Chapter 491: I Want Mountain Fifty

Double compensation?

Yang Jin's reply was crisp and decisive, "Of course."

Standing on the same side as a miser felt absolutely fantastic. Xia Qing beamed with joy, "Captain Yang, does Liehuo have any rice or wheat seeds with higher stability? If you really don't have green-light ones, yellow-light ones with a harmful element content below 8‰ will do."

Qi Fu was extremely efficient. Not long after Xia Qing came out of the greenhouse, she received a message from him. Territories Four, Six, Ten, and Fifteen—that is, all alliance members—wanted seeds for these two main food crops.

Grain is the basic guarantee for survival, more valuable than points. Because in years of natural disaster, through the channels that lords can actually reach, even with points one cannot buy quality grain.

The wheat everyone planted in their fields was the six jin of yellow-light wheat seed per person distributed by the Territory Management Department when they received their land in spring, variety M-11. During wheat's nearly three-plus-month growing period, through repeated testing and screening, everyone kept the quality seeds produced for planting.

For instance, lucky Xia Qing selected five and a half jin of green-light M-11 wheat seed from her first crop of wheat.

Besides selecting green-light seeds that could be cultivated and optimized, other lords also kept yellow-light wheat seeds with harmful element content below 10‰, paid to store them in the Safe Zone food storage warehouse, and retrieved them in early November for autumn wheat sowing.

The reason for autumn sowing is that although evolved wheat has a shortened growing period—sown in March, it can mature by late June—the broadcast repeatedly introduced that overwintering wheat sown in autumn produces grain with better taste and nutrition than spring-sown wheat, and sells for a higher price.

To harvest more quality grain, the lords also exchanged some wheat seeds with the Territory Management Department.

But the wheat seedlings grown from the seeds the Territory Alliance members painstakingly gathered had nearly half been destroyed by the red-grade harmful snow Liehuo artificially created in this area.

Xia Qing's yellow-light wheat losses were smaller because she had sown wheat seeds exchanged with her idol, which had a lower harmful element content. Even so, her losses reached one quarter.

So the lords urgently need quality wheat seeds to plant spring wheat next March.

Last year, each territory exchanged 400 plants of yellow-light rice seed, variety H-12, from the Territory Management Department. Under the lords' careful tending, the number of plants surviving to flowering and seeding was between 200 and 250, but the harmful element content of the vast majority of rice had already reached 9‰-14‰, making it only edible and unsuitable for seed-saving.

This shows that the H-2 rice seed Hui-3 Base provided for exchange only has two generations of stability. If the lords want to grow rice again, they need to trade grain or vegetables with the Territory Management Department.

Xia Qing has 40 jin of quality J-2 yellow-light rice seed in hand, but according to the exchange conditions she reached with Zhang San, she cannot exchange J-2 seed with other lords until after harvest next June at the earliest.

Territory Alliance members have neither purchasing channels nor enough points. If they want to plant one or two mu of quality rice this coming spring, this round of compensation from Liehuo is the only opportunity they can currently seize.

"I'll negotiate with Liehuo and try my best to secure it. But even if we can work it out, the compensation will be priced according to farmland losses and personnel casualties. You planted the least grain, so you'll get the least compensation." After explaining the possible situation, Yang Jin comforted Xia Qing, "But for you, this isn't entirely a bad thing."

"I understand, this is only right. Thank you for your trouble." Xia Qing replied sincerely.

As far as she knew, the mu-counts of wheat planted in nearby territories, from most to least, were: Territory One, 150 mu; Territory Twelve, 100 mu; Territory Eight, 50 mu; Territories Five and Six, 20 mu each; Territory Fifteen, 18 mu; Territory Ten, 10 mu; Territory Four, 8 mu. Then came her two and a half mu.

The seeds for Territories One and Twelve were purchased from out of town, with a harmful element content of 7.5‰, so the harmful evolution rate of their wheat seedlings was certainly lower than Qi Fu's group.

Xia Qing hadn't heard Seeing Xin Yu or Zhou Zhaoping mention the seed quality of Territory Eight, so she figured it must be decent as well.

