Chapter 187: The Small Situation in Qiongshan

Chang Shide monitored the sign-up rate daily. Although the progress reported from all areas was very good, Chang Shide did not let the “excellent situation” go to his head. In fact, he had set a rather modest initial target for the Heaven and Earth Society in Qiongshan: to secure just 2% to 3% of the county’s “old land.” The goal was to first gain control of this land to create a demonstration effect.

He didn’t expect to quickly consolidate a large amount of Qiongshan’s “old land.” The farmers of Qiongshan were different from the sugarcane farmers of Leizhou. The latter were farmers in a market economy, sensitive to the market, and required a large amount of liquid credit to support their agricultural production, making them much more dependent on finance. The Sugar Industry Association could easily attract them with small, low-interest loans. However, while the farmers of Qiongshan also had some reliance on loans, their dependency was far less than that of the Leizhou sugarcane farmers.

To make them dependent on the market, the best method was to have the farmers switch to growing cash crops. Cash crops had the major advantage of requiring higher agricultural technology and yielding better returns, making them an excellent choice for farmers who hoped to see quick profits. Chang Shide planned to promote sugarcane cultivation among the farmers who signed up with the Heaven and Earth Society.

“The situation looks very good right now,” Liu Xiang said. He was very interested in the Heaven and Earth Society’s campaign this time, feeling that the Agriculture Committee’s specific operations were much gentler than their directives. They hadn’t launched a large-scale, campaign-style “collectivization,” but rather a more subtle, “moistening things silently” approach. This was very much to his liking. “I think you can raise your target. With a little more effort, you could reach 5%,” Liu Xiang said when he saw the latest progress report in the Heaven and Earth Society’s office.

“Even if all the farmers in Qiongshan were willing to sign up, I wouldn’t want to accept them all,” Chang Shide said, looking at the progress report. “A Great Leap Forward leads to mistakes.”

Liu Xiang laughed. “What mistakes? We’re not forcing a ‘big and public’ collectivization…”

Chang Shide shook his head. “Not making promises you can’t keep is a basic principle of administrative work. You don’t object to that, do you?”

Liu Xiang nodded. “Even if you have to break your word, you need a good reason.”

Chang Shide chuckled. “Let’s not talk about special circumstances. By our own definition, the Heaven and Earth Society is a business-oriented cooperative organization guided and supervised by the Agriculture Committee. It’s not a bureaucratic institution, but more like a commercial organization. But to the farmers, the Heaven and Earth Society is an official organization—and in reality, they’re not wrong to think so.”

He continued, “Since we’re not using administrative means to get them to join, we have to use economic means, which is like writing checks. Of course, we can’t write bad checks.”

Chang Shide knew very well how much strength the Heaven and Earth Society, or its true form, the Agriculture Committee, actually had. Even in Lingao, where the Heaven and Earth Society system was relatively mature, it was still under strain in terms of materials and personnel, especially with large gaps in agricultural resources and technical staff.

Now, the Agriculture Committee was facing not just one Lingao, but the entire island of Hainan. The northern counties of Qiongbei and the Sanya Special Administrative Region, which had the greatest potential for agricultural development, were the focus of the committee’s development and support. The final result of writing blank checks would be the inability to fulfill promises, ultimately leading to a loss of credibility.

For this reason, apart from Lingao, the Heaven and Earth Society’s large-scale activities were limited to the two major agricultural counties of Qiongshan and Wenchang. Ye Yuming had originally hoped to bring 20% of the landowning households into the “agricultural cooperative” in the year 1631, but this was reduced to below 5% due to the firm opposition of Wu Nanhai and others.

Wu Nanhai and Chang Shide’s reasons for opposition were very strong: they lacked the people, and they didn’t have enough seeds, pesticides, and fertilizers.

To make full use of limited manpower and resources, the formation of the First Mobile Corps for mobile, mechanized farming was a key measure by the Agriculture Committee. With a small amount of manpower and machinery, they could complete work that would require ten or even twenty times the pure manpower, saving the member farmers’ labor to the greatest extent possible. Otherwise, the minimum requirement of basic farmland water conservancy construction alone would be enough to exhaust all the client farmers’ physical strength.

Only by saving the labor of the member farmers could they be interested, or rather, have the ability to participate in the various activities organized by the Heaven and Earth Society, such as agricultural technology training. Relying solely on the superficial services of Lingao’s agricultural technicians was far from enough; a local team had to be built up as well.

Chang Shide said, “We need to set up an agricultural school in the city. You, as the county director, must give it your full support…”

Liu Xiang’s heart leaped with joy. The Executive Committee was finally willing to relent on this. When he first arrived in Qiongshan, he had applied to open a school but was ruthlessly rejected with the reply: “The time is not yet ripe for opening a school.” He had cursed the bureaucrats for a while after receiving that response.

“Never mind an agricultural school, I’d be willing to bankrupt myself to support a university…” Liu Xiang declared, slapping his chest without thinking.

