Chapter 164: Cash Crops
Unlocking Cash Crop Cultivation gave Caelum the ability to grow sugarcane, cotton, and other crops not used as staple food.
The technology tree’s acceleration did not seem to care about soil conditions at all.
As long as he activated it, any crop could grow rapidly. It ignored every natural limitation imposed by the land and environment.
Caelum had prepared two possible plans.
If they had failed to find sugarcane in the mountains and unlock the next technologies, he had planned to raid the Thalric forces with muskets. Torran would also have been their only source of sugarcane for refining white sugar.
Unexpectedly, they really did find sugarcane in the mountains.
That unlocked the next technologies, solved the food problem in one move, and even gave him the ability to grow cash crops.
With that, Torran no longer needed to bring him sugarcane.
Caelum could grow it here in the mountains and refine it into white sugar himself.
He cut the stalk he had saved earlier into several sections and planted them in the ground.
[Agriculture and Cash Crop Cultivation Accelerated Production]
Just like the millet before it, the sugarcane quickly sprouted into seedlings.
In the blink of an eye, they grew tall and straight.
Caelum counted them.
On average, each sugarcane seedling produced five mature stalks.
The yield was fairly good.
[Agriculture and Cash Crop Cultivation Complete]
He repeated the process several times.
Before long, Caelum had harvested a large quantity of sugarcane.
Newhaven currently lacked the conditions needed to store large amounts of white sugar, so he did not refine all of it immediately.
He could wait until Torran returned to purchase the sugar. The refining process took almost no time anyway.
The only pity was that Caelum had no cotton seeds.
The mountains were cool and damp.
Cotton could provide warmth, and it could also be soaked in powder to make fuses for igniting explosive charges.
It had many uses.
Cotton was not strictly necessary for making a fuse. Hemp rope and other fibers could also work.
But none of them were as convenient.
Once cotton was grown and dried, it could be used immediately.
Other fibers required more complicated processing, and Caelum had not yet unlocked the related technologies.
There was little he could do with them for now.
Afterward, Caelum gathered one flintlock musket and all the remaining black powder in front of him.
He also made several jars of white sugar to mix with the powder and increase its power.
This would allow the powder supply to last much longer.
Since white sugar absorbed moisture easily, it could only be mixed with the powder during loading.
For that reason, the two were stored separately rather than combined in advance.
[Flintlock Musket and Rifled Musket Accelerated Production]
[Black Powder and Powder Granulation Accelerated Production]
A few breaths later, spiral grooves had been cut into the barrel of the flintlock musket, greatly increasing the bullet’s range.
The black powder had also been transformed into loose grains of nearly equal size.
Caelum had not rifled every flintlock musket because the grooves made loading more difficult and reduced the unit’s rate of fire.
The Wardens currently had far too few guns.
Sacrificing firing speed was not worth it.
[Flintlock Musket and Rifled Musket Production Complete]
[Black Powder and Powder Granulation Complete]
Once those two technologies were completed, their next branches unlocked.
The next black powder technology was the paper cartridge, which wrapped a measured powder charge and a bullet together in oiled paper.
The next flintlock musket technology opened a separate branch and unlocked artillery.
[Black Powder and Paper Cartridge Unlocked]
[Cannon and Artillery Unlocked]
Oiled paper and iron were both scarce in Newhaven.
Iron was especially limited.
Caelum had already used nearly all of it to make muskets and bullets.
There was nowhere near enough left to build a cannon.
As for paper cartridges, Newhaven had some oiled paper.
Using all of it might produce a few dozen cartridges, but such a small number would mean little.
Caelum examined the technology tree.
The next technology after paper cartridges was the metallic cartridge.
That belonged to the age of breech loading firearms.
Without primers, however, making them now would serve no purpose.
Flintlock muskets had no firing pin and relied on flint to ignite the charge, so metallic cartridges were useless for them.
The technologies after metallic cartridges were even further beyond what he could use at present.
Everything would have to wait until he developed the necessary basic technologies and resources.
"You cannot get fat from a single bite."
Caelum said this as he took out a sheet of oiled paper.
Whether or not he could use the result now, unlocking the next technology came first.
[Black Powder and Paper Cartridge Accelerated Production]
At once, powder, oiled paper, and bullets came together under an invisible force.
More than a dozen paper cartridges formed and scattered across the table.
[Black Powder and Paper Cartridge Production Complete]
[Black Powder and Metallic Cartridge Unlocked]
Edrick reminded him, "My lord, even if we mix the powder with sugar and reduce the amount used for each shot, our supply still cannot support more than a few rounds of training."
"I know."
Caelum said, "We will wait a little longer."
If Torran did not return, Caelum would truly have no choice but to lead his men out of the mountains and fight the Thalric forces.
With the Wardens’ current numbers, that was clearly unsafe.
The effective range of a flintlock musket was currently around thirty zhang, roughly one hundred meters.
Its maximum range could exceed one hundred and fifty meters, but hitting anyone at that distance was nearly impossible.
Because of that, the most effective tactic was volley fire.
The soldiers would fire in dense ranks to inflict reliable casualties.
Once the front row fired, the row behind them would shoot, then the two rows would switch while reloading.
Thirty zhang was also within the effective range of Thalric bows.
Worse, nearly every Thalric warrior rode a horse.
They were extremely fast and could cross those few dozen zhang in the blink of an eye.
It was genuinely dangerous.
Newhaven currently had enough food, so Caelum was in no hurry.
Even if he had to wait two or three months for Torran, he had the patience.
The only question was whether the man would return.
"Where are the wooden boards and bamboo slips I asked for?"
"They will be brought over now."
Edrick ordered men to carry in the boards and bamboo slips.
The townspeople had cut and prepared all of them according to Caelum’s instructions.
Caelum immediately activated the technology tree.
[Education and Literacy Accelerated Production]
At once, lines of writing appeared across the wooden boards and bamboo slips.
Without paper, Caelum could only use wood and bamboo as substitutes.
Now that the townspeople had enough food and drink, he could not simply let them sit around doing nothing.
[Education and Literacy Complete]
[Education and Basic Mathematics Unlocked]
[Education and Basic Chemistry Unlocked]
[Education and Basic Physics Unlocked]
[Education and Basic Biology Unlocked]
Every time the people around him witnessed Caelum use these miraculous methods, their awe deepened.
The personal guards nearby kept their heads lowered and did not dare look directly at him.
They were afraid of offending their lord.
Edrick was different.
His eyes remained sharp as a sword and keen as a hawk.
He constantly scanned the surroundings, watching everyone who approached Caelum without relaxing for even a moment.
Caelum gave his order.
"From today onward, everyone in town who can move about freely must learn to read and write. Anyone under thirty is forbidden from missing class. Have the teachers instruct them. Those who perform well will receive one dou of millet as a reward, and they may also have the opportunity to hold office in the future."
After the millet harvest, all grain had been distributed under the supervision of the Wardens.
Otherwise, the townspeople would certainly have fought over it and caused trouble.
All remaining grain was stored in Newhaven’s granaries and would be distributed at regular intervals.
One dou weighed twelve and a half pounds.
An ordinary person ate only about half a pound of grain each day.
Such a generous reward, combined with the chance to hold office, should be more than enough to motivate the townspeople.
