Era: I was a farmer at the foot of Yaoling Mountain

Deputy Director Qi Haiyang was the first to disagree with Director Yao's approach. His speech at the meeting was very vehement: "Such restrictions on the county's rice production are simply self-destructive!"

"Gentlemen, we cannot be production-oriented. If other counties and cities follow suit and specialize in breeding, what will happen to grain production?"

Director Yao responded sharply and refused to compromise in the slightest.

"Director Yao, you're misrepresenting the facts! Breeding is not that easy, otherwise there wouldn't be a long line of people from other counties coming to exchange for rice seeds."

Guo Yongqing firmly stood by Qi Haiyang's side, and even some cadres who had previously had conflicts with Wu Yaoyang also strongly supported Qi Haiyang.

This matter does not involve the interests of any one person, but concerns the interests of the entire county.

Apart from Director Yao and a few others, almost everyone opposed him doing this. Isn't this self-destruction?
While they were still arguing fiercely, the grain purchasing department had already begun to organize large-scale transportation and continue to implement the previous rice seed purchasing policy.

Give them the grain purchase quotas they are entitled to!
“Secretary Fang, you know the current situation. We suggest you use up your quota at once. We will buy back any grain you can’t finish. Don’t think about buying a little bit at a time.”

The head of the acquisition department approached Fang Wei, implying that he should quickly create a time gap.

The county's document hasn't been issued yet. If it's issued and they stop us from doing this, everyone will be in a very passive position.

Fang Wei kept 2 jin of rice seeds and then sold 460 million jin of rice seeds to the purchasing station in one go, receiving 588.8 million yuan in cash and a purchase quota for 460 million jin of rice.

The team didn't have much food left, and the remaining grain was used for the new housing project. They were also waiting for the autumn harvest.

Therefore, Fang Wei used up all the quota at once, set aside rice for the construction project, delivered the grain quota, and then distributed the grain rations according to the standard of 800 jin per person.

In the end, 60 jin of rice remained and was put into storage.

He acted quickly, and the other production teams were not far behind. The other 16 brigades in the commune also sold their second-grade rice seeds to the purchasing station.

The purchasing department opened up the sale of the "Nanguang No. 2" standardized rice seeds, and all production teams in various communes rushed to buy them.

In less than a week, 4.6 million catties of the "Nanguang No. 2" rice seedlings were snapped up.

The other 16 brigades of Yaoling Commune did not move because Fang Wei assured them that the planting of the [Nanguang No. 2] standardized rice variety would be promoted throughout the commune next year.

If anyone else had said this, they might have questioned it. But since Fang Wei said it, they believed it without a doubt.

Fang Wei is an authority in rice breeding; if he says it can be done, then it definitely can.

When the news reached the county, Director Yao was furious. But the die was cast; all the standardized and secondary rice seeds in the county had already been purchased and transported.

In other words, the summer harvest results for the entire region next year will definitely be good, and a bumper harvest is certain.

Opinions differed across regions, with Zhu Minghui firmly opposing Xinlin County's approach.

The Qinghe No. 1 variety has now been completely phased out, and currently only two high-yield rice varieties remain in the entire region: Nanguang No. 2 and YX-032.

Putting aside quality and yield, what is the point of Xinlin County suppressing [Nanguang No. 2] and promoting [YX-032]?
If others don't know, how could he not?
In reality, [YX-032] was also created by Fang Wei, just with the skin of a breeding base, and in the end, even the breeding materials still had to be provided by the Xiatang Brigade.

Unfortunately, Zhu Minghui was only an acting director, and Tang Ze's words carried even less weight. In the end, the region decided to support Director Yao's plan.

Starting next year, the purchasing departments throughout the region will no longer purchase "Nanguang No. 2" rice seeds, and naturally there will be no more grain supply quotas.

This tactic is called "drawing the firewood from under the cauldron".

Fang Wei no longer cared about these things. As in previous years, he went to the Yao village to check on the village's harvest for this season.

We'll tally the side income next year; for now, we're only looking at rice seed production.

The total yield of the [Nongyou 58] rice variety in Yao Village this season was 671500 jin, all of which were sold to the purchasing station, and enough rice was purchased back.

No one can predict what will happen next year; we can only react passively.

"The food ration standard will be allocated according to an average of 800 catties of rice per person, so as to ensure that every household has enough food."

