Wasteland Development Diary.

Chapter 64 Farmland Crisis
Winter in the wasteland is a dangerous season for most people, who need to reduce going out, but it is also an opportunity for merchants to make profits.

"Now is the peak season for our business. I have to travel around more. Where there is fighting, there is a demand for weapons."

"The next time I come should be in three months. I will bring some new goods. Take care."

The young weapons dealer said goodbye to Zhou Yi and drove her truck to her next customer.

This transaction, one in and one out, made Zhou Yi earn a total of 3658 light seeds.

On the other hand, the explosive mushrooms in the Mushroom Forest achieved a bumper harvest this month during the heavy snow. After being extracted in Emerald City, another 5000 light seeds were harvested.

Combined with the income he generated from regular fishing on the seabed, the amount of fish seeds he earned has now reached 1 for the first time.

It's a bit of a small amount.

Resources can only realize their value if they are circulated, especially in this wasteland with no industry.

The first thing Zhou Yi thought of was investing in a farm.

Ever since he hired the farm machinery brothers, he has become a hands-off boss and has never visited the site once.

The Red Falcon flew all the way to the mushroom forest and acted as Zhou Yi's cyber stand-in.

In the fields on a snowy day, the agricultural machinery brothers are still busy.

The silent bronze bull slowly travels back and forth around the entire farm. It has a human-shaped bracket on its roof, which swings left and right like an inflatable doll at the door of a store, and its body glows from time to time, which looks very festive.

The Iron Horse separated its rear body and carried the load, entering the snowy path between the fields in the form of a front vehicle. A U-shaped antenna was deployed on each side of its front vehicle, scanning the farmland from left to right.

Zhou Yi lowered his altitude and asked, "How is the situation in winter?"

Tie Ma responded through a noisy loudspeaker: "The temperature is within an acceptable range, but there are many biological disasters in this area. There are birds day and night, and they will peck at the seedlings in the fields, so Tong Niu set up expulsion puppets and patrol regularly."

"These birds are not afraid of electromechanical life because they know we won't hunt them or eat them. On the contrary, human puppets are useful because humans will hunt and eat them, and they are afraid of them."

It turns out that the human-shaped stand is an electronic scarecrow.

At this time, Zhou Yi felt that some things in the wasteland seemed to have not changed.

"In addition to birds, there used to be gerbils, but they rarely come out after winter. Without gerbils to gnaw on them, insects in the soil have become a big problem."

"The two most troublesome ones are dung-feeding grubs and winter mole crickets."

Tiema extended a slender mechanical arm and displayed an insect specimen: "This is a winter mole cricket. It eats the roots and stems of various crops."

The scene captured by the camera made Zhou Yi frown.

This ferocious-looking insect with a conical carapace, slender hooked claws, and two sickle-like mouthparts on its head was quite different from the mole cricket he remembered.

The more Zhou Yi looked at it, the more he thought of something: "Is it the larva of a spiny antlion?"

"To be precise, the spiny antlion is one of the evolutionary directions of the winter mole cricket."

Tie Ma said: "In the winter mole cricket stage, it will only come out to eat in winter. When the climate is warm, it will fall into a deep sleep. The outer shell of its body has a good adsorption capacity for death rays, so it can maintain life by absorbing external energy."

"If you can continue to grow and shed your shell, and eventually complete your evolution, you can grow into a mature antlion."

Now Zhou Yi finally understood how the thorny antlion came about.

The relationship between the winter mole cricket and the spiny antlion also made him realize that the creatures in the wasteland era have undergone considerable mutations, and past experience can no longer be directly used to judge the natural environment and species habits today.

You need to read more and learn more, and use practice to correct your outdated common sense.

Tiema displayed another insect specimen.

The dung grub looks like a white worm with brown spots on its body and is quite ordinary in appearance.

"These grubs cannot be considered pests because they feed on feces. Even when they evolve into mature dung beetles, their feeding habits remain unchanged. For farmland, they can decompose feces and make it easier for plants to absorb them. In the conventional sense, they are beneficial insects."

"Unfortunately, the problem now is that there are too many grubs. They are no longer just decomposing feces, but are swallowing and digesting feces in large quantities. In the past, they lived in the northern region and the oasis belt. The north is the territory of the clawed pig group. They hunt animals in the northern forest and produce a lot of feces. Some animals in the oasis belt also defecate..."

