Chapter 268: The First Plenary Session (Part 1)

Roland held the first high-level plenary meeting of Border Town in the castle reception room. Hunting ? ??????????????

Compared with Barov and his dozen or so apprentices at the beginning, the city hall has now expanded to a huge group of nearly a hundred people--among them are down-and-out nobles, captured knights and entourages, and those who have completed elementary education and graduated certified aborigines.

Thanks to the growth of the population, various departments have also been formed one after another, so that the city hall finally has a little look that the prince expected. He no longer has to do everything by himself as before. Now, as long as he explains some simple policies and plans, this fledgling city hall can dismantle tasks to various departments to complete. This makes Roland feel satisfied It is gratifying.

The participants of the first high-level meeting were all the top leaders of the department, namely, the Minister of Agriculture Seni Dali, the Minister of Education Shujuan, the head of the Ministry of Chemical Industry Kemo Struer (interim), and the Minister of Construction Carl Van Burt, Iron Ax, the head of the army, and Barov Mons, the head of the city hall. The Ministry of Industry is still managed by Roland himself. After all, except for him, no one knows what industrialization looks like.

There is a bucket of ice water next to everyone, emitting bursts of cool air - the ice cubes placed in the bucket have been enchanted by candlelight, and soaking in the water can last at least a morning. Even though it was scorching hot outside, the temperature in the castle hall was still cool.

"Then each department will report on the recent situation." Roland took out the kettle from the bucket and poured himself a glass of ice water. "Let's start with the Ministry of Agriculture."

"Yes, Your Highness." Seni got up and saluted, and then spread out the scrolls prepared in advance, "The food handed in this time is about 17,000 hu, and this amount alone is enough to satisfy all the townspeople. In addition to the grain needs in the next summer, the Ministry of Agriculture will purchase the remaining grains at market prices according to your requirements, but this amount is far less than the ratio of handing in, and it is currently only 4,500 hu."

The so-called "Dhu" is a commonly used weighing container for wheat, a basket made of bamboo slices, so this number is just a matter of hearing, and he doesn't know how to convert it into kilograms or liters—fortunately, these are not The important thing is that he knows that the food collected is enough to feed the townspeople.

The key lies in the second point. If calculated according to the method of confiscating 70% and retaining 30%, the purchased grain should be about 7,000 hu, and the portion reserved for grain and seeds for the next year will not be used that much at all. In other words, some serfs did not sell the remaining 30% of the grain to the city hall, but chose to hoard it privately in wooden sheds.

Although he had foreseen such a situation early in the morning, he still let out a soft sigh when it actually happened. The purpose of hoarding grain is obvious, it is to speculate and resell - if the town's raw food supply is insufficient, or a natural disaster strikes, they can sell this batch of grain at a price much higher than the market price, even if it is more than ten times no way.

This is also the reason why Roland made the food transaction an exclusive project of the city hall, and the buyer must show his ID card. The food problem is related to the most basic stability of Border Town. In the early days when the food was not abundant, if the sale was open and restricted, it would be easy for people to buy it and hoard it, eventually causing the price of food to rise. Only by purchasing rationed grains under the real-name system and prohibiting other sales channels can the price of grains be maintained at a stable level.

"Your Highness, why don't you force the purchase of the wheat from the serfs?" Saini asked suspiciously, "Anyway, the law doesn't allow them to sell to others."

"Because it belongs to their private property, how to dispose of it is their freedom," Roland replied, "I didn't stipulate that serfs should not keep food for themselves. You can also understand that as long as there is no express prohibition, it is allowed."

Saini looked a little confused, as if he didn't know how to understand this sentence. Not only him, most of the people frowned, only Barov showed a thoughtful expression.

"Is there anything else to report?" Roland took a sip of ice water. This kind of concept of emphasizing rules and procedures in everything can only be regarded as a new era's employee after they slowly understand, or in other words, understand this. qualified official. Of course, this method is also easy to go to the other extreme, leading to bureaucracy, but bureaucracy is better than chaos or wanton behavior.

"Uh... yes," Seni Dali shook his head, "Now that the fields have been harvested, I wonder how to arrange the fallow plan for the next year?"

"No, these lands are not fallow, and wheat will continue to be planted in the coming year," Roland waved his hand. "The manure piled up on the edge of the field is for fertilizing the land. Next, you instruct the serfs to shovel them into the field and mix them thoroughly with the soil." Just continue to pile up new manure in the vacated space." The hot and humid weather in summer can make it rotten in two months, while it takes about four months in winter. By the beginning of next spring, not only the soil quality has been improved by batches of compost, but he also has a new batch of compost that can be added as a base fertilizer, so there is no need to fallow at all.

Not to mention the high-end chemical fertilizers, the application of human and animal fertilizers to agricultural production is already a great improvement.

"Okay, if that's your request." He rubbed his head, "Also...Your Highness, I'm afraid I can't grind so much wheat with one or two stone mills. I would like to apply to build a mill beside the Chishui River , preferably steam powered."

"Yes," Roland nodded. This is another new breakthrough—someone other than himself has finally begun to try to use this new power. "You first propose a plan to Barov, and then discuss with the Ministry of Construction after obtaining funding." work out a detailed plan.”

"Okay, Your Highness," Saini replied, "The last thing is the promotion of freedmen. This time, a total of 516 people have obtained the qualifications for promotion. Because it is strictly divided on the spot according to the amount of wheat turned in, there is no I have reported the list to Lord Barov." Then he got up again and saluted, "My report is over."

"Good job," Roland clapped his hands twice to show encouragement. This young knight from the former wolf family seems to have adapted to life in the small town, and he is still doing well in the city hall. With a little packaging, he is an excellent example of publicity. In the future, he will recruit the downcast nobles and knights can play a small role.

The second person to give the report was Shujuan. Her long hair was coiled behind her head. She was wearing a clean and tidy white shirt and a pure black long skirt without any decoration or lace. She looked mature and capable. It's hard to imagine that half a year ago, she was still an exiled witch who had to hide in order to avoid the church.

"At present, there are two batches of personnel who have completed primary education, a total of 85 people. Most of them have studied in the college run by Mr. Carl." Her ability is to remember, so there is no need for any preparation when reporting data. One point made Roland very envious. "Forty-six of them chose to work in the city hall, 21 decided to go to the bicycle factory, and thirteen applied to join the First Army." She paused at this point, "There are still five People signed up for chemistry lab positions.”

Five people? Roland couldn't help but look at Kyle Struer, and the latter's face was obviously a little ugly. It seems that the publicity effect of the award ceremony is not as good as I expected. As a result, some of the three newly built laboratories may be idle for a while.

Fortunately, the employment rate is at least 100%, he comforted himself. (To be continued.)