Will the kemonomimi encounter Alien Ranch Story?

Chapter Ninety-One: Sweet Honey ~ The literal meaning is "Time for some sweetness!"

Chapter Ninety-One

After completing the procurement trip to Rhodes Island, they would need to return to Victoria via Kazdel, then enter Ursus through the gap between Victoria and Ursus, sailing along the outermost border region of Ursus.

Unlike previous convoys, this massive vehicle would find it nearly impossible to move almost submersibly through Ursus territory. Therefore, it had to follow certain paths and rules.

First of all, the northeastern part of Ursus is Black Serpent territory and there's no way to get in. The only option is to enter through General Herag's defense zone, which is located near Victoria.

Although the general himself did not appear to be in the defense zone, Lord Kal'tsit's connections continued to play a role as always.

Rhodes Island easily obtained entry permits, and then they simply followed the relatively friendly neutral zone into the northern wilderness.

During this period, it is also necessary to avoid those conservative nobles and those new nobles who have a bad relationship with Kal'tsit, and to bypass their patrols and fleets.

This means that Rhodes Island's entire journey will take more than six months to reach Kal'tsit and the place they agreed upon.

Even though Rhodes Island is nominally a pharmaceutical company, it is still extremely difficult for such a large land carrier to enter the core area of ​​a sovereign nation. Everyone felt that the extra two months spent were well worth it.

While Rhodes Island was still sailing across the wilderness, trailing billowing dust, Xia Lin's farm finally ushered in the belated harvest season.

If it weren't for the ice storm that killed almost all the corn and soybeans, their harvest time could have been two months earlier, around June, instead of starting in mid-August.

This means that only two of the three planting cycles a year are left. The second cycle requires laying mulch, fertilizing, and sowing as quickly as possible after harvesting the wheat. Everyone is extremely busy, and even ordinary people from nearby Schutzburg come to help because of the high in-kind rewards offered by the farm.

Frankly speaking, under normal circumstances, with the annual harvest on the frozen tundra of Ursus, there is almost no room for "wheat harvesters" to survive. It is truly rare to see a situation like Lao Xia's farm, where everyone is so anxious that they want to throw a sickle into the field.

Bulls are used to harvest valuable sugar beets, and immediately after harvesting, the soil is turned, sown, and fertilized.

It may have a large horsepower, but since there is only one machine, the area it can cultivate and harvest per unit of time is also limited.

In reality, it operates at its lowest power most of the time, hardly making use of its high horsepower advantage.

Of course, under normal circumstances, the Bull should be equipped with a large number of auxiliary agricultural drones, and half of its engine output is prepared for these.

Moreover, its heavy plow is designed for desert planets, where deep cultivation is needed to create warmer soil, rather than permafrost, which becomes colder and more barren the deeper you dig.

However, high power also has its advantages. The frozen permafrost is forcibly crushed and turned to the surface, where it gradually softens under the August sun and will become high-quality soil with subsequent fertilization.

The biggest advantage of these permafrost soils is that almost no insect eggs survive, and the topsoil that is turned over will freeze quickly in the Ursus winter, killing most of the insect eggs and bacteria.

However, the pile of work that the bull had left meant that the harvest of tamarisk and cloudberries could only be done manually, and the coffee beans, guanana fruits, and the greenhouse vegetables in the private plots near the settlement could only be harvested by Yelena and Talulah organizing manpower.

They also had to prevent the mature crops from attracting large numbers of animals and birds. The barrenness of Ursus was the same for animals and birds; such a rich and concentrated food source was an irresistible temptation for them.

Therefore, Yelena had to organize the Yeti Squad with bird guns to deal with these greedy little creatures, and also organize the Shield Guards to defend the border and prevent the same humans from stealing her vegetables.

As for Talulah, she was responsible for organizing the infected members of the Integration Movement and the ordinary people who came to work, forming agricultural groups, and after simple training and task assignment, throwing them into the fields as soon as possible.

Compared to her poor farming skills, Talulah does have some management skills, after all, she was taught by Black Serpent.

(Talulah's Reunion Movement members can eat their fill on the snowfields... which is enough to show...)

Although I don't like his ideas, technological means are neither good nor evil, as long as they are properly planned and arranged.

Basically, all around the farm, you can see groups of Ursus people wearing straw hats, working hard in the fields and sweating profusely.

