Chapter 254: Let him come over and make a face-to-face report. If you have any questions, you can ask them in person!
After dinner.
Inside a rammed earth house, a dim kerosene lamp was burning on the kang table.
Su Wenchen was wearing a cotton jacket and sitting cross-legged on the kang table, thinking hard with a pen in his hand.
After conducting research in the vicinity these days.
Su Wenchen felt that if he wanted to vigorously develop this area, he must mobilize resources.
So at this time he was racking his brains to think about how to write this letter, because this letter had to sell very well and also show the leader a bright future.
Otherwise, there are so many difficult places across the country at this time, and the higher authorities might not immediately invest resources here, otherwise they would have invested long ago.
Su Wenchen bit the pen and pondered for a long time before he began to organize his words and slowly wrote.
“Dear Minister Shah:”
As soon as he finished writing, Su Wenchen frowned. Isn’t it a bit unfriendly to write like this?
Uncles?
Isn't that a bit too inappropriate?
After struggling for a long time, Su Wenchen still didn't change. After all, it was better to be a little distant for the first time than to make people think he was inappropriate.
Then continue writing.
"I'm glad to hear from you! Is your health good these days? I hope you take good care of yourself while working so hard for our country."
"It has been nearly three months since we last met in Guangzhou. I haven't listened to your teachings in person. I miss you terribly."
"I'm writing this letter to you, firstly, to report on my recent research, and secondly, to ask for your guidance on the development plan for saline-alkali areas."
"I led a team to conduct research along the old course of the Yellow River, and what I saw and heard was truly shocking."
"Today I went to the Huanglou Commune and Yangzhuang Brigade in Xuzhou for an on-site inspection. The local situation was the most severe during my research trip."
"The members of this cooperative are extremely poor. The average annual food ration is around 100 kilograms per person. Most of the time, they rely on relief food to survive. During the spring plowing, people often die from exhaustion. In winter, even plain cabbage has to be shared among the group."
"Also, salinization and alkali treatment in this area is difficult. A thousand mu of arable land yields only a few hundred kilograms per mu, and salinization and alkali return repeatedly. The commune also lacks the resources to support agricultural machinery. The county's three agricultural machines are not enough to meet the needs of the core area, and here, on the edge of the county, there is even less resources."
Putting down the pen in his hand, Su Wenchen read it aloud softly.
This is miserable enough!
I have to ask for more later, otherwise I will be wasting my brain cells. I also have to convert my ideas into the written language of this era.
Now that everything has been sold out, we have to give hope to the higher-ups later. Otherwise, we will just cry poor and not be able to do anything, which will be useless.
As Su Wenchen picked up the pen, the letter paper became thicker and thicker.
"We are determined to take root here."
"The following is my initial idea for the development of this place. I hope you can take the time to give me some advice despite your busy schedule."
"Combining the advantages of our farm's breeding technology, I plan to proceed in three steps."
"The first step is to provide support instead of relief."
"I plan to establish a branch farm in Yangzhuang. Initially, we'll raise fast-growing meat rabbits, using alkali-tolerant alfalfa as feed. This will help the rabbits gain weight, and they'll be ready for market in March or May. The rabbit meat will serve as a protein supplement, and we can also leverage Xuzhou's transportation hub to trade grain with other areas, alleviating the urgent food shortages facing our members."
"The second step is to treat both the symptoms and the root cause."
"Comrade Cao Jiwen was also ordered to cultivate new forage grasses to lay the foundation for pig farming."
"Our farm's white pig breeding technology is now nearing maturity, and our six-month-old pigs can be slaughtered, which can help solve our country's major meat shortage problem."
"Once we have some success with the meat rabbits, we will organize the educated youth and members of the commune to dig deep drainage channels, transport soil and build terraced fields to prevent the rise of salt and alkali. We will also use organic fertilizer produced by the farm to improve the production. We will strive to achieve an output of 200 to 300 kilograms per mu within two years, and self-sufficiency will not be far away."
"The third step is to build up momentum and plan for the future."
