"3 tons of struvite... Calculated based on the average amount of 15 kg per 0.200 acres, the actual cultivated land area must be more than 15 acres, which is much larger than expected."
On the way back, Lucius 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% to 30% of the total production capacity...or even more."
Brown Farm will make part of the manure and buy some from other merchants. The actual arable land area may be larger than I imagined.
Before crossing, Lucius had 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 acre of land can be used as ten acres 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 kg per acre. Its name is the numerical control 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 exchanged for food, it should not be too short of electricity resources. 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, Lucius suddenly had a whim.
"Could it be... that some kind of energy crop was planted?"
Brown Farm is not only growing green wheat. I heard that this stuff ripens very quickly. After harvesting, there is a chance to plant a round of yams, beans, fruits and vegetables, or other crops. Perhaps it is the latter that has the greatest need for 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 specifically 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, which are used as industrial raw materials to supply factories in Boulder City."
"Its product is suspected to be some kind of rubber, crude oil analogue or other hydrocarbons."
"Also, this kind of crop should consume a lot of fertility!"
Lucius wrote this line in his notes. The gains from this transaction were even 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.
In particular, it was impossible to collect such information when he was a scavenger. When he goes back, he can publish the setting collection on the official website for players' reference.
While Lucius was analyzing the information, the players beside him were beeping softly.
"One kilogram of struvite can be exchanged for 10 kilograms of grain? I'm not mistaken."
"You read it wrong, it's 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 expensive."
"Maybe all of them? Maybe none of them... 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 bring it back to the warehouse, right?"
"Yes! Is that reasonable?"
"Don't worry, although there is no farming system now, I bet that the price of green wheat harvested by NPCs will definitely not exceed 1 kilogram and 1 copper. Is it reasonable to think so?"
"Pfft, it's really too much! 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 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."
Having said that, the player whose ID is [ Mole In The Hole ] 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 Lucius didn't look up or pay attention to him, he still glanced at this guy and smiled in his heart.
That's right. But the layout 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?
When the spring of next year begins, your great manager will do this business for you, and the bargaining chips earned will be the foreign exchange reserves of the base, and will be shared among you.
What? Do you want to settle the reward in the currency of Boulder City?
Why, you still want to buy a house and marry a wife in Boulder City?
In fact, Lucius 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 Lucius, the currency issued by Shelter No.404 will replace the chips issued by Boulder City by the fifth generation of currency at the latest, and become the hardest currency in Spring City and even the surrounding areas. Suffering a little now is also for everyone to enjoy happiness together in the future.
"My lord, there seems to be someone in front."
"?"
Again?
Stuffing the notebook back into his pocket, Lucius 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 a slave who had been brought out earlier. The latter put his head in his hands and knelt on the ground trembling.
The group stopped. Lucius looked at the strong man, and the strong man also stared at him blankly.
"Is there a problem?"
"No."
Lucius 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 suffering from arthritis, he can't do the work, and he broke a plate yesterday. The master asked me to take him outside and dispose of it."
After listening to the strong man's words, Lucius remembered that every winter Brown Farm seemed to dispose of a few slaves who could not do heavy work and no one bought them, and bought new ones from the slave merchants in the coming year.
As for where these slaves came from?
Who knows. Some are due to debts being auctioned off by creditors, some are captured by looters and lost their freedom, others are simply clones, or a forgotten shelter facility is suddenly unsealed.
Lucius even heard that some scavengers sold themselves or their relatives because they could not survive. In this wasteland, a slave who is dying 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 slave couldn't say anything else.
"Wait a minute."
Lucius 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 were concerned, it was an advanced age. But from another perspective, it also means experience.
Lucius continued to ask.
"What can you do."
As if seeing the hope of life, the old man turned around tremblingly, reaching out his hand to hug the life-saving straw.
When the strong man saw it, he kicked him away quickly and scolded him.
"Don't touch the master's distinguished guest with your dirty hands, do you want to be hanged?"
He could tell with his eyesight that this group of people had business dealings with the master.
Although he was kicked, the old slave didn't care at all. He got up and didn't even look at the strong man. He raised his wrinkled face and looked at Lucius.
"I, I can farm, I can read numbers, I can do carpentry, I can 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 merchants in the slave trade but no one wanted him.”
Lucius took out a white chip from his pocket and flicked it into the strong man's hand with his thumb.
"Is it enough?"
The strong man had a happy expression and nodded quickly.
"Enough is enough."
No matter how small a mosquito is, it is still meat, and this slave is not his, so he doesn't care if he dies or is sold to someone else.
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 Lucius, and happily went back to the business with the gun on his shoulder.
The slave huddled on the ground and shivered, obviously frightened by the shot just now, he looked like he had lost his soul.
Lucius 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, and now you work for me."
Finally came back to the soul.
The slave immediately wanted to kneel down, but was stopped by Lucius 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, I dig out your body parts and feed them to the dog."
