The Rise of the European Emperor

The autumn harvest in East Friesland is still orderly and must be a bumper one. The counties of Oldenburg and Holstein will also have a bumper harvest this year due to new fertilizer processing plants.

It's just that the amount of arable land in Oldenburg County is a little less, only 60,000 Eugrams, which is more than 20,000 Eugrams less than the East Frisian County that Marin just took over. Moreover, the population of the former county of Oldenburg was larger than that of East Friesland. At the beginning, East Frisian only had more than 60,000 people, while the count of Oldenburg now has more than 80,000 people.

In fact, this is not surprising. why? East Friesland is not as big as Oldenburg, and its population is not as large as that of Oldenburg. However, it is rich in water resources. In East Friesland, there are large swamps of rivers, lakes and swamps.

Oldenburg is different, although it is said that the county of Oldenburg is also near the mouth of the Weser River. However, the number of freshwater rivers and lakes in the county of Oldenburg is far less than that of East Friesland.

In this era, the European Germanic agricultural technology was backward, and the farmland was often reclaimed along the river or lake. The reason for this is to facilitate irrigation. After all, the Germans didn't know the "advanced irrigation technology" of digging trenches and canals, they only knew how to use the existing freshwater resources. In the case that the freshwater rivers and lakes are not as good as those of East Friesland, the farmland area of ​​Oldenburg is naturally not as much as that of East Friesland before.

Therefore, the arable land in the Earl of Oldenburg is only 60,000 Ugrams, and most of them are on the banks of the Weser River or the Hunter River. As for other areas, it is mainly used for grazing, or just forest.

Of course, the northern coastal area of ​​Oldenburg County also has a well-developed fishery. As for the coastal fishermen, they are actually Frisian.

In view of the vast grasslands and developed animal husbandry of Oldenburg County, Marin also specially set up several horse farms on the grasslands of Oldenburg County, specially responsible for cultivating war horses. You know, in later generations, the Oldenburg horse is a famous horse.

Moreover, there are more sheep in the county of Oldenburg. However, most of its breeds are mutton sheep, and there are few wool sheep. Wool sheep and meat sheep are different. Wool wool is very long and dense, while meat sheep have shorter and coarser wool and a fatter body.

Marin intends to promote wool sheep on the grasslands of the Earl of Oldenburg in the future. Because the economic value of mutton is too low, mutton is mainly eaten by civilians. Aristocrats, it is popular to eat beef. If it is eaten by the common people, it is not so particular, in fact, pork can also be used. Or, the sheep used for wool is old, and the old mutton that is killed is not unacceptable to civilians. After all, it's good to have something to eat.

At the same time, if sheep are raised for wool, it can vigorously develop the wool textile industry, drive economic development and increase tax revenue, which is much more cost-effective than mutton sheep.

Of course, Marin will also instruct relevant personnel to find a way to select and breed sheep for both wool and meat when breeding sheep. It seems that the German Merino sheep of later generations are such a breed.

...

Let's talk about the Principality of Schleswig. The Principality of Schleswig has a larger area of ​​9,200 square kilometers, which is larger than the counties of East Friesland and Oldenburg combined. Moreover, there are many rivers and lakes. Therefore, in the Principality of Schleswig, there are 150,000 people and 100,000 Eugrams, or 1.2 million mu, of arable land.

In fact, the Principality of Schleswig could have reclaimed more arable land. Unfortunately, the Principality of Schleswig is surrounded by the sea on both sides, and the coastal residents are more accustomed to fishing. Moreover, most of the inhabitants of the west coast are the North Frisian branch of the Frisians.

In addition, the land of the Principality of Schleswig is a bit barren, and without fertilizer technology, the yield per mu is very low. Therefore, animal husbandry has also been vigorously developed here. And, to Marin's surprise, the dairy industry is well developed here, and cheese is a local specialty. Moreover, the distribution areas of the dairy industry are mainly in the Danes inhabited areas in the northern part of the Principality of Schleswig. As for the German settlements in the south,

Agriculture is the mainstay, supplemented by sheep raising.

However, in the dairy industry in the Principality of Schleswig, the output of dairy cows seems to be very ordinary, far less than the black and white Holstein cattle produced in the northern Dutch Counties and West Frisian regions. Marin intends to find a way to introduce Holstein black and white cattle from the northern part of the Dutch Counties or West Friesland to the northern part of the Principality of Schleswig to get more milk production and more cheese.

However, plain cheese is really unpalatable. Marin plans to find a group of engineers to study how to produce milk powder when the time is right, so that babies all over the country can drink delicious milk. With milk, everyone will grow taller in the future. Unlike now, among civilians, there are not many people over 1.7 meters tall. It is the knight family, because of their high genetics and living standards, their height is generally above 1.7 meters. Even, there are a lot of people above 1.8 meters. After all, the knight family belongs to the aristocracy, and the children are well nourished since childhood, plus the inherited tall genes, it is strange that they are not tall.

