Chapter 121 Autumn Ploughing and First Snow

The lively autumn harvest celebration, eating till we were drunk.

Bonfires were still lit at midnight.

There was a tendency to revel all night.

Roman did not stop them.

These idiots have been busy for more than half a year, so what's wrong with enjoying two days.

The day after the celebration, everyone returned to their respective jobs.

Because autumn ploughing had begun.

Farming does not allow for a break, and after the harvest, you have to go back to work.

Now it is late autumn, and the cold wind from the Arctic ice field gradually begins to blow towards the black iron land, and the northern land has entered the cold season early.

The mountains surround the town of Sige, blocking the cold wind, and the autumn is still clear and refreshing, and there is no prelude to winter.

But the daily temperature drop can be vaguely felt.

It's still time to plant a round of winter wheat!

Roman attaches great importance to this autumn ploughing. To be frank, the main rations of Sige Town next year will all come from this round of winter wheat.

For this, he has made full preparations.

The next step is to plow and plough the land, turn the soil over again, and accelerate soil maturation.

When sowing, 1,500 kilograms of peat and manure must be raked into each acre of land to turn it into nutrient soil, so that the winter wheat seedlings can spend the entire winter in the most comfortable and nutrient-rich environment, accumulating a lot of energy for the harvest next year.

This time, he increased the wheat seeds per acre to 40 kilograms, increasing the yield by increasing the sowing.

Plant hard!

Grow hard!

Roman increased the planting area of ​​winter wheat to 10,000 acres this time - in addition to the 6,000 acres of cultivated land, another 4,000 acres of carefully selected land with a cultivation basis were added.

Such a vast area of ​​arable land is naturally not just one piece, but distributed all over Sige Town.

Steel farm tools have greatly improved production efficiency.

Now Sige Town is not short of steel or livestock, and the previous inferior heavy plows have been directly eliminated.

More than 700 oxen and draft horses pulled the sharp and brand new heavy steel plows, turning over the deep black soil, bringing out the insect eggs and grass seeds buried in the soil, turning them to the upper layer, letting them dry and freeze to death.

The benefits of autumn plowing are greater than spring plowing, and Roman will not miss this opportunity no matter what.

He fed the oxen and draft horses with soybean grains without metering, so that they can plow the land to the maximum extent. With the idea of ​​using them to death, he finished the deep plowing task on the seventh day.

Sowing and fertilizing are much simpler.

Last time, Roman was worried that the soil and manure were not fertile enough, so he used strip sowing and strip fertilization.

Now he uses broadcast sowing, which only requires spreading the wheat seeds on the surface as evenly as possible, and then throwing 1,500 kilograms of peat soil and manure into each field, rake it up, and bury the seeds in the soft soil.

This sowing method has a higher yield than strip sowing, but the disadvantage is that it needs to be spread evenly, so those clumsy farmers are particularly cautious.

This satisfied Roman. As long as he was patient enough and mastered the correct method, the yield would not be low.

Many farmers worked hard in the fields every day, shuttling through the fields, stretching to the end of the field.

Although the autumn ploughing task was heavy, there were many people, and they worked for more than ten hours a day, plowing and ploughing, sowing seeds and fertilizing, and it took about ten days to finish the work.

Roman found that he had time to spare.

The mountains blocked the cold current, and the temperature in the basin had not completely dropped at this moment.

Roman also asked them to hurry up and plant 300 acres of cabbage, 400 acres of radishes, 500 acres of turnips, and vegetable crops such as lettuce, onions and garlic.

Although the individual cultivated areas were not large, the total area was 2,000 acres.

Vegetables that can survive the winter should be planted more. If they are missed, they will have to wait until next year.

The planting area of ​​each crop is not large, but it is quite troublesome to plant.

Because the land was fallow, it was full of dry weeds and shrubs, and it didn't look like a farmland at all.

First, they burned the wasteland to cultivate the land, plowed the land, cleared the debris, and applied a lot of peat fertilizer.

