Chapter 362 [Growing Rice in the Desert]
In the palace where the royal city held meetings, Jiang Lili was sorting out various crop seed samples. She was not surprised to see Sang Ya coming to find her.
Sonia has become addicted to milk tea these days. She comes to ask for food almost every one or two days. Every time Jiang Lili sees Sonia's gray-green eyes light up when she sees milk tea, she feels like she has raised a Persian cat that loves to drink milk tea.
Aside from some reluctance to approach a strange man, Sangya had become quite familiar with Jiang Lili and Wen Qiao over the past few days. Jiang Lili pushed the full cup of mango sago on the desk and said, "Order some fresh, iced mango sago."
Sonya's eyebrows lit up at the sight of milk tea. Fruit is hard to come by in the desert, and ice is even harder to find. Fruit and smoothie, absolutely perfect!
She took out a golden green cat's eye the size of a thumbnail from the small cowhide bag at her waist and placed it on Jiang Lili's desk. Then she picked up the milk tea cup and took a big sip, feeling excited and satisfied.
The golden-green cat's eye gem shone in the candlelight, like the sun shining into the forest.
Jiang Lili's eyes flickered with smile, but she still refused, "Didn't I say it would be deducted from your salary? It's so awkward to give you gems as a gift!"
The price of chrysoberyl cat's eye is four figures, which is at least enough to buy milk tea for one or two months.
As if she felt that she was disturbing Jiang Lili, Sonia would always give Jiang Lili gems. In addition, she led the desert alien soldiers to work hard on infrastructure. Jiang Lili felt that having such employees who worked at their own expense was like a pie in the sky.
Sonia waved her hand. These days, she had seen the powerful team behind Jiang Lili and all kinds of advanced novelties. She felt that it would be better to give the things to Jiang Lili rather than keep them in her own hands. Anyway, her purpose in following Jiang Lili was revenge.
"Take it. I think it will be more valuable in your hands."
Sangya watched Jiang Lili sorting the seed samples and explained the purpose of her visit: "When you husk and cook the rice you're talking about, don't they just turn out to be white grains?"
Sonya remembered the meal called "boxed lunch" they had been eating recently and asked in surprise, "Is it the same meal in the boxed lunch we've been eating these days?"
"Yes." Jiang Lili patiently explained to her, "After the rice is harvested and dried, it will be processed into rice. Then, after adding the appropriate amount of water and cooking, we get the cooked rice we eat."
Sanya knew that Jiang Lili had great magical powers, so she asked tentatively, "Goddess, do you have any way to grow rice in the Hena Desert?"
She knew that her idea was ridiculous, but the other party was a goddess, so what if?
The Hena Desert is dry and hot, and the main crops are barley and wheat. The land is barren and the yield is low, not to mention growing rice.
Many people in the Henan Desert were unfamiliar with the crop of rice, but Sanya had traveled extensively and heard that rice was grown in abundance in the Shuanghe River Basin further north.
The Shuanghe Basin is a plain formed by the alluvial deposits of two rivers, and the soil fertility is much better than here.
But the Two Rivers Basin is far away from the Henan Desert. Just getting to the Two Rivers Basin from the desert would take half your life, not to mention that the Two Rivers Basin is divided by two powerful empires.
Jiang Lili raised an eyebrow when she heard Sanya's request. "Didn't Su Rui say that your main crop is wheat? Do you think rice is delicious and want to grow rice in the desert?"
"I can survive by eating anything. Rice is delicious, but growing rice in the desert is too difficult. I'm not picky."
Sanya shook her head and explained why she asked this question: "There are many forces, big and small, in the Hena Desert, but the most powerful is undoubtedly the Luyi tribe. They firmly control the few rare oases in the desert."
"Before I set sail, I heard a piece of news that the leader of the Luyi tribe was recruiting talents from all over the desert who could grow rice in the desert."
"I once asked Su Rui if it was possible. He shook his head and said that he had analyzed the environment of the Ruiyi Tribe oasis and that the soil there was very salty, making it extremely difficult to grow rice."
Is there a lot of salt in the soil? It's probably due to severe salinization. After listening to Su Ya's words, Jiang Lili became curious about this leader who had a special liking for rice.
"Oh?" Jiang Lili cast her eyes on a bag of rice beside the desk. She had already planned to go to the desert to dig for oil, and Jiang Lili had also reported it to the organization in advance.
This bag of rice is the scientific research result sent by the organization. It is rice processed from sea rice.
Seawater rice is a rice variety cultivated by agricultural scientist Professor Chen and his team over nearly 40 years of hard work, and Professor Yuan has also made great contributions.
Seawater rice can grow in harsh environments such as saline-alkali land and tidal flats that are considered wasteland. Its yield per single plant can reach 300 kilograms. It has been planted on a large scale in modern times. In addition, seawater rice can also repair soil ecology and improve these wastelands into arable land.
This kind of sea rice is like a savior for the desert.
Jiang Lili asked Sanya, "Does the chief offer any generous rewards to those who can grow rice?"
Sonja's eyes lit up when she heard this. "The leader of the Rui tribe said that as long as we can grow rice in the desert, he will agree to any conditions within his ability."
"If you want to mine oil in the desert, it will be much easier if you have the help and support of the Rui tribe."
Jiang Lili understood. "Growing rice in the desert? That's something we could give it a try. But I'm not sure if it's reliable to cooperate with the Luyi tribe in oil extraction."
It would be better to see if we can use this opportunity to take down the Rui tribe.
She said to Sonya, "Thank you for telling me the news."
Sonya smiled slightly while holding Milk Tea: "Helping you is helping myself."
"I'm not sure whether the Rui tribe is reliable, but..."
Sonya put down her milk tea, a small flame flickering in her heterochromic eyes. "Perhaps you don't need to cooperate with the Luyi tribe. You can rule them and make them obey you absolutely."
She placed her right hand on her heart and nodded to Jiang Lili: "Sonya and the Legion will always be the sword in your hand."
Jiang Lili was encouraged by Sangya's gaze, as she actually had the same idea as herself.
"Then let's try it!"
*
Jiang Lili led people to carry out infrastructure construction in Mi Country. Two months passed in a flash, and the academic committee was not far from the palace examination.
At this time, Emperor Qingning was still thinking about what topics to give to the candidates in the palace examination, but he was so disturbed by the news coming back from the northwest border that he lost his appetite and called all his trusted ministers over.
In the imperial study, civil officials and military officers were discussing at once, and the air was filled with anxiety.
These trusted ministers are only creating anxiety at this moment and have not found any way to solve the problem.
The generals were all nervous about the sudden rise of the Bol Grassland.
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