Chapter 33

In the following days, Su Xinghui still accompanied Professor Rao to Wild Boar Gully every day. Not only did he go to guide the construction of the breeding farm and teach breeding techniques, but Professor Rao also liked to walk around the mountains, which could be considered his professional habit. Whenever he went to a place, he would understand the local customs from various aspects.

On this day, Professor Rao told Su Xinghui that there were many treasures in the mountains of Wild Boar Gully. Not only could they engage in specialty breeding, but they could also engage in specialty planting. For example, wood ear mushrooms and shiitake mushrooms could be planted, and there were also Chinese medicinal materials. He had walked around here for so long and discovered many varieties that could be planted.

Professor Rao said that although he was not a specialist in botany, he was not unfamiliar with botany. He felt that there was great potential for specialty planting here. If Wild Boar Gully wanted to engage in specialty planting, he was willing to help contact experts from their school who specialized in botany to come over.

Professor Rao’s suggestion was just to Su Xinghui’s liking. He was just looking for an opportunity to suggest to Professor Rao that he help contact some plant experts, but he couldn't appear too abrupt. Now that Professor Rao took the initiative to bring it up, it was naturally the best.

Su Xinghui told Professor Rao that he would bring it up to the village cadres of Wild Boar Gully. He also had another idea: Menghuling was full of mountains, and the natural environment was similar to Wild Boar Gully. Since Wild Boar Gully could engage in specialty breeding and specialty planting, other places should also be able to.

Su Xinghui said that he was prepared to suggest to the township government that Professor Rao find a few more experts to conduct a comprehensive inspection of Menghuling to see what breeding or planting projects were suitable for development here.

Professor Rao had spent a very pleasant time with Su Xinghui these days. He had a good impression of this young man who was eager to learn and willing to work. This young man cared about the common people, and he was very willing to help Su Xinghui.

He immediately agreed to Su Xinghui, saying that as long as their township government agreed, he was willing to help them make contact. Conducting this inspection could also be considered applying what they had learned for these people.

Su Xinghui was very happy. He immediately told the village cadres of Wild Boar Gully. The village cadres naturally had no objections. The more paths to wealth, the better; why would they think there were too many?

Returning to the township government that afternoon, Su Xinghui reported this matter to Chen Hongfu and Dong Jianshu one after another. The two of them had no objections to this, and could even be said to be eager for it. However, they both had a concern, which was whether the steps were too big. They felt that they could take Wild Boar Gully village as a pilot first, and it was not necessary to spread it across the whole township.

Su Xinghui understood their concerns. This was mainly because Menghuling Township was really too poor. If they engaged in specialty breeding and specialty planting projects across the whole township, the required investment would be quite large, which the township finance could not bear. Moreover, if these projects were not carried out smoothly, conducting a pilot in Wild Boar Gully first would not result in too high a price.

This couldn't be blamed on them for being timid or lacking long-term vision. It was really because there had been no precedent for this in Menghuling or even the entire Shangjun County. Many things looked simple more than a decade later, but in that era, they had to be the first to eat crab, bearing huge risks, and the determination was not so easy to make.

However, Su Xinghui told them that Wild Boar Gully could be used as a pilot first, but now they could let the experts conduct a comprehensive inspection of the entire Menghuling, save their inspection data and conclusions, and wait until the specialty breeding and specialty planting in Wild Boar Gully were successful, then these projects could be spread across the whole township based on these inspection data.

Chen Hongfu and Dong Jianshu agreed to Su Xinghui’s suggestion. However, they asked Su Xinghui again if it would cost a lot to invite these experts over. Last time, Professor Rao didn't ask for a fee, but not every expert was like Professor Rao.

Su Xinghui told them that Professor Rao had also talked to him about this problem. He said that he would propose to the school to strive to make the inspection of Menghuling Township a research project of the school. In that case, the school would allocate funds, so the township government wouldn't need to pay, as long as the township government did a good job in reception work.

Su Xinghui’s words made Chen Hongfu and Dong Jianshu breathe a sigh of relief. This was not because they were stingy, but because Menghuling Township was really too poor. If an inspection required too high a price, they really couldn't afford it.

The coordination of this matter was naturally handed over to Su Xinghui. This path was originally found by Su Xinghui, and now they were becoming more and more satisfied with Su Xinghui’s work ability.

After Su Xinghui told Professor Rao about this matter, Professor Rao returned to Jiangcheng. He wanted to find experts willing to come to Menghuling Township for inspection and jointly apply to the school to make the inspection of Menghuling Township a research project.

On the way back, Professor Rao also brought some plant specimens he collected in Wild Boar Gully, including some rare plants. These specimens could prove that the inspection of Menghuling had considerable research value, which could attract those plant experts and also help the school agree to the establishment of this research project.

