Chapter 351 Poverty
Early the next morning, Zhang Yunqi went up General Ridge.

He rarely takes care of Yunxi's industries. It's a rare opportunity for him to go back to his hometown, so he wants to visit the agricultural breeding base of the cooperative.

Zhang Haijun went with him, and the two of them first came to the Fangyuan pepper planting base. The peppers had been picked as early as autumn. At this time, the edges of the fields had all been dug by the laborers with hoes. The terraces on the mountain were as soft as cotton balls, and the edges were scraped as clean as if licked by a dog. Now they just had to wait for the Spring Festival to plant the pepper seedlings.

The two chatted along the way. Zhang Haijun pointed to the neatly-kept fields and said with a smile: "Your policies are really good. You see, although the people in our village work in the base, they are different from the workers in the city. They can not only get wages, but also are shareholders. The benefits of these peppers are directly linked to their dividends, so they work hard, just like cultivating their own private plots."

Zhang Yunqi laughed: "Uncle Haijun, I am just a talker. The management of the planting base and the development of the village still depend on you. This year, our village will vigorously develop characteristic agricultural industries such as Fengyang jar meat, Lingwu duck, and Fangyuan pepper. At the same time, we must promote the policy of unified marketing of soybean seeds throughout the town, involving thousands of farmers. The burden on you as the chairman will be even heavier."

In fact, Yunxi Village used to adopt a scattered planting and unified marketing model based on a sales contract. The villagers grew their own raw materials such as soybeans, peanuts and rapeseed oil, and then sold them to the Longjingyuan Canning Factory through a sales contract. However, Zhang Yunqi felt that this extensive model was only suitable for the early stage of building Longjingyuan's large supply chain. Now that Longjingyuan wants to build its own brand and Yunxi Village also wants to vigorously develop characteristic agricultural industries, it must cultivate the land carefully and control the production of raw materials. So he adjusted the direction. Under the premise of the household contract responsibility system, all the cultivated land and wasteland in Yunxi Village were taken back by the village collective, and then contracted out to the village joint-stock cooperative, and a subsidiary was established under the cooperative.

The subsidiary was established in the middle of last year, called Huafeng Breeding Co., Ltd. It involves professional breeding and definitely requires professional breeding technicians. Zhang Yunqi's knowledge of the agricultural breeding industry is very limited, and the main management personnel were all hired by Li Jilin. He has been in this field for half his life, is familiar with all aspects, and has a wide network of contacts.

The general manager of Huafeng hired by Li Jilin is called Tan Shenghe. Zhang Yunqi met him during the final interview. He was previously an associate professor at Xiangnan Agricultural University. Later he resigned and joined Xiangnan Changqingfa Agricultural Co., Ltd. as general manager. He was later poached by Li Jilin.

Under Tan Shenghe, Huafeng set up three operation teams, one responsible for the Fangyuan pepper planting base, and the other two responsible for the pig and Lingwu duck breeding bases. Villagers can work at the bases.

Of course, as a result of this, the people of Yunxi Village will have no arable land to cultivate in the future. All of their arable land management rights have been transferred to the cooperative in the form of shares, and the cooperative has completely become a board of directors. The specific business operations have been separated and managed by Huafeng Production, which is wholly owned by the cooperative. The villagers of Yunxi Village will receive dividends according to their shares every year.

As for raw materials such as soybeans, peanuts, and rapeseed oil, Zhang Yunqi contracted them out to villagers in other villages in Longwan Town in the form of scattered planting and unified sales.

At present, the monthly sales of Longjingyuan Cannery have exceeded 2500 million yuan, and the required soybeans have reached 1800 tons and peppers have reached 1500 tons. For soybeans alone, all of them are contracted out in the form of underwriting contracts, which requires at least 3600 farmers to plant them. This means that this project can bring at least 3600 yuan of income to 1500 ordinary farmers every year.

The plan is naturally quite large. You know, in natural villages like Yunxi Village in Longwan Town, there are barely more than 80 farmers. It is conceivable that 3600 households will cover many natural villages in Longwan Town. However, other villages do not have new rural collective economic organizations like the Yunxi Village Shareholding Cooperative, so the town government and the village committees below need to coordinate and connect to guarantee sales to each household.

