Chapter 262 Times Have Changed
Lin Wen's super-limit growth plan finally showed its power at this time.
When his soul exceeds 180%, he can use many high-end spells.
It has more functions.
——
At present, due to the large-scale refugee reception in Changshan County, various supplies, especially food, tents and medical supplies, are in extreme shortage.
Due to the obstruction of the Council, the Empire restricted Changshan County's large-scale purchases, and now almost all supplies are supported by inventory.
The tent problem has been temporarily solved by the mountain building.
According to Yang Shaohu's plan, the entire mountain building complex can accommodate a total of 4.5 million refugees, far exceeding the 1.2 million refugees originally designed.
Therefore, Lin Wen gave up the plan to build another mountain building complex and turned to solving the food problem.
Shangxi Town in Chenxingtai has always played an important role in food supply during this period.
A total of one million tons of high-quality vegetables were supplied, which greatly alleviated the food supply problem in Changshan County, improved the monotonous diet, and enriched the variety of dishes.
Their cabbage is fresh and tender, and everyone who has eaten it praises it. A bowl of porridge, a few cabbages, some rapeseed, some diced radish, and a little bit of minced meat is a supreme delicacy for both the refugees and Lin Wen.
However, the vegetable fields in Shangxi Town will be harvested in a few days, and the grain reserves in Changshan County are less than one month's worth.
The food problem is imminent.
If there is a food shortage, it will definitely be a huge disaster given the current population of Changshan County, which is over 8 million.
Since the night talk with Lin Wen that day, Chen Xingtai began to convene the Kuomintang on a large scale across the country and provided extensive support to civil organizations in various states, including the Big Sword Society in Hezhou, the Three Point Society in Yunzhou, the Triads in Lingzhou, the Tiandi Party in Mingzhou, the Brothers Society in Tianzhou, the Green Gang in Xuzhou, and the Endeavor Society, Xinhua Society, and Nongxing Society in Shizhou, etc.
Although they are called civil organizations, they are actually organizations that oppose the state government, resist rent and taxes, expel gentry and landlords, and oppose officials. They have always been civil organizations that have caused great headaches for governors everywhere.
The Democratic Party mainly provided them with intelligence and funds, as well as a fallback route when the situation became bad - Changshan County.
Thus, in just over a month, the KMT accepted more than 100,000 KMT members and members of civil organizations from all over the country, as well as more than 200,000 farmers who accompanied them.
Shangxi Town expanded from a population of 60,000 to 410,000.
Fortunately, Zhao Minggong had already dispatched more than 100,000 laborers, and used the trees they had cut down to build more than 10,000 simple wooden houses at the foot of the Taixu Mountains to settle them down.
The Kuomintang also expanded from more than 3,000 people to more than 60,000 people.
Although it expanded rapidly, it was still less than one-fifth of the Kuomintang's heyday. Chen Xingtai urgently summoned members from all over the country and began large-scale land reclamation.
There are only 100,000 hectares of land around Shangxi Town, which can only support more than 60,000 farmers. Chen Xingtai even had to assign some people to go to the mountains to cut wood and hunt.
Now the population has suddenly increased to 410,000, and the 100,000 hectares of arable land is simply not enough to go around.
It's impossible to have more than 300,000 people going to cut wood and hunt, right?
Most of them are farmers, and if possible, Chen Xingtai still hopes that they can cultivate the land.
More land is needed to accommodate them.
Therefore, he has been actively reclaiming wasteland.
However, beyond 100,000 hectares, all the land was extremely poor, with compacted, dry and infertile soil, making land reclamation work extremely difficult.
For this reason, the cadres of the Kuomintang all had worried faces. They all came from peasant families and had a natural liking for farmers. They had a natural attachment to the land, planting, and harvesting.
A good harvest makes them cheer, while difficulties encountered in reclaiming wasteland make them sad and depressed.
But the leaders of the Kuomintang, Chen Xingtai and Yun Qingshui, always maintained a high-spirited attitude. Yun Qingshui even quoted a famous saying: "This is not the sidewalk on the central street of Shenjing." to illustrate that a straight road does not exist, and to encourage everyone to not fear hardships and overcome difficulties.
Chen Xingtai was very happy with the rapid improvement in the water quality of Yunqing. Thanks to their efforts, the Kuomintang actively purchased a large amount of fertilizers, advanced agricultural tools, and even some agricultural machinery that had not yet been popularized in the empire to speed up land reclamation activities.
The reason why Chen Xingtai dared to do this was that to the west of Shangxi Town, there was a vast wasteland, extending from near the new town to the foot of the Taixu Mountains, with an area of at least 500,000 hectares, and it was very close to the water source. As long as the water conservancy facilities were well built, this would be a very good piece of arable land.
If Shangxi Town truly had 500,000 hectares of irrigated land, it could develop into an agricultural center. Lin Wen promised Yu that he would not collect agricultural taxes for three years, which meant that farmers would have complete control over the food they grew.
When Chen Xingtai was in Zhongzhou, the standard agricultural tax was 72%, which meant that if one grew 100 kilograms of grain, one had to pay 72 kilograms of tax, and he only got 28 kilograms.
