Chapter 865: The Fifth Alliance Meeting: Plans, Harvests, and Hard Choices

The Bluetooth earpiece buzzed with another news update:

“Tang Huai from Territory Two says: @Xia Qing from Section Three, Sister Qing, can we rent it?”

Xia Qing straightened up, slipped off her gloves, and quickly tapped out a reply on her phone: I’ll check on that. Everyone, please keep clearing the Scourge Grass. We’ll hold a full alliance meeting at four o’clock the day after tomorrow.

Tang Huai instantly responded: “Got it, message received! @Everyone, our alliance will hold the fifth full-member conference of Year Eleven Post-Calamity, four in the afternoon the day after tomorrow!”

Xia Qing just shook her head.

Seriously, how much free time does this guy have to remember exactly how many meetings we’ve had?

Two days later, with all the Scourge Grass finally cleared from their territories, the Alliance gathered in Section Five’s basement for their fifth full-member conference of Year Eleven.

There were four major topics on the agenda:

First, establishing the Alliance Research Institute to develop farm machinery, tools, and soil improvement projects suited for their territories—anything vital to allied farming.

Second, dealing with the incoming harvest of winter wheat, spring wheat, and spring-planted corn—and how the Ninth Planting Center’s grain dryer would be used for processing.

Third, dividing up the newly opened acre of farmland in the Hidden Valley.

Fourth, territory leaders borrowing Yi Stone from the Azure Dragon Squad to protect their key crops.

Everyone had piles of farm work waiting back home, so the meeting ran with impressive speed. No one bothered with empty chatter.

The first topic was settled in just ten minutes. Zhu Li, chairing this session, wrapped it up:

“So, the Alliance Research Institute will start with Zhao Ze, Shizhong, Huo Lei, Huo Zhun, and Jiang Ying as members. Research funding will be split evenly across all territories for now. Once we have market results, 20-30% of profits will go to the alliance fund to cover future research, the rest gets split among the territories. All in favor, raise your hand.”

The leaders or delegates of all eleven territories raised their hands. Xia Qing raised two—her right hand standing in for the Idol of Territory Seven, and her left for herself.

Zhu Li nodded. “Alright—all present territories agree. Territory Seven, who’s absent, votes yes through Section Three’s representative. Passed! Moving on to our second item.”

“The Ninth Planting Center has both a thresher and a mobile dryer,” Xia Qing announced. “The thresher runs on electricity; the dryer uses crop straw as fuel, and can dry up to two tons of grain at a time. Once we get them delivered tomorrow, you can use them for the grain we harvested during last night’s disaster. Territories need to supply their own power and fuel, but maintenance and transport are handled by Ninth Center staff. Rental is ten credits per machine, per hour. Please let me know if you’ll need to use them, what kind of grain, and your estimated weights.”

When it rains, it pours. Their grain was already being stalked by birds and rats—there was no way to sun-dry it outside in bulk. The thresher and dryer were a godsend; who wouldn’t want to use them?

Tang Huai was first to report in: “Territory Two managed to harvest winter wheat from five mu, spring wheat from eight mu—no clue how to estimate the weight. Three mu of spring corn, but those are likely no good yet, the kernels aren’t formed.”

Zhu Li, jotting down notes, looked up. “Brother Huai, just list the wheat. The corn can only be used as silage, best sold to the Safe Zone Planting Center.”

“Fine by me.” Tang Huai turned to Xia Qing. “Hey, do your sheep need silage?”

“Nope, I’ve stashed enough feed for it,” Xia Qing replied, then reported her own losses. “Section Three managed to harvest winter wheat from one mu, weighing in at about 230 jin.”

Two hundred and thirty jin—after drying, that’d be around two hundred. In the years before the disasters, that kind of yield would’ve been a joke. But now, after one round of Devastation Snow, two rounds of Devastation Rain, and even a hailstorm, pulling in those numbers was honestly impressive.

Zhao Ze chimed in: “Section Four managed to harvest three mu of winter wheat and five mu of spring wheat…”

The only territory with no losses at all was Territory Eleven; they’d just set up two greenhouses, and that father-son duo had them closed in no time. The worst hit was Territory Twelve, losing fifty-six mu. A few big trees went down in the wind, crushing several greenhouses and houses, so Tang Heng chose to save people first, leaving many greenhouses open to the storm.

With the second topic wrapped up, it was time to discuss how to divide the new acre of farmland in the Hidden Valley that would be ready for expansion by mid-next month.

Everyone agreed: Territories Seven, Eight, Eleven, and Twelve would each get two shares, with the remaining two to be used for living and housing. This way, every member would have a patch in the Hidden Valley.

Of course, Territories Two and Twelve would share two shares between them, since they belonged to the same group. The cost for expanding the valley was split among the four territories getting land.

Territory Seven’s shares would serve as experimental fields, managed by researcher Zhang Shi. As for Territory Eight, Xin Yu herself suggested to Xia Qing that she’d like to take two shares. After that wolf-bear mission, she wanted to push herself to explore beyond her territory—and to build up her resistance to Magnetic Sense.

Tang Huai asked curiously, “Uncle Zhou, how come Xin Yu suddenly wants to farm in the valley? She barely ever visits her greenhouses back in Territory Eight.”

Territory Eight’s representative, Zhou Zhaoping, gave a gentle smile. “Our lord loves the spring water in the valley, and wants to see if the veggies grown with valley irrigation taste better. By the way, Little Tang, you’ve been working on it for a year—are the bugs in that Wild Grass Wall still not cleaned out?”

Tang Huai responded, dead serious, “As long as there are moths, there’ll always be bugs. Honestly, raising them pays better than growing crops. Uncle Zhou, talk with Xin Yu—if you want to raise more, I can trade you quality insect eggs. Aside from breadworms, I also breed Green Lantern locusts and crickets, but the high-grade eggs for those two are pricier. Oh, and I even dug out over forty Green Lantern cicadas—planning to start a batch with them too.”

Zhou Zhaoping nodded, still gentle. “Alright, I’ll let our lord know when I get back.”

The rest of the crowd exchanged glances.

Tan Qi’s eyes darted between Tang Huai and Zhou Zhaoping, a look of discovery on her face—who knew what that sharp-eyed girl had figured out.

With the third discussion complete, it was time for the fourth topic—and again, Xia Qing took the lead.

“I got in touch with Captain Yang from the Azure Dragon Squad. He said the price for Yi Stone has gone up. Still, since we’re loyal customers, he gave us a discount for the Devastation Rain period—forty thousand credits for three days to protect the valley. But if you want to rent Yi Stone for use inside your own territory, you’ll need to pay the full price: minimum of five grams, a thousand credits per day, plus a thirty-thousand credit deposit. There’s also a hard cap—no more than forty grams per territory, since the squad doesn’t have much left.”

In truth, Xia Qing had just asked Yang Jin for the latest price on Yi Stone. If any territory leaders wanted to rent, the stones still came through her. The price went up, so of course the rental fee did too.

The Hidden Valley rate was only discounted because Xia Qing managed half the acreage there. For direct rentals into individual territories, things followed standard pricing—after all, alliances aside, Xia Qing had no reason to subsidize her teammates with her hard-earned credits.

Every single Yi Stone Xia Qing owned was earned with sweat and struggle. Whatever it was worth, that was what it would cost.

Just hearing Xia Qing’s rental rates made Zhao Ze’s heart race with anxiety.