Chapter 923: Potato Noodles

"Right, two thousand jin of premium Yellow Lantern potatoes with a qiang element content of 6.5–8.0‰. Calculate the fertilizer dosage today and report it to the office."

Xia Qing first answered Mao Chuntai, the head of the Planting Management Department, then said to Yan Yue, "Sister Yue, the center's fertilizer stock must be sufficient. For the parts we can't compost, place orders in advance. This afternoon, contact the Planting Management Department and tell them: if they don't transfer the points they owe us to our account within three days, I'll call the base commander directly."

"Yes." Yan Yue acknowledged immediately. Xia Qing hadn't said "full" transfer, so the points she was pressing for this time only needed to be enough to buy fertilizer—the task wasn't all that arduous.

The base commander hotline was the last card to play; better not use it unless absolutely necessary.

Mao Chuntai, who had worked in a military planting department before retiring, also had extensive farming experience. "Two thousand jin of potatoes can fill four mu of land. Director, what do you think about using Greenhouses 3 through 6?"

According to the work plan, the Ninth Center was to build eighty brick-wall solar greenhouses before October 10, for winter vegetable planting, to increase the vegetable supply for the people of the safe zone.

The original construction quota had been fifty, but the Ninth Planting Center's work efficiency was extremely high, so after requesting instructions from her idol, Xia Qing raised the quota to eighty.

After the three hundred greenhouses were built, the planting department's staff split off from the construction and maintenance department to take care of crops, while the construction and maintenance department's staff continued building greenhouses. Currently, three greenhouses had been built; two were already in use, planted with Gao Yi element spinach X-2.

Everyone knew the benefits of X-2 for the human body. So even though the price of X-2 had dropped, lords still set aside the richest fields in their territories to plant as much of this high Gao Yi element vegetable as possible. People in the safe zones without territories also planted X-2 in every safe, soil-bearing corner they could reach.

In just over ten more days, the Ninth Center's staff would be able to drink ration porridge mixed with a small amount of spinach juice, and their physical resistance would improve accordingly; by the qiang rain period in late August to early September, the staff would drink premium nutrient solution and tackle the natural disasters at full strength.

Spinach had high nutritional value but didn't fill the stomach—it could only be used as an energy drink and a vegetable; potatoes were rich in carbohydrates and dietary fiber, and could be used both as a dish and as a staple food, which was why Mao Chuntai was so happy.

Xia Qing nodded. "First, have the Technical Department test the soil quality and topsoil thickness at various spots inside the center, and pick out plots suitable for growing potatoes. Then have the Construction and Maintenance Department build the potato greenhouses first. After they're built, plant an early-maturing pea crop first; pull the peas out at the end of September and plant potatoes. Get the pea seeds from the Planting Management Department first—if they won't give them, contact the Base Commander's Office. Sister Yue, get the work arranged down as soon as possible."

"Understood." Yan Yue had already noted the key points and immediately began pushing things forward as required.

"You really know the trade. Legume crops fix nitrogen from the air into the soil, providing plenty of nitrogen fertilizer for the potatoes. The two months before planting potatoes is just enough time to grow a crop of peas." Working under a leader who knew the trade was truly wonderful. Mao Chuntai left the office in high spirits.

Yan Yue turned her notebook screen toward Xia Qing and reported on the next item of work. "Director, the work content and assessment requirements for the Magnetic Sense Group have been drawn up. Please review them."

It wasn't that Yan Yue didn't want to print it out so Xia Qing could read it more comfortably, but these were disaster years—every effort had to be made to conserve resources. So the base had strict requirements for paperless office work; according to the rules, materials like this couldn't waste paper and ink.

The forms the office produced were clear and easy to understand.

The four magnetic-sense evolvers Xia Qing had recruited yesterday had all joined a new work group under the center office—the Magnetic Sense Group—with Geng Min, who had the highest magnetic-sense ranking, as group leader.

Currently, the four Magnetic Sense Group employees' job was to patrol the farmland once each in the morning and afternoon. Their workload would only surge around the qiang rain and qiang snow periods.

Because one of the four, Wu Xinlian, had studied statistics before the disasters and had served as a clerk in the safe zone's Minzheng Force after the disasters, yesterday Yan Yue had proposed to Xia Qing that Wu Xinlian take on some clerical work in the office during non-qiang-rain periods. The other Magnetic Sense Group employees could also be assigned some part-time work.

These part-time jobs weren't done for free—the center would increase the employees' compensation based on the work content. On the surface, this proposal seemed a reasonable arrangement that benefited both the public and private sides, but Xia Qing rejected it outright.

She required all four magnetic-sense evolvers to be assigned to the Security Department. After completing their main duties, they were to train and patrol with Security Department staff every day. In late August, they would also undergo a training assessment; those who didn't meet the standard would have their wages docked.

Because no matter what these four people used to do, their primary identity now was magnetic-sense evolvers, and their main job was to check for flora and fauna with abnormal qiang element magnetic fields that had been classified as dangerous creatures.

Work that involved dealing with dangerous creatures naturally carried a high danger coefficient.

To ensure they could complete their work smoothly, and to improve their personal safety, their combat power had to be improved as soon as possible. Because no matter how many bodyguards were assigned to them, it wasn't as safe as making them strong themselves.

After being treated like fish to be caught and nearly losing their personal freedom and lives, the four magnetic-sense evolvers had an extremely urgent desire to grow stronger, and they had no objections whatsoever to Xia Qing's arrangements.

"How were these assessment standards drawn up?" These standards were more than a little looser than the Green Dragon Squad's.

Yan Yue answered, "Yuehai Camp tested their physical fitness and set them."

Since Yuehai Camp had drawn them up, Xia Qing said nothing more.

With official business done, she drove the micro-tiller back to her territory, hauled the straw crusher out of the rack-building warehouse, and crushed the potato vines, mixing in high-efficiency composting bacterial powder.

Three months later, these fermented Yellow Lantern potato vines would become premium organic fertilizer.

The crusher was extremely noisy when running, and all the animals in the territory kept well away. When Xia Qing finished the work and loaded the machine onto the micro-tiller's bucket, Sheep Boss immediately trotted out of the forage shed, climbed onto its special seat, with Wolf Lao Er close behind, climbing onto its own seat.

Xia Qing looked at the dogskin plaster named Does Daigua stuck on Wolf Lao Er's back, but didn't refuse Wolf Lao Er face.

Returning home and seeing a full layer of potatoes spread out to dry on the old rainproof cloth under the courtyard awning, a smile appeared on Xia Qing's weary face.

The potatoes harvested from the cultivated land had all been sent to the Ninth Planting Center. Apart from the two hundred jin kept for seed and the few jin sent for her idol to taste, everything else under the awning was her food!

The Ninth Planting Center's two thousand jin of seed potatoes?

Of course those came from the greenhouses on her idol's territory.

The potatoes from the terraced fields in Territory Three had been irrigated with pollution-free spring water. Sending them out as seed might expose the secret of the spring water—how could Xia Qing possibly do something so stupid.

She couldn't eat two thousand jin of potatoes by herself?

Territory One had a large machine that could process potatoes and sweet potatoes into starch and vermicelli. Xia Qing decided to send twelve hundred jin of potatoes over to be processed into starch and potato noodles.

It had been eleven years since she'd last eaten delicious hot and sour potato noodles.