Chapter 1684 - Courtyard Economy

Bai Putin had originally thought meeting with the Chief for conversation would be the end of it. He didn't expect the Chief to come in person. Having never entertained a "high official" like a Senator before, he couldn't help but panic. He quickly ran back into the main room and told his wife to bring out the guest clothes. He also called repeatedly for his eldest daughter to chase all the chickens into the coop and sweep the courtyard.

While they were still busy, Liu Yuanhu brought tea leaves. These were no ordinary leaves—they were "Limu Mountain Oolong" bought from the county. It was said this tea was the Chiefs' favorite drink. Fan Twelve had specifically bought it to entertain visiting rural cadres. Unexpectedly, it had actually come in handy.

Han Daoguo frowned: "Yuanhu, I told you to watch that old hag. What are you doing here! What if she gets out?"

Liu Yuanhu said: "This was sent by the village head! I'm going back right now!"

"Go quickly, go quickly—watch her closely!" Han Daoguo was afraid Old Lady Cao would make a scene like "blocking the sedan chair to cry grievances." That would be a great embarrassment. And if this Chief liked playing "Blue Sky Grand Master," it would be even worse.

Liu Yuanhu ran off, and by then Yun Suji had already entered the door. Seeing the courtyard swept spotlessly clean and Bai Putin dressed neatly, he said: "You've gone to too much trouble. There's no need for this."

Bai Putin bowed: "The Chief coming to my home—that's virtue accumulated by my ancestors. This... this... makes my humble home shine!"

Yun Suji laughed: "Didn't expect you even know idioms!"

"Yes, yes—I attended private school for a few years as a child."

Yun Suji surveyed this "grain household's" courtyard. It was indeed different from other families!

Speaking of courtyards, this one wasn't actually that large. Standard villages were all built uniformly according to several blueprints. Houses were roughly the same in area, structure, and style. The only difference was that residences came in three types—large, medium, and small—according to household population. The Bai family had many people and was assigned the largest type, with a lot area of about 150 square meters.

The courtyard walls of standard villages were neither brick, stone, nor wooden boards, but hedges made of fast-growing shrubs. After two or three years, they had all grown to about a person's height. These shrubs were all carefully selected; trimmed branches served as firewood.

The courtyard space wasn't large, but the design was very compact. In the center, facing south, was a row of five or six rooms—all brick and tile houses with gleaming glass windows. The front yard had no wing rooms. A gravel-paved path for walking ran through the middle of the yard. The open ground on both sides was turned into garden plots—the larger side grew various vegetables, while the other had only mounded soil. Yun Suji knew this was an earthworm bed, specifically for raising earthworms.

Even the central path wasn't wasted. Pillars were erected on both sides of the road, and bamboo poles were used to build a shade trellis above, growing loofah. On both sides of the road, wooden boards and bricks formed three-tiered stepped flower shelves holding many flower pots—planted with honeysuckle, jasmine, and daylilies.

Yun Suji had entered about a dozen households in this model village, front and back, but hadn't seen a single courtyard so carefully tended. Although the courtyard layout and planting had obviously received Tiandihui guidance, without the householder's meticulous care, there would definitely not be such a flourishing scene.

In front of the main house was a small brick-paved open space with a small plain wooden table and several bamboo chairs, all washed spotlessly clean—very comfortable to look at. Yun Suji nodded: "Good, really well kept!" He noticed a well curb under the eaves and went over with interest to take a look. It turned out to be not a water well but a water cellar; the rainwater collected by the rain gutter under the eaves was drained into it.

Yun Suji praised: "Good, this method is good. Having a water cellar makes watering the garden much more convenient. Why don't other families have them?"

Fan Twelve quickly said: "This was built by Old Bai himself. It wasn't distributed when houses were built."

Yun Suji nodded and asked: "Must have cost quite a bit." Building a water cellar required cement, which only Tiandihui could provide, and the cost wouldn't be low.

Hearing the Chief ask about money, Bai Putin became somewhat nervous and mumbled vaguely: "Quite a bit, quite a bit."

Fortunately, the Chief didn't ask further. Bai Putin wanted to invite him to sit in the main room, but Yun Suji waved his hand: "No rush. You have a backyard here too, right? Let's go look at the backyard."

Bai Putin had originally thought the Chief would just sit down and chat, but didn't expect him to look so closely. He couldn't refuse, so he had to lead Yun Suji around from one side of the yard.

The backyard was smaller than the front yard. Along the hedge, a few trees like Chinese toon and jujube were sparsely planted. On one side was a chicken coop enclosed by bamboo fencing, with pumpkin vines climbing all over the fence. On the other side was a cattle shed. This was Yun Suji's first time seeing a cattle-raising farmer household in the village, so he walked quickly over for a look.

The cattle shed was built according to standards, not skimping on materials at all. Inside were one large and one small crossbred Simmental and local Yellow cattle. Simmental cattle were multi-purpose cattle suitable for meat, dairy, and draft work. The crossbred variety with local Yellow cattle was a key promotion target of Tiandihui. However, due to small numbers and high prices, ordinary farming households rarely raised them. Many people still raised water buffalo from the Li area, which were strong and could thrive on coarse feed.

