Chapter 252: Where are you from? Is it still in China?
After leaving Dongfeng Commune, Su Wenchen and his party started from the southwest of Shandong Province and drove south.
Since we went out in winter, the salt and alkali that came up from the ground formed a thick salt and alkali crust under the action of the cold air.
The wheels rolled over the cracked salt-alkali crust, making a "cracking" sound from time to time.
Looking around, almost all around was a vast expanse of white, but Su Wenchen knew clearly that this was not snow that meant a good harvest in the coming year, but alkali that was competing with the people for food.
Hou Guozhong looked out the window and sighed.
"Director, why does it get more desolate the further south we go? Isn't it said that the worst-hit areas, with the most damage, are in eastern Henan?"
"How come along the way, there are still communes organizing canal digging in eastern Henan and western Shandong, which seems to be pretty good, but the further south you go, the fewer people there are organizing it?"
"And it was all white all around. If I hadn't known, I would have thought it was snowing!"
Su Wenchen looked out the window. This time, they did not take the national and provincial roads as they did last time. After crossing the Yellow River, they took the small roads and saw the saline-alkali land conditions in western Shandong and eastern Henan and the local people's governance.
Then we walked south along the old course of the Yellow River. The further we went, the more it became like what Hou Guozhong said, with the scenery being almost completely white in winter.
Especially after leaving the vicinity of Fengxian County and crossing the Dasha River, the land is severely salinized and there are no good fields at all.
"Old Zhao, keep an eye out while you're driving to see if there are any villages or production brigades."
"I looked at the map Fengxian gave us, and it said Lizhai People's Commune was marked not far east of Dasha River."
"Based on the speed we're driving, it doesn't make sense that we haven't arrived yet after driving for so long!"
After hearing Su Wenchen's words, Zhao Weiguo stopped the car and looked around.
"Director, since we crossed the Dasha River, we've walked a short distance and there's no road at all. All around us is white salt crust. It seems we're lost."
When Su Wenchen heard this, he was at a loss whether to laugh or cry.
This Huanghuai Plain was once the densely populated heartland of the Central Plains!
Who would have thought that I could get lost here?
After getting out of the car, Su Wenchen looked at the desolate scene around him.
What is this for him? Is this still China?
This time, they didn't prepare any things like a compass, because they were not going to the border, and Su Wenchen didn't expect this.
It is actually possible for someone to get lost in their great Central Plains region.
I can’t wear this again!
Because although Su Wenchen had passed by some of these places before, he had been walking on the main roads after all. The saline-alkali land there was basically managed in the same way as the Dongfeng Commune where Li Zhimin and his team were.
But now he was wrong. It seemed that the Dongfeng Commune was still well governed.
Because in this area, since they crossed the Dasha River, they drove for a while without seeing a single person, not even a bird or insect.
Zhao Weiguo said directly.
"Director, why don't you turn back and leave!"
"If we drive along the river, we'll definitely find the commune and the production team."
Cao Jiwen and Hou Guozhong, who came down from the other side, also looked around.
There are no people, no roads, no trees, only some alkali-resistant Tamarix and Salicornia that grow tenaciously in the soil. It is a completely desolate scene.
"It seems we've gone astray. The local commune probably hasn't developed this area yet."
As he spoke, Cao Jiwen knocked on the salt crust formed on the ground.
"The terrain here is low. Before the drainage canals were built, it was prone to alkalinity in the winter and flooding in the summer. It was even more difficult to deal with than in Dongfeng Commune."
Hearing this, Zhao Weiguo glanced at Su Wenchen.
"Director, are you still going to drive forward? Isn't this a bit dangerous?"
Since he hadn't seen anyone for such a long time, Zhao Weiguo felt it was not a good idea to drive forward.
Su Wenchen also nodded.
He was not prepared to take any risks in this place where there were no reference points around and no locals to lead him.
Besides, they are just conducting research, not a large force coming here with supplies and personnel to set up a branch, so there is no need to be so anxious.
"Get in the car and drive back along the tire tracks to the river. This time, follow the riverbank."
As soon as these words came out, Zhao Weiguo immediately breathed a sigh of relief.
To be honest, he was really afraid that Su Wenchen would insist on his own way. If he kept driving in circles in this crappy place and used up all the gas, then he would be helpless.
Su Wenchen was also afraid of this, so he decided to retreat and walk along the river.
Because of this, even if the car runs out of gas, you will definitely be able to find people.
After all, this is not a real uninhabited area. At most, it is just a larger saline-alkali area. Su Wenchen thinks that if he keeps driving forward, he should be able to encounter some people.
After all, Fengxian is only about a hundred miles away from Xuzhou, and it would only take an afternoon at their speed.
However, the vast white surroundings with no reference points still give people a strong sense of loneliness.
