Chapter 350 - 171: Return

Chapter 350: Chapter 171: Return

After attending the award ceremony for the National Science and Technology Progress Award, Jiang Miao stayed in the Capital City for another week.

During this time, through He Jintang’s introductions, he met several people, all of whom were on good terms with the He Family.

Some wanted Jiang Miao to check on their health.

Others inquired about United Mining Company’s development plans and the project’s estimated success rate.

And still others simply wanted to get acquainted.

Of course, others visited Jiang Miao during this time as well. Representatives from several universities in the Capital City and some related research institutions came to see him. A few CEOs from partner companies also invited him out to eat.

For seven days, Jiang Miao didn’t eat a single meal alone. He was always either in the Wudaokou University cafeteria or at a private restaurant.

After so much socializing, he felt he’d had enough and promptly took a high-speed train to Zhelimu City in Monan.

Revisiting Home County in Zhelimu City.

By now, the Tamin Chagan Base of the Monan Branch, located north of the Yangxumu River, had transformed completely.

All kinds of construction machinery and agricultural equipment moved in and out. Rows of two-story container homes formed a temporary community capable of housing 1,200 employees.

The villagers from Yangxumu Village, just outside the base entrance, had opened all sorts of shops along the main street: small restaurants, bathhouses, barbershops, general stores, small supermarkets, and even a brand-new courier station.

Jiang Miao didn’t get out, instead riding the pickup truck directly into the base.

Lü Weibin, the head of the Agricultural Planting Division, along with Monan Branch Manager Liu Zhiben and Deputy Manager Wu Song, were all waiting for him beside the parking lot.

As he stepped out of the truck, Jiang Miao heard their greetings.

"Boss! Long time no see!"

"Boss! Welcome!"

"Boss, this way please."

Jiang Miao glanced at Lü Weibin and noticed he was much tanner than he’d been three months ago. His spirits seemed high, though, a sign he was probably getting used to life here.

The group went to the roof of a container building near the base’s north gate.

From there, they could see the flattened expanse of the Tamin Chagan Desert.

No, that wasn’t right. There was no Tamin Chagan Desert anymore—only the Tamin Chagan Farm.

A boundless sea of vibrant green stretched out before them.

A heavy rain had fallen the day before, and a hint of moisture still lingered in the air.

Lowering his binoculars, Jiang Miao sat down on a plastic chair. "Looks like you’ve sown all the seeds."

Liu Zhiben replied with a smile, "Yes, Boss. The 220,000 mu of leveled land we’ve prepared has been fully planted by machine. We used a total of around 1,100 tons of soybean seeds."

"We gave it our all and finished machine-planting all 220,000 mu of flat land in just 17 days. The first few tens of thousands of mu we planted are right here, outside the base. Thanks to the heavy rains we’ve had lately, we haven’t even needed to water them. We’ve only had to apply pesticides once."

It was now June 28th.

The first batch of soybean seeds had been delivered to the Monan Branch on June 2nd.

That meant the first soybeans planted had been growing for about 26 days, and the sprouts were already over ten centimeters tall.

As far as the eye could see, the section of the Tamin Chagan Desert outside the base was an expanse of vibrant green.

However, through his binoculars, Jiang Miao had just spotted a number of people not in company uniforms, busy at work on large sand dunes covered in straw checkerboard grids.

"Old Lü, Zhiben, what’s the situation with those sand dunes?"

Lü Weibin looked a little embarrassed. "Boss, those are migrant workers from Ji Bei. The terrain on the large dunes is too difficult for our equipment, so we can only use small potato planters. To stay on schedule, I had Zhiben hire over two hundred of them to plant using a combination of machinery and manual labor."

"The main problem is that the soybean root blocks are difficult to sow," Liu Zhiben added, sounding equally frustrated. "We have to use general-purpose potato planters for them, but the terrain only allows for the small models. Right now, we can only plant 3,000 to 4,000 mu per day."

"It’s alright. This isn’t your fault." Jiang Miao understood their predicament.

It couldn’t be helped.

After all, some of the dunes were so high that leveling them completely would have been too time-consuming.

Within the entire Tamin Chagan Desert, there were still nearly 30,000 mu of large, unreclaimed sand dunes. These, along with small adjacent desert plots, were left untouched, forming pockets of pastureland throughout the farm.

Liu Zhiben used a drone to give Jiang Miao an aerial view of the entire farm.

From the sky, the Tamin Chagan Desert appeared split in two. The southern half was completely green, while the northern section, planted more recently, had yet to sprout.

The aerial footage also clearly showed the roughly 150,000 mu of pastureland. These areas were enclosed by compacted dirt roads, separating them from the regular soybean fields.

"Those container buildings on the farm’s periphery and in its center—those are the internal workstations, right?"

Hearing his boss’s question, Liu Zhiben nodded. "Yes. The farm is so large that we had to establish workstations on the periphery and in the interior. We’ve currently set up 20 of them in the pasture areas on the dunes, with 23 people assigned to each."

"What does their daily work entail?"

Liu Zhiben explained, "Right now, their tasks are mainly observation and record-keeping, preventing nearby cattle and sheep from wandering in, and applying pesticides and fertilizer. We’ll continue to optimize their duties in the future."