The golden age began in 1977

Chapter 303 Qian Jin Shines in the Capital, Qian Lie's Chicken Farm Makes a Difference

He stopped on one of the three-page documents, still warm from printing, titled "Minutes of Preliminary Negotiations on the Plan of a Certain Province in East China to Introduce 'Fuso Kansai Textile Machinery Co., Ltd.'s New Airflow Spinning Equipment'".

Hey, a familiar face.

He was lucky; he actually found a problematic file among these materials that was registered in "Thirty Years".

Gao Yi keenly noticed the change in Qian Jin's expression.

He immediately asked, "Is there a problem with this? East China Air-Conveyor Textile?"

Qian Jin examined it carefully: "Let me take another look. I feel like something's not right about him."

"Don't just rely on your feelings; you need to look at the specific documents," Director Zhang instructed.

Director Shi disagreed with him and immediately waved his hand: "No, if you sense a problem, then this is more important."

"This is called the sixth sense, and many scientific institutions are now studying it."

Qian Jin flipped through the materials, then looked up and asked, "Which leader is familiar with this plan? Does the 'new type of cotton spinning machine' mentioned in it refer to the 'Zhihe' brand series?"

"I noticed that the letter of intent didn't specify clearly; it only mentioned the model prefix 'OKS-FLC-11/7.' Is this a project from Fuso Kansai Textile Machinery Co., Ltd."

He presented a series of key pieces of information, which made him appear very professional.

Gao Yi nodded in confusion and looked at Director Zhang: "Old Zhang, did you handle this? Is the specific model correct?"

Director Zhang clearly hadn't anticipated this detail.

He paused for a moment, then quickly peered at the documents in Qian Jin's hand: "This... I remember, the information is incomplete? How about this, I'll make another call and contact Huadong Air Textile."

After saying that, he hurriedly left the office and quickly returned, looking at a piece of paper in his hand and saying, "According to the introduction of Huadong Air Spinning, the machine initially mentioned in the letter of intent is indeed the 'Zhihe-FLC series', specifically the model OKS-FLC-11/7."

"Also, the foreign company's promotional materials were just delivered to their company. Should we ask them to fax them over?"

Director Shi asked with concern, "What's wrong, Comrade Qian Jin?"

Director Zhang continued, "According to the introduction from our colleagues at Huadong Air Spinning, this series of equipment is quite popular right now. West Germany's Barmag also makes similar products. It's considered a new technology trend that has only emerged internationally in the last few years. Huadong places great emphasis on technological upgrading in the textile industry..."

Before Director Zhang could finish speaking, Qian Jin flipped to the last page of the memorandum of intent and pointed to the core technology registered in the document:
"It's not a new type of packaging, it's a notorious new type of packaging!"

Qian Jin looked at everyone and straightened his expression: "I wonder if the leaders here know about the No. 6 State-owned Cotton Mill in Haibin City..."

“That production line was introduced at your insistence, and it performed very well.” Gao Yi picked up the conversation directly. “When we were gathering information about you, we learned about all these details.”

Qian Jin nodded: "So I have a fairly good understanding of the cotton textile technologies and equipment that are currently popular in the world. I did my homework back then."

"And let me mention the Origa-FLC series again. I dare say that if East China ultimately imports this equipment, it will become yet another painful lesson learned the hard way!"

"Simply put, it also has technological pitfalls!"

The leaders were shocked and stood up to signal him to explain in detail.

Qian Jin said in a deep voice: "The Orihira-FLC series claims to use air-jet spinning technology, which is the most advanced technology in the world's cotton textile industry. However, this is not true 'air-jet spinning' at all!"

"Air-jet spinning is developed by New Watts in England. The mainstream technology internationally is now called vortex spinning."

"However, this Fuso Kansai Textile Machinery Co., Ltd. is not a top-tier international textile machinery company at all. How could they possibly possess the same advanced technology as Shin Wata, a world-leading company in the industry?"

"As far as I know, what they call 'Oga-FLC-11/7' is an immature experimental technology that they named themselves. Its core spinning principle is based on a variant of airflow twisting, which is indeed similar to airflow spinning, but it is not the same thing."

"Airflow twisting technology has some effect on the production of low-count yarn, that is, roving, but it is limited to specific varieties such as cotton-polyester blends. It has a series of problems, such as low efficiency and amazing energy consumption."

"Then, we are completely unable to produce high-count pure cotton yarn, especially high-grade combed cotton yarn, which is in high demand internationally!"

