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

Chapter 351 Alliance, Leaving Room for Maneuver

No matter which brigade it was, laughter and joy filled the air everywhere.

As for the members, unless they are unable to work, anyone with a certain level of labor capacity can earn at least 3000 yuan a year. The income mentioned here refers to the sum of wages, bonuses, and dividends.

This income is already among the highest in the country, far exceeding what many urban residents can achieve.

night.

Fang Wei took the opportunity to open a bottle of wine and drink it by himself after his older sister made a lot of delicious food.

Pan Lianhua understood that the man wanted to drink, and this was the perfect excuse.

"Third Brother, are you especially happy because you see everyone's income has increased?"

"Of course! Otherwise, why would I bother with this cooperative? If our family had just a few acres of land, we could have reached the level of a ten-thousand-yuan household much sooner, without having to worry about so much."

Fang Wei and his wife had nothing to hide; he was speaking from the heart.

Making a little money would have been easy for him, but he wouldn't have the sense of accomplishment he has now, nor would he have earned the respect of tens of thousands of people.

Pan Lianhua smiled without saying a word. Seeing that the man's wine glass was empty, she quickly grabbed the bottle and refilled it.

A few days passed quickly.

Binbin has started his winter vacation and returned home.

Xiaojie had already started her vacation early, and the two siblings were able to get together, making the house much more lively.

Pan Lianhua is very happy. Every morning when she gets up, she talks to her older sister about what to eat that day. The meals at home are more plentiful than before.

"Third brother, I want to go back to the temple for a few days and I'm planning to take Binbin with me. What do you think?"

A few days after Binbin returned, Sun Daoren found Fang Wei and said he planned to teach the child more things during the winter vacation.

Binbin is currently studying in the city and only comes back once a week, so he rarely has a complete period of time.

Fang Wei nodded. He trusted Sun Daoren, so he agreed.

When Pan Lianhua found out, she was a little unhappy, but she didn't stop him. She just asked Binbin if he wanted to go up the mountain.

Binbin said he was willing; it was a rare opportunity to go out and see the world, and the little guy was quite happy.

"Binbin, don't fall behind in your studies."

the next day.

Fang Wei drove his son and Sun Daoren to the Sanqing Temple with his daughter. After having lunch at the temple, he and Xiao Jie returned home.

There's still some time before the Lunar New Year, and he'll come to pick them up before then.

From now on, every household will begin preparing for the New Year. Fang Wei and Pan Lianhua also took some time to visit the market, buying quite a lot of things each time.

The market supply is much more abundant than before, but most of the goods at the market are cheap. The couple even took time to go to Chenzhou to buy all the New Year's goods they needed.

This year, Fang Wei prepared a lot of firecrackers and fireworks for the Spring Festival, just to have a festive atmosphere.

"Secretary, will the commune still slaughter pigs for the New Year?"

Zhao Jinsheng came to ask Fang Wei about slaughtering the New Year pig, and only then did Fang Wei realize that there were only a few days left until the New Year.

"We definitely need to slaughter a pig for the New Year. You guys discuss it and hurry up and distribute the meat to everyone."

It always feels like something's missing if we don't slaughter a pig for the New Year, so Fang Wei decided to distribute the pork according to an average of 10 jin per person.

In addition, each person also receives a chicken, a duck, 10 jin of eggs, and two live fish.

The items weren't many; they were considered a benefit distributed by the cooperative.

"Third Brother, go and bring Binbin and the Taoist priest back."

Pan Lianhua was also urging Fang Wei to come back; she felt uneasy as long as her son hadn't returned.

With only two days left until the Lunar New Year, Fang Wei drove up the mountain, bringing his daughter along as well, which the other party simply assumed was a trip.

Sun Daoren and Binbin returned to the village, and it was time for everyone to celebrate the New Year.

There were many changes at the beginning of the new year. The higher authorities issued a document canceling the task of raising pigs and the unified purchase and sale of grain was no longer implemented.

While previous policies had been relaxed in many ways, this time it's much more thorough.

Of course, the grain tax still has to be paid; there's no room for negotiation, and it must be paid on time and in full.

Throughout the entire Spring Festival, Binbin continued to learn from Master Sun without missing a single day. Master Sun seemed to be racing against time, always hoping to pass on all his skills to Binbin as quickly as possible.

Fortunately, Binbin is indeed very interested in traditional Chinese medicine; otherwise, it would have been difficult for him to persevere.

Throughout the winter break, he had to learn medicine from Master Sun and review his lessons, so he basically had no time to play.