“If the above development goes smoothly, our farm can be expanded quickly and merge with nearby communes.”
“We can start breeding high-quality local beef and dairy cattle breeds.”
"Now that I'm about to become a father, I know there's still a huge gap in the national supply of infant formula. Putting myself in their shoes, I feel even more strongly that the children of workers and farmers are particularly in need of dairy nourishment, and increasing the dairy supply is urgent."
"Beef is also a major consumer in the West. If necessary, we can also export high-quality beef cattle to earn a large amount of foreign exchange to supplement national expenditure."
"I know this plan is extremely expensive, but in the long run, it is indeed a good deal."
"If the ministry supports 3,000 to 5,000 educated youth, 300 to 500 tons of emergency rations, and over 20 pieces of agricultural machinery, we can make this place self-sufficient in food within three years, and a meat and milk supply base in the Central Plains within five years."
"Furthermore, after being assigned to the farm, the Xuzhou area will save over 100,000 kilograms of relief grain annually. This is a win-win situation and I hope the Ministry will give it serious consideration."
"If it is convenient, I plan to go to Beijing at the end of this month to report in person."
Sincerely,
"Revolutionary salute!"
"Junior Wen Chen respectfully presents."
After finishing writing, Su Wenchen blew away the ink stains, read through it, and muttered to himself.
"Three to five thousand educated youth, three to five hundred tons of food rations, I don't know how much the higher-ups can allocate!"
"But using this little price to exchange for a meat and milk supply base three to five years from now is a huge profit!"
However, Su Wenchen also understood that the national treasury was very poor at that time, and he had no idea how much could be allocated.
But in general, if the higher-ups just allocate what was proposed in the last document.
Then their development will be much slower.
To be honest, the food rations are actually not that bad. For Su Wenchen, the most important thing is agricultural machinery. Whether it is spring plowing or digging canals and transporting soil, machines cannot compare to manpower using a shoulder pole and a backpack.
Just as Su Wenchen was muttering to himself, there was a knock on the wooden door.
Su Wenchen closed the letter and shouted.
"Come in."
Zhao Weiguo pushed open the door and found that only Su Wenchen was inside, and scratched his head.
"Director, what are our plans for tomorrow? Should we go to Xuzhou as planned and then continue south, or what should we do?"
Su Wenchen thought about it.
"First, go to Fengxian County, then follow the local roads and conduct research in nearby Dangshan County, Xiao County, and Pei County."
Su Wenchen plans to conduct a survey first to see how much saline-alkali land there is in these counties. However, judging from Fengxian County alone, he feels that there is enough land for them to develop for the time being.
Zhao Weiguo responded immediately after hearing this.
"Okay, Director, you should go to bed early."
He closed the door as he spoke, but a puzzled look remained on his face as he muttered.
"No one? Did I hear it wrong? Wasn't there someone mumbling in the director's room?"
Beijing City.
In the office of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry.
An old man with great energy looked at the thick stack of letters in his hand. His brows were furrowed at first, but then they relaxed as the sheets of paper folded one by one.
It eventually turned into a chuckle.
"This kid is really bold! Building a meat and milk supply base in the Central Plains."
After stroking the edge of the letter repeatedly, the old man took off his glasses, stood up and walked to the window.
Looking at the bare branches of the sycamore tree outside the window, I was thinking about the contents of the letter I had just read.
He muttered to himself.
“It neither avoids the current predicament nor hides the spirit of breaking through.”
After a moment, he turned back to the table and picked up a phone.
"Please notify the leaders of the Agriculture Bureau, the Reclamation Bureau, and the Agricultural Machinery Bureau to come to the conference room. Also..."
The old man paused and continued.
"Have the Ministry's Agricultural Machinery Bureau calculate how much agricultural machinery is available for deployment."
"Okay, Minister, I'll let you know right away!"
Ministry meeting room.
The key points of Su Wenchen's letter have been copied in the center of the blackboard, the old man said while knocking on the table.
"How many places like Yanglou Production Team are there in the Huanghuaihai region? Are we just going to passively provide relief?"