Tiema said somewhat depressedly: "Now they are attracted by the manure and fertilizer in the farmland and eat the fertilizer. I release insect repellent waves for them, but the effect is worse than expected."

It complained: "Both winter mole crickets and dung grubs were originally the targets of gerbils, so their numbers should not be that high. Now that gerbils have suddenly disappeared, the ecological balance has been disrupted, and crops have also been affected."

The vanishing gerbils of the underground kingdom.

All these twists and turns affected the output of the fields. Zhou Yi had no idea, so he focused on solving the problem at hand: "So, there is a shortage of fertilizer now?"

"In fact, what we had before was barely enough... If you are willing to invest a little more and increase the amount of fertilizer, you can definitely make these crops grow better."

Tiema said hesitantly.

Zhou Yi asked: "How much do you need? Tell me the number."

"If possible, we need to increase fertilizer by 30%, which is the cost of 3 times the amount of light seeds."

Zhou Yi was stunned for a moment.

That’s all?

"Then give me a 100% one."

Tie Ma quickly said, "More is not better. The fertilizer ratio needs to be controlled within a certain range. If the budget is sufficient, then increasing the fertilizer by 50% should be more than enough."

"Just do as you say."

Now that Zhou Yi has money in his pocket, he has become more generous: "Do you have any other requests? As long as it is beneficial to the output of this farmland, you can ask for it."

Nongji thought for a while and said, "For these two plots of land planted with sweet potatoes and peanuts, the current resource allocation is sufficient. If local insects and birds are eliminated on a large scale, causing the ecological chain to become further unbalanced, it will cause greater problems. As agricultural practitioners, we usually choose the safest way."

Despite the problems of pests and increased expenses, Iron Horse also has some good news.

"In general, the growth of both sweet potatoes and peanuts is good."

"There are about 60 days left before the crops in the fields are ripe for harvest."

Zhou Yi transferred a sum of fertilizer money to it and learned in detail about the farmland conditions in the past two months.

Tie Ma suddenly said, "Brother, after this job is finished, I want to go back and check it out. I wonder if you can agree? I will make up for the time I spent by postponing it later."

Zhou Yi was curious: "What's wrong?"

"I feel like there's something wrong with my body recently. Normally it'll take a month."

Tie Ma said, "During this month, Tong Niu will be responsible for maintaining this place. During the harvest month, there is usually nothing to do. All we need to do is to reinforce the land with nitrogen fertilizer after the harvest."

"Of course, if you don't agree, I won't leave here. If the employer doesn't agree, we can't change the service content without permission."

Zhou Yi said: "No problem, go check it out first, and you can ask for help if you need it."

Before, Tiema almost got cut into pieces and he thought it was no big deal, but this time he has to go back for a physical examination, so the situation may not be simple.

But these are the private affairs of the agricultural machinery brothers.

He was checking the farm remotely via the Kestrel when there was a knock on the door.

Zhou Yi opened the door and found Gong Zheng, who was leaning on a cane. There was still some snow on his hat and shoulders.

He said solemnly, "Chairman, the earthquake in Changu Town lasted for almost a whole day yesterday. The residents of the town ran out of fear. 13 people have suffered varying degrees of frostbite and falls. Due to the cold, two people have fallen into a coma."

"Cao Dayuan came to me and asked me to let them stay near the company for a while. Because the Emerald City itself releases heat to the outside, even if they are leaning against the wall outside, it is warmer than in the Valley Town."

"Look..."

Zhou Yi thought for a moment and said, "We can let them come, and give them some blankets we have in stock to keep them warm, but be careful to maintain order among the crowd."

"Yes, Chairman."

"Also, what was that earthquake about?"

Gong Zheng smiled bitterly: "It happened before in winter, but never as serious as it is now. The townspeople are all scared and dare not go to see what happened to the mountain."

Zhou Yi called Lie Hai, who was in charge of patrol, and asked it to go over and find out the situation.

The spine hunter immediately said: "Don't worry, Chairman, I will go and fix the earthquake right away!"

However, after sending it, Zhou Yi felt that this guy was a bit unreliable, so he simply ordered the Red Falcon to fly over there as well.

(End of this chapter)