CHAPTER 1900: CHAPTER 897: LOTUS LEAVES REACHING THE SKY, TEN MILES OF PEACH BLOSSOMS (PART 2)

Actually, the county is also pleased. From the bigger picture, collecting less toll is a small matter; a morning glory enterprise allows many people to have money to spend, adding a lot to the county’s revenue, which can’t be calculated in detail.

The villages around the suburban township are also delighted. In the future, when going to the county town, they can ride a bicycle if they want or walk without tiring. Even for villages by the river, it’s only about ten miles to the county, which takes half an hour.

It was the same distance before, but can walking on a dirt road be the same as walking on a paved road? Especially for young people, it’s much better; it was hard to go home from high school in the county before, but now it’s convenient.

In short, having such a road really makes everyone happy.

At the beginning of the ceremony, Secretary Jiao came to say a few words, Yan Fei went up to speak a couple of sentences, journalists followed to take photos and videos, then everyone cut the ribbon together, firecrackers went off, and the ceremony was complete.

What’s left is the excitement, now that farm work isn’t busy, people are also happy to come out and enjoy, so everyone goes to join the fun.

Afterwards, Yan Fei and Secretary Jiao talked for a while, and Secretary Jiao made an exception and stayed for lunch.

During the meal, the township leader Fu Zhen and the police station chief Xu Changsheng joined in, discussing the development issues of the township with Secretary Jiao and Yan Fei. These two people could talk well, and now that the police chief didn’t have much to do, he became an advisor for Fu Zhen.

The two discussed having the township plant lotus roots and peach trees.

This idea was based on the geographical conditions of Sancha River Township. The Cinnabar Red Peaches of Tanghe County are famous far and wide. However, because peaches are inconvenient to transport and not durable for storage, there hasn’t been significant development.

But now that the morning glory enterprise has boosted the township’s reputation, more people are coming here, making it easier for peach sales to open up. That’s why Fu Zhen and Xu Changsheng turned their ideas towards peaches.

And lotus roots are also a good product. In terms of affordability, raising fish in ponds with lotus roots, or loaches, is possible. In any case, digging a pond to plant lotus roots is a foolproof, effortless business, making money with peace of mind.

Sancha River Township has many rivers, and digging some ponds along the rivers. By then, with a few hundred acres of lotus leaves and ten miles of peach blossoms, the scenery... oooh, just thinking about it is refreshing!

You can make money and attract tourists to play. It’s a win-win situation, and as soon as this was brought up, Yan Fei and Secretary Jiao found it quite feasible.

Of course, it’s feasible; Yan Fei has tasted the local peaches and lotus vegetables. Peaches need a little management, but growing lotus vegetables doesn’t require much care; as long as the foundation is laid in the first two years, you only need to keep digging year after year—at least that’s how Yan Fei understood it.

In town, along the village walls, there are two families growing peach trees. One is run by an elderly couple, with some management, the peaches they yield each year can bend the branches. The other is grown by a solitary elderly person, who can’t move around easily and doesn’t manage much, yet still earns enough every year for his personal living expenses.

As for lotus vegetables, Yan Fei only remembers seeing people dig them up but never saw much management involved.

Nowadays, in Sancha River Township, anything can make money as long as it’s an economic crop. There’s no loss in business. The township has a fertilizer factory and cow dung everywhere, which can be used as fertilizer, providing basic conditions.

In terms of external conditions, scattered traders often come to collect Agaricus bisporus, earthworms, and small peppers and vegetables. As more traders come, people in the township are willing to grow what they buy. The more they grow, the more traders there are... It’s a virtuous cycle.

Sancha River Township has an advantage unattainable elsewhere; the land doesn’t need turning. Earthworm excrement, leftover waste from feeding earthworms, is directly thrown into the fields. Add more earthworms, and it’s the best, most fertile land; no need for chemical fertilizers or redoing the fields after each vegetable harvest.

Aside from needing some pesticides, vegetables grown this way can be sold directly as organic vegetables in big cities.

This is also an environmental factor; when everyone isn’t using chemical fertilizers, anyone who does will feel at a loss. Even if they produce more, calculating the cost of fertilizer immediately shows no real profit, leaving them with the name of using chemical fertilizer for nothing.

