Abandoned the Immortal Cultivator, returned to his hometown to farm and sing

Chapter 1356, page 1343: 1.4 Billion People in China, All of Them Are Rice Bags

"This leaf looks familiar; it looks like a bay leaf." An expert examined the golden leaf for a long time.

Suddenly, it seemed like I remembered something.

I grabbed the computer and did a quick search, then projected the results onto the big screen.

Upon closer inspection, the search keywords were "golden leaves from Napoleon's coronation crown," and the results displayed were exactly the same as the one in their hands.

"That's not right. The text says that the golden laurel wreath worn by Napoleon I at his coronation in 1804 contained 44 large leaves, 12 small leaves, and 42 seeds."

"But after the Bourbon Restoration in 1819, the main body of the original crown was melted down, leaving only two gold leaves."

"One piece is housed in the Palace of Fontainebleau in France and is considered a French national treasure; the other was sold at a Paris auction in 2017 for 62.5 euros and was purchased by a Chinese collector. It is now on display in Shanghai."

"How come another one has appeared? The one in Shanghai is still here. Could this be the one from France, or... is it fake?"

Uncle Li waved his hand, "It shouldn't be fake. Old John, a member of the Carver family, wouldn't it be too embarrassing to send a fake. The French one is unlikely too; they wouldn't go so far as to bring over someone else's national treasure."

"Where did this come from?" Luo Yihang was also quite curious.

Another international relations expert explained, "Don't overthink it. Antiques are more valuable the fewer they are. They say there are only two left, but who knows how many are left? One is a national treasure, and the other appeared in 2017. It's practically a one-of-a-kind item, but it only sold for a little over 60 euros at auction. It didn't fetch a good price, so there's no need to put the rest up for sale. This is a good opportunity to do someone a favor."

"What I'm more concerned about is why he sent a gold leaf over."

Upon hearing this, Uncle Li laughed heartily and pointed at Luo Yihang, "Isn't it all because of him?"

"Because of me? I didn't ask him for gold." Luo Yihang didn't understand.

Uncle Li was very satisfied, and it was time for him to answer questions again.

"What are you trying to tell Old John about land reform? Do you think his brain can even understand it? He's been thoroughly conditioned by capitalism. All he can understand is the French Revolution. Are you trying to give me a hint with this leaf? So what if it was the French Revolution? In the end, Napoleon still became emperor."

Upon hearing this, Luo Yihang understood.

He chuckled and said, "He means we won't last long either. Sooner or later we'll end up like the Soviet Union. Collapse on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays; threaten on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays; and wreak havoc on a few small countries on Sundays for leisure."

"It is impolite not to reciprocate, so I will also give him a return gift."

"What are you planning to reply to?" Uncle Li asked curiously.

Luo Yihang rubbed his hands together, quite excited. "It's been a long time since I've used this skill. Let me show you all what I'm capable of."

If you ask again, I won't answer.

He's back to his old ways again; I'll keep you in suspense.

He then went home and brought back a bunch of tools: chisels, hammers, carving knives, whetstones, carving tables, water tanks, and electric grinders.

There are also two stones, one large and one small.

They put on dust masks and got busy in the yard.

Squeak, squeak, dust flies up, hiss, water sprays.

A crowd of people gathered in the distance, peering curiously.

I can't get close enough; the dust is too much.

"Little Luo is playing with jade carving."

"Is it jade? It looks a bit like a stone."

"Your skills are really good, you've practiced properly..."

"They're really quick..."

Resembling neither stone nor jade, Luo Yihang was holding two fragrant stones.

The good items I had stored away before are now useless because of the petrified wood.

This is perfect for returning the favor.

Luo Yihang is a big fan of Tianhan Fragrant Stones; he only buys raw stones and carves them himself.

Her skills are excellent.

Before long, the larger piece had already taken shape.

Below is a heavy base, divided into two layers, wider at the bottom and narrower at the top, with a recessed area in the middle of the upper layer.

The base has two vertical pillars on either side and a horizontal beam on top.

It looks like a door.

A thin, trapezoidal sheet at a 45-degree angle is hanging on the crossbeam of the door frame.

This thing looks familiar; it looks like a guillotine.

The middle compartment is for the head.

The smaller piece is more complex than the larger one, and gradually you can see that it is a person.

A fat man wearing a tuxedo and stockings, with curly hair that exposed his forehead, and leaning on a cane.

Luo Yihang finished carving the two items, washed them clean with water, and placed them together to show off to everyone, saying, "Take a look and see if they're suitable."

Uncle Li and the others came over to take a look, and wow, they really did have good craftsmanship; the two items looked quite decent.

I recognize the guillotine, but this person next to it...

"Who is this?" Uncle Li asked.

“Robespierre,” Luo Yihang replied. “He was the Jacobin leader during the French Revolution, and he was the one who executed Louis XVI, killing more than 40,000 nobles. It would be most appropriate for him to oversee the execution.”