Pan Lianhua felt sorry for Binbin, so she sent him to stay in the village for a day before he could finally get some rest.

Fang Wei remained silent, thinking that the old Taoist probably wanted to pass on all his skills as soon as possible before going up the mountain to cultivate.

Fang Ping's family did not return for the Spring Festival this year; the only relatives who visited were her second sister's family.

Every time Tian Bingyi came, he would drag Fang Wei to drink, and most of the time he would get himself drunk.

"Brother-in-law, spring planting is coming soon. Are you still going to continue cultivating vegetable seeds?"

"Yes, the vegetable seeds we cultivate are in high demand and short supply. If we can make money, there is no need to change anything."

"That's true. The cooperative developed a few new varieties last year. You can try them out."

The two drank and chatted about what would happen after the start of spring, their hearts filled with anticipation for the new year.

Tian Bingyi has completed the integration of the original brigade and, following Fang Wei's example, established a specialized cooperative. The cooperative's main business includes cultivating vegetable seeds, planting rice, and aquaculture.

He appointed Fang Wei's second sister as the chairperson of the cooperative, while he himself became the village party secretary of the administrative village.

The development trend is quite good, but the foundation is relatively weak.

The two drank one bottle of wine and then stopped. Tian Bingyi and Fang Mei insisted on going back, and Fang Wei had no choice but to let them.

While drinking earlier, Tian Bingyi had been trying to gauge Fang Wei's intentions, as he wanted to incorporate his cooperative into the Yaoling Cooperative, but Fang Wei had not expressed any opinion.

years later.

Fang Wei took Binbin back to school and went to see Huang Zhigang on the way.

"The current situation is that some farmers from outside Yaoling Township want to join our cooperative. I would like to ask what the county's attitude is?"

"Didn't they already set up their own cooperative? There's no need for them to join you, right? To be honest, I'm a little confused about this. Maybe we should wait a bit longer?"

In reality, they were both a little unsure about what the consequences of doing this would be.

What seemed like a simple matter actually involved many aspects. Huang Zhigang finally advised Fang Wei not to rush into action and to wait and see how things went.

Fang Wei nodded and went straight to find Tian Bingyi after leaving the county. "The county hasn't given me a definite answer, and I'm worried that doing this might cause unnecessary trouble. By the way, brother-in-law, how's your current financial situation? If you have enough funds, we can cooperate on projects in the future."

Fang Wei changed his approach and decided to cooperate with Tian Bingyi's cooperative.

This way, many uncertainties and troubles can be avoided, while still achieving the goal of cooperation.

“Our financial strength is not bad, La San. If you have any good projects in the future, just let me know.”

Tian Bingyi was very interested, but at the same time, he gave up the idea of ​​merging into the Yaoling Cooperative.

Fang Wei didn't stay long; after chatting with the other party for a while, he drove away.

This morning.

Fang Wei convened a council meeting to discuss this year's spring planting arrangements.

In addition to the council members, attendees included the head of the breeding center, Wang Songlin from the Yao village, and Tian Bingyi from the Tianjia Cooperative.

Inspired by his previous conversation with Tian Bingyi, Fang Wei created this business alliance after returning.

The alliance's purpose is to help each other and coordinate their respective production plans.

"This season, the Yaoling Cooperative and the Breeding Center will reduce the planting area of ​​[Nanguang No. 4] and simultaneously expand the planting area of ​​[Nongyou 76]. In addition, in terms of cash crops, seed breeding of soybeans and peanuts will be suspended this year."

Fang Wei spoke first on behalf of the cooperative and the breeding center, essentially revealing the details to everyone.

The alliance does not seek a monopoly, but it will certainly avoid competition among itself, or try to coordinate to achieve orderly competition.

“Our village will continue to cultivate the Nongyou 76 rice variety this season, and we will stop cultivating peanut and soybean seeds this year as well.”

Wang Songlin explained the arrangements for the Yao village, and there were no conflicts with the others.

"Our Tianjia Cooperative will continue to cultivate various types of vegetable seeds. There have been some adjustments to a few varieties, but overall there is not much change compared to last year."

Tian Bingyi also spoke, which meant that they had all informed each other of this year's production plans.

Fang Wei nodded. This was the first step in their close cooperation, and they would continue to do so in the future.

"There's this matter now. Last year, you asked me about the agreement you made with the county government to invest in building vegetable greenhouses in Chengjiao. The total planned investment for this project is 1000 million yuan. Are any of you interested?"

