Go back to the past to plant trees

Originally, Feng Cheng only intended to offer some suggestions to Yu Zheng, but he didn't expect that the task would end up falling on him. This left Feng Cheng somewhat helpless, but he didn't intend to refuse. As Yu Zheng said, if the living conditions of the employees could be guaranteed as much as possible in the early stages, then the employees could be retained as much as possible, which was especially important for the construction of Saihanba. Similarly, if the living standards were better in the early stages, the physical strain on the employees would be less, and the employees would have fewer injuries and illnesses when they got older.

Of course, the main reason is that the nursery's work has also gotten back on track, so Feng Cheng's departure won't have much of an impact.

"Okay, then I'll take this job."

Qu He nodded in satisfaction. "That's more like it. There's no such thing as being picky about work. Once you've been assigned a task, just do it diligently."

Feng Cheng said, "Director Qu, Director Yu, I've taken this job, but you have to coordinate the funding and building materials needed to build the living area for me, otherwise it will be very difficult for me to do this job."

"Don't worry about that. I will try my best to coordinate for you, but I can't guarantee how much I can get. You know the situation in our country. It's very difficult to buy a large quantity if we ask for it on short notice. What you need to do is to build the living and office areas for me, even if the materials are not enough."

"I try my best."

"Okay, I believe you won't let me down."

Looking at Qu He's encouraging words, Feng Cheng felt somewhat helpless. It seems that this kind of spiritual encouragement is not exclusive to leaders in later generations!

"Besides this, is there anything else you'd like to mention?"

Yu Zheng asked again, and he found that Feng Cheng could indeed offer some constructive suggestions.

"If there's anything else, it's the issue of next year's afforestation targets."

"Director, what is our afforestation target for next year?"

"There are no requirements from above, but since we're doing mechanized afforestation, we should cover at least a thousand acres!"

"More than 1,000 mu (approximately 67 hectares), and at 350 saplings per mu, that means at least 350,000 saplings are needed. Where will these saplings come from? Will they be sent from various forest farms in Northeast China?"

Yu Zhenglai nodded, "Yes, the ministry has already contacted the major forest farms in Northeast China, and they will send the saplings to us next spring."

Feng Cheng shook his head. "Director, the saplings from Weichang County can't even survive in the Bashang area. How can they survive in the Northeast?"

"this…"

Yu Zhenglai had considered this issue and had reported it to his superiors, but this was an era of rapid development and high-speed progress, and the leaders all hoped to achieve results as soon as possible. Therefore, they asked Yu Zhenglai to solve the problem of survival rate in production.

Yu Zhenglai's opinion will not be accepted by the higher-ups, nor will anyone else. The Saihanba Forest Farm has invested so much money. Are you going to tell them that they should wait until the Saihanba nursery is built and the seedlings have grown before starting large-scale afforestation? If you say that, you'll be in for a scolding! And even if you are scolded, it won't change the outcome. You still have to do what the higher-ups require.

Feng Cheng said, "Director, there are more than 300,000 saplings. Based on the survival rate of trees we planted before, most of these saplings will probably be wasted. At most, three to five thousand will survive. If this really happens, it will be a huge blow to everyone's confidence, and it will be difficult to explain to the higher-ups."

Yu Zhenglai sighed and said, "But the ministry has already made arrangements, and it's impossible to change them."

Feng Cheng fell silent. To be honest, there was no solution to this problem. The Saihanba Mechanical Forest Farm had invested so much and coordinated so many people to come. The leaders certainly hoped to see results as soon as possible. But the reality was that if they followed the leaders' instructions, this first step would most likely fail.

Li Zhong, who had been silent all along, spoke up at this moment, "Actually, there is a solution to this problem."

"I have a way, what way?" Feng Cheng suddenly looked up at Li Zhong.

Li Zhong said, “I looked at the area of ​​the Saihanba Mechanical Forest Farm. We also have a piece of land down below the dam. The environment there is not as harsh as that on the dam. We have also done afforestation there in recent years, and a lot of trees have been planted and they have all survived. We can plant the seedlings that we transported from Northeast China there. They should all survive. Of course, we also need to plant on the dam, but we can't do it on a large scale. We can plant 20,000 to 30,000 trees and see how the survival rate is. If they survive, we can expand the scale later. If they don't survive, we can reduce the scale or stop planting altogether and only use seedlings grown using the full-light seedling cultivation method for afforestation.”

"Of course, this needs to be reported to the leaders and their approval is required."

Upon hearing this, Feng Cheng immediately nodded, "This method is good. It not only completes the task assigned by the leaders, but also avoids wasting the saplings transported from the Northeast. As long as our afforestation area remains unchanged, there will not be much difference between the area below and above the dam, since it all belongs to the Saihanba Mechanical Forest Farm."

Yu Zhenglai nodded. Orders cannot be refused, but there are ways to be flexible in the specific execution methods.

"I'll report this to the leadership later. It shouldn't be a big problem. But Feng Cheng, you need to get things sorted out at the nursery as soon as possible. Once the forest farm is established, it will need millions of saplings every year. You need to get that done quickly."

"That's no problem. As long as the manpower, machinery, and materials are in place, it's quick to establish new nurseries. Next year, I'll expand my nursery three times and establish two or three more nurseries in other places. In less than three years, the forest farm will be able to supply its own seedlings."

"By the way, speaking of which, I have something else to tell you, Director. The saplings in my nursery are all larch, and I'd like to plant some other trees. I'd appreciate it if you could help me coordinate that."

What kind of tree do you want to plant?

“I want to introduce the Scots pine, the Scots pine of the Lesser Khingan Mountains.”

Yu Zhenglai said, "Sure, I'll get the Northeast Forest Farm to coordinate it for you."

"Oh, right, there's also the water pump. Full-sun seedling cultivation requires a lot of water. If we expand the nursery next year, we'll need to use the water pump. Otherwise, relying solely on manual watering won't be enough."

"Okay, I'll arrange it all for you. I'll buy you a few water pumps."

"Is there anything else?"

"temporarily unavailable."

"Old Qu, Engineer Li, is there anything else you'd like to add?"

Yu Zheng looked at the two people next to him.

"Nothing."

“If not, then so be it. Feng Cheng, once you’re on the dam, choose a location for the office area as soon as possible. Once you’ve chosen one, let us know so we can go up and take a look. If it’s suitable, we can start arranging the construction. It’s only July now. If we work hard, we should be able to finish building some houses before winter.”

"Okay, I'll go up and make the arrangements."

Speaking of winter, Feng Cheng thought that winter would come earlier this year and would be particularly cold, so planting trees might have to be done earlier this year.

Feng Cheng chatted with Yu Zheng and a few others for a while about the lives of college students in Bashang before leaving the office.