1968: Started from breeding

Chapter 252 Where are we now? Still in China?

After leaving Dongfeng Commune, Su Wenchen and his group started from southwestern Shandong and drove south.

Because this occurred during winter, the salt and alkali that had risen from the ground had solidified into a thick crust due to the cold air.

The wheels rolled over the cracked salt crust, making a "crunching" sound from time to time.

Looking around, almost everything was a white expanse, but Su Wenchen knew that this was not snow that symbolized a bountiful harvest next year, but rather alkali that was competing with the people for food.

Hou Guozhong looked out the window and sighed.

"Director, why does it get more and more desolate the further south we go? Wasn't it said that the most severely affected and devastated areas were in eastern Henan?"

"How come along the way, in the eastern Henan and western Shandong areas there were still communes organizing canal digging, which seemed pretty good, but the further south we went, the fewer people were organized?"

"And everything around was white; if I didn't know better, I would have thought it was snowing!"

Su Wenchen looked out the window. This time, unlike last time, they didn't take all the major roads like national and provincial highways. After crossing the Yellow River, they took smaller roads, observing the saline-alkali land conditions in western Shandong and eastern Henan, and the local people's efforts in managing it.

Continuing south along the old course of the Yellow River, the landscape became more and more like what Hou Guozhong had described, almost entirely white in winter.

Especially after leaving the area around Fengxian County and crossing the Dasha River, the land becomes severely saline-alkali, and there is practically no good farmland left.

"Old Zhao, keep an eye out while you're driving and see if there are any villages or production brigades."

“I saw on the map that Fengxian County gave us that Lizhai People’s Commune was marked, and they said it was not far from the east side of the Dasha River.”

"At our speed, there's no reason we shouldn't have arrived after driving for so long!"

Upon hearing Su Wenchen's words, Zhao Weiguo stopped the car and looked around.

"Director, ever since we crossed the Da Sha River, we've only gone a short distance and there's no road left. All around us is a vast expanse of white salt flats. It seems like we're lost."

Su Wenchen was both amused and exasperated upon hearing this.

The Huang-Huai-Hai Plain was once a densely populated area in the heart of the Central Plains!
Who would have thought that I could get lost here?

After getting out of the car, Su Wenchen looked at the desolate scene around him.

Where did he come from? Is this still in China?
They didn't prepare anything like a compass for this trip, because it wasn't a trip to the border, and Su Wenchen hadn't expected it either.

It's unbelievable that someone from their prestigious Central Plains region could get lost.

You can't wear this again!
Although Su Wenchen had passed through some areas before, he had only traveled along the main roads. The saline-alkali land there had been treated in a similar way to that of Li Zhimin's Dongfeng Commune.

But he was wrong. It seems that Dongfeng Commune is being managed very well.

Because in this area, after crossing the Da Sha River, they hadn't seen a single person, not even a bird or insect, after driving for a while.

Zhao Weiguo said directly.

"Director, why don't we turn back and leave?"

“If we drive along the river, we’re sure we’ll find the commune and production team.”

Meanwhile, Cao Jiwen and Hou Guozhong, who had come down from the other side, also looked around.

There was no one, no road, no trees, only a few tamarisk and saltwort trees that tenaciously grew in the soil, making it a completely desolate scene.

"It seems we've gone astray; this area is probably still undeveloped by the local commune."

As he spoke, Cao Jiwen tapped the salt crust that had formed on the ground.

“The terrain here is low-lying. Before the drainage ditches were built, it was prone to efflorescence in winter and flooding in summer, which was even more difficult to deal with than in Dongfeng Commune.”

Upon hearing this, Zhao Weiguo glanced at Su Wenchen.

"Director, are you going to keep driving? Isn't it a bit dangerous?"

Since he hadn't seen anyone for so long, Zhao Weiguo felt it wasn't a good idea to keep driving forward.

Su Wenchen nodded as well.

In this place with no landmarks around him and no locals to guide him, he wasn't prepared to take any risks.

