Reborn in 1984, fishing and hunting in Jiangnan

Chapter 57

That afternoon, Chen Zheng began looking for people to promote the station.

The technician already knew what was going on with Li Quan.

Li Quan has been raising fish for four or five years, has practical experience, and is a reliable person.

He was at the forefront of last year's fish disease prevention and control efforts, and has an excellent reputation in Lijiawan.

The only problem is that Li Quan only has a primary school education, and we're afraid he won't be able to handle the technical documents issued by the county.

When Chen Zheng went to find Li Quan, he was mending nets by his own fishpond.

After listening to Chen Zheng's words, Li Quan's expression changed several times, first with surprise, then with hesitation.

Finally, he said that he was uneducated and afraid he wouldn't do a good job.

Chen Zheng said that skills are learned through practical experience, not through diplomas, and he was responsible for reviewing the documents issued by the county.

Li Quan was in charge of leading everyone in the work, and the two of them worked together.

Li Quan put the net aside, rubbed his hands to remove the fishy smell, and said, "Okay, if you trust me, let's do it."

He thought of Liu Jiawang for the position of informant.

Jiawang audited classes at the county's No. 1 Middle School for more than half a year, and his grades improved from the bottom of the class to the middle and upper ranks.

The map was drawn in greater detail than the maps provided by the town's land management office.

He can handle all the data reports, hydrological records, and training notices needed by the promotion station.

Moreover, Jiawang had originally planned to return to the village during the summer vacation to find something to do.

This position is perfect for supplementing household income without interfering with studies.

Li Quan immediately took action, and upon returning home, he entrusted the fishpond to his cousin for a few days.

Liu Jiawang adjusted his newly fitted glasses, flipped through the documents Chen Zheng handed him, nodded, and said there was no problem.

They also asked if the promotion station could install a public telephone.

They said that this way, they wouldn't have to ride around to notify each farmer to attend training sessions one by one.

Chen Zheng noted this down and planned to talk to Director Fang next week.

On April 12, the Baiyang Town Aquatic Technology Extension Station was officially inaugurated.

The unveiling ceremony was simpler than Chen Zheng had expected.

There was no gonging or drumming, no banners or colorful flags; the town government sent a deputy mayor to preside over the event.

An office director from the county aquatic products company arrived, along with Director Fang and Deputy County Head Xu.

Zhou Haiming and Zhao Deming sat in the first row below the stage.

Zhao Deming looks much better than last year.

Chen Zheng, the newly appointed station manager, gave a brief speech.

The gist is that there are six natural villages around Baiyang Lake, with a total of seventy or eighty households engaged in aquaculture, large and small.

Only about a third of them have the skills; the majority still rely on the old methods of relying on the weather.

After the promotion station is established, we plan to conduct a round of technical training every quarter.

We should start with water quality management and fish disease prevention, and promote the experience gained from treating gill fungus in Lijiawan last year.

In addition, several hydrological monitoring points are planned to be set up along the Baiyang Lake.

Regularly summarize and report water level, water temperature, and water quality data to obtain a complete hydrological data chain for Baiyang Lake.

A list of problems to be solved followed, each word addressing specific pain points in aquaculture.

In closing, they only added one sentence: "If you have any needs, you can come directly to the promotion site to find someone."

After listening to the speech, Deputy County Head Xu nodded slightly.

After the unveiling ceremony, Deputy County Head Xu kept Chen Zheng behind in the town government's conference room.

There were only two people in the meeting room, and two cups of hot tea were on the table.

Deputy County Head Xu sat in a rattan chair and invited Chen Zheng to sit down as well.

"I listened to your speech. In two words: solid."

I saw your results last year. You were the only livestock farmer in Lutang Village, with an annual output of over 2,000 jin.

How much are you planning to spend this year?

"Eight or nine thousand catties."

"Eight or nine thousand catties," Deputy County Head Xu repeated the number.

"Qingshui County's total aquaculture output last year was 180,000 jin, and you alone will account for one-twentieth of that this year."

I don't just consider your promotional site as a technical service point.

If all the surrounding farmers can meet your technical standards in the future.

The Baiyanghu area can become a model area for aquaculture in the whole county.

This is a significant responsibility; you need to be prepared.

"County Chief Xu, the promotion station is located in Baiyang Town, and most of the farmers in the surrounding area don't know me."

I want to start with a few representative villages to ensure the first batch of technical training is effective and let the tangible results speak for themselves.

"This line of thinking is correct."

After I returned, I instructed the Agriculture Bureau to allocate the matching loans and subsidies.

Also.