The leaders were completely bewildered.

profession.

This young man is so professional.

They were stunned as Qian used professional jargon.

It's truly impressive but I don't understand it.

Gao Yi quickly stepped in to help Qian Jin with his joke: "Comrade Qian Jin, why don't you put it more clearly?"

"Because there's a key point in this matter: does Japan know about the problems with this technology?"

Qian Jin sneered, "Of course I know. And like Kawasaki Heavy Industries, these shameless Japanese have already cheated others, and they want to take advantage of our lack of international trade experience during our early reform and opening up period to cheat us again."

"The nightmare ending of this equipment or this technical route is not the future I deduced based on international data. In fact, I don't have that ability. As I just said, I am not a professional in the cotton textile industry."

"I know what the problem is because they've already cheated someone else internationally once!"

The leaders were shocked: "They've already cheated others?"

Qian Jin nodded: "Just two years ago, in 1978, a large state-owned textile consortium in Alexandria, Egypt, introduced the so-called 'new revolutionary air-jet spinning equipment' from Kansai Textile Machinery, under the same technical boasts and low initial quotes from Japanese foreign merchants."

"The foreign company boasted that the equipment was energy-saving, efficient, and of stable quality. However, after the equipment was delivered and installed, it took a year of painful debugging to barely produce low-end coarse-count blended yarn. The efficiency was only one-third of what was promised in the contract, while the energy consumption was more than double the design specifications."

"Their factory's original production line for high-count combed pure cotton yarn, which they relied on for export to earn foreign exchange, is completely unable to meet the standards because of this so-called 'new equipment'..."

"Why?" a leader asked instinctively.

Qian Jin explained, "Well, the professional explanation is that combed cotton fibers require high twist and uniformity, but this FLC system has large airflow disturbances, and the twist is not stable at all."

The leaders took a moment to understand and roughly grasped what was going on.

Qian Jin continued, "That factory was eventually forced to shut down. The high maintenance costs of the equipment, the huge energy consumption hole, and the paralysis of the main product line completely dragged down a well-run textile factory in just one year."

"This incident caused a huge uproar locally, eventually leading to the Egyptian government canceling the equipment purchase order and demanding huge compensation from Fusang!"

"Unfortunately, their contract had loopholes, and the matter was ultimately dropped. This case was the subject of a lengthy investigative report and analysis in last year's International Textile Economics Review, and I still remember the title: 'Technology Trap: How an 'Innovation' Destroyed a North African Textile Giant!'"

"This report should have been translated and published domestically, or some information should have been extracted and included in the newsletter. If you leaders do not have confidence in me, you can ask the relevant personnel to retrieve the information."

No one lacks confidence in him.

in contrast.

Everyone has so much faith in him now.

After all, what he said was reasonable and well-founded, and he quoted extensively from classical texts, presenting his points in both Chinese and English, which truly intimidated the group of local leaders.

Upon hearing this, Director Shi couldn't help but throw away his cigarette butt, his face turning ashen: "These little devils are truly bastards!"

Gao Yi was still shaken: "Comrade Qian Jin did a great service. It's fortunate that he helped us investigate these materials."

Director Zhang nodded vigorously: "Yes, if our new unit fails to screen and investigate such a close-up and proven fraud case after its establishment, how can we talk about guarding the gate?"

Director Shi's chest heaved violently; clearly, the sudden appearance of this fraud case on the domestic import list had touched upon his deep concerns and strong sense of responsibility.

Qian Jin slammed the letter of intent on the table, furious: "Every word in this letter of intent is a prelude to repeating the tragedy of the Alexander Textile Factory."

"Kansai textile machinery is making a comeback, only now the 'market' has changed from North Africa to China, which has just opened its doors to imports. Seeing this letter of intent, I really feel how terrifying the reflection of history is."

"Once you fall into this trap, it won't just be a matter of losing a few million dollars worth of equipment; it will drag down one or even several large factories in East China!"

"This technology is based on a path that has already been proven wrong by bloodshed. We must immediately warn East China to cease all contact with Kansai Textile Machinery, and any intention to introduce this technology should be terminated immediately!"

"Could we replicate the foreign trade war model against Sichuan Heavy Industry? Could we retaliate against them again?" Director Shi looked intently at Qian Jin.

