Chapter 374 - Farmland Construction
Behind the levee lay the first-phase 1,500 mu of high-yield fields. After consultation, Yan Quezhi, Wu Nanhai, Fa Shilu and others decided the high-yield, stable-yield farmland must meet these standards: drought resistance achieving "90 days without rain, still harvest guaranteed"; flood drainage meeting "once-in-ten-years" standards (by 20th century measures), ensuring "five-day downpours cause no disaster"; riverside flood levees withstanding "once-in-twenty-years" flood levels plus Force 8 winds without breach or overflow; land improvement achieving topsoil depth of five cun for paddies, one chi for dry fields—greatly enhancing water and nutrient retention.
Fields would be laid out in grids, with large grid areas for agricultural machinery operation. Drainage and irrigation would use separate channels. Ditches, channels, roads, and tree lines would be coordinated. Particularly the trees—planned establishment of farmland windbreaks to reduce annual summer-autumn typhoon damage. Field roads must accommodate mechanized farm vehicles.
Planning complete, Yan Quezhi began surveying and design work. Wu Nanhai and Fa Shilu began large-scale mobilization of farm workers for preparatory work—processing all biogas and compost pits to prepare ample base fertilizer. Water conservancy construction materials streamed continuously to the site: wood ash and lime for soil amendment; bricks, stone, cement, timber for levees and channels; bamboo-reinforced concrete; valves and pipes for water facilities manufactured by the Machinery Factory. Simultaneously, production began on pumps, paired boilers, and steam engines.
Construction started with large labor crews dispatched by Wu De. Equipped with axes, saws, and sickles, they cleared all vegetation throughout the development zone—mainly small shrubs and weeds. Shrubs became firewood; mowed weeds and dead grass were piled in Wu Nanhai's temporary composting pits. Biogas residue served as starter, mixed together and covered with soil, watered regularly. Under summer sun, these would quickly decompose into organic fertilizer.
Direct burial in soil would leave fibrous plant matter undecomposed for years, providing no fertilization benefit.
After vegetation clearing, four bulldozers arrived, commanded by Armored Corps Commander Bai Yu—all Dongfanghong tractors fitted with dozer blades. Bai Yu leaned out from his driver's cab. Yan Quezhi and others waited at headquarters; construction routes were already marked on maps.
Step one: use bulldozers for comprehensive land leveling across the development area. Remove residual vegetation, relocate large stones—the latter requiring special care to avoid damaging blades and tracks. Each bulldozer was accompanied by an Army squad in dispersed formation, scouting ahead.
"Feels like infantry-tank coordination," Yan Quezhi observed, climbing onto the cab to tell Bai Yu.
"If bulldozer fuel and spare parts were unlimited, I'd drive straight to Beijing! Why bother with this land-clearing and road-building?" Bai Yu kept his eyes forward, hands constantly pushing and pulling control levers. Occasionally he barked into the radio, ordering other tractors to "watch spacing, maintain coordination."
"A tractor armored division?" Yan Quezhi immediately pictured it: dust rolling along dirt roads, an endless column of Dongfanghong tractors crushing the earth, tractors packed with infantry dubbed "tractor grenadiers" in bearskin caps carrying Minié rifles...
How strange it felt! Yan Quezhi shook his head.
"Nothing impossible about it," Bai Yu said confidently. "Mountains and waterways won't work, but on the North China Plain, absolutely devastating. Look at this—" He pointed at several protruding metal fixtures outside the cab—clearly added later, not original equipment.
"What are these?" Yan Quezhi shouted.
"Armor plate mounting points." Bai Yu was proud—he'd personally designed and manufactured them. "When needed, this tractor's critical sections can be fully armored in half an hour. Impervious to blades and bullets. Armor spec: can withstand direct hit from 6-pounder cannon solid shot at 400 meters. Strong enough, right?"
"Getting hit directly by such a big iron ball—wouldn't the driver inside bleed from nose and mouth?"
"The enemy has to hit first," Bai Yu seemed unconcerned. "Besides, we won't just sit and take it. Look up there."
The tractor's roof now sported something like a car sunroof, with rail-like features around it. The skylight was open, bringing cool air to the sweltering cab.
"I made a conversion kit. Can add a rotating turret directly on top of the skylight. Even without a machine gun, just a Type 56 semi-auto can make enemies howl. If needed, hand grenades and knee mortars—unstoppable."
