Chapter 371 - Afforestation

Someone brought a megaphone to the Headman. At that moment, a few Public Service Team members were rushing over, whispering reminders to everyone: “After the Headman finishes speaking, clap your hands as hard as you can! And cheer! When you cheer, raise both hands! Otherwise, no food for you!”

The crowd was a bit confused and didn’t know what was going on, but since it concerned whether they would get food later, and since the Headman-masters didn’t like kneeling and kowtowing, they decided they might as well just clap their hands hard.

Wen Desi looked down at the crowd of local laborers, packed together like ants, and the Public Service Team members holding batons. He cleared his throat. Holding the tin megaphone, he began to deliver an enthusiastic speech. The speech was so full of new words and novel meanings that the interpreter, Park Deok-maeng, was completely overwhelmed and had to resort to some creative improvisation. In the end, the people below got the general idea: the village currently under construction was a gift from the Headmen, for them to live in for free. They were no longer slaves to the Yi dynasty or any other master, but were now proper, naturalized citizens of Song-Australia!

As naturalized citizens, they would work and serve for seven years to repay the Headmen for liberating them and providing them with food, clothing, housing, and education.

In the future, more such villages would be built across Jeju Island, so that everyone could live and work in peace and contentment: “…a house for everyone, a job for everyone, and every working person will have a full belly!”

A stir went through the audience—a free house for everyone! And they could all eat their fill! Jeju Island had never lacked people willing to work, but there were few who had ever had enough to eat. Most of them, since they could remember, had rarely known a day with a full stomach. For them, chronic hunger was a normal state of life, not considered one of life’s great sufferings.

“San-pang, what did you hear? It’s only natural for the master to have his slaves build houses. Now they’re giving them to us to live in, and they didn’t say anything about being in debt?” Kim Da-wu secretly asked his nephew.

“Anyway, he said we have to work every day, planting grain, growing vegetables, herding horses and sheep, and so on.”

“Nonsense, if you don’t work, what will you eat? But did he really say we can eat our fill just by working?” Kim Da-wu was still a little worried. Over the years, he had done no shortage of work—sometimes to the point of exhaustion—but he had never had a full stomach. Just over a month ago, he had to eat a lot of wild vegetables to get through the spring famine.

“That’s right, the Headman-master said so.”

“Quick, clap!” Kim Ta-duo had sharp eyes and saw a Public Service Team member already starting to applaud. He quickly nudged his father and cousin.

Although Park Deok-maeng couldn’t translate every word of “Chairman Wen’s” speech with 100% accuracy, he accurately changed his expression and voice according to the changes in Wen Desi’s tone and the content of the speech. Sometimes his voice was deep and powerful, other times passionate and rousing. Although a bit exaggerated, his expressiveness was superb, like a self-taught announcer.

Gradually, the crowd was captivated by the content of the speech and stirred by Park Deok-maeng’s expressions. They all became excited, and led by the Public Service Team members, they had already erupted in “thunderous applause” several times. The atmosphere grew more and more heated. Just as Wen Desi reached the climax of his speech and raised his “giant, sky-supporting hand” high—quicker than words can tell, a clever Public Service Team member took the lead, raised both hands, and shouted “Manse!”

And so the entire hillside erupted with shouts of “Manse,” for a moment resembling a roaring tidal wave. With Wen Desi’s level of Korean, he could only understand the word “Manse.” He smiled broadly and frequently raised his hand to acknowledge the crowd. The masses below became even more excited, following the Public Service Team members in raising their hands, and the sound of “Manse” echoed throughout the entire pasture.

Wen Desi smiled and waved. As the Chairman of the Executive Committee, he often attended major events and received the cheers and greetings of the masses. He no longer felt excited by it, but compared to the cheers here, the naturalized citizens on Hainan Island were lacking in expression, action, and voice. It seemed the propaganda department should come here to gather some inspiration and select some talent.

After the speech, it was announced that the Headman-master would proceed to the next event—tree planting.

Wen Desi was originally an outdoor travel enthusiast and had a natural love for mountains and forests. In Lin’gao, he was bogged down with miscellaneous affairs. After arriving on Jeju Island, he inspected various places and, in the process, reviewed the progress of the security enhancement work. The standard village was also a project for security enhancement. Therefore, he visited the homesteads of many standard villages in the “security zones.” After a tour, he discovered a problem—many of the sites selected for standard village homesteads had no nearby woods. Although the mountainous areas of Jeju Island were densely forested, the standard villages were basically located on pastures and developed land, with few large forests nearby.

“How can this be!” Wen Desi slammed the table at a meeting. “How can the villagers live without a forest? What about firewood? What about farm tools? What about repairing houses and fences? If they all go to cut down the mountain forests, our precious forest resources will be wasted! We must plant trees and create forests.”

The Forward Command Committee immediately sent a request for help to the Agricultural Committee in Lin’gao. The plantations directly under the Agricultural Committee at the South China Sea Farm had all kinds of plants introduced from the other world, especially cash crops bred in the old world. These cash crops were growing well under the careful care of the Agricultural Committee. Fa Shilu, based on Jeju’s climate and specific needs, chose a fast-growing tree called “American Bamboo Willow.”

