With Dong Shu, the future literary giant, polishing the article, Shuzhen’s theoretical knowledge, and Wei Lai’s practical experience, the dry-to-wet land plan for the Liu Family Village Production Brigade on the riverbank, submitted by Liu Shouyi, passed without a hitch.
Unfortunately, the economy is tight everywhere now, and the town and county can only offer formal approval and moral support.
As for special funding, there’s none at all.
Fortunately, the Liu Family Village Production Brigade has been raising chickens, ducks, and geese, and growing cabbage and radishes over the years. This summer, they will have a large batch of high-quality, high-yield cabbage and radish seeds for sale. Even if sold entirely to the state purchase station, it will still be a considerable income. This gave Liu Shouren the determination to persist, thinking that once the transformation was successful, he would recover the costs with interest. His reputation, experience, and the village’s grain output would all instantly rise.
Although converting dry land to wet requires the construction of new irrigation channels, irrigation ditches, drainage ditches, field roads, water division gates, passage canals, and so on. The project is indeed substantial, and the manpower and material resources required are considerable.
But this did not shake Liu Shouren’s determination to give it his all. Now the members are highly motivated and willing to bring their own food to participate eagerly in the village’s collective construction. If Liu Shouren were a bit unscrupulous, he wouldn’t even need to worry about meals, let alone any wages!
In terms of technology, Wei Lai is leading, with other released personnel and educated youth eager to assist.
When the time comes, all three tractors will be dispatched; the soil dug up will be loaded onto the carts and unloaded at designated places, saving everyone a lot of effort in carrying and lifting, thus speeding up the progress significantly.
From the thawing of the frozen soil to around June 1st, they worked overtime continuously. Not only did the river project get repaired perfectly, but the seven hundred and eighty acres of paddy fields were also declared successfully transformed from dry to wet. They were just waiting for Shuzhen and Lianshan to oversee the rice seedling cultivation, ready to start planting at the captain’s order!
"Big brother is truly amazing!" Shuzhen laughed, giving Liu Shouren a big thumbs up. In thirty or forty years, such a project would require multiple planning documents, several field surveys, repeated budget recalculations, and precise measurements before approval. Her big brother submitted just one plan, and the only support from above was simply the word ’Agreed’.
Big brother just led all the members with the help of Wei Lai and others, and gradually felt their way through the dry-to-wet plan to implement it smoothly!
The swampy lowlands that used to have nine failed harvests out of ten have now turned into neat rice paddies. They are just waiting for the seedlings led by her and her partner to grow and be ready for planting. Many willow trees were planted by the bank as a protective forest, under her suggestion, a lot of chickens were free-ranged in the woods. Even in the crisscrossing irrigation channels, many fish fry was released.
By then, the willows will be shady by the riverbank, and the chickens will be in groups in the forest. The rice waves will roll in the paddies, and even the irrigation canals can serve as fish ponds.
Altogether, this income feels like transforming a once-difficult swamp into a treasure trove!
"No, no, I’m just playing a coordinating role. Mainly your ideas are good, Uncle Wei Lai’s expertise is strong, and all the members of our Liu Family Village Production Brigade are diligent and hardworking. Many hands make light work; I can’t take all the credit!" Liu Shouren smiled, seriously explaining.
"Hey, big bro, do you have to be ! It’s rare for me to be in a good mood to praise you a bit, and here you go, putting on a formal tone?" Shuzhen chuckled, looking surprised at her big brother’s reaction. Considering how serious he is at work, in front of her, he’s a model brother. It’s strange for him to suddenly put on a formal face with Shuzhen.
"Ha, little sister, don’t mind him. Lately, leaders from nearby villages have come to observe and learn valuable experiences, he’s gotten used to dealing with it. He inadvertently treats you like other leaders!" Wu Yinghong laughed, revealing her husband’s habits smoothly.
Seeing Saozi’s expression full of complaints, Shuzhen understood that she must have been ’brushed off’ the same way.
Sure enough, when she raised her eyebrows, her sister-in-law gave her a look not to say anything.
Exposed, Liu Shouren smiled sheepishly. Dealing with this village captain and that village accountant all day long, he felt helpless too, didn’t he?
He didn’t understand why teams without even a small stream would join the excitement, making him so busy he barely had time to accompany his wife in prenatal education for their precious son.
Shuzhen was stunned, well, indeed, the power of role models was strong.
If there’s a model figure in any industry, they become a benchmark, and could lead to a nationwide learning trend.
And now, does big brother show signs of becoming such a benchmark?
Hmm, if those seven hundred and eighty acres of paddy yield high in the fall, Shuzhen felt it was very possible.
And with her unique ability, not to mention the well-managed rice paddies, even in saline-alkaline land, she could bring out high-yield rice, couldn’t she?
Seeing the green rice seedlings cultivated by her and Lianshan, Shuzhen smiled with confidence.
In mid-June, Liu Shouren organized members to start transplanting rice seedlings. It took a full four days to finish the more than seven hundred and eighty acres of paddy fields.
The members who had never transplanted rice before felt severe pain in their thighs and hips as they relaxed but were still limping as if they had suffered a great injury. But no matter how tired, looking at the lush green seedlings thriving within days, everyone felt blissfully satisfied.
If the eight hundred acres of rice yield like Lianshan’s couple said, averaging over six hundred jin per mu of rice. My goodness, that would be forty-six or forty-seven thousand jin of rice!
At that time, if one jin of rice gives seven and a half jin of rice, that would bring thirty-five thousand jin of white rice!
At the current price of thirteen and seven cents per jin for rice, that would be over forty or fifty thousand yuan!!!
Thinking of this exciting number, the members were beyond delighted. Who cared about exhaustion? They only wanted to work hard and serve these rice fields well. This spring, they were busy with the river work and dry-to-wet transformation, so they hadn’t had time to forage for wild vegetables or herbs to earn pocket money. They needed to make up for the loss outside the dike by ensuring high yields in the rice fields, right?