The young intellectuals were a little confused about the information registration, but their doubts were quickly answered two days later.
The village assembly had been a little intensive recently, and everyone gathered again at the rice paddy field in front of the village council.
Wu Jin gave a simple explanation of the agriculture development plan that the commune had requested. “Good afternoon, everyone. In response to the commune’s request to expand the planting range of the wasteland, the leaders of the He Mountain Brigade have agreed to add four new economic industries: orchards, chicken and duck farms, fish ponds, and food processing plants. Our village will commit to building the four industries into an integrated ecological industry chain. Due to the seasonal restrictions of planting and breeding, the limit on the hillside development is temporarily set at 15 hectares. Cherry trees, apple trees, and 2,000 chicken seedlings will be planted. Yu Bing will be in charge of the overall industrial chain. In the future, Yu Bing will select people from the village to participate in the project. Please cooperate.”
As soon as he finished speaking, Jiang Chun smiled and took the lead to applaud. Only then did everyone come back to their senses and applaud. If they did more business, their income would increase. No matter who was in charge, this was something beneficial to the group, so they were all happy.
“What do you mean by industrial chain?”
“It should mean that the four industries will be combined. Industrial chain means that the four industries are connected.”
“These different industries can be linked together?”
“Who cares? Anyway, our village has four more economic projects! If we handle this well, our life will be very different!”
“That’s right. My cousin-in-law’s village only set up a fish pond, but everyone got a lot of extra money at the end of the year! This time, we even have a factory. I reckon we’ll end up even better than their village.”
“That’s right! We have a factory too. If we can get in, we’ll be factory workers!”
“I know. I’ll have to be the first to sign up at that time.”
Although the main members of a socialist society were workers and farmers, workers generally didn’t have to do as much hard labor as farmers. In this era, being a worker was enviable.
“The person in charge, Yu Bing, is someone from our side. Do you think the factory will recruit us first?!”
“Come on, you haven’t even talked to her before…”
“I think it’s difficult. If you two lived together, you could have talked to her about it privately, but many of us here haven’t even spoken to her before.”
“Why don’t we try to find Yao Nian? He’s Yu Bing’s fiancé after all. He should be able to choose two people to send in, right?”
Before the work started, everyone was already trying their best to get a spot in the factory.
County Bureau of Agriculture
“Gee, why are you here again?!” Chief Zhao of the Agriculture Bureau saw Wu Jin waiting for him at the office door as soon as he got to work.
As Chief Zhao took out his keys to open the door, he said helplessly, “Mr. Wu, it’s not that I don’t want to help you, but if I set this precedent and the other villages ask me to do the same, what should I do? This Agriculture Bureau isn’t opened by my family!”
Wu Jin followed Chief Zhao in and immediately poured a glass of water. “Please drink some water. I really have no choice. Our village is the poorest in the commune! If I had the money to buy trees, I wouldn’t have come here every day. I still have a lot of business to attend to in my village.”
Chief Zhao had already been followed around by Wu Jin for a few days. He followed him wherever he went, like a bodyguard. “You’re still complaining to me? I’m getting a headache from being followed by you every day!”
Wu Jin was fearless. “Hehe, Chief Zhao, if I can’t bring the sapling back, the people in my village will skin me alive. This is much more troublesome than your problem.”
Chief Zhao was really annoyed by Wu Jin. He had said everything he could to dissuade him, but Wu Jin wouldn’t back down at all. Seeing that Wu Jin was determined, he glanced at him angrily. “3,300 apple trees, 3,000 cherry trees, all on credit? Do you think I’m running a charity? You should at least pay me half of the money!”
When Wu Jin saw that Chief Zhao’s had loosened up, he immediately pulled a stool over and sat beside his desk. He looked earnest as he said, “Chief Zhao, please help us to the end. Besides, this is a plan approved by the county. Why did they approve it? Isn’t it because they saw us scraping by and wanted to give us some opportunities?! The government is helping us. Chief Zhao, if you give us a loan, you’ll be supporting the county government’s policies.”