Chapter 954 - A Small Opening in Qiongshan

Chang Shide followed the sign-up rates daily. Though the progress reports coming in from all quarters were quite encouraging, Chang Shide did not let the "excellent situation" go to his head. In fact, his initial target for the Tiandihui in Qiongshan was not set high: merely to secure two to three percent of Qiongshan County's "old land." The goal was first to use this land to create a demonstration effect.

He had no expectation of quickly amassing large quantities of Qiongshan's "old land." Qiongshan's farmers were different from Leizhou's sugarcane farmers. The latter operated within a market economy, were sensitive to the market, and required substantial working-capital loans to support agricultural production—their dependence on finance was far greater. The Sugar Industry Association could easily attract them through small, low-interest loans. But Qiongshan's farmers, while also somewhat dependent on loans, were far less so than Leizhou's sugarcane farmers.

The best way to create market dependence was to have farmers switch to cash crops. Cash crops had another major advantage: they required higher agricultural technology and offered better returns, making them a good choice for farmers eager for quick results. Chang Shide planned to promote sugarcane cultivation among the Tiandihui's contracted farmers.

"The situation looks quite good." Liu Xiang was very interested in this Tiandihui campaign, finding that the Agricultural Committee's actual implementation was considerably gentler than the directives—not turning into a mass-movement-style "collectivization," but rather a subtle, "nurturing rain" approach. Very much to his taste. "I think you can raise your target—push to reach five percent."

"Even if every farmer in Qiongshan were willing to sign up, I still wouldn't want to accept them all." Chang Shide studied the progress chart. "Great Leaps Forward lead to mistakes."

Liu Xiang laughed: "What mistakes? We're not forcing them into a big, public collective system..."

Chang Shide shook his head: "You can't make promises you can't keep. That's a basic principle of administrative work. You don't disagree with that, do you?"

Liu Xiang nodded: "Even if you have to break your word, you need a plausible reason."

Chang Shide chuckled: "Let's not talk about special circumstances. By our own definition, the Tiandihui is a commercially oriented cooperative organization guided and supervised by the Agricultural Committee. It's not a bureaucratic institution—it's more like a commercial organization. But to the farmers, the Tiandihui is the government. And practically speaking, they're not wrong to think so."

He continued: "Since we're trying to recruit them without using administrative means, we have to use economic means—which is essentially writing checks. And we absolutely cannot write bounced checks."

Chang Shide knew exactly how much capability the Tiandihui, or rather its true identity the Agricultural Committee, actually possessed. Even in Lingao, where the Tiandihui system was already operating relatively maturely, it remained strained in terms of materials and personnel—especially with large gaps in agricultural supplies and technical staff.

Now the Agricultural Committee faced not just one Lingao, but the entire island of Hainan. The counties of northern Hainan with the greatest agricultural development potential, along with the Greater Sanya District, were all priorities for Agricultural Committee development and support. Writing checks recklessly would ultimately result in failure to honor promises, leading to loss of credibility.

Therefore, the Tiandihui was only launching large-scale operations outside of Lingao in Qiongshan and Wenchang, the two main agricultural counties. Ye Yuming had originally hoped to bring at least twenty percent of landholding households into the "agricultural cooperative" in 1631, but this was reduced to under five percent after determined opposition from Wu Nanhai and others.

Wu Nanhai and Chang Shide's grounds for opposition were solid: there were no people, and insufficient seeds, pesticides, and fertilizers.

To maximize the use of limited manpower and materials, organizing the First Mobile Regiment for mobile mechanized farming was one of the Agricultural Committee's key measures: a small number of workers and machines could accomplish over ten or even twenty times what pure manual labor could, maximizing labor savings for member farmers. Otherwise, the bare minimum of basic farmland water conservancy construction alone would exhaust all the member farmers' energy.

Only by freeing up member farmers' labor could they have the interest or—more accurately—the capacity to participate in the various activities organized by the Tiandihui, such as agricultural technology training. Relying solely on Lingao's agricultural technicians making occasional visits was far from sufficient; a local corps had to be built up.

Chang Shide said: "We need to set up an agricultural school in the city. You, as the county office director, need to give strong support..."

Liu Xiang's heart leaped. The Executive Committee had finally loosened up on this. When he first arrived in Qiongshan, he had applied to establish schools there, but was unceremoniously rejected: "Conditions are not yet ripe for establishing schools." When he received that response, he had cursed bureaucratism quite colorfully.

"Never mind an agricultural school—if you wanted to open a university, I'd support it even if it bankrupted me..." Liu Xiang beat his chest recklessly.

"Heh heh, glad to hear it." Chang Shide pulled a cigar from his drawer. "Care for one? A genuine Li Quan limited edition—I got it straight from Old Wu's office. Who knows who rolled the ones they sell at the café..."

