The expeditionary force began to dominate Southeast Asia by recruiting defeated soldiers

Chapter 457 Zhang Chi: There must be an egg in the national bowl (seeking gifts, recommendations)

As the Nanhua chicken farms gradually grew bigger and stronger, the entire market was also driven forward.

Local private capital took advantage of the situation and successively established new breeding enterprises such as "Darongji Poultry Farm" and "Taihe Poultry and Egg Company".

Compared with the previous sporadic egg supply relying on small farm workshops, now these formalized and large-scale chicken farms use unified technology, unified varieties, and unified feed management, which has led to a sharp increase in poultry and egg production.

With more eggs, the price naturally goes down.

The first people to benefit are those who "eat public food" such as the military, government system and teachers.

But Zhang Chi cared more about the ordinary people. In the past, one silver dollar could only buy dozens of eggs, and the price of an egg was equivalent to 1.5 yuan in later generations.

Ordinary people were reluctant to buy them, and eggs were almost a nutritional supplement and a luxury. Now, many families can finally "taste eggs once in a while," and cracking an egg into their breakfast bowl is a real improvement in their lives.

As the Nanhua chicken farms became better and better, some private capital also took advantage of it. For example, Dayongji Chicken Farm and Taihe Poultry and Egg Company are new-style chicken farms established by local private capital.

In Zhang Chi's long-term plan, large-scale egg poultry farming is just the starting point.

His goal is to make protein no longer a privilege, but a regular supply on the national table.

Everyone has enough eggs to eat, which is the reflection of the basic national strength.

As he said in his speech at the conference on enriching non-staple foods, "I know that there are many ethnic groups under our rule, and there are many frictions among them. There are huge differences in economic conditions between urban and rural areas. But as long as we can ensure that everyone has enough to eat and there is an egg in their bowl, then many problems will no longer be problems."

But things just went wrong.

Some people now report that boiled eggs taste fishy. Although they don’t get sick from eating them, the strange smell is always strange and disgusting.

Zhang Yeting wanted to know what was going on. Was there something wrong with the technology and breeding chickens imported from White Eagle? Was he being set up by the oligarchs on Wall Street?

"I've investigated and found that the problem might be with the feed." Zhang Guangsong paused and whispered, "According to the report, it just so happens that Nanhua's third, fifth, seventh, tenth, and twelfth chicken farms changed their feed suppliers last month."

Zhang Chi: "The others haven't changed yet?"

Zhang Guangsong shook his head. "After submitting the report, these few companies switched to a private supplier with a lower price - the Di Brothers Feed Factory. The remaining chicken farms of the Nanhua Group still purchase from our Nanhua Group feed factory due to geographical reasons."

"Are private investors also using this?" Zhang Chi asked.

"Preliminary investigations show that Darongji, Taihe Poultry and Egg Company, etc. also purchased feed from the Di brothers." Zhang Guangsong placed a registration document on the table.

"What's even more interesting is that White Eagle Capital is behind this 'Di Brothers', holding a 35% stake."

"So, there might really be something fishy about the feed?"

"It's possible," Zhang Guangsong said bluntly. "At least that's common sense. We still need to investigate the details."

Food issues are always a concern, and with White Eagle Capital behind this feed factory, Zhang Chi slammed the table fiercely when thinking of Sudan Red and gutter oil from before his time travel.

"What else is there to say? Check this place carefully!"

Although the egg is small, it concerns people's livelihood. If there is really someone with evil intentions behind this matter, Zhang Chi will not tolerate it.

Even if the investigation leads to his own uncle, he will take the lead in killing him.

Fortunately, Zhang Chi’s uncle is still teaching in the countryside of Guangxi Province.

Soon, the Public Welfare Investigation Bureau of the Nanyang Economic Investigation Department ordered the Di Brothers Feed Factory to suspend production and launched an investigation into it.

A few days later, Zhang Guangsong walked into Zhang Chi's office with the investigation results.

"We've investigated and found out the problem lies with the feed." Zhang Guangsong pulled out some documents and handed them to Zhang Chi. "The Di brothers have hooked up with the White Eagles and introduced the latest generation of feed production technology from there."

"They add a large amount of cheap but easily oxidized fish meal to the chicken feed they produce to supplement the protein. This fish meal is made from cheap small fish, shrimps and crabs from the docks, or unwanted, low-quality minced fish."

"So when chickens eat feed containing this fish meal, they naturally introduce the fishy smell of seafood into their eggs?"

Chen Zhenchuan, who was also in the office, came over to take a look at the information. "No wonder there's a problem with the boiled eggs. This kind of fishy smell must be very light. Scrambled eggs are not easy to detect."

In fact, what the time traveler Zhang Chi didn't know was that the eggs he ate before he traveled through time were generally fed with feed containing this kind of fish meal. It was cheap and also promoted hens to lay eggs. As for the disadvantage of having a slightly fishy smell, it had long been covered up by the heavy oil and salt in the modern diet.

The soldiers' collective reaction to the fishy taste was simply because they had previously been eating eggs laid by free-range chickens, and suddenly they switched to eggs laid by mechanized, feed-fed hens, and they could immediately tell the difference.

Zhang Chi sighed: "So I wronged the Di brothers. Their feed is legitimate and safe?"

Zhang Guangsong didn't dare to nod in agreement, so he could only directly give the conclusion of the investigation:

"Our people have done preliminary tests and found that the feed produced by the Di brothers is non-toxic and harmless, and has a higher protein content. Apart from making the eggs smell fishy, ​​it has no other drawbacks and is even cheaper.

Preliminary calculations show that if the feed mills directly under the Nanhua Group also use this technology, the cost of producing feed can be reduced by at least 30%.

After saying this, he looked at Zhang Chi and said, "The feed mill directly under our Nanhua Group still uses the previous generation technology of White Eagle. The main raw materials are corn, soybean meal, or wheat bran. These are all grains, and the cost is much higher than cheap fish meal."

"Fish meal also contains the crustaceans of shrimp, crab, and shellfish, so the resulting feed theoretically has a higher calcium content." Zhang Chi scratched his head. "Our territory is largely close to the sea, so obtaining fish meal is easier. It seems we should also introduce this technology?"

Thinking about the advantages of fish meal chicken feed, which are nothing more than cheapness and high protein content, Zhang Chi suddenly had an idea.

"How about trying mealworms (yellow mealworm larvae)? They're easier to raise and have more protein." Lest anyone think the insects were dirty, Zhang Chi explained, "Besides, chickens are supposed to eat insects."

Thinking that mealworms can be fed with kitchen waste and cultured underground, saving both cost and space, Zhang Chi suddenly felt that this was a good business.

Once large-scale breeding is rolled out, we can add some corn starch syrup and oatmeal to make protein energy bars, and export them directly to White Eagle to earn foreign exchange.

"Forget it. We'll try mealworm farming later. Let's introduce fish meal technology first. It can lower the price of chicken feed, and then the price of eggs will be even lower."

Fundamentally, what Zhang Chi wants to ensure is that every citizen has an egg in their bowl. As for the slightly fishy taste, maybe this is the price of industrialization?

Zhang Chi murmured, "But eggs have to be affordable before they can be enjoyed."

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The investigation into the fishy eggs incident came to an end and Zhang Guangsong left.

Zhang Chi tapped the table with his pencil and looked at Chen Zhenchuan. "Let's continue with what we just said. Where does the main resistance to establishing the Agricultural Bank come from?"