May 18. Taiwan, Central Plains, No. 1 Sugarcane Estate. Warm sunlight. In the sugarcane fields, the sugarcane grows very rapidly, the height generally reaches three or four meters, and if you count the leaves at the top, it must be five or six meters high, as if it is like a small tree, forming a large forest.

The variety called white jade sugarcane in the sugarcane field has the advantages of fast growth rate, high sugar content, resistance to diseases and pests, etc., and has a developed root system, strong stalks, strong wind resistance, and is not easy to fall and break.

Even so. It also takes 7 months to grow. This is why the grain estates on Hainan Island were established relatively late, but they were the first to produce rice, after all, rice can be harvested in about 100 days.

And in the past few months. For the Yang Dayan family, who were lucky enough to be assigned to the No. 1 sugarcane farm through the lottery, this time was very busy and fulfilling.

Not only are they busy building houses, but they are also busy building infrastructure such as brick kilns, biogas digesters, warehouses, roads, sugar mills, etc.

You also have to carefully serve the sugarcane in the cane field, and you have to often lift the soil, weed, spray pesticides and kill insects, water, fertilize, etc., which is definitely not easy.

Even if they have to be busy for more than 10 hours a day, the tens of thousands of villagers in No. 1 Sugarcane Manor have made use of the land in the corners of the manor in their spare time, planted all kinds of vegetables, watermelons and melons, and achieved self-sufficiency in fruits and vegetables.

Occasionally, they go into the mountains to pick some wild fruits and catch prey such as elk and wild boar. Or go to the beach to pick up some seafood.

Some women with dexterous hands can also use the fiber silk of palm and coconut trees to weave linen cloth and knead hemp rope, which slightly reduces the demand for fabric.

It can be said that, in addition to the absolute dependence on grain, theoretically, sugarcane farms can achieve basic self-sufficiency, even if they are subject to a severe blockade, as long as they ensure that there is enough food, they can continue to operate normally, or they can grow less sugarcane and change to grain, and an economic fortress will be formed.

However, this kind of situation generally does not happen and will not be allowed. At noon on the 18th, a radio notice made Yang Dayan and other villagers suddenly perked: "Harvest sugarcane, experts say that the sugarcane we planted, the sugar content has reached the standard, you can start harvesting, this afternoon, please all the young Zhuang villagers come to collect tools, start the work of harvesting sugarcane, and send it to the sugar factory, processed into sugar, this year how much we can earn in the estate, it depends on how much sugar we can get." This broadcast made Yang Dayan and others talk about it.

"It's been harvested so quickly, I think our white jade sugarcane can last a long time."

"Yes, the leaves are still very green, and they can grow for at least ten more days."

"Experts say that this kind of sugarcane is no problem in the field for a year, and it can continue to grow, but it grows slowly."

"The sugar content just reached the standard, and I have to mention it again." In response to these discussions, Steward Song directly criticized them: "You original stupid brains, do you know what it means to be scarce and expensive, and do you know what it means to eat soup? Now that the white sugar in the market is scarce and the price is extremely expensive, we can seize this opportunity to sell our white sugar at the price closest to the market price, which can be sold for a silver dollar and a catty, and when the sugarcane farms behind are harvested, a large amount of white sugar is on the market, can it still be sold at such a high price? We are the earliest to go public, the highest profits, what does it matter if the output is low, such a simple account will not be calculated? Such a criticism came down.

Yang Dayan and the others Zhuang Min suddenly had nothing to say, and even had to nod, because making money is the most real, and compared with the sugar content of sugar cane, it is more important to have silver dollars for white flowers.

…… In the afternoon, in the sugar cane fields. Yang Dayan and his wife Liu Xiniu, the two of them took shovels, machetes and other tools and began to harvest sugarcane.

Peel off excess leaves from the surface first. Scoop up the cane from the roots with a shovel. Then use a machete to cut off the muddy part and cut off the green part.

Leave only a relatively clean cane stalk. Finally, let the children or the elderly transfer the sugarcane to wheelbarrows, board cars and other means of transportation, and then transport them to the sugar factory for processing, which can be described as an assembly line operation.

Although this process consumes a lot of manpower, the level of mechanization is very low, and it seems that the efficiency is not high, but tens of thousands of men, women and children in the manor go into battle together, and the harvesting speed is also very impressive.

You can also bury your head in labor and gossip at the same time.

"Mother-in-law, how many catties of sugar can you make from this acre of sugarcane?" Yang asked with big eyes.

"Didn't the experts say that the sugar content of sugarcane is generally between 15% and 18%, such a sugarcane, the light one has six or seven catties, and the heavy one has more than ten catties, and then multiplied by the sugar content, it is the white sugar that can be beaten." Liu Xiniu said.

"Isn't it a single sugar cane that can make more than a pound of sugar? If more than 3,000 sugarcane are planted on this acre of land, won't there be more than 3,000 catties of sugar? It's impossible, it's certainly not that way, it's definitely not that much sugar. Yang shook his head.

"That's how much juice can be squeezed out of sugar cane, and then more than 10 percent of this juice is sugar."

"Can a sugar cane squeeze out a pound of juice?"

"It should be possible, this kind of sugarcane is so big, isn't it easy to beat a pound of juice?" Liu Xiniu said.

"That is, a sugarcane produces three taels of sugar, and one mu grows three thousand roots, which is nine hundred catties, and the sugar yield of this sugarcane is more than what Wu Xiaochun said, he said before that there will be two or three hundred catties of sugar."

"He has never grown this kind of white jade sugarcane, so of course he doesn't know how much sugar he can produce."

