Chapter 343 - 340: Brimming with Evil

Construction at Hongku Port was proceeding in full swing.

Supporting facilities for the pier, warehouses, employee dormitories, staff cafeterias, power distribution stations, roads, a water treatment plant, and large gas storage tanks were expanding at a visibly rapid pace.

「At the same time.」

As the person in charge of the port management company, Xu Yingcheng was not in the Harbor District at this time. Instead, he was about 5.3 kilometers to the northwest.

On an armored vehicle, Xu Yingcheng opened the roof hatch, stood on top, and scanned the surroundings with a pair of binoculars.

Before him lay a stretch of dry, sandy land. Though the Red Sea was just nearby, one shouldn't mistake this for a warm, humid coastal plain.

In reality, this was one of the driest parts of the Suez Region. It had a typical tropical desert climate controlled by the subtropical high-pressure belt.

Except for some drought-resistant weeds and small shrubs near the coast, the areas further inland were mostly just bare sandy land, Gobi Desert, and rocky hills.

And now, before his eyes, a special team was busy at work on this barren land.

They were the agricultural technology team from the Haitian Agriculture Group, also 500 strong.

The team leader, Mi Liang Aragon, was also standing on the vehicle's roof. "We've reclaimed 20,000 mu so far."

Lowering his binoculars, Xu Yingcheng looked at the planning map Mi Liang handed him.

The map detailed the coastal plain area of the Suez Red Sea Province. The province's entire coastline stretched for about 1,200 kilometers. Its coastal lowlands covered roughly 20,000 square kilometers, with the inland sub-plains adding another 20,000 square kilometers.

This 40,000-square-kilometer region was all within 45 to 90 kilometers of the Red Sea coast.

Homo Sapiens Company had already reached an agreement with Suez to lease this area for agricultural production. The lease was for 50 years, at a rate of 15,000 Jin yuan per square kilometer annually, for a total of 600 million Jin yuan per year.

As for how Homo Sapiens Company would develop and utilize these 40,000 square kilometers of desert plains...

The Haitian Agriculture team before them was responsible for constructing the first batch of experimental fields, covering 100 square kilometers.

"Manager Xu, the power supply equipment needs to be set up as soon as possible. Otherwise, we can't pump water."

Xu Yingcheng waved his hand. "Don't worry. The next transport ship will bring over the equipment for a gas-fired thermal power station. It will have a generating capacity of 500 megawatts, which will be more than enough for you."

"The fields I've already leveled can be flooded soon."

Mi Liang pointed to a section of farmland where drainage ditches and field ridges had been dug.

"By the way, the New Luzon Shipyard will be sending over two nuclear-powered channel-dredging vessels in a week."

"What are those?" Mi Liang looked astonished.

Xu Yingcheng took out his tablet, pulled up an internal equipment brief, and handed it to Mi Liang.

Mi Liang examined it carefully.

The design of the channel-dredging vessel was similar to the previous Sea Plough, but it had specialized tracks, making it amphibious. It was powered by two thorium-based molten salt nuclear reactors with a total output of 100 megawatts.

The dredging equipment on its underside could excavate enormous channels 20 to 50 meters deep and 80 to 120 meters wide.

When the channel-dredging vessel was in operation, its excavation speed was two to three kilometers per hour in sandy soil. In rocky strata, the speed was 500 to 800 meters per hour.

"This thing could dig a canal, couldn't it?"

"It was originally developed to dig canals. To develop the coastal plains of the Red Sea Province and the sub-plains further inland, we have to let seawater flow naturally into the fields to reduce future operating costs."

Mi Liang nodded in agreement. "True. If we relied on water pipelines, we'd definitely need pressurized pumps, which would consume a lot of energy."

"And a river channel 120 meters wide and 50 meters deep could easily accommodate ten-thousand-ton-class transport ships. That would be a huge help for transporting grain and agricultural machinery in the future."

