Mythical Three Kingdoms

Chen Xi gave the Zhang Gu families the design of mainstream ships for naval warfare in the near future, allowing the Zhang Family and Gu Family to have a leap in growth, directly reaching the sixth-and-a-half generation. The Lul Family believes the Seventh Generation Ship is too costly, and the difficulty in construction is too high, preferring to combine the advantages of both the Seventh and Sixth Generation Ships.

Although this would result in some data shrinkage overall, the input-output ratio would be relatively more reasonable. Of course, the Lul Family is still in the research phase because building a ship isn’t something that can be casually restructured with a simple command. From design to finalization, it’s not a haphazard process; thus, the Lul Family hasn’t produced an actual plan yet.

Naturally, with their years of experience, the Zhang Family and Gu Family have no issues understanding the concept, but to actually transform it into a production line and manufacture it skillfully, it would take at least two years of absorption and digestion.

After all, the Lul Family is one of the pioneering families in sea ship manufacturing and has continued upgrading over the years. With Chen Xi’s profound support, they have achieved their current level. The Zhang Family and Gu Family are just breaking through that level of sea ship knowledge now.

Without this breakthrough documentation, it would take these two families double the time to reach this level. When they say they can start construction within three months, they are underestimating the difficulty involved and overestimating their understanding of the Sixth and Seventh Generation Ships.

However, this aligns with Chen Xi’s estimates. The Zhang Family and Gu Family certainly won’t achieve it in three months, and even six months seems impossible, but they will certainly accomplish it within a year.

By that time, though, shipbuilding will no longer be limited to the Zhang Family and Gu Family but will be a collaborative effort encompassing the entire Eastern Wu aristocracy.

Chen Xi’s goal is for these people to collectively master this craft. With just the Lul Family Shipyard and the Gonsun Family’s shipyard, handling domestic needs is viable, but to truly participate in imperial warfare and toss out a thousand ships in a year, uncontested by the enemy, is not feasible.

For this reason, transferring all design blueprints and related material to Zhou Yu early on was part of Chen Xi’s initial plan. Consolidating domestic industries to form an advantage isn’t something done overnight; it certainly can’t wait until next year as that would delay progress by another year.

"However, there’s no need to hold out hope in this aspect. Chen Zichuan isn’t malicious, but he won’t do things to make life difficult for himself. It’s likely that the warships won’t be manufactured on a large scale until next year." Zhou Yu isn’t a fool; although the Zhang Family and Gu Family claimed construction could start three months later, Zhou Yu easily figured out that was overly optimistic.

"Then shall we use the previous boats to travel there?" Sun Ce inquired.

"Yes, we’ll proceed along the coastline to see how far we can go. Coincidentally, I’ve heard there’s a rebellion in Jiuzhen County of Nanyue. After all, that area is also part of the Great Han Dynasty." Zhou Yu smiled and said, although Jiuzhen County actually belongs to Shixie, it’s no big deal; a fight is inevitable.

In truth, Sun Ce and Zhou Yu have been keen on fighting Shixie; although it’s scarcely populated, it’s rumored to be riddled with noxious insects and miasma. Yet intriguingly, it never lacks food, which piqued their interest.

Admittedly, the area’s infrastructure is so poor neither Zhou Yu nor Sun Ce are confident of fully governing it. Pathways cleared in the morning would be overgrown with new growth by afternoon; it’s just that magical.

From one perspective, Sun Ce wants to seize it because Shixie often causes trouble from behind. On the other hand, he wonders why such a barren place isn’t short of grain?

"Then let’s attack. You can handle the army selection, but this time, the three veteran generals will stay in Yangzhou. General Cheng said General Huang and General Hann are about to awaken their Legion Talent." Sun Ce said with a smile, surprised that the three veteran generals left by his father are reaching such a milestone.

"Leave it to me." Zhou Yu nodded. Although they don’t boast particularly strong generals, in terms of competent military commanders, they aren’t lacking at all.

While Zhou Yu and Sun Ce were secretly eyeing Jiaozhou, Qu Qi was inevitably drawn to Jiaozhou. Qu Qi was already well-known among the higher circles; after being discovered in Jiaozhou, he received a very formal reception.

Though Qu Qi wanted to say there’s no need for such a reception, he understood that speaking out could offend people, so he only responded with a delighted demeanor.

