I See through Everything

Jiang Miao left Shuya’s temporary laboratory.

He headed to his own experimental greenhouse alone.

Ke Yong and another bodyguard sat under a nearby parasol. They appeared relaxed, but were secretly keeping a vigilant watch on the surroundings, especially the few nearby access points to the lab and the experimental greenhouse.

Next to their parasol were Li Wenna and another female bodyguard. They were with Shuya’s group.

Li Wenna sat at a table, her hands occasionally tapping on her laptop keyboard as she handled some work.

Although she was Shuya’s secretary, she also had to help with some farm matters. Lü Weibin had put her in charge of certain tasks, especially communication with headquarters.

Inside his exclusive experimental greenhouse, Jiang Miao was checking on the various crops.

A considerable number of crops were already planted inside.

These included Ginseng Fruit (pepino melon), Purple Alfalfa, soybeans, Tomatoes, cucumbers, and rice.

These greenhouses had a total cultivation area of five *mu*.

The Tomatoes, Ginseng Fruit, cucumbers, and soybeans had already flowered and borne fruit.

The Purple Alfalfa was growing exceptionally lush, while the rice was still heading.

He had converted two *mu* of the land into artificial saline-alkali plots, divided into five types to simulate mild, moderate, and severe salinity, as well as marine-intrusive and inland saline-alkali conditions.

These saline-alkali experimental plots were planted with Purple Alfalfa, soybeans, and rice.

However, their growth varied.

Even though these were new varieties Jiang Miao had developed using his appraisal panel and breeding techniques, new strains could still fail to acclimate.

After all, to screen for suitable new varieties, he had used a full three tons of non-GMO soybeans, just to select 37 valuable mutant varieties from the resulting genetically mutated seeds.

The same went for the rice and Purple Alfalfa.

With traditional breeding methods, selecting useful varieties from three tons of mutated seeds would take three to five years.

Jiang Miao, however, could shorten this process to just a few weeks.

Only the mutant varieties that passed the initial screening were qualified for planting experiments.

The soybeans, Purple Alfalfa, and rice in the experimental plots before him were superior varieties, meticulously selected from tens of thousands of mutations.

’DD24 can’t adapt to high potassium?’ Jiang Miao noted down the variety’s condition in his notebook, using symbols and words only he could understand.

He walked past the experimental plot for the DD24 soybean.

The next few soybean varieties were all underwhelming.

Some were saline-alkali tolerant, but not drought-resistant.

Some were drought-resistant, but not disease-resistant.

Others performed acceptably in other respects, but had low yields.

When he reached the plot labeled DD28, Jiang Miao squatted down, looking at the edamame pods hanging heavy on the branches. ’This DD28 variety is quite something. Not only does it tolerate high-salinity seawater, but it’s also pest-resistant. The stalk is fairly sturdy, with good lodging resistance, and the yield is pretty good too...’

He roughly estimated the yield of a single plant. If converted to yield per *mu*, it would be around 183 kilograms.

This was a very high yield.

Considering the plot was managed extensively—without large amounts of chemical fertilizers or pesticides—achieving this yield was absolutely astounding.

Of course, soybean yields in some parts of the country could also be very high.

For example, some soybean fields managed by the Production and Construction Corps in the Western Regions could yield around 230 kilograms per *mu*. However, that level of output required excellent field management, rational use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, and good irrigation.

Similarly, in the genetically modified soybean-producing regions of America’s Mississippi River basin, the average yield could reach about 220 kilograms per *mu*.

The problem was that genetically modified soybeans raised issues of seed security, genetic contamination, and safety concerns.

But the DD28 that Jiang Miao had painstakingly selected could be irrigated directly with seawater or brackish water from inland lakes. And it could still yield 183 kilograms per *mu* under extensive management. This was definitely a variety with enormous potential.

Unfortunately, DD28’s cold resistance was poor; it couldn’t withstand temperatures below 15 degrees Celsius.

Jiang Miao wasn’t disappointed by this, however. It was only a first-generation variety. He could continue to improve upon DD28, and even consider setting up new experimental plots on the coastal saline-alkali lands of Bohai Bay.

However, he had no plans to head north for the time being.

For one thing, he couldn’t be too hasty. He had just cracked artificial eel breeding last year, then cultivated several new strawberry varieties. If he were to roll out such a superior soybean variety now, it would attract too much attention.

For another, Hailufeng Company’s resources were not yet robust enough for large-scale investment. If they launched a new soybean variety now, ordinary farmers might not buy in, which would hinder its promotion.

After all, the new varieties Jiang Miao was developing were geared toward saline-alkali tolerance. For ordinary farmland, the difference between planting a salt-tolerant variety and any other variety wouldn’t be particularly significant.

The Purple Alfalfa and rice he was working on were also primarily saline-alkali and drought-tolerant varieties.

He chose to focus on saline-alkali and drought tolerance because a huge portion of the country’s land was saline-alkali soil.

The country had 99.13 million hectares of saline-alkali land, equivalent to 1.487 billion *mu*—almost one *mu* of saline-alkali land per capita.

Of this, 150 million *mu* had the potential for reclamation, a research focus for many of the country’s agricultural institutions.

But the easily reclaimable land wasn’t Jiang Miao’s target. He had his sights set on the remaining billion-plus *mu* of land that was difficult to reclaim, because salt- and drought-tolerant crops could be planted there directly, without any special soil amelioration.

Even if only a third of that land could be cultivated, it would be an incredibly significant breakthrough.

At its peak, the country imported about 100 million tons of soybeans.

If just one-third of that land could be cultivated, the planting area would reach about 430 million *mu*. If all of it were planted with DD28, yielding 183 kilograms per *mu*, those 430 million *mu* of saline-alkali land could produce 78.69 million tons of soybeans.

Combined with the country’s existing soybean production, that could almost completely replace imports.

Of course, completely replacing imports was impossible.

After all, if the country stopped importing entirely, the global soybean market would instantly collapse. It wouldn’t just be America’s farmers suffering heavy losses; farmers and agricultural companies across South America and Russia would be ruined as well.

What’s more, without soybean imports, it would be difficult to manage the resulting trade imbalance. This would make other countries even more reluctant to purchase domestic industrial products, pushing the global economy further toward isolation and trade protectionism.

Therefore, even if Jiang Miao were to introduce an even better salt-tolerant soybean, the planted area would likely not exceed 100 million *mu*.

Exceeding that area would necessitate a reduction of over 20 million tons in foreign soybean imports, which would inevitably mean cutting the export quotas of certain regions.

Such an impact would trigger a severe chain reaction.

These countries rely on exporting agricultural products and minerals to earn money. If an annual bulk commodity import of a hundred million tons is suddenly cut, they lose foreign exchange income and naturally can’t afford to import industrial products.

In this situation, the government would consider the bigger picture of the global economy. Jiang Miao’s new soybean variety would likely only become a strategic reserve technology, not to be fully promoted for cultivation unless it was a last resort.

They would probably plant a few tens of millions of *mu* at first, using it as an opportunity to curb the arrogance of the big four grain traders—ABCD—and suppress soybean prices, before returning to the previous import scale.

There was no helping it; the domestic industrial supply chain was terrifyingly comprehensive, covering nearly every industrial sector.

Under these circumstances, they had to ensure that their industrial products had sufficient markets to absorb this capacity. Therefore, they had to manage the trade imbalance and prevent other countries from becoming too poor.

Otherwise, facing trade deficits of billions or even tens of billions year after year, these countries—unlike America with its "nuclear-powered money printer"—would eventually reach a breaking point.

Maintaining import volumes was one way to balance the trade deficit.