In the afternoon, dozens of wizards from the Iyetta school were gathering in the spacious magic laboratory, thinking about the profound meaning of the magic star's words.
However, the young and energetic Alok didn't have so many worries and immediately answered. "Food is of course wheat, beans and corn..."
Lidya also raised her hand high and answered. “We need to plant the seed into the ground, water it, fertilize it, and repeat until it grows out of the ground!”
"Yes, you can say that!" Linn nodded, and then continued to ask with a smile. "Then do you know how plants convert various elements into nutrients that can be absorbed by us?"
Alok and Lydia were speechless. Even a three-ring wizard like Philip who focused on elemental science was stopped by Linn's question.
They have never really paid attention to how wheat absorbs various elements in the land during its growth, and finally turns into edible food.
Fortunately, Lin En didn't expect them to be able to answer it, so he directly revealed the answer.
"It relies on photosynthesis!"
This is common sense known to everyone in the Federation in the previous life!
At the lowest level of the entire ecosystem, plants convert carbon dioxide and water into organic matter that stores energy through photosynthesis, which is the source of biological power!
In ancient times, human beings obtained food through gathering and hunting like wild beasts. It was greatly affected by the environment, weather and luck, and was very unstable. Starvation was a common occurrence.
It was not until the two skills of farming and animal husbandry were highlighted, and the ability to obtain food stably, that a solid foundation was laid for the subsequent large-scale settlement of groups and the formation of a country.
However, this kind of stability is also limited. Perhaps a drought or a large-scale war can burn everything down!
Until the 21st century, for the first time, humans directly synthesized starch in the laboratory using carbon dioxide, water, electricity (light) and a special catalytic enzyme!
This achievement is undoubtedly revolutionary!
This means that from now on, food production will be directly freed from dependence on land, light and the environment, and can be produced directly in batches like an assembly line operation!
The efficiency has been improved by several levels!
To know the natural photosynthesis of plants, converting inorganic matter into organic matter requires dozens of extremely complex biochemical reactions, which takes several months. The theoretical energy conversion efficiency is also very low, about 2%.
Synthetic starch only requires eleven processes, and the energy conversion rate is increased to 7%.
After entering the 22nd century, based on the needs of interstellar voyages and the establishment of nuclear fusion reactors, artificial starch once again ushered in a technological blowout innovation, and the energy utilization rate directly soared to about 20%, and the eleven steps , cut down to six steps!
In addition, Zhinao also has technologies for artificially synthesizing wheat flour and corn flour. After all, these things are just synthesized from some inorganic substances. Although the technical difficulty is higher, it still remains the same!
Linn extended his right hand while explaining the principles of magic.
The water vapor and carbon dioxide present in the air were quickly stripped out, followed by a strong flash of lightning, and various trace elements were integrated into it under the control of mental power.
Use the void as a pot and magic power as a shovel to transform the inorganic into organic...
Linn just showed off his artificial bread skills in front of dozens of wizards!
About fifteen seconds later, tiny particles of powder began to emerge in the void, floating and accumulating together, forming a ball.
This scene, which was like a creation from the void, made all the wizards of the Iyetta school marvel!
"water!"
Lin En spoke again, and more water vapor was converted into liquid water and poured into the powder. Then he kneaded the dough quickly with [Mage's Hands]. The ball quickly deformed and twisted under the pressure, and finally used microwave heating technology to directly Bake.
The dough, which was originally only one finger thick, immediately expanded due to heat and turned into a square bread brick four fingers thick!
It only took about three minutes!
"This is my magic bread!"
Lin En urged the [Mage's Hand] to place the bread bricks on the square table.
Alok, Kevin, Phillip and others immediately gathered around. Dozens of pairs of eyes stared at the bread bricks on the table, amazed by the magic work that Linn had done...
"Is it edible?" Lydia reached out and poked it. It felt soft to the touch, not hard enough to be used as a shield or weapon like the bread she bought in the market.
"Of course!" Linn said in a funny voice, otherwise what would he do with these things?
After hearing Linn's affirmative reply, Lydia immediately tore off a piece and held it in her mouth.
"How is it? Does it taste good?" Lin En asked quickly. Although he added a lot of trace elements to it to enhance its nutrition, it was hard to say what the specific taste was.
Lydia frowned and thought for a long time before finding an adjective.
"It tastes like clouds!"
The girl's comment made Phillip and others extremely curious, so they started eating one by one, and then they understood why Lydia said that.
Because this kind of bread has a soft bite, not hard at all, and tastes much better than white bread. The only drawback is that it has no taste.
If you can dip it in some beans and eat it with it, it will definitely be delicious!
"It seems that from now on we don't have to worry about food anymore!" Philip said extremely excitedly.
Linn's bread-making skill is really great. This means that in the future, wizards will no longer have to carry any food when they travel far away. When they are thirsty, they can extract the water vapor from the air. When they are hungry, they can use a bread-making skill. , simply not too convenient.
"I wonder how many circles of magic this counts. Can apprentices also use it? How much magic power does it cost?" Kevin asked a substantive question, that is, its universality.
This is related to the scope of application of this technique.
"Judging from the difficulty of casting the spell, casting a complete [Magic Bread Technique] should be considered a three-ring magic!" Lin En said in a deep voice.
Kevin frowned slightly. The total number of three-ring wizards in the council was only two thousand. Even if they all cast this spell together, they would not be able to supply the entire kingdom!
Fortunately, Linn quickly spoke up. "We can separate each process and build the corresponding alchemy circle to make it, then the difficulty will be much lower."
"It would be even simpler if it was just synthetic starch!"
Of course, starch alone cannot make bread, but it is absolutely no problem at all as the daily food of the poor!
