Chapter 78: The Southwest Border
A week passed... seven full days of Konrad doing the unthinkable.
His large desk was covered in different ledgers.
Konrad had come to a very logical realization: a starving, miserable workforce eventually revolted, or worse, they worked slowly.
If his lands were truly to dominate the Holy Roman Empire, his people needed a reason to actually want to wake up in the morning.
Thus, the harvest season finally arrived...
It was the very first harvest under the strict new agricultural laws Konrad had enforced.
When he had stripped the old Swabian lords of their lands, he implemented a highly advanced method he simply called the ’Norfolk four-course system’.
Instead of leaving a third of the fields empty and useless every year to recover, he forced the peasants to plant in a strict sequence: wheat, then turnips, then barley, and finally clover.
Konrad stood on a low platform overlooking the sprawling southern fields. Marshal Eckhard stood beside him, looking bewildered.
"When you told the farmers to plant clover and weeds instead of grain, they nearly rioted. But look at this. I have never seen wheat grow so tall in Swabia." Eckhard muttered.
"The clover isn’t a weed, Marshal." Konrad corrected him, "It pulls nitrogen from the air and traps it in the dirt. It feeds the soil. Then the cattle eat the clover and the turnips during the winter, and their manure fertilizes the next crop of wheat."
After hearing such words, Eckhard just shook his head in disbelief. "Well, the peasants are certainly not rioting now. The storehouses are bursting. We actually have a massive surplus of food."
Konrad turned away from the golden fields and began walking back toward the walls of the keep. "Come with me, the merchant caravan from the south arrived an hour ago. I want to inspect the new cargo."
However, the new cargo sitting in the main courtyard was not lead, saltpeter, or iron.
Dozens of crates and burlap sacks were being unloaded by the gunners.
Isolde and Elise were already standing near the wagons, looking at the strange goods with deep curiosity.
Elise held her abacus tightly, trying to make sense of the bizarre new expenses.
"Konrad." Elise called out as he approached. "You spent four hundred Fugger silver florins on... dirt?"
She pointed an accusing finger at an open sack filled with dark, roasted brown beans.
They smelled earthy, bitter, and incredibly strong.
"That is a highly prized commodity smuggled all the way from the Ottoman trade routes... It’s called coffee." Konrad said, walking up to the sack and running his bare hand through the roasted beans.
Isolde leaned over, sniffing the sack delicately. "It smells like burnt wood. Why would you spend military funds on this?"
"...when you boil these beans in water and drink the dark broth, it banishes sleep. It sharpens the mind. Do you know how many mistakes Master Klemens’s smiths make when they work a fourteen-hour shift? A lot. But if I give them a cup of this fucking bean water every morning, their productivity will jump." Konrad smirked, a rare expression of genuine satisfaction on his face.
Elise stared at him in disbelief. "You bought a foreign bean just to make your men work harder?"
Konrad didn’t reply. He gestured to one of his guards, who quickly opened the lid of a small, well-supported wooden crate.
Inside, packed in dry straw, were solid, shimmering white cones.
Elise gasped, stepping closer. "Is that sugar?"
In 1526, sugar was a luxury so incredibly rare and expensive that only kings and high bishops ever tasted it.
Common peasants lived their entire lives without ever knowing the taste of true sweetness, relying only on wild honey if they were extremely lucky.
"Refined sugar," Konrad confirmed, breaking off a small white piece from the cone and tossing it directly to his sister. "Try it."
Elise caught it nervously.
She sniffed it, then slowly placed it on her tongue.
Her eyes instantly widened to the size of gold coins. A massive smile broke across her face.
"...this is incredible!" Elise practically squealed, "It’s so sweet..."
Even so, Marshal Eckhard looked highly suspicious of the white rock. "My Lord, if this is truly the food of kings, why buy it? It costs a fortune. We cannot afford to feed royal sugar to common gunners."
"We can, and we will." Konrad lectured firmly. "Every man who meets his daily quota in the armory, or drills in the courtyard, gets a sweet roll and a hot cup of coffee."
After hearing such words, Eckhard slowly nodded, "I will have the quartermaster distribute the new rations," Eckhard said, saluting sharply before turning to organize the unloading.
Konrad watched the sacks being hauled away... a week of focusing purely on the internal economy had stabilized the realm beautifully.
The four-course harvest ensures no one goes hungry this winter, and new luxuries like coffee, sugar, soap, alcohol, tea, and chalk will all keep morale up.
Now, he could finally turn his attention back to expanding his borders...
"Isolde," Konrad said quietly, stepping away from the courtyard and moving toward the armory wall. "It has been seven days since you sent your shadow-walkers across the southwestern border into Savoy."
Isolde stepped closer, "They returned just an hour before the merchant caravan arrived, I’ve already deciphered their ledgers."
Konrad leaned against the wall. "And?"
"...they have iron." Isolde whispered, her eyes dark and serious. "The mountains of Savoy are packed with untouched veins... but that isn’t the most important thing my spies found."
Konrad frowned. "Explain."
"Three days ago you asked me to find out why the Fugger bank stopped issuing loans to the Savoyard merchants three months ago," Isolde said, crossing her arms tightly. "My spies bribed the head clerk of the Duke of Savoy’s treasury. They found the real reason the border is so quiet."
Konrad’s eyes narrowed. "Tell me."
"The Duke of Savoy is staying out of it because he is entirely bankrupt. But he didn’t lose his money to bad harvests or trade embargoes." Isolde looked into Konrad’s eyes.
"He spent every single copper of his Duchy’s wealth hiring mercenary company, and they have been quietly massing right across our border for weeks."
