Whether it is planting lotus root or managing it after planting, it is a technical work, and the combination village is not the origin of lotus root, only a few families plant a small amount of some, that is to let it fend for itself, there is no planting and management technology at all.

However, now that the village wants to develop a lotus root base and plant lotus root on a large scale, it will definitely not work according to the soil method.

Zeng Zhi also has little experience in this regard. However, this can be solved with money, not a problem. Zeng Zhi specially entrusted the leaders of the township and planned to recruit a very experienced worker to be responsible for the management of the lotus root base.

The lotus root industry is a characteristic planting industry vigorously developed in the township, and the township is naturally very concerned. After learning of Zeng Zhi's request, he quickly found a suitable candidate. This person's name is Chen Changsheng, a native of the ancient city, but he has been working in Beihu Province, which is rich in lotus roots, a few years ago, and his work is lotus root planting.

Of course, it is difficult for a person to complete the planting and management of this 180 acres of lotus root, especially now that it is late May, the planting season of lotus root is about to pass, and all the lotus root planting must be completed in so many days, which requires hiring additional workers.

Chen Changsheng told Zeng Zhi that a worker who is familiar with lotus root cultivation can generally plant about 300 catties of lotus root every day. And one acre of land needs about 600 catties of lotus root seeds. Therefore, Zeng Zhi's 180 acres of paddy fields require up to 360 man-days. To plant in 10 days, you need to hire 36 people per day.

However, this is in this special situation, after all, because it is due to the season.

In fact, in areas like Zhongpai Township, the lotus root planting season lasts for more than two months. Planting can begin in mid-to-late March, and in early June at the latest. Therefore, after entering the right track, the planting work of the 180 acres of lotus root base can be completed by 4-5 people. As for daily management, tasks such as weeding, fertilizing, and draining can be done by only three people.

After listening to his opinion, Zeng Zhi decided to recruit three people from the village and follow Chen Changsheng for a long time to engage in the management of the lotus root base. As for the planting period and when a lot of labor is required such as digging lotus roots, workers can be hired temporarily.

For the hired workers, Zeng Zhikai's salary is 2,000 yuan per month. This is already quite good in the countryside. After all, even if you go out to work, in addition to living expenses and round-trip transportation and boat expenses, it is about 2,000 yuan per month. Moreover, it is rare for those who go out to work for 12 months a year, and generally 10 months is considered good.

But working here in Zeng Zhi is different, not only is he paid 12 months a year, but he can also take care of his own home, which can be described as killing multiple birds with one stone. Therefore, when Zeng Zhi said that he wanted to recruit a few people in the village, many people were willing to come to work in his lotus root base.

In the end, according to the government's requirements, the three employees recruited by Zeng Zhi were all selected from the poor households in the village. This can be regarded as its own efforts for the country's poverty alleviation.

The three employees are a man and two women, the man's name is Zeng Chuitai, who is Zeng Zhi's cousin, and the two women, one is Zeng Zhi's cousin-in-law, named Shi Xiaoshuang, and the other is Zeng Zhi's cousin, named Zeng Youxia, all of whom are honest and hard-working.

However, they don't know how to grow lotus roots now, let alone manage them, Zeng Zhi hired them with the intention of letting Chen Changsheng take them to study.

As for this year's lotus root planting work, the labor required is mainly by hiring temporary workers, and it is the kind of person who can grow lotus root.

In the end, Zeng Zhi was a worker found by Chen Changsheng in Beihu Province, where the lotus root planting work is basically over, and there are many idle workers. Under the conditions offered by Zeng Zhi for planting one kilogram and one yuan, including living accommodation and round-trip fares, Chen Changsheng successfully found 40 workers in Beihu Province, and Zeng Zhi chartered a 45-seater bus to bring these people back to the village.

On the day before the Dragon Boat Festival, the planting of the lotus root base finally ended, and it only took a week.

This is mainly on the planting weight calculation of the remuneration conditions, stimulating the enthusiasm of the workers, a day of hard workers working up to 10 hours a day, planting up to 600 pounds of lotus root. This means that he has a net income of 300 yuan a day, after all, the living accommodation and round-trip fare are all covered by Zeng Zhi.

And Zeng Chuitai and the other three also learned how to plant lotus roots, and from next year, Zeng Zhi will no longer need to hire a large number of workers.

However, the price paid by Zeng Zhi is not small, 110,000 catties of lotus root seeds were planted on 180 acres of land, which is 330,000. In addition to the workers' wages and living accommodation, as well as the round-trip fares, it is another expenditure of 150,000 yuan.

In addition, there is an annual rent of 600 yuan per mu of paddy field, which is nearly 110,000 yuan of expenditure.

In other words, in order to get this 180 acres of lotus root base, Zeng Zhi spent nearly 600,000 yuan in just ten days. That is, Zeng Zhi's vegetable supermarket now has tens of thousands of dollars of income every day, plus the township provided an interest-free loan of 300,000 yuan to his lotus root base in order to thank him for supporting the government's work, otherwise he really can't afford to play.

However, even so, after investing in ten acres of greenhouses, more than 300 acres of tea bases and 180 acres of lotus root bases in a row recently, his income in the past two months has basically been filled into these pits.

In fact, Zeng Zhi is now a big debtor, because when he leased Datuowa before, he owed the government 1.5 million yuan in rent for the first five years, plus the current 300,000 yuan, the total debt has reached 1.8 million.

The so-called lice are not itchy, and there are many debts, Zeng Zhi found out that he owed so much debt to the government, and now he doesn't seem to be as reluctant to take out loans or something as before.

Therefore, although he still has more than 200,000 yuan in cash in his hand, he has no intention of paying off the money owed to the government immediately. After all, the repayment period of the 1.5 million rent is at the end of this year, and the interest-free loan of 300,000 yuan has a no-payment period of 3 years, so there is no need to worry.

Of course, this is mainly because Zeng Zhi has confidence in his heart, and his supermarket has a net profit of more than 1.5 million every month. Such a little debt is just a profit for a month or two. Even if someone forced him with those debts, Zeng Zhi was not afraid. Now he is in a honeymoon period with the government, and at least in the last six months, the government will not embarrass him. And half a year later, he already had enough funds to pay off these debts.

With the more than 200,000 yuan in cash in hand, Zeng Zhi felt that his plan to buy a car could be implemented.