At present, Liansheng's plate is getting bigger and bigger, and Zhang Yunqi has no energy to manage the details. He can only take the helm and determine the direction of the company's development. According to his plan, the entire Liansheng supply chain system has taken shape, with Huafeng responsible for raw material production, Longjingyuan Industrial Park responsible for raw material processing, and Liansheng responsible for the construction of the canned product marketing system.

By the mid-90s, Liansheng, which had already controlled the upstream, midstream and downstream, had cost advantages, raw material advantages, product advantages and marketing advantages that almost no competitors could match.

In the next step, Zhang Yunqi plans to optimize and reorganize the 64 contracted city and district state-owned canneries and incorporate them into the Longjingyuan Industrial Park system. On the one hand, this is to further expand production capacity, and on the other hand, it is to cooperate with the Municipal State-owned Investment Corporation to promote the reform of state-owned enterprises throughout the city.

Thinking about this, Zhang Yunqi and Zhang Haijun passed through the pepper planting base and came to the Lingwu duck breeding base on Jiangjunling.

Looking around, Zhang Yunqi saw densely packed duck sheds located on the mountains, next to a large lake. The location was well chosen, with high terrain, sheltered from the wind, plenty of sunlight, and plenty of clean water around.

The duck shed is an arch shed, about two meters high, with straw curtains, film and sun-proof nets. At this moment, more than a dozen staff members are removing the straw curtains. Because it is cold in winter, when raising ducks in the greenhouse, insulation work must be done in the morning and evening, and the greenhouse must be covered tightly. When the sun comes out during the day, the straw curtains must be removed to allow the ducks to receive appropriate light exposure and good ventilation.

When the workers saw Zhang Haijun coming down, they all greeted him: "Here comes the chairman! Good morning."

"Good morning, good morning." Zhang Haijun responded with a smile. He is currently the chairman of the Yunxi Village Cooperative. Huafeng is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Yunxi Village Cooperative, so he was also appointed by Zhang Yunqi as the chairman of the Huanong Breeding Company, but he does not participate in the specific business operations of Huanong. He is now mainly in charge of the cooperative's business of seed distribution and unified marketing in Longwan Town.

"Jingshan, come here." Zhang Haijun and Zhang Yunqi walked down the slope to the front yard of the breeding base and waved to a young man who was coming out of the duck shed.

The young man was about thirty years old, tall and thin, wearing glasses. Although his skin was dark, he had a scholarly air. When he heard Zhang Haijun's greeting, he trotted over and said, "The chairman is here. Who is this?"

Zhang Haijun smiled and said, "Our big boss, Zhang Yunqi, the chairman of our parent company Liansheng."

Zhang Haijun said to Zhang Yunqi, "This is the technical expert brought here by Tan Sheng and Mr. Tan. His name is Wang Jingshan. He graduated from Xiangnan Agricultural University. The planning of our duck farm, the formulation of the duck farm immunization program, the introduction of new species guidance, the revision of management procedures, and the selection of feed are all handled by Jingshan. The other workers are all from our village. They work here and learn duck farming techniques from Jingshan."

Zhang Yunqi extended his hand to the young man: "Hello."

Wang Jingshan wiped his duck shit-stained hands awkwardly and said, "Hello, Chairman. Welcome to the breeding base to give us guidance!" Zhang Yunqi smiled and said, "It's not about guidance. I just came to visit. You are professionals and you are doing a great job."

"It's time for dinner! Everyone come and have breakfast!" At this time, the voice of a middle-aged woman came from a row of bungalows in front of the base with smoke rising from chimneys.

The canteen at the breeding base is open for meals.

The workers in the base gathered one after another. Zhang Yunqi and Zhang Haijun came out early in the morning. They had not had breakfast yet, but at the enthusiastic invitation of the workers, they had a cheap breakfast.

The workers all did hard work and had to eat white rice in the morning, otherwise they would easily feel hungry in the morning. There was only one dish, stewed pork with chopped peppers and cabbage. It was simple and solid, sour and spicy, with large pieces of fat, and it was especially delicious with rice, which suited the appetite of farmers of that era.

At mealtime, Zhang Yunqi and Zhang Haijun, like the workers in the village, squatted on the grass in front of the bungalow with their bowls in hand after getting their meals. A few workers even opened some bulk liquor, and three or five people gathered in a group, sitting on benches, eating and drinking. Everyone spoke rude words, but the atmosphere was pleasant.

