Chapter 329: Trend towards Regional Balance
Chapter 329: Trend towards Regional Balance
Jiang Miao is intensively researching non-rejection organ transplantation technology.
And with the arrival of March.
Spring in the middle and high latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere also arrives quietly under the warm south wind.
However, extreme weather has become more frequent in recent years, and the North China Plain, Northeast China, southern and northern deserts and other areas are still in an uncertain state of sudden warming and cold.
At this time, in the eastern part of the southern desert, the Korqin Desert in Jirim City has become a "huge" farm after several years of intensive transformation.
The continuous promotion of genetically modified rootstock technology is becoming more and more common here.
Through genetically modified rootstock technology, crops such as pistachios and cherries can be grown locally.
Due to concerns about a sudden and drastic drop in temperature, farm workers use bagging to prevent a sudden drop in temperature when the local temperature rises and the cherry trees begin to bloom and sprout.
These plastic film bags come from inulin, a by-product of the local large-scale production of rubber grass.
Through a series of processing, rubber grass inulin is synthesized into polylactic acid plastic. Inulin polylactic acid plastic is also one of the two major bioplastic products in China. The other is sucrose polylactic acid plastic produced by Guangxi Province using sucrose.
Inulin-based polylactic acid plastic products, which are cheap and biodegradable, are now increasingly used throughout the northern region.
Lu Weibin, who is stationed in the southern and northern parts of the desert this year, is currently in the eastern Gobi area in the northern part of the desert.
He sat in an open pickup truck, looking out the window at the endless farms on both sides. A large number of agricultural machinery were working on the Gobi Desert, transforming it.
"Manager, our farm has completed its mission for this year..."
Lu Weibin did not answer, but took a look at the internal customized tablet in his hand. At present, Hailufeng Company has developed a total of 15 farms in the eastern Gobi region of the entire Mobei region, and each farm manages an area of about 20 acres of land.
He swiped the touch screen: "Got it, you guys can sow according to the plan!"
Farm manager Wu Bo continued, "Manager, can we only grow soybeans here?"
Lv Weibin said without even looking up: "The water and heat conditions here are too bad. It's a blessing from the company's technology that we can grow soybeans. Otherwise, there's no point in growing soybeans."
Wu Bo continued to ask, "Manager, I heard that East Gobi Farm No. 12 is growing rubber grass there, right?"
"Don't you understand why they can use this rubber grass? Don't think too much. Illegal exploitation of groundwater will not be worth the loss."
Wu Bo naturally knew the reason why rubber grass could be grown in East Gobi Farm 12, which was that a large underground brine lake was discovered near East Gobi Farm 12, and the brine could be pumped out to extract potassium salt and lithium salt.
Unlike the traditional underground brine extraction process that uses sunlight to dry salt, the extraction process used in this mining base is nano-dehydration, so millions of cubic meters of groundwater can be obtained every year.
After being purified, part of the groundwater is used as production and living water for the factory, and the remaining pure water is used as irrigation water for nearby farms.
This is also the reason why rubber grass can be grown in East Gobi Farm 12.
Other farms in the eastern Gobi region do not have such conditions and can only grow Senzu soybeans that do not require much irrigation water.
To be precise, the agricultural area currently planned in the entire Mobei region covers an area of up to 100 million square kilometers, of which 90 square kilometers are for soybean cultivation; the remaining 10 square kilometers in the humid areas in the north and east are planned for rubber grass cultivation.
Even though soybeans can only be harvested once a year in the Mobei region, it does not prevent Mobei from becoming the world's second largest soybean producer. If all 90 square kilometers are developed, it is estimated that an annual output of 4 million tons of soybeans can be achieved.
In order to develop these 100 million square kilometers of farms, major agricultural groups have drained the young and middle-aged labor force in Mobei, but there is still a huge labor gap.
Because a large mechanized farm of 100 million square kilometers would require about 50 direct farm workers.
Then there are the soybeans, rubber grass, forage grass and the like produced by these farms, which still need secondary processing and utilization, such as soybean deep processing and animal husbandry industries.
These agricultural-derived industries require millions of related workers.
In addition, there are mining industries, service industries, transportation and logistics industries, construction industries, etc., which also require millions of workers.
If other miscellaneous industries are added in, the entire Mobei region will need to import about two million workers from the country to barely keep all local industries running normally.
...
Lu Weibin's convoy soon arrived at the outskirts of the farm town of East Gobi 09 Farm.
