Chapter 827: Bread for Battle

After Ye Zi finished explaining, Edith was the first to ask, "Your Majesty, can this kind of wheat catalyzed by magic power really be eaten by ordinary people?"

This is probably the question that other people are most concerned about. After Pearl of the Northland spoke, not only Pelor, but even Speer showed a worried look.

"First of all, there is no essential difference between Gold No. 2 and Gold No. 1. They are both cultivated from leaves - No. 2 just further expands the characteristic of yield." Roland replied with a smile, "Secondly, although it is It is transformed with magic power, but it does not contain magic power itself, so there is no need to worry about ordinary people being harmed by it. In fact, the oatmeal and pancakes I ate recently are all from the golden number two of the experimental field."

He couldn't help but think of the debate between natural food, hybrid food and genetically modified food in later generations. Some people always emphasize that natural is the best, but they don't know what natural food should look like.

It is a very complicated issue to explain the origin of Golden No. 2 in detail, it involves biological mutation and inheritance, and even Ye Zi may not be able to understand the reason. Although her ability can cause great changes in plants in a short period of time, they basically need a continuous supply of magic power, and cannot be passed on to future generations. If the changes are too large, they will even die directly after being deprived of the magic power supply.

Therefore, when cultivating golden wheat, the most important role of the leaves is to promote mutation and accelerate its growth—select the ones with characteristics that are more conducive to planting, remove the poor-quality shapes, and reproduce them from generation to generation, finally forming wheat varieties with extremely outstanding characteristics. This is the same as the cultivation method of traditional crops, the only difference is that the process is greatly shortened, and the long evolution of hundreds of years has been completed in less than two years.

Roland had seen the appearance of a primitive watermelon before—a fist-sized hard-shelled fruit sac with several separate pieces of yellow flesh mixed in, which looked similar to oranges at first glance. It was not until the seventeenth century that the flesh turned red, and the size became much larger, but more than half of the inside was still filled with whitish meridians. If you dig it with a spoon, it may be hollowed out in four or five strokes.

In addition, the fruits and crops that people are familiar with look very different from before. In fact, not only plants, but also animals. The most typical example is the dog - a pet that did not exist originally, but was transformed from a wolf under the influence of human generations.

Therefore, the so-called natural food is the result of repeated artificial screening. If it really returns to its original appearance, it will be difficult to eat in nine out of ten.

And not just humans, any species, ranging from mammals to microbes, are changing the surrounding environment all the time. In Roland's view, building a power station by humans is no different from fermenting bread with yeast. They are both natural actions, because life itself is a part of nature.

It’s just that these principles are too esoteric for local officials, so he simply simplified the answer into two parts: “It’s okay to eat gold number one, and it’s okay to eat gold number two,” and “If you don’t believe me, I’m eating it too.” The example of the king of this era is the best proof.

Seeing that everyone no longer had doubts on the surface, Roland continued, "In addition, the grain transactions in each city must be controlled by the second-level city hall, just like Neverwinter City, which prohibits private sales of grain. As for the specific implementation method, the general manager Barov will explain it to you in detail later."

Earl Spear Passy raised his eyebrows, "Your Majesty, if Gold No. 2 really has such a high output, there may still be a lot of surplus after feeding the citizens. If the city hall wants to buy them all, the financial pressure will be very heavy. Besides, there are only more than 10,000 people in Zhuolongling City, so does it need to produce so much food?"

"That's right, because the surplus food is not for eating, but for storage."

"Store?" She was slightly taken aback.

"For the upcoming battle of divine will." Roland said word by word.

His purpose of forcing the promotion of Gold No. 2 is not only to recruit more people for Greycastle, but also because of this fate-determining war—as a member born in a peaceful age, he has not experienced protracted and brutal wars, so We can only do a good job of preparing for war based on historical experience.

The worst scenario that Roland could foresee was that the population would drop by 30%, and all young and middle-aged people would have to go to the battlefield, while all women and children would work in factories to provide supplies for the front line. Under such a situation, it is likely that the farmland will be abandoned and no one will cultivate it. If there is enough grain for two to three years, it may be able to persist until a turning point occurs.

He asked Minister of Construction Carl Vanbert about this in detail, and the latter said that a granary with a reasonable design, a complete structure, and someone to watch it can store hulled grains for up to five years. Although the taste will drop significantly after one or two years, but at that time, who cares whether the food is good or not.

You must know that Ye Zi’s experimental field is far more than just a high-yield crop of wheat. After two years of cultivation, crops introduced from various places, such as sugar cane, corn, and potatoes, have high-yield varieties. In particular, the latter two are much higher than wheat in terms of unit output due to their inherent advantages. The reason why Roland chose to promote Gold No. 2 instead of promoting them is because of two points: one is that their offspring can reproduce normally, and they are not suitable for monopolizing grain transactions; the other is that their storage period is not as long as that of grain.

Of course, agriculture is an extremely complicated industry. It includes not only food for humans, but also food for animals... For example, without sufficient soybean feed, there will be no developed animal husbandry. It's just that he can't take care of too much now, just to ensure that the wartime It is already a big project that everyone can eat the staple food.

Since most of the participants understood the meaning of the Divine War, no one questioned this policy concerning the survival of human beings. At the end of the meeting, Roland turned his attention to Juan, "I hope to add the course of agronomy to secondary education, mainly to cultivate professionals who can master various crop planting methods."

The level of education in other cities is far from that of Neverwinter, and he also feels that it is difficult to promote universal education throughout the entire Graycastle, so it is better for Neverwinter to send accomplished professionals directly to various places guide agricultural production. Moreover, specialized agronomy can be regarded as a beginning, and subjects such as chemical engineering, architecture, and medicine will also be listed in the progress in the future. It is not required that the trained leaders can do their own research and invent a few new theories, as long as they put what they have learned into the operation of the industry.

After the meeting, Wendy brought a new piece of news.

The witches who explored the ruins in the snow-capped mountains of the Western Region have safely arrived at the docks of Neverwinter.

When Roland rushed to the pier, a figure flew straight into his arms.

The pale golden curly hair rubbed against his cheeks, making him feel a little itchy, and the familiar smell filled his nostrils again.

"I'm back," Nightingale whispered in his ear.