Traveling back to 1977

Chapter 222 Long admired name
A few days later, in the field, Chen Fan set up his drawing board, held a pencil in his hand, and began sketching.

Now the villagers are familiar with him when he goes out to collect folk songs. At such times, they are afraid of disturbing him, so they usually don't talk to him and are mostly busy working.

Not far behind Chen Fan, a few women were gathered together whispering.

"Haha, look at Liu Defu. He usually works for two minutes and then needs to rest for half an hour. But today, when Teacher Chen came out to paint, he didn't straighten up for half an hour."

"I'm just afraid that Teacher Chen will draw him ugly. When the painting comes out, everyone else will be bending over to hoe the ground, but he will be standing up straight. Wouldn't he be laughed at to death?"

"Hey, you know what, once Teacher Chen set up his drawing board, everyone's enthusiasm really increased."

"That's right. This is still painting. If it were a camera, it would probably be even higher."

"That's not the same thing. The camera can take two quick shots and then finish, and those old hands will continue to dawdle. But when Teacher Chen sets up his easel, it takes at least an hour. That's when it starts to have any effect."

Upon hearing this, everyone burst into laughter.

Hearing the laughter, Chen Fan turned around, glanced at it, and chuckled a few times in return.

Looking down at the two little rabbits in the basket at my feet, I saw that they had recovered from their daze and were happily eating alfalfa. Reassured, I continued drawing.

The rice seeds have just been sown in the paddy field. At this time, the paddy fields that have not yet been treated are being plowed. After all the paddy fields have been plowed, base fertilizer has been applied, and the soil has been properly prepared, it will be almost time to transplant the rice seedlings.

A gentle spring breeze blows, and the branches of distant trees sprout tender green buds that sway in the wind. Ripples spread across the water in the paddy fields. The large, blue water buffalo, covered in mud, swings its tail and pulls the heavy plow, tirelessly circling the paddy fields, occasionally letting out a deep moo.

The cattle driver waved a whip, pulled on the long reins, and held the plow to control the direction of the water buffalo.

Chen Fan would occasionally look up at the scenery in the fields, and his mood would become even more cheerful.

Then, the pleasant mood was quickly shattered.

A foul odor wafted from behind, and Chen Fan frowned slightly, turning around with a blank expression.

A caravan of mules and horses came along, and the stench was coming from the carts in the caravan.

A moment later, Zhang Wenliang, who was at the front of the line, grinned and laughed heartily, "Out painting again? Oh, I mean, sketching."

Chen Fan didn't respond to his question. Instead, he looked at the truckload of manure and asked, puzzled, "Don't we have chemical fertilizer? Why are we still using manure?"

Zhang Wenliang simply drove the horse to the side and let the people behind continue walking. He took out a cigarette, lit it, took a puff, and then said, "There's not enough fertilizer. There's only so much, and it's ridiculously expensive. So we'll just use soil fertilizer as base fertilizer, and add some fertilizer as top dressing later, that should be about right."

Chen Fan nodded in realization. In the end, it was still poverty that caused the problem.

Speaking of fertilizers, he finally saw what the legendary "urea pants" looked like.

Currently, urea is still largely imported from Japan. The outer layer is nylon cloth, the inner layer is sealed kraft paper, and then the urea is packaged inside.

The outermost nylon bag, once cut open, could be used to make a pair of pants, but the writing on the bag was impossible to remove. Even if the pants were stained black with ink, the black writing was still clearly visible.

(Urea pants with writing still legible even when stained black)

He had seen online that in rural areas, urea pants were "cadre pants," and only cadres could get their hands on them. They could also buy them from the brigade headquarters for a little over 10 or 20 cents a pair. There was even a rhyme that went something like, "Big cadres and little cadres, each one has a pair of urea pants, some are black, some are blue, but no commune members have any." "Cadres, cadres, wearing cloth pants, the front looks Japanese-made, the back looks urea, guaranteed to have a nitrogen content of 85%."

However, in Lujiawan, no one wears these pants. Some people make them, but they are for others to wear; they don't wear them themselves.

The cheapest homespun cloth cost just over one cent per foot, while better quality cloth cost only two or three cents. Although everyone wore patched clothes, it wasn't really that bad to say there was a shortage of cloth.

