i have a shelter.

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"Yes!" Wendell said: "These grains can also be sold to the lords of other regions in the Kingdom of Eldar in exchange for our military expenditures.

George nodded, but sighed secretly.

Taking a peek at the land yields of Leopards and Dome Eagles, the yields of most of the lords' lands in the Kingdom of Eldar are probably a bit bad.The food sold out will be very sought-after.

Most of the remaining fields will be planted with wheat that is more suitable for storage.Most of this wheat can be stored because of the sweet potatoes.Although the wheat planted this year may only be half of the arable field, and there is only one season to harvest.But if it is done well this year, the food stored locally this year will have a big wait time!

"The food that is planned to be sold, in addition to the part arranged for Leiden, the other part will be handed over to Alfonso, and he will sell it to the nobles."

Wendell understood that the great lord meant that if there was food, he could control the nobles.It doesn't matter who sells it, but through Prince Alfonso's hand, not only can he get more political benefits, but Alfonso can also control more nobles.

During the meeting, the clerks had sorted out all the recorded matters, and Wendell would go back and revise some of the places George mentioned.And here they are, the matter is almost over.

When George turned his gaze to Earl Benjamin, Benjamin knew that it would be his turn next.

The earl didn't know farming or building.But politically it is extremely sharp.Although he couldn't understand a lot of things that George and others talked about today.But he could tell that this territory no longer belonged to him.

The big lord intends to take over completely and has been in business for a long time.

Then my own result, I am afraid there is only one ending

Under the comfort of George's kind words, Earl Benjamin knelt down on the ground profusely with sweat, and began to confess with tears.It was like seeing his own father.

And no matter how the great lord expressed the earl's innocence, the fear in the earl's heart could not be reduced.

George saw all the thoughts of the earl.He knew that Wendell had beaten him on the way.

And Benjamin is also a sensible person. From the current sentiment of the people in the territory, the nobles and vassals in the church who are actively working for the lord, he already knows that no matter what kind of background he has in the king, he will never be able to stand up .

And from the actions of his son and wife, he can see that he has been vassalized by the nobles, and the whole family has completely given up

At this time, Benjamin's heart was ashamed, and the only thing he wanted was to save his own life, to be a rich man and a puppet.

As for his own future fate, it depends entirely on the person in front of him.

George pulled him up and led Benjamin out of the house, towards the farmland outside.George knew there were real things to talk to him about.

George and his party stopped near a mill in the field. The mill was built on a small river with a bridge over the river, and the farmland was on the other side of the bridge.

Since the sleet fell a few days ago, the weather has gradually warmed up.The highest temperature in the past few days has reached above zero.The river has now completely melted, and the ice and snow that originally covered the farmland have also begun to melt.

In that field, the figure of a busy farmer has already appeared.

Near the river, some local scholars and priests are directing many laborers to build water canals.

The crowd was bustling with horses and ox carts going back and forth.Everyone is busy with things.Benjamin had never seen those lazy farmers look so hardworking.

Usually, even if they were whipped, they didn't have such mobility.

"Lord Benjamin, on your land, you have the most suitable land for farming in the entire Qiongying territory." George looked at the other side of the river and said sadly: "However, among these hundreds of miles of plains, only a small part of them are cultivated. planting. And last winter, many people died of freezing and starving because they couldn’t eat.”

0461 Kick off stumbling blocks

In George's view, Benjamin's land is even more favorable than Rat Territory!There is no problem even raising 100 million people!

And in this perfect order that has never had any disasters, this place should have been able to support 100 million people.

There are not only a large amount of arable land here, but also the prerequisites for the development of various handicrafts, spices, wine, animal husbandry and commerce. Among the residents, as long as each resident is allocated three or four acres of land, they can enjoy the dividends brought by the economy and live a life without worrying about food and clothing.

Here are all the conditions for the germination of capital.

But the 20 people here are eating people!

Earl Benjamin's territory is indeed very wide.In fact, this is the land bordering the valley that Alfonso mentioned earlier, covering more than 3 square kilometers.

To the north it borders the valley, with the long river Senas as its border.