"Very creative—"
"That's nothing. I studied weapons design and engineering." This former armored corps officer was quite pleased. "There's also a flamethrower tractor conversion kit. Sadly fuel's short—the Executive Committee won't let me test it."
He went on about several weapons he'd designed, all centered on tractors, trucks, motorcycles, even bicycles. His latest design: mounting four "handheld shotgun cannons" on a Type 28 reinforced agricultural bicycle—using the bike's fast mobility for close-range fire, disrupting enemy formations. Another conversion added a rifle-firing mount on bicycles so riders could shoot while cycling—also compatible with crossbows.
Generally, Bai Yu's designs were quite "modern." He sneered at the "retro faction" weapon designers led by Lin Shenhe.
After clearing, waste soil excavated from various construction sites was trucked in. Yan Quezhi planned to elevate Meitai Yang as much as possible—even 10-20 centimeters would help—while disposing of construction waste soil.
Land leveling was quickly completed. Then tractors mounted heavy deep-plowing implements for deep tilling. Massive quantities of quickite from Bo-pu were applied for soil improvement. Lime usage was so heavy that all construction site supplies were halved. Besides the quarry working overtime, all off-duty Army and Navy personnel were mobilized to harvest oyster shells from coastal beds for burning into lime.
Yan Quezhi's dam construction also commenced. Due to cost constraints, the dam used a simple gravity earth dam structure, reinforced with multiple rows of driven wooden piles. The dam exterior was clad entirely in stone. The entire levee was positioned over 100 meters from the Wenlan's monsoon peak water line, serving as a flood passage during high water. During low water, the sandy riverbank conditions would be used for watermelon and peanut cultivation.
The dam featured irrigation and drainage sluice gates for separate channel systems. Gates used mechanical operation, powered by the levee's steam pumping station.
Connecting these two gates were two main trunk channels, entirely bamboo-reinforced concrete construction, with design flow capacity to meet extreme irrigation and drainage needs. Other irrigation and drainage branch channels within the fields connected to these two mains, with manually operated gates at each channel opening.
For the abundant spring water flowing from the hills, simple interception and discharge into the Wenlan River was the easiest solution. But Yan Quezhi considered this wasteful. From a drought-prevention perspective, he decided to construct small reservoir dams in the hills using natural terrain. Such dams required minimal engineering. The reservoirs would collect spring water and irrigate fields during the Wenlan's dry season, reducing river drawdown—after all, this river was now the transmigrator collective's lifeline, with significant industrial and domestic water demand.
These naturally-contoured hill reservoirs could regulate water supply, beautify the environment, provide fish farming, and generate electricity—multiple benefits. Wang Luobin had experience building such small water projects, so he took charge of this portion.
Besides dam construction, Wang Luobin selected several locally-adapted commercial tree species from the farm nursery to reforest hills around the reservoirs. Experimentally, he built a small hydroelectric station at one larger reservoir. But generating capacity was too small and only intermittent—not very useful, purely for research purposes.
Agricultural water infrastructure construction was proceeding vigorously. Wu Nanhai went to the Executive Committee to find Ma Qianzhu about the fertilizer problem.
Because Meitai Yang's chronic waterlogging had caused very poor soil fertility. Lime application could only neutralize acidity, not increase soil fertility or trace elements.
Fa Shilu said: "Meitai Yang needs massive additions of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium fertilizer—especially phosphorus. The phosphorus deficiency is severe; you can't even grow legume green manure. After adjusting trace elements, add farmyard manure as base fertilizer."
Applying only farmyard manure and green manure seemed like large quantities but was far less effective than the chemical fertilizers that made modern bourgeoisie cringe. However, their ammonium nitrate had all become Military Committee explosives under "military-first politics."
"Nitrogen's easy—have the Executive Committee get us lignite or peat. But phosphorus and potassium fertilizer—where do I find those?" Wu Nanhai muttered. "Not enough bone meal either."
"Both lignite and peat work," Fa Shilu said. "Natural compound fertilizer containing nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium—much more efficient. But for soil improvement, quantities won't be enough. Best to have dedicated phosphorus and potassium fertilizers."
Potassium fertilizer could be met through potassium chloride byproduct from the Salt Refinery's bittern processing. Combined with potassium in peat and lignite, roughly sufficient.
(End of Chapter)