183: Chapter 183 Integration of the Crime Battalion, Reorganization of Defense (2)

Xue Mingyuan did not look at Lu Changyuan. His eyes were fixed straight ahead—straight ahead was that row of newly chiseled sentry platforms on the Ring Reef.

The sentry post on the far east was facing the direction of the Dragon Burial Trench—standing there, one could see the outermost Ring Reef exposed after the tide receded.

Embedded in the reef wall were sensor arrays—beneath the arrays lay the deep sea, three thousand zhang deep.

Leng Feng had installed a repeater on the sentry post yesterday—the green light was currently on.

Lu Changyuan shifted his gaze away from Xue Mingyuan—then moved his hand away from the roster.

He turned to Commander Cai.

"You are the commander of the Sin Battalion—execute this roster."

He pushed the roster half an inch toward Commander Cai's hand.

After pushing it, he patted Commander Cai on the shoulder—the action was extremely brief.

After patting him, he turned and walked toward the reef wall—stopping before the stone steps on the inner side of the reef wall.

He looked back at the flat ground of the Outer Port—two thousand seven hundred people were still standing in place.

No one moved. No one spoke.

The sea breeze blew in from the east—blowing the hems of the two thousand seven hundred grey cloth military robes in the formation in the same direction.

"From now on, for the shifts and rotations of the outer perimeter warning line—coordinate directly with Leng Feng."

Commander Cai opened the roster. He turned to the first page—and began reading the names starting from the first line.

The voice he used to read the names was not a roar—it was nearly half the volume of when he shouted at the troublemakers in the Sin Battalion camp.

But every name was read very clearly—there was no pause between the surname and given name, and after finishing one, he did not look up, but immediately read the next.

The people whose names were called walked out of the formation—and walked to the area on Commander Cai's right hand side marked with a white line.

The white line had been drawn by Su Qingli yesterday using formation ink—after the formation ink seeped into the gravel ground and dried, the color shifted from white to off-white.

Those standing inside the white line were the people on the first page—the outer perimeter warning line. Those standing outside were the rest—the Inner Harbor.

After about half a stick of incense—he finished reading.

Commander Cai closed the roster—after closing it, his fingers paused on the cover of the roster.

Then he tucked the roster into his belt—the position was next to his pipe.

The pipe bowl was still empty—but after tucking the roster in, he ran his fingers around the handle of the pipe.

Behind him was the sentry post for the first outer perimeter warning line.

The first person stood on the sentry platform—it was an Old Veteran in the battalion who had an old scar on his cheekbone.

The old scar extended from his left eyebrow bone down to below his cheekbone—it had been sliced by a sword edge.

He had been in the Sin Battalion for nearly four years—in those four years, three commanders had changed, and none of them could control him.

Commander Cai had kicked him on the first day—a kick to the backside, kicking him from the very back of the formation to the very front row.

After being kicked, he stood in his formation position for twelve days—he had not been late once in those twelve days.

That night of the bloody battle on the left flank, he stood at the outermost edge of the Fourth Squad—his feet were planted in the drainage ditch, and his shield was braced tighter than anyone else's.

When a fish demon bit his calf and tried to drag him backward, he was still gripping his shield.

He was assigned to the sentry post closest to the direction of the Dragon Burial Trench.

He stood his shield up at the edge of the sentry platform—the shield still bore the marks of being slashed by a fish bone blade that night on the left flank.

The blade mark slashed diagonally across the shield face from left to right—the depth of the scratch was about half a grain of rice.

The wood grain on the back of the shield had turned from pale yellow to dark brown after being soaked in seawater—but the leather rope on the shield handle was something he had newly replaced yesterday.

He set the shield upright—then pulled an observation scope from his waist.

The observation scope was newly made by the Blue Moon Island Workshop—the lens was ground extremely flat, and the scale lines on the scope barrel were engraved by Su Qingli herself.

He raised the observation scope—aiming it at the sea surface in the direction of the Dragon Burial Trench.

The tide had receded on the sea surface—the morning light spread across the water, and the seawater appeared dark blue under the morning light.

At the end of the dark blue—the line where the sea met the sky—was the direction of the Dragon Burial Trench mouth.

He watched for about ten breaths—then lowered the observation scope and glanced at the repeater next to the sentry platform.

The green light was on.

He slapped the surface of the shield with his hand—the force of the slap was not great, but the palm striking the shield produced a short, dull thud.

The dull thud bounced between the Ring Reef walls—and was then scattered by the sea breeze.

Lu Changyuan conducted a comprehensive inspection of Blue Moon Island.

This was the first time since he left the island for the fortress in Chapter 126—that he had walked through his island in its entirety.

The morning light spread from the east—first spreading over the Ring Reef, then over the sea surface of the Outer Port, and finally into the Spirit Plant Garden inside the island.

In the old field area of the Spirit Plant Garden—the eighty mu of the third season of earth vein jade spike had already headed.

The ears were pushing out from the leaf sheaths—the protruding ear tips were tender green, and the ear whiskers extended from the tips of the ears, swaying gently in the morning breeze.

The soil color of the forty mu of old fields had changed from the grey-white of the first season to dark brown—the sticky substance secreted by the earth vein jade spike roots in the soil had bound the gravel particles into an aggregate structure, and the spaces between the aggregates were filled with decomposed root stubble.

The forty mu of new fields had been opened just three months ago—in the gravel ground, one could still see the piles of gravel that had been picked out and stacked by the field ridges.

A very thin layer of moss grew on the gravel piles—the edges of the moss shimmered with a pale green in the morning light.

The earth vein jade spike roots in the new fields were turning the gravel into arable soil—the sharp edges of the gravel were eroded by the acid secreted by the root tips, and the surface of the gravel had changed from rough fractures to smooth curved surfaces.

Lu Changyuan squatted down on the field ridge—and grabbed a handful of soil from the old field.

The soil was cool in his palm—the aggregate-structured soil would naturally fall apart when held in his hand, not sticking into a clump.

He placed the soil under his nose and sniffed—there was no salty, fishy smell of seawater.

Three seasons ago, this piece of land was a gravel beach—the salt content was so high that by the third day after planting spirit rice, the leaf tips would turn yellow.

Now, the salt in the soil was pushed by the salt-excreting mechanism of the earth vein jade spike roots into the drainage ditch outside the field ridge—a layer of extremely fine white salt frost had accumulated at the bottom of the drainage ditch.

"Food self-sufficiency rate—" Ye Zhe walked over from the other end of the field ridge.

He was holding a worn-out planting record in his hand—on every page of the record, growth curves of the earth vein jade spike were drawn.

He turned the record to the latest page—a number was written in the estimated yield column for the third season.

"The third season's eighty mu are fully harvested—enough to feed three thousand two hundred people. There are currently over fourteen thousand people on the island—the self-sufficiency rate has risen from fifty-seven percent to nearly eighty percent. The remaining twenty percent is supplemented by spirit rice rationed by the military—five hundred shi per month, which fills the gap perfectly."