In other words, Lucius said that if there is a traitor, he can just throw it into the active substance extractor and refine it. There is no need to go through so much trouble.
Although Lucius 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.
Aboriginals and players are fundamentally two different creatures. As for the aborigines, we have to use aboriginal methods to manage them. This is good 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 way, "I offer my loyalty to you... My name is Luka, no, I don't have a name, please You named me."
"Just call Luka."
Lucius was too lazy to waste time and waved to the players.
"Go ahead."
"We have to go back before noon."
...
This business trip can be said to be full of rewards.
300 kg of struvite was exchanged for 3,600 kg of green wheat and croissants, and 100 kg of bacon was exchanged for 500 kg of green wheat and 5 tools.
Although Lucius 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 Lucius had no choice but to give up.
But on the other hand, Karunas still looked at the relationship between the two parties and made a small concession, allowing him to pick 5 pieces of tools or 1 catty of tobacco leaves to take away as gifts.
Of course, Lucius chose tools, and he picked 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, 25kg of smoked fish was exchanged for almost 150kg of scrap metal. Unlike the aluminum and steel alloys that can be seen all over the street, these metals are good products containing copper and zinc.
Originally, Karunas didn't really want to sell it, but he probably thought that the merchants would not come for a few months anyway, and it would be useless to stay on the farm, so after asking the owner for instructions, he nodded in agreement.
The noon sun shone overhead, and the shadows of the trees danced along 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 rushed forward screaming and beating them with sticks. They were even more excited than alien cockroaches.
If the aliens could think, they would probably be stupid right now. Who is the prey?
The only thing Lucius needs to do is to stop their hoarding habit, and want to put any weird things in their pockets when they see them.
Although some indigestible gadgets can occasionally be dug out of the mutated cockroach's stomach, and with a lot of luck, even chips or bullets can be dug out, but the probability of that is really too small.
In most cases, cockroach eggs are found.
Old Luca shivered 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 knew very well that as a servant, he didn't need to think about this issue. The less he knew, the longer he lived, so he didn't say a word along the way, as if he didn't have a low sense of existence.
I want to sing happily.
Leading the caravan back to the outpost, Lucius, who had just arrived at the gate, happened to see Yuki's two big brothers, who were carrying their prey, gesticulating anxiously with the players at the south gate.
Lucius's eyes lit up, and he called out from a distance.
Hearing the familiar voice, both brothers immediately turned their heads and waved their hands with joy.
"Brother Lucius!"
"3 tons of struvite... Calculated based on the average amount of 15 kg per 0.200 acres, the actual cultivated land area must be more than 15 acres, which is much larger than expected."
On the way back, Lucius 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% to 30% of the total production capacity...or even more."
Brown Farm will make part of the manure and buy some from other merchants. The actual arable land area may be larger than I imagined.
Before crossing, Lucius had 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 acre of land can be used as ten acres 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 kg per acre. Its name is the numerical control 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 exchanged for food, it should not be too short of electricity resources. 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, Lucius suddenly had a whim.
"Could it be... that some kind of energy crop was planted?"
Brown Farm is not only growing green wheat. I heard that this stuff ripens very quickly. After harvesting, there is a chance to plant a round of yams, beans, fruits and vegetables, or other crops. Perhaps it is the latter that has the greatest need for 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 specifically 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, which are used as industrial raw materials to supply factories in Boulder City."
"Its product is suspected to be some kind of rubber, crude oil analogue or other hydrocarbons."
"Also, this kind of crop should consume a lot of fertility!"
Lucius wrote this line in his notes. The gains from this transaction were even 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.
In particular, it was impossible to collect such information when he was a scavenger. When he goes back, he can publish the setting collection on the official website for players' reference.
While Lucius was analyzing the information, the players beside him were beeping softly.
"One kilogram of struvite can be exchanged for 10 kilograms of grain? I'm not mistaken."
"You read it wrong, it's 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 expensive."
"Maybe all of them? Maybe none of them... 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 bring it back to the warehouse, right?"
"Yes! Is that reasonable?"
"Don't worry, although there is no farming system now, I bet that the price of green wheat harvested by NPCs will definitely not exceed 1 kilogram and 1 copper. Is it reasonable to think so?"
"Pfft, it's really too much! 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 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."
Having said that, the player whose ID is [ Mole In The Hole ] 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 Lucius didn't look up or pay attention to him, he still glanced at this guy and smiled in his heart.
That's right. But the layout 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?
When the spring of next year begins, your great manager will do this business for you, and the bargaining chips earned will be the foreign exchange reserves of the base, and will be shared among you.
What? Do you want to settle the reward in the currency of Boulder City?
Why, you still want to buy a house and marry a wife in Boulder City?
In fact, Lucius 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 Lucius, the currency issued by Shelter No.404 will replace the chips issued by Boulder City by the fifth generation of currency at the latest, and become the hardest currency in Spring City and even the surrounding areas. Suffering a little now is also for everyone to enjoy happiness together in the future.
