Richest Man: Divine-Grade Reconstruct System Chapter 1319 - 1172: Lao Lin

This really isn’t an exaggeration, it’s exactly how things are.

When Lin Yi had just taken over this Dayou Kingdom, the actual grain reserves in the national treasury were basically almost gone.

If they really ran into some natural disaster or man‑made calamity, then they’d probably just be left staring helplessly.

There simply wasn’t any grain to be had; not only were the grain stores in this Capital City emptied out, but the granaries all over the country were in the same state, just as tight and strained.

You could say that if you added up all the grain stored in granaries across the realm back then, it still wouldn’t match the amount in a single granary today.

You have to know, the giant granaries now standing outside the Capital City of Dayou have multiplied countless times compared to before.

As it stands, once these granaries are opened, even if they supply grain to everyone in the entire Capital City, they could last for more than two years.

This is no boast, it’s a fact: as these Merchants hauled grain in, not only did the common people buy up grain, but all the surplus grain circulating on the market was likewise purchased by the Government.

Lin Yi had people stockpile grain on a massive scale, to ensure that the supply of grain would be more than sufficient; only once grain is secured can anything else be secured.

Only if people have food can there be development; after all, in times like these, who can say for sure what will happen?

Even if the weather is good now, you never know if by year’s end a heavy rainstorm or a drought will come along and wreck the entire grain crop. Though Lin Yi has crossed over with modern technology, this "depending on heaven for food" problem is something that can never be fully solved at any time; moreover, the current terrain is nowhere near as flat as in later eras, and on top of that, in reality—

there aren’t nearly enough good crop varieties or good fertilizers and such. All this means current grain yields are far below those of later generations. Even if you planted modern genetically modified corn on one mu of land, the yield definitely wouldn’t exceed 500 jin.

This isn’t idle talk, it’s how things actually are.

After all, right now it’s impossible for every household to use those kinds of fertilizers; you have to understand, aside from fertilizer, there’s basically no other nutrients left in the soil.

Relying solely on those artificial fertilizers is obviously not enough. Precisely because of this, the land’s condition worsens year by year, and the nutrient content in the soil drops with each passing year. If this year you can get 500 jin, next year it might only reach 400 jin—it can only keep decreasing, there’s no such thing as it increasing.

This is one of the key issues Lin Yi is currently most focused on: if you want the crops to grow well, fertilizers are absolutely indispensable.

He likewise intends, in the future, to bring over fertilizer refining technology, to fully develop the refining techniques for nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, and carry out pilot projects here in Dayou. Only then can people’s grain output keep increasing; otherwise, as the economy develops and society advances, more and more people will abandon farming and throw themselves into other lines of work.

By that time, even if the amount of land stays the same, it still won’t produce enough grain. As fewer and fewer people farm, grain will become increasingly in short supply.

Once it really gets to that point, a vicious cycle will set in, and they may have no choice but to turn their gaze overseas—either sending migrants abroad or conquering some region and making that place specialize in farming.

This is indeed one of Lin Yi’s plans: he wants to seize some region, some place with especially rich water and soil, and turn it directly into Dayou’s backyard, into the grain depot of this kingdom. After all, for them, transport is not a problem; precisely because of that, with high‑intensity transport, these north‑south logistical issues absolutely won’t be a problem.

Besides, Lin Yi has always set his sights on the whole world, not just on this little patch of land right in front of him.

For that reason, this plan will also be gradually put into practice. Of course, if a person has no long‑term concern, they’ll surely face immediate worries; just like with these granaries— even if the most fertile land in the world is put under their control to grow grain, how many years can it keep producing? Ten or twenty years down the line, will that land still be just as fertile?

Naturally, that depends on continual supplements of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium.

Because of this, fertilizer processing is one of the indispensable projects, and also one of the livelihood projects.

Of course, all that is talk for the future. For now, Lin Yi took Xiao Zihan along, and the two of them drove all the way to the construction site of the first residential compound in Dayou.

Looking at the site fences enclosing the construction area, Lin Yi actually felt a strange illusion, as if he had already returned to the 21st century.

The fences outside looked so familiar; though they were much poorer in quality than those of later times, they were broadly similar, and appeared almost indistinguishable from modern construction sites. This gave him a faint, out‑of‑time feeling.

And the rows of high‑rising buildings already shooting up within the site looked even more out of place in this society.

Such buildings are very common in modern cities, but in this ancient world they’re absolutely unique; you could say that right now there is nothing like them anywhere in the world. After all, both the main structure and façade design of these houses came from blueprints Lin Yi obtained in later times. Even though they’ve been given some "ancient style" treatment, compared to current buildings here, it’s hard to even find words to describe the difference— in any case, they’re completely unlike anything else.