Pioneer Lord: Starting From Daily Intelligence-Chapter 553 - 20: Achievements in Water Conservancy Construction

Su Li furrowed his brow slightly and said, "Why is it so little? Only 20,000 tons? My estimated scale was around 30,000 tons."

Vandar immediately replied, "Actually, it’s not that little. The average yield per acre is nearly 230 pounds of wheat, not every piece of land can be as fertile as the Blood Sacrifice Field. Furthermore, the devastation caused by the Green Dragon forced us to replant a portion of our crops."

"In addition, a considerable portion of the farmland is planted with economic crops, such as soybeans, beets, canola, flax, hemp, cotton, etc."

Hearing this explanation, Su Li was relieved. He realized his previous estimate was a bit too optimistic, as the territory’s output wasn’t even fully consumed by the humans, and there would be some surplus to feed the livestock.

However, in his observation, most of the territory’s peasants were too poor to afford raising livestock like chickens, ducks, pigs, and sheep,

mainly because he had calculated all the farmland in Jorn Shallow Bay as wheat fields when a significant portion of it was actually used for economic crops.

After all, clothing, food, housing, and travel, clothing comes before food, and the scale of planting flax, cotton, and the like is quite large.

Moreover, the territory can’t go without cooking oil or sugar; the scale of beet and canola planting also needs to be increased.

Reducing these types may eliminate about one-third of the farmland scale.

More importantly, the territory has a large number of knights and griffins, which urgently need a large amount of meat.

So the territory must allocate a sufficient amount of farmland to plant soybeans, as it’s an important feed for livestock. You can’t just let pigs eat grass or wheat, right? 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

After gaining a little understanding of the situation, Su Li smiled and said, "The farming in Jorn Shallow Bay has been quite effective. This is a result of your Dawn Church’s efforts. I will donate 200 Golden Crowns from my personal treasury to your church to reward your achievements this year."

Golden Crowns is already a considerable fortune.

After all, selling all 20,000 tons of grain would only fetch 4,000 Golden Crowns.

But the serfs under Su Li’s command couldn’t possibly be like in that joke by the vampire mocking the empire, with serfs comparable to skeletons.

These serfs, peasants, and soldiers all have to consume a large amount of grain, and even considering feeding warhorses, this 20,000 tons of grain might not even be enough.

Even if Su Li sold the grain to towns for the sake of the frontier granary’s reputation, he would at most earn about 1,000 Golden Crowns.

Calculating it that way, the annual grain output might be worth over 12,000 Golden Crowns, but the profit from exports is estimated to be around 3,000 Golden Crowns.

The speed and scale of wealth accumulation from agriculture can never compare to industry and the extraordinary world.

Su Li being able to take out 200 Golden Crowns to donate to the Dawn Church is already quite remarkable.

Don’t look at Su Li as someone who spends extravagantly, but most of his wealth is used for investment and military development.

He hasn’t even purchased anything for himself worth more than 200 Golden Crowns, only recently giving 3,000 Golden Crowns to Aeliria, who fascinated him.

Upon hearing Su Li’s promise, Vandar was indeed uplifted and immediately continued his report energetically, "Lord, your agricultural yield is far more than just these. This 1,900 plus acres of land are your private fields. But the territory has also sold and leased out over 2,000 acres of land in total, for which we don’t charge rent, but we do impose the Nineteen Taxes!"

"Based on their output and the tax scheme adjusted by the Provincial Affairs Council, we can still receive over 6,000 tons of grain."

Upon hearing this, Su Li couldn’t help but smile.

With the development of the territory, tax revenue has finally begun to take shape.

It’s unlike when the Hesse Territory first opened up, nearly completely relying on the harvests from Jorn Shallow Bay, with tax revenue being almost nonexistent.

The Nineteen Taxes in Hesse Territory couldn’t truly collect nine out of ten; with adjustments from the Provincial Affairs Council, about six out of ten are collected, while the Blood Pine Forest opening area has even lower taxes, collecting five out of ten.

But regardless of whether six or five out of ten are collected, their 2,000 acres of land only brought in 6,000 tons of grain, which shows that outside of Jorn Shallow Bay, the territory’s water infrastructure is very underdeveloped, resulting in significantly lower yields per acre compared to Jorn Shallow Bay.

So Su Li asked, "How is the progress of the water infrastructure for the farmland?"

Vandar bowed slightly and said, "This aspect is still best reported to you by the Dwarves, my lord, as they are responsible for the various projects in the territory."

"Okay, Engineering Master, please provide us with a detailed introduction of the territory’s engineering situation."

Once Su Li finished speaking, the Dwarf Engineering Master Kurgan immediately stood up. He braided his beard into a pigtail, and his small eyes rounded and bulged like a pair of green peas.

As a Dwarf Engineering Master, he is of the most orthodox type in Dwarven society, with a volatile temper, stubborn personality, commitment to promises, and a strong sense of honor.

Those who can become Dwarf Engineers are essentially outstanding members of the Engineer’s Guild with a higher education, and their achievements in science, gadgets, and technology are unparalleled worldwide.

This is not an easy achievement. In Dwarf society, if a Dwarf shows special talent in mechanics, he may be granted an apprenticeship in the Engineer’s Guild, whose duty is to provide the latest technological advancements to Dwarves. Most engineers spend a lot of time fixing broken creations and cursing the lousy results of the engineer who built it first.

They are also responsible for creating blueprints or schematics for potential new technologies. If the guild considers a concept valuable enough, the guild will provide all the necessary tools, materials, and other assistance to the responsible Dwarf Engineer. Most inventions never succeed, but others, such as the legendary gyroplane, indeed succeed.