaves by the northern army.

Excluding the rewards given to soldiers and officers, the two still had [-] gold coins in their hands.

The [-] gold coins can support the army for three years without expanding the army.

However, new territories have been added, and military expansion is imperative.

The new squadron commanded by Soros was the first to complete its formation, and its designation was the third squadron.

There are only a small number of free citizens in this squadron, and most of them are slave soldiers. The pressure to support the army is not too great, and it only needs four hundred gold coins a year.

In addition, Richard also selected 150 strong slaves to form the fourth squadron.

This squadron is completely a slave army. The equipment is very poor for the time being. There is basically no armor. The weapons are mainly wooden spears. Apart from food, there is not much cost to raise the army.

Today, the Harland family has trained five squadrons of soldiers, with a total of 800 soldiers.

These [-] soldiers need [-] gold coins a year in military pay, plus food, clothing, weapons and equipment, and [-] gold coins a year.

According to the income of Harland's territory, he could barely afford it.Throttling is no longer possible, and open source is imperative.

After expanding the army, Li Cha is also planning to continue buying a batch of slaves to speed up the development of the territory.

Richard does not plan to pay off the 4000 gold coin debt owed by the Harland family for the time being.

(End of this chapter)