"Everyone walks to the designated area in order, with men on the left and women on the right. Tell the record officer in front of you where you are from and what you do."
A few kilometers away from the city wall on the north side of the High Court, every ten meters or so there was a man wearing old armor and using a thick bamboo tube with the bottom hollowed out as a loudspeaker to shout loudly.
Rick, who had smeared his face with mud in advance to hide his rosy complexion, was mixed in with the countless refugees coming from King's Landing, pretending to be casually observing the situation around him.
Leaving aside the Highgarden soldiers who were shouting with strange bamboo tubes, he was a little surprised by the Highgarden soldiers around him who were maintaining order among the refugees.
I saw that these Highgarden soldiers were also wearing shabby armor. They did not hold long swords or spears in their hands, but they held meter-long thick sticks to maintain order.
And a large number of cavalry teams wearing brand-new armors kept approaching in the distance. I don't know if they disliked the unusual smell of so many refugees gathering together.
The equipment of Highgarden soldiers is so different? You need to take note of this information!
After remembering the information he thought was useful, Rick twisted his back that felt a little itchy, and then murmured in an inaudible voice: "I haven't taken a shower in this group of refugees for a long time, and my whole body is covered with blood."
Is he uncomfortable?
Now that I think about the special service that was arranged after meeting Lord Tywin that day, I still feel a sense of excitement.
Tsk, I need to investigate more important information, and then I’ll have fun after I get a big reward!”
Yes, Rick is a spy sent to Highgarden by Tywin Lannister!
Rick thought that his outstanding detective ability was recognized, so he was personally summoned by Tywin in King's Landing.
Then, after some special service, he was escorted by several Lannister soldiers whose faces were covered tightly, and blended into the group of refugees who were forcibly expelled from the Riverside Gate, all the way south to Highgarden.
While the resettlement work for a large number of refugees outside the North City of High Court was proceeding in an orderly manner, a meeting was being held in the inner fort meeting hall to decide the lives and deaths of these hundreds of thousands of people.
Peng!
The Duke of Metz slapped his fat palm on the long table and said sternly to Count Landau: "Count Landau, what bad advice did you give His Majesty?
Keep them? That’s at least hundreds of thousands of mouths! How much food is consumed every day!
Where does this food come from? Or are you, the Tully family, willing to donate the food you have accumulated?"
"Lord Mace, what I just talked about was the young adults among the refugees. In my opinion, keeping them is both a labor force and a source of soldiers, and they can generate their own value.
Some time ago, the white crows flying from the city just announced the end of the long summer, and autumn can last at least another year. As long as we make good use of them, we can still get at least one or two bumper crops.
Since our current military strength is superior to Tywin's, why don't we take full advantage of this advantage and crush him directly?"
Naturally, Count Landau could not fall into the Duke of Metz's aggressive tactics. He kept silent about the food problem and only stated his reasons for leaving young refugees behind.
"Lord Landau."
As soon as Lord Landau finished speaking, Olenna, who rarely spoke in meetings, called his name.
"Mrs. Olenna, please speak!"
Upon hearing this, Earl Landau immediately turned his head and saluted Olenna respectfully and replied.
"First, if you look carefully, you will find that most of these refugees are in family units.
Therefore, 'leaving only young adults' is a relatively naive statement. If this order continues, unimaginable chaos will inevitably occur.
Second, after the long summer, autumn does usually last for a year, but the seasons in Westeros change elusively. More than ten years ago, the "wrong spring" that only lasted for two months is an example.
Third, even if everything goes smoothly as you said, where will such a large number of refugees grow crops?
Not to mention the burned land around High Court, these lands must have been planted by the civilians who maintained High Court, which is what His Majesty promised them before!"
Olenna spoke out her views on Earl Randyll's opinions in one breath. She spoke slowly and clearly, and when she spoke, she exuded an aura that made people have to listen carefully.
"Yes, Mother said exactly what I wanted to say!"
Rarely having the same opinion as Olenna, the Duke of Metz agreed with excitement after hearing this.
When Olenna pointed out the three key points, Lord Landau frowned slightly and didn't know how to refute for a while.
"Then... is it possible, as His Majesty proposed before, to work for us in exchange for food?
After all, these are hundreds of thousands of His Majesty’s people! And there are so many lovely children among them, how can we bear to see them starve to death!”
I don't know whether it was to continue to establish her character or because she was really kind-hearted. After Lord Randyll fell silent, Margaery spoke with a sad face.