But just as they turned the car around and drove for a while, a slow-moving ox cart came towards them.
Su Wenchen said directly.
"Stop the car first. I'll ask around. We're over there now. Let's see which way to get to Lizhai Commune."
With a horn honking, the jeep slowly shut down.
After Su Wenchen got off the car, an old man opposite slowly pulled the reins.
Obviously, although the old man did not know Su Wenchen, at that time, anyone who could afford to drive a car must be a senior leader.
After all, there were no cars in their county, so he spoke a little nervously.
"Young man, did your leader ask you to come down and ask for directions?"
Apparently, the other party saw that Su Wenchen was so young and thought he was just a secretary who ran errands for him.
Su Wenchen smiled and did not refute.
"Old man, where does this place belong now?"
Hearing Su Wenchen's words, the old man was a little confused for a moment.
"Where does it belong? This is Feng County!"
Su Wenchen shook his head.
"No, I mean which commune it belongs to? How do I get to Lizhai Commune?"
The old man pointed behind him.
"This is Huanglou Commune now. You outsiders don't know the way. Don't walk along the fields. Go straight to the back and follow the Dasha River south."
"The first place we encountered was Liangzhai Commune, and then after Liangzhai, we came to Lizhai Commune."
"The three communes on our south bank are all located on the riverbank."
When Su Wenchen heard this, he took out the map he got from the county and scratched his head.
"Are they all near Dasha River? Why are they all marked there on your maps?"
The old man took a look.
"Those maps you have are from ten years ago."
"It was during that time that the commune was celebrating a bumper harvest, reporting that even the saline-alkali lands could produce thousands of kilograms of grain, so they included these saline-alkali lands in the map."
Then he glanced at Su Wenchen.
"You might not understand at your age, but is there any problem with the younger generation? I still have to go back and distribute relief food to everyone! Otherwise it will be too late."
When Su Wenchen heard this, he knew what the other party meant, but he still spoke.
"Old man, is your team inside? I don't know if it's convenient for us to follow you to your team to take a look."
"Don't worry, we are researchers sent by the Yellow River Flood Control Farm of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry."
"Your county has also confirmed it."
Compared to going to other communes to see those with similar governance, Su Wenchen wanted to go inside to see those places that had not been governed yet.
Hearing Su Wenchen say this, the old man did not doubt it and said directly.
"What's so convenient about this? Just look at it! My area is very poor, and you probably can't afford it."
Su Wenchen smiled.
"It's okay. No matter how hard it is, it's better than sleeping in the wild. It's not like we haven't made do in the wild before."
"And is this bullock cart convenient for giving me a ride?"
The old man was completely confused when he heard this. Why didn’t this man take the car and ride in his ox cart in the cold wind?
"It's convenient, but are you sure you don't want to take a car and take my ox cart?"
Su Wenchen said with a smile.
"Don't worry, old man. I just sat down for a while and came down to get some fresh air!"
After hearing what Su Wenchen said, the old man didn't understand, but he didn't refuse. After all, in their local area, sometimes when they met fellow villagers, they would give them a ride if they could, so it was not a big deal.
"Okay, come up!"
Seeing that the other party agreed, Su Wenchen turned around and waved to Zhao Weiguo in the car and shouted.
"Old Zhao, turn the cart around and follow the ox cart. We're going to spend the night with their brigade."
After saying that, he climbed straight onto the ox cart.
When the old man saw it, he was a little surprised.
"Don't you need to report to your leader? Do you think your leader has any objections to your decision?"
Su Wenchen smiled.
"Old man, why don't I look like a leader?"
The old man turned around and looked carefully at Su Wenchen who was sitting on the grain bag behind him.
shook his head.
"Judging from your demeanor, you should be a small leader, but you are still far from a big leader who rides a car."
"I guess you'll have to endure it for more than ten years."
When Su Wenchen heard this, he immediately laughed.
"Old man, you really guessed wrong. I am really the leader this time. Let's go!"
"They'll catch up."
As soon as Su Wenchen finished speaking, the car started.
The old man looked at the car behind him, and after turning the front of the car, he skillfully waved the reins, and the old ox started moving instantly.
But he was still surprised, because he didn't expect that this young man was actually the leader.
To be honest, he had only seen this kind of car when he went to Xuzhou area, and most of the people riding in it were military and regional leaders.
There is not even one in their county. I didn’t expect that this young man is already taller than the director of their county.
So I spoke politely unconsciously.
"Leader, stop what you mean. Are you here to inspect the saline-alkali land in our Yangzhuang Brigade? Are you here to distribute relief food to us?"
Hearing this, Su Wenchen was speechless for a moment, but spoke directly.
"I did come to inspect the saline-alkali land, but it wasn't in your Yangzhuang area. However, we are unable to do anything about distributing relief food for the time being."