The Provincial Fisheries Research Institute will be holding a grassroots technology extension field meeting here in May, and Teacher Ma Yuanchao will personally lead the team.

This is the first time Baiyang Town has hosted a provincial-level on-site meeting, and the promotion station has to shoulder the main responsibility.

Just as Chen Zheng was about to respond, Deputy County Head Xu waved his hand, put his teacup back on the table, and added,

"Don't rush to agree. What we lack is not just increased production, but also people who can truly put the technology into the hands of fishermen."

As Li Quan came out of the meeting room, he was standing in the courtyard talking to Director Fang. When he saw him approaching, he quickly went to greet him.

Director Fang flipped through the folder in his hand and said that the promotion station had been completed.

The property rights issues, which he is also responsible for coordinating, also need to be addressed more quickly.

The two plots of land belonging to Li Quan in Lijiawan and Sun Maocai in Zhaojiadu can be subject to the property rights clarification process simultaneously.

The original land title, written agreement, and village committee certificate are all complete; only the final on-site verification by the land administration bureau is missing.

Chen Zheng took the two notices from him; the folds still smelled of ink.

Director Fang added that he would be working non-stop for several days.

Not only will the land boundaries be reviewed, but the ownership data for the two plots of land will also be re-registered, and all the boundary markers will be replaced.

Over the next few days, Chen Zheng led Li Quan and the surveyors sent down by Director Fang.

First, we finished the verification of that 5.3 mu plot of land in Lijiawan.

Li Quan's father, Li Shouye, pulled out the yellowed document from the cabinet. It was dated December of the 36th year of the Republic of China.

Zhou Dehou, the person who wrote the inscription, sold a plot of paddy field, totaling five and three-tenths mu, in the east of Lijiawan Village to Li Shouye for sixteen taels of silver.

Next to the Zhou family's signature as the land seller, there was a handprint, which, although mostly faded, was still recognizable.

The surveyor set up a theodolite on the ridge and measured the direction of the land from the river ditch in the north to the irrigation canal in the south.

The location of the old boundary stone matches the four boundaries on the land deed perfectly.

The location of Lijiawan has been confirmed.

The four mu of land belonging to Sun Maocai in Zhaojiadu was even faster.

After Sun Maocai spoke with Chen Zheng last time,

When I got back, I dug out all the old invoices and receipts for paying grain taxes back then. The materials were more complete than I had expected.

The on-site verification was completed in just one morning.

When the surveyor put away the theodolite, he said it was the smoothest property rights clarification he had ever handled.

The materials from both sides match, the boundaries are clear, and there is no dispute.

Five days later, Director Fang sent two brand-new land contracting agreements to the Baiyang Town Promotion Station.

The contract states that Chen Zheng is the legal representative of the land contractor.

The five and a half mu of land in Lijiawan and the four mu of land in Zhaojiadu were respectively contracted to the original farmers Li Shouye and Sun Maocai.

The contract period is twenty years, and the rent is calculated as one-tenth of the annual harvest, payable in cash or in kind at the end of each year.

The lessee has the right of first refusal to renew the lease and may not sublet the lease during the lease term.

Chen Zheng read through both contracts from beginning to end.

The terms and conditions are very detailed, even including the allocation of irrigation water and the responsibility for maintaining the boundary markers.

He put the contract into two separate manila envelopes and entrusted Li Quan to deliver them to Li Shouye and Sun Maocai.

Have them read it and sign it. Keep one copy for yourself and return the other to the town's land management office for filing.

At this point, five of the seven land deeds have had their ownership clarified or formally recognized.

All that's left are the two plots of land in Baiyang Town that were requisitioned by the town government.

Director Fang said that the town government's compensation plan has been submitted to the county and will be calculated based on the land price at the time of requisition.

The two plots of land totaled more than seven acres, and the compensation was about three hundred yuan.

The amount of money wasn't much, but with this compensation, the ownership of these seven acres of land was finally settled.

Director Fang told Chen Zheng to go to the county land administration bureau next week to collect the compensation.

I also took the last two property rights investigation reports home for filing.

...

One early morning in early May, Chen Zheng was organizing the information on mandarin fish fry that Ma Yuanchao had given him in the yard.

The water temperature gauge in the circular seedling bed shows 21 degrees Celsius.

This temperature just reaches the minimum temperature threshold for gonad development in broodstock.

If the water temperature can be stabilized above 22 degrees Celsius in a few days, the first batch of induced labor experiments can begin.

As I was looking at the documents, I heard footsteps coming from the courtyard gate.

Looking up, I saw Chen Laosan.

