Chapter 147 Food Reserves
After Richard exchanged knowledge with the Dawn Church, he rested in the City of Victory for a few days and returned to the Harland Territory alone.
After being in a coma for more than ten days, it was already October when he returned to the territory.
In this battle to suppress the rebellion, Richard annexed several serf squadrons, which added up to more than 500 people.
The casualties in the battle to suppress the rebellion were not very large. After returning to the territory, the three infantry squadrons almost doubled their personnel.
The selection of soldiers in the serf squadron was not very good. Most of these soldiers were crooked. Richard was going to clear out some of them.
Select some elite soldiers from the serf soldiers, and then recruit some people from the territory to continue to expand the two squadrons of soldiers.
Complete the training of new recruits before next summer.
By then, the Harland Territory will have ten squadrons of infantry, one squadron of Warcraft cavalry, and three squadrons of auxiliary soldiers.
Such a strong force, as long as it is not facing the orc army, is enough to repel one or two orc battalions and protect the safety of the territory.
During the time when Richard was in a coma, the Harland family had spread the word that they were willing to exchange three blood enlightenment potions for a batch of grain. Many nobles came to Vickburg to negotiate with Richard.
One blood enlightenment potion needs to be exchanged for five small merits.
In the main legion, usually one small merit can be exchanged for resources worth 100 gold coins.
Many grassroots officers who have made military merits but have no hope of being awarded a title will exchange their merits for cultivation resources and trade with nobles before retiring.
Generally speaking, a blood enlightenment potion is worth about 500 gold coins.
The price of grain in the Grant Kingdom is not expensive. Two gold coins can buy one ton of grain in the northern border area.
An adult male works for a year and his salary is about three or four gold coins, which is enough to feed seven or eight people.
But a family has various expenses. In addition to food expenses, they also need to buy cloth and salt. They have to pay rent and buy various necessities of life.
A citizen family needs two laborers to live a better life.
It seems very cost-effective to exchange a blood enlightenment potion for 250 tons of grain.
But many times the value of an item is not converted in this way.
Nobles have many children, and blood enlightenment potions are always scarce.
Upstarts like the Harland family, whose family is still the first generation and basically does not have much knight blood, will take out blood enlightenment potions for exchange.
If you wait for more than ten years, Richard's children will grow up, and Hayden, Wendy, Tang En, and Adrian will all have children. Even if there is a severe shortage of food, Richard cannot take out blood enlightenment potions for exchange.
For most nobles, although food is a precious strategic resource, it is not scarce.
The Geda Province has a vast territory, with rain and heat at the same time, and the grain output is not low. The per capita arable land area is very large. Although it is on the front line, there is no shortage of food. Instead, it is the grain export area of the Grant Kingdom.
Every year, a large amount of food from the three provinces in the northern border enters Nolan through the North-South Canal along the Geda Province, Sodamia Province, and Gabrielia Province.
If the Haland Territory had not swallowed up 18,000 people, there would be no shortage of food next year.
So from the point of view of scarcity, if you want to exchange the blood enlightenment potion, you must trade at a premium.
In order to exchange the blood enlightenment potion, many nobles came to Harland Territory in person.
The first one to come was uncle Soros, and Soros's brother Baron Dark accompanied him.
After refining the magic essence potion, Soros was successfully promoted to the sixth level. Soros made a lot of contributions in suppressing the rebellion this time, and he has accumulated more than half of the merits for being awarded the hereditary baron.
Although Baron Dark did not like his half-brother.
But for the future of his son, he must get the blood enlightenment potion. Baron Dark still shamelessly found Soros, hoping that Soros would mediate and let him get the blood enlightenment potion.
Even though he had conflicts with his brother Baron Dark, when Baron Dark came to the door humbly.
Soros thought of his father and the days when he lived in Baron Dark Territory when he was young.
Countless past events emerged in his mind one by one. Although some memories were sad and bitter, there was still a hint of sweetness in the bitter memories.
"When I was young, my father had no plan to change the heir. Because my mother was of ordinary origin, I was not a threat to my brother. At that time, my brother was still very good to me. When I was young, I always followed my brother's buttocks.
Once when I was hunting, a black bear pounced on me. It was my brother who blocked me and stabbed the black bear to death with a sword. There was a scar on his shoulder."
Soros suddenly remembered the good side of his brother.
Although Baron Dark once used his connections to exclude him, making him unable to work in the Grizzlies Corps, which led to a very slow accumulation of military merits.
But at this moment, he still chose to forgive his brother, remembered the good of Baron Dark, forgot the unpleasant side, and decided to ask Richard for a favor.
After doing this, Soros finally let go a little.
Since Uncle Soros came to the door, this favor must be given, and Richard would not ask for a premium, making his uncle's favor very cheap.
He directly exchanged 250 tons of grain for a bloodline enlightenment potion from Baron Dark.
After Baron Dark exchanged for the bloodline enlightenment potion, nobles came to visit him in an endless stream.
Most of these people were members of noble branches, and many of them had very rich family assets and could purchase grain to exchange with Richard.
However, their political status was not high, and they could not bring other resources to the Harland territory.
Soon Baron Sharp came to the door. He was Richard's old comrade-in-arms and old superior. The two of them also suppressed the rebellion together this time.
Baron Sharp had several children, but these children did not have knight blood.
In order to become a hereditary noble, he had divorced his ex-wife. He exchanged the blood enlightenment potion for his current wife, Baroness Raphael.
Although Baron Raphael had no public husband before, he had many lovers and gave birth to six children.
Even though Baron Raphael was a powerful knight, he still lacked blood enlightenment potions.
This time, he asked Baron Sharp for help because he wanted to plan for the future of his fourth son.
Baron Sharp's territory was adjacent to Harland's territory, and the old superior had to give face.
However, Baron Raphael did not lack food and agreed to exchange it with 400 tons of food.
The last blood enlightenment potion was traded to Baron Rice, an acquaintance. Baron Rice had a more distant relationship with Richard and the premium was larger.
Five hundred tons of food could be exchanged for a blood enlightenment potion.
Five hundred tons of grain were sold, worth thousands of gold coins, and the premium almost doubled.
Using three bloodline enlightenment potions, 1,150 tons of grain were traded. Counting the grain stored in the territory, the grain reserves have exceeded 9,000 tons.
Richard did a little calculation and decided to continue to increase the grain reserves by 3,000 tons.
Three thousand tons of grain are worth 6,000 gold coins.
Although the Harland territory has developed rapidly, because Richard has expanded the army on a large scale, the territory has been built and developed at an accelerated speed, consuming a lot of money. 6,000 gold coins are still a lot of money for Richard.
Almost all of the gold coins seized in the rebellion war were used to reward merit.
Although there is a sum of money in the territory treasury, this money is to prevent emergencies.
If it is all used to buy food, when you need money urgently, a penny will be difficult for a hero.