Chapter 74 The Harvest Before Winter

   "3 tons of struvite...according to the average amount of 30 catties per mu, the actual cultivated land area must be more than 100 mu, which is much larger than expected."

   On the way back, Chu Guang wrote in a small notebook with a pen while thinking.

   "It seems that my speculation is correct. They should have applied part of the soilless cultivation technology, and this part of production capacity accounts for 15%~30% of the total production capacity...or even more."

  Brown Farm will make part of the manure itself, and buy some from other merchants. The actual cultivated land area may be larger than I imagined.

  Before crossing, Chu Guang heard of a pipe-type soilless cultivation technology that can maximize the use of space and water resources. As long as the fertility is sufficient, one mu of land can be used as ten mu of land.

In the pre-war era of this world, there seems to be a similar technology, and the use of space has been brought to the extreme, regardless of energy costs, a "skyscraper" that integrates automatic sowing, cultivation, ripening, harvesting, assembly line transportation, packaging and distribution has been developed. , It can really achieve more than tens of thousands of catties per mu.

  Its name is the CNC planting tower, which can be regarded as the ultimate body of industrial planting technology.

   Very cyberpunk.

  Brown Farm’s energy is definitely not that luxurious, but since part of the electricity can be used to exchange food, the power resources should not be in short supply.

  In addition, they have been planting fields for at least a century, so they will inherit part of the technology and improve it to adapt to the wasteland environment.

   At this time, Chu Guang suddenly had a whim.

   "Could it be that... some kind of energy crop was grown?"

  Brown Farm does not only grow green wheat. I heard that this stuff ripens very quickly. After harvesting, there is a chance to plant a round of croissants, beans, fruits and vegetables, or other crops.

   Maybe it is the latter that needs the most fertility?

  At the end of the 20th century, some people have used commercial crops, by-products or artificially cultivated special crops to produce ethanol and biodiesel. As this technology matures, such crops are sometimes classified as "energy crops" according to their uses.

  If it is reasonable to guess, in the pre-war world that has mastered controllable fusion technology, similar technology may be more developed than he imagined.

  However, in the era of major breakthroughs in nuclear fusion technology, the practical use of this energy crop should not be to produce substitutes for fossil fuels.

   But as industrial raw materials.

   "...Brown Farm itself does not have industrial capabilities. Some of the economic (energy) crops it produces are used as fuel, and some are sold to merchants from Boulder City, and are supplied to factories in Boulder City as industrial raw materials."

   "The product is suspected of being a rubber, crude oil analog, or other hydrocarbon."

   "And, this crop should consume a lot of fertility!"

  Chu Guang wrote this line in his notes.

  The gains from this transaction were greater than he had imagined.

   Not just the grains and tools in the caravan, and the "order" for 3 tons of struvite in the spring of next year, but also the information collected indirectly through transactions.

  Especially this kind of information was impossible to collect when he was a scavenger.

   When you go back, you can publish the setting collection on the official website for players' reference.

   While Chu Guang was analyzing the information, the players next to him were beeping softly.

   "1 kg of struvite can be exchanged for 10 kg of grain? I read that right."

   "You read it wrong, it is 12 kilograms."

   "I don't understand. Is it because the green wheat is too cheap, or the stones we picked up from the lake are too valuable."

   "Maybe both? Maybe not... Wait, how much food did we buy from the warehouse?"

   "It looks like 1 silver coin for 1 kg of green wheat. I know what you want to say. You can exchange 2 copper coins for 1 kg of struvite and move it back to the warehouse, right?"

   "Yeah! Does that make sense?"

   "Don't worry, although there is no farming system now, I bet that the price of NPC harvesting green wheat will definitely not exceed 1 kg and 1 copper. Is it reasonable to think so?"

   "Pfft, it's like a hammer in the Taihe River! Sell us 1 silver coin 1 kg!"

   "Calm down, which game is not like this? Besides, I have to be serious, isn't the price of food in reality also fluctuating up and down. At that time, some of them will be sold to players, and those that can't be sold can be sold to NPC granaries."

   Speaking of which, the player whose ID is [Mole on the run in the canyon] sighed and said with a rather regretful expression.

"It would be great if we could open up the running business system. If 1 kg of struvite is transported to Brown Farm to be exchanged for grain, it will be 12 kg of grain when it is shipped back. Even if it is sold to NPC, it will cost more than 2 copper coins! 12 kg, let alone 1 silver Believe it or not? This game is really scary to think about."