Ten days passed.

Finally, the vegetable seeds were buried in the soil.

The manpower and time mobilized for this autumn plowing were quite exaggerated, so that the work of boiling salt and smelting iron was completely stagnant.

Everyone was looking forward to the harvest next year.

It was at this time that the basin welcomed the first snow.

…

The autumn plowing ended a little late.

If it were outside, it would definitely not be possible to grow vegetables.

The upcoming cold current would strangle the seeds that had not yet released their vitality.

Fine snowflakes fell from the vast sky, like pear petals, falling on the black soil that had been plowed not long ago, and melted cleanly in an instant, leaving no trace.

The wind was not strong, the snow was not heavy, and there was a light feeling that didn't seem like winter.

Is this the winter of the black iron land?

Agata sat by the window, looking far away, as if she wanted to see the laws of operation of some grand will from the dark sky.

This is the dining camp, and people who are familiar with this place also call it the "big kitchen".

At first, it was an open and simple shed. The summer rainstorm also caused the shed to suffer. The wooden pillars collapsed and a corner fell down.

Fortunately, they lived in the livestock shed at that time and did not get soaked.

Later, it was transformed into a professional kitchen with a chimney, oven and stove.

In that hot summer, the young man supervised the work of the masons here.

He also built the tallest chimney with his own hands to save them from the suffering of smoke and fire.

The kitchen layout he designed is also very special, divided into several different areas, baking pastries, washing and cutting vegetables, cooking porridge, each job has a corresponding place, various cooking utensils are placed in different categories, and dozens of cast iron pots are placed on the stove.

More than 300 people are busy here every day.

Not everyone has to cook, some are responsible for transporting meals, some are responsible for serving meals, recycling and cleaning dishes.

There are also some special diets that can only be provided to those guards who are undergoing training.

Her job is relatively simple, just need to guard those ovens and wait for the bread to come out of the oven.

They have to bake three to four thousand whole wheat bread every day.

A row of bellows ovens more than two meters high, with 6 layers of grills alone, each layer can hold 30 pieces of bread, and it can be baked in 20 to 30 minutes. It is not tiring, but sometimes you have to work overtime at night.

After the bread comes out of the oven, it is cooled and hardened, and then sliced ​​with a guillotine. One piece of bread can be cut into ten slices.

At first, she was a little flustered, but after getting familiar with it, she became accustomed to it. After finishing her work, she could be in a daze for the rest of the time.

The snow in early winter is white and crystal, the same color as her hair.

But she has never seen such gentle snow.

It's like lying on a warm bed, the fireplace is burning, she wakes up from a beautiful dream, opens her eyes tenderly, and feels comfortable all over...

This is the snow on this land.

But Agatha still remembers that the snow in her former hometown, the northern land, is not like this.

It comes from the harshness of the gods, and the ancient souls buried in that land wander all day long, so the blizzard never dissipates.

Frozen soil cannot grow food.

The food will be taken away by the nobles and priests.

The nobles take away the food to train soldiers to rush into the vortex of war.

In those illusory legends, the winter savers cannot escape the northern land, and only the guardian god can save them.

The Wandong royal family, who once claimed to be the descendants of the guardian god, lost their power and lost the ability to protect them from the wind and snow.

They had no way to survive under the whip of the wind and snow god, and the only way was to escape...

Agata stared blankly for a long time.

When she recalled those legends that were too old to remember, she shuddered and looked away as if escaping, fearing that the howling wind and snow from the north would haunt this land and turn it into a land of misery, freezing all life.

No!

Agata comforted herself and turned her eyes to the baby girl next to her.

The cute red face, the small and tender white hair, and the even and steady breathing all showed that this was a very energetic child.

She completely survived the crisis and now slept quietly in her dream.

Agata told herself.

From now on, the miserable fate from the northern land will never entangle her, the guardian god will protect her! That adult will protect her!

…