The live wild boars and piglets brought back by Lu Qingyang's team made quite a noise in the quarantine area, especially the aggressive roars of the half-grown male wild boars and the muffled thuds of their banging against the wall, which could be heard across half the production team.

In addition, the fact that the breeding team was sent to the mountains and forests every day to cut sweet potato vines, pick acorns, and dig kudzu roots further confirmed the fact that they were raising wild boars.

The threshing ground was piled with damp sacks of corn that had just been paid. The golden mountain of grain made one feel at ease.

But gossip still sneaked into the group.

Old Wang squatted at the foot of the warehouse wall, holding his pipe that had long ceased to emit smoke, his brows knitted into knots:

"Hey, I mean... can this wild boar really be raised like a domestic pig?"

His voice was not loud, but it carried the unique energy of a village elder, causing several people around him to nod their heads, "We caught so many and it's frustrating just to hear their cries. We keep them in a pen, what do we feed them?

Those vines and roots in the forest can be used to feed domestic pigs to fatten them up, but raising wild boars?

That thing is wild and difficult to tame, and its appetite is probably bigger than that of a domestic pig!

There's not enough food to eat. With so many mouths crying but no meat growing, isn't it a waste of food?

Don’t let the meat go uneaten and end up costing us this year’s food rations…”

His cloudy eyes stared at the grain pile, and there was real worry in them.

"Yes, Master Wang is right," someone nearby echoed, "Just listening to it is a waste of food..."

When Lu Qingyang heard this, he was checking the newly built wall of the new pig house. After listening to the report, he didn't get angry, but smiled.

He understands this kind of caution rooted in experience, the unknown and the protection of food nature.

Putting down the brick in his hand, Lu Qingyang wiped his hands and walked towards the wall of the warehouse.

Many eyes were focused on him, including the squatting Old Wang.

"Uncle Wang, everyone is right to worry." Lu Qingyang retorted immediately, "It's right to worry about food shortage!"

He continued in a steady voice: "But this time we are raising wild boars, we are really not just pretending to be rich."

He walked to a pile of dried ramie leaves and a small hill of acorns that had just been brought back, bent down and grabbed a handful, "What are these? They are things that Grandpa scattered in the mountains, and we don't usually use them!"

He picked up a thick kudzu root and a handful of ramie leaves:

"Don't wild boars live on vines, tubers, and oak in the mountains? They've been eating these since they were little, and their stomachs are built for these coarse things! What we can't eat is good feed for them!" He

He paused, then emphasized, "So, we set up a special stove for them! Wild boars are wild boars, and domestic pigs are domestic pigs! Domestic pigs should be fed with grain and soybean meal as usual, while wild boars should be fed with coarse food that grows naturally in the forest without wasting our refined grains! They can be fed in troughs, so they don't have to worry about anything else!"

"Everyone has seen our harvest this year! It's eight times the amount! The granary is full! We have enough to eat!

As for the wild boars, they use mountain products, which will not add any burden to the family.

Starving to death? Famine? Uncle Wang, please keep your heart in your heart! In Liuxi, there is only surplus food this year, no one is starving! "

These words were like a hammer, hitting the point.

The logic is simple and clear: wild boars have wild stomachs and can digest roughage; our granaries are full of grain and our mountain products are endless.

Is there any truth more practical than this?

The fingers holding the pipe loosened a little. He tilted his head to look at the pile of ramie leaves and acorns, then looked at the wild boars in the makeshift pigpen in the distance that seemed to be less aggressive after being fed with the "mixed coarse feed paste" prepared by Shen Mo. The stubborn worry on his wrinkled face eased a lot.

He took two puffs from his unlit pipe and muttered, "Really...really don't want refined food? That...that's fine..."

"Hey, that makes sense! The things in the mountains are meant to be eaten by those furry animals!" Someone in the group echoed.

"That's right. We have so much grain this year, what are we afraid of? Besides, the more pigs we have, the more meat we can eat, right?" Some people began to calculate the benefits.