  Although Chu Guang didn't look up and ignored him, he still glanced at this guy and smiled inwardly.

   The truth is right.

   But the pattern is still small.

  If you take the guano stones to Brown Farm to exchange for food, and then take the wholesale grain to Boulder City to exchange for guns, do you believe that one hundred kilograms of guano can be exchanged for five or six guns?

rest assured.

  When spring comes next year, your great manager will do this business for you. The bargaining chips earned are the foreign exchange reserves of the base, and they will be shared among you.

What?

  Do you want to use the currency of Boulder City to settle the reward?

   What’s the matter, you still want to buy a house in Boulder City and marry a wife?

  Actually, Chu Guang didn't intend to "exploit" his little players, and compared to the farmer at Brown Farm and the old leech on Beit Street, he was not exploiting at all.

  In the blueprint planned by Chu Guang, the currency issued by Vault No. 404 will replace the chips issued by Jushi City after the fifth generation of currency at the latest, and become the hardest currency in Qingquan City and even the surrounding areas.

  Eating a bit of hardship now is also for everyone to enjoy happiness together in the future.

   "Master Manager, there seems to be someone in front."

   "?"

Again?

  Stuffing the notebook back into his pocket, Chu Guang stretched out his right hand reflexively to the sledgehammer on his back, but as soon as he touched the handle of the hammer, he realized that there were only two people.

  I saw the strong man who had met him at the door before, pointing his shotgun at the serf brought out earlier.

  The latter held his head in his hands and knelt on the ground trembling.

   A group of people stopped.

  Chu Guang looked at the strong man, and the strong man also stared at him blankly.

"Is there a problem?"

"No."

  Chu Guang glanced at the poor man who dared not move even being pointed at by a gun, then looked at the strong man and asked with a strange expression.

"This is?"

  The strong man didn't want to explain at first, after all, this was his own private matter, but seeing that this group of people were not easy to provoke, he still said it cautiously.

  “…he is the master’s slave. He is old, his legs are arthritic, he can’t work, and he broke a plate yesterday. The master asked me to take him outside and dispose of it.”

  After hearing what the strong man said, Chu Guang remembered that every winter Brown Farm seemed to dispose of a few slaves who couldn't do heavy work and no one bought them, and bought new ones from the slave merchants in the coming year.

   As for where did these slaves come from?

  Ghost knows.

  Some were auctioned off by creditors because of debts, some were captured by looters and lost their freedom, and some were simply cloned products, or a forgotten shelter facility was suddenly unsealed.

  Chu Guang even heard that some scavengers sold themselves or their relatives because they could not survive.

  In this wasteland, a slave who is about to die is not even worth a two-headed ox that can carry goods.

  At least the latter has more flesh.

   "Please, please let me live."

  The strong man glanced impatiently at the man kneeling on the ground.

   "Even if I let you go, where can you go? I'd better give you a good time and don't make it difficult for me."

   "Please, please..."

  The serf couldn't say anything else.

   "Wait a minute."

  Chu Guang stepped forward and looked at the old man kneeling on the ground.

"how old are you."

   "51..."

   It is indeed a bit old.

   As far as slaves are concerned, it is an advanced age.

   But thinking about it from another angle, it also means experience.

   Chu Guang continued to ask.

"what can you do."

   Seemingly seeing the hope of life, the old man turned around tremblingly, reaching out his hand to hug the life-saving straw.

  The strong man saw it, kicked him away quickly, and scolded him.

   "Don't touch the master's guest with your dirty hands, do you want to be hanged?"

  His eyesight could tell that this group of people had business dealings with the master.

  Although he was kicked, the old serf didn't care at all. He got up without even looking at the strong man, and raised his wrinkled face to look at Chu Guang.

   "I, I can farm, know numbers, do carpentry, move things... I can do anything." Please, my lord, give me a way to survive. "

"You can know how to count," the strong man sneered, "you can count those potatoes? My lord, don't listen to his nonsense, he can't do work anymore at his age. This month came two No one is interested in him as a merchant in the slave trade.”

  Chu Guang took out a white chip from his pocket, and flicked it to the strong man's hand with his thumb.

"Is it enough?"

  The strong man had a happy expression and nodded quickly.

   "Enough is enough."

