Above the Seven Towers

Chapter 69: Busy farming season

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"Eight votes in favor, three votes against, and one abstention. Except for the head of the foreign affairs group, Luo Ling, all other members are present. Therefore, the "Plan on Expanding the Guard and Promoting National Military Training" proposed by the Military Group is officially passed. The plan will be led by Wang Jiyuan, assisted by Ji Xun. All departments must give full support to Team Leader Wang in terms of personnel scheduling and resource allocation." Guo Qian announced the result, encouraged Wang Jiyuan a few more words, and then adjourned the meeting.

Chang Lin closed his loose-leaf notebook with a worn cover, inserted a black Montblanc gold pen into the pocket of his white shirt, smoothed his hair with his hand, nodded to Guo Qian with a smile, said hello to several committee members around him, and then walked out of the meeting room slowly. After walking a few steps in the corridor, a young man in a white shirt and trousers, who was well-groomed, ran out of the meeting room and caught up with him. The young man was tall and strong, and he was keen on sports and exercise. He was also very handsome, with black eyebrows and a straight nose, which was very angular. But he was consistent with Chang Lin in both appearance and pace. He also held a notebook and a pen on his chest, which made him look a little old-fashioned. At first glance, he was an active student who couldn't wait to enter the adult world. The young man's name was Liu Qianfei. He was the vice president of the Student Union of the Faculty of Arts of Huaxia University, and now he is the secretary of the committee.

Liu Qianfei followed Chang Lin. Neither of them spoke as they walked out of the office building. When they reached the road on campus, Liu Qianfei could not help but ask, "Uncle Chang, you voted in favor of the strategy change today. Do you have any follow-up plans? I think the other committee members seem a little dissatisfied with your sudden approval of this proposal."

Chang Lin looked at Liu Qianfei, his young face seemed full of doubts. He smiled and said, "Do you think I should always be consistent with them?"

"I thought... everyone was somewhat dissatisfied with that aggressive plan. If we work together, they should be able to gradually help you fight against Guo Qian." Liu Qianfei said after a moment's consideration.

"Confrontation? Why should I confront Guo Qian now?" Chang Lin shook his head and pointed at Liu Qianfei with his finger, "You are so young, what are you thinking about?"

Liu Qianfei gritted his teeth and said, "Before you came here, you were the dean of the School of Arts. In terms of seniority and reputation, you are not inferior to him at all. Why is he the leader of our group now, while he has sent you to manage a group of old farmers? This, this is really too much."

"Never oppose just for the sake of opposing. Such people will never achieve much except being used as a tool for others." Chang Lin could see that Liu Qianfei really felt sorry for him, so he analyzed the situation carefully for Liu Qianfei: "I opposed the plan at first, not because I had any dissatisfaction with Guo Qian personally, but because I didn't see enough danger at the time to require us to invest so much strength in the military. But now, two people are missing, and Morey has also shown us the strange power of this world. These two things together make me think that Guo Qian and Wang Jiyuan are right."

"but… "

"Besides, I took the initiative to ask to join the agricultural team. You are also a literature major, and you know that pens are useless in this place now. We have to find our own place. Agriculture is the foundation of our survival. Only with food can we survive. It's the simplest truth. How can the agricultural team, which controls food production, be any worse? Since others dislike that and don't want to go, then I will go. I did a lot of farm work in my hometown when I was a child. My father also said that it would be a pity if I didn't do farm work."

"Are you willing to select seeds and look after the greenhouse every day?" Liu Qianfei said unwillingly.

"Come on, come with me to the fields. You, young man, need to temper your temper." Chang Lin grabbed Liu Qianfei's hand. His hand was rough and powerful, and Liu Qianfei, who claimed to be a slam dunk master, was unable to break free for a while.

Chang Lin smiled at the reluctant Liu Qianfei and said, "Qianfei, your parents didn't come with us, so I can be considered your elder. Some things can't be rushed, so you should follow me more in the future."

The school's fields were opened up on the open space behind the mountain and by the river not far away. Originally, this was part of the hunting ground attached to the Earl's mansion, with grasslands and shrubs. More than half a month ago, the agricultural team had marked off nearly 20 hectares of land as grain fields, but so far only half of it has been cleared.

Liu Qianfei followed Chang Lin through a field that had just been cleared and found many signs of burning on the ground. The branches and leaves of some shrubs were chopped up and mixed with the soil, making it look a little messy, but the land with distinct grooves gave people a sense of vitality.