Territory Two? Not clear.

Because Xia Qing planted the least wheat and her seed quality was the best, her losses were also the smallest. The compensation she could get would definitely be the least.

The Liehuo Beast Hunting Squad provoked and attacked Xia Qing on Mountain Fifty, causing her to be poisoned and nearly suffer an accident. By all rights, Liehuo should compensate Xia Qing, but Liehuo might well use the excuse that Xia Qing brought wolves and wiped out the hunting squad to refuse compensation.

If Xia Qing couldn't get compensation in this triggering incident, and then acted a bit angrier, Liehuo's anger toward her would subside somewhat, which was beneficial to Xia Qing's safety.

As for Xia Qing, she actually didn't suffer a loss either. Because this incident not only cleared out Territory Nine, which had been watching her, she also obtained a brand-new single-person flyer.

Appearing to lose out openly while secretly gaining advantage is the survival path suited for the weak in years of natural disaster. That's why Yang Jin reminded Xia Qing that getting less compensation wasn't entirely a bad thing for her.

Xia Qing naturally understood this point as well. After thanking Yang Jin, she moved to the next topic, "Captain Yang, can I privately talk to the lords first about the firebreak-digging mission on Mountain Fifty? Zhao Ze of Territory Four was in engineering before the natural disaster. When we dug thornwood, he was in charge of personnel and vehicle dispatch, and the arrangements went very smoothly."

Yang Jin agreed readily, "Make the risks and rewards of participating in the Evolution Forest mission clear to him and them. If you can't gather 50 people, I'll publicly recruit from other territories."

"Alright, thank you, Captain Yang." After finishing the matter of the mission, Xia Qing asked Yang Jin what conditions and how many points were needed to buy Mountain Fifty. Then she dialed her idol's number and told him about the hot spring in the hidden valley.

A hot spring wasn't unpolluted spring water and wasn't rare, so the big shot Zhang San wasn't very interested, "If you have something to say, say it straight. Don't beat around the bush and delay my experiment."

"Yes."

Xia Qing immediately stated her purpose, "If we use the reason that after this poison gas contamination, Mountain Fifty's Third Peak, as well as the First and Second Peaks south of the Third Peak, need to be cleared, and you apply to the Hui-3 Base management department to designate Mountain Fifty as an Evolution Forest ecological balance research and pollution control experimental zone, so that no one may enter Mountain Fifty to hunt or gather without your permission—would the base agree?"

Zhang San understood this time, "Over seven thousand mu of territory isn't enough for you to farm? You still want Mountain Fifty?"

"Yes." Before her idol, Xia Qing didn't conceal her intentions at all. Looking at the notes in her little notebook, she clearly explained to her idol the reasons she wanted to take Mountain Fifty, "I'm doing this for five considerations. First, Mountain Fifty is too close to us, and anyone can go there. It's very easy for someone to deliberately create a disaster that affects the safety of our territory."

"Second, our Territory Alliance can use the constant-temperature valley inside Mountain Fifty to raise rice seedlings and plant green-light peanuts and chives at low cost. Third, our alliance members need a relatively safe Evolution Forest area to improve their survival, gathering, and hunting skills in the Evolution Forest, giving them another way to earn points." The idol had already joined the Territory Alliance, which is why Xia Qing used the word "our" with him.

"Fourth, intuitively, I feel that hot spring on Mountain Fifty must be very valuable. It might be able to improve the stability of crop cultivation. Fifth, I want to secure a relatively safe mountain area as a buffer zone between humans and the wolf pack, the Xiong Qun, and other fierce beasts deep in the Evolution Forest."

After stating the five reasons, Xia Qing gave a summary, her attitude sincere and full of expectation, "The soil quality of our territory here is relatively good, with rich content of trace elements beneficial to plant growth. If possible, I want to make this place the base for future survival and development, so I want to manage it well and make it safer and safer. Third Brother, do you think it can work?"

In Territory Seven, pale and thin Zhang San understood. Xia Qing had made this request after careful deliberation.