Qian Jin smiled wryly: "It's difficult. The Kawasaki Heavy Industries incident has caused a huge uproar. Kansai Textile Machinery must know the inside story, and they will be on guard."

“Once we propose adding supplementary clauses, they will definitely be able to guess our intentions—we can give it a try, but I don’t think we can succeed.”

As Qian Jin's resounding words fell, a deathly silence once again enveloped the conference room, heavier and more stagnant than ever before.

Director Zhang was panting heavily.

He was furious inside, but he couldn't vent his anger here.

So he picked up the letter of intent that Qian Jin had thrown away, went to the next office to make a phone call, and his shout could be heard through a wall:

"Su Huaiming, what the hell are you?! Huh? Did you eat all that rice for nothing?"

"What kind of things do you dare to import into the country? What do you take the country for? A garbage dump?!"

"What? You don't understand? I'll fucking swear! Su Huaiming, you immediately investigate the situation of the Alexandria factory in Egypt. They were tricked by this Kansai Textile Machinery company two years ago using the same methods!"

"Did you check beforehand? Did you check international reports? Ah! Even news briefings from the international cotton textile industry? Did you check them?"

"Go investigate! Immediately! Right now!! Find out every piece of information you can find about the Kansai Textile Machinery OKS-FLC series! Especially the situation at the Alexandria Cotton Mill in Egypt, North Africa!"

"Are you brain-dead? Huh? I don't care where you search—the archives, the intelligence office, the library, or even the old newspapers piled up in the corner of some newspaper office! You have to search for me and find all the relevant information!!"

"I'm telling you to investigate immediately! I need to see the relevant materials today!"

Director Zhang's roar echoed in the next office, growing louder and louder until the last sentence made the iron window frame of their office vibrate.

Gao Yi said in a low voice, "I have never seen Director Zhang so furious before!"

Director Shi sneered, "How could he not be angry? He almost got into a huge mess!"

Director Zhang returned in a huff, his chest heaving. He walked up to Qian Jin, slammed his hands heavily on the armrests of the chair, making it wobble.

Qian Jin knew the inside story, so he wanted to ask for help: "Comrade Qian Jin, do you remember the relevant information about this matter? I hope to follow the clues and reduce the workload of the comrades at the grassroots level."

Qian Jin thought for a moment and said, "It should be in last year's International Textile Economics Review. I think the Ministry of Foreign Trade's archives should have this document in the English periodicals section, right?"

"If we can't find this issue of the magazine, then we should be able to find the supplementary issue of 'Import and Export Business Information', right? I think we can check this journal. It's in Chinese and should contain relevant information."

Director Zhang couldn't help but pat him on the shoulder: "Okay, I know this magazine..."

Gao Yi also said, "We have a subscription to this journal; it's in my office. I'll go find it right away."

The "Import and Export Business Information Supplement" is a guiding written work in current import and export trade work; it is a semi-monthly publication.

Then Qian Jin continued to review the introduction plans of other units, and the leaders gathered together to look for information.

Finally, Gao Yi cheered:
"It's from this issue, yes, it's from last year's 17th issue of the 'International Business Risk Warning' column. The third risk warning here clearly mentions the significant losses caused by the Kansai Textile Machinery OKS-FLC equipment package in North Africa!"

The information was circulated among the people.

In the end, it fell into the hands of Director Shi.

He stared intently at Qian Jin for a full two minutes.

After reading it, he handed the documents to Director Zhang: "Old Zhang, go back and deal with this matter first. Act quickly and don't delay."

"Have the switchboard connect you to the office of the deputy secretary in charge of foreign trade at the East China Bureau, via a dedicated line!"

Director Zhang nodded emphatically, and Qian Jin nodded in agreement.

This young man is incredibly capable.

He has just narrowly avoided another trap that was almost on its way, a trap that would devour enormous amounts of national wealth.

The iron gate of Haibin City is none other than his!
Preparations for the new organization must be accelerated immediately!
Qian Jin had earned a lot of goodwill within the Ministry of Foreign Trade.

He was kept behind for two more days to thoroughly review all the project materials.

Then another project with a definite problem came up, and based on his experience, he found some minor issues with two other projects.

He just lacks a formal contract. If there are supplementary clauses to correct these minor issues, then the project should be fine.

However, without supplementary clauses, these minor issues could escalate into major conflicts later on.

Finally, the project review was completed, and the money was deposited.

As a result, the leaders were reluctant to let him go and wished they could find a way to keep him in the capital.