"At most some farm woman from his estate rolled them. You don't really believe they're rolled on thighs, do you? If that were the case, I wouldn't even be interested in smoking. Speaking of which, isn't Old Nanhai violating monopoly laws with this? I recall tobacco, salt, and alcohol are all under the Monopoly Bureau's jurisdiction."

"The Monopoly Bureau is just a sign right now. Besides, if Old Wu wants to sell tobacco and alcohol, getting a license is child's play for him. When it comes down to it, it's all about serving the Elders." Chang Shide was unconcerned and lit Liu Xiang's cigar for him. "You should also push for the school matter. The Executive Committee won't oppose it now. Four classes just graduated from Fragrant Grass's agricultural technology crash course—pulling out twenty or thirty people shouldn't be a problem. As for Elder teachers, there's a ready-made one—Wan Lihui. He'll be here doing replanting work anyway. He can work during the day and run a night school in the evening. There's also A-Zi—I think her math is a bit weak, but her language skills are decent..."

Liu Xiang nodded with full understanding: "No problem. No problem. The locals' basic education level is poor—they need literacy education first. Otherwise they won't even understand the lectures." He laughed and blew out a smoke ring.

Chang Shide nodded: "There's too little educated manpower. We need to consider things from the perspective of the Senate and the Executive Committee—conserve all manpower and materials."

Chang Shide then brought up several other ideas from the Agricultural Committee. First was creating models: "Open one, support several" demonstration farms. Specifically, this meant developing one Agricultural Committee demonstration estate on "state-owned agricultural land" dedicated to comprehensive agricultural demonstrations, while simultaneously supporting several individual farmer households—similar to how Fu Bu'er's household had been cultivated in Lingao—to create a few exemplars. Additionally, a model agricultural cooperative village would be established.

These were policy matters. On the material side, after the Agricultural Committee's negotiations—essentially haggling—with the Planning Commission, an agreement had been reached. Using part of the personnel and equipment from the First Maritime Mobile Regiment as the core, a small agricultural machinery station would be established in Qiongshan to serve local agriculture. Additionally, a fertilizer and pesticide factory would be set up in the county.

Currently, the pesticides widely used in Tiandihui practice were mostly crude homemade pesticides. These were generally prepared and used on-site and had essentially no shelf life. It was completely impossible to prepare them in Lingao and then ship them to Qiongshan. To use them, a factory had to be established locally, collecting sufficient raw materials in advance and preparing them as needed.

"...As for fertilizer, how much nitrogen fertilizer can our tiny synthetic ammonia industry supply to the counties? It's not even enough for our own use." Chang Shide said.

"You're setting up a synthetic ammonia plant here?" Liu Xiang grew excited.

"Nothing like that—we're just processing coal from Jiazi Mine directly." Chang Shide said. Jiazi Mine coal had high humic content; with minimal processing it could become excellent fertilizer. As for phosphate fertilizer, the Planning Commission had already made arrangements: a portion of the phosphate ore shipped monthly from Dongsha and Sanya would be allocated to Qiongshan, to be processed locally immediately after unloading.

Liu Xiang thought this was a good thing. Tang Menglong had been looking for more outlets for his coal anyway. If a fertilizer factory were established locally, it would eliminate much of the shipping overhead. Large quantities of Jiazi Mine coal—and in the future, Changpo coal mined from Ding'an—could all be transported down the Nandu River to Qiongshan and processed into fine fertilizer.

With these small industries, supporting facilities would naturally follow—a small machinery repair shop would certainly be needed. Back in the old timeline, before the 1980s, the mechanical industry in many county towns was essentially the county agricultural machinery factory. They might even build a coking plant to produce coal gas, which would allow gas lamps to be promoted as well...

At the thought of Qiongshan's industry taking its first steps, Liu Xiang's blood surged. He couldn't help but stand and pace around the office.

Plans swirled in his mind: building the county's highway network, water conservancy construction, establishing schools, and developing more small industries. Qiongshan would definitely become, by this timeline's standards, a developed county under his administration!

"Wonderful!" He took a fierce drag on his cigar, nearly inhaling it into his lungs. "The Executive Committee is truly far-sighted..."

Though the words sounded sycophantic, they were his genuine thoughts. He suddenly asked:

"I applied to set up a food factory and a coconut processing factory in Qiongshan. Do you think the Executive Committee will approve it?"

Chang Shide said: "The chances of approval are good. Agricultural products generally can't be transported long distances for processing—even more so in our timeline."

Liu Xiang nodded repeatedly: he should have thought of this obvious fact much earlier! Since the Senate had occupied Qiongshan, surely they wouldn't transport Qiongshan's rice and sweet potatoes all the way to Lingao for milling and starch extraction! Establishing grain processing and food enterprises locally was self-evident. They might even build a seafood processing plant here.

Then Chang Shide said: "There's another matter—the Executive Committee's grain problem..."

Liu Xiang froze, suddenly stunned.

(End of Chapter)