This town is not called 09 Farm Town, but "Wild Duck Haizi Town" because there is a Haizi (a small lake) next to the town.
The population of Yeya Haizi Town is not small. In addition to farm and factory workers, there are also many self-employed people who have come from China to open shops. Together with the workers' families, the entire town has a population of about 3.2.
Hailufeng Company has a total of 15 similar farm towns in the eastern Gobi region of Mobei, with a total population of about 67.
However, the transportation in these towns is more convenient than that in the previous towns in southern Mobei, and they are also free shipping areas.
That’s right, the Eastern Gobi region of Mobei is the first area in Mobei to achieve free shipping.
Free shipping is possible, on the one hand, due to the great development of airship transportation; on the other hand, it is due to the high-speed railway that has just been completed.
Lu Weibin did not stay in Yeyahaizi Town, but went directly to the high-speed railway station in the western suburbs of the town.
The overhead high-speed railway built with new technology not only reduces construction costs by about 46% compared to before, but also speeds up construction much faster than before. On average, it saves nearly 77% of construction time per kilometer of high-speed railway line.
This high-speed railway is invested and operated by Hailufeng Company. It runs directly from the Eastern Gobi area in the northern desert to the Jirim City in the eastern part of the southern desert, and then goes directly to the coast of Bohai Bay.
These high-speed rail lines will then further connect various farm towns to achieve the goal of having railways in every town.
After all, the construction cost has decreased and the construction period is relatively short. In addition, the land acquisition fees in the south and north of the desert are relatively low, so there is no need to consider compensation along the way like in the inland areas. Naturally, every town can be connected to the railway.
In fact, there is another purpose for adding railways, which is to promote regional integration as much as possible and make the travel time between each farm town as short as possible.
Therefore, apart from one trunk railway, the remaining branch railways are actually equivalent to intercity light rail. After all, each town is dozens of kilometers away. Through the connection of branch railways, it can be ensured that these dozens of towns are almost included in the one-hour commuting circle.
Lu Weibin's assistant had already purchased the train tickets through the internal system, and the train they were on quickly headed south against the wind.
Unlike the old high-speed rail, the new high-speed rail uses a fully enclosed track. There are photovoltaic panels above the track and foam silicon structure tube walls on both sides. Through the car window glass, you can occasionally see hollow tube walls left at certain intervals, which allows people to observe part of the scenery on both sides.
In less than half an hour, the train covered a distance of 68 kilometers and arrived at the East Gobi Farm 12, which is the Qiyan Town High-speed Railway Station.
"Manager, we're here."
Hearing the assistant's reminder, Lv Weibin put away his office tablet, stretched his body, picked up the sea buckthorn juice he had just bought and drank it all: "Let's go!"
Potash Town, as the name suggests, is a town developed due to the mining of potash. It is also the largest city in the Eastern Gobi region, with a total population of 11.
40 to 60 tons of potassium sulfate and about 3000 tons of lithium sulfate can be mined here every year. This is only protective mining, because according to the latest exploration data, the potassium salt resource reserves in the area are about 60 billion tons, and the lithium salt resource reserves are about 1.7 million to 2.2 million tons.
Lu Weibin came quietly without notifying other people in the branch. After all, he had been running back and forth between the Mo'nan Branch and the Mo'bei Branch in the past few months. If he asked the local management to come as soon as he arrived at a place, then the local management would not need to do anything else.
Get off at Potassium Salt Town High-Speed Railway Station.
He saw the "Potassium Salt Town Delicious Mushroom Factory" which had just been topped off.
The assistant, who was observant of the situation, quickly explained in a low voice: "Manager, this factory uses technology introduced from the Liangzhou branch last year, and is also designed to utilize the abundant local straw and cattle and sheep manure resources."
"Delicious mushrooms? Are you talking about the Seris delicious mushrooms?"
"Yes, those delicious mushrooms that grow to the size of a plate."
Gurgle, gurgle... Lu Weibin's stomach started to growl. He smiled and shook his head: "Let's find a restaurant to have lunch!"
After a while, they saw a restaurant called Lao Xiang Ji on the side of the road not far from the station.
Lu Weibin did not go back to the local branch's cafeteria to eat in order to save a few dollars. Moreover, as soon as he took a look at the restaurant's sign, he knew that this was an individual restaurant that cooperated with Hailufeng Company.
You should know that in this kind of farm town, more than 90% of the industrial workers are from Hailufeng Company. If you want to open a store in such a town, it will be difficult to develop without the consent of the Commercial Cooperation Department of Hailufeng Company.
