Go back to the past to plant trees

After the third batch of college students arrived at Saihanba, most of the students assigned this year came. As for the rest, apart from some who really had other things to do, the others were unwilling to come to Saihanba and were trying to find ways to make trouble.

There's nothing we can do about it. Yu Zhenglai and Qu He could only shake their heads helplessly. It's a personal choice, and we can't force anyone to come. However, most of those who didn't come will eventually have to, because the Ministry is in charge of the job assignments this year. It's fine at other times, but this year is the first year of Saihanba's establishment. No matter how strong your connections are, you still have to come here eventually.

Of course, if someone comes back but drags their feet and takes a year or two to report for duty, there's nothing the team can do.

After discussing it, everyone put the matter aside. The most urgent task now is to recruit workers and then start this year's spring afforestation. The seedlings from Northeast China will arrive soon, and we need to prepare the manpower.

When the forest farm announced the start of recruitment, Yu Zhenglai arranged for several people to go to several production brigades in Saihanba to promote the idea that they could work in the forest farm and receive government-provided food rations. This was a great thing for the surrounding villagers, so the news spread quickly.

On the day of the recruitment, hundreds of people came to the forest farm in a bustling crowd, including men, women, young and old. Some were there to apply for jobs, some were there to watch the excitement, and some were there with their families.

Zhao Jinsheng and his wife arrived at the camp. Dozens of people from the Shaquan Brigade wanted to apply for jobs, but Zhao Jinsheng did not go to the headquarters with them. Instead, he brought his wife directly to the camp.

After meeting his elder brother and sister-in-law, Zhao Jinquan took them to the farm headquarters.

"Sister-in-law, when you get there, you can just go and line up. Just apply like everyone else. I'll take my brother in; he's already been accepted into the security department. He just needs to fill out some forms and register his information."

"Okay, you don't need to worry about me, your older brother's matter is more important."

Zhao Jinquan explained, "Sister-in-law, I really can't get involved here. It's fine if I arrange one for my brother, but if I continue to arrange one for you, the leaders in the venue will have a problem with me."

Zhao Jinquan didn't tell anyone about his promotion. Feng Cheng instructed him to wait until the recruitment was over before talking about it. If he told anyone now, a lot of people from Shaquan Brigade would come to him asking him to arrange jobs. No matter how he handled it, Zhao Jinquan would lose face. If he arranged jobs, his superiors would be dissatisfied with him, and he couldn't arrange jobs anyway. If he didn't arrange jobs, his relatives and friends would have opinions. He would be pleasing neither side, especially since Zhao Jinsheng had also joined the forest farm.

So let's not talk about it for now. After the recruitment is over, even if everyone knows he was promoted, we can just say that he was promoted after the recruitment and that he was only temporarily in charge because they couldn't find anyone else to fill the position.

At that time, those who entered the forest farm wouldn't have any complaints about him; on the contrary, they would try to please him because they had already entered and had an acquaintance who was a leader here, so their work here would be very easy. As for those who couldn't get in, there was no need to care about them. If they couldn't get in this year, they shouldn't even think about getting in later. The next few years would be a time when the city would drive out a large number of people. Compared to the countryside, Saihanba at least had a salary, so there wouldn't be a shortage of people coming.

As Zhao Jinquan spoke, he walked towards the farm headquarters.

When they arrived at the entrance of the forest farm, it was already crowded with people. Zhao Tianshan was leading about a dozen boys to maintain order.

After arranging for his sister-in-law to queue up, Zhao Jinquan took Zhao Jinsheng to find Zhao Tianshan.

"Captain, this is my older brother!"

"Oh, you're Zhao Jinsheng, right?"

Zhao Tianshan looked Zhao Jinsheng up and down and found that he was indeed of good height and build, so he nodded in satisfaction.

"Hello Captain Zhao, I am Zhao Jinsheng."

"Jin Quan, you wait here and keep an eye on things while I take him inside to complete the formalities."

"Thank you for your help, Captain."

Zhao Tianshan waved his hand, turned around and walked into the forest farm, and Zhao Jinsheng quickly followed.

Zhao Jinquan stood at the entrance of the forest farm, glanced around, and immediately saw several familiar faces. Some of them greeted him loudly when they saw him, and some even waved for him to come over. If they weren't in line, they might have come over to chat with him.

Seeing this, Zhao Jinquan could only offer a few perfunctory words before leaving. Maintaining order? The situation might have been even more chaotic if he had stayed there.

As Zhao Jinquan entered the forest farm, he saw Meng Yue, Qin Xuemei, Ji Xiurong, and a few others shaking their legs and looking at the crowd outside.

Are you coming to help too?

Zhao Jinquan and the others then asked a question.

Ji Xiurong said, "No, we just came to watch the excitement."

"By the way, I just saw Captain Zhao bring someone in. Was that your older brother?"

"Ah."

Qin Xuemei said, "Your brother's physique is a bit of a waste for guarding the gate; he should be planting trees and creating forests."

Meng Yue disagreed, saying, "The forest farm's security department doesn't just guard the gate; they also patrol the mountains to prevent timber theft. There aren't any big trees in Saihanba yet, but once they grow up, there will inevitably be people stealing and logging them. That's when the security department will come in handy."

"Actually, tree planting only takes a short period of time. Once the afforestation begins, everyone in the forest farm has to go up and work; no one is an exception."

"That's true."

Several girls were discussing their older brother's job, and Zhao Jinquan didn't know how to respond, so he could only awkwardly smile to the side.

"Jin Quan, I just saw several girls applying for the job. Do you know any of them?"

At this moment, Ji Xiurong suddenly looked at Zhao Jinquan with a smile, her expression full of meaning.

“No,” Zhao Jinquan shook his head violently, “I didn’t see anyone I recognized.”

"You must not have looked closely. I saw several really pretty girls when I first arrived. You must know them."

"No, I really don't know her. There aren't many girls in our brigade, and I haven't seen any from other brigades either."

Looking at Ji Xiurong, who was giggling, Qin Xuemei laughed and said, "Xiurong, stop teasing Jinquan. Didn't you see his face is all red?"

Ji Xiurong: "Alright, I'm not teasing you anymore. You're such a grown-up, I didn't expect you to be so shy. This won't do, you'll never get a girlfriend."

"Right, Meng Yue?"

Meng Yue looked at Ji Xiurong and couldn't help but roll her eyes. She wanted to curse him, but then she felt that would only make him more smug, so she turned her face away and refused to look at him.

Zhao Jinquan stole a glance at Meng Yue and saw that she was a little unhappy. His heart sank and he panicked.

Before Zhao Jinquan could think further, Zhao Tianshan arrived with Zhao Jinsheng.

"Jin Quan, everything is settled. You can come and report for work in a few days."

"Thank you, Captain. You've gone to a lot of trouble."

"fine."

"By the way, your brother's dormitory can't be arranged with us. He's from the security department, so he needs to live here at the farm headquarters. That way, if the farm needs someone, they can find him right away."

"That's fine, we'll stay at the farm headquarters."

With the job secured, accommodation became less of a concern, as the campsite also consisted of dugouts with little improvement in environment.