Moreover, they are just conducting research; they are not a large force bringing supplies and personnel to establish a branch site here, so there is no need to be in such a hurry.

"Get in the car, drive back along the tire tracks, drive to the river, and this time walk along the river."

Upon hearing this, Zhao Weiguo immediately breathed a sigh of relief.

To be honest, he was really afraid that Su Wenchen would go his own way and keep driving around in circles in this crappy place until he ran out of gas. Then he would be left with no one to turn to for help.

Su Wenchen was also afraid of this, which is why he decided to turn back and walk along the river.

Because of this, even if the car runs out of gas, you're sure to find a place with people.

This isn't a truly uninhabited area; it's just a large salt flat. Su Wenchen figured that if they kept driving forward, they should be able to encounter some human settlements.

After all, Fengxian is only about 100 miles away from Xuzhou, and at their speed, it would only take them an afternoon.

However, the surrounding whiteness and lack of reference points still evoke a strong sense of loneliness.

However, just as they turned their vehicle around and drove for a short while, a slow-moving oxcart came towards them.

Su Wenchen said directly.

"Stop the car first. Let me ask around. We're over there now. Let's see which way to get to Lizhai Commune."

With a horn blaring, the Jeep slowly came to a stop.

As Su Wenchen got out of the car, an old man opposite him slowly pulled on the reins.

Clearly, although the old man didn't know Su Wenchen, at that time, anyone who could afford a car must be a high-ranking leader.

After all, no one in their county owns a car, so he spoke somewhat reservedly.

"Young man, did your boss send you down to ask for directions?"

Clearly, the other party saw that Su Wenchen was so young and mistook him for a secretary or something similar who would run errands.

Su Wenchen smiled and did not refute.

"Sir, where is this place now?"

The old man was momentarily stunned upon hearing Su Wenchen's words.

"Where does this belong? This is Feng County!"

Su Wenchen shook his head.

"No, I mean, which commune does it belong to? How do I get to Lizhai Commune?"

The old man pointed behind him.

"This is Huanglou Commune. If you're from out of town and don't know the way, don't walk along the fields. Just walk straight back and follow the Da Sha River south."

"The first place we encountered was Liangzhai Commune, and after passing Liangzhai, we came to Lizhai Commune."

“The three communes on our south bank are all located along the river.”

Upon hearing this, Su Wenchen took out the map he had obtained from the county and scratched his head.

"They're all near the Da Sha River? Why are they marked there on your maps?"

The old man glanced at it.

“Those are maps from ten years ago.”

"Back then, the commune was doing something about a bumper harvest, and they reported that even saline-alkali land could grow thousands of kilograms of grain, so they included all of these saline-alkali lands in the list."

Then he glanced at Su Wenchen.

"You probably wouldn't know if I told you, given your age. Do you think there are any problems with the younger generation? I still need to go back and distribute relief food to everyone! Otherwise, it will be too late."

Hearing this, Su Wenchen understood what the other party meant, but he still spoke up.

"Grandpa, is your brigade located inside? Is it convenient for us to come with you to take a look?"

"Don't worry, we are researchers sent by the Yellow River Flood Control Farm of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry."

"Your county has also confirmed it."

Rather than going to other communes to see those that were relatively well-governed, Su Wenchen wanted to go inside and see the places that hadn't been governed yet.

Hearing Su Wenchen say this, the old man had no doubts and replied directly.

"What's so inconvenient about this? Take a look! My place is really poor, you probably can't stand it."

Su Wenchen smiled.

"It's alright. Even if it's tough, it's better than sleeping in the wild. It's not like we haven't made do in the wild before."

"And would this oxcart be convenient for me to take a ride?"

The old man was completely bewildered. Why would this person choose to ride in his oxcart in the cold wind instead of taking a nice car?
"It's convenient, but are you sure you don't want to ride in a perfectly good car and instead want to ride in my oxcart?"

Su Wenchen said with a smile.