He was wearing a pair of liberation shoes with anti-slip patterns heated with fire tongs, a fish basket slung over his waist, and two fishing rods in his hands.

The fishing rod is made of bamboo, with the shaft polished smooth and shiny with sandpaper, and the handle is wrapped with thin hemp rope.

Each fishing rod was fitted with a new fishing reel, with nylon line wound around it.

It was the same roll that Chen Zheng had brought back from the supply and marketing cooperative last time.

"The rocky beach on the west side of Nanwan has seen an early rise in water this year. The mandarin fish have started swimming upstream."

Chen Laosan handed a fishing rod to Chen Zheng, "Take that box of stainless steel hooks and let's go."

Chen Zheng took the fishing rod, put the iron box in his pocket, and followed his father out the door.

The rocky beach on the west side of Nanwan is a shallow area with a bottom full of random rocks, some as big as millstones and some as small as fists.

Every spring when the water level rises, the mandarin fish in the lake swim from the deep water to the shallow water to spawn.

They like to dart in and out of the crevices of rocks, chasing small fish and shrimp, occasionally splashing water.

Chen Laosan led Chen Zheng to a flat rock on the rocky beach and they stood on it.

He took several live loaches out of the fish basket, picked out the fattest one, and held it in his hand.

Insert the hook under the loach's dorsal fin, leaving the hook point exposed. The loach thrashed a few times in the water, snapping its tail in pain.

"Loach have hard teeth and a strong bite. The hook should be inserted through the back of the loach, not its belly."

"If you shave its belly, the mandarin fish will bite off half of it and run away; if you shave its back, it will bite you and can't escape."

Chen Laosan handed the baited fishing rod to Chen Zheng, saying, "Use your wrist strength when casting, not your arm strength."

If you cast the line too far, it will get tangled in the cracks between the rocks; if you cast it too close, the mandarin fish won't come.

"Look to the left of that big rock; there's a hidden ditch underneath that area, where the mandarin fish like to hide."

Chen Zheng took the fishing rod, tested its strength, and with a flick of his wrist, the nylon line carrying the loach flew more than ten meters away, landing above the ditch.

The loach struggled desperately after entering the water, creating ripples on the surface.

Before long, the water surface suddenly exploded.

A mandarin fish rushed up from the bottom of the water, bit the loach in one bite, and splashed water with its tail.

Chen Zheng's wrist dipped, and the fishing line taut.

The mandarin fish thrashed about in the water with astonishing force, bending the fishing rod into a bow.

"Don't fight it! Let the line run! Let it go!"

Chen Laosan grabbed Chen Zheng's arm.

"The mandarin fish's initial surge is the most powerful; the more you pull, the more aggressive it becomes. Let it run, and only reel it in when it gets tired!"

Chen Zheng released the brakes on the fishing reel, letting the mandarin fish run away with the line.

The fishing line drew a white wave on the water's surface, and the mandarin fish darted forward twenty or thirty meters in one go, before its momentum gradually diminished.

He began to slowly reel in the line, stopping and starting intermittently. The mandarin fish thrashed a few more times, but each time the area it swam around became smaller.

After about fifteen minutes, a dark blue-green fish turned over underwater and was pulled to the edge of the reef.

Chen Laosan bent down, grabbed the mandarin fish's gill covers with both hands, and lifted it up.

He lifted a nearly six-pound mandarin fish out of the water; its body was still wriggling, and its tail was slapping against the rocks.

"The first one." Old Chen tossed the mandarin fish into the fish basket, closed the lid, and a rare smile appeared on his face.

"You're better than your dad was when he was young. The first time I fished for mandarin fish, it broke three of my lines."

Over the next hour and a half, the father and son took turns casting their lines on the rocks, catching a total of four mandarin fish.

The largest one weighed over eight pounds, and it took Chen Zheng several minutes to pull it up.

Four mandarin fish huddled together in the fish basket, occasionally bumping against the basket walls with a thud.

When she got home, Zhang Cuihua saw the mandarin fish in the fish basket and said that only Chen Laosan had ever caught such a mandarin fish when he was young.

It's been many years since we last met.

Old Chen placed the fish basket by the well and used a ladle to scoop up a few scoops of well water to change the water for the mandarin fish.

He squatted down beside the fish basket and said, "I'll go to East Bay tomorrow. Let's see if there are any soft-shelled turtles."

Chen Zheng responded.

At the dinner table, Chen Laosan drank half a bowl of fish soup from a rough porcelain bowl.

He put down the bowl and said something that warmed Chen Zheng's heart.

"When your grandfather was alive, he once told me, 'Third son, your leg is no good, but your son is.'"

"He had a long-term vision."