【Producing a swordsman requires 60 units of food and 20 units of gold... It is indeed expensive, but its actual combat effectiveness is much better than the others!】

By the way, different types of units also have different production times, so Henry Clark really should make up his mind quickly. Otherwise, if the Jie people really attack and he tries to mass-produce troops at the last minute, it will be too late!

Chapter 8: On the Verge of Madness

Yes, Henry Clark has a golden finger, and there are still many things he hasn't figured out yet. It shows how much he resents not having a "grandpa mentor" or "beautiful elf girl" by his side, so he has to slowly explore the system on his own.

With this golden finger, Henry Clark naturally feels extremely excited and encouraged. Through his exploration, he has already learned quite a lot, such as how to produce system biological units and construct buildings.

When producing system biological units, different types require different amounts of time. For example, producing a villager takes two hours, a spearman only takes one hour and forty-five minutes, but a swordsman takes three hours. Other units that can be produced in the feudal era, like archers and javelin throwers, take an hour and a half.

The production time for units means one thing: you can't instantly produce troops. Henry Clark can only be extra cautious, and scouting the surroundings in advance becomes necessary. Otherwise, if he waits until the enemy is at his doorstep to try to mass-produce troops, it will only end in disaster.

Of course, constructing buildings also takes time, and different buildings require different construction times. Usually, residential buildings take less time, while military and large buildings take longer. However, one thing is fixed: the more laborers involved in construction, the faster the building goes up.

12,579 wood, 35,200 food, 1,205 gold, 2,430 stone, 1,400 iron. It looks like a lot, but it's really not much. The consumption from construction far outpaces accumulation. Only when construction stops does resource accumulation speed up, but food is being consumed at every moment.

【Damn, back to square one again. The biggest problem is food!】

Speaking of food, the system-built farmland is a magical thing. It can yield three harvests a year, and the output is fairly stable. Each mu of land can produce about 650 to 700 jin of wheat or rice, but only these two grains.

Currently, Henry Clark has 200 mu of farmland. One farmer tends 10 mu, so that's 20 farmers used up. The rest of the farmers are assigned to logging, stone mining, and gold mining.

Most of the food Henry Clark accumulated over half a year has now gone into the bellies of the Jin people he gathered. Even if he saves as much as possible, the remaining 35,200 units of food will only last five days. This forces him to waste his already limited system population cap to produce fishing boats, just to survive the next seven days. After that, the grain should be ready for harvest, yielding 130,000 jin of grain. According to the Han dynasty's units, 130,000 jin is 5,000 shi.

【I need to increase the amount of farmland... But that makes the shortage of farmers even worse. I’ll have to mobilize the resettled Jin people to join in large-scale production!】

After making his rounds, Henry Clark began to consider whether to build more military structures. After all, producing biological units takes time, and he really doesn't know when the Jie people in Buqi City will make a move. Besides... the golden finger has another huge "pitfall": a population cap of 500, which is enough to make his hair turn white with worry.

It's not that Henry Clark hasn't thought about letting the Jin people farm. He did that before he left, and when he came back, he got his answer: only system farmers can plant grain for three harvests a year, while Jin people can only get one harvest. With the same seeds, system farmers can get 650 to 700 jin per mu, while Jin people are lucky to get 150 jin per mu. He really doesn't know if the system farmers are just that amazing, or if the Jin people have forgotten how to farm.

After checking everything in the valley, Henry Clark made another trip to the dock by the sea. Right now, the dock can only produce fishing boats—no warships at all. Fortunately, the fisheries near Jiaozhou Bay are abundant, so the remaining 27 fishing boats, after losses from resupply, can still contribute at least 10,000 units of food per day, which is about 1,100 jin of fish.

After finishing his inspection, Henry Clark went to the resettlement area. He had just arrived when, not long after, Samuel Grant somehow found out he was there and came running over.

"Lord, most of the refugees have already received their ID tags. The housing has also been basically distributed," Samuel Grant said with a fawning expression. He added, "According to your instructions, those with families can have their own rooms. In total, 621 rooms have been allocated."

In other words, out of nearly 30,000 refugees, only 621 families have relatives; the rest are all alone.

Samuel Grant's report continued: "When issuing the ID tags, we also recorded gender and age." He took out a wooden tablet and glanced at it, then said, "There are 4,718 males and 290 females aged 14 to 20; 17,784 males and 2,471 females aged 20 to 30; 1,781 males and 140 females over 30. That makes a total of 27,184 people."

27,184 people? If you add the 2,017 people Henry Clark had previously taken in, that's 29,201 people. Along the way, they kept gathering people, but many died or fell behind due to weakness, so only a little over 20,000 made it back. Of those, there are only a pitiful 2,901 women. Looking at the age distribution, there isn't a single person under 14, and the oldest is 47.