Under the automated combine harvester, the soil churns like waves, and the sugar beets that have reached the harvesting standards are turned up, washed by the conveyor belt and high-speed airflow, and then fall into the storage box.

Each genetically modified beet is over 8-12 centimeters in diameter and has a beautiful deep purple color with ring-shaped patterns. According to Lao Xia's tests, its sugar content is about 18%-19%, which meets the standards for processing and harvesting.

The industrial sugar press that was installed was debugged a week ahead of schedule. Sugar extraction from sugar beets is a bit different from that from sugarcane. Sugarcane juice is extracted by forcibly crushing it with sugar rollers, while sugar beets are more complicated and require an ion permeation process.

"Splash—" A truckload of beets was dumped into the sugar cellar at the entrance of the processing room. A burly Ursus infected man waiting on the side picked up the beets one by one and quickly rinsed off the remaining dirt and grass scraps with a water gun before throwing them into the transfer tank next to him.

The conveyor belt will send them through a rinsing barrier made of high-pressure water mist guns, thoroughly cleaning them before they enter the pretreatment chamber.

Without smart chips and automation, the Covenant's beet processing machinery doesn't actually change much in terms of principle and structure.

In other words, the principles and basic structure of human agricultural machinery will hardly be upgraded with the times unless there are significant changes in crops—at most, there will be some changes in power, size, and processing efficiency.

The shredder is a standard centrifugal shredder. The finer and thinner the beet shreds, the better the sugar penetration in the juice. Under the action of the high-speed centrifuge, the sharp blades quickly peel and shred the input beets into thin shreds, which then enter the sugar-making machine, which resembles a spiral tube.

This is a DDS inclined groove double spiral continuous exudator. The sugar in beets is stored in the cell sap. Heating and shredding break it down, allowing the sugar to exchange with the exudate water.

The shredded vegetables are fed into the water at opposite angles, maintaining a roughly equal osmotic pressure difference at each location. This allows the thick sugar water to be quickly output from one side. The temperature, microbial content, and water purity are all controlled by an intelligent system, ensuring the entire osmosis equipment achieves maximum efficiency.

A single unit, based on the medium-sized infiltration system that Xia Lin is currently manufacturing, can process approximately 7000 to 10000 tons of sugar beets per day.

Temperature is the most troublesome part of the entire process, as it must be controlled at 70-75 degrees Celsius. Furthermore, the temperature and pH of the permeation water need to be quickly adjusted depending on what is being inserted into the inlet, in order to avoid leaching out unwanted non-sugar components and colloidal substances.

The final output is brown sugar water, containing about 12%-16% sucrose. Meanwhile, the waste sugar pulp and waste liquid can undergo a complex dehydration process. This stuff, which accounts for 90% of the sugar beet's weight (including 6% dry solids), is then fed into the next set of permeators, and the cycle is repeated until 95% of the sugar is completely extracted.

Humanity's pursuit of sugar has made sugar production one of the most inefficient agricultural technologies. It takes about 10 to 20 years to increase the sugar yield by just 1%. The equipment from Star Alliance can reach about 98%, which is already the limit. Going any higher would require nano-disassembly, which is not cost-effective at all.

The brown sugar solution also contains approximately 2% non-sugar components. This is achieved through ion-osmosis sugar production, which involves a series of methods including ion exchange resins, membrane electroosmosis, ultraosmosis, reverse osmosis, and surfactants.

The sugar industry is basically the high-tech darling of agriculture; they'll use any and everything they can get their hands on.

99% of the non-sugar components and colloids can be removed, resulting in a viscous sugar syrup with an extremely rich sweetness, which is then used in the sugar boiling process.

This part is nothing special: sedimentation, heating, crystallization. The remaining waste molasses still contains about 50% sucrose. Under the technological conditions of ancient times and Terra, they could only use lime to react with sucrose to produce calcium sucrose salt, then heat it to become calcium sucrose milk, add it to the sugar pot, and decompose it into sucrose and calcium hydroxide under saturation.

However, this produces a large amount of granulated sugar, which affects sucrose crystallization and is difficult to recycle. Xia Lin has a solution: using melibiase to break it down, which also breaks down and recycles the lactose produced.

After passing through a long processing workshop, a sugar-boiling workshop filled with high temperatures that feel like steam, and a final ultra-low temperature crystallization workshop, the sugar that appears on the machining conveyor belt is snow-white. Finally, in an environment where it is slightly dissolved by spraying water mist, it is pressed into sugar blocks about 3 centimeters in size under high pressure and quickly packaged and stacked in Terra's traditional packaging method of 10 blocks per box.