"Don't worry, grandpa, I just came down to get some fresh air after sitting for a while!"

Hearing Su Wenchen say this, the old man didn't understand, but he didn't refuse. After all, in their area, people would sometimes give each other a ride when they met fellow villagers, so it wasn't a big deal.

"Alright, come on up!"

Seeing that the other party agreed, Su Wenchen turned around and waved to Zhao Weiguo in the car.

"Old Zhao, turn the cart around and follow the oxcart. We'll spend the night at their brigade's place."

After saying that, he climbed straight onto the oxcart.

The old man was quite surprised when he saw it.

"Don't you need to report to your supervisor? You just decide on your own that your supervisor has no objections?"

Su Wenchen smiled.

"Old man, why don't I look like a leader?"

The old man turned around and carefully examined Su Wenchen, who was sitting on the grain sack behind him.

shook his head.

"Judging from your demeanor, you should be a junior leader, but you're still far from being a senior leader who drives a car."

"I estimate it will take you more than ten years to get through this."

Upon hearing this, Su Wenchen immediately laughed.

"Old man, you're really mistaken. I really am the leader this time. Let's go!"

"They will catch up."

As soon as Su Wenchen finished speaking, the car started.

The old man looked at the car behind him, and after turning the car around, he skillfully flicked the reins, and the old ox started moving instantly.

However, he was still very surprised, because he hadn't expected that this young man was actually the leader.

To be honest, he had only seen these kinds of cars in the Xuzhou area, and they were mostly used by military personnel and local leaders.

Even their county doesn't have a single one, yet this young man is already higher than their county director.

So I unconsciously became more polite when I spoke.

"Sir, do you mean to stop here? Are you here to inspect the saline-alkali land of our Yangzhuang brigade? Or are you here to distribute relief grain to us?"

Hearing this, Su Wenchen was speechless for a moment, but then said directly.

"I was indeed inspecting the saline-alkali land, but not your Yangzhuang area. As for distributing relief grain, we are powerless to do so for the time being."

"But don't the county and region authorities care about this?"

The old man sighed.

"How can we not care? If we didn't care, we would have starved to death long ago, but it's not enough!" "Our area is mostly saline-alkali land, and only a portion of it can grow crops, with a yield of only about 100 jin per mu."

"After paying the grain tax, we could only eat until winter; the rest of the time we relied on relief."

Upon hearing this, Su Wenchen stared at the other person in shock.

"You still have to pay grain taxes here?"

The old man said directly.

"Why shouldn't we pay? Everyone has to pay!"

"But afterwards, the higher-ups would return the relief grain to us, and it would be more than what we paid."

As he spoke, he pointed to Su Wenchen's buttocks.

"This is the first batch of relief grain that our brigade received."

"We can receive it again after the spring planting, and then we can last until the summer harvest."

Su Wenchen roughly understood the above meaning: collect them all at once first, and then distribute them according to the actual situation in each region later.

However, after taking a look, he estimated that the truck carried at most seven or eight hundred pounds.

"Is this all the relief food we have?"

"Are you going to hold out until spring planting? Can each person get ten jin (5 kg)?"

The old man sighed.

"It's good enough to have some food. Anyway, there's not much to do in winter. If you don't have much food at home, just stay home and tough it out."

Upon hearing this, Su Wenchen understood why areas with more saline-alkali land were less likely to organize people to dig ditches to control the alkali.

Without food allocations from above, it's impossible to organize these people. A few dozen kilograms of grain would last for one or two months. If they were also organized to participate in physical labor, they probably wouldn't be able to get up for more than two days.

At this point, he also understood why, when they came out of Feng County, only the north side was organizing commune members to dig drainage ditches. They only had a little rice, so they could only expand outward little by little, focusing on the surrounding areas.

In fact, Su Wenchen understood.

Because the overall policy prioritizes the eastern part of Henan for governance, while Fengxian County focuses on governing the northern part first.