Because it was winter and the temperature was low, the cattle were both draped with cattle coats woven from rice straw, slowly chewing their feed.

Yun Suji leaned in for a closer look: the cattle hair was smooth and sleek, muscles firm—obviously very carefully looked after daily. He casually picked up some feed from the feeding trough and smelled it near his nose—a sour grassy scent. He put the feed down and asked: "You're using silage?"

"Yes, yes—the Tiandihui agricultural technician taught me how to make it. The cattle love it and put on weight."

"What do you use to make the silage?"

"Wild grass cut from wasteland, Chinese milk vetch grown in the fields, aquatic plants scooped from the river, and stalks of coarse grains. It's just more labor-intensive..." Bai Putin said somewhat regretfully. "My place is a bit small. The silage cellar can't be dug big, and the cattle shed can only be this size. If I could raise three or four more cattle, it would be worthwhile."

"With more cattle, you could use the big agricultural machinery you want."

"That's not the only benefit," Bai Putin perked up when talking about production. "Just the cattle manure from cleaning the pen would be much more. Composted first in the earthworm bed to raise earthworms, then taken out to apply to the fields—makes excellent fertilizer. Can raise chickens and harvest much more grain too!" Saying this, he shook his head again. "Too bad there's no room!"

Yun Suji also looked at his family's silage cellar and the biogas pit for composting. The Bai family's investment in farming was really not small! But it also showed indirectly that this household's income from farming was much higher.

Returning to the front yard, Bai Putin still wanted to invite him inside, but Yun Suji said: "I think let's just sit here." He pulled over a chair under the gourd trellis and sat down. "Good ventilation and bright. Speaking here is also refreshing!"

Fan Twelve and Bai Putin exchanged courtesies a few times and also sat down. The Bai family's eldest daughter brought tea. Yun Suji saw that in front of him was a fine porcelain covered cup, still giving off the fragrance of oolong tea. Knowing they were treating him as a guest, he said: "Why do you bother with this?" He pushed aside the covered cup in front of him, picked up a coarse porcelain tea bowl, poured a bowl from the teapot himself, and took a sip. It was hawthorn leaf tea. He laughed: "This tea is good—cooling and brightens the eyes."

Everyone followed suit and agreed it was "good tea."

Yun Suji said: "Old Bai, I can see you know your way around crops. You must have been skilled back home, probably also a grain household?"

Mentioning the past, Bai Putin couldn't help but sigh: "Can't really call myself skilled. Had a few hundred mu of land back home. Though the land was plentiful, farming was far worse than here. Starting from my great-grandfather, generation after generation scraped a living from the soil to accumulate some family property. Called a grain household, but actually quite pitiful! In a good year with good weather, an mu only harvested around a hundred catties or so. How can that compare to here!"

"Your courtyard economy is well developed. I've been to demonstration farms, and their courtyard economy is about the same as yours." Yun Suji praised. "If every household could be like this, that would be a model village truly worthy of being first in the whole county!"

Fan Twelve laughed awkwardly and was about to speak when Bai Putin said: "This was all done with Tiandihui's help. Otherwise, how would a farmer like me know so many tricks! Take the silage for feeding cattle—back home, not only had no one done it, no one had even heard of it. Raising cattle, wasn't it just eating green grass when there was green grass and dry grass when there wasn't? Who could have thought you could store green grass to feed, and the cattle would love it! Taoist Zhang was right: the Chiefs are truly living immortals who know heaven and earth!"

"Of those in your village, how many spend their own money like you to hire Tiandihui for guidance?"

"Not many," Bai Putin said. "Ordinary families can't afford it—though that's secondary. Tiandihui has loans. I took out a loan at first. But everyone is unwilling to borrow, afraid of not being able to repay and losing their land. Many families here were originally tenant farmers without their own land. Having finally been given land by the Chiefs, they treasure it like their heart's core."

"You still have guts and drive."

"I don't have much guts. I just feel—how much future is there in farming the old way?" Bai Putin felt this Chief Yun spoke very practically, all in terms farmers understood, so his words came more freely. "When we all went to the county to visit the Tiandihui demonstration farm, I thought: Tiandihui people are people, and I'm a person too. Why can they do it and I can't? When Tiandihui promoted agricultural loans, everyone was afraid of taking on debt they couldn't repay. I had a different thought: the Chiefs went through countless hardships to rescue us from the ice and snow, gave us food and clothes, sent us to Hainan Island, built houses, and distributed land. What would they gain from cheating us? Don't you agree, sir?"

Yun Suji laughed: "Right, right." Thinking no wonder this person could be a landlord back home and became a big household here too—his mind was a cut above ordinary farmers. He asked again: "Do you still owe Tiandihui agricultural loans?"

"Paid off last summer." Bai Putin was in high spirits. "If not for this progressive tax, I'd want to take out another loan and clear a few dozen more mu of wasteland!"