Chapter 353: A Harvest of Ingenuity

When it came to planting, Shizhong brought everyone some good news worth celebrating.

“Lately, I’ve been tinkering and made a seeder. One person pulls, another pushes—we take turns in pairs to sow the seeds. I tried it out in the territory and it’s way faster than hand-seeding. Works great for wheat, though rapeseed’s so tiny it drops out too fast—not ideal for the little seeds.”

Xia Qing nodded right away. “If it handles wheat, that’s a huge problem solved.” Section Three still had over forty jin of wheat to plant. Xia Qing wasn’t afraid of hard work, only of planting at the wrong depth and watching the seeds freeze before they could sprout.

Qi Fu lit up. “That’s exactly what I wanted to talk to you about, Shi. Can’t believe you already cracked it. As for rapeseed being tiny, no big deal. Just hang a seed block in the hopper and mix the seeds with fertilizer before sowing.”

Shizhong snapped his fingers, suddenly enlightened. The medicine Zhang San gave him was working; the swelling in his hands was nearly gone, almost back to normal. “That was the missing piece—I forgot the seed block! Qi, I’ll bring the seeder over tomorrow. Take a look and let me know what else needs fixing. Once it’s tuned up, it’ll be a game changer for us.”

Qi Fu was all for it. “A seeder lets us control both depth and density—so much better than hand casting. Xia Qing, I’ll help hold it steady when you’re sowing.”

“Thank you, Qi.” Earlier, Shizhong had said the seeder needed one to pull and one to steady. Since Xia Qing was alone in her territory, she hadn’t told them her sheep companion could pull it. She’d never even seen a tool like this. Getting an experienced hand like Qi Fu to help was perfect.

Kuang Qingwei was quick on the uptake. “Our little greenhouses can’t handle massive machines—a pull-type seeder is perfect. Is it easy to build, Shi? If it’s simple, make a few more. I’ll try to sell them for us. You set the price, and I’ll take one credit per sale as commission.”

Being able to turn handiwork into credits put Shizhong in a great mood. “It’s not hard. Come take a look tomorrow and we’ll settle on a price.”

“Deal. When you get here, Qi can use the loudspeaker to call me.” Kuang Qingwei and Qi Fu’s territories were neighbors, but with both living in the center, they were still a kilometer apart as the crow flies. No one here had Evolved Hearing, so shouting probably wouldn’t cut it.

Once the seeder talk wrapped up, dusk had arrived and everyone headed home. As usual, Xia Qing and Zhao Ze’s Mother took the northern barrier, while Shizhong and Kuang Qingwei went south, following the signpost trail.

On the way back, Zhao Ze’s Mother looked at Xia Qing with a new level of admiration. “You really are something else. On your own, you grew more food than the rest of us put together.”

Xia Qing explained, “When I first arrived, I didn’t know a thing about farming—just learned bit by bit from the broadcast and from Qi. When I got swamped, I’d hire help from Territory One.”

Hearing that Xia Qing started from zero gave Zhao Ze’s Mother—who’d only arrived in July—a sudden urge to go home and scold her son again.

Back when she first moved in, she’d heard the neighboring territory only had a single, unmarried young woman. She even wondered if her son might have a chance.

These days? Zhao Ze’s Mother just blushed at the thought. Her son couldn’t even begin to compare to Xia Qing.

Zhao Ze’s Mother admired Xia Qing, but Xia Qing admired Qi Fu just as much. Her high yields came down to two things:

First, soaking seeds in spring water boosted germination rates by about ten percent. With the same amount of seed, Xia Qing could start more seedlings.

Second, this year she’d traded with Zhang San for soil pesticide and used it early, so when pests hit, Section Three’s crops barely suffered any damage.

Despite having neither of those advantages, Qi Fu managed to store more corn in Territory One’s food depot than Xia Qing by a whole sack.

Xia Qing harvested over 750 jin of corn—enough to fill six and a half sacks. She stored four in Territory One and kept two and a half. Qi Fu had more people to feed, so he’d need to keep just as much for their winter rations. That meant Section Five’s corn output probably topped Section Three’s.

This side-by-side proved just how much experience really matters in farming.

Section Four’s harvest was actually quite low. Kuang Qingwei had one sack less than Shizhong—maybe his fields just didn’t yield much, or maybe he’d already lined up buyers and sold off a portion.

Next up, Xia Qing planned to double down on learning from Qi Fu and his wife. She needed to boost yield per mu if she wanted to keep improving.

Even though she technically grew enough to feed herself now, what farmer wouldn’t want a bigger harvest every season?

“What was everyone doing just now? I called for ages and didn’t get an answer from a single soul!” That night, after the farming knowledge broadcast, the usual lordly small talk turned rowdy as Tang Huai grumbled.

What were they doing? The five allied lords all chuckled to themselves in their separate territories.

Matters of the Lords’ Alliance weren’t something to discuss out loud. The others in the group chat weren’t serious farmers—their motives differed. It’d never work to try and team up with them anyway. For example, put Tang Huai and Hu Zifeng together and they’d probably tear the roof off the place.

Kuang Qingwei responded politely. “I worked so hard today my back’s about to snap. My wife had the walkie-talkie all day. You always have the latest news, Huai. Did something big happen?”

Someone answering gave Tang Huai all the cue he needed. “Over three thousand refugees from Gui San Base just showed up here. The Safe Zone can’t fit them all, so they want to settle some into our territories.”

Xia Qing froze, dish in hand. How could there be over three thousand refugees—and how did they get here?

“That’s just an excuse! They’re not out of room—Safe Zone just doesn’t want more refugees inside.” Zhao Ze was furious. “With three Devastation Rains this year, the Safe Zone lost over thirty thousand people. No way they can’t fit three thousand now!”

Tang Huai’s roar easily matched Zhao Ze’s. “You got a problem, go yell at the Base Commander! Quit taking it out on me!”

Zhao Ze hurried to apologize. “Sorry, Huai. I didn’t mean you. It’s just their decision feels so wrong.”

Tang Huai ignored Zhao Ze, pushing on with his point. “There’s two plans: one, send the refugees to empty territories and let them clear and plant it themselves. Two, lords like us can pick refugees to bring back to our own lands. The Management Department will reward anyone who takes workers.”

Qi Fu asked, “So are they letting refugees claim vacant territories and become lords? There’s only 200 territories anyway, and maybe thirty or forty without a lord. How many could that possibly shelter?”

“No, not letting them become lords. They’re splitting vacant territories into ten-mu plots and putting refugees in groups to lease them. The Management Department’s giving out tools and plastic film so people can set up greenhouses and grow food through winter.” Tang Huai shook his head. “It’s honestly a wild move.”

Xia Qing wasn’t sure what exactly the dig-person meant by ‘wild move,’ so she asked directly, “Are the recently invaded Territories 158 and 159 going to be given to refugees?”

If so, that would make the recent invasion seem even more suspicious.