Chapter 382: Liang Qu

In the pond.

The fat catfish and other beasts raised their heads, occasionally catching glimpses of villagers walking past outside the perimeter wall with bundles of grass.

Two little beavers and two little otters lay on the wall, gazing into the distance at the flickering orange lights in the fields, then tumbled down and tugged at the big beaver's tail.

The big beaver pondered for a moment, picked up a piece of wood, and in the blink of an eye gnawed it into four handles, distributing them to the four little ones.

The little beavers and otters picked up the wooden sticks, tied on grass ropes, and lined up to imitate the Yixing villagers, swinging their grass bundles around the pond.

The fat catfish really wanted to join in, but alas, it had no limbs.

Amidst the sorrow, Long Pingjiang and Long Pinghe poked their heads out. The two looked around, found the otter "Da Kai" who was snatching a grass bundle from a little otter, and stated they had urgent matters to report to Long Jun.

A long while later.

Liang Qu sat upon a rock: "A snake demon is haunting the vicinity of Huaiyin Prefecture?"

Long Pingjiang nodded: "The Dragon People exploring north of Huaiyin Prefecture told me this. It shouldn't be wrong. Long Jun, you must be extra careful when entering the Great Marsh recently! Avoid crossing paths with that snake demon."

Liang Qu sat up straight.

The human race has a rough classification for the strength of demon beasts.

Small Spirit Monsters, Spirit Monsters, and Great Spirit Monsters correspond to the Four Gates, Galloping Horse, and Wolf Smoke realms, respectively.

To become a demon, one must be in the Great Martial Artist category, capable of speaking human language like Old Tridacna and Old Toad, with intelligence no worse than a human's.

They might be relatively common in the depths of the Great Marsh, but they basically never appear in shallow water areas!

Shallow water areas are easy for the human race to develop; while resources are one aspect, another is that they easily trigger human-demon conflicts—a thankless place that, for intelligent demons, counts as muddying the waters.

Unless there is a sufficient conflict of interest, such as the former Sturgeon Demon, who willingly lived in a small pond for the sake of safely absorbing a broken half of a dragon bone.

"My lord, your eyes are like torches! The two Dragon People who discovered the snake tracks previously heard from fishermen in Xiangyi County that local experts had joined forces to capture a large snake, so they guessed that the snake demon is related to this matter, perhaps even searching for its offspring!"

"Offspring?"

Liang Qu's heart skipped a beat.

Did he also happen to slay a Great Spirit Monster-level snake demon?

"What color was that snake demon?"

Long Pinghe shook his head: "I don't know that. We haven't come face-to-face; we only judged by the traces."

Long Pingjiang's heart skipped a beat: "My lord, why do you say that? You wouldn't happen to have..."

Liang Qu pondered for a moment and shook his head: "It's true I slew a large snake in the summer, but that was right here in Pingyang County; I haven't been to Xiangyi County."

"Summer? Then the connection shouldn't be significant."

Long Pingjiang set his mind at ease.

The snake demon's tracks were fresh, clearly appearing only in winter; the large snake in Xiangyi County was also caught in winter, so the connection between the two is obviously greater.

Furthermore, Xiangyi County is located at the northernmost part of Huaiyin Prefecture, while Pingyang County is positioned to the south; the two are quite far apart.

The one Long Jun slew was likely just a coincidence.

After asking about the details of the matter, Liang Qu changed the subject.

"When did you two return?"

"We just arrived today. We rested for a few days after the festival, without a moment's pause."

"You left the tribe to scout for information near the shore; where do you usually stay?"

"The Dragon People don't have many requirements; we mostly find a cave or something underwater. Cleanliness doesn't matter in the water."

"A cave?" Liang Qu stroked his chin, "Why not live at my place from now on? There happen to be plenty of empty rooms; one for each of you brothers."

The fat catfish eavesdropping in the pond widened its eyes, revealing disbelief.

It's over, the thieves have moved into the house!

Long Pingjiang and Long Pinghe trembled with excitement.

"This, this, this is too presumptuous!"

