1994: Vegetable farmers strike back

Chapter 194 People

As the sun sets, vegetable farmers are scattered like ants in the fields, and further away is the river; the scenery is beautiful.

The vegetable farmers, however, only felt very tired, sweating profusely, and very uncomfortable.

mowing, ditching, rotary tilling, hoeing~
It's been six or seven days, and I've been doing the same four things back and forth. It's supposed to be a market, but I haven't seen a single vegetable.

However, there are several dozen acres of land in the northern part of the market that look particularly clean and tidy.

The market is divided into two sections, north and south, by the provincial highway. Each section is further divided into three subgroups, for a total of six subgroups, each covering approximately 100 acres.

The plot of land that was cleared out is Group 1 of the North Area, and the group leader is Ao Deliang.

Because the goal is to set a benchmark, Ao Deliang's meticulous work ethic is the most suitable.

The result did not disappoint him; the ditches, side ditches, furrow ditches, and furrow surfaces were all neat and tidy.

However, personnel management was somewhat chaotic during the process.

Before Chen Jiazhi had even finished walking around the area, he saw Yi Dinggan arrive on his bicycle, and the two met by the ditch.

"Jiazhi, have you bought the seeds and fertilizer yet?"

"No," Chen Jiazhi said. "I just got the money today. I'll go buy it with Xu Yao first thing tomorrow morning."

Yi Dinggan wiped his sweat: "Okay, now we just need to wait for the base fertilizer and sowing."

Chen Jiazhi pointed to the ditch on the ground: "Have you tested the water?"

Yi Dinggan: "Deliang tried it. The ditch connecting to the river has a sluice gate, so water can be released directly and flow in by gravity. It's damn convenient to use water here!"

The two walked out of the field again, and Chen Jiazhi pointed to a group of twenty or thirty women who were cutting grass in the distance.

Have you found the problem?

Yi Dinggan said angrily, "These women just chat all the time and can't do any work at all!"

Chen Jiazhi said, "Don't just focus on cursing; this is a problem you need to figure out how to solve."

Yi Dinggan tilted his head back and said, "What else can we do? I can only let the team leader talk to them."

"Well, it seems you're adapting quite well, already showing leadership qualities so quickly." Chen Jiazhi smiled and added, "But this doesn't solve the fundamental problem."

"Hey bro, I know you have a way. Just tell me and I'll do it."

Chen Jiazhi shook his head and asked, "Do you have any experience managing 100 workers?"

"No."

"What about 50?"

"Hmm~ no."

"What about 30?"

"Yes." Yi Dinggan's eyes suddenly lit up. "Can we start grouping?"

Chen Jiazhi looked back at the land in front of him and said, "The benchmark has been set, and the land will follow. There is no need to rush to plant more land. You don't even have the experience of managing 50 vegetable workers at the same time, let alone Yongfeng and the others."

"Distribute the staff into groups as soon as possible; fewer people means easier management."

Yi Dinggan nodded: "That makes sense. But what about the male workers who dug the ditch?"

Chen Jiazhi: "It will still be a separate group. You can take charge of it for now. From now on, you can hand over tasks such as spraying pesticides, clearing the ground, and loading and unloading the trucks to them. Their wages will remain the same."

Also, please have the team leaders keep an eye out for workers who are meticulous and quick learners, as a vegetable harvesting team will be formed later.

The two then walked and talked on the farm road in the market, discussing and refining the management details.

Managing vegetable workers is actually a science in itself.

Anyone with relevant experience knows that once the number of workers on a piece of land exceeds 30, they tend to cluster together.

Once there are 80 people, well, it's a dense crowd of heads, it's dizzying to look at.

In this respect, Yi Dinggan is still lacking, and it is even more difficult for Qi Yongfeng, Ao Deliang, Li Mingkun, and Guo Mancang.

In particular, neither Li Mingkun nor Guo Mancang had any experience in managing people.

The other two group leaders are Huang Rixin and Zheng Zhong, who may have previously held other positions but have now been appointed as group leaders.

