Chapter 168: Farmland Preparation

Chapter 168: Farmland Preparation

Chapter 168: Farmland Preparation

The collection of iron materials lasted for a week. Li Kailang kept shuttling between the village and the steel rolling mill, and collected thousands of kilograms of iron materials in scattered pieces.

However, when they happily transported the iron to the steel mill, they discovered a problem:
The smelting speed of the steel mill is far behind the speed at which the iron can be collected.

This resulted in a large amount of iron being piled up in the warehouse, forming a huge mountain of iron.

At this time, outside the steel rolling mill warehouse.

Qin Bingwu, the attendant on duty, shouted anxiously, "Masters, the warehouse is full, it really is full!"

"The leader has said that everyone should return the iron materials wherever they were brought from."

On the side, Liu Guangqi also echoed the advice:

"Masters, it's not that we don't want to load it. Look at this warehouse, it's full."

As he spoke, he opened the door of the warehouse, allowing everyone to see the mountain of iron materials in front of them that was like an iron wall.

Liu Guangqi said helplessly: "Masters, it's not that we don't want them, we just can't fit them in. If we put more in, the warehouse will collapse."

"Look outside, there are a lot of iron materials piled up. It's the same for everyone. Please understand."

Qin Bingwu echoed, "I understand your deep desire to serve your country, and I also know that you don't want to offend the farmers' kindness."

"But the situation now is that our steel rolling mill really can't handle so much iron."

"If we continue to transport them here, it will seriously affect the production progress of the factory, which will not be worth the loss."

"Please, Masters, understand, understand."

After listening to Qin Bingwu's words, all the drivers had no choice but to accept this reality.

"But the leader said that although our steel mill cannot smelt so much iron, they can smelt it themselves. They just need to send the smelted iron blocks to the steel mill."

Hearing this, everyone's eyes lit up.

The small blast furnaces and coke ovens in the countryside cannot produce as much smelting as a steel rolling mill.

But they are numerous, and if they unite, they can completely solve the problem of iron accumulation.

With a satisfactory answer, trucks loaded with iron materials slowly drove out of the steel mill gate and headed towards the countryside.

Li Kailang looked at the roadside and saw small blast furnaces and coke ovens springing up like mushrooms after a spring rain.

A few days ago, these small blast furnaces were just a few isolated ones, dotted among the fields like drizzle.

However, now, they are everywhere in sight, with small blast furnaces and small coke ovens closely adjacent to each other, as if forming a temporary industrial town.

Fortunately, these blast furnaces have not encroached on precious arable land and have no impact on the growth of crops.

But everything will change once the iron materials on the carriage are transported back.

"Secretary Zhao, it's not that we don't want it, it's just that there is too much iron material in the factory and we can't put it away."

"I know everyone is patriotic, but the factory is already full. If we put more, it will affect production,"

"In this way, everyone will do something bad with good intentions."

Li Kailang tried to explain, but the villagers were obviously not satisfied with the answer.

A villager raised the spatula in his hand and asked:

"Master Li, what do you think we should do? If we can't get our iron materials to the factory, how can we contribute to the country?"

Other villagers echoed: "Yes! It's a rare opportunity for us farmers to participate in this event. How can we withdraw just because we can't put down the iron materials?"

"Master Li, this won't work. If there's no room in the factory, then we'll have to put it outside. Now that it's been shipped out, we definitely can't take it back."

"Yes! Yes!" The villagers echoed in unison.

Li Kailang understood the villagers' thoughts. He quickly calmed them down and explained:
"Comrades, I also know that you all have a strong desire to serve your country. I didn't say I won't accept it. Don't get excited!"

Li Kailang paused and continued, "The factory leader said that the factory will not accept iron materials."

“But everyone can smelt the iron into iron ingots, and the factory can collect them.”

"Think about it, how big is an iron block? It's small, so it's easy to smelt it in the factory, and it saves a lot of space compared to iron materials."

He repeated Qin Bingwu's words to the villagers verbatim.

"Yeah, why didn't I think of it." A villager murmured to himself.

This reminded the villagers.

They were originally still at the stage of delivering iron materials to steel rolling mills, and only a few of them would think of melting the iron materials into iron ingots.

The proposal of this idea directly elevated the Great Steelmaking Movement to another stage - steelmaking by the whole nation.

Li Kailang is not the only one who says this, other drivers also say the same thing.