The real reason is that there are not enough resources at hand.

With only a handful of rice in hand, it's impossible to manage everything simultaneously. So, we can only allocate a portion of it to manage the areas that can produce rice quickly.

All that's left is to wait until we have more rice in our hands, and then gradually manage everything.

However, during this period of development, Su Wenchen felt that many people might not be able to sustain the development.

As if he knew the way, the old ox led them through the wilderness for quite a while before Su Wenchen could slowly see the shadows of buildings.

As the wheels crushed the cracked salt crust, the oxcart slowly drove into Yangzhuang Brigade.

The walls were made of adobe bricks, and the roof was sparsely thatched, exposed to the cold wind like a sore.

Seemingly hearing the oxcart, a group of emaciated children ran out from inside.

Su Wenchen looked around.

These children were all dressed in cotton-padded clothes that were patched up so many times that the surface was even a little hardened, and they were all wearing straw sandals.

However, he still ran excitedly toward the oxcart.

"The grain is here! The grain is here! We can have a good meal tonight!"

As the jeep slowly drove in behind them, the group of children became even more excited.

"Look! A car! A car! A car is coming!"

At the sound of the children's shouts, they swarmed after the jeep.

Upon hearing the commotion, adults came out of the house, but compared to the children who were still pale and thin.

To Su Wenchen, these adults with sallow complexions looked as if they could be blown away by a gust of wind, especially the women.

It's clear the child was only half full, otherwise he wouldn't have had the energy to chase after the car.

However, these adults probably weren't even half full, especially the women, who, in Su Wenchen's view, were just trying to prolong their lives.

Perhaps it was the shouts of children, or perhaps it was the attraction of the distributed grain, but everyone began to gather around.

Su Wenchen glanced around and saw that almost everyone looked malnourished.

He did not experience the famine of the 1960s. In his memory, even during the famine, Pingcun Brigade did not have enough to eat, but it did not seem to be to this extent.

At least they still have tree bark they can peel off.

But along the way, he didn't see a single tree, let alone any wild vegetables. It was like trying to peel the bark off a tree.

"Captain, who is this?"

Upon hearing this, Su Wenchen jumped off the oxcart and reached out his hand to the other person.

"Hello comrade, my name is Su Wenchen. We are a farm unit under the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. We are here to investigate the situation of saline-alkali land management."

Hearing Su Wenchen say this, the other party was flattered and wiped his hands on his body several times before reaching out.

"Comrade Su, hello, hello, I am Yang Weidong, the militia captain of Yangzhuang Brigade."

Before Su Wenchen could speak, urging voices rang out from the surroundings.

"Captain, hurry up and distribute the rations!"

"I've been waiting for this meal for two days. If I don't get it soon, I'm afraid I won't make it tonight."

"Yes, Captain, hurry up and distribute the rations!"

Although these people were also very curious about Su Wenchen, compared to grain, he was clearly not as attractive as grain.

Seeing this, Su Wenchen spoke directly to the other party.

"Comrade, your brigade should distribute grain to the surrounding commune members first!"

"I see everyone is quite anxious. We'll talk about it after the grain is distributed."

Hearing Su Wenchen's words, the old man who had brought Su Wenchen over in the oxcart nodded in agreement.

"Line up properly, you're all like starving ghosts reincarnated. Eat sparingly, the next planting season will be here soon."

"Captain, don't worry, we remember it even better than you do. We'll eat tonight, and we won't need to eat for the next two days."

"Adding these two days, wouldn't that save five days' worth of food?"

Upon hearing this, Su Wenchen sighed. "Eating one meal is enough for five days. Even if you do nothing in winter, it's only enough to prolong your life."

As the Yangzhuang brigade headquarters began distributing grain little by little.

After Su Wenchen walked to the jeep, he spoke to the three people who had just gotten out.

"It's much more difficult here than at Dongfeng Commune."

"Each person eats ten catties of grain for more than a month, averaging about three liang a day, which is barely enough to keep them alive."

