Early the next morning, I took Bai Zhiming to inspect the land. He collected and sampled the land on our side and surveyed the land in multiple areas.
I drove the tractor with him for the whole day, not only surveying the land, but also combining it with the surrounding temperature and humidity and the weather conditions here. In short, it was quite complicated.
After walking to many places, Bai Zhiming grabbed a handful of soil from the ground and said to me: "Most of the places you took me to today are dominated by coarse sandy soil, which is warm.
soil."
Naturally, I didn’t understand what warm soil was, so I curiously asked: “So what kind of soil is suitable for planting?”
"The range is very wide, but based on the year-round weather conditions and average annual temperatures here, I think growing grapes is a very good choice."
"Grapes?" I said in surprise.
Bai Zhiming nodded and said seriously: "The growth of grapes requires soil with good drainage. It must maintain a certain humidity but not contain too much water. Warm soil is most suitable."
As he spoke, he pointed to the mountain not far away and continued: "This slope is very conducive to concentrated sunlight and has better drainage. This kind of slope is very suitable for planting grapevines."
I was confused, but he said it was suitable for growing grapes, so of course I believed it.
At the same time, I also had a general idea in my mind. It is quite good to grow grapes. Grapes can be made into wine and raisins.
I nodded seriously and asked, "Are all places suitable?"
"That's not true," he paused, then pointed to the back half of the mountain and said to me, "For example, on the back side of the mountain, there is insufficient sunlight and the soil is relatively thin. It is probably sedimentary rock below."
I carefully wrote it down in my little notebook, and while I was writing it down, he said: "But the area in the back mountain is more suitable for planting Chinese medicinal materials, such as Polygonatum, Astragalus, and Andrographis paniculata, which can be planted on the hills."
I wrote it down one by one because every word he said was very useful.
He also told me that if you really want to plant grapes on a large scale, you must hire some people who know the relevant techniques to train the villagers, because grapes are not easy to grow, unlike Chinese cabbage.
That night, Bai Zhiming stayed in the village for another night, and told me a lot about soil issues. We also left each other's mobile phone numbers, and he asked me to consult him as soon as possible if I had any questions.
I have gained a lot. I know what is suitable for planting and how to manage the soil.
The next thing to do is to finalize this matter and then apply for funds from above to buy grape seedlings in large quantities.
The application for funds was naturally left to Patriarch Liu and Patriarch Zhou. What I wanted to do was to register all the land pulled out by farmers and divide it into shares, and draw up equity documents.
The idea of breaking land boundaries to develop a collective economy soon spread to the county town, and the leaders above also paid great attention to it, and even came down to inspect it in person.
I also told all my ideas to the leaders. Naturally, the leaders also wanted to achieve some political achievements, so they supported this without any hesitation.
However, there is still a problem with funding. After all, this is the poorest county. Even if the leaders support this project, it will be difficult to allocate a large amount of funds.
In the end, the county determined that the funds allocated were only 3 million, which was difficult for me because 3 million was too little, and it might not even be enough to buy farm machinery.
But this is already the best effort of the county leaders. They said that if they can really achieve results, they will apply for funds from city leaders.
So the problem for me now is to build the orchard and let the upper leaders see hope. Only in this way can we obtain more financial support.
The three million allocated by the county has solved some minor problems at hand, such as enough to buy farm machinery and the first batch of grape seedlings.
In order to buy good grape seedlings, I even went to the county seat and asked the county leaders to help solve the problem through government channels.
In the end, we chose grape seedlings from Xinjiang. Xinjiang grapes themselves are famous throughout the country, and the government purchased them, so there should be no big problem.
Everything was carried out in an orderly manner according to my ideas. Except for some financial difficulties, everything else went smoothly.
I also formed a professional production team with Cheng Xiaohu as the core. The people who joined this team were all young people from two villages, and the oldest was no more than forty years old.
The main job of this team is to be responsible for all production matters in the orchard. I give direct orders and give this team a salary of two thousand yuan per month.
Cheng Lu was not idle either. I asked her to lead the women in the village to plant grape seedlings at a salary of 80 yuan per person per day.
All of this money was deducted from the three million allocated by the county. It was actually very economical, but it was all money that had to be used.
But rural work is not that easy to do. There are always people who are dissatisfied. I even heard some rumors reaching my ears.
Some people say: Why should I, a foreigner, let me take the money allocated by the county and let local people work for me?
Others said: Why can the team with Cheng Xiaohu as the core get paid, while others only get paid for working day after day?
Some people even said that they wanted to drive me out of Qinglong Township and that I, an outsider, would not be allowed to point fingers.
Once these rumors spread, even Patriarch Zhou and Patriarch Liu could not stop them, and they were helpless.
I didn't pay much attention to it at first because I had already thought about such rumors.
But today, these rumors have brought huge trouble to our work, causing the production team to be unable to perform tasks, and also causing the entire grape seedlings to go on strike!
Once I got to know them, I realized that it was because of the rumors that it was difficult for them to continue their work.
It seems that this problem must be dealt with and the spread of these rumors must be stopped.
For this reason, I called those people who usually make troubles to the village. I wanted to talk to them face to face.
These troublemakers are nothing more than lazy people. Most of them have not come up with any land, but they are still making irresponsible remarks behind their backs.
I didn't scold him like Patriarch Liu, the patriarch of Zhou Dynasty. After all, I am not a native of the country, and I believe that most farmers can still understand.
I asked them to sit together in the yard.
After pouring tea for them, he then said: "I called you here today just for the various doubts you have about me during this period. Don't talk behind my back. Let's talk about it openly today!"
But no one dared to speak first, so they all fell silent.
This situation made me laugh for a while, and then I said: "Don't you know what to say? Let me tell you! I heard someone said that I embezzled the money allocated by the county. Is this true?"
Still no one said anything, but some people started talking.
I looked at the talking villagers and said, "Speak out. It doesn't matter. I called you here today to solve the problem."
A villager in his forties waved his hand and said, "What's there to say? Everyone knows that the county has allocated a large sum of money to our village, but we haven't even seen a hair."
After someone spoke, someone else echoed: "That's right, that's for us farmers! Why do you pocket it privately?"