Fang Wei was quite generous this time, distributing enough food to everyone to last a year.

The distribution of rice seeds next year is a major problem, and he hasn't figured out how to deal with it yet.

"Third Brother, our major client said he has a way to transport the rice seeds out and provide us with enough rations and supplies."

Wang Songlin suddenly spoke up, saying that the big client in the village had already thought of this problem and said he had a way to deal with it.

They wouldn't say the specifics, only that you'd understand in time.

Fang Wei pondered for a moment. Based on the major client's past behavior, he felt that what the other party said was very likely true.

“Songlin, continue to stay in touch with the major client. I will personally discuss this matter with him before next summer harvest.”

Fang Wei decided that Yao Village would continue to plant the [Nongyou 58] rice variety in the next season. Even if the big customers couldn't handle the transportation issues in the end, he had a way to break it down into smaller parts and sell them all.

Good things are never short of demand; the only problem is that the process might be a little complicated.

He stayed on the mountain for two days before returning to his team.

Harvest crops, points +4620000

Harvest crops, points +671500

Total points: 23112270.

Regardless of how the external situation changes, the team's production continues as usual.

Zheng Hu arranged for people to turn the soil over and then begin planting rapeseed. This was standard procedure, and it was also to provide the commune members with enough cooking oil.

The agricultural machinery team made another appearance, and the final planting activity of the year quickly came to a close.

"Damn it, what's going on here? All this fuss and drama is ruining our business."

After finishing his work on planting rapeseed, Zheng Hu had to get busy with the sale of the improved breed of pigs.

This matter should have been resolved long ago, but a bunch of messy things have happened in the past few months, during which Fang Wei was almost arrested.

As a result, many things were affected.

Customers who needed high-quality pigs had been waiting for a long time, and after the news spread, they rushed to the door to buy them.

In just one week, they sold 3000 high-quality pigs and earned 300 million yuan in cash.

[A pig was born, earning +849000 points, for a total of 23961270 points.]

The pig farm has 978 pigs left, a significant decrease in the number of pigs. But it doesn't matter, the farm still has 300 pregnant sows that will soon give birth.

Now that Fang Wei has no shortage of resources, he decides to first continue upgrading the levels of the [Planting Area] and [Forestry and Harvesting Area]. Currently, both areas are at level 13, and one more level will bring them to level 14.

[Temporary Land Ownership] → [Farmland] → [Planting Area]

[Regional area: 1000 square kilometers (150 million mu)]

[Regional Level: (Level 14, 0/5000 million)]

[Regional Attributes: Drought-resistant, flood-resistant, pest and disease-resistant, accelerates growth, increases yield and income]

Planting within this area grants an additional 140% (70%) to all attributes and +1 to breeding genetic stability.

[Temporary Land] → [Woodland] → [Afforestation and Fruit Picking Area]

[Regional area: 2000 square kilometers (300 million mu)]

[Regional Level: (Level 14, 0/5000 million)]

[Regional Attributes: Identification, Exploration, Acceleration, Strength, High Resistance, High Quality.]

[Forestry and harvesting within this area grants an additional 70% increase to all attributes, effectively doubling the attribute bonus by 1].

Total points: 3112270.

After consuming 2000 million points, Fang Wei upgraded both the [Planting Area] and [Forestry and Harvesting Area] to level 14.

This time I didn't get the big gift package, but the area has expanded to a frightening extent.

The autumn harvest in the other brigades of the commune was completed later, so Fang Wei only invited the branch secretaries and brigade leaders of each brigade to a meeting today.

"Everyone should be preparing to plant rapeseed now, right? I have an idea. Let's work together to cultivate a high-yield rapeseed variety. Xiatang Brigade already has the current variety. How about each of your 16 brigades selects one production team to conduct an experiment?"

Now that it has been designated, it must be made to achieve the desired effect.

Fang Wei plans to conduct extensive screening without disrupting rapeseed oil production. Specifically, he will select 16 production teams, each planting one type of rapeseed, and then screen out varieties with high yields and high oil extraction rates.

This is called casting a wide net; you catch whichever big fish you can get your hands on.

"We have no problem with that!"

After discussing it, none of the 16 brigades objected.

The matter has been approved in principle, and the remaining details will be handed over to the coordination team to continue.

Fang Wei was nominally the leader of the coordination group, but he did not actually participate in the specific work; that was handled by Zheng Hu and two other people.