"Now, almost tens of millions of kilograms of relief grain are allocated to these areas every year. This area of the Central Plains used to be a major grain-producing area, but now it is an area that needs support."
"We are also required by higher authorities to come up with appropriate management plans to transform these tens of millions of mu of saline-alkali land into our country's new granary."
"This will not only save a large amount of relief food, but can also provide support to other places."
"This is the plan Blue Water Farm has proposed. Please see if it is feasible."
After saying that, he passed the letter in his hand.
Hearing this, the leader of the Agricultural Reclamation Bureau sitting on the side immediately stood up and took it.
The letter paper was also passed among the people below.
a long time.
After reading them all, some frowned slightly, while others remained noncommittal.
"Tell me! What are your opinions?"
Hearing this, the leader of the Agriculture Bureau stood up first.
"Minister, what can I say about this plan? The first part is quite impressive, especially the planting of alkali-resistant forage grasses and raising rabbits to supplement food shortages. I think this is a highly feasible plan."
"Blue Water Farm's experience in rabbit breeding is currently top-notch in our country. When it comes to breeding high-quality meat rabbits, I have no objection to this."
"Plus, the saline-alkali land in Xuzhou isn't currently among the first saline-alkali areas we've planned to address. I think we can appropriately support the Blue Water Farm in establishing a branch there, which will at least alleviate the pressure on survival there."
"And we even have to cook cabbage for ourselves. Honestly, if that's true, it's even harder than in eastern Henan. It means there's really very little arable land, and there's not even much land left for growing vegetables."
"But I think the second half is a bit far-fetched. The introduction of Landrace pigs was a policy planned before the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Forestry were merged."
"The goal is to improve the slow growth of our country's pigs."
"But starting with the first Soviet white pig imported from the Soviet Union in the early days of the People's Republic of China, we've imported three batches of pigs, including those from Britain and Denmark."
"It's not that there haven't been any results, but the current news from the core breeding farms is that the genetics are still unstable."
"Until a detailed breeding report and genetic data are submitted, it is difficult for me to believe the contents of the letter."
"As for the breeding of beef and dairy cows, since Blue Water Farm hasn't even started breeding yet, I won't go into details. However, I still feel that Blue Water Farm seems a bit arrogant now because of the success of the Yuehua Rabbit."
"Pigs are our country's most important meat supply. I know better than anyone how difficult it is to breed these white pigs."
"If it were that easy, I wouldn't have been stuck in the breeding farm for so many years."
Hearing this, the old man nodded.
"What about the Reclamation Bureau? What are your opinions?"
Hearing this, Lu Anguo from the Agricultural Reclamation Bureau stood up immediately.
"Minister, our Agricultural Reclamation Bureau will definitely give us strong support!"
"As for what Old Yu said earlier, I think that's normal. If someone wants to try it out without saying anything, and just keeps complaining to the department, will the department approve it?"
"Even if you're setting a trap for hunting, you know you have to put some kind of sweetener on it! You don't have any sweetener at all, so how can you expect to catch prey?"
"So, I think there's nothing wrong with imagining the future appropriately. Besides, it's not groundless. I remember Lao Lei from the Foreign Trade Department went there and said that they were raising good white pigs!"
"Even if we can't meet the conditions for spreading it to the production teams below, at least we can keep it stably raised on the farm. We can take it slow!"
"Old Yu, are you still expecting to get rich overnight?"
"And, Minister, our Land Reclamation Bureau is currently in contact with the Ministry of Water Resources. They both agree to start with Lankao to dredge the river, reinforce the embankment, and build a control and diversion project. At the same time, we will build a main canal from Lankao to divert the Yellow River into its old course and gradually advance the control factory southward."
"To be honest, it would take a long time to advance this kind of large-scale project to the Xuzhou area, so I think it is a good idea to let the Blue Water Field take root there in advance."
After listening to this, the old man did not say much. He waved his hand to signal for him to sit down, and then asked.
"Old Zhao, how many farm machines can your Agricultural Machinery Bureau mobilize now?"
