Time Travel: Volume 1! Starting from a Small Mountain Village

"you…"

Miao Dashan pointed at Long Lifan, his mouth agape, unable to utter a word for a long time, before slumping dejectedly into his seat. He was furious that he, a village party secretary, had been lectured by a mere young girl.

"Secretary Miao, don't be angry. I didn't mean anything by it," Long Lifan said as she walked over to Secretary Miao's desk.

"If you feel that what I said hurt you, I apologize. But what I want to say is: no one wants to live a hard life. Did you do it voluntarily? Of course not, you were forced into it."

"Perhaps you think things are fine now, much better than what you've experienced before, which is why you're so opposed. But you have no idea that if things continue like this, the East Bay Brigade will run into problems."

"Long Zhiqing, what did you say? What kind of problem could this be?" Lin Guodong was startled, feeling that Long Zhiqing's words were a bit alarmist, so he interjected and asked.

"I don't know if you've noticed, but in recent years each of you has been receiving less and less food."

"Yes!" Lin Guodong and several other cadres nodded. "Why is that?"

"Because the number of newborns has increased!" During this period, Long Lifan, as the women's director, also learned about some things in the village.

“The idea that as long as the land is cultivated well, people will not go hungry, as Secretary Miao does, is completely wrong. The population is increasing, but the land is not increasing. In the end, the lives of the commune members will only become more and more difficult. The commune members are all guarding the fields, and in order to increase the yield, they have to weed the fields again and again. But even if they can increase the yield a little, it is far from enough.”

“The villagers have placed all their hopes on the land. If there is any natural disaster, all their hard work will be in vain. Secretary Miao, you have a son, right? Do you really want your son and grandson to live the same hard life you did before?”

After Long Lifan finished speaking, everyone else stared at her in silence, seemingly lost in thought.

Actually, Dongwan Brigade had made changes before. At that time, Lin Guodong led the effort to raise chickens, but a chicken plague shattered their hopes. Not only did their hard work go to waste, but they also faced criticism from many villagers.

If it weren't for the large number of people with the surname Lin in the Dongwan Brigade, he would probably have been dismissed by the members long ago as the brigade leader.

After that, the village officials never mentioned the matter again. Now, however, Long Zhiqing has brought it up again, and none of them know what to do.

Lin Guodong coughed a few times and stepped forward, saying, "This matter concerns the interests of all the commune members, so we need to discuss it in a meeting." Since it was the first time Long Zhiqing had made a suggestion, Lin Guodong didn't want to directly refuse, for fear of hurting her feelings.

"Alright!" Long Lifan nodded. She didn't expect the brigade headquarters to agree immediately after she brought it up. She was doing this to lay the groundwork for the future.

"Oh, right, I have another suggestion!" Long Lifan continued, recalling what she had seen recently.

"Anything else?" Lin Guodong's heart skipped a beat. He had just said one thing and started arguing with Secretary Miao. He wondered what would happen with the next suggestion.

"Hmm." Long Lifan said with a serious expression, "Recently I saw that the commune members were putting manure directly on the corn roots as fertilizer, which is not good."

“I think we can collect the manure together and ferment it to turn it into organic fertilizer, which can not only promote the growth of corn, but also increase the yield.”

"Huh? What fermentation? What organic fertilizer is this?!" Lin Guodong heard Long Zhiqing spouting words he couldn't understand.

"Ahem," Long Lifan then realized that they hadn't understood a single word she had said. Feeling a little embarrassed, she carefully explained the fermentation process of farmyard manure to everyone.

“Is this reliable?”

Lin Guodong was still confused after listening to Long Lifan's explanation, but he understood the last sentence: doing this could increase corn yield. So he tentatively asked.

"It should be much better than just piling up manure like you do. I've been thinking about this ever since I saw that you, the brigade leader, only brought back 500 jin of fertilizer from the commune that day."

"Well, since you asked me to give suggestions, I've already said them."

"Is this stuff troublesome to prepare? How long does it take?" The corn seedlings in the field are already over 20 centimeters tall, which is the perfect time to fertilize them. The fertilizer that was brought back last time has been distributed to various teams for fertilization in the past few days, but the amount is too small, so they are using manure water to fertilize the corn.

"It's not exactly troublesome, but we need to dig a large pool first, add some fermenting materials, and let it ferment for about a week." Long Lifan carefully recalled what she had seen in her previous life.

"Captain, you're not really going to listen to her, are you?" The squad leader of the fourth team knew from the captain's expression that the other party was definitely tempted, so he quickly spoke up.

“Yes, Captain. We can’t listen to Long, the educated youth. She’s from the city, how would she know how to farm?” Third Captain Chen Datong was also unwilling to listen to the orders of an educated youth.

When it comes to farming and fertilizing, they've been farming since they were children and consider themselves experts. Now, they're being asked to listen to a former educated youth who's never even set foot in the fields, so they're definitely not happy about it.

Lin Guodong was indeed tempted; the only thing on his mind now was increasing production. He frowned slightly when he heard two squad leaders object.

He turned his gaze to Secretary Miao, only to find him still slumped in his chair, seemingly lost in thought about what had just happened. Then he looked at Secretary Zhou, who was also silent.

Unable to get a response from either of them, Lin Guodong was extremely frustrated. He genuinely felt that Long Zhiqing's suggestion was worth a try; failure wouldn't be a big deal, it would just be a waste of effort without much loss.

"I think it's best if Lin Guohao and Lin Guowei each select ten people to build a fermentation tank as Long Zhiqing suggested, since none of us know the feasibility of his proposal."

“We will make a comparison, and if it proves that what Long Zhiqing said is correct, then we will promote it to the whole team.”

"I have no objection," the captains of teams three and four immediately stated, since they weren't the ones being asked to do it anyway.

As for Lin Guohao and Lin Guowei, they had no choice but to agree. "Then, Long Zhiqing, you shouldn't go up the mountain these next two days. First, help them build the fermentation tank."

Lin Guodong was worried they wouldn't understand, so he kept Long Zhiqing behind. After all, they knew nothing about fermentation. Long Lifan immediately nodded in agreement; she wasn't going to do the work herself, she could just arrange for someone to do it according to her requirements.

The matter was settled, and everyone went their separate ways to do their own thing. Long Lifan followed the two squad leaders to find a suitable location. Considering the unpleasant smell of manure, she specifically chose a low-lying area far away from people.

Miao Dashan was absent-minded all day, his mind constantly replaying Long Zhiqing's words. That night, he tossed and turned in bed, unable to sleep.

"Do you have lice on your body? You keep moving around."

Miao's wife, watching her husband toss and turn, couldn't help but speak up.

Hearing his wife's words, Miao Dashan moved his body to the side and asked after a moment, "Wife, do you want to live a hard life?"

"What's wrong with you? You've been acting strange ever since the meeting." Liu Cuie wondered if something was wrong with her husband, otherwise why would he ask her this?

"Answer my question first!" Secretary Miao did not answer his wife's question and insisted on the previous topic.

"Who would want to live a hard life? Only a fool would do that."

“Yes, only a fool would want to live a hard life.” Miao Dashan’s face showed a bitter expression as he murmured, repeating his wife’s words over and over again.