After occupying the Counties of Oldenburg and the Duchy of Schleswig, Marin controlled 130,000 Eugrams out of the 160,000 Eugrams in the two countries through "trusteeship". The remaining 30,000 Eugrams were mainly in the hands of the nobles loyal to Marin such as Mikel. After all, Marin did not kill all those nobles, but retained a small number of them. The retained nobles and the family's manor are still under their control. Only the eliminated nobles will send the manor to "trusteeship" by Marin.

Regardless of whether it is the entrusted manor, or the manor of the nobles who took refuge in Marin, they all received fertilizer from the 20 fertilizer processing plants built by Marin last year.

With the nourishment of fertilizers, the rye of the 160,000 Eugrams in these two countries has all been greatly increased, and the average yield per mu has reached more than 400 pounds.

In fact, this is because the fertilizer processing plant takes half of the urine to extract the soil nitrate. If it weren't for the extraction of soil nitrate and nitrogen in the urine to be used as fertilizer into the fields, the average yield per mu of the two countries might exceed 500 pounds.

Of course, this is not without gain. Because a lot of urine was taken to extract soil nitrate, 20 fertilizer processing plants extracted 200 tons of saltpeter last year. However, it has sacrificed the grain and other output of the two countries.

However, the average yield of 400 pounds per mu has terrified the nobles of the Duchy of Schleswig and the Earl of Oldenburg. Of course, the nobles whose land was entrusted did not know. And those who knew, had already taken refuge in Marin. Under Marin's strict instructions, no secrets will be revealed. However, they were all stunned by the output.

You know, before this, even on fertile land, rye yields rarely exceeded 150 pounds per mu. Now, with 400 pounds per mu, they almost thought they were hallucinating. Then, there is ecstasy.

Because their income from the land (after deducting costs and rations for serfs) has increased from less than 50 pounds of rye per acre to 300 pounds, an almost six-fold increase. This time, all the noble families who took refuge in Marin became wider...

And most of the former nobles who were entrusted by Marin to the manor lived in the city, and they did not know about the autumn harvest, nor did they know that the food production had increased sharply.

Marlin still gave them 50 pounds of rye per acre, which was about the same as their original income. Therefore, their lives will not change at all. Many of them have become regulars in Las Vegas casinos and women's wards. To be sure, there will be a group of people going to Las Vegas to splurge for a while after receiving the fall harvest proceeds that Marlin paid them. And this is basically the practice of the nobles. During the autumn harvest every year, because of their abundance, many nobles will splurge. It's like Marin lived on campus in his previous life. Many boys had a lot of money at the beginning of the month, and they tended to spend a lot of money. By the end of the month, I can only eat buns and pickles...

After paying these nobles' 50 pounds of rye per acre, the remaining 250 pounds per acre naturally went into Marin's pocket.

It was the first time Heider had encountered the autumn harvest since he became the minister of the Counties of Oldenburg. Therefore, even though he knew the secret of fertilizer, Heider could not restrain his excitement. To this end, he specially rushed to Aurich after the autumn harvest to announce the good news to Marin.

However, Marin didn't feel anything about Haider's good news. Beside Marin, Geoffrey, Chancellor of the East Frisian Palace, was also a little numb. To borrow the words of Marin last year - "I am numb in the face of the harvest"...

A few days later, Mikkel, the palace minister of the Principality of Schleswig, also came to Aurich full of excitement to announce the good news to Marin. Marin was also expressionless, and Jeffrey said to Mikel meaningfully:

"Master Mikel, from now on, you will encounter such a harvest scene every year. Slowly, you will get used to..."

In the face of Jeffrey's pretentious words, Marin couldn't help but give a thumbs up:

"Yes, Prime Minister Mikel, in the future, you will slowly get used to this kind of harvest!"

Mikel nodded blankly, and then suddenly remembered - it seems that Marin has been the count of East Frisland for four or five years. Could it be that, in the past few years, East Friesland has had such a bumper harvest every year?

Mikel raised his doubts, Jeffrey nodded and said:

"Indeed, since Lord Marin took over East Friesland, since the autumn of 1499, East Friesland has had such a bumper harvest every year. To be honest, I was as excited as you at the time. But, A few years have passed, and it's been like this every year, and I'm already numb..."

Mikel was at a loss:

"Everyone has such a bumper harvest, will the price of rye plummet in the future?"

"Are you stupid? Only we have this advanced agricultural technology, and others still have low yields. How could the price of wheat plummet? Forgot to tell you, our grain is generally sold to Spain and the UK for other grains. Where the price is higher, the yield is higher. For the grain of the Principality of Schleswig, you should store it first, and your lord will send a ship to transport it.”

Before leaving, Marin patted Mikel on the shoulder:

"Mickel, you're getting old, don't get excited, it will hurt your body. As for the harvest, it will be like this every year in the future. Slowly, you will get used to it..."

Although he said so, when the total rye production in the whole country (excluding North Münster and North Osnabrück for the time being, where the autumn harvest is late and has not ended) exceeded 1.5 billion pounds, Marin still Blood boiled. Next, worry about selling grain and building granaries...