Chapter 353: Refugees

When it came to sowing, Shi Zhong announced some good news that made everyone happy.

"I was tinkering with a seed drill for sowing a while back—one person pulls, one person pushes, two people per team. I tried it in my territory; it's way faster than sowing by hand. But it can only sow wheat; rapeseed probably won't work, because the seeds are too small and they leak out too fast."

Xia Qing immediately nodded. "Being able to sow wheat solves a big problem." Territory Three had over forty jin of wheat that needed sowing. Xia Qing wasn't afraid of hard work—only afraid that the sowing depth would be wrong, and the seeds would fail to sprout before winter and freeze to death.

Qi Fu got excited too. "I was just about to bring this up with Brother Shi, didn't expect you'd already figured it out. Rapeseed being small isn't a problem either—just hang a clog-blocker in the seed hopper, mix the rapeseed with fertilizer, and sow it."

Shi Zhong saw the light at once and clapped his hands in excitement. The medicine Zhang San had prescribed worked very well—his finger joints had already gone down, looking almost the same as a normal person's. "I just felt like something was missing—turns out I forgot the clog-blocker! Brother Qi, I'll bring the drill over tomorrow, you take a look and see if anything else isn't right. Once the drill is sorted out, it'll be a big help in a few days."

Qi Fu naturally agreed. "Using a drill lets you control the sowing depth and density—way better than scattering by hand. Xia Qing, when it's time to sow, I'll come over and help you steady the drill."

"Alright, thanks so much, Brother Qi." Earlier Shi Zhong had said one person needed to pull the drill and one person needed to steady it. As the sole person in her territory, Xia Qing didn't mention that her sheep companion could pull the drill. She had never even seen this kind of farm tool before, so having Qi Fu, with his rich farming experience, come help was the best possible arrangement.

Kuang Qingwei was even quicker-witted. "Our little sheds can't use big seed drills—a human-pulled one is more practical. Brother Shi, is the drill hard to make? If it's not too hard, make a few more, I'll take them out and sell them. You set the price, and for every one I sell, I'll take a commission of one point."

Being able to earn money from things he made—of course Shi Zhong was happy. "Easy to make. Come over tomorrow with me, and we'll set a price."

"Deal. When Brother Shi gets here, Brother Qi, give me a shout over the loudspeaker." Although Kuang Qingwei's and Qi Fu's territories were adjacent, they both lived in the center of their territories, a straight-line distance of two li. None of them had any hearing-evolution abilities, so even shouting at the top of their lungs might not carry clearly.

After finishing the discussion about the drill, night was almost falling, and everyone returned to their own territories. As before, Xia Qing and Zhao's Mother took the northern isolation belt, while Shi Zhong and Kuang Qingwei took the southern road sign.

On the way back, Zhao's Mother's admiration for Xia Qing rose another notch. "You're really too capable—the grain one person grows is more than what a whole group of us produces."

Xia Qing explained, "When I first arrived at the territory, I didn't know how to do anything either. I learned bit by bit from the broadcasts and Brother Qi. When I couldn't handle it all, I'd hire people from Territory One to lend a hand."

Hearing Xia Qing's words, Zhao's Mother—who had only arrived at the territory in July—felt like going back to curse out her son again.

When she first arrived, she'd heard that the neighboring territory had only one young unmarried Miss, and had even wondered whether her son might have a chance to pair up with her.

Now? Zhao's Mother blushed whenever she thought of this—her son compared to Xia Qing was lacking by far more than a little.

Zhao's Mother admired Xia Qing, and Xia Qing admired Qi Fu. Her grain yield was high for two reasons:

First, she soaked the seeds in spring water, raising the germination rate by about 10%, so with the same quantity of seeds, Xia Qing could grow more seedlings.

Second, this year she used the soil pesticide she'd traded with Zhang San ahead of time, so when pests struck, the crops in Territory Three barely suffered any damage.

Without either of those two advantages, the corn Qi Fu stored in Territory One's food storage warehouse was actually one more sack than Xia Qing's.

Xia Qing harvested a total of over 750 jin of corn, enough to fill six and a half sacks. She put four sacks into Territory One and kept two and a half for herself. Qi Fu's territory had more people, so the corn he needed to keep for winter food shouldn't be less than Xia Qing's, meaning Territory Five's corn yield should be higher than Territory Three's.

From this comparison, one can see that whether or not you have farming experience really makes a huge difference.

Territory Four's yield was genuinely low. Kuang Qingwei had one sack less than Shi Zhong—possibly because his plot's yield was lower, or possibly because he'd already lined up buyers and sold off part of his grain.

From now on, Xia Qing was going to learn farming even more seriously from Qi Fu and his wife, and push the per-mu yield up.

Although at the current yield, the grain she grew was enough to eat, which farmer doesn't hope for a high yield from what they plant?

"Where did everyone just go? I shouted for ages and not a single person answered!" That evening, during the lord chat time after the farming knowledge broadcast ended, Tang Huai demanded in an angry huff.

Where had they gone? The five allied lords, each in their own territory, smiled in unison.

The matter of the lord alliance couldn't be broadcast out, because the other lords in the group weren't focused on farming—everyone had different goals and couldn't be lumped together. Not to mention anyone else—just Tang Huai and Hu Zifeng, those two together would definitely be able to blow the roof off.

Kuang Qingwei asked politely, "I've been so tired today my back can't straighten up, and my wife has been holding the walkie-talkie the whole time. Brother Huai has the best information—were you looking for us because there's some big news?"

With someone picking up the thread, Tang Huai could naturally continue. "Over three thousand refugees from Third Mountain Base have come to our base. The safe zone can't hold that many people, so some of them have to be settled in the territories."

Xia Qing, who was washing dishes, paused—how could there be over three thousand refugees, and how had they gotten here?

"Excuses, that's all they are! It's not that they can't fit them in—the safe zone just doesn't want to let the refugees in." Zhao Ze flew into a rage. "Three acid rains this year killed over thirty thousand people in the safe zone—how could the space vacated possibly not fit three thousand people?"

Tang Huai yelled even louder than Zhao Ze. "If you've got a damn complaint, go yell at the base commander—what are you shouting at me for?"

Zhao Ze hurriedly apologized. "Brother Huai, sorry about that. I wasn't aiming at you, I just feel like what they're doing is underhanded."

Tang Huai ignored Zhao Ze and went on. "I've heard there are two arrangement plans. One is to settle them in unclaimed empty territories and let the refugees open up wasteland and farm themselves. The other is for lords to pick refugees and bring them back to their own territories. The management department will give rewards to lords who take in refugee labor."

Qi Fu asked, "Brother Huai, are refugees allowed to take over ownerless territories and become lords? Our base only has 200 territories in total—at most there are thirty or forty ownerless ones. How many people could that settle?"

"No. The ownerless territories will be divided into small plots of about ten mu, and refugees will be grouped to contract them. The territory management department will issue them farm tools and plastic film, so they can build greenhouses in the territories over winter and grow grain." Tang Huai sighed. "This method is really brilliant."

Xia Qing couldn't quite figure out what the worm-digger meant by "brilliant," so she asked directly, "Will the recently invaded Territories 158 and 159 be assigned to refugees?"

If so, then the conspiracy behind the invasion incident would smell even stronger.