"What, you want to kill old John?" Uncle Li laughed.

Luo Yihang waved his hand, "So what if the French Revolution failed? Louis XVI was completely clueless..."
-
After exchanging gifts, neither party offered any feedback.

There was no thank you, and no insults exchanged.

It's as if it doesn't exist.

This was actually a small exchange after the initial meeting where they "got to know each other," to build momentum for their second meeting.

Clearly, old John didn't gain anything again.

Two days later.

Luo Yihang and John Carver meet again.

This time, the meeting place was neither a four-star hotel nor Luo Zitong's family's farmhouse.

It was in a pavilion in Nanhu Park.

Public spaces are not the territory of any one party.

John Carver came alone this time; his "friend," the butler, did not attend.

Last time, I only said one sentence while with them, which was completely useless, and this time they were simply abandoned.

Luo Yihang is also a person.

Lakeside, mountain scenery, weeping willows, and a pavilion.

Inside the pavilion is a stone table, four stone benches, and a pot of tea.

An old man and a young man sat facing each other.

The scenery is really nice, and the atmosphere is great too.

It's a pity, all for nothing.

During this meeting, John Carver neither talked about the weather nor the scenery.

Instead, they simply handed Luo Yihang a document.

Luo Yihang picked it up and saw that it was a chart of soybean futures prices.

Each month is a point, connected to form a line.

This section is a solid line from 2015 until the second quarter of this year.

As can be seen, international soybean futures prices have been rising for the past decade.

The average price was $428 per ton in 2015, and it has risen to $553 per ton in 2020.

The peak occurred in the first quarter of 2022, when the price reached $800.

After that, it began to fall back and entered a period of fluctuating downwards.

The latest price is $467.

However, there is a dotted line after John Carver's table.

This foreshadows future trends.

It's now the end of July. The dotted price for August is $517, for September it's $640, and for October it's $850, breaking the all-time high.

It was $990 in November and reached $1370 in December.

The steep curve soared into the sky, nearly doubling in six months.

Luo Yihang flipped through the graph and asked, "Is the price at the end your estimated price?"

John Carver shook his head and calmly replied, "It's the price we're operating at."

Holy crap, that's awesome.

Luo Yihang gave a thumbs up, "You're not even acting?"

John Carver nodded in agreement, acknowledging, "Honesty is essential between friends, dear Luo, we very much hope to be your friend."

“With just a promise from you, it can draw such a terrifying curve, or it can do nothing at all.” John Carver pointed to the graph in Luo Yihang’s hand and continued calmly. “Ha.” Luo Yihang threw down the graph, shook his head disdainfully, and said, “You can’t do it. If you could, you would have done it already. Why wait until today?”

John Carver also shook his head, "The Climate Corporation was thrown into chaos by the hostile takeover by Clear Sound Agriculture and failed to monitor changes in the North American climate environment in a timely manner. Hurricanes, droughts, insect infestations, germs, it doesn't matter what it is or how big it is."

"Due to the 'disaster,' production across the Americas has decreased significantly, resulting in a sharp drop in supply."

"From September to October, during the North American soybean harvest, soybean futures prices climbed, triggering panic and driving prices higher..."

Luo Yihang couldn't help but give a thumbs up again.

This is a solid attempt to shift the blame.

If Qingyin Agriculture doesn't mess with Climate Company, Climate Company won't be in chaos.

If the climate company remains calm, the Climate FieldView platform can monitor environmental changes and take preventative measures.

If the Climate FieldView platform could have anticipated the disaster, it would have avoided being affected.

Regardless of whether it's a major or minor disaster, regardless of what kind of disaster it is, and regardless of why the seasons in North and South America are different, yet they all suffer from the same disaster.

Anyway, there will be a major disaster.

Major disasters lead to reduced production, and reduced production leads to supply shortages.

Scarcity drives up prices, giving international speculators reason to drive them up.

They're from Wall Street, they're in finance, they know this stuff.

In short, it was Qingyin Agriculture that caused this trouble.

Luo Yihang thought to himself, "This move seems so familiar."

Isn't this my trick?

They won't fight you head-on; they'll go around in circles and use underhanded tactics.

This is how we won all three battles against the LVMH Group.

Damn it, Old John and his gang learned it.

Damn it, they have no martial ethics!

Damn, this move is really hard to counter...
-
Soybeans are the most important and only agricultural product in the East that needs to be imported on a large scale.

We import 1.15 million tons every year.

Of these, more than ten million tons are used for food consumption and food processing, while the remaining one hundred million tons are used as feed, mainly for pigs, and also for oil extraction.

Domestic production is only 20 million tons, with a self-sufficiency rate of less than 18%.

At $467 per ton, importing soybeans costs $537 billion annually.

If they were to actually drive the price up to $1370 per ton, it would cost $1575.5 billion.

Not to mention that it cost more than 100 billion US dollars in foreign exchange.

