Chapter 352: No.1 Territory’s Food Warehouse

Chapter 352: Chapter 352: No.1 Territory’s Food Warehouse

The Territory Alliance members once again chose to meet in Territory No.5.

Once everyone had arrived, Xiaqing started with the good news. "Brother Luo has agreed to let us store our harvested vegetables and grains in the food storage warehouse of No.1 Territory. The price and requirements are the same as the Safe Zone’s, but we’ll be able to retrieve food once a week."

The Lords, who had expected to pay a premium over the Safe Zone’s rates to store their food in No.1 Territory, were so delighted they couldn’t stop grinning.

Xiaqing continued, "The shelves in the No.1 Territory storage warehouse are two meters long, one meter wide, and two meters high, with five levels each. We need to figure out how many shelves we’ll need in total right now. I have to report the number to Captain Hu when I get back."

The monthly storage fee for one shelf in the food warehouse was 150 points, so they naturally had to calculate their needs carefully to make efficient use of the space.

Kuang Qingwei, the Second-hand Dealer, pulled out his phone and quickly did the math. "These are standard-sized shelves. Each level can hold six standard grain sacks, which means one shelf holds thirty sacks. Everyone, figure out how many sacks you’ll need to store."

Shi Zhong asked, "The grains we can store are wheat, paddy, mung beans, and corn. I doubt anyone has much wheat left, and a hundred or so rice plants won’t yield many pounds. That means most of it will be mung beans and corn. Brother Kuang, how many pounds can a standard sack hold?"

Kuang Qingwei turned to Qi Fu. "Brother Qi, I only know a standard grain sack holds about 120 pounds of wheat. Mung beans and corn should be heavier than wheat, right?"

Qi Fu, who had a wealth of farming experience, replied, "That’s not right. Wheat is the heaviest. A sack that holds 120 pounds of wheat will hold about 115 pounds of corn, 100 pounds of mung beans, or 90 pounds of paddy."

Seeing everyone’s surprised expressions, Qi Fu explained with a smile, "Before the Natural Disasters, my wife and I were in the transportation business. We frequently hauled grain and vegetables, and the sacks we used back then were this exact size."

Mrs. Zhao, who didn’t understand, asked, "So paddy is actually the lightest?"

Qi Fu explained, "Unhusked paddy is light. Once it’s hulled and becomes white rice, a sack can hold nearly 130 pounds. But white rice is considered a processed grain, so it doesn’t use these kinds of sacks. It’s usually put in 10, 20, or 50-pound retail bags."

Kuang Qingwei jotted down the weights Qi Fu provided. "Alright, using the numbers from Brother Qi, let’s have everyone calculate how many sacks you’ll need."

Even though the second crop of mung beans hadn’t finished drying, everyone could quickly estimate their yields based on their experience from the first harvest. Likewise, they could calculate the output of their late-sown corn based on the already-bagged yield from the early-sown crop.

Soon, the Lords began reporting their numbers.

For the summer sowing, everyone had started with the same amount of corn seed: two pounds from Luo Pei and another two pounds from the Territory Management Department.

Even though they all planted the same amount of seed, their yields varied, though not drastically: Qi Fu had five sacks; Xiaqing and Shi Zhong each had four; Kuang Qingwei had three; and Mrs. Zhao had two.

The disparity in mung beans was much greater. This was because each territory had planted a different acreage of them. The difference stemmed from their varied yields in the first harvest, which in turn meant they had different amounts of beans to use as seed for the second crop, resulting in different planting areas.

Qi Fu again had the most, storing ten sacks of mung beans. Kuang Qingwei had seven, Shi Zhong had four, and Mrs. Zhao had three. Xiaqing had the least, with only one sack.

Adding the wheat and paddy from all five territories, the grand total came to 52 sacks—not even enough to fill two shelves.

Xiaqing, who had built her own cellar, was very knowledgeable about the different temperature and humidity requirements for storing various foods. She suggested, "The warehouse is sealed off from the Harmful Element, and the temperature and humidity are constant, so let’s not waste space. The remaining room for eight sacks can be used for things like dried vegetables, dried pumpkin, and jerky. I don’t have much to store, so I’ll just keep my things on my territory. What about the rest of you? See how much you want to put in."

