Chapter 1414: The Food Problem

At this moment, Austria, a port city.

Liu Zheng looked at the night sky, thought of the crisis in Prussia, and sighed.

Not long ago, he had just received a military report from Vienna; he had not expected Austria to be so decisive, and now the Longyan army was almost at the gates of Vienna.

The general stationed in Vienna was surprisingly not panicked at all, and even ordered support for Poland to attack Prussia's territories in Poland.

This was simply incredible.

According to his understanding, the garrison in Vienna was only about two hundred thousand, and the army Ling Chen led was also two hundred thousand; they did not have an advantage in troop numbers.

The military equipment of the Longyan army was among the best in the world.

Moreover, the army had been tempered by countless battles, large and small, and its quality was even more formidable.

In terms of military equipment alone, the Austria Jun was at least one grade behind the Longyan army.

Two hundred thousand troops definitely could not hold Vienna.

Furthermore, the opponent likely did not know that they were facing Ling Chen, the most formidable general of the younger generation in Longyan.

He was decisive in killing and had never been defeated to this day.

No matter how one looked at it, the Longyan army had the clear advantage, but Liu Zheng knew that winning would not be that simple.

The Longyan army now had a problem of the utmost importance that had not been solved: food and fodder!

Liu Zheng called over a servant and asked, "Go and ask how much food we have left."

The servant hurried off to ask and returned quickly.

"Reporting to Lord Liu, the warehouse management says that based on our current number of people at the port, we have about one month's worth of food left."

Liu Zheng nodded and calculated the days; the autumn harvest season was almost here.

By that time, the food problem could be solved, but this was not Longyan.

The common people of Austria would not give food and fodder to Longyan.

It would have to be sent from Longyan, and if that were the case, it would take at least a month.

"It's too late," Liu Zheng shook his head.

Liu Zheng got up and walked out, arriving at the temporary scientific Laboratory established in Austria.

Seeing Liu Zheng's arrival, they said respectfully, "Lord Liu."

Liu Zheng nodded slightly and then said, "What progress is there?"

"Reporting to Lord Liu, you have come just in time. Please look, this is the Bean Sprouts we have cultivated, according to the data you provided."

"This way, one jin of mung beans can produce five jin of Bean Sprouts!"

Liu Zheng nodded, looked at the grown Bean Sprouts, and nodded again; now that there were vegetables, the next step was to solve the food problem.

This gave Liu Zheng a real headache, and he asked, "How is the development of the Hybrid Rice going?"

These few people all shook their heads, indicating that the development was not successful.

Liu Zheng asked again, "Then the fermentation of Chemical Fertilizer was also unsuccessful?"

These few people nodded again, confirming that it had not been successfully developed.

Liu Zheng sighed; he had been too eager for quick success. These things were epoch-making inventions, but the current level of technology was still a bit low.

He wondered how things were going over in Longyan, and whether the Generator had been successfully developed.

Liu Zheng had previously proposed an idea: by rotating copper wire between two magnets, one could produce something called electricity.

The Generator was created based on this idea of his, but it seemed the progress was not that smooth either.

After all, the surprise Longyan had given him recently was the successful development of a high-performance Steam Engine, which was why they now had more reliable transport ships.

With such a Steam Engine, Liu Zheng believed that the Generator would not be too far off.

However, with the current war, there was a shortage of food.

Liu Zheng thought for a moment and instructed his servant: "Pass down the order to allocate another fifteen days of military rations to General Ling Chen, and at the same time, have the scientific personnel accompany him to teach him how to grow Bean Sprouts."

"And tell him..."

The servant immediately replied "yes," and one of the scientific personnel was dispatched by Liu Zheng.

The food problem on the front line was considered alleviated, but to solve it completely, they still had to win over the Austrian populace.

Liu Zheng said again, "How is the policy we are promoting in Europe going?"

The servant replied, "Some people believe it and express their willingness to support it."

"But more people think our policy is nonsense, even their Grand Duke, Teresa!"

Hearing this name, Liu Zheng's expression stiffened for a moment, then he shook his head; he had not expected Teresa's reputation to be so resounding in such a remote area.

Liu Zheng thought for a moment and said, "Pass down my order: Longyan supports the development of Protestantism in Austria."

Since he could not fleece the common people, he could only fleece the followers of the faith.

Because General Ling Chen had pushed forward all the way, and the occupied cities were guarded by Longyan soldiers, the journey was smooth and unimpeded.

It took only one day for the scientific personnel and the servant to arrive at Ling Chen's current location with the fifteen days of food.

"Greetings, General Ling Chen," the servant said, cupping his hands in a salute.

He turned and pointed to the food behind him and the scientific personnel beside him, saying, "This is the food and the scientific personnel sent by Lord Liu; they are here to teach you, General, how to grow Bean Sprouts."

Ling Chen returned the salute and said, "Thank you for your trouble."

Leading the two into the room, Ling Chen said, "What are Bean Sprouts? I have never heard of them."

The scientific personnel laughed; seeing Ling Chen's puzzled look, it was normal for him not to know.

At first, they had also been confused when they heard about these Bean Sprouts, but later, when they heard Lord Liu Zheng say that Bean Sprouts were actually just sprouted mung beans, they understood.

They used to call them Golden Hook.

However, things like sprouting mung beans were usually very complicated, and sprouting would also waste a lot of mung beans; one jin of mung beans might not even yield many Bean Sprouts.

However, ever since they heard the ideas Liu Zheng expounded, this group of researchers was suddenly enlightened.

Liu Zheng's idea was not only simple but also effective; in just three days, one catty of mung beans could sprout as much as five catties.

This was simply ferocious.

One wouldn't even dare to imagine such a thing, yet unexpectedly, a single idea from Liu Zheng achieved it.

A miracle could be nothing more than this!

"General, actually this thing is Golden Hook, it is just that because of the improvements by Lord Liu Zheng, the yield has exploded, and it can completely solve the vegetable supply problem in your army."

Hearing this, Ling Chen's eyes lit up; what their troops were currently lacking most was food.

One catty producing five, and in just three days' time—this was simply a divine miracle.

Ling Chen said impatiently: "I ask that you quickly teach me."

Next, the researcher spent about an hour explaining it to Ling Chen.

"General, this is already the eighth time, have you remembered it?"

Ling Chen indicated that he was completely confused.

He gave a silly laugh, admitting that he had a brain for marching and fighting, but was completely clueless about these kinds of things.

Seeing Ling Chen shake his head, the researcher almost spat out a mouthful of blood; he hadn't expected Ling Chen to be completely clueless.

"Very well, General, have someone fetch pen and ink, and I will write it down for you; you can teach it to the Strategists in your army, they should be able to understand it."

The researcher added a line in his heart: I hope so.

At this moment, the servant said another sentence: "General, have you received any military reports recently?"