To be honest, before Su Wenchen came, he hadn't imagined that the severely flooded areas of the Yellow River would be so miserable. He originally thought it would be like Dongfeng Commune, where people went hungry one day and ate the next.

Unexpectedly, it was a month of hunger and a day of plenty. Su Wenchen now understood why it took 21 years to completely eliminate extreme poverty in later generations.

Some things are completely unimaginable unless you experience them firsthand; after all, their country is so big.

Upon hearing Su Wenchen's words, Cao Jiwen nodded in agreement.

However, he still said it.

"Director, the saline-alkali land here looks even worse than that of Dongfeng Commune. The most critical problem is the poor drainage."

“If you plan to choose this location, you can only draw water from the Da Sha River, which is at least six or seven kilometers away.”

Upon hearing Cao Jiwen's words, Hou Guozhong glanced at Su Wenchen.

"Director, are we going to build a branch farm here?"

Su Wenchen glanced at Hou Guozhong.

"What's wrong? Old Hou, are you afraid of hardship?"

Hou Guozhong shook his head.

"I'm not afraid of hardship, but I haven't seen a single bird along the way. Will this pasture even grow?"

After traveling in the same car for the past few days, Hou Guozhong has become quite familiar with Cao Jiwen.

Said directly.

"Old Cao, are you sure that kind of pasture grass can grow here?"

Cao Jiwen shook his head.

"You'll only know once you plant it. But as long as you invest manpower and resources, digging ditches to drain the alkali, transporting soil and raising the soil, you can basically manage it."

"The reason why the governance here is progressing so slowly is simply because there has been a lack of investment."

"With only their own small team of people, and with operations ceasing in winter and only able to cultivate the previously saline-alkali land in spring and summer, their remediation efforts are naturally slow."

Su Wenchen nodded as well.

"Yes, in fact, our country has been exploring the technology for treating saline-alkali land for more than ten years, and there is basically no technological gap."

"Actually, it mainly involves the investment of resources."

Then Su Wenchen gestured with his lip towards the crowd distributing grain in the distance.

"Do you think these people, swaying in the wind, can dig ditches and transport soil by themselves?"

Upon hearing Su Wenchen's words, Hou Guozhong glanced at the crowd and shook his head.

"Impossible. Let alone digging a ditch, he'd probably be shaking after just two trips to move the soil."

Su Wenchen took a deep breath.

"Yes, without external resources, they can only endure until their county has finished governing the surrounding areas before they can focus their efforts here."

"As for how long, it's unclear. It could be a year or two, or it could be five or ten years. How many of these people can hold out until then?"

Hou Guozhong asked in confusion after hearing Su Wenchen's words.

"Director, does that mean we're not going to the Huaiyin area afterwards?"

Su Wenchen opened the trunk of the car and said directly.

"I'm not going. I guess it'll be about the same as here, maybe even a little better. It's closer to the provincial capital of Jiangsu, so I should be able to get some preferential treatment from the province."

“We also went to Fengxian County to learn about this. There is too much saline-alkali land here, and the county can only focus on the northern part of the surrounding area for treatment first.”

"Furthermore, with our current capabilities, we can't cover such a large area."

"Based on the general data provided by Fengxian County, there are 100,000 mu of saline-alkali land on the south bank of the Dasha River that need to be treated, which is enough for our farm's current development."

"Tomorrow, we'll make a round of all three communes to see how large the area is and to what extent the pollution has been addressed."

"Moreover, Peixian County is not far to the east on the map, and there are hundreds of thousands of acres of lake beach on the west side of Weishan Lake that can be developed."

"To the west is Dangshan County in northern Anhui, which is also a large area of ​​saline-alkali land."

"What we lack now is not land, but the ability to utilize our knowledge and channels as quickly as possible to make use of this land and produce useful resources."

After saying that, he shouted at Zhao Weiguo.

"Old Zhao, bring everything down! We'll eat here tonight."

(End of this chapter)