The four major grain merchants all control the grain; the higher the price goes, the less likely they are to sell—this is called hoarding and speculation.

Without feed, the domestic pork price would skyrocket, which would be no small matter.

If all soybeans are produced domestically, then we can grow them ourselves.

With an average yield of 133 kg per mu, nearly 8.65 million mu of arable land would be needed.

The country has only 19.4 billion mu of arable land, of which 4.35 million mu are for rice, 3.54 million mu for wheat, and 6.71 million mu for corn. These three staple grains alone consume 14.6 billion mu.

There simply isn't enough land available to allocate 8.65 million mu of arable land for soybeans.

Sigh, Chinese people eat too much pork.

But then again.

The vast majority of soybeans grown worldwide are grown for the East.

There was only one buyer in the East for the hundreds of millions of tons of soybeans.

Because only people in the East like to eat pork and use soybean oil for cooking, 1.4 billion people consume more than 700 million pigs every year.

From newborns to ninety-nine-year-olds, each person receives half a pig per year.

As the saying goes.

China has 1.4 billion people, and they are all just gluttons.

The Kitchen God was stunned when the kitchen god devoured 700 million pigs a year.

By the way, we also consume 148.42 billion chickens, 3.24 million sheep, and 7366 million tons of fish every year.

1.4 billion foodies, they really can eat a lot.

Wait, the breakthrough point is right here.

Soybeans are agricultural products and cannot be stored, even though there hasn't been a real disaster.

What a disaster! Production has decreased across the entire Americas.

Soybeans certainly exist, but they are stored in warehouses and not sold, hoarding them in hopes of price increases.

If we don't sell for a month, two months, or even half a year, how can we not sell?

Storage fees can be quite expensive, and the food will spoil if left out for too long.

With current warehousing technology in Europe and America, 80% of the products cannot be stored for more than six months.

No wonder the dotted lines were drawn until the end of the year.

They knew it in their hearts too.

So, just prevent it from rising in the next six months, and it'll be fine. If it can't hold up, it'll naturally sell...
-
Thinking of this, Luo Yihang took out his phone and connected to the company's database.

He found a document, opened it, and pushed it in front of John Carver.

John Carver stared at it for a long time but couldn't understand it.

I don't know Chinese...

Sigh, he's quite old and still doesn't know how to study; I have to lecture him.

“I have a teacher, Professor Du Jing, do you know him?” Luo Yihang asked.

John Carver nodded.

He knows it all too well.

They believe they have thoroughly investigated Luo Yihang's background, and Du Jing is someone they cannot avoid.

He was the mentor who guided Luo Yihang from the very beginning.

Wen Ying, the leader of the Breeding 4.0 technology that makes them both hate and envy him, is a student of Professor Du Jing.

I feel so angry just thinking about it.

They invested hundreds of billions and tens of thousands of people, but they still couldn't develop Breeding 4.0.

Wenying alone has made a breakthrough in breeding 4.0.

Is it that Wenying is too talented, or that their tens of thousands of people are all idiots?

Or is it that... Commissioner Smith has struck again?

In their country, there are two Asians who have been the most "hated" in recent years.

A true immortal who has made a breakthrough in electromagnetic catapult technology and is a guardian of the nation through electromagnetic projection.

The other one is Wenying.

Professor Du Jing, Wenying's teacher, also "hated her intensely."

The patent for the soil microbial association model and microbial community ecological activation technology is signed by Du Jing.

More than 7,900 kinds of microorganisms, they registered them all.

There were walls everywhere, and they went around in a circle around them.

It's completely blocked in every direction.

John Carver's eyes twitched involuntarily when he heard Du Jing's name, and he almost lost control of his emotions.

Luo Yihang ignored him and continued, "Good to know. Professor Du Jing is going to be promoted to academician this year, it's a sure thing. His achievement this time is what I showed you, 'Comprehensive Technical Model and Application for Improving the Energy of Sloping Farmland and Low-Yield Fields in the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, and a Plan for Improving Farmland Quality and Agricultural Capacity Development in the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau Region'..."

John Carver frowned. He had never heard of it.

It's not those patents related to soil, is it?

"Look here," Luo Yihang said, pointing to a line of text on his phone. "Soybean-corn strip intercropping has been implemented in Guizhou and other places, with soybean yields reaching 125.74 kilograms per mu. What does that mean? It means that with the help of specialized technology and infrastructure, soybeans and corn can be planted together, producing two crops from one plot of land, and both yields are quite high. In Guizhou province alone, there are 3600 million mu of arable land suitable for intercropping."

“Luo, do you mean the East can stop importing soybeans?” John Carver asked rhetorically.

He pulled out an exquisite notebook and a pair of gold-rimmed glasses from his jacket pocket.

He put his glasses on his nose, opened the notebook, and read a few pages.

then.

John Carver laughed.

He shook his head with a smile: "Not enough, far from enough..."

(End of this chapter)