According to information from the Democratic Party in other regions, taxes in Central China are still the lowest, while taxes in other places generally range from 75% to 92%.
If you rent the land from a landlord, it would be even worse. One person could till 30 mu of land and work hard all year round, but not even half of the profit would go into his pocket.
This kind of tenant farmer is the most miserable. He can't even get enough to eat and lives like he did a hundred years ago. He cannot enjoy any of the benefits of technological development in the past hundred years.
So some people say that the empire is like a monster. The eastern part is prosperous and developed, with skyscrapers, neon lights, airplanes and sports cars.
In some areas of the west, it is common to see people working with their backs to the sky and their faces facing the loess, with oxen pulling the plows. It is no different from a hundred years ago.
Even the landlords were the same. All the harvests from their hard work were taken away by the landlords or the government, and the little that remained in their hands was exploited and plundered by others.
For thousands of years, the fate of farmers has remained unchanged.
Only Changshan County is different.
Here, farmers can truly feel the joy of harvest, and everything they grow is theirs.
An acre of land can yield 5,000 kilograms of cabbage, so much that even a dozen vegetable baskets cannot fill it. That heavy feeling of harvest was something I could never have imagined before.
Taking into account the market problems in Changshan County, Xiao Xiao priced the cabbage at 10 cents per kilogram. Although it was much cheaper than the price of vegetables in other places, since there was no exploitation and no transportation problems, the gross income per mu of land was 500 yuan. On average, each person had 24 mu of land, with a gross income of 12,000 yuan.
After deducting the 20% tax originally used to purchase the house in Shangxi Town, as well as the consumption of seeds, fertilizers, etc., the net income was as high as 7,000 yuan.
In less than three months, they earned 7,000 yuan, with an average monthly income of 2,300 yuan. They could not have imagined that they could earn so much money from farming.
On the day of harvest, the whole town was filled with a festive atmosphere. In order to express their gratitude, the town specially invited carpenters to carve wooden statues of Lin Wen, Chen Xingtai and Yun Qingshui and placed them at the entrance of the village. Anyone who returned from a day's harvest would bow down and burn half a stick of incense to thank County Chief Lin and the Democratic Party for bringing them a happy life.
The KMT cadres were even more excited. Wasn't this the day they had always dreamed of? Coming from peasant backgrounds, each possessed talent and ability, but none of them wanted to be the pawns of the landlords and bullies. That's why they joined the KMT, hoping to create a new world.
Changshan County perfectly fits the deepest dreams of their souls. They feel that their previous days were simply crawling in hell, and they can't wait to save more people and drag them out of hell.
Therefore, they are also the people who are most active in land reclamation, and they are also the most anxious when land reclamation is not going well.
But there was no rush. The land had to be cultivated inch by inch, the canals built meter by meter. Chen Xingtai encouraged them, saying, "It doesn't matter if the land isn't cultivated in one month. You can cultivate it in two months. If not in two months, you can cultivate it in six months. If not in six months, you can cultivate it in a year. One day, we will be able to run across 500,000 hectares of wheat fields, and let all farmers enjoy the joy of a good harvest!"
His words won applause from the whole audience, and everyone was motivated and determined to change the face of this world in a year or even several years.
Chen Xingtai then went to find Lin Wen, hoping to seek his support.
After all, the Democratic Party cannot support these more than 300,000 people with its current economy, and it still needs funding from the county government.
But Lin Wen gave an incredible answer: "What kind of land will take a year to cultivate? Just cultivate it in two days."
"Two days?"
Chen Xingtai was surprised and said, "Chief Lin, this is impossible, even if there were millions of people. That's barren land, you can't just plow it over and plant it."
Lin Wen said, "Xingtai, soon, I will spread the essence of life over 500,000 hectares of land."
"It can turn barren land into fertile land, and thin fields into ripe fields. All you have to do is organize the farmers, make plans, and then go and cultivate and sow."
He patted Chen Xingtai on the shoulder.
"We will strive to transform this land into the granary of Changshan County as soon as possible."
Chen Xingtai smiled instantly.
He always believed Lin Wen's words unconditionally, because he knew that County Chief Lin never joked about important matters.
He said that there is the essence of life, so it must exist. He said that barren land can be turned into fertile land, so it must be possible.
"Great, I'll go right away."
Chen Xingtai immediately rushed back to Shangxi Town.
Lin Wenzhe came to the wasteland west of Shangxi Town.
I got off the car and stepped on the ground. It was dry, hard and barren, just like the Gobi Desert. There was no sign of arable land at all.
This is also the fundamental reason why Changshan County has been so poor and backward in the past forty years.
The land is barren and there is too little arable land.
but,
Times have changed.
Lin Wen crushed a piece of gravel with his foot.
It started from the moment I set foot on this land.
【Ganlin Technique】
In the clear sky, a dense and fine drizzle began to fall.
It fell on the face like cool ice beads, sliding down without leaving any trace of moisture.
It fell on the clothes like it fell on oilcloth, rolling down without getting a single speck of it on them.
It fell to the ground and disappeared in an instant.
The land has changed in a way that is visible to the naked eye.
(End of this chapter)
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