The Grain War of the Poor

This story is entirely fictional. Don’t take it seriously! Any resemblance to real people or events is purely coincidental! An agricultural science PhD transmigrates into the body of a starving man. His first meal is moss scraped from the base of a wall.

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Faced with an aunt who skimps on his rations and an uncle and aunt who demand repayment and seize his land, Jiang Yan smiles:

You want to compete with me on farming?

The clan’s harvest figures are faked? My data showing a 62% rate of empty husks will make the elders’ faces swell with shame!

You can’t grow crops in saline soil? My oilseed-cake desalination method will make spinach thrive!

Torrential rain destroys the dikes and floods the fields? I’ll build a life-saving levee overnight with bamboo-reinforced concrete!

When he steps out of the ancestral hall carrying golden sweet potato seedlings that yield three thousand jin per mu, the wasteland is transformed:

The salt merchant’s daughter presents a contract: “Want to work together? I can get us army food supply contracts.”

A noblewoman in exile opens a stone box: “I’ll trade you the Heavenly Artificer’s Lost Scroll for a city of concrete.”

From high-temperature composting beside the manure pit to steam-powered machinery on the South Seas...

In this battle to feed the poor, I’ll make every granary under heaven bear the Jiang name!