Back in the 1980s, hiking in the mountains was also a way of life

After everyone had put down their small helmets, Wang An greeted them with a smile:
"Have you all eaten? Drink some water after you've eaten, and then we'll stay for a while before getting to work. It'll also help you digest your food."

Just then, Shen Wei, Zhao Cuiyun, and Huang Zhong arrived carrying a pile of teacups and several thermos flasks.

Wang An invited everyone over by providing meals and wages, so they were there to work, not to eat for free.

Although he hired people to do the work, Wang Anjia was not stingy at all. He put some tea leaves in each of the thermos flasks he brought for everyone.

In other words, the water poured directly from these thermos flasks is tea.

At that time, tea was a genuine luxury item. Although tea coupons were no longer required to buy tea at the supply and marketing cooperatives, it was still not something that ordinary families could afford.

The fact that Wang Anjia served tea to everyone was enough to demonstrate how much he valued them.

However, the smoke given to everyone was not cigarettes, but welding smoke, which is tobacco leaves.

In those days, if you hired someone to work and provided food and lodging, you were lucky if they even provided smoke from the welding fumes. If they didn't provide any smoke, no one would complain.

Having just enjoyed a hearty meal with meat in the dishes, and now sipping tea and smoking welding fumes, the group of vagrants had beaming smiles, their eyes glazed over, wishing they could live such a good life every day.

Seeing that things were almost settled, Wang An turned to Wang Dazhu and said:

"Dad, you can assign tasks to everyone later, and then I'll go to the county to see if we can bring back more fertilizer."

Wang Dazhu nodded in agreement, saying:
"Yeah, we'll have to bring in more this year. Last year's little bit of fertilizer was barely enough to make a living in the fields."

Wang An chuckled and said:

"Dad, you finally realize that adding more fertilizer to the crops works! Hahahaha!"

As Wang An finished speaking and was laughing, he was met with his father's gloomy gaze, which clearly indicated that his father was going to beat him up.

Wang An quickly stopped laughing, stood up, and changed the subject:
"Hey Dad, I'm leaving now. You can take care of these guys."

As soon as he finished speaking, Wang An glanced at Wang Dazhu, turned around, and ran away. He was so fast that his father would probably catch up and beat him up.

Seeing Wang An run away, Wang Dazhu's face fell, and he said through gritted teeth:

"You little brat, you're lucky you ran fast!"

There's a reason why Wang An's words upset Wang Dazhu so much.

Because Wang An's family had many livestock and a lot of manure, Wang Dazhu used to insist that as long as there was manure in the field, that was farmyard manure, it wouldn't have much of an impact on the crops, whether or not chemical fertilizers were used.

Last year, because Wang Anjia bought very little fertilizer, nearly 100 mu of the 300 mu of new wasteland were only fertilized with farmyard manure, and not a single grain of chemical fertilizer was applied.

The main problem is that there's no fertilizer available anymore.

But when the autumn harvest came last year, the crop yield directly demonstrated how important chemical fertilizers are.

Because corn grown with chemical fertilizers yields about 300 more kilograms of corn kernels per acre than corn grown without chemical fertilizers.

This disparity truly shocked Comrade Wang Dazhu.

You see, Comrade Wang Dazhu had been farming for half his life, but he had never experienced such a huge difference in harvests from the same land. I still remember Comrade Wang Dazhu muttering to himself while smoking:
"We still have to believe in science! One mu of land yielded 300 jin less, and a hundred mu of land yielded 3 jin less. If this had happened during those difficult years, how many people could have been fed with 3 jin of corn! Sigh!"

At that time, Wang Dazhu was still sighing and complaining, but Liu Guilan didn't tolerate him at all, and mercilessly ridiculed her husband:
"I told you to listen to your son, but you wouldn't. You insisted on saving that little bit of money on fertilizer. You've been farming for half your life, and nobody's as good as you. If you ask me, with your blockheaded brain, you could farm for a lifetime and still not understand it. You're nothing special."

Wang Dazhu wasn't very good with words to begin with, and since he was in the wrong, he was ridiculed by his wife. From then on, he never used the old excuses again when it came to farming.

Wang An stopped dealing with the matter of dumping and delivering manure, and instead called out to Huang Zhong:
"Xiao Zhong, ride your motorcycle to your fifth brother's house and call him over. Then go to Sujiatun and call your brother Mu over too. Tell them to hurry up. Oh, and tell them to bring money with them when they come. Just say I need to buy fertilizer."

Huang Zhong agreed and turned to run towards Wang An's old courtyard.

Huang Zhong's family has already bought the land, but they haven't built a house yet. Huang Zhong's family is still living in Wang An's old courtyard.

After Huang Zhong left, when Wang An turned back into the house, he saw Mu Xueqing and Huang Li had changed into work clothes, and each of them had a headscarf tied around their head. They were dressing the two little ones and putting on hats.

Wang An was taken aback and subconsciously asked:

"What are you two doing dressed like that?"

Mu Xueqing continued dressing the child, saying without turning her head:
"Let's take a stroll on the hillside behind the house, and maybe dig up some big brains and bitter herbs to eat. Do you want to come?"

In Northeast China, people have a tradition of digging for wild vegetables every spring.

Among the wild vegetables that grow first in the mountains each year, bitter lettuce is one of them.

Bitter lettuce is extremely bitter, even more so than dandelion and "poor mother's vegetable," but Wang An quite likes to eat it.

Upon hearing this, Wang An smiled and said:

"I don't have time. I have to go to the county with Xue Li and Lao Wu to get fertilizer later."

Upon hearing that Wang An was going to haul fertilizer, Mu Xueqing immediately said:
"Last year, I heard Xue Li say that there was a lot of support for hoarding fertilizers, and there were even fights at the agricultural supply stores. You guys better be careful."

Mu Xueqing's words were not an exaggeration.

Because at this time in his previous life, Wang An had heard many stories of people fighting over fertilizer.

However, this kind of thing is also the fault of the agricultural supply stores. It's one thing that there isn't enough fertilizer to sell, but there are always situations where one employee leaves a certain number of bags of fertilizer for this person, and another employee leaves a certain number of bags of fertilizer for that person.

Sometimes, when the numbers don't match, they even ask people to unload the fertilizer that's already loaded onto the truck and give it to others.

With all this messy stuff going on, it's no wonder they're always fighting.

Wang An squatted down, hugged the two little ones, kissed them each, and then said casually:
"That's no problem. With the three of us being this skilled, it definitely wouldn't work if only ten or eight came."

Mu Xueqing gave Wang An a playful glare and said:

"If you're so capable, why can't you just bring the fertilizer back peacefully?"

Wang Anhun said nonchalantly:
"Yeah, if no one messes with me, I definitely won't get into a fight." (End of Chapter)