Just consume carbon dioxide, water, electricity and magic power!
The first two are everywhere, and the latter two require the use of the council's thunderstone and magic stone reserves.
"But... wouldn't this consume too much?" Kevin hesitated again and said. The daily rations for three million people cannot consume a small amount of energy!
"Don't worry, it won't be long before we no longer need to consider energy issues." Lynn patted Phillip on the shoulder and said with a smile.
They recently discovered a new magic stone mine. As for electricity, isn't there a nuclear fusion reactor that is about to be built?
In fact, the Federation's artificial food technology was only widely used after nuclear fusion and antimatter annihilation technology were developed!
After dispelling the doubts of Kevin and others, Linn turned to look out the door and said.
"Laud, come in!"
After receiving the order, Lauder, who had been waiting outside the door for a long time, quickly walked in with his prosthetic leg.
After entering the door, the first thing he looked at was the torn piece of bread on the square table with only half a piece left.
From the perspective of Lauder, who had extremely limited knowledge of magic, this piece of bread was conjured out of thin air by Lynn using magic!
It is a miracle created by the void!
No wonder Master Lin En dared to let him sell nearly half of his wheat reserves in just a few days!
"You should have a taste too!" Linn reached out and stuffed the remaining half of the bread to Lauder.
The latter was also so excited that he broke off a piece and put it into his mouth. The soft texture melted in his mouth.
"Sure enough, it's just like clouds!" Lauder said with emotion. "If this magic bread could be delivered to the market in large quantities, probably no one would buy wheat anymore."
I just don’t know what the expressions of the wealthy merchants and nobles who are frantically collecting grain will be like when they see this thing?
Lauder thought to himself, but he did not forget the business and immediately took out a secret envelope from his arms.
"Sir Linn, this is the list of people collected by the psychic wizards of the Parliament. They are trying to blame the cholera kingdom for this time by raising the price of food."
Those nobles hid themselves behind the scenes and relied on remote control of various caravans to purchase large amounts of wheat. They even killed many of their cronies responsible for operations in an attempt to cut off the possibility of tracing their origins.
However, there are no secrets in the soul search. The psychic wizards spent several days and still followed the offline path. After all, the nobles still planned to continue to cause trouble, so they would inevitably continue to send people and businessmen. team to make contact.
The Archduke of Gard, the Marquis of Mortain, Count Bell, Count Herder...
This list is very long, covering almost all the great nobles in the northern part of the kingdom. If it were a year ago, every name on the list would be enough to affect the stability of the entire kingdom.
"There is also information about that person. According to the investigation by the wizards, he seems to be involved in the plan of the Cholera Kingdom!" Lauder said very cryptically.
Lin En nodded, not too surprised. Without the other party's acquiescence, how could the noble dare to make such a big deal.
But it happened to save him the trouble of looking for excuses...
"How much food has been released now?" Lin En put away the file in his hand and asked casually.
"About 90,000 tons of wheat, totaling 173,600 imperial gold coins..." Lauder reported excitedly.
This is simply a money grab!
The most important thing is that this is just the beginning. They still have half of the wheat that they have not thrown away. That is the real big deal. After all, if the current momentum continues, won't the price of a kilogram of wheat increase one or two hundred times easily?
Linn thought about it and felt that it should be about the same.
Although those nobles were very wealthy, accumulated over generations, the cash they could spare was only about a million imperial gold coins, which might not be able to buy all the wheat.
After finishing the pleasant information, Lauder then carefully reported the bad news. "Due to skyrocketing wheat prices, large-scale famine has occurred in the western and northern territories of the kingdom."
Although the Parliament ostensibly controls the entire kingdom, it actually only has absolute control over the 'cleaned' southern, central and newly captured eastern territories. The rest of the territory is still under the control of the nobles.
Nowadays, the nobles are busy buying wheat to make money, so naturally no one can care about the lives of the poor in the territory.
Lauder knew very well that this magic star still cared about the poor, so he tried to use his words carefully when talking about the scene of hungry people everywhere, eating grass and trees.
However, to his expectation, Lin En did not show any sign of anger or worry. Instead, he ordered with a smile.
"Just in time, let Leidel do the work, bring some food over, and then distribute the replaced flintlocks to them!"
This...this...fires a gun?
Lauder was shocked. He didn't expect that Linn would use such brutal means to solve the problem.
In other words, when the nobles were gradually released and pushed into the game, the magic star should have already planned a follow-up strategy.
"Your wisdom is so vast..." Lauder quickly flattered him, but his tone was somewhat sincere.
This nonsense of the nobles was tantamount to completely losing the hearts of the people. Coupled with the operations of releasing food and firing guns, they could easily regain the western and northern territories of the kingdom, and also win over the hearts of the people.
Linn didn't pay attention to Lauder's flattery and continued to ask how the grain collection plan he ordered was going.
"It is true that a small number of caravans have sold the grain in their hands, and more of them are the kingdom's citizens who are selling grain to us at low prices." Lauder replied truthfully.
"This really... surprises me." Lin En suddenly couldn't laugh or cry, but this also proves that their strategy of improving people's living standards has achieved good results.
You must know that the current price of wheat on the market is several times their purchase price, but the residents are still willing to sell the grain to them at a low price.
Lin En's face showed a slight smile, and then he suddenly spoke coldly. “Let’s lower the purchase price of wheat per kilogram to fifteen coppers tonight!”
"Yes, Master Linn." Lauder couldn't help but wiped the cold sweat on his head. Before, he had never understood why the magic star wanted to collect grain at a price far lower than the market price. Now everything is clear.
This is not the price of harvesting grain, it is clearly the countdown to raising the butcher's knife!
(End of chapter)