“Hehe, that’s good to hear,” Chang Shide said, taking a cigar out of his drawer. “Have one? A genuine Li Quan limited edition. I got it directly from Old Wu’s office. Who knows who rolls the ones they sell at the cafe…”

“At most, they’re rolled by the farm women on his farm. Do you really believe they’re rolled on thighs? If that were the case, I wouldn’t be interested in smoking it. Speaking of which, isn’t what Nanhai is doing a violation of the monopoly law? I remember tobacco, salt, and alcohol are all under the jurisdiction of the Monopoly Bureau.”

“The Monopoly Bureau is just a nameplate for now. Besides, if Old Wu wants to sell tobacco and alcohol, getting a license is a piece of cake. In the end, it’s all in service of the Elders.” Chang Shide was unconcerned and lit Liu Xiang’s cigar for him. “You’ll have to push for the school matter as well. The Executive Committee won’t oppose it now. The Fangcao Di agricultural crash course just graduated four classes, so it won’t be a problem to transfer twenty or thirty people over. As for an Elder teacher, we have one ready-made—Wan Lihui. He’s going to be here for replanting anyway, so he can work during the day and teach a night class. There’s also A’zi. I think her math is a bit problematic, but her language skills are good…”

Liu Xiang understood immediately and nodded. “No problem, no problem. The locals have a poor foundation and really need some literacy education first. Otherwise, they won’t even understand the lessons.” He laughed heartily and blew a smoke ring.

Chang Shide nodded. “There are too few educated people. We must do our best to consider the Senate and the Executive Committee and save all manpower and resources.”

Chang Shide then talked about several other ideas from the Agriculture Committee. First was to create a model: “establish one, support several” demonstration farms. Specifically, they would open an Agriculture Committee demonstration farm on “state-owned agricultural land” to specialize in comprehensive agricultural demonstration. At the same time, they would support several farm households, similar to how they supported the Fu Bu’er family in Lingao, to create a few models. Similarly, they would also establish a model agricultural cooperative village.

This was on the policy side. On the material side, after consultations—which were actually haggling—with the Planning Commission, the Agriculture Committee reached an agreement. A small agricultural machinery station would be established in Qiongshan, using some of the personnel and equipment of the First Mobile Marine Corps as its backbone, to serve Qiongshan’s agriculture. Secondly, a fertilizer and pesticide factory would be set up in the county.

Most of the pesticides widely used by the Heaven and Earth Society in practice were traditional pesticides. These were generally prepared and used on-site and had basically no shelf life. Therefore, it was completely impossible to prepare them in Lingao and then transport them to Qiongshan. To use them, a factory had to be set up locally, and a certain amount of raw materials had to be collected in advance for on-demand preparation.

“…As for fertilizer, with our small synthetic ammonia industry, how much nitrogen fertilizer can we supply to all the counties? We don’t even have enough for ourselves,” Chang Shide said.

“Are you going to set up a synthetic ammonia plant here?” Liu Xiang became excited.

“Not at all. We’ll just process the coal from the Jiazi Coal Mine directly,” Chang Shide said. The coal from Jiazi Coal Mine had a high humus content and could be turned into excellent fertilizer with a little processing. As for phosphate fertilizer, the Planning Commission had already made arrangements. A portion of the phosphate rock transported from Dongsha and Sanya each month would be allocated to Qiongshan, to be processed directly after being unloaded there.

Liu Xiang thought this was a good thing. Tang Menglong had been wanting to find more outlets for his coal. If a fertilizer plant was set up locally, it would save a lot of consumption in the transportation links. Large quantities of coal from the Jiazi Coal Mine, and in the future, the Changpo coal mined in Ding’an, could be transported down the Nandu River to Qiongshan to be processed into high-quality fertilizer.

With these small industries, there would of course be supporting facilities—a small machinery repair shop would definitely be necessary. In the old world, before the 1980s, the machinery industry in many county towns was the county agricultural machinery factory. Perhaps they would even build a coking plant to produce gas, and then gas lamps could be promoted…

Thinking about the start of industry in Qiongshan, Liu Xiang’s blood boiled. He couldn’t help but stand up and pace around the office.

Many plans swirled in his mind: building a county-wide road network, water conservancy projects, opening schools, and starting more small industries. Qiongshan would surely become a developed county by the standards of this era in his hands!

“Excellent!” He took a hard puff on his cigar, almost inhaling it into his lungs. “The Executive Committee is truly far-sighted…”

Although the words were sycophantic, they were his true thoughts. He suddenly asked:

“If I apply to set up a food factory and a coconut processing plant in Qiongshan, do you think the Executive Committee will approve it?”

Chang Shide said, “The probability of approval is very high. You have to know that agricultural products generally can’t be transported long distances for processing—and this is even more true in our era.”

Liu Xiang nodded repeatedly. He should have thought of such a simple fact long ago! Since the Senate had occupied Qiongshan, it wouldn’t make sense to transport the rice and sweet potatoes produced in Qiongshan to Lingao to be milled and made into starch! Establishing local grain processing and food enterprises was the obvious thing to do. Perhaps they would even build a seafood processing plant locally.

At this moment, Chang Shide said, “There’s one more thing, the Executive Committee’s grain problem…”

Liu Xiang was taken aback and stood frozen.