This is really a great opportunity!

Qian Jin's performance was truly outstanding. Now that China has just begun its reform and opening up, the country needs talented people.

If he were willing to pursue a career in government, he could immediately become a high-ranking official in the capital, and a powerful one at that.

Unfortunately, his base of operations is in the coastal city!

Moreover, the seed of the labor commando team has already begun to sprout.

Will it grow into a towering tree in the future, the kind that Qian Jin can completely control?

So he had to get back to the seaside city no matter what.

Perhaps he can move to Beijing to develop his business in the future, but by then he'll have to develop the commando company first and then set up a headquarters in Beijing.

Faced with the officials' attempts to retain him, Qian Jin declined with a single sentence:
I study hard and strive to become successful, not to leave my hometown, but to lead it out of poverty!

This statement stunned a group of nouveau riche officials who had never experienced the harsh realities of the internet.

This young man, Qian Jin, is sure to succeed!

After a flurry of activity, Qian Jin returned to Haibin City in late March. He then had a lot of work piling up at his post, and after a few busy days, it was already the end of March.

It was only then that Qian Jin realized...

His third brother, Qian Lie, stayed in Hongxingchang again, and the two sides haven't even seen each other since he came back!

Qian Lie is indeed very busy right now.

Because after this period of study, the knowledge he has accumulated can now be put to good use.

At the end of March, the spring chill lingered, with a light drizzle in the cold wind.

Wei Desheng, the head of Hongxing Farm, dragged his tired body through the gate.

He went to study a few days ago, and the learning process was nothing to write home about. He learned it like a joke. As soon as the graduation exam results came out, he ran away. Otherwise, he knew that he would have been ridiculed by many of his classmates.

In any case, his arduous learning journey has finally come to an end, and he can come back and rest.

So as soon as he entered the venue, he ignored everything else and prepared to go straight into his four-person dormitory room.

"Manager!" Qian Lie's voice rang out.

Wei Desheng turned his head and saw his beloved general standing upright in the drizzle, wearing a blue homespun coat and rain boots.

I didn't bring an umbrella.

A lamp hung by the door, its dim light outlining his clean-cut and resolute features.

Wei Desheng liked this image of his very much.

He looks like a model worker with integrity.

Upon discovering his trusted lieutenant standing in the rain, he quickly waved and asked, "What's going on? Why aren't you using an umbrella? Wait, shouldn't you be home by now? Why are you still here?"

"I've been thinking about something lately, so I've been working overtime every day and staying at the venue the whole time," Qian Lie said casually, then took a file folder from his bag and handed it to Wei Desheng.

Wei Desheng took it with a puzzled look. It felt heavy in his hand. He opened the bag and looked inside—it was full of sheets of paper.

The edges of these papers were curled, clearly indicating they had been rubbed quite a bit.

He led Qian Lie into the office, hung up his coat, and took out the papers. He then discovered that they had been carefully bound together by Qian Lie with needle and thread, and were covered with writing—a stack of handwritten manuscripts.

The top page reads: Research on Poultry Nutrition.

Opening the cover, one finds a research note titled: "Experimental Scheme for Optimization of Basic Formulation and Metabolizable Energy of High-Efficiency Broiler Compound Premix".

Below it were clippings, with several neatly folded pieces of text pasted on them, looking like they were cut from newspapers or some kind of reference book.

He opened the clipping, and some of the words looked familiar—"soybean meal," "rapeseed cake," "imported fish meal," "dicalcium phosphate," "L-lysine hydrochloride," "multivitamin premix," "methionine," "antioxidant BHT"...

"This..." Wei Desheng was completely dumbfounded. He looked up and asked, "You were following me? No, you also attended this training course? Otherwise, how would you know what we were learning?"

Qian Lie was taken aback: "Huh? Manager, I didn't know that. I've just been studying poultry feed science materials recently and I've gained some insights. Since you just came back from your business trip, I quickly brought them to you so you could give me some feedback."

Wei Desheng felt a pang of doubt. "You want me to correct your work? I'm good with an axe, but not with reading. Otherwise, I wouldn't have gloriously come in last place in this training course's final exam."

He opened the handwritten book "Modern Poultry Nutrition," which was filled with various molecular formulas, growth curves, and metabolic energy conversion ratios.

Headache.

Qian Lie explained to him that there were many feed nutrition programs in it.

Wei Desheng stared wide-eyed at it closely.

