Dragon Boat Festival.
The village committee distributed eggs to every household for the festival. Everyone's face was filled with smiles. He Meimei held up a loud speaker and said, "Three eggs, three eggs for every household."
There are 102 people in the village, and each family is given 3 eggs, which is only 40 kilograms. However, these 40 kilograms of eggs make the whole village full of festive atmosphere. Everyone is happy.
After the Dragon Boat Festival, the farm had a batch of eggs. Su Ye sent these newly laid eggs to the provincial party committee as a display of the achievements of the construction of the new countryside.
Su Ye and He Meimei drove to City C early in the morning and delivered a basket full of eggs to the provincial party committee. He Meimei said affectionately: "Secretary Li, these are local eggs from our village. They are big and fragrant. Bring a batch for you to taste."
Secretary Li was a little surprised. He didn't expect Su Ye to bring so many eggs. He praised sincerely: "Our village has produced results quite quickly."
In those days, eggs were very precious and the city's supply and marketing department didn't often supply them. It was not easy to get some eggs to eat, let alone so many eggs. He contacted the canteen of his unit to purchase this batch of eggs. The eggs were 80 cents per pound, and he gave 80 yuan to Su Ye.
On this day, the provincial party committee unit made fried eggs with leeks, fried eggs with tomatoes, and various kinds of fried eggs for the first time... The comrades ate very happily and thought that the unit had finally given out benefits. The comrades who knew the inside story smiled at Zhang Ying to express their respect.
"Lao Zhang, what's going on?"
Zhang Ying had a faint smile on his face. "This is the agricultural achievement of the 'sweet potato experimental village'. We raised a few chickens to get rid of pests, and a few young people were just playing around. Next time, let them pay attention to the impact."
The colleague quickly said, "Hey, Mr. Zhang, this is really not very kind."
"What impact can it have? These young people are motivated and willing to work hard. They are great. They focus on scientific research and daily life. Isn't this good? The young are formidable!"
Zhang Ying just smiled and said nothing.
Su Ye not only sent them eggs, but also specially sent them a chicken, which Secretary Li bought at a price higher than the market price. The chicken was stewed into chicken soup, and the leaders could drink chicken soup when they returned to the office.
Zhang Ying gave half to Secretary Li, and they shared the chicken soup. The chicken tasted very delicious, making people feel the long-lost happiness.
Secretary Li felt for the first time that the achievements of the socialist new countryside were so sweet. "Comrade Su is really good and has a lot of ideas. If all villages were self-sufficient like Shanggou Village, the lives of the people would be much happier!"
Zhang Ying finished drinking the chicken soup and commented: "It's good, but it can't be so high-profile."
The model of Shanggou Village is difficult to replicate, and its problems are difficult to deal with. But Zhang Ying is not one to be bothered by trouble. He put down the spoon and said, "We have to think of a way."
A week later, Zhang Ying went to Beijing on a business trip and visited his former boss.
…
In June, the hot summer breeze brings the fragrance of millet.
In March, Su Ye ordered a batch of agricultural production machinery from the machinery factory, including harvesters, tractors, and bulldozers. These machines cost nearly 50,000 yuan. Shanggou Village was the only village in the surrounding area that had the financial resources to afford such large machinery.
The summer rains were plentiful, with heavy rain every five days and light rain every three days. He Meimei thankfully said, "Fortunately, our village bought a harvester. If we had continued at the same pace as last year, I'm afraid we would have been in a lot of trouble."
Once the grain harvest season comes, the role of the harvester becomes particularly prominent. Farm work that originally required 1,000 people to do can now be completed with only one-tenth of the original number of people using a harvester. The remaining labor can continue to take care of the farm.
When the harvester went into the field to work for the first time, the whole village gathered on the edge of the field and looked at this big guy curiously, their hearts filled with pride.
"Is our village the first one in the county to have a harvester?"
Others nodded in agreement. Needless to say, Qingxi County was in financial difficulty, so where would they get the money to buy these agricultural machines
"I've lived for so many years and have never seen anything like this. Today is an eye-opener."
"Dad, Mom, look, it can thresh the grain, and it harvests it so cleanly!"
