Zhou Datian and Secretary Xu, along with two men who looked like cadres, came out of the brigade headquarters and walked towards Zhou Huaian's home, followed by a few curious villagers.
Qian Chunhua and Ma Chunhua, one old and one young, were also inside, listening to their conversation with their ears perked up.
This year, their two families followed Zhou Huaian to plant more than ten acres of mugwort on the mountain. Now all the crops have grown and the seedlings have grown out. If they are dug up, two months of work will have been in vain. Next year, there will be no mugwort to sell, and the loss will be huge.
When they walked to the grove and saw two brick houses under construction, they stopped curiously and stood outside the construction site of the house in front of Wang Chunhua's house, where the brick wall had just been completed. They felt that the countryside had changed so much in just three short years.
Zhou Datian smiled at the balding middle-aged cadre and said, "Director Lin, the head of this household is Xu Changgui, a relative of Secretary Xu. His wife is in poor health, and the family has always been in financial difficulty.
After the division of households, the father and his two sons were all hardworking and diligent. His family was also the first to follow Zhou Huaian in planting herbs. This year, they also took a few acres of barren mountain land to plant mugwort. "
Qian Chunhua said from behind: "Big cadre, my family has also planted more than ten acres. Please rest assured, the country, no family is willing to use good farmland to grow herbs, these are all wastelands that we have reclaimed ourselves."
Ma Chunhua also stepped forward with a red face, "Comrade cadre, my family has also planted crops. We have to plant crops. After paying the public grain tax, there is no surplus money except for the money reserved for seeds from the agricultural tax.
My two children need money to go to school and my parents need money to get sick. The house leaks a lot when it rains heavily and a little when it rains lightly. We don’t even have money to repair it. Thanks to the past two or three years when I have been with Zhou Laoyao and growing medicinal herbs and picking up mountain products to make money, we have money to repair the house, pay for my parents’ medical treatment, and build a new house.”
"It's the same in my family. The sweet potatoes we harvested from the wasteland couldn't be exchanged for much money, and we didn't have enough money to buy a pound of meat for a snack for two or three months. In the past two years, thanks to Zhou Laoyao collecting herbs and helping the boss in the provincial capital to collect mountain products, we finally had a little money to buy some meat to eat.
"Of course not. We saw his family grow herbs, so we followed suit so we could have money to repair the house and find a wife for our children. Who is the evil-minded person who reported it? Such evil people who can't bear to see others doing well should be arrested and criticized."
Zhou Datian waited until everyone had finished talking before he said, "Okay! The officials from the Agriculture Bureau came down to check the situation because they didn't believe anyone would dare to cause trouble. If you want to talk, just talk nicely. What's the point of following behind and chattering?"
Director Lin smiled slightly, "Secretary Datian, what everyone said is very good. There is no need to interrupt them. As long as Funiushan Village develops, it will definitely become rich in a few years."
Along the way, he had a good impression of the villagers of Funiusu Village. The brigade's shaiba was not like those in other villages, where people played cards and gambled for money in groups of three or five.
In this small mountain village, there are four or five households building new houses, and all of them are brick and tile houses. There are also many newly built brick and tile houses, proving that the villagers in this village are actively responding to the government's call and working hard to get rich.
Qian Chunhua turned her head and curled her lips. They, the farmers, were no different from the crops in the fields. As long as God was willing to give them food to eat, they would not have to do something strange every few days. As long as the weather was good, the crops would naturally be fine.
Secretary Xu also smiled and said, "Director Lin, the national policy is good. After we were divided up and started working on our own, after paying the public grain tax, we still had more fine grains and coarse grains left than we could eat no matter how much we tried.
Sweet potatoes and corn are not valuable, so everyone has to grow some cash crops to have money to supplement the family income, renovate the house, find wives for the sons, and buy dowries for the daughters.
To be honest, my family also opened up a piece of barren mountain land to grow medicinal herbs two years ago. The harvest at the end of the year is indeed better than that from growing sweet potatoes and potatoes. This year I planted several acres of mugwort.
Next year, we can harvest one crop around the Dragon Boat Festival and sell it at a high price, and we can harvest two crops in the second half of the year. Although the price will be lower, it is still better than growing potatoes and sweet potatoes.
In the words of the villagers, growing mugwort is a lazy man's crop. You don't need to plow the soil every year or plant seeds every year. You just need to spread some fertile soil and you can harvest several crops a year and sell them for money. "
After listening to this, Director Lin said, "Your village is indeed better looking than other villages, and there are more new houses in your village than in other villages. This proves that advocating scientific farming and getting rich through hard work is right."
Secretary Xu took over the conversation, "Director Lin, Zhou Huaian was a well-known lazy second-rate person in our village, and his family used to be a poor household in our brigade.
Since the land was distributed to each household, this child seems to have changed into a different person. He actively responded to the government's call, got rid of his lazy thinking, and led the villagers on the road to poverty alleviation and prosperity. "
Director Lin saw that Secretary Xu and Zhou Datian were both helping Zhou Huaian, so he reminded them, “The state has introduced policies to encourage the majority of villagers to get rich through science and hard work.
But the premise is that good farmland cannot be occupied, grain production cannot be damaged, and public grain delivery cannot be affected. Your village leaders must play a supervisory role. If you find that there is a situation of occupying arable land, you must urge them to eradicate and rectify it. If they refuse to change after repeated warnings, the land will be taken back and redistributed. "
Zhou Datian hurriedly promised, "Don't worry, Director Lin. I have checked their situation on the spot. They grow food on the land allocated by the village, and the barren mountain land they contracted to grow herbs is all used."
