The film and television city starts from the courtyard

Zheng Tong also helped to persuade Zhao Shucheng and said:

"Go back, don't ruin your health here. When you graduate, you can come back to see us. We want to stay here forever anyway."

Zhong Yuemin thought about it and came up with a suitable reason. He said, "Go away, what are you talking about. A good man should join the army. Ning Wei, you have a good family background. Go back and raise yourself for two years. When the time comes, you will definitely be able to join the army. Then go find Yuan Jun, Zhang Haiyang and the others."

Zheng Tong said: "Yes, you have to work hard and try to get promoted faster than them. This will also give us two brothers a chance to win honor."

Zhao Shucheng shook his head and said, "You don't have to persuade me. Since I can't join the army until one or two years later, I might as well stay here and train myself."

"What kind of exercise can you get here? You can't even eat enough. If your body breaks down, you won't even pass the physical examination."

Zhao Shucheng said: "Then find a way to make yourself full. We all have one head and two nostrils. If others can eat their fill, why can't we?"

After saying that, Zhao Shucheng turned around and left, leaving Zhong Yuemin, Zheng Tong and others behind him looking at each other in bewilderment.

When he returned to the village, Zhao Shucheng looked at Shichuan Village and knew that if the villagers were well fed and the land produced more bags of grain, they would not have to go to the county town to beg for food every year like this time.

However, Zhao Shucheng had already traveled around Ishikawa Village during this period of time and realized that it was not easy to be truly self-sufficient or to ensure that every household had enough food.

Because the farmland in Ishikawa Village is all terraced fields and the river only flows through the foot of the mountain, there is a lack of irrigation facilities, and most of the farmland can only depend on the weather for food. In theory, most of the farmland should be planted with some drought-resistant food or cash crops, such as millet or corn, wheat, sorghum, etc.

However, due to the times, grain was the main focus, so the main crops grown in Ishikawa Village were wheat and corn. However, due to the lack of irrigation conditions, they could only rely on the weather for their food. Therefore, the grain harvested each year was not enough for the villagers to eat. There were always a few months when the villagers had to go out to beg for food.

Their idea was simple: wheat flour is a fine grain, while corn flour and millet are coarse grains. Wheat can be exchanged for more coarse grains, and the villagers can have more coarse grains to fill their stomachs. But they never thought that planting wheat by relying on the weather would produce fine grains, but the yield would be low. It would be better to plant some high-yield millet varieties.

Unfortunately, Zhao Shucheng knew very well that in later generations, millet was found to be rich in nutrition, protective for gastric mucosa, and good for digestion. Its price was much higher than rice or wheat. Unfortunately, it is now classified as coarse grain, so few people grow it in Shichuan Village. Unlike later, Mizhi vigorously developed millet planting and even built an industrial park.

Since Zhao Shucheng couldn't change the local planting habits, he could only find a way to increase the yield of the land here. The barren land was due to thousands of years of cultivation and soil erosion, so the fertility of the land could not meet the needs of crop growth, so the yield per mu was not high.

To change this, we need to increase the fertility of the land. Chemical fertilizers are the best choice, but due to the times, the production of chemical fertilizers cannot be increased. The amount of chemical fertilizers that Ishikawa Village can get is very small, and it is the most important thing for the villagers, so it can only be used for the few acres of irrigated land.

This made him miss the days in Shuangshui Village. Although the conditions there were not very good, at least there were two rivers around the village, which provided the village with certain irrigation conditions. Especially after Zhao Shucheng and his team built the dam, the village had a lot more irrigated land and excellent arable land.

However, Ishikawa Village does not have the conditions to build a dam. Although it is close to the Wuding River, its geographical location is not advantageous. If a dam is really built, the few arable lands in the village may be flooded, which will reduce food production; there is no way to provide irrigation conditions for the terraced fields above.

Shuangshui Village is better than Shichuan Village in that it has a date orchard, which can provide the village with extra income once a year. Shichuan Village does not have such conditions. In addition to limited terraced fields, there are only some barren hills nearby. Those barren hills can only provide a small amount of firewood or let the villagers graze sheep, and can not bring other benefits.

The sheep in the village are considered collective assets. Only a few sheep can be sold every year to help the villagers, but it is just a drop in the bucket.

Zhao Shucheng thought about it and decided that if he wanted to make life better in the village, he had to do it step by step. The first thing to do was to make compost to provide more fertility to the land, thereby increasing production and income.

