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However, after the ceremony, a French official informed him that there had been a change of plan regarding his scheduled testimony at the public trial of the pirates; he now needed to return immediately to Algiers to help the French "diplomats" make contact with Pasha Eunice.

...

Bourges, in the north-central part of France, is an extremely impoverished area, and Labourn Parish is one of its poorest villages.

Sharecropper Alberic sat on a wooden barrel, inhaling the dry, hot air, his face showing a look of utter despair in front of the cracked earth.

He simply did not have the strength to carry water any longer.

As the weather grew hotter, the small river that once flowed by the village had dried up. He now had to walk two miles to fetch water from the neighboring village to irrigate his fields.

Indeed, there were too few communal horses in the village, and it was more than ten days before it was his turn to use one.

And the small amount of water he could carry by hand was woefully inadequate for the thirty acres he had planted.

After a hail disaster, he had applied for government relief in the form of potato seeds, only to find that it never rained afterward.

He had so far only planted two acres of potatoes, the maximum area he and his son could water by hand, for planting any more would mean the potatoes dying from dehydration.

Alberic was now considering whether he should eat the potatoes meant for seeds—although it was a serious violation of the rules, the priest had said they could only keep for half a month at most, and it would be a shame to let them all rot.

Just then, a young tenant farmer from the village passed by, ringing a bell and shouting:

"All men, gather at the church!"

Alberic hurriedly waved to the man and asked loudly:

"Didier, are we going to work for the baron?"

"No, it\'s to help," Didier said, "Help Yanar Parish move stones."

"Ah? Move stones?"

Didier nodded impatiently: "Yes, the government brought them specially, saying it\'s some kind of fertilizer. Supposed to make the crops grow better. But it looks like just stones to me."

Alberic quickly called his son and they both headed for the church.

About forty or fifty people had already gathered near the church, buzzing with speculation:

"Why go to Yanar Village to work?"

"I heard Mr. Audreyan say the government has passed a \'water pump rental act,\' and they\'ve obtained a water pump!"

"But what does that have to do with us?"

While Yanar Parish was a parish in relatively better condition, barely able to afford to rent a water pump, Labourn Parish was destitute, unable to pay the monthly rental fee of 200 livres, to say nothing of the parish bank.

Immediately, a villager said: "Mr. Audreyan stated that according to the rental act, Yanar Village must lend us the water pump for eleven days each month, and in return, we need to work for them."

"A water pump?!" Alberic exclaimed excitedly, "I heard that thing can water dozens of acres in one day, we\'re saved!"

Before long, the parish Stadtholder, Mr. Audreyan, arrived at the church, counted the people, and then instructed:

"Today and tomorrow we move fertilizer for Yanar Parish. The day after tomorrow, we move our own.

"After that, we\'ll also help them with repairing the canals."

As he spoke, joy appeared on his face: "However, they will deliver the water pump to us tomorrow evening!"

The tenant farmers immediately erupted into cheers—with water, there was hope for survival. Ignoring the blazing sun overhead, they followed Mr. Audreyan toward the adjacent village...

Two days later, Alberic\'s family also received some of the light grey stones marked with black spots. According to the priest, it was a very precious fertilizer that only needed to be crushed into fine bits, soaked in water, and then applied to the land to significantly improve crop yield.

All of the fertilizer was obtained on credit after the parish signed an agreement with a company called Gemini Trading Company. It turned out that one acre required an investment of five to seven sols, to be paid after the fall harvest. However, the company guaranteed that if the increased crop yield did not exceed the cost of the fertilizer, they would not charge a penny.

Yes, these stones were the phosphate rock that Joseph had ordered to be transported back from Nauru, essentially mineralized bird droppings.

This stuff was definitely the best fertilizer one could get in this era!

You see, Nauru in later years made a fortune selling "bird droppings stones," and became one of the richest countries for a brief period. The citizens each had a luxury car, bought property in Australia at will, and flew overseas for cold treatments.

Of course, after the mines were depleted, they fell back into poverty overnight, but that\'s another story.

Limited by transport capacity, only two shipments of phosphate rock, totaling over six hundred tons, had been brought back, temporarily supplied to the more troubled regions of France. However, a second fleet of seventeen ships had already reached the Pacific Ocean. When they returned, they would greatly improve France\'s agricultural output.

For now, though, Britain was still the world\'s leading naval power, so France could not yet publicize this matter and had to quietly transport the "stones" back home. If news ever leaked, it might be forcibly seized by the British.

Therefore, Joseph had also prepared an alternative plan: to promote the method of composting.

The so-called "composting" involved using microorganisms to process organic matter, such as leaves, straw, food scraps, and even feces, decomposing it into humus, which is a form of fertilizer plants can absorb.