No matter how fast the steel plant's smelting speed is, it can never be faster than the speed at which the iron is contributed by the people and the masses.

This is an era of universal participation, and everyone is contributing his or her own strength to the construction of the country.

This suggestion immediately aroused heated discussion among the villagers.

Secretary Zhao looked at Li Kailang gratefully: "Thank you! Master Li, if it weren't for you saying this, we wouldn't have thought of it!"

Li Kailang's words not only solved the immediate dilemma, but also stimulated the enthusiasm of the entire nation for steelmaking.

Li Kailang modestly said: "No, no!"

He didn't dare to accept this skill.

Secretary Zhao turned to look at the villagers and said, "Okay, everyone. Since Master Li has given us a solution, we can't make things difficult for him."

He waved his hand, "Everyone is here, unload the iron materials, and we will smelt them ourselves!"

"Practice it yourself! Practice it yourself!" the villagers shouted in unison.

The villagers took action one after another. They unloaded the iron materials from the carts and walked towards the small blast furnace one by one.

Their faces were filled with pride and anticipation.

Li Kailang hurriedly called out: "Secretary Zhao, wait!"

Secretary Zhao turned around and looked at Li Kailang with a puzzled look: "Master Li, is there anything else?"

Li Kailang asked: "Secretary Zhao, if everyone goes to smelt iron, who will grow the crops in the fields?"

Secretary Zhao smiled slightly, looking relaxed: "Master Li, don't worry, this is our own family affair, how could we forget it?"

Looking at Secretary Zhao's somewhat frivolous expression, Li Kailang became even more worried.

"Secretary Zhao, food is the foundation of our lives. We can't delay it just because of iron smelting."

Secretary Zhao waved his hand and said, "Master Li, don't worry. We farmers rely on grain for our livelihood. We understand this principle."

"Besides, we had a bumper harvest of grain in our village last month, so this year will definitely be another bumper year."

“We will naturally take farmers’ affairs to heart.”

Secretary Zhao's face was filled with pride and confidence, and he seemed very satisfied with the answer.

Because of the bumper harvest, it’s not a big deal to delay steelmaking a little.

Li Kailang wanted to persuade him further, but seeing Secretary Zhao's impatient expression, he knew it would be futile to continue.

How could the booming steelmaking business be stopped just because of a few words from Li Kailang?

To Secretary Zhao and even most people, his words might run counter to the current booming steelmaking industry.

If it weren't for the fact that Li Kailang was a driver, Secretary Zhao would have wanted to call the police to arrest Li Kailang.

Seeing this, Li Kailang had no choice but to drive away.

"It seems that we have to put the issue of food storage on the agenda!" Li Kailang muttered to himself.

He is not a saint, nor a high-ranking official, and he cannot change the overall trend, but he can at least manage himself.

Although his planting space can alleviate the food problem to some extent, his power is obviously insignificant in front of a big country with a population of 4 million.

He had to prepare himself just in case.

Back at the steel mill, Li Kailang and Lu Wenjiang's expressions were not as relaxed as usual.

Li Kailang noticed that Lu Wenjiang's face looked particularly heavy. He guessed that something must have gone wrong during the transportation of the iron materials.

The two looked at each other and saw the sadness in each other's eyes, but neither said it out loud.

"Xiao Li, after work, shall we go to Master's house?" Lu Wenjiang asked.

Li Kailang nodded.

"Jingle Bell--"

As the bell rang for the end of get off work, the workers left the steel mill one after another.

Their faces were filled with tired but satisfied smiles, and they turned their shoulders from time to time, as if showing the results of their hard work that day.

"Hey, how many workpieces did you make today?" a worker asked his companion.

"Not many, just over 50," replied the companion.

"so much?"

"Not many. How many did you make?"

"Not many, just over 60."

"What did you say? More than 60? Did you make a few more secretly? Tomorrow I will make more than you!"

"Hey, just wait and see."

This kind of scene of mutual comparison is common, and everyone is happy to be able to do one more workpiece and contribute more.

Unlike them who were in high spirits, Li Kailang and Lu Wenjiang seemed to be thinking about something.

Zhang Jinwu looked at the two of them and knew that something must have happened to them, otherwise they wouldn't be like this. "What's the matter? Let's talk about it when we get back?"

Zhang Fen looked at the two worried people and had no idea what they were worried about. It was just going to work, why would there be so many problems?

After dinner, Zhang Jinwu looked at the two people who were still worried.

