Iron Harvest: When Farming Becomes Conquest

Chapter 72 - 72 6 Poultry and Livestock

?72: Chapter 6: Poultry and Livestock 72: Chapter 6: Poultry and Livestock Domestic pigs, being omnivorous animals, could be pastured and were extremely easy to raise.

Of course, the cost was also high.

Piglets were rather expensive, the growth period was long, and without eating much nutritious food, coupled with issues related to the domesticated breed, they could at most grow to about a hundred pounds, nothing compared to the wild thousand-pound demon pigs.

Only people with good household situations like carpenters, blacksmiths, stewards, and guards would raise various livestock and butcher them for food when they grew up, which was a way of improving their lives.

Ordinary farmers didn’t raise pigs to butcher for eating.

After all, they had no extra income.

And humans had various survival needs.

What do you do if farming is your only source of income?

You could only raise these livestock until they grew big and then sell them to local stewards or foreign merchants in exchange for various living necessities.

Livestock were not only their extremely precious assets but also a measure of social status.

For example, a family that could afford to raise pigs and sheep wouldn’t live too poorly; their risk resistance was stronger.

In case of emergencies, selling pigs and sheep could sustain them for a long time.

Moor was quite efficient in his work.

He notified everyone on the spot to deliver those livestock to Origin Manor today.

This was beyond Roman’s expectation—he had thought this fellow might go door to door to purchase the livestock.

Once released, they weren’t easily reclaimed, nor would he let them drag their animals all the way back.

Consequently, all afternoon the threshold of Origin Manor’s gate was trampled upon—the truth is, there was no threshold, no gate, not even a fence.

Roman’s Origin Manor was open-plan; the entire basin belonged to him, and it was the surrounding mountains that were his walls.

Today, Roman had received more than a hundred domestic pigs, three hundred sheep, over a hundred geese, more than four hundred ducks, and over a thousand chickens, spending more than fifty gold coins in total.

To expedite the acquisition process, he offered prices that were higher than the market rate.

For instance, adult domestic pigs were priced between 1.2 and 1.4 silver coins but not all pigs were adults, so Roman was buying them at 1.5 silver coins each.

For those pigs weighing less than a hundred pounds, he appropriately offered 1 silver coin.

For example, a sheep weighing seventy to eighty pounds was worth at most 9 copper coins.

And Roman was buying all of them at the price of 9 copper coins, giving 6 or 5 copper coins for sheep weighing less than fifty pounds.

Roman didn’t haggle, to avoid making these idiots think the lord was stingy and that they were selling at a loss.

Just wildly throw money at them, and if there was no cash, use salt as a substitute—a chicken in exchange for four or five pounds of salt was no problem.

The farmers could sell the salt to the merchants—if they didn’t want salt, issuing an IOU was fine, as Roman’s credibility was still intact at this point.

All in all, the chaotic scene lasted three to four hours.

Everyone went back satisfied.

Only Roman was somewhat caught off guard by the sight of livestock and feces scattered everywhere, cursing Moor inwardly for his lack of brains.

Fortunately, those farmers had some sense, tying up the legs of the cows, sheep, chickens, ducks, and geese with straw or bark ropes, preventing them from running everywhere or flying about.

Roman had no choice but to have his men slaughter all the chickens, ducks, and geese, not sparing even the newly hatched chicks.

Green and Aaron ended up covered in blood, with chicken feathers flying all over the sky.

All the people of Origin Manor—mainly three hundred and some underage children.

Under the command of Roman and Seth, they were busy with lighting fires, adding water, plucking feathers, gutting, cleaning innards…

even five or six-year-old kids had to run back and forth with firewood.

Finally, those plucked chickens, ducks, and geese were hung up to dry and were generously coated with salt.

As for pigs, sheep, and other large livestock, they were temporarily put into the animal pens alongside slaves.

Now, those responsible for the animal pens had increased to a hundred.

They slept in the animal pens just like the slaves.

To be precise, sleeping in the animal pens wasn’t considered mistreatment; it was a normal occurrence in this era.

Because they were in charge of the cattle and draft horses’ feeding and hygiene, their workload was high, and since their residences were too far, they couldn’t take care of them promptly.

Each animal’s grass consumption alone was a huge figure, not to mention the need to clean up the manure.

A single draft horse could produce twenty to thirty jin of manure a day—Roman expected them to transport all the manure to a designated area for composting.

And the draft horses ate oats or other grains.

The labor of a hundred or so people to attend to the cattle and horses was the limit.

Now cramming in so many more livestock, the situation was getting a bit out of control.

Roman had no choice but to order the neighbors and children of the cattle and horses to chip in a bit.

“Neighbors” referred to those slave keepers who lived under the livestock sheds, and “children” to the numerous underage young cattle and horses.

They not only had to learn letters and numbers in the manor but also do things within their power—making maltose in bulk was one of their tasks, and as a reward, it didn’t matter if they sneaked a few bites.

The manor’s workload wasn’t very intensive; besides, they were well-fed, which was much better than their life at home.

This kept them busy until it was dark, and Roman sent the children home.

…
It was Roman’s 71st day in Sige Town.

As the sky began to brighten, over a hundred cooks started to get busy.

According to Roman’s instructions, breakfast consisted of a bowl of mixed vegetable soup with salt and rye flour, along with the customary three slices of rye bread.

A bowl of mixed vegetable soup weighed about seven to eight liang.

After breakfast, the farmers began to work on road repair.

The process of paving roads with primitive concrete was not complex and was easy to master.

The only concern was getting the ratio of lime, clay sand, gravel, and wheat straw right.

But this wasn’t a big problem.

It was just a matter of adding water when there was too much mix, or adding mix when there was too much water; spreading as they mixed naturally evened it out.

Roman had set up a milestone five hundred meters away.

The milestone reminded them that reaching it meant they could finish today’s work.

If they didn’t make it there, some people would die.

But this group of cattle and horses had potential.

These fools, although quite stupid, were truly hard-working; as long as their bellies were full, they were ready to work.

Once they became familiar with the task, Roman could increase the workload, gradually raising the target from 500 meters to 600 or 700 meters.

Without suitable tools, their efficiency at this level was already extraordinary.

Roman took down fifty chickens that had been killed the day before, in the morning.

After a night of air-drying, the chicken skin had hardened a bit, and he brought them to the mess camp.

After the cooks had prepared breakfast, eaten themselves, and washed all the wooden bowls and dishes, they began preparing lunch.

They virtually had no leisure time.

Additionally, they had to spare some people to take care of the children and elderly who couldn’t walk—there were hardly any elderly because those who only ate and did not work were naturally eliminated, so the main focus was on children under five.

Agata was an exception; her child wasn’t even weaned yet, so she had been arranged to be there as well.

“Agata,” Roman said, standing beside the camp, waving to the somewhat familiar white-haired female slave and then pointing to the wagon behind him, “find someone to chop up this chicken meat.

It’s part of lunch too.”
Agata hadn’t expected Roman to actually remember her name.

She’d been in Sige Town for over half a month and had generally adapted to life here—the only thing was, it didn’t feel like a slave’s life.

Although there was a lot to do, the food was good, no one mistreated them, they had new clothes to wear, and she could get two jin of milk from Origin Manor each day to feed Vera, something unimaginable in the Northern Land.

She replied meekly, “My lord, I understand.”