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

Fang Wei realized yesterday that the herb cultivation base was doomed. Fortunately, he didn't need to rely on picking herbs for a living, so he might as well let it be exposed.

So he immediately called Wang Songlin and asked him to arrange for people to harvest all the mature medicinal herbs in that herb cultivation base.

The on-site investigation has been completed, and the interrogation of the five men began overnight. The criminal investigation team has also obtained detailed confessions.

Fang Wei and Pan Lianhua came over this morning mainly to supplement some details. After they finished speaking, the county bureau chief personally came to express his gratitude to them.

"Society needs positive energy like yours! We will apply for a bravery award for you two later, hoping that more people will learn from you."

Fang felt both amused and exasperated. Their initial intention was simply to save someone; they couldn't just stand by and watch the herb gatherer be killed, could they?
But he also doesn't want to be famous.

"Ahem, thank you for your kindness, Director Ren. However, my position is rather special, so it's best if I don't stand in the spotlight, and the same goes for her."

Fang Wei politely declined to apply for the award for bravery, not wanting to attract attention.

Director Ren had no choice but to agree to the other party's request.

Fang Wei and his wife then left the county bureau. Pan Lianhua drove to the factory alone, while he went to Luo Zhimin's office.

“Secretary Fang, you should avoid going to those remote mountains and forests in the future. What happened yesterday was very dangerous. If something had gone wrong, it would have been a loss not only for the whole county, the whole province, but even the whole country.”

Luo Zhimin was speechless. She knew the whole story and was really worried for Fang Wei and his wife.

A wise man does not stand under a dangerous wall. As a national representative and chairman of Yaoling Agriculture, what are you doing going to the deep mountains for no reason?
"I know, I know. I just go into the mountains occasionally to relax. It's nothing."

Fang Wei could sense the other party's good intentions, but he wouldn't give up easily. He hadn't encountered much danger in the mountains over the years.

Luo Zhimin shook his head. That's enough. Saying too much will only annoy people.

The two then discussed other matters before Fang Wei took his leave.

The next day.

Fang Wei led the people sent by Wang Songlin into the mountains and began to collect a large number of rare medicinal herbs.

The herbal medicine cultivation base deep in the mountains wasn't just the one discovered by the two herb gatherers; there were two other locations. Because they were far apart and the terrain was complex, they remained undiscovered.

The herb cultivation base destroyed by those five guys is easy to repair, so there's no need to worry too much about it.

Next, the rare herbs from the other two herb cultivation bases were harvested. A few days later, the county forestry bureau indeed sent an inspection team to the mountains.

They discovered that the area of ​​forest damaged by those five guys was not large, so they sealed off the surrounding mountains and forests, prohibiting all personnel from entering.

Fortunately, the other two herbal medicine cultivation bases are not within this scope. However, with the implementation of various protection policies, the area of ​​the closed mountains will become larger and larger, and it would not be surprising if the entire Dayao Mountain were included in a nature reserve.

The amount of herbs harvested this time was quite large. Fang Wei commissioned a medicinal herb processing plant to process them, sold some, sent some to Hong Kong, and kept quite a lot for himself.

As is customary, each of the brothers who went into the mountains to collect herbs received a reward, and that was the end of the matter.

The forestry brigade's activities of picking chestnuts and camellia seeds were subsequently restricted. Since there were already very few people who signed up to go into the mountains to pick them, the picking plan was eventually canceled.

A murder in the jungle had a significant impact.

Fang Wei also felt that closing mountains for afforestation was not a problem, but a one-size-fits-all approach was not appropriate.

"Third Brother, is this year's harvesting plan just going to fall through like this?"

"So what can we do? Because of the murder case, the forestry department simply started closing the mountains to the public. There are strict restrictions on things like collecting herbs and picking fruits in the mountains. The forestry brigade canceled the plan because they felt it wasn't worth it."

The story of Fang Wei and Pan Lianhua's brave fight against the thugs eventually spread.

In reality, it's hard to have any real secrets in the county, especially since their deeds weren't state secrets, so there was nothing that couldn't be said.

The problem is that the story became increasingly bizarre as it spread, and Fang Wei and Pan Lianhua were unwittingly transformed into martial arts masters, which fits the narrative conventions of martial arts novels.

Even the people at the bamboo ware factory looked at the lotus flower with a different expression; almost everyone looked at it with a sense of awe.

Because Pan Lianhua is quite ruthless when she takes action, and with the spread of rumors, she's probably considered almost like a female demon.

Fortunately, Pan Lianhua didn't care about these things. You can spread your stories, and she'll just go about her business.

As the saying goes, "the more debts you have, the less worried you are." Fang Wei had always been the subject of various rumors, so people weren't as concerned.

The next day.

Fang Wei went to the Forestry Bureau in the morning to discuss the recycling of wild resources with Director Chen.

"I know that your forestry brigade has a tradition of picking wild fruits. The current restrictions are both to maintain safety and order and to combat acts that damage forestry resources."

