Chapter 27 - 50,000 Catty per Day
While Zhao was distressed about the weapons, a voice suddenly popped up: [Corn has matured. Please harvest as soon as possible]
Zhao was surprised, but then he looked at Meirin. "Grandma Meirin, the corn I planted has matured. Do you want to come with me into the space?" Even though Meirin had been in the spatial farm before, he was still respectful to her and wanted to ask her first instead of just taking her with him.
Hearing what Zhao said, she nodded her head. "Yes Master, I want to go look at the space."
With a thought, the two people appeared in the spatial farm.
Because of the space, the radishes that he planted the morning before had grown small leaves, but the corn had already reached full maturity. The corn was very long and sturdy, while the cobs were big, around fifty centimeters, with kernels bursting at the seams, exposing their golden color.
Meirin had never seen corn before and was curious because she didn't know what to do with it.
Zhao walked towards the corn and broke off one of the big cobs. With the outer green leaves lowered, the golden corn was exposed, revealing big and full kernels. The amount that was produced was not low, and if he calculated the yield, then there would be fifty thousand catty of corn here.
Zhao handed the corn cob to Meirin and smiled. "Grandma Meirin, you see, as long as we process this corn, it can be used as food. Although it's not the best tasting crop I could grow, it could still fill you up. These two acres are enough to produce fifty thousand catty per day, and if they made seeds, then we could use them to plant a thousand acres of land. So we do not need to worry about food."
Taking the corn from him, Meirin's eyes bulged out. "Master, are you telling me that everyday we could get fifty thousand catty worth of food?"
With a smile, Zhao nodded. He knew that Meirin thought that a one lump sum of fifty thousand catty worth of food for more than a hundred people probably wasn't that much, but fifty thousand catty per day, that figure was a little scary. Also, although Zhao didn't mention it, in this space the corn would only need fourteen hours or so to mature, so it would actually take less than a day.
Meirin kept whispering, "Fifty thousand catty per day, fifty thousand catty per day..."
Zhao laughed. "Grandma Meirin, I told you that this corn stuff is not very good. I'll eventually start planting other crops, but this is only the transitional period, so this will have to do for now."
Meirin quickly recovered, and said. "No, Master, do not plant anything else. With such a high yield food, we do not need to plant anything else." She was so excited that she was almost incoherent.
"Don't worry, I'm not planting anything else yet. But Grandma Meirin, you do not need to get so excited about this kind of thing. There are many foods that are high yield, although not as much as corn, they are still good."
Meirin heard what Zhao said and nodded her head. "That's good, Master. But how do we harvest this food? We're going to need a lot of helping hands."
Zhao slightly chuckled. "It's nothing I can't handle if I count on this space." Then he shouted, "Harvest the corn. Separate the stalks, then separate the kernels from the cobs." He wanted to see if the spatial farm would find it acceptable when he issued such a complicated command. If his command was accepted, then he could be sure that the space would fully listen to him.
Meirin had a puzzled look on her face as she stared at Zhao. She did not know who he was talking to, but then what happened in the space left her stunned. A basket flew up into the air and the corn started to fly into the basket.
Before Meirin could react, Zhao immediately walked to the front of the barn. He touched the barn doors, and after he got a prompt, he loosened his breath and laughed.
"Master, what are you laughing about? And how did you do that?" she asked while pointing at the cleared land.
Zhao smiled. "Nothing, Grandma Meirin. I didn't tell you yet, but I can control anything in this space. Whether it's farming or harvesting, I don't need to worry about it."
"That's great, Master." Meirin looked excited. "Now what do you plan to plant next?"
This was the moment of truth, so Zhao was very careful. With just a thought, a handful of corn kernels appeared in his hands.
When the corn came out, a tone chimed and the voice said: [Corn. Excellent quality. Can be used as seeds. Can be brought out of the space]
Zhao looked happy as he said, "Sow the corn." After his voice faded, a small shovel flew out to start plowing, then one by one, seeds appeared out of nowhere and fell to the ground, while a bucket started watering everything.
Meirin looked stunned. She really did not think that Zhao's space could be so magical. This ability, let alone seen, she had never even heard of it before. She was very happy because this magical space would give the Buda clan a meteoric rise.
Soon the two acres of land were replanted. Afterwards, Zhao went to look at the radishes. There have not yet been any insects like in the farm game he used to play. Seeing as there were no problems with the radishes, Zhao stood up turned to Meirin. "Let's go out, Grandma Meirin."
Meirin nodded, and with just a thought, Zhao brought the two of them back into the living room of the castle.
Looking outside, Zhao figured that they hadn't been inside the space for very long. He then turned to Meirin while holding corn stalks and corn cobs in his hands, which he had brought out before they left the space. "Grandma Meirin, with these, we don't need to worry about firewood."
Meirin quickly nodded. "Okay Master, come with me. We'll put these right there in the kitchen."
Zhao shook his head. "No, Grandma Meirin. They need to be dried in the sun first, otherwise they would still have some moisture. We have to completely dry them after we take them from the barn."
"Well, then let's put them outside. The castle has plenty of empty spaces."
Zhao followed Meirin outside.
Looking at the corn stalks and corn cobs on the ground, Zhao said, "After drying the stalks, Grandma Meirin, you can burn these for cooking. And if the slaves are cold at night, you can burn these to keep them warm."
Meirin looked at the two piles of firewood, her face full of smiles. Now she finally didn't have to worry about finding something to use as firewood. "Yes, Master. I'll deal with this matter with the slaves."
Zhao nodded, then he looked at the sky. "It's not late yet, Grandma Meirin. Let's call Meg in for lunch. And after lunch, we'll arrange for someone to get some stones. Unfortunately, we don't have a blacksmith, otherwise we might have been able to make some iron weapons out of the suppplies."
The number of slaves with skills were small, and those with blacksmith skills were even less. Slave owners were afraid of slaves learning blacksmith skills because then they would know how to build weapons, so no one gave slaves access to that knowledge. If you ever encounter a slave that knows blacksmith skills, then he was probably a blacksmith that later became a slave.
After the two went back inside the castle, Meirin went to prepare lunch, while Zhao sat in the hall, quietly thinking about things.
Right now they were facing a huge crisis. If those undead spirit beasts really did come out of the carrion swamp, then what means did they have to stop it? If they came out, not only would this trouble his farming plans, but also his future plans for aquaculture. He had to think of some way to resolve this problem.
But how could he solve it? For many years, not one expert in the Continent had survived the forbidden carrion swamp.
Zhao was unable to think of anything.