Wasteland Development Diary.

Chapter 154: Melons in the Fields and Fish in the Sea

the next day.

Facing the rising sun, Zhou Yi rode his bicycle all the way to the farmland.

The melons from the wasteland era are slightly smaller, but their smooth surfaces still have green stripes, spread across the fields, giving a festive look of a good harvest.

At the edge of the field, agricultural consultant Zheng Tao and his farm machinery brothers were checking the melons in the field. He frowned, as if he had encountered something unpleasant.

Zhou Yi stopped the car: "Old Zheng, what's wrong?"

"Chairman."

Zheng Tao couldn't help but smile when he saw him: "I saw you came back yesterday, but I didn't bother you because you were busy..."

"The late-ripening melons in the fields are ready to be picked. The quality of this year's sweet red melons is very good, delicious and refreshing, but we encountered a rather special problem."

He found a melon nearby, took out a small knife from his pocket, and skillfully cut it in two, revealing the bright red flesh.

There are very few seeds inside, and the flesh is smooth and plump, it's the melon of dreams!

The skin is slightly thick.

Zhou Yi took the melon handed to him by Zheng Tao and took a bite. It was sweet and crisp.

It had been so many years since he had tasted the melon again that he couldn't help but close his eyes and savor it carefully.

Zhou Yi asked while eating melon: "What's the special question?"

“The quality is too good.”

Zheng Tao showed an embarrassed look: "We don't know how to cultivate this grade of sweet red melon."

"The seeds are just ordinary good varieties, and although the soil is suitable, it is by no means high-quality. Under normal circumstances, the sweet red melon itself would not be so sweet and would be softer in taste. But the fruits and vegetables grown here in the first year are already comparable to the best varieties on the market."

Zhou Yi didn't understand: "Isn't this good?"

"Chairman, if we can't figure out the reason, the quality of the melons we cultivate may fluctuate greatly. Because under normal circumstances, it is impossible to cultivate melons of this quality in the first generation."

Zheng Tao said seriously: "This is very important for the company's export image. If the company exports melons of this grade this summer, but astringent melons next summer, it will definitely be considered that they deliberately selected inferior melons."

Tiema also spoke through the loudspeaker: "We have carefully checked this land, from the soil to the water source, to the insects in it. Nemo and the gerbils also gave us a lot of help. In the end, we narrowed down the interference factors and found that it might be related to two things."

"The first is volcanic ash. The volcanic ash that has been deposited here for many years acts as a natural fertilizer. The fragments can lock in moisture very well and are also rich in mineral elements."

"The second is clawed pig feces. We put in some clawed pig feces. This composition is very complex. It may be related to the intestinal structure ecology of the clawed pig, or it may be related to parasites, or even to the northern forest sheep they hunt..."

"Perhaps we need to find agricultural machinery experts, geologists and wild biology experts to find out the specific reasons."

Zhou Yi felt strange when he heard this.

He couldn't help but say: "I don't understand the specific principle, but this problem is not difficult to deal with."

"Can't we just make different brands and price points according to the quality of different melons? For example, if the melons are of high quality this season, we can call them volcano melons, which represent high-quality sweet red melons grown in volcanoes. If the quality is slightly worse next season, we can call them sandy potatoes and sell them at a lower price. In the final analysis, we don't just make sweet red melons, we sell whatever kind of melons we produce."

Zheng Tao was stunned for a moment, then slapped his forehead and said, "Oh, I'm really getting old. I've actually reached a dead end. Yes, the important thing is the price. As long as the price is right, melons of any quality can be sold."

Tie Ma still insists on the technical route: "But the quality of the local sweet red melon is really good, and we must strive to reproduce this variety."

Zhou Yi talked to them again and finally understood.

The key is that expectations are different.

Zheng Tao and his agricultural machinery brothers wanted to develop high-end fruits because they saw the birth of high-quality melons. In this way, they had to ensure that the quality was high and stable, and the requirements for the company's agricultural field would be higher.

My idea was just to grow some ordinary edible melons first so that the company's employees would have something to eat and the new humans in the Shagang area could eat cheap melons.

Hence the misalignment of perspective.

After changing his mindset, Zheng Tao suddenly relaxed: "Chairman, it's summer now, and our 500 mu of melon fields are ready for harvest. Excluding normal losses, we can pick 7.5 sweet red melons."

Zhou Yi said, "Then pick the melons and give one to each employee as a welfare benefit. But don't distribute them in batches to avoid waste."

"Yes."

"The remaining melons will be sent to Shagang for sale as planned. But we will also keep some for our own use."

"Yes."

Tie Ma added, "Chairman, we have tried to plant some beans in the past few months and found that pod beans grow best here."

It drove all the way to a nearby experimental field to display the results of the beans.

Pod beans are actually edamame, or soybeans. They grow in clusters on a rhizome, but the beans themselves are not yet plump.

"Pod beans take a long time to grow, usually three to four months. If you sow them now, you can harvest them in the fall. They have a wide range of uses, they have a nitrogen-fixing effect, are a good natural nitrogen fertilizer, and they produce beans that taste good. Most importantly, they can be rotated with grasses."