It could even be said that the packaging process became the biggest weakness in the entire process. So after discovering this, Lao Xia removed the packaging and let the white sugar be stored in the ground like a waterfall of quicksand.

To be honest, not to mention the ordinary people of Ursus with limited experience, even Kal'tsit had never seen so much sugar piled up together. It was even more shocking than the honey she had seen before. The apiary was at least constrained by the flowering season, so the short-term output was okay, but it stopped producing as soon as the flowering season ended.

However, sugar is different. The sugar beets that Lao Xia grows yield about 67-80 tons per hectare (one hectare is 15 mu, and the yield per mu is about 5.3 tons, which is slightly higher than the yield of sugar beets in China. Considering that the climate in Ursus is not suitable for sugar crops, I think this yield is more reasonable. The international average is 3.5 tons per mu).

Because genetic modification allows for rapid growth and quick sugar accumulation, these crops contain a large amount of strange ingredients and coarse fiber, making them inedible (industrial crops).

The guys who sneaked in and took a few to make beet soup were not only caught and beaten by the Shield Guards, but the soup also gave them diarrhea all day, costing them two whole days of performance bonuses. They were so regretful they could have kicked themselves.

In other words, if he cultivates sugar beets on about half of his approximately 20 square kilometers, which is over 1200 hectares, based on the average median yield...

More than 90,000 tons of sugar beets require more than a week of mechanized preprocessing, and the final sugar production is about 14500 tons of granulated sugar.

What does 14,000 tons of sugar mean? At first, food merchants from Schutzburg thought they could come and get some cheap sugar to take away, so they boldly placed an order for 200 tons of sugar. But when they heard that there were more than 10,000 tons waiting to be processed, their faces turned green on the spot.

The more than 80,000 tons of sugar meal that has been completely squeezed out still contains a large amount of non-sucrose components, such as fructose, protein and cellulose, and is a very good feed after fermentation.

It's perfect for feeding the pigs on the farm and the local livestock in Terra, since the farm's scale of operations is not large.

Therefore, some of them were exchanged at low prices by various infected settlements in the surrounding area and ordinary towns like Schutzburg.

Theoretically speaking, these sugar residues can be eaten by humans, but they are used as industrial sugar production crops.

Even after fermentation, the inedible components still exceed the standard, and consuming large amounts will still cause symptoms such as diarrhea and indigestion. It is best used to feed livestock.

In contrast, even with chemical fertilizers and high-quality soil, the yield was only about 200 kilograms per acre. Less than 300 kilograms of wheat made all the Ursus farmers who were harvesting it look very embarrassed.

Because if calculated by kilogram, the sugar production from sugar beet fields would be equivalent to 800 kilograms per acre.

When it came time to harvest, the wheat seemed to be growing well, but after harvesting, threshing, and weighing, the wet weight was found to be less than 300 kilograms per mu (approximately 0.067 hectares). After drying, it was estimated that the weight would shrink by about 20%.

"Old Xia, let's not plant wheat next year, it's not worth it!"

"I don't want to plant them either, but I don't have enough high-yield seeds to sow over such a large area."

Xia Lin was also a bit of a headache. Originally, there were enough seeds, but who knew that an ice storm would freeze all the seeds to death in the ground and cause a complete crop failure. What could be done?

You can't send emails here to have the nearest breeding center send you an interstellar package. If you rely entirely on your own breeding, the scale of breeding is limited, and large-scale planting would require at least two rounds of breeding.

"Besides, you can't keep planting sugar beets forever. Haven't you noticed the soil is compacted?" Old Xia squatted by the field, showing Yelena a clod of soil in his palm. "Look, it's already starting to turn into sand. If we continue planting, the next batch will not only have very little sugar, but it will also cause a lot of damage to the soil..."

Sugar beets are a biennial crop, so under normal circumstances, their yield should be halved.

In places where two harvests a year are possible, the figure would need to be reduced to one-quarter to get a more accurate comparison.

Although the high-tech gadgets here have allowed it to grow successfully for a year, it can be harvested in August.

However, the cost is that the extremely developed root system completely drains the soil of nutrients with the efficiency of insects plundering organic matter.

