When the Saint comes, she does not collect food

#302 - One hoe, one hoe, 40% of the new field reaches the house

Listening to Horn's inquiry, Bursac, with his remarkable memory, began to recount the details to Horn.

However, Horn hadn't listened for long before he started feeling drowsy.

"How about this," Horn said, standing up and stretching. "Why don't you take me to see the Holy Plow Monastery?"

Now that the land distribution work was complete and the hundred-household system was in place, the burden on Horn's shoulders had lessened considerably.

With not much to do today, he could spare some time to see how the Holy Plow Monastery was progressing.

His initial intention in establishing the Holy Plow Monastery was to absorb the surplus labor force and reclaim wasteland.

According to the land distribution team's survey, Kusch Territory had a considerable amount of uncultivated arable land, with abandoned land alone amounting to nearly 200,000 mu.

However, the fertility of these lands was insufficient, and the lord's oppression was too severe. The serfs preferred to flee rather than cultivate these lands, resulting in them being left barren.

The first task of the Holy Plow Monastery was to reopen this batch of abandoned land.

Walking out of the City Hall, Horn, accompanied by several Holy Bullet Cavalry soldiers, followed Bursac towards the Holy Plow Monastery.

The Holy Plow Monastery was originally one of the three major monasteries near Jeanne d'Arc Castle, investing all its assets, a total of 30,000 gold pounds, in Horn as an angel investment.

Even moved by the holiness of Saint Sun, they voluntarily offered this well-repaired and beautifully decorated building for Horn's use.

Thus, this monastery became the shared headquarters of the Holy Plow Monastery and the Holy Scythe Monastery.

As for the other two major monasteries, they became the headquarters of the Children's Army and the officers' school of the Salvation Army, respectively.

The Children's Army continued to use the monastery's previous name [Lubyanka Monastery].

As for the Salvation Army, on Jeanne's recommendation, the monastery was renamed [Saint Danji War College].

Crossing the wooden bridge over the river, the vast plains of Jeanne d'Arc Castle stretched before them.

Before he even got close, he heard a chorus of rhythmic chants.

"One hoe, one hoe, forty percent of new fields to your home!"

"Two hoes, two hoes, the whole family has no worries!"

In the crisscrossing fields, farmers wearing linen vests or bare-chested stood in rows.

Sweat gave their wheat-colored backs a layer of sheen, and the hoes in their hands gleamed brightly in the sun.

The hoes rose and fell, and clods of dirt and weeds jumped onto their clothes and skin.

Countless hoes moved like the legs of a centipede, rising and falling like waves.

Draft horses pulled wheeled plows, the sharp plow blades cutting through the soil, leaving neat, parallel furrows behind.

On another piece of land that had already been reclaimed, hired laborers scattered alfalfa and other green manure seeds into the soil, followed by laborers spreading farm manure.

In front of several pre-built wooden houses, several cooks and helpers were stirring spoons in large pots.

Because the Papal Palace was a major shareholder in the Holy Plow Monastery, there wasn't a strong pursuit of economic benefits.

Therefore, Horn ordered the Elder Seamus, the abbot, to provide the hired laborers with room and board.

In the reclamation team of the Holy Plow Monastery, there were specialized people responsible for laundry and cooking.

Those with skills would do finer work, such as plowmen, who were treated preferentially.

If you couldn't do fine work, don't think about relying on bravado; honestly do unskilled farm work such as carrying, weeding, and turning the soil.

In addition to room and board, the Holy Plow Monastery distributed an extra ten gallons of rations and some firewood and peat per month as wages for their reclamation work.

Saving some of these rations and supplementing them with potato roots could barely make up for the food shortage of their families.

To motivate the farmers, Horn ordered that 40% of the reclaimed land would be directly allocated to the reclaimers as dividends.

Of course, if they didn't want the land, they could also take shares in the Holy Plow Monastery.

However, most people decided to take the land, especially the numerous refugees.

Although Horn issued the decree of "Land to the Tiller," distributing land to a large number of refugees,

there was a prerequisite: continuous cultivation in one place for more than three years; otherwise, it was impossible to back-calculate through the tax registers.

Many refugees worked as hired laborers on different estates every year, suffering great losses.