Chen Jiazhi then inquired about the two people's situation.

Yi Dinggan: "They're not one of our own, so they're hard to manage, especially since they don't approve of our ditching and vegetable garden layout. They say it's all show and no substance, too expensive, and a waste of money."

"Has Jiangxin Market done far too many wasteful things?" Chen Jiazhi smiled, his tone full of sarcasm.

In terms of infrastructure such as roads, ditches, water sources, and electricity, Jiangxin Market is far superior to Dongxiang Market.

However, its practicality is far inferior to that of Dongxiang Vegetable Market.

Yi Dinggan was also overjoyed and laughed heartily.

"Jiazhi, what about my tricycle?"

"Tomorrow I'll have Xu Yao give you 3000 yuan, and you can buy your car at the market."

"Hahaha~"

Chen Jiazhi sold it to him for only 2500 yuan, and he made a profit of 500 yuan in a short time.

...

Night falls.

This was the first time Chen Jiazhi had cooked in the dormitory; for the past few days, he had been eating out with a few friends.

Nowadays, most farmers' markets don't provide food or lodging, which is quite unreasonable.

In later generations, at least one meal would be provided. The largest vegetable market canteen Chen Jiazhi had ever seen was in an organic vegetable base in Kunming, where a canteen could accommodate dozens of large round tables and hundreds of people could eat at the same time.

And this is just one of their bases.

In comparison, the lives of vegetable workers are indeed very difficult nowadays.

It's even more unreasonable for the farm manager to cook for himself.

Chen Jiazhi took a glass of beer and said, "Once the market makes money, the first thing I'll do is solve the food problem!"

"it is good."

"Chen's Vegetable Market is awesome!"

"Chen's Market is awesome!" "Chen's Market is cool!"

Chen Jiazhi's words struck a chord with everyone; without a woman in the house, it was indeed a bit strange.

Not only was the room messy, but even eating became a problem; it wasn't that they didn't know how, but that they didn't want to.

They drank and talked about work; it was basically a meeting, or you could call it a study session.

Every day during meals, the group would chat about the problems they had encountered during the day, about the workers, and about how to do things...

Having experienced it firsthand, Chen Jiazhi can easily distinguish between truth and falsehood.
Qi Yongfeng likes to boast and conceal some of the mistakes he has made;

Ao Deliang's questions were basically to the point, but he spoke too little. When there are too many people, management problems are likely to arise.
Li Mingkun and Guo Mancang are both quite reliable at growing vegetables. They follow the instructions carefully, are familiar with each other, and will speak directly about any problems without hiding anything. They adapt to their roles very quickly.

Based on this, Li Mingkun and Guo Mancang seem to have more potential to become farm managers.

Yi Dinggan goes without saying; he's quite adept at his position as deputy director. As long as he's not asked to do the work himself, he can always speak eloquently and logically.

For every question raised by the crowd, Chen Jiazhi provided a clear and concise analysis, giving examples of how to answer them.
After the meal, Director Chen cleared the dishes, and the rest of the staff were sent off to write their work logs.

They were all scratching their heads, wishing they could take Chen Jiazhi's place in washing dishes.

Writing a work log is like taking my life.

But they still had to write, good or bad, Chen Jiazhi wanted to force them to develop the habit.

Write it down once, and you'll definitely recall what you did during the day more than once. It's hard not to improve if you think like that.

...

the next morning,
Before the morning dew had dried, the large open space outside the office was already packed with people; more than 160 vegetable workers had arrived.

Yi Dinggan organized the work into groups.

Actually, the distribution could be done in the field, but Brother Yi prefers a grander scale and isn't afraid of trouble.

That's good. Chen Jiazhi also gave some words of encouragement to the more than 100 vegetable workers before preparing to go on a big shopping trip with Xu Yao.

After getting into the car, Chen Jiazhi asked, "Xu Yao, where did you usually buy agricultural supplies at the market before?"

