Pioneer Lord: Starting From Daily Intelligence-Chapter 496 - 4: The Necessity of First Night Rights and Extraordinary Grass

As long as the serfs enter this stable, they might be dragged into the root maze by the savage vines of the Decaying Alfalfa.

But since they went to steal the grain from the stable, bearing the cost is only right.

Su Li quickly glossed over this point, turning his focus to the cultivation of these Extraordinary Grasses.

It seems that the Wild God·Tar is indeed somewhat unrestrained.

His priest is named Tal’s Maiden, his Holy Beasts like the Giant Shepherd Deer and Unicorn require pure maidens to ride. Even the grass infused with his Divine Power needs the tears of pure maidens for irrigation and nurturing.

This makes the lord’s right to the first night seem particularly necessary.

The chastity of any maiden belongs to the Lord. 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

At least until the Lord permits, if a virgin loses her chastity, both she and her damned lover will be hanged from the gallows.

Su Li can grant pardons, but the serfs cannot steal on their own.

Then Su Li said to Edmond, "Regarding what you’ve mentioned, the territory will support you fully. Whether it’s the tears of pure maidens or massive amounts of fodder, we will collect them with all our might. I have only one request: quickly cultivate this grass in the Holy Forest to meet the needs of warhorses and Combat Rams."

"No problem, Lord! I will use Divine Magic to quickly gather the seeds of Moonlight Alfalfa and widely sow them in the forest, expanding at least 20 acres in the first stage."

Su Li nodded and asked, "How many livestock do we have in our ranch now?"

"The numbers are already dwindling, Lord. According to the ’Blood Pine Forest Reclamation Order’, every family willing to go to the frontiers to reclaim land can apply for three bags of winter wheat seeds and two draft horses. We have already sent out over a thousand draft horses."

"Additionally, with the increase in Territorial Knights, the knights have bought nearly 2000 warhorses."

"Now, our ranch only has over 920 warhorses left, more than 2000 draft horses, over 500 mountain rams, but the number of regular goats and sheep is considerable, totaling over 6000. Our shepherds are relocating these flocks to the Bloody Highlands, as the Bloody Highlands are natural pastures."

The better aspect of Hesse’s foothills is that this vast fertile land not only has advanced agriculture but also many natural pastures, especially the cool highlands near the northern mountains, are natural grazing areas.

Actually, more than just Su Li himself, many Knight Clans, territory Noble Families, and big landlords have purchased land from Su Li there, hiring shepherds for grazing. When Su Li rode the Griffin for patrols, he saw below one lush grassland after another, with at least eight or nine herds, possibly totaling one or two thousand cattle and horses combined.

These Knight Clans are actually quite wealthy; after all, Su Li is very generous. Having won so many battles, he shares the spoils with the Knight Clans, accounting for 20% to 30% of the total.

This is also the most important reason for Su Li’s high prestige. Victory is the best incentive; soldiers can always take their reward from victory, gaining a lot of wealth, benefits, land, and livestock.

An important reason for rechecking the territory’s population statistics every few months is that these Knight Clans continually purchase slaves from the slave traders and Slave Capture Teams arriving in Hesse Town to farm the estates and rear the herds.

Each time during verification, Su Li finds that the territory’s population exceeds his expectations, and the farmland is broader than calculated.

Of course, Su Li is pleased to see such progress.

In such vast Hesse’s foothills, relying solely on his own Power, rapid development is impossible. It’s necessary to leverage many Knight Clans to expand one stronghold and estate after another, then use these strongholds and estates as bases, to open up tracts of farmland and pastures around them.

After Su Li has set down the focus on farming, Vandar and Edmond immediately began implementing these policies.

Firstly, it’s the grass Edmond needed, which Su Li correctly guessed. Edmond went to the Provincial Affairs Council to seek Oliver’s support but was immediately scolded by the Iron-blood Chancellor until he couldn’t lift his head.

Oliver made a simple calculation for him, estimating how big a loss an exemption of 10% on taxes would cause to the territory’s assets, and how many merchants and big landlords might use the opportunity to evade taxes. Even a preliminary estimate showed that with the current scale of the territory, hundreds of Golden Crowns would be lost annually.

When the territory develops and expands to a scale of 20000+ population, thousands of Golden Crowns may be lost annually!

Fortunately, the emergence of Moonlight Alfalfa showed Oliver some value, giving Edmond a slightly better mood.

He allocated 30 Golden Crowns to Edmond for gathering the grass himself.

Golden Crowns!

Compared to the usual hundreds or thousands in revenue, this may seem trivial, but it displayed unparalleled purchasing power!

This equates to the entire income of 30 farmers for a year.

By distributing it in one go, it mobilized over 1000 farmers to help the ranch collect more than 100,000 bundles of grass.

This truly was a fast cash project; the civilians delivered by hand, and the ranch paid instantly.

Many families took action with their entire household; even 5-year-old children would carry stone knives to the fields to harvest fodder for a Copper Coin.

Especially in those villages closer to the ranch, every village with dozens of households would rush to harvest a batch of grass after finishing farm work before dusk. Then, a dozen strong youths from each village would push carts or drive carriages to deliver these grasses to the ranch, exchanging them for considerable wealth of several Silver Coins.