Chapter 353: Refugees

Chapter 353: Chapter 353: Refugees

When the topic turned to planting, Shi Zhong announced some good news that made everyone happy.

"I was fiddling around for a while and made a seed drill for planting. One person pulls and one person pushes, so two people work as a team. I tested it in my territory, and it’s much faster than planting by hand. It can only plant wheat, though. Rapeseed would probably be tricky because the seeds are too small and would leak out too quickly."

Xiaqing immediately nodded. "Even if it only works for wheat, that still solves a huge problem." The Third Territory had over twenty kilograms of wheat to sow. Xiaqing wasn’t afraid of the hard work; she was just worried that if the planting depth wasn’t right, the seeds wouldn’t sprout before winter and would freeze to death.

Qi Fu grew excited too. "I was just about to talk to you about this, Brother Shi! I can’t believe you already figured it out. Don’t worry about the small rapeseed. We can just put a choke in the seed hopper and mix the seeds with fertilizer before planting."

A look of sudden understanding crossed Shi Zhong’s face, and he clapped his hands excitedly. The medicine Zhang San had prescribed for him was working well; the swelling in his hand joints had gone down, and they looked almost normal. "I knew something was missing! I forgot the choke! Brother Qi, I’ll bring the drill over tomorrow. You can take a look and see what else isn’t right. Once we get it working properly, it’ll be a huge help in a few days."

Of course, Qi Fu agreed. "Using a seed drill lets us control the depth and density of the planting, which is much better than scattering by hand. Xiaqing, when it’s time to plant, I’ll come over and help you guide the drill."

"Okay, thank you, Brother Qi." Shi Zhong had just said it needed one person to pull and one to guide. Xiaqing, being the only person in her territory, didn’t mention that her goat companion could pull the drill. She had never even seen such a farm tool before, so having the experienced farmer Qi Fu come over to help was for the best.

Kuang Qingwei’s mind was sharper. "Our small greenhouses can’t use large-scale seeders, so a man-pulled drill is much more practical. Brother Shi, is the drill hard to make? If not, you should make a few more, and I’ll sell them for us. You set the price, and I’ll take a one-point commission for each one I sell."

Shi Zhong was thrilled at the idea of earning points from his creations. "It’s easy to make. You can come take a look tomorrow, and we’ll set a price."

"Deal. Brother Qi, give me a shout on the megaphone once Brother Shi arrives." Although Kuang Qingwei’s and Qi Fu’s territories were adjacent, they both lived in the center of their land, a kilometer apart in a straight line. None of them had Auditory Evolution, so yelling at the top of their lungs probably wouldn’t be loud enough to be heard clearly.

After they finished discussing the seed drill, it was nearly dark, and everyone headed back to their territories. As before, Xiaqing and Mrs. Zhao took the Northern Isolation Zone, while Shi Zhong and Kuang Qingwei took the southern route.

On the way back, Mrs. Zhao’s admiration for Xiaqing rose to a new level. "You’re just so capable. You grow more food by yourself than our whole group combined."

Xiaqing explained, "I didn’t know anything when I first arrived at the territory either. I learned everything bit by bit from the radio broadcasts and Brother Qi. When I get too busy, I hire some help from No.1 Territory."

Hearing Xiaqing’s words, Mrs. Zhao, who had only arrived at the territory in July, felt the urge to go back and scold her son again.

When she first arrived, she’d heard that the neighboring territory was occupied by a single young woman and had wondered if her son might have a chance to get together with her.

Now? Mrs. Zhao blushed just thinking about it. Her son was leagues behind Xiaqing.

Mrs. Zhao admired Xiaqing, while Xiaqing, in turn, admired Qi Fu. There were two reasons for her high grain yield:

First, she used spring water to soak the seeds, which increased the germination rate by about ten percent. So with the same amount of seeds, Xiaqing could grow more seedlings.

Second, she had used the soil insecticide she got from Zhang San in advance this year, so when the pest infestation occurred, the crops in the Third Territory suffered almost no losses.

Despite not having either of these advantages, Qi Fu had managed to deposit one more bag of corn into the No.1 Territory’s food storage warehouse than Xiaqing.

Xiaqing had harvested a total of over 375 kilograms of corn, enough to fill six and a half bags. She deposited four bags in No.1 Territory and kept two and a half for herself. Qi Fu Territory had more people, so he likely needed to keep at least as much corn for the winter as Xiaqing did. This meant Territory No.5’s corn yield was probably higher than the Third Territory’s.

This comparison just went to show that farming experience really made a huge difference.

The yield from Territory No. 4, on the other hand, was truly low. Kuang Qingwei had one less bag than Shi Zhong. This could be because his land’s yield was poor, or because he had already lined up buyers and sold off some of his harvest.

From now on, Xiaqing resolved to learn farming more diligently from Qi Fu and his wife to increase her yield.

Her current yield was enough to feed herself, but what farmer didn’t dream of a bumper crop?

"Where did everyone go just now? I was shouting for ages, and no one was there!" That evening, during the Lords’ chat time after the agricultural knowledge broadcast, Tang Huai asked huffily.

Where did they go? In their respective territories, the five allied Lords smiled in unison.

The matter of the Territory Alliance couldn’t be announced publicly. The other Lords in their chat group weren’t focused on farming; everyone had different goals, so they couldn’t just form one big bloc. Never mind the others—just putting Tang Huai and Hu Zifeng together would be enough to tear the house down.

Kuang Qingwei politely asked, "I’ve been so tired today I can barely straighten my back. My wife has been holding the walkie-talkie. Brother Huai, you’re the most well-informed. Did you have some big news for us?"

Now that someone had taken the bait, Tang Huai could continue smoothly. "The three thousand-plus refugees from Gui San Base have come to our base. The Safe Zone can’t accommodate so many people, so they’re going to settle some of them in the territories."

Xiaqing, who was washing dishes, stopped. ’How could there be over three thousand refugees? How did they get here?’

"Excuses! That’s just an excuse! It’s not that they can’t fit, it’s that the Safe Zone doesn’t want to let the refugees in," Zhao Ze fumed. "Over thirty thousand people in the Safe Zone died in the three Harmful Rains this year. How could the space they freed up not even fit three thousand people?"

Tang Huai roared even louder than Zhao Ze, "If you’ve got a fucking problem, go yell at the Base Commander! What are you shouting at me for?"

Zhao Ze quickly apologized, "Brother Huai, my apologies. I wasn’t yelling at you, I just think what they’re doing is underhanded."

Tang Huai ignored Zhao Ze and continued, "I heard there are two proposed plans. One is to settle them in the empty, unclaimed territories and have the refugees clear the land and farm it themselves. The second is for Lords to select refugees to bring back to their own territories. The Territory Management Department will give rewards to Lords who recruit refugee labor."

Qi Fu asked, "Brother Huai, are they allowing refugees to claim unowned territories and become Lords? Our base only has 200 territories in total. At most, there are only thirty or forty unowned ones. How many people can that accommodate?"

"No. They’re going to divide the unowned territories into small plots of about one and a half acres each and have the refugees contract them in groups. The Territory Management Department will give them farm tools and plastic sheeting to build greenhouses and grow food during the winter." Tang Huai sighed. "This plan is really something else."

Xiaqing couldn’t quite grasp what Tang Huai meant by "something else," so she asked directly, "Will Territories 158 and 159, the ones that were just invaded, be divided up for the refugees?"

’If so, the whole invasion incident reeks even more of a conspiracy.’