Currently, this is limited to vegetable fields. If someday all the township’s land can achieve this effect, even if Yan Fei’s fertilizer factory produces organic fertilizer, it might only be sold to other places.

Fu Zhen and Xu Changsheng approached Yan Fei to discuss encouraging the western villages to plant peach trees. Not too many, just a few rows along the road, so when the peach blossoms bloom, the new road from the west to Sancha River Township will look wonderful.

After the peach blossoms fall, it will be the season of endless green under the lotus leaves and the unique red of lotus flowers reflecting the sun. Don’t worry about nobody coming to Sancha River Township! As long as people come, even if it’s just to eat and drink, it still means money, right? With more people, won’t the wealth keep rolling in?

Hearing the picturesque scene they described, Yan Fei was quite willing. But he refused to persuade people to plant peach trees.

He had a very good reason: "If you’re talking about planting these two things, if I were at home, I’d definitely persuade them if you asked me to. Because I might barely qualify as a half-baked technician, and I somewhat understand these things. Even if I don’t, I can learn in time. No matter what, whether it’s lotus vegetables or peach trees, if they get sick, I can manage them. But since I’m often away from home, if I speak up, what if things go wrong later?"

When Yan Fei said this, everyone remembered that now Boss Yan is also considered a technician, and he’s a student at the Agricultural University.

They wanted to continue persuading, but Yan Fei said: "My requirement for myself is to lead everyone to prosperity. What you said of these two things, they aren’t necessary for me. As long as they follow me in mushroom-growing, earthworm breeding, and cattle raising, I can guarantee that in a few years, every household will live in a building with phones on every floor. So while lotus vegetables and peach trees are beautiful, without me at home, I can’t guarantee it. If you want to try, you’ll be responsible till the end."

This is simply a matter of having many wealth-generating projects to choose from. Yan Fei focuses on things he’s confident in; his company’s projects, he has mature techniques and existing sales channels. As long as folks in the township are willing to do it, he dares say they will live good lives.

But with peach trees and lotus roots, although he won’t have trouble eating them, without being home, he can’t take care of them.

Even if he knows that growing peach trees and lotus vegetables is more reliable than the previous county apple tree project, he still doesn’t plan to take on the task - after all, there are plenty working on public jobs in the township; they should do some work, right? Assuming everything is perfect, there’s always a need to see how much confidence there is. Since he has 100% confidence in certain things, he won’t do those he’s only 90% sure of.

Though his words were firm, he doesn’t completely disregard matters: "You can start from the western village first; growing peach trees is simply planting fewer vegetables; it’s just an incidental affair. Now the western villages are quite affluent; those willing to try might be more plentiful."

Secretary Jiao and the others, hearing from Yan Fei, found it hard to persuade him further. After all, what Yan Fei said makes sense; when there’s a monetarily certain project, why start a new one that one isn’t sure about?

Plus, the implication in Yan Fei’s words was clear: Fu Zhen and Xu Changsheng’s ideas are based on the current wealth of Sancha River Township. And who laid this foundation is needless to mention.

The phrase "poverty weakens the will" isn’t just idle words.

If they had no money, who would follow them into ventures? It’s only because people have some extra money that they’re willing to follow new projects—when meals aren’t guaranteed, despite wishing to try, who dares?

However, Fu Zhen and Xu Changsheng weren’t planning to force the issue. As long as Yan Fei doesn’t oppose it, that’s enough. After all, they’re all young; Yan Fei led the township to this point, surely they have some drive, surely they want to do something themselves?

So long as Yan Fei doesn’t oppose it, they can surely find willing people—truthfully, if Yan Fei really opposed it, even if they exhausted themselves, perhaps they wouldn’t find people willing to try new projects.

Yan Fei didn’t discuss with Secretary Jiao when he’d leave; it wasn’t important. The main thing is to chat when he comes back. After chatting and seeing off Secretary Jiao, Yan Fei quietly returned to pack his things, said goodbye to Professor Qi and others, and headed straight for Hong Kong with his wife.