Old Wang didn't say anything else, which was considered as his agreement.

The worried breeze at the foot of the wall dissipated silently.

A few days later, Lao Wang, hanging his walking stick, slowly strolled to the newly built wild boar isolation area.

I saw Shen Mo directing a few young men to pour a large amount of freshly steamed and mashed pumpkin cubes, chopped wild amaranth and acorn powder into a thick wooden trough. The food was steaming and exuding a sweet aroma.

The most difficult male wild boars came over and were eating happily with a grunt, barely wagging their tails.

Old Wang came closer to Shen Mo. This time he didn't frown anymore, but was a little curious: "Girl, what is this...what is this? They eat this?"

Chen Mo wiped the sweat from her forehead and smiled sweetly: "Uncle Wang, this is the 'taming meal' we prepared. It mainly consists of the things they recognize in the mountains, with a little pumpkin sweetness to help them adapt to the environment."

She lowered her voice, "I also added some of the dried hawthorn powder you taught me before, which you secretly put in when cooking pig food, to help digestion and prevent indigestion!"

Old Wang's cloudy eyes suddenly brightened, and his face showed the first sincere smile in a while: "Haha! Right! That's right! Good girl, you still remember this old man's folk method!"

He walked away slowly, leaning on his cane, shaking his head as he walked, but talking to himself with a smile:

"These young people... are really brave... maybe... they can really succeed..."

Secretary Zhao came to explain that someone had come to investigate and said that there should be no placer gold mines here.

Let Lu Qingyang make the arrangements himself, after all, he has already reported it.

Handle it by yourself... He thought to himself, wouldn't that be a big advantage for him?

Lying on the kang at night, looking at the moonlight shining through the window paper, Lu Qingyang was still thinking about this.

Wang Dagang's words in the evening suddenly popped back into his mind: "...lime! There is a lot of white, hard slag in the excavated soil! I broke off a piece and brought it back. It smells quite strong!"

lime……

These two words lit up in his mind like sparks. He sat up suddenly, his eyes bright and startling in the darkness.

At dawn the next day, Lu Qingyang blocked Wang Dagang, Ge Erniu and Old Sun, who was in charge of the farm tool warehouse, at the team headquarters.

He didn't waste any words and just expressed his thoughts:

"Although the exploration team didn't find any gold nuggets yesterday, they found some good things for us while they were crossing mountains and rivers to look for mineral veins!"

He pointed at the gray-white hard lump that Wang Dagang brought back last night and said, "See? Wang Dagang found this, it's a good limestone! The exploration team dug holes and exposed rock formations in many places, and it's all this stuff!

We renovated and reinforced the pig sty, built a new brick kiln to make bricks, spread quicklime in the orchard to prevent insects, and improved the soil quality of the acidic fields... Which of these does not require lime? ! "

Ge Erniu picked up the stone, weighed it, and looked at the broken end: "Qingyang, is this thing really burnt to ashes? We have never done this before!"

"What's there to be afraid of if you haven't done it before?"

Lu Qingyang was well prepared and directly took out a yellowed "Rural Practical Technology Handbook".

Turning to one of the pages, "Look, this is what the commune distributed a few years ago. It clearly says on the page - a simple and traditional method of burning lime! Not much is needed: limestone, anthracite or firewood, and a simple lime kiln that has been dug! We already have these things!"

He slapped the table vigorously. "The deepest of the pits dug by the exploration team in the valley is more than two meters above the ground! That's a ready-made large-scale limestone quarry! It saves us from looking for minerals ourselves! We just need to send people down to chisel and transport the limestone blocks, and the remaining gravel can be used to pave the road! Kill three birds with one stone!"

Wang Dagang's eyes widened when he heard this: "Yes! They were digging for gold, but ended up digging a lime pit for us! Isn't this just giving us ready-made materials?"

Old Sun was more concerned about the cost: "The coal used to burn the ash..."