1983Fishing and Farming between Mountains and Seas

Chapter 391 Panda Brand Recorder
"Dad, brother, it shouldn't be that difficult to learn. Ah Qiang has to hire someone now. He doesn't feel safe if he hires someone else. He doesn't want to let others learn his skills!"

On the side, Chen Xiangbei also helped persuade her father and her elder and second brothers.

"Okay, the watermelon field is easy to handle. I've already planted some of the seeds. If I give it to someone else to plant, there will definitely be someone willing to take it." Chen Dagang was the first to decide, "It's fine for me to go, but it depends on what your two brothers think!"

In fact, if Liang Ziqiang had told his father-in-law in advance around the Spring Festival, he would have had more time. Unfortunately, at that time, the Artemia resources in Yanwan Village had not been negotiated, and it was not yet determined whether the scale of breeding could be expanded.

Liang Ziqiang turned his attention to his two elder brothers-in-law:
"Brother, this is what I think. An orchard is different from a watermelon field. You don't need to carry water and irrigate the fields every day. You can leave some of the watermelon fields there. When the fruit is ready, you three can take turns to take a vacation and come back to harvest the fruit. You can't delay the shrimp pond!"

He was afraid that his two uncles would be reluctant to part with the orchard, so he had thought it through on the way here. The watermelon and cantaloupe fields required the most labor, and he had to carry water to irrigate them every day, so they really had to be transferred out. It wouldn't be a big deal to keep a part of the orchard.

When three people raise shrimps together, they have relatively ample time. They take turns to take leave occasionally, and if two of them speed up, they can still finish the job of feeding the shrimps for three people.

"During the day, the three of us will feed the shrimps. What about at night? Do we need to stay there to keep watch?" The eldest brother looked over and asked.

There are dozens of acres of prawns, which is not a small amount. Naturally, the eldest brother thought of guarding the prawns at night.

"I have arranged this as well. You will mainly feed and take care of the animals during the day. I will find someone else to watch over them at night. You can just come back home!"

Now that the shrimp prices have gone up and the scale is large, Liang Ziqiang is certainly considering guarding the shrimps. While digging the foundation and building the pond, he will build a simple brick house in the east of the village, and he has already discussed who in the village will guard it.

"Brother, I think this is a great idea! If we work hard to fatten up the shrimps, we can get more dividends!" The second brother, who had been silent all this time, spoke up and expressed his willingness to go.

"Okay, Aqiang, Xiangbei, don't worry, since we have agreed to go, we will definitely work hard. As for the technical matters, we will keep them secret after we have mastered them and will not disclose them to those outsiders!"

The eldest brother made the decision immediately.

Liang Ziqiang also agreed with them that the beachside pond should be built next month, and the shrimp fry would not fall off the bodies of the parent shrimps until the end of June, so his father-in-law and his uncles would also start working in the shrimp ponds from the end of June, learning as they went.

There are still about two months left. In these two months, they can just take care of the melon fields and orchards.

After lunch, she stayed at her father-in-law's house for a while, and even carried Cheng Cheng to the backyard for a walk. Her mother-in-law wanted Cheng Cheng to stay overnight so that she could hug her grandson more, but the couple had to go back in a hurry, so Li Jinju had to carry Cheng Cheng all the way.

The newly contracted fish ponds need to be dug and repaired, and the dike ponds on the seashore need to be built. The next steps will be the busiest.

Especially the excavation and construction of the seaside pond, which covers an area of ​​25 acres, requires a lot of manpower.

Liang Ziqiang did not use stones to build the shrimp pond. Instead, he went to the brick kiln factory in Hongqiao Town to buy red bricks, just like he did when he built his own house. He also went to the county to buy some lime and cement, and directly built the 20-acre pond as if he was building a house.

Each dam has a gate on the seaside. The gate is equipped with wire mesh and fishing nets to allow the rising and falling tides to easily flow into the pond, but the fish and shrimp are separated by the nets.

There is a pair of half-mute brothers in Changwang Village. Normally, they have no problem hearing people talking, and their hearing and eyesight are just as good as those of normal people. The only problem they have is speaking. They can only make simple and unclear expressions like "oh oh" and "ah ah".

