Will the kemonomimi encounter Alien Ranch Story?

Basically, if the officers in the Great Yan army don't skimp on the food, the soldiers' meals are actually quite good.

During their marches, they had pork soup, seasoned vinegar packets, and rice cakes made from ground glutinous rice as their main food. They would also purchase fresh vegetables and chickens and ducks along the way.

If it's a fleet, the food is a level higher. They are used to keeping small animals like rabbits on land-based ships, and there's even a supply of cream and fresh milk.

However, all of this is based on the premise that the four-cent monthly food allowance for each person has not been embezzled by the officers. How to judge the combat strength of a Great Yan army? Just look at the soldiers' faces. It's best not to mess with a fleet like the Moon Harbor Fleet, which consists of burly men with ruddy faces.

This suggests that their superiors were either incorruptible or only slightly corrupt, leading to an iron-willed army with high morale, or their superiors were incredibly wealthy and skilled at making money. The former were difficult to deal with, while the latter were even more so.

Because the former's military equipment may be no different from that of the ordinary army of the Great Yan, but for the latter, it is normal for them to bring out some expensive and powerful weapons to fire a shot at you.

It's even possible that the recruits are from good families, skilled in martial arts, and have excellent military skills, while those who look thin, small, and pale are considered easy targets.

"And this is Dr. Kal'tsit's improved nutrition cube, an upgraded version of the previous cookie."

"Even worse?" the Grand Tutor asked curiously. Were these people planning to challenge for the title of Dark Emperor of Terra's Dark Cuisine World?

"No, this thing retains its original flavor while being nutritionally balanced, easy to store and carry, and convenient to eat, but..."

Yelena remained expressionless. "The cost is very high, four or five times that of those cookies. So, if you can't accept those cookies, you can consider introducing this production line..."

"No, thank you, I was just saying it offhand..." the Grand Tutor said seriously. They came to see if there were any low-cost, inexpensive, and efficient food industry and planting systems that could be introduced.

The jokes about insulting Lai over there have almost come to an end. Next, we will visit Kazdel's agricultural industry, breeding industry, and other industries. Among them, the warhorses received unanimous praise from the people of Da Yan. Da Yan is located in the northwest, which is mountainous. Land ships and all kinds of miscellaneous vehicles have difficulty climbing. These horses can effectively supplement the combat power of the local garrison.

Then came the specialty beef cattle of Kazdel, and a visit to the rock crab breeding base of Doumiao. The people of Dayan did not find those green meatballs disgusting, but rather found them very novel, and were amazed by the fact that rock crabs could be raised for consumption.

It also became the first product for which Da Yan initially signed a technology import agreement, introducing three different types of rock crab varieties and breeding techniques. The first type was the standard variety, which was simply for consumption and had nothing special about it.

The second type of rock crab has energy from soil and water source stones and can photosynthesize on its own. It will grow on its own if you put it in a pool, but it tastes bad and is poisonous. It is suitable for processing into feed.

The third is a brand new product from Bean Sprout. She is trying to cultivate a rock crab that possesses Originium Arts and can cook itself after being triggered. She even plans to find a way to make the symbiotic bacteria inside the rock crab produce capsaicin and glutamic acid—commonly known as self-roasting spicy crab. The current result is that the self-roasting function has not been realized, but the spicy crab function has been realized.

It is said that when the paper was published, people from the whole school came to see it, and even Lao Xia came to visit.

In his words, ever since someone at his alma mater tried to cultivate a crayfish that could change its flavor and texture on its own, resulting in the teacher reviewing the tasting eating eight weird-tasting slug crayfish and developing gastroenteritis, no one has tried to go in this direction again.

However, after the tasting event, it was found that the taste of this rock crab was very unstable. Due to the biological growth process, the distribution of the seasoning components deposited inside was uneven, and the content varied greatly. As a result, out of 100 crabs, only about one was slightly tastier. Considering the cost, it would be better to just get the rock crab first and then buy spicy seasoning powder.

In response, Doumiao stated that they are still continuing their research and development, and are planning to lower their expectations slightly, focusing solely on achieving sodium ion metabolism and salt separation/accumulation functions. In other words, spicy crab is too troublesome, so they've switched to saltwater crab, but they haven't given up on the self-baking function.