"I count a little less, an acre of sugarcane field only beats 600 catties of sugar, now on the market white sugar 1 silver dollar a catty, doesn't it mean that we can earn 600 silver dollars by planting an acre of sugarcane, this, this is too profitable, right? If you grow grain, even if you plant 100 acres, you can't earn the money of this acre of sugarcane field, it's not particularly hard, if you plant 100 acres of grain, it is estimated that people and cattle will be tired to death. Yang's eyes were staggered.

"Now you see the benefits, right? But even if we can earn 600 silver dollars from an acre of sugarcane field, how much we can get is not certain? If Xujiazhuang takes half of it, and the manor takes half of it, it will fall directly into our hands, I don't know if there is a hundred silver dollars? Our family went here to develop, and it was very good to be able to get food and clothing, and it was impossible to make a fortune, so maybe we would send a few silver dollars. Liu Xiniu said, persuading Yang Dayan to give up the idea of getting rich.

"This ...... We have worked hard for more than half a year, and we have not been paid a penny, this time the sugarcane is harvested, and the sugar is sold to make money, so you have to pay us some wages, other estates in Xujiazhuang, I heard that the minimum wage has risen to 10 silver dollars per month, and the two of us add up, and it is no problem to get a salary of 140 silver dollars, right? ”

"I don't know, it's just that the investment in building this manor is so big, we eat food every day, we eat fish every two days, we eat meat every five days, and the clothes we wear, the tools we use to work, and the two-story rough brick house we live in, and the three children's reading and medical treatment, how many silver dollars do you think Xujiazhuang should care about? You Yang Dayan was originally a hungry person in Henan who was going to die of hunger, and he was embarrassed to say that he wanted to be paid? Liu Xiniu settled the account for him.

"This ......" Yang Dayan was stunned for a moment, if this is the case, it will be difficult for their family to pay off what they owe to Xujiazhuang, and then ask for wages, scolding him for being wolf-hearted and ignorant of gratitude is light, and it is estimated that no one will object to drive him out of the manor directly.

Hanging. The illusion of making a fortune was shattered. However, the current life is good, food, housing, medical care, education and pension, the manor is all-inclusive, and you don't have to worry about any accidents, which is much more reliable than having dozens or hundreds of silver dollars on hand.

Never mind. Contentment and happiness, people still can't be too greedy. Thinking of this, Yang Dayan abandoned the distracting thoughts in his mind and buried himself in serious work.

…… Three days later. May 21. Except for a small amount of sugarcane left for seeding, the 33,000 acres of sugarcane at No. 1 Sugarcane Estate were harvested.

And sent to the sugar factory, the processing is completed. A total of 196,000 stone of sugar was obtained - that is, the average yield of sugar per mu was more than 742 catties, if the sugarcane was allowed to grow for a period of time, the sugar content would be increased by three or five percentage points, and it was entirely possible to produce 1,000 catties of sugar per mu.

Also on the 21st. A fleet of 12 seaborne cargo ships arrived at the sugar port, and then the men, women and children in the No. 1 sugar cane estate went into battle together, and borrowed a lot of transportation from other estates, and spent a full day to send all the sugar to the sugar port more than ten miles away, and helped move it to the cargo hold of the cargo ship, and finally witnessed these ships leave with white sugar.

However, the next day, a rare day off and rest. In the morning, the sound of the radio horn sounded again, demanding that all the men and women in the manor gather in the square and pay dividends to everyone.

"Dividends?" Yang Dayan immediately cheered up, called his wife Liu Xiniu, and came to the big square in the center of the town together, and sure enough, he saw a treasure chest placed on the cement stage, which seemed to contain money.

Still familiar with the Song steward, he took a microphone, stood on the stage, and said to the thousands of young people below: "Everyone, this year is the first year, Xujiazhuang's investment in us is far greater than the return, and it stands to reason that there should be no dividends, but in order to improve everyone's enthusiasm and make everyone more motivated, this year's dividends will still be paid!" It will still let you get a real return, so that you can understand that this year's sweat has not been in vain. ”

"And the white sugar harvested this time is stone, the market value of each stone is about 100 silver dollars, and the headquarters buys it at the origin price of 70 silver dollars per stone, but it can only pay fifty percent, that is, 6.86 million silver dollars, this state will last for five years, and after basically offsetting the construction cost of our estate, from the sixth year, we will be able to get 100% of the origin price."

"In addition, the operation of the collective estate needs a lot of money to maintain, so the manor will withhold fifty percent, into the public fund account, for the maintenance of everyone's daily food, treatment, education and other expenses, everyone can supervise, the remaining 3.43 million silver dollars, 7,854 young men and women in the manor, each can get a share of dividends, everything is complicated, this year it will be divided equally, next year to adopt a more reasonable and fair dividend system, what do you think?" Steward Song asked.

But the following has become a chaotic buzz, and every young man is full of excitement, and begins to calculate, how much dividends can he get?

Yang Dayan was quite smart, and quickly calculated the answer, and jumped up happily: "436 yuan 7 silver dollars, everyone can get more than 436 yuan, and two people can get 873 yuan 4, it's hairy, mother-in-law, our family has it!" He hugged his wife and said with a smile.

"Look at your little bit of talent~" Liu Xiniu glanced at him with a smile, but she also felt extremely happy, and her sense of belonging to the collective estate was naturally greatly improved.

…… May 23, 8 a.m. Harbour City, Outer Harbour. Under the watchful eyes of a large number of reporters and spotlights, 12 sugar ships loaded with sugar arrived and docked at the dock one after another, and then moved bags of sugar, with a total weight of nearly 200,000 stones.

On May 24, another super storm of public opinion swept the entire Ming Dynasty, and the headline on the front page alone made countless people breathe extremely fast.