I Got Rich in Period Fiction
Chapter 449: Wetland Conservation

Chapter 449: Chapter 449: Wetland Conservation

Like the Tenghai Research Base outside the Xiaxi Commune, Qiao Qingyu had discussed with him the plan to build a modernized small town here.

This modernized small town was different from the residential compound of the research base.

It was external, and they planned to place the school, hospital, and the current base store all within this small town.

Reform’s spring breeze would soon blow across the entire Shen Zhou.

Many places would undergo earth-shaking changes, changes that would catch you off guard, and some of these changes would purely come at the cost of destroying ecological and natural resources, only to circle back decades later to the old ways.

It was quite unnecessary.

Rather than that, from the beginning, it would be better to have a long-term, reasonable, and scientific plan. Take the current residential compound of the base, for example; though the houses were all single-story, they were indeed well-planned.

In the future, this place could serve as a residence for senior intellectuals and some important personnel of the Tenghai Research Base.

After all, some people are indeed very important and must be protected.

It was just like the saying, "the imperialists have an unquenchable desire for our downfall."

The group of desperadoes captured recently was one such example.

Therefore, with all things considered, He Xiuyu simply handed over all the work to Shen Haoze.

That included the Agricultural Base that Qiao Qingyu was responsible for.

Several people were even assigned to him. Whether or not several residential buildings could be constructed at the base this year, and whether these young couples could have a home, truly depended on the availability of funds.

Being unmarried was one thing, but the married Shen Haoze certainly knew the benefits of marriage.

Even though Su Yunyao wasn’t pregnant yet, it was only a matter of time. The two of them were not currently able to live together, maintaining a long-distance relationship within the same organization, secretly spending only one night together on weekends.

Therefore, Shen Haoze was extremely eager to have a home of his own.

But now, there was not a single spare house in the base residential compound—a carrot for every hole. Even if his rank was high enough, it was impossible to oust someone else, not to mention the house that Sister Yu vacated. It was allocated to someone else before Xiao Xiao’s family moved out.

Now, everyone at the base was working with great enthusiasm, and no one was relocated. However, the base was truly expanding gradually, with several new laboratories added, and personnel numbers increasing, creating a situation where there wasn’t enough housing.

Two buildings were actually not enough; even constructing ten buildings might still not meet the need.

The residential compound of the base generally housed the workers from workshops and important research personnel and leaders from laboratories.

Since there were workshops, there were many workers, and while there were enough dormitory buildings, it did not constitute a viable model for a home.

Shen Haoze was happily taking over the job and Qiao Qingyu felt relieved on this end knowing that the work of the Agricultural Base was handed over to Shen Haoze.

In this half a month, Qiao Qingyu, under the guidance of Uncle Sun and Uncle Qiao, had almost run through the entire Harvest Commune.

The general situation was a bit worse than anticipated, but keeping it on par with last year was already the best result. However, one could not depend on the whims of nature for sustenance, as the final outcome wouldn’t be clear until the autumn harvest.

But regardless, Uncle Sun was planning to dig ponds and build fish ponds in several lower fields of other teams in the commune, especially those with low-lying areas.

Qiao Qingyu thought about it and then advised Uncle Sun.

"Uncle, not all low-lying areas should be turned into fish ponds. First, we need to consider our current market, and second, we also have to think about the environment."

Those were wetlands. There were two wetlands in the Harvest Commune. In the future, these wetlands would have disappeared without a trace. Qiao Qingyu remembered them only occasionally. She visited one of the wetlands and found that it had been destroyed. To not mention anything else, even waterfowl, including the red-crowned cranes, could no longer be seen.

Indeed, during the years when all of Huaxia was experiencing tough times, life in the north could be considered decent. Yet even then, faced with droughts, floods, and man-made factors, the grain harvested over a few years, after paying the state quota, was simply not enough to sustain a family until the next autumn harvest.

Some even ran short by spring.

In Qiao Qingyu’s memory, there was one family at the very north edge of the Qiao Family Team, Old Liu’s house, who lived just like this.

Their family struggled with illness and weaknesses, and they were always the focus of care. Nevertheless, times were tough, and the team also found it hard to help, so at most they made sure they didn’t starve, allotting them five kilograms of cornmeal, which a seven-person family had to stretch over two months.

How did they manage? They ate amaranth, which in the future would be considered a pure, green, unpolluted vegetable, a real treasure decades later. But back then, it was just a wild vegetable.

They would clump the wild vegetables into balls, dip them in cornmeal, place them in a pot to steam, and survive on that until the crops in the field could fill their stomachs.

The topic seemed to have strayed a bit far, and now Qiao Qingyu was considering that if the current course continued, Huaxia would shake off the yoke of poverty twenty years earlier than in her world.

Therefore, it was very important to protect some of the key natural resources as much as she could within her power.

Otherwise, she wouldn’t have come here again.

To say she was great—she really didn’t feel that great. In her private thoughts, when the land could be bought and sold in a few years, she was planning to buy some land.

Both Jiangnan and Jiangbei would do.

Xichuan would later become her home. The Tenghai Research Base obviously couldn’t move, and surely she and He Xiuyu would live there in the future. So she was ready to buy that patch of land where she first planted Barley Grass when the policy was in place.

City planning must also be done properly. It could not be reckless and haphazard, otherwise in a few years, if it was deemed a mistake, the structures would have to be demolished—that would be both labor-intensive and a waste of money.

Qiao Qingyu shared some of her thoughts with Uncle Sun and Uncle Qiao, although both of them truly didn’t understand or know much about such matters.

For them, North City was vast and limitless; the land could never be used up, so wouldn’t it be better to make good use of the lowlands?

Currently, there was a lack of manpower to cultivate new land, but if it were possible, they would fell the trees in some areas and then convert them into arable land. Timber could be sold for money, and the new fields opened could yield even more grain.

Such thoughts were even more dangerous.

Qiao Qingyu said very seriously, "Uncle and Uncle Qiao, we can’t just focus on the present. We also have to consider future generations. If we destroy the forests and turn them into farmland, it will damage the natural environment," pointing to the primeval forest to the north.

"Don’t underestimate that primeval forest. It acts as the natural barrier for Ning’an County, ensuring good winds and rains, a vital guarantee for agricultural abundance..."

"Is it really that important?" Uncle Sun and Uncle Qiao were clearly skeptical.

Because if it was so crucial, why would there still be floods?