So in Lujiawan, no one actually wore these pants with words on them. A few people took the bags, altered them into pants, and then gave them away.

However, nylon bags are also good stuff, more durable than ordinary fabrics, so the remaining bags won't go to waste. As for what to do with them, Chen Fan hasn't figured it out yet. He looked at the truckload of soil, which had almost turned black and was unrecognizable from its original state.

So-called soil fertilizer is actually made by mixing human or animal excrement with some grass, piling it up for fermentation, then drying it in the sun, and breaking it up little by little with tools to form small gravel-sized particles.

When tilling the land, spreading these soil fertilizers in the paddy fields can have a very good fertilizing effect.

In the era before chemical fertilizers, farmers used this kind of soil fertilizer to increase rice production.

This stuff is good, but the smell is really awful.

Chen Fan looked at Zhang Wenliang speechlessly, "Did you park next to me on purpose?"

Zhang Wenliang threw his head back and laughed heartily, then looked at him and said, "Without the stench of manure, there would be no fragrance of grains. Alas, your thinking, young comrade, still needs improvement."

Chen Fan said with a long face, "Whether I want to improve my thinking is one thing, but if you don't leave, I'll paint you in a picture. Everyone else is working, and you're the only one smoking."

He suddenly took two steps back, pretending to look at them, and said, "Sigh, that's how it is. He's pulling a manure cart but doesn't move, and he's even smoking a cigarette."

Zhang Wenliang's face darkened, and he pointed at him, saying, "You scholars are all black-hearted."

He then tossed away his cigarette butt, cracked his whip, and said, "I'm not going to argue with you anymore, let's go."

The old horse neighed and pulled the manure cart forward with all its might.

Chen Fan laughed heartily, as if he had won a great victory, and turned back to continue painting.

But before he could put pen to paper, a distant shout came from the side, "Xiao Chen, Xiao Chen."

Chen Fan turned his head and saw Ye Shubao walking towards him, with Captain Yang beside him and another person on the other side, but he didn't seem to recognize him.

He didn't pay much attention. There were 12 teams in Lujiawan, totaling four or five thousand people. How could he have seen them all? It was normal that he didn't recognize them.

After putting away his paintbrush, Chen Fan clapped his hands, took out a pack of Donghai cigarettes (which he used for social occasions) from his pocket, and went to greet them.

After what Captain Yang said when the boundary markers for the homesteads were being erected last time, he has now learned to keep a low profile. He usually carries two packs of cigarettes in his pocket, offering Donghai cigarettes to his team members and Mudan cigarettes to cadres from the commune.

Before spring plowing, almost no one from the commune came, but once spring plowing began, people started coming down every few days. They were either agricultural technicians from the agricultural technology station or leaders from some unknown department coming to inspect.

There was also an "irrigation station" specifically responsible for irrigating the entire commune's production brigades. They brought in two diesel engines to pump water from the rising river and introduce it into the production teams' irrigation canals to replenish water for all the farmland.

However, it wasn't free. The fee was based on the entire brigade's planting area, at two cents per mu. For 4000 mu, the brigade headquarters spent 800 yuan. Adding the cost of seeds and fertilizer, the brigade headquarters had already spent more than 3,000 yuan before the seedlings were even planted.

Therefore, compared to industry, agriculture also requires a significant initial investment.

Chen Fan quickly greeted them, offered them cigarettes, and then said with a smile, "Captain Ye went to Team 6 again today?"

Ye Shubao seemed quite satisfied with what Chen Fan said. He glanced at the middle-aged man in his thirties next to him and then laughed, "I just went there yesterday, so I won't go today. I'll go check out Team 7 later."

Then he turned around and said, "Let me introduce you. This is the cadre An who is stationed in your Team 6. From today until the autumn harvest, he will be stationed in Team 6. You are also from Team 6, so I'll introduce you to him."

He then said to the smiling cadre An, "I don't need to introduce him, you should know who he is, right?"

An official immediately extended his right hand to Chen Fan and chuckled, "I know you, I know you, Mr. Chen, the talented scholar from Lujiawan, who has published articles in the Yunhu Daily and even obtained a veterinary certificate. I've heard so much about you!"

(End of this chapter)