"Sigh, research has basically confirmed that Earth Power can be restored, but if the damage to it is too severe, recovery becomes very difficult." Rolling a grain ear in his hand, Qu Qi sighed, stating that Jiaozhou’s Earth Power is ample enough to tolerate double harvests annually without damaging the land too much.

"Marquis Cang, what are you examining?" Wuu Anguo asked Qu Qi inquisitively.

"I found that my research is nearing a bottleneck; saying you can have high yields without depleting Earth Power is just foolish." Qu Qi sighed, "The previous yield of five stones per mu is nearly at the limit of annual Earth Power regeneration in my calculations. If we push higher, it will damage Earth Power and need replenishment."

Qu Qi currently possesses paddy that allows for three harvests a year, with a total yield of twelve stones per mu. If this were shared, many would go mad, but the land would need a breather after a year of such use.

Qu Qi now basically confirmed that continuing to raise yields at the expense of Earth Power resembles extracting everything from a fishery.

The road in front of Qu Qi is limited; he either finds a way to increase yield without further Earth Power loss or finds means to raise Earth Power itself, or he will have to increase the plants’ absorption of Heaven and Earth Essence.

Simply put, without addressing Earth Power depletion, achieving high yields in this fertilizer-less era is mere folly; even if certain crops produce more through photosynthesis, the land’s fertility cap limits crop yield caps unless you are willing to exhaust your resources completely.

This is a major pitfall: only within the limits of annual soil fertility recovery does high yield matter. Under current circumstances, there are probably only a handful of people in the world who understand Qu Qi’s thoughts.

"Perhaps you should take some time off." Seeing Qu Qi’s frustration, Wuu Anguo suggested consolingly. During recent expeditions through the forests, he gained deeper insight into this young man’s greatness, realizing he would be honored like Shennong in this lifetime.

"No, I need to think of other solutions, perhaps concentrating the otherwise wasted nutrients from leaves and stems onto the fruit." Qu Qi pondered, "Or we need to find another way to replenish losses."

Wuu Anguo admitted his lack of understanding in these matters. Despite being with Qu Qi for a long time and learning quite a lot, he acknowledges that knowledge reserves depend on whom you compare with.

"I obtained some great things here, but I fear ordinary people wouldn’t be able to cultivate them. I think I need to assess the soil quality and fertility across various regions, to plan how to grow things accordingly." Qu Qi stated while taking out a magical paddy from his breast pocket.

This was a paddy grown from a full grain splattered by Qu Qi, currently the world’s only plant exceeding energy content limits, untouched by animals, even having a chance to produce seeds.

Why this paddy absorbs more Heaven and Earth Essence becoming an anomaly remains a mystery to Qu Qi. If not for his persistent care, it would have long been devoured by animals from time to time, becoming part of them.

Animals have a certain sensitivity compared to humans; when this seed sprouted, small creatures constantly attempted to devour it. Fortunately, Qu Qi kept a tight watch over his experiment, otherwise, the seed wouldn’t have lived to produce grain.

As the plant grew larger, its attraction also intensified. Fortunately, with experts like Wuu Anguo, nearly at a breakthrough level, and two immortals beside him, it was able to grow safely to fruition.

Attracted by frequent animal visits, Qu Qi grew curious. His Spiritual Talent only foresaw the plant’s future, not detailed information, prompting him to study it, even undergoing tillering, forcing twelve plants, hence twelve grain ears.

Yet for unknown reasons, only three grain ears survived at maturity; Qu Qi expressed immense dissatisfaction. While people flattered and called him the Agricultural Emperor, he modestly denied it outwardly but internally acknowledged his prowess.

Now, as the self-styled Agricultural Emperor, the twelve paddy stalks only managed to bring forth three stalks of ripe grain, an affront to his title. During the demise, Wuu Anguo and the two immortals showed no reaction, assuming Qu Qi had pruned them intentionally.

Qu Qi could hardly endure the shame, conceding defeat at growing paddy, with three-quarters lost. The subsequent outcome proved even harsher: one stalk bore mostly empty grain chaff, stirring Qu Qi’s tight-fisted exasperation at his misfortune.

In truth, Qu Qi was unaware these plants were akin to Divine Stones, absorbing Heaven and Earth Essence similarly. While Divine Stone’s essence density was higher, both followed a similar principle; normally one seed bore one plant; forcing twelve was miraculous enough.

What was even more miraculous was coaxing three to mature, and two to seed. Honestly speaking, such grain would mostly be hollow hulls, yet achieving a hundred seeds from two ears was exceptional; the third one’s production belonged to a fortuitous anomaly!