As they were talking, they arrived at the grove. When they saw a row of new houses and hardened road surface, Director Lin and the people who came with him looked at each other.
I think Funiu Village can serve as a typical example for other villages to see how the villagers in their village have changed so much in just three years!
Looking at the golden Jerusalem artichoke flowers on both sides of the ditch, Director Lin sighed, "It's great, everything is clean and tidy. Even city people like this kind of rural life."
Ma Chunhua smiled and said, "Comrade cadre, these are Jerusalem artichokes. Cut the tender stems and cook them to feed the pigs. Jerusalem artichokes grown in the soil can be pickled and eaten, or they can be dried and cooked into pig feed for the pigs."
Director Lin praised: "This plant is good. It has both ornamental value and economic benefits. It is worth promoting widely."
A group of people arrived at the back mountain of Zhou Huaian's house. Zhou Datian pointed to the medicinal fields on the back mountain and said, "Director Lin, two years ago this was a barren mountain, all rocks, with few trees. The Zhou family spent three years transforming this area into this."
Director Lin and his companion stood by the fence, looking at the neatly planned medicinal fields inside, and asked curiously: "What kind of herbs are they growing? And that one, it seems to be stinking peony, right?"
Zhou Datian smiled and said, "It's the stinking peony. It looks pretty nice to see such a large patch of it! The others are mostly common herbs, such as Viola yedoensis, dandelions, plantains... They can be harvested twice a year, and we also grow some."
Director Lin asked in surprise: "Is stinking peony also a herb?"
Zhou Datian nodded. "Yes, Zhou Huaian's wife is the apprentice of Doctor Wang of Deshengtang and the eldest daughter of Yang Quanqing. She led us to collect the herbal seeds. I heard her say before that the roots and leaves have different functions, but I don't know what they can cure specifically."
Ma Chunhua took over the conversation, "Secretary Datian, I know what they do. Doctor Xiao Wang said that the roots of stinking peony can cure rheumatic joint pain, dizziness and headaches.
The leaves of the stinking peony can be used to treat arthritis, eczema, hemorrhoids and toothaches. The roots can be dried and stewed with chicken or meat. Last time, Dr. Xiao Wang came with Sister Chunyan and treated us!"
Director Lin looked at the herbs in the field and said, "Yes, the person who led you to open up the land and plant herbs was taught by Dr. Wang's apprentice. So these herbs will not be planted in vain."
Not to mention the medical skills of the grandfather and grandson of the Wang family, their connections have reached the provincial capital. He finally understood why Zhou Huaian could lead everyone to grow herbs for sale and help the boss in the provincial capital to collect mountain products.
At this time, Yang Chunyan, Zhou's father, Zhou's mother, and Zhou Huairong all came over and pretended to be ignorant and asked about the situation.
Zhou Datian explained the situation and said, "Take us to see the cultivation of the mountain land that the village allocated to your family."
"Okay!" Father Zhou took the lead and walked towards the ditch.
As the group walked along, Zhou Datian pointed out his own medicinal fields to Director Lin. When they passed Grandpa Gao's land, they saw that he also planted several acres of mugwort. Then they reached the mountain land opened up by the Zhou family.
Yang Chunyan saw that the two people who came were wearing yellow rubber shoes, and their clothes and pants were a little white from washing. They were walking on the narrow road along the field, and their speed was about the same as everyone else.
I think the cadres of this era are better, they don't put on airs, and they are down-to-earth in what they say and do. Unlike those who went to the countryside in later generations, they staggered along the road along the edge of the field, which made people terrified, for fear that they would fall into the field.
Father Zhou pointed to the well-growing mugwort and said, "Comrade cadre, my four sons were allocated only eight mu of mountain land in total, and the rest was reclaimed by our family.
This year, we planted corn and sorghum on these fields. The harvest was very poor this year due to the dry weather. We harvested more than 20 mu of land, but the corn we harvested was not enough to pay the public grain tax. The four brothers finally bought more than 1,000 kilograms of corn to make up the difference.
Qian Chunhua felt a little distressed when she thought about the corn she had spent money on. "Every family has bought corn seeds this year. Thanks to the places selling mountain products and herbs in the past two years, everyone has some extra money to buy food. Otherwise, we couldn't even pay the public grain."
Director Lin is in charge of rural affairs at the Agricultural Bureau and is aware of the dry weather this year. "We are also aware of the situation you are talking about. This year is indeed different from the past, with a longer dry weather.
We have been to several villages. The villages near yours are relatively good. Some villages that are not near rivers and have less water sources have not even paid their public grain taxes yet.
We have also reported this to the Food Bureau, and asked them to appropriately reduce some of their tasks and burdens. We can all work together to overcome this difficult time.”
Zhou Datian looked at Secretary Xu with regret, thinking that he had suffered a loss. He should have gone to his superiors to complain about his poverty and asked them to reduce some of his tasks.
Secretary Xu glanced at him and thought that this should have been done a long time ago. Such a good opportunity this year had been missed, and they didn't want to go through the same thing again.
Qian Chunhua was more direct. "Cadre Lin, my family paid for the public grain tax with more than 200 kilograms of corn seeds. Can the grain station give us the money?"
"..." Director Lin hesitated, "I don't know if I can get a refund if I hand it in. I'll ask someone to ask for you when I get back." (End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com