The reason Da Yan introduced it was because these three technologies were sold as a package deal. Their perception of the third type of spicy crab was the same as that of the Kazdel people: bread can be used to sandwich it!? Is that even possible?

Then the eldest prince, who knew nothing about aquaculture, came up with an even more outlandish idea: "Is it possible that we could breed a kind of rock crab that can forage for itself, manage itself, molt itself, jump into a pot and cook itself, and be served without any seasoning?"

"Why don't you let it spit out its own internal organs like a sea cucumber? That way, you can even solve the problem of cleaning out its internal organs."

Yelena regretted her taunt as soon as she finished, because Bean Sprout immediately jotted down the idea with shining eyes.

Chapter Seventy-Five: The Kazdel Trap

Chapter 75

After visiting the hydroponics, aeroponics, breeding ponds, soil planting areas, and grazing areas, the Great Yan Dynasty was in a state where it wanted to buy almost everything, but the imperial treasury simply could not support such demands.

However, the old tutor never understood one thing: why Kazdel was willing to sell these technologies and equipment. In his mind, such national treasures should be kept secret, let alone sold publicly like this.

Therefore, there must be some kind of shady dealing involved. However, due to his limited technical skills and narrow perspective, he carefully observed these factories along the way, but he still couldn't figure out the traps involved or why Kazdel was willing to sell these devices.

If someone offers you a cheap, seemingly lucrative job out of nowhere, anyone would have to wonder what they're after. More than half of the unfortunate people who lose their entire fortune each year to various scams fall for this trick.

If you can't see your own worth, what value you have, or why the other party would give you such a good opportunity instead of someone with better conditions, and you simply think it's some kind of luck, like winning the lottery—then you're more than 99% likely to be scammed.

The probability of you truly turning your luck around is only slightly higher than being killed by a meteor, because due to various complex and deep-seated reasons, this opportunity has fallen into your hands.

Clearly, unlike the eldest prince who didn't understand much about these things and the bureaucrats who were overjoyed at the prospect of political achievements, the old Grand Tutor was on high alert from the very beginning. This opportunity seemed too good to be true, but that was precisely why he was even more vigilant.

"Aren't you afraid they'll become our competitors?" Having finished her reception duties, Yelena leaned back on the sofa, her long, white, and slender legs propped up on the coffee table, swinging idly. "How many workers does a standard aeroponics factory need?"

"Four hundred and twenty-seven, plus fifteen maintenance engineers, forty administrative staff including the factory director and deputy director, and delivery drivers, totaling no more than six hundred people."

After showing these people from Dayan around the factory, White Rabbit now understands the personnel structure of an aerosol factory.

"Too many or too few?" "Too many. More than half of them are redundant labor. They are not highly educated and can only do the most menial jobs. To be honest, we would be better off ordering two more drones from Rhodes Island."

It's a very strange story. Rhodes Island, as a medical company, has the most impressive product: an unmanned working vehicle.

Even with the Sarkaz's compulsory education laws, not everyone is suited to studying. Even within the Covenant, there are individuals who develop severe learning aversion due to psychological issues or certain traumatic stimuli.

The containment, rehabilitation, and resettlement of abnormal or unusual individuals is crucial for the survival of a population in the wild.

If these abnormal individuals are treated as some kind of rare and exotic animal and promoted and encouraged, or even helped to form a group, this phenomenon usually means one thing if it happens to any species in nature—the day of natural extinction is imminent.

When containment, resettlement, and correction are not feasible, the complete elimination of these aberrant individuals is a common choice for non-intelligent beings in nature. However, for intelligent civilizations, due to their enhanced capabilities, they usually have enough surplus to ensure that these individuals do not threaten the reproduction and growth of the population.

The Sarkaz are different. They include not only these abnormal individuals, but also ordinary individuals who have missed the optimal learning age and have generally low levels of education. This means that the only jobs they can do in the aeroponics factory are to assist in dumping wastewater (which can be done by automated robotic arms), shoveling away accumulated sediment with forklifts and sending it to the processing workshop (which can be done by automated systems), inspecting pipes and cleaning, and managing inbound and outbound inventory, etc.

Relatively speaking, the work of the administrative positions is quite reasonable, as such a large aerosol factory does indeed have a lot of administrative paperwork to deal with.