The Senas Long River spreads across this plain, and the southward tributary of the river is like a blood vessel, connecting many small rivers.And in this piece of land, there is even a small lake that is not too big or too small.

This small lake is at the easternmost edge of the territory, surrounded by many pastures.And in the westernmost part of the territory, there is the green hills.

It is more than 260 kilometers long from east to west, and more than 150 kilometers long from north to south. It is a big county.

Counting Benjamin's vassals, the area of ​​the entire land has exceeded 6000 square kilometers, and it is still in the plains, there are no mountains and forests around, and there are very few woodlands.Therefore, there are many fields that can be cultivated.

Although there are many fields that have not been reclaimed, they are flocked to grazing and idle.Then remove the vineyards, spices and other fields.The farmland is only 600% of the overall area, but it still reaches nearly [-] square kilometers, or nearly [-] million mu!

Among them, Benjamin's own territory occupies more than half of the entire territory.That is, more than 2 square kilometers is equivalent to a city.Because pastures, vineyards, flowerbeds, and forests account for slightly more, all the farmland that produces food is 300 million mu.

The local townspeople, together with the surrounding manors and farms managed by Benjamin's relatives and retainers, have a combined population of less than 20.In the past few years, many people have died, and some of them have been lost.But there are also a lot of refugees coming from the basin, so obviously there is still a figure of 20.

Of these 20 people, even if only 10 people went to work in the fields, it would be enough to double the amount of farmland.but in fact it is not

The merger of nobles, churches and land greatly restricted the productivity here.

No matter how George comforted Benjamin in the house before, Benjamin felt in his heart that he was going to die.But after George brought Benjamin out, the smart earl calmed down slightly. Benjamin knew that he must survive.

During the walk, George and Benjamin mentioned the problem of famine here.

After hearing about the famine, Benjamin couldn't help but feel uneasy again. He couldn't help coughing, and said with an ugly face: "Dear Sir George. There was a bit of drought here last year, and there was a plague of locusts. The harvest is indeed good. Not very good sir, I didn't take good care of Xinmin. But it's not that I shirk my responsibility.

Speaking of this, tears welled up in Benjamin's eyes: "Actually, I have been actively organizing land reclamation, but with little success. The land is getting more and more dry, and many lands have had poor harvests after land reclamation. In vain Those good seeds were wasted”

"Oh?" George raised his eyebrows slightly and asked.

Benjamin calculated an account for him and had the data.

Last year, all the barren fields, inferior fields and excellent fields were added together, and the yield per mu was 1 bushel, which is more than 50 catties. This yield is outrageously low!

Excellent fields are better, with a yield of two hundred catties, but excellent fields are a minority after all.Many fields were left with little to no harvest.A little better, if you plant [-] catties of seeds, you will reap only [-] to [-] catties

Last year's severe drought and pests and diseases were one of the main reasons. Another factor was that many fields were left unattended.

"Even if these leaders are whipped, they don't work hard! And they make trouble for me every month. I have to expand the army again and again."

The key point is that although the land property is 1 bushel per mu, the kingdom imposes a strong tax of 4 yuan, which is usually not received by the earl, but the kingdom is now using the name of the war to suck blood and tax the duke 300 yuan. The first tax is collected according to the output of 120 bushels per mu. That is to say, this territory produces [-] million bushels of grain every year, but it has to pay [-] million taxes.

Of the remaining 180 million grain, some of it will be used for animal husbandry, military expenses, employment of artisans, and maintenance of various buildings and tools.After subtracting, there is not much left.

"The rest of the money, I have to manage it up and down. You don't know how blood-sucking the ministers of the royal court and the monks of the church are."

This sentence is true, according to the accounts compiled by Wendell.The earl sucked a lot of blood in the territory, but he also managed to get a lot of wealth out every year. Especially in the past two years, the earl lent a large amount of money and food to Old Vault Eagle and Prince Robert.

Judging from this, the earl is indeed living a hard life, and he has done his best to support these 20 people, the [-] knights, and the [-] militiamen in his hands.

But George smiled slightly after listening to the miser's words.

George looked at Wendell beside him.The priest picked up a ledger and calculated it. Wendell sorted out the earl's income in great detail, knowing more than the earl.