Hearing that 40% of the land reclaimed by the Holy Plow Monastery would be used to reward the reclaimers, these refugees worked until they were pissing blood, wishing they could piss into the fields.

After all, the land they cultivated might be their own.

"How many people are there here?" Horn asked, squinting at the bustling scene before him.

Bursac, who came with him, blinked: "The Holy Plow Monastery has more than 10 reclamation teams. This one is so close to Jeanne d'Arc Castle, it should be the Second Reclamation Team, with more than 420 people."

After Horn abolished the "Fugitive Slave Law," farmers could freely leave the manor and work outside during the slack season.

So far, the reclamation teams of the Holy Plow Monastery in various places have recruited more than 3,000 hired laborers.

According to Horn's plan, it is expected to recruit 5,000 hired laborers, 200 cooks, and 800 helpers.

This would provide nearly 6,000 jobs, absorbing a large number of starving people and refugees.

Since these properties are mostly semi-ripe abandoned land, the Holy Plow Monastery can reclaim land at an average rate of 3,000 mu per day.

It is estimated that two months later, in mid-June, about 200,000 mu of abandoned land can be re-cultivated.

After mid-June, it is the season for harvesting rice fruit in early July, and the hired laborers seamlessly return home to harvest grain, smoothly weathering this famine.

The laborers, who were previously refugees, although they had not had time to plant their land, could join the Holy Scythe Monastery and start engaging in agricultural and sideline product processing and other industries.

By the spring of the following year, after learning agricultural and sideline product processing and agricultural technology, they could return to their land to cultivate.

"How much has the Holy Plow Monastery invested so far?" Horn asked, leaning against a beech tree.

"Currently, a total of 2,000 gold pounds have been invested, 300 gold pounds from the Salvation Army, 1,000 gold pounds from the Papal Palace, and 700 gold pounds from the citizens."

The 300 gold pounds invested by the Salvation Army were actually invested by various legions.

In war, each legion could receive 20% of the spoils of war, and this money would be recorded in the legion's account as the legion's public funds.

As for the 1,000 gold pounds invested by the Pope, 200 gold pounds were offset by providing venues and food.

When the reclamation target is completed in two months, after deducting the land distributed to the hired laborers, there will be 120,000 mu left.

Based on the standard of the total annual output as the land price, 120,000 mu is roughly equivalent to 10,000 gold pounds, which means the assets of the Holy Plow Monastery have increased fivefold.

Of course, this is just a floating profit, because it will take a long time for these lands to be sold or leased back to recover the cost.

Currently, of the 2,000 gold pounds on the Holy Plow Monastery's account, most of it, apart from 500 gold pounds of security deposit and reserved wages, has been used to purchase agricultural tools, cattle, horses, and seeds.

Most of the agricultural tools used by the Holy Plow Monastery were ordered by Horn from the village blacksmiths in various hundred-household districts.

These village blacksmiths may not have as good technology as the blacksmith masters in Gray Furnace Town, but they are still very good at building simple agricultural tools.

As for those plows, harrows, and wooden utensils, they are handed over to the village carpenters in the hundred-household districts to complete.

By creating demand through government orders to restore the economy, logistics will be guaranteed, and manpower and money and food can be provided continuously.

"Is this 2,000 gold pounds enough?" Horn asked, with his back to Bursac.

"Enough, it is a famine after all. They don't plan to make money, as long as they have enough to eat, they are satisfied, so the order price is very low."

"What about the Holy Scythe Monastery?"

"The Holy Scythe Monastery is still training personnel, trying to raise fish and raise pigs with potato roots. Anyway, we have a lot of peat, and it is very convenient to detoxify potato roots."

Even purified potato roots are slightly poisonous. If not handled properly, it is still easy to die.

So, given a choice, potato roots cannot be used as a staple food, only as a supplementary food.

But the starter of all the above economic wheels is not the gold pounds in Horn's hands, but the grain in Kashia County.

After all, gold pounds cannot be eaten.

A few days ago, Horn waited and waited, and finally received news from Kashia County.

They agreed to Horn exchanging 10,000 gold pounds for 500,000 gallons, and exchanging equivalent peat and mortar and other goods for 400,000 gallons, for a total of 900,000 gallons of grain.

But they also made a request, that Horn should bear the transportation costs during the period.