The numerous handwritten proposals were all recognizable, yet when put together, they resembled a celestial script!
The formula includes specifications such as "metabolizable energy ≥ 2750 kcal/kg", "crude protein ≥ 18.5%", and "calcium-to-phosphorus ratio 2:1 optimized for bone growth".

Formula A: Control group (farm standard corn/bran/rice bran/soybean meal mixture)... Formula B: Experimental group (premix added according to the optimized formula)...

Strictly record weight gain, feed conversion ratio, uniformity, and lameness rate...

"What exactly is this? Is it a chicken feed formula you came up with?" Wei Desheng asked, not ashamed to ask.

Qian Lie nodded.

Wei Desheng became interested: "Hey, you're really something, kid. You're really smart and responsible."

Qian Lie said embarrassedly, "Actually, it wasn't me who thought of this kind of work; it was my younger brother."

"When he learned that I had saved a chicken with a traditional Chinese medicine prescription, he told me that I was indeed skilled, but working in our state-owned factory, it wasn't enough to just know how to put out fires; you had to be able to actually help the factory move forward."

"So how do we move forward in our chicken farm? It's about making the chickens grow fast, die less, and eat less feed."

Wei Desheng couldn't help but nod: "Yes, yes, this is exactly what our chicken farm is pursuing in the new era."

"Hey, you're amazing! If I didn't know you weren't in this training class, I would have thought you were my classmate, because this is exactly what we're learning in this class."

"Come on, sit down. Tell me what you mean?"

Qian Lie sat down and pointed to the contents of his notebook, saying, "My younger brother gave me several books on animal nutrition that he had someone find for him..."

"Wait a minute, you keep talking about your younger brother, he sounds like someone important. Who is he?" Wei Desheng asked casually.

Qian Lie hesitated for a moment, then said, "His name is Qian Jin."

“Oh, Qian Jin, your brothers’ names are quite interesting. One is ‘front row’ and the other is ‘advance’. Is it the meaning of moving forward toward the front row?” Wei Desheng laughed.

Then his smile froze: "Wait, money in?! Which money in?"

Before Qian Lie could speak, he slapped his forehead repeatedly, shouting, "Qian Jin! Qian Jin! Qian Jin!"

"You were introduced by my old squad leader, Yang Dagang. My old squad leader recently did something that deserves applause. With Qian Jin's help, he protected the country's foreign exchange reserves and dealt with those Japanese companies that wanted to cheat our country out of its foreign exchange..."

Qian Lie nodded.

That's the money coming in.

Wei Desheng said helplessly, "I must have lost my mind. You two, Qian Jin and Qian Lie, I just couldn't connect you."

"So your brother is that Qian Jin? Good, good, like father, like son... truly a hero... truly, truly the best of the best..."

Finally, unable to come up with a suitable cultural term, he simply clapped his hands and said, "You guys are truly brothers fighting tigers together, father and son going into battle side by side, you're all doing a great job."

"Come on, continue."

Qian Lie continued, "I studied some materials and then summarized a feed formula that can make chickens grow fast and healthily."

"Then I used this feed formula as a base to set up several control groups, added some common and harmless Chinese herbal medicines to the feed, and selected one hundred chicks that had just been weaned to conduct the experiment."

"Oh, this is it. Please take a look, Manager."

He turned to a page and showed it to Wei Desheng.

It was covered with all sorts of handwritten nouns and numbers.

"Lysine... what... what antioxidant... what are all these things?" Wei Desheng stammered, feeling like he hadn't even returned to Hongxingchang and was still in the training class.

Qian Lie thought for a moment and explained simply: "For poultry, lysine is life, methionine is money, vitamins and minerals are the skeleton, and antioxidants can prevent good feed from being wasted."

Wei Desheng blinked and nodded. "Oh, I see."

Didn't understand.

Qian Lie said, "Anyway, I made several feed formulas and then used a batch of chicks as test subjects for breeding experiments..."

"What!" Wei Desheng finally understood. "You're using state assets for experiments?"

Qian Lie said, "I have no choice, Director. Comrade Yaobang once said that practice is the sole criterion for testing truth!"

Wei Desheng couldn't help but point at him: "You little rascal—well, how's our chickens dying?"

Qian Lie said, "I took good care of them, and none of them died!"

Wei Desheng stood up in surprise.

Qian Lie continued, "It's also possible that this feed is indeed quite scientific. The chicks grew at different rates after eating it, but their health was good."