It’s not that Hailufeng Company deliberately suppresses self-employed individuals and small businesses outside the company, but that the company’s employees will not believe in the safety of the products of small shops that have not been certified by Hailufeng Company.
Especially in the catering industry, the treatment will be almost worlds apart in a farm town like this, with or without the endorsement of Hailufeng Company.
This is also the reason why many small restaurant operators are willing to be inspected every few days by Hailufeng Company. As long as they pass the inspection, it is equivalent to having the safety endorsement of Hailufeng Company, which will naturally attract a large number of industrial workers to consume.
Went into the restaurant and just sat down.
Lu Weibin picked up the menu casually: "One three-cup chicken, one three-fresh dish, another pot-fried pork, and a wolfberry and egg drop soup... Hey, you also have delicious mushrooms?"
The lady boss was writing down the order while smiling and answering, "This is something new that just arrived a few days ago. It's produced by the mushroom factory next door. Would you like to try some?"
"Then add a plate of pork belly fried with delicious mushrooms."
"No problem, Boss, do you want rice or noodles?"
Lu Weibin looked at the others: "I eat rice, what about you?"
"I want rice, too."
"I want a bowl of red oil noodles."
"I just want a bowl of boiled white noodles."
The chubby lady boss reminded: "Both flat noodles and white noodles are fine, but the rice is all artificial rice. Are you used to it?"
"I'm used to it." Of course, Lu Weibin knew the taste of artificial rice. The artificial rice here was produced by the company itself. He often ate it in the cafeteria, so naturally he didn't feel uncomfortable.
"Okay! Wait a moment, it will be ready soon."
The proprietress tore off the menu and went to the kitchen to arrange the dishes.
Several colleagues took a few bottles of drinks from the refrigerator. Lu Weibin did not take the sea buckthorn juice, after all, drinking too much of it would burn the stomach. He asked for a glass bottle of birch juice.
At this time, many customers came to the shop.
There were local industrial workers or their families, mainlanders who had left their hometowns to come here to start businesses, and two tourists who looked like college students.
As lunchtime approaches, the shop becomes more and more lively.
Soon, the food for Lu Weibin's table arrived one after another.
He picked up the chopsticks, picked up a piece of sweet and sour pork, and ate it with rice.
Two college students at the next table were drinking soy milk and discussing the small city in a low voice.
"Ahua, do you really plan to come to Mobei to work after graduation?"
"Yeah." The young man in the red down jacket nodded. "The competition in the mainland is too great. The environment in the small cities in Mobei is pretty good now. The treatment is also good, and the competition is not too great. Why should we go to Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen and squeeze our way through?"
The young man who asked the question just now looked depressed: "Hey, my parents don't agree with me being too far away from home, otherwise I would also like to come to Mobei's farm and lie down."
"What do you have to complain about? You are an only child, so you don't have to worry about buying a house. I have four brothers and sisters, so I can travel so far." Ahua comforted.
The large-scale development in the northwest and north-central regions has indeed attracted a group of young people with greater family pressures.
On the one hand, farm and industrial workers in these areas are indeed treated better.
On the other hand, it is also closely related to the comprehensive upgrade of the transportation system in the northwest, central and northern parts of China.
For example, in the past, transportation from Mobei to North China was not very convenient. There were not many roads and railways, and air tickets were expensive.
It is different now. Similar to the self-operated high-speed railway of Hailufeng Company, there are 5 trunk lines and 17 branch lines between the south and north of the desert.
With the increasingly cheaper regional passenger planes, every city of a certain size in Mobei now has a small regional airport. The cheapest ticket from Mobei to Monan is only about 150 yuan, just like an Airbus.
Finally, with the development of farms, local sandstorms are almost extinct.
Some towns also have sub-ecospheres that can form local microclimates in residential areas and solve the harsh living environment in the plateau desert.
Many people feel that the competition in big cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen is too fierce, and they don’t want to be involved in the internal competition, so they choose to work in such remote areas.
In fact, these newly developed remote areas are not much worse than big cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen in terms of various basic services and supporting facilities.
This has to do with technological development.
The continuous updating and iteration of various technologies have promoted the flattening of society.
In the past, big cities could siphon off small cities and rural areas because these big cities had great advantages in education and medical resources, as well as opportunities for development across classes.
Now remote areas also have development opportunities, and are gradually catching up with big cities in terms of resources such as education and medical care.
Faced with this change, young people have more choices and naturally will not rush to big cities.
(End of this chapter)