Fruit Saplings

These days, everyone in the village was happy that the weather was good this year.

Baskets of corn were moved out of the fields. They were chopped and piled up into a mountain. There was enough food and firewood to last the second half of the year. This could be said to be a huge harvest!

Lan Dazhuang also found a way to buy fruit saplings.

Early this morning, a batch of high-quality fruit saplings had just been brought back from the neighboring province.

A large cart of luscious saplings entered the village and immediately attracted the attention of many villagers.

At this moment, the Lan family had taken over the back mountain in the village, and news had spread all over.

Although there was no collective meeting in the village to talk about the specific situation of the country implementing the land contract system, in a village with dozens of families, which family did not have relatives involved in the management of the village?

Everyone knew what was going on, but no one was willing to contract the land.

In this day and age, the first reaction of anyone who had a little money was to hide it well.

Getting them to spend so much money was simply cutting off their flesh!

Given the current situation, if the Lan family were to contract the land normally, everyone might think that this family was really rich!

But now, the Lan family was not contracting farmland but a mountain. This made many villagers think that it was a joke!

Lan Shengli, the propagandist of the village union, had been laughed at countless times in the morning.

However, as long as he thought about how his family would raise 100,000 chickens on the mountain in a few years, Lan Shengli laughed even in his dreams~

Since others were laughing at him now, he would let them laugh.

In the future, the villagers would know how right his children were!

The villagers had already mocked the Lan family for taking over the back mountain. Now that they saw Lan Dazhuang bringing over a large cart of saplings, they called him stupid behind his back.

There were trees all over the mountain. Weren't those enough?

Lan Dazhuang had the strength but no place to use it. He had no place to spend his money either!

It was rare for a large truck to be driven to the village. Many villagers even temporarily put down their work and came to see the unloading.

Among the crowd was Yang Xian, who was 32 years old this year and lived in the southern end of Tianshui Village.

Yang Xian's looks were average, and his family background was not very good. His wife ran away with someone two years ago, leaving behind a son who was eight years old this year.

When Yang Xian was young, he liked to run up the mountain. They were on the plains, and there were not many hills. The back of the village was not very tall, so he could reach the top in 40 to 50 minutes. Therefore, there were no large wild beasts on the mountain. There were only small animals like pheasants and hares.

Because he had gone up the mountain too many times, he knew very well that there were wild sour date trees, wild apple trees, and wild chestnut trees.

When he was young, he would go to the mountains to pick fruits every year, so he recognized the leaves of the fruit trees.

At this moment, a large cart of saplings was pulled over. When they were unloading them, Yang Xian recognized that there were apple trees among them!

So the Lan family contracted the back mountain to plant fruit trees?

But even if the fruit trees were planted, could the fruits be sold?

If he could not sell them, how could they earn money?

Although Yang Xian felt that the Lan family's idea was not bad, the risk was too high!

If it were him, he would definitely not take such a risk!

He would only feel at ease if he had money.

And now, not to mention being rich, he was living alone with his son. He was so poor that he could barely eat…

…

On Lan Dazhuang's side, after a large cart of saplings was transported over, two fruit tree planters came with the delivery driver.

Although Lan Dazhuang could plant the trees himself, his sister had said that the fruit saplings had to be planted immediately. If they were delayed, it might affect the survival rate of the fruit saplings.

He couldn't finish the work on his own in a short time, so he had to find people to help.

There was also a trick to getting help, and that was to find people who were skilled!

Lan Shu would rather spend more money to hire experienced masters as long as she could ensure a good survival rate for the fruit saplings.

They had spent money to buy these fruit saplings. If they couldn't survive, it would be a waste of money. Therefore, Lan Dazhuang agreed with his sister.

Lan Dazhuang did not buy too many saplings this time. There were 100 apple trees, 100 pear trees, and 100 kiwi trees that his sister had specially requested.

If not for the fact that the oranges planted in Tianshui Village's geographical location were not too sweet, Lan Shu would have wanted an orange garden on the mountain.

However, an orchard filled with apples, pears, and kiwis was enough for the time being.

…

Two days later, when the autumn harvest in the village ended, the planting of fruit saplings on the back mountain was successfully completed.

This was because Lan Dazhuang had chosen a place in advance, cleaned up the weeds and nearby trees, and dug 300 pits to ensure the saplings could be planted quickly.

The two masters who were invited to plant the fruit saplings looked at the soil on the mountain and the environment where the fruit saplings would grow. They told Lan Dazhuang about the things to take note of in the next few days.

Moreover, they indicated that if they followed their method to nurture these fruit saplings, the survival rate of the fruit saplings would reach at least 90%!

Lan Dazhuang was still a little dissatisfied with the masters' words. Only 90%?

Then wouldn't 30 of the 300 saplings he bought not survive?

However, he had no choice. It was autumn now, and it was not the best time to plant trees. It was already very good to have a 90% survival rate.

The two masters said that if they planned to plant a few more trees next spring, it would definitely increase the survival rate of the fruit saplings!

Lan Dazhuang agreed to the fruit tree sapling collaboration.

He remembered that when he was choosing the types of fruit saplings, his sister had said that they would plant a peach forest on the mountain in the future. Even the apple and pear trees would have new varieties in the future.

Before the delivery truck left the village, Lan Shu dragged her aching body to the village entrance.

In addition to settling the balance of 500 yuan for the 300 fruit saplings, she also paid 20 yuan each to the two masters who helped plant the saplings.

20 yuan was equivalent to half a month's salary for the current workers. However, as long as the two of them did their best to plant the fruit saplings, the money would be worth it!

After all, their cooperation was not limited to this one time. In the future, if they wanted to buy all kinds of high-quality new fruit saplings, they still needed the two masters.

…

In the next few days, Lan Dazhuang worked from morning to night every day. He carried water up the mountain to water the fruit trees.

Lan Shu's situation these few days was special. She couldn't do heavy work, so she continued to stay at home.

However, even if her body was fine and she could work, her brother would not let her suffer at all.

Fortunately, Xiao Bai's body had almost fully recovered. He also helped a lot with watering the fruit tree saplings.

Although Xiao Bai was young, he was strong and could endure hardships. His daily workload was almost the same as Lan Dazhuang's.

Sometimes, Lan Shengli would come back early after he was done with work at the union. He would also help pick up a few buckets of water and go up the mountain.

Lan Shengli found it unbelievable that there were three orchards with fruit saplings as tall as half a person on the mountain in just a few days.

The mountain behind their village had really been taken over by his family!

Moreover, his son had planted fruit trees on the mountain. In a few years, they would have three orchards bearing fruit!