The middle-aged brothers had never had the money to buy a boat to go out to sea, so they sometimes did odd jobs for others, and sometimes wove nets at home to sell to make a living. Their life was naturally very hard, but both of them were honest and kind people, and were not the type to be flexible.

After Liang Ziqiang contracted the abandoned salt land in Yanwan Village, he also built a small red brick house there. Liang Ziqiang invited Li Changyuan, the eldest of the mute brothers, to Yanwan Village, and from now on, he will live there permanently.

He didn't have to do any work, just guard the large patch of Artemia in the salt field. Liang Ziqiang had no plan to feed these creatures anyway, so they would just grow as much as they could in the salt field.

Liang Ziqiang would come here regularly by boat to sell some Artemia to the salt pan east of Changwang Village. Li Changyuan might be needed to help out at this time. On weekdays, Li Changyuan would just sit there and do nothing. The second oldest of the dumb brothers, Li Changjiao, stayed in Changwang Village and was asked by Liang Ziqiang to guard the shrimp pond. On weekdays, Li Changjiao would just stay at home. Only at night would he sleep in the small house built between the shrimp ponds east of the village to prevent people from stealing shrimps from the shrimp ponds in the middle of the night.

Dozens of acres of shrimp ponds were handed over to his father-in-law and uncle during the day, and to Li Changjiao at night.

The two brothers were paid the same, three yuan a day. Their work was effortless, so they only took the wages and did not participate in the dividends at the end of the year.

From late April, Liang Ziqiang, together with his father and elder brother, drove a boat to the sea again to look for broodstock.

With the experience of last year, we were much more familiar with the process this time. We not only caught a large number of wild prawns, but also brought back a lot of thin shells, blue clams, sea centipedes, and krill, which can be put on the bottom of the pond as supplementary feed.

On the way, we encountered some red shrimps, slippery shrimps, and stone crabs. We caught some of them and didn’t sell them. Instead, we cooked them for the helpers who were building the shrimp pond.

This time, there are more helpers. Not only did we invite people from our own village, but we also asked my father-in-law to help invite a large number of people from Huagu Village. Anyway, their wages are calculated the same as the helpers from our local village.

May Day is the day for banks to draw prizes, and there are two banks that have a handful of small-denomination certificates of deposit and are going to participate in the draw.

Because Chen Xiangbei was busy at home preparing lunch for the helpers, she did not go with him this time.

Liang Ziqiang first queued up at the Qianluo Branch of China Construction Bank to try his luck. This time his luck was really average. Half of the papers he touched out were "Thank you for participating".

There were about ten deposit slips left, and besides matches there was soap. Who would take a pile of soap home for what? This was outrageous...

The most valuable thing I found was a large plastic basin. It's better to have something than nothing, and I didn't come back empty-handed...

Then I went to Binzhou District and drew several "Thank you for participating" cards at ICBC. Then my luck turned and I drew two towels.

Well, the towel matches the plastic washbasin from another bank quite well.

In fact, the Binzhou branch of ICBC went quite far this time, even displaying a color TV, which made people jealous. After all, a color TV is much better than the black and white TV at home.

There's no point in being jealous. The color TV is the special prize, and there is only one there.

After drawing about a dozen cards, Liang Ziqiang no longer had much hope for this time, but suddenly a "fifth prize" popped up.

The fifth prize this time is a tape recorder.

It's a "Panda" brand model that can actually play two tapes at the same time, making it convenient for playing and recording at the same time, the Panda SL-05.

Although there is a fishing radio on the boat and a black and white TV at home, their functions are not exactly the same as this Panda tape recorder.

Moreover, Liang Ziqiang could not buy this brand and model of tape recorder with cash alone without an industrial ticket. When he got the tape recorder in exchange, people around him cast envious glances at him.

After the last few chances, I didn't win any other big prizes. I picked up the tape recorder and left the ICBC lottery site.

From the two banks, I got a tape recorder in total. Although it’s not as good as the TV, it can still be said that I was very lucky...

(End of this chapter)