"This year's batch was approved by the Ministry long ago. Only two were originally intended for Lanshui Farm and are still parked at the Changzhou Tractor Factory."
"But if necessary, we can also discuss it with the Su Province. After all, this is their province's land. Our department is taking the lead in providing manpower and food for them to manage. They can't just not show any appreciation!"
Hearing this, the old man nodded.
"Okay, then you can talk to the agricultural machinery department in Su Province. Our department provides the labor and food, but we can't also provide the agricultural machinery, and then the province will just reap the benefits."
"After all, if we give them this burden, they can have a lot of relief food left over every year."
"Minister, should we allocate the money Blue Water Farm needs?"
The old man was silent for a moment.
"We've already allocated everything we planned to the Blue Water Field, so just allocate it! As for any more."
"It just so happens that the national agricultural reclamation work conference is about to be held at the end of the year, and representatives from provincial agricultural reclamation bureaus and key farms will be attending."
"Have him come over and give an in-person report. Everyone can ask any questions in person! If Blue Water Farm can provide detailed information at that time, we can discuss whether to increase funding."
After the old man finished speaking, the others immediately understood what the leader meant.
After all, this matter is not at all worthy of being discussed at the National Agricultural Reclamation Work Conference, because what is discussed here are the promotion of national-level projects such as large-scale land reclamation, dam construction, and reclamation involving tens of thousands of people.
So calling people over should be to introduce them and get to know them.
As for taking out detailed information, the three of them didn't take it seriously.
At this time, the three of them also realized that the leader seemed to be very optimistic about the development of Blue Water Farm.
Northern Jiangsu.
After Su Wenchen sent the letter, he took advantage of this time to drive around the four surrounding counties of Peixian, Fengxian, Dangshan County, and Xiaoxian County to conduct research, and even learned about most of the conditions in each county.
It turned out that the four counties were not living well.
It can be said that they are all similar. Almost every county has tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of mu of saline-alkali land, and the average yield per mu is basically around 100 kilograms.
It is basically the same as the southwestern mountainous areas.
Moreover, people can still graze in the mountains, but here we can only watch large areas of saline-alkali land lying barren.
Only those communes that received more resources from the county were slightly better off, while those communes on the edge of the county had a much more difficult time.
Basically, I'm just in a state of not starving to death.
The large areas of Yellow River flooding that have not yet been managed are basically concentrated in the marginal areas of the four counties.
Su Wenchen also understood that the limited resources in each county must be used to develop the surrounding local counties.
Of course, there weren't actually that many resources, because after Su Wenchen conducted research, he found that the four counties combined had only thirty tractors.
Because Huxi Farm in Pei County alone accounts for half of them, and in the remaining three counties, basically each family has four or five vehicles, and they are basically concentrated in the county farms and a few advanced brigades.
Since Huxi Farm is a provincial farm of Su Province, Su Wenchen feels that the mechanization of these four counties is almost non-existent.
As for industry, it can basically be said that there is none. After Su Wenchen completed a round of investigation, he found that only Pei County and Xiao County had a small amount of coal mining. The most other industry was a factory that made agricultural tools such as hoes.
So after completing the investigation, Su Wenchen returned to Huanglou Commune.
Because he knew that the only way to break the deadlock in this place was by bringing in resources from outside. If it only relied on local development, it would probably always lag behind other places by several levels and would never be able to develop.
Huanglou Commune.
The cold wind blew across the fields of Huanglou Commune, carrying fine saline-alkali soil. Hundreds of members were using stone rollers to crush the wheat fields back and forth. The winter wheat fields, which should have been green, were covered with salt stains like white frost.
Su Wenchen squatted down, grabbed a handful of soil, and rubbed the compacted soil with his hands. There were still some salt grains on it, shining brightly in the sunlight.
"Professor Cao, it seems that if we don't elevate the fields and dig drainage ditches, even if we manage the problem properly, the salt and alkali will still come back up like this."
Hearing Su Wenchen's words, Cao Jiwen nodded.