Fang Wei and Huang Zhigang reached an agreement on this matter, but the project is progressing slowly, and now it's time to speed things up.

Fang Wei and the council members had discussed the matter and concluded that for the alliance to be more stable, there needed to be a binding of interests. That's why they brought this up today, as a kind of experiment.

“I am very interested in this project. If possible, our Tianjia Cooperative is willing to invest 100 million yuan.”

Tian Bingyi was the first to speak up, as this matter would benefit the Tian family cooperative, so he appeared very enthusiastic.

With his initial contribution, both the breeding center and the Yao village agreed to invest 100 million yuan each.

"That's settled then. The vegetable greenhouse project will be funded by Yaoling Cooperative with 700 million yuan, and Tianjia Cooperative, Yao Village and the breeding center will each contribute 100 million yuan, for a total of 300 million yuan."

Fang Wei then announced the draft cooperation agreement, stating that a formal agreement would be signed later.

Tian Bingyi needs to go back and discuss it with everyone; it's just a formality. The breeding center and the Yao village are facing the same problem.

Five days later.

The signing ceremony for the investment in vegetable greenhouse projects was held in the county.

The preliminary work for this project has been completed. After the contracts were signed, the funds from all parties were in place, and construction began immediately. This project is配套 (matched/supported) with the county's "vegetable basket" project, and there will be some preferential policies in various aspects in the future.

Next.

Zhao Jinsheng arranged for machinery and personnel to harvest the rapeseed in the fields, and spring plowing began simultaneously.

This year, the seedling cultivation bases in the Yao villages have also been put into use. The Yaoling Cooperative and the breeding center each have their own seedling cultivation bases. The benefits of these bases are obvious: they overcome the impact of weather on open-air seedling cultivation and prevent losses due to weather conditions.

However, such constant temperature and humidity seedling cultivation bases require a large investment, and there are only a few in the county.

Spring planting is proceeding smoothly, and major clients from various regions are flocking to the cooperative to sign contracts for summer rice seeds. This is because the cooperative's rice seeds are in high demand, and some major clients have adopted this approach.

After signing the purchase contract, a large deposit needs to be paid, which is a significant burden for most companies.

This is equivalent to a pre-sale, where the responsibilities and obligations of both parties are equal, but there are also disclaimers. For example, if a large-scale reduction in production due to force majeure results in the inability to deliver, this falls under the category of disclaimers.

"Old Zhao, just sign contracts with a few big clients. We can't pre-sell all the rice seeds at once, otherwise we won't have any flexibility."

Fang Wei took a moment to pour cold water on Zhao Jinsheng and the others, telling them not to be blindly optimistic and to always leave themselves room for maneuver.

Therefore, when the pre-collected rice seeds accounted for half of the expected yield, he called a halt to the project.

With half of the projected production as a contingency, there's no way we'll default.

“Secretary, we’ve learned something new. You’re right, you must always leave room for maneuver, otherwise you’re just digging a hole for yourself.”

Zhao Jinsheng understood the reasoning behind it and couldn't help but give a thumbs up.

Fang Wei smiled and shook his head, telling them to go about their own business.

He then left the office and returned home.

He received a meeting notice this morning and needs to prepare before heading to Beijing for the meeting.

"Third brother, it's still quite cold up north, you should bring two thick coats."

night.

Pan Lianhua helped the man pack his luggage and brought Fang Wei a trading bag and a woolen overcoat.

Fang Wei quickly took out her coat and said, "I don't need the coat, I'm not that afraid of the cold."

"I know you're in good health, okay?"

Pan Lianhua glanced at the man, but didn't insist.

the next day.

Fang Wei drove himself to Chenzhou, leaving the car at the textile factory. The round trip took less than ten days, making this the most convenient arrangement.

The main purpose of this meeting was to discuss family planning, which was then incorporated into the fundamental national policy.

The meeting went very smoothly, and there were almost no dissenting voices during the group discussions.

A week later.

Fang Wei then returned to Chenzhou and drove his own car home.

Perhaps because he has always maintained a low profile, criticism of him and the cooperative has become rare, and most people don't seem to care much. The current mainstream is reform, and although there are still different opinions on making money, people are gradually becoming restless.

Some of the young people in the cooperative volunteered to work in Xiangshan, where the wages are higher, so their annual income would naturally be much higher.

However, some people are unwilling to leave their hometown. After all, they can earn a good income at home, so why leave their hometown to go to another place?
There were many similar ideological conflicts, but they were all mitigated by the vigorous development of cooperatives.

(End of this chapter)