Will the kemonomimi encounter Alien Ranch Story?

"Sister!" As soon as she entered, her three hungry younger brothers surrounded her. Fortunately, this time they had managed to buy enough food. "Don't worry, there's plenty, there's plenty..."

Sharot pulled out the relief bread she had managed to buy from the paper bag. She didn't dare buy more expensive food. Her family was relying on the meager income she earned carrying bags at the recycling center and the small amount of her parents' inheritance that she had found in the ruins to eat. They could only afford this kind of relief bread.

It contains a large amount of dried vegetable powder and fish bone powder, as well as a small amount of fish and shrimp protein, so its nutritional value is quite good. After all, it's a processing standard that Kal'tsit tested and established several times. It's just the taste...

It's hard to explain in a few words. Even refugees in Sarkaz don't like this stuff—because it's really, really bad, the kind of bad that makes you scream from the depths of your soul.

However, its nutritional value is indeed quite good. Theoretically speaking, if there is a little raspberry jam or cloudberry jam, this bitter and rancid taste will actually have a unique flavor.

However, when it comes to eating it dry... even if it tastes worse, the four siblings of Salot can only grimace and slowly swallow it down with cold water, because the nutrition is truly balanced and abundant.

One loaf of bread is enough for four people to eat for a day. After eating it, they won't get hungry again quickly, and they will have more energy.

After all, it contains a lot of animal protein, which is actually quite good for your health.

Cloudberry jam has long since disappeared from the market. This specialty of northern Ursus is long gone, even in Kazdel. They are now preparing to cultivate cloudberries on a large scale on the leased land of the Principality of Kosichea, and establish a cloudberry plantation.

In addition to cloudberries, the crop also includes nuts and dried fruits produced from cold-climate plants such as hazelnuts and pine, as well as berries such as raspberries and native tundra blackberries.

After all, that area is theoretically suitable for growing staple crops, but if staple crops were actually grown there, it would be a huge help to Letania and Ursus.

Moreover, the economic value of growing these raw materials is considerable. With sufficient production from local farms in Kazdel and farms in the Northern Duchy, the economic benefits are enough for the locals to purchase food.

If the remnants of the Black Serpent or Letania were to cause trouble, then this region, with its large economic output and whose food supply is controlled by others, would be Kazdel's biggest bargaining chip.

Chapter Seventy-Two: Bought it! (Sound of a wealthy dog)

Chapter 72

In Letania, in front of the parliament, a crowd of protesters gathered, holding up wooden placards with various slogans, and wave after wave of shouts surged toward the parliament.

Even with thick doors blocking the way, one could still feel the sonic vibrations that made the entire building tremble.

For the people in the rear, the peace agreement between Letania and Kazdel was no different from a surrender document.

For them, after enduring so much exploitation, market depression, and a constant stream of death notices, all they received in return was a peace agreement that was no different from surrender. Thus, all the pre-war propaganda, incitement, and slogans became fuel for their current anger.

However, this is just the beginning, and for the government of Letania, this is not yet the most critical time.

When people feel pain and anger over their country's defeat, it means they at least still recognize their identity and sense of belonging to the country, and they will at least fight for the country's honor and future.

If one day only a small group of vested interests protests in front of Congress, while most people walk by indifferently and hurriedly, struggling for their own food and livelihood, that will be the most critical moment when all hope is lost.

And if these protesters were to change from Leitanians to immigrants, the scene would become even more farcical. At that point, the insults against Leitanians and France would overlap dramatically—because that's exactly what the French look like.

However, at that time, classic Gallic jokes would also emerge, asking: Who are the enemies of the Gallic government? The answer is: The left, the right, and the center.

They are radicals and conservatives; they are the men and women of Gaul—in short, everyone except the Gallic government. [A true French joke, yes, this joke was told by the French themselves…]

Having lost the expected returns from Kazdel, the war bonds previously sold were almost halved in value.

If we take into account the fact that a large portion of the occupied Kosichean territory also needs to be leased to Kazdel, it would be tantamount to complete bankruptcy.

For Kazdel, it was a win-win situation. Even if Letania hadn't killed the Black Serpent, they would have gained access to the Arctic and a large tract of land.