This scene suddenly reminded Zhang Yunqi of a story in Gu Long's "The Sentimental Swordsman and the Ruthless Sword". The story was about a pair of cooks. After the restaurant closed, they cooked a dish for themselves in the kitchen, had some wine, and enjoyed a comfortable meal for an hour or two.

Gu Long said that they were still alive because there were still one or two hours left in a day.

Maybe that's what ordinary people are like.

The purpose of living is to find one or two hours that can make you feel peaceful and at peace.

Zhang Yunqi retracted his gaze and asked Wang Jingshan: "Where are you from?"

Wang Jingshan said: "From Hengdong."

Zhang Yunqi asked, "Aren't you going home for the New Year this year?"

Zhang Haijun continued, "The base needs to keep a technician, and Jingshan volunteered to stay. Chairman, remember to give him a big red envelope during the Chinese New Year."

Wang Jingshan felt embarrassed.

Zhang Yunqi laughed: "What do you mainly do every day?"

Wang Jingshan said: "There is a lot to do, Chairman. We workers have to get up at five o'clock to pick up duck eggs, otherwise the ducks will trample them. After the sun comes out, we have to lift the straw curtains, clean up the duck manure, and clean up. By the way, today we have to clean the duck pond and catch fish. We must dig out the silt before the New Year, which is the natural fertilizer for Fangyuan peppers. When the time comes, we will also put fish, shrimps and snails in the pond according to the proportion. In addition to the weeds, fish, shrimps, snails and other natural feeds used in natural grazing, the ducks also have to eat a lot of fish every day. There must be a certain proportion of feeding. Generally speaking, pigs only need to put feed into the trough, but ducks cannot. Feeding ducks is much more troublesome. Workers need to quickly and evenly spread feed on the concrete floor so that the ducks can eat on the ground. This is mainly done to ensure that each duck can eat feed evenly. If a basin is used for feeding, the strong ducks can grab the food, while the thin female ducks cannot grab the food. This will not only cause problems with the uniformity of the ducks, but also reduce the egg production rate of the female ducks, which is less than 60%..."

Wang Jingshan was talking a lot, and Zhang Yunqi didn't interrupt him. He just smiled and listened to him until he finished. Then he pointed at the rice in his bowl and said, "Eat while you talk. It will get cold later... By the way, Jingshan, why did you choose an agriculture-related major when you were in college?"

Wang Jingshan took a few bites of rice and said with a smile, "When I graduated from high school, I didn't know anything. I thought studying agriculture meant picking chrysanthemums under the eastern fence and leisurely seeing the southern mountains. Now look, I deal with chicken shit, duck shit, and pig shit every day."

This reason was quite simple, but it made Zhang Yunqi feel uncomfortable. Wang Jingshan, however, ate with gusto, finishing the rice in his bowl in just two or three bites, and said, "Chairman, you have such a big business in the city, why do you want to return to the countryside to start an agricultural enterprise?"

Zhang Yunqi put the bowl on the ground, stood up and lit a cigarette, and said with a smile: "To be realistic, I am here to consolidate Liansheng's market competitiveness and build Liansheng's large supply chain system, so your breeding base is the source of the entire supply chain, the living water, and the top priority. Only if your raw materials are cheap and delicious, our downstream industries will have strong market competitiveness, and others cannot compete with us. So, Jingshan, although I seldom go back to Yunxi and don't know and care about you enough, you must believe that our business has great potential! You can follow Tan Sheng and Mr. Tan and work boldly to make good products and make Longjingyuan Lingwu Duck famous nationwide."

At this point, Zhang Yunqi took a puff of cigarette, looked at Wang Jingshan who seemed to be a little emotional, and suddenly felt that he was quite suitable to be a ship sales leader: "Of course, I also have some personal idealism in doing these things. I believe that you people who work in agriculture will also have such idealism. I remember when I was studying in the town, I often climbed up this mountain with books. In fact, when I was on the mountain, what I thought about most was not learning knowledge, but how to make money. Now that I have a little money, sometimes I wonder if I can do more within my ability to help the people in my hometown get rid of such a poor life?"

Zhang Yunqi looked at the dilapidated old village at the foot of the mountain, looming in the winter woods and mist: "I remember a saying that goes like this: when the rain and dew fall, the crops fail to grow; when the seasons change, there is no harvest. The rich can raise more livestock, but the poor cannot survive. Farmers have always suffered the most. I admire those of you who choose to work in agriculture."

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(End of this chapter)