"Yes, but the local members have no other options. Whether it's digging soil from other places or digging a large number of drainage ditches near these fields, it's not a small project."
"The only way is to plant wheat first and use a stone roller to compact the soil during the winter. This will greatly reduce the amount of salt and alkali rising up."
"But only winter wheat is allowed, not other crops, so many fields here are mostly planted with wheat!"
Su Wenchen also laughed when he heard this.
"Indeed, I remember that every year in our brigade, we would use stone rollers to press the winter wheat we planted. They said it would increase the yield a lot. Sometimes, when the stone rollers were not enough, we would have a group of people step on them to press them!"
Cao Jiwen nodded.
"This method is indeed useful in the north. Pressing down before winter can effectively conserve moisture and prevent frost. Pressing down during the greening period can temporarily inhibit above-ground growth, promoting nutrient transfer to the root system, effectively increasing the number of wheat ears and promoting vigorous growth in the wheat field. The risk of lodging later on will also be greatly reduced."
"But after crossing the Huai River, it's no longer necessary. The further south you go, the wetter the winters become, and the stickier the soil becomes. Pressing down at this point will easily cause the soil to compact, which is not worth the effort."
As the two were talking, there was a rapid ringing of bicycle bells, accompanied by excited roars.
"Director Su! Director Su! There's an urgent letter for you!"
Su Wenchen looked around and saw a middle-aged man with a dark face and wearing a navy blue cadre uniform that had been washed to a pale color. He was riding a bicycle and riding towards him quickly.
After riding to the edge of the field where Su Wenchen and Cao Jiwen were, he tilted his bike and staggered down the ridge.
Normally, the other party would have to clean up the bicycle if it got a little dusty, but at this moment, he didn't care at all.
Su Wenchen saw the other party's excitement and seemed to be thinking about something, but he still joked.
"Secretary Yang, your commune's secretary has to work part-time as a postman now?"
Hearing this, Yang Zhenye waved his hand.
"Director Su, please stop teasing me. Hurry up and check to see if it's approved."
As he spoke, he looked at the letter handed to Su Wenchen with burning eyes.
Because he has been very nervous ever since the news was revealed. If there had been no disturbances, he would not have been so nervous.
But since he learned that Blue Water Farm intended to establish a branch here, he hasn't had a good night's sleep for several days.
Unlike the more closed Yangzhuang Brigade, as the commune secretary, he had to be aware of all kinds of newspaper news.
The most sensational story reported in the newspapers recently was that Blue Water Farm achieved an output value of nearly 100 million US dollars with a single farm.
When the captain of the Yangzhuang Brigade came to inform him the next day, he thought Yang Jingfu was suffering from hysteria.
After all, the Blue Water Farm has earned so much foreign exchange, and there are so many good lands in the country for them to choose from. How could they possibly come to their shabby place to set up a branch farm?
Even if Yang Jingfu swore an oath, he was still skeptical, wondering if someone was defrauding him under the name of Blue Water Farm.
It was not until I went to the county in person to confirm that I found out that the district had indeed issued a document to cooperate and assist Blue Water Farm in conducting the investigation.
It was also at this time that he realized that it seemed like a pie had really fallen from the sky. If he were to ask who they envied the most in their area, it would definitely be Huxi Farm in Pei County next door.
After being designated as a provincial farm, several tractors were directly allocated to it, and the members became farm employees, receiving a prescribed ration of food and wages every month.
The communes that were lucky enough to be included in the plan were also reorganized into production department leaders of farm branches.
So after confirming the news, he has been in a state of anxiety.
On the one hand, we hope that Blue Water Farm will establish a branch here. After all, they are suffering here and urgently need external forces to break this vicious cycle.
On the other hand, they were also hesitant. What if their commune was not included?
The most painful thing in the world is to watch others enjoy a good life, especially when you were all poor brothers before, but now you suddenly become rich and can enjoy a leisurely life.
For many people, it would be better to be poor together!
So when he saw Su Wenchen tearing open the seal, he felt that even Director Su was more nervous.
(End of this chapter)
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