Castle of Black Iron

“Whether the order of balancing awards and punishments could be properly executed lies in the supervision of the Peacewest Farming Administration. I have to extend my thanks to you for your work!

“It’s this humble official’s responsibility. Of course, this humble official would try his best to do that!” Lu Yanyu slightly bowed toward Zhang Tie as he said, “The official fields in Taixia Country are all Class A Level I. They’re all fertile. All the official fields have been registered in brochures. In wartime, all the grains produced by official fields should enter warehouses after being weighed for military purpose. No province or prefecture could make misregistration about the quantity of grains production per mu official field. Even if they make misregistration on the figure, the provincial and prefectural officials couldn’t conjure grains of the void to make up for the vacancy. There’re strict and unified regulations on the categories, quantities and proportions of the crops from the official fields of each province which were planted according to farming seasons; mainly potatoes, corns, rice and wheat. Farmers couldn’t plant whatever they want. The only concern is that some low-level officials might casually alter the areas for some crops in official fields; for instance, sowing more potatoes as potatoes are high-yielding. They would use the yield of potatoes to replace that of rice and wheat. In order to solve this problem, we could adopt the following solutions, the Peacewest Farming Administration assign inspection team to investigate it among all the 4 provinces and have them hand in the report about the yields and proportions of different crops in the official fields of the 4 provinces each season and scrutinize the provinces and prefectures so as to ensure that they could plant crops according to the requests in the wartime and offer a reward to commoners who could report illegal behaviors!

Zhang Tie nodded inside as he sighed with emotions, ‘No wonder Lu Yanyu has been in the farming authorities for so many years, the moment I released my decree, Lu Yanyu was clear about the tricks the subordinate officials would play and he worked out the solution to prevent from the possible problems. This man is very able. If he found me trouble, I would be terribly defeated.’

“Mr. Lu, do you know why commander-in-chief wants me in this job?

“Commander-in-chief is the military god and pillar of the country. Weiji General also has your own considerations. Qianji Hermit is well-known across the country. Additionally, this humble official was told that Weiji General has some secret methods to turn stone into gold only by touching. Commander-in-chief must know about your talents…”

Zhang Tie replied with a smile, “No crap, the reason why commander-in-chief appointed me as Weiji General lies in grins and Fiery Oil!” Zhang Tie said. After a second, he pointed at the vast area of farmland in front of his eyes as he sighed with feelings, “As long as there’re grain seeds, it would be too easy for me to make them high-yielded fields. Even if these farmlands were destroyed by demonized grains, I could still have them recover their fertility!”

After hearing Zhang Tie’s words, Lu Yanyu’s eyes sparkled as he said, “This humble official was told that the over 100 million mu official farmlands that suffered a crop failure in Ninghe Prefecture, Northeast Military Region before won a harvest last year once again!”

“The harvest over there benefited from the 3 solutions!” Zhang Tie erected his finger as he further explained, “The first solution was to keep the grain seeds free from being contaminated; second, the earthworms in Fire-Dragon Bounty Territory which were mutated species that I brought from Waii Subcontinent, they’re very effective to recover soil’s fertility; third, restore the destruction that demonized crops brought to the soil. Demons and Heavens Reaching Church are very insidious and vicious. When they had Taixia Country suffer crop failure as a whole, they didn’t forget about using demonized grains to destroy the fertility of the arable lands. However, every poison could be detoxified. Now that the poison could be made, its antidote could also be produced. The trick of demons, though being vicious, was also solved!”

Hearing Zhang Tie’s words, Lu Yanyu’s face turned solemn. After Zhang Tie finished his words, Lu Yanyu went off to the roadside field and held a piece of hardening soil before coming to Zhang Tie’s front. He then rubbed the piece of soil by two hands so that Zhang Tie could see it carefully, “General, look, this official field also suffered a crop failure last year. Although the crops in the field have been burned and irrigated, the soil here still tends to harden. After being dried in the sun, the soil would be like mud which’s dug out of the earth. Demonized crops could reduce the number of microorganisms and flora and their structures. When all the microorganisms and flora were destroyed together with their structures, this farmland would never recover its fertility no matter how many fertilizers we used. It would be as useless as filling fertilizers into the sand. Additionally, the soil would provide increasingly fewer nutrients. Therefore, the soil would become less available for growing crops. It is similar to that when people used too many fertilizers in their farmlands before the Catastrophe. General, I’m longing for your solution!”

