Chapter 45: All the wheat is sick

Su Heng suddenly got angry when she saw him acting as if nothing had happened.

Who is to blame for this!

Su Heng snorted heavily and said, "Yeah, sooner or later I'll steal all the money in your box!"

Lu Mingchuan curled his lips, looking innocent: "If you want it, I'll give it to you. There's no need to climb through the window in the middle of the night."

"Forget it, just keep it for your retirement. I'm hungry, let's eat!" Su Heng noticed that breakfast was already on the table.

Lu Mingchuan: "I cooked porridge. If you don't get up soon, it will get cold."

"In summer, we must eat cold food."

Not only was there porridge, Lu Mingchuan also heated up the leftover barbecue from last night. The sugar cakes that Wen Shu brought were not finished, so he put them on a plate and even set the table for the dishes and chopsticks.

As soon as Su Heng picked up the bowl, she remembered that she had not brushed her teeth. She tried to bear it, but she still couldn't eat it as if nothing had happened. She could only go back to the house to get a toothbrush and tooth powder and go out to brush her teeth.

After dinner, Su Heng didn't want to stare at Lu Mingchuan at home, so she put on a straw hat and picked up a basket to go cut some grass to feed the chickens and ducks.

She didn't sleep well today and didn't want to run too far up the mountain.

On the way, I saw a few people gathered in the wheat field across the river, talking about something. From a distance, I seemed to see the village chief there.

Su Heng didn't pay much attention at first. There were some dandelions on the river bank. She dug along the river bank and heard something that seemed to have happened in the wheat field.

The river wasn't very wide, and the conversation on the other side was so loud that you could almost hear it.

When Su Heng heard that there was a problem with the food, she looked around curiously, then simply carried her basket and took a detour across the river from the stone bridge in front to see what was going on.

"Secretary, why are these leaves turning yellow?"

"Yeah, we didn't see any bugs either."

"The land is neither flooded nor dry. I just brought water from the river to irrigate it. I've taken good care of it. How could there be a problem?"

…

Su Heng went forward to take a look. The wheat in front of her had already begun to ear. Not only were the leaves turning yellow, but even the ears were turning a little white.

She quietly used her special ability to sense it and found that it was not an insect pest.

Su Heng had worked in a soilless cultivation greenhouse at the base in his previous life, and had learned some basic agricultural knowledge.

In addition to insect pests, plant disasters may also include fungal infections.

If you look closely at this piece of wheat, you can see some black spots on the rhizomes. Judging from the symptoms, it is indeed a disease.

Su Heng looked at Secretary Chen's worried face and said, "This isn't an insect pest, it's a disease. It's best to separate those showing symptoms from the rest of the wheat fields as soon as possible. There's a high chance they could be contagious."

The man was a little surprised when he heard her speak so clearly, but then he didn't believe that a girl who had never farmed for a few days could understand anything.

Secretary Chen said, "How did you figure that out? Do you even know all this?"

"I often read the newspaper at home. In one issue, an expert talked about wheat diseases and insect pests. Uncle Chen, you see, this disease starts from the roots..."

Su Heng pointed at the wheat and explained in detail.

The branch secretary listened to her clear and logical explanation, and although he didn't want to believe it, he had already believed it in his heart.

He couldn't even make up all these professional words. He had to have a lot of knowledge to be able to speak them out.

He was a man who listened to advice, so without worrying, he immediately gathered a large group of people to separate the wheat fields by the river from other fields.

The land along the river has always been prime land, very flat and stretching for a long distance, extending to the foot of the mountain.

It is no exaggeration to say that the brigade relies on these fields to earn output every year. Now that these fields have problems, they can only try their best to ensure that the wheat in other fields is good.

When the people who rushed over heard that there was a problem with this large wheat field, they felt like the sky was falling.

When I saw that it was Su Heng who said it, I felt it was hard to believe.

She is such a young girl and has barely farmed the land, how could she understand these things?

