Chapter 249 Opportunities and People's Congress Representatives

Time flies, and it is spring of 1961 again.

In spring, after a winter of rest and recuperation, the capital city bursts with vitality, with flowers blooming everywhere. The entire capital city is dotted with flowers, and every corner is filled with the scent of flowers.

Spring in Beijing is a picture of everything coming back to life. Countless writers such as Lao She have used their unique writing style to describe the beautiful scene of this ancient city in spring.

There are poems:
"The spring breeze blows gently through the alleys of Beijing, and the streets are filled with flowers and green willows.

Willow catkins are flying everywhere, heralding the spring, breaking the dusty city dream.

Willow trees are used for fishing, wild geese are returning, and the spirit of spring fills my heart.

Flowers bloom in full bloom, illuminating the world, and the bright spring light shines across the world.

Strolling along the clear waters of the imperial city, you will feel the feast of spring.

Flowers are blooming in the capital, and the spring breeze brings the fragrance of flowers.

The blooming spring flowers reflect the Red Building, and the dancing swallows accompany the spring flow.

The continuous spring rain moistens my heart, and the green grass is like a painting.

Kyoto's spring lake is bathed in sunshine, and the pink peach blossoms and green willows are fragrant.

Spring silkworms spin long strands of silk, and the sounds of string and bamboo spread their fragrance.

The sound of bells and drums heralds the arrival of spring, and the capital city welcomes the bright moon on spring nights.

The spring breeze blows along your journey, and the flowers bloom in full bloom.

......"

With the arrival of spring, the courtyard at No. 95 Nanluoguxiang is filled with joy.

First, in early April, the wedding of Xu Damao and Lou Xiao'e came as scheduled, bringing new vitality to this ancient courtyard.

Xu Damao is a person who loves to show off. Having married a rich lady, of course he has to show off.

He had invested a lot of money in this wedding. He had put a lot of thought into the food and wine for the ten tables of banquets.

However, spring is the time when there is a shortage of food, and there are almost no kinds of vegetables on the market because there are no off-season vegetables yet.

In those days, there were no plastic greenhouses like those of later generations, because plastic film technology had just been invented abroad and had not yet been introduced into China.

After the 1970s, with the introduction of foreign plastic film technology into China, plastic greenhouse planting technology began to appear. However, it is not available now.

There was no food on the market, which worried Xu Damao's father. His children's in-laws were not ordinary people, and there would be many respectable guests attending the wedding banquet. How could he not entertain them well?

However, Xu Damao said there was no need to worry too much because he had asked Liu Zhiye for help and had high hopes for him.

Sure enough, with Liu Zhiye's help, this matter became much simpler.

The richness of this wedding banquet was no less than that of a state banquet, with sea cucumbers, abalone, palm-sized prawns, crabs, Spanish mackerel, yellow croaker, pork elbow, large intestine, four-happiness meatballs, mutton soup, braised beef in soy sauce, etc., a total of 18 dishes, making people drool.

Not only that, there are more rare off-season vegetables on the table, such as cucumbers, tomatoes, etc. The appearance of these off-season vegetables also made the guests attending the wedding banquet amazed and talked about the sources of these vegetables.

I knew that these out-of-season vegetables were something that only princes and nobles could taste in the early years, while ordinary people could only sigh in envy.

In the past, these off-season vegetables and fruits were often planted and grown in specific environments.

For example, special environments such as natural greenhouses and hot springs provide suitable growing conditions for fruits and vegetables, allowing them to thrive even out of season.

However, even if these out-of-season fruits and vegetables exist, they are very rare and only wealthy people can have a few bites of them.

Therefore, all the guests were full of praise for the dishes at the wedding banquet and praised the host for his sincerity.

This also made Xu Damao's father-in-law "Lou Bancheng" quite satisfied, and his attitude towards Xu Damao became a little more friendly.

Xu Damao was also flattered by this, and his gratitude towards Liu Zhiye, the instigator, grew stronger. He thought to himself, "This is not in vain. I serve him like a horse, and when I really need him, he is also very helpful..."

So where did Liu Zhiye get these out-of-season vegetables?
This story starts from Liujiazhuang. Since Liu Zhiye planned several development routes for the village, all undertakings in the village have been on the right track and moving forward steadily. He not only planned animal husbandry, planting, traditional Chinese medicine, construction, education, infrastructure and other projects for the development of the village, but also guided the villagers to plant off-season vegetables to meet market demand in response to people's livelihood needs.

However, it is not easy to produce off-season vegetables these days. It has never happened before and we have to cross the river by feeling the stones.