Mi Liang handed the tablet back. "The company really has thought of everything."

After inspecting the farmland, the two men went to a seedling nursery built by the sea.

This nursery was open-air, and lush green rice seedlings were visible. To facilitate the upcoming planting, the agricultural technology team had already started cultivating them in advance.

Xu Yingcheng walked to the edge of a seedling paddy. All the paddies were soaked in seawater, yet the rice seedlings were completely unaffected, still growing vigorously.

He crouched down and pulled up a seedling. "I hear this is the latest improved variety?"

"Yes, this is a genetically recombined perennial seawater rice—Sea Rice 14."

"Perennial? You mean you can plant it once and harvest it repeatedly?"

Mi Liang nodded. "That's right. With the tropical desert climate of the Red Sea Province, we can get three harvests a year and continue harvesting for five years."

"This is great stuff! But what's the yield like?"

"As long as there's enough top-dressing fertilizer, the yield per mu is about 800 kilograms per harvest."

Xu Yingcheng did a quick calculation. "800 kilograms per mu? Three harvests a year... that's 2,400 kilograms annually. 40,000 square kilometers is 60 million mu, so we could produce 144 million tons of rice every year."

"If all 40,000 square kilometers are developed, we can indeed achieve that yield."

Xu Yingcheng's eyes narrowed slightly. "Does this rice have any anti-theft measures?"

"Don't worry! The company was prepared for that long ago." Mi Liang shrugged with a smile.

As a special, genetically recombined rice variety, Haitian Agriculture naturally wouldn't be without its precautions.

Not only did they implement genetic modifications to make the seeds sterile, but they also intentionally inserted three types of heat-resistant toxic proteins into the rice's genes. These toxic proteins not only made the rice leaves highly poisonous but also meant the rice grains themselves contained the toxins.

The reason given for inserting these toxic proteins was, euphemistically, "pest control."

Pest control was indeed one of Haitian Agriculture's goals for inserting the toxic protein genes. Ordinary insects that ate the leaves or grains of Sea Rice 14 would be poisoned to death on the spot.

Even the locusts that frequently plagued the Suez Region were not immune to these toxic proteins.

But Haitian Agriculture had another objective: to make it impossible for Sea Rice 14 to be stolen.

These three toxic protein genes were located within the core of the rice's genetic sequence. If these three genes were knocked out, the rice would lose its tolerance to salinity and alkalinity, its pest resistance, and would be unable to produce grains.

What was even more frightening was that these three toxic proteins were heat-resistant, able to withstand temperatures of around 240 degrees Celsius without breaking down. Their toxicity was equally effective against humans and livestock.

A normal adult would die from poisoning after eating just three grams of Sea Rice 14 grains.

Given its intense toxicity, why would Haitian Agriculture plant this kind of rice?

The reason was that Haitian Agriculture possessed the technology to process these toxic proteins, a technique called "viral fermentation technology."

By using special, genetically recombined viruses, they could break down these three toxic proteins, converting them into ordinary amino acids, water, and carbon dioxide.

After this detoxification process, the sea rice grains could be eaten directly or further processed and refined into rice flour, starch, and rice bran oil.

Furthermore, farmland irrigated with seawater would inevitably become completely salinized, making it suitable only for growing sea rice and no other crops.

Homo Sapiens Company's actions were clearly filled with malicious intent.

Of course, the Red Sea Province was a tropical desert to begin with, so the salinization of the land didn't really matter. Suez should probably thank Homo Sapiens Company for developing the area.

Once the development of these 40,000 square kilometers of coastal plains was complete, it would mean an additional 144 million tons of rice produced on Suez's own soil.

Moreover, the Suez Region had a total area of one million square kilometers, 950,000 of which were desert. All of this desert had the potential to be developed into sea rice paddies.

Although Homo Sapiens Company would undoubtedly take the lion's share of the profits, the scraps left over would be more than enough to feed Suez.