Go back to the past to plant trees

The next morning, just as dawn was breaking, Zhao Jinquan led his horse out the door.

It took Zhao Jinquan an hour to reach the campsite on the dam.

Now, apart from Yu Dechang cooking, everyone else in the camp is working.

"Brother Yu, so early."

After Zhao Jinquan tied up his horse, he greeted Yu Dechang.

After working for two hours yesterday, Zhao Jinquan and several other workers on the dam got to know each other. Everyone was a hard worker and no one was lazy, so no one disliked anyone else.

Yu Dechang said, "It's getting late. I've been working for over an hour. You should hurry up and get to the fields too. The sun isn't too strong yet, so it's the perfect time to work. It'll be harder to work once the sun gets stronger."

Zhao Jinquan replied, "I'll put the things inside first, and I'll be right there."

When Zhao Jinquan arrived at the camp with a shovel, everyone was already working enthusiastically.

Feng Cheng was also working. This morning, he was woken up by these people before he was fully awake, and they told him to work as much as possible before the sun came up, so he could take a break when the sun was strong at noon.

So Feng Cheng got up especially early today, around 5 a.m. to start working. He had been reading until after 11 p.m. yesterday before going to sleep.

Looks like I need to go to bed early tonight, otherwise I won't get enough sleep.

After Zhao Jinquan joined, the progress accelerated significantly.

At noon, Feng Cheng discussed with everyone how to divide the work in the afternoon: three people would shovel the soil, and two people would make ridges and break up the mud.

The work of ridging and breaking up the soil is very meticulous. You have to break up the soil into small pieces and then pick out the grass roots and stones from the soil. This work needs to be done very carefully and can't be done quickly.

In the afternoon, Zhao Jinquan and Feng Cheng went to do this work, while the others continued to shovel and turn the soil as usual.

"Leader Feng, do you think trees can grow successfully in this dam area?"

When the two were working together, Zhao Jinquan couldn't help but ask Feng Cheng a question.

"Why can't they grow? This is Saihanba. It used to be a royal hunting ground. It used to be full of trees and wild animals. If so many trees could grow here then, they can definitely grow here now."

"The reason why the trees can't be planted yet is simply because we haven't found the right method. Once we find the method, the trees will be able to grow."

“But many people in our village say that trees can no longer grow here,” Zhao Jinquan couldn’t help but say. “They all say that the feng shui here is gone. This used to be a royal hunting ground, and there was a dragon vein to maintain it, so the trees could live. But now that the emperor is gone, the dragon vein has naturally dissipated, so trees can no longer grow here.”

"Bullshit."

Feng Cheng couldn't help but complain, but he also knew that such remarks were very popular in rural areas. Unless you could grow trees that could survive on the dam, they would only believe this.

“We must believe in science. Planting trees requires scientific knowledge. If believing in feng shui can make trees grow, why don’t the leaders send a feng shui master over here? Surely we can’t be such a big country that we can’t even find a feng shui master!”

Zhao Jinquan was stunned, then scratched his head and chuckled, "That's true!"

Feng Cheng said, "Don't go around saying things like that. No one cares what you say in the village, but it's different outside. Many leaders have come here. Don't make a fuss about what you say and lose your job."

Upon hearing that his superior disliked these remarks, Zhao Jinquan immediately assured him, "Don't worry, Boss Feng, I definitely won't go around saying it. I'm just telling you; I won't pay any attention to anyone else."

Feng Cheng nodded. "That's for the best. Working outside is different from working in the village. Nobody cares about you in the village, but outside, a lot of people care about this."

Feng Cheng thought about the turmoil a few years later, when you really had to be careful what you said, because you could be labeled and criticized if you weren't careful.

Taking the opportunity to remind Zhao Jinquan, Feng Cheng was also reminding himself that he also needed to be careful. Because of the freedom of speech in his previous life, he sometimes spoke without thinking. He didn't feel that some of his words were wrong, but he might be dragged out and criticized one day because of them.

"By the way, Jin Quan, how old are you?" Feng Cheng asked.

Zhao Jinquan said, "I'm 20 this year."

"From 41?"

"No, it's from 42."

Feng Cheng nodded. "Oh, 19 in actual age, 20 in traditional Chinese age reckoning."

"Don't call me Leader Feng anymore, it sounds weird. Just call me Feng Cheng."

Feng Cheng was satisfied with Zhao Jinquan's work over the past two days. He was a very diligent person. Once the nursery was completed, Feng Cheng would have him go to the bureau to complete his onboarding procedures.

Since they'll be together for a long time to come, Feng Cheng needs to learn more about him.

Zhao Jinquan added, "I'll still call you Brother Feng! It's a bit impolite to call you by your name directly, my dad will beat me if he finds out."

"Whatever you like," Feng Cheng said, not caring about a title.

Feng Cheng's work speed was not fast, only a little more than half that of Zhao Jinquan. There was nothing Feng Cheng could do about it. Whether in his previous life or the original owner who died, he had not done much of this kind of work. In his previous life, he had never done it at all. Although the original owner also planted a tree, it was all about digging holes, planting the sapling, and then carrying water and watering it. He had never done work like turning the soil and making seedbeds.

Having never done it before, not only was he slow, but he also didn't do it very well. Zhao Jinquan often had to help with rework.

However, neither Zhao Jinquan nor Yu Dechang cared about this matter, because Feng Cheng was a college student and a cadre. He was not originally supposed to do this kind of work, and it was already very good that he could work with everyone.

For the next two days, Feng Cheng worked hard with everyone in the nursery. What Feng Cheng originally thought would take several days to finish was completed in three days thanks to everyone's efforts.

After finishing, Feng Cheng had everyone carefully go through it again, making the soil as fine as possible, and then drove a ring of stakes around the nursery to install windbreaks.

After all this was done, the seeds from the bureau hadn't arrived yet. Feng Cheng thought for a moment and then organized everyone to dig a large water storage pit next to the nursery.

Because we need to choose full-sunlight seedling cultivation, the nursery needs a lot of water. If we fetch water when we need it, it might be too late. Since everyone has free time, we can build a water storage pit next to the nursery. We can fill it with water when we have time, put a mat on top to block the sun, and then take water from it when we need it. Although there will be some waste, it will make watering much more convenient.

Moreover, with this water storage pit, water can be collected when it rains. In spring and summer when there is plenty of rain, this water storage pit will save Feng Cheng many trips.

Originally, we just wanted to make a small pond, but everyone felt that one wasn't enough, and since we had nothing else to do, we dug a few more.

When the seeds were delivered, four water pits had already been dug next to the nursery. Each pit could hold about six truckloads of water. Once all four pits were filled, the nursery wouldn't have to worry about water for two or three days.