If the Black Serpent is killed, then Talulah will be the new Grand Duke of Koschche, and this land will eventually return to her hands. Moreover, dealing with Letania, which is exhausted after two wars, will be much easier.

For Letania, breaking even is no longer an option. The best way to mitigate the damage is to halt current military operations, redeploy troops from the north to reinforce the eastern and southern defenses, suppress the Gallic uprising, and focus on domestic development.

However, this would mean damaging the profits of the nobles who had vested interests, and would also severely dampen the enthusiasm of the people. At this point, they had already been forced to join the war effort, and if they retreated this time, it would not be so easy to incite them again.

For the northern nobles, their triumphant advance on the battlefield has resulted in them having to relinquish their own gains to compensate for the losses suffered by the incompetent within the country. If the parliament passes this demand, then a new division of Letania is imminent.

This is also a tricky matter, as those northern nobles now have enough troops and land.

In other words, it would be very easy for them to become a separatist force. If they are not allowed to relinquish their gains, then the severely damaged forces of Letania itself would be unable to control them. In the end, it would only delay the inevitable separatist situation for a while.

Of course, there was a solution: the Northern Alliance was also soundly defeated by Ursus, bringing everyone back to square one. Having lost everything, they could only retreat to their own territories to lick their wounds.

However, the Emperor of Ursus seemed to have completely abandoned the Duchy of Kosichear in the east, focusing all his efforts on the Duchy of the North and the Duchy of St. Brut in the west, and increasing his military investment in Kazimir.

"This is betrayal, a blatant betrayal, a betrayal of every brave and honorable Leitanian! Our soldiers fought on the front lines, only to have their victories sold out by a shameful traitor!"

The young noble officer was shouting at the top of his lungs in the council, but everyone present looked completely indifferent.

These young nobles were eager for success; they were like gamblers who had lost their minds, wanting to stake everything on the table.

However, for those seasoned gamblers on stage, investing any more in this situation would only result in total loss, so they would rather hold onto their last bit of chips and wait and see.

After a series of speeches and rebukes, the other side put forward its demands: to punish the negotiator for signing such a treaty, and to conscript the last men and women of Letania into the war to reclaim the fruits of Letania's victory from the despicable and barbaric Sarkaz.

"Excuse me." The speaker, who was already prepared to resign and return to his fiefdom to live a carefree life, gestured for the other party to be quiet. "You just said that those barbaric Sarkaz do not deserve to own the land of Letania. Do you know that our legions are being bombed by those barbarians riding on our heads? And civilized Victoria has not yet been able to deal with their bombers. Am I right?"

The speaker glanced at his colleague beside him, who nodded, indicating that the imported term was accurate. "Victoria still doesn't have a way to deal with their bombers, while our scholars are being unreasonably dragged into the battlefield by the military. So, are you planning to shoot those things down with crossbows?"

The speaker did specifically look into these materials. It's not that he's particularly loyal to the country, but rather that he needs to understand how he lost in order to pass the buck. Otherwise, he wouldn't even know where to begin when shifting the blame.

"They're just a bunch of less than six cricket bombers. They are indeed difficult to deal with, but can they really kill all the Leitanian soldiers?"

It's true that it can't, but this guy probably really has never been on the battlefield. The eyes of those councilors who were generals turned a little strange. Under that kind of bombing, it certainly couldn't kill everyone, but it would be enough to scare the rest of them into idiots.

That would be enough to clean up your command post cleanly and efficiently. That's why Letania is willing to negotiate this time. Just like this fool who made the statement, what can happen even if there are mountains of corpses and seas of blood on the front lines?

For the generals and nobles in the rear, they could still enjoy black tea and leisurely time.

However, if enemy bombers could bypass your heavy army and directly airdrop into your city or destroy your command post and estate, these noble generals would not have the courage they usually boasted about in the face of such terror.

Therefore, they would absolutely not go to the battlefield again before they had targeted weapons and measures. Once these nobles reached a consensus, an internal anti-war force was formed. In addition, since Letania and Sarkaz really couldn't squeeze out any more manpower, a dignified ceasefire and withdrawal was not shameful for the nobles.

