Chapter 383: Great Harvest and the Envoy from Jinhe Township

Jinhe Township, Heishanbao.

In the open space near Black Mountain Castle, carriages loaded with gold, silver and spices were parked.

These intricate carvings and artworks that originally symbolized aristocratic and religious status were all torn down by the Salvation Army, packed up, and waiting to be shipped to the dock.

The merchants and citizens who had been waiting there for a long time held bonds in one hand and took the goods in the other. They did not leave until the waterline reached the limit of the cargo ship, scolding the sailors and servants.

The original artisan settlement near Black Mountain Castle has been completely occupied by wizards led by Pasrick and the ordnance monks of the Salvation Army.

Amid the sound of tinkling, a large number of precious crystal products were broken into pieces and turned into grains of electric gold used in war.

The production of this electric gold is equally peculiar. It requires the use of a material called golden wool, which is not only a fine textile fabric, but also an essential material in alchemy.

This golden fleece comes from the Gravel Plains in the north. Due to the climate there are often storms in the Gravel Plains, which leads to the frequent appearance of a kind of monster sheep that can guide lightning.

After this monster sheep was hybridized with ordinary sheep, golden sheep were gradually born.

Wrap this golden fleece around a crystal, use sonic magic to continuously rub the fleece against the crystal, and finally roast it with flames, combined with an alchemical ritual, electric gold can be magically created.

Hearing the clanging sounds coming from the craftsman's shop, Horn calmed himself down and distributed the battle reports in his hand one by one.

In the banquet hall on the second floor of Black Mountain Castle, the windows were wide open and the curtains were blown back and forth.

Sitting around the long table were basically the Salvation Army's legion commanders and other high-ranking officials. Almost all the legion commanders who had participated in the war before were here.

They sat at the table, chattering about military affairs.

However, the Salvation Army was too far away and had too many people, so their food supply was temporarily insufficient. Moreover, they had to send troops to the surrounding areas to capture small castles, churches and monasteries to consolidate their victory.

Therefore, at present, apart from advancing ten miles to build fortresses and outposts, there is no major action.

Horn's original plan was to continue to push forward. After all, the backbone Niedsal was dead, and even if a dozen or twenty Nikossacks escaped, they would not be able to hold out.

But now that Nedsal is still alive, there are a lot of variables added, and his plan has to be a little more cautious than before.

The casualties in this battle were not too heavy, but Nidsal was indeed an opponent that should not be underestimated, and he was even more difficult to deal with than Booru.

If he really dragged the other extraordinary knights of Jinhe Township into the fortress and became turtles, then Horn would really have no good solution and could only continue the fortress advancement tactics.

This does not affect Horn's current upper hand, but it slows down the overall pace of the war and greatly increases the possibility of fighting on two fronts.

This undoubtedly means that the duration of the war will be greatly extended.

After the announcement of this news, the entire conference hall fell silent. After many previous meetings, they all began to gradually realize the close relationship between Lower River County and Longsand County.

If Rapid City had not attracted the firepower of the Imperial Order Company in front, they would probably have faced the dilemma of being attacked from both sides.

"Don't be so sad. It's not like there's no good news." Horn threw out a few documents. "Look for yourselves."

When the senior leaders of the Salvation Army, whose culture was synchronized with that of the second graders, took a closer look, they were surprised.

This year, Kushling and half of Jinhe Township welcomed a miraculous bumper harvest.

According to sampling statistics from the Holy Scythe Monastery, the average per-acre yield of wheat and rice in Kush Territory is estimated to be over 100 pounds.

Especially the newly added mountain potato root fields. Potato roots, a crop that was originally dug up every day and had no fertilizer and was left to fend for itself, can still grow everywhere.

With fertilizer and careful farming, the yield in the first crop was an astonishing 1200 pounds per acre.

The abbot of the Holy Scythe Monastery, Chilvis, even shouted the slogan "A potato root weighs a thousand pounds and cannot be pulled by two horses."

The 4 mu of potato root fields controlled by the Holy Hoe Monastery alone produced more than 25000 tons of potato roots, but the potato roots could not be eaten directly and needed to be steamed and washed. As a result, the demand for fuel in Langsander County surged again, and the price of peat in Daze Township also rose.

After processing, the potato roots from the Holy Hoe Monastery still have about 16000 tons of edible parts.

Of the 16000 tons of potato roots, part was used to feed livestock, and part was made into starch products for sale and to supplement military rations.

However, just in case, they were still used as supplementary military rations. After all, the farmers did not need to pay grain this year.

It was because of this policy that the Salvation Army government even needed to purchase extra food from farmers.

"Do we have enough funds?" Coleman raised his hand and asked, "We have just expanded our army, and military rations are not a small amount of money."

"Don't worry about that. There is enough money to buy military rations." Horn said confidently.

Unexpectedly, the price of grain in Langsand County this year is much lower than in the past, and has plummeted compared to the flood period.

There are two main reasons. One is the bumper harvest, coupled with the high yield of potato roots. There is more food, so the price naturally goes down.

The second reason is that Langsand County was blocked from both inside and outside, so foreign merchants could not come in and people inside could not go out. Only the Salvation Army government and the Norse people were willing and able to buy food.

However, due to their distrust of outsiders, farmers are more willing to sell their grain to the Salvation Army government.

Most of the money earned from selling grain was turned into farm tools and building materials. The former was used to transform the land for easier farming, and the latter was used for reconstruction.

In previous floods, many people's houses and homes were destroyed by floods, and later they experienced continuous wars and there was no time to repair them.

Although there is a war going on ahead, we can't just keep staring at a hole in the roof. The rainy season is coming soon, so we have to fix it quickly.

In addition to purchasing farm tools and building materials, some smart villagers used the money to buy jihad bonds, while other farmers kept them for safe haven.

However, according to the Cheka's investigation, due to various reasons, some farmers still experienced poor harvests and even private usury.

This time, the usury was not charged by citizens or wealthy businessmen from small farmers, but by farmers with a good harvest from farmers with a poor harvest.

Although the Holy See Bank could provide low-interest or even interest-free loans, these farmers insisted on borrowing from their neighbors, which left Horn helpless.

But in any case, the Salvation Army Government has no problem at all with military rations.

Just because there are no problems with military rations doesn’t mean there will be no problems with other things.

Due to maintaining a high proportion of troops, as well as a series of transportation costs and losses, Horn's holy treasury was still decreasing at a very fast rate, in addition to food.

If it weren't for the jihad bonds and the income generated by destroying churches on the newly acquired land, Horn would probably have gone bankrupt before he could even swallow up Jinhe Township.

All in all, at least the collection of military rations for three months was completed, otherwise Horn would not have proposed to expand the army to 10,000 people again.

Thinking of this, Horn opened the soldier statistics list in his hand.

Strangely enough, he had thought that after this battle, a large number of new Saints would appear just like last time.

But the fact is, the number of people favored by the Saint is on par with the original speed, and he really can't figure out how the holy power is transmitted.

Is it necessary for there to be great casualties for more Saints to be born? This doesn't make sense. Horn touched his chin, feeling that there must be other connections, but he just didn't discover them.

While they were still discussing the next step of the war, a child soldier came running in from the door and whispered into Horn's shoulder.

Horn raised his eyebrows and slowly walked to the window.

"Messengers sent by the nobles of Jinhe Township?" Horn looked at the five carriages outside the camp. "What are they here for?"

(End of this chapter)