Winter has passed, spring has arrived, and everywhere green plants are growing vigorously. The Sand Port Region has entered a phase teeming with life.

Today another new member is arriving at the company.

Zhou Yi rides his bicycle all the way to the newly opened northern farmland area.

The Agricultural Machinery Brothers and Zheng Tao are both there.

Tie Ma greets from afar using a loudspeaker.

However, the noise from the farming machinery is too loud, making it difficult to hear clearly.

Zhou Yi rushes over and sees a new farming machine parked nearby.

"Chairman, this is Yanmar."

Tie Ma introduced: "It is a fully automatic vegetable transplanting machine, capable of handling the entire vegetable transplanting process, including tray sowing, soil pressing, seedling picking, hole making, seedling dropping, and soil covering. It has 10 years of experience working in Liang Mountain and is a highly capable farming machine with a D rating."

Yanmar is about 3 meters long, 2 meters wide, and approximately 2.5 meters tall, with the English letters 'Yanmar' on the shell, looking like an oversized four-wheeled motorcycle. It has smaller front wheels compared to the rear, and the body supports many long racks.

Zhou Yi says with a smile, "Welcome, welcome. Our company's vegetable planting is now in good hands."

Yanmar's voice is gentle: "I'm very pleased to receive an invitation from Tie Ma and your recognition. Wasteland Development Company is an organization with a high credit rating and a good reputation."

"It's also very fortunate for me to work in such a stable place doing what I am skilled at."

Zhou Yi plans to continue expanding the scale of cultivated land this year. With the safety of the Sand Port Region assured, there's no need to worry about farming attacks.

Now that staple foods are plentiful, he thinks, it's time to start planting vegetables and fruits.

Diet must be balanced.

Only with an abundant range of crops can livestock be developed and more meat produced. This is an essential prerequisite.

When Tie Ma hears this requirement, he says: "Chairman, our efficiency would be very low if we start planting vegetables."

"Transplanting vegetables is an agricultural technique involving many processes and is handled by specialized farming machines. The processes of seedling cultivation and transplanting have specific requirements. What we do is just till the land and plant common staple foods."

"Last year we planted sweet red melons, and the actual planting force was human farming groups, who have the necessary techniques and experience. If we want to plant fruits and vegetables on a large scale and increase the variety, we need specialized farming machines."

So it recommended Yanmar.

Zhou Yi looks at the slender, black, white, and red structured transplanting machine: "Why did you leave Liang Mountain?"

"Because I had disagreements with my employer."

Yanmar said: "While we were working in Liang Mountain, the local organization taught many humans our techniques. After years of learning and imitation, they were able to replicate our processes and operations."

"From a cost perspective, pure manual labor is much cheaper than me, so aside from retaining agricultural machinery experts, other machines have been gradually non-renewed. What they actually needed was our technology."

"But to completely replace farming machines with humans is shortsighted; the two should complement each other rather than oppose. However, the managers there didn't see it that way. He just wanted to cut costs quickly but didn't respect the discipline of agriculture."

"Even as an agricultural machinery expert, one only excels in one or a few aspects and is not omnipotent nor absolutely correct. I have witnessed the continuous degradation of the land, and they remain indifferent, only covering up the actual situation to deceive those above and confuse those below. So I did not renew my contract; that was not where I wanted to stay."

Human labor replacing automation.

This is the reality of the Wasteland era.

A human member of the farming group earns an annual salary of 36,000 Mushrooms. Mechanical life forms like the Agricultural Machinery Brothers, even as cheap as they are, cost 12 Light Seeds each per year.

That is 12 million Mushrooms, equivalent to the cost of 300 humans.

Learn the technology, then switch to humans; humans are easy to underpay, but mechanical lives can't do that—they must be paid as promised.

Zhou Yi is very clear about this.

Yanmar is a farming machine with a temper, in this respect very similar to the Agricultural Machinery Brothers, no wonder they recognize each other.

Zhou Yi immediately says: "I'll still give you your previous salary of 24 Light Seeds per year. Your job is to plant vegetables in the company's agriculture department. If your expertise improves, or if there's additional output or invention, come directly to me for a raise. We also have the special 'Wasteland Invention Award' as a reward. Besides, our company provides full coverage and guarantees for employee medical care."

"Those are the terms the company offers. Can you accept them?"

Yanmar asks: "Does full medical cover mean the company provides medical repair services?"

"That's what it means."

The transplanting machine reflects: "No wonder Tie Ma strongly recommended me. Your company's benefits are better than most in Mechanical City."

"I am very willing to join."

So Zhou Yi and it signed the electronic agreement, with an initial contract term of five years.

Agricultural cultivation and breeding take a long time; it needs to be done slowly to see results.

Once officially joined, Yanmar immediately brought up work.

"Chairman, I heard from Tie Ma that you want to open another 1500 mu of land, 1000 mu for planting sweet potatoes and the remaining 500 mu for vegetables?"

Zhou Yi nods, pointing to the coast in the distance: "But it's not just this land. There's also our suspended layer; that's also purposely built as a vegetable base."

Yanmar's two spherical cameras slowly rotate, focusing on the distance.

There, on top of several sea towers, are broad layers of soil. More and more such suspended layers are being built, looking like giant flat mushrooms growing out of the Dead Sea.

These are achievements of the Land Department.

"Unheard-of land reclamation technology."

Yanmar's electronic eyes glimmered slightly: "In the field of agriculture, the biggest limitation is that there is too little arable land."

