Chapter 252: Wild Ginger

Every time the combat team dispatches a mission squad into the Evolution Forest, if they fail to gather the target supplies, or if the load on the strength-evolved squad members isn't full, they carry manure out and deliver it to the safe-zone planting center — one credit per five jin.

As an auxiliary logistics member, Xia Qing had done her fair share of hauling manure.

The Combat Team Alliance saw that the lords had a need, so they called on combat teams to stop sending manure to the planting center, and instead gather it bit by bit, ferment it, and sell it to the lords. By doing this, combat teams could earn more money.

The Combat Team Alliance is a conference-style organization; its operating core is eleven alliance councilors. Seven of them are appointed by the top seven combat teams ranked by combat strength, and four are elected by the smaller combat teams.

Once the Combat Team Alliance passes a resolution, member combat teams must abide by it. Therefore, the Combat Team Alliance wields considerable authority, and when the base officials make important decisions, they also consult the Combat Team Alliance.

From the Combat Team Alliance's standpoint, there's nothing wrong with what they're doing — but who set such a high selling price?!

Was it the clever, green-haired Green Dragon vice-captain Xie Yu, or the punch-on-sight vice-captain Xu Pin?

These two are key core figures within the Combat Team Alliance.

Xia Qing continued to ask, "What's Brother Qing planning to do?"

Kuang Qingwei sighed, "Farming without fertilizer just won't work. We can't produce fertilizer ourselves, and we can't find a cheaper channel, so we can only hold our noses and bear it. I'm planning to buy worm castings from Territory No. 49. Oh, by the way, in a while another batch of crab-shell fertilizer can be shipped over from Guicheng Base — still six credits per jin. Want some?"

"I'll think about it, thanks Brother Qing." Xia Qing didn't agree right away, because she wanted to ask Zhong Tao first — he should be able to get cheaper crab-shell fertilizer too.

The crab-shell fertilizer about to arrive, the worm castings to be delivered in twenty days, plus the plant-stem-and-leaf fertilizer Xia Qing fermented herself — enough for the autumn-sown wheat and the greenhouse. Xia Qing felt a little more settled.

Shi Du asked, "Sister Qing, Brother Qi, what do you think about us teaming up to go into the Evolution Forest and haul back animal manure to ferment ourselves?"

Qi Fu had already publicly revealed his identity as a strength evolver, so he could go on missions in the Evolution Forest.

Kuang Qingwei immediately responded, "That's a good idea. After you ferment it, if you have more than your fields can use, can you sell it to me? Or hand it to me to resell, and you take a cut."

Qi Fu raised a practical issue, "Hauling manure is no problem, but animal manure from the Evolution Forest will definitely have worm eggs and bacteria. Before fermenting it, we'd have to sterilize it first. The places in the Evolution Forest where animals gather are bound to be dangerous, so hauling manure would require a team with high combat strength — the credits paid to them would have to be at least a hundred a day, right? Add the cost of insecticide and bacterial powder on top of that, and the price of our own composted manure might end up higher than just buying fertilizer."

Shi Du agreed, "Brother Qi's right. I was thinking too simply."

Going into the Evolution Forest specifically to collect animal droppings really wasn't appropriate. Besides, most of the animal droppings in the Evolution Forest are yellow-light or red-light; green-light droppings still have to come from the chickens on her territory. Still, any fertilizer that can be brought out and put to use should certainly be utilized. Xia Qing replied, "From now on, when we're on a mission and come across animal droppings, if we can bring them out, we'll bring them out."

Tang Huai wasn't going to volunteer for a manure-hauling mission. Curious about Xia Qing's mission yesterday, he asked, "Xia Qing, what did you get in the Evolution Forest yesterday? Up for a trade?"

Xia Qing refused crisply, "Not trading."

Tang Huai...

Zhao Ze, afraid Tang Huai would keep saying something unpleasant and make it hard for Xia Qing to back down, or offend the Tang family in the process, hurriedly changed the subject, "Xia Qing, Third Brother came looking for you last night, but you weren't in."