Wei Desheng couldn't help but nod: "Okay, you did a good job. Now what brings you here? Are you here to ask for credit?"

Qian Lie shook his head: "No, the chickens in my experimental group have been fed for ten days. I want to compare their weight with the chickens that eat regular feed from the farm."

Soldiers love competitions.

Wei Desheng became interested and asked, "The White Locker chickens in our factory are fed a mixture of corn, wheat bran, rice bran, and soybean meal. What is the formula for your feed?"

Qian Lie said, "We added some feed scraps, such as soybean meal swept up from oil pressing workshops, rice bran leftovers from grain dehulling at grain stations, and small fish and shrimp meal scraped from fishermen's docks."

"Fish and shrimp meal is rich in lysine and minerals, rice bran is rich in vitamins, but methionine is hard to come by, so I asked my wife to buy a batch of eggs from the market and send them over. I added the egg whites to the feed..."

He looked up and shut his mouth at this point.

Because Wei Desheng was glaring at him angrily:

"What were you thinking, feeding chickens egg whites? Putting aside whether that's even possible, that's incredibly wasteful. You should know that such waste is a serious crime."

"I can't help it, Manager. My brother told me that there are various refined amino acid additives available abroad, but not in China," Qian Lie explained.

"So I hope to conduct an experiment first. If the results of the experiment prove that my feed formula is better than traditional animal feed, then we can apply to our superiors for these refined amino acid additives."

"Once the chickens in our farm grow fast and healthy, it will prove that the feed formula I developed works. I hope to promote it to various farms so that we can raise more broiler chickens for the country and the people!"

Wei Desheng quickly understood his purpose.

That would be wonderful if their Red Star Farm could really develop a highly efficient and useful poultry feed.

Putting everything else aside, he'll definitely be the most impressive among his old classmates in the training class.

Let you all laugh at me for getting the lowest score!

What's the point of you getting in the top three?

Do the chickens you raise grow faster and have a higher survival rate than the chickens on our farm?

If not, then you have to learn from me.

As our leaders have said, practice is the sole criterion for testing truth!

His exhaustion was completely washed away by his ambition.

He waved his hand and said, "Okay, go and get me the feed you've prepared."

Qian Lie took a plastic bag out of his satchel.

Inside was a yellowish-brown feed base, mixed with dark red soybean meal, dark brown fish meal, and egg white, forming a semi-viscous, semi-solid substance with a somewhat strange smell.

Wei Desheng glanced at it, revealing the face of an old man on the subway looking at his phone.

If he hadn't trusted Qian Lie, and if Qian Lie hadn't said that none of the experimental chickens he raised had died, he wouldn't have thought about feed when he saw these things; he would have only thought that someone had poisoned his chickens!

Anyway, by now, the experiment had ended during the two weeks he was attending the training course.

Let's see what they're made of.

So he personally called out his men, one hand on his hip and the other waving: "Comrades, close the gate, get out the scales, we're going to weigh the chickens."

No one asked him why he suddenly wanted to weigh chickens.

Clearly, they already knew that Qian Lie was conducting experiments.

Qian Lie brought all the chickens he had been raising in secret into a warehouse.

The white-feathered chickens in the coop were full of energy. Whether they were squatting or standing, their combs were bright red and their eyes were as black as beans. You could tell at a glance that they were in very good condition.

Two worn-out desks were placed side by side, and a scale was already on the desk.

The chickens in the regular feed group were weighed first, and then marked with different colored yarn tied to their legs.

To ensure the objectivity of the data and minimize randomness, fifty chickens were selected from the ordinary feed group, weighed, and then their average weight was calculated.

These chickens are doing well, huddled together, chirping away.

It was time to weigh the experimental group.

Qian Lie stood in front of the table on the right, his forehead beaded with sweat, and his hands trembling slightly with nervousness.

There is still pressure.

These days he's been working day and night, whether it's all for nothing or even whether he's been working blindly behind his boss's back, now everything is settled.

He took a deep breath and glanced at the chicken coops lined up on the table. The chicken skeletons inside seemed to be larger, and their eyes were more alert and powerful.

But instead of making subjective judgments, he tried to suppress the vague expectation in his heart and looked firmly at the scale!

"The first one!"

The zookeeper, Xiao Zhang, deftly lifted a chicken with a red string tied to its leg from a special cage.

Wei Desheng came to weigh it himself.

Qian Lie carefully placed the chicken on the scale pan.