"Tell me, what happened?" Zhang Jinwu sat opposite the two of them, his tone serious but full of concern.

"It's rare to see you two looking so sad."

Li Kailang and Lu Wenjiang looked at each other, seemingly hesitating about who should speak first.

Li Kailang and Lu Wenjiang looked at each other and said in unison: "You speak first?"

Zhang Jinwu directly assigned: "Okay, Xiao Lu, you are the senior brother, you go first!"

Lu Wenjiang sighed and began to describe what he saw in the countryside:

“Master, you don’t know that the enthusiasm for steelmaking in the countryside is very high right now.”

"Blast furnaces and coke ovens have sprung up like mushrooms after rain. Everywhere you look, you can see a sea of ​​black dust."

Zhang Jinwu nodded, expressing his understanding: "Isn't this a good thing? Everyone supports steelmaking, which shows that our country is developing rapidly."

"You have seen the situation in the factory. It is full. If we can smelt the steel in the countryside, it can also reduce the pressure on our steel mill."

However, Lu Wenjiang's expression became more solemn: "If that's the case, then of course it's a good thing. But, Master, you didn't see where those blast furnaces were built."

"Hmm?" These words attracted Zhang Jinwu's attention. Nothing is trivial when it comes to grain production.

"What's going on? Tell me in detail."

"Master, you know that some villages have limited open space, and everyone wants to build small blast furnaces, so one by one, they fill up the empty space."

"But there is only so much vacant land. In order to build blast furnaces, we have to squeeze the land next to farmland. In some places, farmland has even been occupied."

"I went to talk to the village head and the secretary, and they didn't have any objections. Instead, they acquiesced to it."

"I'm worried that if this continues, the blast furnace will take over farmland."

"I thought it was a big problem." Zhang Jinwu said softly.

"As long as the farmland is not occupied on a large scale, it doesn't matter if the corners are occupied. This year we have a bumper harvest and sufficient grain reserves, so we don't need to worry too much about this piece of land."

However, Li Kailang interrupted and said, "Master, I think my brother's concerns are justified."

At this time, Li Kailang interrupted and said, "Master, I think my brother's concerns are justified."

Zhang Jinwu looked at him, waiting for his explanation.

"Master, you haven't been driving around for a long time. If you saw it today, you wouldn't say that."

"I went to Zhaojia Village today and saw that they brought in the iron materials and used them for smelting."

"They are now very enthusiastic about smelting iron, and some villagers have even started to give up farming to focus on smelting."

"I reminded their secretary, but he wasn't worried at all. He said the harvest was very good today, just as you thought, Master."

Li Kailang continued: "But what I am worried about is that if this situation continues, not only will the farmland be occupied, but there may even be no one to do the farm work."

“By then, will we really still be able to have a bumper harvest?”

Hearing Li Kailang's words, Zhang Jinwu frowned, and it was obvious that he had re-realized the seriousness of the problem.

Zhang Jinwu was silent for a while, then said:

"Your concerns are not without reason. Farmland is the foundation of the country and cannot be occupied at will."

"If everyone gave up farming and focused on smelting, food production would definitely be affected."

He paused and continued, "How about this, I'll go talk to the leader about this problem tomorrow. Our steel mill can't just focus on production."

There is no need to worry about farmland being occupied as long as there are still people doing farm work. But the downside is that if no one does the work, even the best farmland will be useless.

If coupled with the impact of force majeure such as natural disasters, food supply may face greater challenges.

Zhang Fen was also confused: "Is it that serious? The villages where I transported the iron materials are all fine."

Lu Wenjiang explained: "You are lucky that those villages have not changed. Now I am afraid that everyone has changed and no one will take care of the farmland."

Zhang Jinwu also realized that he was somewhat ignorant.

Since the car was scrapped, Zhang Jinwu has not received a car or driven it again.

Now I am in charge of the transport team every day, assigning some tasks and tasks arranged by the leaders, and my work has become much easier.

After all, with seat belts and brake water tanks, the driver's safety and driving skills have been significantly improved.

An oil field was discovered some time ago, so there is no need to rush to deliver supplies.

Due to various reasons, Zhang Jinwu never went out again.

Zhang Jinwu looked at Li Kailang and said seriously, "Xiao Li, just tell me what you think."

Li Kailang looked at everyone, including his master's wife Han Xiaohui, and said slowly:

"Master, we should prepare in advance. We need to store food first."

