Castle of Black Iron

Ninghe Prefecture was a big prefecture in Yanzhou Province. Because Ninghe River flew across this prefecture, this prefecture was called Ninghe Prefecture. After the surging Ninghe River flew by Yanzhou Province, it made two convolutions on the southeast part of the vast land of Yanzhou Province like an undulating huge dragon, each convolution covered over 1,000 miles. After that, the surging Ningheriver turned winding and headed for the east like a masterpiece and a splendid landscape work of a painter.

Tender wind and winding river both benefited Ninghe Prefecture a lot. The great convolutions of Ninghe River irrigated thousands of miles’ fertile land and led to the prosperity of the entire Ninghe Prefecture.

Ninghe Prefecture was called the Granary of Yanzhou Province. The entire Ninghe Prefecture was famous for its grains across Youzhou Province, Northeast Military Region, even across Taixia Country. Xuanyuan Hill would assign officials to purchase the best grains from Ninghe Prefecture every year for the dignitaries in the Emperor’s Imperial City and the imperial palace of Xuanyuan Hill.

The Ninghe River and the fertile black earth led to Ninghe Liquor, one of the top 10 liquors in Taixia Country.

Ninghe Liquor was brewed by the fall wheat in Ninghe Prefecture. The fall wheat in Ninghe Prefecture was sowed in late September and became ripe in late May. When it came to the bumper harvest, the entire land of Ninghe Prefecture would be covered with endless golden color. The return of the earth brought hope to many people.

Previously, in each late May, when the fall wheat became ripe, a lot of airships and airboats would arrive at Ninghe Prefecture. Of course, they were not here for reaping ears of wheat, but for enjoying the scenery.

Sitting in the airships or airboats, travelers would watch the vast land being paved with a golden carpet. When the breeze blew over, the golden carpet would undulate like sea waves, which became a wonderful scenery.

At this moment, some airboats were suspending over a piece of a wheat field in the main producing area of Ninghe Prefecture. However, being different than those in the past years, these people were not here for enjoying the scenery. Hundreds of people were standing on one side of the golden wheat field in different colors such as green, red, purple and blue.

Green, red, purple and blue represented different ranks in Taixia Country. All the big figures in northeast military region headquarters, Yanzhou Provincial Governor’s Mansion and Ninghe Prefecture were here. Such a grand reunion could be barely seen in normal times except for the banquets held by the commander-in-chief of northeast military religion. Commander-in-chief always held banquets; however, today, they all reunited on one side of the wheat field in Ninghe Prefecture.

Although the breeze blew over with the faint heat of early summer at noon, the place where they stood almost froze. Many officials especially officials in Ninghe Prefecture looked poor as their legs shivered. The sweat on their backs and their temples made their uniforms wet all over.

Nobody dared utter any voice; even the Yanzhou provincial governor clenched his fist as he stood on one side of the wheat field with a cold look.

The commander-in-chief looked like an experienced old farmer. He squatted down as he stretched out one hand and broke a handful of ears of wheat. Closely after that, he opened all the hulls of the ears of wheat by rubbing them. There was nothing inside the hulls, not even a single wheat. Commander-in-chief clapped his hands, having the handful of wheat hulls fly away lightly in the breeze.

He broke other ears of wheat and got the same result.

All the ears of wheat were empty.

Watching the handful of wheat hulls flying away in the breeze, some officials felt that it was their bodies and souls that were broken by the hands of the commander-in-chief.

With a sound of “Dong”, a grey-haired official in class 8 uniform passed out as he fell down onto the ridge between wheat fields with a red face and closed eyes.

If it were in normal times, the other officials had long swarmed up to look after him; however, at this moment, nobody dared move or even have a smooth breath.

At this moment, if the commander-in-chief was irritated, many officials’ heads would be chopped off, not to mention passing out.

The commander-in-chief stood up as his face turned darker and colder. All the people at present sensed a great killing intent from Commander Cheng’s frown.

Commander Cheng took in a deep breath as he glanced around those officials and asked calmly, “Where’s Liu Yuntao the magistrate of Ninghe Prefecture?”

“This humble man is here!” After hearing Commander Cheng calling his name, a 60-year old official who looked loyal and honest quivered a bit before walking out of the crowd and bowing deeply towards Commander Cheng.

“Do all the ears of wheat in Ninghe Prefecture face the same problem?”