Xu Yao said, "It's not fixed; we often change locations."

"Don't they have any fixed procurement points?"

"No~"

There's something fishy!

But it has nothing to do with him anymore.

After thinking for a while, Chen Jiazhi drove to the nearest supply and marketing cooperative. After inspecting the goods, he did not rush to buy them all at once, but instead placed an order first.

The main items were fertilizer and pesticides, as well as some shade netting for covering the plants, totaling 6 yuan, but only a deposit was paid.

Then I went to the electromechanical market and bought 24 sets of water pumps, water pipes and cables for a total of 4.5 yuan, and only paid a deposit.

Then they took Xu Yao back to the market and went with Cheng Tiantian to receive the goods.

Chen Jiazhi then drove another 40 or 50 kilometers to the Municipal Academy of Agricultural Sciences located on Xingang East Road in Haizhu District.

At this time, large tracts of farmland still remained around the Academy of Agricultural Sciences, with rice paddies, vegetables, and flowers scattered throughout.
Chen Jiazhi arrived at the guardhouse, knocked on the door, and an old man poked his head out.

"what for?"

"I'm here to buy seeds." Chen Jiazhi handed over a cigarette and smiled, "I'd like to ask which office Director Zhang Hua is in."

The old man sized him up, had him register, and then gave him an address. He was relatively lenient with the rules.

It's already past eleven o'clock, and it's the hottest time of day.

As Chen Jiazhi walked down the corridor, he saw Zhang Hua in his office through the window.

dong dong.

"Please come in."

"Hello, Director Zhang."

Zhang Hua looked up and recognized him instantly, "Chen...Chen..."

"Chen Jiazhi".

"Hello, hello, please have a seat."

Zhang Hua handed him a wooden stool and poured him a glass of water, then asked, "Xiao Chen, what do you need me for?"

Chen Jiazhi smiled and explained his purpose.

"I want to buy some Chinese cabbage seeds from Director Zhang. I need a lot of them, 300 jin each of Sijiu and late-season Chinese cabbage seeds, as well as some other seeds such as bok choy, water spinach, and mustard greens. In total, I may need 1000 jin of seeds."

"This...this..." Zhang Hua was stunned, and immediately asked again, "You really went to Jiangxin Market?"

Chen Jiazhi nodded with a smile.

Zhang Hua was shocked and momentarily speechless, but after carefully recalling their encounter that day, it wasn't so surprising.

"Congratulations, congratulations! I should call you Director Chen now. You've really given me a wonderful surprise!"

Chen Jiazhi asked with a smile, "After I left that day, you and Old Peng must have said a lot of good things about me to General Manager Xu, right? I owe a lot to you two for being able to become the director of this venue."

Zhang Hua laughed and said, "To be honest, you really have some knowledge in the cultivation of Chinese cabbage. The institute has already approved my project to cultivate a high-quality, high-yield pointed-leaf Chinese cabbage variety."

Chen Jiazhi offered his congratulations twice and then inquired about the seed purchase.

Zhang Hua said, "Don't worry about the seeds. We have enough, even if you need 10 tons, let alone a few hundred kilograms of bok choy seeds."

After a pause, Zhang Hua added, "But for now, we can only get our seeds through seed stations. Please understand that. But don't worry about the quality of the seeds; they are all good seeds."

Chen Jiazhi: "That's no problem. I just want to get the seeds as soon as possible. Ideally, I'd like to take 30 to 50 jin (15-25 kg) back with me later. The seeds are waiting to be sown in the field."

Zhang Hua laughed twice more, clearly very pleased and having a good impression of him.

As the saying goes, practice makes perfect, and after this seed-buying experience, the relationship between the two deepened even further.

This is a student of an academician, and in the future, he will be the head of the Municipal Academy of Agricultural Sciences, as well as a leafy vegetable breeding expert!
With this connection in place, it will be much easier to meet the seed demand in the future.

Chen Jiazhi felt pretty good about using the money he earned at the market to build his network of contacts.

(End of this chapter)