Hearing Luo Chong, everyone nodded, then waited. About an hour later, all twenty-one tractors had finished testing their equipment, and the boilers had been heated. They were ready for use at any moment.
When the Ministry of Agriculture and the research institute technicians nearby reported that everything was ready, Luo Chong began issuing orders, telling each vehicle to reach its assigned work area and await his command.
The first work zone was one kilometer wide and twelve kilometers long. With one tractor placed every five hundred meters, twenty-four would have been needed, but there were only twenty-one vehicles for now. Each covered an area five hundred meters wide and one kilometer long. The reason Luo Chong had not sent them straight to the ten-kilometer mark was that the first major irrigation ditch of the Experimental Field lay one kilometer from the base. Once the tractors reached it, they would have to detour around it.
By the time the Imperial Guards rode over to report that all the vehicles had reached their designated positions, Luo Chong had checked the Mechanical Clock. When it reached exactly two in the afternoon, he officially announced the start of operations.
The visiting Prefects and officials each found a place to watch. You Fu rode alongside the unplowed wasteland beside the vehicles, stopping from time to time to walk into the fields and turn over the freshly cultivated soil by hand. He checked the depth of the furrows and the size of the soil particles, and after watching for a while, he could not help breaking into a delighted smile.
Yun Zhi and Yang Yan shared a vehicle with Luo Chong and followed beside the Rotary Tillers, observing them closely. Big Strength and Lin Fei each found a tractor and temporarily took on the role of