The ones in the sandy area, though planted earlier, turned out quite normal. Their leaves and growth were no different from those of ordinary sweet potato seedlings.
Thinking of the peach trees in Old Lady Feng's house, the people in Wangjia Village hope that the sweet potatoes in their fields will grow big and abundant. The sweet potato leaves alone can feed them, and the sweet potatoes in the soil will definitely allow them to survive the disaster year.
Speaking of seed stations, we have to mention Technician Li. At the beginning of the month, he arrived in Wangjia Village with a cartload of seedlings. By the end of the month, his family was struggling to make ends meet. With no other options, Technician Li cycled to every production team in Xinjin County. He simply hoped to borrow some food.
Technician Li, originally from the countryside, found a job in the county town through connections. Over the years, he's traveled extensively to various brigades in Xinjin County, introducing new seeds to members, teaching them how to use fertilizers, and explaining how to prevent pests. Over the years, he's cultivated strong relationships with many of the brigades.
At this time, the Li family encountered difficulties, and Technician Li had no choice but to borrow food from everywhere.
Speaking of which, the Li family and Old Lady Xu's family are from the same place. Last year's harvest was poor, and this year they have no food to survive the spring.
Although Technician Li had done everything he could to prepare plenty of sorghum and wheat bran for his family, his eldest sister-in-law secretly stole two bags of grain to support her parents. Seeing this, his second sister-in-law followed suit and stole two bags of grain as well.
This directly led to Technician Li's family running out of food! Technician Li could ignore his eldest brother and his second brother's wife, but he couldn't ignore his parents, right? Helplessly, he could only bite the bullet and borrow food from everywhere. The food rations of the people in the city were limited, so he could only look to the countryside for help.
Technician Li has already visited several brigades. It's not that they don't want to help him, but they can't even if they want to! These people are already tightening their belts and drinking water to fill their stomachs. How can they have extra food for him?
When Technician Li ran to Wangjia Village, he couldn't ride his bike steadily and fell off the bike several times.
Dashanba, who was patrolling the village entrance, greeted from afar: "Isn't this Technician Li? What happened? Come on, have a drink of water."
Technician Li drank the water but still felt dizzy. The black stars in front of his eyes made him so dizzy that he couldn't get up.
Dashan's father gave Technician Li another bowl of water. After a while, Technician Li slowly woke up.
"Technician Li? Are you going to the countryside to teach technology?" Dashan's father asked, "You don't take care of your health. Look, your head is broken. How much food will it take to replenish that much blood?"
Technician Li said quietly, "I'm here to borrow some food from you. Even a pound or a meal would be great!"
Dashan's father was in a dilemma. There were still a few handfuls of black noodles left in their family, but it was not up to him to decide.
"Technician Li, why don't you take a seat and take it easy while I go ask the team. Don't worry, just wait a moment."
Dashan's father asked the others to watch the intersection and ran back to find the captain.
Technician Li is not just his own technician, but everyone's technician. Of course, such things should be told to the captain!
When the team leader heard that Technician Li had arrived, he asked about the specific reason, thinking that even if he didn't borrow it in the name of the brigade, he could at least give him half a pound of black flour.
The team leader followed Dashan's father and hurried to the village entrance, but there was no sign of Technician Li.
"Technician Li said there's nothing to do just waiting around, so why not go check on the crops in our fields and see if we need to fertilize or get rid of pests?"
Technician Li strolled toward the farmland of Wangjia Village. This area was planted entirely with wheat, which needed to be watered and fertilized, as well as protected against pests. As Technician Li surveyed the fields, he noticed that Wangjia Village's wheat fields were meticulously tended. Water and fertilizer were adequate, and pests and diseases were absent.
Technician Li then went back to the sandy land to check on the sweet potatoes. They were also growing well, and a good harvest was expected in August.
Technician Li looked around again, and a large expanse of lush greenery at the foot of the mountain caught his attention. He walked closer and stumbled upon a field of sweet potatoes with thriving seedlings.
The sweet potatoes here were clearly growing better than those on the sandy land. The leaves were lush and large. He remembered how this place was completely bare when he last came. He wondered how these sweet potatoes could grow so fast. The sweet potato vines grew so densely that the ground was covered with them. The leaves alone were enough for the whole family to eat for several meals.
Technician Li's mouth started watering when he thought of the fragrant sweet potato leaf porridge.
No, that’s off topic, that’s off topic.
The problem was, while the sweet potato leaves were delicious, they were growing too abundantly and too vigorously. They would definitely compete with the roots for nutrients. Technician Li shook his head. No, he had to have the village chief and his men pick all the leaves off. But was this sweet potato field growing so well because of adequate water and fertilizer, or was it a good variety? Technician Li was deeply curious.
When the village chief found the sandy land at the east end of the village and then came to this place, Technician Li was already squatting among the sweet potato leaves, determined to figure out why the sweet potatoes grew so fast and why they had so many leaves.
"Technician Li, hahaha! Hurry up! I told you, Technician Li is the most dedicated technician. Even when he's dizzy and bleeding, he still cares about the crops in our fields."
The village chief's voice arrived before he arrived.
Technician Li crawled out from the sweet potato vines, covered in mud.
"Technician Li, how is it? Is our team's experimental sweet potato field successful?" The village chief took the initiative.
"Experimental field?"
"Yes! We cleared a piece of wasteland to conduct an experiment and carefully tended to it every day. Look, isn't it bigger than other sweet potatoes?"
Technician Li was confused: "Why haven't I heard of this?"
"This was something our brigade did on their own. Since we reclaimed the wasteland ourselves, we didn't report it to the higher authorities. We'll wait until we get some results."
Although he said this, the village chief was actually thinking, all the grain has rotted in the fields in autumn, and these are the sweet potatoes, so why don’t they all be eaten?
Technician Li praised them: "You guys are doing great! When I have time, I'll come and learn from you!"
The captain thought to himself, then your studies will probably be in vain, you don’t have our Old Lady Feng and the fairy doll under the fairy’s throne!
The team leader gave Technician Li half a pound of black flour and two large baskets of sweet potato leaves from the "experimental field" to give to Technician Li. Technician Li received the life-saving food and didn't care about the abnormality of the sweet potatoes. He got on his bicycle and rushed home.
"Remember to leave seeds for me, I will come again next time!" Technician Li reminded the village chief while pedaling hard.
"Okay! I'll definitely keep it for you! Don't worry!"
Technician Li didn't need to tell us that such a high-yielding sweet potato must be saved for seed. The village chief even wanted to plant this sweet potato for the rest of his life!
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