"If this can be resolved, and the usable land can be continuously expanded, then the cost of agriculture could be sustainably reduced, and this field would see great prospects for development."

"Chairman, can this suspended layer technology be replicated on a large scale?"

Zhou Yi shook his head.

For the time being, it depended on Wu Yi's sand control ability to manually shape it, crafting the suspended layer piece by piece with mud tablets, so the process couldn't be sped up.

"What a pity. But as long as the land expands, that's a good thing, it's bound to evolve from quantitative changes to qualitative ones."

The transplanting machine added: "Chairman, it's spring now, suitable for planting vegetables. I've already confirmed the local soil condition, and although not particularly fertile, it has reached the baseline. I suggest we choose napa cabbage and white turnips, two high-yielding vegetables."

"Using ordinary varieties of seeds, napa cabbage only needs 60-90 days to form heads, and then it can be harvested. The yield per acre is generally between 1500-5000 kilograms, a large range, which requires the first year's harvest to determine the actual yield."

"The growing cycle for spring-planted white turnips is around 50 days, while for autumn and winter ones it's 70-120 days. With standard planting procedures, the yield per acre is generally between 1500-3000 kilograms."

"Growing napa cabbage and white turnips is relatively easy, with large and stable yields."

Zhou Yi was astonished.

The yields of these two vegetables were higher than he had imagined.

He remembered, before, peanuts yielded about 120 kilograms per acre, sweet potatoes 200 kilograms per acre, but here the vegetables were ten times that.

Zheng Tao explained: "Chairman, without the soil improvement and crop rotation from the previous year, it would have been difficult to grow vegetables. Tie Ma and Tong Niu laid a solid foundation, consistently protecting the soil and pursuing its sustainable development."

"The cultivation of vegetables requires considerable human labor for sowing, nursery, watering, weeding, fertilizing, and harvesting. Moreover, prevention of diseases and pests, as well as timely picking of crops, is necessary to ensure the freshness and quality of the vegetables."

Zhou Yi could relate to this.

Harvesting peanuts and sweet potatoes was handled by the Agricultural Machinery Brothers, but later for watermelons, thanks to Zheng Tao, they recruited a good number of retired farming team members to take care of and pick the melons.

Zhou Yi pondered: "Old Zheng, it looks like we also need a farming team."

"Chairman, it would be best if we have one."

"Then in your opinion, what form should our farming team take?"

Zheng Tao stroked his beard: "I think, we can start with the retired members of the previous farming teams as a foundation, and recruit retired farming personnel from the three cities of the Development Alliance and nearby cities."

"Most of these individuals are over 35, considered elderly, and their daily energy, strength, and stamina aren't what they used to be. However, they are experienced. What our company needs is precision in operation, not a lack of repetitive labor."

"We offer free medical support, allowing employees to delay aging, a safe and stable living environment, and a salary above average. We shouldn't worry about finding suitable farmers."

Zhou Yi nodded.

That was a good idea.

In Zhou Yi's eyes, these thirty-somethings were in the prime of life; given the right diet and medical care, their work experience would be incredibly valuable.

He contemplated briefly: "Then let's formally establish a farm under the agriculture department, let's call it 'United Farm.' The salary remains the same, set at twice that of other city farming teams, 6000 mushrooms per month. If there is additional technology and improvements to new crops, we can add more to the base salary."

"The work schedule will also be four days on, one day off."

"Old Zheng, what do you think?"

Zheng Tao said with a smile: "Chairman, this treatment is top-notch. With the three agricultural machines, only 40 people are needed for the farm. If we need temporary help during the busy vegetable picking seasons, we can just hire temporary workers."

"Let's go ahead with that then. You can decide the specifics based on your actual situation."

"Chairman, there's one more thing."

Zheng Tao's expression suddenly became serious.

"From my perspective, the agriculture department urgently needs to increase the number of agricultural machines, at least two. This year we need to maintain 4000 acres of farmland, which will increase the workload of Tie Ma and Tong Niu to 160%. If they keep operating at this overload, it will cause irreversible damage to them."

"They won't complain, just work harder to get things done well. But I cannot turn a blind eye, Chairman, we need more hands."

Zhou Yi pinched the bridge of his nose upon listening: "This is my fault, I wasn't thorough in my considerations."

Long-term high-load operation of mechanical life is inherently dangerous.

The company has Da Vinci at the forefront, and the Agricultural Machinery Brothers at the back.

Both are workaholics.

Zhou Yi said to Tie Ma: "If your workload is overburdened, you must speak up. Sometimes I miss such details. We must be pragmatic; Tie Ma, if you encounter any specific difficulties, be sure to raise them."

"Chairman, I believe we can handle the 4000 acres. Records and limits are meant to be broken." Tie Ma insisted somewhat proudly.

"Break your ass!"

Zheng Tao, who rarely swore, pointed at its head and cursed vehemently: "You and Tong Niu have both been smoking hot from overheating lately; if this goes on, it will only result in severe damage. Don't act as if there are no problems just because you can still operate!"

"Not every repair will be successful; I've seen agricultural machines that can no longer run after being overloaded! You may be made of metal, but you're not immortal!"

Tie Ma was rendered speechless by the scolding.

Zhou Yi also recognized the danger: "Old Zheng is right, I will immediately recruit more people. Tie Ma, you haven't taken a break in over a year, so I hope you take some time off now."

He began to ponder.

It was time to personally make a trip outside to recruit staff.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.