Chapter 349: A Bird’s-Eye View
The Great Manor now looked quite impressive from above.
To the south of the City Hall lay the residential district, filled with mud houses and shabby thatched huts that were hardly worth looking at. However, the planned housing district nearby had already begun excavation work for foundations, with construction materials piled all around.
Beyond that stretched vast expanses of farmland. Field after field of wheat extended all the way toward Starnight City.
The area surrounding Starnight City was also covered in endless wheat fields. After all, the regions around and between the two towns were the safest places available.
Phield had never expected that the first thing connecting the two settlements would not be the brick road currently under construction, but the wheat fields themselves.
The only area not occupied by wheat was the orchard surrounding Starnight Manor. The neatly arranged fruit trees stood in orderly rows and would likely begin producing fruit within a year or two.
Controlling the black crow, Phield landed at City Hall, where Tisiana stood with her hands clasped together in prayer.
"Great Goddess, may Your will descend from the heavenly kingdom..."
"Ahem."
Phield had no desire to interrupt her, but her prayers usually lasted one or two hours.
"Who is it?" Tisiana quickly turned around. Upon seeing the black crow, she let out a sigh of relief and stepped forward with concern. "My lord, are you all right? I wanted to help as well."
"We’re doing fine. The territory needs you. You’re a Holy Light Divine Chosen, and your presence reassures the people."
After all, the citizens trusted the power of Holy Light. Besides, someone had to defend the territory.
"But..."
Phield comforted her. "I even have time to come back and look around. Nothing major has happened."
"All right." Tisiana reluctantly forced a smile. "Speaking of the farms, Miss Charlotte has cultivated a new type of seed. She said she wants to hand it to you personally."
"That’s excellent. Let’s go take a look right now."
Arriving at the orchard district, they found Charlotte busy cultivating sugar beets. The crop could be refined into sugar and was considered a valuable cash crop.
As for potatoes, corn, and sweet potatoes, Phield had never found any. They were either hidden on another continent or simply didn’t exist in this world.
"Miss Charlotte, the lord’s... uh, pet has returned." Tisiana pointed at the black crow. "He wants to talk to you about the new plants."
"The new crop is only a secondary matter. I mainly came to visit my adorable Minister of Agriculture, Miss Charlotte."
"I’m doing well. Please take good care of yourself, Lord Phield." Charlotte lowered her head beneath her sunhat, looking shy. Then she raised her face and asked with concern, "When are you coming back? I mean in person. Oh, right, I’ve also encountered an administrative issue."
"An administrative issue? Let’s hear it."
Phield immediately became interested. The territory was still small, yet agricultural matters had already begun creating governance problems.
"The citizens have started competing for land. Although all the land technically belongs to you, even renting farmland is extremely profitable. Everyone wants to cultivate more plots, especially those inside the walls and within the safe zones surrounding the cities."
"Because of this, many citizens have started arguing and fighting. Some have even destroyed other people’s crops."
"I understand."
Phield nodded. Agriculture in Nightfall Domain had encountered a bottleneck. The issue wasn’t technology. It was simply a lack of farmland.
There was only so much safe land available, and every acre was valuable. Competition among the citizens was inevitable.
Ordinary people weren’t harmless little rabbits. They might fear powerful predators, but when dealing with their own kind, they could be ruthless. They would think of every dirty trick imaginable.
"Anyone caught deliberately destroying crops will receive the maximum punishment. Let my steward Kaor determine the exact standards."
Given Kaor’s harsh personality, any criminal would certainly learn to fear the consequences.
"Huh? I thought you’d choose a gentler solution." Tisiana looked surprised. "I remember you usually preferred persuasion before. At most you’d have someone whipped a few times."
"The primary contradiction back then was survival. Harsh laws would only have crushed citizens who were already frightened and unstable."
Phield explained, "But now they have enough free time to argue and sabotage each other. It’s time to increase the pressure."
"Then how will you solve the land issue?"
"Implement a tiered tax system. Land within the territory that was reclaimed earliest, with the highest yields and greatest safety, will be classified as Tier One land and taxed at the highest rate. Land inside the safe zones outside the cities will be Tier Two. Land in dangerous areas will be Tier Three, with progressively lower taxes."
Phield quickly provided a solution before adding another point.
"If citizens compete for land, we’ll distribute plots dynamically according to household population. Everyone gets farmland, but no one can monopolize it."
"How do you come up with these ideas? Teach me. I want to become smarter too."
Charlotte looked astonished and grabbed the black crow, shaking it repeatedly.
"Stop shaking me. I’m getting airsick."
The world spun around Phield’s vision, forcing him to hurriedly stop her before he threw up.
"Fine. Oh, right, these are the enhanced seeds. Pretty amazing, aren’t they?" Charlotte pulled out a pouch from her satchel. Inside were black and gold wheat seeds. "These are mutated black rye seeds. They’re still ordinary crops and haven’t reached a transcendent level, but their yield has increased."
Charlotte’s divine artifact was a bag that automatically improved any seeds placed inside it.
"Oh? That’s wonderful."
Phield was delighted as he carefully examined the seeds. The originally dark brown rye now featured fine golden streaks, making it look like something poor people couldn’t afford to eat.
"How much has the yield increased?"
Charlotte rubbed her smooth chin and started counting on her fingers.
"One grain, two grains... um... anyway, it’ll produce more. We’ll know after planting them. Also, the new wheat smells better than the old variety."
"A few extra grains per stalk become a lot when multiplied across an entire field. Have my laborers begin planting the improved rye immediately so we can evaluate the results."
"However, improved rye requires better soil conditions and needs to be planted deeper," Charlotte added.
"Perfect. We can smelt iron now. Have the blacksmiths start producing heavy plows."
Phield struck his fist into his palm.
"I drew the blueprints long ago. Horse-drawn plowing will gradually replace manual labor. That’s the future."
The Empire’s geography was ideal for raising horses. Horses were abundant everywhere, and a cheap horse cost only sixty or seventy silver coins.
As a result, horse-drawn farming was common here instead of ox-drawn farming. Cattle were primarily raised for meat and leather.
After arranging the heavy plow project with Gogris, Phield guided the black crow into the air for another survey.
"We need to clean up several rivers and start raising fish in the future. The walls around the Great Manor also need to be expanded as soon as possible."
"And it’s time to continue expanding the Corrupted Lands. We need more space for development."
After confirming that everything in the territory was functioning normally, Phield returned his consciousness to his own body.
Listening to the sounds of cleanup work echoing throughout the fortress, he felt an overwhelming sense of peace. Pulling a blanket over himself, he immediately fell asleep.
While Phield enjoyed this rare moment of comfort, Thunder City in the southern region of Rick Province was experiencing a very different reality.
For five consecutive days, the city had endured relentless attacks.
More than thirty thousand corpses had completely surrounded the city, sealing it off from the outside world.
This small city, built upon the Thunder Plains, was suffering under tremendous defensive pressure.