The matter of Wild Boar Gully running a breeding farm and a bamboo weaving factory had been on the right track. The procedures for these two village-run enterprises had been completed, and the loan from the township credit union for Wild Boar Gully village had also been completed, totaling twenty thousand yuan. Although it was not much, it was enough to build a few pigsties, chicken coops, and rat cages, and buy some bricks, cement, prefabricated slabs, and wire mesh. This part of the expenditure was at most a few thousand yuan.

The remaining money was for purchasing lean-type breeding sows, as well as some feed and additives. This part of the expenditure was also not large, because these wild animals usually ate more green grass, sweet potatoes, tree roots, wild fruits, insects, etc., available in the mountains. Bamboo rats mainly ate bamboo, and could also eat some grass with coarser fibers, and even tree branches, melon peels, and sugarcane tops could be used as their food. Therefore, the feed expenditure would not be very large, as long as people went to the mountains to collect it.

The bamboo weaving factory had even less expenditure. Xia Lan’s organizational ability was good. She gathered some farm women who were clumsy but strong to go to the mountains to cut bamboo, and farm women who were more skillful wove bamboo crafts in their own homes. Every day, the woven bamboo crafts were handed over to the village committee, where she counted the quantity and recorded it in front of them. After the arts and crafts store picked up the goods, the money would be distributed according to each person’s workload.

Since these two enterprises were village-run enterprises, the villagers’ direct income now was only wages, and the excess profits were used as capital for the enterprises to expand their scale. However, a portion of the shares of these two enterprises was divided equally among every villager, and when the time was right, the enterprises would distribute dividends.

This model was also a model that Su Xinghui felt was relatively good. After he proposed it to the Wild Boar Gully village committee, the village cadres all agreed.

This model could allow every household in the village to have a fixed income in the future, even if they had no

labor capacity, the villagers would have a guarantee of life. If villagers had labor capacity, they could go directly to the breeding farm or the bamboo weaving factory to work, distributing according to labor, and getting more for more work.

To prevent some villagers from being jealous and wanting to run their own enterprises, the village committee also issued regulations. Running one’s own enterprise was fine, and the village would support it as much as possible, but running one’s own enterprise meant giving up one’s shares in the village-run enterprise.

This regulation also had its rationality. If you were a capable person and could run an enterprise yourself, that was naturally a good thing, but you couldn't occupy all the good things. This was equivalent to a civil servant going to sea; after going to sea, you naturally couldn't receive a salary.

Village Director Zhao Zhongfu served as the director of the breeding farm, and Xia Lan served as the director of the bamboo weaving factory. The bamboo weaving factory was full of old women, and only she, the director of the Women’s Federation, was most suitable to be the director.

Gao Daping naturally served as the accountant for these two enterprises, and Xia Zhu served as the deputy director of the bamboo weaving factory. Her bamboo weaving was the best, especially those most expensive and complex bamboo crafts, which only she could weave. Although some people were dissatisfied with her serving in this position, it was fine as long as the majority of people were convinced.

Xia Zhu not only engaged in bamboo weaving work herself every day, but she was also responsible for training, which was to spend two hours every day in the village committee teaching those women who were not yet skilled in bamboo weaving to weave some more complex things.

Bamboo weaving was very particular about technical content. Weaving a hundred or a thousand simple things might not be as good as weaving one complex thing. Who didn't want to earn more money?

Xia Zhu was a simple girl. She took on the responsibility of training without hesitation, spending two precious hours every day, teaching everyone her techniques and insights without reservation, which made everyone gradually convinced of her as the deputy director.

This was Xia Zhu’s way of making a living. Everyone knew the situation of Xia Zhu’s family and knew how much she needed this income. Two hours a day might be enough for Xia Zhu to weave a more complex bamboo craft.

Of course, skills could be taught, but the inspiration in Xia Zhu was not something everyone had. Therefore, the most complex bamboo crafts could currently only be woven by Xia Zhu alone, and Xia Zhu was also pondering every day about the original works that Song Qiao mentioned.

Regardless, the bamboo weaving factory could weave dozens to hundreds of bamboo crafts every day. Of course, the vast majority were relatively simple, the kind that could only sell for a few yuan. There were not many that could sell for more than ten to dozens of yuan each.

However, among these works, none were woven by Xia Zhu, because she was going to weave the most complex work. This work was the famous painting "Eight Steeds" by Xu Beihong. Song Qiao gave a price of one thousand yuan for this painting.

Of course, there was a reason for the high price. If one wanted to weave this painting with bamboo strips and still achieve the vividness of the original work, it required some special weaving techniques, and it would take at least nearly a month. Therefore, Xia Zhu had been pondering how to weave this painting these days.