Chapter 147 Food reserves
Chapter 147 – Stockpiling Food
After exchanging knowledge with the Morning Glory Church, Richard rested for a few days in the City of Victory and returned to the Harland Territory alone.
After being in a coma for ten days, it was already October when he returned to the territory.
This time, during the counter-insurgency battle, Richard had annexed several squadrons of serf soldiers, which added up to more than five hundred people.
The casualties of the counter-insurgency battle were not very high, and the three infantry squadrons almost doubled in size after returning to the territory.
The serf squadrons were not well selected, and most of the soldiers were crooked, so Richard was ready to retire some of them.
From the serf soldiers to select some elite soldiers, and then from the territory to recruit some people, continue to expand the two squadrons of soldiers.
Rush to complete the formation of new soldiers before next summer.
By then, Harland’s territory would have ten squadrons of infantry, one squadron of magical beast cavalry, and three squadrons of auxiliary soldiers.
Such a strong force would be enough to repel one or two brigades of orcs and protect the territory as long as they weren’t facing an orc army.
During the time Richard was unconscious, the Harland family had already released the wind, willing to exchange three Bloodline Enlightenment Potions for a batch of food, and many nobles came to Fort Vic to look for Richard to negotiate.
A Bloodline Enlightenment Potion needed to be exchanged with five minor merits.
In the main army, normally a minor merit could be exchanged for a hundred gold coins of resources.
Many grassroots officers who had made military achievements and had no hope of being knighted would exchange their merits for cultivation resources and trade with the nobles before retiring.
Roughly speaking, a Bloodline Enlightenment Potion was worth about five hundred gold coins.
The price of food in Grant Kingdom was not expensive, and two gold coins in the northern border region could purchase a ton of food.
An adult male working for a year with a salary of roughly three or four gold coins was enough to feed a family of seven or eight.
But a family would have all sorts of expenses, in addition to food expenses they would also need to buy cloth and salt. There was rent to be paid, and all sorts of necessities to be purchased.
A citizen family would need to have two laborers for life to be better.
A Bloodline Enlightenment Potion in exchange for two hundred and fifty tons of grain seemed very cost-effective.
But many times an item’s value wouldn’t be converted like that.
With so many noble heirs, bloodline enlightenment potions would always be scarce.
New nobles like the Harland family, whose family was still the first generation members and basically didn’t have many knight bloodlines, would only take out the Bloodline Enlightenment Potion in exchange.
If they waited for a dozen years, Richard’s children grew up, and Hayden, Wendy, Donn, and Adrian all had children. Even if there was a great shortage of food, Richard wouldn’t be able to take out a Bloodline Enlightenment Potion in exchange.
For most nobles, food was not scarce although it was a precious strategic resource.
The Gerda Province was vast, with rain and heat at the same time, and the production of food was not low. The per capita arable land area was very large, and despite being on the frontline, there was no shortage of food, instead it was the food exporting place of Grant Kingdom.
Every year, a large amount of grain from the three northern provinces entered Norland through the north-south canal along the Gerda Province, Sodamia Province, and Gabriel Province.
If the Harland Territory hadn’t swallowed 18,000 people, there wouldn’t be a shortage of food next year.
So from the point of view of scarcity, if you want to exchange Bloodline Enlightenment Potion, you have to trade at a premium.
In order to exchange the Bloodline Enlightenment Potion, quite a few nobles personally came to Harland Territory.
The first one to come was uncle Soros, accompanied by Soros’ brother, Baron Dak.
After refining the Magic Energy Essence Potion, Soros was successfully promoted to the sixth rank. This time, Soros had made a lot of merits and he had already accumulated more than half of the merits for being titled as a hereditary baron.
Even though Baron Darke disliked his half-brother.
But for the sake of his son’s future, he had to get the Bloodline Enlightenment Potion, Baron Dak still had the cheek to find Soros, hoping that Soros would intercede and let himself get the Bloodline Enlightenment Potion.
Even though there was a conflict with Baron Dak, his older brother, when Baron Dak lowered his voice and begged for the door. Soros remembered his father and the days of living in Baron Dak’s domain when he was young.
Countless past events surfaced in his mind one by one, and even though some memories were sad and bitter, there was still a hint of sweetness in the bitter memories.
“When I was young, my father had no intention of replacing his heir, and because my mother came from a mediocre background, I was no threat to my brother. At that time, my brother was still very good to myself, and when I was young, I followed my brother’s ass.
Once while hunting, a black bear lunged towards him, and it was his brother who stepped in front of him and stabbed the bear to death with his sword, leaving a scar on his shoulder.”
Soros suddenly remembered the good side of his brother.
Even though Baron Dak had once mobilized his connections to ostracize him, making it impossible for him to do his job in the Grizzly Bear Legion, resulting in a very slow accumulation of battle merit.
But at this moment, he still chose to forgive his brother, remembered Baron Dak’s good side, forgot the unpleasant side, and decided to ask Richard for a favor.
After doing this, Soros finally released some of his feelings.
Since Uncle Soros had come to the door, this favor had to be given, and Richard wouldn’t ask for a premium to make his uncle’s favor cheap.
He directly exchanged two hundred and fifty tons of grain with Baron Dak for a Bloodline Enlightenment Potion.
After Baron Dak exchanged the Bloodline Enlightenment Potion, there was an endless stream of nobles who came to visit.
Most of these people were members of the noble branches, and many of them also had exceptionally rich family assets, which allowed them to acquire grain to exchange with Richard.
However, they didn’t have a high political status and couldn’t bring other resources to the Harland Territory.
Soon Baron Sharp came to the door, he was Richard’s old comrade-in-arms and officer, and the two of them also worked together to quell the rebellion this time.
Baron Sharp had several children, but these children did not have a knight bloodline.
He has divorced his ex-wife in order to become a hereditary nobleman, and he exchanges bloodline enlightenment potions for his current wife, Baroness Raphael.
While Baroness Raphael had no previous open husbands, she had quite a few lovers, and gave birth to six children.
Even though Baroness Raphael was a powerful knight, there was still a lack of bloodline enlightenment potions.
This time, he asked Baron Sharp to plan for his fourth son’s future.
Baron Sharpe’s territory was adjacent to Harland’s territory, so the old officer’s face could not be ignored.
However, Baron Raphael was not short of grain and promised to exchange it with four hundred tons of grain.
The last Bloodline Enlightenment Potion was traded to an acquaintance, Baron Les, who had a farther relationship with Richard and offered a bigger premium.
Five hundred tons of grain can only be exchanged for a Bloodline Enlightenment Potion.
When 500 tons of grain was sold, it was worth thousands of gold coins, the premium almost doubled.
Using the three Bloodline Enlightenment Potions, one thousand one hundred and fifty tons of grain were traded, and counting the grain stored in the territory, the grain reserve had exceeded nine thousand tons.
Richard did a little math and decided to continue to increase the grain reserve by three thousand tons.
Three thousand tons of grain was worth six thousand gold coins.
Although Harland’s territory was developing rapidly, because of Richard’s massive army expansion, the territory was building and developing at super speed, consuming a lot of money, six thousand gold coins was still a large amount of money for Richard.
A sum of gold coins captured in the war of counterinsurgency, almost all of which were used for rewarding the merits.
Although there was a sum of money in the territory treasury, this money was for preventing unexpected situations.
If it was all used to buy food, when there was an emergency that required money, it would be hard to beat a hero for a penny.
(End of chapter)