Will the kemonomimi encounter Alien Ranch Story?

The umbrella-like structures are stuck together, with countless fine filaments at the bottom connecting them to the soil. During the day, these organisms use multiple layers of photosynthesis to synthesize methanol from carbon dioxide, which is then broken down into glycogen to serve as an energy source for respiration at night.

At night, it frantically consumes the energy and resources accumulated during the day to grow itself. At night, countless fan-shaped structures, resembling hands, extend out from this blue field, accelerating the capture of nitrogen molecules in the air, and even emitting a faint cold light to prey on insects.

At first, the hellish scenery terrified the locals, who considered night watch in the mushroom fields a chore. Later, they discovered that the mushrooms were harmless and that the cold light was actually quite beautiful after getting used to it.

The layered, palm-like structures form a flower-like shape, which, combined with the pale blue cool light and the vast planting area, creates a unique, dreamlike atmosphere at night. Of course, there is also a matching sense of dread.

These structures wither before sunrise, turning into layers of humus at the roots that await decay, eventually becoming new soil.

Harvesting means uprooting it and preparing to plant other crops to utilize the nitrogen and other fertilizers accumulated by the other crop.

The slime mold spherical protrusions that form are actually the harvested crop itself. Because it contains a lot of water and is very heavy, it will ooze out a very fishy and foul-smelling juice if touched even slightly.

So, the bagpipe crew's job is to use automatic harvesting equipment to cut these things up, lay them out to dry in the field, and wait for the moisture to evaporate so that they limp up and become a lump... um, a disgusting thing.

Afterwards, the workers would shovel the remains into the truck bed, load them into wooden barrels, and send them to the workshop to ferment into feed. This was not livestock feed, but feed for livestock feed, or simply put, feed for farm-raised maggots.

Ultimately, it becomes high-quality live feed rich in protein and various amino acids, and chicken and eggs fed with this live feed have a unique flavor.

This is something that distinguishes it from synthetic meat. After all, it would be too costly and complicated to identify and add back thousands of flavor substances one by one, which would waste too much manpower. It would be much more convenient to just raise chickens directly.

"Here, take this. This thing is great in every way, except the smell is really strong..." The driver leading the group handed Fengdi a thick mask.

"No need, I've taken care of cattle and horses at home before, and I've even shoveled horse manure." Fengdi shook her head. She wasn't some pampered young lady; what kind of farm work hadn't she done at home?

"No, I suggest you bring it. The smell is incomparable to... horse manure." The driver hesitated for a moment. "The people here have not only shoveled horse manure, but also fermented it into fertilizer and fish feed. They can handle the filth and stench. Look at everyone who hasn't brought their own."

Is it really that scary?

"Yes, before masks were distributed, some people fainted and almost drowned in the fertilizer bin."

The fact that it's rich in protein, various types of fiber, and carbohydrates means that when this stuff is exposed to the sun and steamed, it smells so bad it could be used as poison gas.

The slime spheroids of the night mushroom are about the size of a watermelon. They can be easily picked off and slowly shriveled up on the soil, constantly oozing a foul-smelling liquid. This liquid is also a good liquid fertilizer.

The blanket-like structure formed by ordinary slime mold is scraped clean by the harvester, turning into layers of blue, smelly mud in the truck bed.

After a simple fermentation and processing, it will be transformed back into fertile soil and laid back on.

Humans cannot eat these "mushrooms," and no one would want to eat these things that stink worse than feces. They are mainly used as feed and fertilizer. In fact, no one knows where the owner got these disgusting but useful species.

The mushroom harvest took all morning. After the odor had dissipated, the mushrooms were no longer so smelly. The workers shoveled the soft mud, which had turned into slime from the completely dead slime mold spheres, into buckets, sealed them, and piled them on the ridges of the field.

"Go take a shower to get rid of the smell, then eat..." A water tanker arrived with clean water, and the workers quickly set up two simple shower rooms. The burly Ursus workers turned the crank to pressurize the water and then lit the portable heat tower. A small Originium battery could provide heat for a long time and also heat the water pipes so that there would be hot water available when showering.

After a morning of work, nothing is more relaxing than taking a hot shower, changing into dry clothes, and sitting by the warm stove to enjoy lunch.

"Next, these mushroom pastes will need to be piled up for another two hours. We can take a short break, and I suggest we take a nap, because the main event is in the afternoon."