"Stored food?" everyone exclaimed.

Zhang Fen was puzzled: "It's not that serious, isn't it? This is just the beginning, isn't it?"

"Besides, storing food is not something that can be done overnight. It is not certain how much food we need to store."

Li Kailang shook his head and retorted: "This matter should be dealt with sooner rather than later, just like buying bicycles. If we wait until we realize that we are short of food, it will be too late to buy one."

"Besides, we have a bumper harvest now and the granaries are full. It's not a big deal for us to buy grain bit by bit."

Lu Wenjiang agreed with Li Kailang's opinion, but raised a question: "What Xiao Li said makes sense, but how much food should be stored?"

The famine lasted for three years. Li Kailang wanted to say that they could survive for three years, but who would believe him?

Li Kailang pondered for a moment and replied:
"I think we should just store the amount for half a year. This half year is just the time for the next grain harvest. If there is a good harvest by then, we won't lose much."

"If something does happen, we have food in stock, so don't worry."

Hearing this, everyone nodded and agreed to Li Kailang's proposal.

Zhang Fen wondered, "But where can we get so much food? If we store so much at once, such a big deal will surely be noticed on the black market."

Each of them needs 40 kilograms of food rations per month, which means 240 kilograms for half a year.

Zhang Jinwu's family of four alone required nearly a thousand kilograms of food. Adding Li Kailang and Lu Wenjiang's families, it would take at least two thousand kilograms.

The black market doesn't dare to take in so much food for fear of accidents.

The most important thing is that there is so much stored grain. It is okay if you live in the cadres' building, but it is basically impossible to hide it if you live in the courtyard house. Most of the grain is stored in the cellar.

It is impossible to hide it at home, and other people will inevitably be implicated.

Zhang Jinwu was angry at Zhang Fen's stupid head, "Stupid, I didn't ask you to prepare everything at once, can't you do it in batches?"

"Master, there's no need. I have a way to buy new grain directly without having to buy it from the black market." Li Kailang said.

Hearing this, Zhang Jinwu looked at Li Kailang and said, "Xiao Li, this is not a small amount, 2 kilograms of food!"

Li Kailang assured: "Don't worry, Master. I am familiar with the village chief. Their village has a lot of grain stored. Selling a few thousand kilograms of grain is not a problem."

"It's just that the amount of food is too large. I can't transport it all at once. I have to do it slowly."

Seeing this, Zhang Jinwu said no more: "Okay, since you have a way, let's do it your way. We will pay as much as we should."

Li Kailang did not refuse. If he said it was free, no one would believe it and no one would accept it.

"By the way, Master, our food must be stored in the cellar. Can other people in the courtyard trust us?"

Li Kailang pointed at the other residents.

Zhang Jinwu explained: "Don't worry, they are all outsiders and have no relatives in the city. They won't affect us."

"We can't hide the food storage from them for too long. Instead of hiding it, it's better to tell them openly."

"When you buy food, take them with you to prevent them from saying anything. I'll do the job, so you don't have to worry."

Li Kailang felt relieved after hearing this.

Zhang Jinwu is an experienced person and can definitely handle such things with ease.

"Okay, we've just started preparing for food, so we have plenty of time to take it slow," said Li Kailang.

Li Kailang is worried about these residents, some of whom may become too virtuous.

If the fact that one has food is revealed at that time and no one has stored any food, it might cause unnecessary trouble.

"We definitely have to take them with us, but we also have to be on guard."

Zhang Jinwu saw Li Kailang's worry, so he added, "You should also hide some food at home in case of emergency."

"It's better to dig a hole in the ground and hide!"

Lu Wenjiang and Li Kailang nodded. They naturally understood and there was no need for Zhang Jinwu to waste time explaining them.

After the matter was finalized, the atmosphere became relaxed and happy.

After chatting for a while, Li Kailang and Lu Wenjiang said goodbye and left, returning to their own homes.

After returning to the courtyard, Li Kailang did not go back to his own home first, but went to Cui's home.

The Cui family is the only family that Li Kailang cares about in Siheyuan. If he has the chance to help them, he will not miss it.

From April when they started working to now August, the Cui family has accumulated a small amount of money, which is enough for them to buy food for the second half of the year.

Although their lives will become a little tighter after purchasing food, it is still much better than starving to death or not having enough to eat.

After hearing Li Kailang's suggestion, Cui Yuan agreed immediately.

(End of this chapter)