Only after this step is completed can the village improve its local water conservancy facilities and fundamentally solve the problem of villagers having to rely on the weather for their livelihood.

However, achieving this step is much more difficult. After all, Ishikawa Village is already very poor and people can't even get enough food. How can we convince the villagers to build water conservancy facilities? What's more, the person who made this suggestion is a young man like Zhao Shucheng, who has no persuasive power at all.

Zhong Yuemin learned from Director Ma that their food was withheld. Although he told Director Ma that he did not blame him because the local conditions were too difficult, he went back to the village and took Zheng Tong to find the village party secretary Chang Gui to settle the score.

They quietly came to Chang Gui's cave and heard the sound of slurping porridge inside. This made Zhong Yuemin and Zheng Tong very angry, thinking that Chang Gui was withholding their food while he ate and drank lavishly.

Zhong Yuemin said, "Let's lift the curtain and go in. He won't have time to hide."

After saying that, he opened the curtain, walked in and shouted, "Secretary Chang!"

Chang Gui looked at Zhong Yuemin and Zheng Tong without putting down the bowl in his hand and said, "It's you two, have you eaten?"

"Nope!"

"Let's eat together."

Zhong Yuemin sat down without hesitation and said, "Okay, thank you, Secretary. Thank you."

But when he saw the bowl brought over by Chang Gui's wife, he said, "I don't drink liquid food, I eat dry food."

Chang Gui's wife said, "There's nothing to do!"

Chang Gui said, "I still want to eat dry food. What is the matter with you coming to see me?"

Zhong Yuemin asked: "Secretary, how many children do you have?"

"Five, I can't support them."

Zhong Yuemin said: "If you are gone, will there be anyone to take care of this wife and baby?"

When Chang Gui heard Zhong Yuemin say this, he stopped eating, looked at him, and said, "What do you mean?"

Zhong Yuemin said, "Please pack your things quickly. Do you have a quilt? Take it with you. Also take your leather jacket. It's cold inside. It won't hurt to bring more clothes."

Chang Gui asked: "Yuemin, what are you talking about? I'm not afraid."

"Secretary, you have committed a crime, and the county has sent people to arrest you. Have you ever ridden in a car? Of course not. Well, this time you can show off your reputation. Once you ride in the car, your butt will smoke, and all the young and old men in the team will know about it. How glorious you will be."

Chang Gui then realized why Zhong Yuemin came to see him, especially from what Zhong Yuemin said to Zheng Tong later, he realized it was because of the food rations that he had withheld from the educated youth.

Chang Gui pondered for a moment and said, "Okay, I'm the one who deducted your rations from the educated youths, so you just follow me."

Then he took Zhong Yuemin and Zheng Tong to the homes of the five-guarantee households in the village to let them see what the situation was at these people's homes and where the food was used. "Yuemin, you've seen the families that left. Generally, there's not enough food. In our team, there are many five-guarantee households of military and martyr families, and there's not much labor, so we can only rely on the team. What should I do? I heard that the county has allocated educated youth and food rations to our team, so I thought about withholding some of your food rations. Anyway, you don't know, so they can get by this year. Who knew, and you found out anyway."

"If I want to go to the Public Security Bureau, you don't need to send me there. I can go alone. Although this place has a bad reputation, I will provide food and accommodation there, so I don't have to worry about it."

After hearing Chang Gui say this, Zhong Yuemin and Zheng Tong didn't know what to say for a moment. Although they hated Chang Gui for withholding their food rations, seeing the situation of the five-guarantee households, they couldn't bear to let them really starve.

"Secretary Chang, we misunderstood you. Even if you give them all our rations, we won't say no."

Chang Gui said, "There are two more five-guarantee households over this beam. Let's go and take a look."

Zhong Yuemin stopped Chang Gui and said, "No, you don't have to go."

Chang Gui said, "Kids, you are all good kids when you come here, but we have wronged you in these places, and I can't do anything about it."

Zheng Tong said, "Secretary Chang, we should save as much as we can in the future. We are young people, so we can get by no matter what."

At this time, the shepherd Old Man Du was sitting on the hillside singing Xintianyou. Zhong Yuemin and Zheng Tong ran over and sat down to listen to Xintianyou.

After Old Man Du finished singing, Zhong Yuemin curiously asked the child who followed Old Man Du: "Silly boy, why are you herding sheep?"