Building this greenhouse for growing vegetables is indeed a big challenge. At present, there is no plastic film technology, and it is really not easy to make a transparent heating roof for the greenhouse.

However, Liu Zhiye can consider using other materials to replace plastic films, such as transparent materials such as fiberglass or polycarbonate, which have better thermal insulation properties and will not affect lighting.

They finally decided to use large pieces of transparent glass as the material, invested a lot of money, and built two experimental greenhouses.

Since the construction of these two experimental greenhouses was learned by the agricultural college that cooperated with the village, they immediately paid great attention to it.

Experts and professors from the College of Agriculture also quickly joined this agricultural revolution. From planting to harvesting, they always stayed by the two experimental greenhouses, recording and observing the changes in the grown vegetables to ensure that every link went smoothly.

What is even more surprising is that they simply set up an agricultural experimental station in Liuzhizhuang, which was established earlier than the planned Traditional Chinese Medicine Research Institute in the village.

The establishment of this experimental station has undoubtedly opened up a new path for the agricultural development of Liuzhizhuang and brought new hope to the entire agricultural field in the future.

The vegetables planted at the beginning of the year were successfully put on the market two or three months later. The villagers were shocked. After hearing the news, the leaders of the Agricultural College and the agricultural department also came to visit and learn.

When they heard that so many higher-level departments were suddenly going to visit and study in Liujiazhuang, the leaders of the Red Star Commune and the district were greatly surprised. They had no idea what big satellite Liujiazhuang had launched.

Departments at all levels rushed to Liujiazhuang and witnessed the achievements of Liujiazhuang's greenhouse technology with their own eyes. They were all very excited.

This is no less than an agricultural technology revolution!

You know, in an era when new technologies are constantly emerging, if this planting technology matures and is popularized, it will completely change people’s eating habits for thousands of years and also bring about tremendous changes in agricultural production.

After the senior leader of the Ministry of Agriculture inspected other agricultural production in Liujiazhuang, he was particularly interested in the booming development scene in Liujiazhuang, which could not be seen anywhere else.

So he met with the village secretary Liu Yuanhai and talked to him about the development ideas of Liujiazhuang.

Finally, the senior leader said approvingly: "Comrade Liu Yuanhai, you have done a great job in the construction of Liujiazhuang. The grassroots party members and cadres have indeed worked hard and made great contributions, and they are all wholeheartedly seeking happiness for the people. You are good comrades who serve the people!"

Liujiazhuang is now very famous, with a large population and prosperous characteristic industries. Its gross domestic product exceeded that of Hongxing Commune last year, making it the veritable number one village in Beijing.

Even the district's senior officials were amazed and praised: "What a huge change here! In just over two years, this place has undergone earth-shaking changes."

"Look at the people here. They have enough food to eat and warm clothes to wear. Both the infrastructure and the spiritual civilization are excellent."

"The village also has relatively complete public facilities. Given time, the conditions here will be no worse than those of ordinary urban areas."

"This is the communist society we have been striving for!"

The senior leader smiled and said: "Party members like this should be vigorously promoted and put into more important positions to shine and contribute their energy."

The district official also smiled and nodded, saying, "Leader is right. We will definitely keep your instructions in mind."

Then he looked at the leaders of the Red Star Commune who were present, and his meaning was very clear: you should also express your opinion!

Secretary Teng of the Red Star Commune saw this and didn't know what the leaders meant, so he said, "In fact, as early as last year, the commune intended to let Comrade Liu Yuanhai serve as the deputy director in charge of agriculture, but Comrade Liu Yuanhai was upright and refused on the grounds that he was old and had a low level of education."

"Later, the district elected him as a representative of the district people's congress and a member of the CPPCC."

The big boss smiled when he heard this and said, "That's too low. I think with this achievement, he can definitely be elected as a representative of the People's Congress and a member of the CPPCC in our capital!"

The district official responded solemnly: "Comrade Liu Yuanhai is definitely qualified. Compared with Dazhai, the achievements made by Liujiazhuang in our district are not much inferior!"

…………

After the inspection, the senior leader encouraged Liu Yuanhai and the villagers: "Comrades, fellow villagers, I hope you will continue to work hard to develop greenhouse technology, expand production scale, and let the people in Beijing eat the fruits and vegetables we grow as soon as possible, okay?"

As soon as the leader finished speaking, Liu Yuanhai and the villagers were greatly encouraged. They shouted "Good!" and applauded enthusiastically.

The leader took a last affectionate look at the thriving Liujiazhuang, and silently said in his heart: "Liujiazhuang, this vibrant land, see you next time..."

(End of this chapter)