Xia Qing replied, "I'll contact Third Brother as soon as I can. Thanks."

"You're welcome." Zhao Ze replied happily. Xia Qing's voice was still ice-cold, but at least she'd said "thanks" to him — far better than her attitude toward Tang Huai. Good-neighbor Zhao Ze was content.

When Beard Feng came over to pick up the spinach juice, Xia Qing handed him a vegetable basket with an extra five jin of green-light chestnuts. "Captain Hu, take these back for Brother Luo to try."

"Last night we boiled a few yellow-light ones, and the texture was especially good. This time Brother Luo's in for a treat." Beard Feng took them, then reminded Xia Qing, "Yesterday when we went to pick chestnuts, I spotted what looked like wild ginger in that valley — judging by the leaf color, it might be green-light."

Beard Feng sent Xia Qing the photos of the green-light wild ginger they'd found in other areas of Mountain No. 49. "The wild ginger isn't urgent — you can wait until after the migratory birds pass and then test it."

"Got it, thanks Captain Hu." According to the agreement Xia Qing had signed with the Green Dragon combat team, whenever green-light organisms were discovered on Mountain No. 49, Luo Pei would tell Xia Qing. So she already knew green-light wild ginger had been found on Mountain No. 49, and had put searching for wild ginger on her schedule.

Beard Feng didn't know about the agreement Xia Qing had signed with the captains, which was why he'd reminded her.

After finishing the matter of the medicinal herbs, Beard Feng discussed another thing with Xia Qing. "Can I buy thirty jin of yellow-light chestnuts from you? This batch of chestnuts is good quality — I want to buy extra to keep for eating. How about a hundred credits per jin, does that work?"

A hundred credits per jin was exactly the price Zhang San had offered. Xia Qing truly didn't plan to sell chestnuts proactively, but when an acquaintance proposed a trade, she wouldn't refuse either. "Sure. Captain Hu, wait a moment — I'll go get them."

"Broken-shell ones are fine." Beard Feng reminded her, then asked, "Can green-light chestnuts be traded? How many credits per jin?"

When shelling chestnuts yesterday, she'd found some with cracked shells and set them aside separately — eight jin of green-light, over twenty jin of yellow-light. The broken-shell ones were what Xia Qing had used to stew chicken the night before.

But of course, when trading with Beard Feng, she couldn't use the broken-shell ones. "Third Brother said this batch of chestnuts is excellent quality — worth four hundred credits per jin. He traded for over two hundred jin, so I don't have much left. How much does Captain Hu want?"

Hearing this, Beard Feng immediately lowered his purchase quantity. "Two jin, for gifting. I'll transfer you three thousand eight hundred credits?"

"Sure." Xia Qing didn't stand on ceremony either — she took it all.

After this period of trading, Xia Qing grew even more convinced of the saying "Business is business, friendship is friendship." Exchanging supplies on this principle really saved both worry and effort.

After fetching the chestnuts and handing them to Beard Feng, Xia Qing asked, "Captain Hu, have you heard of Jiang Quan, the head of the Lord Management Department? What's his background?"

Beard Feng nodded. "He was Tang Zhengrong's subordinate before the catastrophe — cut from the same cloth. What's up?"

Xia Qing told Beard Feng the whole story of Jiang Yansheng stealing Sun Zhe's worm-casting business. "Sun Zhe worked on the construction crew with me for a few years — solid, willing to work, quick to learn. In the half-year since his territory started producing worm castings, he's been developing pretty well."

Beard Feng nodded. "I've never heard of Jiang Yansheng — probably not an evolver. Territory No. 1 does need a lot of fertilizer, but I don't know how feasible raising earthworms is. I'll go back and mention it to Brother Luo."

Xia Qing didn't say any more good words for Sun Zhe, and asked Beard Feng to send someone over to keep an eye on her territory for a while. "I'm going to the valley — I'll be back soon."

While waiting for Beard Feng to send someone over, Xia Qing didn't idle either. She hauled the sheep-power water bicycle out of the warehouse and set it up by the reservoir.