"But the county and the district here don't care?"
The old man sighed.
"Why don't you care? I would have starved to death if I hadn't, but it's not enough!"
"Our area is full of saline-alkali land, and only a small part of it can be used to grow crops. The yield per mu is only about 100 kilograms."
"Even if we pay the public grain tax, we can only eat until winter at best. The rest of the money will depend on relief."
When Su Wenchen heard this, he looked at the other party in shock.
"You guys still have to pay public grain?"
The old man said directly.
"Why not pay? Everyone has to pay!"
"But later on, they would return it to us in the form of relief food, which was more than what we paid."
As he said this, he pointed under Su Wenchen's butt.
"This is the first batch of relief food our brigade received."
"After the spring plowing, we can get another one, and then we can last until the summer harvest."
Su Wenchen also roughly understood the above meaning. He decided to collect them all first and then distribute them according to the actual situation in each region.
But when he took a look, he saw that the car only weighed about 700 to 800 kilograms at most.
"Is this all the relief food?"
"Are you going to hold out until spring plowing? Can each of you get ten kilograms?"
The old man sighed.
"It's good to have some. Anyway, we don't do much in winter. If there is little food left at home, just stay at home as much as possible and you will get through it."
When Su Wenchen heard what the other party said, he also understood why the places with more saline-alkali land had fewer people organized to dig canals to control the alkali.
If food is not allocated from above, these people cannot be organized at all. A dozen kilograms of food will last for one or two months. If they are also organized to participate in physical labor, they probably won't be able to get up in two days.
At this time, he also understood why, coming out of Fengxian County, only the members in the north were being organized to dig drainage channels. With only this little rice in hand, they could only expand outward little by little from the surrounding areas.
In fact, Su Wenchen also understood.
Because the general policy is to govern the eastern part of Henan first, Fengxian County focuses on governing the north first.
In fact, it’s all because of insufficient resources.
There is only a handful of rice in hand, so it is naturally impossible to manage all aspects at the same time. So we can only take out a part of it to manage those areas that can produce quickly.
All we can do is wait until we have more rice in our hands and then manage it all bit by bit.
However, during this period of development, Su Wenchen felt that many people might not be able to survive and develop.
The old cow seemed to know the way and led them through the wilderness for a long time before Su Wenchen slowly saw the shadow of the building.
As the wheels crushed the cracked salt-alkali shell, the ox cart slowly drove into the Yangzhuang Brigade.
The surrounding area is built with mud walls made of bricks, and the roof is sparsely thatched, exposed to the cold wind like a scar.
As if they heard the noise of the ox cart, a group of pale and skinny children ran out from it.
Su Wenchen looked around.
These kids were all wearing cotton-padded clothes that were patched up so much that the surface was even a little hardened, and they were wearing straw sandals.
But he still looked very excited as he ran towards the ox cart.
"The food is here! The food is here! We can have a full meal tonight!"
As the jeep behind them slowly drove in, the group of children became even more excited.
"Look, a car, it's a car, there's a car coming!"
Following the child's shouts, everyone rushed after the jeep.
After hearing the noise, the adults came out of the house one by one, but compared to the children, they were still pale and skinny.
In Su Wenchen's view, these sallow-faced adults looked like they could be blown away by a gust of wind, especially the women.
It was obvious that the child was only half full, otherwise he would not have the energy to chase the car.
But these adults probably didn't even get half full, especially the women. In Su Wenchen's opinion, they were just trying to stay alive.
Maybe it was the children’s shouting, or maybe it was the food distribution that attracted everyone, but everyone started to gather.
Su Wenchen took a look and saw that almost everyone looked malnourished.
He had not experienced the famine in the 1960s. In his memory, even during the famine, the Pingcun Brigade did not have enough food, but it did not seem to reach this level.
At least they still have some tree bark to peel off.
But as he looked along the way, he didn't see even a tree, let alone wild vegetables. He couldn't even peel the bark off a tree.
"Captain, who is this?"
Hearing this, Su Wenchen jumped off the ox cart and stretched out his hand towards the other party.
"Hello, comrade. My name is Su Wenchen. We are a farm unit under the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. We are here to investigate the management of saline-alkali land."
Hearing Su Wenchen say this, the other party was immediately flattered. He wiped his hands on his body several times before extending his hand.
"Comrade Su, hello, hello, I am Yang Weidong, the militia captain of the Yangzhuang Brigade."
Before Su Wenchen could speak, urging voices were heard all around him.
"Captain, please distribute the food quickly!"
"I've been waiting for this meal for two days. If it doesn't come, I'm afraid I won't make it to the evening."
"Yes, Captain, please distribute the food quickly!"
Although these people were also curious about Su Wenchen, compared with food, he was obviously not as attractive as food.
