I Got Rich in Period Fiction

Chapter 21: Chapter 21: Indeed, They Came for the Thousand Silk Hemp Chapter 21: Chapter 21: Indeed, They Came for the Thousand Silk Hemp Qiao Qingyu’s eyes curved slightly, and as expected, Vice Director Qian was very interested in thousand silk hemp.

It had to be said that he was also a pragmatic grassroots leader.

Otherwise, no matter how good something was, it would still be useless.

Since it was a discussion of official business, the noisy market was not appropriate.

Luckily, the market was originally set up on the vacant land of the supply and marketing cooperative, and right across from it was the office of the commune.

The man driving the cart didn’t recognize Vice Director Qian, but he knew Fang Xiaomei, who specialized in drafting letters of introduction for people going out on business.

Thus, the enthusiastic driver took Qiao Qingyu’s purchases to the courtyard of the commune.

Of course, the horse-drawn carriage could not be hired permanently.

The three of them walked towards the office of Vice Director Qian.

Qiao Qingyu organized her thoughts about this matter and felt that there was an eighty to ninety percent chance of success.

Firstly, her uncle’s reputation was also very useful, and then there was the value of thousand silk hemp.

In fact, she was just testing the waters; whether it worked out or not wouldn’t affect her plans.

But deep down, she still hoped to promote thousand silk hemp extensively because its economic value was ten times that of current crops.

That is to say, just by planting it for one year, commune members’ lives would significantly change.

But implementing this was far from simple. For starters, each commune would report this year’s planting plan before the end of the previous year.

It wasn’t a matter of planting whatever you wanted.

Cultivating land requires seeds.

And these seeds need to be bred.

Some communes could breed them by themselves, but most were supplied uniformly by the county.

So, changing the plan was not easy, and planting a new crop that had never been heard of involved considerable risks and responsibilities.

It was different from her plan to contract the barren land near the staff quarters.

She just didn’t know what was going on here?

Vice Director Qian, walking on the road, glanced at Qiao Qingyu following beside him.

Last night, his niece mentioned that Qiao Qingyu’s cabbages and spinach had grown more than an inch tall.

It was said that these vegetables had short growth periods, their leaves were a glossy green, and they were growing exceptionally well.

Moreover, Tenghai Research and Test Base had planted forty-five mu of cabbage, all of which came from the cabbage seeds brought by Qiao Qingyu’s uncle and they were all the same variety.

By coincidence, Xiaxi Commune’s planting plan reported eight hundred mu that had not been approved.

The reason was that the plot of land was very barren. Even the money for the seeds wasn’t recovered last year, not to mention labor and material costs.

They were not far from the sandstorm belt, so many nearby lands lay fallow.

There was no choice; no matter what was planted, nothing would grow.

So he remembered the thousand silk hemp that Qiao Qingyu had mentioned the last time she came with the letter of introduction.

It was just unknown if her uncle had brought it this time.

He was primarily responsible for agriculture. After pondering all night yesterday and discussing with the director and several others for a whole morning, they decided to take a risk and plant thousand silk hemp on all eight hundred mu of barren land.

The cost of the seeds was something the dozen or so people at the meeting decided to cover first by digging into their own pockets.

There are some things one must try, and they still had that pioneering spirit.

However, Vice Director Qian felt it wasn’t quite appropriate to discuss these matters with Qiao Qingyu, but there was no alternative, as he couldn’t reach her uncle.

Several people, each with their own thoughts, sat in Vice Director Qian’s office. He didn’t beat around the bush and got straight to the point, “Comrade Qiao Qingyu, about the thousand silk hemp seeds you mentioned last time, are they still available for purchase now, and can we get them in time?”

Qiao Qingyu’s mouth curled into a smile. Indeed, they had come for the thousand silk hemp.

“Vice Director Qian, may I ask if you are truly considering planting thousand silk hemp?”

“Yes, the commune has eight hundred acres of wasteland. The planting plan hasn’t been approved, but we’ve decided to try planting thousand silk hemp after discussion in our meeting. Of course, this is just a preliminary decision. The specifics depend on the seed situation with your uncle and the logistics of our purchase.”

Eight hundred acres of wasteland. Qingyu’s eyes moved slightly, it seemed the land wasn’t intended for cultivation this year.

“Vice Director Qian, you know I’m close with Xiao Mei, so I’ll speak plainly to you…”

Fang Xiaomei smiled triumphantly; her words gave her quite the stature in front of her uncle.

“My uncle brought two thousand acres’ worth of thousand silk hemp seeds.”

Vice Director Qian was initially shocked, then delighted. Two thousand acres’ worth? That much?

“The base’s truck helped transport them back, although the castor seeds are small and don’t take up much space,” Qiao Qingyu explained leisurely.

Vice Director Qian was somewhat anxious but took a deep breath and asked in a serious tone, “With so many seeds, where do you plan to plant them?”

“I’m planning to lease the wasteland near the base.”

In Xichuan City, the household responsibility system hadn’t been widely implemented yet, but as the vice director of the commune, he was familiar with the concept and knew it was only a matter of time, so he wasn’t surprised.

“That wasteland is less than a thousand acres. Qingyu, do you think you could share some seeds with us?” Vice Director Qian negotiated amicably.

“Are you sure you want to plant them?”

“Of course. Otherwise, why would I have you come here…”

“But there are risks, after all, thousand silk hemp is a new variety.”

“It’s okay, what doesn’t have risks? Planting wheat or corn is equally risky, plus if we don’t plant thousand silk hemp on that eight hundred acres of wasteland, we planned to leave it fallow this year anyway…”

“Vice Director Qian, for thousand silk hemp, you only need one kilogram of seed per acre. If harvested within the year, you can get about eight hundred kilograms of Heavenly Silk Seeds per acre,” Qiao Qingyu floated out the astonishing number.

This time Vice Director Qian gasped. Normally, castor planting requires about two kilograms of seeds per acre, and harvesting three hundred jin in fertile fields was already the limit.

Thousand silk hemp could yield one thousand six hundred jin per acre!

Therefore, Vice Director Qian couldn’t just sit back and relax; he stood up and began to pace excitedly. After a moment, he calmed down, “Qingyu, you must be referring to fertile land.”

Qiao Qingyu shook her head, “Thousand silk hemp isn’t very demanding on the soil quality, it can be tried on wasteland. As long as it’s planted according to the prescribed method, you should get at least six hundred kilograms per acre.”

Vice Director Qian became excited, “Good, we’ll buy seeds for eight hundred acres, how much will that cost?” Then he added, “We’ll take the risk ourselves, we would be grateful just for the provision of the seeds.”

“Vice Director Qian, let’s handle this by the book. However, if you purchase the seeds from me, are you authorized to make that decision?” Qiao Qingyu asked seriously.

Vice Director Qian laughed heartily and then nodded quickly, “Of course, I can decide. Otherwise, I couldn’t be discussing this with you.”

“That’s good. Eight hundred acres require eight hundred kilograms of Heavenly Silk Hemp seeds. Let’s set the price according to the lowest cost of castor seeds, five yuan per kilogram, totaling four thousand yuan for eight hundred acres.”

Vice Director Qian wasn’t shocked, but it did hurt, because they had already made a budget in the morning’s meeting, and it would have been about four thousand five hundred yuan.

Now it was five hundred yuan cheaper…