Read I Was Reincarnated as a Poor Farmer in a Different World, so I Decided to Make Bricks to Build a Castle

289 - - barca system

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"So what are you going to do, kid?　What exactly are you going to do with this policy?"

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"Well, to be frank, I just want to introduce the existing Barca method of managing the estate to Fontana.

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When you say the Barca method, which one are you talking about?

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The first and most important thing is to increase food self-sufficiency. We need to use the magic of Barca to drastically increase the harvest. We also need to sell our wheat to the Memento family at a discount.

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"Well, that's the most important thing. Well, that's the most important thing, isn't it? No, would the yield increase if we improved the farmland for free?"

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"That's no good, old man. Basically, we don't improve the land for free. Barca is always short of money. Besides, I'd like to loan money to the knights with estates all over the country.

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"Money for knights?　Why would you do that?　If, as the monk says, we are united in defending the Fontana territory, why do we need to lend or borrow money?"

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"No, I want to reduce the number of knights who own their own lands if possible. It would be a nuisance to have them defy me. I want to put them in a situation where they can easily listen to Barka by putting them in debt. I would even confiscate his lands as a pledge for the debt.

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"......Well, I don't know what the monk wants to say. I am curious about some things. Let's put that aside for the moment. What else are you going to do?"

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"I still think we need to strengthen and prepare our army. If possible, I would like to introduce conscription throughout the Fontana territory. ......"

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"That's impossible, boy. Take away the peasants from the knights who have always had their own lands, and you're bound to have trouble. Besides, if you take away the manpower, the knights who own the lands won't be able to form a troop.

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"That's right. I guess it's hard to recruit from among the knights after all. Well, I guess we'll just have to recruit from the Fontana family, the Bight knights of Barca, and the Valles knights of Vargas. Can you estimate how many men we can secure with that, old man?

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"Okay. I can do the math in a minute. But you'll need to calculate more than just the number of men, boy. Are you sure you can handle that?

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What do you mean, "Are you okay?"

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Money. With the people named by the monk, the farmland improvement will certainly work. I think they will succeed in increasing the yield. But the conscript army that you have introduced in Barca is a bunch of money-grubbing insects that will always cost money even if there is no war. If you just want to increase military power, why don't you just gather peasants from all over and train them during the off-season?"

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"Well, that's fine if you say so, but conscription has other aims as well."

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"Other aims?　What's that?"

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"Put all the young people of the same generation together in one place and have them go through the same training. The purpose of this is to train the military, but it also has another meaning. It's a sense of mission, a sense of group solidarity, to live on the same land and to defend it with their own strength. Well, to put it simply, we want to teach them what it means to fight for Fontana. Each and every one of us fights not for the lord, but for ourselves."

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　If all you want to do is gather the peasants in the off-season and train them, that's fine too.

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　But in that case, basically, those who are being trained will only feel that they are being "forced" to train.

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　But what I need is a stronger army.

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　I want to build an army that can defend against an attack by the three noble families.

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　When I thought about it, the most important thing to consider was the mentality of the soldiers.

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　Peasants who are sent out only for battles easily run away when their army is at a disadvantage.

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　However, such soldiers cannot fight satisfactorily in the current situation where they are expected to face overwhelmingly strong opponents.

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　Then, it is necessary to make it so that the soldiers of the army do not easily run away in the face of a strong opponent.

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　With this in mind, I thought it necessary to create a reason for the soldiers to fight.

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　It is not enough to have a vague hope like "If I work hard, I might be able to get a promotion" as before.

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　If they lose, their lands will be uprooted and their families will be killed.

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　If we think so, we will not be able to run away easily to protect our families.

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　That's why they have conscripts and gather all the young men in one place and teach them.

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　It is a kind of brainwashing, if you can call it that.

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　But as the old man points out, this way costs a lot of money.

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　At any rate, young men who should be doing farm work are taken away from farmers, and they have to be trained day and night with no productivity and also have to feed such people.

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　It costs a tremendous amount of money.

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　The expenses would increase dramatically even under the direct control of the Fontana family.

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　It is understandable that the old man, the keeper of the Barca coffers, is concerned about it.

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"Indeed, the old man is right. It costs a lot of money and I don't know if Barca can continue to finance it. It might be a very dangerous gamble."

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"I know. Then, shouldn't we not have a draft after all?"

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"No, I'll still do it. I'll get you the money.

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"Hey, hey, hey, you can't always get what you don't have, can you?　Or are you going to make something new and sell it?"

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"This time we'll do it another way. I'm going to try to get the money more quickly."

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"Another way?　What are you going to do, kid?"

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"Turn paper into gold. This should temporarily solve Barca's money shortage problem."

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　With that I offered the old man a piece of paper.

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　A piece of plant paper made in Barca, which is not so rare in Fontana territory anymore.

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　I decided to use it to pay for the army.

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