1994: Vegetable farmers strike back

Chapter 4: Men Must Stand Up
The rain stopped for a while during lunch, but it rained heavily again in the afternoon. Several people strongly requested Li Xiu to stay at home and rest before going out to work.

When walking towards the vegetable field, Chen Jiazhi saw Li Mingkun and took two quick steps. "Old man, how are the vegetable prices now?"

Li Mingkun is a few years older than Chen Jiazhi. He has also been growing vegetables all his life. He is diligent but timid. Fortunately, his son is brave and eventually accumulated a lot of wealth by growing vegetables and buying houses and shops.

However, his son Li Jun is still in his hometown and will not come out until he graduates from elementary school.

Li Mingkun turned around and said, "Vegetable prices have been good recently. Last night, choy sum was selling for 0.90 yuan per jin, and loofah has gone up to 1.2 yuan per jin."

Chen Jiazhi understood: "This vegetable price is very good."

"Yes, but there aren't many dishes. If we could serve some dishes now, it would be really interesting."

Li Mingkun seemed to be afraid that Chen Jiazhi would borrow money, so he was unwilling to say more on this topic. After chatting for a few words, he made an excuse to go to work.

Chen Jiazhi felt a little sad.

In fact, the two families have a good relationship. If there is anything happening at home, they will invite each other to have dinner together, and they will lend each other money to help buy a house.

Uh~ The one who borrowed money from him was not Li Mingkun, but his son Li Jun. Li Jun was generous and was also the best at growing vegetables among the younger generation.

These vegetable farmers are used to paying in full when buying houses and shops, so they have missed many opportunities to make money.

But he didn't expect that Li Mingkun was now afraid of him like a tiger.

The reputation is a bit bad~
In the afternoon, the rain fell intermittently, just like an old man with prostatitis.

Chen Jiazhi spent the whole afternoon cleaning the ditch, and only went home when Brother Yi yelled at him at the door.

The fellow villagers were all surprised. It was the first time they saw Chen Jiazhi come back so late. Those who knew him joked and talked about him from time to time.

"The scholar has finally gotten the hang of it. You should keep it up."

"I was forced into a corner. If Chen Jiafang hadn't come back this morning, I don't know what would have happened now."

"If you ask me, Liu Minghua went a bit too far. He agreed to lend it to me for a month, but he came to my house half a month later and demanded it back. How could I have time to prepare?"

They were all in the same house, not far away from each other, and one could hear the conversation if one paid a little attention. When Chen Jiazhi was still dozens of meters away from the house, he saw a woman coming out of the house on the far left and cursing at the people who were talking.

"How have we gone too far? Paying back debts is only natural!"

"You don't know who Chen Jiazhi is. He's so lazy and disorganized. Let alone a month, he might not be able to pay it back even if you give him six months!"

"Only my Liu Minghua is kind and honest, so he lent the money to Chen Jiazhi. If anyone of you is willing to lend him the money, please lend it to him!"

When they heard the word "borrow money", no one said a word.

At this time, the second sister Chen Jiafang also came out, with her hands on her hips: "Jia Suzhen, are you really so demanding of money? You blocked the door and bullied pregnant women. Can't we pay you back? You just came and did something so extreme. People like you will give birth to a son and his asshole will be rotten!"

Jia Suzhen is Liu Minghua’s wife, who is about the same age as Chen Jiazhi. Although she is relentless, she is no match for the second sister in an argument.

As for fighting, Liu Minghua is such a coward that he can't even handle his wife, let alone come out to fight. He is still hiding in the house like a turtle.

Yi Dinggan and Chen Jiazhi had already protected Chen Jiafang, and would occasionally help out.

No matter who is right, we must help our own family at this time.

Jia Suzhen was no match for Liu Minghua with her two fists, and finally had to go home to bully Liu Minghua. When every family had dinner, they could hear Liu Minghua being scolded.

"Jia Suzhen has gone too far. The man can't stand up for himself. It's hard for this family to have a great future."

Chen Jiafang, the second sister, heard Liu Minghua next door speaking in a disdainful manner, looking at Yi Dinggan and Chen Jiazhi from time to time. Yi Dinggan refused to give in: "Why are you looking at me? Don't you know whether I can stand up or not?"

Chen Jiazhi also quickly said: "Li Xiu can also testify for me. My son is about to be born."

"You're not doing anything right every day. You don't learn good things, but only learn bad things from your brother-in-law."

Chen Jiafang cursed and was immune to Yi Dinggan's dirty jokes, but she expressed her dissatisfaction with Chen Jiazhi. It was not like this before.

Li Xiu also gave him a hateful look.

Chen Jiazhi smiled at her and said, "You'll get used to it in the future. He has a lot of problems and there are treasures waiting to be discovered."

After dinner, Li Xiu rushed to wash the dishes. She felt bad for staying at home without working all day, so her second sister had to go with her to watch over her.

Yi Dinggan set up the chessboard and planned to play chess. There was no radio or television, so playing chess and cards were the few entertainment activities in the market.

At this time, Chen Jiazhi was looking at the pesticides and fertilizers piled up in the corner of the house, including fungicides, insecticides, urea, compound fertilizers... but most of them came from his second sister's house.

"Brother, let's play chess. What's so interesting about pesticides and fertilizers?" Yi Dinggan shouted.

Chen Jiazhi frowned as he looked at the pesticides and fertilizers. "Brother Yi, where did you buy this fertilizer?"

"It's in Dashi Town. There's a newly opened agricultural supply store. They're having a promotion and the prices are cheap." Yi Dinggan also came over: "Any questions?"

"Don't buy this kind of fertilizer anymore. There's something wrong with the nutrient content."

Yi Dinggan grabbed a handful of fertilizer from an opened bag and said, "This looks fine."

Chen Jiazhi pointed to the total nutrient content on the packaging bag and said, "This total nutrient content of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium is definitely not ≥45%. It also includes trace elements."

Yi Dinggan also saw the explanation on the packaging bag: sulfur, magnesium...

After Chen Jiazhi's explanation, I realized that the manufacturer had changed the concept.

If farmers use fertilizer according to this content, they will definitely not achieve the expected results. If they are not careful, it may cause serious economic losses or even a complete loss of harvest.

Fertilizer adulteration is commonplace, but this is the first time Yi Dinggan has heard of the concept substitution.

"You really can't be greedy for cheap things."

"It can be used, but it doesn't have enough nutrients. You need to increase the amount." Chen Jiazhi asked, "Is this agricultural supply store privately owned?"

Yi Dinggan: "Well, the country has now relaxed its policy and allowed private agricultural supply stores to be opened. This boss is a bit unconventional and can get a lot of imported goods."

Chen Jiazhi's eyes lit up and he took note of this information. In addition to fertilizers, Chen Jiazhi was not very satisfied with pesticides.

Red Sun Phosphate, Dichlorvos, Sannong Leguo, Lanling Methamidophos, Jiangyin Carbendazim...most of them are pesticides that were banned or restricted in later generations.

In particular, methyl parathion, a highly toxic organophosphorus pesticide, is used to control cabbage loopers and diamondback moths. Its highly toxic residues have caused many poisoning incidents.

However, because it is cheap, effective and relatively commonly used, its production and sale were not completely banned until 2008.

Some farmers even mix methyl parathion and dichlorvos, commonly known as double enemy, which has a stronger insecticidal effect but increases toxicity.

Chen Jiazhi looked at the pesticides and thought to himself that this might also be his advantage: he knew how to grow safer and higher-quality vegetables.

(End of this chapter)