Seeing this, Su Wenchen also spoke directly to the other party.
"Comrade, your team should first distribute food to the surrounding members!"
"I see everyone is quite anxious. Let's talk about it after the food is distributed."
Hearing Su Wenchen's words, the old man who was pulling Su Wenchen over in the ox cart also nodded.
"Everyone line up, you all look like starving ghosts, save your food, because the next time it's spring plowing season, it will be time for spring plowing."
"Captain, don't worry. We remember it better than you do. We'll have one meal tonight, and we won't have to eat for the next two days."
"Add these two days, wouldn't that save five days of food?"
Su Wenchen sighed when he heard this. One meal could last for five days. Even if he did nothing in winter, it would only prolong his life at most.
As the Yangzhuang Brigade headquarters began to distribute food bit by bit.
After Su Wenchen walked to the side of the jeep, he said to the three people who had just gotten off.
"It's much more difficult here than in Dongfeng Commune."
"Each person eats ten kilograms of food for more than a month, which is an average of about three ounces a day. At most, it can only keep them alive."
To be honest, before Su Wenchen came here, he had never thought that the areas severely affected by the Yellow River flooding would be so miserable. He originally thought that it would be like Dongfeng Commune at most, where people would be hungry one day and full the next.
Unexpectedly, there was hunger for a month and fullness for a day. Su Wenchen now understood why it took 21 years to completely eliminate extreme poverty in later generations.
Some things are completely unimaginable unless you experience them yourself, after all, their country is so huge.
Hearing Su Wenchen's words, Cao Jiwen nodded in agreement.
But he still said it.
"Director, the saline-alkali land here looks even worse than in Dongfeng Commune. The most critical issue is the poor drainage."
"If you plan to choose this area, you can only divert the canal from the Dasha River, which is at least six or seven kilometers away."
Hearing what Cao Jiwen said, Hou Guozhong glanced at Su Wenchen.
"Director, are we going to build a branch here?"
Su Wenchen glanced at Hou Guozhong.
"What? Old Hou, are you afraid of suffering?"
Hou Guozhong shook his head.
"I'm not afraid of hardship, but I haven't seen a single bird the whole way through this land. Can this grass survive?"
After working on a car for several days, Hou Guozhong has become more familiar with Cao Jiwen.
Say it directly.
"Old Cao, are you sure that kind of grass can be grown here?"
Cao Jiwen shook his head.
"You won't know until you plant it, but saline-alkali land can basically be managed as long as you invest manpower and material resources, digging canals to drain the alkali, and transporting soil and raising fields."
“The reason why governance here is so slow is actually because there is a lack of investment.”
"With only a limited number of people in their own brigade, and with no work in winter, they can only cultivate the previously saline-alkali land in spring and summer. Under such circumstances, their remediation speed is naturally slow."
Su Wenchen also nodded.
"Yes, in fact, our country has been exploring the technology for treating saline-alkali land for more than ten years, and there is basically no technological gap."
“In fact, it’s mainly about the input of materials.”
Then Su Wenchen nodded towards the group of people who were distributing food in the distance.
"Do you think these people, swaying in the wind, can dig their own canals and transport the earth now?"
Hearing Su Wenchen's words, Hou Guozhong looked at the crowd and shook his head.
"Impossible! Forget digging a canal. I'd probably be exhausted after just two trips of transporting soil."
Su Wenchen took a deep breath.
"Yes, without external resources, they can only hold on until their county has completed the cleanup of the surrounding areas, and then they can focus their energy here."
"As for how long, it's unclear. It could be one or two years, or five or ten years. How many of these people can last until then?"
Hou Guozhong was puzzled when he heard Su Wenchen say this.
"Director, then we won't be going to Huaiyin area later?"
Su Wenchen opened the trunk of the car and spoke directly.
"I'm not going. I guess it's about the same as here. Maybe it's even stronger. It's closer to the capital of Su Province, so I should be able to get some resources from the province."
"We've also visited Feng County and learned that there's too much saline-alkali land here. The county can only focus on the northern part of the area."
"Besides, with our current capabilities, we can't cover such a large area."
"According to the rough data provided by Feng County, there are 100,000 mu of saline-alkali land on the south bank of the Dasha River that needs to be rehabilitated, which is enough for the current development of our farm."
"Tomorrow, I'll go around all three communes here to see how large the area is and to what extent they've been treated."
"And Pei County isn't far to the east on the map. There are hundreds of thousands of acres of beach on the west side of Weishan Lake that can be developed."
"To the west is Dangshan County in northern Anhui, where there are also large areas of saline-alkali land."
"What we lack now is not land, but how to quickly use our knowledge and channels to utilize these lands and produce useful resources."
After saying that, he shouted towards Zhao Weiguo.
"Lao Zhao, take everything down! We'll eat here tonight."
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
