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

Compared to the scenes that were originally relying on Barov and his more than a dozen apprentices to support the scene, the city hall has now grown to a huge group of nearly a hundred people, among whom are down-and-out nobles, captured knights and entourages, and indigenous people who have completed primary education and obtained diplomas.

Thanks to the population growth, various departments have also taken shape one after another, which finally made the city hall look like a little prince expected. He no longer had to do everything himself like before. Now, some simple policies and plans, as long as he continues to explain, this newly-formed city hall can dismantle the tasks to various departments to complete, which makes Roland feel very pleased.

The participants of the first high-level meeting were all the highest leaders of the department, namely Minister of Agriculture Seni Dali, Minister of Education Shushu, Minister of Chemical Industry Kemo Strier (temporary generation), Minister of Construction Carl Vanbert, Army Head Iron Axe, and Municipal Hall General Manager Barov Mons. Ministry of Industry was still managed by Roland himself. After all, no one except him knew what industrialization was like.

There was a bucket of ice water around everyone, and the ice cubes in the bucket were enchanted by candlelight and soaked in the water for at least one morning. Even if the sun was scorching outside, the castle hall still maintained a cool temperature.

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

"Yes, Your Highness." Seni stood up and saluted, and then spread out the pre-prepared paper roll. "The grain handed over this time is about 17,000 hu. This amount alone can meet the needs of all townspeople for the summer of the coming year. In addition, the Ministry of Agriculture purchases surplus grain at market price as you request, but this amount is much less than the remittance ratio, and currently only has 4,500 hu."

The so-called hukou is a wheat weighing container commonly used by people, a basket made of bamboo slices, so this number is enough to listen to it. He doesn't know how to convert it into kilograms or increase it. Fortunately, these are not important. The key is that he knows that the collected grain can feed the villagers.

The key is the second point. If calculated by collecting 70% of the food left by yourself, the purchased food should be about 7,000 hu. The part that is kept as grain and seeds for the next year will not be used so much. In other words, some serfs did not sell the remaining 30% of the food to the city hall, but chose to hoard it privately in the wooden shed.

Although he foresaw such a situation early in the morning, he still sighed softly when it actually happened. The purpose of hoarding grain was very obvious, which was to speculate and resell it. If there was insufficient food supply in the town or natural disasters, their batch of grain could be sold at a much higher price than the market price, and it would not be impossible to increase by more than ten times.

This is also the reason why Roland sets grain transactions as a city hall specialty project, and buyers must present their ID cards. The food problem is related to the most basic stability of Bianfeng Town. In the early days when the grain was not surplus, if it was open to restrict sales, it would be easy to be purchased by people and hoarded, which would eventually lead to an increase in grain prices. The real-name purchase of fixed-scale grains and ban other sales channels, so as to maintain the stable line.

"Your Highness, why don't you forcefully buy the wheat from the serfs?" Seni asked in confusion, "Anyway, the law does not allow them to sell to others."

"Because it is their private property, and how to deal with it is their freedom," Roland replied. "I have no requirement that serfs shall not keep their own food. You can also understand that as long as they are not prohibited, they are allowed."

Seni looked a little confused and seemed to know how to understand this sentence. Not only him, most of them frowned, but only Barov showed a thoughtful look.

"Are there anything else to report?" Roland took a sip of ice water. This concept of emphasizing rules and procedures in everything can only be considered a qualified official in the new era if they slowly understand it, or if they understand it. Of course, this set is also easy to go to another extreme, leading to the emergence of bureaucracy, but bureaucracy is better than disorderly or arbitrary acts.

"Uh...yes," Seni Dali shook his head. "The fields have been harvested now. 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 next year," Roland waved his hand. "The manure accumulated by the fields is prepared for fertile land. Next, you guide the serfs to shovel them into the fields, mix them well with the soil, and continue to pile up new manure in the empty space." The high temperature and humid weather in summer can only be made to rot in two months, while in winter it will take about four months. By the beginning of spring of the next year, not only will the soil quality be improved by the first batch of compost, but he also has a new batch of compost that can be added as base fertilizer, and there is no need to fallow.

Not to mention high-end chemical fertilizers, just applying human and animal fertilizers to agricultural production is a great improvement.

"Well, if this is your request." He touched his head, "Also... Your Highness, so much wheat is probably not enough to be ground with one or two stone mills. I want to apply for a mill next to the Chishui River, preferably powered by steam engines."

"Yes," Roland nodded. This was another new breakthrough. In addition to himself, someone finally began to try to use this new motivation. "You first propose a plan to Barov, and then develop a detailed plan with the Ministry of Construction after you get the funding."

"Okay, Your Highness," answered Seni, "the last thing is the promotion of the free people. This time, a total of 516 people were qualified for promotion. Because it was strictly divided on the spot according to the amount of wheat handed over, no one raised any objection. I have reported the list to Lord Barov." Then he stood up again and saluted, "My report is over."

"Good job," Roland patted his palms twice to show encouragement. The young knight from the former Benlang family seems to have adapted to town life now, and he is doing well in the city hall. With a little packaging, he is an excellent publicity role model and will play a significant role in recruiting down-and-out nobles and knights in the fortress in the future.

The second person who gave the report was the book. Her long hair was tied behind her head, wearing a clean and tidy white shirt, and a pure black dress without any embellishment and lace, which looked mature and capable. It is hard to imagine that half a year ago, she was an exiled witch who had to hide from the church to avoid the church.

"At present, there are two batches of people who have completed primary education, a total of 85 people, most of whom have studied at the academy run by Mr. Carl." Her ability is unforgettable, so there is no need to make any preparations when reporting the data. This made Roland envious. "Forty-six of them chose to work in the town hall, twenty-one decided to go to the bicycle factory, and thirteen applied to join the First Army," she paused at this point, "and five others signed up for the chemistry laboratory."

Five people, Roland couldn't help but look at Kemo Strier, and the latter's face was obviously a little unfavorable. It seemed that the publicity effect of the awarding ceremony was far less than as good as he expected. In this way, some of the three newly built laboratories would probably be idle for a while.
Chapter completed!