Chapter 301: Filling the Warehouse to the Brim

Bai Wei looked up and saw Chen Ming had finished washing the dishes and was coming out of the kitchen.

She called out immediately.

"A Ming, go ask the villagers later if they want to sell their vegetables. Any villager who wants to sell should bring them over and put them on the first floor of the Warehouse."

"Understood," Chen Ming replied loudly as well.

Bai Wei took a deep breath.

Now, she needed to buy supplies to fill the Warehouse, to stock this five-story Warehouse to the brim.

The first floor had a cold storage room, used for storing durable vegetables like sweet potatoes, potatoes, Chinese cabbage, radishes... which wouldn't spoil even if kept for a long time.

If these vegetables couldn't be used in time, she could also transmit them to Xiao Moting to give to the Northern Frontier Army to eat, so they wouldn't go to waste.

From now on, whenever she went to Daliang, this massive Warehouse would be her foundation.

After instructing Chen Ming to collect the vegetables, Bai Wei made a phone call to Li Bo.

"Li Bo, load another batch of high-proof white liquor and send it to the Farm; I have a use for it."

"Also, help me order two hundred tons of rice and have the grain and oil merchant deliver it to the Farm within today."

"It needs to be vacuum-packed rice, the kind that stores well. It doesn't matter if the price is a bit higher; cash on delivery."

The white liquor was to be placed in the Warehouse as supplies for her future trips to Daliang.

As for the two hundred tons of rice, she planned to send one hundred and fifty tons to Xiao Moting for disaster relief, and store the rest in the Warehouse for her own use when she went to Daliang.

After buying the rice and grain, Bai Wei made another call to Zhang Shen.

Zhang Shen had already started a wholesale shop, delivering goods to the surrounding villages and maintaining connections with various major manufacturers in the city; business was booming.

The call connected, and Bai Wei said hurriedly.

"Zhang Shen, you have the numbers for wholesalers, right? I want to wholesale a batch of food and groceries."

"I need three thousand boxes of military rations, the kind with a three-year shelf life, plus two thousand cases of 24-liter Nongfu Spring water, and two thousand cases of canned luncheon meat."

"I'll send the list to your phone in a moment. Find a few movers to carry the groceries to the second floor of my Farm's Warehouse."

Bai Wei wrote out a list of the things she wanted to buy and sent it to Zhang Shen's WeChat.

On the list, she bought all kinds of emergency food, as well as snacks she liked, such as canned yellow peaches, Good Point biscuits, French-style Small Bread, pickled pepper chicken feet...

In ancient times, there was a shortage of clothing and food, and even if there was food, there were no snacks.

By filling the Warehouse, she would be able to take snacks from the Warehouse to eat at any time when she went to the ancient world in the future.

The first floor of the Warehouse had refrigeration equipment. Bai Wei sent the list to Zhang Shen, walked out of the Farm, and prepared to go around to buy some fruit to put into the Warehouse.

Just as she stepped out, she bumped into someone head-on.

Bai Wei almost collided with the other person. When she looked up and saw who it was, she couldn't help but pat her chest.

"Village Chief, why are you walking so fast? You scared me to death."

The person who had come looking for her was none other than the old Village Chief.

The old Village Chief was all smiles, his complexion much better than before.

He was holding a few stalks of sugarcane just cut from the fields and waved a hand.

"The foundation for the school has been laid, and everyone in the village has run over to see it. I came to call you to go take a look together."

"So that's what it is," Bai Wei breathed a sigh of relief.

She had already seen the foundation two days ago, so she shook her head and said.

"I won't go. Now that the foundation is laid, the school will be built very soon."

"Isn't that the truth," the Village Chief sighed with emotion. "It's all thanks to you. Otherwise, the children in our village and the nearby villages would have to travel dozens of miles to the town to go to school, which is both expensive and exhausting. Not every rural family can afford the schools in the city."

Bai Wei felt deeply about this as well.

The nearby villages were quite far from the town, and many farming households relied on selling vegetables to earn a little money; they simply had no extra money to buy a vehicle. If they wanted their children to go to school, they had to send them to the city to board.

But the schools in the town didn't have enough dormitories, and many rural children broke their heads trying to grab a boarding spot.

What's more, many farming families were poor and simply unable to afford the boarding fees and daily living expenses of the town schools, so many children were unable to attend school.

Now that Qingshan Village was building a school, it solved the problem of the village children having to travel far for school.

Seeing that the old Village Chief was about to leave, Bai Wei suddenly thought of something.

She immediately chased after him and stopped the old Village Chief.

"Village Chief, I want to ask you something."

The old Village Chief turned around. "What is it?"

Bai Wei thought for a moment. "I heard from the elders in the village that in the fifties or sixties, there was a locust plague in the village. How was it resolved back then?"

"Why are you asking about that?" the old Village Chief was puzzled. "There's no such thing as a locust plague nowadays."

"I'm just asking," Bai Wei smiled. "Aren't I a staff member at the Archaeology Office? I'm also recording the historical events of our village."

"Is that so?" The old Village Chief perked up as soon as he heard this and immediately rolled up his sleeves. "Alright, I'll tell you the story from back then. Thinking back to those days..."

This familiar opening line gave Bai Wei a sudden sense of déjà vu.

It seemed she had heard it somewhere before.

Half an hour passed.

An hour passed.

"... Back then, I led the whole village, holding torches, killing locusts in the night!" The old Village Chief spoke with great animation, even taking a bite of the sugarcane in his hand, chewing as he spoke. "At that time, several nearby villages all mobilized; there were hundreds of people in a mighty force, and the locusts were burned by the open flames until they fell all over the ground..."

He spoke with great enthusiasm, but Bai Wei let out a yawn.

She finally remembered.

Last time she went to find the old hunter to buy a Hunting Rifle, the other party was the same, starting with "Thinking back to those days" and talking incessantly for two hours.

The old Village Chief continued to speak while chewing on the sugarcane.

"Later, I called on the villagers to release their chickens and ducks, and they killed quite a lot of locusts. The township even sent people over specifically to commend me, saying I was a model for pest control..."

Bai Wei, who had been listening until she was drowsy, suddenly had a flash of inspiration in her mind.

She lifted her head abruptly.

"Wait! Old Village Chief, you said you had the villagers release their chickens and ducks?"

"That's right." The Old Village Chief nodded immediately, looking at Bai Wei in surprise, "Chickens and ducks love eating locusts, didn't you know?"

After saying this, he seemed to remember something and slapped his forehead.

"Right, I forgot that you young people haven't seen the things from that era."

"The fifties and sixties weren't like modern times; back then, there weren't so many pesticides, or things like high-voltage insect killers or airplanes spraying medicine."

"In that era, we had nothing, so we relied on the chicken and duck army to wipe out the locusts."

Bai Wei listened with wide eyes, "Really? Are chickens and ducks that effective?"

The Village Chief laughed heartily, a trace of pride appearing on his face.

"You wouldn't know about this, but no matter how fierce those locusts are, they are still just bugs."

"Since they are bugs, their natural enemies are birds! The chickens and ducks raised by the villagers were also domesticated from birds in the past; they bite as soon as they see locusts, and it's more effective than current pesticides."

Bai Wei became happy immediately.

Chickens and ducks killing locusts!

This method is truly brilliant!

Using open flames to kill insects can only stop them for a moment, but it cannot prevent them for long.

Using pesticides to kill locusts is limited to the areas sprayed; it is impossible to cover every aspect.

But chickens and ducks are different; not only can they kill insects long-term, but they can also let the chickens and ducks eat their fill and grow fat.