"With pod beans improving the soil, we have a foundation for planting wheat."

wheat!

Noodles, cakes, buns, and fried dough sticks!

Zhou Yi quickly asked: "Can we grow wheat here?"

"can."

Tie Ma said firmly: "Wheat has high requirements for the environment. There are large areas of sandy soil in the local area. Poorly structured soil will cause serious reduction in yield and may cause disease, but a large amount of fertility can make up for this. Volcanic ash and feces can provide sufficient organic fertility, and pod beans provide nitrogen fertilizer."

"After the efforts of the gerbils, the underground waterway has been opened and the soil in the oasis is gradually recovering. I have tested all the values there. Whether it is the pH, soil layer, phosphorus and potassium, they have reached the baseline for growing wheat."

"I remember you said a long time ago that you wanted wheat. But the conditions were not ripe at that time, so I refused."

"Now all the conditions have been met and we can plant wheat."

Zhou Yi felt mixed emotions for a moment.

Who would have thought that growing a wheat field would be more difficult than killing a sea lord.

Zhou Yi took a deep breath and said, "Then plant it."

"Yes."

Tie Ma continued, "However, there is no wheat in the Shagang area. I want to go to the agricultural and electrical city "Nongwu City" with Tongniu. They have improved varieties that can be cultivated to match various environments."

"If you want to plant wheat here for the first time, the seed quality itself had better be higher. The seeds over there are one to two times more expensive than ordinary ones."

Zhou Yi said, "That's not a problem. Is it safe to go there?"

"It's very safe. Agricultural City is in the northeast, about 1300 kilometers away from Emerald City. We can pass through the seabed quickly and avoid being trapped in the Dead Sea radiation for a long time, so we can arrive there safely." Tiema said.

Zhou Yi allocated it a special fund for growing 200 hectares of wheat.

The farm machinery brothers immediately started the engine and drove north.

……

After watching the farm machinery go away, Zheng Tao said, "Chairman, we have made some small achievements on the breeding platform. Do you have time now?"

"Walk."

In order to save time, Zhou Yi summoned Lie Hai again and flew directly to Zhanjiang Bay No. 1.

Today, the floating platform has become orderly. The six breeding areas in the front are tied with ropes, where shellfish are raised, and the six breeding areas in the back are fishing areas, where bone fish can be seen swimming around.

The difference from last time is that there were no human breeders to be seen, only the black hand mushrooms were busy.

Zhou Yi couldn't help but be curious: "Are humans so incapable?"

Zheng Tao smiled bitterly: "Before, the people who were here were all shellfish farmers from Shell City. They had the technology, but there were big problems with communication. They all had their own ideas and operations, and they all thought they were right. When they were in Shell City, the technical process itself was not unified, and the farmers worked based on experience and oral instructions."

Zhou Yi immediately contacted Baili Gong.

Baili Gong also has something to say about this: "I have adjusted and reformed many times, but humans always execute well at first, but soon repeat the same mistakes, arguing constantly, and being lazy in the process. So I trust the breeding platform more than people, so it is best that they do not have the best technology, so that they can be replaced at any time."

It deliberately did not make a unified standard. Zheng Tao and Sun Chonglai made adjustments to this point and directly replaced all operations with black hand mushrooms. Because black hand mushrooms communicate quickly and have a natural excellent ability to cooperate.

“We have also improved the environment a little bit for this purpose.”

Zheng Tao pointed to the deck and said, "Chairman, look."

When Zhou Yi boarded the ship, he noticed that the deck was covered with soil, the wellhead in the breeding area was surrounded by wooden boards, and carpet fungi grew everywhere. This was like replicating the environment of the mushroom forest here.

"This was Sun Chonglai's idea. Through the carpet fungus, the black hand mushrooms can always hear the situation in various parts of the breeding platform, allowing them to respond quickly. This environment also makes the black hand mushrooms more comfortable and relaxed, further improving their work efficiency."

“However, the biggest achievement is here.”

Zheng Tao walked all the way to the fishing area at the back and suddenly smiled mysteriously: "Chairman, in your opinion, in which direction should bone fish grow after being raised?"

Zhou Yi thought for a moment and said, "With no natural enemies or food shortages, and with bones to feed them, they will grow bigger and bigger. They won't be aggressive, right?"

"Yes."

Zheng Tao walked to one of the breeding areas and knocked on the wellhead with a wooden pole next to him, making a clanging metallic sound.

Then a bony fish jumped high up and landed on the carpet fungus on the ground.

The main body of the animal is a broad shell made of bones, with clear knife-carved patterns on the surface.

The domesticated bone fish rested its head on Zheng Tao's calf, like a giant turtle.

Zheng Tao touched its head and said, "Chairman, this is our bone fish, 'Jiang Jiang'. It is now almost three months old."

This is called three months?
Zhou Yi's eyelids twitched.

The creature in front of him was already the size of an adult yellow cow.