Even in the early era of aristocratic wars, it was even more common because everyone was likely related.

In any case, it was only serfs and low-level mercenaries who died. Both sides were eventually released after being captured, and even the territorial boundaries were rarely changed.

The officers who jumped the highest in this group were actually the middle and lower-ranking officers, because they had borrowed a large sum of money to fight the war and had to rely on battlefield plunder to recoup their losses. Moreover, they were from relatively low-ranking backgrounds and needed to achieve military merit to become nobles.

In contrast, high-ranking noble officers were indifferent. Their titles and military ranks were already nearing their limit, and promotions required too much merit, which was clearly impossible at the moment. Cutting their losses was the wise move.

"Save your excuse for His Majesty!" The young officer stormed off, and the wave of protests outside the parliament grew even stronger, though for the time being it had not yet reached the Letanian royal family.

After all, the decision to go to war was not made by them, but by the nobles of the House of Lords and the Prime Minister.

Emperor Letania wisely avoided getting involved, but without his permission, neither the Senate nor the Prime Minister dared to launch a war. That power rested with the royal family; they simply tried to distance themselves as much as possible.

This wasn't because failure was foreseen, but for other reasons: the Ursus royal family and the Letanian royal family were cousins. If they didn't put a fig leaf on themselves, they would tear down all the rules and face of the nobility, and then they would be embarrassed by both sides.

Similarly, Victoria did the same, shifting the blame for starting the war as much as possible onto the Victorian Parliament and others.

Otherwise, the situation would be the same; since everyone is related, they certainly can't openly start a fight.

The only thing we don't need to worry about is fighting Kazdel, but we've never done it before...

The situation was different in Ursus's attack on Columbia, where the emperor did indeed order the attack, since there were no noble kinship ties between them.

In other words, even if Letania captured the Emperor of Ursus, in the end it would just be a laughing matter, and his subordinates would only be punished by drinking three cups of wine if they didn't lift a finger.

Of course, the land plundered from Ursus will not be returned, nor will the plunderer be executed; instead, they will be released.

Conversely, the same applies if Ursus were to capture the capital of Letania, for the same reason.

That's why King Rai agreed to the peace treaty, because Kazdel had no emperor, no king, and no nobles, so he couldn't stop them from storming the capital, and he would surely be doomed.

"Alright, the troublemaking young people are gone. Let's discuss how to deal with these people outside of Congress."

Meanwhile, in Grand City, post-war reconstruction has been underway for over half a month, and the market is gradually stabilizing.

The nearby land was also cleared and prepared with the help of the Sarkaz people, and it is expected that it can be used to grow watermelons and potatoes, two crops that prefer dry soil.

Potatoes, in particular, thrive in sandy loam soil but consume a lot of water and fertilizer. So, theoretically, growing potatoes is suitable for arid regions, but in reality, there are many challenges.

Sandy loam soil has good drainage, but it also means that water and fertilizer are lost very quickly. Potatoes like both sandy loam and fertile soil rich in water and fertilizer. As a result, if potatoes are grown in good fields, the land will become very desertified. If potatoes are grown in arid areas, water and fertilizer management must be carefully managed to ensure that the potatoes receive enough water and fertilizer without losing too much water and fertilizer.

Heavy clay soils that retain water and fertilizer well are not suitable for planting potatoes because they can affect the expansion of potato tubers, leading to deformed potatoes.

Therefore, it must be planted on raised ground. In short, despite its reputation as a high-yield crop, there are still a lot of problems and troubles to dealing with when actually growing it.

Those who bring potatoes back to ancient times should be careful, they'll be chased and hacked by farmers! Without fertilizer, this stuff is a real killer of the land. The more you plant, the looser and more sandy the soil becomes. After a few rounds without fertilizer, it will turn into sand.

Your land will be ruined, and the heavy clay soil suitable for planting rice and wheat is not suitable for it, so the yield will be very poor and will not reach the expected high yield at all.

However, Sarkaz now has no shortage of fertilizer and irrigation water. After clearing out a relatively good piece of land, the newly repaired water purification platform was anchored, and the drilling rig began to extract groundwater.

The Longnan Desert actually has very rich groundwater resources; otherwise, there wouldn't be an artificial canal in Longmen. However, freshwater resources are extremely scarce.