Regarding the issue of wild medicinal herbs, we will hold a meeting to discuss it. It's estimated that it won't be completely liberalized; it will likely involve issuing licenses to create conditions for a small number of people to collect herbs.

Director Chen didn't mince words and directly produced the documents. If the forestry brigade still wanted to go into the mountains to pick chestnuts, camellia seeds, and loquats, they first had to complete the procedures at the forestry bureau, then pay a deposit, and finally, 30% of the picking profits had to be handed over to the forestry bureau.

That's why the forestry brigade cancelled the picking plan.

“The bureau has issued a document, so I have nothing to say. But protecting wild medicinal herbs is urgent. Simply closing the mountains is not enough; we also need to intervene artificially. Our forestry brigade is willing to cooperate with the bureau.”

Upon hearing that it was a collaboration, Director Chen became interested.

"Didn't we just say that we'll cooperate on protecting wild herbs, systematically cultivating some rare herbs to prevent their extinction? Also, 20% of the profits from wild herbs can be handed over to the bureau."

Fang Wei explained the cooperation method, and Director Chen couldn't help but nod repeatedly.

The Forestry Bureau has a special fund for the protection of forestry resources. In addition to grants, the fund can also accept donations, revenue from cooperative projects, and other fees.

Funds are earmarked for specific purposes and cannot be used for other purposes.

Director Chen agreed to the cooperation, and if the protection of wild medicinal herbs was done well, he would also have achievements to show for it.

Ultimately, Director Chen agreed to accept 20% of the profits from fruit picking in the mountains.

Upon returning to the commune, Fang Wei went to the forestry brigade and instructed the brigade leader to immediately arrange the harvesting work, explaining that if manpower was insufficient, they could hire people from various townships. He also handed over the cooperative project with the forestry bureau to them.

The forestry brigade leader happily accepted the two tasks. He valued the wild herbs in that area the most and planned to restore the ecological environment of that forest while starting to transplant or cultivate them in the commune's forest.

Not to mention, the successful cultivation of several rare medicinal herbs can bring substantial profits to the forestry brigade.

Regardless of what the other party is thinking, as long as they don't do anything reckless, Fang Wei rarely interferes.

He wouldn't get involved in the rest; the harvesting, purchasing, and payment would be handled by designated people.

Zhang Chu had initially thought that the supply of wild chestnuts and other resources had been cut off this year, but it turned out that Secretary Fang had negotiated the terms with the Forestry Bureau and the supply had been restored.

After completing their task of harvesting in the mountains, the forestry team then began harvesting fruits and medicinal herbs in the village's woodlands.

That's why autumn is said to be the season of harvest; from now until the harvest, there will be all sorts of surprises.

Fang Wei has been keeping a close eye on the price changes of cooking oil in the market these past two days. The current price increase has eased somewhat, but it has not yet fallen.

The relevant departments have not intervened, but if prices soar again, it could attract external intervention. After all, China has not yet joined the WTO, and the domestic market is not fully open.

Administrative intervention remains a means of economic regulation.

"So, Party Secretary, do you think the price of cooking oil will drop significantly?"

Cai Tong has been quite nervous these days.

After all, the company is going to fully roll out the planting of rapeseed for winter this year. If the price of edible oil plummets, who knows what the situation will be like next year.

Cai Tong couldn't sit still any longer and came to discuss countermeasures.

"Prices won't fall significantly, and they'll never return to where they were before. The reason is simple: there's a problem with supply and demand; demand exceeds supply, so prices can't fall much."

Based on the available information, Fang Wei drew a conclusion.

Currently, the import volume of oil-extractable crops is not large, meaning the market is not fully liberalized and there are weight controls. Meanwhile, the production of domestically produced oil-extractable crops is limited, which explains the sharp rise in edible oil prices.

This problem cannot be solved overnight, which is why Cai Tong was reassured.

"That's good! Party Secretary, you go ahead with your work, I'll go check on the various departments."

Cai Tong sat in the office for a while, then got up and left to inspect the preparations for the autumn harvest at various production units.

With the Mid-Autumn Festival just around the corner and the autumn harvest drawing ever closer, the company's management team has begun heading to the production line.

After Cai Tong left, Fang Wei called the company's sales department and asked them to summarize the trial sales of [Nan Dou 336] as soon as possible.

Just then, the sales report for this period came out, and the sales department quickly sent over the report.

"Trial sales of soybean seeds have not been very good, and we will probably only get more feedback after the autumn harvest. This shows that farmers are not very enthusiastic about planting soybeans."

Fang Wei discovered the problem; no wonder cooking oil prices had risen so much—the root cause was still in the raw materials.

However, the quality of the new generation of soybeans, [Nan Dou 336], is quite good, and its market share is expected to gradually increase after it is officially launched.

What people don't know yet is that a variant of [Nan Dou 336] is about to be born, which will increase the yield and improve the quality.

However, the mutated soybean variety won't be available for sale so quickly. [Nan Dou 336] is still in the market development stage, and it won't allow a more powerful product to compete with it. (End of Chapter)