"We have few people and limited time, so we can only do slash-and-burn farming first, and then use the cut grass and trees as green manure. Now, the school has launched the 'Everyone is a Soldier' plan, and the manpower is even tighter." Chang Lin picked up a branch and walked through the field, poking the ground with the branch as he walked, "You see, the soil here is very good, it's so black that you can squeeze out oil, it's very fertile, whatever you plant will grow. We are now rushing to plant a batch of winter wheat before winter. The seeds have been bought from the locals. It's really strange, the seeds planted by the farmers here are not worse than the ones we carefully selected and cultivated back then, each one is as plump as a bean, I really can't understand it."

"Then why didn't you mention it to Guo Qian at the meeting?" Liu Qianfei followed Chang Lin with one foot deep and one foot shallow, and it looked like he had never been down to earth before.

"Some things are better discussed in private." Chang Lin smiled slightly, "I plan to hire a group of local farmers to help us with the work. It would be even better if we can buy slaves. Didn't Guo Qian dig up a large amount of treasure from the ground? Just ask him for the money."

"No wonder you showed your favor to him at the meeting." Liu Qianfei clapped his hands and said, "Besides, you didn't cause trouble for him at the meeting, so that all departments wouldn't scramble for money. No matter what he said, he should give you face."

"Don't be so conspiratorial. Not everything needs to be complicated. Most of the time, things just happen naturally. You see, with good land, good seeds and good management, it's hard not to have a good harvest. Food is our lifeblood. To produce food, we need to invest. Guo Qian knows this." As he spoke, Chang Lin waved to a place not far away. In the distance, seven or eight young men were carrying loads of manure to a large compost pit beside the field. When they saw Chang Lin, they waved to him, and some even shouted, "Hello, Teacher Chang~"

"Aren't these Zhao Jie, Cheng Ming and the others? I didn't expect them to be so energetic while carrying manure."

"The guys in our School of Arts are all great. Everyone take some time to rest." Chang Lin praised loudly.

"Teacher Chang, don't worry. We are as strong as bulls now! Girls like us." The first person answered loudly, and this answer caused a burst of laughter.

Chang Lin greeted them and continued walking forward. He had trained a group of young literary people who were weak and unable to carry anything to work in the fields. It was a lot of hard work, and the bitterness of it was beyond the imagination of outsiders. He said to Liu Qianfei: "Take a good look at them. This is where you need to improve."

The two walked a little further ahead and saw several students, under the command of a local old farmer, setting up several large iron pots to cook something. Luo Ling's team member Du Mei was translating for the old farmer, while several boys were working and recording. When they saw Chang Lin coming over, they all greeted him.

"What are they cooking?" Liu Qianfei smelled the scent of herbs in the air.

"This is a plant called blue gum grass. The locals use this grass to boil down the pulp, and then pour it on the fields to form a thin film, which is similar to the mulch we use for farming. We can't produce plastic now, so this is a very good substitute." After that, Chang Lin had a brief chat with the old farmer. Chang Lin's Spanish was not very good, but the old farmer seemed to appreciate him very much. Before leaving, he kept patting Chang Lin on the shoulder.

Chang Lin took Liu Qianfei for a long walk and finally walked all the land of the agricultural group. Liu Qianfei felt his feet were sore, but Chang Lin was still in good spirits.

After they finished walking through the plowed fields, they saw several men and women gathered by the river outside the fields. Two of them seemed to be running. Chang Lin was very confused. Why were there no physical education classes at this time? Why were there people exercising here? When he got closer, he saw that they were all acquaintances.

Chang Lin finally recognized the running woman as Feng Yao, a female doctor. She was wearing a sports suit and running at lightning speed on a track simply marked with lime powder. The local man who was shot last time was Enrique, who was running at the same pace as her. What shocked him was that the two people were running at a frightening speed, and seemed to be running faster than the famous sprinters on TV. On both sides of the track, the alchemist Morey was wearing a white coat and holding a stopwatch at the finish line to keep time for the two people. Ji Yijun, Ye Zi, Wu Jingrong and Garcia were standing by and watching intently.

The two crossed the finish line, and Morey said: "Record, the third 100-meter result, Feng Yao 7.13 seconds, Enrique 7.02 seconds"

As Wu Jingrong wrote down the results in her notebook, she said, "Their blood has indeed been stimulated little by little. Today's results are about half a second higher than the day before yesterday. If they go to the Olympics, winning a medal will be a piece of cake."

"I've seen the introduction to that boring game in a book. To be honest, the human physique in your world is too weak." Morey shrugged. This was a new posture he learned from Ji Yijun.

"The meaning of sports competitions lies in the spirit, not in the data itself. If we only look at the data, human creations have long surpassed humans. However, the spirit of hard work and struggle is something only humans possess." Chang Lin said as he walked over and shook hands with Morey.