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

Wang An, who was about to turn around and go home, stopped in his tracks upon hearing this.

Wang An was mainly surprised that the old man was so decisive and efficient. He immediately started making arrangements to build greenhouses for growing vegetables, without wasting any time at all.

Wang An asked in great surprise:
"Grandpa, so soon? Does that mean we'll start this year?"

Sun Dafu said with considerable dissatisfaction:

“We’re definitely going to start this year. If we drag it out until next year, the cucumbers will be too cold. I’m telling you, that’s why you haven’t come back lately. Otherwise, the greenhouses would have been finished.”

Wang An chuckled and said:
"Hehehe. Grandpa Sun, what are you saying? So you're blaming me for the greenhouses not being built in our village?"

Sun Dafu said with a self-righteous expression:

"Yeah, if you hadn't been staying home instead of doing your job, this greenhouse farming project wouldn't have dragged on until now, hahaha."

However, after Sun Dafu finished speaking, he couldn't help but laugh first, and Wang An also laughed along with him.

After laughing, Sun Dafu said:

"Xiao An, do you have any other instructions? Just tell me everything at once, so I don't have to ask you later. It's a hassle to find you every time I need to, since you never leave things at home."

Wang An quickly said:

"Stop, stop, stop. I wouldn't dare give such an instruction. Grandpa Sun, you can't just spout nonsense. If people hear this, they'll think I'm some kind of big shot."

Sun Dafu smiled but didn't say anything, gesturing for Wang An to speak quickly.

Wang An thought for a moment and said:
"Then we'll call everyone in our village together for a meeting to see how many people are willing to contribute money and how much they can contribute."

Finally, we need to tally up the remaining funds, and then we must expedite the construction of the greenhouses. Otherwise, once the ground freezes completely, these plastic greenhouses might be completely destroyed this year.

For land that is rarely visited, burning can be used to thaw it, but burning is not very practical if large-scale greenhouses are to be built.

Although Kaoshantun is located in the mountains, if a large area of ​​frozen soil is to be burned, the amount of firewood needed will be enormous, and even the firewood of the entire village would not be enough.

Sun Dafu took another few notes with his pen, saying as he did so:
Is there anything else?

Wang An suddenly frowned and said:

"Once all of this is settled, we need to hurry up and organize people to go into the mountains to cut suitable tree trunks. I see that many families have already started harvesting, so we probably don't have enough manpower, right?"

For farmers, grain is the top priority, so the autumn harvest is of utmost importance. If greenhouses are built at this time, it will delay the harvest and cause a lot of trouble.

In the Lesser Khingan Mountains, there is a long-standing tradition of "rushing to harvest," and during the autumn harvest, the whole family works together to get all the crops in the fields before the snow falls.

After Wang An finished speaking, Sun Dafu suddenly looked at Wang An and said:
“Xiao An, your family has a combine harvester, right? I was thinking of using your combine harvester to harvest the grain from house to house.”

Upon hearing this, Wang An frowned and was about to refuse, mainly because although harvesters were fast and convenient for harvesting crops, they required fuel!

Furthermore, every year when harvesting crops, the harvester needs to replace a lot of parts, which costs a lot of money, and not a small amount, even more than the cost of hiring people to do the work.

This is a fact.

Putting everything else aside, after harvesting a field, you don't know how many blades you have to replace in the front-end cutting table, and you don't know how many times you have to tinker with the reel.

There was no way around it. Even in later generations, when harvesters were already very advanced, they were still used and repaired simultaneously while harvesting crops.

However, just as Wang An was about to refuse, Sun Dafu continued:
“But we can’t just use this harvester for free. We don’t have the money yet in our village. I was thinking of using our village’s barren hills and wasteland to pay off the debt. The contracting fees for barren hills and wasteland are fixed. Then you can calculate how much it would cost to harvest one acre of land with the harvester. When the accounts are settled, we’ll know how many acres of barren hills or wasteland we need to compensate your family. What do you say?”

After hearing this, Wang An was speechless.

I have to admit, that old man Sun Dafu is really damn talented, he's practically a master strategist!

This guy arranges everything so clearly for you. Wang An blinked, unable to think of a way to refuse, and said:

"Grandpa Sun, you know my two harvesters can only harvest corn and rice, they can't harvest soybeans or sorghum."

The two harvesters owned by Wang An's family could indeed only harvest corn and rice, so Wang An's family's crops were mainly corn and rice.

The contracted wasteland was mainly planted with corn, and the allocated land was mainly planted with rice. The miscellaneous grains and beans were planted simply to feed the family, so the total area planted with miscellaneous grains and beans was less than ten mu.

After Wang An finished speaking, Sun Dafu nodded and said:

"Yes, I know that. It would be good if we could finish harvesting the corn and rice quickly. Besides, I've done the statistics. This year, our village is planting more corn and rice. Sorghum isn't worth much, so no one is planting much."

Wang An clicked his tongue and said helplessly:
"Alright, I basically don't care about our crops. I'll go home and talk to my dad and see how he decides to handle it."

Since Wang An gradually bought large agricultural machinery and implements such as rice transplanters, seed plows, rotary tillers, harvesters, and sprayers, farming has become a relatively simple thing.

Therefore, Wang Dazhu basically no longer needed Wang An to handle matters related to planting and harvesting grain; at most, he would ask Wang An to help drive a four-wheeled vehicle to transport the grain.

Sun Dafu said noncommittally:

"Okay, just tell your dad, and then I'll discuss with him how to settle the accounts."

Wang An nodded, then turned and went home.

When Wang An arrived at the front gate of his house, he ran into Wang Yi walking out of the gate. Wang Yi then spoke to him:
"Big brother, you're back! Mom told me to call you home for dinner."

Wang An patted Wang Yi on the shoulder and said:
"Yeah, I'm back. Something came up and I was held up for a bit."

After saying that, the two brothers walked into the courtyard together. Wang An then remembered to ask Wang Yi:

"How's school been lately? Any troublemakers or thugs showing off at school?"

Wang An still remembers that back then, because a thug named Bao Zhijun bullied Wang Yi, Wang Yi even had the idea of ​​bringing a gun to school and shooting that kid.

Wang Yi chuckled and shook his head, saying:
"No, it's much quieter now. Brother Shi Suo often hangs around the school gate, and no thugs dare to come to the school."

Wang An nodded and said calmly:
"Okay, if there's anything you can't handle in the future, just tell me right away, okay? Don't keep it bottled up inside, it's not worth letting it interfere with your studies."

Wang Yi said with a smile:
"Okay, I got it, big brother. You've said that to me countless times."

Wang An gently ruffled Wang Yi's hair, then stared at him with wide eyes and said:

"Hey, you little rascal, are you annoyed that your older brother is taking too long?"

Wang Yi chuckled and shook his head, saying:
"No, I didn't say that. You're just making things up."

After exchanging pointless chatter, the two brothers went inside together.

Upon seeing Wang An return, Liu Guilan said with considerable dissatisfaction:

“I told you we’d eat in less than half an hour, look at the time now! The food will get cold soon, and I can’t even call you back.”

Wang An glanced at Liu Guilan, then at Wang Dazhu, and then began to explain:

"My grandpa asked me to help him research vegetable greenhouses, otherwise I would have come back long ago."

Immediately afterward, before Wang Dazhu could ask any questions, Wang An recounted his conversation with Sun Dafu to Wang Dazhu.

After Wang An finished speaking, Liu Guilan said to Wang Dazhu with considerable emotion:

"Uncle Sun is a really capable man. He's a competent village head, always thinking of the people of Kaoshan Village." (End of Chapter)