"Yes, yes, disturbing Long Jun's cultivation, we deserve to die!"

"Unnecessary worry."

The three-courtyard residence has one advantage: it's big!

Liang Qu usually has to shout to call Fan Xing from the three-courtyard residence, otherwise he can't hear at all.

Not knowing what kind of storm the Dragon People brothers experienced internally, they eventually agreed.

However, the two refused to enter the main house, suggesting that the big beaver could just build two small wooden huts by the pond.

It would be a great honor for the brothers to just come over and rest their feet occasionally.

Liang Qu didn't insist; he just felt embarrassed that the two Dragon People sent treasure fish every day, which is why he made the offer.

The task was handed over to the big beaver.

The big beaver patted its chest with a chisel, indicating it was on them; there was enough wood, and it would be completed in half a month!

The next afternoon.

Da Kai drove the lucky boat to the Qingjiang Shipyard to haul wood.

Liang Qu had Li Libo and Chen Jiechang call over the small shopkeeper Chen from the Changchun Branch Hall in Yixing Town, as well as two medicinal herb merchants who raised black-spotted frogs and golden-threaded leeches.

Of course, the party involved, Chen Qingjiang, could not be left out; the seven gathered in one hall.

Liang Qu sat at the head and distributed five booklets.

"I called everyone here today; there's no need to say much about the purpose. Everyone, just take a look. If there are any problems with what's written, and if modifications are needed, how should they be modified?"

Liang Qu had spent the night writing a preliminary plan based on the requirements for three-dimensional farming in his memory, and had two scholars copy a few more copies in the morning.

Shopkeeper Chen and the herb merchants didn't dare to be careless.

Although the three were noncommittal about Liang Qu's idea of farming rice together with black-spotted frogs or leeches to increase production.

Farming medicinal herbs, especially live ones, involves many ins and outs; if not handled well, a whole batch could die, and they would lose their shirts.

But Liang Qu's status was set here; being able to have them come to the door for tea was already a great honor, so they respectfully took the booklets and flipped through them.

Chen Qingjiang was illiterate; he flipped through two pages and could only roughly understand the pictures, occasionally having to ask Li Libo and Chen Jiechang what the annotations on the pictures meant.

Li Libo and Chen Jiechang were no longer the illiterate bumpkins they were back then; they were quite motivated, often going to the academy to attend lectures, and had learned the pinyin method well, so they could roughly read.

"Widen and tamp the field ridges, with a width greater than two feet and a height of more than one and a half feet above the rice planting plane. Build a feeding platform one foot higher than the plane between the ridge and the rice planting plane, about three feet wide, connecting the ridge and the rice field and circling the ridge."

"Build a feeding platform on the constructed feeding platform, consisting of bamboo tubes and rectangular mesh cloth, using bamboo tubes of the same width as the mesh cloth to prop it up. Bury both sides of the mesh cloth underground to prevent the frogs from burrowing in, forming a feeding platform similar to a 'trampoline'."

"According to the shape of the rice field, dig frog ditches in the middle of the rice field, with the frog ditches being three to four feet deep..."

As the two herb merchants watched, they became engrossed.

Seeing that the two were watching seriously, Liang Qu knew the matter was settled.

He didn't know much about how to farm black-spotted frogs and golden-threaded leeches, but he had done so many geography problems about three-dimensional farming of mulberry, silkworm, sugarcane, and rice in his previous life that he was sick of them.

The key to this thing isn't understanding how to plant or farm every single thing; professional matters are left to professional people, and the two herb suppliers understood it themselves.

The key lies in controlling costs, recycling materials and resources, and increasing farming efficiency by several times or even doubling it in a limited space!

It's nothing more than painting a tiger based on a cat.

As for the two herb merchants not agreeing on the surface after watching, and going back to try it themselves, Liang Qu didn't care.

Not to mention oppression, the two didn't dare to have that heart.

The profit of medicinal herbs is high; earning one more tael of silver per mu of land, with one thousand mu of land, two crops a year would be two thousand taels.

Moreover, Liang Qu had some unique insights into farming aquatic species.