Chapter 126: The Transformation of Wheat
Translator:Transn
Editor:Meh
The rotation system was not important for villages or towns with small population density, but the land around the big cities was scarce, and it was equal to wasting the land if the system was still adopted. There was a large amount of grain imported from other towns monthly for places like Silver City, Fallen Dragon Ridge and King's City.
The first step to use the human and animals fertilizer was to collect them up. This was the reason why Roland decided to build the public lavatory as soon as possible, and it would also help to reduce the spread of diseases and beautify the living environment. What a multi-purpose solution. The lavatories had been almost completed by the time the rest personnel arrived. As for composting and sowing, he decided to pick up a few of experienced farmers and teach them one-on-one. After all, the land was still under the clean-up stage, so it would still need another week before they could start farming.
Having completed the chores on hand, he decided to take a look at Leaf's experimental field in the castle backyard.
Since Leaf started to study and improve the various kind of seeds, all the planting areas in the backyard were planted with crops. She also followed Roland's suggestion to divide the flower pond into several sections and number them in order to compare the development of the two groups of experimental crops.
The moment Roland stepped into the backyard, his eyes were dazzled by the clusters of shaking golden wheat.
"Your Highness." Leaf who was squatting by the flower pond, stood, gathered up her hair by her ear and bowed to pay her respects.
"Are these all of your improved results?" He waved his hand to tell her not to be so courteous, walked forward excitedly to hold a heavy load of wheat and feel its full caryopsis with his fingers.
He had no idea of what the wheat would grow into, however, compared with the wheat fields of King's City in his memory, the wheat was not only smaller than that on his palm but the particles were not so full.
Leaf nodded and said, "First, I let the wheat grow big and then I plant the new seeds into the flower pond. After accelerating and harvesting the seeds a few times, such a wheat can be obtained. However... I'm not sure why it's difficult to get such a long and huge wheat again after repeating the process two to three times."
"Unfortunately, I am not able to help on this aspect," Roland thought. According to his poor junior high school biology knowledge, it was probably due to selfing defect? The rice planted normally in the southern area was far different from the wheat. In order to increase the productivity, the seeds were actually purchased. However, it already had reached its practical value if it could sustain for two generations. A wheat could produce over 130 seeds and the first batch of seeds was transformed by Leaf, the second batch of seeds was given to farmers as self-reserved seeds which could be used for at least two years.
"What about this one, how come it's empty?" Roland noticed an area of the flower bed with only a few wilted wheat."
"I was planting there at first, and perhaps I've been planted too many times on it," Leaf spoke with uncertainty, "The wheat can quickly grow if I cast magic power, but the wheat will quickly wilt once the magic power has subsided."
It seemed that in order for the magically transformed plant to continue growing, it would still need the nutrients of the soil and some trace of elements were still essential. Roland walked towards the last flower bed where the shape of the wheat planted was extremely strange. There were several clusters of cyan wheat grains hanging down from a stalk which was as thick as an arm, and there were several branches stretching out in the middle of the stalk. The branches were covered with green leaves. Therefore, the size of each wheat was much bigger and there were only two planted in the flower bed.
This was the revised version Roland got Leaf to produce with magic power—the Little Wheat Tree.
Roland had an idea to grow wheat like a banana tree, fruiting from the branches, harvesting annually to cut down on the troubles of ploughing and seeding and also yielding the bigger and more green leaves which could improve the photosynthesis and be less dependent on the land. The sturdy wheat-straw and branches were a little space-consuming as of now. Besides that, the wheat was only growing out from the top of the branches and did not match his initial idea. "Perhaps, get Leaf to improve it towards the direction of the grapevine?" Roland thought, "After all, she hasn't seen a banana tree before and grape isn't a rare product in the Kingdom of Graycastle, and it should be easier for her to imitate with an available sample."
"The seeds of the three wheat can't be used for sowing," Leaf said, "I've tried, but the seeds didn't sprout after they were planted. However, it does yield fruits repeatedly and the wheat you're looking at now belongs to the second batch."
"Not sprouting means that each of the wheat trees was a unique presence which required Leaf to manually transform and that it wasn't worth growing at the present." "You've done a good job. Let's name the wheat Golden Ones. I'll keep a test field for you in the south bank of Redwater River, surrounded by a fence and covered up by a partition. You can accelerate the ripening process of a batch of Golden Number One as soon as possible for this year's spring sowing." Roland ordered, "As for the garden, it'll continue to be used to improve the new species, and I've just come up with a lot of ideas, not only for wheat crops but also for grapes."
Unfortunately, Leaf could only understand the characteristics of a crop from the macro level, such as a lot of fruit, sweet taste, dense branches and so on... If she could understand a crop from the micro level, would she be able to directly manipulate its gene and carry out the fine and precise adjustment? For example, plants could absorb light other than the visible light, such as ultraviolet, X-ray, and even ionizing radiation for photosynthesis to directly produce starch, glucose, sucrose and other energy storage materials. In that case, people could directly plant the crops in the cultivating tank.
Prince Roland lit a bonfire beside Redwater River in the evening and ordered Carter and the guards to gather the serfs. Big pots were delivered here by his people and set up on simple clay stoves to cook porridge.
Staring at their new lord who had his back facing the fire, his narrow long shadow reflected by the fire, the serfs bowed their heads down scarily. There were some bold ones sneakily peeking at Prince Roland from time to time.
Roland stood before the bonfire and the crowd of more than 1,000 people, to announce the rules he had set.
"I'm Roland Wimbledon, the fourth Prince of the Kingdom of Graycastle, the Lord of Border Town and the Lord of the Western Region!"
"I'm gathering all of you here to tell you that you're lucky to come to this domain! As long as you work hard, you can get rid of your present identity and status!"
"Yes, I'll give you a chance to get rid of the identity of a slave and become a free man!"
The serfs suddenly burst into an uproar. The serfs were well aware of what being a free man meant. They would no longer be subject to cruelty by the owner and no longer had to be forced to carry out endless farming. All the crops produced in the fields would no longer have to be turned over to the lord, and their sons and daughters could also leave the identity of slaves behind them.
Roland waited for a moment and continued to say, "From tomorrow onwards, each of you'll be assigned to a piece of land where someone will guide you on how to farm to cultivate more wheat. In the first year, you would have to turn over 70% of your harvest and you get to keep the rest. The serfs of the best harvest will be promoted to become free men!"
"After you become a free man, your family can be exempted from slavery, and you can decide whether to continue farming or find another way to sustain your lives in the town. If you choose to continue farming, 20% of your harvest should be turned over to pay the rent of the farmland. The other 80% would be at your disposal. If you choose to find another way to sustain your life, you would have to return the field to the lord, and, of course, there's also no need to turn over any food!"
All that could be heard was the sound of breathing until someone suddenly shouted, "Your Highness, is what you said true?"
"Of course," said Roland word by word, "As a lord, I would never deceive my people."
"Your Merciful Highness," someone could not help but shout gently and soon there was cheering which quickly became louder. "Long live, Your Highness!"
A serf in the first row started to kneel down in front of the cheering crowd, following by the second and the third...
Suddenly, all of the serfs were kneeling, the cheering sounds continually growing. The voice of the people finally combined into one rhythm. "Your Merciful Highness!" "Long Live, Your Highness!"
"Since there was an echo, there was no need to prepare an actor," Prince Roland thought.
He clapped his hands and ordered the guards behind him, "Let's eat!"