At the mention of dried vegetables, Mrs. Zhao immediately sat up straighter; she had dried a great deal of them. The other three Lords had plenty as well, so they decided to simply allocate two sacks’ worth of space to each of them.

Next up were the shelves in the vegetable warehouse.

Though everyone had grown plenty of vegetables on their territories, the bulk of their crops consisted of tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, eggplants, and green beans. These were now out of season, and the harvests had either been dried or traded to the patrol teams.

After some discussion, they decided to reserve just half a vegetable shelf. They would use it to store root vegetables they needed to save for seed, like radishes, onions, tiger ginger, garlic, and ginger. Since all five members of the Territory Alliance would be growing crops in greenhouses on their own land, they wouldn’t be short on fresh vegetables during the winter.

Seeds were scarce, so everyone only had a few radishes and a dozen or so onions. Even after including the tomato, cucumber, and other vegetable seeds they needed to save, they still wouldn’t fill half a shelf. The remaining space would be used for sweet potatoes.

Everyone had high hopes for Xiaqing’s sweet potatoes and wanted to trade with her for a few to save for planting.

Xiaqing thought it wasn’t a good time for a deal. "On the list of goods for trade among Lords that Captain Zhong brought, several territories are offering sweet potatoes. I expect that next spring, the Territory Management Department will sell seed potatoes or slips at a discount. The price should come down quite a bit. You can trade with me then for however many you need."

Of course, no one disagreed. Qi Fu suggested, "Sweet potatoes are easy to manage and have a high yield, especially after using Brother San’s soil insecticide. Everyone should consider planting more of them."

Kuang Qingwei was the first to agree with Xiaqing. "That’s right, I want to plant more sweet potatoes next year, too. You can make all sorts of food products from them to sell, which is more profitable. Xia, I’m definitely buying some of your seed potatoes."

"Me too," Shi Zhong and the others chimed in.

Xiaqing had both Green Light and Yellow Light sweet potatoes. The ones sold by the Territory Management Department would certainly be Yellow Light. Though Green Light seed stock was expensive, the risk of Qiang Evolution was lower, and the sweet potatoes they produced sold for a higher price.

Xiaqing agreed. "As long as the sweet potatoes we take out of storage next spring haven’t spoiled, I can trade everyone two Green Light sweet potatoes and two to four Yellow Light ones."

Xiaqing had previously mentioned on the Lord channel that she’d only managed to get about twenty-odd sweet potato plants to survive from cuttings. The fact that she was willing to trade so many was more than enough to satisfy everyone.

Qi Fu, the only one among them who had been inside the greenhouse on the Third Territory and knew just how many sweet potatoes Xiaqing was growing, was also overjoyed.

’He did a quick mental calculation of how many slips he could cultivate from six sweet potatoes in the spring, and then how many more plants he could grow from cuttings in the summer. You wouldn’t be a true farmer if that thought didn’t make you happy!’

’As for how many sweet potatoes Xiaqing actually had, that was her business. He was already incredibly grateful that she was willing to trade them.’

Once Kuang Qingwei calculated the points each Lord owed based on their share of the stored food, the main item on the meeting’s agenda was concluded.

Qi Fu said with a smile, "Having a safe place to store our grain really puts my mind at ease."

Everyone felt the same, sharing in the collective joy and thanking Xiaqing for making the connection.

Xiaqing was also pleased. By storing her farm’s output in No.1 Territory, no one would assume she still had grain on her own land, which further increased her territory’s security.

’People would think her territory was empty, but in reality, her underground cellar still held a portion of her grain, along with large quantities of Chestnuts, pecans, pine nuts, pumpkins, sweet potatoes, and jerky...’

’What could possibly bring more joy than having a hidden stash of food?’

’If anything, it would be having an even bigger hidden stash of food!’

After settling the matter of grain storage, the group moved on to discussing fertilizer and planting, the topic that Xiaqing was most interested in for the day.