"Eight hundred, eight hundred and thirty-five grams!" Xiao Zhang quickly reported the number.

This weight is nothing for a White Rock chicken, a dual-purpose breed that can grow quite large, with adult chickens reaching up to four kilograms.

Someone nearby immediately jotted down on a mimeographed form: "Group B, No. 1: 835g"

"The second one!"

"Eight hundred and fifty-eight grams!"

"Group B, No. 2: 858g"

……

The preliminary results are now clear.

The chickens in the regular feed group had an average weight of less than 600 grams.

Even considering these chicks, the weight difference is already quite significant.

Each time an animal was weighed, the announced number elicited a collective gasp of suppressed breath!
"The hundredth one!"

"Eight hundred and six grams!"

The counter immediately wrote on the mimeographed grid paper: Group F, No. 20, 806 grams.

When the last number was announced, the entire audience fell silent!

Only the spring rain outside was pattering against the tarpaulin roof!

Of course, the clucking of white-feathered chickens was also indispensable.

The last white-feathered broiler chicken to be weighed on the table shook its wings proudly on the scale, making a particularly loud "clucking" sound.

The experienced craftsman Zhao Degui, who had been observing from the sidelines, could no longer contain himself. He leaned close to the mimeographed form filled with numbers, his presbyopia almost touching the paper:

"Regular Group: Total weight... 29,640 grams... Average weight is 592.8 grams..."

"Experimental Group B: Total weight is 16,680 grams, average weight is 834 grams!"

“Experimental group C…”

“Experimental group D…”

Of the five experimental groups, the group with the highest average weight was experimental group E, which reached 851.4 grams.

The experimental group F had the lowest average weight, at only 810 grams.

Even the average weight of Group F chickens was more than one-third heavier than that of chickens in the regular feed group!

"How is this possible..." Zhao Degui muttered to himself, then suddenly asked urgently, "Where's the feed?! How much feed did we eat?! How big is the difference?"

Wei Desheng was also most concerned about this issue, and immediately looked at Qian Lie.

Qian Lie quickly handed over the booklet filled with tiny, handwritten notes.

Each page is densely packed with addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and date markings.

The final results section is crystal clear:
Standard feed group: average feed consumption is 1.5 kg.

This number is fine.

The farm knows this well: three pounds of feed make one pound of meat.

The average material consumption for the experimental group was 1.1 kg!

In other words, we don't need to look at the differences within the five groups. Overall, each chicken in the experimental group ate about one pound less feed, but gained one-third more body weight than the control group!
"Damn it... How did Brother Qian manage to raise chickens that are so economical with feed and grow so big?" a young chicken farmer from Sichuan muttered to himself.

"Snap!" The pencil that Wei Desheng was tightly gripping in his hand was broken in two.

These shocking comparative data, like scalding branding marks, burned fiercely on his heart.

The sound of spring rain was exceptionally clear at this moment, a soft, rustling sound...

It's like washing away an old world.

He stared at Qian Lie, looking at his calm face.

Then he stretched out his hand, which was as thick as a bear's paw, and with unprecedented strength and weight, patted Qian Lie's thin shoulder:
“Qian Lie, you are the veterinarian and technician at the farm. Now I want to give you more responsibility. I will immediately apply to the higher authorities to promote you to the supervisor of our Hongxing Farm, and you will be in charge of the Locke chicken breeding area from now on.”

"You decide on the specifics of how to raise and feed them. I want to see that when this batch of chickens leaves the coop, they will be heavier than those from our other units, or they will be ready to leave the coop in a shorter time. Are you confident in that?"

Qian Lie immediately nodded: "I'm confident!"

Wei Desheng shouted, "Good!"

"Starting tomorrow, that empty little room on the east side of the factory's technical office will be yours! You will be the technical supervisor of the Red Star First Mechanized Chicken Farm, with the rank of section chief, and you will be in charge of the health of all the chickens in the factory and the research and development of new feed!"

"Everyone in our unit has to listen to you, including me. Anyone who dares to disobey you can go back to their hometown and take care of their child!"

"Do you understand everything?"

The group shuddered and shouted amidst the clucking of the Rock Chicken, "Understood!"

Wei Desheng pushed open the door and went in.

A wisp of coal smoke from the boiler room just rose up, then slowly and steadily hovered in the air during the first spring of the 1980s.

He figured this spring would be quite interesting.

(End of this chapter)