Everyone got busy after that. Some people went to get all kinds of rapeseed seeds, and according to the coordination group's arrangement, 16 production teams were selected to conduct trial planting.

Fang Wei hasn't explained the planting plan for next year to them yet, but they're determined to pursue the path of breeding.

The end of the year isn't exactly the busy farming season, and after the rapeseed planting was finished in each brigade, everyone had some free time. The most frequent topic of conversation among the commune members was the uncertainty of the future; one day they were asked to breed crops, the next day to plant grain, leaving everyone feeling lost and uncertain.

Director Yao from the county took a day to come to Yaoling Commune. He kept doing ideological work with everyone, requiring the brigade cadres and production team leaders to correctly understand the county's decision.

Breeding work should be left to professional departments, such as county-level breeding bases, while other teams should focus on agricultural production and produce more grain.

Fang Wei and the other cadres from the 17 brigades remained silent. You can say whatever you want, and go about your business tomorrow.

Neither the county nor the commune could forcibly arrange production plans; they generally regulated production by issuing tasks. For example, they would adjust the varieties planted by each team through the delivery of public grain and the requisition of grain to ensure the production of staple grains.

"Anyway, I've said everything I need to say. Starting next year, the purchasing station will no longer buy the second-grade rice variety of 'Nanguang No. 2' unless you can develop a standardized rice variety."

Seeing that these people were still persistent, Director Yao simply laid his cards on the table.

There was still no response from below, which made him feel very bored, so he announced the meeting was adjourned.

He felt that some people were like that, they wouldn't turn back until they hit a wall, and they would naturally recognize reality after suffering losses.

Fang Wei and the others left the commune, and the rest of them didn't go back either, but went directly to Xiatang Brigade. The situation was now clear: the locals couldn't stand seeing anyone living a good life, and they were trying to crush their hopes of cultivating rice seeds.

"In that case, I'll talk about next year's production plan."

Everyone was waiting for Fang Wei to make a decision, so he stopped hiding his thoughts and spoke them out openly.

"Didn't Director Yao say that if we have the ability, we should develop the [Nanguang No. 2] rice variety? Then we will start cultivating this rice variety from the spring sowing season."

I visited each team beforehand, and the soil conditions are generally suitable. So let's have all the teams work together to produce the "Nanguang No. 2" rice seed.

After Fang Wei said these words, the previously noisy conference room fell completely silent.

After a long while, a brigade secretary asked, "Secretary Fang, it's not that I don't believe you, but can my brigade really cultivate standardized rice varieties?"

In fact, he wasn't the only one with doubts. For many years, everyone knew that only the Xiatang Brigade could cultivate standardized rice varieties, supposedly due to soil and water conditions.

The other 16 production brigades of Yaoling Commune could only produce second-grade rice seeds.

This matter has become common knowledge in everyone's mind, which is why this change makes people wonder whether it will actually work.
"Yes! I think everyone remembers the severe drought before, right? Our Xiatang brigade pumped out well water to irrigate the surrounding brigades in order to help everyone."

I don't know if that's the reason, but your farmland now looks ready for cultivating standardized rice varieties. Also, through years of research, there have been some technological advancements.

Fang Wei, relying on his expertise in breeding, initially blatantly lied.

Perhaps because his authority in breeding was so deeply ingrained in people's minds, those present genuinely accepted his explanation. To be honest, they had no other choice but to take a gamble.

The reason doesn't matter; all they need is Fang Wei's promise.

Now that they've been told that the soil in all 16 production brigades is perfectly suitable for cultivating the "Nanguang No. 2" rice variety, they have no choice but to believe it.

Next, Fang Wei talked about cultivating high-yield economic crop seeds and high-yield vegetable seeds, in order to ensure that the income of each brigade would not decrease significantly.

"Secretary Fang, what about our food rations?"

"It's better to rely on yourself than others. Just grow it yourself. Rice seeds are edible, it just takes a little more fertilizer and water. Do you really care about that little cost?"

"Okay, we'll do it your way next year."

The more they talked, the more excited they became. If they could successfully cultivate a standardized rice variety, they'd see what those guys would say later.
Despite the imposing presence of Director Yao and Director Xin, they were all transferred from other places and had no real connections.

Their actions have now affected the interests of the majority, and nobody is listening to them anymore. (End of Chapter)