The moisture must be thoroughly dried; otherwise, it will not only smell terrible but also be toxic, potentially causing accidents for the relentless protein-producing machines in the insect greenhouse.

The main dish for lunch was very ordinary bread, two slices of whole wheat bread. The bran and husk flour were all ground into powder and mixed with the dough flour. It was a coarse bread without any distinction. Because the pressure of the steel roller was much greater than that of the stone mill and windmill, the powder was very fine. Surprisingly, although it tasted rough, it did not irritate the throat at all. This surprised Bagpipe, who had brought a bottle of water to soak the bread before eating it.

As a girl from a farming family, she could tell from its dark brown color that it was baked coarse bread. Even without sawdust, it would contain small stones and sand, and it was very hard on the teeth. It was inedible unless it was soaked until soft.

However, when you eat it, it's not as soft and delicious as fine bread, but it's surprisingly smooth and doesn't feel like your throat is being scraped with a knife.

The side dish was a vegetable salad with sour cream, accompanied by a generously portioned pan-fried pork patty, seasoned with salt with a little sesame and a small jar of salted lard.

"Is this all you're going to eat?" Bagpipe watched as the farmers quickly washed their hands, picked up a wooden knife, scraped off some lard, spread it on a slice of bread, and boldly stuffed a steak into it before digging in.

“It’s normal that Miss Bagpipe isn’t used to the food since she’s from a big city. But, this is all the food we can get here. How about this, next time, I’ll ask the production team next door. They’re in charge of the cloudberry hillside. Maybe they can get you some cloudberry jam.”

Everyone seemed friendly, but what Bagpipe wanted to say wasn't that the food was unpalatable or of poor quality, but rather—this was the kind of food a small-scale farmer in Kazimierz would eat!

No, small farmers usually only cook like this during the busy farming season. They don't dare to do it at other times. With this kind of cooking, the produce from the land isn't even enough to feed themselves, let alone pay the tithes for the officials.

The farmers in Victoria probably have a slightly better diet, after all, it is a powerful continental country with abundant resources and a good industrial base.

However, it's hard to say whether ordinary farmers and workers can afford such a meal on major holidays.

"That's not what I meant. I meant, is this your daily food? It seems pretty... good." I originally wanted to say it was a bit extravagant, but considering the production volume here, I changed it to "pretty good."

"Well, that's not it." The production team leader scratched his bear ears. "Now it's barely considered the off-season for farming. A few days ago during the harvest, we couldn't keep up with eating this stuff. Back then, we really had to get up before dawn to work and didn't go to sleep until midnight. Nobody had much of an appetite and just wanted to collapse into bed."

If you can be a little lazy during normal farm work, you can't be lazy at all during harvest time. As the saying goes, "He who travels a hundred miles is only halfway there at ninety," and the same applies to agriculture.

Especially during bumper harvests, when the mountains and fields are covered in golden yellow, the crops must be harvested before the rain or snow arrives.

Otherwise, the crops will rot in the ground, and all the hard work of the year will end up like this—it's a case of gritting your teeth and making sure to harvest as quickly as possible.

"Hmm, is the harvest good?" Bagpipe had never seen a harvest like this before. However, the newly planted seedlings in the field were indeed growing well, showing no signs of being damaged by the cold wind and drizzle.

"It's always been good, I can't quite put my finger on it. In short, the silos you see are usually all full. If one of them isn't full, it means production has decreased."

The team leader pointed to rows of grain storage silos in the distance; anyone who didn't know better would think it was an intercontinental ballistic missile launch site.

"So many!" The bagpipe family only had two of these silos. Only when the weather was good and the harvest was plentiful could one be filled to the brim, while the other was only half full.

After all, people need to eat too. When you hire those wheat harvesters, you have to provide them with meals, including meat, which will result in a significant loss.

The silos here almost form a grain storage array. I heard that they were also planning to dig a large underground storage facility, but the project was abandoned because the locals' construction capabilities were limited and it was too large.

“Ah, you haven’t seen the summer harvest, that’s truly spectacular!” a young man from Ursus said, seemingly wanting to show off in front of the beautiful girl. “We harvest cold-resistant wheat in winter and autumn, and high-yield wheat in summer. The technical officers above said that this kind of wheat is quite delicate and not easy to grow. Last year we tried planting a crop, and I don’t know if it was good luck or bad, but not many died.”

"High-yield wheat?" Bagpipe tilted his head. Aren't they growing the high-yield variety now?