The groundwater contains a large amount of heavy metals, and in some areas, Old Xia even found a large amount of radioactive decaying material in the groundwater. The question is, the ancient reactor, without supervision, finally burned through itself and sank.

Old Xia doesn't even plan to ask how many nuclear power plants there were in the world during the early days of Terra. The doctor turned pale when he mentioned it. Heaven knows what the situation is like for those reactors now that they are left unsupervised.

Those areas that were dug up by the fearless Terrans at the beginning were fortunate. The radioactive materials were exposed to the external environment and began to decay as large areas of wasteland were created. After hundreds of years, most of these things have completed their decay.

What I fear most are those underground reactors that haven't shut down, and some that might still be running idle, as well as those that have cooled down, burned through, and fallen into the aquifer. Just thinking about them gives me a headache.

Even more frightening is that these nuclear wastes and reactor remnants continue to decay and accumulate in the natural environment, eventually starting a new reaction process and producing more decay products and nuclear waste—forming a natural self-propagating reactor. Over time, the situation of Terra's groundwater is very worrying.

The more relics there are, the more serious the situation becomes. So, in places that appear to be deserts, the groundwater is actually richer than one might imagine; it's just that no one dares to use it. Now, thanks to two water purification platforms, some of the groundwater that was simply contaminated with heavy metals is being filtered, purified, and turned into irrigation water, solving the water needs for growing potatoes and watermelons.

The best potato production method is Lao Xia's aeroponic farm. Without soil restricting tuber expansion, it can increase the contact area between water and fertilizer, and artificially control temperature differences to increase the production and accumulation of organic matter and sugars. The final yield is 1.5-2 times the volume of ordinary potatoes, which is one of the main raw materials for manufacturing starch in the Kazdel food industry.

However, the cost is more than five times that of growing potatoes in ordinary form. This technology is usually used for Covenant space cities to achieve partial food self-sufficiency, and potato starch is also one of the main raw materials for Covenant "that stuff".

Of course, the aerobics plants were not part of the aid to Grand City; they were built within their own fully controlled area.

"Lord Liang" casually cupped his hands in greeting, "Someone of your high rank and power goes out?"

"People are struggling, so we have no choice but to come." In the end, Kazdel's agricultural technology spread, and the people of Da Yan were the most enthusiastic about it.

More accurately, the officers who received the land burned by the poisonous fire during the Haisi crisis were the most excited, and this news was passed on by Lao Shi.

After all, they're all in the same boat. He can make money by robbing, but his colleagues who only have this little bit of wasteland and no reward can do nothing about it.

Under pressure from these military leaders, the Great Yan court had no choice but to respond. Moreover, the Great Yan court itself was more proactive than anyone else in reporting new agricultural developments.

The traditions of the Great Yan Dynasty have led to a situation where everyone from the emperor to the common people can talk about farming with great expertise.

Even the emperor had to go to the fields to make a show of it during the harvest season and spring plowing each year; it was a matter of etiquette.

But it also ensured that they at least knew that the food grew from the ground, and didn't fall from the sky.

Therefore, the delegation visiting the Great Yan was a heavyweight component, with the prince leading the team to demonstrate his emphasis on people's livelihood and agriculture. This was an important political asset for his future succession to the throne. If he didn't do a good job, he could forget about being the crown prince and would just sit on the sidelines until he died.

The prince led the team but didn't participate in any specific negotiations. He was just there to gain credit and enhance his resume. As long as he didn't say or do anything reckless that would ruin things, and obediently acted as a mascot and a ruthless authorization machine before returning home, his position as crown prince would be secure.

The people truly in charge of the investigation were the Celestial Master from the Celestial Master's Platform, as well as high-ranking officials like the Grand Tutor, who were among the Three Dukes. There were no troublesome scholars among them this time.

Neither high-ranking officials in the imperial court nor wealthy local families who live off land rents would allow these incompetent and troublesome people to get involved in such a major event that affects everyone's interests.

Increased agricultural output was an important matter for the landowning class; no one would underestimate it, much less cause trouble, just like when it came to salary increases, everyone was on the same page—well, except for the boss.