Millets were swallowed up quickly wherever the harvesters went, while in another field the harvested millets were threshed in an orderly manner. Seeing this grand scene, everyone didn't even want to eat. They squatted on the edge of the field watching the harvesters work for the entire afternoon. The scene was extremely lively.
Those pairs of wet, curious eyes, dark and shiny, were full of longing when they looked at the harvester.
"With a harvester, won't it be easier for us to harvest crops in the future?"
Isn't that right? Ma Gensheng nodded. Shanggou Village finished harvesting rice before the summer rainstorm. After the rice harvest, several nearby villages came to borrow the harvester, and Su Ye rented it out at a rental price of 50 yuan a day.
After several heavy rains, the dry river gradually became full. Ma Gensheng got a bunch of fish fry from somewhere and released hundreds of kilograms of them into the river.
Secretary Ma went to count the fish fry happily, but he couldn't count them all. "I'm old now, I can't see clearly anymore, I don't want to count anymore!"
Last year, if we could catch a fish in the river, the whole family would be happy for the whole day. Now that the fish pond is well stocked, won’t it be easy to have fish every now and then
Life is really getting better! Secretary Ma is old and his teeth are not good. Before the famine, he loved eating fish.
Ma Gensheng solemnly warned everyone, "No one is allowed to go fishing in the river at the beginning. This river is the common property of our village. If all the villagers work together, we can make a profit. By winter, everyone will have big fish to eat!"
Inspired by Su Ye, he specially assigned two team members to raise fish and be responsible for feeding and guarding them every day. The two team members specially went to teacher Ruan Ruliang to take a week's class to learn the cultural knowledge of fish raising.
…
In late May, the village began to harvest corn and peanuts.
Good news also came from Ruan Ruliang's corn and peanuts. Their yield increased by 10% compared to ordinary corn and peanuts. This yield was a very good result when it was brought to the county meeting. However, out of caution, he wanted to report the result after the yield increased by 30%.
Ruan Ruliang named the high-yield corn and peanuts "Rich No. 1" and "Strong No. 1" respectively.
Su Ye was impressed by Ruan Ruliang's solid skills. He thought he had just picked up a liar, but he turned out to be a big shot. He was extremely hardworking. He worked at least 12 hours a day this year. After work, he would occasionally teach students. It was hard to imagine that he had been studying for decades in obscurity.
On the day of peanut harvest, Director Lu personally went to the countryside to inspect the peanut harvest. He held the peanuts in his hands and carefully peeled the shells. The lotus-pink, white and plump peanut seeds were full and round, and one root system produced many peanuts.
"The peanut oil we harvested is of better quality. Thank you for your hard work, Mr. Ruan!"
He tasted a few peanuts and found them very sweet and crispy.
He looked at the endless fields in the distance and said with joy: "Our oil mill will apply to the government to give priority to using peanuts from Shanggou Village as oil."
Although this will not bring any substantial benefits to Shanggou Village, it proves that Fuqiang No. 1 is of good quality and suitable for oil extraction. The affirmation of peanuts is more practical than saying ten thousand words of praise to him. Ruan Ruliang felt sweet in his heart, and a mouthful of white teeth appeared on his dark face.
"Okay! We'll use the peanuts from Shanggou Village in the future. Next year, we'll have the production team in the village plant a few dozen acres more."
After much anticipation, the "Fengshi No. 1" sweet potato finally had a good harvest.
Zhang Ying, Xu Aihua and several other leaders came to personally observe the harvest of Fengshi No. 1. The villagers had never seen so many leaders before, and they were nervous but enthusiastic.
Early in the morning, the strong laborers were busy in the sweet potato fields. Ma Gensheng was originally very nervous about the sweet potato yield, worried that it would not be as good as last year. After all, last year it took more than a dozen students to carefully take care of one acre of land. This year, the village planted 100 acres of sweet potatoes, which were taken care of by the members collectively.
However, when the first sweet potato was dug up with its roots and its full appearance was revealed, Ma Gensheng dispelled his worries.
The newly unearthed sweet potatoes had better tuber numbers and fruit-bearing rate on a vine than last year. Everyone in the village went to the fields to dig sweet potatoes, and with everyone working together, one acre of sweet potatoes was quickly harvested.