"Hmm, about one acre... Boss, whose harvest record was it again this summer?"

"The field in Group 1700, it's almost 1800 pounds, right?"

"Huh!?" Bagpipe looked blank. "Are you referring to the Victorian unit of measurement when you say pound?"

One pound is about 0.4 kilograms, less than half a kilogram, which means these guys harvested nearly 800 kilograms of wheat, or one acre of land.

"Yes, but Miss Talulah is still very dissatisfied, saying we wasted high-yield seeds." "Wait a minute, it's almost 1,800 pounds per acre, and she still says you wasted seeds?"

[Modern wheat, the highest yield in China, Yuanfeng wheat, reached 1900 pounds per mu, approaching 2000 pounds. Frankly, the high-yield wheat of the interstellar era only managed 1800 pounds per mu. Talulah was already showing mercy by not punishing them severely. By Lao Xia's standards, this was a massive reduction in yield, even a total crop failure.]

"Yes!" The farmers also looked frustrated. "So, they won't let us plant that this year. They sent it all to the boss, saying they're going to take it to a more suitable place. What a bargain for those demons!"

"Hey, say less. Sarkaz did go and fight those things for you before, after all. Come on, fill up the honey tea! At least we have plenty of honey tea here!"

The farm's White Rabbit Honey and Little Deer Bee Industry are completely different companies. The former actually sells processed honey, and its main business is "Snowfield Premium Honey Black Tea," while the latter simply sells honey. Strictly speaking, the former is a winery.

However, like most Terran countries, Ursus prohibits unauthorized brewing; brewing requires a license and quota.

After all, the grain yield in this area is not very good to begin with, and if it is used for brewing wine, there will be problems if it is not restricted.

Alcohol is subject to a luxury tax, which leads to a lot of illegal bootlegging. But the farm is different. The emperor of Ursus can't collect taxes on alcohol here, but he's unwilling to open that door.

Based on their shared interest in operating under the same umbrella for the time being, both sides compromised: Lao Xia would not declare the products as alcoholic beverages, and the other side would not manage them as alcoholic beverages either, since they couldn't really control it anyway.

This way, it won't open the door for others. After all, no matter how profitable other private brewing is, it's impossible to organize a super-heavy armored company. With this threshold in place, there's no need to worry about private brewing being sold everywhere under the guise of "mushroom tea".

And because of this need to maintain appearances, White Rabbit Honey's main products are various strange teas such as "mushroom tea," "black tea," "Ursus oolong tea," and "barrel-aged apple tea." Of course, they are all ostensibly subspecies of "honey tea."

Actually, everyone knows what this is, and it's all tacitly understood. Ursus's thinking is incredibly quick when it comes to drinking; he's a man of sharp mind and quick wit.

"However, I still disagree with the boss's statement that we had a complete crop failure!"

Old Xia saw that they caused a complete crop failure in the first season, so he directly had Talulah send all the seeds to Lungmen.

Moreover, after learning the actual yield and the results of their planting, Talulah dared not waste seeds and fertilizer anymore.

"Complete crop failure?" Bagpipe's mind went blank for a moment, and he had to take a sip of honey tea to clear his head. "Didn't we harvest over a thousand pounds? Why are you saying it's a complete crop failure..."

If this is considered a complete crop failure, then shouldn't those guys in Victoria who only produce less than a thousand pounds per acre be considered to have had no harvest at all?

And those serfs in Ursus who grow less than 600 pounds of wheat per acre... according to the production standards here, they might be hanged as passive-aggressive or even deliberate sabotage of production.

"That's what the boss said, so we'll just listen to him. Anyway, even if we're not allowed to plant that high-yield wheat, the harvest from these winter wheat crops will still be around 1,400 or 1,500 pounds, enough to eat—"

"Um... I think I understand." Bagpipe looked at the whole wheat bread in front of him. It was indeed... enough to eat... and there was even a lot left over.

"Alright, enough nonsense. We did a lot of ridiculous things last year. We planted a huge amount of sugar beets, which all resulted in reduced yields. We planted wheat, which was said to be a total crop failure, and we almost ruined the land. The fact that you still have bread and pork chops to eat instead of horse feed is already a great mercy from the master!"

