In those days, no one had ever eaten seafood. Li Yuzhu was always traveling and had never eaten it either. The most she had ever eaten was crayfish. She had never eaten such large prawns or hairy crabs.

My younger sister, Li Yuqiu, happened to be home too. She ate a lobster and exclaimed, "It's delicious!"

Li Yuzhu said, "Eat more if it's delicious. Seafood doesn't taste good if it's left uneaten. Let's finish it all at lunchtime today."

Li Yuzhu peeled shrimp for her two daughters, who were over a year old, and then put them into their little mouths. The two children ate with relish. Li Yuzhu said, "You are more fortunate than your mother. When I was your age, we couldn't even afford white flour steamed buns."

My mother said, "It's all true. In the year you were born, we couldn't even get enough to eat with coarse flour, let alone white flour buns."

Life in the 1960s was very tough. Only those who lived through that era know what hardship meant. People in those days didn't care about the quality of food; they were just glad they could eat their fill and stay warm.

Li Yuqiu's son, Dongyu, has grown up and is three years old this year. He can peel and eat crabs by himself. Li Yuqiu put a piece of crab meat into her nephew's mouth, and Li Yuzhu said, "Don't worry about him, he can eat it by himself."

After lunch, Dongqing and his wife went to the vegetable garden with his father-in-law and sister-in-law. The 100 acres of cucumber vines were now full of cucumbers, and they had already bought cucumbers several times.

The 100 acres of chives are growing very well. As the saying goes, "chives in ditches are used to raise fish ponds," meaning that chives are not afraid of being soaked in water but are afraid of being short of water. As long as there is water and fertilizer, they can grow tender and plump, and they grow very fast.

The saying goes, "One investment in chives yields lifelong returns," a slang term implying that one can reap the benefits of a single investment.

In the 1980s, the phrase "cutting leeks" was used to describe some girls who demanded excessive amounts of bride price before getting married.

Now, the more than 100 mu of scallion seedlings have grown, and people have started to be hired to dig ditches and plant scallions.

Digging trenches is a very difficult task. If the trenches are dug too shallow, the white part of the scallions will be too short, which will directly affect the yield and quality of the scallions.

Dongqing said, "Dad, hiring people to dig ditches like this won't work. It's too expensive and too slow. I'll go to the tricycle factory and think of a solution."

My father-in-law said, "What good ideas can you come up with? Isn't this how we've always dug ditches and planted onions since ancient times?"

"I have a way."

After Dong Qing finished speaking, he walked towards the tricycle factory.

Dong Qing walked into the factory's technical department and drew a diagram from his memory of how a tractor pulls a scallion planting machine to dig ditches and start up.

The power system drives the trencher via the tractor's power transmission shaft.

The transmission system transmits power to the trenching components via chains, gears, and other means.

The trenching component mainly consists of a boring tool, which is composed of a boring cutter and a pressure roller.

The boring bar is spiral-shaped, allowing it to spiral into the soil, cut, and expel the soil outwards.

The pressure roller presses down on the boring bar to make it enter the soil and controls the depth of the trench.

Dong Qing asked, "Can you understand it? If there's anything you don't understand, point it out and I'll explain it to you."

The head of the technical department himself had a mechanical background, so he could easily understand the scallion trenching diagram that Dong Qing had drawn. He said, "I can understand it."

Dong Qing said, "We need to manufacture single-ditch and double-ditch trenchers. We should hurry and manufacture a double-ditch trencher first, as I need it urgently."

The head of the technical department said, "These parts need to be purchased and processed in our factory. Give me two weeks to manufacture a trenching machine."

The technical department is the core of mechanical design. Only after the design is completed can the workshop process and manufacture it. These tasks all follow procedures and cannot be rushed.

Dong Qing urgently needed it. Under normal circumstances, no one could manufacture it for him within two weeks, but it's a different story when the boss urgently needs it.

A machine factory has all kinds of lathes and equipment in the workshop. As long as there are raw materials, it is not difficult to manufacture a customized product.

Dongqing returned to the field and said to his father-in-law, "Dad, don't dig ditches to plant scallions tomorrow. It's too expensive and too slow. I'll have the factory design and manufacture a scallion planting ditching machine, which will be put into use in half a month."

The father-in-law, incredulous, looked at his son-in-law and asked, "Can you use a tractor to dig ditches with scallions?"

Dong Qing said, "Of course! Ditches dug with a ditching machine are deeper and neater than those dug by hand, and it's much faster. It's okay to delay planting the scallions by half a month. Just wait a bit."

Although labor is not expensive now, with a person earning at least three yuan a day, one person can't dig many ditches in a day, and the ditches they do dig don't meet the requirements.

Half a month later, the scallion trenching machine was manufactured. The tractor was parked at the tricycle factory, and the workers installed the hook-lifting machine on the tractor and connected it to the tractor's power supply.

Li Yuzhu drove the car into the field, placed the ditcher on the ground, and then shifted into gear and started driving with a heavy throttle.

The 80-type tractor was equipped with a double trencher, which far exceeded the trencher's load capacity. To put it bluntly, it was like a big horse pulling a small cart.

The excavator row spacing is 60cm, and the trench depth is 30cm.

The two trenches that were dug out met Dongqing's expectations in terms of depth, width, and the smoothness of the trench walls.

My father-in-law said, "Using machinery to dig ditches is faster, saves both time and money."

In those days, diesel was incredibly cheap; driving a hundred acres of land in Conggou wouldn't cost much in fuel.

Dong Qing said, "Of course! Otherwise, would it be called mechanization?"

Today, we hired many people to plant scallions. Some people were pulling up scallion seedlings in the scallion field, some were squatting by the ditch and placing scallions into the ditch, and some were applying fertilizer and loosening the soil. The work was done in an orderly manner.

Dong Qing returned to the tricycle factory, went into the workshop, and found Chen Hong. He said, "Brother Hong, our scallion trenching machine has proven to be very effective in practice. It saves time and labor, and we're sure it will be well-received by users. Arrange for its mass production in the factory immediately. Now is the planting season for scallions, so we should sell this product all over the country."

Whether a machine factory can sell its products and make money is not a matter of luck.

The key is whether you have a good product idea. As long as you have a good product, you won't have to worry about sales. Whether it's industry or agriculture, when buying equipment, people value practicality and ease of use. If your product doesn't have significant advantages, who would be willing to spend money to buy it?

Chen Hong said, "Okay, I'll immediately notify the purchasing department to buy a large quantity of materials and produce a batch of scallion planting trenching machines soon."

The tricycle factory added two agricultural machinery products this year, which greatly boosted the company's economy, and the company, which was on the verge of collapse, gradually stabilized.

Early summer has quietly passed, and the sweltering summer has arrived. The national highway is now fully open to traffic, and buses traveling north and south pass through it, creating favorable conditions for local transportation.

The train station and long-distance bus station are already in use, and the hospital and high school have also moved here. Various municipal government departments are under construction.

Su Village has now taken on the outline of an urban area, and the area around Su Village is gradually becoming prosperous. Dong Qing's land has become a hot commodity, and many businesses have approached the company manager, Gu Yurou, to discuss buying land. Dong Qing said, "We won't sell land. Our company can manage right now."

Several companies have now returned to normal production. With these companies as a backing, Dong Qing is not particularly worried about funding. He has finally overcome the difficulties.