Chapter 405: Harvesting Sweet Potatoes

When spring first entered the territory, Xia Qing used centipedes and snakes caught within the territory, along with a small wild boar later caught in the valley, to trade for Gao Po, which had a large Chinese toon tree with a green light, and traded with Tan Junjie for 16 green-light sweet potato seedlings.

Before the second Harmful Rain, she cut sweet potato vines and propagated 200 sweet potato plants. After two Harmful Rains, 150 survived to bear sweet potatoes with Harmful Element content below 15‰—66 green-light and 84 yellow-light.

Looking at the data alone, the sweet potato seedlings Tan Junjie traded her weren't low in stability, but in reality that wasn't the case.

If Xia Qing hadn't propagated them on terraced fields on a hillside with relatively high Nourishing Element content and watered them with unpolluted spring water, the number of green-light sweet potatoes harvested probably wouldn't have reached even a quarter of the current amount.

Sweet potatoes have the longest growth period of all the crops Xia Qing grows, and during the growth process they must endure two Harmful Rains, with Harmful Element elevation rates between 3‰ and 4‰.

In other words, yellow-light sweet potatoes with Harmful Element content above 10‰ can only be eaten, not used as seed stock; yellow-light sweet potatoes with Harmful Element content between 5‰ and 10‰ only have one-generation stability; only green-light sweet potatoes with Harmful Element content below 5‰ have two-generation stability.

Therefore only green-light sweet potatoes have value for widespread cultivation, and that value is very high.

Because both the leaves and the tubers of sweet potatoes are edible, and after about two months of growth they can be propagated by cuttings, even without the boost of unpolluted spring water and high-Nourishing-Element soil, the yield exceeds all other crops currently grown in the territory.

The reason the Territory Management Department doesn't promote them is that the cultivation conditions for breeding green-light sweet potato seedlings are rather demanding, making low-cost mass propagation impossible.

Xia Qing harvested over 350 green-light sweet potatoes of various sizes today, but she doesn't want people to know her territory has high-quality planting zones, so she can't sell them all.

According to the quantities she agreed to return to her allies at the Lord Meeting, Xia Qing began selecting seed sweet potatoes suitable for storage in Territory One's food storage warehouse.

Seed stock requires sweet potatoes with intact appearance and large size—two green-light ones per territory, four yellow-light ones with Harmful Element content around 7‰ per territory. Counting Territory Fifteen, that's 30 in total.

Xia Qing's green-light sweet potato seedlings came from trading with Tan Junjie, so Territory Fifteen shouldn't need to trade seed potatoes with her, but Xia Qing still prepared thoroughly, just in case.

Besides that, Xia Qing also planned to present 100 yellow-light sweet potatoes as the entire yield of this batch. Because she mentioned in the Lord Channel that she only had twenty-something sweet potato plants, and 130-plus tubers is exactly the yield of twenty-something plants, so no one would suspect her territory has a storage room capable of long-term food preservation.

"Boss, try this sweet potato root—it's green-light." Xia Qing broke the sweet potatoes off the root one by one and packed them into a bamboo basket lined with dry grass, then handed the root to Sheep Boss.

While Sheep Boss was gnawing away on the sweet potato root, Xia Qing's phone rang. Investigation Squad Captain Tan Junjie really couldn't get away, so he sent Hu Zi to deliver the replies from each territory to Xia Qing.

The South Gate was crowded today with too many eyes around, so the two arranged to meet at the North Isolation Belt of Territory Three.

"The note you gave our captain yesterday only got delivered this morning. I was afraid it would delay things, so I had each lord give a reply within half an hour." Hu Zi handed the note to Xia Qing.

Xia Qing thanked him, took the five notes, and handed over fifteen jin of yellow-light sweet potatoes.

Yellow-light sweet potatoes sell for 40 points per jin in the Safe Zone, so this bag was worth 600 points. Hu Zi knew how hard farming was, and how difficult it had been for Xia Qing to harvest these sweet potatoes, so of course he refused to accept them.

Before she could speak, Hu Zi stepped back. "No need, no need. Keep them for yourself, sis. In a few days we'll each get a few pieces."

"It's not a free gift—it's a material exchange." If it were a gift, Xia Qing wouldn't have brought so much. "Winter solar power generation decreases, so I need to find other ways to generate electricity. I remember you said the pedal-powered bicycle can not only draw water but also generate electricity, so I want to trade for a bicycle that can generate power by pedaling. Do you think 15 jin of yellow-light sweet potatoes is enough?"

In spring, when Xia Qing traded for a set of pedal-powered water wheels, she used four jin of Chinese toon sprouts and two jin of perilla, priced at the rate of 50 points per jin for green-light vegetables—that was 300 points. Considering that an electricity-generating bicycle needs a small motor, Xia Qing offered a few extra jin of sweet potatoes.

Hu Zi still didn't take them, reminding Xia Qing that human-powered electricity generation wasn't cost-effective. "Pedaling a bicycle to generate electricity isn't very efficient—the power generated can't even make up for the human energy the rider expends. Sis could actually consider trading for a fuel-powered generator. If you don't have enough points, you could take the battery to Territory Six to charge it, which would be more cost-effective than buying a bicycle generator."

The Investigation Squad naturally knew about the business Kuang Qingwei's territory ran of charging fees with its abundant solar panels.

Xia Qing explained, "It's not for me—it's for my evolved sheep."

Sheep Boss was immensely strong and liked pedaling the bicycle to draw water. In winter it wouldn't need to pedal the bicycle to draw water for irrigation, so Xia Qing wanted to set up an electricity-generating bicycle on the first-floor living room and let it pedal for fun.

If the solar panels plus the electricity Sheep Boss generated still couldn't meet the territory's power needs, Xia Qing would start up the diesel generator. After all, a generator burns fuel the moment it runs, while Sheep Boss only needs to eat grass to generate electricity.

Right! If Sheep Boss can pedal a bicycle to draw water, it can pedal a bicycle to generate electricity! How had he not thought of that!

Hu Zi showed his two little tiger teeth, smiled, and took the sweet potatoes. "Sis, this sheep of yours is really worth raising. An evolved sheep is strong—I'll find a way to scrounge up a bicycle with a sturdy frame. It might take a few days."

Sheep Boss was so strong that in half a year it had already broken three pedal-powered water bicycles.

After thanking him, Xia Qing asked, "Yesterday Territory Two was making a ruckus until very late?"

"Don't even mention it!" Mentioning this made the normally taciturn Hu Zi very angry, and he couldn't help but start venting. "They're all refugees, but the ones Territory One takes in can quietly farm, and the ones in Territory Eight can steadily work in the factory—it's just the ones in Territory Two who won't behave no matter what!"

"The Sufeng Squad took people in, threw them to Tang Huai, and stopped caring. Refugees aren't bugs…" Hu Zi paused for a few seconds before continuing. "Actually Tang Huai did his best, but these people didn't come here to farm and earn an honest meal. Oh, right—two people from the Liehuo Squad came over on the same plane as Sufeng's and have already entered Territory Nine. Sis, don't walk around the southern passage of the territory these next couple of days, to avoid running into them."

After speaking, Hu Zi reminded Xia Qing, "The Liehuo Squad is one of Hui-1's top-ranked squads—they have people backing them."

Although Yang Jin had used the spinach seed news to tie up Fire Phoenix, the Liehuo Squad had still sent people over. It seemed Fire Phoenix placed great importance on the cordyceps cultivation business.