"My lord, there seems to be someone in front."
"?"
Again?
Stuffing the notebook back into his pocket, Lucius 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 a slave who had been brought out earlier. The latter put his head in his hands and knelt on the ground trembling.
The group stopped. Lucius looked at the strong man, and the strong man also stared at him blankly.
"Is there a problem?"
"No."
Lucius 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 suffering from arthritis, he can't do the work, and he broke a plate yesterday. The master asked me to take him outside and dispose of it."
After listening to the strong man's words, Lucius remembered that every winter Brown Farm seemed to dispose of a few slaves who could not do heavy work and no one bought them, and bought new ones from the slave merchants in the coming year.
As for where these slaves came from?
Who knows. Some are due to debts being auctioned off by creditors, some are captured by looters and lost their freedom, others are simply clones, or a forgotten shelter facility is suddenly unsealed.
Lucius even heard that some scavengers sold themselves or their relatives because they could not survive. In this wasteland, a slave who is dying 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 slave couldn't say anything else.
"Wait a minute."
Lucius 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 were concerned, it was an advanced age. But from another perspective, it also means experience.
Lucius continued to ask.
"What can you do."
As if seeing the hope of life, the old man turned around tremblingly, reaching out his hand to hug the life-saving straw.
When the strong man saw it, he kicked him away quickly and scolded him.
"Don't touch the master's distinguished guest with your dirty hands, do you want to be hanged?"
He could tell with his eyesight that this group of people had business dealings with the master.
Although he was kicked, the old slave didn't care at all. He got up and didn't even look at the strong man. He raised his wrinkled face and looked at Lucius.
"I, I can farm, I can read numbers, I can do carpentry, I can 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 merchants in the slave trade but no one wanted him.”
Lucius took out a white chip from his pocket and flicked it into the strong man's hand with his thumb.
"Is it enough?"
The strong man had a happy expression and nodded quickly.
"Enough is enough."
No matter how small a mosquito is, it is still meat, and this slave is not his, so he doesn't care if he dies or is sold to someone else.
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 Lucius, and happily went back to the business with the gun on his shoulder.
The slave huddled on the ground and shivered, obviously frightened by the shot just now, he looked like he had lost his soul.
Lucius 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, and now you work for me."
Finally came back to the soul.
The slave immediately wanted to kneel down, but was stopped by Lucius 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, I dig out your body parts and feed them to the dog."
In other words, Lucius said that if there is a traitor, he can just throw it into the active substance extractor and refine it. There is no need to go through so much trouble.
Although Lucius 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.
Aboriginals and players are fundamentally two different creatures. As for the aborigines, we have to use aboriginal methods to manage them. This is good 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 way, "I offer my loyalty to you... My name is Luka, no, I don't have a name, please You named me."
"Just call Luka."
Lucius was too lazy to waste time and waved to the players.
"Go ahead."
"We have to go back before noon."
...
This business trip can be said to be full of rewards.
300 kg of struvite was exchanged for 3,600 kg of green wheat and croissants, and 100 kg of bacon was exchanged for 500 kg of green wheat and 5 tools.
Although Lucius 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 Lucius had no choice but to give up.
But on the other hand, Karunas still looked at the relationship between the two parties and made a small concession, allowing him to pick 5 pieces of tools or 1 catty of tobacco leaves to take away as gifts.
Of course, Lucius chose tools, and he picked 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, 25kg of smoked fish was exchanged for almost 150kg of scrap metal. Unlike the aluminum and steel alloys that can be seen all over the street, these metals are good products containing copper and zinc.
Originally, Karunas didn't really want to sell it, but he probably thought that the merchants would not come for a few months anyway, and it would be useless to stay on the farm, so after asking the owner for instructions, he nodded in agreement.
The noon sun shone overhead, and the shadows of the trees danced along 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 rushed forward screaming and beating them with sticks. They were even more excited than alien cockroaches.
If the aliens could think, they would probably be stupid right now. Who is the prey?
The only thing Lucius needs to do is to stop their hoarding habit, and want to put any weird things in their pockets when they see them.
Although some indigestible gadgets can occasionally be dug out of the mutated cockroach's stomach, and with a lot of luck, even chips or bullets can be dug out, but the probability of that is really too small.
In most cases, cockroach eggs are found.
Old Luca shivered 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 knew very well that as a servant, he didn't need to think about this issue. The less he knew, the longer he lived, so he didn't say a word along the way, as if he didn't have a low sense of existence.
I want to sing happily.
Leading the caravan back to the outpost, Lucius, who had just arrived at the gate, happened to see Yuki's two big brothers, who were carrying their prey, gesticulating anxiously with the players at the south gate.
Lucius's eyes lit up, and he called out from a distance.
Hearing the familiar voice, both brothers immediately turned their heads and waved their hands with joy.
"Brother Lucius!"