"Its character is very docile, and bone fish is also a kind of photon species that can quickly adapt to various environments."

"For example."

Zheng Tao raised the wooden pole: "Stand up."

The bony fish props up its body, fixes it to the ground with its tail, and balances its body with its bony fins, standing like a human.

Zheng Tao waved the pole and said, "Lie down."

The bony fish immediately lay on the ground with its fins spread out.

"Hurry up."

The bony fish shrinks into a large bony ball.

"That's it. After being fed by us, it is very dependent on us, and it can perform many actions with a little training."

Zhou Yi: “…”

I asked you to raise fish, but you turned them into pets, right?
He wanted to denounce Zheng Tao's wrong approach, but Zheng Tao calmed Zhou Yi's anger with just one sentence.

"Chairman, the bone fish we raise artificially can be used as vehicles."

"Look."

Zheng Tao walked to the edge of the platform and knocked the ground with a wooden pole. The bone fish slid over with its fins and opened its bloody mouth. Then Zheng Tao stuffed a stone slab in and pointed it forward.

"go."

The bone fish leaped into the Dead Sea and disappeared without a trace.

Twenty minutes later, it crawled back to the platform along the stone platform on the edge.

The bony fish opened its mouth, and the stone slab was gone from its mouth, replaced by a handful of dried mushrooms.

Zheng Tao patted the bone fish, handed it a bucket of chicken bones, and then the bone fish started eating.

"Chairman, the stone slab on Jianjiang's back was taken down by Yuan Tong at the Emerald City Dam and replaced with mushrooms. This is also the experiment we have been doing."

He said: "The athlete can maintain a speed of 40 kilometers per hour in the Dead Sea. It can transport all kinds of goods. With a little training, it can deliver to a specific destination. As long as the object is placed in its mouth, it can protect it and will not be destroyed by the death light until it reaches the destination."

"They don't eat bones in the wild, which is also due to their developed eating habits. Compared with wild bone fish, their physiological qualities are much better. Although they are not good at fighting, their speed and strength are enough to allow them to avoid many dangers."

"The secret is... we added some sage mushroom powder to their chicken bones and trained them when their wildness subsided. The effect was significant and they remembered it very well."

Zhou Yi's face changed slightly when he heard this.

Unexpectedly, bone fish was not developed into a fishery, but became a working fish species.

He tried to put his hands on the bony fish.

Energy input successful.

The consciousness was on the same frequency, but there was no response from the other side.

Like ordinary bony fish, it is still in a primitive state where it cannot communicate.

Zhou Yi felt a little regretful.

and many more.

He suddenly realized something.

Doesn’t this mean…bone fish can develop into Dead Sea couriers?

Freight in the wasteland world is generally slow and expensive. If bone fish can deliver goods from the Dead Sea to various ports and docks, this kind of fast and accurate delivery will definitely be very promising.

Zhou Yi told Zheng Tao about his ideas.

The other party's eyes lit up when he heard it: "Great, great, yes, it can be done. Chairman, it is feasible, it is feasible!! This will be a brand new industry for the company, and it is full of strong competitiveness!"

"We currently have four bony fish: 'Strongman', 'Strongman', 'Fast Feet' and 'Big Mouth'. They have all been trained and can perform their tasks well. They have completed point-to-point round-trip tests of 200 kilometers and can carry 80 to 180 kilograms of weight."

"Just a piece of bone marking them at a particular port will allow them to remember the route. It's best not to make it too complicated, just one route for each fish to remember."

Zhou Yi also pulled Hong Falcon into the discussion: "Isn't Recursion City short of cargo transport vehicles? I would like to undertake some of this business, that is, transporting the goods from Recursion City to Emerald City first, and then to the destination. Is this feasible?"

“There is no problem with the procedure.”

Drone said: "Small items such as transceivers, cameras, sensors and steering gears are always refused to be delivered by Recursion City because the one-way cost is high and most buyers are in different cities."

"The routes along the way have already been opened. All the bone fish need to do is to go to the cities and ports one by one."

"The biggest problem is security risks, because our cargo carrier is a bone fish, which is likely to be attacked from other sides."

Zhou Yishuo thought this was not a problem at all.

"We just need to sail into the seabed. The seabed is where the bone fish are active, and high-level light-absorbing species won't go there."

Hongjian immediately submitted an application.

Ten minutes later, a reply came from Recursive City.

They are very interested in this cooperation and hope to negotiate on the specific details and confirm the situation of the bone fish being transported and its basic working capabilities.

Hong Jian said: "Then I will control the Poseidon and take Zheng Tao and Bone Fish over first."

"Go back quickly and pay attention to safety."

Zhou Yi is full of confidence.

Even if it fails this time, Bonefish delivery will surely be rolled out in the near future and recognized by the Mechanical and Electrical City.

Mechanical and electrical life has very high requirements on timeliness.

They need express delivery services the most.

Zhou Yi looked towards the foggy Dead Sea, and the scene of the bone fish courier delivering goods everywhere appeared in his mind.

(End of this chapter)