"Officer Huo, to be honest, we are all indebted to you. Look at the village now. We eat well, with meat for every meal, and live in a concrete house that is spacious and bright. Thinking about it now, I don't know how we managed to get through the years before."
"That's right. Before you, Officer Huo, came to be the village cadre, Zhan Anquan got sick and had to take medicine worth hundreds of dollars a month. He was forced to drink pesticides. If he had endured it until now, how could those things have happened!" An old man with several front teeth missing wiped his eyes, "Officer Huo, we old guys are grateful to you!"
"Second uncle, Officer Huo finally came back, why are you bringing up those things? Say something happy!"
The village representatives sitting around the table spoke casually, which quickly livened up the atmosphere.
Huo Qianli looked at a young couple sitting together and said with a smile: "Gu Chao, I heard that your wife has become the financial director of a company in the industrial park. You have to work harder!"
Gu Chao chuckled, "She's so capable, I'll just be her gigolo!"
At the side, his wife Chen Jinfeng pinched him shyly, but Gu Chao didn't take it seriously. Then he was hit on the back of his head suddenly, "You are a disgrace to our ancestors! Do you have any ambition?"
He turned around angrily and found that it was his old man, Uncle Yong. Gu Chao said speechlessly: "I'm kidding, why are you so excited!"
Amid the laughter that suddenly rang out from all around, Uncle Yong's expression froze, and then he slapped him again, "You're joking, don't you look at the time!"
Amidst the louder laughter, Gu Daqiang looked at the crowd and rolled his eyes. "I'm telling you guys, Officer Huo said just chat, and you guys really are just chatting. If you have any questions, ask them now! If you miss this opportunity, you'll never get it again, understand?"
Huo Qianli smiled and said, "I came to see you all, and I also want to see the real situation. I can't just listen to good words, haha!"
Everyone looked at each other and felt that it was not appropriate.
In the countryside, even if one is so poor that he cannot even afford to wear trousers, when a guest comes to his home, he will still borrow a set of clean clothes from his neighbor and do his best to save face. Few people will take the initiative to show their own shortcomings.
While hesitating, Tie Niu suddenly said, "Officer Huo, if that's the case, I really want to tell you something."
Huo Qianli nodded and said, "Speak!"
Tie Niu said, "In our village, the yield of Salvia miltiorrhiza has been getting lower year by year in recent years. In your first year, the yield per mu was more than 400 to nearly 500 kilograms. This year, when we settled the accounts a few days ago, the yield per mu in our village was only a little over 200."
"Brother Gu, is the situation so bad?" Huo Qianli turned his head and looked at Gu Daqiang, somewhat surprised.
Gu Daqiang nodded, "Yes, in the first year of our cooperative, each of the three groups had 200 mu of land and harvested about 93,000 kilograms. Now, our three groups combined, plus the reclamation of homesteads and the leveling of field ridges and forests, have transferred nearly 1,000 mu of land. This year, we planted 500 mu of Salvia miltiorrhiza, but the total output is only a little over 90,000, barely enough for an order from one company. If the cooperative planting area of the industrial park had not been expanded to the entire town, we would not even be able to satisfy the appetite of the dozen or so companies in the park."
Huo Qianli frowned, "Have you studied the reason?"
"We have studied it." Gu Chengde also interrupted at this time. As someone who has experienced all this in the past few years, he is more qualified to speak. "We invited experts to take a look. When Mr. Hu and Professor Zhang came a few days ago, we also consulted them. Everyone's opinions are similar. One is that the land is rotated too frequently, and the soil fertility is insufficient. The second is the seed problem. The current seeds, under the condition of asexual reproduction, are not resistant to diseases and pests on a large scale, resulting in low yields. As for the third reason, it is what you, Officer Huo, also know. In order to ensure quality, we don't use the reed head propagation method."
Huo Qianli nodded. "So, the harvest from this area is only about one-third of what it used to be?"
"That's right." Gu Daqiang looked at Huo Qianli, stroked his bald head, and laughed at himself, "You said I am worthy of being the village chief, but I have never enjoyed a good day. I am always in trouble!"
A joke livened up the atmosphere with laughter.
Huo Qianli nodded and wrote it down in his notebook. "I will focus on this matter and see how to deal with it. Professor Zhang is going to build a scientific research center in our industrial park. When the time comes, please ask her to work on this matter!"
"Officer Huo, I also have something I want to tell you!"
With Tie Niu taking the lead, a villager sitting on the bench at the back stood up and spoke bravely.
"Zhan Xingwang, I remember you!" Huo Qianli said with a smile, "How have you been recently? I remember that you would scold me when I went to the roof to pick up tiles when it rained. When you have money one day, you must build a building to live in. It's too late to build a house now!"
The villager's face fell. "Officer Huo, I just wanted to talk to you about this house. To be honest, this house is definitely better than my previous mud house. It's spacious and bright. But I still don't feel as comfortable living in it as before!"
Huo Qianli asked in confusion: "What's the reason for this?"
"Officer Huo, think about it. I used to live in a mud house. I knew it was just a pile of mud and grass. I knew it well. I could tolerate any rats or snakes jumping into the house. But now I spent a lot of money to build this house. Even if the government gave me a subsidy, I spent tens of thousands of dollars from my family. I can definitely think of anything to make it comfortable!"
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