“Yes…all…all of them…” The magistrate of Ninghe Prefecture quivered once again as he answered.

“What about the loss?”

“This year, Ninghe Prefecture plant 111,955,950,000 square meters’ wheat in total. As the soil in Ninghe Prefecture is fertile, plus the irrigation of Ninghe River, the wheat fields in Ninghe Prefecture always have a high yield. We could usually produce 920 kg per mu. We lose over 154 billion kg’s wheat this year…” Although the magistrate of Ninghe Prefecture was intense, he could still report the relevant data easily.

Ninghe Prefecture was a big farming prefecture. The magistrate of Ninghe Prefecture was previously a farmer. After being promoted to a farming official, he was favored by Zhu Tong the Yanzhou provincial governor and was finally promoted to the magistrate of Ninghe Prefecture. Of course, he was very familiar with agriculture.

“Over 154 billion kg’s wheat. It’s almost one year’s grains for 400 million people…” Commander Cheng let out a deep sigh as he looked at the quivering magistrate of Ninghe Prefecture for a short while before asking in a kinder voice, “As you were a farmer, you excel at farming works. In your opinion, can the autumn grains this year and summer grains next year be guaranteed in Ninghe Prefecture?”

After hearing this question, the magistrate of Ninghe Prefecture’s face turned pale at once as he looked up at the other officials at present before stammering, “I…I don’t know…”

Commander Cheng’s eyes turned serious at once as he said, “As the magistrate of Ninghe Prefecture, you don’t even know this, what a good-for-nothing!”

The magistrate answered with a bitter look, “This…this is really not under my control…”

“Why?”

“This humble man dare not say that…”

“Just say it!”

The magistrate gritted as he raised his head at once and said, “Now that Commander Cheng allows me to say it, I will put it straightforwardly. This year, Ninghe Prefecture’s agriculture is good in all aspects such as fertility, farming season, climate, tillage, irrigation and insects and disease prevention. In normal times, it should be a bumper harvest like usual. However, the wheat failure is too severe and special. Given its scale and severity, it’s definitely not caused by ordinary plant pests or the weather and the fertility of the soil. There’s only one reason, namely all the wheat in Ninghe Prefecture have been demonized. Only demonized plant seeds could lead to such a large-scale crop failure!”

All the people at present listened to his explanation quietly, including Commander Cheng. Therefore, the magistrate said loudly with a red face regardless of any outcome.

“The seeds of fall wheat in Ninghe Prefecture don’t come from only one clan. Many seeds were preserved by farmers themselves. In this case, they could still sow the demonized seeds unconsciously, it indicates that the farmlands in Ninghe Prefecture might have long been contaminated by demonized seeds dozens of years ago. Only after generations’ constant contamination and dissemination could cause such a large-scale crop failure. If it is real, not only the summer crops this year, the farmlands in Ninghe Prefecture would not produce any other grains in the future!”

Commander Cheng’s face turned black as ink as he said, “What about using pure seeds?”

“Commander Cheng, as you know the seeds’ genes have been contaminated. Take this piece of farmland as an instance, If demonized seeds were planted on its neighborhood; even if the seeds in this farmland were pure, these pure seeds’ next generations would also be contaminated by the demonized genes of those neighboring demonized seeds through pollen dispersal between crops, farming tools, transport vehicles even the same water source and the same soil. Besides mutual contamination between plants, after humans or animals had those demonized grains, those contaminated genes would stay in farming fertilizers. Through fertilizers, they would contaminate the farmland for the second time. Therefore, after being contaminated by that, even a pure farmland would face a crop failure.” The magistrate of Ninghe Prefecture revealed a bitter smile as he continued, “Given the current situation facing Ninghe Prefecture, if this demonized contamination had sustained for several decades, the 111,955,950,000 square meters’ farmland which suffered from a crop failure probably have been contaminated completely, including the soil and the water source. If so, the future grain yield would never be guaranteed.”

“Do we have any method to wipe out the pollutant source?”

“If it was in lab, all the materials should go through inactivation treatment before being taken out of the lab in case of gene pollution and flow; all the demonized plants should be burned in the lab, even the soil in the lab should be steamed at high temperatures in boilers before being taken out of lab. Therefore, unless all the soil across Ninghe Prefecture were steamed in boilers…”