For example, routine tasks such as multi-level supply of raw materials, product allocation and transportation arrangements can fill the daily work of these dozens of administrative staff.

"We're short a few engineers. Normally we need twenty-five, but now we have to turn the task of ten engineers into the task of two hundred ordinary workers, and we also need to prepare another fifty people to clean up their messes..."

"So, in terms of output, how many people would they need if we used ordinary farmers and early farm laborers to produce their output?"

"I don't know, but if it were a Sarkaz doing domestic labor, it would be at least one or two thousand, right?" Yelena thought for a few seconds.

“A small to medium-sized city with 16,000 people needs at least 3 people to support one or one and a half working-age people, and that’s the minimum number of administrative and commercial departments that serve them,” the little tiger said casually.

"In other words, if we directly introduce this system, let's not even discuss where they'll find these technical personnel. I believe there are quite a few experts in Da Yan. However, if we don't properly resettle these people, it means 16,000 people will lose their jobs."

"Or, according to the standard routine of industrialized production, if a certain production technology is upgraded and a production line is reduced from 10 people to one person, it does not mean that the remaining nine people will be laid off. Instead, five more production lines will be opened to expand production, and people will not be reassigned to other positions."

"The service industry can accommodate a short-term overflow of people and consume a short-term overflow of production, but don't think that the service industry can support the entire society; that's impossible," Lao Xia complained.

"The very name of the service industry speaks for itself; it exists to provide services. But what are those services provided for? If the number of people receiving those services decreases significantly, the service industry will become nothing more than a castle in the air. The treatment of the people it accommodates will plummet, leading to a severe state of involution. Moreover, this involution isn't about competing for better services and higher profits; it's about a lose-lose situation of operating at a loss..."

"To put it bluntly, you've seen the entrance to the Xia's Pharmaceutical Group's production base over in Longmen, right?" Old Xia suddenly asked, "Have you counted how many breakfast stalls are there outside?"

"Um, Lao Xia, did you count them?"

"I counted them, there were ninety-three. Since we reduced hiring and expanded production, there are now only seventy left. This is just the simplest industry."

In addition, the number of people working in cleaning, transportation, even food delivery for companies, supermarkets, and brothels in Longmen is decreasing.

"The reason is that your father sent the newly recruited people to Kazdel. In contrast, Lungmen's original prosperous urban area has suffered greatly due to the previous crisis and war. Many businesses and companies have relocated, and all related industries have been severely impacted, with a decline that is almost visible to the naked eye," the little tiger said.

"Ultimately, just as the foundation of industry is agriculture, a sufficiently developed agriculture can support a large enough population to engage in technological research and development and industrial production, rather than requiring everyone to work in the fields to have food."

The service industry is based on industry. Only with a sufficiently developed industry can there be consumer products available in the service sector. You don't actually think that the things sold in supermarkets, the spare parts in car dealerships, or even, to put it another way, the communication equipment and related facilities in Longmen, just grew out of the shelves themselves, do you?

"Without products to be consumed and without a consumer population, if those engaged in the service industry simply create their own niche and continue their self-sufficiency, the consequence will be that overall resources will be constantly consumed and concentrated in the hands of a very small number of people, while the majority will face endless involution and the proliferation of poverty..."

"In conclusion, it is impossible to rely solely on the service sector to absorb an excess population without sufficient scale and developed industrial and agricultural production."

"So, if the Great Yan were to rashly introduce our production system, setting aside how they would adapt it, just the fact that this agricultural town of over ten thousand people would have to be transformed into an industrial town of a few thousand—what would happen to the remaining thousands or tens of thousands of people?"

"Moreover, the gentry of the Great Yan are keen to hoard their money rather than circulate it. In other words, they even have some difficulty engaging in the virtual financial economy, which makes the problem even more serious."

"Then we can choose to combine the two, introduce only some of the advanced technologies, and try to reverse some of them. After all, aeroponic factories need a lot of various industrial parts, and these agricultural workers can be transferred into the industrial workforce."

This is also the key to Kazdel's strategy, because their human resources are the weakest among the countries, so they have to rob Peter to pay Paul.

"Well, if it's a completely self-contained loop system, then doing this is indeed possible."

