Chapter 4043: Eucommia Matured

Su Xinghui said to Accountant Gao with a smile, "Old Gao, you are getting more and more handsome now!"

Accountant Gao didn't expect Su Xinghui to recognize him at a glance. He touched his head with some embarrassment and said, "The village said that foreign friends were coming to the village these two days, so I wore a new set of clothes. I didn't expect that the foreign friends hadn't come yet, but you, Mayor Su, a distinguished guest, came first."

Su Xinghui said, "Oh, are there foreign friends coming to the village?"

Xia Lan said happily, "Yes, foreign friends often come to the village these years. Some come to collect bamboo weaving from the village, some come to collect bamboo rat skins from the village, and some come to play. There are still many good things in the village that foreigners like. By the way, Mayor Su, I'm afraid you don't recognize me, right?"

Su Xinghui said, "How dare I not recognize the great beauty Xia? The village flower back then."

Everyone laughed loudly. Xia Lan was still so spicy. She said with a smile, "What great beauty, now it's an old beauty."

Su Xinghui said, "You can't say that. According to the words on the Internet now, this is called a senior beauty!"

Everyone laughed happily again.

Xia Lan said, "Well, I like the title of senior beauty very much. Thank you, Mayor Su! Do you see our village now? Is it different from before?"

Su Xinghui looked around. Back then, he once proposed to build personalized houses for the villagers. Now it seemed that it had indeed been realized. Every family's house was different, but the style was basically the same. It was the style of Jiangnan dwellings, small courtyards, white walls and black tiles, and the houses inside were in the shape of single-family villas. No two villas were the same.

Su Xinghui nodded and said, "It's very different from before, it's indeed beautiful."

Fang Youcai said, "This was still your original suggestion, Mayor Su. However, the strength of the village was still a bit poor at that time, so it didn't follow your suggestion. Later, when the village had money, they invited designers to build such a house for every family. Now it has become a scenery here. Many foreigners come here just to take pictures of these houses."

Su Xinghui said, "These houses are really beautiful, with a strong Chinese style and Jiangnan sentiment. The level of the designers you invited is very good."

Zhao Zhongfu said, "This was still Xia Zhu's credit. The professor invited by Xia Zhu from the provincial art academy helped us design it. At that time, as soon as it was drawn, everyone liked it very much. Sure enough, after this house was built, it was exactly the same as drawn in the painting."

Fang Youcai said, "We are all rural people and can't say how good this house is. Some people even said that this color is not good and not festive. In my opinion, the good thing about this house is that it is not flashy."

Su Xinghui laughed. Although Fang Youcai hadn't learned to paint, his simple aesthetic was quite good, knowing the benefits of these black and white buildings.

These buildings were built in this village, making this village look like it had walked out of an ink landscape painting. It was so feeling.

And he looked into the distance, and could vaguely see rows of factory buildings standing in great numbers. In Yezhugou, there were still quite a few enterprises, such as the bamboo weaving factory, breeding farm, food factory, etc., run by the village itself, as well as a batch of foreign-invested enterprises such as Quanjie Pharmaceutical Factory.

These enterprises were separated from the villagers' residential areas, about a kilometer away. Many workers in these enterprises were nearby villagers, and they didn't have far to go to work here.

These enterprises were the main reason why Yezhugou was so prosperous and developed now.

Su Xinghui said, "The village is built really well now!"

Fang Youcai said, "That's right, this is all thanks to you. It's all the foundation you laid. By the way, the Eucommia trees you led everyone to plant back then have matured now. Shall I take you to see them?"

Su Xinghui said, "I just want to go and see. Eucommia trees only mature after fifteen years. It's truly not easy to be able to see the Eucommia trees you planted mature!"

Hearing Su Xinghui's words, Fang Youcai took him excitedly toward the Eucommia forest. Others followed behind them, and there were more and more people. Everyone told each other the news that Su Xinghui had come. Finally, almost all the people in the village who were at home followed behind. They seemed to have returned to the era when Su Xinghui was still the deputy township mayor.

Soon, they arrived at that Eucommia forest. Under the hillside where that Eucommia forest was planted, there was a gate, and the words "Yezhugou National Eucommia Protection Park" were written on the gate. This hillside had been surrounded by walls. Eucommia was a nationally protected plant. Su Xinghui's original intention of leading the villagers to plant this Eucommia forest was to protect Eucommia on the one hand, and to lead everyone to get rich on the other.

Walking into the gate, Su Xinghui saw a Eucommia forest in front of him. This Eucommia forest had grown for sixteen years. The tall ones had grown to seven or eight meters high, and the short ones were also four or five meters high. In the forest, there were no other miscellaneous trees, all of which were Eucommia trees.

Eucommia trees only mature after fifteen years, and their initial growth is slow. Therefore, their sunlight, water, and fertility are easily snatched away by other fast-growing trees or shrubs or even herbaceous plants, so that wild Eucommia is difficult to grow into big trees and is often strangled in the short juvenile stage.

Therefore, artificial planting of Eucommia trees must pay great attention to protecting the sunlight, water, and fertility of Eucommia trees, and carefully care for them until they grow for seven or eight years and enter the fast-growing period, growing rapidly, so that they can finally mature.

Therefore, it is very difficult for such a large Eucommia forest to mature all of them, and these Eucommia forests cannot be planted at the same time and mature at the same time. Now only about a thousand mu have matured, and the others were planted one after another later, and will mature one after another in the next few years.

Such a large Eucommia forest also requires huge manpower and material resources to care for. In Yezhugou Village, almost every family has at least a dozen mu of Eucommia trees. They are responsible for the maintenance work of their own family's Eucommia trees. Over the past dozen years, they have also spent huge energy to maintain this Eucommia forest.

Now, they have finally reached the time to benefit.

Su Xinghui asked, "Have all these Eucommia trees matured now?"

Fang Youcai pointed to this hillside and said, "Yes, the Eucommia trees on this hillside were all planted by you leading everyone back then, and they have grown for sixteen years. In fact, since two years ago, Eucommia trees have matured one after another. Now they have basically all matured. Look, there are traces of peeling on these trees."

Su Xinghui approached a tree. Sure enough, that tree had traces of peeling at about one meter high, but it had almost grown well now. This should have been peeled last year.

Su Xinghui said, "Then everyone's income should be very good now?"

Fang Youcai said happily, "That's right, this Eucommia is sold to the pharmaceutical factory, and the price is very good. Now the life of our families is good. Mayor Su, these are all your credit. You say why shouldn't we thank you?!"