Chapter 150 If you want to be rich, build roads first After the guests left, Zhou Yimin's home returned to peace. Zhang Lu was like a wild horse that had broken free from its reins. She ran around the village with other kids and soon became a big sister. Even Lai Fang soon became her little follower, and she seemed to be enjoying herself so much that she didn't want to leave. In her mind, the countryside is probably much better than the city. No one cares about her here, she lives well, has her own room, and the toilet and other facilities are much better than in the city. Moreover, the food is very good, with meat almost every meal and snacks all the time. Isn't this life better than my own home in the city? Finally, Zhou Yimin's grandparents also liked her and treated her like their own granddaughter, and they were reluctant to scold her. It was not like at home. If she did something wrong, her mother would be very ruthless. Of course, this is also due to Zhang Lu's sweet mouth and her ability to act coquettishly, which makes the old lady and the old man feel comfortable. "Yimin, do you think these people are enough?" The old branch secretary came over with a group of women. Zhou Yimin glanced at it and nodded slightly: "Well! That's enough."

He was going to make mushroom bags, but he didn't know how long it would take him to finish it alone! So he asked the old branch secretary to find some women to come and learn how to make mushroom bags from him. The women who followed were curious when they learned that Zhou Yimin was teaching them how to grow mushrooms. As farmers, they are experts in growing crops and don't need anyone to teach them. But this is the first time they have grown mushrooms, so they are inevitably curious about how mushrooms are grown. Zhou Yimin asked the villagers to prepare the materials for making mushroom bags three days ago. "Old Party Secretary, there is one more thing." Zhou Yimin said. "what's up?" "Build the road!" Road construction is also a very important matter. In later generations, there is a saying that goes: If you want to be rich, build roads first! It turns out that statement is correct. The old Party secretary was puzzled: "Where is it repaired?" Is it impossible to walk on the roads in the village? "Starting from the village entrance, the main road of the village. I think some of the vegetables on the riverbed will be ready for harvest in ten or twenty days. By then, I will directly send the steel mill's trucks into the village. The existing road is not easy to walk on! It needs to be widened to at least three meters." Zhou Yimin said. This will facilitate the transportation of Zhoujiazhuang's products, so building the road is necessary. At present, the main road in the village is only about two meters wide, which is enough for one car to pass. Zhou Yimin has observed these days that even if it is widened to three meters, it will not occupy too much arable land. There are already certain spaces reserved on both sides of the rural road. As long as those spaces are included in the scope of the road, it will be almost done. When the old branch secretary and others heard this, they suddenly understood. We really need to build a road. It is related to the prosperity of the village, and everyone is very concerned about it.

"Okay! I'll go call some people and try to get these miscellaneous things done before the wheat is harvested." The old branch secretary nodded. Otherwise, when the farming season comes, there will be no time. Zhou Yimin put forward some requirements for the road surface. It is definitely unrealistic to build hardened roads such as cement and asphalt roads. Not to mention Zhoujiazhuang, even Red Star Commune does not have such conditions and strength! Zhou Yimin requires the road surface to be flat and solid, and able to withstand the erosion of rain and snow to a certain extent. It’s hard to say it’s hard, but it’s not hard to say it’s not. "Okay, leave the road construction to us." If they can't even do this, what's the use of Zhoujiazhuang? So the old branch secretary gathered another group of villagers, asked them to build the road, and appointed a person in charge. Zhoujiazhuang is very busy now. In addition to the original production tasks, they also have to take care of the vegetables on the riverbed. The task of surrounding the mountain has been completed, but building a simple chicken coop and mushroom house is another big project. In short, none of the young and middle-aged people in Zhoujiazhuang are idle now. The exception is Zhou Yimin, who often wanders around. Zhou Zhiming was also on the call for conscription. When he learned that the village was going to build a road, he suggested: "Secretary, if we want a better road surface, we can pave it with coal slag." There is a brick factory in Hongxing Commune, and the coal slag produced every day can be loaded by trucks. Coal slag, a type of industrial solid waste, is the waste residue discharged from burning coal in thermal power plants, industrial and civilian boilers and other equipment, also known as slag. In foreign countries, coal slag can be fully utilized, and according to different components, it can be used to make cement, bricks and refractory materials, etc. Some can even be used to make alumina or refine rare metals such as gallium and germanium. But in today's China, coal slag has basically no use. Brick factories are all troubled by how to deal with coal slag. If someone were to transport the bricks away, the brick factory would probably be happy to see it happen. The old branch secretary praised: "Your suggestion is good, but it is a little laborious." After all, it's not close to go to Hongxing Commune to collect coal slag! Moreover, at present, their village can only carry it manually, and at most ox carts and wheelbarrows are used. However, it would be a bit of a task to pave all the roads in the village with that stuff. "It would be nice to have a tractor," someone fantasized. Tractors would be considered outdated in later generations, but in that era, tractors were quite high-end and only the communes had them. The villages below and ordinary brigades were not qualified to own them. There is a joke about tractors in later generations, saying that the power of single-cylinder diesel tractors will always be a mystery. Everyone can see that a tractor equipped with a single-cylinder engine can pull a huge cargo box or pull wood on a very muddy road, and it can still do it, which makes people sigh in admiration. In fact, under such working conditions, the speed is relatively slow. If you pull the diesel engine throttle to the bottom and add some operating skills, you can eventually pull it slowly. However, the belt of the tractor is severely worn. "You still want a tractor? You're already laughing at me when I have a tricycle!" The old branch secretary rolled his eyes. They in Zhoujia Village could afford a tricycle even if they sold everything they had. But forget about the tractor! It is very likely that they could not afford it even if they sold everything they had.

The captain said, "I do know someone who drives a tractor. I'll go ask him!" With a tractor to help pull the coal slag, the efficiency would definitely be much higher. With a wheelbarrow, it would take who knows how long it would take to finish the work. He knew a tractor driver, but he was not very familiar with him. Even if he could hire him, he didn't know how much he would have to pay! He could only go and ask first. Zhou Yimin has temporarily selected three kinds of mushrooms, one is straw mushroom, one is shiitake mushroom, and the other is oyster mushroom. Straw mushrooms are cold in nature and are a kind of refreshing mushroom. They can clear away heat and relieve summer heat, making them especially suitable for consumption in hot summer. Most importantly, they have a short growth cycle and can be harvested in one month. Shiitake mushrooms are relatively common and are the most recognized edible mushroom. They have an advantage that many mushrooms cannot match. Fresh ones cannot be sold in time, so they can be dried. However, the growth cycle of shiitake mushrooms takes three or four months. Oyster mushroom has a wide distribution range and can be cultivated almost all over the world. It is a wood-rotting fungus that mostly grows on dead wood, rotten stumps or dead parts of living trees of broad-leaved tree species. It has been cultivated in ancient my country and was previously called "Tianhuacai". According to the development process in the previous life, Oyster mushrooms were not cultivated on a large scale until the 1970s. (End of this chapter)