"Saving money."

“What are you saving money for?”

"Grow up and get married."

"How old are you, and you're already thinking about getting married? I haven't got one yet. So why do you want to get married?"

The silly kid said, "Give birth to a baby."

"What about after the baby is born?"

"Save more money and find a wife for my child."

Everyone burst into laughter when they heard this, and thought what the silly kid said was ridiculous, but in fact, this is actually the most simple idea of ​​many children in poor areas now.

"Find a wife for the baby, give birth to a baby, save money, and then find a wife for the baby, right?"

Seeing the silly boy nod, Zhong Yuemin said, "Grandpa Du, what do we farmers want in this life?"

"For us poor people, it is enough to have land to farm, enough food to eat, and children to carry on our family line. What else do we want?"

Zhong Yuemin asked: "Grandpa Du, what are you looking forward to most right now? I mean, if you can choose, what do you want most?"

"I just want to eat white flour steamed buns."

After hearing this, especially seeing the black vegetable steamed buns that Old Man Du took out, everyone fell silent.

Zhong Yuemin took out a cornmeal steamed bread from his bag and said, "Silly boy, have this."

Zhao Shucheng was actually standing nearby. He saw Zhong Yuemin's actions but didn't say anything. After all, when he followed Old Man Du to herd sheep, he actually exchanged his steamed bread with Han Wa.

But to be honest, Hanwa’s steamed corn bread is really not delicious, especially because there is not much cornmeal in it, but more sorghum or wild vegetables. Not only does it taste bad, it also makes your throat hurt.

Zhong Yuemin was planning to learn Xintianyou from Old Man Du, so he was trying to please Old Man Du.

Zhao Shucheng was thinking about the plan he had been thinking about for some time, and how to implement it. But it was too early to think about it now, as spring had not yet arrived. Even if he wanted to plant the land, it would not rain, and the seeds would not be able to take root and sprout.

But Zhao Shucheng didn't really do nothing. He had become familiar with the villagers during this period, so he asked for some pumpkin seeds. However, the number was not large, only about a dozen seeds, and the rest had already become food for the villagers.

Zhao Shucheng also used his limited money to buy two flower pots, tore a book, used paper to divide the soil in the flower pots into small pieces, and then began to grow pumpkin seeds in the cave.

After all, this is in a cave, so you can water it every day so that it sprouts earlier and can be planted directly.

Naturally, other people saw Zhao Shucheng's actions, and they just thought that Zhao Shucheng was doing it for fun, but they had no idea what Zhao Shucheng was planning.

Zhao Shucheng's idea was actually very simple. Since he could only rely on the weather for his livelihood, he naturally had to accumulate as many resources as possible. The land outside the cave house was idle anyway, so he might as well plant a few pumpkins. At least he could have some vegetables and eat them.

Especially after a few months, when the pumpkins are ripe, you will have new pumpkin seeds, and you may even have time to plant another crop and harvest more pumpkins.

Of course, this is just an experiment of Zhao Shucheng. Whether it will succeed depends on luck. Anyway, Zhao Shucheng can't be like other people, relying on God to provide food for them. He still has to work hard to make enough food and clothing.

Thinking of this, Zhao Shucheng couldn't help but feel a little regretful. In fact, he should have purchased a batch of high-yield crop seeds in the real world before traveling through time, so that at least he could get more yields.

However, Zhao Shucheng also had doubts. After all, most seeds in modern society are genetically modified seeds. After planting one crop, if the seeds are used to continue planting, the yield will decline. Therefore, it is better to choose the original varieties to avoid a reduction in yield and even optimize the seeds.

Seeing Zhao Shucheng busy every day, Zhong Yuemin asked curiously, "Xiao Ningwei, what have you been busy with recently? Planting flowers and reading books."

Zhao Shucheng looked at Zhong Yuemin and said, "I'm not planting flowers, I'm raising pumpkin seedlings. We've been here for so long that we've gotten to know the situation in Ishikawa Village pretty well. The food harvested from the village land is definitely not enough for the villagers to eat, otherwise they wouldn't have to go out begging for only two years out of fifty."

"But as educated youth, we cannot be as conservative as the villagers, or even depend on the weather for food, so we must find a way to support ourselves and even help the villagers to have enough food. Since the irrigation of wheat fields depends on the weather, we must find other ways." (End of this chapter)