Therefore, the next round of fertilization and top dressing is necessary, and the soil must be turned over and re-layed. It is impossible to plant another round.

"But no matter what, we have so much sugar, so the second half of the year will be much better."

Yes, both the infected individuals and ordinary migrant workers who participated in the emergency harvesting and planting efforts happily carried 1.5-kilogram bags of white sugar back home satisfied.

Not to mention that a large portion of the waste molasses and sugar residue was also sent to the brewery, so inferior rum could still be mass-produced. For the bears of Ursus, with alcohol and sugar, winter was not difficult at all, and it could even be said to be more comfortable than in the south.

However, their comfort was short-lived. After rushing to plant legumes and alfalfa, they still had to face the hillsides covered with cloudberries. They couldn't harvest them mechanically; they had to pick them one by one while wearing gloves, otherwise, it would be a waste if the skin was damaged.

Cloudberries are used to make cloudberry preserves. These golden berries have many uses after being canned: they can be used to make cakes, jams, and even as a medicine to treat urinary tract infections because they contain a lot of natural antibacterial ingredients.

Xia Lin is preparing to make cloudberry jam. Cloudberries are quite sour, and with the addition of a lot of sugar, they become the king of calories in jam. Cloudberry jam with bread slices is sure to become a popular food pairing in the Ursus region near the snowfields this year.

As for whether his high-quality sugar production volume and tonnage would bankrupt several sugar factories in Ursus, that was not Xia Lin's concern.

Because the planting area will expand northward, allowing the rhizobium-improved soil from the tamarisk and alfalfa crops to be used for the second crop of sugar beets a year later.

As for the southern region, if things stabilize, Xia Lin also plans to lease land in Kazdel through her registered agricultural products company and Kal'tsit's network of connections.

The high-temperature desert is a hopeless place for Terra agriculture, but for Old Xia, who has abundant synthetic soil and fertilizer, and can even draw water from deep water sources or divert water from Iberia for irrigation, this is a perfect place to grow sugarcane, watermelons and potatoes!

Moreover, it is said that Kazdel has the most infected people, since the Sarkaz are susceptible to Oripathy, which is perfect for bringing the Reunion Movement, which is beginning to show results in Talulah, over there.

Then, with maximum efficiency and speed, drive the local agriculture, sugar, and fruit industries to the brink of collapse—yes, that's capitalism—while in Terra, Old Xia might be able to manage capitalism, but socialism is out of the question.

So, a few days later, a strange company called "White Rabbit Candy Industry" was established in an even stranger atmosphere. For some reason, even though it was a legitimate candy company, it gave people the feeling that they might launch strange desserts at any time.

In fact, not long after, this shell company with only 50,000 Lungmen dollars in registered capital, no office, no contact address, and not even a few employees, and only a dedicated line transferred by the Rhode Island Communications Department, launched a product that left Lao Xia dumbfounded—vodka-filled candies!

The taste testers, including Yelena, all gave it rave reviews. Then, Old Xia grabbed her and scolded her for a long time—"What kind of child drinks alcohol?!"

Chapter Ninety-Two: Jam on the Market

Chapter Ninety-Two

When the more than 10,000 tons of sugar were harvested and processed, everyone was overjoyed.

But in the blink of an eye, their faces fell, because the more than 10,000 tons of sugar were simply not something the nearby population could consume.

The result would either be that everyone would eat sugar water as their main meal for the entire winter and then collectively develop diabetes the following year, or the price of sugar in nearby towns and even the Ursus region behind the blockade would plummet.

That's not the most troublesome part. The most troublesome part is that even if you're prepared to drive the price of sugar down to rock bottom, you still need a transport capacity of over 10,000 tons. Without railway lines, it's really difficult to process so much sugar in a timely manner.

Furthermore, we must prevent those Ursus nobles from double-crossing us and forcibly levying taxes. Even if these problems don't exist, we must find a way to hoard the goods. Once the news leaks out... Do you know how the Age of Exploration happened? Then it goes without saying.

For the sake of Ursus' peace, the Emperor's glory, and the Duke's strategy, no noble would risk their wealth and troops by throwing their lives into the snowfields. But for sugar and spices... Xia Lin would have to face an attack on a scale comparable to the Crusades.

Moreover, it doesn't discriminate between nobles and commoners infected; any force with some assets and the ability to hire Sarkaz mercenaries will get involved, since sugar has served as a trigger for several major wars on Earth.