The first crop of wheat was planted in Jiaojiao's space, followed by potatoes, sweet potatoes, yams, pumpkins, and kudzu roots. Five days later, all the crops matured.
Old Lady Feng said that the crops grown in the space were much better than those grown outside. The wheat ears were twice as big as those outside, and each grain was plump. The yield per mu was more than ten times that of the crops grown outside.
The potatoes and sweet potatoes are also very exaggerated. Each one is big and long, and they are closely packed together. One acre of land can produce tens of thousands of kilograms.
There are more than a dozen pumpkins on a vine, they are round and big, even bigger than a big iron pot for cooking.
The yam is even more amazing, thick, strong and long. One yam is as thick as a thigh and is two meters long.
Jiaojiao cut open the pumpkin and found the seeds inside were plump, with thousands of seeds in one pumpkin. Fortunately, the space had been expanded, otherwise there would be no way to plant all these things.
Jiaojiao took out some potatoes, sweet potatoes, yams, and pumpkin seeds. With just these few things, the hut was almost full. Old Lady Feng was so shocked that her jaw dropped.
"Oh my God! It can actually grow so big! It's worthy of being a fairy's thing, it's extraordinary!" Old Lady Feng's eyes lit up.
"Why not take out the seedlings of these things and plant them outside to see what the effect is?" suggested Old Lady Feng.
Jiaojiao took out a few small seedlings of each kind, and Old Lady Feng quickly ran to the back of her house and planted the seedlings.
The seedlings outside grew slower, so Old Lady Feng asked Lianhua to water and fertilize them every day and took great care of them.
At the same time, a staff member from the county seed store came to Wangjia Village to check the soil conditions. Also arriving was a tractor carrying sweet potato and potato seedlings.
"This sandy land is really good for growing sweet potatoes. It's also good for growing watermelons." After checking, the staff member crushed a lump of soil with his hands.
He clapped his hands. "I've seen the mountains you mentioned. You can grow kudzu root, potatoes, and sweet potatoes there. We don't have any kudzu root, though. You can dig them up yourself. Most of the wild kudzu root here is pink kudzu root, which is high in starch, filling, and large. But you have to wait until the kudzu seeds are ripe, which will be in the second half of the year. If you have any ideas then, come find me and I'll teach you how to grow it."
The village chief nodded in thanks and took out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket and handed it to the technician: "Technician Li, you've worked so hard! When we harvest the first crop, I'll definitely send you a basket!"
Technician Li smiled and pushed the cigarette away: "You're welcome, I don't smoke. But we agreed that if you send me something later, I won't be polite!"
The village chief laughed heartily: "Of course I should!"
The village chief directed the villagers to carefully unload the seedlings from the tractor bucket. The entire village joined in, digging holes and carrying water. Soon, over thirty acres of sandy land had been planted. The remaining seedlings were distributed among the households, with each family receiving about ten plants.
To prevent wild boars from descending from the mountains and destroying the sandy land, the village chief and two others built a shack nearby and spent the night there. This was the village's lifeline for the autumn harvest! There couldn't be any mistakes.
Old Lady Feng returned home with the rice seedlings the village had distributed, planted them in the front yard, and watered them with diluted spiritual spring water. Now all she had to do was wait for them to grow and bear fruit.
After Wangjia Village planted potatoes and sweet potatoes, several surrounding brigades also found ways to plant some, but they were all scattered, not on the large scale of Wangjia Village.
Some wives from other villages secretly go back to their families and tell them to plant more sweet potatoes, potatoes, pumpkins, kudzu root, etc. if they can. Some families believe them, while others don't care.
In Yanjia Village, Xiaoya’s grandmother held a family meeting overnight.
Xiaoya's uncle, Yan Chenggang, expressed his opinion: "If you ask me, not only should we plant, we should plant more! What my little sister told us during the New Year, and the incident of saving Xiaoya later... I think it's right to follow Old Lady Feng's family."
"Right, right!" Younger brother Yan Chengcai nodded repeatedly, "Whatever Old Lady Feng does, we do. Didn't my second sister say that Old Lady Feng was going around exchanging food for food a few days ago? We should do the same! Old Lady Feng grows potatoes and sweet potatoes, so we should grow them too!"
Yan Chengcai's wife, Li Qiu, nodded like pecking at rice: "Yes, yes, yes!"
Xiaoya's grandmother shook her head and said, "We can't learn it. Food is so scarce now. We don't have money and nothing to exchange for food. We can grow potatoes and sweet potatoes."
Yan Chenggang's wife, Wang Yan, estimated: "We saved a dozen potatoes from last year to plant this year, and I also started raising sweet potato seedlings earlier. If we want to plant, we can do it tomorrow, the timing is perfect."
Li Qiu said, "I brought a bag of pumpkin seeds from my mother's house last year. I dug them out and planted them in a circle along our fence."
Yan Chenggang added: "I'll go to the back mountain to dig up some kudzu root and see if I can plant it."
Xiaoya's grandmother and her family started working intensively the next day, and were so tired that their backs ached at the end of the day.
Their family has a large front and back yard, where they used to grow vegetables. This year, they stopped growing vegetables and planted all the land with potatoes and sweet potatoes. After all, potato and sweet potato leaves make good dishes. Li Qiu planted a dozen pumpkin seeds by the fence in the front and back yards, hoping for a vine full of large pumpkins in the fall.
Just as Xiaoya's grandmother and her family were busy, a group of people gathered on the sandy land of Wangjia Village.
"Cunzi Wang, what you're doing is not very kind. This piece of sandy land is between our two villages. We were supposed to have half each. How could you plant crops without permission? We can pull them out, but that's not a good idea. So, how about you just consider it a good deed and give us the seedlings on this half of the sandy land? We'll return it to you next year."
The person who spoke was Zhou Xianyong, the village chief of Zhoujia Village. He was tall and strong, and was aggressive and belligerent. He made the whole village unable to speak properly and would show his fists at any time.
"Village Chief Zhou, this piece of sand originally belonged to our Wangjia Village. When the village boundaries were redrawn a few years ago, the surveyors specifically addressed this issue. They said this piece of sand belongs to our Wangjia Village, and they'll give you more land on the other side. Didn't you agree then?"
Wang Yucai, the village chief of Wangjia Village, argued, "Now that we've planted our crops, you're still making trouble. Why don't you go back and check the village records?"
Zhou Xianyong ignored him and sneered, "There's no such thing in our village. I only know that this piece of land has been shared by our two villages for generations. How can you say it's not owned? How can you be so shameless?"
It has been going on for generations, and the redistricting of village boundaries has only happened in recent years.
Wang Yucai refused to budge: "Your words are not final. Even if they report me to the higher authorities, I'm not afraid."
Zhou Xianyong sneered, "Who's reporting this to you? I'm telling you, either you take half of this field from the middle, or I'm going to dig up all these seedlings today!"
He has always been cruel and fierce, and people from the surrounding production teams always stayed away from him.
However, this matter was of great importance, and Village Chief Wang Yucai would not give in no matter what.
The atmosphere between the two groups was extremely tense, and it looked like a fight was about to break out...
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