Volume 3 Chapter 25 - Changing the place to farm (1/2)

After the fall harvest, Banta City’s harvest yield had shocked everyone because it had reached a terrifying seven hundred and sixty thousand tons!

Compared to the five hundred and seventy thousand tons from last year, it had increased by one hundred and ninety thousand tons!

Not mentioning the old harvests of Banta City, even the cities that were much bigger than Banta City couldn’t compare.

Because of this harvest yield, Banta City had been in the limelight for the Lampuri Kingdom. With the increase of last year and the year before, Banta City became the only city that his majesty and the agricultural department praised at the same time.

For the Lampuri Kingdom that had been in turmoil for ten years because of famine, grain was a very important thing and no one dared to neglect it.

Count Stagg as the Banta City’s City Lord could make the astonishing grain yield of five hundred and seventy thousand jump to seven hundred and sixty thousand, it immediately obtained everyone’s praise.

Because Count Stagg’s agricultural promotion policies had caused Banta City’s economic development to stagnate, affecting the prosperity of Banta City, some people had spoken veiled criticism of Count Stagg. After learning this harvest yield, they immediately closed their mouths.

So Count Stagg was in danger as the City Lord before the fall harvest, but he consolidated his position right after the fall harvest. The appraisal of the kingdom’s upper caste soared, as if he instantly surpassed all the other City Lords in the Lampuri Kingdom.

However, Count Stagg who had achieved this result didn’t have a high appraisal with the Banta City’s people. In their secret discussions, there were many people who looked down on him.

“Pei! When Count Sean was in charge of the fall harvest last year, he had already calculated the stats for all of Banta City’s farmland. He had all our people help him and he confirmed that even if they planted wheat all over Banta City and harvested everything, it would be impossible to surpass seven hundred thousand tons. In the end, this Count Stagg had brought it up to seven hundred and sixty thousand tons. If you say that there isn’t fraud, I wouldn’t believe it.” Old man Sarkozy said with a look of disdain.

“There’s no need to guess alright?” Jashari beside old man Sarkozy who also came from Mexilan Village rolled his eyes and said, “My wife has a relative from Jord Village and they told my wife that before the harvest, the City Lord Manor sent a group of people to recruit villages from Jord Village. They said that they would be opening canals and ensuring they guaranteed that the fall harvest would be taken over by the City Lord Manor, so they wouldn’t need to worry. When the fall harvest was over, good fellow, how much wheat do you think their Jord Village harvested?”

“How much?” The group including old man Sarkozy asked in a curious voice.

“A full eighty thousand tons!” Jashari loudly said.

“How is that possible!”

“What are you talking about?”

“That’s right, Jord Village is that big, how could it harvest over eighty thousand tons of wheat? Our Kambia Village only harvested sixty thousand tons!”

……

Hearing this reply, everyone started to deeply doubt this eighty thousand tons.

Everyone here was born in Banta City and they had been working in the farms for dozens of years, so they were very clear on the grain yield of every village around Banta City.

Before this, Jord Village was remote and didn’t have good terrain, so a village that didn’t have that much farmland only harvested around thirty thousand tons of wheat and that was with a full harvest.

But this year they reached eighty thousand tons, this really seemed impossible.

“Hei, hei, you don’t know? Let me tell you, after my wife’s relative returned to his field, he found that there was double the straw left and it seemed like there had been this many plants planted in his field. Moreover, didn’t you read the «Banta Times»? The City Lord Manor announced that for this fall harvest, they obtained a new wheat seed from the Drake Duchy, which has a higher output, so the wheat they harvest is much more compared to before.” Jashari said with a laugh.

“Nonsense.” Old man Sarkozy immediately reprimanded, “If there was such a good seed, why would the Drake Duchy give it to Count Stagg? Wouldn’t they keep it for themselves?”

Jashari gave a shrug, “Who knows? Perhaps the Lord City Lord gave the Drake Duchy some special benefits, making them take out even such a good seed.”

“Bullshit!” Old man Sarkozy angrily said, “Didn’t a princess and a minister come from the Drake Duchy a while ago? They were walking around the Falling Rain Valley each day and chatting with chairman Xu, my son personally saw this. How could they cooperate with Count Stagg.”

“Who knows? The matters between important people can’t be understood by peasants like us.” Jashari said in an uncaring voice, “Then again, Banta City’s grain yield increasing is a good thing, we’ll have more face in the future.”

“Are you an idiot?” Old man Sarkozy cursed him, “Do you not understand what this means? Now that Banta City’s grain yield has increased, that Count Stagg can steadily sit in the City Lord position. If he continues his agricultural promotion policies, we will keep losing jobs. Could it be that you want to work to death on a farm like before?”

Hearing old man Sarkozy, Jashari and the surrounding people were stunned. Then they thought for a bit and found that old man Sarkozy was very correct.

The reason why they disliked the Lord City Lord was because of his agricultural promotion policy that put the companies of Banta City in danger. It caused many people to lose their comfortable and high income jobs.

Now that Count Stagg had stabilized his position as the Lord City Lord with this sudden strange increase in grain yield, the Banta City companies would be in an even worse position.

They might not even be able to keep their jobs with the Cantona Chamber of Commerce.