   Mosquitoes are meat no matter how small they are, and this slave is not his

   After putting away the chips, the strong man raised his shotgun and fired a shot at the sky, then picked up the bullet casings on the ground, bowed to Chu Guang, and happily went back to the business with the gun on his shoulder.

  The serf huddled on the ground and shivered, obviously frightened by the shot just now, and he looked like he had lost his soul.

  Chu Guang ordered a player to come forward and pull him up, brought him in front of him, looked at him in an orderly tone and ordered.

   "I bought your life, now you work for me."

   Finally recovered.

  The serf wanted to kneel down immediately, but was stopped by Chu Guang raising his hand.

  "We don't like kneeling here. Put your right fist on your left chest to show loyalty. If I find out that you have any betrayal or infidelity, don't let me do it. Dig it out and feed it to the dog."

  This kind of scaring words, Chu Guang said, if there are really traitors, just throw them in the active substance extractor and refine them, there is no need to go through so much trouble.

  Although Chu Guang himself is a civilized person.

   But after living and observing here for a period of time, he knows that some problems cannot be solved with the thinking of civilized people.

  Aborigines and players are two different creatures from the root.

  For the aborigines, they have to use the aboriginal method to manage.

   This is beneficial for both parties.

"Yes, my lord," the old man bowed his head obediently, with a more relieved expression, and put his right fist on his chest in a sensible manner, "I offer my loyalty to you... My name is Luka, no, I don't have a name, please Give me a name."

   "Let's call it Luka."

  Chu Guang was too lazy to waste time and waved to the players.

   "Go ahead."

   "We have to go back before noon."

  …

  This trip to run a business can be said to be full of rewards.

  300 kg of struvite was exchanged for 3600 kg of green wheat and croissants, and 100 kg of bacon was exchanged for 500 kg of green wheat and 5 tools.

Although Chu Guang wanted to quibble, venison and hyena meat are different, and the former will be rarer than the latter. After all, it is not always possible to encounter a herd of deer migrating, but the other party said that in this case, let’s use hyena meat. Anyway, as long as it is not human flesh It was the same to them as rat meat and fish meat, so Chu Guang had no choice but to give up.

   On the other hand, Liu Zhengyue still made a small concession based on the relationship between the two parties, allowing him to pick 5 tools or 1 catty of tobacco leaves to take away as a gift.

  Of course Chu Guang chooses tools, and he chooses big ones like pipe wrench and fire axe. Even if you don't need it at that time, you can make steel and copper if you bring it back.

   In addition, 25 kg of smoked fish was exchanged for almost 150 kg of scrap metal.

  Different from the aluminum and steel alloys that can be seen all over the street, these metals are good products containing copper and zinc.

   Originally, Liu Zhengyue didn't really want to sell it, but she probably thought that the merchants wouldn't come for a few months anyway, and it would be useless to stay on the farm, so after asking the owner for instructions, she nodded in agreement.

  The noon sun shines overhead, and the shadows of the trees dance on the road.

   Except for one strength player pulling the cart, the rest of the players were scattered around the caravan.

   Occasionally, when they saw mutant cockroaches approaching, they screamed and rushed up to beat them with sticks, more excited than alien species.

   If the aliens could think, they would probably be stupid right now.

  Who is the prey?

  The only thing Chu Guang needs to do is to stop their hoarding habit, and want to put any weird things in their pockets when they see them.

  Although the mutated cockroach's stomach can occasionally dig out some indigestible gadgets, and if you're lucky, you can even dig out chips or bullets, but the probability of that is really too small.

  In most cases, cockroach eggs are found.

  Old Luca trembled as he watched from the sidelines, probably because he was frightened by the actions of these people.

  He had never seen such strange people, and he couldn't understand what they were thinking at all.

   But Luca is very clear that as a servant, he doesn't need to think about this issue. The less he knows, the longer he will live, so he didn't make a sound along the way, as if he didn't have a low sense of existence.

  I want to sing in a good mood.

  Leading the caravan back to the outpost, Chu Guang, who had just arrived at the gate, happened to see that the two brothers of the Yu family, who were carrying their prey, were gesticulating anxiously with the players at the south gate.

  Chu Guang's eyes lit up, and he called out from a distance.

  Hearing the familiar voice, the Yu brothers immediately turned their heads and waved with joy.

   "Brother Chu!"

  (end of this chapter)