“American Bamboo Willow” was a trade name. In some places, it was called “American Genetically Modified Bamboo Willow,” but it had nothing to do with “genetically modified” or “America.” The tree species was a hybrid fast-growing willow developed by forestry personnel in Anhui in the previous world. It was only called “American” because it used a North American red willow as a parent, and then the fictitious “genetically modified” concept was added—purely a commercial gimmick.

The characteristics of the bamboo willow were its incredible fast-growing ability and extremely high resistance. It could survive and grow in almost any condition, and it grew extremely fast, with a cellulose content as high as 76%, close to bamboo. In the old world, it was mainly used to meet the demand of the export-oriented economy for packaging cartons, newsprint, and office paper, and also to make plywood and cheap solid wood furniture.

In China, it was generally planted densely with chopstick-sized cuttings. With fertilizer, it could be harvested in two or three years. Like many cash crops and animals from the old world, the bamboo willow was often used as a project in commercial scams: many people spent time and energy planting it only to find that there was no such large market, and the price plummeted.

The Agricultural Committee had brought it to this world originally for papermaking and furniture, but in Hainan, bamboo willow did not grow as fast as eucalyptus, and the timber factory couldn’t make composite boards for the time being. The Agricultural Committee felt it had little promotional value, so it was only planted on a small scale to preserve the seeds. Later, the agricultural reclamation squadron sent to Taiwan discovered that this tree could be used to make fences—killing two birds with one stone.

The climate of Jeju Island is similar to that of the Huainan region, so bamboo willow was naturally a very good firewood tree. Even without fertilizer or watering, it could reach the standard for timber in three to five years. It could be used as a fence for pastures and villages, and also as a source of firewood.

“The predecessors plant the trees, and the successors enjoy the shade.” This meaning of benefiting future generations has made tree planting a very suitable activity for leaders to participate in since ancient times. Chief Wen naturally would not miss it. Feng Zongze had already sent people to prepare a special site outside the standard village. There were a few small hills here, which were just right for planting trees and creating a forest.

Two pits had been dug in advance. One was for planting the bamboo willow, and the other was prepared for planting a white-barked pine.

The reason for also planting a pine tree was that the lifespan of the bamboo willow is not long. Even without harvesting, it would become hollow and fall over in thirty or forty years. This was not appropriate for a tree of commemorative significance. After careful consideration, Feng Zongze decided to plant a white-barked pine as well.

The delivered bamboo willow cuttings were of various lengths, some had already rooted, and some were like chopsticks. The Public Service Team selected some that looked strong and relatively tall and sent them to the standard village construction site. As for white-barked pines, there were plenty here. A few small trees were specially selected from the mountains, dug up overnight, and carefully transported.

Accompanied by Feng Zongze, Wen Desi came to the tree-planting site, surrounded by the Public Service Team and the naturalized citizens. The two first waved frequently to the crowd, then placed the saplings into the pits, began to fill the soil, and watered them. As expected, there was another round of applause and shouts of “Manse.”

Wen Desi watched the sapling he had planted sway in the gentle breeze, with green grass all around, the masses surrounding him, and the guards standing at attention. He felt a strong sense of being a leader. He was in a very pleasant mood and recited:

“I came to plant the trees, but left ere flowers bloomed. Yet will their beauty not remain, a gift for those who follow soon.”

Feng Zongze’s heart tightened, and he cursed inwardly that Chief Wen was so shameless as to plagiarize Master Hong Yi’s poem. However, he just smiled and applauded vigorously, repeatedly saying “Excellent.” Then he called over a man of middle-class origin who had been a minor official, and told him to quickly record it with ink and brush, saying that he planned to engrave it on a stone tablet for the tree planting.

“Let’s not do that, it goes against our original intention. Little Feng, this has the suspicion of a personality cult. We must emphasize collective leadership,” Chief Wen said modestly.

“You are very right,” Feng Zongze nodded repeatedly. “But framing this poem as a memento can also fully reflect the care and love of the Yuanlao Senate for our Jeju.”

Wen Desi then gave another speech about how planting trees and creating forests would benefit the country and the people. In fact, few of the locals present understood this speech. But the forest soon grew strong and lush. The sapling planted by the Headman was later carefully tended by the villagers as a sacred object, with a sign placed and offerings made every year. Whenever the bamboo willow was about to fall, it would be replanted with a new one—thus, the first bamboo willow on Jeju Island grew forever vibrant, sheltering the people of the Yuanlao Senate.

Later, this forest was turned into a park. A Yuanlao, while strolling through the willow grove, wrote a short poem in English, which was later set to music and became a widely sung song that swept the globe. That song was “Down by the Salley Gardens.”

And this tree, with its strong growth rate and vitality, which had been transplanted here, was later called the “Wen Desi Willow” by the naturalized citizens of Jeju Island. This name later spread far and wide, eventually becoming its universally accepted scientific name.