“If this were any other master, you wouldn’t even be worthy of horse feed!” The team leader slammed his fist on the table. “You still have the nerve to complain? Hurry up and finish eating. We have other things to do this afternoon. We must reclaim all the land that was abandoned last year this winter. 4 hectares, plus the new land planned for this year, a total of 6 hectares. We must reclaim it all this winter. Also, the land in the west near the Sami Plain. Boss Talulah went to talk to the Sami border forest rangers. If nothing unexpected happens, we’ll have to continue reclaiming land next year.”

The total arable area of ​​Ursus is approximately 1.5 to 2 million hectares. Excluding the disputed areas to the north, mountains, south, and east, the farms can only expand towards the Sami region, forming a narrow arable corridor that is carved out along the river valleys.

If we consider the downstream lakes at the end of the river, near the Sami border, then the total usable arable land area is around 40 to 60 hectares.

However, considering that not all areas are suitable for farming, the farm can only expand to a maximum of 10 to 15 hectares of contiguous farmland without actually expanding outwards and attacking Ursus's cities and northern production areas.

This is just the farm; it doesn't include the possibility of taking over abandoned mines and restarting mining operations, which would require a huge population. However, due to the infected population, the number of people migrating in is very small.

However, once the farm expands to more than 20 hectares, the farmland will be linked to the production areas of the northern towns of Ursus—at that point, war will break out even if there is no war.

After all, this place is mechanized, and they are incredibly efficient at grabbing water. Moreover, seeing that the fields here are growing well, it's inevitable that some nobles might have some crooked ideas, such as "harvesting the wrong fields."

Farmland and crops are the lifeblood of farmers, and the farmers on the farm are all plump and strong, well-fed all day long, physically demanding, and have medical care. They are so robust that you would think they were from a knight's squire family.

If a fight breaks out over water and harvesting, and the other side doesn't lose several lives, it's simply not something a Ursus man would do.

However, now is really not the time to fight over such trivial matters. Therefore, Talulah can only try to expand towards Sami.

Meanwhile, Sami politicians and generals were actively betraying their country, and a large number of Ursus troops were stationed on the border, confronting the Sami people.

It has to be said that the fact that the Ursus Army Group was fighting on the front lines while I was rapidly planting crops on the land I had captured was a bit strange when I thought about it carefully.

Moreover, the army group there also welcomed the farm's arrival, partly because of their good relationship with General Hrag.

On the one hand, from generals to cannon fodder, who the hell doesn't like the logistics base moving around with you?

Even if we can't use the Ursus method to transfer supplies locally, buying them with Sami's spoils is still more cost-effective than letting unscrupulous merchants profit. They can supply rye bread, pork, lard, honey tea, and even sweets and clothing here.

Previously, there was the issue of potential traitors, but now that the emperor himself has declared it a "model enterprise of public service and loyalty," this fig leaf makes it even less of a problem. The only remaining issue is—

If this fighting goes on for too long, it becomes questionable who is supporting this army and whose food they are fed, since not everyone is a loyal and patriotic person like General Hrag.

The emperor was not without concern about this issue, but his concern was futile, because even if this army didn't eat the farm's food, it didn't eat his royal food either. At the very least, neither Talulah nor Old Xia seemed to have any intention of usurping the throne, while the nobles were a different story.

"If I were to die at the hands of the rebels in the north, I could still live out my days as a wealthy man in peace. But if I were to die at the hands of nobles, my entire family would be left without a burial place!"

“Your Majesty…” Witt paused for a moment, “It is our incompetence that is to blame…”

“This is nobody’s fault.” The young emperor closed his eyes. “When the empire was strong, everyone thought these problems were nothing. But after thousands of years, by my generation, it has fallen into such a state of ruin. This is not something that can be caused by the mistakes of one generation.”

"Besides, the northern rebels are far too treacherous. They are unlikely to make any rash moves within the next ten years, otherwise they would be choked to death by this giant bear, Ursus..."

Because Talulah and her group don't seem to fit the image of aristocratic rule at all. The emperor doesn't know what kind of new Ursus they want to build, but it definitely won't be the current system of aristocratic and gentry self-governance with the emperor in the middle.

In that case, they cannot spare the lives of those nobles, officials, landlords, and gentry; at the very least, they must remove them from the core of the regime.

However, while they might be able to produce large quantities of grain and conjure up large armies and equipment, they certainly wouldn't have that many generals, scholars, and officials, and these talents were all in the hands of the nobles.

If it is necessary to cultivate talent, the emperor himself knows that it is not something that can be accomplished in one generation. How many reliable confidants has he accumulated from his father's generation to the present?