But the wheat in the field did not look good, and for a moment the crowd began to clamor.

Captain Zhao also rushed over. When he saw Su Heng, his first reaction was that she was unreliable.

"Su girl, do you still understand these things?"

A villager nearby also said, "That's right. You haven't planted your land many times. If you ask me, it looks more like it was caused by insects."

"Don't talk nonsense, there are no bugs here."

Seeing that these people were about to start arguing again, Secretary Chen stopped them and asked Su Heng to repeat his previous speculation.

Although the villagers didn't quite understand what Su Heng said, they believed it to some extent because they didn't understand those professional terms.

It turns out that the newspaper also teaches how to farm.

Captain Zhao discussed with Secretary Chen and decided to go to the commune to ask the leaders to take a look.

Secretary Chen stayed here and led everyone to separate the wheat fields. In order to prevent the spread of infection by pollen, racks were built beside the nearby fields and old bed sheets were taken from every household to hang on them.

Su Heng was moved to see that everyone was trying so hard to save the food, so she walked along the edge of the field to check the overall condition of the wheat.

The wheat had already eared and was about to fill with grain, but it was too late when the disease was discovered.

Su Heng felt that the condition of this batch of wheat was not very good and its vitality had decreased a lot.

This disease is actually not a rare disease in later generations, mainly because pesticides are not widely used at that time.

In short, there is a shortage of medicine.

Captain Zhao was riding his bicycle so hard that sparks were almost coming out of his wheels. Soon he invited people from the commune over.

"Su girl, come and tell the leader." He was sweating profusely and didn't even bother to wipe it off. As soon as he came back, he called Su Heng.

Su Heng had no choice but to come over and repeat the analysis.

The commune leader’s surname was Zhou. He nodded repeatedly as he listened, and his face was solemn as he looked at the wheat field in front of him.

"Young comrade, your analysis is correct. I'm afraid this is going to be difficult to handle."

Director Zhou squatted down and pulled a stalk of wheat to check it, and his brows furrowed.

He carefully examined it several times, pulled out another plant, and said, "How about this? You guys quarantine it first. I heard there's a new agricultural expert in the city. I'll go ask him if there's any solution."

After he said that, Su Heng knew that the commune had no medicine either.

Su Heng had no expectations of this expert because of the stereotypes of some so-called experts in later generations.

Besides, can this wheat field wait for the experts to arrive?

Perhaps one of the reasons why the team suffered a tragic loss of all its harvest in the autumn as described in the book was the disease that the commune was helpless to deal with.

Secretary Chen and his colleagues had never heard of any experts, and after hearing what Director Zhou said, they suddenly felt that there was no hope and sighed repeatedly.

Su Heng looked at their faces, which were tanned from working all day, and was filled with anxiety and frustration.

After a moment of silence, he said, "Uncle Chen, if it really doesn't work, I have a way I can try."

"What method? Tell me!"

Su Heng shook her head. "I can't explain it clearly. Wait until I make some medicine. You can mark off a piece of land for me and see how effective the treatment is."

Anyway, there is no other way now. Just waiting makes people anxious, and enclosing a piece of land will not prevent any problems.

Secretary Chen nodded and said, "Okay, I'll arrange it. You go back and get the medicine."

There is no potion at all. It is just a pretext to give the sick seedlings some superpowers.

The disease of this batch of wheat is not rare, and it can be cured with medicine, but the problem is that there is no medicine.

Su Heng did not act blindly. Her special ability was impossible to be detected, even if someone asked about it.

She can tell you the symptoms, it's just that she lacks medicine. No one can come and force her to concoct the medicine.

Transportation and communication are not convenient these days, so Su Heng is not worried about how far his deeds can spread.

She quickly ran home with the basket. Lu Mingchuan was still doing carpentry work under the tree. The lounge chair had been assembled and only needed the final polishing and painting to be completed.

Seeing her rushing into the house without even glancing over as usual, Lu Mingchuan stopped what he was doing.