Chapter 228: Agricultural Mechanization

"Agricultural implements?"

Director Wang is quite familiar with this; in the era of self-reliance and hard struggle, who hasn't farmed?

"Now the Supply and Marketing Cooperative sells everything; who would we sell our products to?"

Yang Qing expressed understanding of Director Wang's entrenched ideas.

He took a thin blanket from the side, covered Chen Hong with it, and said to Director Wang.

"Aunt Wang, over these three years, many places have already seen a population shortage."

"The loss of large livestock this time is also huge."

"In this situation where both manpower and livestock are in short supply."

"Continuing with the previous production methods, the pressure is great."

"I heard that Daqing has now successfully produced gasoline and diesel."

"With fuel no longer scarce, does the development of internal combustion engines now have a foundation?"

"In the past, we have always used the industrial scissors difference to sacrifice rural interests to subsidize the city."

"Now, should we take this opportunity to give back to the farmers?"

"Let's promote agricultural mechanization."

Director Wang didn't expect Yang Qing's ambition to be so great, but they obviously lack the conditions; Yang Qing's pie is too big, they simply can't handle it.

Even if they managed it, they might not be able to achieve any results.

In this era of nationwide coordination, resources must be concentrated; they simply cannot get any help.

Even if they painstakingly produce results, what then? Still have to contribute them? Can their little workshop compare to a tractor factory?

This situation has caused many people to lack ambition; your efforts might end up just making wedding clothes for others.

"The tractor factory can do this itself; where would we be needed?"

"Do you know how much money it takes to build a tractor factory?"

"At least several million."

"Don't think that just because you've earned a little money, you don't know who you are."

(Actually, with the Daqing oil field coming online, agricultural machinery factories across the country have begun to expand rapidly, and many walking tractor technologies were also introduced from Japan in the coming years.)

(In the future, having a tractor factory in every county will be a common sight.)

Yang Qing remained unfazed, showing no sign of nervousness at Director Wang's words.

His smile only grew brighter.

"If the director invests heavily, it means our future competition will be smaller."

"Most importantly, I never said we would undertake full production."

"For example, diesel engines—we have no need to produce them ourselves; we can simply buy them, as long as you secure the quota, the rest of the framework is actually not difficult."

(The technical content of walking tractors is actually low; there is already Agricultural Machinery No. 7 that can be copied, which is also an important reason for its rapid promotion.)

Director Wang didn't know where Yang Qing got his confidence, and directly laid out his current predicament.

"No money—not only do we lack funds, but even if we produced them, others have no money to buy."

"Now that people's commune isn't dirt poor; who could afford such expensive goods?"

"Besides, our subdistrict office also lacks the funds to undertake such a large project."

Yang Qing remained composed, not retreating in the face of Director Wang's setback.

"We can borrow money from the bank if we have none."

"The people's commune can also borrow from the bank."

"We can use the bank's money to drive the development of our undertaking."

"Otherwise, what's the point of keeping that money in the bank?"

"The key is we have a good project; additionally, you go to the district to lobby, and some loans can still be secured."

"Moreover, things don't happen overnight; aren't we still researching its supporting facilities?"

"A diesel engine can't do any work by itself?"

"Without a year's time, we can't even put together a framework."

"Yet during this year, I still have a way to make money."

As for Yang Qing's money-making ability, she is still convinced.

"What method? If we can really make money, then we'll go ahead with this agricultural machinery project."

Yang Qing leaned in toward Director Wang and whispered.

"Aunt, over these years, because of Dalian Steel, many places lack proper farming tools."

"Some places even use wooden farming tools for production."

"Even the existing farming tools, such as sickles and hoes, are severely worn."

"Moreover, the countryside is so poor that there isn't much money to update farming tools."

Director Wang didn't realize the rural situation had become this serious.

She furrowed her brow, feeling heavy-hearted.

"Is this true?"

Yang Qing nodded firmly.

"It's absolutely certain; the local officials have covered it up tightly, and many people are just exploiting the situation."

"Think about how many of those who report yields over five hundred jin per mu are scoundrels."

"To this day, they haven't been punished."

"With such scoundrels in office, what good deeds do you think they could accomplish?"

They only care about their own backsides; as for the people below, using wooden farm tools doesn't mean they can't produce—at most they'd be a bit more tired.

Director Wang's face was so dark it seemed about to drip water.

Yang Qing continued, regardless of what she was thinking.

Now, agricultural supplies are scarce among the people below—this is exactly the time for us to develop quickly.

Director Wang simply couldn't keep up with Yang Qing's train of thought.

You said the people below are dirt poor, didn't you? So how are we supposed to develop now?

Yang Qing gave a hehe laugh.

Aunt Wang, this year everyone's harvest is actually not bad.

Don't those people who conceal the lower strata's situation know what's going on down there?

Then how could they not feel guilty? If someone leaks it, they'll settle accounts later.

Now the money they have on hand might not be enough to replace farm tools on a large scale.

But what if we do an old-for-new exchange?

For each old farm tool, we'll buy it back at 30 to 50 percent of its value and give them a new one in exchange.

That way they can get new tools with only a small amount of money and still have some left to buy a batch of tools.

By doing this, we can not only recover a large amount of iron from the people below to continue production,

and we can also take the opportunity to sell a large quantity of farm tools.

Aunt Wang, think about how much money we could make from this.

Yang Qing's words lit up Director Wang's mind.

She understood Yang Qing's meaning.

Old farm tools—they can not only recover a large amount of iron, but also earn thirty to seventy percent of their value, depending on the degree of wear.

Moreover, that's not all—the People's Commune also needs to buy new tools to make up for previous shortages.

This way, they would essentially earn almost all the money the People's Commune had set aside for buying farm tools.

A single People's Commune might not be much, but there are many such communes around Jingcheng.

Now that winter has arrived, it's the farming off-season, and also the time to repair and update tools.

It's also when the People's Commune has money.

Money, money, money—

Director Wang's heart started pounding, but there's still a problem now.

Your method is good, but it's hard to implement.

Nowadays all products are under unified purchase and sale; we can only sell to the Supply and Marketing Cooperative, with no way to contact those communes.

Otherwise, the charge of sabotaging the unified purchase and sale system would be impossible to escape.

Since Yang Qing proposed this method, he naturally also thought of a solution.

Aunt, this isn't just buying and selling; it's assisting agriculture.

The farm tools will still be sold by the Supply and Marketing Cooperative; we're just cooperating on some activities, and we won't take any of their profit.

Any losses in this arrangement will also be ours.

The Supply and Marketing Cooperative won't have any objections.

Moreover, Aunt, this is assisting agriculture—assisting agriculture, this is a dedication.

Doing good deeds naturally requires the district's support; with support from above, what do we have to fear?

At this time, who would dare to put obstacles in the way of an assistance-to-agriculture project?

Moreover, we are strictly following the guiding principles of the Agriculture-Light-Heavy policy.

Whoever opposes it is contradicting this idea, is sabotaging………