In other words, there are no external purchasing channels, which actually absorbs more people than they are squeezed out.

As labor intensity decreases and resources become more abundant, the next phenomenon is a significant increase in people's consumption desires and purchasing power.

It's not that one manual production line will become overcapacity when it's converted into five automated production lines. In fact, due to increased consumer demand, or to put it more bluntly, a greater desire to waste, these five automated lines might not be able to keep up with demand.

This can be seen by comparing the consumption habits of Lao Xia, an ordinary resident of the Star Alliance, with those of Xiao Laohu, a young lady from a top-tier wealthy family.

The latter might not even be as good at using sophisticated gimmicks as Lao Xia; at least, her childhood toys definitely didn't include such bizarre things as miniature, rudimentary satellites.

Even if that miniature satellite doesn't require her to launch it herself with a rocket, and its functions are limited to a very basic camera and a remote sensing data link.

"If it is a non-closed loop, then the result is that the gentry would rather buy from us than spend a lot of money to build a supporting industrial system that does not make money or makes little money."

If food weren't so crucial, they might even buy the food and produce from us, receiving payment in the form of services provided…

"If it were a healthy international market, unaffected by geopolitics and war, there would be no problem doing this, and we could even do it."

Providing technical services and high-end components to Dayan, while Dayan handles mid-range production and Ursus handles low-end production, forming a highly collaborative global trade chain, would also be fine.

The tertiary sector can be relied upon entirely to provide various services to these workers, from technical services to cultural industries, to absorb tens of thousands of people.

However, neither completely closed economies nor completely open free markets exist in this world.

"This is a trap, or rather, a trap that isn't a trap. We're not worried at all that Da Yan will become a competitor." Old Xia shrugged. This was an open conspiracy. "They simply can't compete with us. On the contrary, if they're not mentally prepared, this system will only bring them more serious economic problems."

A single hydroponic or aeroponic plant can produce the equivalent of thousands of acres of fertile land. This vast output must be consumed normally to prevent product stockpiling.

The production lines that were introduced at such a huge cost will not be shut down or reduced by those gentry and wealthy families until they have recouped their investment.

Then its outstanding cost advantage will become a noose that gradually tightens around the necks of the farmers of Dayan.

What happens when the other party's selling price is lower than your cost? Farmers and even landlords will go bankrupt en masse, and the land will be turned into new factories.

Of course, if the Great Yan could provide services or other means to accommodate these people, that would be a good thing, because the cost of living would drop significantly, and the economy would prosper as a result.

But what if they didn't? The industries that serve workers are indeed several times larger than those that serve farmers.

However, there is still a prerequisite: the operators of Da Yan must provide these workers with sufficient compensation to consume these services.

However, they are not a completely closed economy. Compared to investing in renovations themselves and purchasing expensive and low-quality products domestically, sourcing parts and components from Kazdel, as well as purchasing technical services, is the best option—essentially, the service industries that should have absorbed the overflow of the Great Yan population have been moved to Kazdel.

Kazdel has the advantage of skilled workers and the advantage of being first to act; at the very least, you can't wait until you have a stomachache to dig a latrine.

But by the time Da Yan's latrine was dug, Kazdel had already taken over their entire market, making it very difficult for them to compete.

The only advantage is the use of low labor costs, but this reduces workers' wages and benefits, leading to a series of negative consequences such as a decline in their purchasing power.

Therefore, the economy is a very chaotic thing. It's possible that there are pitfalls not only in front and behind, but also in all directions.

But what if they don't introduce this system? The end result will still be the same: Kazdel might even give you the second bowl of rice instead of just the third.

"So, even if they rack their brains, they'll never figure out where their weakness lies..."

"Or rather, they wanted to, but no one dared to think about it, let alone say it." That meant offending all the gentry and celebrities in the world, even the imperial relatives and the emperor himself.

The key to resolving this predicament lies not in economic measures, but in politics, "and the possibility of the Great Yan Dynasty resolving it is almost nonexistent."

"So we're scamming them?"

"No, we're helping them." By bringing together the small landowners, farmers, and even workers, we are indeed helping them. Now it depends on the courage of the Great Yan Dynasty to decide whether it will be a drastic measure or a phoenix rising from the ashes.