Lu Yanyu’s eyes turned a bit eager in the end because this problem was the major problem that almost faced 1 trillion people across Taixia Country.

“The earth under our feet is the real treasure land!” Zhang Tie sighed with feelings, “The grains, the silk, the linen and the instruments that we use all come from the earth. People couldn’t live without it. The earth breeds everything to raise people; however, it gets nothing in return. What a shame! Actually, as long as we know how to extend our thanks to the earth, we will solve the problem of hardening soil easily!”

“How to extend our thanks to the earth?” Lu Yanyu’s heart raced as he felt Zhang Tie was talking about his enlightening and insight about the greatest law between the heavens and the humans.

Zhang Tie looked into the distance as his voice sounded a bit reminiscent, “I remember when I was in Waii Subcontinent at a young age, I lived a poor life. My mom sold rice brew to help my father survive our family. Rice brew was fermented in a sealed terrine. After a terrine of rice brew was sold out, there would be some remains in the terrain. Therefore, after I cleaned up the terrain in the terrain, I would water the flowerpots and parterres using the water which contained leftover rice brew. Gradually, the plants in the flowerpots and parterres grew brilliant. At that time, I didn’t discover the marvelous effect of the water containing leftover rice brew!”

“An old man lived next to our home. He was an engineer in Blackhot City. After retirement, he liked to do gardening to kill time and cultivate his taste. In the beginning, the old man used some civilian means to make fertilizers by using broken bones and phosphate ores as phosphate fertilizer; carnallite and nitrate as potassic fertilizer and boiled, moldy beans and overdue edible oil which have been sealed for a period as nitrogenous fertilizer!”

“One day, when I left school, I coincidentally saw the old man taking a pot of withered flower out of his house and put it onto the garbage collection can outside. I saw how it opened its flower right on the window sill of the old man. It was very beautiful. However, it gradually started to die. After the old man left there, I ran over there as I noticed that there was still a tender sprout at the root of the withered flower. Therefore, I brought the flowerpot back home and planted it in our own parterre. ”

“As the old man used too many fertilizers inappropriately, the mud at the root of that flower had been hardened and become completely like a sun-dried mud brick. You couldn’t even break it by hands. It didn’t have anything to do with nutrients. The soil was even harder than that we see in front of us as the microorganisms and flora had almost been completely destroyed by the natural fertilizers made by the old man…”

When Lu Yanyu heard Zhang Tie talking about the hardening soil flowerpot that he picked on the way back home, his heart raced at once. ‘Could he…’

After throwing a glance at Lu Yanyu, Zhang Tie continued, “I planted the withered flower together with the hard soil at the root of the flower into my parterre. After that, I would water them with water containing leftover rice brew whenever I have a chance. Guess what?”

“You saved it…” Lu Yanyu said out of his excitement.

“Right. I saved the flower. More than that, the hard soil at the root of the flower also got its breath again!” Zhang Tie replied with a smile, “It’s just an experience of mine. After saving that flower, I didn’t think too much about it; nor did I think about making a fortune in this means. Not until Taixia Country was suffering a grain shortage as a whole and most of the soil across the country was destroyed by demonized crops and hardened did I have a try with a fluke mind. I found some hardened soil, I sowed some grains in it. After that, I watered them with water containing leftover rice brew. I’ve not imagined that it indeed worked. Later on, I spread this method across Ninghe Prefecture…”

Zhang Tie explained it calmly as if he was talking about something trivial. However, as for Lu Yanyu, Zhang Tie’s words sounded as earthshaking as thunders. He didn’t recover his composure until a few seconds later. Because Zhang Tie had already told him about the solution.

This was a great secret that could influence numerous people and defuse the current land crisis facing Taixia Country. Taixia Country had tried so many methods; however, none of them could be as effective as Zhang Tie’s method. It was out of Lu Yanyu’s imagination that Zhang Tie could share this secret with him so frankly.

Lu Yanyu’s voice started to tremble, “General, whether the substance in the water containing the leftover rice brew is as same as that in the all-purpose medicament or not…”