"Margaery, I know you have always been kind, but you can't be too kind in this matter. It is impossible for Highgarden to have so much work."
Now Margaery has not officially become Robb's queen, so the Duke of Mace directly called her by name and shook his head in denial.
Robb, who had been listening quietly, fell silent when he saw the Duke of Metz finishing his last words in the meeting hall. He directly said loudly in his rich voice:
“The Reach has flat and open terrain, fertile soil, and convenient irrigation in the Mander River Basin, so it is called the granary of the Seven Kingdoms. But in fact, the Reach still has a large amount of unused land.
Those are the low hills that can be seen everywhere!
Of course, castles have been built on some of the flatter hills and used like high courts. But if these large amounts of abandoned low hills are reclaimed and utilized.
Crop yields in the Reach will double this fall!"
Everyone in the meeting hall saw Robb suddenly talking about reclaiming fields. These nobles, who had always only paid attention to harvesting the crops and putting them into the granary, regardless of how the crops grew, looked at each other and didn't know how to interact for a while.
Upon seeing this, Willas, who had a rich reserve of knowledge, said tactfully: "Your Majesty, you may be new to the Reach, so you don't know much about the details of our place.
Over the past thousands of years, any land that can be cultivated in the Reach has been reclaimed and utilized. These low hills you mentioned are all wastelands recognized by everyone.
Not to mention how time-consuming and labor-intensive it is to transport water from the Mandeb River Basin to the hills for irrigation, let’s talk about how to cultivate the hills where there is no flat ground and it is difficult for people to stand firmly.”
"Sir Vilas's question is a good one, and this question is my solution to the refugee problem in High Court.
There is indeed no working court that can accommodate these hundreds of thousands of refugees, but there is in the Reach!
That is, shovel the hills into flat steps and build channels for water diversion!"
Robb's final words seemed to reverberate in the meeting hall, making all the nobles present feel confused.
Flatten the hills and dig canals to divert water!
There have been many bold ideas in the history of Westeros, including bold ideas about war, such as building the majestic Great Wall.
There are bold ideas about the construction of noble castles, such as building Harrenhal where giants can live, and building the Eagle's Nest City on the cliff.
But no one has come up with bold ideas in agriculture for thousands of years.
To this day, this idea was proposed by Robb Stark in Highgarden!
"Your Majesty, Your Majesty, are you serious?"
Vilas, who thought he heard wrongly, couldn't help asking with a trembling voice.
"Of course, from the map, the low hills of the Reach are mainly concentrated in two areas, the Golden Mountains area near the West in the north, and the Crimson Mountains area near the Dorne Frontier in the southeast.
Since the area east of the Mande River is still controlled by the enemy, I plan to first use the Golden Tree City built just near the tributary of the Mande River as a test site for reclamation.
After the hills near Golden Tree City are successfully reclaimed, we will slowly spread to the surrounding areas!"
Robb nodded and spoke out his plan with a serious face.
"Your Majesty, please think carefully!"
"Your Majesty, there has never been any precedent for planting on hillside in history! Our ancestors did not do this, it must be because it is absolutely impossible!"
"Your Majesty, please allow me to expel these refugees. Externally, you can claim that I made the decision without authorization!"
When the nobles saw that Robb had already chosen the location, it was obvious that he was not just talking about it casually, but that he really planned to do it. All kinds of fierce words of dissuasion suddenly broke out.
"My lords, this suggestion is not made out of thin air. I have learned the relevant techniques and am confident that I can do it!
I once met a spellcaster from Essos Volantis in the Western Realm. During the communication with her, I learned this terrace technology from the distant Yi land.
Sir Clay, you should remember that spellcaster, right?"
"Yes, Your Majesty! That was a Volantis Moonsinger."
Upon hearing Robb's question, Clay immediately nodded and answered.
Of course, he didn't know whether His Majesty Robb learned the relevant techniques from this spellcaster.
When the nobles heard this, their excitement calmed down a little.
Seeing that his lies had some effect, Robb slowly waited for the nobles to figure out the benefits to them of cultivating terraced fields.
As for whether the lie has been exposed, Robb is not worried at all!
In his previous life, he worked in a city with "the most beautiful mountains and rivers in the world", and he often saw the magnificent Longcrest Rice Terraces during his spare time.
So until now, he still roughly remembers some knowledge related to terrace cultivation that he learned either actively or passively at that time.
Reclamation of terraced fields is not a particularly sophisticated technology, it just needs to be combined with previous life knowledge to experiment a few more times!