Ma Gensheng put bundles of sweet potatoes on the scale, and Zhou Yi was responsible for counting the numbers. Finally, he threw his glasses and pen in shock, raised his head and said happily:
"Fengshi No. 1 has an annual yield of 7,501 kilograms per mu!"
This terrifying number shocked everyone, and everyone's eyes turned to Ruan Ruliang. Last year's sweet potato production of 6,000 kilograms was already scary enough, but this year the record was broken again.
"Thank you for your hard work, Mr. Ruan! I hope that the research will go smoothly next year and we can continue to work hard to break through the 10,000-jin sweet potato mark soon."
Su Ye gave him a thumbs up across the crowd. She had someone make a big red flower and a red ribbon in advance, and she personally put it on Ruan Ruliang.
In the past countless days and nights, he had not slept a full night, and spent almost all his time in the fields and laboratories. Before this, he had been studying sweet potatoes for ten years, and his manuscripts were several sacks thick. The occurrence of famine further strengthened his determination to cultivate high-yield sweet potatoes.
Instead, Ruan Ruliang took off his red silk ribbon and put it on Su Ye.
He met Su Ye, and he had a piece of land, which gave him a hotbed for his dreams. She went to the other side of the strait for him, and brought him a microscope across the ocean, and she got him a laboratory.
Ruan Ruliang smiled and said, "Xu Su, thank you."
All the farmers present were cheering. An increase of 1,500 kilograms per mu yield meant that each mu of land could feed an extra 100 people on average. The village planted 100 mu of sweet potatoes, which could feed an extra 100 people, which was almost half of the village's population.
The strong laborers ran over, surrounded Ruan Ruliang, and lifted him high into the air.
It was the first time for Zhang Ying and Xu Aihua to visit the sweet potato harvest. Zhang Ying smiled with satisfaction, "Shanggou Village has done a great job."
I originally thought that this village was too high-profile, but now I find that it does have the qualifications to be high-profile.
Sweet potatoes can produce up to 7,500 kilograms per mu. In today's situation of national food shortage, its significance is far more than just increasing production. It can feed a large population and save people's lives!
Xu Aihua couldn't stop smiling.
Last year, he suspected that the sweet potato production was overstated, but now he witnessed the harvest with his own eyes, and there was no falsehood. His doubts were completely dispelled. Last year, Xu Aihua reported the data to the provincial government, but the province suppressed the matter out of caution, and the report did not make any splash. Once the experiment is successful, the autumn sweet potato will be promoted throughout the county. And now—Xu Aihua thought about immediately asking the reporters of the city newspaper to report in full, and to report enthusiastically, and it would not be serious enough if it was not published on several pages!
How glorious it would be if this matter got out!
Ma Gensheng smiled and joked, "Last year our village was too poor to slaughter pigs, but this year it seems we have no choice but to slaughter them."
It’s a pity that the piglets in the brigade’s pig farm have not grown up yet. It would be nice to roast a suckling pig.
Why roast a suckling pig on such an important day? Upon hearing this, Liu Gang immediately went to the back hill of the dormitory and brought down a big fat pig.
The pigs they raised last fall were already very fat, white and plump, with fat all over, weighing a full 300 kilograms. He asked the strong laborers in the village to kill the pigs and bleed them, roasting half of the pork and keeping the other half for wine and food.
The chef in the village who specializes in weddings and funerals used it to prepare ten tables of dishes and held a buffet wedding banquet in the village.
Su Ye took advantage of the good atmosphere and said to the leader: "This year's grain has paid enough for previous years. Our village should keep the rest for production and development."
Feeding poultry and livestock with grass alone will not make them fat. Some time ago, the village started raising fish. Food is needed everywhere.
Horses cannot grow fat without night grass. If the grain paid to the state is enough, the surplus belongs to the villagers, which means that the village has more grain for breeding. If the grain paid to the state is enough, the surplus will be left to the collective, so as to mobilize the enthusiasm of labor.
After a while, Zhang Ying finally said, "Okay."
"Comrade Su Ye, this year's grain is allocated to you. I require your village to produce twice as much grain next year as this year. Do you dare to accept this task?"
Su Ye readily agreed. What was there to be afraid of? The situation in the village had improved slightly this year, but the labor force had not been effectively developed. At worst, they could lead everyone to reclaim wasteland!