Go back to the past to plant trees

"Have you finished your soy milk? Now you can have some tofu pudding."

Zhao Jinquan opened the lid of the wooden bucket, looked at the solidified tofu inside, and asked.

"I'm done drinking, I'm done drinking."

Shen Mengyin had been staring at the wooden bucket, and upon hearing Zhao Jinquan's words, she quickly replied.

"Then put the bowl over here, I'll make you some tofu pudding," Zhao Jinquan said, picking up a spoon and serving Shen Mengyin a bowl first.

The steaming hot, white tofu pudding was placed in a bowl, and the aroma of tofu pudding wafted out. Shen Mengyin happily picked up the bowl.

“I don’t know how you guys eat this tofu pudding. Brother Feng said that some people eat it sweet, some eat it savory, some places only put salt, some places put gravy, and some put pickled vegetables or something. I don’t know your tastes, so I didn’t make any of those things. If you want to eat it, you can make it yourself.”

Shen Mengyin said, "I'll just add salt, it'll taste great with salt."

"Jin Quan, you just focus on your own things. You don't need to worry about us. As long as we have food, that's fine. There's no need to be too picky."

"Okay, then you guys do it."

As Zhao Jinquan spoke, he and Sui Zhichao scooped tofu pudding into the tofu rack. They had made three jin of soybeans today, and had eaten some of the soy milk and tofu pudding. There were probably less than ten jin of tofu left.

It looks like a lot, but there are also many people in Bashang, a total of thirteen people. This amount of tofu is only enough for everyone to have one meal. After all, this is not the future, where tofu is just a side dish. Tonight's meal will be tofu as the main dish.

After more than ten minutes, Zhao Jinquan picked up the stone used to press the tofu.

"The tofu is ready now, we can eat it tonight."

Looking at the white tofu, Ji Xiurong said, "It looks pretty simple."

Zhao Jinquan said, "If you know how, it's not difficult."

After the tofu was made, and the soy milk and tofu pudding were eaten, everyone had nothing much to do in the cafeteria, so they all went back to do their own things.

Meng Yue and Qin Xuemei went directly to the laboratory, while Ji Xiurong went to find Yan Xiangli; the two of them were going to the weather station to observe.

As for Shen Mengyin, he went straight back to his dormitory. Today, Wu Yansheng and Na Da Kui went to the afforestation area to look at the seedlings. Wu Yansheng didn't like Zhao Jinquan very much, so after learning that he was making tofu, he left the camp with disdain. Not only did he leave, but he also brought Na Da Kui with him.

Since that drinking day, Da Kui and Wu Yansheng's relationship has become better and better. Wu Yansheng is good at boasting and making empty promises, telling Da Kui all sorts of stories about his experiences in Beijing, which makes Da Kui completely bewildered.

Adding to the fact that Feng Cheng was very rude to Yan Xiangli when they had a fight that day, Da Kui developed some resentment towards Feng Cheng, and also felt unhappy with Zhao Jinquan, Feng Cheng's lackey.

However, Zhao Jinquan didn't care about that. Da Kui was strong, but so what? If Da Kui dared to fight him, he would go back to the village and get more people to beat Da Kui to the ground and show him what it meant to have more people.

"Jin Quan, where are you going later? Are you going to work at the nursery again?"

Seeing that everyone had left, Sui Zhichao asked Zhao Jinquan, who was standing to the side.

Zhao Jinquan said, "I'm not going. The team leader and Lao Wei are both at the nursery today, so I won't go. It just so happens that the girls still have some carpentry work to finish, so I'll take some time to do it today."

"Then I'll do carpentry with you! I'm just idling around anyway, and if I learn from you, I can make something myself someday."

“Your idea is right. There are so many things needed for this house. We can’t just have someone else make them all, that would cost too much money! You’re going to settle down in Bashang in the future, so you can make all the cabinets, tables and stuff yourself.”

"I didn't think that much about it. I just wanted to make some little gadgets."

Sui Zhichao and Zhao Jinquan walked into the dugout while chatting and laughing.

After the college students arrived at the dam, their initial excitement and dreams faded, and life began to become dull. They weren't exactly idle every day, but they were pretty much doing nothing.

With plenty of manpower at the camp, the rest of the time is quite leisurely, except when there is work to be done. This is not like working in a factory or office where wind, rain, thunder, and lightning do not affect the work. Field work is cyclical, with ups and downs. When it is busy, it is very busy and tiring, but when it is idle, it is equally idle, relaxed, and boring.

Zhao Tianshan said he was going to take a few people out to survey the terrain around the camp, but this didn't start until a few days later. Since the work wasn't urgent, they went every day or two to draw maps, collect soil and water, and bring back any wild saplings or seeds they found on the dam so that Qin Xuemei could cultivate them in the laboratory.

“I’ve been looking around for a while and found a few places suitable for large-scale mechanized afforestation, but they’re a bit far from the camp. We didn’t have time to explore them before we had to come back.”

Zhao Tianshan and Feng Cheng were discussing the terrain survey: "I plan to go down to the dam in a while and bring two horses with me. We can ride directly there so that we won't waste too much time on the way."

Feng Cheng nodded: "That's a good idea. If we just walk, we can only survey a limited area, and walking non-stop all day is very tiring."

"I've been traveling around Bashang recently, and to be honest, the environment here is really bad. There's a lot of wind and sand. You can walk around and suddenly a sandstorm will blow over. It's not big, just a gust, but it will leave you covered in dust."

Feng Cheng said, "The sandstorms in Saihanba are not too severe. Most of the sandstorms here come from Inner Mongolia. Although Saihanba is also desertifying, it has not been long and is not too serious yet. If it has been long, it will be even more difficult to plant trees on the dam."

Although the wind and sand are very strong in Saihanba, not much of it is actually from Saihanba itself. After all, the trees in Saihanba were almost completely cut down during the War of Resistance Against Japan, which was only a little over ten years ago. Most of the wind and sand here comes from Inner Mongolia. If you peel back the top layer of sand, there is actually soil underneath, but the soil is covered by sand. If this situation is not resolved, the soil underneath will inevitably become desert. The land in Saihanba has already begun to become desert, although the process is slow. But if it is not controlled, in a few decades, Saihanba will become just another desert.

The situation in Saihanba is different from that in Shaanxi, Gansu, and Xinjiang. Here, there is mud, so trees can take root. As long as the trees grow, the top layer of sand will gradually become soil. This is unlike those places that have already become desertified, where the sand is highly mobile and needs to be stabilized before trees can be planted.

There are areas in Saihanba that are completely desertified, but Saihanba is a very large area, and it would take a lot of time and money to remediate those desertified areas. Therefore, the current afforestation and tree planting in Saihanba is not in the completely desertified areas, but in areas with soil that are easy to plant trees in. As long as the trees are planted in these areas and survive, then the work can be gradually carried out in the desertified areas, and the problem of those sandy lands can be completely solved.

Feng Cheng didn't know much about desertification control, but he knew the direction and how to manage it. Once the mechanized forest farm was on track, Feng Cheng planned to apply to manage the desertification control efforts. After all, compared to people of this era, Feng Cheng knew more about desertification control, even though he learned it all from Douyin (TikTok). Knowing the direction was always much faster than wandering around aimlessly.