Seeing that Robb seemed to be very confident in reclaiming the hills, Olenna suddenly had concerns in her mind. Seeing that other nobles were still discussing doubtfully, she immediately asked Robb loudly and deliberately:
"Your Majesty, is it worth it for us to spend so much energy and money on these refugees?"
"If the terraces are successfully reclaimed, the grain harvest of all nobles will be doubled. Correspondingly, the more newly reclaimed terraces, the more civilians and soldiers their territory can support.
This is equivalent to the fact that even if the territories of the nobles here remain unchanged, the power under their command will increase significantly.
Mrs. Olenna, I think you should ask everyone, is it worth it?"
Seeing that no one had mentioned this for so long, Robb smiled and took advantage of Olenna's opportunity to speak out directly.
"That's right! If we can successfully cultivate terraced fields as His Majesty said, then our territory will definitely be richer than it is now!"
"Haha, most of our family territory is filled with hills, which is great!"
“The most important thing is that we don’t need to pay any price at all, we just need to provide some food for these refugees to do.
It’s worth it, so worth it!”
After Robb pointed out the key point, all the nobles unsurprisingly spoke out in support.
Seeing the instant change in the atmosphere in the meeting hall, Olenna glanced at Robb inadvertently, a smile appeared on her face, and she stopped talking.
"Since everyone supports my proposal, I believe you will definitely be willing to donate some food to the refugees who are about to cultivate terraced fields.
Don’t worry, when the terraces are successfully reclaimed, the food harvested in the autumn will be returned to everyone in proportion to the food you donate now.
At the same time, after I ascend the Iron Throne, I will arrange the order in which the terraces will be reclaimed based on the amount of donated food.
I think no one will have any objections, right?"
After Robb finished explaining his ultimate goal, he scanned all the nobles present with his crystal clear ice eyes.
"Your Majesty, on behalf of House Tyrell, I donate one million bushels of wheat!"
"Your Majesty, our family's food storage is not very large. Can we use golden dragons to convert it?"
"His Majesty……"
With the dual blessing of the future interests of the terraces and Robb's power, all the nobles in the meeting hall expressed their willingness to donate food.
"Well, let Sir Vilas handle the matter of donating food! Just look for him after the meeting."
Seeing that he had achieved his goal, Robb pointed at Willas who was still in a daze and said something. Then, he continued to speak,
"We have now decided on the general direction of how to deal with these refugees. But we cannot slack off at all in handling the details.
Because, one thing that concerns me very much is what Lord Randyll said just now, that our military strength is better than Tywin!
Tywin must also know that he is at a disadvantage in terms of military strength, so it stands to reason that he will definitely recruit enough new soldiers, even if they are purely used as cannon fodder.
But he sent such a large number of refugees directly to the High Court. Is it really just to cause trouble for us? Or does he expect these refugees to delay our attack?"
"Oh, Your Majesty, it turns out that you have long thought that there is a problem with these refugees? Therefore, the nearly 10,000 surrendered prisoners were specially used to maintain order, while our Tyrell family cavalry were only supervising on the periphery."
When the Duke of Metz heard this, he said with a look of sudden realization on his face.
"Well, I have arranged these refugees into regional resettlement groups according to their gender. Once the statistics are completed, we can start the next screening process.
Clay, you are responsible for supervising the progress of this matter. Sort out the number and information of these refugees as soon as possible, and pull out all the nails hidden in them.
Then, those refugees with special skills stayed, and the rest of the refugees were all organized into teams that cultivated terraced fields."
"Yes, Your Majesty!"
As Clay nodded and accepted the order, the meeting that ushered in a new era of agriculture in Westeros ended.
…
Riverlands, Riverrun.
The main castle that was blown up by wildfire has been basically demolished, and construction has now begun again. The difference from before is that the water gate underground of the main castle will not be rebuilt, but will be permanently closed.
The reconstruction style of the main castle is still the classic style of the previous main castle.
'Blackfish' Brynden came to the main castle under construction after a routine visit to Duke Horst, who had barely had any time to wake up.
Da da da!
There was a sound of footsteps, and Edmure, who had his mutilated left hand tucked into his long sleeve, anxiously walked toward Brynden with a raven letter in his right hand.
"Uncle, a letter from Harrenhal. The refugees who fled from King's Landing rebelled under the leadership of the Brotherhood Without Banners!
They started from the easternmost part of the Riverlands and captured the towns of Maidenpool and Saltworks. After killing all the nobles in these two towns, they gave all the nobles' properties and fields to the refugees!"